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Christian leadership and secular leadership styles
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A cult can use fear and they can also use the threat of being separated from their families to control their members. Sometimes they use a person’s family against to control them by threatening to separate them from all family members if they decide to leave the religion. David Koresh and Alena Padgett are examples of some people that have been affected by cults in one way or another. David Koresh was the leader of a cult, and Alena Padgett was murdered by two cult members. There are many reasons why people join cults such as religion, they are seeking family and friends, to hide from what they consider “evil” forces. A cult is a group of people who worship a specific god and they do so by staying separate from anyone who is considered unholy. …show more content…
She was murdered by two members of a cult in 1997. According to GoUpstate “Two teenage boys were charged Saturday [November 15, 1997] with killing a 14-year-old girl and beating her teen-age friend in rural Rutherford County(GoUpstate).” Alena Padgett and her friend(who survived the attack) were attacked as part of a cult ritual by two boys. The police were led to the body by the girl who survived the attack; she had been beaten and stabbed(GoUpstate). When the girl who survived realized it was safe she decided to go get help. The girl that survived walked more than a mile down the road from the crime …show more content…
When David Koresh became the leader of the Branch Davidians he had them become an “Army of God”.(biography.com). 1990 marked the beginning of David Koresh’s rein on the Branch Davidians. “On February 28, 1993, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the compound in Waco, resulting in a 51-day stand-off ending on April 19, when Koresh shot himself,” According to biography.com (biography.com). The raid on the Branch Davidians ended in a mass suicide by the remaining members. David Koresh ended his rein by leading his cult members into a mass suicide where no matter your age you were
In 1929, Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant, claimed that he had a new message for the Seventh Day Adventist church. He submitted it to the church in the form of a book called "The Shepard's Rod". In the book he points out how the church has departed from basic church teachings. The churches leaders frowned upon his claims and felt that they would start uproar in the church. The leaders decided to ban him from the church. Once he was banned he formed a new church called the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. He got the Davidian from the belief to restore the Davidic kingdom. In 1955 after Houteff's death the movement split forming the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. The term branch refers to the new name for Jesus Christ. The group, founded by Benjamin L. Roden, settled outside of Waco, Texas. The group occupied land formerly owned by the Davidian group. George Roden, the son of Benjamin, claimed he was the group's prophet but was sent to jail. The group never had a clear-cut leader until Vernon Howell took charge in 1988.
In July of 1994, a little girl named, Megan Kanka, was raped and strangled. They found her body near her home in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The story of thing young girl has shocked the nation. The man responsible for this brutal act is named, Jesse Timmendequas. He had been convicted twice prior to this attack.
David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas in 1959.He was born to a fifteen year old women and was dyslexic. As a child he was a member of his grandmother’s Adventist Church. Adventists believe that there will be a second coming of christ and they have a more literal interpretation of the last book in the Bible, Revelations. He soon left the church when he was older. In 1981 he moved to Waco where he joined the Branch Davidians.. The leader of the Branch Davidians was a woman named Lois Roden who David had a relationship with...
According to dictionaries a cult is 1) a system of religious worship or ritual. 2) A religion or sect considered extremist of false. 3) Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. It is believed that every cult ties into some kind of religion, and religions all have a common basis of “a leap of faith”. Whether this so-called leap of faith is going to heaven or being reincarnated, or moving on to some other planet, depends on the beliefs of the cult itself.
officials climbed the walls of the Branch-Davidian compound on Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, breaking windows and throwing grenades inside the buildings, all for arresting Vernon Wayne Hall, A.K.A. David Koresh. Koresh was the leader of the Davidians, who believed that Koresh was a god who lived in this religious community on Mount Carmel.
reported that she had been abducted from a parking lot and raped by a black male ("A.B. Butler").
..., to note that there seems to be no adverse effects while a person is in a cult, as their levels of stress goes down and they seem happier. Overall, the cult mentality is one that continues to be an enigma to society today.
Cults Each year, hundreds of North Americans join one of the increasing, estimated 3000 unorthodox religions that exist across North America. The increasing number of cults, to date in North America, is due to the fact that cults are a social movement that attempts to help people cope with their perceived problems with social interaction. Cult recruiters target those who perceive themselves as different from the rest of society, and give these individuals the sense of belonging that they crave. Cult literature lures potential cult members by appealing to their desperate need to socially fit in. Cults provide a controlled family environment that appeals to potential cult members because it is a removal from the exterior society.
For years, there have been problems surrounding the definition of the term 'cult'. The literal and traditional meanings of the word cult, which are more fully explored at the entry Cult (religion), come from the Latin cultus, meaning "care" or "adoration," as "a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same." In French or Spanish, culte or culto simply means "worship" or "religious attendance"; therefore an association cultuelle is an association whose goal is to organize religious worship and practices. The word for "cult" in the popular English meaning is secte (French) or secta (Spanish). In formal English use, and in non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word "cult" are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a case where English speakers might use the word "sect". Hence Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are cults within Christianity. However, in common usage, "cult" has a very negative connotation, and is generally applied to a group in order to criticize it. Understandably, most groups, if not all, that are called "cults" deny this term. Some groups called "cults" by some critics may consider themselves not to be "cults", but may consider some other groups to be "cults". Although anti-cult activists and scholars did not agree on precise criteria that new religions should meet to be considered "cults," two of the definitions formulated by anti-cult activists are: Cults are groups that often exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leadership's demands through certain types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind control, and through the inculcation of d...
No one could have predicted the strange circumstance of the mass suicide of thirty-nine people that happened on March 26, 1997 in San Diego, California. To fully understand the bizarre case that is the cult of Heaven’s Gate one must first go back before the group was founded and understand the creator and self proclaimed prophet that was Marshall Applewhite. Marshall Applewhite was born on May 17, 1931, in Spur, Texas. Through the help of his second wife Bonnie Nettles they created a strange cult called Heaven’s Gate which brought the unfortunate deaths of thirty-nine men and women. The strange religious cult drew inspiration from science fiction movies and writings, as well as biblical scripture.
The body has been decapitated, and the woman’s head and articles of clothing with blood on it were discovered on another road 4 miles away. It was discovered that the woman, in an intoxicated condition, had accompanied some men from a tavern who reportedly took the woman to their apartment, forced her to engage in sexual intercourse, then at least one of the men attacked the woman with a kitchen
The cult with the highest death count is known as People’s Temple, founded in Indiana in the 1950’s by Jim Jones. From a young age, Jones showed a passion for religion and a talent for public speaking. However, he had also demonstrated that he was not to be confined to an established religion either. Author Daniel Cohen, who attended the University of Illinois, wrote a novel, Cults, discussing what a cult is and what it does. Cohen incorporates Jim Jones into his remarks towards cult leader behavior.
What makes a person join a cult? What happens in a person's life to make them completely change they way they used to talk and act? Many are puzzled about the mysterious happenings in a cult member's life. They wonder how one could become involved in such a group. The forces that draw individuals into cults can be explained by psychological doctrine. Many in the psychology field have sought to provide answers to the various questions that society has.
Although cults have become a very common practice in our society, not many people actually know what a cult is. A cult is a group that demonstrates an excessive dedication to an idea, person or thing. Cults will conduct manipulative and persuasive behavior to advance the goals of the leader (Langone). There are many different types of cults, but they usually fall into four categories: Religious, Commercial, Self Help and Counselling or Political. Many people mistake religions as cults, but that is not the case. Religious cults are cults that center around a belief system as many common religions do, but they are categorized as a cult because of their practices and mind control. Common religions do not practice these techniques. Commercial cults are those that are interested in gaining money. These cults use their scare tactics and mind control techniques to get members to give them money and even work for them. Self Help and Counselling cults are centered around a business that has programs designed to help people by counselling them. By taking their courses, members are told they will become better people. This of course is not the case and these cults are inte...
While many argue that joining a cult would do the opposite for people feeling alone, cult members usually find a deeply rooted community among the other members that works to make them feel more accepted by the other members. The people who join cults usually believe that the acceptance they find in these groups is something absent from everyday society. By allowing the discrimination of cult members, one furthers this feeling of isolation and affirms their initial feelings about society. One of society’s main issues throughout history has been the fight against discrimination whether that be focused against the Irish, Jewish people, African Americans, or, recently, women.