< Cult Awareness & Information Centre - Australia H3>A CULT AT RUTGERS
CAMPUS ADVANCE, a k a, NY CHURCH OF CHRIST
Rutgers provides wonderful opportunities to know and be enriched by people of many diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious heritages. There are beautiful people of faith here from most every religious tradition.

Unfortunately, however, universities like Rutgers are also hotbeds of cult recruiters who foster religious dependency and fanaticism. One such group is Campus Advance, part of the NY Church of Christ.

Each semester our chaplains end up counseling students, and their families, whose lives have been devastated by "clean-cut,"university community must remain aware that:


Anyone can fall victim to the overtures of professional cult recruiters. If you, or a friend, are being pressured by Campus Advance, or any other group, you can avoid a lot of grief by speaking immediately to a chaplain.

There are no neon lights on recruiters' foreheads blinking: "CULT! CULT! CULT!" Rather they are carefully trained to find some way to strike up a friendly conversation with you, and to disarm you by their "niceness."they change the focus to their real agenda: an invitation to a so-called "nondenominational" Bible study, or to another of their church activities. During your conversation they have been sizing you up, so that they can tailor the invitation to you and your interests. They are "so nice,"that it is hard to say no. Their immediate goal is to get you to attend one of their meetings, or give them your address or phone number, so that they can continue to work on you. It would be wise to nicely, but firmly, say "No" to any such invitations, until you can first check the particular group out. You can take their phone number and so follow up with them, if you so desire, after you've had time to find our who is really inviting you, and why.

Don't let any student, or group, high pressure you. If they refuse to leave you alone once you have said "No,"forbidden by the University Code of Conduct. We strongly encourage you to immediately report such harassment to your college Dean of Students, the campus police, or to ask a chaplain for assistance.
WHAT IS A CULT?

A cult is not a group whose teachings we don't like. What defines a cult is not so much what it teaches, but the dishonest and coercive methods it uses to recruit and retain its members, and to raise funds. Lower level student recruiters are as much deceived as deceivers. Many sincerely think they are bringing people to know Jesus. They have been taught to believe that their church alone is doing God's work and able to save souls from eternal damnation. But they have also been convinced that their unique rightness with God gives them the right to deceive, manipulate, high pressure and harass potential new recruits, if that's what it takes to bring them into their elite group.

In order to make an informed decision we need:

.

Cults never let their new recruits have both at the same time. In the beginning, when the recruits are still free, they are deliberately not told about the true nature of the group and the demands it makes upon its members. It is only after the recruits' freedom has been seriously compromised by a deep dependency upon the group, that the new members are informed of what is really expected of them, namely, that they turn their whole lives over to serve the demands of the cult.
HOW DOES A CULT ENTRAP ITS MEMBERS?

There are a number of cults currently active at Rutgers. Since the group now most aggressively recruiting is Campus Advance, we will use it as an example of how a cult "gets you."

While anyone might be approached, on or off campus, most vulnerable seem to be people in painful transitions, such as new students trying to fit in on a large campus, or those recovering from a loss or crisis. The "friendliness" of the recruiter, and his or her church friends, seems to be the answer to an unspoken prayer. Potential recruits are, in cult jargon, "love-bombed,"group lavishes all kinds of flattering attention on them. For example, various group members of the opposite sex might be instructed to feign interest in the new recruits, in order to help "tie them in" to the cult. It's all very seductive.

Quickly, before the recruits can reflect on what is really happening to their lives, the cult comes to monopolize all of their time, increasingly weaving them into the group and its activities, isolating them from former friends. Cult members may phone them six or seven times a day, and at all hours of the night. Members sometimes "camp" themselves outside a new recruit's room, especially if the recruit is trying to avoid them. New recruits are made to feel guilty if they do not respond. What is, in fact, happening is that the cult is trying to dominate the recruits' lives, making them ever more dependent upon the group.

Once the leader feels the recruit has been sufficiently wooed, the group begins to close the trap. Up until now, they have been preying upon the student's inadequate knowledge of his or her faith, the Bible, or Church history. Particular texts have been selected out of the Bible for consideration, and other important sections ignored, in a deliberate, underhanded effort to undermine the student's faith. Some beautiful Bible teachings have been presented, but laced with cult poison. Rather than love, the emphasis has been on sin, guilt, carrying one's cross. Valid Biblical practices, such as confession, baptism and discipleship have been subtly twisted to meet the cult's self-serving demands.

Now, the very cult members who have become most important to the student, who have been befriending and love-bombing the student, turn on the student. They condemn the recruit, his or her faith, family, and whole past, as belonging to Satan! The "nice,"student has been "studying" the Bible, look into the trusting student's soul and ask: "Are you sure you are saved? You know how we have been studying the Bible together. Do you really think your baptism was valid? Do you think you are truly living as a disciple? I'm worried about your eternal salvation."The impact on the unwary student can be unnerving.

The stunned victim is now systematically overwhelmed and worn down. School work is cast aside as weekly meetings turn into daily sessions. Should the student need to miss a church meeting, they are pressured and confused by false choices like: "What's more important, God or your school work?" God wants students to do their school work, but the new recruit is taught to think simplistically that saying no to this group's demands is saying no to God. To become a disciple and be rebaptized into the Church of Christ, the student must confess all his or her sins. Unfortunately this is not done privately and confidentially for the purpose of building the student up. On the contrary, the sins are made public, written down and passed around, so as to shame the student, erode wholesome self-esteem, and increase emotional dependence upon the cult.

Church meetings expand into exhausting all-nighters. Deprived of food and sleep, the weakening student is confronted with rotating teams of "teachers" who take turns indoctrinating and psychologically breaking down the novice,"distorting his or her very personality. Recruits are fed gruesome accounts of Christ's passion and death. Then they are told that their legitimate desires for food or rest are selfish in the face of Jesus' infinitely greater sufferings. The students are told that they are free to leave, or to delay rebaptize, but only after long hours of twisted teachings and vivid descriptions of heaven and hell have left them filled with fear that should they die now, they would be damned to the horrors of hell for all eternity. (When students do muster up the courage to leave, they are continually stalked and harassed, at all hours, with fearful threats of eternal damnation. Then, if they fail to return, they are abruptly and coldly shunned by their cult "friends.")

Throughout the whole rush of initiation, and beyond, the fear-ridden, beguiled students are skillfully manipulated to feel it is they who are freely choosing to stay. Brain washing has undermined rational thinking and free will.
WHAT CULT RECRUITERS WON'T TELL YOU

Part of the allure of a cult, especially for those struggling through difficult transitions, are the simple solutions it offers to life's complex problems. Despite cult members' apparent strength and unshakable certitude about the truth of their beliefs, they are often needy and fearful people whose involvement in an authoritarian group satisfies strong dependency needs. A recruiter would never put it so bluntly, but, when you enter a cult, you check your brain at the door: "Hereafter we'll do your thinking for you. All you need to do is obey."

Of course the NY Church of Christ recruiter would never tell you this up front, but once you're emotionally hooked into the group, you will have to turn control of your life over to a discipler. Everybody in the Church is assigned a discipler. There's a great hierarchical pyramid of disciplers, going right up the Kip McKean, the Church's founder and leader. It would be hard to imagine a more oppressive authoritarian structure. Obedience to your discipler is equated with obedience to God. All doubts or questionings are treated harshly as prideful rebellion against God.

Your discipler ties you ever more tightly into the Church and its demands. You will be cut off from contact with your family and all non-cult friends, except to proselytize them. Eventually you will be made to think that you should live with fellow Church members. Now the cult leaders have you exactly where they want you, in a controlled environment. Here they can manipulate and interpret reality for you, and you can work harder than ever for them. All in the name of God!

What does the cult want out of you? Your new purpose in life is twofold: the cult demands that you dedicate yourself to bringing in (1) new recruits and (2) money. Bringing in new recruits doesn't mean trying, it means succeeding. Failure to bring in new recruits will be interpreted as proof that there is something wrong with your relationship with God. Your eternal salvation is once again on the line--you'd better redouble your efforts! Bringing hundreds of dollars into the Church is obligatory, as your discipler will painfully remind you, whether that means you have to use tuition money, take out a loan, or go hungry.

Cults like to masquerade as new, exciting, idealistic movements. They like to interpret any critique of their unethical methods as persecution. Rather than persecuted, cults need to be exposed for the sham that they are. They contribute nothing significant or lasting to make the world a better place. Their strong external structure may provide temporary solace for a few, but they derail the development of inner strengths. At their best, they leave a wake of victims crippled with guilt and shame, hearts so seared and scarred by dishonest "faith" and "friendship" that they doubt their own good judgement to engage in either. At their worse, cults scar history with nightmarish holocausts--Jonestown, Waco, Switzerland, Tokyo....

Rev. Ronald Stanley, O.P.

[*]The Catholic Center at Rutgers 17 Mine Street
New Brunswick, N.J. 08901
telephone: (908) 545-6663/932-8465

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