[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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