Talk:Cult

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Punishment for leaving the cult as criteria for definition of cult

Nowhere in this article have I seen addressed the enormously important issue of whether or not a person, once a member of a belief group, irrelevant if by birth or by a later free choice, is allowed to leave at any time they wish to do so without repercussions. This is of great concern and must be defined, both in Wikipedia, and in Civil Code, i.e. in the legal systems of all countries. So, in my opinion, the criteria for defining a religious group would NOT be related to how usual or unusual the practices are, nor how long the religion/ideology/belief group has existed, nor whether or not it is accepted as official in some countries. The criteria should be: - Do the members have the right to walk out without financial or emotional or physical persecution by other members of the SAME belief group? Are members' lives threatened if they a) announce they wish to leave, and b) once they leave? Their physical health? Mental health? Possessions? Right to medical help? Right to education? - Do leaders, i.e. priests/gurus of the cult, or members of the cult, threaten to take lives of members of other religious groups ("if the members of other religions wouldn't accept our religion/cult/political movement/movement for introduction of new set of laws")? - Do they threaten those who wish to leave or have left the ideology/belief? - Do they threaten to inflict any damage to emotional, financial or physical health, of either members of other groups or members of their own group who do not behave in the desired way? - Is there emotional or financial blackmail, or any other form of blackmail, e.g. to expose one's flaws, medical, financial, emotional secrets, or to do harm to a loved one? - Does the religious/political group advocate and practice punishment? Whipping, prison, taking away passport, ban from leaving home, city, or country? - Are some of these threats and punishments and blackmails and persecutions not only verbal, but written down in the scriptures and manifestos and Rule Books, and Holy Books of the said religious/political/subculture/mainstream culture groups? - Are some of the above expressed by their leaders, or their members, in the mass communication media, e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TickTock, national TV, local TV, paid private TV channels, national radio frequencies, local, private radio stations, in the national, local, or privately owned newspapers, in pamphlets, brochures, fliers, in advertisements, etc? - Are leaders or members of the group in question planning introducing a major change in the existing set of laws? Local, national, international laws? The laws on Human Rights? Including Women's Rights, Children's Rights, Right to Free Movement, Free Speech, Education, Housing, Medical Care, Social Assistance, Age, Race and Gender Equality?

Thank you for looking into this matter of utmost importance. 109.245.39.151 (talk) 06:37, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

Cult survivor here - insight on how to define a cult

Story #11

I am an extremely lucky person. Not only am I still alive, and out of Xenos/Dwell (the church changed their name); but I am actually starting to recall and process my repressed memories from my time in the ministry house. When I was coerced to spend an enormous amount of my parent's money to get out of my dorm room contract in order to move in, there were only 9 guys living in the house. By the time we switched ministry houses, we were at about 12 dudes. Max was 24 for a few weeks when other ministry houses were dealing with bedbugs. Last time I checked Dwell has around 400 ministry houses.

Here's the thing. Every church is a cult, or at least cult-like. That was actually a heavily discussed topic within the church, how culty we appeared to ourselves and to those we ministered to. Our optics as a cult were actually one of our top concerns. This is how cults continue to function. There are no obvious cults, and if they are, I doubt they make them live in the same housing.

Which brings me to my main topic for discussion. I think it is essential to define cults by living arrangements. I know there are a lot of online cults popping up now, and I do not mean to discredit those surviving ex-members who got out, because I do not want someone to discredit my own experiences. I have done that myself, way too much.