A well-liked true-crime docuseries a couple of suspected TikTok cult ended with a household’s seemingly reluctant acceptance that they misplaced their liked one.
One of many final scenes of “Dancing for the Satan: The 7M TikTok Cult” exhibits Miranda (Wilking) Derrick’s mother and father on the ground video-chatting with their daughter, grandchild and son-in-law, with the understanding nobody mentions the Los Angeles church and its chief, who’s accused of operating a cult of “brainwashed” dancers.
Miranda’s sister, Melanie Wilking, stated she’s accepted that her marriage ceremony dream along with her sister as her maid of honor will not occur.
It is just like the stormy seas have settled, however there’s nonetheless a harmful undercurrent beneath the floor that is swallowing extra victims, cult skilled Dr. Steven Hassan warned.
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On paper, Robert Shinn is the pastor of a Los Angeles Shekinah Church who runs a dance manufacturing firm that Miranda and her husband James Derrick (amongst others) work for.
However former members stated in court docket filings that Shinn is a “self-proclaimed man of god” dwelling a lavish life on the backs of brainwashed TikTok dancers who’re sexually abused and extorted.
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After the discharge of Netflix’s “Dancing for the Satan: The 7M TikTok Cult,” 7M Movies stated in a press release on Instagram that the docuseries was “a slanderous work of fiction, born from a failed extortion try.”
It was posted on June 4, and it is nonetheless the one put up on the account. The corporate did not return Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
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Hassan watched the three-part sequence, and stated Shinn and 7M have the traits of a quickly rising “brainwashing cult” that is disguised as a non secular motion known as “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR).
“What characterizes them in a different way from mainstream Christian evangelicals is that the leaders declare to be an apostle or a prophet, who will get direct revelations from God,” Hassan instructed Fox Information Digital.
“These cult leaders, in my view, say God speaks on to them, they usually usually communicate in tongues and declare to solid out demons and declare to do religion healings.”
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All of those traits had been described by former members who had been interviewed within the documentary, in addition to in court docket filings obtained and reviewed by Fox Information Digital.
“In working his ‘church,’ Robert (Shinn) preached that with out him (former members who sued him) and different members of Shekinah could be cursed,” in line with a lawsuit towards Shinn, 7M and a number of other others.
He satisfied his members — and former members — that in the event that they did not “totally undergo him, their lives and their households’ lives could be destroyed, and they might go to hell,” and this was their “final probability” to get to heaven “by rapture,” the authorized motion alleges.
These allegations had been included within the third amended criticism filed in Could as the newest volley in a two-year tit-for-tat authorized bout between Shinn and 7 former members of his church.
Shinn fired the primary shot with defamation and commerce libel allegations in 2022, and the previous members counter-sued with 52 allegations, together with fraud, human trafficking, pressured labor, sexual assault and unjust enrichment, that they declare went on for nearly 20 years.
Shinn argued he had First Modification safety as a non secular group in a failed try and toss out the lawsuit.
The feuding sides are on a collision course, with a trial date scheduled for July 5, 2025.
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Though Shinn hasn’t publicly responded, he denied the allegations in court docket paperwork. His firm’s June 4 assertion on Instagram threatened to “pursue all authorized treatments to cease the unfold of salacious lies.”
Shinn’s attorneys did not instantly return Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
Miranda, who was featured prominently within the Netflix docuseries, shared a prolonged Instagram message (under) the identical day 7M Movies issued its assertion.
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“I am not a sufferer,” she stated, and pressured she’s not in any hurt. She known as the documentary a “public assault” that was “one-sided.”
“I like my Mother, Dad and Melanie, and they’ll ceaselessly be part of my life. The reality is, we simply do not see eye to eye right now,” Miranda stated.
“I gave my life to Jesus Christ in 2020 and requested my household for some house within the very starting to gather my ideas and course of my new stroll I wished to take with God.”
Miranda went on to say she’s been assembly along with her household “to make amends,” which was alluded to within the docuseries, however her portrayal “created an additional problem” between her and her household.
“Nobody likes to be portrayed as their brainwashed/not accountable for her personal life/shell of herself/human trafficked daughter/sister when that simply is not the reality,” she stated.
Shinn, the Wilking household and the Shekinah Church are one case of what Hassan believes is a part of the NAR.
Trendy teachings embody the “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which calls on followers to retake the seven “mountains” of cultural affect: faith, household, authorities, training, media, arts/leisure and enterprise.
The “Seven Mountain Mandate” is also known as “7M” for brief in analysis papers and scholarly articles.
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Justin Poythress, a pastor of All Saints Church in Boise, Idaho, wrote a critique in regards to the “Seven Mountain Mandate” in a July 2023 weblog put up.
“On one stage, the spheres of affect the 7M mandate describes are a great abstract of establishments that form our tradition,” Poyrthress wrote. “Anybody with sturdy convictions, whether or not conservative, liberal, Muslim, Jewish, or secular, naturally desires his values to be adopted and heralded on all seven ‘mountains.’
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“However the 7M mandate goes additional…. The angle is finally constructed on a twin misunderstanding of Scripture and of Christ’s functions on the planet.”
Its reputation has grown from 20 p.c of American adults and 30 p.c of American Christian adults in March 2023 to 41 p.c by January 2024, in line with a Could scholarly ballot by Deninson College Professor Paul Djupe.
The quick reply isn’t any.
The Legal professional Normal’s Workplace stated there are not any written complaints about 7M or Shinn with the workplace, and the Los Angeles District Legal professional’s Workplace did not instantly reply to questions.
Fox Information Digital filed public information requests with the Los Angeles Police Division.
There’s an on-line petition that has collected over 16,100 signatures imploring regulation enforcement to analyze and produce felony expenses towards Shinn.
“It’s time for justice,” the web petition says. “We can not enable somebody who preys on susceptible people beneath the guise of faith to proceed these heinous acts with out consequence.
“Signal this petition to demand that regulation enforcement in Los Angeles, CA & Pacoima, CA to take fast motion to open an investigation for Robert Shinn and his crimes.”
TikTok didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.