Sean Miller grew up as a Jehovah's Witness golden boy—son of a highly respected elder, raised in what he calls a nearly perfect JW family, and groomed from infancy to be the best Witness in the room. The only problem? Nobody asked Sean. He wanted to shred guitar and make art, but was too busy passing an invisible bar exam at five years old, with love that felt conditional on performance.
We get Sean's full origin story: how a rock band, a spiritually feisty Pentecostal girl, and a forbidden relationship got him disfellowshipped the first time—which, for the uninitiated, means treated like you're dead by everyone you've ever known, effective immediately. He got reinstated, got married, started a family, and lasted about 10 more years before his ex-wife picked up Crisis of Conscience and blew the lid off everything. Cue the Australian Royal Commission testimony on child sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses, the laundry folding, the sobbing, and the full worldview collapse.
We also get into the ex-JW community, cult hopping, and the real danger of trying to fill the cult-shaped hole in your heart, including Sean's wild encounter with a licensed therapist in the ex-JW space who, somewhere between the ayahuasca retreats and the art collaboration, revealed he wanted to start a cult, using Sean's art as the centerpiece. (The audacity!) Part 2 brings the book, the art, and the constructive use of all that very justified anger.
Be sure to pick up Sean’s book, Novice Enthusiasm: Belief, Rebuilt. Built One Line at a Time, visit his website, SeanGregoryMiller.com, and follow him on Instagram @seangregorymiller.
Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of shunning, child sexual abuse institutional cover-up, and religious coercion.
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The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.
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