Unholier than Thou
Mark Honeychurch - 2nd February 2026
Last week Bronwyn and I went to see the Doomsday comedy event in Wellington, featuring ex Jehovah’s Witness Norwegian goat farmer Jonas Skogstroll, as well as several other comedians who have left religions and cult groups, such as the Mormons, Steiner schooling and Alcoholics Anonymous. I was expecting a mixed bag, as comedy is hard to do well, but the comedians did a really great job and if the laughter on the night is anything to go by, the audience seemed to really enjoy it. I had a chat with Jonas about his comedy, and he said that his tactic when it comes to countering the Jehovah’s Witnesses is to humanise the idea of God, and show just how sad and pathetic God is if viewed through a human lens. He figures that by making people feel sorry for God in this way, it might make it easier to shake off any belief.
At the event there were quite a few ex JWs who I know from my work with the Humanists, and it was great to see them and catch up with some of the ex-JW gossip. I also talked to someone I hadn’t met before who described themselves as a JW PIMO. This acronym means Physically in, Mentally Out, and is a common phrase used in relation to the church. PIMOs are people who no longer believe in the JW God, but who pretend they still believe. There are a few reasons why someone might want to do this, with the main ones being that the person’s spouse or wider family, employment or social circle is still tied to the church. Their story was sad to hear, and I suspect that many JWs are in a similar position, either being PIMOs or Fading from the religion by slowly reducing their attendance until they can finally stop turning up to church services all together while still being allowed to talk with their church family members.
On a slightly related note, a new YouTube channel has recently been started by a Kiwi, Jared Brandon. Called Unholy Light, the channel’s launch featured three professionally made videos released over the course of three days, with the first videos critiquing how Christians often use bad arguments to back up their beliefs, and decrying how church members are often asked to just Trust, or have Faith, rather than to question and require evidence before they believe. We’ll be interviewing Jared on our next podcast episode and asking him some questions about what he’s hoping to achieve with these videos, and what his future plans are. We’ll also be talking with him about some of our articles this week.
Our first article is by me, and is about an American preacher and self-proclaimed prophet who has been using very earthly means to make congregations around the world think that he has a hotline to God. Then we have an article from Bronwyn about Thomas Driver’s alter ego, and his attempts to challenge spiritualism in New Zealand. Next there’s another article from me, about a claimed miracle where someone’s missing body parts supposedly grew back while being prayed over. We have a book review from Patrick, of the climate change book “The Alarmist”. And finally I’ve been tickled by some recently released software that’s not just very geeky and daft, it’s also poking fun at astrology.