How Cults Use The Internet

Posted on 09/29/2006 at 07:55:41  |  Report Abuse |  0

Taking a quote from one of my own postings in another thread because I thought it would be a good topic on its own: quote:Most cult discussions relate to psychological and social manipulation, but some cults are highly criminal and predatory. They have the resources and more...

Posted on 10/02/2006 at 16:35:46  |  Report Abuse |  0

It is like everything else in modern society, a problem that becomes more difficult as technology hands more information to people with bad intentions. All we can do is try to be equally well-informed.

Some people are caught off guard because a cultist will have acquired personal knowledge before meeting them. Your guard is up when you encounter a stranger, but if you encounter someone who appears to have something in common with you, your guard might be down, especially when they watch for vulnerable moments. Lots of them read obituaries to find vulnerable survivors during the grief periods.

I recently got an email spam from some group combining Christianity and theosophy. That's the seance stuff. It just occurred to me that with the New Age guru-wannabes who try to find ways to convince people they can talk to dead spirits for them, this might be a way they are trying to make money off that racket with more resistant Christians. They are marketing it as a "prayer method". Really marketing, with seminar fees and registered trademarks on their "prayer method"... sheeesh!

Posted on 10/03/2006 at 12:07:54  |  Report Abuse |  0

Rod, you did ask a good question way up there. The answer is "no", because I am talking about sites that are set up to deceive you into thinking they are actually associated with a known church, not a forum in which you can read and evaluate conversations. And the "cult" issue that concerns me is not the theological point of whether one believes in the Catholic "cult of saints" or not, but in the group dynamics that can affect people in their real lives at home and church bodies.

Now, if in fact, some members mislead others about their background or intentions, then that would be an individual issue, IMO, and it is something that can happen anywhere.

But forums are sometimes cult-driven in order to protect a cult against its own critics. That is why I opened the natlfed subject here. That group has been reviving itself in the past year or so and it has always operated on the fringes of churches. When I was in it we had many Nondenoms among the agnostics and atheists because we were just concentrating on groceries and heating assistance, but at a certain point it became obvious that atheism was expected of leadership and the marxist cliche that "religion is the opiate of the masses" was actually a guiding principle.

A Christian might be misguided enough to think he could go into this cult to convert its members. That would be a mistake. They are not the same as people who just "don't know" Jesus.