This was my childhood Kingdom Hall. Originally it had windows through which I could watch airplanes leaving contrails in the sky during the meeting. Since then, Kingdom Halls have been required to seal up their windows, one of dozens of changes they’ve made over the years to isolate their members from society. From an early…

When Amanda and I began our Year of Sundays project, it was inevitable that one day we would visit the Jehovah’s Witnesses, my old religion. Inevitable, that is, in the way jail time inevitably follows sentencing. Seven years, 415 therapy sessions and one major loss of faith later, that dreaded day has come. To describe…

All right. I admit it. I blew the experiment. Normally, Amanda and I try to reach out to church officials to let them know that we’ll be visiting their service. But this time around, we felt that if we wanted to get the people at the Portland chapter of the Church of Scientology to talk…

If Scientology is the religion where nothing is true unless you personally have observed it to be true, then I can say with confidence: THESE PEOPLE ARE BATSHITOODLES. But let me start from the beginning and walk you through our two hours of Scientological insanity. Is it me or does their website say they hold…

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