Austin

So definitely following these, these old school traditional values.

Um,

And Rusty had actually first met Michael when he was in college.

So it worked in this case.

And he thought he was a genuine follower of God.

Earlier in their relationship, Rusty and Andrea were in direct communication with Michael.

Like many, Michael would often send them cassette tapes with personalized spiritual messages.

They really enjoyed his messages because he spoke out against organized religion and claimed that you didn't have to be a part of a church to find God, which I think a lot of us, especially now, can relate to.

Right.

Yeah, he would even call out those frauds and like the televangelists, which are huge in the South especially, and he would say they're frauds, they're charlatans.

And for many of Michael's followers, they had never seen a so-called man of God call out other Christians like this.

He even called churches snake pits and claimed that even Jesus wasn't religious.

Wow, yeah.

which is incorrect jesus was baptized he was jewish the last supper uh is passover yeah i mean there's so many rituals that are that are done like this isn't just like a free-for-all yeah he's jewish i think he's maybe pointing out like we have a big gap in in jesus's timeline when he was a teenager young so yeah what was he up to but time section we don't know about yeah he was

Right.

And there were times he disagreed with the church, but that's crazy to say that he wasn't religious.

But anyway, well, it's got to fit his narrative.

So of course, of course, we could a little bit.

Yeah.

They enjoyed, also, the Yates enjoyed how his preachings were a little bit edgier, at most.