An Australian Jesus-and-Mary cult

Via Skeptical Inquirer's Facebook feed, a 32-minute Australian TV report on a potentially violent and destructive/self-destructive Australian cult, led by a man name Alan John (AJ) Miller, who claims to be Jesus. He calls his group Divine Truth. It's a good examination of a cult group, in which reporter David Millikan asks the kinds of questions that someone investigating a cult needs to ask.

The YouTube video is dated 09/18/2011. It's from an Australian news program called Sunday Night. The Australia's chilling cult transcript is available at the program's website. There is an accompanying story, Inside Australia's chilling new cult, also dated 09/18/2011.



At about 4:30, it shows an apparently public ritual in which the follower is encouraged to stage an emotional regression to childhood. Such ceremonies are not unusual among cult groups. We see a similar ceremony at around 8:00, 14:20, 18:25 and 19:15 (with Mary).

His "Mary" (Mary Suzanne Luck) bears some resemblance to the actress Eliza Patricia Dushku, though it's certainly not her. Miller is a former Jehovah Witnesses minister who made a lot of money with land dealings and computer business.

One thing that strikes me in several of the interviews, including with Mary, is that they seem emotionally fragile, in the sense of being easily brought to tears. The Millikan notes that impression from his interviews to Miller/Jesus at around 25:00:

DAVID MILLIKAN: If I gather 10 of your people...

AJ Miller: Yes.

DAVID MILLIKAN: ..and start talking to them, within a minute they are talking about the struggle and just about everyone I talk to is on the verge of tears.

AJ Miller: But you notice that I don't view it as a struggle.

DAVID MILLIKAN: Look at poor Alex.

AJ Miller: Sorry?

DAVID MILLIKAN: That poor guy, he is just consumed...

AJ Miller: He is. And I have talked to Alex many times about him allowing the spirits to almost completely control his life.

I see that, like the New Apostolic Restoration (NAR), the Divine Truth cult has a system of apostles and emphasizes the activity of evil spirits among the believers. He also forecasts an apocalyptic disaster which will leave him as the world's leader.

See also A Current Affair, The second coming? 05/16/2011

See also A Current Affair, Aussie messiah questioned 05/17/2011.

David Murray, Jesus and Mary cult followers buy up land around Kingaroy The Courier-Mail 05/15/2011

David Murray, Reincarnation couple in cult friction The Sunday Mail (Qld) 05/22/2011

Tags: aj miller, cults