The family of TikTok star Miranda Derrick believes their daughter was taken by a Los Angeles cult run by a pastor accused of stealing millions from at least one member.
Melanie Wilking and her parents, Kelly and Dean Wilking, say they haven’t been able to speak to Miranda since January 2021 after she refused to go to her grandfather’s funeral in a video that has now gone viral on Instagram.
“This has been haunting us for over a year now,” Melanie said in a video dated Feb. 24. “It was definitely the hardest year of my life.”
You don’t need to interrupt us. Life goes on and so many interesting things happen,” Melanie added.
They said Miranda, 24, left last year to join an entertainment management company called 7M Films, which has ties to a church called Shekinah Church and a Christian sect known as the Seven Mountain Mandate, according to Gawker. The Wilkings believe the cult is targeting dancers like Melanie.
Melanie Wilking and her parents, Kelly and Dean Wilking, say they haven’t been able to speak to Miranda since January 2021 after she refused to go to her grandfather’s funeral in a viral Instagram video.
The family believes 24-year-old TikTok star Miranda Derrick has fallen into a religious cult.
The Seven Mountains Mandate comes from a reading of the Bible verse Isaiah 2:2, from which “a group of self-proclaimed ‘apostles’ have a plan based on Bible prophecy to ‘invade’ every area of life as we know it.”
Mandate followers focus on education, religion, family, business, government, entertainment, and media; they claim they must rid these institutions of demons and sorcery.
These principles are followed by several Christians, including prominent pastor associated with Trump, Paula White.
Shekinah pastor Robert Israel Shinn, whose son Isaiah works as a director and choreographer at 7M, preaches the belief in apocalypse preparation and owns several companies, including the production team that made the film starring Meghan Markle.
He has been sued in the past by former member Lydia Chung, who alleged in 2009 that Shinn took her from her family, brainwashed her and swindled her out of almost $4 million, allegedly sent straight to Shinn through a tax-free church.
In May 2011, a judge ruled in favor of Shinn, but Chang still insists that Shinn is up to something sinister.
“It’s a cult,” she said. “It completely ruins people. You’ve heard of people going to Vietnam – going through that kind of trauma, a lot of people can’t function like normal people – that’s what he does.”
A spokesperson for Shekinah Church and 7M Films denied to The Daily Beast that they were involved with the Seven Mountains Mandate, stating that the M stands for Millennium.
Pastor Paula White, a Trump White House adviser, believes in the Seven Mountains Mandate.
Melanie, Miranda’s sister, used Miranda’s TikTok video to talk about what she thought happened.
In the video, Melanie claims that Miranda “doesn’t control her social media” and that the church controls Miranda’s finances.
Both Miranda and her current husband James Derrick have responded to accusations on Instagram where Miranda said Melanie kicked her out of their shared TikTok account and stopped talking to her family because she said they called the police once because of James who is black when she moved in with him.
“I can say on behalf of James and our 7M friends that they DO talk to their families (so what you guys have heard about 7M dancers not talking to their families is a complete lie). This is just a unique situation with my family,” she wrote.
James also personally claimed in his posts that the family does not love him because he is a “black man from Compton” who is divorced with a son, does not have a car and lives in a rented room.
Miranda Derrick is seen in a video with her current husband James, both of whom claim Miranda’s family disapproves
James and Miranda both claimed that Miranda’s family does not like him because he is black, although the family denies this and points out that Miranda’s sister is also dating a black man.
He credits 7M for his personal success “in a matter of months” and argues that it is not a church, but “a secular commercial company run by people who believe in God.”
The family denied any claims of racial dislike for James, noting that Miranda’s sister Melanie is dating a black man herself.
The Michigan-born Wilkings sisters began their online dance careers as a duo.
The two sisters posted videos of the latest TikTok trends and gained over 3 million followers after becoming a social media star in 2020.