Beware Of Modern Day Cults ~ Repost

ABUSE HOTLINES:

National Domestic Abuse Hotline – 800-799-7233 – www.thehotline.org

Pathways For Change (formerly known as Rape Crisis Center) – 800-870-5905 English – 800-223-5001 Spanish – bworthington@centralmasspfc.org – 588 Main St. Worcester, MA 01608 – AND 285 Nichols Rd, Fitchburg, MA 01420

Rape Abuse Incest National Network (RAINN) – 800-656-4673 – www.online.rainn.org 

National Sexual Violence Resource Center – www.nsvrc.org

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline – 800-422-4453 – www.childhelphotline.org

US Department of Health and Human Services – 800-994-9662 – www.womenshealth.gov/relationships-and-safety/get-help

Beware of modern day cults, especially those that tell you they are not a cult.

I am writing this for the many people in these modern times, who for some reason were looking for that something more in life, and got caught up in a devil’s web of dark human inspiration, a cult, and who desperately wish to get out.

If physical abuse and/or sexual assault become part of the cult, victims are encouraged to contact the hotline phone numbers and/or online services as soon as possible to get help.

People are also encouraged to never hand over their personal power over to any person or group which may at first seem benign. There is never any reason to hand over your God-given free will and/or decision making to any person or group. Your free will belongs to you. Prayer and meditation are your direct lines of communication with God. You do not need any  other guru or human being to interpret God for you.

People’s Magazine sponsored a television show about a particular cult called, Word of Faith Fellowship, (under the disguise of religion) which oddly enough is attracting modern day men, women and children into its criminally abusive practices. This cult is one of many popping up these days.

Reclaim your mental, physical and spiritual self as soon as possible. Fear of being abused in any or all of these forms is not the path to the loving God. Fear of being abused is a faulty human manipulation tactic used as social-structural, social-psychological, inter-behavior patterns to get you to submit your will to the misguided will of the cult group. Fear is the ultimate weapon cults use; fear of God, fear of the minister, fear of human rules posed to be from God, fear of being ostracized , fear of being relentlessly “paddled” (hit, beaten) with a large wooden paddle, fear of retaliation, fear of eternal damnation, fear, fear, fear … of everything.

Stop.

God never intended for you to become a slave to someone else’s idea of how to know and/or follow God. Cult ministers are not more worthy of being human than you. They do not know more than you about loving and following God, despite what their forceful words and overbearing stature erroneously imply. One day in the presence of cult ministers, leaders or any other title they use to inflate their own self-worth, is enough to shine a light on the soon to erupt volcano of emotional, physical and spiritual harm they eventually unleash.

Listen to that inner voice inside yourself, your conscience, and realize you are right to escape the cult. Cults are evil personified, no matter what they say to the opposite. Cults are heavy into fear-obligation-guilt manipulation/motivation (known as FOG), but that does not make them right. You already know this.

What cult ministers do know is how to exert concerted effort to influence, bully, control, manipulate, exploit, and in the worst cases to abuse your body, mind and spirit in their unholy aim. This is abuse. This is mental abuse. This is physical abuse. This is spiritual abuse.

Escape from these abusers as soon as humanly possible.

Abuse in all these forms is criminal and must not be tolerated by any human being on earth.

Hitting a man, woman or child with an 18 inch long wooden paddle for four straight hours while getting screamed at as if one has the devil himself inside the victim is not sanctioned by God, no matter what reasons cult ministers give to support their aggressive, self-serving goals.

In some cases, other “parishioners” push, hit and scream at the offending party for hours on end. No one has a right to put their hands on you or scream at you for hours. This is torture and criminal.

All cuts have similar characteristics. Here is a list of some of the characteristics that help to define a cult:

“• The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader, and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.

• Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

• Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, or debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

• The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (e.g., members must get permission to date, change jobs, or marry or leaders prescribe what to wear, where to live, whether to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).

• The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and its members (e.g., the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity). *My note: Some cults use fear tactics teach that their particular “religion” or “Christianity” is the only one whose parishioners will be “saved, be taken to heaven, or live forever on earth.”

• The group has a polarized, us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

• The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders, or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).

• The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (e.g., lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).

• The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and control members. Often this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.

• Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.

• The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

• The group is preoccupied with making money.

• Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.

• Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.” Taken from the online article Characteristics of Cults,” by Janna Lalich and Michael Pantone.

“The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave — or even consider leaving — the group,” say Janja Lalich and Michael Langone in their online article Characteristics of Cults.

Excerpts are from the book, Take Back Your Life: Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich and Madeline Tobias at Bay Tree Publishing.

ABUSE HOTLINES:
National Domestic Abuse Hotline – 800-799-7233 – www.thehotline.org
Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline – 800-422-4453 – www.childhelphotline.org
US Department of Health and Human Services – 800-994-9662 – www.womenshealth.gov/relationships-and-safety/get-help

Wishing You All The Abundance of All Good Things,
God Bless