Street Prophets

How To Spot A Cult

Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 02:09:52 PM PDT

Very few words are as loaded (and abused) in our culture than "cult".  Even though anthropologists consider a cult to just be a small religious movement, modern usage has turned it into a term to be thrown at any religious movement that one has personal disagreements with.

Really, the problem groups are the authortarian cults, the ones based on manipulation and control.  But how to spot these groups...that's the hard part.  Many destructive groups are quite good at appearing benign, and far too many people get caught up too deep before they realize that these people may not have their best interests at heart.

How can you tell the dangerous from the unfamiliar?  More after the flip...

Noted Pagan author Issac Bonewits, several years ago, compiled a test he calls his Cult Danger Evaluation Frame.  I have posted it here below (it's all over the net, but this is the latest version).  Groups are rated on a scale between 1 (low) and 10 (high).  The higher the number, the more cult-like the group can be considered.

Spiritual wanderers should keep a copy of this for future referance.  The latest version can always be found here.  While you're at it, check out Issac's blog Views from the Cyberhenge ...Issac's almost always opinionated, funny, and well worth reading.

The Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame
(version 2.6)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  1. Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members.

  2. External Control: Amount of external political and social influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members' external political and social behavior.

3. Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations; number and degree of unverified and/or unverifiable credentials claimed.

4. Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s); amount of hostility by members towards internal or external critics and/or towards verification efforts.

  1. Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or "fundamentalism;" hostility towards relativism and situationalism.

  2. Recruiting: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing; requirement for all members to bring in new ones.

7 Front Groups: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group, especially when connections are hidden.

8. Wealth: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members' donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.

9. Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups; amount of control exercised over sexuality of members in terms of sexual orientation, behavior, and/or choice of partners.

  1. Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups.

  2. Censorship: Amount of control over members' access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).

  3. Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers.

  4. Dropout Control: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts.

14. Violence: Amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s).

15. Paranoia: Amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; exaggeration of perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories.

16. Grimness: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).

17. Surrender of Will: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual disempowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).

18. Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group's declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain.


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  • Cookie Jar (0 / 0)

    But please, no kool-aid.

    Blessed Be

    Taliesin Athor Govannon: HP, Coven of Caer Arianrhod... Taliesin's CovenSpace Page: http://taliesin.covenspace.com

    by Taliesin on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 02:07:04 PM PDT

  • Nice summary (0 / 0)

    I was inveighing on this topic on my blog before the coal disaster. A simple version of the Golden Rule ("Do unto others..." "An thou harm none..."), take your pick, can be liberally applied to religious groups to pluck the bad weeds.

    http://godsrbored.blogspot.com

  • Wow (0 / 0)

    You know, based upon this list, I think that a lot of major corporations are really cults!

    To God belong the east and the west: Whereso ever you turn, there is the face of God. For God is all-Embracing, all-Knowing.

    by dervish on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 02:14:56 PM PDT

  • That about sums it up! (0 / 0)

    The neocon wing of the Republican Party can claim all of these characteristics, I believe. At the very least, it describes the community at a freepin' website that caters to them.

    Was that intentional, or simply a coincidence? You should cross-post it to dKos and watch -them- go bonkers, too.

  • As soon as I saw "cult" (0 / 0)

    in the subject with your name, I suspected Isaac's work would be involved somehow ;-).

    Hopefully I've got pretty good radar -- I managed to avoid (through the grace of the goddess IMNSHO) being initiated into the one group that he warns people away from back in the late 80s. Being declared persona non grata by someone like that, I consider to be a badge of honor :-).

  • I find it extremely interesting... (0 / 0)

    ...that my mother considers my religion, Unitarian Universalism, a "cult." Of course, she's an Evangelical Christian. Everything that strays from the Evangelical path is a "cult." Hell, my mother considers the Church of England/Anglican Communion a "cult."

    Just check out the principles of UUism at http://www.uua.org/ to see if you (or anyone else who is not an Evangelical Christian) think it's a "cult" under the defintions that Taliesin (cool userid, BTW) posted.

    Ari Mistral

    "The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

    by Ari Mistral on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 08:01:53 AM PDT

    • its a mom thing (0 / 0)

      My mom is a Catholic and thinks we belong to a cult since we go to a UCC church.  Its a mom thing.
      • Shoot... (0 / 0)

        ...my mom also thinks the RCC is a cult. In fact, she buys into the whole "Pope=Whore of Babylon" thing. Now Benedict XVI may be a whole lot of things, but he's not the supposed Whore of Babylon.

        Ari Mistral

        "The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

        by Ari Mistral on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 07:35:18 AM PDT

        [ Parent ]

  • Sounds a whole lot... (0 / 0)

    ...like groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Is there any mention of keeping up appearances, and I don't mean the British sitcom?

    Ari Mistral

    "The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

    by Ari Mistral on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 08:03:39 AM PDT

  • I'm stills truggling with the challenge (0 / 0)

    a writer named Isaac Bonewits must feel

    Seriously, it is an elastic concept -- really, a negative bag into which people can throw whatever uit is they don't like ...

    I agree there are seriously manipulaive groups ...

    Worse, some very "legitimized" groups do the same things ...

    Finally, thee are pockets within obviously legitimate groups that indulge in this stuff ...

    I.e., I can create my own little cult within my own faith ... just by the power of obsession and peer compacts

    • It's not so much if they do *some,* (0 / 0)

      but the more of these a group does, the more likely (not certain) it is that there's a problem.

      Not sure what the issue with Isaac's name is, but then I've known of him for many years now, and he may well be in my initiatory lineage (since Keltria was spun off from ADF).

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