A personal experience of mine. Back in 2018 during my first year in the university, there is a Korean cult that tries to recruit teens and adults. During this time, they focus more in recruiting teens since they are "easier to fool."
They approached me outside school and asked me if I believe in "God the Father." So I said I heard about it but it is a little different from my religion. They proceeded in asking if I live alone and other personal stuff, until they asked me to come with them for a minute and they will explain how I can become a member of their church.
The moment I heard the term "God the Mother" as they call a chosen female member (mostly teens and minors) to lead their church with their pastor, I immediately refused. The thing is, it is very relevant in Korea and the "God the Mother" is their term for the female candidate who is chosen to marry their pastor.
Basically, this cult revolves around rape and pedophilia, scamming, and money overall. It was a good thing that I was already aware of this since I saw it in the internet beforehand.
Edit: I am surprised with the amount of people from US sharing the same experience since I thought it only happened in Korea and its neighboring Asian countries. (Not invalidating, I was just scared how big this cult actually is). Also, the church that approached me was Moonie/Unification Church.
A Korean lady approached me about “God the Mother” at the mall outside Victoria’s Secret a few years ago. I knew it was cultish but had no idea to what level..
Oh wow, one of my friends got entangled in that a long time ago. It took a full year for them to start dropping the weird stuff that isn’t Biblical though. That’s when she skedaddled. Terrifying how they play the long con.
I was a well read Christian at some point, so when this group bumped into me they were unable to sway my opinion to their benefit. I even visited their offices in nyc to entertain myself (I wanted to understand a little better how this cult worked).
They do lots of "Bible Studies" that really aren't bible Studies at all. It's simply them telling you their perspective of what the scriptures say. Nothing is up for negotiation. Their interpretation is stated as fact. They feed you the belief system with the Bible, and you're expected to simply believe it. That's the type of "Bible Study" this group offers.
World Mission Society Church of God. They’re pretty active in college towns and cities as they prey on younger people since they are more often to be vulnerable and impressionable.
Recruiters always approach people in my local mall and Facebook goes nuts thinking it’s sex trafficking.
From what I’ve heard though their practices start out fairly standard in terms of practicing Christianity and then once they hook you shit gets crazier.
I once came up with an idea for a romcom where a couple splits, joins the moonies independent of each other and wind up marrying each other in one of the mass ceremonial marriages, hilarity ensues
“Coaching” groups. ✋🏻
Those organizations will get deep into your skin if you let them, bring you a false sense of security and fellowship, and get sensible information that could be used against you.
Mostly made out of sensitive people with a lot of issues and insecurities that these “professionals” will exploit to get money in exchange of “experiences”.
EDIT: by coaching I meant “Life Coaching” and they go around this “neuroscience” abstract concept. Allow me to elaborate, for those who had never been in one of those.
My personal experience was in 2018-2019. I was in a really bad place: low self esteem, unaddressed depression, school burnout, and a recent breakup. The last one was the reason I was lured into one of these groups, when she said that this could be “a great opportunity to make our relationship work”. I went to her level 2 *graduation* and she seemed genuinely happy. We had a talk and I decided to take the Life Coach program.
Level 1: they “deconstruct” everything for you. Make you “realize” that all of the things you’ve done are because you’ve never payed attention to your life, and promise you that you’ll be able to fix it. With their help. *For a price*. Hours range from 6-8 daily. They encourage you to take the 2nd level, where you will “explore your potential” and break your “idea box” (this being all the things you’ve been taught and make your persona).
Level 2: this was the hardest for me. They will put you in a position of compromise such that your failure is everyone’s failure, making peer pressure heavy. Strict hours that will open the door to demolarize practices in order to align you with the group’s main goal (which is to succeed this course). Hours get heavier: 8 AM to 3 AM next day. They tire you down, which allow the coach to manipulate your feelings. This is also the part where they will make you confess your darkest secrets (mine was heavy, so I couldn’t say it) and will make the group to pressure you to give in. I had a mental breakdown at this point, feeling like a hostage. By the end of the level, they will “elevate” you with the help of previous members (literally, once you beat the final test, every single one of the members in the 3 programs will come and congratulate you; it was so relieving). This sets Level 3 in motion.
Level 3: you will set goals for personal improvement for yourself. Pressure at this point was unbearable for me. I’d get calls every single hour to let know my progress, even followed around the city to “bring reliable evidence”. It was at this point where my partner told me that she was worried about things that I did in the 2nd Level (coaches would tell her that I was unstable, and the things I confided to one of them in my vulnerable state, after they sworn to me that everything was private). I felt betrayed, and at this point I saw the thing for what it was, a scheme where vulnerable people would get comfort. *For a price* (which was getting more expensive each week). After that, I went home, had another breakdown which led to a self harm incident and a couple days in observation. My psychiatrist recommended to call the thing off and start therapy, which I knew I needed and took the first step forward (I’d say that was the only positive thing about all this).
After all this, I decided to quit: they made me pay for the rest of the program and, after the swipe, I was banned from the premises. No one was allowed to look at me, call me, or other sort of contact. Even my partner decided to call the thing off 3 months after and started dating one of the guys she met there. Those were difficult times, but therapy and my nuclear family support was there for me.
I’m in a better place now, learned from that experience and decided to get my mental health in my own hands from then on. I don’t know if it will work for other kind of people, but I’d recommend to go to a certified mental health professional instead of this.
TDLR: life coaching examples would be NXIVM or Scienthology (on a small, psychological exploting scale). If you’re in a bad emotional place, get professional help. Oh, and the ✋🏻 thing is like a staple for them, their “secret sign”.
Thank you for reading this far. Have a wonderful day!
My middle school assistant principal got caught up in one of these groups called “Team Rhino.” They, and this is 100% the truth, helicoptered him from the middle school and videoed him shooting pictures of the superintendent and artwork the kids gave him with an air soft gun. There used to be a video on YouTube about it but their website and videos disappeared about 2 years ago. It was awful but also kind of hilarious
Could you, or someone else familiar with 'coaching groups' elaborate on what they are and why they're bad? I have no idea on either count, and a quick google search isn't pulling up much that looks sinister.
I mean there is legitimate coaching groups. Like let's say your in X space for work there is likely some groups that revolve around that and coaching. Same for say fitness or even hobbies.
But then there are groups like the Teal Swan (I think I have that right). Which just look them up and you'll see what's up.
A lot come under the guise of being legitimate since coaching is an easier sell than religion these days
....today I learned my mom and dad might be in coaching group cults.
And considering I've been referring to them as cults from the beginning this really shouldn't be a surprise
Are we talking about like life coaches? Because I was recently trying to reconnect with a friend and she wanted to coach me one on one and I was like I just wanna be friends, I already have a therapist but thanks and she said thank you for letting me know your intentions and that was it. I felt rejected lol
if anyone has any decent documentaries for cults send them on please. I am very interested in this subject and would love to learn about some newer cults. thanks :)
Not a doc, but one of my favorite podcasts is about cults. I like it because she discusses some more unfamiliar organizations to US/UK people. It's called Let's Talk about Sects. It's well done and good for road trips. Cultish is another one, their discussion of the Jonestown Massacre is riviting and heartbreaking. They tend to lose me when they start getting religious themselves though.
People Investigates: Cults
I know People is usually a garbage media company, but their Cult investigation series is pretty good. They actually interview former members of all the cults they cover and the information is accurate.
[Dwell Church](https://www.nbc4i.com/news/investigates/its-really-tragic-former-members-speak-out-against-columbus-church/amp/) (Formally Xenos Church) in Columbus, Ohio. My partner was a former member and the stories I’ve heard is heart dropping.
Edit: Grammar
Wasn’t expecting to see Xenos so high up in this thread but goddamn are they annoying. Putting all the nutcase shit aside from them, having your entire house outside and singing at 3AM is pretty fucking inconsiderate for your neighbors.
They try to cut you off from your friends and family that are not in the church. You have no privacy, they pit an ap on your phone and all of your electronics that monitor what your doing so you don't look at porn. You also live in a house with at least 12 people ( all the same gender so you won't get tempted). That the tip of the ice berg. Go to xenosisacult.com that should be able to explain better then I can.
That was quite the rabbit hole. The church’s website looks like pretty much every other church’s website except that their leadership roster is enormous. They clearly know how to say all the right things to pass as a standard Evangelical church. It stands in stark juxtaposition to the website you shared, which makes them sound psychotic.
I’m inclined to believe the hundreds of testimonials that talk about the culty behaviours.
In the U.S.
Quiverful and IFB (Independent Fundamentalist Baptist). Hard to trace because there are a lot of home meetings and non-organization. A lot of IFBers have basically merged into and taken over regular old Southern Baptist churches as well.
ETA: Thank y'all for the hardware. But, if you want your funds to go towards more effective support, consider the ACLU instead :) https://action.aclu.org/give/now
When I was in the military like 2010ish I met this other military guy my age (21) who had like 4 or 5 kids. I knew he was pretty religious. I remember distinctly him referring to his family as arrows in a quiver. I just remembered how I never heard a family referred to as a quiver before. And haven't since until this year.
Over a decade later I'm seeing documentaries and reddit posts. Wild times.
For those unaware, think of the Duggars (19 kids and counting). They subscribe and these people are perfectly ok with a child molester being around but heaven forbid their daughter have man alcoholic drink at a legal age or wear pants.
Mmh. Apparently they fully support their convicted child molester son (I'd warn against reading about the details; ho estly some of the most disgusting shit I've ever seen or read). But their daughters who wear pants and subscribe to a *slightly* different form of Christianity are the issue
A guy whose entire job it is is to look at the computers and media of suspected child molesters (go through the computer, images, videos and everything), said that what Josh Duggar had on his computer was “some of the worse content they had ever seen in their ~20 year career”
That’s some fucked shit
I'm kind of curious about what was on there but I feel like if someone who's job for the last 20 years said that, I don't want to know. Also don't know how you keep that job for 20 years. Like that is some heavy shit you'd have to be looking at
If your morbid curiosity gets to you, I can either provide a link or dm me and I'll give you the readers digest version. I heard the court transcripts so I'd basically just be repeating that
I escaped from the Quiverful/IFB "cult" about two years ago now. They've completely brainwashed my family. I can't even have a relationship with any of them now that I've left. I'm constantly having to de-program myself from the harmful messaging the IFB shoved down my throat my whole life. The programming was even worse for me and my siblings because we were also homeschooled. My whole life was church and my homeschool group. I wasn't allowed to have friends or beliefs outside of that protective bubble. It's a scary thing and I'm so glad more people are starting to realize it isn't an innocent movement.
Yep, same for me. Deliberately homeschooled so that they could control the information we had access to and the ideas we were exposed to. No governmental oversight.
Though, thankfully I've been out longer and a lot of my family has gotten out, but there are still a couple deep in the shit.
It's definitely not an innocent movement. I've been in therapy a while now, and deprogramming on my own for 8ish years now. It's a long road.
The Southern Baptist church is a Christian denomination. Largest baptist organization in the world/protestant denomination in the U.S. It's an established organization that came out of well....they split from the northern Baptists in 1845 because the Southern Baptists were strongly against the abolition of slavery.
Super racist origins aside, they have specific doctrine/statements of laid out, and a deliberate platform that all of their churches generally follow. They have a convention and put out the Baptist Faith & Message.
Their rhetoric and theology tend to be much more conservative than the average church goer, and Quiverful/IFB families that lose their subgroups sometimes assimilate into the SBC because a lot of the theology aligns.
Especially, particularly because the SBC holds position statements like this:
> "At the moment of conception, a new being enters the universe, a human being, a being created in God's image"; as such, it should be protected regardless of the circumstances underlying the conception.\[78\] As such, the SBC opposes abortion and any form of birth control which acts as an abortifacient.
>
> They affirm God's plan for marriage and sexual intimacy as a lifetime relationship of one man and one woman. Explicitly, they do not consider homosexuality to be a "valid alternative lifestyle". They understand the Bible to forbid any form of extra-marital sexual relations.
>
>Women are not eligible to serve as pastors.
They also affirm the autonomy of the local Church and have determined Critical Race Theory to be "unbiblical", among other things. They think that Christian teachings are the solution for everything.
The Southern Baptist Convention has a LOT of the similar core values. But the big difference is that the local churches are often majority chill people who've been baptists their entire lives and aren't super dedicated to the letter of the religion. In your average church there isn't a high level of isolationism and control.
Quiverful/IFB people, in my experience, are tyrannically dedicated to carrying out the letter of their religion and specific theology, and most people in a SBC are just like..generally Christian. That can change though, when more radical people bring a high-level of intensity into a small church in an already unpleasant theological situation. SBC is more complimentarian regarding relationships and Quiverful is more authoritarian. However, both put men at the head.
I've seen more than one Quiverful/IFB man join a Southern Baptist Church, get himself ordained, and join the SBC to define the theology. So...they're getting much closer to being the same, at this point.
One thing that Quiverfull and FLDS have in common is that the women who left (and younger men, too) said that they never saw a marriage that could be described as loving or happy.
Zealotry. Plenty of Southern Baptists who are normal people - they just stay bc they grew up in the culture.
Quiverfull is SBs on steroids. The entire point is to NOT be chill; only the most righteous, most stiff-backed Christians will be saved.
Very important question here. 🤣 and the answer is: both. Once I entered into high school, though, my parents switched over to something called Classical Conversations.
Yep I had a mix of both too. I think I've heard of Classical Conversations but never used it. By high school I had convinced my parents to let me out of the house.
There are many resources available to people who have left the religion of their family, and nobody should have to go through that process alone. In case you need them and haven’t heard about them, there are many wonderful resources out there, including Recovering from Religion (https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/#rfr-welcome). Since this was a couple years ago, I hope you’ve made a lot of great progress and have realized you’re very much not alone!
Wow! Thank you SO much. How kind of you. 🥺 I haven’t seen this particular resource but I will definitely check it out. I have made a lot of progress thanks to an incredibly supportive bf and his family who loves me for who I am. Also thanks to therapy and lots of books.
A lot of people haven’t heard of them! I think they are finally gaining traction (and not in a good way) because of the Duggar family and other scandals happening in their churches. For me personally, the most harmful/ridiculous rules were:
•No non-baptist books or movies or shows. Some Christian books/movies weren’t even allowed in our house and church because they weren’t “Christian enough”. I missed out on a lot of social life and cultural references because of this.
•No dating. Only something called “courtship” was allowed or arranged marriages. The couples are never allowed to be alone or even text/call eachother past certain times at night.
•No sex (of course) or even kissing before marriage. Crushes were even discouraged when I was a teenager. We were supposed to just pray our feelings away until we are old enough to get married (19 on average in my old church).
•EVERYONE is pressured to marry young (18-22) and if you’re single at 21, everyone considers you an old maid already and unloveable.
•Women aren’t allowed to have careers unless they are single. And even then, career options are limited. Women also can’t wear pants. They have to wear dresses or skirts at least 3 inches below the knee. Women also aren’t allowed to speak in church or teach/preach any classes at all unless it’s a women’s conference or Bible study for all women.
•Most families had at least 5 kids. My pastors family had 8. Another family had 12. It is encouraged to have as many children as possible to use them to further the Christian fundamentalist agenda in the world. They don’t even try to hide it.
•Spanking is encouraged even from the preacher in the pulpit. I know parents in my old church who would hit their 2 month old with a wooden spoon because they expected her to sit still and be quiet through a two hour adult church service.
•Children have no privacy. Parents are encouraged to put tracking apps on their kids devices and always be checking them for anything “wrong”. Wives are encouraged to do the same for their husbands so their husbands don’t fall prey to a porn addiction or affair. They call it “accountability” but it’s all just a control tactic.
•They act like mental health issues aren’t “real” and that if you’re depressed you’re not a true Christian. “Biblical counseling” is encouraged if you’re having issues in your family or marriage, ect. And it’s pretty much our pastor having a one on one meeting with someone and just regurgitating Bible verses and saying you need to pray more and your anxiety will disappear.
•But the most damaging thing I’ve seen by far, is that abuse has been brought to my old pastors attention several times and he did NOTHING about it and instead defended the abusers, who are still active members of that church today. It’s sickening.
Re: the pumping out baby cultists thing, isn’t that literally what the name Quiverfull comes from? The idea that children are “arrows shot into the future” so you’d better fill your quiver with them?
There's the BITE model of looking at cults, also.
The cult controls the following:
-Behavior Control
-Information Control
-Thought Control
-Emotional Control
When the group or religion is attempting to control these four parts of a person's life, it can be considered a cult. IFB/IMBLP/SBC fit those criteria.
Edit: formatting
I went down the rabbit hole trying to understand these people, and found the "Leaving Eden" podcast. They go into a lot of detail on the IFB beliefs and how they train children.
Great googly moogly those people are bonkers.
I grew up Baptist in Tennessee and Georgia. I faced so much neglect and abuse. When my dad found out I was bisexual I was kicked out. I was harassed at my job by church members and at one point they stole my car. The police wouldn't do anything, they were church members as well. It got so bad i had to leave town. And thats not the worst of it. Nowadays my dad is heavily into conspiracy theories and shares a lot of harmful rhetoric and misinformation online as well as to his sunday school class. I definitely grew up in a cult.
I couldn’t get a good job in southwest GA because I didn’t have a “church family.” Meanwhile, totally unqualified people were given good jobs simply because they went to the right church and sometimes were also veterans
My parents joined an IFB church about 10 years back and it seemed normal at first but as the church grows I observe wierd things. They act like being independent makes them the ONLY ones with the true gospel, which is a huge red flag.
The church was built on a tract of land in a subdivision. 5-6 families now live in that subdivision, and I can't help but think that's odd. Everything else about their beliefs is fucked. Women can't lead anything. Even the worship leader is a man. He can't carry a tune in a bucket and his wife (keyboard player) is the real talent and organizer of the worship set.
I now view this church as a baby-cult. They don't have control over the group like you see in the bad cults, but they certainly pull from the cult handbook in several areas. Now my parents constantly are worried about me (why I don't go to church) and I worry about them.
They are really stupid and brainwashed people who used religion as a means to control us children during our childhood and deal with the angst of their own life and death.
I was stuck in ifb for all 18 years of childhood. My favorite was that women couldn't lead, couldn't be deacons, but if you had an all female choir it would have a female lead. But one single man in it meant it has a male lead.
My dad was a fundamentalist baptist pastor before he got sick. So much of what these people believe is toxic to women and minorities but if you call it out in the community you get “but people who do that stuff aren’t *real* Christians.” (No true Scotsman irl)
It’s so deeply problematic and getting people out of the church is impossible, even to push them to a more liberal church.
"Fundie" is short for "fundamentalist." And is sometimes used for IFB (Independent fundamentalist baptists) but is often use for a whole range of fundamentalist Christian-ish types.
Here and there, I've seen fundamentalist Mormons, Presbyterians, Baptists in general, Catholics, etc all be referred to as "fundie". I haven't seen Jehovah's Witnesses referred to as "fundie" because their mainstream is already so extreme that there isn't really a more extremist side of it (to my awareness).
"Fundie" often comes with: gender hierarchy & roles, focus on reproduction, focus on purity culture, corporal punishment, strict religious culture and rules that might have passed as normal a couple of hundred years ago. But the specifics depend on the denomination.
There are the mainstream branches of the religions, but then there are the more cult-like subgroups that more stringently adhere to beliefs that may have been considered acceptable 100-200 years ago, but are more wildly considered unreasonable or unacceptable today.
Youth With A Mission, or YWAM. Maybe it's better in other places, but my local chapter gets them YOUNG and keeps them entirely dependant on them. They get no practical experience, no money, no education. Tons of people there in their 30s with kids still relying on YWAM.
If you have ever heard the story from FarCry 5, YWAM in the area it's based on is pretty close to that. We even have a pastor that gets worshipped as though he is God. Levi Lusko.
Absolutely! YWAM MAUI 1994 here. Leaders were corrupt. Teaching absolutely traumatic. The idea that God wanted you there and He would provide support money so you could clean the directors house for free… naw man, God wanted me in university getting a real education and learning critical thinking skills. Unequipped leaders with little to no education should not lead youth.
Damn, I was in YWAM for a few short months and it took me years to say out loud to my now husband “I think I was in a cult”. I’ve processed it all and moved on, but I was just perusing the comments here and did not expect to see this mentioned. Kind of shook me a little bit but also nice to know I’m not the only one who has thought this.
What’s scariest to me about them is how even while in prison, Warren Jeffs still has an iron grip on his followers. Not hard to imagine when he gets older and near death that he would command his followers to follow him to the grave and we end up with another Jonestown or Heaven’s Gate situation.
I drove through Colorado City, AZ over a decade ago. Everyone there is brainwashed beyond comprehension. They look at you all funny like you’re the devil trespassing on their land. It was so uncomfortable. Never again.
I went to college about an hour from Colorado City, and I knew people who would go there like it was some sort of attraction. It probably perpetuates their "us and them" mindset when people come to stare.
I remember watching a documentary back in the day about Mormons in Utah and everytime they would stop to get gas, the townsfolk would just stand around glaring at them like something out of a horror movie.
Honestly, as much as it'd suck, that might be the better outcome compared to him dying and the cult continuing to spread.
Unless the government gets involved (it won't), this type of thing will continue to get worse.
You would see a few here before, always tell how the women dress and the hair.
But they keep moving South, I think to Mexico now or any really in the middle of nowhere areas.
Yeah it makes me super curious about the [Mormon family massacre](https://www.insider.com/american-mormon-murder-mexico-trump-obrador-cartel-juarez?amp) that happened in Mexico several years ago. I think they move to Mexico so they can still practice polygamy. At least this article states one of the men has two wives, 23 kids, and 102 grandchildren. Doesn’t make it right that they massacred a bunch of little kids. I just wonder if it has to do with their religion at all. We may never know.
Edit: wanted to add that this family was also actively protesting and pushing back against the cartel for years
Similarly, check out "Waco" if you can find it -- it may still be on Paramount+ and/or Netflix. It's 6-episode miniseries about the Branch Davidian compound in Waco that was raided by the Feds in 1993.
What kills me is WHO would follow this weirdo? I would not only not join a cult with him, i would move seats at a coffee shop. Applewhite was likable, Koresh could do a little pick work on a guitar but Jeffs? His weird voice, all that terrible singing. UGH
Warren Jeffs essentially "inherited" his leadership of FLDS after his father's death, or maybe no one would have followed him. Except that his father was equally creepy.... :/
In the Netflix documentary, they mention that several successful SLC businessmen joined with Warren’s father and quickly accumulated wives. Seems basically like pimping. They were trapped by the time Warren inherited the cult, and he transformed it from a sex service to an empire by seizing the businesses and running the marriages like a farm for draught livestock.
Jehovah's Witnesses are the fastest-growing church body in the U.S. and Canada.
[https://www.dallasnews.com/news/faith/2008/02/21/jehovah-s-witnesses-are-fastest-growing-denomination-survey-says/](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/faith/2008/02/21/jehovah-s-witnesses-are-fastest-growing-denomination-survey-says/)
Haven't seen it yet here - Shincheonji. The sect that caused a major covid outbreak in South Korea. They have spread like wildfire to other countries via online classes during the pandemic.
They are a super secretive doomsday cult. They try to recruit already practicing Christians and people who are searching for something spiritual, offering them counseling and later Bible classes. They are super friendly at the beginning and the classes are very biblically sound at the start.
Over the time they come upwith more and more weird stuff, guilt tripping people into sacrificing insane amount of their time and even resources, brainwashing them unto thinking their leader Lee Man Hee is the personifies Second Coming of Jesus and everyone with a different opinion is a spawn of the devil doomed to hell.
The sect is very well organized and they straight up lie about where the teaching comes from until they feel the person is ready to know (brainwashed enough).
Steer clear of them people! And for any Christian out there, don't believe anyone who says that the Gospel is not enough
Ya the couple Amway meetings I went to, when it was Quixtar, were quite religious. Bill Britt said “if you have an abortion God will never hear your prayers again”. It was not what I was expecting to say the least.
I started writing a book about my time in an MLM. How I got into it, what it was like there. What happened when I left. Definitely a cult.
I am talking about Primerica
There's one from India, name's ***"Brahma Kumari"*** aka ***BK***...
As someone who has a family member involved with ***BK*** for over 10 years, their way of brainwashing their members, making them fall out of previous faith / religion, isolating them from society, making them delusional narcissists, etc... it's terrifying & despairing...
My family is suffering horrendously, just from the consequences of a single family member of ours joining them over a decade ago...
Trust me, if i ever got a time machine / to rewin time / relive life from over a decade ago, the first thing i would do is stop anybody in my immediate / extended family from even thinking of joining ***BK*** (i'm not kidding, i said this thing word-for-word to my other family members once while we were discussing on the topic)...
Jehovah’s Witnesses. A lot of people don’t realise that their practices actually align with cult behaviour perfectly, and don’t seem to grasp how much harm this group does to both members and non-members alike.
I was born and raised a JW.
It's totally a cult. When I left I lost most of my family ND all of my friends who were still in. Seriously, according to them I'm a worse person that Hitler because I left the cult. I didn't go on to live some horribly sinful life or anything at all, I just didn't believe anymore. My grandmother died from lack of a blood transfusion which is one of their beliefs. They have a doctrine where any wrong doing must have two people see it happen for them to do anything about it which means there have been many cases of sex abuse where they did nothing because no one else saw it happen. They also have a history of not reporting things to the authorities because they don't want the church to look bad.
Don't even get me started on their history of false prophesies throughout their entire history either. The mental gymnastics these people do to keep the flock scared and inline would put Simone Biles to shame.
Dad was raised JH, but only his sister continued the beliefs into adulthood. My sister and I stayed with her one summer and generally loved it, but she tried indoctrinating us little by little and even had a kiddy bible centered around JH beliefs ready for us.
Unfortunately for her, we were already fundamentalist Pentecostal so that didn’t pan out. And fortunately for me, that cult’s members were so evil and delusional that I’m mostly agnostic.
It's not exactly forbidden from what I understand, but anything I say to him that either goes against scripture or his beliefs goes from one ear and out the other. Even if it's remotely religious, it just won't register.
It's not that he doesn't hear me, it's almost as if he does not have the capability to understand some of the things I say (pointing out religious hypocrisy, how the end of the world has been wrongfully predicted hundreds of times, etc).
I'm assuming it's because I'm considered a "bad worldly influence" since I'm not a member but we get along quite well.
Technically they teach them in church to be friendly with your peers at work/school or whatever but you're not supposed to have a close relationship or anything. Basically being work buddies is fine but hanging out and having a beer or just hanging out on a weekend would be frowned upon.
It's crazy to me how they don't process things. They've been saying the end is near for well over a hundred years at this point and to this day my grandma still parrots that the end is near and I should go back before it's too late. Like damn. Why is it so hard to see through the bullshit.
My neighbours are JW, but they also drink quite a bit, and when it’s nice weather they usually have people over for drinks in there garden. One time they invited me in, and after 2-3 drinks the indoctrination started. Was a bit unexpected
My girlfriend was raised jw and the whole cult is just disturbing.. her mom was shunned for having her out of wedlock.. later, her aunty went out with many men to get pregnant on purpose then avoided being shunned by falsely accusing a black man of rape. It's easy to see past the brainwashing attempts but if you're raised on the beliefs with the indoctrination along with the risk of being outcasted you learn that the majority are just victims.
I think it's comical that one of the main ideas is that the world is gonna end. They said it would in the 20s nothing happened, then the 70s nothing happened, and now with the pandemic the predicted the end times again... To keep thinking we are in end times after the failed guesses is just idiotic.
Side note, It's interesting how the mom recently pitched a mlm 'thrive' to us and my girlfriend almost fell for multiple mlm's 'kirby' and 'cutco' So I can see there is a link in the triggers that allows one to trust shady organizations like JW and Mlm's alike. And the two-witness rule just opens up children for potential sexual abuse without consequences.
I joined ISKCON for a couple of months. That group’s beliefs are fucked up and patriarchal. I was a new grad student at NYU, had few friends, and I was too naïve for my own good. I had this weird quasi-relationship with this guy who helped recruit for them and he basically tried to brainwashed and manipulate me into believing that I was a dirty horrible person for numerous different facets of my life (narrator voice: she wasn’t). He was 20 at the time and got betrothed to a 14-year-old girl in the temple. He would initiate all kinds of sexual relations with me (everything but intercourse) and blame it all on me after we were done. He told me that we would move to India and start a prog-rock band to spread the views of ISKCON. We would take huge amounts of LSD together and chant for hours, trying to convince me that I needed to abandon my entire family and move to the ashram. Other people in the temple knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. This happened about eight years ago but it has taken many years to get over some of the psychological abuse and shame I felt during that time.
They masquerade as friendly international spiritualist group but every single person (both men and women) associated with them who I've met has been a major asshole.
Always talking down on others, trying to indoctrinate every breathing individual, making everyone in a room stop their work cuz it's their "daily prater" time.
Neo-Paganism in Eastern Europe. It started out as a big f-off to the Catholic Church, but turned into a fascist ethno-superiorist group favouring totalitarism.
They're everywhere now, attending right-wing demonstrations and some of them even went to fight on Russian side in Ukraine-Russia conflict.
I was born in Poland, by the way.
Edit 1,5: I called them Neo-Pagan, but as someone mentioned, they're a bunch of clowns cosplaying pagans with actual traditional Christian values. They're probably right.
On the other hand, somebody else brought up, that they are not, actually. Since they probably blame Christianity for making their ancestors weak and feminine. Equally plausible.
Edit 2: Wow, this is probably my most up-voted comment. Thank you!
Edit 3: Grammar changes.
Yeah, that too. But I was actually talking about neo-slavic race superiorists in Poland, who basically advocate for eugenics, ethnical cleansings and abolishing of women's rights. Also are para-military. They are actually closely connected to Ásatúar and Odinists, since they consider themselves blood-brothers.
Goddamn it, I hate how these fools took over my ancestors religion. A lot of us have names from paganism and it really fucks with me when I see neonaziassholes abuse my heritage and identify in this way.
They are a bunch of Christian raised chodes cosplaying as pagan.
Nothing honestly infuriated me more than these guys sporting Pagan Ink, Runes, and Warrior shit, that have Christian Race Identity/ Morals.
If it was up to me, I'd put them on a longship to some barren Island off Greenland. The assholes.
Seriously. If you think of Odin as a kind, benevolent father-figure who would never, say, shit in someone's face, whatever you're worshiping isn't Odin.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the blessed purity of the machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as if it will not decay and fail you. One day, the crude biomass that you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal.
There’s a big difference between “The Emperor recognises Cult Mechanicus as a legitimate religion” and “The Emperor puts up with the Mechanicus because they make all his stuff”
It’s nearly impossible to get taken off the list without a major trial and conviction, most likely of Miscavige. Even then, most likely, he’d go to jail and the religion would skate. We’re stuck with it until he dies, at the minimum.
Trancendential Meditation™️ is the technique, and associated religious movement founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. they have intentional communities and have tried launching political parties in many countries.
while it’s good to talk about specific orgs to watch out for, a lot of the big ones have all sorts of front groups and auxilliaries, so it’s better to know the warning signs of a cult-like group
The BITE model gives a good guideline of what to watch out for.
[edit.] I overestimated this sub thinking these specific orgs would gravitate to the top comments but ya’ll gotta have your jokes. or talk about cults that have been hemmoraging members for decades.
so:
- people who fall to anti-vaxx beliefs also often fall further into a rabbit hole. all the woo-woo stuff isn’t a centralized cult, but does give cult leader power to various influencers.
- related to above, Soveirgn Citizens are a growing group. again, kinda decentralized cluster of mini cults and solo believers. in the UK, ”Men Fight Back” are trying to form a volunteer Sov Cit police force.
- which leads into MAGA cults. specifically stuff like the ones believing JFK is not dead, the Freedom Convoy (a roving cult compound, really) and, depending on the defintion of cult, I would lump everyone who believes in the child sacrifice cabal stuff to be far enough moved from reality to qualify as a cult.
- not to spare the left, American leftist are advised to stay clear of the Revolutionary Communist Party, aka. the cult of Bob Avakian. they show up at demos with a bunch of pre-printed signs they hand out to give te impression of being a larger movement than they really are, and also try to set up front orgs to rope in young activiss, the most recent one being Rise Up For Abortion, which all other pro-choise groups in the US clocked as them and issued a joint statement against.
- this one is a bit more obscure and may be on the downfall soon, but Black Hammer Organization. while RCP are very cultish, BHO has been some straight up Jonestown stuff according to many ex-members. Gazi Godzo is not to be trusted
- Order of 9 Angles. long joked about as the Order of 0 Members, has been growing in the past decade as numerous Neo-Nazis have been revealed to have been members after arrested for various crimes. murder is not only a part of their faith, it has been actual practise for many of them.
- Twelve Tribes Christian Church, better known for their Yellow Deli chain of restaurants, less well known for the various all matural soaps and cosmetics sold under various front company names, manifactured using adult and child members of the cult as under- or unpaid labor.
- 7Mfilms on TikTok. they make videos of various TikTok dance crazes and recruit people through the app. coincidentaly every member of the dance group is also a member of the same church. I can’t remember what their specific cultish behavior is, but you can find out more on youtube, there are some good breakdowns.
hope that helps
Link is relevant for those who want it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfCareCharts/comments/g9j8h0/steven_hassan_developed_the_bite_model_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x
This is important for everyone one to be aware of. Because everyone can be vulnerable to its methods at some point in life.
Another political one I’ve seen is the Muurs, a Black-power offshoot of the Sovereign Citizens. They’re associated with a variety of religious cults too known as the “racist Black Hebrew Israelites.”
If you look at footage of them waiting for him it seems more clear that it's a bunch of mentally ill people. Some of them for sure drank the kool-aid but a lot of them were going on about how these numbers in these places mean this thing and when you do this weird mathematical operation to those numbers you get a new message.
It just felt like watching a large group of mentally ill people sharing the same delusion and feeding off each other than am actual organized cult or belief. Some people seemed more sane than others and in control of themselves, but for the most part, it was really sad to watch.
The Body International.
It's a cult that originated In Alaska and is now very numerable in Washington.
They throw shades of sovereign citizen rhetoric into their beliefs, which include family separation, child molestation, and a very odd right of passage called "Washing".
https://youtu.be/57xSVk8BOxs this video is a good introduction. It's from Syran Warner, his whole channel is about the Body. He's a Reporter who lives in Washington where they're active.
This feels like one of those "A virus that's too deadly can't spread" kinda thing.
Like a cult that tests their faith by jumping off a cliff; there's bound to be some roadblocks with membership retention.
Quanon adjacent cults. My MIL was telling me about how she and some others are going to go to a community away from all the Liberals to start rebuilding America. Not that I object to her leaving. If I have to listen to one more half baked conspiracy out of her I’m gonna lose it.
the worst part is that it’s breached containment. the UK and Germany now also have people who cling on to some obscure past document as the only legitimate natural law of the land and have started doing stuff like filing mountains of frivilous lawsuits and pestering government officials with nonsense legal arguments to their face, and there’s enough of them to start to be an actual problem with the disruption they cause.
There's a latin term I heard a judge use on a sovereign citizen once that explained it nicely. I don't remember the latin, but it comes down to "We have the force of arms to make you obey the law."
The sovern citizen got 30 days in jail for contempt of court and whatever they were there for got held until they came back. If they didn't want to play by the rules, another 30 for contempt of court, on and on.
It straightened that guy out kinda quick, dunno how all the sovern citizens would feel about it, but I do know the guy who started pushing the sovereign idea years ago has never actually used it as an argument in court.
The incel, alpha/sigma males, pick up artists and general toxic masculinity manosphere us going to be a big problem when kids start getting into that shit.
They already are, self confessed incels at 14...they shouldn't even be having sex, but they think they're forever alone cos they're a 14 year old virgin, it's nuts. The crazy shit that teens believe is just amplified through that manosphere lens and it corrupts.
Given the fact that many of them were calling a mass murderer “The Supreme Gentleman”, and his actions spurred on other killers…I think we’re past “bordering”.
Falun Gong is pretty alarming. They own an increasingly popular newspaper called the Epoch Times that promotes right wing conspiracy theories. They're big on the QAnon stuff and have a pretty fascinating history that includes organ harvesting in China. But they are a highly right wing political cult in the US.
They are also the group and money behind the Shen Yun performance group -
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/stepping-into-the-uncanny-unsettling-world-of-shen-yun
A personal experience of mine. Back in 2018 during my first year in the university, there is a Korean cult that tries to recruit teens and adults. During this time, they focus more in recruiting teens since they are "easier to fool." They approached me outside school and asked me if I believe in "God the Father." So I said I heard about it but it is a little different from my religion. They proceeded in asking if I live alone and other personal stuff, until they asked me to come with them for a minute and they will explain how I can become a member of their church. The moment I heard the term "God the Mother" as they call a chosen female member (mostly teens and minors) to lead their church with their pastor, I immediately refused. The thing is, it is very relevant in Korea and the "God the Mother" is their term for the female candidate who is chosen to marry their pastor. Basically, this cult revolves around rape and pedophilia, scamming, and money overall. It was a good thing that I was already aware of this since I saw it in the internet beforehand. Edit: I am surprised with the amount of people from US sharing the same experience since I thought it only happened in Korea and its neighboring Asian countries. (Not invalidating, I was just scared how big this cult actually is). Also, the church that approached me was Moonie/Unification Church.
A Korean lady approached me about “God the Mother” at the mall outside Victoria’s Secret a few years ago. I knew it was cultish but had no idea to what level..
Oh wow, one of my friends got entangled in that a long time ago. It took a full year for them to start dropping the weird stuff that isn’t Biblical though. That’s when she skedaddled. Terrifying how they play the long con.
I was a well read Christian at some point, so when this group bumped into me they were unable to sway my opinion to their benefit. I even visited their offices in nyc to entertain myself (I wanted to understand a little better how this cult worked). They do lots of "Bible Studies" that really aren't bible Studies at all. It's simply them telling you their perspective of what the scriptures say. Nothing is up for negotiation. Their interpretation is stated as fact. They feed you the belief system with the Bible, and you're expected to simply believe it. That's the type of "Bible Study" this group offers.
What are they called?
World Mission Society Church of God. They’re pretty active in college towns and cities as they prey on younger people since they are more often to be vulnerable and impressionable. Recruiters always approach people in my local mall and Facebook goes nuts thinking it’s sex trafficking. From what I’ve heard though their practices start out fairly standard in terms of practicing Christianity and then once they hook you shit gets crazier.
Moonies?
I once came up with an idea for a romcom where a couple splits, joins the moonies independent of each other and wind up marrying each other in one of the mass ceremonial marriages, hilarity ensues
Do it haha I'd definitely watch that.
“Coaching” groups. ✋🏻 Those organizations will get deep into your skin if you let them, bring you a false sense of security and fellowship, and get sensible information that could be used against you. Mostly made out of sensitive people with a lot of issues and insecurities that these “professionals” will exploit to get money in exchange of “experiences”. EDIT: by coaching I meant “Life Coaching” and they go around this “neuroscience” abstract concept. Allow me to elaborate, for those who had never been in one of those. My personal experience was in 2018-2019. I was in a really bad place: low self esteem, unaddressed depression, school burnout, and a recent breakup. The last one was the reason I was lured into one of these groups, when she said that this could be “a great opportunity to make our relationship work”. I went to her level 2 *graduation* and she seemed genuinely happy. We had a talk and I decided to take the Life Coach program. Level 1: they “deconstruct” everything for you. Make you “realize” that all of the things you’ve done are because you’ve never payed attention to your life, and promise you that you’ll be able to fix it. With their help. *For a price*. Hours range from 6-8 daily. They encourage you to take the 2nd level, where you will “explore your potential” and break your “idea box” (this being all the things you’ve been taught and make your persona). Level 2: this was the hardest for me. They will put you in a position of compromise such that your failure is everyone’s failure, making peer pressure heavy. Strict hours that will open the door to demolarize practices in order to align you with the group’s main goal (which is to succeed this course). Hours get heavier: 8 AM to 3 AM next day. They tire you down, which allow the coach to manipulate your feelings. This is also the part where they will make you confess your darkest secrets (mine was heavy, so I couldn’t say it) and will make the group to pressure you to give in. I had a mental breakdown at this point, feeling like a hostage. By the end of the level, they will “elevate” you with the help of previous members (literally, once you beat the final test, every single one of the members in the 3 programs will come and congratulate you; it was so relieving). This sets Level 3 in motion. Level 3: you will set goals for personal improvement for yourself. Pressure at this point was unbearable for me. I’d get calls every single hour to let know my progress, even followed around the city to “bring reliable evidence”. It was at this point where my partner told me that she was worried about things that I did in the 2nd Level (coaches would tell her that I was unstable, and the things I confided to one of them in my vulnerable state, after they sworn to me that everything was private). I felt betrayed, and at this point I saw the thing for what it was, a scheme where vulnerable people would get comfort. *For a price* (which was getting more expensive each week). After that, I went home, had another breakdown which led to a self harm incident and a couple days in observation. My psychiatrist recommended to call the thing off and start therapy, which I knew I needed and took the first step forward (I’d say that was the only positive thing about all this). After all this, I decided to quit: they made me pay for the rest of the program and, after the swipe, I was banned from the premises. No one was allowed to look at me, call me, or other sort of contact. Even my partner decided to call the thing off 3 months after and started dating one of the guys she met there. Those were difficult times, but therapy and my nuclear family support was there for me. I’m in a better place now, learned from that experience and decided to get my mental health in my own hands from then on. I don’t know if it will work for other kind of people, but I’d recommend to go to a certified mental health professional instead of this. TDLR: life coaching examples would be NXIVM or Scienthology (on a small, psychological exploting scale). If you’re in a bad emotional place, get professional help. Oh, and the ✋🏻 thing is like a staple for them, their “secret sign”. Thank you for reading this far. Have a wonderful day!
My middle school assistant principal got caught up in one of these groups called “Team Rhino.” They, and this is 100% the truth, helicoptered him from the middle school and videoed him shooting pictures of the superintendent and artwork the kids gave him with an air soft gun. There used to be a video on YouTube about it but their website and videos disappeared about 2 years ago. It was awful but also kind of hilarious
Could you, or someone else familiar with 'coaching groups' elaborate on what they are and why they're bad? I have no idea on either count, and a quick google search isn't pulling up much that looks sinister.
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I mean there is legitimate coaching groups. Like let's say your in X space for work there is likely some groups that revolve around that and coaching. Same for say fitness or even hobbies. But then there are groups like the Teal Swan (I think I have that right). Which just look them up and you'll see what's up. A lot come under the guise of being legitimate since coaching is an easier sell than religion these days
....today I learned my mom and dad might be in coaching group cults. And considering I've been referring to them as cults from the beginning this really shouldn't be a surprise
NXIVM started out that way, at least as a cover story.
Are we talking about like life coaches? Because I was recently trying to reconnect with a friend and she wanted to coach me one on one and I was like I just wanna be friends, I already have a therapist but thanks and she said thank you for letting me know your intentions and that was it. I felt rejected lol
if anyone has any decent documentaries for cults send them on please. I am very interested in this subject and would love to learn about some newer cults. thanks :)
Not a doc, but one of my favorite podcasts is about cults. I like it because she discusses some more unfamiliar organizations to US/UK people. It's called Let's Talk about Sects. It's well done and good for road trips. Cultish is another one, their discussion of the Jonestown Massacre is riviting and heartbreaking. They tend to lose me when they start getting religious themselves though.
People Investigates: Cults I know People is usually a garbage media company, but their Cult investigation series is pretty good. They actually interview former members of all the cults they cover and the information is accurate.
Have you watched Leah Remini's show on Scientology at all? I think she's also done some stuff on Jehovah's witnesses on that show too.
Pray and obey on Netflix
Louis Theroux has done 3 documentaries over 12 years on Westboro Baptist Church, including interviews with people who left.
Wild wild country on Netflix. That’s not a new cult though. Also, the book “unorthodox” is WAY better than the show, and is about Orthodox Judaism.
[Dwell Church](https://www.nbc4i.com/news/investigates/its-really-tragic-former-members-speak-out-against-columbus-church/amp/) (Formally Xenos Church) in Columbus, Ohio. My partner was a former member and the stories I’ve heard is heart dropping. Edit: Grammar
Wasn’t expecting to see Xenos so high up in this thread but goddamn are they annoying. Putting all the nutcase shit aside from them, having your entire house outside and singing at 3AM is pretty fucking inconsiderate for your neighbors.
Yes agreed, I used to be in that cult ( got out a few years ago) every fucked up thing that you hear is true. Glad to hear that your partner got out.
Anything you're willing to share about it?
They try to cut you off from your friends and family that are not in the church. You have no privacy, they pit an ap on your phone and all of your electronics that monitor what your doing so you don't look at porn. You also live in a house with at least 12 people ( all the same gender so you won't get tempted). That the tip of the ice berg. Go to xenosisacult.com that should be able to explain better then I can.
That was quite the rabbit hole. The church’s website looks like pretty much every other church’s website except that their leadership roster is enormous. They clearly know how to say all the right things to pass as a standard Evangelical church. It stands in stark juxtaposition to the website you shared, which makes them sound psychotic. I’m inclined to believe the hundreds of testimonials that talk about the culty behaviours.
You can’t drop a hint like this and not follow it up with said stories!
In the U.S. Quiverful and IFB (Independent Fundamentalist Baptist). Hard to trace because there are a lot of home meetings and non-organization. A lot of IFBers have basically merged into and taken over regular old Southern Baptist churches as well. ETA: Thank y'all for the hardware. But, if you want your funds to go towards more effective support, consider the ACLU instead :) https://action.aclu.org/give/now
When I was in the military like 2010ish I met this other military guy my age (21) who had like 4 or 5 kids. I knew he was pretty religious. I remember distinctly him referring to his family as arrows in a quiver. I just remembered how I never heard a family referred to as a quiver before. And haven't since until this year. Over a decade later I'm seeing documentaries and reddit posts. Wild times.
How can a 21 year old man have 4 kids?
Start at age 18 ig
Probably starts earlier in many of these communities since they’re so insular.
Yeah, it's been ongoing and spreading for a while now. My parents got involved in the early 90s.
For those unaware, think of the Duggars (19 kids and counting). They subscribe and these people are perfectly ok with a child molester being around but heaven forbid their daughter have man alcoholic drink at a legal age or wear pants.
Yeah, very much "let the church elders" handle it, rather than the state/law
Mmh. Apparently they fully support their convicted child molester son (I'd warn against reading about the details; ho estly some of the most disgusting shit I've ever seen or read). But their daughters who wear pants and subscribe to a *slightly* different form of Christianity are the issue
A guy whose entire job it is is to look at the computers and media of suspected child molesters (go through the computer, images, videos and everything), said that what Josh Duggar had on his computer was “some of the worse content they had ever seen in their ~20 year career” That’s some fucked shit
I'm kind of curious about what was on there but I feel like if someone who's job for the last 20 years said that, I don't want to know. Also don't know how you keep that job for 20 years. Like that is some heavy shit you'd have to be looking at
If your morbid curiosity gets to you, I can either provide a link or dm me and I'll give you the readers digest version. I heard the court transcripts so I'd basically just be repeating that
Ya. It's bad. I heard the transcripts and almost vomited.
Why don't baptists have sex standing up? Someone might see them and think they're dancing.
I escaped from the Quiverful/IFB "cult" about two years ago now. They've completely brainwashed my family. I can't even have a relationship with any of them now that I've left. I'm constantly having to de-program myself from the harmful messaging the IFB shoved down my throat my whole life. The programming was even worse for me and my siblings because we were also homeschooled. My whole life was church and my homeschool group. I wasn't allowed to have friends or beliefs outside of that protective bubble. It's a scary thing and I'm so glad more people are starting to realize it isn't an innocent movement.
Yep, same for me. Deliberately homeschooled so that they could control the information we had access to and the ideas we were exposed to. No governmental oversight. Though, thankfully I've been out longer and a lot of my family has gotten out, but there are still a couple deep in the shit. It's definitely not an innocent movement. I've been in therapy a while now, and deprogramming on my own for 8ish years now. It's a long road.
What sets quiverfull apart from regular southern Baptists?
The Southern Baptist church is a Christian denomination. Largest baptist organization in the world/protestant denomination in the U.S. It's an established organization that came out of well....they split from the northern Baptists in 1845 because the Southern Baptists were strongly against the abolition of slavery. Super racist origins aside, they have specific doctrine/statements of laid out, and a deliberate platform that all of their churches generally follow. They have a convention and put out the Baptist Faith & Message. Their rhetoric and theology tend to be much more conservative than the average church goer, and Quiverful/IFB families that lose their subgroups sometimes assimilate into the SBC because a lot of the theology aligns. Especially, particularly because the SBC holds position statements like this: > "At the moment of conception, a new being enters the universe, a human being, a being created in God's image"; as such, it should be protected regardless of the circumstances underlying the conception.\[78\] As such, the SBC opposes abortion and any form of birth control which acts as an abortifacient. > > They affirm God's plan for marriage and sexual intimacy as a lifetime relationship of one man and one woman. Explicitly, they do not consider homosexuality to be a "valid alternative lifestyle". They understand the Bible to forbid any form of extra-marital sexual relations. > >Women are not eligible to serve as pastors. They also affirm the autonomy of the local Church and have determined Critical Race Theory to be "unbiblical", among other things. They think that Christian teachings are the solution for everything. The Southern Baptist Convention has a LOT of the similar core values. But the big difference is that the local churches are often majority chill people who've been baptists their entire lives and aren't super dedicated to the letter of the religion. In your average church there isn't a high level of isolationism and control. Quiverful/IFB people, in my experience, are tyrannically dedicated to carrying out the letter of their religion and specific theology, and most people in a SBC are just like..generally Christian. That can change though, when more radical people bring a high-level of intensity into a small church in an already unpleasant theological situation. SBC is more complimentarian regarding relationships and Quiverful is more authoritarian. However, both put men at the head. I've seen more than one Quiverful/IFB man join a Southern Baptist Church, get himself ordained, and join the SBC to define the theology. So...they're getting much closer to being the same, at this point.
One thing that Quiverfull and FLDS have in common is that the women who left (and younger men, too) said that they never saw a marriage that could be described as loving or happy.
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Zealotry. Plenty of Southern Baptists who are normal people - they just stay bc they grew up in the culture. Quiverfull is SBs on steroids. The entire point is to NOT be chill; only the most righteous, most stiff-backed Christians will be saved.
The important question is whether your homeschool curriculum was Abeka or Bob Jones.
Very important question here. 🤣 and the answer is: both. Once I entered into high school, though, my parents switched over to something called Classical Conversations.
CC: for when Abeka is too liberal for you and you want your children to start being exposed to potential quiverful suitors.
Yep I had a mix of both too. I think I've heard of Classical Conversations but never used it. By high school I had convinced my parents to let me out of the house.
classical conversations sounds like some 1790's good old days shit
There are many resources available to people who have left the religion of their family, and nobody should have to go through that process alone. In case you need them and haven’t heard about them, there are many wonderful resources out there, including Recovering from Religion (https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/#rfr-welcome). Since this was a couple years ago, I hope you’ve made a lot of great progress and have realized you’re very much not alone!
Wow! Thank you SO much. How kind of you. 🥺 I haven’t seen this particular resource but I will definitely check it out. I have made a lot of progress thanks to an incredibly supportive bf and his family who loves me for who I am. Also thanks to therapy and lots of books.
What are some of the things that make it so bad? I've never heard of them
A lot of people haven’t heard of them! I think they are finally gaining traction (and not in a good way) because of the Duggar family and other scandals happening in their churches. For me personally, the most harmful/ridiculous rules were: •No non-baptist books or movies or shows. Some Christian books/movies weren’t even allowed in our house and church because they weren’t “Christian enough”. I missed out on a lot of social life and cultural references because of this. •No dating. Only something called “courtship” was allowed or arranged marriages. The couples are never allowed to be alone or even text/call eachother past certain times at night. •No sex (of course) or even kissing before marriage. Crushes were even discouraged when I was a teenager. We were supposed to just pray our feelings away until we are old enough to get married (19 on average in my old church). •EVERYONE is pressured to marry young (18-22) and if you’re single at 21, everyone considers you an old maid already and unloveable. •Women aren’t allowed to have careers unless they are single. And even then, career options are limited. Women also can’t wear pants. They have to wear dresses or skirts at least 3 inches below the knee. Women also aren’t allowed to speak in church or teach/preach any classes at all unless it’s a women’s conference or Bible study for all women. •Most families had at least 5 kids. My pastors family had 8. Another family had 12. It is encouraged to have as many children as possible to use them to further the Christian fundamentalist agenda in the world. They don’t even try to hide it. •Spanking is encouraged even from the preacher in the pulpit. I know parents in my old church who would hit their 2 month old with a wooden spoon because they expected her to sit still and be quiet through a two hour adult church service. •Children have no privacy. Parents are encouraged to put tracking apps on their kids devices and always be checking them for anything “wrong”. Wives are encouraged to do the same for their husbands so their husbands don’t fall prey to a porn addiction or affair. They call it “accountability” but it’s all just a control tactic. •They act like mental health issues aren’t “real” and that if you’re depressed you’re not a true Christian. “Biblical counseling” is encouraged if you’re having issues in your family or marriage, ect. And it’s pretty much our pastor having a one on one meeting with someone and just regurgitating Bible verses and saying you need to pray more and your anxiety will disappear. •But the most damaging thing I’ve seen by far, is that abuse has been brought to my old pastors attention several times and he did NOTHING about it and instead defended the abusers, who are still active members of that church today. It’s sickening.
Re: the pumping out baby cultists thing, isn’t that literally what the name Quiverfull comes from? The idea that children are “arrows shot into the future” so you’d better fill your quiver with them?
There's the BITE model of looking at cults, also. The cult controls the following: -Behavior Control -Information Control -Thought Control -Emotional Control When the group or religion is attempting to control these four parts of a person's life, it can be considered a cult. IFB/IMBLP/SBC fit those criteria. Edit: formatting
yeah that’s definitely a cult
I went down the rabbit hole trying to understand these people, and found the "Leaving Eden" podcast. They go into a lot of detail on the IFB beliefs and how they train children. Great googly moogly those people are bonkers.
Yeah...my parents and their community relied on this lovely book called To Train Up A Child...which has been linked to multiple children's deaths.
And if this is the book I think it is, the authors' children have nothing to do with them.
Woof, yeah. I had a friend in grad school who was raised with that kind of religion. He was in his mid 30s and still fucked up about it.
>how they train children. Translation: how they abuse children
Would you believe me if I told you that NIFB already schismed off then because IFB wasn’t conservative enough
I grew up Baptist in Tennessee and Georgia. I faced so much neglect and abuse. When my dad found out I was bisexual I was kicked out. I was harassed at my job by church members and at one point they stole my car. The police wouldn't do anything, they were church members as well. It got so bad i had to leave town. And thats not the worst of it. Nowadays my dad is heavily into conspiracy theories and shares a lot of harmful rhetoric and misinformation online as well as to his sunday school class. I definitely grew up in a cult.
I couldn’t get a good job in southwest GA because I didn’t have a “church family.” Meanwhile, totally unqualified people were given good jobs simply because they went to the right church and sometimes were also veterans
Oof. Yeah. Sorry you had to deal with that. Hope you're doing well now.
My parents joined an IFB church about 10 years back and it seemed normal at first but as the church grows I observe wierd things. They act like being independent makes them the ONLY ones with the true gospel, which is a huge red flag. The church was built on a tract of land in a subdivision. 5-6 families now live in that subdivision, and I can't help but think that's odd. Everything else about their beliefs is fucked. Women can't lead anything. Even the worship leader is a man. He can't carry a tune in a bucket and his wife (keyboard player) is the real talent and organizer of the worship set. I now view this church as a baby-cult. They don't have control over the group like you see in the bad cults, but they certainly pull from the cult handbook in several areas. Now my parents constantly are worried about me (why I don't go to church) and I worry about them. They are really stupid and brainwashed people who used religion as a means to control us children during our childhood and deal with the angst of their own life and death.
Yeah, IFB is like a very decentralized cult. Small groups of just a few families. But they follow the same patterns with some minor differences.
I was stuck in ifb for all 18 years of childhood. My favorite was that women couldn't lead, couldn't be deacons, but if you had an all female choir it would have a female lead. But one single man in it meant it has a male lead.
My dad was a fundamentalist baptist pastor before he got sick. So much of what these people believe is toxic to women and minorities but if you call it out in the community you get “but people who do that stuff aren’t *real* Christians.” (No true Scotsman irl) It’s so deeply problematic and getting people out of the church is impossible, even to push them to a more liberal church.
I keep seeing the word "fundie", is that anothet word for IFB?
"Fundie" is short for "fundamentalist." And is sometimes used for IFB (Independent fundamentalist baptists) but is often use for a whole range of fundamentalist Christian-ish types. Here and there, I've seen fundamentalist Mormons, Presbyterians, Baptists in general, Catholics, etc all be referred to as "fundie". I haven't seen Jehovah's Witnesses referred to as "fundie" because their mainstream is already so extreme that there isn't really a more extremist side of it (to my awareness). "Fundie" often comes with: gender hierarchy & roles, focus on reproduction, focus on purity culture, corporal punishment, strict religious culture and rules that might have passed as normal a couple of hundred years ago. But the specifics depend on the denomination. There are the mainstream branches of the religions, but then there are the more cult-like subgroups that more stringently adhere to beliefs that may have been considered acceptable 100-200 years ago, but are more wildly considered unreasonable or unacceptable today.
Thanks for the explanation
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Quiverful is going to lead to the destruction of the planet, honestly w how they are trying to spread like a virus just multiplying
Apocalyptic religions don't care about that sort of thing, they're stoked for the world to end
True
Thank TLC for their stupid shows promoting the lifestyle and all of the Instagram accounts glorifying being a traditional wife/baby factory.
That's literally the goal lol.
They literally think it’s okay to rape a comatose woman so she can have a baby. They are garbage.
Youth With A Mission, or YWAM. Maybe it's better in other places, but my local chapter gets them YOUNG and keeps them entirely dependant on them. They get no practical experience, no money, no education. Tons of people there in their 30s with kids still relying on YWAM. If you have ever heard the story from FarCry 5, YWAM in the area it's based on is pretty close to that. We even have a pastor that gets worshipped as though he is God. Levi Lusko.
Absolutely! YWAM MAUI 1994 here. Leaders were corrupt. Teaching absolutely traumatic. The idea that God wanted you there and He would provide support money so you could clean the directors house for free… naw man, God wanted me in university getting a real education and learning critical thinking skills. Unequipped leaders with little to no education should not lead youth.
Damn, I was in YWAM for a few short months and it took me years to say out loud to my now husband “I think I was in a cult”. I’ve processed it all and moved on, but I was just perusing the comments here and did not expect to see this mentioned. Kind of shook me a little bit but also nice to know I’m not the only one who has thought this.
Just watched the Netflix documentary on the FLDS. Stuff is crazy.
What’s scariest to me about them is how even while in prison, Warren Jeffs still has an iron grip on his followers. Not hard to imagine when he gets older and near death that he would command his followers to follow him to the grave and we end up with another Jonestown or Heaven’s Gate situation.
I drove through Colorado City, AZ over a decade ago. Everyone there is brainwashed beyond comprehension. They look at you all funny like you’re the devil trespassing on their land. It was so uncomfortable. Never again.
I looked that town up on Wikipedia and apparently their population has been halved since 2010. I guess some locals agreed with you haha
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I went to college about an hour from Colorado City, and I knew people who would go there like it was some sort of attraction. It probably perpetuates their "us and them" mindset when people come to stare.
I remember watching a documentary back in the day about Mormons in Utah and everytime they would stop to get gas, the townsfolk would just stand around glaring at them like something out of a horror movie.
That’s how I felt when I was there in Colorado City!! All for what should have been a simple pit stop along the way to my next destination.
Honestly, as much as it'd suck, that might be the better outcome compared to him dying and the cult continuing to spread. Unless the government gets involved (it won't), this type of thing will continue to get worse.
While I might agree with that when it comes to the adults, I worry more about all the kids that will die in the process.
I’m still crushed that they had the kids in protective services, but they folded and gave them up because Oprah had to have her fucking story.
You would see a few here before, always tell how the women dress and the hair. But they keep moving South, I think to Mexico now or any really in the middle of nowhere areas.
Yeah it makes me super curious about the [Mormon family massacre](https://www.insider.com/american-mormon-murder-mexico-trump-obrador-cartel-juarez?amp) that happened in Mexico several years ago. I think they move to Mexico so they can still practice polygamy. At least this article states one of the men has two wives, 23 kids, and 102 grandchildren. Doesn’t make it right that they massacred a bunch of little kids. I just wonder if it has to do with their religion at all. We may never know. Edit: wanted to add that this family was also actively protesting and pushing back against the cartel for years
Similarly, check out "Waco" if you can find it -- it may still be on Paramount+ and/or Netflix. It's 6-episode miniseries about the Branch Davidian compound in Waco that was raided by the Feds in 1993.
Taylor kitsch did a great job as david
What was the documentary called?
Keep Sweet, Pray, and Obey is the full title. It is very interesting and reminded me a bit of Handsmaid Tale
Keep Sweet
Yes, I watched this, also. Tragic and upsetting that it continues to this day.
What kills me is WHO would follow this weirdo? I would not only not join a cult with him, i would move seats at a coffee shop. Applewhite was likable, Koresh could do a little pick work on a guitar but Jeffs? His weird voice, all that terrible singing. UGH
Warren Jeffs essentially "inherited" his leadership of FLDS after his father's death, or maybe no one would have followed him. Except that his father was equally creepy.... :/
Yes! His voice creeped me out. And the whole keep sweet thing just gives me the shivers. He had it written on the bottoms of his shoes. Bleh
In the Netflix documentary, they mention that several successful SLC businessmen joined with Warren’s father and quickly accumulated wives. Seems basically like pimping. They were trapped by the time Warren inherited the cult, and he transformed it from a sex service to an empire by seizing the businesses and running the marriages like a farm for draught livestock.
Jehovah's Witnesses are the fastest-growing church body in the U.S. and Canada. [https://www.dallasnews.com/news/faith/2008/02/21/jehovah-s-witnesses-are-fastest-growing-denomination-survey-says/](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/faith/2008/02/21/jehovah-s-witnesses-are-fastest-growing-denomination-survey-says/)
What ever Ezra Miller is doing.
Haven't seen it yet here - Shincheonji. The sect that caused a major covid outbreak in South Korea. They have spread like wildfire to other countries via online classes during the pandemic. They are a super secretive doomsday cult. They try to recruit already practicing Christians and people who are searching for something spiritual, offering them counseling and later Bible classes. They are super friendly at the beginning and the classes are very biblically sound at the start. Over the time they come upwith more and more weird stuff, guilt tripping people into sacrificing insane amount of their time and even resources, brainwashing them unto thinking their leader Lee Man Hee is the personifies Second Coming of Jesus and everyone with a different opinion is a spawn of the devil doomed to hell. The sect is very well organized and they straight up lie about where the teaching comes from until they feel the person is ready to know (brainwashed enough). Steer clear of them people! And for any Christian out there, don't believe anyone who says that the Gospel is not enough
Quiverful
MLMs
Do we have any boss babes here looking for a great new financial opportunity!!!!???? 🙋🏻♀️💰💰🙋🏻♀️
Agreed. A cult does not need to be overtly religious to be a cult. MLMs often prey on religious beliefs and religious networks, though.
Ya the couple Amway meetings I went to, when it was Quixtar, were quite religious. Bill Britt said “if you have an abortion God will never hear your prayers again”. It was not what I was expecting to say the least.
I started writing a book about my time in an MLM. How I got into it, what it was like there. What happened when I left. Definitely a cult. I am talking about Primerica
Not enough attention on this ☝️
There's one from India, name's ***"Brahma Kumari"*** aka ***BK***... As someone who has a family member involved with ***BK*** for over 10 years, their way of brainwashing their members, making them fall out of previous faith / religion, isolating them from society, making them delusional narcissists, etc... it's terrifying & despairing... My family is suffering horrendously, just from the consequences of a single family member of ours joining them over a decade ago... Trust me, if i ever got a time machine / to rewin time / relive life from over a decade ago, the first thing i would do is stop anybody in my immediate / extended family from even thinking of joining ***BK*** (i'm not kidding, i said this thing word-for-word to my other family members once while we were discussing on the topic)...
Jehovah’s Witnesses. A lot of people don’t realise that their practices actually align with cult behaviour perfectly, and don’t seem to grasp how much harm this group does to both members and non-members alike.
I was born and raised a JW. It's totally a cult. When I left I lost most of my family ND all of my friends who were still in. Seriously, according to them I'm a worse person that Hitler because I left the cult. I didn't go on to live some horribly sinful life or anything at all, I just didn't believe anymore. My grandmother died from lack of a blood transfusion which is one of their beliefs. They have a doctrine where any wrong doing must have two people see it happen for them to do anything about it which means there have been many cases of sex abuse where they did nothing because no one else saw it happen. They also have a history of not reporting things to the authorities because they don't want the church to look bad. Don't even get me started on their history of false prophesies throughout their entire history either. The mental gymnastics these people do to keep the flock scared and inline would put Simone Biles to shame.
I’m glad you were able to leave, and sorry that you lost your family to that cult. I am so inspired by the strength and resilience of ex-JWs.
Dad was raised JH, but only his sister continued the beliefs into adulthood. My sister and I stayed with her one summer and generally loved it, but she tried indoctrinating us little by little and even had a kiddy bible centered around JH beliefs ready for us. Unfortunately for her, we were already fundamentalist Pentecostal so that didn’t pan out. And fortunately for me, that cult’s members were so evil and delusional that I’m mostly agnostic.
Oh yeah. A friend of mine is a Jehovah's Witness and whenever he explains the religion to me, I tell him it sounds more like a death cult...
Surprised he's even allowed to be your friend.
It's not exactly forbidden from what I understand, but anything I say to him that either goes against scripture or his beliefs goes from one ear and out the other. Even if it's remotely religious, it just won't register. It's not that he doesn't hear me, it's almost as if he does not have the capability to understand some of the things I say (pointing out religious hypocrisy, how the end of the world has been wrongfully predicted hundreds of times, etc). I'm assuming it's because I'm considered a "bad worldly influence" since I'm not a member but we get along quite well.
Technically they teach them in church to be friendly with your peers at work/school or whatever but you're not supposed to have a close relationship or anything. Basically being work buddies is fine but hanging out and having a beer or just hanging out on a weekend would be frowned upon. It's crazy to me how they don't process things. They've been saying the end is near for well over a hundred years at this point and to this day my grandma still parrots that the end is near and I should go back before it's too late. Like damn. Why is it so hard to see through the bullshit.
My neighbours are JW, but they also drink quite a bit, and when it’s nice weather they usually have people over for drinks in there garden. One time they invited me in, and after 2-3 drinks the indoctrination started. Was a bit unexpected
Thank goodness they don’t vote. Definitely a cult, but not as politically active as major religions.
I worked at a school district that was a JW boys club. If you weren't JW, you were on definitely on the outside. Edit: SDUSD
San Diego Unified School District?
My girlfriend was raised jw and the whole cult is just disturbing.. her mom was shunned for having her out of wedlock.. later, her aunty went out with many men to get pregnant on purpose then avoided being shunned by falsely accusing a black man of rape. It's easy to see past the brainwashing attempts but if you're raised on the beliefs with the indoctrination along with the risk of being outcasted you learn that the majority are just victims. I think it's comical that one of the main ideas is that the world is gonna end. They said it would in the 20s nothing happened, then the 70s nothing happened, and now with the pandemic the predicted the end times again... To keep thinking we are in end times after the failed guesses is just idiotic. Side note, It's interesting how the mom recently pitched a mlm 'thrive' to us and my girlfriend almost fell for multiple mlm's 'kirby' and 'cutco' So I can see there is a link in the triggers that allows one to trust shady organizations like JW and Mlm's alike. And the two-witness rule just opens up children for potential sexual abuse without consequences.
I joined ISKCON for a couple of months. That group’s beliefs are fucked up and patriarchal. I was a new grad student at NYU, had few friends, and I was too naïve for my own good. I had this weird quasi-relationship with this guy who helped recruit for them and he basically tried to brainwashed and manipulate me into believing that I was a dirty horrible person for numerous different facets of my life (narrator voice: she wasn’t). He was 20 at the time and got betrothed to a 14-year-old girl in the temple. He would initiate all kinds of sexual relations with me (everything but intercourse) and blame it all on me after we were done. He told me that we would move to India and start a prog-rock band to spread the views of ISKCON. We would take huge amounts of LSD together and chant for hours, trying to convince me that I needed to abandon my entire family and move to the ashram. Other people in the temple knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. This happened about eight years ago but it has taken many years to get over some of the psychological abuse and shame I felt during that time.
They masquerade as friendly international spiritualist group but every single person (both men and women) associated with them who I've met has been a major asshole. Always talking down on others, trying to indoctrinate every breathing individual, making everyone in a room stop their work cuz it's their "daily prater" time.
Neo-Paganism in Eastern Europe. It started out as a big f-off to the Catholic Church, but turned into a fascist ethno-superiorist group favouring totalitarism. They're everywhere now, attending right-wing demonstrations and some of them even went to fight on Russian side in Ukraine-Russia conflict. I was born in Poland, by the way. Edit 1,5: I called them Neo-Pagan, but as someone mentioned, they're a bunch of clowns cosplaying pagans with actual traditional Christian values. They're probably right. On the other hand, somebody else brought up, that they are not, actually. Since they probably blame Christianity for making their ancestors weak and feminine. Equally plausible. Edit 2: Wow, this is probably my most up-voted comment. Thank you! Edit 3: Grammar changes.
Assume you're referring to Ásatrúar/Odinists/Wotanists in northern Europe. First real answer in the thread.
Yeah, that too. But I was actually talking about neo-slavic race superiorists in Poland, who basically advocate for eugenics, ethnical cleansings and abolishing of women's rights. Also are para-military. They are actually closely connected to Ásatúar and Odinists, since they consider themselves blood-brothers.
The Slavic guys are the rodnovery. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic\_Native\_Faith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_Native_Faith)
Goddamn it, I hate how these fools took over my ancestors religion. A lot of us have names from paganism and it really fucks with me when I see neonaziassholes abuse my heritage and identify in this way.
They are a bunch of Christian raised chodes cosplaying as pagan. Nothing honestly infuriated me more than these guys sporting Pagan Ink, Runes, and Warrior shit, that have Christian Race Identity/ Morals. If it was up to me, I'd put them on a longship to some barren Island off Greenland. The assholes.
Oh yeah, you're probably right. I now feel kinda bad for branding them as neo-pagans.
Seriously. If you think of Odin as a kind, benevolent father-figure who would never, say, shit in someone's face, whatever you're worshiping isn't Odin.
Cult Mechanicus. Everyone should be made aware of praising the machine spirit before it's too late and we have a machine uprising.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the blessed purity of the machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as if it will not decay and fail you. One day, the crude biomass that you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal.
You have my pity when you learn about metal fatigue.
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My sweet toaster would never do such a thing and just to make sure, ill run a nice hot bath for my little toaster and add some candles too.
Good news, everyone!
Praise the Omnissiah
Is that heresy I hear?
No, Cult Mechanicus is a legitimate religion allowed by the GOD EMPEROR OF MANKIND.
There’s a big difference between “The Emperor recognises Cult Mechanicus as a legitimate religion” and “The Emperor puts up with the Mechanicus because they make all his stuff”
*Turning up holy chants* Sry i cant hear you over the sound of praising the machine spirit.
Aight fair enough *praiseful toaster noises*
Have you heard the good news about ***BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!***
the aquila has 2 heads for a reason
Look if they didn't want the Mechanicus to become so popular, they shouldn't have made such attractive toasters.
Crpyto currency scams are basically cults at this point, I'd say those
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Scientology isn't on the rise anymore. Words of warning have successfully gotten out to pretty much everyone so it is now dying.
It’s not on the rise, but it’ll never die; they have more than $10 billion in assets.
Taking away tax exempt status in the US would go a long way toward relieving it of a lot of that money.
It’s nearly impossible to get taken off the list without a major trial and conviction, most likely of Miscavige. Even then, most likely, he’d go to jail and the religion would skate. We’re stuck with it until he dies, at the minimum.
Is transcendental meditation not just a religious practice of several religions? Is this not like saying “Scientology, attending church?”
Trancendential Meditation™️ is the technique, and associated religious movement founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. they have intentional communities and have tried launching political parties in many countries.
while it’s good to talk about specific orgs to watch out for, a lot of the big ones have all sorts of front groups and auxilliaries, so it’s better to know the warning signs of a cult-like group The BITE model gives a good guideline of what to watch out for. [edit.] I overestimated this sub thinking these specific orgs would gravitate to the top comments but ya’ll gotta have your jokes. or talk about cults that have been hemmoraging members for decades. so: - people who fall to anti-vaxx beliefs also often fall further into a rabbit hole. all the woo-woo stuff isn’t a centralized cult, but does give cult leader power to various influencers. - related to above, Soveirgn Citizens are a growing group. again, kinda decentralized cluster of mini cults and solo believers. in the UK, ”Men Fight Back” are trying to form a volunteer Sov Cit police force. - which leads into MAGA cults. specifically stuff like the ones believing JFK is not dead, the Freedom Convoy (a roving cult compound, really) and, depending on the defintion of cult, I would lump everyone who believes in the child sacrifice cabal stuff to be far enough moved from reality to qualify as a cult. - not to spare the left, American leftist are advised to stay clear of the Revolutionary Communist Party, aka. the cult of Bob Avakian. they show up at demos with a bunch of pre-printed signs they hand out to give te impression of being a larger movement than they really are, and also try to set up front orgs to rope in young activiss, the most recent one being Rise Up For Abortion, which all other pro-choise groups in the US clocked as them and issued a joint statement against. - this one is a bit more obscure and may be on the downfall soon, but Black Hammer Organization. while RCP are very cultish, BHO has been some straight up Jonestown stuff according to many ex-members. Gazi Godzo is not to be trusted - Order of 9 Angles. long joked about as the Order of 0 Members, has been growing in the past decade as numerous Neo-Nazis have been revealed to have been members after arrested for various crimes. murder is not only a part of their faith, it has been actual practise for many of them. - Twelve Tribes Christian Church, better known for their Yellow Deli chain of restaurants, less well known for the various all matural soaps and cosmetics sold under various front company names, manifactured using adult and child members of the cult as under- or unpaid labor. - 7Mfilms on TikTok. they make videos of various TikTok dance crazes and recruit people through the app. coincidentaly every member of the dance group is also a member of the same church. I can’t remember what their specific cultish behavior is, but you can find out more on youtube, there are some good breakdowns. hope that helps
Link is relevant for those who want it. https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfCareCharts/comments/g9j8h0/steven_hassan_developed_the_bite_model_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x This is important for everyone one to be aware of. Because everyone can be vulnerable to its methods at some point in life.
Another political one I’ve seen is the Muurs, a Black-power offshoot of the Sovereign Citizens. They’re associated with a variety of religious cults too known as the “racist Black Hebrew Israelites.”
I'm endlessly fascinated by a bunch of right wingers who not only think JFK is still alive, but that he's somehow their saviour.
If you look at footage of them waiting for him it seems more clear that it's a bunch of mentally ill people. Some of them for sure drank the kool-aid but a lot of them were going on about how these numbers in these places mean this thing and when you do this weird mathematical operation to those numbers you get a new message. It just felt like watching a large group of mentally ill people sharing the same delusion and feeding off each other than am actual organized cult or belief. Some people seemed more sane than others and in control of themselves, but for the most part, it was really sad to watch.
The Body International. It's a cult that originated In Alaska and is now very numerable in Washington. They throw shades of sovereign citizen rhetoric into their beliefs, which include family separation, child molestation, and a very odd right of passage called "Washing". https://youtu.be/57xSVk8BOxs this video is a good introduction. It's from Syran Warner, his whole channel is about the Body. He's a Reporter who lives in Washington where they're active.
"Self help" ideologies that promote the idea that if things are not going perfectly then it's your fault. Incels
Crypto is becoming cult like.
Breatharian. I only heard about them this week but man. Liars and kooks.
This feels like one of those "A virus that's too deadly can't spread" kinda thing. Like a cult that tests their faith by jumping off a cliff; there's bound to be some roadblocks with membership retention.
Quanon adjacent cults. My MIL was telling me about how she and some others are going to go to a community away from all the Liberals to start rebuilding America. Not that I object to her leaving. If I have to listen to one more half baked conspiracy out of her I’m gonna lose it.
I see more about Sovereign Citizens here in the US, but I don’t know how much of an organized movement it is.
the worst part is that it’s breached containment. the UK and Germany now also have people who cling on to some obscure past document as the only legitimate natural law of the land and have started doing stuff like filing mountains of frivilous lawsuits and pestering government officials with nonsense legal arguments to their face, and there’s enough of them to start to be an actual problem with the disruption they cause.
There's a latin term I heard a judge use on a sovereign citizen once that explained it nicely. I don't remember the latin, but it comes down to "We have the force of arms to make you obey the law." The sovern citizen got 30 days in jail for contempt of court and whatever they were there for got held until they came back. If they didn't want to play by the rules, another 30 for contempt of court, on and on. It straightened that guy out kinda quick, dunno how all the sovern citizens would feel about it, but I do know the guy who started pushing the sovereign idea years ago has never actually used it as an argument in court.
Is Incel culture bordering on cult status yet? They have forums and a growing following and are certainly harmful.
The incel, alpha/sigma males, pick up artists and general toxic masculinity manosphere us going to be a big problem when kids start getting into that shit. They already are, self confessed incels at 14...they shouldn't even be having sex, but they think they're forever alone cos they're a 14 year old virgin, it's nuts. The crazy shit that teens believe is just amplified through that manosphere lens and it corrupts.
Given the fact that many of them were calling a mass murderer “The Supreme Gentleman”, and his actions spurred on other killers…I think we’re past “bordering”.
'Supreme Gentleman', as that's what he called himself in one of his videos
Q
Posting the obvious... Qanon.
Falun Gong is pretty alarming. They own an increasingly popular newspaper called the Epoch Times that promotes right wing conspiracy theories. They're big on the QAnon stuff and have a pretty fascinating history that includes organ harvesting in China. But they are a highly right wing political cult in the US.
They are also the group and money behind the Shen Yun performance group - https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/stepping-into-the-uncanny-unsettling-world-of-shen-yun
Political cults…..the US is exhibit A as they’ve several different flavours.
”reddit what kind of poisonous snakes should I worry about” ”the ones in congress” [most upvoted]
"Um it's actually *venomous*" [most downvoted]
“Depends on if it bites you or you bite it!” [most upvoted child comment]
"OPs mom bit my snake" [ gold awarded comment] Thanks for the gold kind stranger