Cult or No Cult
Sam Aurelius Milam III
Back
in May, I watched an episode of America's Book of Secrets that dealt
with cults. It was about as critical of cults as you'd expect from
the regulated media but, even so, it was an interesting show. Among
other things, it presented a definition of cults, by Mitch Horowitz, the
author of Occult America. He said, "For a movement to be a
cult, there has to be the presence of some kind of abuse or coercion.
Most observers think of four criteria that defines [sic] an organization
as a cult: behavioral control, informational control, some sort of
thought control, and emotional control."
The
application of the Horowitz criteria isn't as simple as it might seem.
Marshall Applewhite, the leader of Heaven's Gate, convinced his people
that their souls would go to Heaven in a space ship. Jesus convinced
his followers of something nearly identical, lacking only the space ship,
yet people think of Heaven's Gate but not Christianity as a cult.
Consider centuries of papal efforts to coercively control knowledge and
forcibly impose its doctrine. Does the Vatican qualify as a cult
according to the Horowitz criteria? I believe that it does.
As
an aside, Jesus and Applewhite were probably both right about the souls
but why was there so much concern about the space ship? Various Christians
believe in things like angels with flaming swords and fiery chariots, prophecies,
the Rapture, virgin births, ritual cannibalism, eternal life, burning bushes,
angels climbing ladders, stone tablets from God, pillars of salt, resurrections,
people surviving in whales, oceans parting, manna, Armageddon, columns
of fire and pillars of smoke, and God commanding Noah to build an ark.
Why would people who believe in such bizarre things as those have a problem
with the idea of souls going to Heaven in a space ship?
Getting
back to the criteria, Horowitz didn't mention religion among them.
Thus, if the criteria are objectively applied, there are other organizations
that might qualify as cults. Some that come to mind are boot camps,
ships at sea, armies in the field, police forces, street gangs, orphanages,
schools, monasteries, convents, refugee camps, prisons, hospitals, news
services, and governments. It just depends, doesn't it? In
May of 1995, I proposed my own definition of a cult, that being any group
of devout religious believers that becomes the target of government disapproval,
persecution, or atrocities. I intended the definition to point out
that the government designates organizations as cults just so it can justify
the use of force and violence against them. The only change that
I'd make in the definition today is to remove the word religious.
The
FBI used army tanks and armed helicopters to attack a "cult", pumped CS
gas into its headquarters, burned the place to the ground with almost 80
people inside, and then blamed it on the victims. It was "justified"
by unproven allegations against a few of the victims. Access to the
evidence and to the scene, and the release of information, was strictly
and forcibly controlled by the FBI. An FBI sniper shot an unarmed
mother in the face, killing her, while she was holding her baby and gazing
peacefully out of the door of her cabin. The "justification" was
that her husband had failed to appear in court. Guilt and innocence
were determined in government courts. Does the FBI use abuse, coercion,
and control to enforce its beliefs and, therefore, qualify as a cult under
the Horowitz definition? I believe so.
A
definition can sometimes be more strongly influenced by an agenda than
by the nature of the thing defined. Eventually, debating what is
and what isn't a cult can become pointless. I judge a tree by its
fruit. The Branch Davidian Massacre, the murder of Vicki Weaver,
and many other such government atrocities, as far back into history as
you care to look, remain unresolved. In my opinion, all living perpetrators
of and participants in such government atrocities should be flogged or
similarly punished and then abandoned naked on a barren rock somewhere
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, cult or no cult.
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