Was I In A Cult? - Dollar Bill’s Cult: “My Father Stole My Wife”

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

In this heart-wrenching continuation of Emily Maldonado’s story, we delve into the life of her brother, Drew Matthews. Drew grew up under the domineering influence of his father, “Dollar Bill” Matthews, a pastor whose self-interest knew no bounds. From childhood indoctrination to traumatic "exorcisms" and endless demands for loyalty, Drew was constantly searching for the love and acceptance his father never offered. This episode unravels a tale of betrayal on every level—Drew’s own father not only controlled his life but ultimately orchestrated the unthinkable: the estrangement of Drew’s wife and daughter. As Drew sought refuge in the military, hoping to escape his father’s grip, his father seized the opportunity to drive a permanent wedge between him and his family by doing the unthinkable.  Drew’s resilience and strength in the face of unimaginable loss serve as a powerful testament to the endurance of the human spirit. We are in awe of you, Drew! ————  Try VIIA! www.viiahemp.com/inacult and use code: inacult  Visit www.uncommongoods.com/cult for 15% off!   Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code Inacult LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepod  ————  Follow Drew on TikTok: @notreallysur.e / Instagram: @dapper_man   Follow us on Instagram/TikTok/F B: @wasiinacult  Have your own story? Email us: [e-mail]  Please support Was I In A Cult? Through Patreon (we appreciate the hell out of you guys): https://www.patreon.com/wasiinacult   Merch is here! www.wasiinacult.com 

The views, information or opinions expressed by the guest appearing in this episode solely belong to the guest and do not represent or reflect the views or positions of the hosts, the show, podcast one, this network or any of their respective affiliates. says, we are going to talk about the elephant in the room. And that elephant to the room is, dad, why are you and Lorena seeing together everywhere? And why are you guys like dating? And Bill literally just like hangs his head low. Like he's busted and ashamed. And I look up, I'm like, are you serious right now? You told me to divorce my wife so that you could marry her.

my wife so that you could marry her. Guys, today's episode is wild. I mean, what's the adjective that would best describe today's episode? Insane. Incredible, insane, cuckoo, bananas. Bananas. Bananas. Bananas. Hit it, Rob. This shit is bananas.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S. This shit is bananas. This shit is bananas, you guys. And heartbreaking. You're going to get riled up again today, aren't you, Liz? I don't know. I might. I got a lot of my angst out in the previous episode, but I'm still fired up.

You and everyone else listening as well. So if you guys don't know what we're referring to, today's story is Drew Matthews, and he is the brother of our guest that we had on last week, Emily Maldonado. Now it's not an episode that you need to hear Emily's first in order to listen to. No, but we do recommend it because A, it's a good episode, and B, because it does give some context to this particular story because they do intertwine a bit. Yeah, like the reference of Dollar Dollar Bill, Mr. Profit for Profit. Yeah, that for example.

But what I love about this episode is that it just goes to show, and we talk about this a lot, you can be in the same cult, same family for Christ's sake, and yet still have vastly different experiences and different stories. So with that introduction, let's welcome to the show Drew. So we had six children in our family. I am five out of six. We traveled to churches all the time. Like as a traveling evangelist, he would try to find places where he could preach. I'm Reverend Bill Matthews, and these are my six wonderful children,

and we're going to sing a song for you. So then we'd sing a song and then we'd have to all walk like perfect little ducks down to the front row and sit there and not move or fidget. We're in church every Sunday, twice a day. We're in church every Wednesday. We're in church every Saturday. I had probably half the Bible memorized. At five years old, the Sunday school teachers would ask me what my favorite scripture verse was, and I would say it's Acts 1 18, which talks about Judas Iscariot bought a field with the blood money that he had received by betraying Jesus and hung himself. And when he hung himself, his guts burst open and all of his bowels fell out onto the field. Yeah, look, OK, another scripture.

And I got to say, maybe this is getting tired, me rehashing scriptures that guests mention. Hey, I get it. You got to put all those years of Mormonism to good use, Tyler. Yeah, because I don't need to, Liz. I don't need to do it. I could easily just discuss how, I don't know, Elvis faked his death or perhaps regale you with a dissertation on how contemporary country music is simply 80s hair metal with a twang. You should perhaps start your own podcast and call it Mesum's Middling Man's Podcast.

Fine. Fine. Scriptures it is. Acts 1-18 is what Drew was referring to, which says, Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the the midst and all his bowels gushed out. That's my sound effect. Rob, we don't need you for this episode. Wait, you mean I get a weekend to 27 in which Judas returns the 30 pieces of silver to the temple and then goes and hangs himself with his body falling post-mortem and his guts, I guess, possibly spilling out.

Who needs squid game when you got the Bible, you know? Right, who needs walking dead? Yeah. Exactly. Maybe you should have regaled us with those Elvis facts, Tyler. I mean, just real quick, Elvis's life insurance policy has never been collected, by the way. He's seizing the moment. Just saying.

I'm just saying. Also, his name on his tombstone, it's spelled incorrectly. So he's living in your basement is what you're saying. Right. Yeah. Judas may have died, but not Elvis. Not Elvis. Thank you very much. And I'm like five years old and I'd be reciting that.

So obviously there was a little bit of rebel in there. I didn't want to conform to what they wanted. And I questioned things, always questioned, but I questioned things because of the hypocrisy. Like I would sit there and I would listen to the Bible and then we'd go home and my dad was a jerk. And my dad's like yelling at my mom and demeaning her all the time and treating her like crap and yelling at all of us and beating me until I'm literally can't even walk or sit in a chair at six, seven years old. My mom would excuse them all the time.

She'd be like, Oh, your dad's just tired. Oh, your dad's just hungry. I didn't have a lot of really happy childhood things. I always was running away and trying to get into trouble and stuff like that. Go to pushed me into rebellion and things like that at that age. I think it was literally just the lack of truth, honesty, and the lack of love. I mean, when I look back at my life and I look back at my relationships, everything was me looking for love and acceptance.

Like, I have no memory of Bill ever hugging me. I have no memory of him ever telling them that he loves me. Now, we didn't go into too much depth about Bill in the previous episode, so Drew, go ahead. Bill Matthews was the big shot of the town because his dad owned a Ford garage. Very small town in Minnesota, so he was kind of the big, rich, fancy guy or whatever. He was a super spoiled brat. Bill will say he was an alcoholic. Bill will say that Jesus personally showed up to him while he was driving a Ford pickup truck down the road.

And that's how he turned his life over to Jesus. My mom will say she was a drug addict. Basically prayed for her and she accepted Jesus and then never did drugs again. They got involved in this hippie church and my dad basically told her that God talked to him and had said that is supposed to be his wife and then they got married. I've had a lot of conversations with my mom over the years. I'm pretty convinced she regretted that decision. But we were basically just moving all the time, moving schools all the time.

So I don't know, growing up, like, I never had new clothes. They were always hand-me-downs. So then something happened in this church in Elk River, Minnesota, where the pastor was sleeping with, like, all the girls he was counseling. So they had to get rid of that pastor. Oh, boy, pastor's doing naughty things with the little girls, Mary. We got to do something before everyone starts to notice, you know. Now, Patti, you don't worry your little head will take care of it.

Why does your Minnesota voice air slightly on the side of Irish? I mean, you're like, Oh, Patti, don't you worry your little head. Because I don't do a Minnesota voice. I love it. How am I supposed to do that? My aunt went to that church, so she called her brother Bill, my dad, and was like, hey, come be the pastor at this church. Oh, looks like we found a solution, Mary.

Oh, yeah, I think this one's going to work out. Yeah. I sure hope so. Dear listeners, please do not make fun of me or mock me for my Minnesota accent. Liz forced me into doing that. I didn't want to. I still don't want to. But I did it. Now, realize this church was already like a scammer church, right?

So like he inherited a scammer church where the scammer got busted because he was sleeping with all these women. So Bill kind of like just rode in. It was like, sweet. You guys have already been taking all this money from your flock. Like I'm sure he just saw it as this great opportunity to get rich and famous. The financial abuse part was big with Bill. I mean, two or three offerings, every service, Sunday morning, Sunday night,

Wednesday night, Saturday night minimum. You have to give 10% of your income before taxes are taken out. But he would often say that you should be doing 20 percent. Bill's game was all about that sweet tides money. And what's more divine than squeezing every last penny out of your followers under the guise of a blessing? Yeah. And he would also ask for offerings during services three times a week, which don't kid yourself, three times a week. That's a lot.

They must be exciting. The services start with this song service. Then Bill will get up and take his first offering, which will be like 20 to 30 minutes. You know, his sermons were always about you being blessed and God making you rich and God making you successful. And I mean, he'd be in the middle of a church service and he'd stop and he'd be like, oh, angels just flew in. And now there's one that's carrying a refrigerator. Somebody needs a refrigerator and this angel is carrying it for you and he's going to bring it in your house. Receive your refrigerator. And you know, people in the audience are like, Oh, give me the refrigerator!

You're like, you know? OK, move over, Amazon, because I've got a courier angel bringing me an LG French door fridge, not from the warehouse, but straight from the heavens. You joke, but I'll tell you, those new refrigerators, the ones with the InstaView doors and the temperature controlled vegetable cabinets that roll out, those truly are heaven's set. I agree. Those are divinely inspired. Thank you, God.

Dear LG, send us one. You know, Tyler, some words are fun to say, like canoodle. And discombobulate. Lolligag. Rigamarole. Perpendicular. Gummy. Gummy, gummy, gummy. Gummy is not just fun to say. Gummy is fun to do.

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I use a ZenGummy to focus on my work and I quite love it. I sleep, you work. That's how this show works. And the best part guys, VIA legally ships to nearly all states in the United States in discrete packaging directly to your door. That's not the best part. The best part is what's inside the box. That is very true. You know we love this brand.

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Idyllic. Lagoon. Opulence. You know, if one were to get in a time machine and go back in time, one might be surprised at how much it, frankly, stinks. You see, for centuries the smell of rancid human sweat was part of everyday life. A typical American in the 1800s might take just one bath a week and the whole family would use the same water. Gross! But we now live in the

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That's code INICULT at L-U-M-E-D-E-O-D-O-R-A-N-T dot com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. So Bill did have kind of like some charisma and energy. Like he would jump up on the pews and yell and scream and, you know, say things that people liked. He wanted to be this big famous TV pastor, you know. Like, Bill is a different person when he gets in front of the church. He'd say like, oh, the Spirit enters me and I become the Spirit of God or I become, you know, Jesus's puppet.

But then behind closed doors, as soon as that stuff is gone, he's crabby, he's mean, he's moody, he'll only eat oatmeal and burnt chicken breast and like, he wasn't funny, he wasn't witty. I don't know, he's just a terrible person to be around. Everything revolves around the pastor. So it all revolves around Bill. It's kind of ridiculous. Every Sunday, the women in the church literally make him dinner and like serve him at the table like he's some God or something like that. And he would say, if you ever hear from God and it's opposite of what Bill wants, then you didn't hear from God. And this is another one of his famous sayings. He's, he would say, it's life or

death what church you go to. It's all based on fear. So we had these things called prayer meetings at our church and basically everybody would meet in the basement of the church and like cast the devil out of people. For some reason, my parents, they always thought that I was demon possessed and had demons in me. They'd make me lay on a cot. They would all surround me and you'd have 30 or 40 adults surrounding you. They would put their hands right on top of you and they would all do what they called speaking in tongues, like just weird babble, like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then every minute to three minutes and they'd yell, we rebuke you devil.

We command you to come out of this boy. Stop using this boy. We rebuke you Satan. You can't have your way in this boy's life, this is God's child. And it would go on sometimes hours. And then they would put a bucket next to me and basically want me to puke the devil out of myself into this bucket. I didn't realize how traumatic that was until like later in life when I'd like get backed into a corner and just everything inside of me would just be like wanting to just fight my way out of a corner like crazy, you know?

Okay, straight talk and I guess I just need to be honest with our listeners just so they know what's going on behind the scenes and behind the curtain. You have a tail. One of our sponsors is Via Hemp. It's a nice company. And just before the podcast recording, I indulged in a bit of a gummy. So it was the one labeled focus, and I thought I'd focus. But before, all I could really focus on is that the sky outside is really blue today and that That root beer tastes really good. And when we called Tyler to record he was walking outside and admiring the clouds

They're really nice clouds today That being said that is why I am telling you that but I'm still here, I'm still gonna do the job, I'm putting in the hours. I like when you and you're in a good mood, Tyler, so, gummy on. Thanks, Liz. You know, every once in a while, it is nice to stop and marvel at the very cool

and inspiring stories that we get to tell on this particular show. It's true, we love giving these brave individuals a platform, and if you have a story that you want to tell about your cultic past, please feel free to reach out, email us, info at wasainacult. We'll get to your story. We have a lot of amazing stories to come. Yep. And maybe we'll tell your tale while I quote scriptures. And I do stupid accents.

Mm-hmm. Speaking of stories, let's get back to Drew. So something interesting about Drew's story, during his teenage years, he didn't buy into his dad's cult in the same way that perhaps his other siblings did. I hated the church. I hated the hypocrisy. They were all mean, hateful and fake. And then preaching about Jesus' love. So my parents would be trying to discipline me and I'd look at them straight in the face and like, how can you say that

to me? Like you are a liar. How do you tell me not to lie? And they'd be like, you can't smoke marijuana, it's bad for you. And I'm like, if God saved you from marijuana, then he'll save me from marijuana. So why can't I try it? You know, and she's like, no, you can't. It's the devil's lettuce. You want to know the real devil's lettuce? And I'm in no mindset to speak, but kale. Kale? I was gonna say kale. That is the devil's lettuce. And not the small kale, but that stiff kale that you can scrub pans with.

Kale Satan. That would be the name of a trendy LA restaurant in like 2013. Oh, that's so good. Like a food truck. Kale Satan. Kale Satan. But anyways, I couldn't stand it. I wanted nothing to do with church.

I wanted nothing to do with my mom or my dad. Okay, if I can't win his love and approval, then I'll do the complete opposite and screw him type thing. Then when I was 16, on my 16th birthday, I had already bought a car and went got my driver's license. And I went and took the test in the morning, I jumped in the car and drove south and I ended up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was involved in some pretty dangerous, crazy stuff. Mind you, I was living on the north side of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is like super, super dangerous. You know, he's right. I was surprised to learn that Tulsa, Oklahoma has a very high

rate of crime. In fact, it's 131% above the national average. Really? Yeah. In fact, 98% of US cities are safer than Tulsa, Oklahoma. So what's the most dangerous city? St. Louis, Missouri. And what's the safest city?

Burlington, Vermont. Love Burlington, Vermont. Yeah. Keep in mind, everyone, that the overall crime rate in the U.S. is down 3 percent over the past two years and the long term trend indicates a significant reduction in crime rates in the United States. So get it together, Tulsa. Yeah. Why can't you be like your distant cousin, Burlington, Vermont? Be more like him.

Her. It's definitely her. Definitely a her. It's definitely her. I drove down there with a buddy of mine and his aunt and uncle had this little crack house that people like sold drugs out of and did drugs in and stuff like that. No one lived there and they were like, you guys can stay here. We didn't have running water. We didn't have electricity or anything like that. I had no money.

So then the trade was we could just sell drugs for this guy. So that's what we ended up doing was, you know, just sitting down there and selling drugs for this guy. Yeah, I actually kind of liked it when I was there. It was, at least it felt like you had a family and a home, I guess. So after spending time with his new Tulsa family, his old family back in Minnesota was seemingly in his past.

I was down there for about 45 days before anyone found me or knew where I was. Once they found me, my mom and dad called me and I was like, hey, do you want me to come home? And they're like, nope, we're good. Part of me wanted them to find me and just ask me to come home, you know? Maybe they want me, maybe they love me. But they're like, nope, you made the decision, you just go ahead and live with it. But then, a couple months later, I called in the middle of the night crying and they're like, nope, you made the decision. You just go ahead and live with it. But then... A couple of months later, I called in the middle of the night crying and I'm like, hey, like, I've been shot at a dozen times this week.

I have people trying to hunt me down and kill me. And I'm like bawling on the phone and my dad says, the wages of sin is death. And you brought this on yourself. says, the wages of sin is death and you brought this on yourself. Yet another gift brought to you by the Holy Book. This is from Romans 6, 23, quote, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death. And by the way, you brought this on yourself.

I'm starting to get riled up. But can you even imagine saying that to your kid? And I was like, OK, but can you guys come and get me? Like, please? I don't have any money. I don't have any way to get home. And my dad is just like, well, are you willing to get in front of the whole church and repent?

And I was like, I don't think so, but can I just come home? And he's like, not unless you're gonna give your life to Jesus and repent in front of the whole church and tell him everything you've done that's against the Bible. And like, at this point, it's a lot of things and I don't think I wanna do that. Oh, my mom at this time is on the phone bawling

and she's like, please Bill, please, let's just go get him. And he goes, nope, he needs to learn for himself. So at that point, I'm kind of convinced that he was hoping just go get him. He goes, nope. He needs to learn for himself. So at that point, I'm kind of convinced that he was hoping I would get killed. So I was absolutely in a vulnerable position, right? I'm a 17 year old, 18 year old kid. I have no money. I have nothing.

I have no one. The only option I have is to go back to my parents and my parents are these cult leaders. And again, if I want my dad's acceptance, I have to buy in hook, line and sinker. I have to become this pastor because he told me that's what I have to be. And any time I've tried to be anything other than that,

I don't get that love. I don't get that acceptance. I finally called them and was like, all right, I'll give my life to Jesus. But yeah, I mean, I came back from Oklahoma and I had already kind of been in that life already, and again, I still didn't want anything to do with church. I still didn't want anything to do with Bill or any of them.

And I know like I went to church a few times, but yeah, I ended up just kind of running the streets and doing my own thing around here. When you're searching for belonging, acceptance, and love, and you're not getting it from your parents, you kind of find it where you can, even if it's in the wrong places. And if home is not a place that is safe,

then perhaps a dangerous place starts to feel like home. I was dating like this 22-year-old girl when I was 17, and we were doing meth and coke and manufacturing and selling methamphetamines and carrying guns and stuff. I wouldn't say I liked it. I liked making money, but I don't know, it made you popular, you know, like my pager was ringing all the time. And soon the cops caught on. They'd been following me around building an investigation and they finally like pulled

me over or whatever and I had some guns. I had a meth lab in my trunk at the time and a bunch of money and different things. So I did end up landing in jail when I was about 17. So I did quite a bit of time in there and I think it was about six months. And my mom would visit me every day in jail and I hated her and I'd be like, get out of here, whatever, blah, blah, blah. And through the process, my mom kept visiting me and kept praying with me. And so she basically convinced me now to give my life back to Jesus. And again, I think I was sincere at the time.

I legit, I've always had like a good heart, right? Like I've never wanted to hurt people. I think I just got caught up with some wrong people at the wrong time. I didn't want to spend my life in jail. I mean, I was looking at 20 to 30 years in prison. Like they were trying me as an adult. That was the problem.

I ended up winning the case. It was an illegal search and seizure case. I was a minor at the time and they didn't read me my rights. They...I don't even think they had a reason to, like, pull me over, do any of that type of stuff. Everything got dropped. And all is forgiven. A new life lies ahead. With conditions.

I got out of jail. Then I was 18. Then I came back to the church. I bought in that I was supposed to be a pastor, that I was supposed to save the world from sin and harm and all this stuff. I mean, I 100% bought into the whole cult thing. And I'm instantly the children's pastor. I'm instantly the head of the TV ministry and just like all this stuff, right? And he brings me in front of the whole church and he's like, Oh, my son, we've been praying for my

son forever. He doesn't say I abandoned my son in Oklahoma and hoped that he would die and wished he was dead. No, he puts me in front of his church and basically praises himself for saving me. He's my dad. He's also my pastor. So he's also my prophet. So he can prophesy to me and tell me what God is telling me to do with my life. And I'm going to just be part of Bill's ministry and be the reason that he becomes this rich and famous pastor. God's gonna use me to do all that.

That point was the only time that my dad started telling me that he loved me. Like those are the times I remember, and he wouldn't even say like, I love you. He'd be like, love ya. Like as long as you were raising money for him and doing all the stuff he wanted you to do. Like we said, conditions.

And now Drew has finally fallen in line, according to, of course, his father and pastor, Dollar Bill. I'm 18. Found Jesus. I found my calling to be this pastor. So as a leader, I need to have a wife and I need to make children because we need to get more members. And man, did I ever want to practice because boy, you know, I'm an 18 year old boy and didn't really get that chance yet. You have to marry somebody within the church. And I was basically given the option of like three single girls. And then my dad, he's like, well, I've really seen that the Lord wants you to marry Lorena

because she's exactly like your mom. And so then he gets in front of the church and basically makes both of us stand up and tells the whole church that God has called us together. We end up dating and then she ended up basically like sleeping with me a lot and that was a sin, but we're forced to get married. So then we did that. So we had the prophet, his name was Ed Dufresne.

He came in and did the wedding. And then he also did my dad's wedding later, too, my wife. So he did both weddings. Yep. You heard that right. Yep. Oh, and by the way, Ed was also the prophet who married Emily and her husband. And now please bathe yourself in the soothing sounds of us selling stuff. yourself in the soothing sounds of us selling stuff. Spark something uncommon this holiday with just the right gift from Uncommon Goods.

So I was gonna write an ad, but then I was feeling whimsical and elected to write a poem instead. Hmm, please regale us. A box awaits upon my porch, wrapped in mystery, rare, and torch. From Uncommon Goods, I special find a gift unique, one of a kind.

Bravo. But I guess now you want me to write the ad part of the ad? Not feeling the whimsy, Tyler? From holiday hosts to hostess gifts to the coolest finds for kids, from book lovers to die-hard sports fans, Uncommon Goods has something for everyone. Not the same old selections you find just anywhere. They really do have some really cool stuff. In fact, I got a pen set for my poetry.

And I got a martini glass for your poetry. So go to Uncommon Goods, guys. Find something for your holidays. To get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com slash cult. That's uncommongoods.com slash cult for 15% off. Don't miss out on this limited offer. Uncommon Goods, we're all out of the ordinary. This episode is brought to you by NoCD.

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and sometimes voices can be deceiving. For example, you would never guess from Liz's voice that she's a five-footer with pallored complexion, bee sting lips, and bouffant hair. I don't even know what with pallored complexion, bee sting lips, and bouffant hair. I don't even know what a pallored complexion means. It's very white. Very white. Sickly.

And Tyler has the appearance of an old timey cook on a wagon train. Grizzled squinty chow always talking about beans and molasses. But he's got that forever twinkle in his eye. I don't know what this pirate weird voice is. So now that you can picture us, Drew is... Drew's handsome. He's tatted up. He looks really rugged, like he could be like a cowboy with a little danger, a

little danger to him. But his eyes, he has very kind eyes that sort of draw you in. Now we know what he looks like. Now you know what Liz and I look like. You can complete the picture of this podcast going forward. So speaking of Drew, he's now married to Lorena and heavily involved in the church. She, of course, because she married me,

instantly became like the associate children's pastor or whatever. So her and I would do all the outreach ministries and we'd do the kids' church and stuff. I think we had to work 60 or 80 hours a week and it was all based on the church. So like we never got personal time. Like we didn't have a great marriage because we never did anything other than work for the church and then come home. You just have a lot of sex because you have to make babies.

We were on a limited enough income when we were working for the church that like, we didn't have money to go on vacations. We didn't have money to like, you know, enjoy life or do what like a young couple should do. So while these two are skimping and saving, their pastor, Dollar Bill, well... He'd have 15 or 20 cars that the church had bought him, two homes. He's flying first class everywhere. He's rubbing shoulders with all these big TV pastors that have their own private jets.

And that's his goal. And he is the smallest, littlest, tiniest bean on the totem pole of all these people, right? To be their friends, he has to give them like $10,000 a month. He's literally paying to be their friends. Of course, most of that money he was earning didn't come from selling cars. No, his main revenue stream was fleecing the fine flock of his church. Who often believed they were donating to charitable causes. So like the offerings that he would take would never go to what he said the offerings were

going to go to. So he's very much mismanaging funds to the point where like the IRS is investigating him and he's hiring special IRS attorneys to basically like rewrite the way he's doing stuff to make it legal. Like for instance on the offering envelopes, he had to specifically write on those offering envelopes any offering or money that you donate to the church can be used for whatever the church wants to use it for. Basically just was the terms of if you're giving this money, we can do whatever we want

with it. But like there were a lot of people in the church that were suffering. So what I was trying to start and do in their church was like food shelves and like things that actually helped people. Bill wouldn't do any of that stuff, but instead he would be driving around in a Jaguar or he'd be driving around in a Mercedes. There's got to be a passage in the Bible that justifies that, right, Tyler? Yeah, absolutely. There sure is. Let me look one up right here.

Oh, yes, here it is. This comes straight from the book of Make It Up As You Go Along. This is verse I'm full of shit, which says, Feed not thine hungered masses, but make thee merry in a Mercedes CLE. Ah. For it hath a spacious cabin due to its extended wheelbase and sunroof, which cometh standard, thus saith the Lord. Amen.

We had gotten a settlement, Lorena and I, for like $30,000, and we could have paid off our freaking house at the time. Bill asked to borrow it. He took it all. And who knows, spent it on cars or flying to these conferences or something. And he never paid it back. Did the same thing to my older sister.

She got a bunch of money because she had a hailstorm. I think she got like $40,000 or something like that to redo her house. And he asked to borrow that, never paid it back. Here's another one, Tyler, I found one. And he shall taketh from his children and never repayeth. For in their sacrifice, they shall lose and he shall win and be a dick.

I believe that's from the book of douchebaggery. Am I correct? Douchebaguronomy, I think it is. He would do that stuff all the time. He had a body shop so he would constantly do insurance scams. He'd take a car and throw golf balls at it and give it a bunch of hail damage, collect the insurance money and never fix the car. Ah, and the last passage we found to justify this? Give it a go, Tyler.

Yes, this is from the first book of Flim Flammery. Love that book. Uh-huh, and here's the quote, and he shall pellet thy brother's chariot with golf balls and call it an act of God so that he can collect thy Insurance and screw over thy neighbor. Wow, that one is weirdly specific One of the couples that that bill counseled to divorce She had gotten an inheritance from her parents of like two hundred thousand dollars She had sat down in the office. I was involved in a lot of these meetings.

She's like, well, I just inherited this $220,000 from my parents. What am I supposed to do with it? I really want to pay off our house and I want to be debt free. And he literally looks at her and he says, nope, you can't do that. This is the first blessing that God has given you in your life and it's a test. And if you fail this test, God will never bless you again. So he sits there and tells her, you have to take all of this money

and you basically have to give all the money. She pays off like credit cards and some of her bills, and then she literally donates the rest to the church. Now fast forward six months, she calls the church and she asks, I can't pay my mortgage this month. Bill won't even take her call. Puts her off for weeks and she asks, I can't pay my mortgage this month. Bill won't even take her call. Puts her off for weeks and finally says, no, I prayed about it and God told me he's testing your faith. And if I give it to you, it won't strengthen your faith.

But if you believe for it and God gives it to you, then you'll know you can trust God. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that this story is just one of many like this. You see, after we had stopped recording and Pandora's box had been opened, Drew just continued to recall completely unethical, horrific things that had happened. And for now, we'll just leave it at that. But our listeners get the picture. And for Drew, like all guests on this show, there comes a crux in their journey, a fork in their trail, where two roads diverged in a yellow

wood, and they chose the one less traveled. And that has made all the difference. So these are the things that I'm seeing that I'm just like, I can't do this anymore. I could not do this anymore. Bill, he just was such a scammer and I just kept seeing the scams. I can't just keep sitting here and enabling all these scams, you know, now I'm remembering why I wasn't in this in the first place, you know, at this point I had decided I was going to leave.

And then I started talking to Lorraine about it, telling her like, we have to leave the stuff is wrong. Like it's not even what it says in the bible like everything he preaches is for him and i just was like i can't go to this church but i still want our relationship to work i wanted a family i wanted a wife you know all that type of stuff so i was like let's just pretend like church doesn't exist she was open to it and then what happened we ended up, she got pregnant. I was like, okay, I wanna make a better world for my daughter.

And I don't want my daughter to grow up in this church. And I don't know what else to do with my life because this is like all I've ever known and done was this church. I got saved at such a young age. I'm a pastor and it's not like you can just go get a job as a pastor anywhere, you know? I don't have any education,

I don't have any formal anything really. So I end up joining the military. Okay, listeners, quick question. Would you rather look younger or feel younger? Be honest. Ooh, that's a good question. Me, it's easy. I'd feel younger.

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For your convenience, Qualia Centilitic is also available at select GNC locations near you. That's q-u-a-l-i-a-life.com slash cult for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring today's episode. Okay, now my question is, would you rather look cool or be cool? Can I do both? No, you'll never achieve either. I'm sorry. Can I do both? No, you'll never achieve either. I'm sorry. For years, Tim Ballard has been championed as a modern-day superhero. The first time I saw one of the kids from the video, and it like changed my life. He was the face of Operation Underground Railroad, a movement that inspired hope around the world by rescuing children from human traffickers. However, Ballard's crusade to save innocent lives

has always hidden a darker secret. -"Oh, I think he's a pathological liar." -"Beneath the accolades and the applause, a dark storm has been brewing." -"I mean, I can't find a time that he's told the truth about anything." -"Shocking allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced, casting a shadow over his once unquestioned reputation.

I am host Sarah James McLaughlin. And in this new season of The Opportunist, we explore the rise and the fall of Tim Ballard. Join us this October for Tim Ballard Unmasking a Hero. Subscribe to a new season of The Opportunist Now wherever you get your podcasts. In hopes of making the world a better place and, frankly, to escape his father's cult, Drew signed up for military duty. And he was training to be a sniper. I was doing some of my training and we had had our daughter at that point.

I was with her during childbirth. I was raising my daughter for at least the first five, six months. And then ended up getting some Title X orders and leaving while she was about a year at that point. So I was deployed during that time. And during that time is when I got a phone call from my dad that said, your mom is sick and your wife is lonely and sad and your daughter really, really loves grandma. And I was wondering if it'd be okay if I moved your daughter and your wife into my house to help take care of your mom. I say, man, I think that's a great idea for sure.

And just as a reminder, here's his sister, Emily, recounting the incident. My dad, he said, God told me that Lorena should take care of your mom. And Lorena was my brother's wife. So she's a single mom for now while he's at boot camp in the army. So she moves in with my mom and dad.

And while Drew was away, he would of course call and check in on his wife and daughter. Because that's something normal people do. I asked her, I was like, you know, have you gotten any of my messages and stuff? Cause she hadn't really been talking to me for at least maybe a month or so. And oh yeah, I've just been busy, you know, with your mom. and stuff, because she hadn't really been talking to me for at least maybe a month or so.

And, oh yeah, I've just been busy, you know, with your mom. And he'd call to check in on his nuclear family. Maybe a few times a month or something. But when I do, I talk to everyone and everyone's saying it's fine and stuff, everyone's fine, blah, blah, blah. Do they think mom's going to get better or whatever? Oh, we're praying and we're believing and she seems to be recovering fine. She'll be good, but she just needs some extra help.

And so it's very aggressive at this point. Tumors through her entire body needs full around the clock care. My dad made sure we hid that from my brother. He didn't want him finding out. So I ended up getting a phone call that my mom has passed away. The day my mom died, my dad called us into a room and he said, hey, God spoke into me and God has told me that he has a new wife for me. So I get home, mom's dead, my house is empty.

Lorena, she's already completely moved out of my house. None of her belongings there at all. Lorena was going to stay at Bill's house. This is like, you know, the day after I get home, I call Bill and like, hey, can we have lunch or meat or something? So we go sit down and talk and I'm talking to him. I'm like, dude, I don't know what's going on with my wife. I don't think she loves me anymore. Like I'm heartbroken here. I just lost mom. And now I think I'm losing my wife and I really don't want this. And he looks at me and he says, you know, I think the best thing for you to do would be you go ahead and just divorce her

and then like, just pretend like you guys never met and start over, try to date her again. I was, I literally, I remember it, I was like, I don't wanna do that, but I guess if that is the best thing to do, like, okay, I'll deal with it when I get home, you know, is my thought. I go back, finish out my orders.

But meanwhile, back at home, Bill was doing his own work on Lorena. Bill pulled her in and kept counseling, just like he had counseled everyone else. You have to leave the unbeliever. You're unequally yoked and you have to leave him. I didn't really know what was going on back here. Like he was, he's counseling this lady. She's in a vulnerable state of mind. She's a young girl with a young baby and he's up there telling everybody that I'm going

to get killed while I'm overseas on a deployment. Yeah. So my brother, nobody could really tell him what was going on. He comes home from basic training to find his mom and died dad's Stealing his wife. He no longer has a job as a children's pastor He no longer has a house his entire family thinks he's backslidden Your ex communicated your grandparents don't talk to your aunts and uncles don't talk to you your siblings don't talk to you So he literally comes home to absolutely nothing. Not able to see his

daughter just came home to nothing. I come back somewhere around August and I go home to my house and go to sleep and the next morning I get a knock on the door and it is a gentleman who has divorce papers and he hands them to me and says, you've been served. It's my dad's best friend and our family attorney that we've used forever he says listen it's gonna happen whether you fight it or not I just suggest you just sign the divorce papers and walk away. So I signed under the premise that if I get this divorce I can come right back and start dating her and we'll get married again and

everything's fine. In these divorce papers I signed come right back and start dating her and we'll get married again and everything's fine. In these divorce papers, I signed away the rights to my daughter. I gave her 100% custody. But again, in my head, I think I'm doing the right thing because number one, I'm going to try and date her. But number two, I'm in the military and I'm going to be deployed a lot. She can have my daughter, but I'll still be in my daughter's life as much as possible is my theory, right? So then we have a, I get called and they say, you need to be part

of this family meeting we're going to have. Lorena was not there, but my whole family was like all six kids. We all sit down this prophet who had again prophesied that I'm to marry Lorena and had officiated our wedding at Dufresne. He's in that meeting and my oldest sister says, we are going to talk about the elephant in the room. And that elephant to the room is, dad, why are you and Lorena seen together everywhere? And why are you guys like dating? And Bill literally just like hangs his head low, like he's busted and ashamed. And I look up, I'm like, are you serious right now? You told me to divorce my wife

so that you could marry her? Like you counsel all this. I look at Ed and I'm like, Ed, you're gonna condone this. And Ed says, hey, you know, like Bill has talked to me about it, I think that, I think it's totally fine. And I'm like, you guys are all crazy. Like you are, this is the wackest, craziest thing I've ever heard in my life.

I looked at, I looked at Bill, I was like, are you kidding? And I'm sure I probably swore. And he could not even look at me. He could not even talk to me. I was like, this is disgusting. And I told Bill too, I said, you're absolutely not my father. I said a real father would never do this to his child. There's, there's no way

you're thinking about anybody but your sick, twisted, perverted self. So my divorce was finalized like in September, they were married in January. I couldn't stop their relationship or their marriage. They were doing what they wanted to do, because God told him to do it. She's 40, he's 70, whatever, yeah. He used to call her daughter, and she used to call him dad. Then she married him. The man you loathed, the man that left you to die, the man you longed for approval and love from,

the man you worked and toiled for. That man stole your fucking wife. Lives in the same house I grew up in, same house my mom lived in, and it's just the three of them. And then they tried to make my daughter call him dad. and it's just the three of them. And then they tried to make my daughter call him dad. They didn't expect my brother to fight for 16 years and hire lawyer after lawyer and take them to court over and over. Well, so I fought for my daughter big time. I was in court for years and years and I did end up, I got 50-50 custody and I was in her life fairly consistent. So, you know, half the time with me, half the time with her mom, very much loved to be around me. Just, yeah, really hoping and trying to create my own life

and something for my daughter and stuff like that. I definitely did not do the best in life or make all the best adult decisions, but I was definitely a very good dad. When I had my daughter, she was number one. I focused on her. I did the best I could with what I had. Your cult leader father now insists that his granddaughter referred to him as dad and that she should call Drew by his first name. And it's so heartbreaking how they manipulate this little innocent girl.

They started telling her as she became a teenager that she could never follow her quote unquote, calling that God had for her if she continued a relationship with me because I'm the devil. So I started noticing these behaviors with her, started noticing them pull away. She was spending less and less time with me. Like the whole reason I got out of that cult was to try to save my daughter, but then she got sucked back in through the marriage and through all the other stuff. So she's now 17 years old and a little about almost two years ago she came to me and had a conversation with me and said, you're the reason why my dad's

church is failing. You're the reason why my dad's church is failing you're the reason why all these things are happening bad to him and blah blah blah blamed me for everything and I said honey it's not your dad that's your grandpa that's my dad and thankfully she was old enough I said honey that was your mother and your grandfather's decision I had nothing to do with that I actually told them not to do what they did. The only thing I did was I didn't lie for them and I didn't hide things for them.

I was like, I did for 15 years, I lied for them and I hid stuff for them, but I'm not anymore. If you wanna live for God and you wanna be in a church, I mean, live your best life and do whatever you believe, but there's nothing biblical about what they're doing at all. She cried and she said, well, I have to decide between either having a relationship

with you or having a relationship with God. And I said, you can do both. And she just said, no, I can't. But then I told her point blank, I said, I think you're 100% wrong for this decision. I said, I think you're 100% wrong for this decision and I will always be here for you. If there's ever a day where you need to get out, and I'll take you away to anywhere you need to go to escape them if you ever feel like you need to escape. But that was the last time we talked. I've tried to text her and message her a lot over the years

and she just doesn't respond. She might have me blocked, I don't know, but she was 100% the biggest victim in this situation. I can handle this type of stuff. It hurts me to the biggest extent that such a wonderful, talented, beautiful, smart and no matter what, I mean, she, no kid should go through this no kid ever and losing my daughter was quite literally the toughest thing I've ever gone through in my life and I mean I've been through sniper school I've been through war losing my daughter was the toughest thing in the world and for me to be bitter and mad about that stuff I just

I'm not going to be a victim anymore I really did just tons and tons of soul searching. And I realized that I was just living in it and I had so much anger and so much frustration and so much bitterness. And it was just like destroying my life because that was all I was thinking of. That was all I was focusing on. It really made me take a deep look at myself and realize I wasn't emotionally available. I couldn't open up. I couldn't be vulnerable. I couldn't cry. I saw crying as a weakness. You know, we're now like, I love crying.

I'm going to I'm going to go have a cry fest tonight. Probably it's fine. It's good to have feelings and acknowledge the feelings and process stuff. I don't know. I recommend it to everyone. When I process and healed all this type of stuff and kind of let it go in a way, I mean, my life has been, my life is amazing. Like I have an awesome life

and it sucks that my daughter can't share it with me right now. And hopefully there's a day that that will happen and she can see like what really, having a peaceful, good life is about. what really, you know, having a peaceful, good life is about. Drew, Drew, Drew, Drew, Drew, I have no words. All I have to say is we're honored we got to share your story.

Thank you again for being you, for showing us your heart and soul and shedding light on something that no one listening can even imagine, let alone have to actually live through. You are an inspiration, my friend. And Drew, we are here with you eagerly awaiting the day when your daughter hopefully breaks free. Both Emily and Drew, thank you again. I know you have other siblings, some are out and some are still in, and hopefully your joint episodes shake some things up in a good way. And until then, we are sending so much love your way. And speaking of sending love, our listeners, thank you for listening to Was I in a Cult?

We can't believe we're lucky enough to be able to create stories and it's because of your listenership, your Patreon support and your support of our sponsors that we continue to get to do so. So thank you. Yes, thank you very much. And now Tyler's going to go outside and stare at the clouds. I might go look at the clouds. Actually, the clouds are really nice today. Really nice. Was I in a cult is written, produced and hosted by me, Liz Iacuzzi.

And me, Mr. That's Mr. To you, Tyler Meesom. Sound design and edit by Rob Para. Thank you, Rob, for putting up with all of this. If you're listening to this right now, it means I did my job. So much love in the air, right? I'm giving some to Greta Stromquist, who is our additional editor. Greta, we love you. And our social media guru, Shani Payton.

And our executive producer, we love you, our social media guru Shani Paden and our executive producer We love you Stephen Labrum and a special. Thank you again to today's guest drew and his sister Emily Watch out for them guys. There's no telling what they're capable of Take out your knife, purify me Don't spare my life, crucify me