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Rose McGowan Escaped a Sex Cult as a Child

Everything wasn’t always coming up roses for Rose McGowan. See what I did there? The Conan the Barbarian star sat down with PEOPLE and talked about how she and her father had to escape a sex cult when she was nine.

As the story goes, she spent her childhood in the Children of God cult, a “polygamous cult that blended free-love attitudes with Christian proselytizing.” She spent her days angry and terrified. Rose recounted one time when they sliced a wart off her thumb without warning because imperfections were a sin.

“You weren’t allowed to have imperfections,” she explained. “I had a little wart on my thumb, and I remember walking down this hallway — a door opened and some adult grabbed me and just cut it off with a razor blade and stuck me back out in the hallway with it still bleeding.” — Yahoo

Not even a lollipop or an offer to sit on an older gentleman’s lap to be comforted? This is terrible. But not as terrible as they treated their women who were but sex slaves to the men.

“At a very early age I decided I did not want to be like those women. They were basically there to serve the men sexually — you were allowed to have more than one wife.” The cult’s women would sometimes travel to area bars to try to recruit, an act known as “flirty fishing.” — Yahoo

I’m assuming flirty fishing isn’t recreational and you don’t throw your catch back in the water. Unless they have an std or something.

Anyway, Rose McGowan’s dad realized he had to escape when he was “asked to draw cartoon literature that advocated child-adult sexual relationships.”

Soon after, Rose, her father, and some siblings left the cult in the middle of the night. They hid in a stone house, and avoided the cult members who came looking for them. “I remember a man trying to break in with a hammer,” McGowan said. The Children of God sect has since been renamed The Family International and has “renounced its advocacy of sexual sharing” and adult-minor sexual relationships. — Yahoo

Maybe the cartoon was just for art and not part of a propaganda piece they were planning to give to parents in order to convince them that turning their kids into child sex slaves was what God wanted. I’m just saying, maybe Rose’s dad should have stayed a little longer to see how this played out. My grandpa once told me you shouldn’t throw away brainwashed sex slaves just because of a hint of child molestation. We’re not barbarians. Let’s talk things out.

Regardless, what’s done is done and she lives a much happier life. Today she’s close with her siblings and she and her father worked on their relationship after leaving the cult. He died in 2008 as a result of pulmonary fibrosis. Meanwhile, the Children of God cult is now named The Family International and has since “renounced its advocacy of sexual sharing.” By the way, that’s just code for, “we like to keep it on the DL.”

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Danny Haszard
Danny Haszard
12 years ago

The definition of a destructive religious cult is like alcoholism-if booze controls you instead of the other way around you are an alcoholic. The Watchtower society Jehovah’s Witnesses as an example is not benevolent and won’t let you leave their organization in peace. If they try to ruin your reputation and break up your family for trying to get out then they are a cult! Whenever you surrender your logic and reason to anyone who asks you to trust them because they know better and to please donate generously, it’s a cult. If it walks like a duck and quacks… Read more »

R.P.M
R.P.M
12 years ago

Really all religions are a cult come on to believe in blind faith and trust anyone other then your own logic is dumb. Also if u look in history and in the time period females were married off young cause they were considered old maides at the age of 15 and were looked upon as undesirable. Do I agree with that no but it is the truth it wasn’t till way after that it was considered bad and frowned upon. Just like the church frowns upon gays & murder come on gays aren’t a new thing did the church forget… Read more »

ShesAfrozenTreat
ShesAfrozenTreat
12 years ago

Shes looking a lot plastic

jvillemannc
jvillemannc
12 years ago

The author of this piece is like what 8 yrs old……..

The Blemish
12 years ago
Reply to  jvillemannc

Uh, hello. I turned 9 two months ago.

Mr. Superstar
12 years ago

Remember a decade ago when she was banging Marilyn Manson? She hasn’t been relevant since. I thought maybe he had killed her.

ShesAfrozenTreat
ShesAfrozenTreat
12 years ago

Shes looking a lot plastic

jvillemannc
jvillemannc
12 years ago

The author of this piece is like what 8 yrs old……..

The Blemish
12 years ago
Reply to  jvillemannc

Uh, hello. I turned 9 two months ago.

Mr. Superstar
12 years ago

Remember a decade ago when she was banging Marilyn Manson? She hasn’t been relevant since. I thought maybe he had killed her.