DecaturHawk said:
Duke, that article was just more anti-Christian screed. It's bias is so blatant, you can practically feel the anti-Catholic hatred coming from it. If this is the kind of "objective" reporting you need to share to prove that "organized religion" is a threat to free peoples everywhere, you have failed, IMHO.
@ Michelle Zone
I am not unhappy or mad. I actually am finding great curiosity with this discussion. It is a great display of how a "Cult" bends your thinking.
@ Decatorhawk
All that article pointed out was that the Catholic church views any type of New Age belief outside of traditional church doctrine as a threat. Bias, Spin, whatever you want to call it, it doesn't change the fact that people outside of that specific.....um......school of thought can see things much differently than those that are part of the .....um... denomination.
I don't believe religion is a threat to free peoples everywhere, but it can be VERY antidemocratic. Biased? Huh, thats what you always hear from people when they believe thier religion has been slandered. It's human nature.
Now I agree it wouldn't be fair to single out Catholics, unfortunatly, they have almost as good a PR staff at getting in the news as you could imagine, and it is not always flattering what it reveals.. What I am pointing out, is that the size and exceptance of a Cult in a broader society does not mean its not a Cult. I am not pointing out the evils of religion, I am pointing out that the main stream religions are throwing rocks at glass houses. Case in point, Bob Bar and the Fort Hood Wiccans (
http://www.rickross.com/reference/wicca/wicca5.html).
Since nobody has done it yet, the following is a list of cult behaviors to watch for. Warning, None of these can be rejected from the point of a "mainstream" religion. Some are worse than others but elements of each can be found in ALL of the major religions I am aware of in some form. (from
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm) :
1 The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
2 The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
3 The group is preoccupied with making money.
4 Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
5 Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
6 The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
7 The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
8 The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
9 The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
10 The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
11 The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
12 Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
13 Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
14 Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members
