Cult

:This article does not discuss "cult" in its original sense of "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult (religion). See Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".

Cults: genuine concerns and exaggerations

The stigma surrounding the classification of a group as a cult stems from the purported ill effect the group's influence has on its members. The narratives of ill effect include threats presented by a cult to its members (whether real or perceived), and risks to the physical safety of its members and to their mental and spiritual growth. Much of the actions taken against cults and alleged cults have been in reaction to the harm experienced by some members due to their affiliation with the groups in question. Members of alleged cult groups have taken pains to emphasize that not all groups called cults are dangerous. Over a period of time, some minority religious organizations that were at one point in time considered cults have been accepted by mainstream society, such as Mormonism, the Amish, and Christian Science in the USA, though the latter is faced with renewed opposition lately.

Related Topics:
Mormon - Amish - Christian Science

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Certain cults, such as Heaven's Gate, Ordre du Temple Solaire, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Peoples Temple have demonstrated by their actions that they do pose a threat to the well-being of both their own members and to society in general; these organizations are often referred to as doomsday cults by the media, and their mass suicides and mass murders are well-documented. According to John R. Hall, a professor in sociology at the University of California-Davis and Philip Schuyler, the Peoples Temple is still seen by some as the cultus classicus{{fn|25}},{{fn|26}}, though it did not belong to the set of groups that triggered the cult controversy in United States in the 1970s. Its mass suicide on November 18, 1978 led to increased concern about cults. Other groups include the Colonia Dignidad cult (a German group settled in Chile) that served as a torture center for the Chilean government during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Related Topics:
Heaven's Gate - Ordre du Temple Solaire - Aum Shinrikyo - Peoples Temple - University of California-Davis - 1970s - November 18 - 1978 - Colonia Dignidad

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Certain other groups, while not universally condemned, remain suspect in the minds of the general public, such as Scientology and to a lesser extent the Unification Church and the Children of God. A problem in studying such high-profile groups is to distinguish between a group's public image (which may have become fixed decades earlier) and the group's actual practices in the here and now. This is especially important when one is studying a group whose founder has died or which has splintered, or a group with foreign origins that is gradually integrating itself into another culture.

Related Topics:
Scientology - Unification Church - Children of God

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It is worth noting that despite the emphasis on narratives of "doomsday cults" by the media and the anti-cult movement, the number of cults known to have fallen into that category is approximately ten, which is very few when compared with the total number of new religious movements (including cults that are psychologically destructive but not extremely violent or doomsday-oriented), which E. Barker estimates to be in the tens of thousands.{{fn|10}}

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According to Benjamin Zablocki, the professor in Sociology at Rutgers University, cults are at high risk of becoming abusive to members. He states that this is in part due to members' adulation of charismatic leaders contributing to the leaders becoming corrupted by power. Zablocki defines a cult here as an ideological organization held together by charismatic relationships and demanding total commitment.{{fn|17}}

Related Topics:
Rutgers University - Charismatic

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There is no reliable, generally accepted way to determine which groups will harm their members. In an attempt to predict the probability of harm, popular but non-scientific cult checklists have been created by anti-cultists for this purpose.

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According to Barrett the most common accusation made against alleged "cults" is sexual abuse. See some allegations made by former members.

Related Topics:
Sexual abuse - Some allegations made by former members

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According to Kranenborg, some groups, like Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses are risky when they advise their members not to use regular medical care.{{fn|15}}

Related Topics:
Christian Science - Jehovah's Witnesses

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Barker, Barrett, and the anti-cult activist Steven Hassan all advise seeking information from various sources about a certain group before getting deeply involved, though these sources differ in the urgency they suggest.

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Stigmatization and discrimination

Some feel that the terms "cult" and "cult leader" are used pejoratively by opponents of cults, asserting that they are to be avoided to prevent harm. A website affiliated with Adi Da Samraj http://www.firmstand.org/ sees the activities of cult opponents as the exercise of prejudice and discrimination against them, and regards the use of the words "cult" and "cult leader" as similar to the manner in which "nigger" and "commie" were used in the past to denigrate blacks and Communists.

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In an essay by Amy Ryan{{fn|20}}, the argument is made for the need to differentiate those groups which may be dangerous from groups that are more benign. Ryan refers to New Religious Movements: Some Problems of Definition, were George Chryssides identifies two types of definitions: opponents define them in terms of negative characteristics, while scholars attempt to study these groups and be value free. The movements themselves may have different definitions of religion as well. Chryssides cites a need to develop more appropriate definitions to and allow for common ground in the debate. These definitions have political and ethical impact beyond just scholarly debate. In Defining Religion in American Law, for example, Bruce J. Casino presents the issue as crucial to international human rights laws. Limiting the definition of religion may interfere with freedom of religion, while too broad a definition may give some dangerous or abusive groups "a limitless excuse for avoiding all unwanted legal obligations."{{fn|34}}

Related Topics:
Amy Ryan - George Chryssides

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Also several authors in the cult opposition are not happy with the word cult. Some definitions used imply that there is a continuum with a large gray area separating "cult" from "noncult". {{fn|34}} Others authors, e.g. Steven Hassan differentiate by using terms like Destructive cult or Cult (totalitarian type) vs. benign cult.

Related Topics:
Steven Hassan - Destructive cult

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Leaving a cult

There are basically three ways people leave a cult {{fn|18}},{{fn|37}}

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• by intervention (Exit counseling, deprogramming)
• on their own decision (walkaways)
• through expulsion (castaways)

The majority of authors agree that there are some people who experience problems after leaving a cult. There are, though, disagreements regarding the frequency of such problems and regarding the cause.

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According to Barker (1989), the biggest worry about possible harm concerns the relatively few dedicated followers of a new religious movement (NRM). Barker also mentions that some former members may not take new initatives for quite a long time after disaffiliation from the NRM. This generally does not concern the many superficial, or short-lived, or peripheral supporters of a NRM. Membership in a cult usually does not last forever: 90% or more of cult members ultimately leave their group{{fn|2}},{{fn|4}}.

Related Topics:
Barker (1989) - New religious movement

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According to Carol Giambalvo, most people leaving a cult do have to a certain degree psychological problems like feelings of guilt or shame, depression, feeling of inadequacy, or fear, independent of their manner of leaving the cult. Feelings of guilt, shame or anger are by her observation worst with castaways, but walkaways can also have serious problems with feeling inadequate or guilty. People who had interventions or a rehabilitation therapy do have similar problems but are usually better prepared to deal with them.{{fn|37}}

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Bromley and Hadden say that there is lack of empirical support for alleged consequences of having been a member of a cult or sect, and that there is substantial empirical evidence against it such as, the fact that the overwhelming proportion of people who get involved in NRMs do leave, most short of two years, the overwhelming proportion of people leave of their own volition, and that two-thirds (67%) felt "wiser for the experience"{{fn|14}}.

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Flo and Conway in Snapping described a survey regarding after-cult effects and deprogramming and concluded that people deprogrammed had less problems than people not deprogrammed.:

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"...Our last block of findings concerned the controversial issue of deprogramming. The numbers confirmed that deprogramming was indeed a vital first step on the road back from cult control. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the people in our survey were deprogrammed, about half voluntarily and half involuntarily. As a group, they reported a third less, and in many cases only half as many, post-cult effects than those who weren?t deprogrammed. Average rehabilitation time was one-third longer--more than a year and a half--for those who weren?t deprogrammed compared to just over a year for those who were. Overall, deprogrammees reported a third fewer months of depression, forty percent less disorientation, half as many sleepless nights--clearly, something in the process worked! ..." {{fn|38}}

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The BBC writes that in a survey done by Jill Mytton on 200 former cult members most of them reported problems adjusting to society and about a third would benefit from some counseling. {{fn|36}}

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Burks (2002) in a study comparing Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA9 and Neurological Impairment Scale (NIS) scores in 132 former members of cults and cultic relationships found a positive correlation between intensity of thought reform environment as measured by the GPA and cognitive impairment as measured by the NIS. Additional findings were a reduced earning potential in view of the education level which corroborates earlier studies of cult critics ( (Martin 1993; Singer & Ofshe, 1990; West & Martin, 1994) and significant levels of depression and dissociation agreeing with Conway & Siegelman, (1982), Lewis & Bromley, (1987) and Martin, et al. (1992). {{fn|39}}

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According to Barret, in many cases the problems do not happen while in a movement, but when leaving a movement which can be difficult for some members and may include a lot of trauma. Reasons for this trauma may include conditioning by the religious movement, avoidance of uncertainties about life and its meaning, having had powerful religious experiences, love for the founder of the religion, emotional investment, fear of losing salvation, bonding with other members, anticipation of the realization that time, money and efforts donated to the group were a waste, and the new freedom with its corresponding responsibilities, especially for people who lived in a community. Those reasons may prevent a member from leaving even if the member realizes that some things in the NRM are wrong. According to Kranenborg, in some religious groups, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, members have all their social contacts within the group, which makes disaffection and disaffiliation very traumatic.{{fn|15}} According to F. Derks and J. van der Lans there is no uniform post-cult trauma but psychological and social problems upon resignation are not rare but their character and intensity are greatly dependent on the personal history and on the traits of the person, and on the reasons for and way of resignation.{{fn|16}}

Related Topics:
Trauma - Conditioning - Salvation - Jehovah's Witness - Post-cult trauma

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See also Shunning

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Criticism by former members of purported cults

Allegations against cults come from a variety of sources including parents, relatives and close friends of cult members (who believe their loved one has undergone a personality change for the worse); victims of scams perpetrated by some cults; people who go to a few meetings and then back away out of fear; researchers who carefully study a cult's published literature; persons raised in cults who left after coming of age; and former adult members.

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Usually the most dramatic allegations as well as the most systematic and detailed ones, will come from adult former members (also known by the pejorative term "apostates" in the writings of so-called cult apologists such as Melton) and in some instances from persons who were raised in the cult.

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The allegations of former members include sexual abuse by the leader, failed promises and failed prophecy, causing suicides through neglect or abuse, leaders who do not admit nor apologize for mistakes, false irrational or even contradictory teachings, exclusivism, deception in recruitment (by using "front groups"), demands of total immersion in religion at the expense of career, education, family and friends, and more.

Related Topics:
Prophecy - Exclusivism - Deception

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The role of former members in the controversy surrounding cults, has been widely studied by social scientists. Former members in this context are those individuals who become public opponents against their former movement. The former members' motivations, the roles they play in the anti-cult movement, the validity of their testimony, and the kinds of narratives they construct, are controversial with some scholars who suspect that at least some of the narratives are strongly influenced by the exit-counseling (or formerly of the deprogramming) process, while other scholars conclude that testimonies of former members are at least as accurate as testimonies of current members.

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See also Apostasy in new religious movements.

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Allegations made by scholars and skeptics

• False, irrational or even contradictory teaching made by David C. Lane with regards to Paul Twitchell
• False miracles performed or endorsed by the leadership, made by the skeptics Abraham Kovoor, H. Narasimhaiah, and Basava Premanand for a variety of gurus and fakirs;
• Discouraging regular medical care but instead relying on faith healing, made by the magazine salon.com with regards to Christian Science;
• Plagiarism, allegations made by David C. Lane;
• Incitement to anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, as documented in the writings of Dennis King;
• Child abuse, for example subjecting blindfolded children to many hours of meditation, as documented by Dr. David C. Lane with regards to Thakar Singh{{fn|29}}.
• Forced labour and confinement of members made by Stephen A. Kent regarding Scientology {{fn|40}}.

Other allegations

• Harassment and ad hominem attacks on critics: Allegations regarding the use of such tactics have been made against Scientology, the Lyndon LaRouche organization, and the now defunct Synanon drug-treatment cult.