Cults In Puritan Society

Cults can be anywhere, especially where you least expect them to be: from inside one of the first great American novels to the small town of Wells, Texas. According to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Puritan society is essentially a cult.

There are numerous different kinds of social groups in the world, but clearly not all of them are cults. So what makes a cult a cult? [So where is the distinction?] Where is the metaphorical line drawn and what has to be done to cross it? Cult psychological experts Joseph Salande and David Perkins say the differences between a cult and a group are the methods of control and the negative effects on its members (Salande and Perkins 382). They define cults as “groups that often exploit members psychologically

One example of a religiously-based, modern-day cult is the Church of Wells. The Church was started in 2008 by leaders Sean Morris, Ryan Ringnald, and Jacob Gardner; their sentiments are heavily influenced by Jonathon Edwards and his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” (Smith 146). This church, or cult, is notoriously known for the death of a newborn born into their cult. Instead of taking it to the hospital when it couldn’t breathe, they decided to pray over the baby so that God would save it (Smith 147). SOME TYPE OF TRANSITION IDK Hawthorne describes his society in Scarlet Letter as, “a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical” (Hawthorne 43). Religion is everything to these people. The base of a cult is rooted in religion and Puritans fit that description to a

One aspect of this control is intimidation and threats. Cults will threaten members and their families to make sure they remain in control and make their leaders seem larger than life. A new recruit to the Church of Wells met with her family, after she left to join the group without any warning, and throughout the meeting she would always look to the church leader before saying anything (Smith 86). Cults also use isolation to manipulate members. One family described their daughter’s behavior when she first join the Church of Wells, “She seemed to withdraw from the world, dropping out of choir and quitting her job” (Smith 85). Cults have more control when their new recruits and other members are isolated from the rest of the world. If the members’ only source of information is the cult, they are less likely to question it. One cult that uses these harmful methods is The Children of God. This religious sect grew out of the 60’s counter culture and was founded in 1968 by David Berg (Zuckerman 108). Zuckerman states that “the children were kept very separate from the parents” and used to control the parents (Zuckerman 106). There is also a constant social pressure that comes with being in a cult. An escapee from The Children of God described the pressure, stating “you weren’t allowed to have imperfection. I had a little wart on my thumb, and I remember walking down this hallway-- a