Cults- Elissa Wilcox

Cults are groups of people who all believe in the same ideals but take things too far. Their beliefs may be on track to a certain extent but then they take them to the extreme and begin to over glorify the leader. One of the main characteristics of a cult is that they believe in their leader as a deity. This makes a lot of sense because the leader has the ultimate authority in their eyes but instead of being distant and out of sight they are able to see and touch them. The leader is elevated from a normal person into the status of some sort of god. Another qualification for a cult is that they use deceitful means of recruiting their followers. One example is of a young man who was approached by the Moonie cult under the veil of being fellow students that were interested in becoming friends with him. He went away with them for a weekend and found that they were pushing their propaganda in a very subtle way that worked on him because for 3 years he was part of the Moonie cult.