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[SethCreiyd]

I have a friend who's been a born-again Christian since I met him.  This was not a detriment to his personality, or our relationship, despite our philosophical differences; we both believe in the teachings of a certain man called Yeshua, though the similarity of our ideas usually ended there, and we had lots of good-natured, long-lived debates about spirituality in the past.

He's... changed a bit since he left his girlfriend a few months ago.  He posted some video sermon on Facebook, quite the meandering scarefest.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk7iooiyzPE

It isn't a vid of him, btw.  In kind of a bad mood, I replied that one of the problems with that type of preaching is that, given time, in invokes every logical fallacy known to exist.  The following exchange is spoilered for length.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My friend:  I Praise your holy name Jesus Christ! Son of the Most high God! Thank you for making me really see that you are Real Lord. Thank you so much! I worship and praise your name O lord Thank you!

I pray that any one who sees whats going on in this world, truly sees whats happening will turn from Sin, and drop everything an ...Seek Jesus Christ, Time is very Short people. Seek The Lord Jesus Christ with Everything you have!

Me:  *quotes Matthew 6*

My friend:  If I dont tell The truth About what is happening. If i dont Proclaim the ALMIGHT NAME of JESUS THE CHRIST And warn people to turn from sin, I am doing you all a dissservice, i have no hate, just a want for the pe ...ople i love and hold dear To Seek Jesus. I have no words to PReach but Go to JEsus Christ. I have no tale to tell but Go to Jesus Christ. I have no Opinion. I have Jesus Christ. And I will no longer bight my toungue. I will no longer Not Proclaim the HOly Name OF jesus Christ, because if i do, God will hold me accountable. All I say is Go To JEsus Christ. Thats it...
 Hace 42 minutos

This is spooky.  He is not normal.  He's usually quite coherent.  He seems to have lost critical thinking skills.  You could replace all instance of "Jesus Christ" with "Yog-Sothoth" and it would have a similar tone.

Then this man chimed in.

Bryce Rapp:  Preach it brother -----. Right there with you man!
Hace 41 minutos

Bryce Rapp appears to be the ringleader of my friend's new social circle, as well as the minister of their particular system of zealotry.

More of the same:

My friend:  I mean it, Tell me im not humble, i dont care. Tell me i've changed, The Change in me Is JESU CHRIST! I Will no longer sit idoly by and watch my friends Go to Hell!!

Strange girl:  With a burden like that I can see you going into full time ministry brother.

My friend:  So if you Really Truly love God. And want his Power, and his Joy, and his Peace, and his strength, and HIS EVERLASTING LOVE You MUST Rebuke The Evil one, you MUST turn from the Flesh, and from your Desires, And YOU MUST Accept JESUS CHRIST into your heart, And Stop YOur SINS!! YOU Must! I plead!
 I don't mean to compare myself to anyone! Please be mindfull of that...I am really nothing. It is not about me. Its All about Jesus.

I don't even...

Here's the website of the organization:  http://bikepointeministries.wordpress.com/.  I don't assume those links are malware-free, so be careful.

I mean, tell me I'm paranoid?  I'm inclined to send him something like "YOU'RE IN A CULT, YOU FOOL," but I have a hunch that would be turned to fuel.  I suspect my friend will be told to sever ties.  I suspect some insidious psychological manipulation and I'm freaked out by it.  My friend is acting completely stark raving nuts, and I'm saying that as a guy who totally groks the concept of Jesus with mystical powers.

My friend has always been a person of faith, but he's only recently gotten outspoken, obsessive, and illogical. He was never such a ham.  Every course of action I can think of to try and reach him, I'm afraid will backfire in various ways, and I would really like some thoughts.  Perhaps I'm blowing all this out of proportion, but there's a literal alarm going off in my brain and I'm certainly not alone.

I do believe in divine awareness, but I also believe in cults, and I assuredly disbelieve that this is a case of the former.

I don't really know how to end this post, so, thanks for listening.

[nenjin]

Man that's heavy. Especially because you've seen the change in him be so dramatic. I'm kind of imaging some of my friends doing that, and it would creep me the hell out. And I've had plenty of religious and spiritual debates with my friends.

Is his family ultra religious, or wrapped up in this? That would be the delicate way to broach that this is getting a little crazy. Most of what I've read or seen about cults implies that most people only get out when they realize what's going on or what they've become for themselves, if they ever do at all. It's the nature of cult worship that it quickly insulates people against hearing contradictory opinions, and gives them the framework to deny everything under their new belief system.

[inaluct]

My friend:  If I dont tell The truth About what is happening. If i dont Proclaim the ALMIGHT NAME of YOG THE SOTHOTH And warn people to turn from sin, I am doing you all a dissservice, i have no hate, just a want for the pe ...ople i love and hold dear To Seek Yog Sothoth. I have no words to PReach but Go to YOg Sothoth. I have no tale to tell but Go to Yog Sothoth. I have no Opinion. I have Yog Sothoth. And I will no longer bight my toungue. I will no longer Not Proclaim the HOly Name OF yog Sothoth, because if i do, God will hold me accountable. All I say is Go To YOg Sothoth Thats it...
 Hace 42 minutos

Damn, dude. You were right; it fits perfectly.

On a more serious note, I think that being worried is good in this situation. Don't tell him he's in a cult, or he'll stop listening to what you say. I think you should ask what this Hace # Minutos thing is, assuming it isn't something you're familiar with. Also, maybe tell his family that you're a little worried about him, with all the incoherence and craziness and all. Just don't try to talk him out of this alone.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe his keyboard is broken.

[Euld]

I hate to say it, but pretty much everything said in the youtube link is Christian doctrine.  My only complaint is that I'm pretty sure that video was made BY Christians FOR Christians.  There's tons of unexplained metaphors and also supernatural events that usually just creep out non-believers, as opposed to convincing them of anything.  Your friend really should have had a Q/A session with you as opposed to just laying on the doctrine thick and heavy.  Maybe there's some things I can clear up for ya? :X

His talk sounds alot like a friend of mine, but my friend saves that talk for other Christians because, of course, it creeps out everyone else.  He's "speaking Christian," if you will.  No idea what the "Hace 42 minutos" is though.  Latin maybe?  Doesn't do much good if the person he's talking to doesn't know what it means...  The link to the bike thing seems... innocent enough, but almost everything written there is definently cheesy.  Can't be helped I suppose :/

Maybe these verses, and these verses will help if you bring them up with him.  These are often used as an example about the importance of knowing your audience.  Paul spoke Aramaic to the Jews, then Greek the Romans, to show he wasn't just some random troublemaker.  Your friend has probably hit a "high point" in his Christian life and is annoyed that he has to do exactly what I'm recommending, but from my experience, there's no way around it.  He has to approach people on their grounds, their terms, not his own.  Maybe showing him this post will help?

[Vector]

It's Spanish.  It means "42 minutes ago."

[cowofdoom78963]

Get your friend out of there. These are dangerous people.

[Lordinquisitor]

You can`t really do something. Born again christians are very, very, stubborn and won`t cancel their beliefs easily.

Now, if a cult managed to replace to convince him that they are right.. Oh, he`s lost.

 

[DJ]

That's a cult, all right. I suggest seeking help from a proper minister. If you can find a really good one, he might be able to persuade him he's wrong.

The other option is to insert some doubt into his faith. See if you can dig up any dirt on his cult, and especially it's leader.

[Lordinquisitor]

Depending on how good a friend he is you could also consider killing his fellow cult members with fire. (Though, there`s the chance that he becomes more zealous.)

[Medicine Man]

Cut off all of the cult members heads and brand "This will happen to you *Friend Name* if you don't exit the cult"

[Dasleah]

Depending on how good a friend he is you could also consider killing his fellow cult members with fire. (Though, there`s the chance that he becomes more zealous.)

Cut off all of the cult members heads and brand "This will happen to you *Friend Name* if you don't exit the cult"

Things like this are the reason why the first thing you should do is stop expecting any good advice or opinions given by anyone in this thread and immediately contact your local law-enforcement agency and ask for them to put you into contact with whatever anti-Cult organisation holds the most sway in your area (but be sure to do some research on them first to make sure they aren't owned by Scientologists)

If you care at all about your friend you need to stop asking for random's advice on the Internet and actually do something about it.

[ChairmanPoo]

It's not like law enforcement agencies can do much if the guy is legally an adult.

For that matter, enforcement might be counter-productive if he is a minor.

Sad to say, cult related problems don't have easy answers

[Eugenitor]

Cult leaders stop caring about things like law and as such are usually guilty of something serious. Find out what that thing is and get the leader(s) sent to jail. This of course depends on whether the local cops actually care; sometimes local cult leaders just get ignored.

Tell your friend that you'd be happy to hear everything he has to say about his newfound religion, but that he absolutely has to come alone.

If you really, really want him out and you've got the stones? Infiltrate.

[Lordinquisitor]

Honestly, what should he do? Fact is that he can`t really do anything against that cult. The only thing he could do is actually speaking to his friend- But you know, that`s the problem with fanatics. They won`t listen. Arguing against them only makes them more fanatic.

[DJ]

Kidnap friend and replace cult programming with a different program?