Jezebel
Meet Wayne Bent, aka Michael Travesser aka the Messiah. The Charles Manson-looking yahoo is the prophet and leader of the Lord Our Righteousness Church, and he was arrested on Tuesday on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor at the church's compound in rural New Mexico. The three allegedly molested children were also taken from the ranch. (At left is Bent with his wife, Emma. He is 66. She looks about 20, tops.) The compound is a former ranch near the Arizona border, which Bent and his followers have dubbed Strong City. According to the Associated Press, "Wayne Bent has acknowledged having sex with followers - including his daughter-in-law - and lying naked with virgins. He said the virgins asked for sex, but he refused."
Bent is a former Seventh Day Adventist who founded the church in 1987, though most of the current members of the cult do not have roots in Adventism, reports CNN. Bent moved the whole operation to a remote corner of New Mexico in 2000, which was also the year, he says, that God informed him he was the Messiah. It gets better: Bent says on his church's website that the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal was the first harbinger of the apocalypse and also told his followers, around the same time, that the world was ending on October 31, 2007 (he also claims to have predicted 9/11).
Um, but then it didn't! (Apparently, according to Bent, the apocalypse is a "process"!) Anyway, a former cult member, John Sayer, says he broke away from the church in late 2005, but only after Bent said he wanted to sleep with 7 virgins, two of whom were Sayer's 14 and 15-year-old daughters. "I just told him no. ... I'm not in agreement. I don't see it's right," Sayer tells the AP. (Sayer still allowed his daughters to "lay naked" with the prophet, though he insists that nothing sexual occurred.)
Interestingly, the National Geographic Channel is airing a documentary tonight about Bent and his Lord of Righteousness followers called Inside A Cult. NYT reviewer Neil Genzlinger says, watching the documentary "you might find yourself thinking, 'These people obviously didn't understand the power of the medium or how insane they would sound on film.' But think again: the cult is thoroughly media-savvy, maintaining an extensive Web site (strongcity.info) full of video and blogs." Reading the church's blog just shows how utterly brainwashed the followers of Bent are — so much so that the impact of the outside world just doesn't register. Sayer's younger daughter, posting on the cult's website under the name "Healed" is clearly one of the true believers. She wrote on the site late last year, "Michael DID NOT molest me, and my laying with him was not sexual in any way, either. Michael sacrificed himself and was willing to look like a pedophile so that I might be bonded inseparably to the Father in Heaven." Jesus Christ.
Church Leader Arrested On Sex Charges In Northeast N.M. [AP]
Sect's 'Messiah' Arrested On Sex Charges [CNN]
Strong City [Lord Our Righteousness Official Website]
Ex-follower: 'Messiah' Wanted To Bed 7 Virgins [AP via CNN]
New Mexico Compound's Enraptured Believers [NYT]
Comments
It is sooooo too early for this.
Yoo hoo - Lesbian Feminazi Bonerkillers...we have a job for you!
How do people become so confused?
OH. GOD.
Is he going to share a cell with Warren Jeffs?
He reminds me of 'Emanuel' the creep who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Christians, but didn't Jesus die a virgin? I don't think "get with virgins" was ever on his "Next Stop: Heaven" to do list, was it?
As far as the sleeping with virgins, maybe Wayne Bent was just inspired by Gandhi?
It seems a lot of the men who start cults do weird sex things. Did Jim Jones father children by cult members' wives?
@Macloserboy: Yeah, wow. It's nearly 3pm here and that's still too early for this. I feel like making cracks about the head-in-the-clouds picture instead of actually dealing with the issue.
This is really just a variation on Joseph Frizl, in a way.
@Emily: er, "didn't," not "did."
Wait, you're saying a guy who called himself "the Messiah" has possibly abused the power he had over his followers? Get out of town!
He looks like a more frazzled Jeff Daniels. This makes me feel awful in my heart.
I'm very confused about the website. They actually call themselves the "Strong City Cult"? Isn't "cult" generally a word that has negative connotations? Don't most of these wackjobs try to avoid using that word?
Whaaa - wait let me get this straight he lay down with you so that - what- oh hang on I get - Ohferchrissakes I give up.
Religion is such a nice way to justify rape, isn't it?
"He said the virgins asked for sex, but he refused."
Ugh. That is repulsive. I don't even know how to react to that last quote.
Stabler and Benson need to head out West, STAT.
@hortense: Did he? Is there any way of knowing that? I mean, Jesus was a Jew, and marriage is a sacrament in Judaism, so it would make sense that he would have married, but whatever. Not to get all Dan Brown on y'all cuz... Ugh.
@TropicalParadise: I believe these 'leaders' choose their prey. Like any predator or conman.
I know two relatives whom we (Mom and I) suspect are linked to cults. These two were perfect targets--serious deep-seated issues of confidence, parental neglect, and serious emotional problems (depression, paranoia). Hence their conversion/recruitment was not difficult.
I hear that Lying Naked with Virgins is booked solid on the father/daughter purity promise ring dance circuit.
Wayne Bent needs to get bent.
Yeah, I said it.
Why are all organized religions so obsessed with virgins? Sheesh. And I'm guessing Mr. Messiah up in the clouds there didn't lay down with no male virgins in "a non-sexual manner."
@Khrushchev: If you squint a little, there's some Kenny Rogers in there, too. So, maybe if this whole "cult leader" thing doesn't work out, homeboy can start up a fast food rotisserie chicken chain!
@biscuitdoughjones: I don't think he was a virgin. And he was married to Mary Magdalene.
I'm fascinated by cult leaders. Delusional, narcissistic, and extremely charismatic... Less of the crazy and they could be politicians (we seem to have plenty of perverts in government as it is).
@biscuitdoughjones: I honestly don't know. Historically, I doubt it, but I meant in terms of the Christian religion's view of Jesus. I figured someone on here might have a Biblical answer.
@hortense: They're reclaiming the word. It enables them to create a strong, Us versus Them mentality, that keeps followers isolated from outside influences while simultaneously strengthening the sense of internal identity.
it's rhonda and roman!
@braak: I see. It still seems strange, though. You'd think they'd want to portray it more as a straight up religion than a cult.
Also: if you had to pick an alias for yourself as the new Messiah, couldn't you come up with something better than Wayne Bent?
Do you think these guys just sit around saying "crazy sexual urges must be okay'd by god...i know, i'll make a religion about it?"
I think I want to start a religion. The Goddess came to me in my sleep and said I should move to a remote tropical island and have a lot of men roast porks and make bacon for me. And then they should feed it to me. In Bacon we trust. The Grease shall set you free!
@hortense: The Bible doesn't say explicitly one way or the other. The official Catholic view is that he was unmarried and had not had sex; I don't know how the Baptists feel about it.
Weirdly, the Jehovah's Witnesses, who are so keen on historical accuracy everywhere else, also seem to think he wasn't married, which is unlikely.
The sheer number of creepy bearded men with a Messiah complex and a predilection for virgins may account for why so many teen girls are losing their virginity soon as...
It's the extreme version of pretending to be a Satanist/blood donor/mad when the Jehovah's Witnesses call and you want to discourage them from coming back...make yourself cult proof!
@myrtlebeachbum: does that mean my dance card will go unfilled?
@hortense: You'll be able to tell, because in a few years, I'm going to grow a fancy beard and claim to be the new Messiah, and we'll just say what alias I choose for myself.
@hortense: I believe that according to generally accepted Christian doctrine, yes, he would have been a virgin. Historically, who knows?
ok... so now sex with the messiah is the way to heaven? and thus you partake of the body of christ and get your ticket to heaven. what happens to the mens?
@hortense: maybe they are trying to reclaim the word 'cult'. a whole "that's our word!" thing.
Right, because I'm supposed to believe that 14-year-old girls saw that dude nekkid and begged him to bone them.
Among other problems with this guy, that's a delusion if I've ever heard one.
If he looks like a pedophile and lays in bed with naked little girls like a pedophile, he just might BE A PEDOPHILE.
@hortense:In terms of the current Christian religon's view of Jesus, yes, he died a virgin and had no interest in getting with the chicas or the dudes.
That's a direct quote from my Priest, Father Vinnie Barbarino.
@hortense: Depends on who you ask. There is MUCH controversy over this. For fundamentalists, Jesus needs to be a virgin. Of course, for fundamentalists, we all need to be virgins (except those of us who gave up our virginity only after a proper Christian marriage. I'm guessing those folks are a minority on this site).
Being Jewish, I don't have a horse in this race, so I kinda hope he got to experience the joys of the flesh at least once, y'know?
@braak: ooo, i hate you! and here i thought i'd be the 1st to say that! boo.
Now, if I were predicting the end of the world, I would definitely make the magic year far into the future. Doesn't that ruin his street cred when Oct. 31, 2007 rolls around and everyone is breathing? I imagine the virgins are much less likely to "throw themselves" at him when he embarrasses himself like that.
@hortense: Maybe I wasn't paying attention enough in Catholic school, but I was always under the impression that we just don't know that. And it was never really discussed. I personally like to believe that Jesus had a meaningful and fulfilling sex life.
@myrtlebeachbum: Bwahahaha! Righteous.
@DontFearTheReefer: Good call. "I'm going to marry Prophet."
@hatepaperdoll: Hey! Up your nose with a rubber hose!
Vinny 3.18
Oh and no virgins allowed at the Church of Bacon Reborn. It's a requirement that all hot male members have slept with at least 5 women, and they need to provide references for their skills.
@hello.kitty:
No, he'll be sharing the cellar with Josef Fritzl...
@gherkinfiend: I bet he was a philosophy major in college.
Celebrities who try to excuse horrible behavior go to rehab. It seems that nutjob Christians start their own religions.
What a scumbag.
@braak: Well there's a high degree of selectivism in all religions. Catholics purport to read the bible non-literally but refuse to call the host a "symbol" of Christ's body and won't let priests get marries whereas Evangelicals purport to read the bible literally and do call the host a symbol and do let priests marry. Also they make shit up. So you can only carry it all so far, is my point.