[Vision2020] Cult?

amy smoucha asmoucha@hotmail.com
Thu, 11 Dec 2003 19:26:14 -0600


Jackie,

Thank you for going through the trouble to pull that information together.  
I agree that Christ Church is not a cult, and I have been worried that 
calling church members a cult is purely insulting.

I strongly disagree with Doug Wilson's teachings and writings (as I 
understand them based on his postings to the listserve).  I also think that 
he and, lately, Wilkins both want us to pay attention only to the 
presentable parts of their opinions, and to ignore some of the ugly 
underbellies.  Both his writings and manipulations give me great concern for 
our community and for his influence.

However, I have many reasons to believe that members of his Church may not 
buy into all he teaches.  They may have independent thoughts and even 
independent relationships to God.  I have seen nothing that suggests the 
church members behave as they would in a cult, just evidence of a group of 
people who agree on a lot of issues.

Lately, on this listserve, we have begun to talk about a very interesting 
thing--about the unintended effects of our opinions, as when someone who 
disagrees with Wilson irresponsibly vandalizes property.  I hope that 
members of Christ Church are also considering and talking about some of the 
unintended, dangerous effects of some of Wilson's writings. Like how do you 
think a person whose grandmother was a slave, sold away from her 
grandfather, would view Wilson's book?  How do those of us in the gay and 
lesbian community feel when Wilson is quoted as saying that there are 
alternatives to death as punishment for homosexuality . . . exile.


I hope we all continue to talk more about those issues and continue  our 
efforts to see things from another point of view and to better understand.  
Jackie, I am sorry that people say you belong to a cult, and you are right 
to insist that that is hyperbolic and insulting.  In addition to being 
inaccurate and incendiary, calling Christ Church a cult cuts church members 
off from the community.  Until you show us otherwise, you and the other 
members of Christ Church deserve our respect, not insults.  I'm sorry you 
have to put up with it, and I am grateful you are challenging it.

Amy Smoucha

----Original Message Follows----
From: Jackie Woolf <jfkwoolf2000@yahoo.com>
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Cult?
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:51:26 -0800 (PST)

Obviously, some people are totally not willing to find out just what a cult 
really is.

As defined by Orthadox Church of America and the American Church 
Organization and AFF, the leading professional organization concerned about 
cults and psychological manipulation, the definition of what a cult is:

Harper's Bible Dictionary gives the following definition: "Cults [are] 
systems of worship centering in devotion or homage to a person or an 
object."

Another definition is: "A cult is a religious perversion. It is a belief and 
practice in the world of religion which calls for devotion to a religious 
view or leader centered in false doctrine. It is an organized heresy."

The prevailing doctrine of past and present cults is the gnostic or secret 
knowledge to attain salvation or perfection that they alone possess.

The term "cult" is a pejorative label used to describe certain religious 
groups outside of the mainstream of Western religion. Exactly which groups 
should be considered cults is a matter of disagreement among researchers in 
the cult phenomena, and considerable confusion exists. However, three 
definitions dominate the writings of social scientists, Christian 
counter-cult ministries, and secular anticultists.

Social scientists tend to be the least pejorative in their use of the term. 
They divide religious groups into three categories: churches, sects, and 
cults. "Churches" are the large denominations characterized by their 
inclusive approach to life and their indentification with the prevailing 
culture. In the United States, the churchly denominations would include such 
groups as the Roman Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, the 
American Baptist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. Groups that have broken away from the churchly 
denominations are termed "sects." They tend to follow the denominations in 
most patterns but are more strict in doctrine and behavioral demands placed 
upon members and emphasize their separation and distinctiveness from the 
larger culture (frequently spoken of as a "rejection of worldliness"). 
Typical sects have disavowed war (Quakers and Mennonites), championed 
controversial religious experiences (pentecostals!
  ), and
  demanded conformity to detailed codes of dress, personal piety, and moral 
conduct (the holiness churches). Sects such as the fundamentalist Christian 
groups have argued for a stringent orthodoxy in the face of the doctrinal 
latitude allowed in most larger church bodies. More extreme sect bodies have 
developed patterns and practices which have largely isolated them from even 
their closest religious neighbors--snake-handling, drinking poison, 
alternative sexual relationships, unusual forms of dress.
While most sects follow familiar cultural patterns to a large extent "cults" 
follow an altogether different religious structure, one foreign and alien to 
the prevalent religious communities. Cults represent a force of religious 
innovation within a culture. In most cases that innovation comes about by 
the transplantation of a religion from a different culture by the 
immigration of some of its members and leaders. Thus during the twentieth 
century, Hinduism and Buddhism have been transplanted to America. In 
sociological terms, Hindu and Buddhist groups are, in America, cults. Cults 
may also come about through religious innovation from within the culture. 
The Church of Scientology ad the Synanon Church are new religious structures 
which emerged in American society without any direct foreign antecedents.

A second definition of cult arose among Christian polemicists. In the early 
twentieth century several conservative Evangelical Protestant writers, 
concerned about the growth of different religions in America, attacked these 
religions for their deviation from Christian orthodox faith. Among the first 
of the prominent Christian writers on the subject of cults, Jan Karel Van 
Baalen described cults as non-Christian religions but included those groups 
which had their roots in Christianity while denying what he considered its 
essential teaching. According to VanBaalen, all religions could be divided 
into two groups, those which ascribe to humans the ability to acomplish 
their own salvation and those which ascribe that ability to God. The latter 
group is called Christianity. All other religion fits into the first group. 
In The Chaos of Cults, which went through numerous editions from its first 
appearance in 1938, Van Baalen analyzed various non-Christian religions in 
the light of C!
  hristian
  teachings.
With little change, contemporary Christian counter-cult spokespersons have 
followed Van Baalen's lead. Cults follow another gospel (Gal.I:I6). They are 
heretical. They set up their own beliefs in opposition to orthodox faith. As 
Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, two popular Evangelical writers assert, "A 
cult is a perversion, a distortion of Biblical Christianity, and, as such, 
rejects the historical teachings of the Christian Church."

The Christian approach to cults would include every group which has departed 
from orthodox Christianity (such as the Church of Christ, Scientist, the 
Latter Day Saints, and the Jehovah's Witnesses) as well as those groups 
which have never made any claim to be Christian. Individual writers disagree 
over the cultic nature of such groups as the Roman Catholic Church (included 
and then dropped by Van Baalen), or the Unitarian-Universalist Church. 
Little consideration has been given to non-Trinitarian Pentecostal groups.
The third definition, the one which became the dominant force in the public 
debates on cults in the 1970s, developed within the secular anti-cult 
movement. The definition has shifted and changed over the last decade. It 
did not develop out of any objective research on alternatie religions, 
rather it emerged in the intense polemics of parents who had been disturbed 
by changes observed in their sons and dauthters who had joined particular 
religious groups. These "cults"--predominantly the Children of God, the 
Church of Armageddon, the Unification Church, the International Society for 
Krishna Consciousness, and the Church of Scientology--had, they charged, 
radically altered the persoality traits of their children.

A central component of AFF’s mission is to study psychological manipulation 
and abuse, especially as it manifests in cultic and other groups.  Different 
people, however, attach different and usually imprecise meanings to the term 
“cult”.  Those who have sought information from AFF have – properly or 
improperly –used “cult” to refer to a wide variety of phenomena, including, 
but not limited to:

Groups – religious, political, psychological, commercial – in which the 
leader(s) appear(s) to exert undue influence over followers, usually to the 
leader’s(s’) benefit.Fanatical religious and political groups, regardless of 
whether or not leaders exert a high level of psychological control.Terrorist 
organizations, such as Bin Laden’s group, which induce some members to 
commit horrific acts of violence.Religious groups deemed heretical or 
socially deviant by the person attaching the “cult” label.Any unorthodox 
religious group – benign or destructive.Covert hypnotic inductions.Communes 
that may be physically isolated and socially unorthodox.Groups (religious, 
New Age, psychotherapeutic, “healing,”) that advocate beliefs in a 
transcendent order or actions that may occur through mechanisms inconsistent 
with the laws of physics.Any group embraced by a family member whose 
parents, spouses, or other relatives conclude – correctly or incorrectly – 
that the group is destructive to t!
  he
  involved family member.Organizations that employ high-pressure sales 
and/or recruitment tactics.Authoritarian social groups in which members 
exhibit a high level of conformity and compliance to the expectations and 
demands of leaders.Extremist organizations that advocate violence, racial 
separation, bigotry, or overthrow of the government.Familial or dyadic 
relationships in which one member exerts an unusually high and apparently 
harmful influence over the other member(s), e.g., certain forms of 
dysfunctional families or battered women’s syndrome.

The majority of those persons who attach the “cult” label to these phenomena 
share a disapproval of the group or organization they label. That is why 
some people have dismissed the term “cult” as a meaningless epithet hurled 
at a group one doesn’t like. Although this position may appeal to one’s 
cynical side, it ignores the reality that many common concepts are fuzzy. 
Lists of diverse phenomena could also be drawn up for terms such as “child 
abuse,” “neurotic,” “right wing,” “left wing,” “learning disabled,” “sexy,” 
“ugly,” “beautiful,” etc. We don’t banish these fuzzy terms from our 
vocabularies because, contrary to the cynic’s claim, most people most of the 
time use these fuzzy terms with enough precision to be meaningful and 
understood by others.

Long discussions by these groups can be found on their intenet web sites.

I realize some people do not appreciate the effort it takes to look 
something up before they say something, but really...this is a simple task 
to accomplish in this case.

Jim Jones was the leader of a cult.  David Koresh was the leader of cult.  
(Personally, I knew David when he was still calling himself Vernon.  Believe 
me, I know the difference between a cult and a genuine church that worships 
God.)  The two named are absolute examples of what a cult leader and group 
is all about.

Pastor Wilson, the Church of Christ is the absolute example of what a cult 
is NOT.  There is NO brainwashing, there is NO physical/pyschological abuse. 
  There is NO condemnation of the soul if someone choses to leave.  There is 
NO part of Christ Church which worships anyone else but God and HIS word.  
The Church of Christ AND Pastor Wilson do answer to people outside of our 
town and community.  A cult answers only to itself.

Please, use some care when putting labels on people you can not or will not 
be able to defend.

Thank you.






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