On a recent
broadcast of the Apocalypse Chronicles, James Lloyd
described his education by saying "...I majored in useless
knowledge, uh, in school for awhile and then I majored in drugs,
uh and uh, that that completed my education..." Click for Audio
It would appear as
though James continued that education at Christian Media.
In
April of 2007, Ina hearing before Circuit Court
JudgeMarkSchiveley, plaintiffs Lloyd and
Lenox made a startling admission. "My clients freely acknowledge
- admit that they used substances - been
substance abusers in the past..." their lawyer Jason Scott Brouhard
told the court. "...they'll freely admit
that they've used and been substance abusers in the past within
- like the past 10 years..."
Jason Brouhard of the law firm Brown,
Hughes, Bird, Rote, & Brouhard, LLP---
in support of a Motion to prevent any evidence of illegal
drug sales by his client (James Lloyd) in his youth, from
being admitted into evidence by Craig Portwood or Linda Kristich (the defense),
in their 2007
trial for DefamationClick for Audio,
Using this 10 year
period as a sort of timeline, the facts come into focus.
Although no specifics
were offered as to which "substances" they admit to have been
abusing, it is known that at the beginning of that timeline,
Roger Johansen one of Lloyd's close business associates, sold
meth.
It was also no secret
to Lloyd that Johansen "moved in a subculture of drugs" and had
a history of meth (methamphetamine) related crimes. When asked
to comment by the Medford Oregon Mail Tribune newspaper, James
admitted that he "loved to visit the shop", which was located in
a string of garage-like shops and which were linked to the meth
trade. According to the news reports in the Mail Tribune, the 50
year old Johansen was found dead at the location, in December of
2007, murdered for refusing to pay a drug supplier. Lloyd described the shop where Johansen was beaten, stabbed,
handcuffed and set on fire, as being "...almost like a
ministry." Making such a comparison, between a ministry and the sad
lifestyle of the meth addict, is bizarre to say the least.
It is notable that the
side effects of meth use parallel the type of aberrant behavior
and thought process which Lloyd has regularly exhibited over the
past 10 years. A few examples
of these deviant behaviors and heteromorphic thinking are
listed.
Meth
The
Effects of Meth on a Sound Body
Since
methamphetamine is a stimulant, most users find its long-lasting
high to be a benefit. Heart rate increases, pupils dilate, and
bursts of energy seem to give the user the ability to perform
their duties at a higher rate of efficiency. Weight loss can
result due to decreased appetite. As the drug starts to lose its
potency, users become anxious and start to crave another dose.
The “high” or rush from meth can last as long as eight to 12
hours in the body. By contrast, cocaine users report the effect
wearing off after 15 to 20 minutes.
After prolonged use, long-term
brain damage could begin to set in. Meth increases the release
of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved with regulation of mood
and pleasure, in the brain. Some studies indicate that serotonin
is also affected, but to what degree is still open to
speculation. After prolonged use, there is an increased tendency
toward aggressive behavior and auditory and visual
hallucinations. Some users experience formication, or the
sensation of insects crawling under the skin. Skin problems are
also seen in long-term users since they may pick at imaginary
sores or insects in an attempt to remove them.
A specific withdrawal syndrome
from meth has yet to be identified. What is known is that when
individuals stop using the drug, depression, irritability, and
fatigue may set in. Some people sleep for days at a time while
the body rebounds from a “run” or several days or weeks of being
awake as a result of drug use. The cycle starts again when the
person uses meth to get away from the depression and stay alert.
The general signs of
methamphetamine use, relate to unusual behavior and thought
processes. Users will have a great deal of energy and will talk
a great deal. They may appear gaunt. Meth use causes an
interruption of the thought process. This interruption often
results in ideas which are delusional in nature and can be
cataloged as follows.
James Lloyd is constantly talking. It
never seems to matter whether he has anything worthwhile or even
cogent to say, he simply cannot keep his mouth still. He talks
and talks
and talks
and talks
and talks.
One might argue that since he is on the radio for 2 hours
daily, his talk would be incessant, but if one focuses on the kind of things he says, a
pattern begins to emerge.
Extraordinarily bizarre things
regularly proceed from his mouth in a torrent of unrelated,
loosely associated ideas. Ridiculously
peculiar
statements are regularly uttered by this compulsive
chatterbox and it seems that no idea is too eccentric,
fantastic, or kooky to spring from his mouth.
Consider just one of his many outlandish on air statements, made
on Tuesday, February 15, 2005:
NASA was sending a "...72 pound
plutonium bomb headed for a planet (Saturn) that's made of,
uh, of hydrogen and helium, which just happens to be made of
what the sun is made of...all you've gotta do is light the
match and you've got a new sun. And so, what a coincidence,
we've got a match there."
And of course there is this undated gem from James Lloyd:
"I'm not sure what that was, it was a
seizure, it came over me and I just got in front of a
microphone, whew, boy I'm glad that's over, uh, I actually do
this on a regular basis."
"I don't
know who I am. God knows who I am". James Lloyd on the February 12,
2008 Apocalypse Chronicles
illustrating his confusion as to
his identity.
Sound Body host Susan Lenox also
issues a number of comically curious statements as she prattles
on about how:
"There
are many species that are seen so rarely, that we don't know if
they're extinct until we find the bones of them,
upchucked in some owl, uh, droppings. Cities are functioning ---
at a significantly---incredible rate of--- irreversible damage
of the diversity on life on earth and most of these changes are
unfortunately represented by a loss of bio-diversity The
bio-diversity---is very important."
This type of psycho-twaddle continued for
about an hour. Click for audio
It is difficult to try to understand what
she means to say or to guess what she might say next. What is
easy to predict is that she will have a remedy, a "nutritional"
product or a piece of merchandise which she will try to sell.
What is scary is that people are buying the "health products"
which carry her seal of approval and presumably ingesting them.
One cannot say for certain why Susan Lenox calls her show "Sound
Body" but there can be no question as to why it is not
titled "Sound Mind".
The words, ludicrous,
oddball, weird
and queer are descriptive of the types of screwball things
this pair says on their radio shows and any honest criticism of
their public pronouncements, brands the offender as an "enemy"
of the Gospel, the truth, and "The Ministry". Although they claim to say
such things while under the authority they have been given
by God, such foolish prattling is more characteristic of the
influence of drugs than the working of God's Holy Spirit.
II.
Delusional Ideation
To fully explore
the full nature of the issue, has required a page dedicated to
James Lloyd's paranoid and delusional
state. To address the subject briefly here, it need only be
said that Lloyd utters paranoid statements daily and he makes a
living doing so. Assuming such statements are not merely
pandering to an audience of prospective customers, the only
reasonable alternate conclusion is that he is delusional.
Lloyd's
Delusions of Grandeur are numerous. He believes he has
been given the "Gift of Prophecy" and has an unshakable belief
that he is a "unique
phenomena". He believes that he has been and is a
"Prophet of the Lord". As he tells his radio listeners that
America will be destroyed on a certain date he says "...this
will happen...". Despite all the obvious evidence that such has
not happened, James refuses to believe that his notion is a
wrong notion.
Lloyd's Persecutory Delusions color his speech on a
regular basis. His angry, meandering tirades, are replete with
references to his persecutors who turn Lloyd's light of
examination on himself. He is always being stalked, harassed and
persecuted by his enemies, such persecution coming in the form
of criticism of Lloyd by emissaries of the Devil.
Lloyd says he is "...slightly to the right of David Koresh..." David Koresh
also claimed to be a prophet of God with the "gift" of prophecy. On April 19, 1993. Seventy-six people, including 21
children and two pregnant women, along with Davidian leader
David Koresh, died in an armed attack, launched upon their group
in Waco Texas, by the FBI and the BATF. This has come to be known
as the Waco Siege or the Waco Massacre.
In comparing himself to Koresh
on the radio, assuming that it was not mere boasting to produce
an effect on his audience, it could be instead, an indication of
his thought process. The allusion that he will be killed as a
prophet, is the type of reasoning one would expect to see in
someone suffering from Persecutory Delusions.
III.
Unpredictability of behavior
Irritability
Agitation
Violent
Behavior
In addition to this
history of delusional thinking, James has a history of violence
which precedes his recently admitted drug use. James is often
irritable and agitated on the radio and has gloated publicly
that he is "armed and dangerous". On one episode of the
Apocalypse Chronicles show he has threatened to crush people who
refuse to submit to the authority he believes "God" has given
him.
In a sworn statement
filed with the Jackson County Circuit Court and recorded on the
5th day of June, 1990, Susan Lenox stated:
"I am a victim of
abuse committed by respondent (Lloyd) within 180 days preceding the
filing of this petition, in that respondent has:
caused me
bodily injury. He kicked my head, hurt my leg by
dragging me back into his house while trying to leave.
attempted to
cause me bodily injury. Thrown a stool at me, kicked on my
bedroom door, he put his fist through the kitchen cabinet,
smashed all my dishes.
placed me in
fear of imminent serious bodily injury. Said he wanted to
strangle me and wanted to drown me in the hot tub.
tried to
cause me to engage in involuntary sexual relations by force or
threat of force...
Further, Lenox swore that
she was in "...immediate
and present danger of further abuse, because of my release
agreement with the court and threats he has made to me. James Lloyd
drinks heavily and becomes uncontrollably violent".
Copies of the actual documents can be
viewed by following these links:
The unpredictable nature of
individuals who suffer for whatever reason from paranoid
delusional disorders, makes them at best ticking time bombs
who can go off at any time and any place with little warning.
Unfortunately, the numbers of people being injured by
methamphetamine use in our society are growing.
The Menace of Meth
The city of Medford
Oregon which is the nearest major city to Lloyd's town of
Jacksonville, has been dubbed by some "Meth-ford" for the
proliferation of drug labs and dealers found there. The drug is
readily available in the area and today,
Oregon treats more meth addicts per capita than any other state.
According to forty-two
year old Teresa Baxter who used the drug for 2 1/2 years
"This stuff is powerful, makes people do crazy things," "People do outrageous things on this stuff."
This could be explained by the fact that UCLA researcher Dr. Edith London, found
that "meth's toxic chemicals eat
away an addict's brain tissue". Our entire ability to
correctly perceive and interpret what's happening in the world
around us depends upon proper brain function. Meth disrupts that
function.
It may be
difficult for some to imagine that a "Christian Leader" could
get caught in the meth trap. Could these "Men of God" be
"spreading the gospel" and standing up against such things as
"illicit drug use", "fornication and "homosexuality" - while
using meth? Could a man of God who is esteemed so
highly--- fall so low?
In
1985, Ted Haggard founded the New Life Church in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was a founder of the Association
of Life-Giving Churches and was leader of the National
Association of Evangelicals.
In November 2006, he lost his "leadership positions" after
allegations of homosexual sex and drug abuse. Initially Haggard
denied even knowing the male prostitute who revealed the affair,
but as a media investigation proceeded he acknowledged that some
allegations, such as his purchase of methamphetamine,
were true. He later added "sexual immorality" to his list of
confessions. It is a sad fact that meth use has affected more
than just a few church goers.
At about the same time Lloyd now admits to having been using
drugs (about 1997), James began speaking on the radio, claiming the
"authority of the Holy Spirit". As his radio "ministry"
progressed, he seemed to get bolder making many more wild and paranoid statements
on the radio. He began to call himself "a prophet of the Lord".
He began to build fantastic scenarios which he would present as
"a word from the Lord" and "a prophecy from the Lord".
As these scenarios
become more elaborate, James became more arrogant. He began to
look down his nose at other Bible prophecy writers and teachers
and said any who made predictions which did not come to pass,
were "false prophets" He said that he held the
church in utter contempt and told the world on April 20th,
1998 that he speaks with
"authority". He told his listeners that in less than 90
days, America will be destroyed. He urged people to buy all the
guns and storage food they could get their hands on and head for
the wilderness. The end had come.
Despite the fact that
America was not destroyed on that date, Lloyd
continues today, to hold
himself out to be a "Prophet of the Lord" and that he has been sent by
God bearing "The gift of prophecy". He rambles on like a
madman, spewing caustic barbs and vitriol at any who do not
share his special vision from "God". Such self deluding drivel
has no place in a house of prayer, belonging instead in a
mental ward.
By questioning Lloyd's
mental soundness and acuity, does one also accuse the Savior of being
mentally ill?
Is it spiritually unsafe to even consider the possibility that
there is a problem at Christian Media Network? Will his
followers go to Hell for even entertaining any notion, that
something might be wrong with the people at CMN, if even for
only a moment ?
Christianmediaexposed.com maintains that if James Lloyd
(doing business as Christian Media
Network) is not simply pretending to believe what they say on the
air, for the purpose of selling products to people who will be
deceived into buying them, then they must by consequence be
delusional. James has said that calling him
a crook is tantamount to accusing
Jesus Christ.
It is simply not reasonable to believe oneself to be equal
with Christ. To continue to believe that one has been chosen by
God to warn the world that the end is coming, in the face of the
mountain of evidence which says otherwise is a not a rational
belief.
Is this behavior a
result of the meth use or not? Is it simply the ranting of
a self deluded sociopath? This is difficult to say.
Christian Media Exposed simply points
to the "drug timeline". The choice between drugs and mental
illness is just too close to call.
In
1985, Ted Haggard founded the New Life Church in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was a founder of the Association
of Life-Giving Churches and was leader of the National
Association of Evangelicals.