“One Tree Hill” star Bethany Joy Lenz recently shared that “there’s a lot to tell” after being in a cult for 10 years. Lenz, who played Haley James on the drama series, told her former co-stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan on their “Drama Queens” podcast, “I was in a cult for 10 years. That would be a really valuable experience to write about. And the recovery, 10 years of recovery after that. So there’s a lot to tell.”
Still, Lenz said she felt pressure to “get it right” if she were to write about her experience. She added of the unnamed cult, “And also, I don’t know how much I can say because there are still people and legal things in place that make it more complicated for the timing of that.” She added that she writes constantly, including songs and has “some projects coming out.”
She didn’t go into much more detail on the podcast, but Lenz shared an Instagram post in May, sharing how preacher and theologian Tim Keller helped her through a dark time. She wrote after his May 19 death, “This man changed my life. The only reason I’m still a Christian today is because, 10 years ago, after many years of faith being used against me as a tool of manipulation, Tim Keller taught me how to rebuild my faith using reason and logic. A belief system that fully engages my mind while still leaving room for wonder and mystery.”
She said because of Keller, she is more “confident and secure” in her faith than she ever was and was able to “trust again and fall in love with a Jesus I never knew.” She shared, “His is a trustworthy, humble, researched, rational and compassionate voice that God once used to bring me out of a pit of despair, walk me through intense healing and into the glorious freedom of the real Christ. I will forever be grateful for the day I walked into Redeemer Presbyterian church on the Upper East Side in 1999.”
Lenz has spoken out about other cult-like organizations in the past. In 2021, she called out Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, which she attended on and off for two years. She wrote on Instagram, “The level of control displayed, particularly by leader Erwin McManus was disturbing to me and to many other people who have left Mosaic for that very reason.”
She added, “The hierarchy in this ‘church,’ the level of abuse that I’ve consistently heard goes on behind the scenes, and how everything centers around the Leader is textbook 101 of cults. And usually, unless you’re in the inner circle, it’s much harder to spot.” Although Mosaic Church does not appear to be the cult Lenz was part of for a decade, it sounds like another experience to write about.