Michael Travesser Research Paper

Michael Travesser: A Master Manipulator, Messiah, or Child Molester? In the woods, just outside of a small town in Union County called Clayton, New Mexico a small compound referred to as Strong City began to form. One day in July 2000, inside his living room in this compound sat a man named Wayne Bent, who is also know as Michael Travesser, when all of a sudden God supposedly appeared to him and told him that he was the Messiah (New Mexico Residents). This small compound in the woods known as Strong City is where the cult of The Lord Our Righteousness Church all started, grew, and quickly ended in 2008 when the leader was arrested for sexual contact with a minor (Sect's 'Messiah' Arrested). The big questions here are; how did Wayne Bent get
Seemingly he only wanted to be worshipped by his followers. His way of doing this was somewhat sick and extremely problematic. Bent used manipulation to get some of his younger followers who were virgins to sleep with him. In the documentary, End of the World Cult, one of the young virgins talked about her experience. She explained, “I took off my clothes and I layed naked in his bed and he just held me, and it was like a whole new picture opened up to me of God.” He claimed that he never slept with anyone under age, but according to a source, “Bent claimed that as part of his being the Messiah he was told to sleep with seven virgins to mark the destruction of the earth. Two young girls first came to him, soon followed by five others, two of whom were underage. Bent said that God told the girls to come to him” (The Strong City Cult). The thought process that Travesser and the young girls possess is alarming. Bent basically brainwashed his young followers into thinking that laying naked with him allows them to see God. One of the underage girls who laid naked with Travesser even threatened to kill herself if Michael would not sleep with her, because she wanted to be closer to God (End of the World