The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
Catholic church: check!
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
Catholic church doesn't have to do this because they "bring in new members" through reproduction.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Again, they don't have to do this because of their size.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Check!
Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
Again, because of their size, only leadership is stuck doing stuff like this.
The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
Check!
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
Check!
The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
Again, because of their size and over all clout, they don't have a problem with this.
The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
Check!
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
Check (for example, burning people at the stake, indulgences, etc.)!
The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
Check!
Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
Again, the 'group' IS their family and friends.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
Again, the size of the group means only leadership has to do this.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members
Not true, as long as 'socialize' doesn't lead to marriage.
I'm going to ask one question twice.
#1 - If I'm a cult and I never change what I believe, then a) how many members do I need, b) how much net worth do I need, and c) how many years do I have to exist before I'm not a cult anymore?
#2 (reverse angle) - If I'm the RC church and I have 700 million members world wide, billions of dollars in net assets, and have existed for 1600 plus years, how many children must my clergy molest before I BECOME a cult?
We suggest that you check all characteristics that apply to your or your loved one's group, then print this browser page for future reference. You may find that your assessment changes over time, with further reading and research.
The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members
The Way International has ALL the characteristics of a cult.
When you first left TWI, how hard was it to admit you were in a cult?
I still don't say I was in "a cult" but I do say I was involved in a "cultish organization."
Is it pride that I don't want to or seem unable to call a spade a spade? Or is it because I still have friends who are in TWI that I don't want to call TWI a cult? Maybe I don't believe TWI was a cult? Or is it that I have actually been living on another planet all these years and none of this really happened? :blink:
I think this list speaks to the heart of why some people seem to have been in a different group than others. When I was "on the field," far from HQ or even a Limb HQ, I didn't have to account for my time, had non-Way friends, and was not afraid to question and think for myself, even though much of my thinking went along with TWI doctrine just fine.
I was amazed and disappointed that, once I got close to the higher-ups, it was clear that VPW had preferred that we venerate the MOG, distrust outsiders, and obey without question.
I think Wierwille and Martindale had different ways of going about this. Wierwille couldn't control the massive numbers he had generated. He tried via The Way Tree, but he settled for having a Way Corps who "jumped when he said jump," and thousands of others who kicked in substantial money, but stayed out of deep involvement.
Martindale decided to have everyone follow what was being taught to the Way Corps. If they didn't like it, he kicked them out. Fewer numbers, but more loyal cultists, er, followers.
I have concluded at thsi point, that THE Way of the 90's were Cultish..I think this kind of determination comes slowly to some. I have friends acquainted with TWI for the same time I was in, who have claimed it is a cult...we determine it.
I recently met a realy nice Christian guy on a website,he is Methodist, and I have thought about, should I tell him I was in a Cultish group....I fell it like it's betrayal for me to say it was all a Cult....only because, I learnned many great things about life during myt ime in the Way.......am I going to feel freerer or something if I admit it??
I still have grey areas in my thinking that I am working on.
I have NO problem telling people that I was in a cult now, because that is what it is!! But, many years ago I was ashamed to admit that. I soon realized that when I told people about twi and how they run their organization and the followers, many times people would say"WOW :blink: sounds like a cult to me"
Just the other day I had an interesting conversation with a patient of mine that was left for dead in our ICU. His Dr. said he was going to die, so whats the point in doing any more changes on his Respirator. Well, that made many of us very angry and we convinced his mother into getting someone else on the case. He was only 38 and came in with pneumonia. He's also a Christain along with his mother and believes heavily into prayer and studying his bible. A new Dr. took the case and of course with God's help saved this mans life :)
I spent so much time in his room talking with him and his mother about Faith, and Prayer. He then told me that HE was in a cult for 3 years. He descibed to me almost exactly what twi was. I was blown away :o I then told him of my experience with the cult I was in. He too was blown away.
He was involved with The Church of Christ. He's wants to write a book about it to help others who are involved with this group. I told him about GS and how this website has helped so many people see how cultish twi is.
It was so nice spending time with theses people. In fact, he goes to Calvary Chapel of Ft. Lauderdale where Raf goes.
I think that it is very difficult to say the *C* word because it is very hard to admit that we were a part of something that turned out to be so very harmfull in spite of our best intentions.
It is hard to say because I still want to be right because I defended it so staunchly back in the 70s and 80s when people would claim that it was a cult or that I was brain washed.
We have to face the cold hard facts that rather than being the spiritual giants that we believed ourselves to be....we were duped into serving and supporting evil.
Face it......Our leaders seduced and molested young teenaged girls....Our leaders took other mens wives....Our leaders extorted money from the believers by claiming that God wouldn`t spit in our direction if we didn`t. Our leaders slandard the reputations of rightious people in their need to cover their evil .... Our founding president was a drunk and destroyed lives.
Some of us were required to abandon family in the name of God, forsook our educations because it was deemed worldly and a contamination, Our children were at times neglected sometimes hidiously abused... Many of us were required to abort our children in the name of service and commitment to God. We jumped through ever raised hoops in order to be well pleasing to God.
Think of the viscious screaming that we endured, the condemnation, struggle to remain in God`s favor according to whatever our current leaders definition was......
Just look at the list...... this isn`t just *cultish* behavior...... it is full blown evil running unchecked.
If we read these things about ANY other group...we would have no problem identifying and saying *yup THAT is a cult*...but it is a little embarrasing to admit that we ourselves were wrong about something that we believed so strongly in.
This happened in the 70s and 80s too... so it wasn`t just a 90s thing.
I think that the reason that the 90s got SO bad ...and I saw it coming when the loyalty oath was issued....is that Loy fired/marked and avoided/discredited every single leader that had been standing in the gap so to speak...protecting their people from the worst of the abuses....any who dared to hold the president of the ministry to a modicum of decency or require him to behave as a man of the spirit.
After 1987/88 evil was basically allowed to run unchecked because loy had managed to run off anybody with the guts and integrety to stand up to him in his insanity.
I had a hard time admitting twi is a cult. Cult is a four-letter-word. I even was taken to a leader in the Moravian church for what they thought would be deprogramming, but I kicked their butts with what I believed the bible to say. The way was a total cult. I was a total cultee. It took me years to realize that. Once I admitted it to myself I really felt a sense of liberation. I now pro-actively keep control of my thoughts. I'm no longer a way cultee, but the way is still every bit a cult.
Is it pride that I don't want to or seem unable to call a spade a spade? Or is it because I still have friends who are in TWI that I don't want to call TWI a cult? Maybe I don't believe TWI was a cult? Or is it that I have actually been living on another planet all these years and none of this really happened?
I think that it is very difficult to say the *C* word because it is very hard to admit that we were a part of something that turned out to be so very harmfull in spite of our best intentions.
I love this! I really do! (You just knew I was gonna weigh in on this, didncha? :) )
Or, ... or, ... or-r-r, maybe its because the 'cult' term is so damn *loaded*, overhyped, NON-scientifically determined that a lot of people (including yours truly, with NO apologies) have a problem with the term, ... ya think?!
How many people here who, after they have left the group, and after realizing that they were taken advantage of, ripped off, abused, and finally left out to dry, have jumped on the 'cult & mind control' bandwagon, either pi**ed as hell or guilt tripped beyond belief, have lapped up whatever 'cult & mind control' material with the same kind of excited determination and wish to redeem themselves to do what's right, ... and yet haven't gone thru and used as much critical thinking skills on the 'cult & mind control' material to test and see whether or not it is as sound as it claims to be, like we should have done with PFAL and TWI?
(Doncha just LUV l-o-n-g compound sentences? )
Well, ya see, I've gone over a lot of the premises/theories that many anti-cult groups use, and frankly, I've found much of the sloppy work done there as I have found in Wierwille's work. (Please notice that I am NOT referring to the accuracy of the actual abuse that has occured. That has indeed happened.) For example, the term 'cult' itself is (like I said earlier) a loaded term, and isn't one of The Determining Factors of What Makes for a 'Cult' is that they load the terminology? :unsure:
The term cult USED to be a neutral one, meaning 'a group of followers of a person, idea, or thing'. Notice how neutral and non-emotional that is. Yet ever since the mid 70s, the meaning and usage has mostly mushroomed into a negative, fear mongering, and manipulative term that can (and HAS) been used to invoke *FEAR* in people, and (a lot more times than not) been used to keep people in line in staying with the Orthodox line of thought. That, and the associated guilt trip that some people lay on those who were a member of said 'cult'? ..... Hhmmmmmmm, .... now aren't these Yet More Characteristics of how a cult operates?
See this is but one reason why I haven't shown that much respect towards the anti-cult mindset. Ie., lack of consistancy. ... Among other reasons.
So spare me the "They're just going thru denial" guilt trips please. I just ate.
Garth...If you have a problem with the term cult, perhaps you can suggest a different term to describe twi?
Personally, I have no problem with calling twi a cult. I acknowledge the points that you brought up but, as of today, I have not found any other term that describes twi as well...Let's see if we can come up with one:
"Dysfunctional denomination"?
"BG Leonard Offshoot"?
"Biblical research, teaching and fellowship orgainzation"?
Garth, I only know that we did some awfull awfull things, things that we would have never considered doing, otherwise, because these folks said that *God required it* isn`t that what a cult does?
Rape, steal, extort, destroy ...all in the name of God? I don`t know how else to describe it.
I can think of no other word than brainwashing to describe our willingness to forsake our families our personal goals, endure cruel unjust treatment and humbly thank them for helping us to be better believers....
I think that we thought that we were so damned clever and superior to the rest of the world.....that we just don`t like to admit the degree that we were fooled.
Recommended Posts
Top Posters In This Topic
3
8
7
3
Popular Days
Jun 14
25
Jun 19
7
Feb 9
5
Feb 8
4
Top Posters In This Topic
def59 3 posts
GarthP2000 8 posts
vickles 7 posts
Tom Strange 3 posts
Popular Days
Jun 14 2006
25 posts
Jun 19 2006
7 posts
Feb 9 2004
5 posts
Feb 8 2004
4 posts
dmiller
Vickles ---- "MOST LIKELY A CULT" ?? Those words are WAYYYYY too kind for twi
:D-->
Link to comment
Share on other sites
BackForty
I was 'most likely' a cult member.
Yes THE WAY INTERNATIONAL scores 'high' on the checklist for sure. hmmm never would have considered at the time that I was involved with a cult....
____
Link to comment
Share on other sites
vickles
Well I was trying not to be argumentive with those that say it wasn't a cult. But it really WAS a cult. Ok? LOL
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you can not tell it about other people.
virginia woolfe
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pete
Just testing my avatar.
By the way, the scores so far:
TWI : 14 out of 14
RC Church : 12 out of 14
That makes me a cult member twice over!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
vickles
Hey pete, welcome to greasespot!!!
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you can not tell it about other people.
virginia woolfe
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TheEvan
My son thinks it is SO COOL that we used to be in a cult.
I'm not kidding.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
George Aar
Evan,
That reminds me, when I was a kid I thought it was major cool that my grandfather was a "rumrunner" during prohibition.
Tres chic, no?
geo.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
johniam
OK.
The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
Catholic church: check!
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
Catholic church doesn't have to do this because they "bring in new members" through reproduction.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Again, they don't have to do this because of their size.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Check!
Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
Again, because of their size, only leadership is stuck doing stuff like this.
The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
Check!
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
Check!
The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
Again, because of their size and over all clout, they don't have a problem with this.
The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
Check!
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
Check (for example, burning people at the stake, indulgences, etc.)!
The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
Check!
Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
Again, the 'group' IS their family and friends.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
Again, the size of the group means only leadership has to do this.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members
Not true, as long as 'socialize' doesn't lead to marriage.
I'm going to ask one question twice.
#1 - If I'm a cult and I never change what I believe, then a) how many members do I need, b) how much net worth do I need, and c) how many years do I have to exist before I'm not a cult anymore?
#2 (reverse angle) - If I'm the RC church and I have 700 million members world wide, billions of dollars in net assets, and have existed for 1600 plus years, how many children must my clergy molest before I BECOME a cult?
Either way, the answer is blowin' in the wind.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Golfie
We suggest that you check all characteristics that apply to your or your loved one's group, then print this browser page for future reference. You may find that your assessment changes over time, with further reading and research.
The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members
The Way International has ALL the characteristics of a cult.
[ Cult 101 Home ]
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ex10
hey Pete!
If you are my old friend, I've lost your email. Mine is: jolise126@yahoo.com
If you're not my old friend, I apologize to all for the derail.
:)-->
Carry on.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pete
SShhhhhh! I'm incogneato.
"..you'll be going loco in Acapulco if you stay to long.."
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ex10
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tom Strange
I don't understand... how does something like this relate to TWI? I don't get it...?
Eggzacklee!
She's the kind of a girl that makes the "News of the World" Yes you could say she was attractively built.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
I Love Bagpipes
In my perusings I came across this thread.
When you first left TWI, how hard was it to admit you were in a cult?
I still don't say I was in "a cult" but I do say I was involved in a "cultish organization."
Is it pride that I don't want to or seem unable to call a spade a spade? Or is it because I still have friends who are in TWI that I don't want to call TWI a cult? Maybe I don't believe TWI was a cult? Or is it that I have actually been living on another planet all these years and none of this really happened? :blink:
Any insights?
Thanks.
:)
ILB
Link to comment
Share on other sites
shazdancer
I think this list speaks to the heart of why some people seem to have been in a different group than others. When I was "on the field," far from HQ or even a Limb HQ, I didn't have to account for my time, had non-Way friends, and was not afraid to question and think for myself, even though much of my thinking went along with TWI doctrine just fine.
I was amazed and disappointed that, once I got close to the higher-ups, it was clear that VPW had preferred that we venerate the MOG, distrust outsiders, and obey without question.
I think Wierwille and Martindale had different ways of going about this. Wierwille couldn't control the massive numbers he had generated. He tried via The Way Tree, but he settled for having a Way Corps who "jumped when he said jump," and thousands of others who kicked in substantial money, but stayed out of deep involvement.
Martindale decided to have everyone follow what was being taught to the Way Corps. If they didn't like it, he kicked them out. Fewer numbers, but more loyal cultists, er, followers.
Regards,
Shaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites
likeaneagle
I Love Bagpipes-
I have concluded at thsi point, that THE Way of the 90's were Cultish..I think this kind of determination comes slowly to some. I have friends acquainted with TWI for the same time I was in, who have claimed it is a cult...we determine it.
I recently met a realy nice Christian guy on a website,he is Methodist, and I have thought about, should I tell him I was in a Cultish group....I fell it like it's betrayal for me to say it was all a Cult....only because, I learnned many great things about life during myt ime in the Way.......am I going to feel freerer or something if I admit it??
I still have grey areas in my thinking that I am working on.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sunnyfla
I have NO problem telling people that I was in a cult now, because that is what it is!! But, many years ago I was ashamed to admit that. I soon realized that when I told people about twi and how they run their organization and the followers, many times people would say"WOW :blink: sounds like a cult to me"
Just the other day I had an interesting conversation with a patient of mine that was left for dead in our ICU. His Dr. said he was going to die, so whats the point in doing any more changes on his Respirator. Well, that made many of us very angry and we convinced his mother into getting someone else on the case. He was only 38 and came in with pneumonia. He's also a Christain along with his mother and believes heavily into prayer and studying his bible. A new Dr. took the case and of course with God's help saved this mans life :)
I spent so much time in his room talking with him and his mother about Faith, and Prayer. He then told me that HE was in a cult for 3 years. He descibed to me almost exactly what twi was. I was blown away :o I then told him of my experience with the cult I was in. He too was blown away.
He was involved with The Church of Christ. He's wants to write a book about it to help others who are involved with this group. I told him about GS and how this website has helped so many people see how cultish twi is.
It was so nice spending time with theses people. In fact, he goes to Calvary Chapel of Ft. Lauderdale where Raf goes.
Edited by SunnyflaLink to comment
Share on other sites
rascal
I think that it is very difficult to say the *C* word because it is very hard to admit that we were a part of something that turned out to be so very harmfull in spite of our best intentions.
It is hard to say because I still want to be right because I defended it so staunchly back in the 70s and 80s when people would claim that it was a cult or that I was brain washed.
We have to face the cold hard facts that rather than being the spiritual giants that we believed ourselves to be....we were duped into serving and supporting evil.
Face it......Our leaders seduced and molested young teenaged girls....Our leaders took other mens wives....Our leaders extorted money from the believers by claiming that God wouldn`t spit in our direction if we didn`t. Our leaders slandard the reputations of rightious people in their need to cover their evil .... Our founding president was a drunk and destroyed lives.
Some of us were required to abandon family in the name of God, forsook our educations because it was deemed worldly and a contamination, Our children were at times neglected sometimes hidiously abused... Many of us were required to abort our children in the name of service and commitment to God. We jumped through ever raised hoops in order to be well pleasing to God.
Think of the viscious screaming that we endured, the condemnation, struggle to remain in God`s favor according to whatever our current leaders definition was......
Just look at the list...... this isn`t just *cultish* behavior...... it is full blown evil running unchecked.
If we read these things about ANY other group...we would have no problem identifying and saying *yup THAT is a cult*...but it is a little embarrasing to admit that we ourselves were wrong about something that we believed so strongly in.
This happened in the 70s and 80s too... so it wasn`t just a 90s thing.
I think that the reason that the 90s got SO bad ...and I saw it coming when the loyalty oath was issued....is that Loy fired/marked and avoided/discredited every single leader that had been standing in the gap so to speak...protecting their people from the worst of the abuses....any who dared to hold the president of the ministry to a modicum of decency or require him to behave as a man of the spirit.
After 1987/88 evil was basically allowed to run unchecked because loy had managed to run off anybody with the guts and integrety to stand up to him in his insanity.
Edited by rascalLink to comment
Share on other sites
bowtwi
I had a hard time admitting twi is a cult. Cult is a four-letter-word. I even was taken to a leader in the Moravian church for what they thought would be deprogramming, but I kicked their butts with what I believed the bible to say. The way was a total cult. I was a total cultee. It took me years to realize that. Once I admitted it to myself I really felt a sense of liberation. I now pro-actively keep control of my thoughts. I'm no longer a way cultee, but the way is still every bit a cult.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GarthP2000
I love this! I really do! (You just knew I was gonna weigh in on this, didncha? :) )
Or, ... or, ... or-r-r, maybe its because the 'cult' term is so damn *loaded*, overhyped, NON-scientifically determined that a lot of people (including yours truly, with NO apologies) have a problem with the term, ... ya think?!
How many people here who, after they have left the group, and after realizing that they were taken advantage of, ripped off, abused, and finally left out to dry, have jumped on the 'cult & mind control' bandwagon, either pi**ed as hell or guilt tripped beyond belief, have lapped up whatever 'cult & mind control' material with the same kind of excited determination and wish to redeem themselves to do what's right, ... and yet haven't gone thru and used as much critical thinking skills on the 'cult & mind control' material to test and see whether or not it is as sound as it claims to be, like we should have done with PFAL and TWI?
(Doncha just LUV l-o-n-g compound sentences?
)
Well, ya see, I've gone over a lot of the premises/theories that many anti-cult groups use, and frankly, I've found much of the sloppy work done there as I have found in Wierwille's work. (Please notice that I am NOT referring to the accuracy of the actual abuse that has occured. That has indeed happened.) For example, the term 'cult' itself is (like I said earlier) a loaded term, and isn't one of The Determining Factors of What Makes for a 'Cult' is that they load the terminology? :unsure:
The term cult USED to be a neutral one, meaning 'a group of followers of a person, idea, or thing'. Notice how neutral and non-emotional that is. Yet ever since the mid 70s, the meaning and usage has mostly mushroomed into a negative, fear mongering, and manipulative term that can (and HAS) been used to invoke *FEAR* in people, and (a lot more times than not) been used to keep people in line in staying with the Orthodox line of thought. That, and the associated guilt trip that some people lay on those who were a member of said 'cult'? ..... Hhmmmmmmm, .... now aren't these Yet More Characteristics of how a cult operates?
See this is but one reason why I haven't shown that much respect towards the anti-cult mindset. Ie., lack of consistancy. ... Among other reasons.
So spare me the "They're just going thru denial" guilt trips please. I just ate.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GrouchoMarxJr
Garth...If you have a problem with the term cult, perhaps you can suggest a different term to describe twi?
Personally, I have no problem with calling twi a cult. I acknowledge the points that you brought up but, as of today, I have not found any other term that describes twi as well...Let's see if we can come up with one:
"Dysfunctional denomination"?
"BG Leonard Offshoot"?
"Biblical research, teaching and fellowship orgainzation"?
"misguided chair stringers"?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
rascal
Garth, I only know that we did some awfull awfull things, things that we would have never considered doing, otherwise, because these folks said that *God required it* isn`t that what a cult does?
Rape, steal, extort, destroy ...all in the name of God? I don`t know how else to describe it.
I can think of no other word than brainwashing to describe our willingness to forsake our families our personal goals, endure cruel unjust treatment and humbly thank them for helping us to be better believers....
I think that we thought that we were so damned clever and superior to the rest of the world.....that we just don`t like to admit the degree that we were fooled.
Definatly an ego check.
Edited by rascalLink to comment
Share on other sites
outintexas
Interesting, Bagpipes - I used to use the word, "cultish," too, but now I leave the "ish" off.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sunnyfla
Misguided chair stringers.....
Edited by SunnyflaLink to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.