WHAT MAKES A CULT?

Sir,

A cult can be described as a group of people who all share a deep liking for something, such as a music star. However, a cult can also be a type of religious devotion or veneration towards a particular figure who expects total loyalty and obedience on the part of his/her followers. So how do cults appear and who, or what is behind them?

There are various types of cults but most of them tend to have religious or doomsday themes in which the ‘brainwashed’ are often coerced into abandoning their daily lives to take on a new life within the cult where the focus becomes worshipping the cult leader.

Some of the well known cults – well known due to the tragic events associated with them – such as the Branch Davidian cult, the Aum Shinrikyo cult or the Heaven’s Gate cult, all had leaders who were often viewed as divine beings who were worshipped by their followers.

People who join cults usually share the same ideology as the cult leaders but it remains baffling to me as to how they come to view them as their literal masters for whom they are sometimes willing to sacrifice their lives and the lives of others. It seems as though somewhere along the way, it is the ‘prophets of doom’ who eventually become the focus of adoration and worship such that people would even allow themselves to be exposed to danger or even kill themselves if called to do so by their beloved earthly masters because they are believed to be under divine guidance.

The Bible says you shall know the false prophets by their fruits. If the ‘cult’ leader becomes the focus of adoration and praise and allows his/her followers to be intentionally exposed to dangerous situations or even to death, then you have biblical proof of the kind of prophets we have in our midst.

Unfortunately when people allow themselves to become easily convinced that certain people have ‘more abilities’ or can become ‘holier’ than others who follow the same faith or perhaps possess ‘higher’ knowledge about the future, then you have the ingredients for a typical cult in which the ‘powerful one’ becomes the one worthy of praise.

Swazi Citizen
 

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