CultNEWS101 Articles: 4/15/2026

[Patrick Ryan]

Scientology, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mithraism

Vice: What Are ‘Scientology Runs’ and Why Is Gen Z So Obsessed With Them?

These “Scientology Runs” seem less like a real movement and more like the internet looping the same stunt over and over again.

"...In case you’re still lost as to what the heck is going on, a Scientology Run is when people film themselves charging into a Church of Scientology building to see how far they can get before being caught and booted out. It’s a notoriously secretive religion, so it turns the whole place into an action-movie set piece where the protagonist is trying to infiltrate a compound while fending off its legion of foot soldiers, clad in terrifying white button-ups with black vests. Because I guess the deeper you go into a Scientology center, the more everyone looks like the valet attendants that should be greeting you on the outside of it?

On the one hand, this is very funny. On the other hand, however, it’s still very funny, but also maybe we shouldn’t turn running full speed into a house of religion, no matter how hokey that religion may be, into a trend? Yes, the whole enterprise is shady at best, and they believe in some weird space alien magic. They also have a history of harassing former members and anyone who dares to pull back the veil on the secretive organization’s scare tactics. But maybe a better use of Scientology infiltration tactics would be an investigative piece rather than a viral speed run."

Allure: What’s a “Mormon Wife” Supposed to Look Like in 2026?

The cracks in the picture-perfect perception started long before last week.

"March 2026 was poised to be perhaps the pinnacle of Utah Mormon cultural influence. The fourth season of the Hulu sensation The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was dropping 10 new episodes of soft waves, plump lips, and perky breasts. And just 10 days later, the latest season of The Bachelorette would premiere on ABC with a Mormon woman—Taylor Frankie Paul, a cast member of SLOMW—at its center for the first time. But last week, what may have been cracks in the picture-perfect presentation of this demographic of Utah women became a major fissure when a 2023 video of Paul throwing metal barstools at her ex-partner, Dakota Mortenson, while her child is in the room surfaced online. Just three days before it was set to premiere, The Bachelorette—at a likely cost of tens of millions of dollars—was entirely cancelled. There are reports from cast members that the filming of season five of SLOMW has been paused.

Over the last decade, the cultural currency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has risen sharply in the United States, as the Mormon lifestyle bloggers of the 2010s laid the groundwork for the reality show influencers of today. Those young content creators—with their long, shiny hair, mostly modest attire, affiliate links, and several children under five—walked so Paul and her #MomTok compatriots could run (perhaps a little too far). Is this month’s turmoil an indication that the Mormon commerce machine may come to its inevitable end? Or will it now morph once again?"

History: Mithras: A Secret Cult at the Fringes of the Roman Empire

"...Unlike other Roman gods, Mithras' cult—known as Mithraism—left no sacred texts or written accounts. Everything we know comes from temples and reliefs found across ruins.

Mithras originated as an ancient Indo-Iranian deity (Mithra) associated with pacts, loyalty and order, later adopted and transformed by the Romans. He was often depicted as a young man wearing a Phrygian cap (a soft, conical cap associated with the ancient Near East sacrificing a bull inside a cave. Known as the tauroctony, this scene does not depict an ordinary sacrifice. Rather, it's a broader representation of renewal and cosmic balance, in which the animal’s death gives rise to new life. For initiates of Mithraism, it symbolized the tension between opposing forces—light and darkness, life and death—which the god helped to harmonize.

The cult of Mithras was exclusively male and became especially popular among soldiers. Practices were organized around initiation rituals at different levels. Its temples, known as mithraea, were often located underground, reinforcing the secretive and initiatory nature of the cult."

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