These are all the cults in USA, Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, Scientology. Christian scientists " church of Christ, bai faith, new age,seventh day advent. Westboro hate group, and many others but cults are all the same!

All about power, fear, control and trying to keep cultists from anything that makes them question or dought what the cult teaches and keeps cult members in

because of religious tax exemption.

Yep and they prey on anyone they want to! And love bomb them and say oh we are not a cult!

Is it any accident that the major cult groups listed above all began in the US? Are there any major cults from,say, Holland or France?

The Heaven's Gate cult was Canadian. Bagwham Rashneesh was Indian, but brought his Hindu-derived cult to America, as did the Maharishi Yogi and Transcendental Meditation (although I'm not sure that qualifies as a cult). Sergey Anatolyevitch Toro, a former traffic cop, is known as "the Siberian Jesus."*

Political figures can be cultic: Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Putin (to a lesser extent), Tito, the North Korean Kims,

*(Hey--I'm a former traffic cop--maybe I'll start my own cult!"

Heaven's Gate and Maharishi's cults hardly ever qualified as world wide. In no way do they compare with those mentioned above.

Heaven's Gate, no. But the Maharishi's organization is (was?) worldwide. I have trouble classifying it as a cult. People became very fanatical about him and TM, but I didn't see widespread abuse, control, and exploitation. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The OP was talking about cults being a particularly American phenomenon. We certainly have our share of them, but so do other nations and cultures. Perhaps I should simply have stated that, and let that suffice.

As a curiosity, search "Siberian Jesus" and check out Sergey Anatolyevitch Toro. Now THERE's a cult!

Cults arise in many places, surely.

Remember Falun Gong and Aum Shinrikyo. Also the Moonies.

And I agree fully about political movements functioning as de facto cults.

Yes, those are all cults.
But that's nowhere near "all the cults in the USA."
There are hundreds if not thousands more...

Yessiree cults where everyone is expected to think the same never questioning the Great leader and spend endless hours of off the clock time to meet corerate goals and objectives. IBM and Walmart come to mind.

Yes we do—it’s part of living in a free society. I’d rather have my freedom than be part of totalitarian “statism.” Living in a free society enabled me to join and then walk away from Mormonism without them having any power over me.

In my cult people are free to leave anytime they can pay the 23,000 dollar US filing fee.

There are plenty of free societies that have not produced the likes of Mormonism and the JWs.

I want to add that while I think virtually all countries produce cults, there is a difference in the frequency of that production. I also agree that cults do better in the US now than in most of Europe and wealthy Asia.

But if we agree that cults can be political as well as religious, then Europe's halcyon era is a recent phenomenon. Relative to Stalinism, Nazism, Fascism, etc., the US record seems pretty benign. So yes, Europe has looked better for seven or eight decades.

It is also the case that social stability is a strong inhibitor of extremism in all forms. We saw this in Europe before WWII. When things got tough, people sought more extreme solutions. It follows that if social and economic conditions in Europe continue to deteriorate, as they have in the States, more cults and fanatical political movements could emerge.

how about...


the NRA? a FIXED position - opinion, a FIXED approach to their interactions with others, FIXED goals & methods.


how about... political parties?


how about … . Walmart? I'm told that pictures of the founders are prominent in the employee areas, they have 'chant' meetings talking about products?

How about many/most large corps?

Islam is a big cult and spreading everywhere" mormonism is American and Jehovah's witness to, same with church of Christ, there are a lot of cults" people think catholism is a cult to. Don't know if it is or not

Walmart sucks! And never pay their employees anything! They can't talk about how bad Walmart is or they are fired, I watched a movie about Walmart and how they go into towns and take over! And all the small business are shut down! And China makes everything for Walmart!

From my experiencr a lot of false generalizations about WalMart there.

Whole Foods is way more evil than HellMart.

siobhan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Whole Foods is way more evil than HellMart.


I assume you mean: now that Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.

Why, in particular, is Whole Foods [now] "evil"? We haven't observed that much change in the employees, and many long-term employees from before the Amazon purchase are still Whole Foods employees. (This is based on two different Whole Foods locations.)

They fired a friend of mine and cancelled her insurance because she was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 days before her training period was done.

Among other things.

And back in the days of the ALAR scare the same organic apples on the shelves went up to $4.99/pound from $1.49/pound the morning after it was on the news.

Among other things.

They could work in an Amazon warehouse and pee in bottles.

Hopefully millennials will change things when it’s their turn. They really got a raw deal. I think they’ll knock some heads.

Islam isn't a big cult. It is 1.8 billion people spread all over the word with no centralized authority.

It is as complex as Protestantism, spanning the range from secular humanists to fanatics.

I am no expert on Islam but I recognize that unless much of what is written and taught in the Quran is discarded or ignored it is a cult. The Quran has become their authority.

The less radical among them do integrate into western society but they do it by not adhering to the more radical teachings of Islam. When Muslims become the majority in a given area it is usually the more radical among them who prevail in enforcing sharia law.

Felix,

The Koran does indeed include some nasty passages. I'd note, though, that the Bible is far more sanguinary. The question is whether people take the nasty stuff seriously, and again the spectrum in Islam is wide. I have friends who are in a Koranic study group. They meet monthly to study and appreciate the poetry as they drink wine and laugh loudly.

I agree that when the more virulent forms of Islam, or people from places with more virulent forms, accumulate in some places they form insular communities that are problematic. But it is important to recognize that there are big immigrant Moslem communities that are extremely secular.

The largest Iranian community outside of Iran, for instance, is 1/2 million people in Los Angeles. The vast majority of those people are secular, materialistic, highly educated, and absolutely hate fundamentalists in Iran and elsewhere.

It used to be that Afghanistan and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Turkey were equally "gentle" but the last several decades have not been good for liberals particularly in in the "stans."

Who and what do we venerate? We venerate the selfless leader, the Marine who is willing to sacrifice his life for his fellow Marine, and the ideals of honor, courage, and commitment, just to name a few... The Corps is the object of our devotion... Once you have earned the title Marine, you are bound forever to that long line of Marines stretching back to Tun Tavern who have done the same. It is an unbreakable and, to those who have never earned the title, unexplainable bond... We have a sacred ideology. It is a strong belief in our Nation and that the Corps is the guardian of her freedom. We even have a sacred symbol called the eagle, globe, and anchor. No one who has seen the conferring of that symbol on a recruit series after earning the title Marine can be unmoved or doubt that those young men and women have joined something larger than them, being indelibly marked for the rest of their lives.

Sempler fidelis!

Source: https://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/nov-2012-editorial

My father spent only 4 years, from 17 to 21, in Service but died a Marine at 92. How many years were you there?

At 53 I've never gotten tattooed but want to get the eagle, globe&anchor on my left bicep, closest to my heart, with a ribbon that reads Daddy where most men put Mom.

The only thing that has stopped me is he said "Please Don't".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2018 02:18AM by siobhan.

In one of the later episodes of I, Claudius is the only time Jesus is referred to directly. The Emperor Claudius' advisors blow Joshua bar Joseph (Jesus) off with the statement "It's a cult, Caesar. There are always cults".

My father was a World War 2 Marine . he never got any ink. I don't think you should get a Maring tattoo for one main reason You have not earned one , nor have I . Leave USMC tattoos for one group and one group only.Marines. Same reason non Marines should not go about saying Semper Fi. have not earned this either . My father loved the USMC and hated war because he say what war was .We miss him very much. Every time I hear the Marine Corps Hymn I cannot help but getting emotional because this song reminds me of how much we miss him . my parents were LDS but not at all pushy about it . They were politically liberal, not racist and their form of Mormonism was helping the less fortunate.When I let them know I did not want to be Mormon they basically said a person needs to be honest first and foremost and don't say you believe something when you really dont . Just try to follow the Golden Rule no matter what you believe

They needed canon fodder for Vietnam, so they set up a two-year enlistment. That would be 6-8 months for complete training, leave, and deployment. 13 months in Vietnam, and anything left to cycle out.

Your father was in the Corps for the duration, which I profoundly respect. If you're still disinclined to get the tattoo, go to grunt.com and check out bumperstickers and swag for family members you can wear or display.

Jimbo, I respectfully disagree: Siobhan's motivation, as articulated, is to honor her father and service; "Daddy" (or equivalent) precludes any misinterpretation of stolen glory.

To both of you, we Jarheadsd do appreciate being appreciated. If only such sentiments were widely shared about cops...

I love the Marines Hymn, especially the last verse” If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven’s scene, they would find the streets are guarded by United States Marines”
I agree about the disrespect shown towards cops now, it’s sickening.When I was growing up, all the kids wanted to be police men, firemen, or Army men.( grew up in a military town, my father and everyone else’s father was in the Army or Air Force .

It's dawning on my lately that there are more high-control Christian sects than I had any idea about. I think it's unfortunate that some people are being attracted to these groups. There was a post on the board a few days ago about the Remnant Fellowship Church, for instance, which appears to meet the definition of a cult. It's not the first such church that I've read about.

It makes me wonder why it is that people subject themselves to others who would put extreme controls on them.

Many are hurting or desparate and cults prey on people, they sweet talk them and love bomb them and if you refuse to be part of the cult all the love is gone "

You hit the nail on the head !!!

Christadelphians are another