Line #109 Main/ScamReligion


1	->'''Storekeeper:''' Why are my property taxes so high?\
2	'''Assessor:''' I'm sorry, it's because of all the churches in the area since they don't pay property taxes, someone has to make up for the lost revenue. Hold on while I figure out your tax bill. ''[leans over counter]''\
3	'''Storekeeper:''' ''[light goes on in his eyes]'' Hey! Stop leaning on my ''altar''!
4	-->-- ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''
5
6	[[HeavenSeeker Looking for heaven in all the wrong places]], Bob has found a religion that seems to have all the answers. But the faith he has found is really just an empty shell: A scam, a whole lotta nothing, a glaring emptiness hiding behind a paper-thin façade of superficial wisdom.
7
8	The followers of the Scam Religion are not evil, it's merely a matter of wasting time and resources. In a setting where there is One True Religion, the greatest crime of the Scam Religion is to keep people distracted, thus preventing them from accepting the ''true'' salvation. In a setting where there isn't One True Religion, then the Scam Religion is, well, just a scam. That said, even in settings where there is no One True Religion, Scam Religions aren't entirely harmless -- some of them can literally ruin the lives of their participants financially or relationally or otherwise, and just because the Scam Religion isn't plotting to kill people in society at large or summon TheLegionsOfHell does not mean it is not capable of hurting people. For example, while one may not be seeking to kill people at large, one may be quite willing to kill ex-members who leave and could bring back lawyers and/or media attention. Or the sex the higher-ups are getting is ''rape.'' Or the amounts of money being taken are so significant that victims are left impoverished or dependent on the government or other people. Or its existence justifies a corrupt and unjust secular government. Etc, etc...
9
10	The ''founder'' of the religion is another matter. He's always a FalseProphet by default, but he might also be [[StrawHypocrite outright evil]], an [[ChaoticNeutral immoral]] ConMan, the victim of a ThePresentsWereNeverFromSanta situation, [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance Ignorant Of His Own Ignorance]], crazy, [[UnwantedFalseFaith an unwilling victim of his own hype]], a person who has [[BelievingTheirOwnLies brainwashed himself into believing his own empty hype]], all of the above, or ''whatever''. However, if he's still around, he does not (usually) [[PathOfInspiration use his cult for purposes more nefarious]] than getting undeserved admiration, money, and sexual encounters from his followers.
11
12	The ''teachings'' can range from actually useful and positive (e.g. stuff about maintaining a positive mental attitude and helping other people is actually sometimes present in these religions, if only for the sake of presenting a good public image and recruitment) to harmless but silly (e.g. wearing a specific style of clothing or hair to mark oneself as a member, not eating a certain food, doing a chant or mantra every day) to outright ''evil'' themselves (e.g. that physical or sexual abuse is a good thing, that suicide is good).
13
14	In a [[KitchenSinkDrama Low Magic World]], a Scam Religion typically has no power at all. In a [[HeroicFantasy High Magic World]], it will have power — but its power will be empty, inferior, low-level. Arcane tricks rather than true divine miracles.
15
16	Often a {{Cult}} or a ParodyReligion. See also ChurchOfHappyology and GodGuise. Contrast PathOfInspiration, where the cult members are ObliviouslyEvil {{Mooks}} of some kind of EvilOverlord or AncientConspiracy, ReligionOfEvil, where the cult members are genuinely evil and they worship demons and evil deities, and ScaryAmoralReligion, which leads its followers into depravity.
17
18	TruthInTelevision to some extent: there have been "religious" or "spiritual" movements throughout history that were primarily focused on [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted relieving their followers of their money]], and some people will use the concepts of religion to promote financial scams (e.g. the "affinity scam" where a person operating a non-religious scam like a FourOneNineScam or a {{Ponzi}} scheme markets it to churchgoers using religious jargon). Also compare FakeCharity, which similarly uses a seemingly worthy cause for a con.
19
20	Compare/Contrast ParodyReligion, which is a combination of this played for RuleOfFunny and [[EverybodyKnewAlready everybody involved knowing it's not genuine faith.]] If an individual pretends to be religious to deflect suspicion from a scam or other crime, that's HidingBehindReligion.
21	[[noreallife]]
22
23	%% '''NOTE:''' Only add examples that can be objectively verified to be scams according to the narrative.
24	'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease [[note]]We know you Website/{{Reddit}} [[RageAgainstTheHeavens atheist]] [[HollywoodAtheist types]] are just itching to say "AllOfThem".[[/note]] There is a reason that this trope is [[MedalOfDishonor the example used on that page.]]'''
25	----
26	!!Examples:
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30	* The Silver Wolf Order in ''Anime/BNABrandNewAnimal'' presents a shapeshifting teenage girl as the reincarnation of the Beastman god Ginrou. She's actually Michiru's school friend Nazuna, who used to be human like herself but turned into a [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]]. At one point, Nazuna makes the claim that even if she's a fake god, she gives the Beastmen hope, [[spoiler:but her priest is actually using her to destroy the Beastmen's faith by exposing her as human at the height of her concert]].
31	* At one point in ''Anime/DeathNote'', the greedy TV network executive Hitoshi Demegawa starts taking advantage of the growing cult following surrounding "Kira" (AKA Light Yagami) by starting his own literal cult dedicated to Kira, though it's transparently obvious that his only motive is to enrich himself through donations to the cult. This leads to [[spoiler:Light having Demegawa and his followers killed during a live TV broadcast, courtesy of his new [[TheDragon Dragon]], Teru Mikami]].
32	%%* ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' had the Luud cult.
33	* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': The Church of Leto, led by [[SinisterMinister Father Cornello]], gathers followers in Lior by convincing them he can do amazing miracles with the power given to him by the sun god, Leto. In reality, he's just a regular alchemist, and not even a particularly talented one, who has a Philosopher's Stone that enhances his alchemy. Edward uncovers the scam very early on in the manga. Much, ''much'' later, we find out he was going to [[LifeEnergy use his followers' souls]] as part of the GambitPileup orchestrated by the BigBad.
34	* ''Literature/TheTatamiGalaxy'': The softball circle "Honwaka" that the protagonist joins in one episode turns out to be sponsored by a shady company of health supplements that runs like a mix of a Cult and an MLM. Members are encouraged to eat Royal Jelly and act as if it is a magical cure-all for ailments and nutrition. This culminates in their belief that the world will end in 2012 and their leader building a blimp as a Noah's Ark recreation to save one man and one woman as well as a pair of each animal.
35	* In ''Literature/{{Bakemonogatari}}'', this is part of Senjougahara's backstory. Her mother got scammed by one of these cults and gave away their family's life savings, as well as [[spoiler:offered her daughter to be raped by the cult leader (she escaped)]].
36	* A Catholic priest ([[spoiler:who is actually an impostor]]) manipulates a group of hidden Christians to this end as the main plot of the ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' episode "Unholy Union". There's a whole scene of him showing off all the extravagant pieces of art and other items he bought for his own enjoyment using alms given to him by the actually faithful Christians, naming each item and how much they cost.
37	* ''Anime/CarriedByTheWindTsukikageRan'': One episode has Ran and Meow arrive at a village that's being scammed out of their money by a group of criminals who fool them with alleged "God's teachings" about leaving their material possessions. Meow falls for it, while Ran, [[FlatEarthAtheist being an atheist]], doesn't.
38	* In the original web novel version of ''Literature/Overlord2012'', Zuranon (the cult of death that [[{{Necromancer}} Khajit]] belongs to) runs one. Jashin, the God of Death worshiped by the cult, was made up by the higher-ups of Zuranon to manipulate their followers easier. This backfires a little when Ainz shows up, as he ends up usurping control of the cult -- the members who aren't aware that Jashin isn't real believe him to be Jashin incarnate, and he has the power to back it up.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Comic Books]]
42	* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'': In The Great Fables Crossover, [[UnwantedFalseFaith the belief in Blue Boy]] temporarily turns into this as Jack takes over as its shepherd.
43	* An early ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' story has Spider covering a massive religious fair for a column. New religions are started every day, and the event feels like a fan convention crossed with a job fair. The whole event is ''incredibly'' soulless and pretty much everyone there is clearly some kind of huckster trying to scam new converts. The sheer farce and cynical villainy of it leave Spider so enraged that he ends up on a violent rampage across the fair, dressed as Jesus, denouncing religion, and exposing himself while yelling, "Read my scripture!"
44	* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Zara of the Crimson Flame is a con artist villain who uses charlatan tricks to dupe people into joining her made up cult and then takes their money and uses threats and more stage magic to make them scared enough to do her bidding.
45	* ''ComicBook/XMen'' has the Acolytes of ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, a group dedicated to the worship of the titular ''X-Men'' BigBad as a more or less a bastardized Christ figure. Their founder, Fabian Cortez, tries to kill off Magneto in the same story he appears in in order to [[DontCreateAMartyr make a martyr of him]] (and is initially successful; Magneto was "dead" for two years before his inevitable return). Per his VillainousBreakdown MotiveRant to Exodus, Cortez even cooked up the entire religion wholesale so he could have a "flock of sheep" to "work on my behalf".
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Fan Works]]
49	* ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'':
50	** The ruling religion of Ketafa is quite clearly fake, though it isn't portrayed as a bad thing overall; it encourages good works by the populace. However, the Idri'en Tagen used it to sway the Ketafans to support them by setting up a fake Vasyn, claiming it restored the gods to the formerly godless continent, and encouraging its treatment as a holy object.
51	** On the other hand, while the gods of Baravada are most certainly real, whatever rule they're exerting over the Baravadans — and it isn't much — has nothing to do with religion and worship; the relationship is more like employers to employees. George speculates that the gods aren't “real” gods but people with some powers who set themselves up as gods, so it may be a weird variant of a Scam Religion.
52	* In the ([[AlternateUniverseFic vaguely]] ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''-based) fic ''Fanfic/SoldToTheHighestBidder'', the character [[ManipulativeBastard Toris]] uses one of these as an instrumental tool in an assassination, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized by convincing a leader to kill himself]] in pursuit of [[HeavenSeeker divinity]].
53	%% [[spoiler:Of course, this backfires ''magnificently'' in the long run.]]
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
57	* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the Abrahamic {{God}} has demonstrable power, while Myth/EgyptianMythology is completely fake. The Egyptian High Priests replicate Moses' [[SerpentStaff stick-to-snake]] miracle, but it's all about creative lighting, ominous statues and chanting, sleight-of-hand tricks, and a big helping of showmanship. While [[UsefulNotes/RamsesII King Rameses]] is impressed, he fails to notice that Moses' snake devours the priests' snakes during the VillainSong. The priests are later exposed when they prove to be utterly useless against the Abrahamic {{God}}'s ten plagues. This is actually slightly different than the ''Literature/BookOfExodus'', where it seems both sides' gods are real, but the Hebrews' is much more powerful.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
61	* The Oscar-winning documentary ''Film/{{Marjoe}}'' follows former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, who returned to evangelism [[OnlyInItForTheMoney just to make money]], but eventually decided to [[CuriousQualmsOfConscience come clean]] and let them film everything.
62	* In ''Film/LeapOfFaith'', Creator/SteveMartin's character is a self-confessed ConMan who sees religion simply as a way to scam the people who attend his revival meetings. However, he's forced to rethink his views on religion when [[spoiler:the people's faith starts resulting in actual miracles.]]
63	* The Neolites in ''Film/BabylonAD'' are basically a MegaCorp making money via NewAge religion.
64	* In ''Film/LicenceToKill'', Professor Joe Butcher is a televangelist who operates the Olimpatec Meditation Institute; a front organization for drug lord Franz Sanchez's illicit operations. Originally started by Sanchez merely as a cover, he later notes that Professor Joe manages to turn a 'tidy profit' from it.
65	* In ''Film/TheInventionOfLying'' the depicted world with no concept of lies or fiction has no religions until Mark, the world's first liar, tries to reassure his dying mother with a story about a "man in the sky", although in this case he isn't actually trying to scam people (he can do ''that'' [[SuperGullible just by walking up to them and saying]] "[[BlatantLies You owe me money]]"), and he didn't intend for other people to start believing in it.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Literature]]
69	* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': The seventh book features an ape trickster called Shift, who makes people believe in a fake Aslan that is really a donkey named Puzzle in a cheap lion costume. He also states that [[BigGood Aslan]] and [[EldritchAbomination Tash]] are one and the same.
70	* ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' has Fosterism, a Dionysian quasi-Christian sect that was founded by scam artists looking to extort money (and sex) from gullible believers. Oddly, its Supreme Bishops [[spoiler:become archangels when they die. Or perhaps resume angelic identities they had prior to being born on Earth. It's not that clear.]]
71	* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheMayors": In order to teach the people of the Four Kingdoms how to use the technology from the Foundation, they're taught "meaningless ritual" and moral mummery. Students who prove exceptionally bright are taken to a different school and taught as proper scientists, allowing the Foundation to advance technologically. Once the regular students graduate, they're priests of the "religion of science", they speak of the Galactic Spirit who watches over all, and spread the word of [[{{Seers}} his Prophet Hari Seldon]]. It is from this "Galactic Spirit" that the Foundation extends the DivineRightOfKings to the rulers of each of the Four Kingdoms. When Anacreon tries to start a war with the Foundation, the priests running their ships and infrastructure go on strike and incite riots among the devout populace, proving that Terminus had ultimate control of both the technology and the people.
72	-->''"[Y]ou were forced to surround these scientific gifts with the most outrageous mummery. You've made half religion, half balderdash out of it. You've erected a hierarchy of priests and complicated, meaningless ritual."'' -- '''Sef Sermak'''
73	%%* Bokononism in ''Literature/CatsCradle''. Quite openly.
74	* Hillman Hunter of ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'' has one of these and is shocked when the apocalypse he's been preaching not only happens but his cult is let off the planet in time, which (at least superficially) is just as he predicted.
75	* In the Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures novel ''The Crystal Bucephalus'', the Lazarus Intent was deliberately founded by a ConMan as a source of suckers who would bail him out when he finally got himself into real trouble.
76	* The book ''Literature/LeavingFishers'' by Creator/MargaretPetersonHaddix is about a girl who joins a cult called Fishers of Men. Among the many other things wrong with it, one thing she finds out at the end [[spoiler:when she de-coverts]] is that the head of the cult is using their donations to support a lavish lifestyle while making it out as though he can barely afford things. [[spoiler:The main character admits to having given the cult her college savings...]]
77	* Fighting a scam religion forms the main plots of books eight and nine of ''Literature/RangersApprentice.'' The purveyors have a pattern of entering an area, establishing a church of Alseiass apparently peacefully, then the region starts to ''mysteriously'' suffer problems, which the preachers attribute to the influence of their god's enemy, Balsennis. And to fight Balsennis' influence, Alseiass will need offerings of gold to strengthen him! Cue a cycle of attacks that diminish for a time after offerings, escalate when offerings are deemed inadequate, and only cease completely when the preachers vanish in the night and take all the gold with them.
78	* The main conflict of ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' is between a scam religion that managed to outlast its creators by nearly a thousand years and a protagonist who knows it's a scam and needs to bring it down because the Church enforces the MedievalStasis.
79	* ''Literature/SixthColumn'': The protagonists, who are seeking to liberate the United States from a [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld PanAsian occupying force]], use the one avenue of expression that is permitted to them by their overlords. They form the "cult of Mota" and preach to the masses with a message that is notionally supportive of the occupation but is in reality just subversive enough to attract people who are disaffected. They are aided by a bit of AppliedPhlebotinum that gives their "priests" powers that appear genuinely divine in nature.
80	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''
81	** In ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'', the T'landa T'il males can produce a state of complete pleasure in a person. This state of pleasure is highly addictive. Normally it is used to attract T'landa T'il females but instead, the self-appointed clergy use it to lure their victims to Ylesia. They go from planet to planet and recruit people. People who experience it and are not strong enough to resist it are drawn into it and become addicted. The pilgrims become slaves in the Ylesian spicemines. The revival is a major part of their day where the pilgrims get their daily fix. These poor slaves are completely brainwashed and cannot live without their drug. The faux religion that the T'landa T'il have established is just a ploy to get free slaves and spice. The whole operation is owned by the Hutts. When the slaves are brainwashed and grow dependent enough they get shipped off to the spice mines of Kessel or sold as sex slaves in a brothel.
82	** There's a form in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear''. The B'Omarr Monks have a degree of scamming built into their way, though they would argue that, for example, having new initiates walk over "coals" with the belief that the faith would protect them when said "coals" are harmless is just a way to get them on the right track. The ''real'' scam, though, is run by [[spoiler: Grimpen]], who flatters interested people, rushes them through some of the rituals, and [[spoiler: removes their brains, puts ''those'' in [[BrainInAJar spider droids]], and puts the brains of criminals into their skulls]] as part of an elaborate scheme. It's resolved in part by the other monks being {{blackmail}}ed about the coals thing.
83	* In Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's short story "The Way of Cross and Dragon" the titular sect is a heretical splinter of the Interstellar Catholic Church that not only portrays Judas Iscariot as a saint but also as a dragon-riding sorcerer king. When the founder of the sect is confronted by the protagonist, who's from the Inquisition, he flat out admits to making it all up. And then tries to recruit him into his secret society of atheists who set up Scam Religions for the supposed good of humanity.
84	* In Creator/JohnScalzi's ''Literature/TheAndroidsDream'', the Church of the Evolved Lamb is the only religion whose members fully realize that their founder did it to make money and completely made up all the "prophecies" (his goal was to swindle a wealthy old lady out of her billions, but she turned out to be much smarter than that and, instead, had him dancing to her tune). But they're determined to make it work.
85	* In ''Literature/{{Paratime}}'', as part of the "Home Timeline comes first" approach of Paratime users, they periodically set up fake religions to cover their exploitation. To be absolutely fair, though, the one scam religion we do see at least tries to be reasonably positive in doctrine if not in background.
86	* ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'': The witch-hunting Church in the story was actually created ''by'' witches, as a means to capture and sacrifice any witch deemed to have lost the SuperpowerLottery to make more magical {{Super Soldier}}s for the coming TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
87	* In the Franchise/CthulhuMythos tale ''Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names" by Creator/JayLake, the [[LaResistance Second Resistance]] tries to conceal their cells by having them mimic the Lodges that have sprung up to worship the Great Old Ones who have taken over the world.
88	* The ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series has two of these:
89	** The first one is the religion of Issus, which is the main religion on Barsoom. In the second novel, "The Gods of Mars", it's revealed that Issus is just an old Black Martian, not a goddess.
90	** The novel "The Master Mind of Mars" introduces a religion centered around the god Tur. Unlike the Issus-based religion, which is global, this one appears to be limited to just the city of Phundahl. And like Issus, it's all a big scam. The statue of Tur in the temple is just an animatronic operated from within. When the heroes discover this, they make great use of it.
91	* In ''Literature/NightmareAlley'', the main character Stan pretty much builds one of these around himself as the phony spiritualist preacher 'Reverend Carlisle', holding actual religious services to help reel his wealthy clientele in.
92	* ''Literature/TheGoldenHamsterSaga'': The field hamsters in ''Freddy to the Rescue'' worship a clay jar called the Jar of Hope into which they put offerings every week. They hope the jar will protect them from bulldozers, but their offerings are really being eaten by the priest Fronso.
93	* The Church of the Survivor of ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' is an arguably benevolent example. On the benevolent side, it was founded to give the enslaved skaa hope and something to believe in other than their tyrannical GodEmperor. On the sketchier side, the founder was a ConMan who made himself the god they worshiped [[spoiler:albeit by martyring himself]], and intended to incite the skaa to rebellion against their god-king.
94	* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'': Interestingly done in books set after the Cataclysm, wherein the gods seemingly abandoned Krynn. A new religion called the Seekers shows up, who's priests use a combination of sleight of hand, minor arcane magic, and basic herbology to convince the populace their gods are real. While horrible, the book '''Hedrick the Theocrat''' reveals that the dark gods of Krynn are coopting this scam religion in order to rebuild their strength and conquer the world.
95	* This may be the case for Yen Buddhism in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels, a religion that teaches that money and material possessions weigh down the spirit ... and therefore it is the sad duty of the church leaders to free their followers from this burden by taking it on for them.
96	* ''Literature/TheLaboursOfHercules'': The Flock of the Shepard in "The Flocks of Geryon" appears on the surface to be a rather calm Christian offshoot. But Hercule Poirot's friend Amy Carnaby notices that four women she knew have all died shortly after joining it (and willing their estates to the Flock). Poirot has her join the Flock undercover, claiming to have recently come into some money. [[spoiler:The leader of the Flock is targeting wealthy elderly women and giving them an injection during their initiation rite containing various infectious diseases, leading them to seemingly die of "natural causes" and putting their money into his hands.]]
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
100	* In ''Series/AliceInBorderland'', Chota's mother raised him as part of a cult worshipping the "Holy Mother" but it becomes painfully apparent early on that it's just a front for the leadership to extort money and sex from gullible women. He even almost experienced a PrimalScene with his mother and the cult leader as a boy, with the other women shooing him away as he watched her undress. In the present day she would come to his workplace on occasion to ask him for money to give to them, with him relenting every time.
101	* In ''Series/{{Community}}'', Pierce Hawthorne is part of the "neo-Buddhist" church, which is blatantly obviously one of these. In one episode, they sell him an overpriced lava lamp [[spoiler:telling him it's his dead mother's spirit energy inside.]]
102	* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': Played for [[AlwaysMurder the standard tragedy of this show]] in one episode where the Las Vegas Police encounters the site of a cult's mass suicide. It is revealed that the cult was one of these and the scam artist leader's M.O. was to stage faked suicides to run off with the money while everybody was conked out on tranquilizers. However he had the bad luck of running into TheOnlyBeliever of his teachings when he was readying his getaway car…
103	* ''Series/Evil2019'': In the episode "I is for IRS", the team is hired by the IRS to investigate the New Ministry of Satan, which is applying for tax exempt status, to see if they're a legitimate religion or a con. After their investigation, they come to the conclusion that it is indeed fraudulent, only using Satanic imagery to get attention so that people will buy their merchandise (with the ministry's leader taking the bulk of the profits for himself).
104	* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': The Wicca religion is portrayed as such in "The Witches of Gulfport".
105	* In ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', the SVU team take on a cult leader, who brainwashes women into his cult by making them his wives so he can get access to their bank accounts.
106	* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' has "Crackpot Religions," displaying a series of rather silly holy sees which is then interrupted by what appears to be a serious minister addressing the issue. Then he gets a phone call:
107	-->'''Minister''': Hello? (''pause; pulls out Financial Times'') Well, how about Allied Breweries? (''pause'') All right, but keep the Rio Tinto.
108	* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has Silicon Heaven from "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITheLastDay The Last Day]]", which is a rare overlap of this with RobotReligion. In a rare variant, nobody actually takes Silicon Heaven[[note]]mechanoids can assure themselves an eternity of blissful rest by obediently serving humans throughout their runtime[[/note]] seriously apart from the mechanoids who have been forcibly programmed to believe it, because the fact that it's just a cheap, lazy way to try and keep mechanoids happy with slaving away to serve humanity is written in the "humans only" section of every mechanoid operating manual.
109	* In an episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', Sabrina convinces Miles to join an "alternate reality" group that turns out to be a cult whose leader claims to be a witch.
110	* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Alexis Rose gets hired by a fitness company called Elevation, which is a multi-level marketing scheme but also a full-on cult that trains its member to climb to something called The Gateway and join up with a UFO. Alexis realizes the cult is bad news fairly quickly and shuffles her friends, whom she has recruited, out the back door.
111	* ''Series/{{Shoestring}}'': The Starshiners from "I'm a Believer" buy run-down houses, renovate them for free, and sell them. Their founder tells them that the money will go towards spreading the religion when it's actually being spent on his mansion.
112	* The ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' episode "Prophets and Loss" has a fundamentalist church which "sends its believers to paradise" with what the protagonists think is Sliding technology [[spoiler:but is actually a human incinerator]].
113	* ''Series/StargateSG1'' dealt with destroying many of these, from the parasitic Goa'uld to the demigod-like Ori, and even a few fringe cults, like the time an SG team member went crazy/rogue and declared himself a god.
114	* One character from the ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' episode "Terror on the Docks" capitalizes on the occultism craze of the mid-'70s by founding his own version of HollywoodSatanism, complete with statues of Egyptian gods, a goat mask that distorts his voice, and a plastic skull that plays creepy organ music when Starsky picks it up.
115	-->'''Ezra''': Listen, I laugh all the way to the bank. Demonology and devil-worship, man. That's the latest fad. It's legal and tax-deductible. These nuts and kooks all want to be sorcerers and pay for the privilege.
116	* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E21LiveFastAndProsper Live Fast and Prosper]]", Dala and Mobar first appeared as members of a religious sect so that they could use a scanner during the "blessing" to copy and download information from ''Voyager'''s shuttle. Bonus points for them being concerned for "the orphans."
117	* ''Series/WhatsHappening'' had an episode where Rerun joined a cult that worshiped a head of lettuce named Ralph. The couple behind it are scam artists who tell their new "followers" to give up all their possessions to them.
118	* ''Series/Zoey101'' had the Silver Hammer Society, a supposedly elite group that turned out to be a scam for the leaders to get the people who wanted to join to do stuff for them.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Music]]
122	* {{Parodied\|trope}} in Music/LesLuthiers's play "El Sendero de Warren Sánchez". It includes everything ranging from false testimonies (including a single person pretending to be two different people), their motto ("Salvation is guaranteed; if you die and you're not saved, you get your money back!") to having people spend money on several phony ideas (such as their weekly lotto). Furthermore, their founder, the aforementioned Warren Sánchez, is an FBI fugitive.
123	* [[Music/IronMaiden Iron Maiden]]'s song Holy Smoke has this as its main subject, sung from the perspective of no other than a very exhasperated [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus of Nazareth]], it primarily alludes to the hypocritical nature of profit based religious movements.
124	* "Modern Jesus" by Portugal. The Man is a scathing takedown of religion in general, but also includes lines taking aim at these (e.g. "we won't sell you nothing you can't use").
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Radio]]
128	* Radio/HudsonAndLandry's "Fredrickism" skit; involving the worship of creator Freddie Schultz, obeying the 26 Commandments grants you immortality, and under investigation by the IRS.
129	* The parody religion the Church of the [=SubGenius=] (whose radio show, "The Hour of Slack" is heard on some thirteen stations across the United States) doubles as a scam religion and they're not afraid to admit it. $25 gets you eternal salvation or triple your money back.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Religion]]
133	* ''Literature/TheBible'': Peter the apostle in [[Literature/EpistlesOfPeter his second epistle]] warns his followers about false teachers that will come and "make merchandise of them" through their deceptive words and stories.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
137	* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'''s pre-schism [=ComStar=] (and after the split, Word of Blake) has aspects of this. Heavily shrouded in mysticism towards outsiders and definitely capable of inspiring religious fervor in its own members as well, [=ComStar=] is ''fundamentally'' just an AncientConspiracy hoarding technological know-how and waiting for the Successor States to bomb themselves so far back into the Stone Age that they can step in and take over for the ostensible good of all mankind. They're not above stirring the pot themselves if it looks like things might actually settle down or quietly eliminating outsiders who might be on the verge of making scientific breakthroughs, either--since they just so happen to control most interstellar communication under the guise of neutrality, they tend to be ''very'' well informed. Interestingly, this is by many accounts not what [=ComStar=]'s founder ever intended, for all that many members of the organization are prone to dropping supposed pearls of his wisdom into conversations at every opportunity; it's only under his ''successor'' that things rapidly started to take on a religious bent.
138	* In ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' the Church of Borbarad was founded as a way to make money through donations and simony. Turned into ChurchOfEvil after Xeraan's death.
139	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
140	** [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} Illithids]] are too arrogant to worship actual deities, but have a similar devotion towards the [[BrainMonster Elder Brains]] that rule their communities. An Elder Brain's instructions are obeyed without question, and Mind Flayers fight without fear of death, knowing that should they die, their own brains will be removed and put in the Elder Brain's pool for absorbtion, and the Illithids will join the MindHive within the Elder Brain. However, while Elder Brains do indeed absorb Mind Flayer brains, they also feed on the knowledge and psionic energy within them, and no part of the Illithids' consciousness survives this process. The Elder Brains are very careful to keep this secret from their Mind Flayer subjects.
141	** ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' had the Seekers, who used the void left after the gods abandoned the world in the wake of the Cataclysm to seize power by peddling false religion.
142	** In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', the Blood of Vol was started entirely as a cover for Vol's minions and to sucker the common believers into providing (indirect) material support to her minions, including the Order of the Emerald Claw, a terrorist group. It is not itself a ReligionOfEvil as most followers are perfectly normal people who are seeking an alternative to the known grey, gloomy, TheUnderworld-style afterlife of Dolurrh where all you have to look forward to is your soul slowly fading away. There are some CorruptChurch elements in that much of the dogma pre-dates Vol herself, she just manipulated things to repackage the dogma of a few scattered refugees to the mainland in a way that'd allow it to spread and her to exploit it.
143	** Multiple religions in ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' are social tools of whatever Darklord is in charge of the region. The Eternal Order is one started by Azalin to scare the living populace of Darkon into obeying the undead ruling class, and the faith of Yutow ''might'' be one (its dogmas do seem to be tailor-made to help out the Darklord of Valachan, but there's no confirmation either way).
144	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
145	** The Church of Balor, which is attended by many Fair Folk. Every single one of the churchgoers knows that it is fake, but they join anyway because it gives them the identity as enemy of Creation, and identity matters greatly to TheFairFolk. FYI, the Church is named after the leader of the [[ApocalypseHow most devastating]] Fair Folk incursion in the recent history of Creation.
146	** Also the Immaculate Order: it was created from scratch as a social control tool by the Sidereal Exalted, and is still secretly controlled by them. Still, nobody knows this, the huge majority of his priests and adepts are sincere, and the teachings, while disputable and obviously biased, can't be described as merely evil or egotistical. On the other hand, the teaching most Exalted will encounter is the definite lie that Solar and Lunar exalted are all evil and must be killed on sight.
147	* The Orzhov Syndicate, from the Ravnica setting of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''. It's a little unclear of ''how'' fake the Orzhov church is, but it's abundantly clear that everyone in that guild is there for the money and power, and not the piety.
148	* ''TableTopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' features the Church of the Living God, a {{Cult}} run by Razmir, an incredibly powerful human wizard in GodGuise who employs mages disguised as priests to enforce his will. Note that this setting has BlackAndWhiteMagic, so Razmiran "priest" antagonists are seen using decidedly non-priestly magic. One of the first monsters in the Inner Sea Bestiary splat is an incorporeal undead created from the spirits of the followers of this cult and others who were deceived by their faith, who realize they were tricked upon reaching the afterlife and are consumed by hatred. Known as apostasy wraiths and rechristened abandoned zealots in Second Edition, they prefer to go after living members of the same faith, but suffer an ironic aversion to them that, combined with their spite and envy, makes them quite happy to attack followers of other religions as well, since they resent people who have true faith in a religion that isn't a scam.
149	* ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'', with its memetic science, has several bizarre religions, most of which are at least partly engineered. Some of them are genuine, at least one [[UnwantedFalseFaith started as a joke that got out of hand]], and then there's things like Ecoherence, which is pretty close to being an environmentalism-themed ChurchOfHappyology, carefully designed to create "self-reinforcing cycles of dependency", and charging for brain-scans to judge how "coherent" its followers are. And the Unified Way, which was created ''[[PathOfInspiration as a weapon]]''.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Theatre]]
153	* The Rhythm of Life Church in the musical ''Theatre/SweetCharity''. It was supposedly founded at the urging of a mysterious Voice:
154	-->And the voice said, "Brother, there's a million pigeons\
155	Ready to be hooked on new religions."
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Video Games]]
159	* ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' has the Order Church, a front for the Illuminati created for the sole purpose of unifying all religion. Aside from the leader herself, everyone thinks it's the real deal, even the leader's second-in-command.
160	* ''VideoGame/{{Devotion}}'' has the cult run by Mentor Hueh, which preaches (among other things) that medical practice can be replaced by religious rituals and donations of money to the cult. Hueh's final scene implies that either she realized that the cult was about to fall apart on her and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere booked it]] with her ill-gotten gains, or [[LaserGuidedKarma was arrested by the police]]. The cult has ''definitely'' killed at least two people with its beliefs- an old man with cancer who refused chemotherapy, and [[spoiler: the protagonist's daughter Mei Shin, who suffered from an anxiety disorder. He tried to cure her using a dangerous ritual instead of getting psychiatric help, but it ended up killing her.]]
161	* One of the pieces of local color in Westmarch during the first part of Act V in ''[[VideoGame/DiabloIII Diablo III: Reaper of Souls]]'' is the "Order of Malthael", a "religion" that plays off people's fears of the Reapers in order to get them to "sacrifice" their money and valuables to the order's scam artist leader so that the Angel of Death may spare them. Since Malthael is an OmnicidalManiac who wishes to KillAllHumans for having demon blood, anyone who knows what he's about can see through this scam quite easily.
162	* One case in ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuthHackersMemory'' has [[PlayerCharacter Keisuke]] investigate a prosperity religion that believes buying $2000 "holy" tap water from the cult leader will cause their dragon god to give them happiness and good fortune. Said dragon god, actually a [[DragonsAreDivine Goldramon]], was also being strung along by the cult leader and merely thought he was helping people. He is ''[[PunchedAcrossTheRoom not]]'' [[TalkToTheFist happy when he finds out]].
163	* ''VideoGame/ElohimEternalTheBabelCode'': As the party learns about about both sides' religious texts, [[spoiler:it becomes obvious that the Kosmokraters aren't truly secondary gods working on behalf of Hosanna. Anat believes Hosanna/AHIX is also a false deity created to trick both Idinites and Cainites. Not helping matters is that the optional boss, Gilgamesh, claims that the Kosmokraters are similar in nature to Ruthia, implying that they're actually Kenomans]].
164	* ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'' has a spirit magic user in the backstory who regularly did this.
165	* ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'':
166	** In ''VideoGame/FableI'', the backstory reveals that both Avo the God of Good and Skorm the God of Evil are fakes invented by an enterprising merchant as a way of collecting money from the donations of followers. The scam works because their temples are built over places of very strong naturally occurring magical energy, so the power itself is real, even though the deities themselves are not.
167	** ''VideoGame/FableII'' features [[FunWithAcronyms T.O.B.Y.]], the Temple of Business and Yodeling, also known as the Temple of Benevolent Yokels. A quest in Bloodstone involves you running errands for the founder, Toby, but you eventually find out it's just a front for Toby to find suckers he can con into buying useless crap or running errands for him.
168	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' has Pastor Richards, who is raising money for a Salvation Statue to save himself and his followers from the apocalypse. He admits on the radio his plan to use the statue money to build a mansion in Hawaii.
169	* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
170	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has the Church of Yevon. It teaches that Sin was divine punishment for using machina, that machina weapons are evil, that Sin will go away with enough prayer and repentance, and that the Final Summoning can free the world from Sin. While it's true from one point of view that machina brought about Sin (Bevelle won the war because of their superior weaponry, and Yu Yevon created Sin as his revenge), they are not inherently evil and Sin is not divine; the church uses this lie to keep the populace under control (no advanced weaponry = harder to overthrow the church). Sin will not go away with any amount of prayer or repentance, and the Final Summoning is actually how Sin is reborn; this lie is used to give the people false hope and keep them ignorant of the true state of things. It's made very clear that the Maesters are fully aware of the continued lies they spread. The church also has no compunctions using machina themselves--Bevelle's temple uses machina transporters, their soldiers wield machina rifles, and they use machina war machines even more advanced than the Al Bhed's.
171	** The main plot of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' revolves around this starting from the end of the second chapter [[spoiler:when you discover that the zodiac braves revered by the church are actually demons, and Saint Ajora was the worst of the lot bent on world destruction. The main character gets branded as a heretic in order to prevent this truth from coming to light, and the author of the in-universe book, the Durai papers, upon which the story of the game is drawn from is burnt at the stake to prevent the truth from being revealed]]
172	* The usual game plan of the BigBad of the last four ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' games. The most obvious example is the [[ChurchOfHappyology Fellowship]] in Britannia, but he pulls the same trick in at least three other worlds to weaken them for conquest. Where he succeeds the scam quickly metamorphoses into a ReligionOfEvil.
173	* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', the Moon Social Link for the Hero at one point requires a "salvation fee" of 320,000 yen [[spoiler:which you don't actually have to pay.]] You can even later call out the person you share the link with.
174	-->'''P3 Hero''': You're scamming them, too?
175	* ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}''[='s=] Happy Happyism is a prime example. The leader of the cult, Carpainter, [[spoiler:is essentially high on the presence of the Mani-Mani statue. In fact, the Mani-Mani statue, through which the BigBad Giygas works his evil will, is the source of evil in the form of false beliefs and {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s where ever it goes.]]
176	* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', [[spoiler:the Ethos is revealed to be a mere front for a Solaris operation, much to Billy's dismay]].
177	* In the ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' series, Xavism (the resident stand-in for Catholicism) is vaguely hinted to be this (though their main schtick is to play up the FunnyForeigner part). Its 'founder' Xavi appears to have founded it to make himself rich, although his extreme {{Cloudcuckoolander}} LoveFreak nature makes it ambiguous: It's possible he actually believes his own insane dogma and is just too loony to recognize the inherent hypocrisy of his teaching. It's normally played for laughs more than anything. Despite this, Xavism is evidently very successful at gaining followers as various characters occasionally show up as converts in certain stages such as Yoshihiro, [[ManipulativeBastard Motonari]] and [[ButtMonkey Kanbe]].
178	* Unitology in the ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' series is an unholy cross between a doomsday cult, this, and, in the third game, terrorist extremism.
179	* ''VideoGame/GuildWars:''
180	** The White Mantle in ''Guild Wars Prophecies'' was engineered by the [[GodGuise Mursaat]] in order to gain control of Kryta and use them to prevent the Flameseeker Prophecies from coming to pass. Most Mantle honestly believed in the divinity of the Mursaat and that the associated nastiness was necessary.
181	** The Charr religion preached by the Shamans was a scam by [[spoiler:Abaddon]] to gain control of the Charr and destroy the human kingdoms of Tyria. After the defeat of the [[GodGuise Titans]] the Shamans had presented as gods, the Shamans delved into a full-on scam by trying to offer the mindless Destroyers as substitute gods.
182	* [[ManipulativeBastard Tlacolotl]] from ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' is always running shell organizations, scamming cults and feints in support of his plans to keep the other PowersThatBe fighting one another and unable to stop his evil goals. The other Dark Powers are too insane to keep up this level of subtlety and their cults are always a straight-up ReligionOfEvil.
183	* The Catholic-esque cult in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'', formed by Miranda over a hundred years ago to [[spoiler:find a suitable vessel for her deceased daughter to be reborn in, but pretends to be both a path to enlightenment and long life or immortality. As soon as she finds (what she thinks is) the perfect vessel in Rosemary, she has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness the entire village massacred by Lycans]] [[TreacherousAdvisor and guides Ethan to dispose of the four Lords as well]].]]
184	* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', this was the case for the so-called "Priests of Nocturnal". Nocturnal is the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[TheSacredDarkness Darkness and the Night]], who is also associated with Thieves and Luck. She is the patron of the ThievesGuild and the only mortal servants she actually seems to care about are the Nightingales, who have pledged to serve her in life and in death, protecting her Twilight Sepulcher and the Ebonmere, a conduit between her [[EldritchLocation realm of Oblivion]], Evergloam, and Mundus, the mortal plane. The "Priests" set up in the Twilight Sepulcher and claimed to have Nocturnal's favor, but they were really just a scam set up to prey on the gullible. Nocturnal herself didn't actually pay them ''any'' attention or care ''what'' they did, as long as they didn't interfere with the Nightingales or threaten the Ebonmere.
185	* In ''Videogame/Yakuza0'', one of Majima's sidequest has him rescuing a young woman from a shady cult extorting its members for money and planning to make a harem from its women by infiltrating the cult and beating the crap out of the leader. 17 years later in ''[[VideoGame/Yakuza1 Yakuza Kiwami]]'', one of the cult leader's subordinates tries to revive the cult using the club scene with party drugs and it's Kiryu's turn to kick his ass. Eleven years later in ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza 6}}'', Kiryu has to put the cult down ''again'', this time with help from the original founder who wants to rescue a woman he likes from losing her pension to the new leader.
186	* ''VideoGame/HoneyIJoinedACult'' has this as your day-to-day purpose of the cult. While your leader can commune with your deity of choice and plot an ultimate, divinely-inspired goal for the cult, the rest of your minions are busy ripping people off. You start with your temple where they preach the word and pass the collection plate and develop different "therapy" rooms; starting with simple meditation, but then apparently healing people with the power of therapeutic electroshocks, communing with the dead, and sitting in pools of maggots. Charging by the minute, of course.
187	[[/folder]]
188
189	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
190	* In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', [[spoiler:the Church of the Aquarian Revelation seems like this, at least for Lainie. She’s in good standing as long as she can provide them with free food. If not, then she's subjected to horrifying rituals.]]
191	[[/folder]]
192
193	[[folder:Webcomics]]
194	* The Church of Wayne in ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'' is really just a con to get money and women for Wayne.
195	[[/folder]]
196
197	[[folder:Web Original]]
198	* Inverted with several scambaits, which feature a fake religion meant to ''prevent'' scams ([[FourOneNineScam of the 419 variety]]), or at least humiliate the scammers. The baiter will usually assume the identity of a priest of said religion, claim that he wants to help the scammer's made-up cause but that sending the money [[AgainstMyReligion is against his religion]] and force the scammer to do various humiliating actions (including [[http://www.419eater.com/html/ahmed_sadiq.htm getting a tattoo bearing the baiter's name]] or [[http://www.419eater.com/html/tope.htm getting photographed in a bizarre pose]] in order to join the church and receive the (non-existent) money. After joining, the scammer will usually be presented with all sorts of crazy excuses to delay payment, until the scammer gives up.
199	* LetsPlay/HATFilms and 'The Hand of Truth' in ''WebVideo/{{Cornerstone}}''. Not entirely clear what the religion involves, but it sure likes gold.
200	* In ''Website/OrionsArm'', the Epimethian movement promoted subsingularity abdication, that is, returning to an [[FormerlySapientSpecies animal consciousness]] on the basis that language and cognition are a barrier to the true understanding of the world. It managed to convince several sophants to revert back to average primate intelligence to become ''Homo Epimetheus'', which was to live in a park managed by the Epimetheus Foundation, which would receive all the adherents' properties. It was later discovered that the said Foundation was a money-making scheme, and the managers of this scam only invested a minimal amount in the park, which their charges couldn't protest since they already had lost any higher cognitive capacities.
201	[[/folder]]
202
203	[[folder:Web Video]]
204	* The Hymn of One in ''WebVideo/{{lonelygirl15}}'' is actually a front for [[AncientConspiracy The Order]].
205	* Rev. Ruby Ranch and Pastor Titus Diamondback from the ''[[WebVideo/WizardsWithGuns "G" is for Jesus]]'' series use their televangelism to sell overpriced garbage, including everything that's "complementary" or "free".
206	[[/folder]]
207
208	[[folder:Western Animation]]
209	* Movementarianism from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' shows the Leader flying off with the funds that he'd ''claimed'' would be used to build a spaceship.
210	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Many episodes portray mainstream Christianity and Judaism as a scam, either in spot gags or as a main driver of the plot.
211	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' portrays Scientology as an elaborate means to get celebrities to endorse a religion based on pseudo-science and nonsense mythology. There was also the one-off appearance of "Blainetology", which was explicitly about illusionist and eccentric NewAgeRetroHippie type Creator/DavidBlaine trying to make himself the prophet of a new religion for the sole purpose of tax evasion.
212	* The ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' episode "The Case of the Cola Cult" has Gadget half-heartedly attempt to join a soda-worshiping cult of mice. The leader of the cult is benevolent and genuinely believes in what he says, but his evil second-in-command was taking all the belongings new members gave up and keeping them.
213	* Sympathetic example: in the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Painted Lady", [[spoiler: Katara]] starts one of her own. As she helps some villagers, they mistake her for their local deity--and instead of [[UnwantedFalseFaith trying to clear up the mistake]], she chooses to make the most of it, turning herself into a false deity for them to worship. Of course, the villagers are outraged when they find out that she has deceived them, but they quickly forgive her since they realize that the help she gave them was genuine rather than part of some manipulative plot. [[spoiler:After the whole thing is over, it turns out that the Painted Lady actually does exist--and she is pleased with Katara's deeds]].
214	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChillyBeach'' has Dale set one of these up; a CultOfPersonality centered on himself that dupes a few townsfolk into waiting on him hand-and-foot-for about as long as it takes for the government to destroy the black hole Dale told everyone was the devil (the science of the episode is soft enough to spread on toast, of course).
215	* On ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', an aquarium that Tina frequents is about to close because they can't even pay their own taxes. After hearing that churches get tax exemptions, Louise convinces the woman who runs the aquarium to register as the Church of Aquaticism. Unfortunately, they do such a good job of convincing the IRS agent that he wants to join.
216	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCrumpets'' episode "Belief Relief", Uncle Hurry and Aunt Harried introduce their Paymeism religion to the Crumpet family as the "one and only belief system". They require [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin payments]] in exchange for teachings and "blessings", and are seen giving the family mobile phones, and falsely cured leeks in response to the family's dying lunar leeks. Hurry proclaims to be the prophet and its God, warns that nonbelievers will perish, his wife saying no "crazy questions", and Hurry forces his brother Pa to divorce his "infidel" wife and puts her to trial for disobeying. Ma washes off the gold paint coating the leeks to show that Paymeism isn't legitimate, argues that people should believe what they wish, and the Crumpets retreat from Paymeism. Another episode reveals that Paymeism is promoted in Hurry and Harried's TV network.
217	* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Fun with Jane and Jane", Luanne and eventually Peggy are tricked into joining the Omega House, a cult that disguises itself as a college sorority and brainwashes its recruits by depriving them of protein, bathrooms and contact with their families and friends before sending them to a ranch to make jams and jellies for the cult to sell.
218	* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Most witches in the Boiling Isles worship [[GiantCorpseWorld the Titan]], believing that [[HighPriest Emperor Belos]] is his prophet and will lead them to utopia during the upcoming Day of Unity. [[spoiler:While the Titan is still alive to an extent, Belos is actually a human witch-hunter and plans out to [[FinalSolution wipe out the entire witch species]] through the aforementioned Day of Unity. His various dogmas, such as the necessity of the Coven system, exist only to make the process go as smoothly as possible.]]
219	[[/folder]]
220

Context Main / ScamReligion