PROFESSIONALS GIVE THUMBS UP VA Physician, Portland, Oregon
In the autobiography French Kissing in an American Cult, we are given a glimpse of how the need for acceptance and belonging can lead to a path of denying one's core values, hiding from one's identity, and evolving into a troubling life of cult behavior.
Thankfully, Kristian recognized what was happening to him and he was able to escape and rebuild his life. His emotional responses are very similar to those of combat veterans with PTSD-loss of trust, avoidance, broken relationships. In sharing his story with us, we are challenged to engage in conversation and improve our understanding of these issues as we move towards a more accepting, inclusive, and just society.
Psychiatrist in Private Practice, Anchorage, Alaska
This is a delightful autobiography. Kristian Erickson describes his early efforts to understand Christianity, sexuality and world events. He does this with wit, humor and compassion.
Much of the book is about his involvement with a Pentecostal church in the 70's and 80's. Erickson's narrative shows how an idealistic, vulnerable young person can be seduced by a charismatic leader and persuaded to endorse increasingly extreme views.
Our lives are shaped by random, unpredictable events. We meet people, read books and fall in love. We spend a lifetime trying to comprehend key experiences, wondering if we did the right thing. It's an infinite mystery, unique to each person. Erickson's book will make you think about the riddles in your own life.
Stanford-Educated Attorney from Kodiak, Alaska
Kristian Erickson's book, French Kissing in an American Cult, is the story of the radicalization of fine young man by the Kool Aid of extremist religious doctrine.
It could just as well be the fictional story of a Trump-supporter mesmerized by the mantra of fake news and the glory of unquestioned charismatic leadership. Unfortunately, both are true stories. Anyone interested in learning how we got where we are today would gain understanding from this book.
IN MY OWN WORDS
After I was tested for four grueling hours, a behavioral psychologist associated with the University of Washington told me I was a genius. But I wonder just how smart I was to have floundered into the leadership of a Christian cult.
I was a precocious little kid, and by age four, a budding idealist. I grew up in the pastoral splendor of the Cascades Mountains of the American Pacific Northwest. I appeared to be headed for academia as a philosopher, naturalist, and a polyglot, but sadly along the way I imprisoned myself in a Pentecostal mega-church, and this was just because I was trying to find a way not to be gay. I cast off my dreams and aspirations to become the chief apologist and an ideologue in this holiness-church that in a bit more than two decades descended into stupendous promiscuity and depravity. Its collapse was spectacular.
FRENCH KISSING in an AMERICAN CULT is a satire set in my own Norwegian-American self-deprecating humor. I lay myself bare. Several parts are so tragic that if I couldn't laugh, I would never stop crying. Folks who were similarly enmeshed in this or other cults, find my book enlivening and helpful. But those once gentle Christians who have transmogrified into conspiracy-theorists or gun-toting fascists are upset at me because I tell what actually happened.
Depending on your point of view, you will find my story fascinating, funny, or outrageous...or maybe all three.
Kristian Halvor Erickson