[Dean's World] Dean: Cults Vs. Religions

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Posted by Dean:
Cults Vs. Religions
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1142585846.shtml


   This [1]discussion of Isaac Hayes leaving South Park at Ann Althouse's
   blog sparked an interesting discussion that I felt deserved an answer.
   Ann and several of her commenters were asking what separates a cult
   from a regular religion, with several of them saying things like
   "Christianity and Islam are cults" or "a cult is just a religion you
   don't like."

   Well, people could say that but I had to take exception, because if
   you look at real, serious cults, they're much more than that. As I
   noted in Ann's comments, there really is a difference between a
   religion and a cult, and I speak as an atheist. Cults are seriously
   dangerous in ways everyday religions simply are not.

   If you want a very good description of the cult phenomenon that isn't
   just a religious indictment, see Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman's book
   [2]Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change.
   Siegelman and Conway are communications theorists, and it's not even
   clear what religious affiliation they have, if any. They merely do a
   very thorough breakdown of what serious cults look like, as opposed to
   how everyday religions are organized and behave. They go into far more
   detail than I do here, but signs of cults include:

   1) Forbidding you from having friends or even spending much time with
   relatives who are not members of the cult.

   2) A living figure, or figures, to whom absolute obedience is
   expected.

   3) Classic hypnotherapy-style brainwashing techniques, to change your
   personality and encourage absolute obedience.

   4) Use of malnutrition to weaken a person's mind (serious long-term
   malnutrition, not the occasional fast), also to aid in encouraging
   absolute obedience to the cult leadership and to alter your
   personality.

   5) Gradually taking more and more and more of a member's income until
   ultimately they are giving most of their livelihood, or all of it, to
   the cult.

   6) Threatening the life of those who leave the cult.

   7) Kidnapping escapees to bring them back in for reconditioning.

   Note that all of these are typical behavior for cults. A typical cult
   will have most or all of these features, not just one or two of them.
   Having a religious order where members are expected to take a vow of
   poverty, usually stated up front and voluntarily, is one thing. Having
   a case where everyday members are slowly over time drawn in to the
   point where it's simply expected that most or all of their earnings
   and worldly goods will belong to the group, however, is very common
   with cults.

   There's more. But honestly, cults are serious business and do not come
   down to just being "religions I don't like." [3]Snapping is a
   fascinating book and quite worth reading.

References

   1. http://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/03/isaac-hayes-quits-south-park.html
   2. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0964765004/sr=8-1/qid=1142570693/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7248400-3133425?%5Fencoding=UTF8/deansworld01-20
   3. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0964765004/sr=8-1/qid=1142570693/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7248400-3133425?%5Fencoding=UTF8/deansworld01-20