Robert tells the story of Kevin Ontoniel Smith, a Jamaican-Canadian minister who created an apocalyptic Christian sect and slit his follower's throats in a COVID related panic. Sources; “Is Your Blood Clean?”: The Paranoid Pastor Who Turned His Church into a Violent Cult | The Walrus Ontario college mum on cult pastor's PhD - Jamaica Observer The power of religion to abuse, distort and control the realities of susceptible persons | Toronto Caribbean Newspaper Preacher Kevin O. Smith, parishioners arrested for alleged human sacrifices ‘It was like prison’ | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner Naive Christians slammed for missing Kevin Smith red flags | News | Jamaica Gleaner Kevin Smith’s money trail | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner ‘He left a trail of pain and debt’ | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner ‘Kevin Smith will return’ | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner Kevin O. Smith’s social media footprint | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner Kevin Smith had great prophetic powers, says Henley Morgan | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner I’m a scholar of the “prosperity gospel.” It took cancer to show me I was in its grip. | Vox Book Review: Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler - 9MarksSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: Who is Kevin Ontoniel Smith?
So he comes up in like a fairly, you know, Jamaica is an island with a lot of poverty, but he comes up in a fairly comfortable part of the island compared to some other parts. We have very little information about his early life, aside from the fact that he would later claim to have been physically abused by his father, who died when he was very young.
So his mom's going to raise him on her own for much of his adolescence, which, again, not a wildly uncommon cult leader backstory. And this statistically, you know, just the fact that she's a single mom might suggest that he came up in a degree of poverty. But there's not a lot of evidence either way. Right.
Like, in fact, it kind of seems the evidence suggests more that she managed to keep them fairly comfortable. I'm not sure what she did, but they don't seem to have been like on the edge of poverty or whatever. Right. He claims to have been baptized at age nine, and it's unclear which denomination he was from, but some sort of Protestant sect, right?
Just based on kind of the demographics of Jamaica and based on his later religious life, it was some kind of evangelical Protestant sect that he's baptized into. We can be pretty sure of that. Years later, as part of a court case that we will talk about more in the future, Kevin would claim to have, again, been sexually abused as a child by a male relative.
So both physically abused by his dad and sexually abused by a male relative. We don't know how old he would have been when this happened, but he's probably pre-adolescent, somewhere around like 10 to 12. We know that he goes on to attend Jamaica College, which confusingly is not a college. This is a high school.
I've read enough of the history to tell you I can't give you a perfect idea of why they called it Jamaica College. Other than that word hasn't always meant the same thing. Right. I think the school is initially established by like some I believe it's a Catholic member of the clergy who like leaves a bunch of money behind. But I forget exactly why.
But it's one of the best secondary schools in all of Jamaica, right? So this is – and it's not just – I say it's primarily a secondary school. I think you can start going there when you're about 10 years old, right? So it doesn't exactly map onto what we call a secondary school. But this is a really good school, and it's a public school, right?
It's free to attend, and it's kind of got like a degree of international fame. So being able to get into Jamaica College – Suggest that you're like a kid who's done really well in school or has connections or both. Now, my sources somewhat disagree here, but it seems like he kind of he doesn't finish his education at Jamaica College. He goes there.
He probably starts when he's around 10 and he probably leaves when he's around 14. The Toronto Caribbean newspaper claims that this is when his mother moves the family to Canada in 1996. But there's disagreement on when the family moves to Canada. The Walrus, which is an award-winning Canadian magazine, says they moved when he was 12, which would have been probably around 94.
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Chapter 2: What led to Kevin Smith's violent actions?
Grandfather, who I thought don't know God.
He said, no, I have that sin. But God
What a fun guy. All right, just making some points.
Yeah, making some points. No level of witchcraft will stop you. This is something I tell our podcasters very regularly.
He looks a little more like the other Kevin Smith than I expected. Yeah.
Yeah, finally a use for AI cut him into all the Jay and Silent Bob movies.
Yeah, he looks a little like Silent Bob. Like I'm surprised.
Yeah, not very silent though. Distinctly loud Bob. Speaking of things that are distinctly loud.
But like sometimes that's super true because the volume of some of the auto ads are crazy loud for no reason. We have no control over it.
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Chapter 3: How did Kevin Smith's upbringing influence his actions?
Yeah, PCU.
I really enjoy this stock photo of this guy.
Yeah, the guy holding two degrees or two respected degrees in just two years.
And it looks like he's like floating on a cloud.
If you go to like Harvard's website, Harvard, number one, will not give you two degrees in two years, but doesn't have to tell you the degrees respected because it's a real school. And even like you go to UTD, right, where I briefly went before dropping out, they never had to brag on their website that they were accredited from a real organization. Right. Because you just know it's a real school.
So I Googled Vision International University fake. And the second search result was the Wikipedia page for list of unaccredited institutions of higher learning, which seemed odd because they ensured us that they were accredited by someone real. Yeah. Now, the first result when I looked into that was someone on the forum for degreeinfo.com back in 2002 asking, is this a good school or a fraud?
And someone pointed out that like, well, they offer a master's in creation science, which means they fall under a religious exemption in California, which is not accreditation, right? It means California can't stop them from giving out religious degrees, but they're not approved by the state as like a real college.
You just can't stop someone from giving out degrees with titles like master of theology or doctor of ministry. But they're not allowed to give out secular degrees like an MS, a Master of Science, and they claim to, right?
And one reason I'm interested in this is because there's an attempt within sort of this chunk of the evangelical movement—one reason this is interesting is that there's an attempt within this chunk of the evangelical movement—
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Chapter 4: What is the Apostolic Faith Movement?
Now, while he's getting all these fake degrees and maybe one real degree, in addition to several other questionable certifications, Smith grew up and seems to have made his living operating a ministry in Toronto and traveling around the world to give speeches at different churches. Sometime around the turn of the millennium, he founds his own ministry, which he calls KOS Deliverance International.
And the initials KOS is just the initials of his name. On August 22nd, 2006, he returns from one of his overseas preaching trips to the UK. The Walrus writes, quote, Smith was jet-lagged and lonely, craving to spend time with someone besides his brother. I wanted, you know, emotional company, Smith would later recall, as per court documents.
So he perused online ads for escorts and reached out to a man for his services. Matt, whose real name is under a court-ordered publication ban, arrived at Smith's home around 10.30 one evening. I would need him to be as inconspicuous as possible because I live straight and I'm a Christian, Smith would recall.
There was a conflict happening inside of me, in essence, to what I was going to do or not do. Now, what he did, according to Matt's allegations, is sexually assault Matt, who goes to the police the next day. Smith is arrested and charged. He would later claim that Canadian police tried to use his Jamaican ancestry and the local stigma against homosexuality in Jamaica against him.
And he claims he told them gays are just people who need redirection, which doesn't do a great job of making me more sympathetic to his case. But he's been accused basically of calling this guy in and then sexually assaulting him, right? Now, the case, these allegations against him wind through the Canadian court system for the next several months.
And the next year, in early 2007, he gets married, and possibly as a way to kind of distract from the fact that this is really bad PR to his ministry. He's either 18 or 25 when he gets married. I found different things on different news sites. It kind of depends on whether or not he was actually born in 1982 or not. Whatever the case, this marriage does not seem to have really been like
It certainly doesn't last. There's debate as to whether or not it was legitimate. They very quickly split in the walrus rights. Smith's ex-wife described him as verbally abusive and someone who lied about his private life. He is not living an honest life, she would later recall, according to court records.
And the Toronto Caribbean's reporting adds, there have been allegations that his wife caught him having sexual relations with men. She reported it to senior ministers in the church organizations, but they denied it and there were no reprimand or consequences. So, you know, not a story we've ever heard before anywhere else.
Wow.
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