Shiny New Documentary

Like many in my circle, I watched Shiny, Happy People on Prime Video. It is the latest in a too-long list of cult documentaries available for streaming. More than a limited series about the Duggars, it is a scathing piece on the practices of the IBLP. The Institute of Basic Life Principles was advertised as a homeschool curriculum guaranteed to educate children better than any Christian or public school ever could. It didn’t deliver. Instead, it produced a generation of poorly educated adults who were trained to obey without hesitation. Men were told that in their houses, they were the undisputed leader of their own homegrown group of believers. Women were taught to be selfless servants whose bodies would be used to create a quiver full of babies. Older children raised and taught their younger siblings — losing their childhoods in the process.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B8TSG92M/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

While the documentary was fascinating, the information wasn’t new. Since I write faith-based Christian fiction that exposes spiritual abuse, I’ve become familiar with these patterns and feature them in my novels. (For more information, go to “Menu” at the top of the page and click on “Books by Marbeth Skwarczynski.)

Nearly every cult has the same traits: narcissistic leadership, strict rules governing personal choice, the demand for obedience, and the discouragement of critical thinking. Then come the various types of abuse that result from spiritual manipulation: economic, physical, sexual, and emotional.

The great thing about streaming services becoming saturated with documentaries like Shiny, Happy People is that discussing spiritual and church abuse is more acceptable now than ever before. Of course, it isn’t a new problem — and neither is the discussion — but in previous years, the information as revealed in television shows, movies, plays, novels, and memoirs has been brushed off as a plot point at best or an attack on “the church” that demanded a boycott at the very worst.

Today, we’re less likely to brush off a survivor’s story as a lie and less likely to fall in line behind a charismatic leader just because they are in a leadership position. Or at least, we’re on our way there. And it’s about time.