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)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members.
- 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.
- Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or "fundamentalism;" hostility towards relativism and situationalism.
- 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.
- Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups.
- Censorship: Amount of control over members' access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).
- Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers.
- 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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