- Topic
Do not dispute things here! This topic is a place for everyone to put ideas for what a cult is. We have cult groups that always cry foul and argue that the criteria used to prove them to be a cult is not accurate. This is a chance for everyone to put their criteria for what they believe are characteristics of a cult. The other thing cult member love to do is try to make everything look like a cult. Don't use this post as a springboard for that either. Stick with the topic and lets see if we can come to a better understanding.
o just in case you didn't see my other post maybe you'd like to hear from othe cult experts.
Here are some things that make up a cult and if a few of these exist within an Organization it “might” be a cult.
The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.
Well, this is from Cult Information Centre:
Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following five characteristics:
1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members
2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.
4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds recruit people.
5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.
from my point of view, the difference between a cult and a religion is :
Cult : a group of people that created something with the sole aim to prey and manipulate other people for their own personal gain.
The word cult in current popular usage is a pejorative term for a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society.[1] The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices. The word was first used in the early 17th century denoting homage paid to a divinity and borrowed via the French culte from Latin cultus "worship", from the adjective cultus "inhabited, cultivated, worshipped", derived from the verb colere "care, cultivate."[2]In the 1930s cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior. They have been criticized by mainstream Christians for their unorthodox beliefs. In the 1970s the anticult movement arose, partly motivated by acts of violence and other crimes committed by members of some cults. Some of the claims of the anti-cult movement have been disputed by other scholars, leading to further controversies. Discrimination against cult members has been an ongoing issue in some nations, as well as concerns about doomsday cults and destructive cults. Governments have undertaken various policies towards cults, ranging from tolerance to hostility, and this has also been a source of controversy.
Funny.
KC wrote:
from my point of view, the difference between a cult and a religion is :
Cult : a group of people that created something with the sole aim to prey and manipulate other people for their own personal gain.
Right on. <and> Generally, para-christian.
So sayeth the Stained. /; v )
do you all remember the brothers in my class? there were three. one doesn't come anymore; i think he graduated. but there was another who didn't talk to the rest of the class until recently. he normally sat with the other brothers and didn't laugh at our dirty jokes. but recently, all that has changed. he talks to us more and even makes jokes of his own. he also moved his seat. it looks as though he's not so into the wmscog anymore. i had nothing to do with it, nonetheless i'm still glad.
It’s happening.
I believe a cult boils down to two elements: 1.) Corporately: they operate in secret (lack of transparancy). (no open door policy)
2.) They use various forms of pressure to get members to fall in line w/ doctrine
if that's the case, i've a part of two cults in my life..
sounds like every religious institution or corporation or union or political party ever
i think a lot of parenting techniques, churches, the military, etc. express cult like traits.
making a child wash his mouth out with soap for saying a bad word. not allowing a member to attend services because she's a lesbian. yelling at recruits to run ridiculous lengths for looking you in the eye. in order to live at home [my home at least], go to some churches, and be a marine, you must act, talk, and be a certain way or there will be consequences. the wmscog almost makes it mandatory to wear a suit, bow when greeting members, and other things for you to be considered a true member.
but what makes it a cult, i think, is the destruction the leaders are willing commit in order to receive a personal gain.
parents, normally, aren't washing their children's mouths out with soap for money.
pastors aren't rejecting gays for control.
the military doesn't holler for fame.
but the things some people do are for those reasons and i think when people begin to obey what that person says for the leader's personal gain, you have a cult. religious or otherwise.
renita.payno wrote:
i think a lot of parenting techniques, churches, the military, etc. express cult like traits.
making a child wash his mouth out with soap for saying a bad word. not allowing a member to attend services because she's a lesbian. yelling at recruits to run ridiculous lengths for looking you in the eye. in order to live at home [my home at least], go to some churches, and be a marine, you must act, talk, and be a certain way or there will be consequences. the wmscog almost makes it mandatory to wear a suit, bow when greeting members, and other things for you to be considered a true member.
but what makes it a cult, i think, is the destruction the leaders are willing commit in order to receive a personal gain.
parents, normally, aren't washing their children's mouths out with soap for money.
pastors aren't rejecting gays for control.
the military doesn't holler for fame.
but the things some people do are for those reasons and i think when people begin to obey what that person says for the leader's personal gain, you have a cult. religious or otherwise.
yes everything becomes a cult. companies that make you wear a suit becomes a cult. Military, or even school.
Even the Catholic church, they wear their own getup, which I don't know what there called but those red and purple things.
Monetary gain? the Catholic church is the richest organization in the world. They ask for tithes, also many other churches. Also they are not transparent. Do they ruin homes? There nuns go away from the world and live apart from society, but why is it when you dedicate your life for them it's okay? I wouldn't want my daughter to be a nun. So if I get upset and say something about it, then I can clasify them as destructive and ruining families?
I think that ruining families, is how you look at it. Is the parent upset because their children are away from them? then parents should be upset at their childrens companies which make them go on long and far away jobs around the world, or even the military, or like I said about nuns or priests but that's not the case.
I think parents get upset because they don't like the entity their children are working for, but that's not up to the parent to like it or not.
So to prove a cult is destructive for these points is dificult. Then what is a destructive cult?
I believe its when they physically harm themselves that is destructive.
To say 'destructive cult' implies there are other kinds. IMO, a cult can't be a cult without being destructive. The military isn't a cult because it isn't destructive. Families are separated for a long time which causes stress and sometimes ends in divorce, cheating, suicide, etc. But the military doesn't encourage members to be secluded from their friends and family because they don't agree with war, guns, etc. IMO, cults encourage members to stay away from people who don't agree with their beliefs. This is deliberately* destructive. The former is a result of the job requirements. You signed up to go across the world and risk your life for the 'greater cause.' I mean.. are there any cults that say out right 'you will be sent away and denied contact with friends and family for extensives periods of time. Are you sure you want to join this cult?'
renita.payno wrote:
To say 'destructive cult' implies there are other kinds. IMO, a cult can't be a cult without being destructive. The military isn't a cult because it isn't destructive. Families are separated for a long time which causes stress and sometimes ends in divorce, cheating, suicide, etc. But the military doesn't encourage members to be secluded from their friends and family because they don't agree with war, guns, etc. IMO, cults encourage members to stay away from people who don't agree with their beliefs. This is deliberately* destructive. The former is a result of the job requirements. You signed up to go across the world and risk your life for the 'greater cause.' I mean.. are there any cults that say out right 'you will be sent away and denied contact with friends and family for extensives periods of time. Are you sure you want to join this cult?'
But mix military organization with religios doctrine, and you have a cult.
fromtheotherside wrote:
renita.payno wrote:
i think a lot of parenting techniques, churches, the military, etc. express cult like traits.
making a child wash his mouth out with soap for saying a bad word. not allowing a member to attend services because she's a lesbian. yelling at recruits to run ridiculous lengths for looking you in the eye. in order to live at home [my home at least], go to some churches, and be a marine, you must act, talk, and be a certain way or there will be consequences. the wmscog almost makes it mandatory to wear a suit, bow when greeting members, and other things for you to be considered a true member.
but what makes it a cult, i think, is the destruction the leaders are willing commit in order to receive a personal gain.
parents, normally, aren't washing their children's mouths out with soap for money.
pastors aren't rejecting gays for control.
the military doesn't holler for fame.
but the things some people do are for those reasons and i think when people begin to obey what that person says for the leader's personal gain, you have a cult. religious or otherwise.
yes everything becomes a cult. companies that make you wear a suit becomes a cult. Military, or even school.
Even the Catholic church, they wear their own getup, which I don't know what there called but those red and purple things.
Monetary gain? the Catholic church is the richest organization in the world. They ask for tithes, also many other churches. Also they are not transparent. Do they ruin homes? There nuns go away from the world and live apart from society, but why is it when you dedicate your life for them it's okay? I wouldn't want my daughter to be a nun. So if I get upset and say something about it, then I can clasify them as destructive and ruining families?
I think that ruining families, is how you look at it. Is the parent upset because their children are away from them? then parents should be upset at their childrens companies which make them go on long and far away jobs around the world, or even the military, or like I said about nuns or priests but that's not the case.
I think parents get upset because they don't like the entity their children are working for, but that's not up to the parent to like it or not.
So to prove a cult is destructive for these points is dificult. Then what is a destructive cult?
I believe its when they physically harm themselves that is destructive.
This is not popular, but I am going to say it since i used to be Catholic for most of my life. Catholic church has cult characteriistics, especially in the ecclesiastical divisions. Also the doctrine is plenty strange, but since they been around the longest, protestants fell asleep at the wheel. What amazes me is an organization who has been around as long as Catholicism has the ability to create long term plans to accomplish their agenda. Can you imagine the centuries of intelligence they have as political and religious leaders on human phychology and governments in their vaults. Devout Catholics are dogmatic about two beliefs, that is the belief that the pope should have politcal authority and should have religio authority for the Pope. This has always been the case. So no matter what happened at the Council of Trent II, these two goals have never change.
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