Church or Cult?

What is a cult? A cult, as I see it, is a group of people who blindly dedicate time and money to a higher power in which they have never seen. Outsiders are evil and have wrong beliefs: they have to be converted. Those different beliefs have to be changed. Everything has to match. This is the group of people I see when I see a church.

"The church is not a cult." For those of you thinking that thought, let us consider the parallels between the two, and look at just how similar they are.

At the start, any cult must recruit members. Do churches not do the same? They even do it in the same manner: the church narrows down people's problems and worries until they seem insignificant; gives them one solution which will be preached and praised upon; and finally promises unconditional love, acceptance and attention. People wouldn't leave if they were promised this. It's mind control. A very common tool you will encounter in any church or cult.

The use of praise and blame is one common mind control trick used. Once the disciples are fully converted to the foreign beliefs, they will do anything, say anything, believe anything in order to get their ego fix from the wise masters. Just as church members will be encouraged to spread word of their culture, when they do so, the reward will be their promised acceptance and love. And then you act out of turn. You have a doubt in your new beliefs or you dress in the wrong manner, and they immediately stop feeding your ego with praise. First they feed the ego, then they starve it. This provokes immediate obedience. Progress is measured in obedience.

A second common factor between these two is that they rely on basic human nature. People survive through groups. We need to connect to society. We need to become a productive member of the community in order to feel good about ourselves. This is a built-in instinctive need and it is very strong. Logic isn't as strong as our need to be accepted in a community. The members of a church all come together in their own secluded state: all cults do. It's what they call a meeting, and why so many people flock to them on command.

There is no honourable way to leave a cult, either. And imagine telling your church you were quitting. Wouldn't you feel sinful? Both groups use another similar tactic to make you stay: they lie. Members are often taught that all kinds of bad things will happen to them if they leave. They will lose all of the spiritual progress that they made while they were in the cult, or they won't be able to get into Heaven, or the Devil and demons will get them. To leave is to fail, to die, to be defeated by evil. To leave is to invite divine retribution. Cult members wouldn't want to be secluded from their society, and church members wouldn't want to be denied entry to their Heaven.

A third factor that lets churches and cults balance on the same level is myth and hope. They don't feed their minions facts: all they would have to do to find facts would be to turn on their laptop or take a walk down to the local library. Cults and churches can't have this. They need their puppets to cling on to something impossible. Cults regularly set their puppets impossible goals to work and strive for. Churches feed their minions stories about people and places which have not been proven into existence. And once they believe in this 'God', or start striving for their goal, it is