Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my seventy fourth episode. Tonight I want to talk to you about how to recognize a cult. When I say the word cult, many of you are probably picturing a strange group of people in a rural area who have lost touch with reality. Sometimes that’s what a cult looks like – but not always. Other times a cult can be an elite group of wealthy tech industrialists. A cult can be a group of radicals who ascend the hierarchy of politics. A cult can even be an entire nation when the nation falls into the grip of a totalitarian dogmatist.
Cults are bad. They are very bad. They are so bad that the first of the Ten Commandments is a prohibition against idolatry – or forming cults. In fact, you’ll see that God’s precepts are basically the opposite of what cults want you to do. If you’re listening to this and you’re not a Christian or you’re not very religious, you still need to beware of cults. They are everywhere and they take many forms – some of them don’t even look religious. So, I want to go over four red flags you can look out for that will help you identify them.
The first warning sign – and I think this is the most important one – is censorship. Listen very carefully to this: anytime anyone anywhere is attempting to restrict free speech, it is because they have become an enemy of truth. The state sponsored church was guilty of this during the Dark Ages after the decline of the Roman Empire. Bibles were chained to the pulpit and sermons were spoken in languages the masses could not understand. The clergy positioned themselves as middle-men between God and the people. If you wanted to go to heaven, you had to do exactly what they told you. Men like William Tyndale gave their lives to get the Word of God back out to the public. And when the Scriptures became widely accessible, the Reformation swept Europe and the religious power structures lost their grip.
Censorship re-emerged in the 20th century in the form of Fascism and Communism. Millions of people died as a consequence. Understand: freedom of speech is your only immune system to propaganda and deception. I’m a free speech absolutist. The only portions speech that should be restricted are things like yelling fire in a crowded theater; doxxing someone’s private information online; or making direct threats of violence. Everything else should remain untouched. The liberal response to this principle would be: what about hate speech? How do we defend those who are marginalized in the public conversation?
First we need to ask why they are marginalized. If they are marginalized for bad reasons like race, nationality, or gender then we should be concerned. But sometimes people are marginalized because they continuously float stupid ideas. Not all ideas are equal. Truth is not in the eye of the beholder. Some ideas are correct and some are incorrect. So some ideas make it out of the free speech pipeline ranked higher than others – and this is usually because they are true. But in an effort to prevent bad marginalization, the West has set out to prevent all marginalization. And you actually cannot accomplish that without censorship. This is because you need to bring all ideas into equality of outcome.
It works like this: person A and person B have an equal opportunity to the free market of ideas. That’s the way it should be. So A and B submit their ideas to the public square. It turns out that B’s ideas are based in false presuppositions and so they fall apart. What should happen is B’s ideas become marginalized because B’s ideas are wrong. But since many in the West believe that truth is subjective, B’s ideas can’t be wrong. So instead of dispensing with B’s wrong ideas, all efforts are focused on censoring anything that exposes him as wrong. That’s basically how you destroy a civilization. So we want to avoid that.
But we also need to address the people who get kicked out of the public conversation for bad reasons. What’s the best way to minimize bigotry in a society? It starts with strong families. Children need to grow up with stable parenting that is morally and ethically well adjusted. The education system cannot be accountable for the parent’s responsibilities. The education system needs to focus on sharpening what the parents have already built. If you build good individuals, then a free market composed of good individuals will delete bad actors who are bigoted. For instance, if I own a coffee shop and I say that only people of a certain race are allowed to buy my coffee – I’d be exposed as a racist and no one would turn out to buy my coffee. The market would destroy me and I’d be out of business in a week.
But censorship and forcing equality of outcome actually achieves the opposite goal. It causes me to take my coffee shop underground where the marketplace of good individuals can no longer detect it. It causes me to withdraw into a safe place where I can function as a bug light for other crazy radicals. But it’s worse than that. When you pursue equality of outcome, you end up having to accuse everyone who disagrees with you of bigotry. And if everyone is a bigot, then no one is a bigot. You lose your definition. Furthermore, falsely accusing people of being bigoted is probably the best way to actually create new bigots and fuel their narrative.
So let’s assume that the leadership is aware of those risks. Why would they still implement censorship? Because controlling the public conversation is one of the highest forms of power. This leads us into our second warning sign – which is power. I’m going to include greed here too. If you detect your leader making decisions that empower or enrich himself at the expense of the group – you’re probably in a cult. If someone is trying to recruit you by promising wealth and power – it’s a cult. Jesus emphasized sacrificing worldly power to do good work that is motivated by self-giving love. He taught us to store up our riches in heaven and not on earth. He taught us that suffering and being persecuted for His Name’s sake is blessed. Christ’s teachings are the opposite of cult-like behavior.
True followers of God have been rejecting power for millennia. In the Bible, when an angel would make contact with a human being, the human would be so awestruck that he or she would fall down and try to worship the angel. The first thing the angels would do is reject the worship and tell them to stand up. This also happened to Paul and Barnabas when they visited Lystra. The crowds thought Paul and Barnabas were the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. They tried worshiping them and bringing them sacrifices. Paul and Barnabas did not like this and they rushed out into the crowds to tell them that they are human just like them. They told the people to turn from worshiping men and instead worship the living God.
On the opposite end, leaders of cults want to feel powerful. They happily accept worship. Often, they will try to convince you of the veracity of some apocalyptic scenario and tell you that they are the only ones who have the answers. Claiming to be the only one who knows the truth is where censorship comes in handy. A real truth seeker is ready and willing to have a conversation with nearly anyone – especially those who disagree with him. He’s open to hearing all perspectives because he desires to find out where he is wrong. This doesn’t mean he’s a doormat who does whatever anyone tells him to do. He still has to lead. But he’s never too powerful or too intelligent to listen to every individual as if they know something he doesn’t. And he’s humble enough to admit when he’s wrong and give credit to the person who pointed it out.
The third warning sign of a cult is sexual gratification. Sex is a huge motivator for human beings. Since it is such a strong desire, people seeking power tend to abuse it. People often wonder why the Bible has rules for sex. Why would the almighty Creator of the universe care what we do in our bedrooms? It’s because sex can be manipulated to change everything other aspect of a person’s life.
The cults of the biblical era would worship in temples that featured prostitutes. The prostitution actually became integrated into the worship ritual. This kind of thing is still happening in false religions today. Polygamy, sexual slavery, pedophilia and all the rest. It’s not uncommon for the cult leader to require sexual affairs with all of the women in the organization – including the married ones. And – weird as it is – the cult leader behaving this way actually increases his attractiveness to the members involved. They get dug in deeper.
So we’ve covered three warning signs of a cult: censorship, power or greed, and sexual gratification. The fourth warning sign is isolation. If someone is trying to corrode all of your relationships that exist outside of the group – it’s likely that you’re in a cult. Remember, Jesus spent time with all kinds of people. From Pharisees to corrupt tax collectors, He showed us that we should not isolate ourselves. The Bible also says that we should not forsake gathered worship and forming relationships inside the church. The more people we can have open and honest conversations with, the closer we will be to the truth.
There’s two main reasons why cult leaders want to isolate you. The first is that they want to cut you off from any potential influences that are not themselves. The cult leader doesn’t want to risk you being contaminated by the truth in the outside world. Isolation is different from censorship because isolation is focused less on your ideas and more on you as a person. The second reason cults isolate you is because they need you to be weak and dependent on them. If you cut off all of your relationships with the outside world, then you will need to depend on the cult leader economically, sexually, emotionally, and spiritually. That’s exactly where they want you to be.
Isolation occurs several ways. One way that is popular among cults is to collect private and compromising information about you when you first enter their ranks. When you first join the cult, you’re in this strange honeymoon phase psychologically and you’re highly likely to be willing to trust the leadership with anything – including your secrets. When the honeymoon phase wears off and you come to your senses, it’s possible that the cult has so much dirt on you that you’re too afraid to leave.
Another way isolation happens is through initiation crimes. This is particularly true when it comes to gangs. The leadership will require that you hurt, kill, or do something horrible so that they can foster a guilty conscience inside of you. The guilty conscience is meant to crush your self-esteem so that you’ll be less likely to leave the power that comes from being a member of the group. A profound sense of guilt will also make you afraid to communicate with outsiders – because you don’t want to be exposed for what you’ve done.
Isolation also occurs by way of punishment for apostasy. It’s common for cults to punish any member who has the courage to leave the group. Often, the punishment will be directed at the apostate as well as the apostate’s loved ones. This punishment is usually a feature of the cult itself. So for instance, if you leave a cult, the leadership might offer a different member prestige and power if they successfully punish you for leaving. Cults, gangs, and totalitarians need to cut you off from the rest of the world because then you will depend on the group for every facet of your life.
So those are the four red flags I want to leave you with today. Censorship; power or greed; sexual gratification; and isolation. If you see these happening in your organization’s hierarchy of leadership – pay attention to them. If it’s safe for you to call them out, then go ahead and do it. If you get an opportunity to leave for something better, then get out of there. The best way to prevent these pathological modes of leadership from emerging in your organization is to maintain free and open lines of communication. In a free market of ideas, the Spirit of truth will always be the last one standing. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at http://www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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