Actually Save the Children!

 “Cults and Cultists”

A morbid, bizarre and stressed society produces cults in the hundreds. One of the strengths of You Tube, podcasts, some films and documentaries is their ability to expose these swarmy things to daylight.  These sad, grifter, Elmer Gantry organizations are based in the U.S., but there are many others all over the world.  Most borrow from some religion, then turn the volume up to 11.

Not around after the revolution...

Whether it is Hasidic Jews in New York or the most brutal and weird of all, Scientology; Hindu versions like the Rajneeshees and Bikram Yoga; multi-level marketing organizations like Amway, Herbalife or LulaRoe, which function as commercial money cults; the apocalyptic Jehovah’s Witnesses; Christian cults like the Children of God, The Family and the Remnant Church; Nuevo-Buddhist sex cults like NXIVM and even the fundamentalist child-abusers in the Mormon FLDS – there is no end to it.

They all share a somewhat different organizational style than so-called mainstream religions, though the thought patterns of faith, magical thinking and being disconnected from reality are similar. You may leave the Catholic or Baptist faith, but you are probably not shunned or sued because of it.  Though leaving mainstream Mormonism or Islam can be dicey, as they straddle the continuum in some places. Of course, if you are around fundamentalist Islamic or Hindu groups outside the U.S. like Daesh, Al Qaeda, the Taliban or the RSS, having another religion or no religion at all can get you killed.

I’ve watched a whole host of these documentaries, de-programming podcasts, streaming series and the like.  These U.S. cults all share a number of characteristics.  Terrible attitudes towards children and women; a central ‘guru’ figure; isolation from the world; complete shunning; financial exploitation, ultra-high internal controls.  Now why would a leftist be interested in the issue, other than exploring the pathological versions of idealist thinking and terrible organization that capital produces?  I’ll get to that.

Save us!

The Cults

First off is Scientology.  It is centered in a personality cult around one dead man, L. Ron Hubbard. It imprisons its own members for so-called offenses, ‘shuns’ anyone who leaves - even family members - and spies on dissidents.  They milk members for massive amounts of money to build hollow temples to their ideas.  They sue those who go public and use the legal system to intimidate the IRS, the FBI and any newspaper willing to expose their functioning.  Children of Scientologists are brainwashed from birth.  Their ideology is ultimately really bad science-fiction - written, logically, by a science fiction writer. Lying, like every other cult, is allowed in order to protect the leaders or organization - sort of like the CIA.  Almost no one from Scientology ever goes to prison, no matter how many crimes, negligent homicides, data theft or tax evasions they commit.  Only 11 at this count.

Or NXIVM? It was run by a single guru, Keith Raniere.  He was surrounded by mostly upper-middle class women and Hollywood stars, some of whom are initiated into a ‘branding’ society dedicated to his sexual pleasure, enabled by a lead woman.  They hold expensive business training seminars which were really part of a MLM pyramid scheme. These were attended by many famous business executives.  They isolate their members from family, take all their earnings or accounts and have the members live in a dormitory.  Members, like other groups, are manipulated by emotional grooming and toxic positivity. Their ideology is some version of ‘evolutionary Buddhism,’ claiming they are indulging in 'rational inquiry.'.  This guru went to prison after trying to escape to Mexico, but still runs the group from inside.  This bunch reminds me of Jeffrey Epstein and his procurer Ghislaine Maxwell.

The FLDS collects every bit of money members earn, puts them to work in their Utah and Arizona establishments and doles out young girls to aging leaders and other men as part of their polygamy beliefs.  If they leave, they are shunned by family and friends and isolated from the whole group.  Members are counseled against exposure to the rest of the world.  Mormonism is like a weird Americanized Christianity, partially based on the teaching that the prophets in the Bible had multiple wives.  Warren Jeffs, the head of this cult, was eventually sent to prison where he still controls affairs.

The cuddly, white-haired guru of the Rajneeshees is from India, Bhagwan Rajneesh.  He had 17 Rolls Royce motor cars and intended to create and build a communal ‘heaven on earth’ in Oregon, on a very large compound and ranch.  His main administrator was a woman also from India.  She enforced discipline, manipulating voting rolls, made threats and brought out guns against those who opposed the group.  They milked Hollywood stars and upper-class people for vast amounts of money and built their holy town with free labor. One of the draws of the ‘town’ was sexual freedom. The Hindu guru had to flee back to India when some of these actions came out.

Gwen Shamblin Presiding

The Remnant Church was started by a big-haired fake blonde from Memphis, Gwen Shamblin.  She believed in Bible literalism and controlled the church’s membership down to the ‘T,’ ran God’s own weight-loss program (yes!) and became a multi-millionairess. Towards the end, Shamblin encouraged members to give up their worldly wealth to ‘God’ (which was the Remnant Church) – something she was not doing. Then problems erupted.  These included the death of a child who was mistreated according to church doctrine; women who left opposed her doctrine that the husband is king; the Church interfered with an experienced doctor’s medical advice; and finally lies about her inheritance.  ‘God’ finally did have his say, as a plane she and her minions used to go to a Trump rally crashed and they all died.

Or the Jehovah’s Witnesses?  Those nice people selling their sad literature from a rack on the street or knocking on your door?  They are an apocalypse cult that isolates their children from other children and perpetuates child abuse by condemning everyone to a hell or death for every little ‘sin.’ All in continual preparation for the Book of Daniel's Revelation prediction that 144,000 of the elect are going to ascend into Heaven, and the rest will be part of the lucky few left alive on earth after the genocidal slaughter of Armageddon. They have a closet full of rules on dress, sexuality, food and holidays.  Mostly – don’t!  Totally dominated by a Governing Body of ‘elders’ - tired old white men who ignore child sexual abuse.  Reserve your seat now!

The Christian Children of God or The Family?  Children are isolated from the rest of the world, taught that nearly everything is a sin, that the man is the leader, that if they leave, they will be permanently shunned by everyone, even their own parents and siblings. They are barely educated. If they get abused by a leader it is some kind of ‘gods will.’  Sometimes they live in isolated compounds, which compounds the picture.

The Hasidim (Satmar sect) also practice shunning, isolation, male chauvinism, collection of assets, labor assignments, forced marriage, weird clothing and sexual repression.  Girls especially try to run from this group, which is controlled by a group of elderly rabbis.  And don’t get me started on the Christian Scientists, who sometimes kill their own children by refusing them medical aid, because God will ‘naturally’ heal their troubles.  Another group of organized child abusers. What the hell is wrong with all these people?!

Pedophile priests?

So?  

No doubt a few of these issues are common to other non-political organizations, especially sexual abuse of women or children as we’ve seen in the U.S. military, the Southern Baptists, the Boy Scouts and the ‘grand-daddy’ of them all, the Catholic Church.  It all fits in with capitalist backwardness and the decaying culture we live in. Male chauvinism and toxic masculinity is part of the gender structure of U.S. society. The prosperity gospel fits in with the meritocratic myth of the ‘select’ getting rich.  Being ungrounded in understanding economics, science and material reality is convenient to the ruling class.

Magical thinking befuddles workers and makes them useless to pro-labor social movements – but not to the fundie churches, Trumpists, the Republican Party and fascistic organizations, which have aspects of cults, but not the full meaning. QAnon has heavy participation by evangelicals - supposedly interested in 'saving the children.'  The patriarchal ‘family’ and the treatment of children is one of the links to cults.

Some of this behavior also happens in leftist organizations.  There have been occurrences of financial theft or soaking members for excessive cash. A few groups have had occasions of sexual abuse and exploitation by leaders upon members. There have been threats if someone leaves the group, while a few organizations have powerful sugar-daddies.  There are also the hidden and un-elected status of exalted leaders, a standard in organizations that do not allow voting at any level.  Some groups never read anything outside the group’s publications or their assigned reading, much like religious cults. There is even one ultra-Maoist Party, the RCP, that encourages an unthinking approach to their leader maximus, intentionally creating a cult around him. The idea that ‘Marxist-Leninist’ organizations are like a military unit is part of this.  Take orders and shut up!  But they are overall far from the functioning of an actual cult.

But if you see any of this happening, you will know … ‘you’re in some kind of a cult!’

Sources:  “The Weigh Down: The Millionaire Preacher With a Weight-Loss Cult;” “Wild Wild Country,” “Scientology and the Aftermath,” “Escaping the NXIVM Cult;” “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator;” “Escaping Jehovah’s Witnesses,” “Mormon Polygamy: Leaving the Cult;” “Unorthodox,” “The Family,” “The Children of God,” “On Becoming a God in Central Florida,” "LuLaRich."

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive of reviews:  “The Cult of the Constitution,” “Covideo Nation,” “After the Fact?”  “Marxist Criticism of the Bible,” “White Knight,” “One Night in Miami,” “Rise of the Nones,” “Religulous,” “The Jesus Comics,” “Abortion Referendum in Ireland,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “Spiritual Snake Oil” or the word “Christianity.”  

The Cultural Marxist

January 29, 2022