The Man Who Made Himself God

What Bethany Joy Lenz's Dinner for Vampires reveals about cult infiltration, and why "God will show up for you" Christianity keeps producing victims

Bethany Joy Lenz accomplished the rare feat of penning a memoir that appealed to readers beyond her existing audience. Having spent nine seasons playing Haley James Scott on One Tree Hill, a smash hit teen drama on the CW, she had a loyal baked-in audience and her New York Times bestseller status surprised no one. But I've never seen a single episode of One Tree Hill, and prior to picking up her memoir by chance, I had never heard her name. But I'll never forget it now.

Bethany actually had a story tell, rather than behind the scenes fluff: For ten years, Bethany (she goes by Joy in her personal life) belonged to a cult that arranged her marriage, dictated her wardrobe, vetoed her Broadway debut, and drained more than two million dollars from her accounts.

Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray, Hilarie Burton, James Lafferty, Bethany Joy Lenz in 'One Tree Hill'.

Her 2024 memoir Dinner for Vampires documents the whole decade, and the most instructive figure in it paints a damning picture of what I've previously dubbed "Buddy-Christ" Christianity, and the dangers that exist for anyone who falls into the orbit of the wrong pastor.

The popular image of a cult leader is a founder of his own religious body. Jim Jones built Peoples Temple. David Koresh inherited a sect and remade it in his image. Les, the pseudonym of Joy's cult leader, represents a more common yet less studied predator: the parasite who attaches to an existing body of believers. And the body he attached to was healthy, or looked healthy, right up until it wasn't. Understanding how he did it, and why it worked, tells us something uncomfortable about the brand of American Christianity that raised Lenz and millions of others.

This cover is terrible. But the book is good

Being Raised Right ≠ Protection

Early in the book, before any cult, before Les, Joy's father sits at her bedside and gives her the entire Christian faith in three sentences. Jesus never promised life would be easy. His own life and death prove it. But He promised to be present through all of it, and to give peace.

That's the offer, no matter what branch of Christianity you belong to. In this world you will have trouble, John 16:33. Take up your cross daily, Luke 9:23. Great is your reward in heaven, Matthew 5:12, and the location is the point. Paul goes further in 1 Corinthians 15:19: if our hope in Christ is for this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.