Signs of Cult Behavior in Montana

Are there cults in Montana?

Have there been cults in Montana?

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You hear about cults in other places throughout the last half of the twentieth century in our country and beyond seeking land, people, power and sovergnty. Many of those groups establish a following and soon implode under their own power struggles and lies. People learn of the warning signs and dangers that can come with a "cult".

Some dissolve, and some just get smaller and restart under a different guise in order to retain followers and church statuses.

We have and have had what some people consider cults in the state of Montana.

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Church Universal and Triumph

Some may remember Church Universal and Triumph.

According to Wikipedia, Church Universal and Triumph or CUT for short, is a new age religion started in the mid nineteen seventies by a person named Elizabeth Claire Prophet who claimed to be an "Ascended Master" which is something to the effect of someone channeling the word of "God" into a living being to spread the word.

The outfit eventually grounded it's world headquarters in Gardiner, Montana where they still are to this day. Things eventually got out of hand and a bit apocalyptic, establishing fallout shelters on a ranch here in Montana and predicting the world would would end in a nuclear disaster in 1990. we all know that didn't happen.

Elizabeth Prophet showed signs of Alzheimer's Disease in the early to mid 1990's and the church shrank and many people branched to new and other religions.

Jessops and Pinesdale, MT 

Pinesdale. MT is a small town in the Bitterroot valley that had about 800ish people from the Apostolic United Brethren that established a place for them to live namely Dee Jessop as the founder of Pinesdale where they practiced polygamy and bigamy. There are reports of the group in Pinesdale splintering when reports of a leader out of Slat Lake was accused of sexual misconduct.

The Freemans

If you lived in Montana in the 1990's, you most likely heard of the Freemans in the news.

According to Wikipedia they were an anti-government militant Christian Patriot group outside of Jordan, MT.

They were "sovereign citizens" of their own country essentially which consisted of far-right and antisemitic ideas stemming from Posse Comitatus.

The U.S. government noticed their illegal activities and initiated foreclosure proceedings of their Justus township and the group refused to leave, then a standoff developed.

The group ended up in prison serving sentences for conspiracy, bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, false claims to the IRS, interstate transportation of stolen property, threats against public officials, armed robbery of a television news crew, and firearms violations.

Some of them that are still alive are in prison under rigorous watch.

If you would like to read more on the Freemans, look here.

I have heard of more cults in Montana; however These are the most documented in the news.

Have you experienced a cult in Montana? Let us know on social media.