Statement by the Eastern Orthodox Church
Cults Within & Without
by Archpriest Alexey Young
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables. (II Tim. 4:3)
In his monumental work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
written more than two hundred years ago, Edward Gibbon perfectly
depicted the religious polytheism of American society in the following
description of ancient Rome:
The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman Empire were
all considered by the people as equally true.... Rome was incessantly
filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the world, who
all introduced and enjoyed the favorite superstitions of their native
country.... Their love of the marvelous and supernatural, their
curiosity with regard to future events...were the principal cause which
favored the establishment of polytheism.
In pluralistic, ecumenically-conditioned North America, the average
citizen, does tend to think that all religions are basically good, if
not basically the same. But as Joan Johnson writes in The Cult Movement
(Franklin Watts, 1984):
The past two and one-half decades have shown that all religions are not
good. Certainly those groups that masquerade as religions merely to get
around laws or avoid taxes are not good. Those groups that use their
followers as pawns to attain wealth or power are not good. Groups led
by individuals whose motives and judgment are specious are not good.
And religions that, for whatever reason, condone mind manipulation are
not good.
Some years ago I was preparing a catechumen for Baptism. One day he
asked me: After I'm baptized, will there be higher mysteries or
revelations for me to learn about? I was taken aback until I
remembered that he had come from a staunch Mormon background, with
heavy emphasis on hidden temple rituals and oaths of secrecy. In
his simple naiveté he thought that the cultish aspects of Mormonism
might be normal components of all churches. He quite literally didn't
know any better.
But we Orthodox also have a simple naiveté about the cult mentality,
and it is a dangerous naiveté. As virtually every priest knows,
more and more converts are coming from cult backgrounds of all
kinds. If a priest is not familiar with the broad outlines of
cult psychology, he may be preparing these catechumens doctrinally, but
is overlooking the cult mentality unconsciously lurking in the
catechumens mind. And because we tend to think of cults in dramatic
terms, such as the Jonestown massacre, the Solar Temple suicides, Waco,
Texas, or Japan's apocalyptic Aum Shinrikyo cult, we don't realize that
we see only the tip of the iceberg—for mind control techniques have
become ineffably refined and could even penetrate Orthodoxy itself,
under certain conditions.
Combating Cult Mind Control, by Steven Hassan (Park Street Press, 198),
addresses this issue. Mr. Hassan is an ex-Moonie who, after several
years with that cult, was de-programmed. He now serves as National
Coordinator of FOCUS, a support network for former members of cults.
After carefully distinguishing between brainwashing (the use of force,
sometimes including torture, to coerce another's thinking) and
mind-control (the use of psychological techniques for behavior
modification without the recruits awareness that this is going on), the
author identifies four main types of cults—on the basis of their use of
mind-control tactics:*
1. Religious cults are the most common and familiar. They may be
Christian-oriented (e.g., Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, or smaller,
less well-known groups) or based on Eastern religions (such as the Hare
Krishna movement, Rajneesh, etc.). They may be of an esoteric,
illuminist orientation (e.g., Rosicrucian's, the former Holy Order of
MANS) or a bizarre combination (such as the Moonies). A great
body of reliable literature is available on all of these
groups—Hassan's book contains an extensive and authoritative
bibliography—and our clergy should familiarize themselves with this
material.
2. Political cults: these include both left- and right-wing fringe
elements—among the best known are the various neo-Nazi organizations
and Communist groups.
3. Psychotherapy cults emphasize personal enlightenment through
allegedly therapeutic techniques and may also contain aspects of both
religious and political cults (e.g., Scientology, EST).
Sexual immorality and perversion may or may not be present in any of
these first three categories, depending on the particular cult and its
founders/leaders.
4. Commercial cults: these groups are less well-known but rapidly
growing in our society. Appealing to greed, they recruit
teenagers and young adults through newspaper ads. Usually their victims
have to pay stiff fees for training, and end up selling merchandise
door-to-door in another city, returning most of their income to the
company.
According to Hassan, the four main components of mind control are
control of behavior, thoughts, emotions and information. Control
of behavior has to do with environment—what a person wears, where he
lives, and often includes sleep restriction and inadequate diet.
Thought control involves manipulation of thought processes so that cult
members view reality in terms of us versus them. They are conditioned
to immediately reject any criticism of the group or its leaders.
Emotional control makes use of guilt and fear as ways of keeping
cult-followers under control. One particularly powerful aspect of fear
is the skillful manipulation of followers phobias (troubling and
negative thoughts and anxieties based upon poor self-image).
Members are conditioned to define happiness in terms of unquestioning
obedience to the leaders, who must be appeased at all cost, yet who
never seem to be quite satisfied with ones performance. Specific
behavior modification techniques are extensively used.
Information control denies members the vital information they need to
make rational judgments and decisions. Any information critical of the
cult and its leaders will be kept from the followers. Often,
control over their lives and minds is so extensive that members may not
even know there is outside criticism or concern about their cult.
But as Joan Johnson writes:
Learning to think critically is one of the most important skills an
individual develops. How else can a person make wise
decisions? In a world of the sincere and insincere, of the
believable and the absurd, individuals must make difficult decisions.
Survival depends on the ability to think critically. That skill can be
lost or its growth stunted if it is not constantly used. Imagine how
differently history would have been written had Jim Jones's followers
asked, Why? ... But they didn't. They were victims of
unquestioning obedience. They did not think critically. And now they
are dead.
Although not every cult necessarily uses all of the above techniques,
Mr. Hassan says that Each form of control has great power and influence
on the human mind. Together, they form a totalistic web, which can
manipulate even the strongest-minded people. The more
sophisticated the cult, the more subtle will be its use of these
techniques, whether alone or in lethal combination. Each method or
control is discussed in considerably more detail in Hassan's book.
Additionally, an elitist mentality is carefully nourished. Cultists
often feel that they are in some special way chosen for a great
destiny, a unique task in history. Later we will see the special form
this could take even in Orthodoxy. In Hassan's words, [Cultists]
consider themselves better, more knowledgeable and more powerful than
anyone else in the world.
What kind of psycho-social profile does a typical cult recruit
have? According to Peter Rowley's New God's in America (David
McKay Co., 1971), A very large number, if not the majority, of the
young joining these beliefs have had less than satisfactory experiences
with their parents. Middle-aged parents, influenced by materialism and
memories of the Depression, either ignored their children or held them
in rigid psychological chains. Many new beliefs and particularly the
communes are new families replacing those that never existed. The
[leaders] . . . are clearly father-figures, substituting for
those Dads who gave their time to the corporation rather than to their
sons or daughters.
Orthodox parents must also realize that there are tens of thousands of
ex-cult members in our society today—and by God's Providence some of
them find their way to Orthodoxy. Hassan says that they leave a group
in three basic ways: they walk out [many, once they see that something
is very wrong, literally run away], they get kicked out (often in a
very burned-out condition, both psychologically and physically), or
they get counseled out. Although they are fortunate to leave the
destructive cult, the adjustments to life in the real world can be
extremely difficult. If they don't get good information and counseling
after they leave, the cult-induced phobias they carry with them will
make them into walking time bombs. Also, many cult members have lived
for so long without any kind of normal work or social life that the
process of readjustment to adult life is an uphill climb.
This process of readjustment may fall to the pastoral counseling of the
priest during the time of preparation for Baptism. His expertise—or
lack thereof—may be critical to the future spiritual survival of the
ex-cult member, now a catechumen.
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, make full the
proof of thy ministry (II Tim. 4:5).
Orthodoxy has seen cults before: indeed it has had a long history of
experience and wisdom in that regard. Even a Jim Jones and his
Jonestown is nothing new: a few fanatics among some 17th-century
priestless Old Believers urged their followers to commit
self-immolation in order to escape what they believed were the forces
of Antichrist—and many of them did. But aside from doctrine, the
primary difference between the old Khlysty or Skoptsy sects in Russia
and modern cults, is the much more sophisticated use of mind control.
We rarely speak of it, perhaps do not even suspect it, and are
certainly uncomfortable with the idea, but cultism has had its impact
within Orthodoxy even today. Some of us know about those places,
situations, and leaders (sometimes abbots or archimandrites,
occasionally even married priests) who have exerted an unhealthy and
puzzling influence over their followers—but we didn't necessarily
associate this with cultism.
Those of us adhering to the old ways of our fathers in the Faith value
obedience and humility, a careful preservation of monastic principles,
and we look constantly to our elders (especially in the monastic ranks)
for guidance and example. But these are all practical ideals that, in
the hands of the inexperienced, the mentally ill, the amoral, or the
power-hungry, can be abused.
There are many books in English which deal with traditional monastic or
lay spiritual struggle (in Greece, Russia, and elsewhere). The best are
lives of saints and biographies of great Church leaders, both men and
women. There are also excellent manuals about spiritual struggle (such
as Unseen Warfare and The Arena). Such books can provide a standard by
which the neophyte can measure what he is experiencing in a given
church situation.
However, a note of caution: although one reads much in those books
about startzi (elders) and obedience to them, it must be made clear
that in this country, at least, there are NO true elders today whose
voice can be the voice of heaven for a disciple or spiritual
child. To think otherwise is very dangerous: whole groups have
been led into schism or heresy because they believed their leader to be
an unerring elder.
In addition to the outline of mind-control techniques given in the
first part of this article (which may apply totally or in part to cult
manifestations when they occur within a Church context), there are
certain questions that should be asked about individual leaders and
their followers. If the answer to any one of these questions
suggests that something is not quite right, the follower (whether he be
in a monastery for men or women, a parish, or in a lay association)
should immediately leave, for obedience has meaning and value only if
it is freely given, not if it is extorted by means of fear, guilt, or
emotional blackmail. This cannot be understated.
1. What is the history of the group or jurisdiction? As a priest,
I have often been surprised at how little interest the prospective
convert shows in this question.
2. The leader (bishop, abbot, abbess, priest, layman, etc.) of the
group: What is his background and training? Beware of cultish
talk such as, All of the other monasteries are bad; you cant trust
them, but were doing it right!
3. Is there paranoid talk or a feeling of us versus them? Does
the leader feel persecuted and misunderstood by others in the Orthodox
world? Are outsider critics seen as the enemy? Are followers
discouraged from having contact with those that are outside the
group? Are critics invariably referred to in un-Christian or
demeaning language (such as stupid, vulgar, peasants, worldly, etc.)?
4. Have you ever been asked to do something you knew to be illegal,
immoral, or degrading? This is a tricky one, for once the cult
mind-set has been accepted by the follower, all kinds of things can be
justified in the name of obedience, a sense of superiority, etc.,
indicating a psychopathic mentality on the part of the leader.
5. Are there doctrinal/historical deviations such as We don't need
bishops (or priests, etc.); all of the bishops have gone bad? Beware:
this usually indicates that the leader in question has gotten into some
kind of trouble with his bishop (if he ever had one). Are
attempts made to undermine or destroy the reputation and character of
other accepted authority figures in the Church, or at least cast doubt
on their competence?
6. While there may not be external signs of great wealth in a given
group, are there attempts to persuade recruits to sign over money,
property, or credit cards to the group? (Even in a monastic
situation this should be watched very carefully. Normally, a novice
would not make a financial transferal—either to his own family or the
monastery—until he was ready for tonsure.) Are relatives and
visitors flattered and specially honored in order to obtain large
donations from them?
7. Are guilt and fear employed to, first, get someone into the group
(If you don't become a monk I can guarantee that you will go to hell)
or, second, to discourage them from leaving (If you leave, you will be
lost, you will go back to your former immoral life-style)? Is
there a lack of congruity concerning those that have left the
group? For example, you know that a given recruit simply walked
out, but the leaders invariably say that he was kicked out for (choose
one) immorality, mental instability, disobedience, etc., rather than,
simply, He wasn't suited for the monastic calling.
8. If you are a layman in a parish situation, are you expected to get
permission (a blessing) from the priest before you change jobs, buy a
new car, etc.? Under normal circumstances these are not the
proper purview of a parish priest, however wise and pious he may
otherwise be. One may—and should—ask for prayers and advice about these
and other non-controversial aspects of practical life, but asking for
permission is a quite different thing.
9. Is lying or misrepresentation justified by the leader because, he
says, the group is serving a higher cause? In other words, do the ends
justify the means?
10. Are members given medical treatment (physical or emotional, if
needed) by the group, or are they sent home so that the family can bear
the expense?
11. Is there grandiosity on the part of the leaders? In other
words, do they see themselves and the group as somehow rescuing,
fixing, or saving the rest of the Church?
One may, indeed, be giving a very good witness, but this is not
something to be shoved down the throats of others or trumpeted far and
wide. In Orthodoxy, a witness is simply lived, quietly,
peacefully, and in harmony with others as best as can be. In this
century, the examples of Saint Nectarios of Aegina and the righteous
Papa Nicholas Planas of Athens, not to mention our own contemporary,
Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, are good examples of this.
For parents whose children may one day be tempted by this or that guru
(whether in the Church or out), Steven Hassan has wise words:
Reliance on television for entertainment and information, is also a
factor in predisposing one to cult membership Unfortunately, most
television viewing does not stimulate our intellect, imagination or
higher aspirations. Instead, television encourages conformity and
creates a distorted perception of reality. Where else can all
problems be resolved in a one-hour episode? In addition, while it
is certainly important to know what is happening in the world,
incessant news reports on drug problems, sex scandals, corruption and
violence take their toll on the American psyche. We become
desensitized to our own values and lose the powers of creativity and
discrimination.
In the last decade or so, the cult mentality has seriously threatened
the innocent minds and souls of many Orthodox seekers. Some of them
have been grievously harmed, even though they may have left the groups
that were harming them. As parents and priests, we have a
responsibility to face this problem squarely and honestly, although it
is not easy or comfortable to do so. We must not pretend or hide
our heads in the sand.
Among the tasks that face us are—
1. To help parents understand the factors in family life that might
predispose our children to one day abandon their free will to
unscrupulous and unworthy leaders, whether in the Church, in politics,
or elsewhere. We must teach children what free will is, how it
operates, and why it is so precious. And we must start teaching them
now.
2. We must educate our young so that they understand what true
spiritual fatherhood (or motherhood) is, what authentic monastic life
consists of, and what, by contrast, are the recognizable signs of a
cult.
3. By our example and words, we should try to rescue as many souls as
we can who are presently involved in cult activity and who, no longer
able to exercise their own free will, may never find the strength of
will to walk out on their own.
4. Counsel and nurture those who have already left a cult but may be
silently suffering not just emotional scars but still-open wounds from
the experience.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. (Eph. 6:13)
Christian Orthodox priests want Mormons out of Bulgaria
Fri 06 Jun 2008 - Petar Kostadinov
Sofiaecho.com
Bulgarian Orthodox Church priests from the town of Bourgas on the Black Sea have asked the authorities to extradite a number of Mormon ministers, all of whom are foreign citizens.
According to local-based website bourgasinfo.com, the Orthodox priests from SS Cyril and Methodius church in Bourgas wanted the state to ban the preaching of the Mormon religion in Bulgaria.
These requests follow the June 5 2008 incident that happened at the church. During the service for Spassov Den (the day of the Ascension of Christ the Saviour, celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter), the Mormons entered the church and interrupted the service by talking to people, according to the priests.
“This is inadmissible. They started walking around the church talking to people. They have crossed all boundaries because that way they infringed our religious freedom as Orthodox Christians. It was an act of religious hostility,” father Zahari Dachev told Bourgasinfo.com.
“We have sent a letter to the state institutions and to the US embassy asking them if this is how their citizens live in our country by breaking our rights and freedoms,” he said. “Bulgarians' tolerance is being taking advantage of.”
Dachev entered into an argument with the Mormons, who were physically removed out of the church in the end, reports in Bulgarian media said. Dachev has filed a complaint with the police.
According to him, this was not the first time that the Mormons have come to the church. At Tsvetnitsa (Palm Sunday), they were handing out flyers about Mormon religion to people waiting to enter the church.
LDS Missionaries no Longer Serving in Russia
By Rachelle Killpack
KCSG TV
Jul 16, 2008
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no longer sending
North American missionaries to Russia because of that country's new
visa laws. Missionaries who were training to go to Russia have been
re-assigned. Missionaries that are already there, will be allowed to
complete their service.
The move comes after the Russian government instituted a new policy
which forces missionaries and others on humanitarian missions to leave
the country every three months to renew their visas.