Carol Merchasin

I am a lawyer working on behalf of those who have been sexually abused in spiritual communities.

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

We'd all like to think we'd be immune to joining a cult - but we'd be wrong.

I talk to @_indoctrination, @LetsTlkAbtSects, @GenerationCult, @WasIInACultPod, The Bad Buddhist and others about how to leave and how to get justice.

Listen here:
https://t.co/p2yo0lqIYr

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

A cult is a community that can never allow failure or error.

A woman is dead, a man has confessed to her murder and ritual assault and yet the IHOP mother church's main concern is "lack of zeal".

https://t.co/kRkk4lAvbl

[Generation Cult @GenerationCult]

What sort of litigation can former cult members bring against their abusers? In this throwback to S. 3 (2023), we speak to an attorney @CarolMerchasin who does this work
*New S. 4 episode coming soon!
Season 3, Ep 10 Cults and Courts https://t.co/OOky6fXccn via @YouTube

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

@RollingsFilms Every aspect is familiar to me from my cases, from the structure of the cult, framing the abuse as "the children's choice" to victims being let down the police again and again. Always happy to chat if you are interested in a follow up on what justice looks like for survivors.

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

"Yes, we’re afraid, but kids who grew up in a cult have already experienced the worst day of their life in some way. Now, we want to taste life."

Life, and sometimes justice and compensation. My clients are some of the strongest people you'll ever meet.
https://t.co/fvyWNXobTG

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

@AnnOlivarius @ICSA_Home Too many people think that "trafficking" means "bundled blindfolded into a van crossing state lines". That is not how judges have consistently interpreted the TVPA. The key concept is consent, not geography.

[Megan Agnew @MeganAgnew]

In the week since our investigation into spiking, we have received an extraordinary response from readers, writing to tell us what happened to them, their friends or family. Every phone call floored me. Here are some of them – with @NCherruault https://t.co/bCqIIPSW9x

[Dr. Ann Olivarius @AnnOlivarius]

It's not like women collectively forget to put on our hard hats and that's why we get raped, stalked, assaulted and beaten up.

Women don't need (another) "women's safety plan".

We need a "men's violence plan".

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

Michael O'Keefe left the Zen priesthood not because he experienced the kind of abuse my clients often have.

He left because he experienced the kind of lying and manipulation that make abuse possible in the first place.

Stunning piece @tricyclemag

https://t.co/fLCRuxp80L

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

Our client Ashley Grace filed her suit, because she realised could do what her students so often couldn't -
“To me, it’s more about standing behind what I so deeply believe, which is that you don’t get to do this to other people,”
@eshugerman
https://t.co/Fxe9yWFMCr

[Dasha Afanasieva @dasha_reports]

And he called it "The Love Album"

Last month's @Businessweek piece about Sean Combs' downfall
Free link
https://t.co/HkNrcqMIuS
with comments from @AnnOlivarius
@devinleonard @daniellesacks

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

"As a Catholic organisation, Gris is not opposed to exorcisms if they are carried out by the church."

The Catholic Church struggles to maintain its monopoly on exorcisms, precisely because a belief in actual demons is such a powerful cultish practice.
https://t.co/yCrSBrQrDJ

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

Very proud of our clients, and looking forward to bring Michael Shoemaker and The Movement Center to justice.
Listen to @ThomasShults_ excellent and sensitive reporting at @KGWNews

[KGW News @KGWNews]

Multiple women say a spiritual guru who once operated The Movement Center in Portland groomed and sexually assaulted them. The allegations span decades, and they're now backed by a federal lawsuit.

Watch the report tonight on #TheStoryKGW at 6:30 p.m. (https://t.co/6SiDTae1Yd)

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

I see this tactic so often - our clients have been blamed and made to feel like their abuse was their own fault.

[Dr. Ann Olivarius @AnnOlivarius]

He was 39. She was 14. And yet:

“It was me, without irony, who was under her spell for six years.”

One way to not feel like a sexual abuser of children is to blame the child for seducing you.
A classic tactic.
https://t.co/xGGMiCbY2s

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

I have a number of cases under the New York City Council law @willpavia mentions, The New York Gender Motivated Violence Act.

The ASA kicked in a door, and our clients are still walking through it.
https://t.co/bNEedX4L6H

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

Please join us on March 10th 2024: https://t.co/4BAVJw6gg0

If you have suffered in a Buddhist organisation, you have options and you are not alone.

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

"‘What’s interesting is seeing the parallels between cult life and how we survive toxic behaviour. What I see in the corporate world is people doing similar things like giving up their own values in favour of survival and getting paid.’"

Indeed.
https://t.co/HwgZWNwHhC

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

"The Truth" follows the same play book as so many of the spiritual communities we hold to account for sexual abuse (12 and counting).

I wish healing and justice for the survivors, whatever that looks like to them.
Stunning reporting by @GeorgeWright89.
https://t.co/iWkDhHBt3V

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

"My dad had fear, constant fear. He was very afraid that someone would speak up,"

All cult leaders have this fear. That's why every cult dynamic aims to control who can speak and who can be believed.
https://t.co/AqVHGKCQi7

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

@matthewremski If you want to "save" anyone, start by treating them as equals.

[Carol Merchasin @CarolMerchasin]

Pressler enjoyed robust institutional support and complicity from SBC.

SBC should ask what it should do about the entire culture and hierarchy that allowed Pressler to abuse with impunity for decades.

The man was nothing without the church.
https://t.co/CVjfxS0hX9