During tonight’s episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, scandals surrounding Mary Cosby’s church were again brought into the spotlight. For several episodes, Meredith Marks has found herself on the receiving end of cryptic messages about Mary’s church, Faith Temple Pentecostal. Does Mary think she’s a god? Are church members giving her too much money?
At Lisa Barlow’s party, Meredith had a confusing conversation with the late Cameron Williams, who used to be a pastor at Mary Cosby’s church. He didn’t specify what had happened between and Mary, but expressed that he was happy to no longer be a member of her church and said that Mary and her husband “have done some things that are very harmful.” He issued her a warning to “be careful.”
Meredith later heard from Whitney Rose that Mary’s congregation considers her a god, and Whitney says that she was given a warning about Mary as well.
In a Daily Beast article, former member Ralph Arnold Jr also claimed that Mary claims to be God. “She preaches that she is God on Earth.”
During a private moment in Vail after Jen Shah’s arrest, Meredith tried to get some real answers from Lisa Barlow. Lisa explained that Mary often is elusive at her church, so when she comes around her congregation treats her with awe.
“I think Cameron thought the world of Mary and I think they had a very strong relationship,” she said when asked about what Cameron had been talking about.
“What are you trying to say, Lisa?” Meredith asked.
Lisa replied, “I’m not trying to say anything. I’m just saying I think he trusted in Mary and felt extremely close to her.”
Meredith was unsettled because she feels like Lisa knows more than she’s disclosing. Lisa says she’s just trying to keep Cameron’s conversations with her private.
Meredith says that she thinks Mary needs to be made aware that these cryptic conversations are going on, so she later told Mary that there were some people making “cryptic negative remarks about” her church. Mary retorted that there is no church that doesn’t have negative chatter about it, which placated Meredith until everyone got drunk and Mary went to bed.
With Mary asleep, the rest of the women started comparing notes and Meredith got more and more frustrated.
Lisa Barlow said that Cameron has had “extremely religious trauma” from being a part of Mary’s church.
Meredith replied with an outburst demanding answers. “Religious trauma is the most abstract thing I have ever heard in my life,” she said. “All these insinuations are being made that are way more damaging, I would guess, than what the truth is. I have stood behind Mary because she had been a good friend to me. But I am being told all these cryptic messages and nothing is clear and I’m getting angry and upset.” She goes on to ask for a concrete example.
Lisa then spits out, “He mortgaged his house and gave her $300,000.”* This detail was certainly something for the women to grab a hold of, and in previews for the upcoming episode, they finally confront Mary about why Cameron mortgaged his house in order to give her such a huge sum of money.
*UPDATE: New information has been revealed during the Season 2 reunion. The amount that Cameron gave to Mary Cosby after he mortgaged his house may be closer to $30,000 than $300,000. What doesn’t seem to be up to debate is whether or not he did give Mary Cosby money after he mortgaged his house. He had apparently took multiple people that he did so. Cameron and Mary may have also engaged in an affair.
