No One Joins a Cult

Until now, I have hesitated to give any of my blog post space to writing about the hideous death cult known as ISIS. Why now discuss it? Several things.

First: Around this time of year in 1973 I lived in Pasadena, California, not far from San Bernardino where terror and murder just struck. My heart breaks over that, just like every other sane person’s. I had lived there once. If not for circumstance, I could still be there.

Second: Last month, only days after the terror attacks in Paris, I spoke to another religion class at Rollins College. Engaging in conversation with those bright young people about my seventeen year involvement with a fundamentalist cult, The Way International, moved me to keep speaking about cults and fundamentalism, especially to this next generation who will become the world’s leaders. Many of them are worried over the impact of religious differences and hatred on world affairs.

I told them I did not join a cult. No one joins a cult. Cults recruit people.

In my August 10, 2015 blog post, The Camouflage of Cults, I gave this definition of “cult” from the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA): “An ideological organization held together by charismatic relationships and demanding total commitment.” Usually a cult recruit gets showered with love, then the group enfolds and controls. Sometimes it gets dangerous.

By committing myself to The Way, which marketed itself as a biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry, I thought I was serving God. I wanted Christian fellowship and Bible knowledge, and it appeared that they offered that. It took me a long time to realize I had become a cog in Wierwille’s propaganda machine that made millions of dollars palming off Wierwille’s twisted teachings of Scripture and his fear-driven, warped version of Christianity. I’d been used.

Granted, most of us believed we were doing something good in the world, and maybe we did whenever we genuinely showed love to others, but we could have done that without Wierwille. The bottom line is that our cult leader used us to spread an us-vs-them belief and a bigoted worldview, most recognizable by Wierwille’s sale of the book, The Myth of the Six Million, which denies the Holocaust.

Third: Last weekend some friends asked me to point out the similarity between cult recruitment, which I know about first-hand, and the methods that ISIS uses to lure the vulnerable, idealistic, naïve, and disenfranchised into their evil band of thugs.

First off, I say never underestimate the power of belief. The Way continues today in New Knoxville, Ohio, although “membership” has dropped from 40,000 in its heyday during the 1980s, to about 7,000 today. Why are they still in business as a non-profit? Because people still search for certainty about God. Because belief is strong.

When I dropped out of college in 1970 to commit to The Way, I believed with a capital B that God told me to do that. When a person is convinced BEYOND ANY DOUBT that God is telling them to do something, then anything within their framework of what God condones is justified. Although some theorize that ISIS is solely political, I think this religious aspect is a hallmark of ISIS leaders’ recruitment tactics.

Thankfully, in some cults like The Way International, murder is against the cult’s beliefs because the Bible says it is wrong. Not so with ISIS.

Fourth: Last Saturday, December 5th, I was invited to call in to a radio show interview with Jeff Stevenson, author of Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult. This was the second interview Jeff invited me to join, and it affected me profoundly.

How did I meet Jeff? Coincidentally, Jeff and I worked with the same editor—Alice Peck in Brooklyn. Jeff’s book was edited and published before I began work with Alice on mine. Because Jeff was another of Alice’s authors and because he wrote about a cult, I bought his book.

In Fortney Road, Jeff included a bit about Victor Paul Wierwille, my old cult leader in The Way International. The day I read that paragraph, I contacted Alice and Jeff, elated over our small world connection.

John Darlington’s radio show

Turned out that in the 1970s, the radio host for Jeff’s interview, John Darlington, had met members of The Way, so when I called in, he was keen on asking me lots of questions. The interview begins with music played by The All Saved Freak Band, members of the abusive cult founded by Larry Hill that Jeff writes about.

After the music, Jeff and John have a great conversation about that band and Larry Hill’s cult. Then I join the conversation. To listen, click and scroll to find the interview at: Jeff Stevenson and Charlene Edge interview with John Darlington

Cult recruitment

Destructive cults do not tell you flat out what you are getting yourself into. They use enticing window-dressing to lure you through their door and once inside, they dazzle you with all sorts of promises. Here are a few:

1. Acceptance in the eyes of God who approves of the group
2. Conviction about your beliefs in a world full of doubt and uncertainty
3. Rewards in the afterlife for doing whatever is asked of you
4. A family who loves you more than your own
5. A leader or guru you can depend on who claims special revelation from God
6. Secret knowledge from the guru not available anywhere else
7. Personal fulfillment that comes from living for a cause greater than yourself

More about fundamentalism and cults

More of my posts about cults

More of my posts about fundamentalism

Peace. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

See you next time!

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