blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
This is kind of a weird question to ask, but how do you spot a cult, or a church with cultic tendancies?
I started thinking about this question after checking out a website of a local church. It looked to be a church worth checking into.
At the bottom of the page was a link to Maryland Bible College and Seminary. I followed the link, and they had some pretty interesting online courses available, using text books of some trusted authors.
At the bottom of the page was another link to Greater Grace World Outreach. I followed that link, read a little, then googled to find out more about it. Turns out Greater Grace World Outreach's founder was originally head of "The Bible Speaks", in Lenox, MA. Some serious accusations were leveled against him and his church, mind control and other cultic activities, and they ended up declaring bankrupsy after being taken to court.
I don't want to of course accuse the local church wrongly, but because of their affliation with GGWO, and by extension to "The Bible Speaks", common sense tells me not to pursue it.
Anyway, back to my original question, and again I don't want to accuse this church of being cultic, but how do you spot a cult, when they look so good on paper (ie., their website)?
Interesting aside, before I started researching the church, I thought I'd listen to one or two of their sermons. I went to their sermon page, and all the links to the sermons were broken. I emailed the webmaster about it, my email was returned as non-deliverable. Perhaps that's best.
I started thinking about this question after checking out a website of a local church. It looked to be a church worth checking into.
At the bottom of the page was a link to Maryland Bible College and Seminary. I followed the link, and they had some pretty interesting online courses available, using text books of some trusted authors.
At the bottom of the page was another link to Greater Grace World Outreach. I followed that link, read a little, then googled to find out more about it. Turns out Greater Grace World Outreach's founder was originally head of "The Bible Speaks", in Lenox, MA. Some serious accusations were leveled against him and his church, mind control and other cultic activities, and they ended up declaring bankrupsy after being taken to court.
I don't want to of course accuse the local church wrongly, but because of their affliation with GGWO, and by extension to "The Bible Speaks", common sense tells me not to pursue it.
Anyway, back to my original question, and again I don't want to accuse this church of being cultic, but how do you spot a cult, when they look so good on paper (ie., their website)?
Interesting aside, before I started researching the church, I thought I'd listen to one or two of their sermons. I went to their sermon page, and all the links to the sermons were broken. I emailed the webmaster about it, my email was returned as non-deliverable. Perhaps that's best.