Cults ~ how to identify fake spiritual banknotes

[Red Sky at Morning]

Fake currency is big business! Nobody tries to deceive you with a $105 dollar bill as that would be way too obvious...



...but what about a fake Jesus?

Do Christians know the real Jesus well enough not to be fooled? Sadly many people are picked off by Christian cults and never come to a saving faith in Jesus.

I thought this might be an interesting thread to firstly promote true Christianity and secondly, to consider the variety of Christian cults out there and expose their methods of persuasion....



A (relatively) recent cult as an interesting case study:-

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

P.s. an informative overview of the psychological methods employed by cults to control people within their ranks...

 

[Lisa]

The most obvious fake I ever saw was the one that motion picture industry instead of United States of America on it..I couldn’t believe a business took them they were so obvious. Could that also be something that happens to Christians? It’s so obviously a fake but they don’t care..they like the message?

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4:3-4‬ ‭
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn | New American Standard Bible (NASB) | Download The Bible App Now

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn

www.bible.com

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

The BITE model of cult exploitation

Many people think of mind control as an ambiguous, mystical process that cannot be defined in concrete terms. In reality, mind control refers to a specific set of methods and techniques, such as hypnosis or thought-stopping, that influence how a person thinks, feels, and acts.

Based on research and theory by Robert Jay Lifton, Margaret Singer, Edgar Schein, Louis Jolyon West, and others who studied brainwashing in Maoist China as well as cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger, Steven Hassan developed the BITE Model to describe the specific methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control over people. “BITE” stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control.

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

B....
Behavior Control

1. Regulate individual’s physical reality
2. Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates
3. When, how and with whom the member has sex
4. Control types of clothing and hairstyles
5. Regulate diet – food and drink, hunger and/or fasting
6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep
7. Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence
8. Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time
9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet
10. Permission required for major decisions
11. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative
12. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think
13. Impose rigid rules and regulations
14. Punish disobedience by beating, torture, burning, cutting, r*pe, or tattooing/branding
15. Threaten harm to family and friends
16. Force individual to r*pe or be raped
17. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment
18. Instill dependency and obedience
19. Kidnapping
20. Beating
21. Torture
22. r*pe
23. Separation of Families
24. Imprisonment
25. Murder

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

I...
Information Control

1. Deception:
   a. Deliberately withhold information
   b. Distort information to make it more acceptable
   c. Systematically lie to the cult member
2. Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:
   a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, media
   b. Critical information
   c. Former members
   d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate
   e. Control through cell phone with texting, calls, internet tracking
3. Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
   a. Ensure that information is not freely accessible
   b. Control information at different levels and missions within group
   c. Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when
4. Encourage spying on other members
   a. Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member
   b. Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership
   c. Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by group
5. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:
   a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media
   b. Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources
6. Unethical use of confession
   a. Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries
   b. Withholding forgiveness or absolution
   c. Manipulation of memory, possible false memories

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

T...
Thought Control

1. Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth
   a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality
   b. Instill black and white thinking
   c. Decide between good vs. evil
   d. Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)
2. Change person’s name and identity
3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words
4. Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts
5. Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member
6. Memories are manipulated and false memories are created
7. Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:
   a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
   b. Chanting
   c. Meditating
   d. Praying
   e. Speaking in tongues
   f. Singing or humming
8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism
9. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed
10. Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful
11. Instill new “map of reality”

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

E...
Emotional Control

1. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish
2. Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt
3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault
4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as:
   a. Identity guilt
   b. You are not living up to your potential
   c. Your family is deficient
   d. Your past is suspect
   e. Your affiliations are unwise
   f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish
   g. Social guilt
   f. Historical guilt
5. Instill fear, such as fear of:
   a. Thinking independently
   b. The outside world
   c. Enemies
   d. Losing one’s salvation
   e. Leaving or being shunned by the group
   f. Other’s disapproval
   f. Historical guilt
6. Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment and then declaring you are horrible sinner
7. Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins
8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority
   a. No happiness or fulfillment possible outside of the group
   b. Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc.
   c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends and family
   d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll
   e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family

 

[shankara]

I wrote something about this recently. Just gave it a little edit as I'd made a couple of small errors in the piece.

"Cults"

The term “Cult” used in reference to religious movements is controversial, and for good reason. It can be used to demean the religious practises of those who fall outside the mainstream, being used as a tool of the powerful and those who wish to preserve the dominance of some traditional...

vigilantcitizenforums.com

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

I wrote something about this recently. Just gave it a little edit as I'd made a couple of small errors in the piece.

"Cults"

The term “Cult” used in reference to religious movements is controversial, and for good reason. It can be used to demean the religious practises of those who fall outside the mainstream, being used as a tool of the powerful and those who wish to preserve the dominance of some traditional...

vigilantcitizenforums.com

As in “freedom fighter” or “terrorist”...

Those of a relativistic mindset may conclude that it is simply the members of an established spiritual narrative making use of language to negatively label the “new doctrine”.

The BITE acronym above is helpful - only a false spirituality would rely on those techniques to gain the hearts and minds of their adherents.

 

[Todd]

Interesting....going through your BITE points I have experienced a majority of them in every single "mainstream/orthodox" Christian church I have been involved with. At a layperson level it might not be as clearly evident, but as soon as you get into any level of leadership or resposibility I have found most Churches are guilty of many of things in the list to varying degrees.

The only ones I have not observed or personally experienced in Christian Churches are:
B1, 6, 14-17, 19-25
T2
E 8e

So what is the % of the BITE points a Christian church can be found guilty of before they are considered a cult?

 

[shankara]

As in “freedom fighter” or “terrorist”...

Those of a relativistic mindset may conclude that it is simply the members of an established spiritual narrative making use of language to negatively label the “new doctrine”.

The BITE acronym above is helpful - only a false spirituality would rely on those techniques to gain the hearts and minds of their adherents.

I think that it can be that, and I think people should be more aware of quite how cultish mainstream religions can be. The things you list could certainly be signs of the more extreme cult groups, but there are also more subtle and less obvious kinds of brainwashing which get people caught in a very neurotic and painful kind of psychological situation.

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

Interesting....going through your BITE points I have experienced a majority of them in every single "mainstream/orthodox" Christian church I have been involved with. At a layperson level it might not be as clearly evident, but as soon as you get into any level of leadership or resposibility I have found most Churches are guilty of many of things in the list to varying degrees.

The only ones I have not observed or personally experienced in Christian Churches are:
B1, 6, 14-17, 19-25
T2
E 8e

So what is the % of the BITE points a Christian church can be found guilty of before they are considered a cult?

You raise some interesting points @Todd

I am not a “denominational” person for that reason. If you want a relationship with Jesus, pick up a Bible, get on your knees and come to Him in humility. The disapproval of other people cannot keep you from eternal life, and the esteem of others cannot save you.

In the end, the Lord knows those who are His.