From the unexplained to the mundane, come join us on a journey to the fringe.
Hello and welcome to Journey to the Fringe, Equal Parts Mental Exercise and Jump Food.
Kind of like competitive eating, maybe being a backup on a beer league team.
I think that's the physical version of our stuff.
We are your paradoxical hosts, Taylor and Chelsea.
Here today, bringing you a little bit of news out of Africa.
Now, Chelsea, I assume you're kind of on the same side as me, unless it's absolutely massive news.
You're not going to hear about it when it comes out of Africa.
It's a continent that media often neglects.
I can't say I keep up on it.
That's for sure.
There's a story that came out of Africa that was huge in the early part of the year that
I think was missed by most people.
I'm going to go over it, give you a little bit of history about it before we actually
get to the thing that happened itself.
So Chelsea, are you ready to learn about a little group called the Good News International
Church and a man by the name of Paul McKenzie?
I'm always ready to learn about that specifically, what you just said.
Yes, good, good.
And it's called the Good News Church.
It's got to be good news coming out of it, right?
It has to be.
Yeah.
Your discretion advised on this episode.
I'm assuming you're not going to tell me otherwise, especially after just saying that.
Yeah, sure.
Okay.
Eddie, the Good News International Ministries, or more commonly known as the Good News International
Church, is often called the Shakapola Cult and it's led by a man by the name of Paul
Ntenge McKenzie.
I'm pretty sure I'm pronouncing it right, but I also saw it pronounced Ntenge.
But I'm going to call him Paul McKenzie for the most part throughout this article.
Compared to founding the Good News International Church in 2003, Paul McKenzie had a fairly
modest background.
He was the fifth child from a large family in Mombasa, Kenya.
And after completing his school exams, he initially worked as a street vendor and later
became a cab driver.
Before founding the church, he worked as a taxi driver in Nairobi from 1997 to 2003, born
in 1972.
Around 20 years ago, Paul claimed to have received a divine calling to start his own church.
He founded the Good News International Church in 2003 with his first wife.
The church started as a small evangelical center in Kenya and quickly gained followers,
primarily due to McKenzie's charismatic leadership and his ability to convince his followers
that he possessed the ability to speak directly with God.
Of course.
Now this group is widely described as a cult and it is adamantly anti-Western, anti-amenities
such as healthcare, education, sports, those all being dismissed as evils of Western life.
With McKenzie condemning things such as the United States, the United Nations, and the
Catholic Church as, quote, tools of Satan.
And I've actually read a lot about this guy and watched a lot about this guy.
It's really hard to say whether or not he's condemning the United States or saying the
United States doesn't exist.
Like, it's super hard to tell, especially because you know, we-
The lines are that blurry.
What part of it is is he doesn't speak English.
He doesn't sermon in English.
So.
Okay.
Yeah.
That language.
I have learned English and I have stuck with English.
Hard.
I thought you learned some African language.
Yeah, no, I did not.
Not at all.
Now this group is heavy, heavy into the end times.
It's one of those end times Christianity groups.
A lot of evangelical groups are, particularly when we get to the cult side of it.
They do like those.
Yeah.
This is itself off of the teachings of a man by the name of William Brannum who was a 1940s
evangelical preacher out of the US, which is kind of where it confuses me that he's
adamantly anti-US, but also follows us.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not surprised on that one to be honest.
Yes.
And it should be noted that the church's teachings are not based on traditional Christian doctrines.
Instead, they are rooted in end-time messages of William Brannum, who I just said, who has
been criticized for his controversial views as well.
He's kind of the first televangelist that really comes out.
Yeah, like early 1950s on to me.
What was his name again?
William Branham.
I wonder if I'd recognize him.
I don't think so, but one of those really big pushes
for prosperity gospel comes with him as well.
It was kind of a lot of rich people in the 1940s
throwing money at any pastor who says,
people with money are good.
He comes out of that.
He actually has an entire movement called brandemism,
which is basically end time preaching.
Okay, continue.
The main parts of his sermons revolve around end time theology.
The Good News International Church follows the end time message.
The belief has led the church to focus much of his teachings on end times.
McKenzie has been accused of dying medical care to children,
resulting in several children dying over the course of the church's life.
There's some pretty extreme groups that do that.
They don't allow any medical intervention.
Part of it is that you can learn about the group through doctors notes, basically.
If kids keep coming in like badly beaten,
you'll soon learn that this group that is very quiet has abuse issues.
And then the last thing is they're adamantly against any type of government registration,
which includes like social security numbers, the Kenyan equivalent.
Basically anything that would...
Oh, for themselves.
Oh, for everybody.
Like what about the tax breaks for the church?
No, there's none.
Yeah, they consider that the mark of the beast.
So like nobody should have it.
Because that's one of the major reasons to start a church.
Yeah, for sure.
It's important to note that these teachings have led to legal issues for this church in particular,
including arrests for inciting public violence against registration for Haudumia Namba,
which is their social safety nest in Kenya.
I don't... why wouldn't they want that?
Oh, because it's a mark of the beast, right?
Yeah.
Right, you answered that.
Yeah, exactly.
See, I was being attention.
He started this church in 2003.
It's reported in 2016, one of his followers sells a property of his
that's worth 20 million Kenyan shekels or the equivalent of,
you know what, I didn't do the conversion on this one.
I would say that's probably about a million dollars,
but I can't remember off the top of my head.
And it gave all of his proceeds to Mackenzie.
If only there were a way to find out.
Yeah, if only.
If only.
Those tools, they just don't exist.
Except that one time I used it, that will come up later.
Okay.
So Mackenzie uses money to purchase land in Malindi and Mombasa,
both in Kenya.
And two vehicles and he starts a television station.
He uses to spread his extremist propaganda to his audience.
This move is big for him.
And he starts convincing other followers to follow suit,
selling properties and giving the money to the church.
In 2017, Mackenzie and his second wife, Joyce Mocamba,
were charged with promoting radicalization,
but later declared innocent,
as well as denying children access to health care, education
and running an unauthorized school and television station.
And this is important, he doesn't consider any earthly education worthwhile.
Yet he has a school and basically through his TV station and his group,
he convinces children that school is not worthwhile.
And if he can, he basically gets them to just come live with the church,
to go to their church, to his school,
that is exclusively teaching about God.
And where are the parents?
Probably in the cult as well.
Sometimes they're part of the cult.
Sometimes the kids go missing and...
Just kids.
...they don't know where they are.
Yeah.
The cult.
Other quick question.
He has these properties.
Is he registered with the government?
He would have to be for the purposes of voting property.
I don't think he would agree with it, but for the purposes of this.
And he has contradictory views of, I believe,
of what he does versus what the group is supposed to do.
Yeah, a lot of times that's...
Yeah.
And we will get into that.
...with the cult leaders.
Yeah.
Because of basically this television station and this unauthorized school,
he ends up getting in trouble with the Kenya Film Classification Board
and they end up coming and shutting down the television station.
And during this time in 2017,
several children died as a result of lack of health care
and in government authorities rescued 93 children from Mackenzie's church in 2017.
In 2018, he was criticized by community leaders,
including the then-Millindy MP, Aisha Jumwa,
and other activists for inciting children to drop out of school,
often without parental consent.
Mackenzie was acquitted in one of these two criminal cases
related to these charges on October 29, 2021,
while the other was dropped.
And in 2017, Mackenzie and his wife faced several charges relating to the church.
He was chastised for inciting students to abandon their education.
During this time, he ends up amassing quite considerable wealth.
He runs a number of these businesses,
which included the television station at the time.
And his net worth, probably as of this year early on,
was 2 billion Kenyan shekels or the equivalent of 13.5 million US dollars.
Wow.
And Chelsea, I need to send this to you now.
He has even released songs.
Like, you'll get an idea of who this guy is through this.
This is a song he released for part of his television channel,
where he is singing a song called The Antichrist.
Basically, he's talking about how terrible the Catholic Church,
US, and the United Nations are as agents of Satan,
and he keeps bringing up the new world order.
This is a strong reggae feel to it.
I know.
It's too upbeat for it being about the new world order.
This is weird.
Yeah.
He's dancing around.
United Nations.
So yeah, he released that on his TV station before it got shut down.
He also talked about, you know, other things on there,
like mobile money is the devil's work.
Braiding hair is a sin.
Childhood education is unnecessary.
Like, these are all different things that he had playing
on his unregistered television station.
Oh.
Braiding hair is a sin.
Yeah.
In 2019, he was again charged.
This time for showing movies to school children
that were deemed indoctrination of children,
religious incitement, and disobedience of law.
He is later acquitted of that again.
Acquitted?
Yes.
Why?
No idea.
There's somewhat answers at the end, but we'll talk about them.
OK.
Now, despite cabinet secretary honor, I don't know what HON
is actually short for, honorable.
Honorable Aisha Jim was publicly questioning his teachings
and why he kept sick people in the compound
except taking them to the hospital.
No action was taken by the National Intelligence
Services for National Police or the DCI.
Not sure what DCI is.
Later on, that year, Mackenzie made headlines again
when four siblings went missing for over a month
after leaving home to attend his church,
with three eventually returning in the fourth still
missing to this day.
Increasing pressure from the parents of the missing children
as well as pressure from fed up neighbors
to close an unregistered school he operated in this compound
led Mackenzie to move to the Shaka Hula Forest.
Neighbors note that many people went there,
but they only saw a few return.
It's important to note at this point
that he buys basically an 800 acre area of the Shaka Hula
Forest, which is near Malini, Kenya.
There's no electricity, no running water on this property,
and that's his compound for the church
after he keeps getting in trouble with the government.
Might as well move to the forest.
Located not too far from the government Chakama settlement
scheme, the forest is located within the Chakama Ranch,
allegedly owned by a group called Chakama Ranching
Liberty, who claimed that Mackenzie neither leased
nor bought the land from them.
The governor of Califi County, however,
says the land is part of the third phase of the Chakama
settlement scheme.
Elders living in the forest claim that the land belongs
to five local clans who leased the land to Mackenzie
and have the documents to prove it.
Temporary structures erected in the forest
served as shelters for fasting individuals.
It's a part of the church that will come up soon,
who are required to surrender all their belonging
at the entrance.
Members of the church explain how they were strictly monitored
and starved for up to five days at a time.
Despite several red flags over the years,
Pastor Mackenzie seemed untouchable.
Is this guy specifically going after children?
Basically.
And that's going to come up here really quick.
OK.
Now, the last of the things that he teaches about
that's super important to know about,
he promotes mass starvation.
And this is what happened in 2023.
Mackenzie allegedly instructed all members of his congregation
that the world was going to end on April 15, 2023,
and that they need to starve themselves en masse to meet Jesus,
lest they survive the world and the devil's coming times.
This results in the death of, at the recording of this,
at least 428 people.
Wow.
From starving?
Yes.
Starvation suicide.
This act of mass starvation is described
as a form of religious extremism and has been widely
criticized by the broader Christian community.
So yeah, this is what happened in April of 2023.
He's told all of the members of his church
to commit mass suicide by starvation over the following
three weeks, starting in April of 2023.
Basically, what happened is a husband called in and said,
my wife has taken my children.
They have all gone to join this church.
I have not heard from them in a long time.
I need you guys to go check on them.
And they went and they found emaciated people basically
in huts sitting there.
And they're going, what the hell is going on?
They start searching this 800 acre compound or 3.2
square kilometer compound, finding
shallow graves and survivors who were starving to death.
The first bodies recovered from the graves
were mostly children.
One of the graves was believed by a police
to contain the bodies of five members of the same family,
three children and their parents.
One of the graves had up to six people inside it.
Another grave had 12 children in it.
Some of the bodies were not buried.
Authorities also discovered a number
of other emaciated individuals, including one who had been
buried alive for three days and was later
taken to a hospital for treatment.
Local authorities began requesting assistance
from other jurisdictions to help with efforts at the commune.
Authorities believe that unknown number of missing people
were still hiding in the forest on the commune
and evading authorities while continuing to fast.
Authorities reported that members of the commune
were actively trying to hinder their efforts
to find survivors.
According to testimony to police,
McKenzie told his followers, the fast
would count only if they gathered together
and offered them his farm as a fasting venue.
They were not to mingle with anyone from the outside world
if they wanted to go to heaven and were
to destroy all documents given to the government,
including national IDs and birth certificates.
On May 26, the Interior Cabinet Secretary,
Kutura Kandiki, said that McKenzie
hired criminals armed with crude weapons
to kill followers who changed their minds about fasting
and wanted out, as well as those who took too long to die.
As of May 10, 133 deaths were reported,
including eight who were rescued but later died.
The majority of deaths were of children
with women being the next largest group,
according to Kandiki.
He additionally stated that not all deaths were by starvation,
saying that there were other methods used,
including hurting them, just by physical preliminary
observations.
Oddsopsies conducted on more than 100 bodies
show that the victims died of starvation,
strangulation, suffocation, and blunt trauma.
The Kenya Rick Cross reported on April 30
that 410 individuals, including 227 minors, were missing.
And as of August 2, the total number of reported deaths
was 427.
The number of reported missing was at least 613.
As of June 15, 95 had been rescued,
and on May 25, local news outlet K-24 TV
noted that the exact number of people who were perished
and the massacre might never be known following reports
that there are instances where bodies were plunged in random,
deep pit latrine scattered in the expanse of Chakama Ranch,
where cult leader Paul McKenzie led an unknown number
of his followers.
On September 18, the national reported
that a total of 429 bodies have been exhumed
from Shakahola Forest, and that, quote,
the latest data indicates that 214 died from starvation,
39 from asphyxia, 14 from head injuries,
and 115 from uncertain and from other causes.
And the reporting on this is so hard to find
the actual numbers, but another article
says from the standard that more than 450 bodies
are suspected to be followers of Pastor Paul McKenzie
as they have been exhumed.
So I just want to put this into context right now.
The largest mass suicide that we are aware of
is the Jonestown Massacre.
I was just Googling it.
This is the one that everybody you hear
don't drink the Kool-Aid was actually right aid,
I believe they had, but that's where the saying comes from,
where they all drank poisoned drinks and died on mass.
That was 900 individuals, 900 some.
So far somewhere in the mid 400s,
bodies have been uncovered.
There's still 620 people that wereabouts
are unknown and they're missing.
Oh my God.
So this is the second largest mass suicide
that we've ever seen.
Wow. Could be the largest.
We don't know.
And this is through mass starvation.
It is not a single one-off event.
And it has largely gone unnoticed in the rest of the world.
I haven't heard about it at all.
On April 24th, search teams had to stop digging for bodies
until off-stopities were completed on the first 90
that were found because the Malindi Sub-County Hospital
Lord was running out of space to store the bodies.
Wow.
On April 28th, it was reported that heavy rain
was slowing rescue and recovery efforts.
There's still not that much known about Paul McKenzie.
He's had three wives.
I could not find anything about even how many kids they have.
He doesn't talk about it.
And there's no big, really huge news stations
that were looking at this.
So there was no indebted.
No, why would there?
Especially coming out of Africa
and if he's trying to avoid all of that.
And he has all the news, the exclusive news on himself.
Yeah. So he has had at least three wives.
No idea how many kids he's had
or why his relationships ended.
All I know is he's had three wives.
But McKenzie and his third wife, Rhoda Moumbois, Mawe,
and 16 other members of his church
were arrested by authorities
and were being held in custody as of May 7th, 2023.
McKenzie was denied bail on May 10th.
And as of June 14th, the total number arrested for this was 36.
They have been charged with murder
and terrorism-related offenses.
Police authorities claimed that some of the bodies
were missing porgots,
which raised suspicion of forced harvesting.
However, this one might be just rumors that came out
as that couldn't be confirmed.
On June 12th, 65 victims were arraigned for attempted suicide
and Kenya suicide is a misdemeanor
and is punishable by up to two years of prison.
Rosalene Odede,
the chairperson of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights,
criticized the attempted suicide charges,
saying that charging the survivors with attempted suicide
is inappropriate and will traumatize the survivors
at a time when they are most desperately
required empathy, intense psychosocial assistance,
rehabilitation, and community support.
The prosecution made an application
to have them remanded in prison
because the rescue center can no longer hold them.
They also set to undergo a mental and medical assessment
and be forced to eat in prison.
And it should be noted at this point too,
of pretty much all the survivors,
last I could find of readings.
The most recent reporting is they still want to follow
the teachings of Paul McKenzie.
And it's been hard to actually get them to eat.
So they need severe help.
Yeah, cults are crazy.
Yeah. I can't imagine.
The weird thing about this is he was in and out of prison,
at least being investigated so many times.
How did it get to this point?
Like in 2007, he was arraigned on four counts,
including radicalizing and failing to take his children
to compulsory primary and secondary school,
which he pleaded not guilty to
and was acquitted on October 29, 2021.
On April 11, 2019, McKenzie was charged with three counts,
including incitement to disobedience of the law
and being in possession of and distributing films
to the public, which had not been examined and approved
by the Kenyan Film Classification, didn't go to jail.
McKenzie was also involved
in five separate miscellaneous criminal applications,
one in 2017, where he and 20 others were held for seven days
on grounds that they were to carry out
an investigation for radicalization of children
after they were found with 73 children in the church,
which again, didn't end up going prison for.
And in 2023, McKenzie faced a new set of charges.
He was arrested on April 15th and released,
and he was later re-arrested on May 2nd, April 15th,
also being the day that he said would be the end of the world.
There have been some reactions about this.
Kenya's president, William Ruto, said McKenzie's beliefs
were contrary to the authentic religion.
It should be noted that Kenya's largest religion
is Christianity.
So it's not like Christianity itself is seen as a cult.
No, this is the biggest group in Kenya is Christians.
Ruto is quoted as saying,
McKenzie, who acts as a pastor, is in fact, a terrible criminal.
Terrorists use religion to advance their heinous acts.
People like McKenzie are using religion
to do exactly the same thing.
The cult leader and others like him should be in jail.
And he appointed a commission of inquiry into the deaths
and created a task force to review the regulation
governing religious organizations.
The interior cabinet secretary, Katori Kandiki,
said, this horrendous blight on our conscience
must lead not only to the most severe punishment
of the perpetrators of the atrocity
on so many innocent souls, but tighter regulation,
including self-regulation of every church, mosque,
temple, and synagogue of going forward.
And on August 18th, the Registrar of the Diets,
Societies, and Kenya deregistered
the Good News International Ministry
as part of government's crackdown on Strupulous churches.
So the latest I could find, Paul McKenzie is in jail
awaiting a trial.
This is from an article I found out of France.
Paul McKenzie and his co-accused have staged a hunger strike
and his lawyer, Wycliffe MacCessamble has said,
and speaking with Shanzu Court, McKenzie's lawyer said
the decision was reached following the remarks
uttered by Interior Secretary Kandiki,
and he will ensure that the preacher serves a license.
He said Kandiki's statements were unlawful,
demanding a fair trial for his client.
As of the recording of this episode,
45 people have been apprehended
in connection with this cult.
Wow.
Since this has happened, that commission that the president
set up has come back with a few things.
Quote, Kenya has experienced death
slick to religious extremism in the past,
however, the Shaka Hola tragedy has registered
in the highest number of fatalities
in Kenya's recorded history.
It adds that the self-proclaimed pastor
has faced charges way back in 2017
and all these other charges that we talked about,
and yet he still just kept getting released.
So the commission of inquiry also points to failings
in the local police force,
which has received recurring complaints
by religious leaders and the local community
against his activities from as early as 2017.
The complaints related to Mackenzie's opposition
to formal education and medical treatment,
as well as radicalizing adults to resign
from their jobs and join the church
and holding people hostage.
The reports also blamed inaction
by the local county's security committee,
which had summoned Paul Mackenzie
and warned him against his radical teachings
and subjecting followers who inhumane conditions.
Like that's all he got was a reprimand.
Yeah, that's crazy.
As you see for some disturbing reason,
a lot of cult leaders just kind of skim by for some reason.
A lot of it has to do with the fact
that it's a fairly exclusive community that they create.
So if you can't get in there to actually do an investigation
and nobody will talk to you, what can you charge them with?
True, yeah.
Basically from this,
the commission has decreed current legislation
as inadequate and called on the country's parliament
to pass a religious organizations bill
to provide a legislative framework
for the regulation of religious institutions.
Hopefully that will lead to something,
but that's where it's at right now.
I did find while I was doing this
that another pastor had been charged
while this was going on,
a second pastor also based in Melindy was arrested
a few days after Mackenzie's starvation incident occurred.
At this point, I do want to talk about
there was apparently a plan
of how this death was going to work.
Basically there was an order of starvation.
It was children, then women, then young men,
then the highest members of the church,
and then finally Paul Mackenzie
was going to commit starvation suicide.
But while this was all going on,
like he had a dietary plan,
all the higher ups were eating,
they did not have any issues with that.
Do we know why starvation of all things?
In my mind, it likely has to do with bringing you closer
to Jesus because he fasted for 40 days in the desert,
but I don't know for sure.
Yeah, you don't know for sure.
Again, just English.
So it was hard for me to do the research into this.
But yeah, I find it questionable
whether or not he was actually going to follow through
with starvation, like killing himself.
Well, of course, yeah.
He is on hunger strike in jail right now,
but whether or not he would actually follow through
to death, like I don't think he would,
just based on what I've learned about this guy.
But yeah, a second pastor also based in Melindy
was arrested a few days after Mackenzie's starvation
incident occurred.
His name is Ezekiel Odero,
pastor of the New Life Prayer Center
in Church in Movweni, Caliphi County.
It was alleged that several deaths were recorded
at his church between 2022 and 2023,
and police believe these bodies
may have been moved to shack a whole of forest.
What?
So there's another compound that this guy runs.
It is nuts.
New Life Church has its headquarters in Movweni
in Caliphi County.
It offers a site to behold.
Ezekiel revealed the church,
which sits on six and a half acres of land,
has a capacity of 6,000 people,
as earlier reported by tuco.co.ke,
which is the place basically I use the most
for my research.
They have a tarmac road with cavro paving on sides
for pedestrians, which leads to the church
and the distance from the gate
to where the church building is quite long,
showing just how big the land is.
Footage of the compound captured by a YouTube video
shows the huge church building was still under construction.
The main church features six identical metal structures
built next to each other.
There's a residential house
and a resort on the property as well.
And there's a three story section
that will act as accommodations
and a resort for guests.
There's also a white building with a red roof
near the resort, which serves as
the church's official building.
Apparently it's 31 bedrooms,
like how big this place is.
Yeah, of course.
Well, just imagine.
And the compound is vast.
There are over 2,000 parking spots.
Other amenities under construction include
a rehabilitation center, a helipad, and cottages.
Like this place is massive.
Obviously for the people in charge.
Oh yeah, no, it's just to spread the word
of Jesus apparently.
But yeah, of course.
So this guy was told, like they're investigating you,
and he turned himself in, drove himself to the cop station
in a Kenyan Shekel $17 million Lexus.
So it's about a million dollar Lexus
he drove to turn himself in.
But at the time of this recording,
the New Life Prayer Center and church leader,
Pastor Ezekiel Odero has been cleared
by a Senate ad hoc committee investigating
the deaths of the Shekahola.
So he's no longer under scrutiny.
But again, another compound church
that is just super messed up.
Yeah, they basically were invited to the compound.
They did a search.
They didn't find any bodies or marks.
So he's no longer under investigation.
Okay.
But that's where I leave off on this.
It's messed up.
And the fact that this hasn't gotten more traction
as a story, this happened in April.
They're still trying to uncover bodies.
We probably will never know the final count.
I mean, it's how the media works.
I mean, there's so much that we don't hear about
that we're focusing on.
I mean, in that time,
billionaires went missing trying to go to the Titanic,
which is much...
Other billionaires bought social media platforms
and basically took them to the Titanic as well.
Very important things are happening
in which you wouldn't be able to cover this.
There's just not enough time to cover anything.
And let's face it, news coming out of Africa
is always going to be second grade.
It is for some reason.
I mean, I'm flabbergasted that this hasn't been covered.
I haven't heard, I watch the news every day.
I haven't seen it anywhere.
And I just saw, I was just Googling various things
while you talked about it, just so I can see.
There's some disturbing pictures of Shackahola Forest,
which exclusively brings up this.
Lots of shallow graves, which are disturbing.
Another thing, Paul McKenzie was a cab driver.
Yeah, I started off with that.
Oh, I guess I missed that.
So I just wanted to...
You took in a lot of information, I guess.
I just wanted to accentuate this fact
that he came from being a cab driver.
So Darrow actually, the other one apparently came
from a very poor upbringing as well.
But like this was focused on McKenzie, so I focused on that.
Yeah, this is crazy.
I was a little, this is kind of dark,
but a little surprised how easy the names were to pronounce.
We usually have a little bit of trouble.
These ones actually weren't that bad.
Like Paul McKenzie, that surprised me.
I was surprised by the name when you said it.
The middle names seem okay.
Well, Intenge is the tribal name.
I was reading an article, so they were like,
oh, he's from this tribe.
Like the name very clearly says that.
So it's...
Okay.
The other parts of Westernize, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, it was so weird reading about this.
And like he used to have a website about the church.
Also, if you Google just good news church,
there's probably one near you weirdly enough.
I have no idea if they're related.
What?
Oh yeah, just type in good news church Vancouver.
I don't think they're related, but man, it's just...
There's...
You gotta think about changing your name at this point.
Three, there's three.
Just in the Vancouver area, correct?
Yeah, weird.
Yeah, this is really crazy.
And this is ongoing as well.
Yeah, he hasn't even stood trial yet.
And they're just trying to come up with something
to be able to convict him, right?
From how I'm understanding it.
I think it's partially that,
and I think they wanna get a full understanding
of the situation before they bring all the charges.
That makes sense, because it sounds like
they've kept it pretty tight-lipped.
Well, that was dark and disturbing.
And I guess hopefully we'll have a good news update on this
for the New Year's update,
and it's not feeling uncertain or feel bad at all.
Yeah.
But who's to say at this point?
You guys for pulling that bait and switch
with the name Good News International Church.
It was not Good News.
No, but that is no fault of your own.
It is not my fault.
I apologize, I take no blame.
I wonder where they came up with that name from.
I think it's just easy.
That's probably the Anglicized version of it.
I don't know what the actual Indian name is for it.
Yeah, I wonder if it's just a nice name for a church.
If that's why there's so many.
Maybe I should do some investigation, email them.
Ask them if they...
I was actually gonna email
one of the ones in Vancouver
that had the exact same name as this one.
Just to see what the relationship is to this.
Yeah, but I didn't get around to it
because this was really hard to research.
Yeah, maybe we can do that
and follow up on the New Year's episode.
Maybe they wouldn't actually like that.
They would not like that.
No, no, they probably wouldn't.
You know how they say any prince is good prince?
Maybe not.
Especially not on Journey to the Fringe.
Okay, well, I feel...
Informed.
Depressingly enlightened.
It's the best way I could put it now.
Yeah, it's like my Fringy Minis, just longer this one.
Yeah, I appreciate this.
I do like to be depressingly enlightened by you,
which is what you do a lot.
Oh, good.
So you're good at it.
And with that, I have been Taylor,
here with Chelsea.
We are Journey to the Fringe.
Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next week.
Bye.
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