If you have been watching the Entertainment portion of your news, you may have heard about a romantic interlude between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. No big deal, it’s Hollywood, right! Wrong!

This is about Cult activity. Sure Katie Holmes is over 21 and can make decisions for herself, but in her star-struck state, she might do anything to please her would be love. As for Tom Cruise, we could only guess as to his motive.

But with all of this going on, I had to ask myself what the big deal was. After all, I’m progressive, live and let live and all that jazz. Yet as I looked at what it was, I have become concerned that the active recruitment of converts flys in the face of live and let live. Therefore should be under close examination and scrutiny. After all, how can you protect yourself from those who would do you harm, if you don’t have the facts. Before you even research Scientology, familiarize yourself with the warning signs of a cult.

Here is one persons overview of Scientology

To Quote Scott McClare, “I have never been a Scientologist, nor have I ever met one to my knowledge. As a result I have drawn some fire from Scientologists and others for saying the things you’ll read here. Some people believe it is not proper to criticise Scientology unless the critic has had some involvement with it. In my opinion, this reasoning is unsound. I do not need to have been a slave to oppose slavery. I do not need to have been poor to oppose poverty. And I do not need to have been a Scientologist to oppose Scientology.” Visit his website!

But what is a cult, and do Scientology meet the definition. Well read the Facts at CultWatch.

Here’s some Warning Signs

MORE – Warning signs of a destructive cult

Do you know someone in a destructive cult?
This is from Factnet.org

Anyone could attack a group they disagree with by unfairly labeling it a destructive cult. How would you know whether it really were such a cult or not? Isn’t there an objective method to evaluate groups for cultic tendencies? Yes. The following early warning signs can help you reasonably determine whether or not a group is likely to be a destructive cult, and if you should be concerned about a friend, coworker, or loved one being involved with it.

The main reason that the following destructive cult tactics are so damaging to both the individual and society is because they debilitate rationality and reduce empathy. Rationality and empathy are indispensable in making good personal and social decisions. History is littered with personal and social catastrophes where a lack of rationality and lack of empathy were its core causes.

Ask yourself if the following criteria apply to the group you are concerned about.

1. A destructive cult tends to be totalitarian in its control of its members’ behavior. Cults are likely to dictate in great detail not only what members believe, but also what members wear and eat, when and where members work, sleep, and bathe, and how members think, speak, and conduct familial, marital, or sexual relationships.
2. A destructive cult tends to have an ethical double standard. Members are urged to be obedient to the cult, to carefully follow cult rules. They are also encouraged to be revealing and open in the group, confessing all to the leaders. On the other hand, outside the group they are encouraged to act unethically, manipulating outsiders or nonmembers, and either deceiving them or simply revealing very little about themselves or the group. In contrast to destructive cults, honorable groups teach members to abide by one set of ethics and act ethically and truthfully to all people in all situations.
3. A destructive cult has only two basic purposes: recruiting new members and fund-raising. Altruistic movements, established religions, and other honorable groups also recruit and raise funds. However, these actions are incidental to an honorable group’s main purpose of improving the lives of its members and of humankind in general. Destructive cults may claim to make social contributions, but in actuality such claims are superficial and only serve as gestures or fronts for recruiting and fund-raising. A cult’s real goal is to increase the prestige and often the wealth of the leader.
4. A destructive cult appears to be innovative and exclusive. The leader claims to be breaking with tradition, offering something novel, and instituting the ONLY viable system for change that will solve life’s problems or the world’s ills. But these claims are empty and only used to recruit members who are then surreptitiously subjected to mind control to inhibit their ability to examine the actual validity of the claims of the leader and the cult.
5. A destructive cult is authoritarian in its power structure. The leader is regarded as the supreme authority. He or she may delegate certain power to a few subordinates for the purpose of seeing that members adhere to the leader’s wishes. There is no appeal outside his or her system to a greater system of justice. For example, if a schoolteacher feels unjustly treated by a principal, an appeal can be made to the superintendent. In a destructive cult, the leader claims to have the only and final ruling on all matters.
6. A destructive cult’s leader is a self-appointed messianic person claiming to have a special mission in life. For example, leaders of flying saucer cults claim that beings from outer space have commissioned them to lead people away from Earth, so that only the leaders can save them from impending doom.
7. A destructive cult’s leader centers the veneration of members upon himself or herself. Priests, rabbis, ministers, democratic leaders, and other leaders of genuinely altruistic movements focus the veneration of adherents on God or a set of ethical principles. Cult leaders, in contrast, keep the focus of love, devotion, and allegiance on themselves.
8. A destructive cult’s leader tends to be determined, domineering, and charismatic. Such a leader effectively persuades followers to abandon or alter their families, friends, and careers to follow the cult. The leader then takes control over followers’ possessions, money, time, and lives.

If you know someone who belongs to a group that demonstrates a significant number of these warning signs and you would like more information on how to deal with destructive cults or mind control, go to www.factnet.org.

Thanks to Factnet.org and others for this blog posting.