Ten Characteristics of a Cult

What are the characteristics of a cult?

There are a number of modern ideologies that function like religious cults. To examine them first we need to define what a cult is. Modern movements like Marxism or radical environmentalism cannot be understood except as religious systems of thought. Modern western cults, or marginal religious groups as some scholars call them, often originate in Christianity.

I have identified ten characteristics of these marginal, cultic groups:

First, in the modern West cults spring out of Christianity. A cult takes a Christian doctrine—something that is true—but then so overemphasizes that truth that they depart from the truth. When I was a graduate student in theology an example given was the marginal Christian group—then called a cult—the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The Witnesses took a true doctrine of Christianity—the humanity of Jesus—but then emphasized that humanity at the expense of His deity. By denying the Trinity they departed from historic Christianity.

Second, a cult claims exclusive access to truth. They claim to possess truth known by no one else. If they have enough power, they will deny other groups the right to express their beliefs. This explains cancel culture. The most powerful cult in the western world right now is the Progressive Left, or Progressive Marxism. They control our universities and don’t argue with people who they think are wrong. They deny them the right to speak. This is standard cultic practice.

Third, a cult claims to explain everything. Every aspect of existence is covered in their belief system. And that belief system guides everything they think, say, and do. Sometimes this is called a narrative, or a worldview. A cult has a narrative and everything must fit the narrative. One of the most powerful cults in the world right now is radical environmentalism—the Greens. Their central theological assumption is that man is destroying the earth. Every piece of evidence is twisted to fit their narrative. If it’s hot in your city that’s proof of their theory on the climate; however, blizzards in the northeast also prove it. They accept no contrary evidence. Their narrative rules over all. 

Four, in order to establish themselves as uniquely true, cults have practices no one else has. Mormons have three heavens and elaborate rituals for getting there. They baptize for the dead and get married for time and eternity. Jehovah’s Witnesses eschew birthday and Christmas celebrations and forbid blood transfusions. The Progressive Left installs wokeness in all its forms, cancel culture, transgender rights, and other causes no one else espouses. If you claim to be uniquely right you have to have beliefs that you uniquely hold and rituals that you uniquely practice.

#Five, the cult holds that it alone can provide redemption, forgiveness of sins. By joining their group or adhering to their ideology you can be purged of the penalty for your wrongdoing.

#Six, cults form communities of like-minded individuals. It might be like a church, or a civic club, or a faculty lounge, but it is a place where the cultist can go and be with others who have been purified and think the right thoughts. You do not have to be bothered by all those wrong ideas floating around that might disturb your sense of certainty.

#Seven, cults manipulate reality to gain converts. The Progressive/Left argues that one’s sexual nature is flexible, that just because you are born a man does not mean you have to stay a man. The problems of the homeless are not caused by mental illness or drug addiction but by an oppressive capitalist system. Criminals are not people who make selfish, choices, but victims of an evil system.

#Eight, people who disagree with the cult’s ideas are not merely mistaken. They are evil. Hence, a cult will move heaven and earth to keep its adherents protected from what they call misinformation. There are hundreds of academic departments in Western universities that do not have a single voice dissenting from the central narrative of the cult.

#Nine, cults have a powerful vision for the end of the world. They give their followers a thrilling vision of how history is going to end. Marx told his followers that history was inevitably heading toward a worker’s paradise, a utopia where everyone would be equal and no one would have need of anything. This is a highly motivating doctrine and all cults promise a utopia of some kind. It tends to lie just over the horizon and the world isn’t ready yet for the final consummation.

#Ten, the leaders have an overwhelming desire for power and wealth—usually in that order. They hunger to control the lives of their followers and by extension the lives of others. They are supremely confident they know how others should order their lives even if they themselves do not have ordered lives, and almost always lives contrary to their own rules.

The American upper classes have been captured by cultic thinking and they are imposing their religion on the rest of us. The only force that can successfully resist them is Christianity. May God grant us the ability and fortitude to stand against them in defense of the truth of the Gospel and for the good of mankind.

Thank you for listening. May our God bless you this day in a mighty way.