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
