“I was in a cult for ten years”- When Bethany Joy Lenz made some surprising revelations

One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz revealed something that the OTH fans want to know more about. In the July 10 episode of Drama Queens, an iHeart podcast by One Tree Hill shared something new about herself with her fellow drama queens, Bethany Joy Lenz, Hilarie Burton, and Sophia Bush. The actress said that she was in a cult for ten years, and then spent another ten years recovering from it.

“I was in a cult for 10 years. That would be a really valuable experience to write about, and the recovery—you know, 10 years of recovery after that. So there's a lot to tell.” Bethany Lenz said.

The revelations definitely left a lot of questions and curiosities unanswered. Bethany Joy Lenz further said that she would like to share her experience in a book someday but, there were a lot of legalities in place. She added that if she ever decides to write about it, it will all have to be just perfect.

“But the pressure of getting it right, and everything having to be exactly real, and all the people that are involved. Also, I don't know how much I can say because there are still people and legal things in place that make it more complicated for the timing of that."

Bethany Joy Lenz played the role of Haley James Scott in One Tree Hill (Image via IMDb)

The 42-year-old actress who played the famous role of Haley James Scott in the romantic drama One Tree Hill, also elaborated on the writing journey she’s been on, but noted that she finds it challenging to get it all together.

“I think the ADHD has made it really difficult over the years to... I have lots of essays and lots of chapters and things, but to really commit to putting it all together, because I would love to write about my experience."

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Bethany Joy Lenz spoke about the ‘cult-like’ Mosaic Church in 2021

Bethany’s current revelation of being in a cult for ten years brings back a similar disclosure made by the actress in May 2021 on Instagram. She posted about her experience of being a part of the Mosaic Church community for two years. She further disclosed that she called it out for being a quintessential cult with an extremely rigid and controlled atmosphere riddled with abuse.

“I went to Mosaic on and off for 2 years. The level of control displayed, particularly by McManus was deeply characteristic to me of a high-demand group and was disturbing to me and to many other people who have left Mosaic for that very reason.” she wrote.

In 2021 Bethany Joy Lenz talked about her bad experience as a member of the Mosaic Church (Image via Wikipedia)

Bethany further continued to state that the community didn’t leave space for anyone to speak against the leadership, which is currently Erwin McManus. She stated zero accountability of the leader among many other reasons and many others' exit from the group. Bethany also motivated other members of the community to speak out if they felt they were being controlled. She also expressed frustration over what was being taught at Mosaic Church about their relationship with God.

“If you’re a member at Mosaic, please ask yourself what your spiritual life would look like if Erwin McManus wasn’t there anymore. Healthy Pastors are supposed to be teaching us how to have our own relationship with Jesus with or without church leaders.”

Bethany Joy Lenz might someday bare all the details in her book, as she mentioned in Drama Queens, but it might be a while before uncovering her former secret cult life. Nevertheless, Bethany has definitely given something for One Tree Hill fans to look forward to.