Essay about Cults and Sects and Their Influence in Contemporary Society

Cults can be evil and mind controlling. They can also be extremely dangerous. According to Rick Ross, an expert consultant and intervention specialist, “there are several signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.” These signs include: “absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability; there is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil; followers can never be good enough; and the group or leader is the exclusive means of knowing the truth or receiving validation, no other process or discovery is really acceptable or credible.” Cult leaders use mind control to control their group. This could be dangerous or life threatening. Leaders are

According to Troeltsch (1931), sects are essentially the polar opposite of churches. They are much smaller

When one hears of a cult, one thinks of organizations such as the Church of Scientology, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and small fanatical groups such as the Assembly of God. According to Robert J. Lofton, author of Letters to an Elder, there are two kinds of cults; those that use mind-control, and those that do not. Lofton describes eight characteristics of destructive mind-control cults, saying, “If any group exercises all eight of these control elements, they are, in fact a destructive mind control cult”. Lofton’s characteristics are ‘Environmental Control’, ‘Mystical Manipulation’, ‘Demand for Purity’, ‘Cult of Confession’, ‘Sacred Science’, ‘Loading the Language’, ‘Doctrine over Person’, and ‘Dispensing of Existence’. These eight

A little more than 35 years ago, a man named Jim Jones shocked the world when he led almost 1,000 of his followers in an act of mass suicide; amongst those dead were more than 270 children1. On November 18, 1978, Jones and his followers drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide in what he had presented to them as a peaceful escape to injustices of this world. The Jonestown Massacre was an incredible tragedy that sent waves through the whole world. Though the event was tragic, scholars have used our knowledge of what happened in order to deepen our understanding of cults, religions, and how both can influence people’s decisions.

Ever since we were little, our parents, guardians, or even ourselves grew up to know the difference in between was would be considered peversive and what isn’t. Many people find it difficult to understand how people can be so devoted to a religion or something that can’t be scientifically proven, but the real question is how can a normal resident be allured by cults. A religious cult may be well known to us as a religious imposter who claims to lead the way to salvation and a lifespan of well being filled with blessings and free of the damnation a disease may bring, only because he or maybe even she may claim that he was sent from the heavens to the filthy earth. People who are believers in a omipitent kind believe this to be a ludicrous idea ,

The 1970s was a decade that was full of social reform and protests. People believed that they could change the world through social movements, in search of the hope that was lost with so much going on during this time. Jim Jones was one of these people, he wanted to change the world, and he had a vision of the Promised Land so he created the People’s Temple. The People’s Temple was a racially integrated church that Jones created to spread his beliefs on religion, socialism, and racial integrity. It was with these beliefs, paranoia, and his way with people that he convinced 909 people to commit suicide by drinking Kool-Aid with cyanide.

On November 14, 1978 Ryan and a delegation of eighteen people traveled to Jonestown. While inside, 15 members of the Temple asked Ryan to help them defect the camp. Jones granted the release of these 15 members and on November 18th Ryan’s delegation, including the defectors, left Jonestown. Because group leaving Jonestown grew in numbers, a larger airplane was required. While waiting for the airplane to arrive a truck with members of Temple's Red Brigade security squad opened fire on the congregation killing Ryan and four others while everyone else fled into the

In the essay, The Cult You’re In, Kalle Lasn not only used rhetoric devices and imagery to allow readers to come to a better understanding of who ‘you’ are and the role you play through the reality of the detrimental reality of life. Kalle used these devices to almost scare readers into a reality check insinuating that not everything is perfect or how we image them to be. Reality is described as only being a figment of one’s mind, by being a meager front. From birth to teenage year’s life was almost picture perfect being a “This is your life moment.” You would be living the life of a diligent and optimistic child, but you quickly realize like Lasn said, “Those big dreams of youth didn’t quite plan out.”

A total of 74 members of Order of the Solar Temple died from various mass murder-suicides between 1994 and 1997 in Switzerland, Canada and France. The first known instance was the murder of Tony Dutroit and his wife and son. Dutroit was a member of the cult, but spoke out against it upon realising its hypocrisy and deception and left. Soon after, he, his wife Nicky and son Emmanuel were the victims of a grisly murder in Morin Heights, Québec, committed by members of the cult. It was believed that this was upon Di Mambro’s orders, apparently on the basis that Emmanuel was the Antichrist and had come to stop Di Mambro from doing his spiritual bidding, but evidence shows that it might be due to Dutoit’s unwarranted exposure of the cult’s

Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).

Most historians use the more neutral term ‘new religious movement’ instead of the cult, because there is no one definition of cults, their number and membership cannot be accurately measured even today (Sarah Pike, 2016). New religious groups are regularly developed from another, more accepted religion. An example of this is Christianity, which first began as a cult extending from Judaism (Sarah Pike, 2016). While this was regularly the case, many cults did not begin as religious groups. A famous example of this is the movement called Synanon, which was originally organised to rehabilitate drug addicts, but then later changed into a commune and won legal recognition as a religion (Sarah Pike, 2016). A theory among UFO groups, there is a widespread belief that extraterrestrials have no vocal cords, an atrophied digestive system and no sexual organs (B.A. Robinson, 2009). This is symbolic of three common religious disciplines: silence, fasting and celibacy. These attitudes may have somewhat shaped what the UFO group Heaven’s Gate believed in.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents." Indeed, any religion involving unconditional worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be labeled as a cult (using the derogatory suggestion of the word), since such a religion would have that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. Many mainstream religions still require their members to believe in God unquestioningly, to have faith that he is good and that what he does is good, to consider one's own wants and needs as unimportant while accepting the will of God as paramount. All of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any dogmatic religion that requires strict compliance with God's word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word "cult" to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those who make this very claim: that those who worship God fit the classic depiction of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving

What effects -- if any -- do cults of personalities have on a culture and society? When we think of cults, we usually tend to think of a group who all follow one specific belief or leader. According to Webster’s Dictionary, a cult of personality is a situation in which a public figure (such as a political leader) is deliberately presented to the people of a country as a great person who should be admired and loved. Of course, there are many problems that may arise in this situation, one being that cults of personalities are a threat to a culture’s freedom because they directly target democracies and can extinguish a society’s liberties by elevating one person to such a point that they become god-like in the eyes of their followers.

A cult is defined as a social group or a social movement under one charismatic leader. It maintains a belief system, which includes a transformation of a group member. Members of the group have a high level of commitment to the leader, members, and beliefs (Lalich). An additional definition to consider is from the American Journal of Psychotherapy:

     Such groups are usually thought of in terms of religion, although other types of cults can and do exist. "Cults can be described by their major focus or function: religious, psychotherapy or personal growth, political, or popular or faddist" (MacHovec, 1989, p.10). Cults require strict adherence to a set of beliefs and, in turn, provide a sense of meaning and purpose to their followers.