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Cult Leader Just Wants To Lie Naked with Minors, Nothing Has to Happen



If it wasn't clear before now that starting a cult, moving to the desert, and claiming to be the son of God was just the long way to get young chicks to get nekkid with you well past your prime, it is now. Last night, the National Geographic Channel aired its documentary on the Lord Our Righteousness Church and it's self-proclaimed prophet (and physical hybrid of Chuck Manson and Kris Kristofferson) Wayne Bent, aka Michael Travesser. (Jezebel has obsessive footage and roundups on this case.)

"Nakedness is another symbol of our relationship with God," Bent says. "We are naked and unashamed." He posted messages to his followers suggesting it was the way get right with the Lord and, by the way, he was next best thing to the Big Guy (Neil Strauss never negged like this!)

Young women in the cult read between the lines and came to him to lie naked. "God came down on them and told them to do it." Authorites have doubts. Bent was arrested Tuesday on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after allegedly touching three underage girls in his New Mexico compound, Strong City. The youngest of the girls was 12.

In the National Geo doc, two of the girls, Esther and Danielle, talk about lying naked with Bent and how it "was like a whole new picture opened up to me of God." In another scene several girls, including 15-year-old "Healed" giggle maniacally at the insinuation that they're brainwashed. Healed's mom suggested it to her. "I thought, Yeah, I am brainwashed. Michael has washed my brain of all my own corrupt thoughts." Then she laughs the laugh of a caged loon. And Bent, er, Michael, responding to a question about whether it's fair to raise young kids in the group without giving them their chance to experience the outside world, says he was schooled in the outside world and that "All you got is your DVD movies, going to the cinema, waging wars, paying your debts. That's all you have." Clearly, he's never experienced the rapture of The Passion of the Christ on high-def Blu-ray Disc.

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