WTF happened to Mouse? [Archive]

handjobs4dollars

02-10-2004, 02:53 PM

Here's some notes from my cults and terrorism class

LECTURE #2

CULTS, SECTS AND DENOMINATIONS

Meaning of the world “cult”:

Unitarian Meaning: Belief in a single God and the rejection of the Christian concept of Trinity. A creedless, dogma-free religious organization.

Cults have been defined within three different contexts: Positive, Neutral and Negative.

Positive Meaning:

A positive approach to define cults is through Theological usage. In this pre-text, the cult is viewed as having a style of worship and associated rituals which make it unique. They believe and have a special homage or devotion to a particular person or thing.

Neutral Meaning:

There are five primary examples of neutral approaches:

Sociological Usage - A small religious group exists in a state of tension with the predominant religion. For example, Christianity might be considered a cult in India while Hinduism might be perceived as a cult in North America.

General Religious Usage - A small, recently created, religious organization which is often headed by a single charismatic leader and is viewed as a spiritually innovative group. Moreover, it would be seen as a new religious movement on it’s way to becoming a denomination. For example, the Mormons were founded in the 19th century by Joseph Smith and had only a few followers and today it has very large membership.

Evangelical Christian and Counter-Cult Movement Usage - Any religious group which accepts most but not all of the historical Christian doctrines, i.e., Jesus Divinity, Virgin birth, Trinity and salvation. Examples which would fall under this type of usage would be: Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.

Fundamental Christian Usage - Any religious group which deviates from historical Protestant Christian beliefs are viewed as cult. Oncemore, Mormons, Hinduism and Wicca would fit this criterion.

Mental Health Groups and Anti-cult Movement Usage - They would be a small number of therapists, research psychologists, self-taught individuals who attempt to raise public consciousness about what they see as dangerous and authoritarian mind control cults and doomsday cults. They target what they perceive as being deceptive practices and dangerous psychological pressure techniques such as brainwashing.

Negative Meaning of Cult:

A small, evil religious group which is often times led by a single charismatic leader. They are most likely to engage in brainwashing and other mind control techniques. They believe that the world’s end is imminent and they collect large amounts of weaponry in preparation for a massive war. These are usually synonymous with Doomsday Cults and Mind Control religious cults. Example of these would be Heaven’s Gate and Branch Davidians.

DEMONIMATION:

The best way to describe Denomination is to call it an established religious group which has been in existence for many years. Furthermore, it usually is geographically widespread. It unites groups of individual congregations into single administrative bodies. Examples of this would be in Christianity: Catholics, Baptists, Protestants, etc.

SECTS:

A Sect is a small religious group which is the offshoot of an established religion or denomination. Usually, it holds common beliefs in common with it’s religion of origin and has many novel concepts and ideas which differentiate from the original religion.

Sects are considered normal mechanisms through which new religious movements are generated. Most sects die out rather quickly, others linger and a select view develop into a large following. The reason most die out is that they need finances to survive and cannot get government status or not enough members to support them.

PSYCHOLOGICAL COERCION

The American Psychological Association has labeled the ability of cults to manipulate the minds of individuals as Psychological Coercion. It is a real phenomenon which warrants definite attention. They warn of 7 Warning Signs to look for in Cults that coerce.

Warning Signs:

Groups claim to have all the answers.

New members are asked almost immediately to recruit new members.

Group encourages people to put their meetings ahead of all other personal commitments.

Any and all past religious and group affiliations are criticized by the cult.

Recruits are told parents, family and friends do not have any answers and should not be depended on.

Doubts and questions by new members are seen as a sign of weak faith in the group.

Recruits are invited on retreats but never given any specific ideas or information about the agendas.