Talk:Cults in Our Midst

Cut from article:

What makes Cults in Our Midst so absorbing is Singer's ability to show the extremely damaging effects of cults as well as the lure that cults may have for the "average" people in "normal" life..

This quote is verifiable, but not correct. Let's put it back after expanding the article from stub status. Having read the book some years ago, I recall that it had NO information about "damaging effects of cults" (it simply CLAIMED that these effects would occur). --Uncle Ed 02:29, 25 October 2006 (UTC)


 * What is the difference? Do you mean it had no actual examples? Or did the actual examples not convince you? --Tilman 06:35, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Expressions like discredited anti-cult "expert witness" (is untrue, see APA controversy) or This books is one of dozens touting the anti-cult line are not Wikipedia-like, and not NPOV. The part with studies by sociologists is not supported by sources, and if it is, it should only be mentioned if these sociologists wrote about the book itself. --Tilman 06:38, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Due to several noted missing elements and seemingly irrelevance to the page, I removed the following sentence from the Overview section "Sergey Shmelev was[when?] strongly criticized[by whom?] for being one of the main[quantify] promoters of Scientology. He is said[by whom?] to be one of the most strongly religious people within the western world.[citation needed]" --Jdmumma (talk) 21:44, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Definition

 * ...turn over most of their decision making...

Which cults urge their members to let leadership make most of the members' decisions for them? The only groups I know of which give leaders that much power are military basic training and monastic groups.

I wonder if there was ever a time and place in, say, the Unification Church when members turned over most of their decision making to their leaders. Suppose it was a fundraising team captain. Would he make decisions for his members, or refer all questions to his higher leader (the commander)? What would the commander do? With several hundred members requiring decisions every day, he'd be swamped.

Perhaps the phrase "turn over" refers to using church teachings or policy as a basis for most decisions. Like, should I screw this prostitute today? Nah, that's against church teaching? How about socking my captain in the mouth. No, that would create a "Cain-Abel" problem.

The majority of Americans make decisions every day, based on their church teachings or policy. So how is such a practice an attribute of cults, as opposed to being an attribute of "being religious"? --Uncle Ed 14:46, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Discussion pages are not intended to be message boards. Smee 18:10, 24 January 2007 (UTC).