tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post1465324198728451046..comments2024-03-26T14:34:28.415-07:00Comments on Religion and Child Abuse News: The main difference between a religion and a cult is secrecy and total control of members livesPerry Bulwerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-56727264993164058572016-06-05T14:09:03.777-07:002016-06-05T14:09:03.777-07:00Months later in a quiet South Austin cafe I asked ...Months later in a quiet South Austin cafe I asked Christopher whether he would call the Buddhafield a cult. “I had to re-define what that word means for me,” he said. “I re-defined it in terms of: Any group or organization that tries to control your process of thinking, through any kind of guilt, coercion, or shame, may be a cult. If you think in those terms, the Catholic Church may be our Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-72289011767768804562016-06-05T14:08:40.168-07:002016-06-05T14:08:40.168-07:00Toward the end of the film Allen tracks down his f...Toward the end of the film Allen tracks down his former guru in Hawaii, where elements of the Buddhafield community have re-settled post-scandal. When he asks Andreas, on hidden camera, whether he’s “being a good boy” to current members of the group, it becomes clear that the chance to expose the group, and to break it up, is a central reason why so many ex-Buddhafield members have risked public Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-30528062797324938132016-06-05T14:06:21.269-07:002016-06-05T14:06:21.269-07:00In its second half the film conforms better with B...In its second half the film conforms better with Bromley’s archetypal captivity narrative. For instance, Holy Hell directly confronts the various ways in which members were humiliated. Apostates recall sexual dimensions to “karma cleansing” sessions, weekly one-on-one meetings between Andreas and his adherents, during which they were encouraged to drop all defenses and confess their deepest Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-91681854686857534442016-06-05T14:03:33.111-07:002016-06-05T14:03:33.111-07:00This after-school-special version of NRM membershi...This after-school-special version of NRM membership will be familiar to anyone who came of age before the turn of the millennium. The 1981 fiction film Ticket to Heaven, about a young schoolteacher who attends a training camp for an NRM and becomes brainwashed, is a classic of this genre: The happy ending comes only when he is kidnapped by anti-cult types and deprogrammed. But research doesn’t Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-58572177792591857202016-06-05T14:02:10.619-07:002016-06-05T14:02:10.619-07:00To a large extent the religious freedom-oriented a...To a large extent the religious freedom-oriented academics won the late-20th-century battle of ideas over the “cult” label. Today, the preferred term is NRM, or new religious movement. Anti-NRM vigilante groups like Cult Awareness Network no longer threaten to kidnap adherents and forcibly “deprogram” them in hotel rooms and other extrajudicial locales, as they did from the late ’70s to the mid-’Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-55883649244186997492016-06-05T14:01:00.111-07:002016-06-05T14:01:00.111-07:00NOTE FROM PERRY BULWER - WARNING the following art...NOTE FROM PERRY BULWER - WARNING the following article has a very biased point of view and uses loaded language, for example using the term 'apostates' to denigrate survivors of spiritual abuse. This article is essentially a cult apologetic that deflects the blame away from spiritual abusers and places it on survivors who were masterfully manipulated and exploited. In placing the blame Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-81677370126011749202016-05-18T11:27:43.786-07:002016-05-18T11:27:43.786-07:00Sign 4 - Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their le...Sign 4 - Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders<br /><br />I wrote recently about the prevalent problem and of leader idolatry, and in particular the disgraced church leader who on returning from his prison sentence made every member of the church kneel at his feet and pledge devotion to him above the justice system. This might be an extreme case, but there are plenty of other churches Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-2464458450694949142016-05-18T11:27:28.579-07:002016-05-18T11:27:28.579-07:00Is your church behaving like a cult
by Martin Sau...Is your church behaving like a cult<br /><br />by Martin Saunders, CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR May 13, 2016<br /> <br />Do you ever worry that your church is exhibiting strange behaviour? Asking for more commitment than seems sensible; encouraging an unusual amount of devotion to the leader? Requiring your life and all be given to them, rather than directly to God? <br /><br />Mike Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-64918310731473334182016-03-23T13:56:49.869-07:002016-03-23T13:56:49.869-07:00The woman says her mother and her sister no longer...The woman says her mother and her sister no longer speak with her because she is in what Miller calls “rebellion” against God. In what is perhaps the strangest part of his teaching, former followers say Miller claims people in rebellion die, but believers live on as long as they like.<br /><br />She and others quote Miller as telling the congregation that he will live to 110 when God will give Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-92070694765983408652016-03-23T13:56:40.487-07:002016-03-23T13:56:40.487-07:00Former Members Of McKeesport Church Say It Is Cult...Former Members Of McKeesport Church Say It Is Cult Like<br /><br />By Andy Sheehan CBS Pittsburg March 2, 2016 <br /><br />McKEESPORT (KDKA) — Former members of a McKeesport Church are speaking out about the church and its pastor, claiming the congregation is more like a cult than a church, and that the pastor’s teachings and insistence on total control of his parishioners’ lives has affected Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-83992245955015029402016-02-28T11:45:24.544-08:002016-02-28T11:45:24.544-08:00Larsen eventually became Perente’s lover. From thi...Larsen eventually became Perente’s lover. From this intimate vantage, she began to sense that he was a man of troubling contradictions. Perente – “the Old Man” as he was called – had a weakness for Hollandaise sauce, illicit pharmaceuticals, and the many young women of the revolution, whom he liked to doll up in lipstick and eye shadow to augment their scrubbed faces and genderless coveralls. ButPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-88720603361668963822016-02-28T11:45:14.905-08:002016-02-28T11:45:14.905-08:00Sonja Larsens memoir travels from flower child upb...Sonja Larsens memoir travels from flower child upbringing to isolated underground militia<br /><br />By Charlotte Gill, Quill & Quire January/February 2016<br /><br />Sonja Larsen doesn’t like the word “cult.” For her, people who join cultic groups don’t simply become brainwashed zombies overnight. Larsen speaks from experience. For three years she lived in an isolated, ultra-leftist Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-9018602199666468852016-02-21T15:46:42.052-08:002016-02-21T15:46:42.052-08:00Duma launches work on bill to target & curb di...Duma launches work on bill to target & curb divisive sects<br /> <br />Russia Today February 19, 2016<br /> <br />MPs from all four Russian parliamentary parties have started preparing a bill that, once passed, would protect citizens from destructive sects. According to the initiators of the motion, the most dangerous groups are based in the United States.<br /><br />The head coordinator ofPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-18319364855159147602016-02-16T15:37:26.998-08:002016-02-16T15:37:26.998-08:00MKs war on cults – will others be caught in the cr...MKs war on cults – will others be caught in the crossfire?<br /><br />Anti-cult bill would grant courts expansive powers.<br /><br />By David Rosenberg, Arutz Sheva February 16, 2016<br /><br />What constitutes a cult and what is a legitimate social group or organization? It’s a question that has long plagued liberal democracies who have tried to balance the rights of religious freedom and free Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-24352340728857170862016-02-15T11:23:12.496-08:002016-02-15T11:23:12.496-08:00As I have talked to others about the experience, I...As I have talked to others about the experience, I've realized how similar my complaints about this organization are to complaints about Mormonism as a cult. And it led me to wonder--is it the organization itself that is set up to be this way or do people naturally make many things into cults because we crave certain aspects of cultism?<br /><br />1. A sense of "us" and "them&Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-67953843214174620022016-02-15T11:23:03.989-08:002016-02-15T11:23:03.989-08:00The Impulse to Cultism
Huffington Post February...The Impulse to Cultism<br /><br />Huffington Post February 12, 2016<br /><br /><i>by Mette Ivie Harrison, Mormon in progress, mother of 5, author of 'The Bishop's Wife' and 'His Right Hand,' Princeton PhD, All-American triathlete</i><br /> <br />I have heard a lot of ex-Mormons talk about their experience as children inside the "cult" of Mormonism. They talk aboutPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-89441421987335757992016-02-15T11:16:58.795-08:002016-02-15T11:16:58.795-08:00Internet Cults February 18th on Showtimes DarkNet...Internet Cults February 18th on Showtimes DarkNet Docuseries<br /><br />https://trushibes.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/february-18th-on-showtimes-darknet-docuseries/<br /><br />The February 18th episode of Showtime’s Dark Net docuseries will discuss online cults. It will feature a segment about Stefan Molyneux and the Freedomain Radio community. [see comments section above for more info on Stefan Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-22263218630594115562016-02-12T14:06:54.109-08:002016-02-12T14:06:54.109-08:00There were really harmful aspects of it and it had...There were really harmful aspects of it and it had all the calling cards of a cult: the tight-knit community where everything's in-house, the psychological trappings, intended or otherwise, and the fact that people donated a lot of their personal assets to the group. People made a living off the church.<br /><br />There was a small group that would make life decisions for people, and the Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-50583444804889014152016-02-12T14:06:45.649-08:002016-02-12T14:06:45.649-08:00I Grew Up in a Culty Christian Community and Lost ...I Grew Up in a Culty Christian Community and Lost My Faith Because of It<br /><br />By Joseph Coward, as told to Cherry Casey VICE February 2, 2016<br /><br />The Newfrontiers is a socially-conservative Christian group created in the 1970s that today has more than 1,000 churches across 70 countries. While its neo-charismatic style—exorcisms, preaching in tongues, etc.—give it an American edgePerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-69391854951858989102016-02-06T15:42:08.719-08:002016-02-06T15:42:08.719-08:00Hassan said he worries more about what Molyneux re...Hassan said he worries more about what Molyneux represents: charismatic people with a platform taking advantage of disaffected people who are “upset with how the relationships in their lives are going anyway” and are in desperate search for meaning.<br /><br />“My life’s work is explaining it to everybody—to not get taken over by black-and-white, us-vs.-them thinkers,” he said. “In terms of Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-58564997331281539222016-02-06T15:41:59.287-08:002016-02-06T15:41:59.287-08:00In response to allegations that his group is a cul...In response to allegations that his group is a cult in a 2008 Globe & Mail interview, Molyneux called it “the c-word” and said, “I’m sure a few marriages broke up because of feminism. It doesn’t make feminism a cult.”<br /><br />On Molyneux-affiliated defoo.org, however, the group now self-identifies as a “highly profitable self-knowledge cult.”<br /><br />Molyneux did not respond to repeatedPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-59039025242394063202016-02-06T15:40:29.604-08:002016-02-06T15:40:29.604-08:00Barbara Weed said she never understood the appeal ...Barbara Weed said she never understood the appeal of Molyneux’s videos. She always found him “loathsome.”<br /><br />But Weed said she knows the feeling this first-time Molyneux watcher is experiencing all too well.<br /><br />She said it’s the feeling her son, Tom Bell, had a little over eight years ago, the last time she saw him. It’s the feeling he had before he ran away from home to join whatPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-3907757627380705292016-02-06T15:39:01.691-08:002016-02-06T15:39:01.691-08:00Meet the Cult Leader Stumping for Donald Trump
by...Meet the Cult Leader Stumping for Donald Trump<br /><br />by Ben Collins, Daily Beast, January 5, 2016<br /><br />It starts with podcasts and YouTube videos starring Stefan Molyneux, the blogger currently debunking ‘untruths’ about Trump. Then there’s a note on the door—and Molyneux’s acolytes are never heard from again.<br /><br />Two weeks ago on Reddit's largest community for Donald TrumpPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-28518711529918082592016-01-29T16:00:53.222-08:002016-01-29T16:00:53.222-08:00I agree they are a cult she said, adding that the ...I agree they are a cult she said, adding that the World Mission Society has traits that she said are common to cults, like “deceptive recruiting” and isolation from family.<br /><br />Some other groups that have been labeled cults by former members, like Scientology and the Unification Church, also have been granted tax-exempt status as churches by the federal government. Religion experts say Perry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4377671787652051592.post-21200784184606152392016-01-29T16:00:31.365-08:002016-01-29T16:00:31.365-08:00The former members said it was widely understood t...The former members said it was widely understood that some donations were sent to South Korea. “They were collecting money for Mother,” Ramos said, adding that members were told that “it was an expression of where your heart is.” Taylor, the ex-member from the Seattle area, said members were told donations helped “start new churches overseas.” Colon said Ridgewood leaders told her and others in aPerry Bulwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494489416673128157noreply@blogger.com