Reflections on Backpack Radio, Episode #164

Reflections on Backpack Radio, Episode #164: Cults, Heresies, and World Religions with Doug Powell (listen here)

My husband wanted me to start by looking at iWitness World Religions and iWitness Heresies and Cults, apps created by Doug Powell (apologist and musician) and now available for downloading. But I’m, like, apps schnapps—let’s talk about cults. Doug, please develop an app that will allow me to point at someone and my phone will immediately read, “Cult Member” or “Cult-free.” The wisdom-seeking folk will want to listen to this episode. Is now an appropriate time to admit that I got my first smart phone and sent my first text message in June?

But CULTS. To get started, let’s go to the eighties. Here’s Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality.” Tina Fey is also making a new sitcom about a woman leaving a doomsday cult. So cults are hot!

I guess, then, my hope is to whet your appetites for more—which you can get from the show. My guess is that all of us have been touched by cults. Once, I had dinner with the Moonies! An old college friend had drunk the Kool Aid, so to speak (oh, that’s the wrong cult!), and married this complete stranger in a big stadium. This was back in my All-Faiths-Are-Equally-Valid days and so, when my ultra-PC friend urged me not to call them “Moonies” but to kindly refer to them as members of the Unification Church, I did so. Actually, there isn’t much to tell because I asked the wrong questions—but I do remember being spooked and hearing about how much property they owned in Manhattan (tons, friends, tons). The last I heard, she had left the cult and was a single mom in Phoenix. I met her once again at an IHOP, and she looked amazing.

Besides that, there has been the troubling goodness of numerous Mormons in my path. They have been among the best of my students—those Mormon kids have been respectful, and they’ve turned their homework in on time. So what if they’ve got mysterious ideas about owning their own planets? Surely, they’re okay, right?

Then, there’s that Shaker village in Massachusetts we visited. I think they died out because no one had sex, but they made awesome furniture! (Make love, not war? Make a chair, not a baby!)

Finally, I must confess to having seen a lot of Tom Cruise movies, so I’ve also encountered Scientology. These encapsulate my cultic experiences. Or do they?

I’ve already confessed to offering no cohesive apologetic to the Moonies. In the same way that I wouldn’t know what an “app” really was if it hit me in the face, I’m not so sure we’re entirely aware of what a cult really is. Perhaps this is the first step in fighting the good fight—and why this app might be important. Sure, it’s easy to self-righteously identify David Koresh, but what about the subtle heretics who speak gently but authoritatively? I’m personally more interested in the way Christian groups harbor cultic tendencies, as opposed to the obvious nutcases who want us to make friends with aliens or marry our cousins. What dangers lurk among us?

One interesting question has been raised on this topic (by my husband and me, on the couch): Can a group be doctrinally-sound and still be a cult? Of course, this begs another question: what does it mean to be doctrinally-sound? In other words, Can genuine Christians—True Believers—be in a cult? What does it look like when groups begin with the Bible, with Jesus?

It almost seems as if the word cult defies definition. There are sects, heretics, and cults. It’s all very confusing. Basically, you want to be in the historic Christianity camp. Here’s how you can figure out if you’re in a cult. I’ll try to make it fun, by writing my own app-like quiz. These traits are adapted from the International Cultic Studies Association, which I picked out from about a million online resources (http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm). The emphasis is on adapted. I’d encourage you to check out the original source, since I messed with it considerably.

• Do you think your leader knows completely what he’s talking about and you can trust him because he’s so wise and you’re an idiot anyway? Plus, questioning is not a great option. You don’t want to be contentious—especially since your leader is so brilliant and, well, as already mentioned, you’re an idiot?
• Is the whole questioning process equivalent to trying to get off the Island in “Lost” or like finding the wardrobe that will take you to Narnia?
• Have you signed any papers or jumped on a disturbing bandwagon because your friends are doing it (plus, you’re an idiot, so what do you really know?)
• Does your leader have a Napoleonic complex? Does he have an answer for everything? Does he ever just stop and say, “Wow. You’re right. I was wrong. I’m so sorry.”
• Does your group think they’ve got a handle on Truth unlike anyone else?
• Does your group pretty much feel uncomfortable with Other Christians?
• Could someone get rid of the leader, if necessary? Would it be like a coup?
• Is there anything unethical going on? Are you just standing there watching? Seriously?
• Do you feel guilt and shame because you’ve failed, AGAIN, to present your papers to the authorities? Do you find yourself trying harder to be good or getting physically ill because you can’t do it or are you even thinking about suicide?
• Is there an in-group and an out-group? How does your group grow?
• Do you sorta think there is “nothing else out there”? Are you scared to leave, like really scared? How does one leave? Who has left and why?

Once we start talking cults, Christians might move into self-examination. Can the traits of a cult be in place, even if it’s not a cult? What does it look like when a church manifests cult-like traits? What constitutes mind-control or brainwashing? What does a healthy church look like? At what point does a church become unhealthy enough that you just have to get out of there? Can you find the back door? Do you have your running shoes on? Are your kids okay?

More than anything, Christians might want to ask themselves if they’re hearing the full Gospel in their churches, if there’s genuine transparency and accountability in their leadership, and if there really is freedom of expression or is there merely a charade of discussion, a pretense of humility?

Jennifer Bell is mostly a writer, but she’s also an English teacher. The author of two books of fiction, she lives with her husband and two kids in Phoenix.