Fake Christian health insurance and other big cons

If you have to trick people into hearing your message, you are in a cult.

5 min readJun 7, 2022

A theatrical stage with a red-curtained proscenium. On the stage is a set of theatrical flats painted to resemble a row of shops. The shops bear three neon signs: ‘Health Insurance,’ ‘University,’ ‘Abortion Clinic.’ Hanging from the ceiling on ropes of gold is a glittering cross. Image: Mary S. Farrell (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masonic_Theatre_and_Stage.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

The 1973 con-man movie “The Sting,” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford is justifiably beloved (seriously, it’s a great movie) but few people know that it was based on an academic nonfiction book: The Big Con, published in 1940 by the linguist David Maurer:

Fake Christian health insurance and other big cons

If you have to trick people into hearing your message, you are in a cult.

Written by Cory Doctorow