17 minute read
Editors' Choice in Nonfiction: To Live for All, To Die for All
To Live for All, To Die For All
By Alexis Abide
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So You Want To Start A Revolution?
I’ve always had a fascination with retro pop culture for as long as I can remember. I define my fascination as an obsession. It might even be a possible coping mechanism, but that’s another essay. You can find me in a thrift store or an antique mall for hours on end. I have a record player with lots of different records. I always look to old yearbooks for fashion inspiration. However, I usually turn to the older times for their aesthetics, not their outdated values.
In 2017, this fascination reached another extent. I picked up the remote to tune into The Seventies, a limited documentary series about the 1970s. I watched the “Crime and Cults” episode. This episode did not consist of all flowers and disco balls, like some people envision the 1970s. This episode would spring my interest in cults. The episode talked about the Manson family and the Peoples Temple cults. The other infamous ‘70s crimes mentioned were interesting, but the way cults would reel people in like a fisherman reeling in a school of fish particularly interested me.
Thus began my reading and researching. I picked up a copy of The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn for my beach reading. It might have been slightly strange to read a book about a cult amongst fellow beachgoers, but I didn’t care. I found it so interesting to learn about their rise and fall. With only the ambient noise of waves in the background, I read about the way Jim Jones would talk his way into hundreds of people’s hearts, and it gave me a strange feeling.
I have always had a fascination with psychology also. That’s why psychology is my minor. The complex ways we work and behave continue to interest me. The way we form things and dismantle things is unlike anything I have ever seen in other animals. It’s astonishing. This adds to my fascination with cults. The way that psychology plays a big factor in the minds of both the leaders and the followers. How manipulation of the mind can lead to so many brainwashed followers.
This adds another dimension, too. I am a Catholic woman of faith. I have gone to church every Sunday since I was a baby and have always held strong beliefs about God’s everlasting presence and how He sent His son to die so we could live forever in eternal life. I know that what I believe will have truth. However, some people describe Christianity or religion in general as a “cult” or “terrifying.” What makes my beliefs so different from a cult’s beliefs? What defines that line?
Definition
The word “cult” is a noun. It is defined as a small social group that has religious, philosophical, or spiritual beliefs that seem strange to outsiders. For example, “When he claimed that he was the second coming of Christ, I knew I was in a cult.” The most well-known cults include, but are not limited to, the Peoples Temple, the Manson Family, Heaven’s Gate, and Scientology. The APA Dictionary of Psychology describes cults as secretive, cohesive, well-organized, and hostile to followers.
I joke around with this word. As a person in band, sometimes I say things like, “Band is a cult.” I know sometimes people might think we are a part of a cult, despite knowing that band does not go by a textbook cult definition. We might do things that are outside the social norm, like say outdated jokes or sing holiday songs in the middle of Times Square.
I have heard several examples of people tossing this definition around like a hot potato for different organizations.
“Greek life compares to a cult,” someone commented on a Greek Life chanting video.
“Band is such a cult,” I joked while I did marching band in high school.
“Tom Cruise joined some weird alien cult called Scientology,” my mom said to me a long time ago.
Some people use the definition of the word “cult” lightly in that context because they may see a group acting, believing, or doing something strange or unusual, something outside the norms of their society. They may see people dressed in one color or acting a certain way and immediately point a finger, calling them a “cult.”
Sometimes they use it to define an actual cult. A group that acts strangely or unusually due to different spiritual beliefs compared to what that person may know might make them say “cult” and mean it.
Whether people use this word literally or ironically, they may use the word “cult” in reaction to an unusual group.
Recruitment
If cults are so strange, how do they get people to join? It ranges. For some, they have the good or bad luck of their parents following a certain belief; they are born into cults. Their parents follow this belief and want to impose it on their offspring so that they are the “right kid.”
I had the good luck of being born into Catholicism. My parents believe in Catholicism, and I was baptized at an early age. I grew up in the church, learning about the traditions and beliefs as I went on my journey of knowing who Christ is.
Sometimes, cults take advantage of broken people.
In the fictional horror film Midsommar, Dani, a broken woman, suffers through a nightmare of circumstances. Her sister murders her parents before killing herself. Not only that, but Dani remains stuck in a toxic relationship with her boyfriend, Christian. Dani goes with Christian, his friends, and their Swedish friend, Pelle, to Sweden to study the Midsummer traditions in Pelle’s ancestral commune. To the outsiders, the traditions seem bizarre, like the elders willingly jumping off a cliff at the end of their final year. In the end, Dani, with Christian’s friends killed off, sacrifices Christian after seeing him cheat on her with another villager. She sobs at the loss, but in the final scene, she smiles.
Dani loses everything in the span of a 120-minute film, including her family and her boyfriend. She has very few connections except with Christian and his friends, all of whom end up dead. Dani succumbs to the home-like feel of the cult. She needed the human connection that she once lost. That’s how she joined the cult.
Sometimes, cults use charisma, love-bombing, and trends to lure their followers in.
In the midst of the 1960s, Charles Manson took advantage of the hippie movement and the free love movement. He started with one girlfriend. Then, another girlfriend. Then, eighteen. Charles Manson encouraged his girlfriends to bring men along for the ride. He believed he received a prophetic vision through the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter.” He used LSD and free love as a means to manipulate these men and women into first joining his family and then killing innocent people.
Cult leaders use dozens of tactics like charisma and drugs to lure followers in. Through manipulation, fear, and sometimes pure chance, cult leaders can be the puppeteers of people’s minds.
The Leaders
There is something common among these leaders. Many cult leaders exhibit varying degrees of narcissism. This narcissism shapes the way the leader lures followers and draws an audience to the cult, as paraphrased by Janja Lalich, a sociology professor at California State University, Chico.
“I’m speaking as a prophet today,” Jim Jones professed to a crowd of his followers. He repeated this in the tape that he recorded before his final moments. Jim Jones was a leader of the Peoples Temple cult, which had strange beliefs about the world. This would be the hour in which he would drive 909 people to die by cyanide poisoning.
Catholicism encourages its members to be humble. The Son of God humbled Himself, becoming a man with no riches, even though He is the Son of God. He took on the role of a carpenter who encouraged people to give to others. He preached love to all and paid the price of our sins.
I don’t believe any narcissist would do that. No narcissist would humble himself onto a cross and pay off everyone’s sins.
“Cult leaders do not want to see the fall,” Joe Navarro M.A. states in the “Dangerous Cult Leaders” article of Psychology Today. In the Peoples Temple cult, Jim Jones and around 900 people went to Guyana to build their perfect world. When the Representative of California, Leo Ryan, came to Guyana to investigate the cult, he was killed. Jim Jones then instructed 909 of his followers to drink Flavor-Aid mixed with cyanide.
“We win when we go down,” Jim Jones proclaimed. I can only imagine the thoughts the members had running through their minds as he spoke to the crowd.
In the Christian faith, when someone leaves the church, I feel sad. It feels upsetting to see my friends stray from the church. However, our God, ever-loving, welcomes us back with open arms.
Furthermore, these cult leaders attempt to control what others do. Joe Navarro further discusses this in the article. In the transcript of Jim Jones’ final tape, Jim, with his brainwashed followers and his charisma, already had the majority of these people in the palm of his hand. He was the puppeteer who make his puppets do wretched things.
“It’s been done by every tribe in history…They refuse to bring any babies into the world. They kill every child that comes into the world because they don’t want to live in this kind of world,” Jones justified. I only looked at the transcript of this tape because I would prefer not to hear the heart-wrenching sounds of death.
God gives us our rules. However, these rules are for the better and make perfect sense to me. We have the Ten Commandments, like “Thou shall not kill” and “Thou shall not steal.” I know I would be upset if I had something of mine stolen or killed!
There are two important commandments when it comes to Christianity and its core values. The first commandment proclaims that one should, “Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your mind.” The second commandment reads, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Nothing crazy, bizarre, or outlandish. It’s simply be a loving person. Not narcissistic, selfish, or manipulative.
Some Christians may act homophobic; for example, the Westboro Baptist Church often pickets at LGBT+ weddings with signs that say, “God hates gay people.” As a Christian, this disheartens me. It deters people away from God and gives them the wrong idea about Christianity. The Bible clearly states “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That commandment includes all neighbors. Not just Christian ones. This extreme hatred and judgment leads to people thinking that Christianity is a cult.
The Followers
With these commonalities in the cult leaders come commonalities in the cult followers. To start with, like many of us, these followers are searching for something to fill a gap in their lives. This could be a broken family or a new loss. With a loss, we often turn to others, such as family, friends, and community, to help cope. In Aero Magazine’s article “Why We Join Cults,” cult survivor and recovery counselor Alexandria Stein says she joined a Marxist-Leninist cult called The O because of a breakup she had with a boyfriend. In Midsommar, Dani loses her family and friends and succumbs to the cult because she needs to replace the family she lost.
As a Catholic, I know I would be nothing without God and Jesus. I’ve had dozens of times when I’ve lost something: a friend, a lover, or a family member. In these times, I turned to Jesus. In my prayers, I would feel that He would listen and that He would do everything in His power to make things work for the better. The way many cult followers feel has similarities to how I feel when I pray. The strange abnormalities of what they follow make the difference. They may follow a UFO, not God. That and the evidence of the belief. They have found archeological evidence of James, the son of Joseph. In the biblical context, James is the brother of Jesus, as Joseph is the father of both James and Joseph. According to the Institute for Creation Research, archeologists found an ossuary with the bones of James. According to Dr. Andre Lemaire, he is “pleased that in my judgment it is genuinely ancient and not a fake.”
The cult followers have an attitude of willingness to do anything for their cult leaders. How did 909 people die for Jim Jones? How did thirty-nine people in Heaven’s Gate die with the same clothing and Nike shoes? According to Tom Bisset’s Baltimore Sun article, “Why People Join Cults, and Why They Leave,” the reason lines up with the feeling of how they have “the answers to their personal problems. They have been searching for these answers for a long time to search for a sense of closure in their life. The cult ostensibly brings answers to their life’s problems.”
In Jim Jones’ final tape, a victim’s final words are, “He is the only god.”
Another says that she, “wouldn’t be alive today. I’d just like to thank Dad ‘cause he was the only one that stood up for me when I needed him.”
Throughout the tape, followers cheer and clap after pivotal speech moments, like they are so proud of the answer Jim Jones brings. When you bring in the fact of how his followers think of Jim Jones as a prophet and a god, it reveals how the cult answered their problems and filled their personal voids.
Many Catholics and Christians in general are willing to do anything for God. Many are Christian martyrs; they were willing to die for Jesus. For example, Joan of Arc, James, and Paul are lauded and venerated as saints and biblical heroes and heroines. If there comes a chance that I have to die because of my beliefs, I feel willing to do so.
My mentality is very similar to those who are in a cult. However, the difference is in the Bible, which strongly discourages suicide or killing in general. When our time to leave the world arrives, it will happen peacefully and on an unknown date. In more infamous cult cases, the followers commit mass suicide and/or the leader commits murder. The Bible encourages people to understand that persecution will arrive and to keep their faith in the face of death—nothing like these cult cases where the leaders murder their followers or encourage self-destruction.
False Prophets?
Although there can be clear differences between cult and religion, what aspects of Catholicism can lead people into thinking that Catholicism is a cult? For some, it might be the unusuality of the church services one may be unfamiliar with. One example of this is Communion. Communion takes place in Mass, and we are reminded of the last supper of Jesus before His crucifixion. In Jesus’ last supper, He breaks bread with His disciples, saying, “This is my body, which will be given up for you.” He takes the chalice of wine and says, “This is my blood, which will be shed for you and for many. Do this in memory of me.”
We take Communion in remembrance of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. The Eucharist is real and not just a symbol of Christ. However, there are several comments that I see on social media that consider this strange. They may call it “weird” and “cannibalistic” when it is not. In a sense, we are recreating the Last Supper, remembering and reflecting on our relationship with the Lord. It expresses our union with the Lord in a nonviolent way. There is no sacrifice but the one Jesus gave to us on the cross.
Additionally, there is the consideration of the viewpoints of other religions. Sam Fleishadker, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago-Illinois, explores this idea in The Baltimore Sun’s article, “Cult vs. Religion: what’s the difference?” He states that early Christianity was considered a cult by both Jews and Romans when it was first founded, which would be understandable considering Jesus preached that He was sent down as God’s son to pay the price to get to Heaven. Jesus died with people mocking Him with a crown of thorns. It would seem that they did not understand and thought of Him as a false god. If the belief in Christ had only happened for a few decades, it would be considered a cult. However, Fleishadker suggests that after a cult establishes itself for several generations— about 100 years—it can be considered a religion.
Some may still see Christianity as heresy or idol-worshipping. It is understandable that some may think of Christianity as a cult. However, I feel as if I am not harming anyone by following Christianity. I respect and love my friends that have different religious backgrounds. Although there are many people that may look at Christianity in general as “cultish,” Christianity does not have the destructive intentions that cults may have at their core.
Still Want A Revolution?
In conclusion, there are many aspects of cults and religions. Cults and religions have significant similarities. Many of the thoughts and behaviors of cult leaders and significant religious figures, like Jesus, are alike. There is a pattern of shared attitudes between cult followers and people that follow a mainstream religion, like Catholicism or other Christian denominations.
With these similarities come shocking differences, drawing a line between religion and cults. Cults have outlandish, bizarre, and unusual beliefs compared to the morality, humility, and actual evidence of Christianity. Cults also use pure manipulation and love-bombing to make people fall into something destructive, not constructive.
For years, cults have fascinated me. I never really understood what went on in brainwashing leaders’ minds. I also did not understand what went on in the followers’ minds. I was aware that some people may view my faith as a “cult,” but I never understood what was so similar between Catholicism and Peoples Temple. In that case, those that view Christianity as a cult are only viewing the similarities. The differences need to be highlighted in the discussion of cults and religion. The differences show that many mainstream religions have the absence of brutality and destructive manipulation.
Today, I go to church, read my Bible, and remain active in a campus ministry. I consider myself a proud woman of faith and will continue to be forever: from the little things like wearing a nice cross necklace, to the big things like heading to the Vatican, where the Catholic Pope resides and hosts Mass. I also will watch documentaries on cults and read books about them. I will be able to do both of these things more clearly as well as not live in fear of cults because I fully understand the differences and similarities between my religion and cults.
