Is Your Church a Personality Cult? Part 1
celebrity culture, church growth movement, Culture CrossExamined, exploitation, idolatry, intelligentchristianfaith.com, John Ferrer, leadership, narcissism, personality cult, practical theology, theology
Sometimes cults are easy to spot. Most everyone knows about the Jim Jones cult (People’s Temple), or David Koresh’s group in Waco, Texas (Branch Davidians). Those cults are easy to spot because doomsday theology and mass killing tend to make headlines. But some cults aren’t so easy to see. Personality cults can be hard to spot. When people call a religious group a “cult” it usually means one of two things. TWO TYPES OF CULTSType 1: Theological Cult – heretical theology deviating from core orthodox teachings of that religion. These cults spring from a parent-religion. Ex., Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses are cult offshoots of Christianity. Type 2: Sociological Cult – socially and psychologically dangerous practices like authoritarian and manipulative leadership, social isolation, abuse, threats, blackmail, “mind-control” etc. These may or may…