Sociopaths and religion

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Nut case Pastor Terry Jones from a very small church in Florida has gotten exactly what he wanted - notoriety and empowerment.  I said this in the comments section of this post at TMV.

I think the mistake everyone made was not just ignoring this
insignificant nut case.  This leader of a previously unknown church with
a congregation of 50 got exactly what he was after � notoriety and
donations to his web site.  He's just another religious charlatan who
thought he had found away to go from really small time to big time.

Well it appears I may have known what I was talking about. According to Der Speigel he is a Jim Jones style cultist wannabe.

In the United States, Jones has already attracted attention on
several occasions as an Islamophobic provocateur. What is less well
known is that the pastor led a charismatic evangelical church, the
Christian Community of Cologne, in the western German city up until
2009. Last year, however, the members of the congregation kicked founder
Jones out, because of his radicalism. One of the church's current
leaders, Stephan Baar, also told the German news agency DPA that there
had been suspicions of financial irregularities in the church
surrounding Jones.

A "climate of fear and control" had previously prevailed in the
congregation, says one former member of the church who does not want to
be named. Instead of free expression, "blind obedience" was demanded, he
says.

Various witnesses gave SPIEGEL ONLINE consistent accounts of the
Jones' behavior. The pastor and his wife apparently regarded themselves
as having been appointed by God, meaning opposition was a crime against
the Lord. Terry and Sylvia Jones allegedly used these methods to ask for
money in an increasingly insistent manner, as well as making members of
the congregation carry out work.

He was run out of Germany in 2009 but his former congregants are still suffering.

Former church members are still undergoing therapy as a result of
"spiritual abuse," Sch�r said. According to Sch�r, Jones urged
church members to beat their children with a rod and also taught "a
distinctive demonology" and conducted brainwashing.

"Terry Jones appears to have a delusional personality," speculates
Sch�r. When he came to Germany in the 1980s, Jones apparently
considered Cologne "a city of Hell that was founded by Nero's mother,"
while he thought Germany was "a key country for the supposed Christian
revival of Europe," Sch�r says.

Terry Jones used his powers of persuasion to expand the congregation.
By the end, Sch�r estimates, it numbered between 800 and 1,000
people. They had to work in the so-called "Lisa Jones Houses,"
charitable institutions named after his first wife who has since died,
under very poor conditions.

Jones is nothing but a power hungry sociopath who was empowered by the tabloid media - just what he wanted.