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God Next Door – BBC Radio 4

A few years ago, my friend Sophie told me about the strangest evening of her life.

She had always been sober, her friends drank, they had drifted apart and she was looking to meet new people. It was a friend of her Mum who had suggested the group. “She told me it was all about world peace and how we need to love more,” she tells me, clutching a cup of herbal tea, “It sounded right up my street.”

Sophie and her Mum arrived at the community centre in South Manchester and slipped their five pounds into the bucket on their way in. People made a beeline for her straight away. “They were so friendly. They kept coming up to us and shaking our hands and saying, ‘Oh, are you new? Welcome, welcome.’ They said they were so blessed to have us here.”

A hush fell on the room as Sophie and her Mum were guided into their plastic chairs. A young man, in his mid-30s, skinny with flowing blonde hair, walked on to a makeshift stage at the front of the room. He introduced himself as James. “I thought he was going to give a talk, maybe about world peace or something, but he just said, ‘right, go, ask me any questions.’ I’m thinking, what is this?”

Hands start shooting up. ‘James, what happens when we die?’ ‘What is the meaning of life, James?’ ‘Why are the whales beaching themselves?’

“I’m thinking, how the hell is he going to know?” says Sophie, still baffled, “He’s some guy from South Manchester.”

‘Well, Barbara, they have had enough,’ says James confidently, ‘they can see what we are doing to the planet, and they have had enough of all the pain and the suffering in the world.’

Sophie sits in silence as James serenades the room with assured answers to difficult questions. “I’m thinking to myself, what the hell is this?”

There is an interval for tea and biscuits. Sophie notices a row of four men sat behind James, facing out towards the small crowd. She asks a woman next to her who the men are. ‘They are bodyguards for James,’ says the woman. Bodyguards? ‘Because if some people find out that James is God, they are going to want to kill him.’

Sophie glances at her Mum ‘That,’ she says, ‘is our cue to leave.’

I couldn’t get this story out of my head. What IS going on here?

So I went in search of the group. For the last few years, they have let me into their world. I have been spending time with James, who claims to be God in human form, and the group of people who have built their lives around him.

Who is this man? Who are these people? What lead them to believe in James? Is this just an example of modern spirituality, or is it a… cult?

The fine people at BBC Radio 4 let me make a documentary about them – and so, I present to you, God Next Door.

God Next Door is available to listen to right now on BBC Sounds – by clicking here. And you can watch the trailer below.

Everybody has an opinion, everybody has questions, and I’d love to hear yours? You can get in touch with me here.

Enjoy.

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By Darryl Morris

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