Tucked into a worn-down strip mall between a pet groomer and a Colombian barbershop sits what is left of John-Paul Miller’s once-expansive church empire.

The embattled pastor previously led a megachurch from a vast auditorium, where hundreds of devoted congregants gathered beneath a high-end lighting and sound system comparable to those found at major music venues.

Over Labor Day weekend, however, Miller addressed only several dozen loyal followers inside a small former nail salon near a highway bypass outside Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

A vocal group of demonstrators gathered roughly 90 feet from the service, with the protests reportedly intensifying following Netflix’s release of the documentary Death of the Pastor’s Wife.

Miller, 47, has faced sustained scrutiny since the April 27, 2024 death of his wife, Mica, who was 30 and had filed for divorce just days earlier.

As accusations emerged that he had abused Mica during their marriage and contributed to her death by suicide, attendance at his Solid Rock Church sharply declined.

Those who remained loyal moved with him to Mercy Church, a newly established congregation surrounded by businesses with names including Golf Knickers, Bare Wax and Beyond, and Hollywood’s Bar Grill.

Inside the compact space, Miller delivered his sermon with the same forceful style of his former megachurch days, wearing a green polo embroidered with the Mercy Church name.

Preaching alongside him is his new wife Suzie Skinner, 51, whom he is accused of having an affair with behind Mica’s back. Skinner’s ex-husband drowned in a swimming pool in 2021 amid her alleged affair with the pastor.

Miller was indicted by a grand jury in December last year on federal cyberstalking charges over a shocking alleged campaign of harassment against Mica in the lead up to her death. He faces trial later this year.

Mica was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Lumbee River State Park in North Carolina, after calling 911 to tell her family where to find her.

Miller is back in the headlines after the release of the damning documentary that delved into the many accusations surrounding their marriage.

For months, a growing group of ‘Justice for Mica’ campaigners have protested outside Mercy Church every Sunday, holding up pictures of Mica’s face and placards with slogans like ‘church walls won’t hide your crimes.’

Their presence has Miller rattled enough to impose paranoid security measures, including a newly installed six-foot wooden fence that blocks views of the church’s entrance and thick blinds covering the windows.

Miller was driven to and from the church and his home just 1.1 miles away by an armed private security guard last Sunday, and a uniformed Horry County Police Department officer stood watch outside the door.

The pastor sheepishly poked his head out the door minutes before the 10.30am service began to say a death threat had been made at the back entrance by someone on a golf cart.

The policeman ducked inside to investigate but returned to his post several minutes later.

No sooner was worship over about 12pm, Miller and Suzie were whisked out the back door into a gravel alley. 

By now the crowd of a few dozen protesters had moved to the intersection with the US-17 Bypass and screamed at his black Honda Ridgeline as it drove past.

When confronted by the Daily Mail outside his home soon afterwards, a furious Miller jumped back in his car and drove away while filming on his phone.

Mercy Church is Miller’s attempt at a rebrand after the fallout from Mica’s death doomed its previous incarnation, Solid Rock Church.

Boasting hundreds of members in its heyday, almost all of them abandoned Miller until the church was finally shut down and everything inside given away in November 2024 after an FBI raid on his home.

Miller soon began his new church with the few dozen who stuck by him, first meeting in a gym and an abandoned shop before the old church was sold for $2.1 million in February last year.

The humble new venue, measuring just 1,120sq ft and so narrow it could only fit rows of seven chairs, was acquired for $155,000 in cash.

Mercy Church was initially registered with a ‘Mollie Fleming’ as its sole agent, an almost identical name to Miller’s paternal grandmother Molly Fleming, who died in November aged 96.

‘Nana was closest to her grandson, John-Paul Miller, and spent her final years on Earth in deep prayer for her family,’ Molly’s obituary read.

Videos of early services showed only about 20 people with greying and thinning hair in the audience as both Miller and Suzie preached from a cheap, flimsy lectern.

Churchgoers said the congregation initially struggled to grow but claimed it had swelled to 40 or 50 people of all ages this year – despite the charges against its pastor.

Miller has largely kept his head down since he was indicted.

He and Suzie were spotted at a Myrtle Beach Pelicans minor league baseball game on September 2, dressed casually and trying to blend in.

The couple also appeared on an artist’s social media pages after she ran a canvas paint party at Mercy Church in June.

Sixteen church members, almost all of whom were elderly women, grinned as they showed off their paintings of a tropical island scene.

Also in the shot was Miller’s father Reginald Wayne Miller, himself a disgraced former pastor who is accused in civil lawsuits of sexual abuse.

The artist, Angela Bartholow, said she didn’t know who the pastor was and only realized the church’s notoriety after the Netflix documentary came out.

‘The people I interacted with during this activity were very nice to me, and welcoming,’ she said.

‘I can not, and will not judge an entire group of people based on one person’s actions, and allegations against them… At the end of the day I am just an artist who runs this small business.

‘I hope that justice is served in whatever capacity is deemed necessary, and I hope the friends and family of Mica find peace.’

Miller’s best friend and former business partner, Mark Kaufman, has also attempted to distance himself amid fallout from the documentary.

Kaufman said in a statement last week that he had ‘severed ties’ with Miller and his church and bought out his shares in a local bar they owned.

The businessman also denied accusations in the documentary that he picked up a woman from an airport and drove her to Miller so he could cheat on Mica with her.

Disturbing new claims in Death of the Pastor’s Wife included that Mica feared her husband would murder her and stage her suicide.

‘He’s gonna put a bullet in my head and then tell everybody I killed myself,’ Mica’s friend and former Solid Rock member Bruna Pabon claimed she said.

Mica’s siblings claimed Miller forcibly admitted her to a mental hospital and questioned whether she was really mentally ill.

An affidavit Mica wrote days before her death as part of a restraining order application, revealed by her lawyer Regina Ward, also accused him of sexually exploiting her.

‘Paid three homeless people to engage in threesome,’ Mica wrote, and that he injected her with testosterone to ‘keep up with [his] sex drive.’

Mica also claimed Miller showed nude photos of her in ‘sexual postures’ to members of Solid Rock Church.

‘I am afraid he will harm me due to past gun violence,’ she wrote.

In the Netflix documentary, it is claimed that Mica told friends Miller harassed her by turning the bedroom lights on and off to stop her sleeping when she didn’t want to have sex with him – something he demanded up to four times a day.

Miller faces up to five years in prison for federal cyberstalking charges and two years for making false statements, plus a fine of up to $250,000.

The case has been postponed several times and is scheduled for trial in October.

Mica filed for divorce from Miller in October 2023, before they reconciled in February 2024, then again on April 15, 2024, just before her death.

There is no evidence Miller murdered his wife and he has repeatedly denied any involvement, along with claims of abuse or infidelity.

Miller is also fighting separate civil claims, accused in a lawsuit last July of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1998 while working at his father’s church in Myrtle Beach when he was 19.

Days later, a second woman, known as ‘Jane Doe #2’, sued him and his father for sexual abuse between 1999 and 2001 starting when she was 14.

Miller has denied both claims.

Within moments of starting Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut,” one thing is unmistakable: This movie is headed somewhere gloriously unhinged.

Julianne Moore plays Mona, an outwardly timid yet fiercely wound-up New Jersey housewife who auditions for a supporting part in a musical staged by her local community theater. Moore approaches the role with the wild-eyed intensity of someone freshly freed from a straitjacket.

Ordinary small-town theater business, right? Not quite. Mona loses the role to Bernadette Peters.

What sort of supposedly amateur theater group can attract Bernadette Peters? Peters plays Serena Cherry, a local theater star, though her voice suggests someone who has, in fact, collected two Tony Awards.

That wonderfully surreal appearance by Broadway royalty lays down the central principle of Eisenberg’s third feature as writer-director, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival: Rules do not apply here, and neither does much of reality.

At times exhilarating, at others baffling, and consistently absurd, “The Debut” plays like a musical-theater fever dream born from “Waiting for Guffman” and “Black Swan.” It combines insider show-business jokes with a mounting psychological collapse. In other words, it is Weird with a capital W.

READ MORE: Harry and Meghan’s Children Reportedly Leave School After 2 Days

Above all, the film gives Moore — for whom Eisenberg wrote the part — a chance to cut loose. She has built a career on bold, destabilizing performances in films including “May December,” “Savage Grace,” “Boogie Nights” and, yes, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle.” Yet she has rarely been as all-in, or as magnificently deranged, as she is in “The Debut.” Her commitment to this frustrated suburban woman at a personal breaking point is so extreme it can inspire concern for the actor herself. It also produces some of Moore’s strongest work in years.

Luckily — or possibly disastrously — for Mona, Serena lands a job in New York City and leaves the production. Mona was, it turns out, the only other person who auditioned. She is subsequently cast as Miss Danielle, the apartment superintendent whose name sounds as though it belongs to a second-grade teacher.

Overseeing “Nosy Neighbors,” the musical at the center of the story, is its terrifying director, Jerry, a perfectionist jerk played by Paul Giamatti. Eisenberg wrote the songs himself, and they flirt knowingly with parody. If Moore’s great gift is playing lunatics, Giamatti’s may be playing assholes.

Mona’s castmates — Stef (Halle Bailey from “Little Mermaid”), Zachary (Colton Ryan) and Trish (Tony Award winner Bonnie Milligan) — revere haughty and pretentious Jerry like a pharaoh, but warn her that he is “going to drag you through the s–t and the mud.”

Indeed, Jerry’s tactic with mousy Mona is to crush her in order to squeeze out a better performance. With totalitarian cruelty, he obsesses over how she delivers a little line: “The rent’s due.”

And in the movie’s most memorable scene, a one-on-one after-hours rehearsal that spins out of control, he pushes her and pushes her until she snaps. To our utter delight. That’s when Jerry — and Mona — realize she’s got it.

Inspired, Mona devotes herself totally to Miss Danielle, like a New Jersey Daniel Day Lewis, shoving aside her husband and son who couldn’t care less what she does outside the home.

By now, Eisenberg’s film is out of its mind. Mona dyes her hair black and gives herself a Liza Minnelli pixie cut. Preferring her artsy new hobby to the monotony of motherhood, she discovers herself at the theater, just as Zac Efron did in “High School Musical,” except Mona coming out of her shell doesn’t move us or make us feel anything at all. This is an outlandish movie that’s more fun than it is deep.

Considering this is Eisenberg’s followup to the heartbreaking “A Real Pain,” that’s a slight bummer. Visually this is miles ahead of his last movie, though. Heightened “Debut” is a very, very slick production.

The whole reason to see it, though, is the spectacular Moore, who’s so batty as Mona you can’t look away, lest you miss the slightest freaky eyelid twitch.

Her fed-up homemaker character might be new to the highs and lows of the actor’s life, but Moore almost certainly has a second Oscar in her future. 

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

WHITMAN, Mass. — A juror who has spoken publicly after the Lindsay Clancy murder trial is rejecting claims that she was biased, while saying the case created an opportunity to draw attention to women’s mental health and postpartum illnesses.

“We didn’t know what was happening outside that room, but we knew we had an opportunity to start a conversation that could change something — that could maybe prevent this from ever happening again,” Paula Devlin, 65, told News Media. “I think that’s one reason we feel — or I feel — so strongly about it. I hope no other woman or husband ever has to go through this.”

Devlin made similar remarks over the weekend, prompting accusations that jurors entered the case with an agenda. She disputed those allegations Monday.

“We looked at the evidence, and there were holes in the prosecution’s case,” she said. “The biggest part of the entire case was mental health. How can you call that bias when only women can experience postpartum depression? Only women can experience postpartum psychosis. Only women can give birth. That isn’t bias. It’s simply a fact.”

Devlin said Clancy, a 36-year-old former delivery room nurse, repeatedly sought help but did not receive the care she needed.

In January 2023, Clancy strangled her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — with exercise bands before attempting to take her own life. She survived a fall from a second-story window but was left paralyzed.

“I truly, truly believe in my heart that if Lindsay had received the help she truly needed, those three children would still be here,” Devlin said. “Those five people would still be a family.”

MORE STORY: Meghan Markle Reportedly Gets Security Review for UK Return

A key flaw in the prosecution’s case, she said, was that they had no witnesses who would say anything bad about Clancy.

“Nobody could find one bad thing to say about this person, and I would bet my house that those prosecutors looked everywhere to find somebody to be derogatory and say derogatory things about Lindsay,” she said. “And nobody could.”

That includes her ex-husband and the victims’ father, Patrick Clancy, Devlin added.

Still, she said, she’s haunted by the children’s faces.

“Those three little faces and just wondering if we missed something, if we didn’t ask the right questions of each other, if we could have done better — it’s hard not to feel like we failed,” she said. “I mean everybody says we didn’t fail, but it’s hard to not feel that when you’re given a task and you don’t accomplish it.”

Medications used to treat depression rank among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, with roughly one in six American adults taking an antidepressant.

In recent years, however, some health researchers and patient advocates have questioned whether antidepressants are being prescribed too widely. They have also warned that many people who decide they want to stop taking the drugs find it difficult to do so.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has become one of the most high-profile figures raising those concerns. In May 2026, he launched an initiative urging doctors, where possible, to consider alternatives to antidepressants and other psychiatric medications for treating depression.

Psychiatry experts say the reality is more complicated. Antidepressants offer important benefits for many patients, while also carrying potential drawbacks. Although there is some basis for concerns about overuse, the broader evidence does not support a simple conclusion.

What are antidepressants, and who takes them?

More than half of all prescribed antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, known as SSRIs. The first of these drugs, fluoxetine — widely recognized by the brand name Prozac — received approval in 1987. Other SSRIs are available, along with several other classes of antidepressants that work through different biological mechanisms.

Antidepressants can be effective for people with moderate to severe depression. They are generally not recommended for mild depression, however, because their side effects may outweigh the likely benefits. A range of effective non-medication treatments is available for people with milder symptoms.

Still, the line between mild and more serious symptoms can become blurred. In common conversation, “depression” may refer to anything from a passing case of the blahs to a severe clinical illness that requires treatment.

Primary care clinicians routinely use a widely accepted questionnaire to screen patients for depression. The tool can help identify people who may need additional assessment or treatment. But when it is used alone as a diagnostic measure, it can be misread or interpreted incorrectly.

A person having a bad week or two who scores higher on a screening test might be prescribed a medication that was not necessary. 

But the tool can also fail to flag people who do need care. Over a third of people who die by suicide have visited a primary care provider in the month before their death. For those 55 and older, it rises to more than two-thirds.

Prescribing in general practice 

According to a 2026 analysis, most prescriptions for antidepressants in the US are not written by psychiatrists. In some cases, these medicines are prescribed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants with psychiatric qualifications, but most are written by primary care providers, who are not specialists in mental health.

Clinicians who provide primary care don’t just have less time to evaluate patients’ mental health concerns. They also have less access to ways of treating depression apart from medication, such as talk therapy.

Primary clinics that have behavioral health providers and consult with psychiatrists tend to help patients more effectively and provide more treatment options. These types of collaborative approaches to care are still rare but are becoming more common.

Today’s primary care providers do receive more training on mental health issues, and they are often more equipped to recommend lifestyle changes that can be especially helpful for people with less severe depression symptoms.

But it’s simply human nature that when given a choice between taking a daily medication and engaging in activities that require commitment and intention, many will choose medication.

The opposing forces of stigma and access 

Stigma has been a long-standing barrier in seeking mental healthcare.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression have become more prevalent. That’s particularly true among adolescents and young adults – especially young women, who tend to experience less stigma around mental health issues.

MORE STORY: Mamdani and New York AG Letitia James Sue Trump Over Visa Denials

New rules during the pandemic also made it significantly easier for people to access mental health treatment – both therapy and medications – remotely, via telehealth. Such access continues to grow. 

Before the pandemic, only one percent to two percent of antidepressant medications were prescribed via telehealth. By 2022, it was roughly one-third.

Given these trends, and the fact that clinicians often turn to medication for treating depression regardless of the severity, the uptick in antidepressant prescriptions since 2020 should come as no surprise. 

Virtual visits allow people to navigate more easily around stigma and find increased and convenient access to care. And many people feel more comfortable getting such care in a primary care clinic rather than a mental health clinic.

Systemic issues drive prescribing 

For all these reasons, one could argue antidepressant medications are likely overused in some cases. Undoubtedly, some people who take them either don’t benefit from them or could address their symptoms in other ways.

On the other hand, expanded access to mental healthcare – including medication – has also enabled people who need treatment to receive it. Even now, many Americans with serious depression receive no or limited treatment.

What’s more, this imbalance reflects systemic problems in the US healthcare system at least as much as physicians’ prescribing habits or patients’ requests.

For example, primary care clinics are a great place to screen for mental health issues, but getting proper treatment may involve more specialized care – which many patients can’t access. 

And on the business side, clinicians get little support in helping patients with lifestyle changes and non medication treatments – rather than prescribing drugs.

Difficulties in ditching antidepressants 

Kennedy has claimed that for some people, stopping antidepressants can be harder than quitting heroin. Research suggests such extreme effects of discontinuing medication are rare, though not unheard of.

Any time a person is on a medication for a significant period of time, the brain and body adapt to establish a new balance. This happens with other substances, too – as any regular coffee drinker who has tried abruptly quitting knows.

People who want to stop taking antidepressants after being on them for a long time generally do best when they gradually taper their dose over weeks to months, unless they have a specific reason for stopping more quickly.

For antidepressants, clinicians watch for withdrawal symptoms including sleep problems, flu-like symptoms, headaches and an electrical buzzing sensation in the head. 

A 2024 review of dozens of rigorous studies that compared the experiences of people taking antidepressants with those taking a sugar pill found that roughly a quarter of people stopping antidepressants experienced some withdrawal symptoms, and for three percent, they were severe.

While certain antidepressants might be more likely to cause withdrawal symptoms, it’s tough to tell who might have the most difficulty. And for some patients, depression is a chronic illness for which they must take medication indefinitely.

However, most people working with an experienced clinician are able to successfully discontinue these drugs. Ultimately, what’s most important is that patients are able to consult with a knowledgeable provider in making that decision.

This article is adapted from The Conversation, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge of experts. It was written by Andrew McLean, a clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of North Dakota. It was edited by Alexa Lardieri, the US health editor at the Daily Mail.