Cult Shock

Two Christian Bible scholars outline arguments anyone can use to counter—and evangelize to—Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons when they come knocking. Cult Shock is an easy-to-follow resource of Christian apologetics that teaches you how to defend your Christian faith against the claims of Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon missionaries. Mark Stengler Jr., and Mark Stengler Sr.—a father-and-son team of Christian scholars—explain the beliefs of these groups, and demonstrate through scripture and logic how Biblical Christianity refutes their worldview. Readers will gain confidence witnessing to these groups based on the Stengler’s recommended engagement techniques from their years of experience. Cult Shock provides all the tools you need to proclaim the real Jesus with fearless confidence!

Ever since Keith Ridgway published his landmark cult novel Hawthorn & Child, his ardent fans have yearned for more Finally, Ridgway gives us A Shock, his thrilling and unsparing, slippery and shockingly good new novel. Formed as a rondel of interlocking stories with a clutch of more or less loosely connected repeating characters, it’s at once deracinated yet potent with place, druggy yet frighteningly shot through with reality. His people appear, disappear, and reappear. They’re on the fringes of London, clinging to sanity or solvency or a story by their fingernails, consumed by emotions and anxieties in fuzzily understood situations. A deft, high-wire act, full of imprecise yet sharp dialog as well as witchy sleights of hand reminiscent of Muriel Spark, A Shock delivers a knockout punch of an ending. Perhaps Ridgway’s most breathtaking quality is his scintillating stealthiness: you can never quite put your finger on how he casts his spell—he delivers the shock of a master jewel thief (already far-off and scot-free) stealing your watch: when at some point you look down at your wrist, all you see is that in more than one way you don’t know what time it is…

An illustrated history of 101 of the strangest, sleaziest, most outrageous movies you've never seen! An elaborate work of illustrated fiction, Shock Festival is a raunchy, hilarious tall tale of imaginary sleazebag exploitation films, lavishly brought to life with hundreds of exclusive, never-before-seen original movie posters and memorabilia items! It's the retro-dazzle of Grindhouse meets the authentic 'mockumentary' appeal of Spinal Tap in over 350 full color pages! From wild monster flicks like "Universe of Bloody Zombies" to the streetwise blaxploitation of "Chocolate Cherri On Top," this illustrated epic is guaranteed to blow the most jaded movie geek's mind . . . and leave everyone else cheering in the aisles for more!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The classic work that predicted the anxieties of a world upended by rapidly emerging technologies—and now provides a road map to solving many of our most pressing crises. “Explosive . . . brilliantly formulated.” —The Wall Street Journal Future Shock is the classic that changed our view of tomorrow. Its startling insights into accelerating change led a president to ask his advisers for a special report, inspired composers to write symphonies and rock music, gave a powerful new concept to social science, and added a phrase to our language. Published in over fifty countries, Future Shock is the most important study of change and adaptation in our time. In many ways, Future Shock is about the present. It is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations—even our patterns of friendship and love. But Future Shock also illuminates the world of tomorrow by exploding countless clichés about today. It vividly describes the emerging global civilization: the rise of new businesses, subcultures, lifestyles, and human relationships—all of them temporary. Future Shock will intrigue, provoke, frighten, encourage, and, above all, change everyone who reads it.

The inside story of 50 0f the world's most notorious cults, including The Manson Family, Heaven's Gate and The People's Temple The strange and sinister world of cults is a source of endless fascination. Their secrets, rituals and shadowy hierarchies make for some of the most disturbing and shocking revelations in history. Most chilling of all is the fact that many of their followers forfeit all independence in order to carry out the often sadistic bidding of a mysterious master manipulator - and continue to defend their leader to this day. From Charles Manson, who instructed his followers to murder seven people, including a heavily pregnant Sharon Tate, to Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese doomsday cult that carried out deadly terror attacks, these cults and their leaders transfix us with their extreme ability to commit savage acts of cruelty and depravity in the name of a self-appointed higher power. 50 shocking and international cults are brought to life, including: -The Manson Family -People's Temple -Colonia Dignidad -Thuggees -Aum Shinrikyo -Skopsty -Raelism -Heaven's Gate.

BIRDEMIC: The Romantic Thriller That Became a Cult Sensation tells the fascinating and inspiring true story of the new American cult classic BIRDEMIC - Shock and Terror. Told from the personal perspective of the film's visionary creator, Director James Nguyen who is among the new generation of auteurs in the 21st Century, BIRDEMIC - Shock and Terror became what Nguyen likes to call "a cult sensation hit movie!" Produced for less than $10,000, this meditation on Hitchcock's classic and the environmental chaos caused by the Industrial Age garnered front page coverage from The New York Times, in addition to stories broadcast on CBS Morning News, ABC World News With Diane Sawyer and BBC World News.

We live in a reactionary culture where divisive issues arise, people on either side throw stones, and everyone ends up more entrenched in their opinions than in reaching common ground--or even exhibiting common courtesy! If there ever was a time for Christians to understand and communicate God's truth about controversial and polarizing issues, it is now. Believers must develop convictions based on research, reason, and biblical truth--and be able (and willing) to communicate these convictions with a love and respect that reflects God's own heart. In Culture Shock, bestselling author, pastor, and radio personality Chip Ingram shows readers how they can bring light rather than heat to the most controversial and divisive issues of our day. Covering topics such as right and wrong, sex, homosexuality, abortion, politics, and the environment, Culture Shock is every engaged believer's must-have guidebook to replacing reactionary hate with revolutionary love.

A true crime author explores what happens when cults cross the line in this anthology of false prophets, true believers, and tragic consequences. Thousands of religious, political and self-improvement cults are active around the world, and an estimated two to five million Americans have been involved in a cult at some point in their lives. While not all cults are destructive, these stories demonstrate how unwavering faith in an infallible leader can lead lay the groundwork for criminal acts a heinous as murder or mass suicide. True crime author Joan Biddlecombe Agsar uncovers what really happened inside some of modern history’s most notorious cults, including: • The Manson Family Hippie devotees turn violent to manifest God’s race war • The Peoples Temple Hundreds of utopia seekers meet their end in the Guyanese jungle by ingesting a cyanide-laced drink • The Vampire Clan Teenagers consume blood and bludgeon an unsuspecting Florida couple to death • Heaven’s Gate Nike-adorned disciples commit suicide to transport onto a spaceship approaching • Earth Silvia Meraz Moreno’s Santa Muerte Cult Members collect sacrificial blood by slicing open victims’ veins while their hearts are still beating

In this lively narrative, award-winning author Michael Kammen presents a fascinating analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their unique ability to both delight and provoke us. He illuminates America’s obsession with public memorials and the changing role of art and museums in our society. From Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic, (considered “too big, bold, and gory” when first exhibited) to the bitter disputes about Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial, this is an eye-opening account of American art and the battles and controversies that it has ignited.

For the first thirteen years of her life, Flor Edwards grew up in the Children of God. The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in 1993. Flor would be thirteen years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where they would eventually disband, leaving Flor to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around her. Apocalypse Child is a cathartic journey through Flor's memories of growing up within a group with unconventional views on education, religion, and sex. Whimsically referring to herself as a real life Kimmy Schmidt, Edwards's clear-eyed memoir is a story of survival in a childhood lived on the fringes.