(3713,48,'2012-01-07 12:24:16','2012-01-07 20:24:16','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups. It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nBut what is a cult, really?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following defininition:\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, which is pretty much what you will find in any general dictionary, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSAv\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characteristcs that cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these traits.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nFor example:\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nGoing by this definition, which is pretty much what you will find in any general dictionary, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstre','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-4','','','2012-01-07 12:24:16','2012-01-07 20:24:16','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(3715,48,'2012-01-07 12:32:30','2012-01-07 20:32:30','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that But what is a cult, really?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following defininition:\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, which is pretty much what you will find in any general dictionary, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSAv\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characteristcs that cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these traits.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nFor example:','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-6','','','2012-01-07 12:32:30','2012-01-07 20:32:30','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(3718,48,'2012-01-07 12:47:22','2012-01-07 20:47:22','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n\nThe group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.\n\nQuestioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.\n\nMind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).\n\nThe leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).\n\nThe group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).\n\nThe group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society\n\nThe leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).\n\nThe group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).\n\nThe leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.\n\nSubservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.\n\nThe group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.\n\nThe group is preoccupied with making money.\n\nMembers are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.\n\nMembers are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.\n\nThe most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)\n\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-9','','','2012-01-07 12:47:22','2012-01-07 20:47:22','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(3719,48,'2012-01-07 12:49:09','2012-01-07 20:49:09','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n<ol>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The group is preoccupied with making money.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</span></li>\n	<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</span></li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait. For example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team.','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-10','','','2012-01-07 12:49:09','2012-01-07 20:49:09','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(3717,48,'2012-01-07 12:42:16','2012-01-07 20:42:16','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA:\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">iin</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group is preoccupied with making money.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, MMichael</p>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these traits\n<p class=\"title\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 0pc;margin-right: 0pc\">Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups - Revised</p>\n<p class=\"publication\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 0pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\" lang=\"FR\">Michael D. Langone, Ph.D</span></p>','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-8','','','2012-01-07 12:42:16','2012-01-07 20:42:16','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(3716,48,'2012-01-07 12:38:01','2012-01-07 20:38:01','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA:\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characteristcsthat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these traits\n<p class=\"title\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 0pc;margin-right: 0pc\">Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups - Revised</p>\n<p class=\"publication\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 0pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\" lang=\"FR\">Michael D. Langone, Ph.D</span></p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 0pc;margin-right: 0pc\"></p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">iin</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The group is preoccupied with making money.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</p>\n<p class=\"article\" style=\"text-align: -webkit-auto;text-indent: 0px;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1pc;margin-left: 4.5pc;margin-right: 0pc\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\"><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">·<span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px;font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal \'Times New Roman\'\">         </span></span></span><span style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">?</span>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</p>','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-7','','','2012-01-07 12:38:01','2012-01-07 20:38:01','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(3720,48,'2012-01-07 13:13:30','2012-01-07 21:13:30','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\n\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-11','','','2012-01-07 13:13:30','2012-01-07 21:13:30','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-11/',0,'revision','',0),(3724,48,'2012-01-07 14:00:50','2012-01-07 22:00:50','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\n\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official,\n\n&nbsp;','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-13','','','2012-01-07 14:00:50','2012-01-07 22:00:50','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-13/',0,'revision','',0),(3725,43,'2012-01-07 09:25:23','2012-01-07 17:25:23','The title of this article is a quote from the film <a href=\"http://www.tuckermax.com/movie\"><em>I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell</em></a>, a crude movie about the escapades of Tucker Max.  I should note here that I haven\'t seen the film; I found the quote on a blog about rape culture.  Sadly, though it may be phrased more politely, far too many men echo the sentiment of the quote.  They are eager to blame women for their lack of sexual self-control.  One young man recently told me, \"What girls don\'t get is that if they dress a certain way, guys are going to <em>treat</em> them a certain way.\"\n\nI\'m crying baloney on that one.  Men have been using their sexuality to dominate women for thousands of years.  It has nothing to do with what women put on their bodies.  If it did, then rape wouldn\'t exist in cultures where women are covered head-to-toe.  And if it were about modesty, then we shouldn\'t have had rape in America before the turn of the century (excluding prostitutes, of course).  I don\'t know about anyone else, but I am sick to death of hearing about how a woman was to blame for the way a man treated her, based on whatever he deems \"leading.\"\n\nI\'m also tired of the way that too many churches teach this as faith-based sexuality.  Girls are shamed for dressing \"inappropriately,\" and warned about the visually-driven male libido.  But boys are given a pass if the girl seemed like she was asking for it.  The pressure is constantly on girls and women to make sure we don\'t send the wrong signals or put ourselves in situations where we might \"get ourselves raped.\"  There is very little pressure on guys to make sure they\'re treating us respectfully, regardless of our state of dress or level of intoxication.  Given that, it should come as no surprise that I was refreshed to see this photo posted on my friend\'s Facebook page:\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Men-Can-Stop-Rape.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3568\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Men-Can-Stop-Rape-206x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nYes, men and boys, you <em>do </em>have the power to treat women and girls right, no matter the circumstances.  I want to see much more of this kind of thing taught to our sons.  I want to see much less of our daughters being blamed for mistreatment by males.','“Your gender is hardwired for whoredom.”','','inherit','open','open','','3562-revision-8','','','2012-01-07 09:25:23','2012-01-07 17:25:23','',3562,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3562-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(3726,48,'2012-01-07 14:16:44','2012-01-07 22:16:44','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\n\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\n\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official, this leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how thing were handled during our time at the minstry and the way in which we left. In the first few months I eagerly and easily called this ministry a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage youu not to be too hasty. While I do not beleive the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, think that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Now, having good intentions doessn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Much horrific acts have been done in the name of God and God\'s will.  And at this ministry, I think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good. Granted, it isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Ai and  committing mass suicide. In this particular instance, I think the root of the issue most likely lies with abuse of pwer within an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church authority, one that I should state many Christians believe is biblical. So what then?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a dangerous \"cult\". However, I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change.\n\nWhat do you think regarding calling churches, ministries, and organizations \"cults\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessaril\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-14','','','2012-01-07 14:16:44','2012-01-07 22:16:44','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-14/',0,'revision','',0),(3728,48,'2012-01-07 14:18:46','2012-01-07 22:18:46','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\r\n\r\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\r\n\r\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official, this leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how thing were handled during our time at the minstry and the way in which we left. In the first few months I eagerly and easily called this ministry a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage youu not to be too hasty. While I do not beleive the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, think that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Now, having good intentions doessn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Much horrific acts have been done in the name of God and God\'s will.  And at this ministry, I think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good. Granted, it isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Ai and  committing mass suicide. In this particular instance, I think the root of the issue most likely lies with abuse of pwer within an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church authority, one that I should state many Christians believe is biblical. So what then?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a dangerous \"cult\". However, I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think regarding calling churches, ministries, and organizations \"cults\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-16','','','2012-01-07 14:18:46','2012-01-07 22:18:46','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-16/',0,'revision','',0),(3727,48,'2012-01-07 14:17:34','2012-01-07 22:17:34','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot in regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and sometimes with what I see as an appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, and probably rightly so, by broken and hurting people. It\'s a word used by a commenter recent previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word. Cult.\r\n\r\nIt\'s used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like (insert examples... Jonestown group name and Heaven\'s Gatees??)  It\'s also used against many other Christian churches and ministries that have an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should throw aaround unless they no for certain that a group is a cult. But what is a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : <a href=\"http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship\">worship</a></span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, by this definition, any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac.  And, with the exception of the third definition above that describes cult as a religion \"regarded as unorhtodox or spurious\", the term \'cult\' doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over the use of the word \"cult\", given that what is generally a neutral term has become to bring to mind only pictures of poisoned Kool-Aid of Jonestown infamy or the Charles Mansen cult murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\r\n\r\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official, this leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how thing were handled during our time at the minstry and the way in which we left. In the first few months I eagerly and easily called this ministry a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage youu not to be too hasty. While I do not beleive the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, think that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Now, having good intentions doessn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Much horrific acts have been done in the name of God and God\'s will.  And at this ministry, I think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good. Granted, it isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Ai and  committing mass suicide. In this particular instance, I think the root of the issue most likely lies with abuse of pwer within an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church authority, one that I should state many Christians believe is biblical. So what then?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a dangerous \"cult\". However, I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think regarding calling churches, ministries, and organizations \"cults\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-15','','','2012-01-07 14:17:34','2012-01-07 22:17:34','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-15/',0,'revision','',0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (3729,48,'2012-01-07 14:39:23','2012-01-07 22:39:23','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult\", since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Mansen murders. However, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\n\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official, this leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how thing were handled during our time at the minstry and the way in which we left. In the first few months I eagerly and easily called this ministry a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage youu not to be too hasty. While I do not beleive the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, think that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Now, having good intentions doessn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Much horrific acts have been done in the name of God and God\'s will.  And at this ministry, I think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good. Granted, it isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Ai and  committing mass suicide. In this particular instance, I think the root of the issue most likely lies with abuse of pwer within an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church authority, one that I should state many Christians believe is biblical. So what then?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a dangerous \"cult\". However, I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change.\n\nWhat do you think regarding calling churches, ministries, and organizations \"cults\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-17','','','2012-01-07 14:39:23','2012-01-07 22:39:23','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-17/',0,'revision','',0),(3730,48,'2012-01-07 14:41:05','2012-01-07 22:41:05','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nEven sociologist and psychologists tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult\", since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Mansen murders. Furthermore, it can be difficult to be fully objective when determining what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. And, who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominationsI thin it is likely each denomination would find themselves stuck with that label by another one.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThat being said, here is a list of characteristics found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\n\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official, this leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how thing were handled during our time at the minstry and the way in which we left. In the first few months I eagerly and easily called this ministry a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage youu not to be too hasty. While I do not beleive the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, think that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Now, having good intentions doessn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Much horrific acts have been done in the name of God and God\'s will.  And at this ministry, I think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good. Granted, it isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Ai and  committing mass suicide. In this particular instance, I think the root of the issue most likely lies with abuse of pwer within an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church authority, one that I should state many Christians believe is biblical. So what then?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a dangerous \"cult\". However, I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change.\n\nWhat do you think regarding calling churches, ministries, and organizations \"cults\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nHowever, most agree that there is really a continuum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult\", which is why many have given to adding further descriptors, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign\" to cults. Because of this, for the purposes of this article, I have gotten the majority of my information on cults from the International Cultic Studies Association.  They focus on the damaging aspects and practices that often occur in damaging cults, but they are careful not to specifically list possible cultts on their webpage, as there are many gray areas where groups may contain some aspeccts of cults, but not really be a full blown cult, or a dangerous cult','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-18','','','2012-01-07 14:41:05','2012-01-07 22:41:05','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-18/',0,'revision','',0),(3731,48,'2012-01-07 14:52:38','2012-01-07 22:52:38','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the International Cultic Studies Association has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt <span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nEven with this list, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. This is not a checklist to determine if a group is a cult for certain or not, but is merely a guideline of  characterithat cults often display. It is possible for a dangerous cult to not display all of these, and I think it is also possible for a group that is not a cult by today\'s current usage of the word to display some or even many of these trait.\n\nFor example, if you think about it, many of these traits could describe a sports team. In a sports team, all of the members are committed wholly to the coach. Questioning the coach can lead to being benched or removed from the team. Team members often engage in pre-game chants to grow team unity. Furthermore, the team must wear the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us versus them attitude towards any other teams they come across. Being apart of the team may also affect heir relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games.  They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nWhile the term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, I do still think it a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups. Some people have a perception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, really studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!) People of all walks of life can be suspect to cults, especially since there is often misleading information about the true nature of cult activity when you first become involved. However, it is important that we are careful before immediately tossing out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disagree with or even one that has truly hurt us.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold Christian para-church ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather worked along side Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew many of the members from my previous church when I was still in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I joined the team, and our involvement became deeper. As time progressed, meetings became more frequent and went into the early morning hours, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking to alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, things were were not supposed to discuss with non-team members, and much more. Questioning of the leader was not only discouraged in public, but when you questioned him in private, it was also turned around to be your own issue, as it revealed a \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority\". Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc, everyone was really too tired to have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership knew of people that disapproved of the ministry that team members still associated with, were were discouraged to continue more than a superficial relationship with them. While our leader would not outrightly say we could not associate with them, he said the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our heart. Not wanting to be at extra-curricular team events, which were supposedly \"optional\", also revealed our heart issues. What\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t tow the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave. A day before his scheduled meeting with the head of the ministry where he was going to make our leaving official, this leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how thing were handled during our time at the minstry and the way in which we left. In the first few months I eagerly and easily called this ministry a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage youu not to be too hasty. While I do not beleive the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, think that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Now, having good intentions doessn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Much horrific acts have been done in the name of God and God\'s will.  And at this ministry, I think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good. Granted, it isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Ai and  committing mass suicide. In this particular instance, I think the root of the issue most likely lies with abuse of pwer within an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church authority, one that I should state many Christians believe is biblical. So what then?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a dangerous \"cult\". However, I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change.\n\nWhat do you think regarding calling churches, ministries, and organizations \"cults\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-19','','','2012-01-07 14:52:38','2012-01-07 22:52:38','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-19/',0,'revision','',0),(3732,48,'2012-01-07 15:38:37','2012-01-07 23:38:37','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, an other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the International Cultic Studies Association has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-20','','','2012-01-07 15:38:37','2012-01-07 23:38:37','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-20/',0,'revision','',0),(3734,48,'2012-01-07 15:50:40','2012-01-07 23:50:40','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with damaging cults, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group Characterist</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-22','','','2012-01-07 15:50:40','2012-01-07 23:50:40','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-22/',0,'revision','',0),(3733,48,'2012-01-07 15:39:15','2012-01-07 23:39:15','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the International Cultic Studies Association has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with damaging cults, according to the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group (Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups-Revised, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D)</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership was doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-21','','','2012-01-07 15:39:15','2012-01-07 23:39:15','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-21/',0,'revision','',0),(3735,48,'2012-01-07 15:51:04','2012-01-07 23:51:04','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-23','','','2012-01-07 15:51:04','2012-01-07 23:51:04','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-23/',0,'revision','',0),(3736,48,'2012-01-07 15:51:42','2012-01-07 23:51:42','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definiation is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or the cult following of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. And, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" doesn\'t necessarily have a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-24','','','2012-01-07 15:51:42','2012-01-07 23:51:42','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-24/',0,'revision','',0),(3737,48,'2012-01-07 15:58:19','2012-01-07 23:58:19','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-25','','','2012-01-07 15:58:19','2012-01-07 23:58:19','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-25/',0,'revision','',0),(3738,48,'2012-01-07 15:58:45','2012-01-07 23:58:45','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and thought.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I still struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! At the same time, I just couldn\'t believe that is what God had for me. In the end, while I prayed for God to release me, my husband decided we needed to leave, and he met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it afford some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believe that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good, but it also isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. While I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-26','','','2012-01-07 15:58:45','2012-01-07 23:58:45','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-26/',0,'revision','',0),(3748,48,'2012-01-07 18:14:24','2012-01-08 02:14:24','There\'s a  four-letter word getting thrown around a lot lately. It\'s a word I\'ve heard used flippantly, jokingly, and disparagingly. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger, and a lot more cautiously after great consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless it is known for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-34','','','2012-01-07 18:14:24','2012-01-08 02:14:24','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-34/',0,'revision','',0),(3739,48,'2012-01-07 16:19:35','2012-01-08 00:19:35','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, but usually by ministry leaders upset with\"victim mentality\" or a problem with abuse? Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-27','','','2012-01-07 16:19:35','2012-01-08 00:19:35','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-27/',0,'revision','',0),(3744,48,'2012-01-07 16:59:00','2012-01-08 00:59:00','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-31','','','2012-01-07 16:59:00','2012-01-08 00:59:00','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-31/',0,'revision','',0),(3741,48,'2012-01-07 16:21:58','2012-01-08 00:21:58','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response  Christians do when faced with a Christian ministry that is clearly damaging to people?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-28','','','2012-01-07 16:21:58','2012-01-08 00:21:58','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-28/',0,'revision','',0),(3742,48,'2012-01-07 16:22:37','2012-01-08 00:22:37','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\r\n\r\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I aanswered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\r\n\r\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-29','','','2012-01-07 16:22:37','2012-01-08 00:22:37','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-29/',0,'revision','',0),(3743,48,'2012-01-07 16:23:14','2012-01-08 00:23:14','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless they know for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. There is a common misperception that only people with pre-existing psychoses join cults, while studies suggest only 5-6% of people who join cults had pre-existing psychological issues (GET REFERENCE!!!). It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\r\n\r\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\r\n\r\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-30','','','2012-01-07 16:23:14','2012-01-08 00:23:14','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-30/',0,'revision','',0),(3747,48,'2012-01-07 18:09:24','2012-01-08 02:09:24','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless it is known for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-33','','','2012-01-07 18:09:24','2012-01-08 02:09:24','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-33/',0,'revision','',0),(3745,48,'2012-01-07 18:08:04','2012-01-08 02:08:04','','C Shaped Wood Cut','','inherit','open','open','','c-shaped-wood-cut','','','2012-01-07 18:08:04','2012-01-08 02:08:04','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/C-Shaped-Wood-Cut.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(3746,48,'2012-01-07 17:50:48','2012-01-08 01:50:48','There\'s a word getting thrown around a lot regarding churches, ministries, and other faiths. It\'s a word I\'ve seen used flippantly, jokingly, and occasionally with what I feel is a more appropriate level of gravity. Often it\'s a word spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger and pain, and also after great prayer and consideration.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\r\n\r\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to decry Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\r\n\r\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless it is known for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\r\n\r\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\r\n\r\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\r\n</div>\r\n<div class=\"sblk\">\r\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\r\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\r\n</div>\r\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\r\n\r\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\r\n\r\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\r\n<ol>\r\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\r\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\r\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\r\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\r\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\r\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\r\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\r\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\r\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\r\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\r\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\r\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\r\n\r\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\r\n\r\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\r\n\r\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\r\n\r\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\r\n\r\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\r\n\r\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\r\n\r\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\r\n\r\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\r\n\r\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\r\n\r\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\r\n\r\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\r\n\r\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\r\n\r\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\r\n\r\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-32','','','2012-01-07 17:50:48','2012-01-08 01:50:48','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-32/',0,'revision','',0),(3749,48,'2012-01-07 18:20:30','2012-01-08 02:20:30','There\'s a  four-letter word getting thrown around a lot lately. It\'s a word I\'ve heard used flippantly, jokingly, and disparagingly. It may even be a legitimate, albeit inflammatory, word to use. Often this word is spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger, and a lot more cautiously after great consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to discredit Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless it is known for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-35','','','2012-01-07 18:20:30','2012-01-08 02:20:30','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-35/',0,'revision','',0),(3750,48,'2012-01-07 18:22:06','2012-01-08 02:22:06','There\'s a  four-letter word getting thrown around a lot lately. It\'s a word I\'ve heard used flippantly, jokingly, and disparagingly. Sometimes it may even be a , albeit inflammatory, word to use. Often this word is spoken, perhaps rightly so, by broken and hurting people out of pain and frustration. It\'s a word that was used by a commenter on my previous post in Provoketive Magazine, Slap on a Little Lipstick, You\'ll Be Fine. If I am being completely honest, it\'s a word I\'ve used, sometimes quickly in anger, and a lot more cautiously after great consideration.\n\nThat\'s right, I am talking about the \'C\' word: Cult.\n\nCult is a term used by many Christians to describe Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and many other fringe religious groups and doomsday groups like Peoples Temple and Heaven\'s Gate.  It\'s also been used to discredit Christian churches and ministries with an authoritarian structure, rigid rules, and/or apparent spiritual abuse. The commenter from my last article used it in reference to what he thought was a minister requiring me to wear lipstick (as a note, I never stated in that article whether that incident occured at a secular or religious organization).\n\nGiven that it carries such a negative connotation, it is probably not a word one should use unless it is known for certain that a group is a cult. But what <em>is</em> a true cult?\n\nMerriam-Webster\'s Online Dictionary gives the following definition:\n\n<span class=\"ssens\">1    : formal religious veneration : worship</span>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">2</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">3</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents</span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">4</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\">: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <span class=\"vi\">&lt;health cults&gt;</span></span></div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"sblk\">\n<div class=\"snum\" style=\"float: left\">5</div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">a</span> : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">b</span> : the object of such devotion</span></div>\n<div class=\"scnt\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 20px\"><span class=\"ssens\"><span class=\"sn\">c</span> : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion</span></div>\n</div>\nGoing by this definition, any religious group or faith is a cult. That\'s right, that means any Christian church or group, mainstream or otherwise, by definition is a cult. And it doesn\'t stop at religion: any fad or craze with a following could be called a cult, like the cult of Mac or my cult following of choice, that of the canceled Sci-Fi show, Firefly. Really, with the exception of the third listed definition of cult as being a religion \"regarded as unorthodox or spurious\", the word \"cult\" shouldn\'t necessarily carry a negative connotation.\n\nFurthermore, it can be difficult to find someone fully objective to determine what is \"unorthodox\" regarding religious beliefs and doctrine. So who gets to decide? If you asked a Lutheran, Catholic, Pentacostal, Charistmatic, Bretheren, Mennononite, and Episcopalian each about what constituted orthodox veruses unorthodox beliefs in other denominations, you would undoubtedly find each denomination labeled \"unorthodox\" (and thus a cult) by at least one other denomination.\n\nEven sociologists and psychologist tend to disagree over whether or not to continue the use of the word \"cult,\" since what started as a mostly neutral term now tends to bring to mind the poisoned Kool-Aid victims of the Jonestown Massacre or the Charles Manson murders. Most agree that there is a continuum or spectrum between what constitutes \"cult\" and \"non-cult,\" which is why many have given to using further descriptors to describe cults, such as \"dangerous\" or \"benign.\"\n\nThis is why I appreciate the resources that the <a href=\"http://www.icsahome.com/\">International Cultic Studies Association</a> has online regarding cults.  The ICSA acknowledges up front the difficulty in using the word \"cult\", and then focuses on the damaging aspects and practices that can occur in cults, without giving a subjective list of cults on their website.  Instead, it is up to the reader to use the information to decide on their own. That being said, here is a list of characteristics often found with cultic groups, according to Michael D. Langone, Ph.D, Executive Director of the ICSA:\n<ol>\n	<li>The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.</li>\n	<li>Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.</li>\n	<li>Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).</li>\n	<li>The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).</li>\n	<li>The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).</li>\n	<li>The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society</li>\n	<li>The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).</li>\n	<li>The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members\' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).</li>\n	<li>The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt<span class=\"SpellE\" style=\"text-align: left;padding-top: 1px;padding-right: 3px;padding-left: 3px;padding-bottom: 6px;margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 1px;margin-left: 1px\">in</span>order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.</li>\n	<li>Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.</li>\n	<li>The group is preoccupied with making money.</li>\n	<li>Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.</li>\n	<li>Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.</li>\n	<li>The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.</li>\n</ol>\nIt should be noted that this list is not meant to be a definitive or all-encompassing checklist to mark off, but merely a guideline of characteristics that cults often display. Even if an organization were to have many of these characteristics, I think it is important to be careful before immediately labeling a group a \"cult\", given the current negative connotation that it immediately brings  to peoples\' minds. It is possible that a group that everyone would agree is not truly a cult could in some ways display many of these traits.\n\nA sports team could easily be described in such a way as to seem cultic. For one thing, all the members are committed wholly to the coach; questioning the coach can lead to losing the game, being benched, or even being completely removed from the team. Also, team members often engage in pre-game chants to increase team unity and a team mind-set. Furthermore, the team must all dress exactly the same, wearing the required team uniform and any special equipment, or they are not allowed to participate. The team also has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, viewing all other teams as opponents they must defeat. Being apart of the team will also likely affect their relationships and other personal goals, due to long practice sessions and traveling for games. They will have little to no time to pursue other activities and they may not see their family very often during the on-season. Now granted, this example doesn\'t fit every characteristic listed, but as you can see, it could be easy to make a group fit these characteristics if you were already prejudiced against it.\n\nThe term cult is perhaps nebulous, or at best a cloudy term that can be misused, and it is important that we are careful before immediately tossig out the \"cult\" label with any religious group that we disgree with or even on that has truly hurt us. However, damaging groups even under the \"Christian flag\" do exist, and it is a good thing to consider these spiritually and psychology damaging characteristics in the groups you may join or those you may already have joined. It is easy to have the \"I\'m to smart or balanced to get pulled into a cult\" mentality, but people of all walks of life can be susceptible to cults, especially as cults often give misleading information about their true nature, organizational structure, rules, etc., when you first become involved.\n\nI was a part of a 5-fold para-church Christian ministry for almost 8 years. For those of you unfamiliar with those terms, that essentially means it was a Christian ministry that was not a church, but rather it worked alongside Christian churches, with a focus on the 5-fold ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher). I knew of the ministry through respected friends and aquaintances from the church I attend in high school, and my first involvement was merely as a member of the worship team while I was still in college.\n\nShortly after college, my husband and I \"joined the team\", which means our involvement became deeper and more committed. As time progressed, the ministry\'s meetings (both public meetings and private \"team only\" meetings) became more frequent and went into the early morning hours (I often arrived back home after 3 am). In addition, more rigid rules were created and enforced regarding everything from not drinking alcohol, meeting attendance, how to act around the leader of our ministry, dress code, taboo discussion topics with non-team members, and much more. Public questioning of the leader was not allowed, and if you questioned him in private, somehow it was always turned around that you had a  \"heart issue\" and \"issues with authority.\" Really though, with the high demands on the team, long hours volunteering, etc., everyone was usually too tired to think, let alone have the faculties necessary to find fault with the ministry or leadership.\n\nThe \"heart issue\" was a commonly employed method to get the team to stay in line. When other members left the team or were kicked off the team, or if the leadership found out that team members were associating with people that did not agree 100% with the ministry, the team was were discouraged to continue anything more than a superficial relationship with them. The head of the ministry was always careful to point out that he wasn\'t saying we couldn\'t associate with them, but that the fact that we would want to, knowing what they thought of the ministry, revealed our true heart. Even missing \"optional\" extra-curricular team events was taken as evidence of  having heart issues.\n\nEventually I became even more involved with the ministry, to the point of being privy to much of the leadership\'s confidential information regarding the inner workings of the ministry, other ministers, and other team members. At first, it was an honor to have such a position. However, eventually I began to see the cracks in the leadership-- cracks I could not point out unless I wanted to have a \"come to Jesus meeting\" where my heart issues, authority issues, and God knows what other supposed issues might be raised, to deflect from the flaws in leadership. Team members were booted from the ministry when they wouldn\'t toe the line, and the rest of the team was given false or at the very least, highly misleading information about why they left. Long weeks of meetings were called because \'God was moving\', when behind closed doors in staff meetings, we discussed having extra meetings to get more money to keep the ministry afloat.\n\nIn the end, despite my dislike of who I was becoming at this ministry and what the ministry and leadership were doing, I deeply struggled with leaving. Anyone who left the ministry was said to be \"out of God\'s will\", and I certainly did not want to be that! Furthermore, we had put eight years of our livelihood into that ministry, and leaving would lead me to question whether we had wasted the entirety of those years. At the same time, I could no longer believe that the ministry was truly acting in a way that glorified Christ, and I did not believe that was what God wanted for me.\n\nIn the end, while I prayed for God to either release me or give me the fortitude to leave on my own, my husband was certain we needed to leave. He met with the head of the ministry about this, who disagreed that it was time for us to leave. On his request and advice, my husband agreed to take 30 days to pray about this, after which they would meet again. At the same time, I decided it was time to move out of my current job within the ministry, even if we still remained on the team. After the 30 days, my husband\'s decision remained the same. The day before his scheduled follow-up meeting, the leader called us up and kicked us off the team.\n\nDespite my relief at being released from the team, I still had an incredible amount of anger and pain from how things were handled, both during our time at the minstry and in the way in which we were released from the team. In the first few months I easily decried this ministry as a cult. And I suspect that many of you may jump to that same conclusion after reading my account from my time there. However, let me encourage you not to be too hasty. While I do not believe the old adage that time heals all wounds, I do believe it affords some perspective.\n\nDespite the many issues I have with that ministry, I do believe that everyone there, including the leadership, truly believes that they are helping people and doing God\'s will. Granted, having good intentions doesn\'t mean that you will not hurt people or do incredible wrong. Many horrific acts have been done and continue to be done in the name of God and God\'s will.  At this ministry, I do think they end up doing more damage to people than they do good; but, it certainly isn\'t at the same level as drinking poisoned Kool-Aid and committing mass suicide.\n\nWith this particular group, and perhaps with many other cult-like Christian groups, I think the root of the issue is with an authoritarian leadership structure that does not allow for questioning of church leadership authority, which can easily lead to abuse of power. However, this is an authority structure that many groups of Christians believe is biblical. So what then? Are they all wrong and in a cult, or are they simply misunderstanding or twisting scripture? At what point are doctrinal disagreements and differences in interpretation of scripture grounds for pulling out the \"cult\" label?\n\nAt a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked me whether I thought the ministry we had left was a cult. I answered him that I thought it straddled the line between spiritual abuse and cult, and that I really wasn\'t sure. Perhaps this is a topic for another day, but spiritual abuse is another label I\'ve heard pop up in Christian ministries, usually by ministry leaders upset with \"victim mentality.\" Just like in domestic abuse and sexual abuse situations, there seems to be a lot of \"blaming the victim\"  going on in the Church.\n\nRegardless, while I certainly won\'t recommend this ministry to anyone, friend or foe, at this point I also won\'t publically denounce them as a definitive \"cult\". I will pray for them, in hopes that they will see the damage they are doing and change, or at the very least, that God will protect those they think they are helping.\n\nWhat do you think constitutes a \"cult\"? Are there particular characteristics you think necessarily categorize something as a cult, or is it too subjective? Do we use the term too freely or not enough? And what is the correct and appropriate response for Christians when faced with a Christian ministry, church, or organization that is clearly damaging to people, cult or not?','The \'C\' Word','','inherit','open','open','','3704-revision-36','','','2012-01-07 18:22:06','2012-01-08 02:22:06','',3704,'http://provoketive.com/2012/01/07/3704-revision-36/',0,'revision','',0),