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295 20 / Moses and the Cults:The Question of Religious Leadership 1985 A significant phenomenon of the contemporary religious scene is the continuing attraction of large numbers of people, mostly young, to such groups as the Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna), the Unification Church (Moonies), the Divine Light Mission and a whole set of small groups, all of which are commonly called “cults.” Their popularity highlights one of the most important facets of religious history, the issue of leadership and the proper relationship between the members of an emerging religion and their leader-originator. One of the primary characteristics of modern cults is the intensity of the attachment of members to their group and, particularly, to the leader. Despite their expressed allegiance to an ultimate god, the main thrust of their belief is the devotion to the group’s leader. His strength and the promise of salvation that allegiance to him represents are, together, the centripetal force holding these people together. They concentrate around him in a tight cluster which removes itself from other, more ordinary, societal ties. These groups are thus particularly characterized by their willingness to give up any prior identity, individual self-determination and ego-control to leaders who, like Reverend Moon or Reverend Jim Jones, become, in effect, semidivine characters. There are many factors that make individuals susceptible to the pull of a leader-led salvation cult. People tend to join them at transition points in their lives: between high school and college, toward the end of college, etc., when old ties are being broken and new ones have not yet been established. The feelings of rootlessness, loneliness and (at least partial) alienation that are felt in such circumstances make people vulnerable to the attraction of cult communities and the security of following the leader. 296 Theologies I In their recruitment procedures, the cults frequently enhance the feelings of anomie that potential recruits may already be feeling. They may invite prospective members to weekend retreats, and then induce them to stay for an additional period. During this retreat, the visitors are isolated from their normal ties and activities and are introduced to many new elements in their lifestyle. They undergo a change of locale, a shift in waking and sleeping hours, a (for some) radical change in diet. These changes have the effect of disembodying them from their old life and eroding their sense of their own identity. The effect is somewhat similar to that reported by draftees: when stripped of their clothes for their physical examination, shorn of their former hairstyles and issued identical clothing, they begin to feel divorced from their formal life. This disembodiment from the familiar makes the individual more malleable and capable of being “molded into a soldier” (to use the army analogy); it also makes him respond more readily to promises of a new identity, a new life and salvation. This technique of recruitment, which is sometimes called “brainwashing,” is not the drastic brainwashing described by Korean War prisoners. It is, nevertheless, a highly effective technique of ego manipulation. It strips people who are already susceptible to feelings of rootlessness and alienation of their old sense of self. Then, when a new identity is offered, a “self” centered in a group and its leader, this new “self” is seen as highly attractive and the recruit gives up his individual identity, his self-determination and his “freedom” to join the group. If we look at the situation of the people of Israel immediately after they left Egypt, it is apparent that they shared many of the characteristics recognized in potential converts to the modern cults. They were totally removed from their old life, for they were no longer slaves and no longer in Egypt. They underwent a complete change of diet, from the “leeks and cucumbers” of Egypt to the manna of the desert. Moreover, they were clustered around a strong leader, and they believed that they were the founders of a new order. Despite this, they did not form a modern “cult;” the new religion did not center around the figure of Moses, and the group that emerged after the wilderness experience was not noted for its willingness to follow the dictates of its elders. In the narrative portions of the books of Exodus and Numbers, we have a record of how early Israel almost developed into a classic cult of world salvation, and the changes that it made in order to avoid that pitfall. Israel did not glorify...

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