A tree hill Star Bethany Joy Lenz talks about the harrowing experience of escaping a cult.
Talk to your old OTHER co-stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan on their theater queens podcast, Lenz opened up about one of the toughest times in his life.
“I was in a cult for 10 years. That would be a really valuable experience to write about. And the recovery – 10 years of recovery after that. So there’s a lot to be said,” Lenz said, noting that during that she was methodically writing her story, “the pressure to get [the account] right and everything has to be exactly real, and everyone involved” is a challenge.
“I don’t know what I can say because there are still people and legal things in place that make things more complicated at the moment,” added the 42-year-old actress.
Living with ADHD, a disorder that made her feel “misunderstood” her entire life, also prevented her from writing about the experience in a more thoughtful way, Lenz explained.
“I write all the time. I have a lot of essays and a lot of chapters and stuff, but to really commit to putting it all together [is a struggle]because I would like to write about my experience.”
She has denounced sects and suspected sectarian groups in the past
Although Lenz refused to identify which cult she belonged to while speaking with her former castmates, she has not been shy in the past to call out such groups and recruiters for cult-like organizations.
“I feel I have a responsibility to speak out for anyone who wants to hear it,” she wrote in a 2021 Instagram post criticizing Mosaic, a megachurch headquartered in Los Angeles. “If you feel like you’re being controlled, you are.” However, Lenz said in her post that she only attended Mosaic “on and off for 2 years.”
In May, reflecting on how famed theologian and preacher Tim Keller helped her through the darkest times after escaping the Nameless Cult, the actress became emotional.
“This man changed my life,” she wrote on Instagram after his May 19 death. “The only reason I’m still a Christian today is because 10 years ago, after many years of faith being used against me as a tool of manipulation, Tim Keller taught me how to rebuild my faith using reason. and logic. A belief system that fully engages my mind while leaving room for wonder and mystery.”
She goes on to say that Keller has helped her be more “confident and secure” in her faith than she has ever been “because of Tim Keller’s teachings and the relief they gave me to do to trust again and to fall in love with a Jesus I never knew.”
Lenz hinted at cult-like relationships with religious establishments in the song “Father Knows Best”, on the 2013 album Your wifewhich calls out to an unidentified dominant male figure.
“I know about the money/It’s under the steeple/I know about your sex/I know about your demons/Father knows best/Till you try to leave it,” her lyrics proclaimed.
A meeting with Allison Mack
In 2016, Smallville Actress Allison Mack, who just served a two-year sentence for her role in founding the cult sex organization called NXIVM, tweeted at Lenz in an attempt to recruit her. Lenz shamelessly refused.
“You’d love this women’s movement I’m part of. Love telling you about it, DM me if you want!” Mack wrote at the time.
Two years later, Lenz replied in a since-deleted tweet: “Sorry my love, I was already in a cult once. But LMK when you’re on the other side and we’ll talk. Honestly, <3. This is hard."
What’s next for Lenz?
In addition to OTHERLenz appeared in series such as Dexter, Colony And Agents of SHIELD. His most recent credits are from 2022, including an episode of the Bush medical drama Good Samthe indie horror movie So cold the river and the thriller podcast dark sanctuary.
In addition to her book and music, Lenz told her former co-stars that “there are things in the works…projects coming out” and that she would share details when she could.