DESTRUCTIVE CULTS:
AWARENESS AND RESISTANCE

PART 1: “Defining The Term “Cult.”

Part 1 Web Site:

www.wiu.edu/users/mfjks/cults992.htm

USAGE OF “DESTRUCTIVE CULT” IN TODAY’S PRESENTATION

® An organization of any sort that uses deception to recruit members and coercive persuasion to control members’ personality and behavior.

® religious organizations

® political organizations

® self-improvement groups

® business organizations

® even a dysfunctional family

CULTS:
Definitional Problems

® Popular (and WRONG) Definition:

® “Any religious organization I happen to hate or fear because it is different from my own!”

® “Cult” is regularly used like the worst racial slur and for similar reasons:

® fear of anything that is unfamiliar and different

® hatred of a minority group

® human ignorance and ugliness

® issues involving power and control in society

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AMERICA

® 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

® Our first freedom is religious freedom!!

RELIGIOUS ECOLOGY IN A FREE SOCIETY

® ESTABLISHED “SPECIES”

® Church = a single dominant religious organization in a given social environment

® Denomination = one of many religious organizations in a pluralistic social environment

RELIGIOUS ECOLOGY IN A FREE SOCIETY

® “NEW SPECIES” NEED MULTIPLE DEFINITIONS:

® new religious movements

® emergent spiritual movements

® alternative religions

® sects

® cults

New species are inevitable in a free society.

ALTERNATIVE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

® SECT:

® renews the “true faith”

® maintains the symbol system of the dominant religion in a given society

® in America, most new religious movements are Christian sects

® Sects can be even more dangerous and destructive than cults: examples = Branch Davidians, People’s Temple

ALTERNATIVE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

® CULTS:

® are innovative = they offer a truly NEW religious

perspective

® they don’t share a familiar symbol system

® in America, they are rarely Christian

® they generate more tension because they are so different from the “established species”

® they are potentially dangerous but also sometimes beneficial

“FIRE ANALOGY”

® Education is to knowledge as religion is to spirituality.

® Spirituality and knowledge are like fire.

® Both are very powerful but also potentially destructive

® Humans create educational institutions and religious institutions to control this fire.

“FIRE ANALOGY”

® Churches and denominations are like finely-tuned “family cars” -- lots of control of the “fires of combustion,” but they get you where you want to go.

® Sects and cults are like NACAR racers or nitro-dragsters -- pretty exciting, but the “fire” can blow you up!!

® Society needs both types of vehicles!