The Gryphon At what point does the spanking of a child become a beating? At what point does a community church become a cult? Those two questions are at the center of "Join Us" wherein disgruntled members of a small church in South Carolina leave the church and wish to file charges against their former pastor. The ex-members apparently stood by while the pastor beat their children while they watched, as the beatings were backed up by verses in the Bible. The pastor even recounts the Old Testament law wherein it was permissible to stone a rebellious child to death if necessary. The pastor and his ultra-faithful wife defend all the charges against them with the wife stressing that what they did may seem "cultish" to outsiders, everything was done with the best intentions. The ex-members go to a cult deprogramming center, said to be the only one in the USA, and are encouraged to ask questions and to think for themselves once again, instead of hanging onto the pastor's every controlling word. In an attempt to entrap the pastor into admitting child abuse one of the ex-members of the church goes to see him and his wife while wearing a hidden camera and microphone. Somehow the wiley pastor never cops to the charges while being recorded. His wife is heard in a recorded phone conversation stating that the pastor has stage one Alzheimer's disease and later states that the ex-members should leave him alone because of his "sick mind." Later, in a separate conversation, we hear the pastor declare that there have been some allegations about him having Alzheimer's and then adds that those who say that are "liars!" The look on the woman's face who heard his own wife state that he has Alzeimer's Disease is priceless.It's an interesting movie about how easily some minds can be controlled and how some churches could be considered cults but it's definitely not totally convincing, but it does raise some interesting questions.

joinus2007 I agree with Robert Koehler's Variety review, which suggests a proper context for engaging with these characters and this subject matter:"Skeptical viewers may wonder how such outwardly conventional and otherwise unremarkable people could allow themselves to be dominated by one man -- particularly someone like Melz, who comes off as a stern control freak on camera. Lifton and other experts remind that the very nature of belief, plus the power of a particularly strong leader, makes the mind vulnerable to cult-like obedience. It's this lesson, as well as the vivid recording of actual events, that makes "Join Us" an unusually useful doc."Also, check out this review from Docuchick:"Ondi Timoner hit the doc scene like Layne Staley hit the heroin — a long painful road that appeared fast and out of nowhere.Timoner's seven-year-in-the-making-rock-doc DIG! won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize a few years ago and put her on the "scene" and this time around she's taken her study of Anton Newcombe's brainwashing abilities (on himself and those around him) and harnessed some of those themes in her new documentary film called JOIN US.JOIN US reveals America is the world's breeding ground for Cults and religious fanatics, and JOIN US is a documentary that follows a group of individuals trying to separate themselves from this troubled reality. Stirring, emotional, and raw — JOIN US peeks inside the controversial and "hush-hush" world of religion and cults."

nabutali his e-mail is in response to Michael McGonigle's comments about "JOIN US".Michael,While I found your response to be very well thought out and detailed, I think that you miss the mark on your analysis of how the parents could allow their children to undergo unnecessary beatings and other forms of abuse, with the excuse that they were simply following orders from their cult leader. You, in the end, feel that the blame lies squarely on these parents for allowing such acts to occur. You feel that there is no excuse for their failure to take action, or better yet, their inability to disobey an immoral order. The power of the mind is incredible Michael. Consider the men and women who blow themselves up in order to become martyrs, as well as followers of terrorists who through following orders, commit the most atrocious of acts to their fellow human beings. These people have families and loved ones too, but yet they are willing to give all that up in the name of the faith. This faith, needless to say, has been acquired by merely believing the opinions of a few. The followers of Pastor Melz are in the same way long-time believers of his word, to the point of self-sacrifice. Also, don't forget that people like Pastor Melz often seek out the vulnerable and somewhat "save them" thereby earning their unquestionable trust and faith. Mind control is real Michael, and so long as another human being is subjected to it, that particular person loses the power to think rationally, and can then not be judged in a rational manner, as you do. However, this isn't to say that there is no hope. Information is power. It is exposure to the outside world that gives a wake-up call to Pastor Melz's followers, who in turn begin to question his practices, and for the first time in a long time, think rationally. For many such people, it takes certain triggers or flags before they can "snap out of it". In conclusion, while I find that you have certain valid points, I think you miss the mark when you deem it bogus that such events could actually take place.Your thoughts......Thanks for your informative and interesting post anyway,Cheers,Emily P.S. I am currently working with Ondi, at Interloper Films.

Michael McGonigle The only thing more annoying than seeing a useless and mediocre film on a topic I don't care about, is seeing one on a topic I think is very important. That is the case with Join Us, a questionable documentary about the travails of an extended Carolina family as they seek to break free from a Christian cult.The only problem is, the whole story seems so bogus. I'm not saying the things in the film did not happen, I am saying I can't believe even a half-wit would allow them to happen.We meet this family as they spend 14 days at the Wellspring Retreat, supposedly the worlds only accredited treatment center for dealing with people who are victims of cults. We hear from the adult members of this family and they regale the counselors with tales of harsh beatings of their children by the self-proclaimed Pastor Raimund Melz and his "Eva Braun" like wife Dorothy.We hear how they were told not to have any friends, to only work for the church and to give all their money and time to the Melz's. The stories told are hard to hear and seem to be backed up by the reminiscences of the actual children themselves, but then we get to meet Pastor Melz himself.And guess what? He is the most ordinary type of Christian asshole you could possibly imagine with ZERO charisma. If his wife didn't come across like a lesbian Nazi guard, there would be no force in this pastor's world at all. He is so full of himself, so arrogant and so pitiful a human it is actually sad. He's a pathetic wreck of a man trying to impress someone that he's got some power, but he's a dolt.So now, when I hear the victims say how he would whip their kids with PVC piping and they would just watch and do nothing, or force their kids hands into the fire on a stove and do nothing, it begins to say a lot more about the parents than it does about the pastor. The parents whining begins to come across like the former workers in Concentration Camps who said they were not to blame for the atrocities because they were only following orders. The Nuremberg Trials put that myth to bed. You are responsible, even if you are ordered, in fact you have a duty to disobey an immoral order.That these adults did nothing and said nothing and are now suing for money makes me queasy, especially when they go to great lengths to trick the pastor into incriminating himself via hidden cameras and tape recorders. Intriguingly, the cameras work fine when the families can't get the pastor to remembers a single thing, but then, the one time the camera fails, all of a sudden we are led to believe that he made damaging confessions. This really bugged me, as it did not seem believable.Is Pastor Melz guilty of the child abuse and other economic crimes he's accused of? I don't know. The film does not present a clear case and if you can clear your mind of prejudicial emotion as best you can (something that our law courts try to do) you have to come down on the side of the law. There is not enough evidence to prove Raimund and Dorothy Melz did any thing more than just become intolerable religious assholes. And that is not against the law. In fact, you can even become the president if you are one.