Now, lets be clear: I am not saying that every conservative church out there is a cult. But many do appear to have numerous cult-like characteristics. Maybe not enough to be considered a full-on cult, but what I like to refer to them as cult-ish. I’ve heard it quite often in the past, of how a religious organization destroys families. And people are quick to ask: why would a church want to destroy a family? Easy. Control. How? By undermining the father and his ability to be a leader in the home.
This can be done in several ways: church leadership spreading false rumors or half-truths. By making frequent false accusations. By making the father feel inadequate as a husband and parent. By driving wedges in the relationship between him and his wife. By being critical of the children’s behavior. By keeping the father “in check” and “under the thumb” of the leadership. By making him doubt his own salvation- quickly stamping out any spiritual ambitions that the father may have that would prove to be a threat to the leadership.
For many years, nearly a decade in fact, I was made to feel like a total looser. To make it worse, church leadership had convinced my own wife and children to believe I was. That was how they managed to maintain control of me. They wanted to keep my confidence low. They didn’t want me to get any ambitions of my own, spiritual or otherwise. That is how they kept me down. Lies, half-truths, cover stories. The endless accusations were ruthless… things that no father would ever want to be accused of… all tactics that are used by cult leaders to maintain their grip on their followers. The damage done was far reaching… not just to me, but my relationship with my wife and my children. I pray daily that someday that damage could all be repaired.
It may not be a cult, but cult-ish!
Milepost 81 