# cults
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 8, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572 "2016-04-08T18:13:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2016, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/21 "2016-04-09T12:54:46Z")
I knew a kid who moved to Montana to join the Unification Church (Moonies). He left as a normal teenager. He came back two years later and was a TOTALLY different personality. He acted like he had had a lobotomy. He could not hold a conversation or sit still.
I think he was cooked pretty hard by the cult. No idea what happened.
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/22 "2016-04-09T13:47:50Z")
The Moonies tried to recruit me in college. The guy who tried it had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he hadn’t slept in a month.
Then there was some other cult that wanted me to join, and donate my stereo system to God. Apparently God has very poor taste in stereos.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/23 "2016-04-09T15:54:06Z")
> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> I grew up on the fringes of the ATI/Quiverfull movement, which I believe qualifies, although many disagree with me. I was also involved with pentacostal home-churches that were absolutely little tiny cults of personality, and attended a “Jesus camp” which if not a cult, absolutely employed cult tactics to control thoughts and behavior.
Quiverfull itself could better be called a cultish philosophy rather than a cult per se, as Quiverfull in and of itself does not have any official leaders, central headquarters, or final, definitive, or official statements of doctrine. There are, however, many cults (that have formal leaders, etc.) that have adopted the major principles of Quiverfull as official doctrine.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/24 "2016-04-09T16:40:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> My parents joined Amway in the early 1980s. I know there’s a little scepticism out there as to whether it qualifies as a cult, but this was the point at which it was just gaining a foothold in the UK, and I think that frontier made for an especially culty experience. Certainly it significantly fits the BITE model in my memory.
My ex-boyfriend got sucked into Amway. I completely believe it qualifies as a cult from what I saw. Complete devotion and submission to your upline, creepy religious overtones to the super-secret meetings. Squicked me the hell out and I ran for the hills. Boyfriend loved it and as far as I know is still worshipping the great Amway god and handing over all of his money every month.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/25 "2016-04-09T16:44:52Z")
Yeah, Amway is like a non-religious cult, part of the broader MLM spectrum of cultish behavior. Unlike some other cults it’s real easy to leave when you run out of money, they encourage it in that circumstance.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/26 "2016-04-09T16:52:15Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> I was one of the viewers of a TV show called _Cult_, which was about this TV show called _Cult_, about a cult, with a large cult following who watched every episode on every episode. Until it got canceled and all that experiment in extreme self-referentiality disintegrated just. like. that.
I just started watching [The Path](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_(TV_series)) on Hulu. I highly recommend it if you’re into those sorts of shows.
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### Author:  [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/27 "2016-04-10T00:31:54Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#):
>
> I was a Jehovah’s Witness for 30 years. And they are absolutely a cult.
Clearly you don’t know the definition of a cult.
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### Author:  [@divcov5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divcov5)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/28 "2016-04-10T00:33:26Z")
i don’t know if it’s a cult
but i notice alot of African Americans clinging to Ancient Egypt as apart of their identity, wearing egyptian clothing, aesthetics etc.
I understand why many African Americans would try to cling to such an identity, but it seems misguided
it’s like 18th-19th Germany and its obsession with Ancient Greece
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/29 "2016-04-10T00:42:42Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> I knew two people who joined the Hari Krishnas.
Nitpick: Hare Krishnas, officially, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness or Iskcon. They insist on spelling “Krishna” as “Krsna.”
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/30 "2016-04-10T01:56:19Z")
> [@raindog](#):
>
> Clearly you don’t know the definition of a cult.
I know several definitions of “cult”, and Jehovah’s Witnesses meet all of them.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/31 "2016-04-10T05:17:06Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Nitpick: Hare Krishnas, officially, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness or Iskcon. They insist on spelling “Krishna” as “Krsna.”
Only if you include the dots under the middle 3 letters: Kṛṣṇa, standard [IAST](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration) orthography for कृष्ण.
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/32 "2016-04-11T18:20:39Z")
> [@raindog](#):
>
> Clearly you don’t know the definition of a cult.
Actually, I do. I have a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and have made cults a topic of intense study for the last 15 years. JWs qualify as a cult both theologically (in that they deviate from the essential doctrines of the Christian faith) and sociologically (in that they clearly fit into both Lifton’s 8 criteria for mind control and Steven Hassan’s BITE model defining cultic groups).
From your knee-jerk reaction in defense of JWs, I must assume that you are one yourself, which raises the question of why you would even engage with a former JW “apostate” like me, when the “faithful and discreet slave” has clearly forbidden you to do so, as in the following quotation:
\*\*\* w12 5/15 p. 26 par. 13 Are You Reflecting the Glory of Jehovah? \*\*\*
Let us therefore have nothing to do with apostates or anyone who claims to be a brother but who is dishonoring God. This should be the case even if he is a family member. (1Cor. 5:11) We are not benefited by trying to refute the arguments of apostates or those who are critical of Jehovah’s organization. In fact, **it is spiritually dangerous and improper to peruse their information, whether it appears in written form or it is found on the Internet.**
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cults/751572/33 "2016-04-11T22:02:47Z")
Best thread title / username combo of the week!!!
cults / escaped
Surely hope the OP comes back and dishes the story.
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