“God Is Fear”? 10 Signs That Your Church is Becoming A Cult

[OBW]

Tough topic. I say this because it typically turns into Jim Jones = cult and everything else is not. That is a false dichotomy.

Jim Jones (suicide cults) are an extreme subset of cults. At the very soft end of the spectrum, we noted back in the late 80s/early 90s that if you we running late on Sunday morning and noted that some people were already leaving, you could expect that someone would say that the Senior pastor was not there that morning and someone else was preaching. For these people, their commitment was (marginally) as members of a personality cult. (That was not characteristic of the group, but of certain members and the group would not actually be a cult). The ground in between is full of nuances and therefore varying reasons to possibly be wary of the group.

Where is the so-called Local Church? I suggest that 6 out of 10 signs is probably more than something to worry about.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by OBW

Where is the so-called Local Church? I suggest that 6 out of 10 signs is probably more than something to worry about.

I would say that prolly 9 out of 10 signs would prove that the family I grew up in was a cult. We had abuse, manipulation, mind control, legalism, authoritarian structure, gross fear of leaving, poverty, lack of transparency, overly strong leader, etc. Yup, a real cult. And my mother love-bombed all the new arrivals.

[UntoHim]

It seems that many (aka: A Lot!) of people always skip by the most relevant part of a group being labeled as a cult - and that is this - Just Who Is Calling Who A Cult?

If Dr. Walter Martin calls the religious group you are in "a cult", then your parents, friends and loved ones may have a very good reason to believe that you are in a cult.

Then, 20+ years later, when Dr. Martin's illegitimate successor gets paid 100s of thousands of dollars of bribe money by said cult, and declares that Dr. Martin et al were all "wrong" about their original, legitimate, well-founded assessment, then your parents, friends and loved ones may still have a very good reason to believe that you are in a cult.

But alas...a duck is still a duck, whether it be called a duck by a world-renowned ornithologist, or a stuttering toddler. Just sayin......
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[OBW]

Originally Posted by Ohio

I would say that prolly 9 out of 10 signs would prove that the family I grew up in was a cult. We had abuse, manipulation, mind control, legalism, authoritarian structure, gross fear of leaving, poverty, lack of transparency, overly strong leader, etc. Yup, a real cult. And my mother love-bombed all the new arrivals.

And some families are worth worrying about.

[TheStarswillFall]

Originally Posted by OBW

Tough topic.

Not really.

I have received help from some secular authorities regarding what is commonly held to be constituents (markers) of a cult.

They have been listed on this forum in a number of posts, but here are some of the common markers for identifying a cult:

1. Totalitarian leadership with a supreme leader (MOTA)
2. Definite hierarchy - (MOTA > blendeds > co-workers > elders > etc etc)
3. Thought reform (tha ministry)
4. Elitism ("poor Christianity")
5. Special knowledge (High Peak of the divine revelation / God's economy)
6. Isolation (rigorous demands of the church life schedule and doctrine)
7. Us vs Them mentality (everyone else is Babylon)
8. Fear of leaving the cult (To quote W Lee: "If you leave the Lord's Recovery you will loose everything"

There are many other finer points like
- zero toleration for questioning the leadership
- alienation from general society
- extreme legalism
- false representation of the cult's real identity to the outside world
- breaking down of the individual's traits to that of a common identity assumed by the group as a whole
- ostracizing and evil speaking of ex-members
- double standard of morality becoming more pronounce as you move up the hierarchy of the group

BTW, all of these points of behaviour is crystallized in the Lord's speaking regarding leadership:
"You know that the great among the gentiles LORD IT OVER THEM, it shall not be so among you"

Not so tough afterall.