Main Series Kitty BITE Back Episode 7: liMes GIVES COTTON MOUTH (hint: not bc smoking or Adderall..)

HEEEELLLOOOOOOOO! It's a *GLORIOUS MORNIING* MAKES ME SICK!

#sorrynotsorry- I had to. I've been really wanting to watch Hocus Pocus. It's on Disney+ to my knowledge; so, I may actually watch it later.

ANYWHO- We have been talking about Behavioral Control as defined by SAH in the BITE Model. We are on the 5th component, "regulate diet – food and drink, hunger and/or fasting." This one is... interesting- and I have lots of thoughts. Like a Dot-to-Dot puzzle. That's what's happening in my brain.

So lets go ahead and establish something- Everyone deserves food and drink; no matter their class, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, beliefs, (I could go on.....) ETC. However, the "church" (cult) did not see it this way. So at first I will be speaking from the point of view of the "church" (cult) and then I will be talking from my personal experience and how I saw the detriment it had on the people of the church.

STORY TIME!

• When I was in the “church” (cult), i saw many ways that the “pastor” did and said to manipulate people into giving up the food they DO have to feed their families (most of the group was on government assistance) and the be told that they needed to basically starve themselves to stay “spiritually fit”.

TV TIME OUT

I am going to pause on talking about families on government assistance being forced to give up some of theif food each month. We will get into that in a few weeks.

TV TIME ON

• The "pastor" of the "church" (cult) that I was part of strictly enforced fasting. Fasting is when you plan on certain day(s) that you will not eat anything. Medical professionals use this when patients are having surgery or bloodwork sometimes. I will say- it holds a medical purpose. HOWEVER, the "pastor" would preach that if you weren't fasting 2 or more days out of the week, that "there is no way you are spiritually strong enough to be in god's army." (We will get into militarization and "god's army" in a later episode.) What does fasting really look like; what does is consist of? Fasting, according to the "pastor", is not taking in any food or liquid for at least a 24 hour period of time; but, the longer the fast, the closer to god you are. He said that if you are on medications that require food to take, that "the lord will provide the nutrients you need." He said that you shouldn't even take a sip of water. That the devil and his demons will tempt you with thirst and huger, headaches, body aches, dizziness (sounds like dehydration and starvation, huh? Yeah that's what I thought, too!) The teachings of the "church" (cult) say that when your body is feeling the effects of the fasting the most, that is when the devil and his demons are trying to sway you. That every time you have a hunger pain, you should be praying; because, "prayer takes away the hunger and thirst." Around 2009 (I was like, 15), the "pastor" had this great idea to have a fasting schedule. He created a schedule of the days of the week that everyone would be fasting so that there would be at least one member fasting every day of the month. This was so that "god's army would be strong enough to fight in battle." I was on the schedule a handful of times each month; 5 or so, usually. In the beginning I was able to fast maybe one day a week. (But remember, I was a high school girl who was in marching band.; out in the heat, sweating, not allowed to drink water, lightheaded from not eating and being out in the sun, it was AWFUL. I started only eating at school on my scheduled fast days and making everyone else (my mom included) believe that I was fasting all day; but, I wasn't. Every night when we had service, the "pastor" would preach and scream and shout about how if you slacked off today on your fast and ate/drank anything and didn't pray enough, that if "the lord's army was attacked, you were to blame." He would read out of Revelations every service during this time; read scripture and "prophecy" that "the lord's army was going to suffer a vicious attack but that if the congregation stayed strong and fasted, that they would all survive the attack." WHAT?! Who is attacking us? Where are they coming from? Is someone coming to beat me up? I have QUESTIONSSSSSSSSSS! But I had to keep that to myself. I couldn't trust anyone with the curiosities I had on the subject. At this point the "pastor" has decided that the group is going to do a mandatory 21 (consecutive) day fast. All of the members of the church were going to not eat or drink anything for 21 days. (He had some kind of significance to the number 21; but, I didn't remember it. [trauma]) For the next 21 days I only ate and drank at school. It was not for lack of trying, though, from the "pastor" when he tried to contact the school system to say that the children wouldn't be allowed to eat lunch or have anything to drink during the day. (Yeah, HE'S FUCKING CRAZY...) Obviously the school system can't NOT allow children to eat and drink while at school. What he was *actually* doing was: keeping people in a delirious state, making people quit taking their live-saving medications, creating an even further power imbalance between him and the congregation, having an adverse effect on the mental health of the group, and using people starving themselves as a means of gaining power and fuel his sick agenda. Fuck him. Eat the food. Drink the liquid.

Do you or anyone you know go through forced periods of starvation and thirst in order to prove themselves worthy of the group? Have you heard of the term "god's army/the lord's army"? If so, please reach out to a non member, me, the police; call someone to come and help get you out of this situation (and some nuggets from the Mac D's).

HERE is SAH's list of resources that his organization, Freedom of Mind, has gathered.

https://freedomofmind.com/resource-links/

Please use this information and share it with those who need it. It could save a life

Until the water in the well overflows my lips, the hunger in my soul will never die.

-Jezebel Freedom