by John Edmiston
Cults "think differently". Its a complex issue and some tool is
needed so we can quickly evaluate whether a group is a genuine religious
movement or a dangerous cult group. Over the last ten years of ministry to
cults I have developed some tools that help me to help others improve their
judgement. Such tools have to be simple, transferable and memorisable so they
can sit in the person's memory and pop up when needed - a little bit like a TSR
I suppose. The above diagram is one such tool. Its meant to be memorised. Its
meant to be simple. And its meant to work as an elementary tool for evaluating
religious groups and their leaders. Well here goes!
The first of our
"three dimensions" on the diagram is the Love-Hate dimension. It could also be
labeled Unconditional Love vs Paranoid Thinking. The key test is the question
"How do they treat their enemies?'. A paranoid group goes from suspicion to
suspicion, living in fear and employing "guilt by association" to mark people
as those to beware of. A paranoid cult group is preoccupied with its fortress
mentality, its thought life is disproportionately centred around warding off
evil rather than pursuing good. While guarding against sin and compromise is an
essential part of the Christian life being paranoid is not! Jesus was sinless -
but He still loved His enemies and prayed for those who persecuted Him.
The second dimension is that of wisdom versus foolishness. Another name
for it might be "love of the truth wherever it can be found" vs "creation of an
authoritarian and idiosync ratic reality". Cults believe they have a monopoly
on Truth and create their own, often quite idiosynratic "reality". Cults tend
to create untestable, unverifiable "worlds of their own", and abound in bizarre
conspiracy theories, quaint world-views, mystical and other-worldly
perspectives. While the man or woman of faith will sometimes see life very
differently they do not disregard the insights of others. The fool says "my
system is all I need". In cults and bizarre religious sects there is no
searching for objective Truth , rather there is a loud and clamant glorying in
one's own "wisdom". Such people are among those that bombard the Internet with
posts all in "caps" and full of strange sounding jargon that sets you on edge
when you read it. Their claims are often untestable as they may be set in the
future or in dreams or visions that the reader has no way of verifying. When
their claims can be checked out, they generally prove to be inaccurate. Cults
limit the outside information available to recruits and enmesh them in this
alternate reality. It is often the quest for objective truth that causes some
recruits to question and finally to leave the cult.
The third
dimension is that of mercy versus cruelty. These terms are quite accurate in my
view. All you need to do to be cruel is to think exclusively of yourself.
People in cults don't "hate" their families in general - they just do not see
them, care for them, or meet their needs. Cults develop a very inward form of
thinking where the recruit spends most of their time either working for the
cult or pondering their own deficiencies. This phenomenal self-absorption can
cause parents to neglect their children and several have died as a result of
parents refusing basic medical treatment on religious grounds. Jesus never
asked anyone to throw away their medicines! Cults neglect the needs of the
outer world and their social action programmes are practically non-existent.
Where they do exist they tend to focus on cult members or be thinly disguised
recruiting mechanisms. The "mainline churches" are extensively involved on
caring for those outside of their membership and many of the best hospitals,
schools and rehabilitation programmes are run by them. Though cults are large
(about a quarter of the size of the mainline churches) their contribution in
these areas is small indeed.
Lets consider applying the model to three
"real life" people - Hitler, Jim Jones and David Koresh. All had well-defined
"enemies" which they guarded against and were pre-occupied with. They were
characterised by paranoid thinking on dimension one. On the dimension of wisdom
versus foolishness though all were quite clever and manipulative people they
were not "wise". They all had their own reality that they followed in total
disregard of objective Truth and biblical wisdom. On the dimension of mercy
versus cruelty - mercy is about the last thing we assocaite with thier names!
All three score strongly on the dimension of cruel disregard of others. All
three men eventually caused the death of themselves and their followers.
Whether it be Hitler, Jim Jones or David Koresh when we examine their attitude
using this model they are all at the dangerous lower left hand corner of the
diagram. If you are aware of a group near you whose leadership fits this model
feel free to e-mail Eternity
Magazine and we will do our best to help.
To test the model on
"positive" religious figures I chose Jesus, St Francis of Assisi, and Billy
Graham. All three are loving people and though they all experienced intense
public criticism they all weathered it without rancour. They are noted for
forgiving their enemies. On the wisdom/foolishness dimension while each had
strong life-dominating calls there was no disregard for truth. Jesus as a child
sat with the Rabbis in the temple, St Francis submitted to the tecahings of the
Catholic Church and Billy Graham stands squarely in the middle of mainstream
evangelicalism. All three had a gentle wisdom from God not a noisy clamour from
the self. And mercy is something we assocaite immediately with Jesus and St
Francis and also to some extent with Billy Graham. They bless people. Jesus
died for others. They helped the poor. They were utterly self-giving. Our model
places them in the upper right hand corner - diamterically opposite that of the
cult leaders!
So by using this model we see that a cult like the
Branch Davidians may be Christian in name but in nature it can be shown to the
polar opposite of "true Christianity" as exemplified by Jesus, St Francis and
Billy Graham..
I hope you find this model helpful and useful. It is
meant to stick in your minds and be a simple and usable tool for evaluating the
dynamics of a religious group. If you have any questions about it or would like
a more full explanation of some points feel free to e-mail me at
johnedmiston@jed.org,au - Lots of
blessings!
John Edmiston
Article reproduced with
permission of Eternity Magazine