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Can some cults be dangerous?
Posted by Margie2007 • 3/27/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: cults, danger, religion, state
When I was a student of English philology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (Poland), I met some people who represented so called the Unification Church . In my country such cults are regarded as dangerous for some, obvious reasons. Do you approve such cults? How are they treated in your countries?
User Comments
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Definitely yes, dangerous. Scientology is probably the biggest cult in the US right now and it's openly acknowledged by FBI experts to be dangerous to current and former members. -
I know about Scientology,as far as I know this cult has been trying to find its place in my country (without a success), but the moonists have been here for 20 years. I lost my friend "thanks to" them.
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In the US, either you get sucked in or they are viewed with disdain (Westboro Baptist Church, Aum Shinrikyo, etc.) I'm sure most countries are the same way. However, when it comes to scientology: www.xenu.net/archive/infopack/ ) However, this opinion has to be made by each individual as there is too little known about the inner workings of the communities within Scientology. -
Yes they can be dangerous. No, I don't approve of these cults. Wacko from Waco hit my brain. www.carpenoctem.tv/cons/waco.html-
I take Waco type events with a grain of salt. The globalist types don't like autonomous communities, they sometimes decide to hit very hard.
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Ahh, the Moonies! Yep, their still around in the States as well. I think they have some sort of compound on the east coast.
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Can we do anything to reduce the influence of such cults? How to protect ourselves, our kids, friends??? The government, the police can't solve the problem. Do you know WHY?
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"Can we do anything to reduce the influence of such cults?"
Yes: Educate,educate,educate,educate....okay, and Educate. Because some people don't know certain beliefs *gasps* could be dangerous. They need to be trained in developing their intuition so they can sense when something 'just isn't right'. JMO, though. -
Those Kind of cults recruit people that are lonely, that have certain weakness in their personality, and that are in need of strong authority and love. If they do not fall in one, they will fall in the next one...I think the police can't solve the problem because the persons that join them do it by personal choice. After that it's the law that have to decide if they have been manipulated or not.
I have been approached by 2 cults: The scientologists, and another one called "the mouvement". I couldn't see anything wrong in their recruitment system.
Is it based on people's weakness? Yes
Is it based on people's fears? Yes
Is it based on people's lonelyness? Yes
Do they force you to join? No.
For proof, I discussed a few time with them, and finally says that I wasn't interested, and that's it.
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Cults prey on the weak minded and the emotionally vulnerable. The best way to protect friends and family from the influence of a cult is to give them a strong support network. That is why so many cults prey on college students. College students are away from their support networks and in unfamiliar situations and territory. They are especially vulnerable to being taken in by a cult.
Universities need to be vigilant about keeping cults and any religious fanaticism off campus. The University of Texas at Austin has a huge Scientology center. Technically, the building is not on campus, but it was built for the specific purpose of recruiting college students to Scientology. Universities usually have great influence over local politics and could do more to keep cults away from student populations.-
Agreed.
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In the U.S. just about every college and university in the country is besieged by a cult. It's called "Socialism."-
Booo! Political commentary has nothing to do with religious cultism. Non-productive to the thread!
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Oh, here we go... *shakes head*
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Shame on you, Jack-trying to hijack the thread? You're better than that. -
Socialism/Scientology,it would be an error to think they are not pushed by powers that be...
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I work at a Jesuit university. They are always wary of being beseiged by capitalists
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Absolutely. One of my old sociology professors spent a year researching the Heaven's Gate people--you remember them--the nuts who were waiting to take Haley's comet to Heaven. He got them all to drink cyanide.
CARAZY!-
and they all died in Nike's or Converse. Can't remember which. Sad, very sad.
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Yep--Shirley remembers!
It is sad--what's really sad are all the people the leaders manipulated into doing this. -
To be fair, not all cults end up with dead college kids in matching sweatsuits drinking poison Kool-aid.
Mormonism started out as a cult of personality and the Seventh Day Adventists started out as an apocalyptic cult (I learned this from watching an episode of House. Who says TV isn't educational) -
Personally--I think most religions are dangerous. Or have the ability to be.
And don't get me started on Mormonism--when they almost single handedly helped to pass Prop 8. I'd call that EXTREMELY dangerous. Dangerous to the progress of our society, imo.
Oops--I'm bad with politicizing too--but you brought up that the Mormons were a cult and I had to point out what recently happened.
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I think the danger of cults lies in the blind following and manipulation of it's followers.
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Like the Bush cult circa 2001-2003?
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That cult is still around, only they have a new figurehead.
Stop politicizing this thread! Bad Agit8r! Bad Jack!
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Sometimes the Attorney General burns down your compound.
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Can't religion be a cult as well though? I grew up Pentacostal (I'm not now) There are those who are or claim to be that religion and they "Tempt the Lord" by bringing in poisonous snakes. "Holy rollers" wouldn't that be nearly the same as a cult? BTW I never went to a church that brought in snakes but I know they exist in WV.
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Absolutely--I think that a lot of religions (mainstream ones) can have a cultish aspect--or people who believe in them in a cultish manner.
Such as the uber-Christian nuts who are going in droves to the Holy Land to bring about the apocolypse. That's Christianity taken to the cult level if you ask me. -
I would like to go there for the historical aspect of it. Bring about the next apocolypse though. I'd never heard of that but I would say that's asking for it. It also makes me want to watch "The Mummy."
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Oh--it's a fascinating part of the world. I was born in Egypt and the entire Middle East is quite fascinating. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance, Shirley!
And lol about the mummy! -
Christianity began as a cult. The book of Acts describes a Jim Jones type congregation:
4:32 "Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common."
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The religion can become a cult, but it needn't be like this. We talk about the cult, when believers are slaves manipulated by the leader. Official churches in our times don't seem to be similar to dangerous cults. Am I right? I see the difference.
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Official churches in our times don't seem to be similar to dangerous cults. Am I right?
IMHO there danger exists in all churches, denominations and non-denominational religious groups, regardless of what stripe they are, and how large or small they are.
Does pedophile priests and pastors ring a bell?
Do Catholics not elevate the Pope by claiming he is the closest person on earth to God (ie. His representative)?
Do other factions of religious people not claim their leaders are Prophets, etc.? -
And the holy rollers who do the snake thing. They are Christians to or at least proclaim to be. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObhvOeNCKhs and www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdc5h10zTo&feature=related This is scary junk!
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Oh my! But don't forget those dangerous Christian charismatic sects and their euphoric mock rock concerts, being slain in the spirit, rolling on the floor expressing holy tears and holy laughter, casting out witches, demons, etc., babbling in non-existent tongues, holding phony baloney healing services, and so on.
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And who pays for those mega-churches anyway...?
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Their adherents make "charitable" donations, which are sometimes referred to as church taxes or tithes to mega churches that have tax free status.
According to some sources, they have purchased 1400 mega churches across America costing from $10 million to $100 million each. So, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they average only $25 million per church. That means that they have spent $35 billion building these huge, elaborate, luxurious structures containing restaurants, bookstores, arcade rooms, coffee shops, music stores, etc.
How could they have spent the "charitable" donations instead? They could have built a few thousand homeless shelters across America with enough capacity to house every homeless person in yhe nation. They could also have hired the necessary counselors, psychologists, pastors and job training and placement personnel to staff each of these shelters, thus providing the needed help to get America’s homeless population back on their feet.
However, instead of making the choice I’ve just described, Evangelical mega churches decided to forget the homeless and to purchase luxurious mansions for their houses of worship and pay rent for costly stadium mock rock concert events.
They average $5 million per church in annual donations. With this money they purchase new expensive vehicles for church use, the most expensive equipment and furnishings available, and large salaries for their pastoral staff. Some preachers pay themselves seven figure salaries and have their own private jets.
What other choices could the make? If every mega church in America gave just ten percent of their annual income to feed starving children, there would be enough money to feed every starving child in the world two nutritious meals per day throughout the year. This is based on figures from the “Feed My Starving Children” organization, which states that there are between five and six million children who die from starvation each year, and that it only costs fifteen cents to provide a nourishing meal for a child.
This is what these mega churches do with their income from so-called charitable donations under tax free status. Aside from that they get faith based federal funding to run ineffectual "abstinence only" sex education programs to teens. It certainly gives one pause to wonder what would Jesus do, doesn't it? -
@ TT you're talking about Pentacostal religion. Yelling, screaming, yadda, yadda, yadda. Full and complete belief in the word of God (the Bible). My aunt, who by the way is in the nut house, "expelled" demons from me. More like gave me inner demons scared the living sh@+ out of me. I cried myself to sleep that night and I am so happy not being Pentacostal.
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@Shirley
The reason I did not isolate the Pentecostal denomination is because there are second and third wave break-off charismatic sects, and apostolic cults, and other word of faith type cults, that are all into the same behaviors too.
Charismatics cherry pick from Ephesians and uphold a single passage as being all important. Some even go to the extent of stating that speaking in tongues, preaching, teaching, prophetic utterances, etc. are evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, conservative evangelicals cherry pick another passage from Ephesians and uphold "election before the foundations of time" as being all important. Both factions insist on baptism by full immersion.
IMO it doesn't matter whether or not we are speaking of the Roman Catholic church or Pentecostal denomination or Baptists any other church -- strictly speaking they are all cults. And, IMO all religious cults, regardless of their size and their acceptance in the world are dangerous organizations.
Luckily, no one is required to belong to any religious cult of any kind, in order to believe in the wisdom of the teachings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, and to choose to adhere to them as best as they can.
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I don't want to politicize this thread, but the Republican party IS a cult. They tell their members what and how to think. Often Republican policies are not in the best interest of republican civilians, but they support them anyway because that's what they're told to do. And it is EXTREMELY dangerous. Just look at what the Republicans have done to our economy, not to mention, they allowed us to be attacked in 2001 and have been responsible for the deaths of over 4000 U.S. troops -- not to mention the 100,000 or so Iraqis.-
I think I love you!
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It's probably just lust, mtyler. I get that a lot.
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I know I &hearts you.
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Guys, its unfair to ask the conservatives not to make political remarks on unrelated threads and then not follow that advice ourselves.
Not that I don't agree with you. -
But we're right and they're wrong!
Just sayin! -
Indeed - we are right and the right wing is wrong.
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Good stuff Satij. - I feel the same way..
extending this further, historians blame over 1.5 BILLION deaths on Catholicism and they're not including the Nazis either who were devout Catholics - only regular mass attendees got promoted! the Vatican supported Hitler and Mussolini until the US invaded Italy, then they switched sides to the winners!
religions are very SCARY, they'll kill all non-believers if they are allowed to!
.. j.. -
I feel compelled to note that a good number of Nazi's were lutheran also.
Btw-Last year the vatican made some new deadly sins. Among them was 'economic oppression'. I was like, "what's next, the KKK gonna condemn bigotry?"
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Y'all are a little wrong, lol
See, that's fair and balanced
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Silence, dial up!
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Hey, I was lumping the right wing in there too!
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Tell me, is it really hard to play WoW on dial up or is the real obstacle living in your mother's basement?
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now, now. If I lived in dear old mom's basement, I would have her interrupting my dialup connections. Instead my daughters do. lol
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IF you think about it, most religions (esp. Christianity) are "death cults" - their goal is "defeating death" - I've even heard Christian preachers "brag" about this!! -- "Jesus defeated death!"
dang - don't they know this is DEATH CULT stuff?
"We all owe God one death" - this quote is reality..
NO matter what you think of religions, they are CULTS... which is just "sub-culture", a smaller group of people than the overall population.
and remember "fan" is short for fanatic!
also that 90% of us simply believe what our PARENTS told us to believe - not very open-minded or self-searching!!
good luck with yer cults! -- Jose-
Am I still in a cult if i don't know any other Deists?
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WE SHOULD definitely END the tax-free status of religions. (we're paying for CULTS too!) Most waste the money on themselves anyway, some send the money overseas to terrorists. Without government auditing, which making them taxable would enable, we have NO IDEA where the money is going.
This affects taxes you and I pay, we're being forced to subsidize religious contributions. It also hinders national security, the big buzz-word allowing big brother intrusions on all our rights. OK, the government is going to hamper individual rights, why not the self-proclaimed rights of religions - why are they immune to examination and responsible actions?
Both the OLD and NEW testaments warned that churches are for hypocrites, even Jesus said the truly devout pray in private at home, not in public!
I have this and more at Bible Decoded: bibledecoded.blogspot.com, which is aimed at cutting throught the materialist hypocrisy rampant in religion today and getting the underlying metaphysical philosophy that I believe religions have forgotten and are hiding from the 'worshippers', who get no education, just a place to worship.
ps- my former Methodist church now has a security guard in the huge parking lot, and a bullet-proof glass and a locked-door for their main office! you talk to the receptionist through a hole in the glass! UNREAL -- when I found out after my mom died, I decided to NEVER go back to this church again. they waste enough money to feel half of Georgia annually!
.. jman.. -
I narrowly escaped a cult. Yes, they can be dangerous - some I believe (that have already been mentioned) can be physically dangerous, others are psychologically dangerous.
Prevention comes with education....and self confidence. Those who are taught to think critically and for themselves and have a modicum of respect for themselves are less likely to be completely sucked in by a cult. With critical thinking, once you've experienced a taste - you should be able to determine if it's a cult - or if something is just plain "off" about the group.
Prevention also comes with proper supervision of your children. Kids - particularly teens - are highly susceptible to cults because of the very nature of a cult. The first thing a cult does - is make them feel wanted. Teens with rough relationships with their parents, and poor social skills (thus few friends) will look to and accept groups that use inclusion and acceptance. The next step is isolation from anyone who might be able to pull the person away from the group. So a rebellious teen or a child with poor relationships with parents or family members would readily give up their ties to their parents under the right circumstances.
If you communicate and supervise your children (who are they hanging out with? Where are they going?) you can prevent your child from being sucked into a cult.-
Energizerbunnyninjaology?
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No, the ICC!
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Interstate Commerce Commission?
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LOLLOL
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seriusly though, what is ICC?
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It's a crazy crazed pseudo Christian group that's really a psycho cult. They even have tehir own version of the bible, which is freaky 'coz the way it's laid is totally brainwashing material.
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a little blotter acid on the communion wafers?
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I dunno - but they were freak-a-deaks if I ever saw any. They were unrealistically nice (I mean, like, serial killer before the gory bits nice) - and they suck you in.
Damn it, I just lost that post. grrr.
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anything can be dangerous -
Talking with all of you about similarities and differences between official churches and cults made me come to some conclusions:
1. some of you perceive all religious organisations called churches as cultish ones (you mention WWII, Hitler and also give some examples from the history of Christian churches,but you also point to the present issues like deviant priests etc),
2. there are bloggers for whom the political parties are like cults (but I can't see their point of view)
3. Many of you know a lot about the dangerous influence of the cults and understand the problem.
I don't want to compare for example Catholics to Scientologists or Moonists as far as their faith is concerned. It doesn't matter so much in this discussion. But I see one vital difference - when you want to leave the Catholic Church, you can do it and become a free atheist. When you want to leave the cult (like the Moonists), you risk your life. When I was a student I tried to help my friend leave the cult, I knew a lot about them, but I couldn't help him. And I had to leave my hometown for many years. I and my parents were afraid of them, because the Moonists from Cracow "promised" to kill me if I don't stop disturbing them....-
The reason people consider all religions to be a cult is because under a technical definition, they are cults.
It's semantical, and it's something that is often used to discredit any/all religions. By using the word "cult" which today has a very negative connotation you're poisoning the well against any/all religions.
For me, after having been the victim of a cult - I kinda take that personally, and I think that grouping mainstream religions in with dangerous cults marginalizes the immediate and tangible danger cults pose to individuals.
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@Anok I agree with you and understand your point of view. Wish you good luck :-))
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The Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists? Heaven's Gate? Peoples Temple Agricultural Project? Nah! of course not. -
Yes,I believe cults are dangerous. I was part of a cult where I was held and raped. I speak about it on my blog. www.cultofdeception.blogspot.com-
Father, Thank you for Sarah's reply and I ask that You heal her hurts and bless her as a child of Yours. In the power, authority and name of Jesus Christ amen
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Thanks Sarah for your comment, no doubt I'll read your blog. Take care :-))
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A cult by it's very nature is dangerous for it points us to either a man or a set of rules that are suppose to get us closer to God. Cults take our focus off of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
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All cults from Bush to Obama, Scientology, ... -
Thanks InClark1950 for your prayer. Coming out of that cult nearly killed me but I'm pretty ok now. I don't completely understand brainwashing but some there were quite a few there who definitely were not operating with a clear mind. The leader raped his daughters as well and one of them charged him. He was sent to jail for three years, not nearly enough time for the brutality he caused.
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Aren't all of them? -
Religions are lies made of mere words.
Religions promise children ''heaven'' if they would curse God's creation to ''hell''.
The lies of religions are dangerous because their lies must be ENFORCED upon the Living Things on the Earth at the point of a sword.
To exist on earth, religions need to pledge, allegiance and indoctrinate children into a life of servitude.
Religions must consume the earth to build killing machines and form an army of enforcers, to sustain and expand their empires, thus forcing all the rest of Humanity to consume the earth to build killing machines to defend their beloved children from the attacking hordes of holy believers, greedy for ''heaven'' and fearing ''hell''. -
All cults are dangerous.
By definition...
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