I do wonder, of all the things I’ve read about the Scientologists (which I haven’t made a serious study, anyway) I don’t recall any insinuations that they used sex as a manipulation tool. I’m sure like any organization, there were people in positions of authority who exploited the situation. Plus, they did do some PR work, like “Tom and John would be more appealing if they kept that quiet and had a hot wife” but in general, I don’t recall hearing of sex as a recruiting tool or exploitation tool.
Similarly, IIRC, the Mormons did not set out to use sex as part of anything, polygamy was simply a way of dealing with an isolated social group where women outnumbered men.
Don’t know anything about the Love Family after the mid 70’s right through to today, but when I was staying with them it sounds like things were different or the Wiki article has been sugar coated.
The leader, Paul Erdmann, had proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ reincarnated. He believed this as did ALL the long term, hard core members, I don’t give a damn what Wiki says. I WAS THERE and personally heard Paul say it and all his true followers talked about it. Paul visited the Hilo branch on occasion, but was not living there when I was. Paul picked me up hitch-hiking one day north of Hilo and that is when I heard him talk about him being J. C…
Paul’s words were “Gospel” to the members, but I didn’t see any “orders” that seemed unreasonable. I remember hearing Serious Isreal say that Paul was disappointed about how slow the house flip was going and we needed to work harder. The group living in the house did do some work on the house everyday, but no one really worked hard. Every morning we started out the day by smoking a big marijuana joint and then Serious would read Bible passages so you can imagine how much work on the house actually got done.
In answer to your question, I’ll say this. Any group that unquestionably follows a leader that proclaims himself to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, is IMHO, a cult, YMMV.
Does anyone remember Bob Larson’s Christian radio show ca. 1990? The leader of the Raelians used to call in all the time. I remember when he was on the phone when another person called in, and the other caller said, “No, Bob, don’t put me on the phone with this guy!”
And Jonestown may not have started off as a sex cult, but it certainly became one in time. There is some speculation that Jones’ paranoia and persistent fevers towards the end of his life may have been from a disease that had not been identified as of 1978 - AIDS.
Sea Org members in Scientology are not allowed to be married or have children (women who become pregnant are forced to have abortions) and dating is very strongly discouraged. Its members are also given a subsistence diet, which reduces the sex drive and can also render women temporarily infertile. That’s why they’re always so slim.
And the REAL reason why Mormons have so many children is because they believe that God produces spirit babies on another planet, which need to be turned into real babies on earth - in other words, they’re doing this to create more members.
