ST. Matthew 7:15-27 says: Beware of false prophet, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves… There are Cults in Milwaukee and you should be aware of them.

What is a Cult? A cult is group or movement which is organized around a set of beliefs and rituals. Cult members exhibit an excessive dedication to some person, idea or thing and employ unethically, manipulative techniques of persuasion and control designed to advance the goals of the group leader and ideology. The unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control include deception regarding the group’s identity and true goals, isolation from family and former friends, heighten compliance, peer pressure, suspension of critical judgment and promotion of total dependency on the group.

Religious cults lie to promote their agenda. No one joins a cult, they get recruited. The major difference between legitimate organizations and cults are the legitimate ones are up front; they don’t have to lie and deceive to get new members. Anyone can be a target of a cult recruitment campaign. None is too sophisticated or too well educated for involvement. There is no one personality profile of a potential cult member; however, there are some times in all of our lives when we may be particularly susceptible to destructive religious cults, these include times of:

Marked loss of status and certainty about identity

Loss of important friendships and romances

Loss of ideals/dreams

Major change in career plans

New to college campus

Students living away from home for the first time

Personal loss of parent, child or spouse

Here are some of the warning signs of cult involvement.

• Profound personality change
• Alienation from family, former friends combined with jugmentalism toward them
• Deterioration in academic performance
• Rejection of formerly deeply help beliefs
• Preoccupation with proselytization
• Group control of personal decisions ( where and with whom to live, who may have spiritual authority over the person)
• Deterioration of critical independents though/loss of autonomy and ability to make decisions for oneself.
• Physical and/ or serious psychological deterioration.

If you are concerned about a friend, family member or students who are involved in a cult, adopt an attitude of detached concern and curiosity. Avoid oppositional or confrontational conversations, but to ask question about the group. Do not settle for vague replies, Frame your concern for the person in friendly matter, questions and statements of how much you miss their former involvement in your life. Beware of attending group meetings with the person about whom you are concerned. That’s a good way to gain a first- hand experience of the cult, but many people who intend to “research” a group by attending its meetings have found themselves inadvertently sucked into the cult.

Remember Ephesians 6:11
“Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.

Revelation 3:11
“Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown”

May the grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Rev. Dr. Roger M Pumphrey

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