After the Cult

After the Cult picks up where The Cult left off. David Patteson has physically left the Church of Bible Understanding (COBU), has a manual labor job, is living in his parent's basement, but is mentally and spiritually still in the cult's grip. He cannot separate Christianity from COBU and believes every day he delays returning is an act of rebellion towards Christ. He goes so far as to identify himself with Judas, who betrayed Jesus for twenty pieces of silver. David equates his departure from COBU as a sin equal to Judas' because, he reasons, he is murdering the spirit of Christ within himself. And like Judas, whose reward convicts rather than benefits him, so David finds his reward, in the form of sexual temptation, also convicts him and compels him to return to COBU. It is only the interventions of a loving grandmother, a supportive father, and a chance accident that keep him from going back. Eventually resolving to not return, he embarks on his own narrow and difficult path toward spiritual reclamation.