Serafina Tane was born into a religious cult on New Zealand's South Island. When she left, she discovered a life without religious rules was more complicated than she had imagined.
abc.net.au/news/serafina-tane-on-growing-up-camp-david-religious-cult/101798492Serafina Tane was born into a religious cult on New Zealand's South Island. The leader was the charismatic but abusive Douglas Metcalf, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus. For Serafina, the cult was her family. But leaving Camp David for a life without religious rules was more complicated than she had imagined.A lot of people would think that it was like living in a castle.
The rock room had these all these rocks that were gifted by people who had been into collecting rocks before they joined the cult. You go in and there's just these amazing rocks. Some of them, when you turn off the lights, glow in the dark. We'd dress the horses up, we'd be all dressed up in costumes and we'd walk around [the property]. It was a festival and a celebration, and it was just getting dressed up and colourful. I loved it. I really loved it. It was really exciting.[Cult leader Douglas Metcalf] looked like Santa, but without the white beard. It was a dark beard. He was just like a friendly grandpa kind of person. He wasn't tall. He was a little bit tubby, I suppose. Not an imposing person.
There was a lot of Middle Eastern symbology, because he spent a lot of time in the Middle East and brought that into the cult. He [said he] went into the desert and an alien spaceship came and he went on the spaceship. We were taught that Jesus didn't die on a cross and that he died on a stake with his hands above his head, not with his arms out. So actually the cross became, in a way, an evil symbol for us.
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