How do you know if you are in a cult? It's hard to say sometimes because when you are in the cult, you don't even realize that you are out of the norm. We've all heard about and the cult led by David Keresh. However, most cults are not so blatant and easy to spot.
Any religion that takes you way out of the norm is suspect. When you have a church leader who is asking more from you than the bible does, you can almost bet it is a cult of some kind.
I belonged to a church that forbade any of the congregation to wear slacks, or have a TV. They called their religion apostolic. I know there are apostolic churches out there, and I am not putting them down, but I am saying the one that I belonged to got into your personal life and made you conform to the practices of that particular church doctrine.
I was not raised in this kind of church; I sort of married into it unknowingly. My husband at the time was not going to church, and I wasn't either. After we were married, my husband wanted to join the church he had once been a member of. Life as I knew it changed from that day until I walked away from the marriage and the church.
My husband took my wedding rings from me and pawned them because it was now a sin to wear jewelry. He made me wear long dresses and skirts with long sleeved blouses and threw out all my jeans and short sleeved and sleeveless tops; they were now sinful.
My daughter and I could no longer go to the beauty shop and get a hair cut if we needed it, because that was now a sin. Our hair had to grow and be unadorned. We were not even allowed to braid the hair, because of some scripture in the Old Testament, relating to the Egyptian women who braided their hair.
Men could not wear shorts in the summer or short-sleeved shirts; they were always to wear a white long sleeved shirt and trousers. The men were the head of the household so they expected the wife to wait on them hand and foot.
What I am referring to is man made doctrine. Scripture was taken out of context and pushed upon the members of the church as rules to live by. This was considered normal. This was not normal for me, and certainly not normal for my daughter. My mom bought my daughter the cutest pair of pink jeans and a top to match and vest and cow girl boots. My husband found them and burned them. I had tried to hide them from him, but he was quite devious and if he suspected that I was keeping something from him, he could shake the house down until he found what he was looking for. He knew to look and check things out, and if we did not conform he would tell the pastor. I would be reprimanded for breaking the rules of the church.
What I have just described is an abuse of power of the church. It isn't about Jesus it is about power. This is an example of a cult.
(c) 2007 Charlene Collins
