Cults, Churches and Charisma

?? Two different media stories this week triggered reflection on the continuing thrall of cults across the world.??One story was entitled ‘Kenyan Death Cult?suffocated my baby as its followers clapped and cheered’ and it told of a powerful evangelical cult whose followers were told to starve themselves and their infants to death so they could escape the impending apocalypse and ‘meet Jesus in heaven’.??Police recovered 201 bodies, with 500 still missing.?

??In the UK, an apparently more benign but still concerning cult is?Soul Survivor, a Christian movement targeted at young people, with music festivals and singing and worship celebrations in schools. The leader, Mike Pilavachi, would single out young men and “favourites” for attention and then drop them. He preached a misogynistic and homophobic narrative and is now under investigation by the Church of England regarding safeguarding and inappropriate behaviour (the church had originally been supportive of it). But there is no statement as yet from Justin Welby.

??? The term “cult” refers most often to a group of people with usually?atypical beliefs living in relative isolation from the world and with strict control of beliefs, behaviours, and customs.?Staying in a cult is a form of addiction, and members find it hard to leave or feel guilty if they do so. While no official figures exist, estimates suggest that the number of cults or sects worldwide likely reaches tens of thousands. In the UK alone, an?estimated?2,000?cult groups are operating across the country.??However, the government rarely acts to outlaw them because of fears that they cannot?legally distinguish between religion and semi-criminal cults.

??Cults have different roots, histories and dogmas – religious, political, sexual, doomsday, satanic, or even wellness. Nevertheless, these groups do exhibit common traits, encompassing authoritarian control, extremist beliefs, social isolation, and unwavering veneration of their leadership. A common feature among numerous cults is the presence of a charismatic and persuasive spiritual leader, typically male, who wields considerable influence in recruiting and grooming followers. Some individuals are recruited as adults, while others, born into families already entrenched in cults, have limited exposure or choice regarding the outside world.

??A survey of 105 victims of 36 different cult groups, produced by the charity?The Family Survival Trust (FST),?has found that thousands of people have suffered sexual abuse, isolation from friends and family, financial exploitation and modern slavery at the hands of UK cults. This is not just ‘shiny happy’ meetings but serious abuses of human rights.

??Should there be action, and what can be done?

1?? In tackling the expansion and power of cults, there are two main avenues – roughly top-down and bottom-up. The first, top-down, is legislation.?The FST is calling on the government to expand the legislation that criminalises coercive control in domestic abuse relationships so that it can be used against cult groups.??

2?? The second, bottom-up, is educational, and here the work of organisations such as ConnectFutures is vital in their training with young people to build resilience to extremism and exploitation. This aims to bring awareness about grooming and manipulation from religious extremists, violent gang members, and cults. The work in schools cannot really or directly touch those adults already in cults and may face challenges in enabling critical questioning for children in families who are part of a cult (if such children are in school at all).??But it can tackle the general questions of why young people seek identity and status in extremist movements or organisations, how they can see through the power of charismatic leaders and how they can resist or report sexual abuse.?

?Above all, there is the power of open discussion – not replacing one set of preaching with another, but wide-reaching safeguarding work and critical thinking.??There can be "teachable moments," as exemplified by the recent documentary about Rebekah Vardy and her experience growing up with the Jehovah's Witnesses. The documentary sheds light on their beliefs regarding Armageddon, the end of days, and the sexual abuse she endured.

? Neither approach – legislation or building resilience - is without controversy, given the grey area around what constitutes harm around the behaviour and lifestyles of cults. Yet the educational task remains crucial. Cults are not to be tackled on their own, but their underlying characteristics – coercive control, lack of choice, grooming, restricted exposure to alternative ideas, and ritualised punishment – can and must be confronted as part of a broader programme of fostering resilience to extremism and teaching about human rights.

? The media is often quick to pick up on stories that expose cult leaders engaging in highly harmful practices or spreading apocalyptic messages urging mass suicide. However, it is the less dramatic and insidious activities of cults, which are sometimes offshoots of accepted religions or promise health and prosperity, that can be equally harmful and require attention and exposure. We invite readers to share their experiences of cults and sects, as well as anything they have seen on-line, so that we can enrich our training and build up a more informed picture of cult tactics in this globalised era.

Reference:

BBC (2023).?Kenya ‘Starvation Cult’ Death Toll Continues to Rise - BBC News. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B8TSQoHJPk [Accessed 26 May 2023].

Gatens, K. (2023). He ran the ‘Christian Glastonbury’. Then the questions started.?www.thetimes.co.uk. [online] 26 May. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/soul-survivor-mike-pilavachi-christian-youth-festival-gzcqnfjh0 [Accessed 26 May 2023].

Prof. Lynn Davies is an Emeritus Professor of International Education at the University of Birmingham, UK and Co-Director of the ConnectFutures. She has worked extensively in the area of education and conflict for the last 15 years, specifically in education, extremism and security.