Can we please talk about Michael Bunker for a minute?

[bertnee]

The post about how we've all been lied to about the earth's shape... Wow. That's something right there.

The only positive is that he writes well. It's complete nonsense of course, but at least he has good grammar and spelling.

[NachosFlandersStyle]

13 hours ago, PopRox said:

@BobTheWalrus YES!! I am with you 100%. It boggles my mind that people can't seem to get their heads around the idea that you can believe in God AND respect what science has taught us at the same time.

High five! 

In the town where I used to live, there was a statue of a 19th century physician who was prominent in local history. The inscription on the base read "The God I worship demonstrates all his work." I always liked that, and think of it often when I read about the supposed conflict between science and religion. 

 

@Luther, I take it you're personally familiar with Bunker. Is this dude just cosplaying? His internet persona doesn't seem very "plain," or even very religious. Lots of pop culture, some crude humor, stuff like that. Like he's just making it up as he goes. Does that same persona come across to his followers, or does he get more serious when he's in cult-leader mode?

[Luther]

Yes I am familiar with Michael, I am one of the main contributors to the blog exposing him that pretty much killed his public "ministry." Michael is a con artist and will change according to what will make him money. Once he was exposed for who he was he immediately took all of his "sermons" or as I call them paranoid rantings off the internet and closed most of his religious sites which he received donations from for 10 years. Now he's trying to sell books and he knows that coming off as a ranting religious head case will not sell him books. Michael is a con but a lazy con so yeah he makes up a lot as he goes along, as long as in the end it meets his own interests. He tries to come off as Amish living in a plain community when in all actuality his dad refused to pay his bills for him so Michael conned Sifford into buying a horrible track of land and into giving him some acreage of that land to "homestead." Trust me his internet persona is far from reality. He would get real serious if you question him or disagree with his beliefs and pretty much kick anybody out of the group that didn't go with the program. His books are not really doing well so I imagine he may try to revive some type of ministry, We will be waiting.  

[Ruviana]

It's been a month so here's a question--what's the logic and justification behind "Christian agrarianism"?  I'm pretty secular but I don't think the bible commanded humans to all be subsistence farmers.  How do these folks, the bunkerites, et al., explain or understand this?

[Black Aliss]

1 hour ago, Ruviana said:

It's been a month so here's a question--what's the logic and justification behind "Christian agrarianism"?  I'm pretty secular but I don't think the bible commanded humans to all be subsistence farmers.  How do these folks, the bunkerites, et al., explain or understand this?

Are you talking about agrarian grifters like Bunker or "homesteaders" like the Nauglers or actual farmers? There are some dominionist farmers (most well-known is probably Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, who Michael Pollan profiled in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma) who believe they have a mandate from God to manage their land and animals in a sustainable manner, in part as responsible stewardship of the land and in part to lessen the potential impact of natural disasters, such as drought or other disruptions. Noah Sanders (of the S'Morton clan) is another of these. My local farmers' markets seem to be populated primarily by homeschooling fundie families practicing some version of sustainable, organic agrarianism.

While I abhor their desire to impose their Christianist beliefs on the rest of the world, I do applaud what they are trying to do to de-industrialize agriculture in this country and I've adopted a lot of their practices on a much smaller scale.

[Ruviana]

Thanks!  I specifically meant the Bunker-following people.   I know there's a good deal of overlap between some Christians and homesteaders, but my understanding was that the Bunker people believe that god commands them to be subsistence farmers.

[Black Aliss]

There's a delicious kind of irony in a guy who shills his ebook about living, not just off the grid but "off off-grid" (which I take to mean he's too lazy to set up any solar/wind/hydropower apparatus and relies on a generator and storage batteries to power his electronics) on his website. He reminds me of those blogging Victorian cosplayers in Port Townsend, WA who in their own minds at least, are as hated and persecuted as any fundie that ever was.

At least Bunker seems to stay in his bunker, and not travel around the country ala Rodriguii, pushing his beliefs on everyone he meets.

[truthtellers91]

Surviving Off Others Off Grid

https://michaelbunkercult.wordpress.com/

Since the Michael Bunker Cult has dwindled significantly in the past couple years, Michael-does-what-Michael-do and attempts to find new ways to con people into providing monetary support. Anyone who has spent much time following or living around Michael Bunker has seen this over and over again. He will do anything other than step up, be a man and get a real job. He would rather live off of the hard work and contributions of others. When this fails he moves on to try and gain traction with new unsuspecting victims.

The trail of destroyed lives, families and wasted resources has caught up with Michael Bunker. True to form Michael reinvents, lies, exaggerates and counts on his ability to manipulate people in order to garner new support.  He is now trying to gain support with a new website offering his “expertise” on all things off grid. Styling himself as a consultant and asking hundreds to thousands of dollars for half hour phone conversations. This is self deception at a level which is beyond staggering.

“Michael Bunker is an expert in virtually every area and genre of pre-industrial living, off-grid living, homesteading, survival and preparedness. His vast array of knowledge and experience is truly unique. Michael has created and operated an on-grid farmstead, an off-grid (alternative energy) homestead, and a pre-industrial homestead and farm. He has lived off-grid for well over a decade in the heart of Central Texas, where extremes of cold and heat are the norm.” michaelbunker.com

“One 1/2 hour phone consultation…   $350

Three 1/2 hour phone consultations…  $700

Six 1/2 hour phone consultations in two months… $1,200

One year consultation package (up to twelve 1/2 hour phone consultations in one calendar year)… $2,100” michaelbunker.com

One can’t help but be enthralled by Michael’s superior knowledge and know-how by such recent videos on making lemonade, baking bread and cooking eggs in a solar oven. Yes, I am not joking….. He has stated in other articles he has lived “off grid for over a decade and a half”  (A lie which will be fleshed out in upcoming posts) and he hasn’t progressed past a solar oven? Even worse,  all one has to do is peruse his YouTube channel and it becomes painfully obvious how little work he actually contributes. I can’t find one video where he is actually doing any work. It is always others working while he films and takes the credit.

Michael Bunker’s new claim to expertise on the site is rife with so many lies it is almost impossible to go through them all. He never once cites any real credentials but authoring a book which he claims was a massive best seller, which it wasn’t, and a popular documentary which was never popular. Many who have left the Michael Bunker Cult in recent years have confessed to purposefully puffing up the book on Amazon and other venues all the while knowing it was garbage. Michael Bunker was living a pretend lifestyle using the Amish name and nomenclature to give off a sense of legitimacy.

That being said, I’ll leave off this post with testimony to Michael Bunker’s “expertise” by a former cult member.

“The one thing I would like to say regarding what I learned from Bunker’s life and off grid living was what not to do! When I went to build a pig pen, I looked at his and saw how not to do it, also with the chicken coop and gardening. He watered his garden by running a gas powered water pump for 3 to 5 hours a day. I developed a gravity water feed system that required 1/2 hour of running time a month on my water pump. It cost me around $2500 to build it. He went on line after I explained how mine worked and first tried to raise $4000.00 to build one then it went to $10,000.00 and finally ended up at $40,000.00 to build one.

I lived full time in the community for just under a year and had a shower, Bunker has been there 7 or so years and still has not built one. Curious isn’t it? I have seen hundreds of empty bottles of booze come out of his office building when they were cleaning out a room. You would think he could slow down on the cigars and booze and buy the material for a shower to bless his wife and children.” Former Michael Bunker Cult member