God began speaking through Michael Ryan at some time in the early 1980s. Note that God did not speak to Michael Ryan, but through him. That, according to Ryan, meant that he was God himself.

Ryan got together some 20 or so followers who seemed prepared to believe that he must be God, and bought a compound at Rulo, in that little corner of America where Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri come together and formed a mystical survivalist group in which he was a prophet proclaiming the end of the world was nigh.

To deal with this they would need a paramilitary solution, so they stockpiled weapons and vitamins. Ryan sent out the cult members to steal farm equipment and rustle livestock. The stolen goods were sold and the money thus raised funded the cult’s living expenses. Anyone who refused to steal was subjected to physical abuse and demoted to the status of “slave.”

In addition there was a bonus for Ryan, as cult leader. The women in the cult were his personal harem, and he “married” three of them in mock marriage ceremonies. When he was not being entertained in the harem he spent much of his time smoking marijuana and watching video movies.

Thus anyone who disagreed with Ryan disagreed with the Almighty Himself. They would pay a horrific penalty for doing that…