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Bethany Joy Lenz has not forgotten the cult that lured her in and adjusted her life. Now, she’s sharing the small print.
Though it’s been a few years for the reason that solid of One Tree Hill went their separate methods, that point stays indelible.
In half as a result of they have been The CW stars throughout that now fallen community’s prime. But, for Bethany Joy Lenz, there may be another excuse.
She spent a decade of her life in a cult. That grim stretch of her life coincided with One Tree Hill. One of the solid even tried to assist her see issues for the way they have been to avoid wasting her.
Now, she’s coming clear about the entire expertise.
‘One Tree Hill’ alum Bethany Joy Lenz is a cult survivor
In the 2000s, Bethany Joy Lenz starred on One Tree Hill alongside Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray, and Hilarie Burton.
Lenz has come out with a memoir, Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While additionally in an Actual Cult!).
The e-book, which hits retailer cabinets on October 22, explains how the controlling, ultra-Cristian cult left Bethany Joy Lenz with little to indicate for her 9 years of TV stardom. She did, at the very least, escape the cult itself.
Speaking to People forward of her memoir’s publication, Bethany Joy Lenz defined that she first related to the cult via a bible examine. She had joined the group after first shifting to Los Angeles on the tender age of 20.
“I had at all times been on the lookout for a spot to belong,” Lenz defined. She had grown up on this planet of Evangelical Christianity, born to oldsters who married younger and moved round loads. Acting was a serious outlet for her, and attending church had at all times been a social anchor for her.
At first, the bible examine appeared like a pure match. Lenz described how “We crave that type of intimacy. The thought that somebody on the market says, ‘No matter what you do or how badly you may behave or what dumb selections you make, I nonetheless love you, and I’m right here for you.’”
When did issues take a flip for the more serious?
According to Lez, a visiting pastor named “Les” started attending and main conversations.
Even when he satisfied some members of the group to uproot and dwell in a small, commune-like “Big House” in Idaho, alarm bells didn’t go off for the actress.
“It nonetheless appeared regular. And then it simply morphed,” Lenz characterised. “But by the point it began morphing, I used to be too far into the relationships to note. Plus, I used to be so younger.”
But others in her life may inform that Bethany Joy Lenz was in a cult. Including her One Tree Hill costars.
“I may see it on their faces,” she recalled. “But I’d justify it, like, ‘I couldn’t presumably be in a cult. It’s simply that I’ve acquired entry to a relationship with God and folks in a manner that everyone else desires, however they don’t know get it.’”
Costar Craig Cheffer spoke to her straight in regards to the cult early into filming collectively, however Lenz wasn’t prepared to listen to it. She admitted: “I used to be like, ‘No, no, no. Cults are bizarre. Cults are individuals in robes chanting loopy issues and consuming Kool-Aid. That’s not what we do!’”
Eventually, Bethany Joy Lenz noticed the cult for what it was
By that time, Lenz wasn’t positive go away. By this level, she had married a fellow cultist — thought of a “household” member. They’d had Rosie collectively. Lenz needed to depart her cult and her cult-connected marriage.
“The stakes have been so excessive,” Bethany Joy Lenz recalled. “They have been my solely buddies. I used to be married into this group. I had constructed my whole life round it. If I admitted that I used to be mistaken … every little thing else would come crumbling down.”
All of that is very textbook. From beginning out as a easy gathering of like-minded Christians to slowly boiling the frog to binding individuals via marriage, youngsters, and funds … that is how these organizations discover and preserve members. We are so glad that Lenz was capable of escape.
