There’s a movie coming out April 19, called Breaking Habits, about Sister Kate and the Sisters of the Valley. Just so you know, they ARE NOT Catholic nuns.
From my inbox:
Cheated by her stealing, polygamist husband of 17 years, once high-flying corporate exec Christine Meeusen fled penniless with her three young children as her American dream began to unravel. Determined to make a living for her family, she discovered the lucrative business of cannabis farming and met her calling as founder of medicinal-marijuana empire Sisters of the Valley. Shedding her former life, Christine became Sister Kate; on a mission to provide her products to those in need. Fighting off the county sheriff, and protecting her crop from deadly black market thieves, BREAKING HABITS is a story of rebellion, hope and revival. This is Sister Kate’s journey to becoming the head of a fast growing enterprise, a voice for the unheard–and possibly the most controversial nun in the world.
So how did Christine Meeusen come to call herself a nun? Apparently, in 2011, Meeusen decided to dress in a nun Halloween costume at an Occupy Wall Street protest in Central California.
As she said to Racked.com:
“I think people were surprised because they weren’t used to seeing robed clergy in this country who actually gave a s**t,” she says. “People didn’t care that I was a fake nun. They would just come to me with their problems and ask me to light a candle, say a prayer, or connect them to help.”
As she became more involved in the Occupy movement, Meeusen decided to stick with her nun persona. She picked up the nickname “Sister Occupy” and began to own up to the moniker, justifying it like this: “If Congress can call pizza a vegetable, than why can’t I be a nun?”
As for the group’s beliefs, from the same article:
They look to many religions, from Judaism to paganism, for rituals, and make their products according to the moon cycle, beginning each two-week production run with the new moon and completing it when the full moon appears.
So, there you go. The women of the Sisters of the Valley grow pot and are not part of any traditional religious order (and Meeusen apparently doesn’t think much of real Catholic nuns). Of course, this hasn’t stopped the women from wearing quasi-Catholic robes, or stopped media outlets from making all kinds of semi-Catholic puns with their name.
The studio, Salon Films, even calls it a real-life “nuns-with-guns tale.”
If this movie comes to your town, be warned.
Image: Salon Pictures
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