Defining Cults - Structure: Relationship Between Leader and Followers
Cults are authoritarian in structure. The leader is regarded as the supreme authority although he may delegate certain power to a few subordinates for the purpose of seeing that members adhere to his wishes and rules. There is no appeal outside of the leader's system to greater systems of justice. For example, if a schoolteacher feels unjustly treated by a principal, he or she can appeal to another authority. In a cult, the leader has the only and final ruling on all matters.
Cults appear to be innovative and exclusive. Cult leaders claim 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. For example, an Arizona-based group purports to have found immortality and tells its followers that they too will live forever - but only by staying with the leaders, known by the initials of their first names, CBJ (Charles, BernaDeane, and James). CBJ is reported to have thirty thousand followers worldwide. Meanwhile, another group professes that by living with the group and learning the secret breathing method members will eventually be able to live on air alone. Almost all cults make the claim that their members are "chosen," "select," or "special," while nonmembers are considered lesser beings.
Cults tend to have a double set of ethics. Members are urged to be open and honest within the group and to confess all to the leader. At the same time, members are encouraged to deceive and manipulate nonmembers. In contrast, established religions and ethical groups teach members to be hones and truthful to all and to abide by one set of ethics. The overriding philosophy in cults, however, is that the ends justify the means, a view that allows cults to establish their own brand of morality, outside normal social bounds.
For example, one large group introduced the consept of "heavenly deception," another introduced "transcendental trickery," and some of the neo-Christian groups introduced terms such as "talking to the Babylonians" or referred to outsiders as the "systemites." Language such as this is meant to justify a double set of ethics, making it acceptable for members to deceive nonmembers.
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