'Cults Essay\r'

'The watch account take phantasmal furore is ofttimes thr sustain around in todays society as a derogatory landmark towards holinesss that ar non well up k in a flashn or shake aspects that atomic number 18 contrary to mainstream worships. According to mainstream media, furys sustain been responsible for massive pact self-annihilations, and their pursuit argon incestual and polygamous. The mass media orients the drawing card as a artful person who controls his/her believers as they blindly follow, non cognise the trouble that leave alone sealedly cons line up them ” . rageus’ has plow little more than a convenient, if for the most part inaccurate and endlessly pejorative, horthand for a religious conference that must be presented as odd or dangerous for the purpose of an emerging immatures story. â€Å"(3) Douglas Cowan and David Bromley show the harsh accreditedity of the way the majority of the media equals to show furys, probably for better ratings. in that location are some(prenominal) main frenzys that are ofttimes referenced when researching the topic. The archetypal creation The nation’s Temple, the founder Jim J whizzs had a following of 912, that all in all died (including him) by cyanide twist drinks in 1978.\r\nThis was k straightwayn as the Jonestown Massacre, controversy surrounds it as it is debated hether or not it was a mass suicide or murder. An separate comm just now referenced craze is heaven’s Gate, a UFO crack of doom religion that ended in a 39 member suicide in 1997 when the group was attempting to start issue earth beca ingestion they believed it was about to be â€Å"recycled”. To learn and show what a cult is, I impart be define a cult, what features make a cult and who the people are that colligate them, as well as discuss the founders of these religions.\r\nWhat is the definition of a cult? Depending on the intent of the source defining the dis course cult proves a difficult task. The scholars on the ubject of cults attend to hurt two different approaches when studying this topic. There are those who are a part of the anticult front line and a skunk use the word â€Å"cult” in a negative fashion towards any religion that has organise in recent history. Those apart of the anticult attend to skirt around the subject of defining a cult or explaining what a cult only consists of.\r\nWe are given the feeling as though they do not want to define it as they may cast an umbrella over other mainstream religions that waste a corresponding form. It is even often used to describe popular trends that will upposedly not last, veganism is a consideration that has been described as a cult fad. You weed pick up how it is almost always used negatively, or as something that has no real substance and will not stand the leaven of time like other religions shed. In contrast, at that place are those who do not use the word cult but prefer the term â€Å" wise ghostlike Movements”.\r\nThese scholars have a more neutral opinion, and use modernistic Religious Movements to â€Å"… represent enthralling glimpses into the way human beings construct religious pith and organize their lives to give shape to religious experience. ” (Cowan, Bromley, 3). It is valuable to be subjective when using the word cult and for purposes of this paper I will define cult in my own words and state that on that arcdegree is a remnant among cults and bran-new Religious Movements. A cult is a form of religion that is deceitful towards its own members with the drawing card abusing their powers.\r\nAlthough there have been numerous mainstream religions that have had a leader treat their powers, it is necessary to point out the ditterence, which is that in a cult the head of the religion is the source of all their religious knowledge and do not have other ways of getting to know the religion withou t them. In comparison, mass religions have many leading, many forms of knowledge and you can attain religious beliefs by many forms, not only the one source.\r\n tutelage in mind that using the word cult subjectively is imperative to this process, it is still easy to find movements that can be categorized under my own definition of the word cult. These would include the previously mentioned religions of The People’s Temple and Heaven’s Gate. When look at these and other cults there are often many characteristics that they do have in common. It is normal for the cult to have only one leader, â€Å".. ho claims divinity or a special committee en swear to him from Above. ” (Harrison, 19) A lot of cult leaders use the money from the followers for personal profit.\r\nThere is a major sense of belonging that comes along with being a part of a cult. There are many religions that in like manner share this but cults often want their members to have this feeling wi th them alone, and discourage involvement with others who are not in their religion. One author that I found that was willing to at least(prenominal)(prenominal) describe a cult relationship for the purposes of her book was Singer. SHe arranges there are trinity actors to cultic relationships, using that term better describes his viewings of interactions that go on in cults. The three detailors are as follows: 1. The origin of the group and enjoyment of the leader 2. The power structure, or relationship between the leader (or leaders) and the followers 3. The use of coordinated political platform of persuasion (which is called thought reform, or, more commonly, brainwashing)” (7) You can inspect from the quote that this cultic relationship isn’t entirely but related to religion alone, Singer includes cults that are formed around doctrines, theories and intrusts, but states that other esearchers may not identify this exactly as she does. According to the scho lars of reinvigorated religious movements, â€Å".. roups that are labeled â€Å"cults” often closely resemble a variety of conventional organizations in which these selfsame(prenominal) characteristics are accepted as authoritative or necessary: communes and intentional communities, convents, monasteries, and other high-commitment religious societies, multilevel marketing organizations and armed forces training and charge units… ” (Bromley, Cowan, 5). There could be many reasons why a person would Join a cult, they could e the same reason’s one Joins any trustfulness based group; a person is tone to belong, or meet others with similar morals.\r\nA immemorial reason why a person would Join a cult is that they are not doing this knowing that what they are becoming apart of is in fact a cult. Cults often are established clear up of a Christian based structure with similar values, and practices. A person may attend a cult thinking it is another sect of Christianity. Members of a cult learn ways to recruit new members, a typical form of recruiting is called â€Å"love-bombing”, where members seek out non-members and shower them ith many forms of attention and affection. Basically, being exceedingly nice to others with the intent on conversion.\r\nAnticult members are nimble to let the public know that recruiting for cults can overhaul anywhere, on campus, on buses and trains, or on the street, permit us know that we can be recruited literally e precisewhere. In actuality it looks as though most â€Å"enlisting” for cults is done through family members or close friends. When visual perception that it is family and friends who do the majority of converting it is easy to see now people would Join. It is not as though the trusted group are trying o harm others by recruiting, they are trying to help and see that others are also spill to â€Å"find the right” in a sense.\r\nIt is similar to the common prac tice of missions trips that many Christian religions take part in where they travel to underdeveloped parts of the world, converting people to Christianity and also helping the community in some way. The difference being, hopefully no abuse of power or deceitfulness by the religion. It isn’t always dumb why one does Join a cult but it is probable to opine each idiosyncratic has their own personal reasons why, and somehow in a way that eligion is giving them whatever it is they may be sounding for. Friends?\r\nBelonging? Maybe they don’t agree with morals of other religions and this cult matches up with the lifestyle that they lead. There is a lot of info pertaining to the large numbers of youth attending cults and New Religious Movements, particularly between the ages of 18 and 22. Lorne L. Dawson describes the demographic of youth as the typical â€Å"All American boy or girl”. â€Å"A visibleness of the typical cult member reveals that he or she is whit e, middle or upper conformation, with at least some college education and nominally religious upbringing. 85) It efficacy seem surprising that a lot of followers come from this kind of back round, but when looked at a little more in discretion you see that often these materialisation adults have any parental issues or have had some shed light on of middleclass failures. Those with problems in communicating with their parents often look to the leader of the cult for guidance and use them as a parental fgure. Those have failed according to middle class norms seem to be searching for validation. A lot of followers Join the cults in times of pic and much needed assist from others.\r\nWhile you can say that almost e preciseone has come from back ounds where they have felt vulnerable at points and needed the support of others, it seems imperative that cults cling on to those who have these types of issues going on as well as the added ingredient of age to convert potential member s. The time of young adulthood is when most people are source the process of learning who they are and to have a supportive, flattering, group surround them can be very influential to their life.\r\nFor most cults there is only one leader although this is not always square, using the examples from earlier, Heaven’s Gate had two leaders; marshal Applewhite nd Bettie who liked to be called Ti and Do. oftentimes the leader(s) starts this religion after some form of wonderful religious conversion where they may have had a near death experience or a vision, there are many different stories of leaders getting the â€Å"call to prophecy’. The leaders of cults are always charismatic, and seem to have all the answers.\r\nIn a time in peoples lives when they are looking for affirmation it is easy to be drawn to somebody who knows it all, and can give the yes and no answers. The leader forms very personal relationships with his followers, which sometimes turns sexual. As cul ts grow the leader is not always able to be so intimate with each member, and this can become knotted for the cult. In response when cults’ members become larger, the leader will start to segregate himself from the following, only allowing access to certain members who have earned that right.\r\nThe leader becomes a mixture of local celebrity in the eyes of the followers, and like celebrities, their fans stand by them even when arguments against their religious beliefs become even more valid. It is hard to say why a person may start a cult, money could be a huge bring factor. Or the thought process of a group of followers hanging onto every word d by the tounder may be exactly what a true narcissist is looking tor.\r\nOut ot all the New Age Religions it is hard to exactly pin point out which ones can be classified as a cult, in history, different Christian denominations have been labelled as cults and paid a legal injury for it. In the nineteenth century The Salvation m ultitude was labelled as a cult and its members were stoned, now it is viewed as a respected and legitimate faith base. So to stamp a religion that hasn’t been researched to its full extent can be harmful, and not fair to its members.\r\nTo be close minded to the idea of new religious movements could erase the idea of religion altogether, as many religions are stuck in the medieval and not embracing the progressiveness of the times. If a religion is not abusing their powers or being harmful to its members who is to say that it cannot be fulfilling for someone who is looking for more in their life and doesn’t connect to mass religions? It is valuable to teach people to be able to foreland ideas and to critically think on new and erstwhile(a) perspectives, hopefully by doing so people will not so easily be a part of such self-destructive religious groups.\r\nI work in the field of homeless and psychogenic health and have met many clients who see themselves as closer to God than the rest of humankind so it is very plausible to me for cult leaders to authentically believe that what they are doing is the right way to live, and the only way to live. All religions have outsiders who will say anything to bring that religion into a bad light, it is with cracking importance that we carefully and kindly dissect the true intent on all religions, not Just new age religions.\r\n'