CULT LESSONS
What would have prevented me, once I joined, from continuing to follow as long as I did? I might list the answers to these questions under the heading, “What I wish I’d known,” or I could put the matter this way: “What I’ve learned.” Had I been more attuned in respect to any of the lessons I am listing below, either before I joined, or somehow once I had joined, I might very well have either never joined or been in for far less time.
Introduction
The twelve lessons I’ve enumerated here can be divided into four groupings which, I think, could prove helpful to readers. The first is “Lessons on the Need for Personal Integrity.” The two lessons under this heading are “Don’t give up thinking for yourself” and “Courage is often the first thing required when one is struggling to think for oneself.”
The second grouping I’ve titled “Knowledge that Forearms.” If I had known more about the practices used by cults—or used by anyone seeking to undermine the integrity of another, I might have been armed against what persuaded me and fooled me for nearly a decade. This grouping contains two more lessons: “Wolves in sheep’s clothing are real” and “Beware of being charmed.” The group might be named with this cautionary phrase: “Beware of charming wolves.”
In my third grouping are things that may serve as last-minute or post-last minute warnings to help someone know he or she is is face-to-face with an unexpected power that might very well take you captive against what would ordinarily be your better judgment and then ultimately do you real and long-lasting harm. When suddenly you see you’re face to face with big trouble, you can probably guess what to do–if you realize what it is you’re in the presence of. So here are some clues, based on experience.
I’ll make my point with an exaggeration: let’s say you find yourself walking merrily along on a lovely trail under beautiful trees, a fresh breeze in the air and the sun shining brightly, when all of a sudden you see in a low-lying branch just in front of you, a long and venomous snake curled. The serpent is beautiful in a way, but you know snakes can be dangerous, and one that’s just at eye level is certainly exceedingly out of place—and now imagine this: the snake begins to speak to you in the most startlingly pleasing way: “I know you don’t expect a snake right here, nor one that is so venomous and yet so beautiful as I, nor one that speaks—and speaks as eloquently as I am now speaking to you, but just give me a moment and I’ll explain how fortunate you are to have come upon me.”
What would you ordinarily do? You would run the other way. You wouldn’t hang around, but wait: notice how eloquently this surprising creature speaks, and listen—he’s flattering you: “O, beautiful and handsome one, I’ve been sent by the gods to show you that you are highly favored! Listen to what I have to say!” You’re tempted to stay, despite your better judgment because it’s so unexpected–you just can’t get over it!
Of course the circumstances I paint here are ridiculous, but the experience of running into a cult may not be so very, very far from this. It won’t be like coming upon a surprising, talking snake, but it may come as flatteringly and beautifully engaging—maybe a very pretty girl or very handsome guy, maybe a group singing such moving, idealistic songs that you feel as if heaven is opening and glory is raining down. It’s so unexpected–you just can’t get over it and so, against your first impulse, you tarry.
The Children of God gathered to sing songs and put on skits in L.A.’s Griffith Park in 1971, always attracting a crowd of interested young people.
Though I am not offering any lessons on what to do when meeting a talking snake, I do offer here three lessons under this heading which might prove even more valuable: “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is—therefore beware of making impulsive decisions when face-to-face with it, especially when they are big decisions.” Be careful about tarrying, no matter how charming, how handsome, how lovely, how completely unexpected your engagement with these persons may be turning out to be. Right along with this is a corollary lesson: “Misuse of human sexuality is a principal way cults reveal their true nature.” So often cults use sex to allure. Many a strong man and sweet woman have been turned aside in this way–to their great hurt.
Abner, one of the early leaders in the Children of God, died in an accident at the group’s first large commune in West Texas in the spring of 1971. To us all he was the picture of the utterly committed follower. What we didn’t know–Abner didn’t know it– was that our leader loved his own way more than he loved Jesus, and that he was leading us astray, though he talked such a good talk. If only we’d known…
The third lesson in this third set of lessons is this: “Beware of leaders who rule alone and are not accountable to others—the `Lone Ranger’ leader who does not answer to anyone is invariably a dangerous person.” Cults are always led by such persons–though at times there may be a couple joining in the role.
The fourth and last grouping of lessons I want to offer here I’ve entitled, “Primary Christian Principles.” Not everyone reading these pages will be a Christian, but I feature these because so many cults present themselves as such–but really are not what they seem. As a Christian myself–but one who was greatly misled and who greatly erred in a cult experience, I want to offer here five understandings about Christian faith and practice that I wish I’d known something more about before I met the Children of God–and which I’ve learned are fundamental to a genuine Christian life. The first of these is this: “The importance of prayer cannot be overstated, and in all one’s ways acknowledging God. The second is this: “The Christian’s relationship with Jesus Christ is the main thing, and this is the one thing that is being continually assailed and which everything else conspires against.” The third lesson I’ve taken away from my cult experience–one which, if I’d know earlier, might have spared me so much, is this: “Christianity is all about Jesus Christ and not about following a failed and frail human being–though good teachers, properly submitted to God, are a great blessing. Christianity is about what Christ has done and not first of all about our doing good works, though a Christian will do them. Following Jesus is possible only by a gift of God who gives us faith to believe and follow. But cults always add to that in ways that feature the leader: you must do this, and this, and this. My fourth lesson in this fourth and final grouping of lessons is quite straighforward: “Through reading and studying the Bible thoughtfully, prayerfully and regularly, faith in God and His Christ grows stronger and the believer is protected increasingly from teachers of error.
And last of all I’ve begun to learn this lesson and it’s one I want to share: “Don’t fear man, but worship God and beware of the trap of living to please men.”
There were more lessons than these, of course, and some of the ones I have listed will overlap. But, having brooded a good deal about these things, I suppose these dozen pretty well begun to cover the territory.
The price of nine years in the Children of God in order to begin to learn these things has, in the end, not been too high. I left before things got even darker, even stranger, and much more hurtful to the people in the group, especially for the children born into the Children of God and growing up in it. Though these lessons, which I’ll try to define at some length, didn’t come cheaply, and though, as I say, I have not at all finished learning them even now, I have been enabled to bring up from the depths of that mine—the cult—such ore, refined in fire, as have enabled me to offer these tenets for avoiding cults and other shipwrecks to others. May they prove useful to you, dear Reader.
Cult Lessons, Chapter 1
Don’t Give Up Thinking for Yourself
One must be careful not to give up that sense of personal responsibility, no matter how charming are the words of the one who is your leader. Thinking for yourself is really about integrity—being ready, willing and able to stand alone.
Cult Lessons, Chapter 2
Courage is Often the First Thing Required
One must be very watchful and very honest with oneself not to allow loyalty to a leader or a group or a doctrine trump one’s sense of integrity and right action. But sticking to such a conviction to do with one’s integrity…
Cult Lessons, Chapter 3
Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
The biblical phrase “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” refers to certain kinds of people who ultimately behave as devouring wolves, but don’t do so immediately. In the meantime they go well-disguised under convincing outer coverings.
