Cult

**Cult** is a term that describes some new religious movements and other social groups which have unusual (and often extreme) religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Cults have specific characteristics, like extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal.

The term has different definitions in academia and popular culture. Sometimes it is used in a pejorative way. New Age religions were often called cults because they were thought to be deviant social movements.

## Definition

The word _cult_ originally meant a system of ritual practices. It was first used in the early 17th century to mean respect paid to a divinity. It came from the ancient Latin word _cultus,_ meaning "worship".

Many (but not all) cults are small, newly started religious movements. These are not mainstream religions; they are groups set up to oppose "a centre of established authority".

Historically, many cults have had leaders who were not elected and control the group according to their own wishes.

It can be difficult to say whether a religious group is a cult. A group that is considered a cult today may be accepted as a religion in the future. Likewise, a religion that is accepted today may later become a cult.

### Destructive cults

Leaders of some destructive cults have been dangerous criminals (like Charles Manson and Jim Jones). Murders have occurred in some cults (like the Order of the Solar Temple and Heaven's Gate).

Armed guards carrying submachine guns enforced mass "suicides" among Jones's Peoples Temple and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.

### Mind control

Cults use some form of persuasion or mind control to recruit and keep members. After studying cult members, psychiatrist Dr. John G. Clark testified that cults use "coercive persuasion and thought reform techniques ... on naïve, uninformed [people] with disastrous health consequences." Their goal is to prevent the faithful from thinking critically and making choices in their own best interests.

Many cults use the following methods:
1. They put a person in physically or emotionally distressing situations;
1. They repeatedly tell the person their problems have one simple explanation;
1. A charismatic leader or group gives the person what seems to be unconditional love, acceptance, and attention
1. The person gets a new identity based on the group;
1. The person is subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives and the mainstream culture) and their access to information is severely controlled.

Some disagree that using these methods makes a group a cult. The _Society for the Scientific Study of Religion_ stated in 1990 that there was not enough research for a consensus. They said "the techniques involved in the process of physical coercion" were not necessarily the same as the techniques of "nonphysical coercion and control".

### Management style

Cults have often been criticized for having a dictatorial and exploitative managerial style. In his testimony, Dr. Clark said:> The beliefs of all these cults are absolutist and non-tolerant of other systems of beliefs. Their systems of governance are totalitarian. A requirement of membership is to obey absolutely without questioning. Their interest in the individual’s development within the cult towards some kind of satisfactory individual adult personality is[,] by their doctrines, very low or nonexistent. It is clear that almost all of them emphasize money-making in one form or another, although a few seem to be very much involved in demeaning or self denigrating activities and rituals. Most of them that I have studied possess a good deal of property and money which is under the discretionary control of the individual leaders.

## Violent cults

Some cults have collected weapons and committed acts of violence. For example, in 1971, members of the Manson Family were convicted of several murders.

In 1978, armed cult members from the People's Temple killed a visiting United States Congressman, Leo Ryan. Armed with submachine guns, they stood around as over 900 believers committed mass suicide.

In 1993 the Branch Davidians, under the direction of David Koresh, used violence against federal law enforcement agencies. A later FBI report revealed how large the cult's collection of weapons had become. The 51-day siege by the ATF, FBI, and the Texas National Guard resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents, Koresh, and 82 other Branch Davidian men, women, and children.

In 1995, members of a doomsday cult called Aum Shinrikyo (“Supreme Truth”) released sarin, a poisonous nerve gas, on five crowded subway trains during morning rush hour in Tokyo. Thirteen people were killed and thousands more were sickened.

## Related pages

- Sect
- Religion

## Further reading

- Jenkins, Philip 2000. _Mystics and messiahs: cults and new religions in American history_. Oxford University Press.
- Snow, Robert L. 2003. _Deadly cults: the crimes of true believers_. Praeger/Greenwood.
- Tobias, Madeleine Landau; Lalich, Janja and Langone, Michael 1994. _Captive hearts, captive minds: freedom and recovery from cults and abusive relationships_.
- Wohlforth, Tim & Dennis Tourish 2000. _On the edge: political cults left and right_. Sharpe.
- Barrett D.V. 2001. _The new believers: a survey of sects, cults and alternative religions_. London: Cassell.
- Zellner W.W. & Petrowsky  Marc 1998. _Sects, Cults, and Spiritual Communities: A Sociological Analysis_
- Dawson, L. Lorne 2006. _Comprehending cults: the sociology of new religious movements_