Inside the Jesus Army

[the80sweregreat]

Anyone see this ? Was so sad , those poor people.
Chilling and a difficult watch.
Couldn’t see a thread on it.

Watched this the other night. I was astounded at how easy is was for the church to literally take over their lives. Literal brainwashing. The young mum was so vulnerable and her poor children now with a lifetime of trauma

I haven’t quite finished episode two yet, but the man who keeps saying ‘ I didn’t see anything going on’ isn’t convincing me. The police must have done a lot of investigations , yet they didn’t hear about it ? There were a lot of different cults around the UK , but surely you’d get to hear something on the grapevine ? Only a few have done time for their crimes. Makes you sick.
Also the communities were worth 58 million too.
Those poor women.

Where can I find this please? It sounds interesting

Excellent series

It is currently on bbc I player and was originally on
bbc two.

I spent nearly 10 years inside this cult. I'm glad it is exposed but I never tell people in real life about it. If anyone has any questions though I am happy to try and answer on here.

It was very interesting and of course very sad for the people involved. It was totaly brainwashing - I've seen a close family member being brainwashed which caused them a lot of trauma. Thankfully they got out of the situtation but it very much impacted their MH.

@TheSparkling - sorry to hear that you were inside the cult - were you born into it?

@Oldglasses no I married into it really, brainwashed into abandoning my degree and selling all my stuff. Now I can't get my head around why I did it but I guess that is the power of coersion and control.

The sparkling
I am so sorry to hear that you had anything to do with these people. I hope you have been able to move on in life.
I can see how people can become brainwashed though and they seemed so honest ( at first anyway) which is how they operate of course.

I think most of us have no idea how easy it is to fall into systems of coercive control. @TheSparkling what led to you pulling away and do you think are better than those of us who haven’t experienced it at spotting the signs?

I think you are right @MurdoMunro the brainwashing happens before you realise and then you are entirely surrounded by it so getting away then becomes really difficult.
I don't know if I am more able to spot early signs. I feel like I am very cynical and untrusting.

What led to us leaving - I think I just had this lightbulb moment that after years of being told we would never manage to live outside the community that the majority of people do just fine and there was no reason we shouldn't. It was incredibly difficult to leave and I'm not sure how we would have done it if we hadn't been able to live with the in-laws for a few months.

Thank you for answering my questions @TheSparkling. I can very well imagine how your experiences would leave you feeling cynical and untrusting. But I wonder if you should take credit for the relationships you have maintained or built since and reframe that to ‘skeptical’ instead. That feels kinder to yourself.

Have you talked to others who also left or have you felt it to be a better path to cut all of that out of your life?

Don't rush to reply BTW. I’m on a work break and need to get back to it. Will log back on later!

I have finally finished the second part and seems that the court case is now on going. I can imagine it’ll take ages to resolve , but I was wondering what has happened to all the money especially when Stanton died. So much tied up in property and all sorts.
A lot to unravel.

Thanks, I hadn't heard of this will take a look

In its very earliest days my closest friend at university got sucked in by them. She invited me to visit, and I saw it for what it was straight away. It was utterly insane. They literally locked the church doors to prevent people from walking out (that was my last straw - I screamed the fucking place down and told them I'd be reporting to the police the minute I got out); but that was after seeing how women were being treated and also nobody, but nobody, tells me what a can do or read...

Unfortunately my friend was lost to us - she was completely sucked in, left university and I never saw her again. I know she lost contact with her family as they reached out to see if we knew anything. I have often wondered, over the years, if she ever saw them for what they were. She was such a kind and good person, and they ruined her.

I know it’s only fiction, but I read ‘ the running grave’ by JK Rowling and that is about a cult. This is part of the reason I was interested in watching this and I do recall the programmes that were made years ago too especially the one with Grayson Perry ( featured in this documentary) on channel four and ITV.
My mum knew people from her church who would go to retreats for the summer and I was wondering if they were connected ? Although it seems they only preferred people who were willing to live there permanently and work for them, but it always sounded a bit dodgy to me. Luckily my mum wouldn’t be interested in cults, but you can see why people would and the ones born there , they didn’t have any choice at all. All so sad and yet some people still deny that anything went on there.

I haven’t watched the doc yet (I will) but I can entirely understand how people get there. I’ve said so many times ‘aaargh, hate my life, hate this world, I’m going to move to a commune in Wales’. Joking of course…but…what if I was invited to a place like that when I was feeling low, unappreciated, lonely or just bored? A place where the rest of the world is shut away, where there’s a promise made of security and community, with the hope of a higher purpose. It would be so very very easy to step over the threshold.

I thought this sounded a parallel too and wondered if it was the underlying inspiration. I do like the Cormoran Strike novels

The whole documentary was so like ‘ the running grave ‘. I wasn’t surprised really as these places do exist , but when they mentioned the deaths it was even more chilling. So much corruption and the man in charge looked like someone you would pass in the street !
Nothing special , but could brainwash so many and set up more places all over the UK without anyone really questioning it.

Yes, never underestimate the power of coercive control. I really learnt a lot from what happened to my close relative. He is very clever, but was vunerable at the time and that's what these types of people/cults play on.
I hope you were able to rebuild your life post-cult.

When I was a young adult the Jesus Army were quite active where I lived - lots of sign written vans about - didn’t really realise what it was - I will try and find this to watch

Excellent documentary. There is definitely a parallel with the Running Grave. I find British cults in particular, very interesting. So hard to watch those who were born into it and their experiences.

The Jon Ronson tv show was bizarre - it was a bad reminder of tv in the 90s.

I was actually looking into the Jon Ronson show when I found this interesting article: https://nenequirer.com/2025/07/27/our-neighbours-the-jesus-army-how-we-lived-alongside-the-cult-of-noel-stanton-for-25-years-in-northampton/

Ahh, good point that the press etc couldn’t delve too deeply because Stanton and his crowd would sue them and they had the money to do it and keep people away.
I suppose this is why they could get away with so much without too much hassle.

Op have you watched Eat, Sleep, Pray, Obey on Netflix or Waco: American Apocalypse on Netflix?

Sowing, no, but will check them out.
thanks