The Rise of Cult Activity

The Rise of Cult Activity

Cult activity has been on the rise over the past few decades. With it there has been an increase in the fear surrounding it. From this fear, society has learned much about cults, how they get members and what to look out for as far as cult recruiters go. Society as a whole has also learned what can be done to deal with cults.

Cult activity and the fear that surrounds it

Throughout the last couple of decades more and more stories of illegal cult activity or murders by satanic cults appear on the news each night. This surge of reported cult activity has caused a spark in public interest. There has been a large increase in the fear that surrounds cults over the past couple of years. A cult is “a therapeutic or unconventional religious movement (McBride, 1985, 22),” and the more cults that fall beneath the public eye, the more serious the fear of cults becomes. Much of this fear has been sparked by major cult related incidents such as mass suicide by the People’s Temple or the murder of Sharon Tate. These incidents, and incidents like them, grab the nation’s attention and create widespread panic. But as the nation reads about these stories in the paper, the same questions seem to surface. Questions like “How does this happen?” or “What can we do to stop this from happening again?” are often asked.

The panic and fear of cult activity in our country seems to continue to grow with the more unbelievable stories that hit the news. The first big news event that was cult related occurred in 1969. Five dead bodies were found by the maid at 10050 Cielo Drive. Beautiful actress Sharon Tate who was pregnant at the time, and her friends Steven Earl Parent, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, and...

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...hat were demanded to be answered. It was from this fear that society now knows who is at risk, what to look out for, and how to get someone out a cult safely and legally.

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References

Bugliosi, Vincent. (1974). Helter Skelter. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Futterman, Ellen. (1989, February 5). Hints of Darkness: Satanism Reports Stir Worry. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, pp 1A+.

Green, Caroline. (1993, Febuary). The Far-out World of Cults. Focus Magazine, pp. 34-38.

McBride, James, Sheperd, Williams C., & Robbins, Thomas (Eds.). (1985). Cults, Culture, and the Law: Perspectives on New Religious Movements. The American Academy of Religion.

Miller, Maryann. (1990). Coping With Cults. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

O’Reilly, David. (1993, July 18). The Devil, You Say. The Philadelphia Inquirer, pp G1+.