How Do Religious Cults Exploit Religious Freedom?

Religious cults violate religious freedom when they prevent their members from leaving. Freedom of religion includes the right to freely choose one’s own religious beliefs, but cults actively seek to take that decision-making power away from individuals.

Religious cults exploit religious freedom because it allows them to grow both in membership and economic power. Yet these same cults deprive their own members of religious freedom by manipulating them into remaining in the group.

All cults operate in much the same way. They do not openly reveal all their beliefs. Instead, members are gradually introduced to small pieces of the so-called ”truth.” This creates a situation similar to the well-known metaphor of a frog sitting in a pot of water that slowly heats up without the frog noticing, until it is eventually boiled alive.

Cults employ various methods of control. American psychologist Steven Hassan explains that cults seek to control their members’ behavior, the information they receive, their thoughts, and their emotions.

If you would like to learn more about cults and the methods they use to control people, I recommend reading my previous article.

Read also: What Is a Religious Cult?

How Do Cults Use Religious Freedom to Defend Themselves?

Cult members and leaders often dismiss their questionable practices by appealing to religious freedom. Their argument usually goes something like this: although the cult’s methods may seem unusual, everyone has the right to believe whatever they want.

This argument is half true and half false.

It is absolutely true that everyone has the right to believe whatever they wish. However, a much more interesting question is whether joining a cult can truly be considered an individual’s own decision if they have not been given comprehensive information about the group.

Religious freedom is an important principle, but cults violate human rights by deliberately withholding information from their members. Every individual has the right to seek information about any subject.

If someone is manipulated or persuaded into giving up this freedom, then the cult itself is violating that person’s religious freedom.

How Do Cults Violate Religious Freedom?

A religious cult does not operate in the same way as a healthy religious community. Its objective is to exercise control, to varying degrees, over every aspect of its members’ lives.

Cults want to decide how you spend your time, how much money you contribute to the organization, where you travel, and whom you associate with. A cult is, to a greater or lesser extent, a totalitarian system.

The violation of religious freedom can begin from the very first meeting. A potential recruit may be falsely told that they are simply attending a Bible study course or a training program lasting for a certain period.

At no point are they told that they will be expected to join the cult after completing the course.

The violation of religious freedom continues as the person prepares to become a member or has already joined the group.

Members may be forbidden from exploring other religious denominations or searching for critical information about their own community. Christians in general, for example, do not face the same restrictions.

These prohibitions are often reinforced by portraying other religious communities or critical information as instruments of the devil.

In other words, members are taught that the devil works through other religious organizations and through information that criticizes their own group.

This is how restricting a person’s religious freedom becomes intertwined with control through fear.

If a religious community genuinely believes its teachings are true, why should it be afraid of its members examining critical information?

Cults Accuse Their Critics

Cults also accuse their critics of violating religious freedom.

This argument is somewhat absurd because critics do not prevent people from researching religious beliefs or restrict anyone else’s freedom of speech. Religious cults, on the other hand, restrict their members’ access to information and freedom of expression.

If critics tried to ban cults from operating or prevent people from studying their teachings, they would only make their own work more difficult.

After all, it is difficult to criticize something if you do not even know what you are criticizing.

Accusing critics of violating religious freedom is therefore often a form of propaganda aimed at the cult’s own members.

For cults, religious freedom can become little more than a meaningless magic phrase, invoked whenever it is believed to serve the organization’s interests.

What Can I Do About It?

At present, the only thing an ordinary citizen can do is spread awareness.

Religious cults should be approached in much the same way as fraudulent emails or text messages.

If you know how to recognize a cult from the very first conversation, you can effectively avoid becoming involved and warn others about the risks.

The more people know about cults operating all around the world, the fewer new members these organizations are likely to recruit.

It is also worth reading books about cults and their methods.

For example, Steven Hassan’s books Freedom of Mind and Combating Cult Mind Control are excellent resources that provide an in-depth explanation of the methods and tactics used by cults.

Another American researcher, Rick Alan Ross, has written a book titled Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out, which examines how people become involved in cults and how they can eventually leave.