Idolatry of men
and ministries: Sociological Cults in the Church
By: Philip Rosenthal
Cult experts have
increasingly began to recognise the troubling phenomenon that certain
doctrinally Bible based Christian
ministries have very similar behavioural characteristics to cults.
These movements have been called
‘sociological cults’
[1];
‘personality cults’; ‘Orthodox Bible based cults’
[2];
‘Dangerous Religious Groups (DRG)’
[3];
‘Totalist Aberrant Christian
Organisations (TACO)’
[4].
Making the matter more complex, is that there
is no clear boundary between a ‘sociological cult’ and a Christian
ministry.
Because of the fallenness of
human nature, most ministries sadly have at least a little hypocritical,
abusive, manipulative and unethical behaviour.
Nevertheless, some ministries are unhealthier than others.
When a ministry gets into a very spiritually
sick state, then it can be termed a ‘sociological cult’.
That label, however does not mean that every
individual in the ministry supports the problematic behaviour.
It does mean that the behaviour is tolerated
by senior leadership.
The behavioural nature of
the problem makes it much harder to identify sociological cultists than for
example liberals within a Bible believing denomination. You can’t simply use a test of asking if the
cultist will sign a statement of faith, because they are pragmatists. They will happily sign any statement of
faith, but it doesn’t influence their behaviour or beliefs too much. If their top leader asks them to compromise
on a Biblical absolute or truth they will just go along with him, because they
don’t think much for themselves. They
just do and believe what their leader tells them to. If their leader changes his mind or
compromises – they will too.
Faithful Christians in such ministries may recognise that
something is not right. Cultish
behaviour is however usually well hidden and when it is found out, very well
defended. A good Christian
confronting such problems can waste a lot of time and effort trying to deal
with the symptoms of the disease and often get very hurt in the process. Sometimes a bad leader will be exposed and
removed and followers will think their problems will be over. Nevertheless, problems will reoccur, because
it is rooted not in a specific person or issue, but in the disease of idolatry
of men and ministries which infects the culture of the ministry.
To cure the disease,
requires more than just confronting the symptomatic problems or bad leaders –
it requires confronting the idolatry disease as a whole.
Unfortunately, the
disease is not restricted to any particular Church denomination. Martin Luther’s reformation protests were
part doctrinal by also in part a protest at hypocrisy and abuses within the
Roman Catholic Church, that many Catholics today would agree needed reform and
correction. It did not take the
Protestants long however to develop hypocrisy and abuses of their own. It is a continual battle within every
movement to preserve its health.
This article exposes the
disease and proposes a cure. Study it to
see whether you identify any of the characteristics of idolatry or a
sociological cult in a ministry you know.
A Christian
sociological cult usually includes four key components: the ‘idol’; the
‘priesthood’; the ‘cult following’; and the ‘host organisation’.
- The idol(s) are is
usually a few top leaders, the ministry and the benefits they offer. In themselves, these are not necessarily
evil. It is when they become more
important to followers than obeying God that they become idols and are
evil to those who worship them. If
allowed to carry on, a demonic power attracted by idolatry takes over
control of the ministry from the Holy Spirit. The image of the idol projected to the
people is usually completely different from reality, and this encourages
an infallible ‘god-like’ status.
1CO 10:19-20 “Do I mean then that a sacrifice
offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the
sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you
to be participants with demons.”
The
scripture indicates that ultimately, behind every idol is a demon.
- The priesthood are
a group of leaders within the ministry who have privileged access to the
idol. Ordinary members can’t get
close to the leader-idol and don’t know his real life faults. The leadership-priesthood feel they are
a special important elite because of their special access to the
leader. They are rewarded by the
leader-idol with power and status in the ministry. In return, they offer unthinking blind
loyalty and protection of the leader from anyone who tries to challenge
him. As the ministry becomes
cultish, genuine leaders will be pushed out and personality-cult priest
leaders promoted until they form a solid wall of protection around the
leader-idol.
- The cult following
are those members of the ministry who idolise the leader. At first this will just be a few people,
but gradually he will try to turn more people from focusing on Christ to adulating himself and the
ministry. If the leader is cultish,
he will encourage such behaviour by continuously boasting of his own
achievements and status.
- The host ministry
are usually a group of faithful Christians
who genuinely want to serve God, but who are manipulated and exploited and
abused emotionally, relationally and financially by the cult. These good, but deceived people donate
most of the money; do most of the work and fill most of the seats of the
organisation.
The cult leader, his
priesthood and the cult-following usually think of themselves as superior to
everyone else. This makes it very hard
to rationally talk to them as they will dismiss a non-cultist as not as
spiritual, active or successful in Christian
ministry as they are.
The biggest difficulty in
combating cultic control in Christian
ministries is distinguishing between the sociological cult within the ministry
and the ministry itself – especially when the same person is leading both the
sociological cult and the ministry. A
number of metaphors are helpful in illustrating this pathological relationship.
Probably the most helpful
metaphor is that of a parasite. The
sociological cult serves their idol and their own interests – not God. Genuine Christians
are exploited for their money, time, loyalty, trust to feel the ambitions and
lust for power and status of the sociological cultists. They are told they are giving to serve God,
but meanwhile their efforts are carefully manipulated to serve the selfish
interests of the leaders – sometimes secretly, but in the case of wasteful
status symbols not so secretly. The
parasites sap the strength of the organisation until it becomes spiritually
weak.
The sociological cult can
also be compared to a disease – especially that of HIV/AIDS. People can catch the hypocrisy and lust for
power from other infected leaders they work for. It weakens their resistance and makes them
vulnerable to all sorts of other secondary infections of disease such as
abusiveness.
It can be compared to a
cancer that needs to be cut out before it spreads and corrupts the whole
body. Any attempt to operate/deal with
problems will hurt healthy parts of the body as well. If one doesn’t remove the cancer, the whole
body could die. Thus it becomes
extremely difficult to deal with.
Often, the authoritarian
hierarchical structure operates in a similar manner to a monarchist, fascist or
communist dictatorship. The masses are
exploited, misinformed, dominated, taxed and convinced to believe a myth about
the greatness of the hero-leader.
Everyone is told that their troubles will soon be over if they follow
the leaders vision, but in the end, only the elite benefit.
Like an abusive family,
where the husband verbally abuses the wife and children, but also gives them
leadership, financial provision and protection.
There is bad in such a relationship, but also much good. The wife and children are afraid to confront
or expose him, because he may counter-attack and abuse them more and they
depend on him and can’t imagine how they would do without him. In the same way, there are usually a lot of
positives within a ministry afflicted with sociological cultism. Members are
attracted by the positives they offer:
- A close mostly supportive community
- Opportunities to serve God
- A great vision
- Biblical truth and teaching
- High energy activity
When a ministry is only
partially infected, most of the organisation seems healthy and only those in
leadership actually know what is going on.
The demonic control
within the ministry is an evil like a python that displaces the Holy Spirit and
slowly strangles the spiritual life out of a ministry. First the Holy Spirit withdraws his blessing
due to ethical compromise. Then the Holy
Spirit intervenes in a series of judgements against the corrupted
ministry. Unless it repents properly,
it ends up wandering in a spiritual wilderness outside God’s purpose and
blessing.
It is not sufficient just
to change the leader. It is also
necessary to deal with the python strangling the ministry. Otherwise the same problems are likely to
repeat with the new leader.
In some ways the
sociological cult is like a commercial holding company that controls other
companies. While the holding company may
be wicked, the companies it owns may be perfectly decent ministries – but run a
serious risk of infection.
In South Africa
during the anti-apartheid struggle, the two major opposing political
organisations were both controlled by other secretive organisations from the
inside. The African National Congress
was controlled by the South African Communist Party and the National Party was
controlled by the Afrikaner Broederbond.
This secretive control meant that ordinary South Africans had little
control over either organisation. It was
hard to get promotion within these political parties unless they were also
members of the secret organisations. In
the same way, the sociological cultist organisations act as a secretive
brotherhood within the ministry.
Thankfully, the power of these secretive organisations has weakened in
the New South Africa. This gives hope
that the same can happen with the sociological cults within Christian ministries.
Some Christian denominations such as the Methodists and
Anglicans include both Bible believing Christians
and also liberals who don’t take the Bible too seriously. Liberals network with each other and often
control the centres of power such as the publications, although they are a
minority. In the same way, cultists by
working together within a Bible based denomination can control most of the
centres of power.
Members are taught a
specific worldview/lens through which to view the world. It is circular logic that reinforces the
influence of the idols and protects the idolater from outside influence.
Components of the cultish
authoritarian worldview are:
- The world is hierarchical. Our leader is at the top; then the
priesthood of leaders who serve him; then our ministry; below that other Christian ministries; below that non-Christians.
- Those below us are inferior and we should not listen to them.
- We should blindly obey the authorities over us.
- Anyone not in our hierarchy is not ‘under authority’ and
therefore is dangerous.
- The top hierarchy are God’s representatives on earth. Therefore anyone who opposes them is
opposing God.
- Our hierarchy interprets the Bible for us. We should not try to do so
independently. We should change our
views if the hierarchy corrects them.
- The hierarchy are not accountable to and don’t need to
explain themselves to those below.
The above false beliefs
are a wall of defence around cult members, preventing them from thinking
anything to questing the cult leaders.
If by some chance they do, they can be thrown out before they infect
others with their thinking.
Members treated like children: Within a healthy ministry, members
are treated by the leaders as adults capable of making responsible decisions
for themselves. Within a cultish
authoritarian ministry, leaders act as if they were parents or masters and the
followers as if they are servants or small children. Small children and servants don’t have a
right to know information about the ministry or hold the ministry
accountable. They must be ordered around
and told what to do on petty issues that are not Biblical absolutes. This is contrary to the New Testament’s
teaching that we are free in Christ
and accepted as mature ‘Sons of God’ (Galatians 4:3-7). Authoritarianism is in some ways a form of
legalism. Just that the authority is
discretionary and vests in the leaders as people rather than in the petty rules
they create. This is even more dangerous
than legalism.
The spiritual aspects of a sociological cult include:
- The bewitchment of followers so that they can’t see truth
(Galatians 3:1-2).
- A demonic stronghold forming behind the idol. This must be demolished spiritually in
prayer, otherwise those who try to fight the cult will find themselves
battling spiritual forces.
- Multiple deceptions of the cult to outsiders and between each
other on multiple issues. Once
deception is tolerated without discipline in an organisation, it
multiplies.
An idol is anyone or anything who takes the place of God in
your life.
Habakkuk says the Babylonians are “guilty men, whose own strength
is their god." (Habakkuk 1:11).
Sadly a lot of Christian
groups as they get stronger trust in their own power, money and numbers to
achieve things rather than in God.
Genesis
11:4-9 tells the story of the tower
of Babel, where men
decided to build a city and a tower reaching to the heavens. God however, did not bless their efforts.
Paul
says in Ephesians 5:5 “For of this you can be sure: No immoral,
impure or greedy person--such a man is
an idolater--has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
Thus according to
the Bible idols are not just statues of stone or wood. Sex, money and power can all be idols which
men can worship. Greed is idolatry
because it idolises money; the greedy person idolises himself as more worthy of
the money than others and often people also idolise the leader who they thinks
deserves all sorts of expensive status symbols[5].
Idols within Christian ministry can include:
- Religious power – control of people and
organisational machinery.
- Religious status – approval of others
and association with the greatness and success of the ministry.
- Opportunities to do religious work.
- The friendship relationships within the
religious community.
- Approval of the ‘messianic leader’.
- Achievement of goals e.g. numerical
growth, position, academic advancement.
Many think that it
is hard to impossible to get the same power, status, opportunities and friends
anywhere else – so they will sacrifice their moral principles to keep these
idols.
In order to maintain an idolatrous following, any
information that may show the human imperfections of the leader and ministry
must be silenced. Failures must never be
mentioned. A common biblical
justification for not disclosing negative information is the example of Joshua
and Caleb who promoted going into the promised land, versus the other ten spies
who opposed it. Nevertheless, this ignores
the issue that Joshua and Caleb did not try to mislead the Israelites by
withholding facts – they simply trusted God to overcome the problems.
There is a problem when the image the congregation has of
the leader is radically different from reality.
Within the Roman Catholic Church, there are some who promote
the study of the lives of great Christians
like St Augustine
as examples for the faithful to follow.
There is nothing wrong with this.
It does however become wrong, when such people start to take the place
of God. When people see a living or dead
leader as their mediator with God, then that is idolatry.
God mocks the foolishness of idolatry in Isaiah 44:15-19 “It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he
takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also
fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over
it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms
himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he
bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are
my god." They know nothing, they
understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their
minds closed so they cannot understand.
No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
"Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread
over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from
what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
One can equally mock the foolishness of
the hero worship of human idols. They
are made from the same flawed fallen humanity as the rest of us. So many of the false ministers who accept
idolatry have been exposed as frauds and actors. Unfortunately foolish followers don’t
learn. They just move on from one human
idol to another instead of focusing on Jesus.
History has shown over and over again the foolishness of blind obedience
to authority. So many leaders have made
mistakes, it is obvious that checks and balances are needed. Some recognize this within the political realm,
but think somehow that this will be avoided within Christian
ministry. Expectations on people are
placed that only God can fulfill. If you
are not in an authoritarian organization, all this may seem obvious. But this is not obvious to those inside such
organizations.
Sociological cults
usually begin as personality cults around a very strong Charismatic
leader. Nevertheless, when they have
grown to a state of maturity, they can outlast the original personality if he
dies or is discredited. Christian idolaters can transfer loyalty to the
ministry as a whole or to a new leader or ministry. A whole set of personality cults can merge to
form a ‘ministry cult’.
Because a sociological
cult looks a lot like true Biblical revivalist Christianity
and often comes from such a history:
i. Many are deceived into
following them;
ii. Many of those who see
the falsehood of the sociological cults reject real Biblical revivalist Christianity.
In a big movement, parts
may be cultic and other parts healthy.
Sometimes, it is not too hard to get back to health, if the problems are
recognised and dealt with early.
Supporters of the
sociological/personality cult view themselves as superior because of their
privileged access to the cult-leader who they hero-worship. After being deceived themselves, they
promote this hierarchical/elitist worldview to others. The superiority of the ministry and leader is
reinforced at every meeting where the leader is present. He is introduced in a grandiose manner and
surrounded with status symbols. His face
is on every publication. All internal
news reporting will promote the idea that the ministry is growing in a
supernatural manner, even if such growth is actually based on human effort,
hype and manipulation. Any negative news
about the ministry is never reported and any negative talk is silenced.
Anyone who doesn’t show
the same idolatrous deference to the hierarchy gets demoted to punished. All who show similar blind obedience and
loyalty are rewarded and promoted.
Gradually over time, a weeding process fills the top ranks of the
organisation with personality-cult supporters.
Leaders get abused by
those above them. In a cascading chain reaction, they restore their bruised
self-esteem by bullying those below them.
The right to bully others is seen as both a cost and a privilege of
position within the hierarchy.
Eventually it gets to a
point where rational independent thinking people can’t tolerate the
authoritarianism and move away. They
either go peacefully to plant a new church or move to another church or they go
painfully by being thrown out.
The process of leaders
compromising to accept cultish behaviour is as follows:
- Unaware of problem: blissful ignorance.
- Aware, but give benefit of the doubt to leaders.
- Unhappy with what is going on, but tolerate it hoping that
reform will come.
- Become part of an abusive team without realising you are part
of a manipulation.
- Become an abusive leader, approving of the abuses of others.
It is very hard for
anyone in this deceptive and abusive environment to resist the organisation for
a long period of time. Either they are
pushed out or they become part of the cultish system. Often good people have invested so much in
the organisation, they can’t bear to be pushed out – so they compromise to stay
with it.
Usually, those who leave
do so in a state of pain and confusion and don’t come to realise they have been
part of a ministry infected with an idolatrous sociological cult until several
months later. Often, they are partially
blinded to the sins of the ministry and so don’t realise how bad it was until
they have been in a healthy ministry for a period of time.
All of this is a very
slow process which takes many years. If
leaders realised what was happening, they would stand together and stop
cult-like behaviour. But usually the
truth is hidden from them.
Within a cultish
ministry, the leader takes the place of the Holy Spirit. The follower is not allowed the freedom to
grow spiritually, as his leader must make all his decisions for him. The follower of a sociological cult starts to
behave like a spiritual infant in terms of spiritual maturity. When one-on-one discipleship relationships
are introduced in a cultish church, the cultishness of control spreads like a
disease down to infect also the lower parts of the organisation. Not only top leaders can become idols, but
anyone who the follower allows to take the place of God in their life.
In a hierarchical system
with a personality cult at the top, such spiritual infants have enormous power
and can do massive damage to those below them.
This is rather like allowing a three year old to drive a bulldozer.
When the focus is off
serving Jesus, ministries become personal ‘kingdoms’ and sections of ministries
become ‘fiefdoms’ – each competing with each other and each fiercely loyal to
their own idol-leader. Loyalty to the
leader becomes more important than loyalty to Christ. Worldly measures of success such as money and
members become more important than spiritual measures such as prayerfulness,
personal holiness, love and truth. Each
idol-leader wants to do better than the other rather than all working together
to serve Jesus their true master. The
world is allowed into the church.
God is jealous of idols
and thus when a leader accepts the idolatry of followers, he provokes God’s
anger. In time judgement will come on
him and he will most likely end his career in disgrace.
It is not easy to combat
a mature sociological cult.
Nevertheless, it can be done. One
method alone will probably not solve the problem, but a number of strategies
working together can bring health back to the organisation.
Often leaders who accept
idolatry have hidden gross hypocrisy.
When this is uncovered, exposed and disciplined, then they lose their
power. Thus the importance of
investigating and exposing sin. Even if
they stay in leadership, their power will be greatly reduced, since the myth of
infallibility will be exposed.
There are three main ways
to remove a bad leader. Firstly to pray
for God to remove him; Secondly for other leaders to ask him to step down;
Thirdly for the congregation as a group to petition for his removal.
If the leader is removed,
but his sin not exposed, then the damage he has done in spiritually misleading
people will continue. His idolatrous
followers will just find a new idol and his manipulative methods will live on
in those he trained.
Those who have either
idolised a leader or a leader who has accepted idolatry need to acknowledge
that this is a sin and they need to repent to God. If it has become common in an organisation,
then the whole organisation needs to do so publicly and very seriously.
If a leader is being idolised by his congregation and
he is a genuine servant of God, then he will do his best to discourage it.
The apostles Paul and Barnabas did this when the
Greeks started idolising them: Acts
14:12-15 “Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul
they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just
outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and
the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their
clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: "Men, why are you doing
this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news,
telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made
heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”
Peter did the same, when Cornelius the Roman
Centurion fell at his feet: Acts 10:25-26 “As
Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in
reverence. But Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he
said, "I am only a man myself."
Good leaders can discourage hero-worship by shedding status
symbols, sharing power, telling people about their own spiritual struggles and
mistakes, mixing with ordinary people and promoting on merit rather than
personal loyalty. Paul Yonggi Cho, the
pastor of the largest church in the world took radical action to discourage
idolatry of himself. He said that his
name ‘Paul Yonggi Cho’ had become too great and so changed his name to ‘David
Yonggi Cho’ to remind people he was an ordinary person. John Calvin the great reformer, ordered that
when he died, his body should be buried in an unmarked grave to prevent
Protestants going to venerate him as Catholics often did with their saints at
the time. Singer Steven Curtis Chapman
said that he often speaks about his wife and children at music concerts to
remind people he is a family man and discourage idolatry by female fans.
The book of Hebrews
discusses the superiority of Jesus Christ
over every human leader. Its specific
examples are the Old Testament saints, who the Jewish Christians
of the New Testament era would have most revered. For us today though, idols could be in the
form of past and present great leaders.
If a ministry has a
serious problem with idolatry, it is helpful to move idolaters to another
healthy church away from their friends who will encourage hero-worship of
leaders. Senior leaders who have gotten
into idolatry may take much longer to recover.
Church members can be
immunised against an authoritarian idolatrous leadership style by teaching
against it. Remind people that the top
men are not little gods and can make mistakes.
Teach against spiritual abuse.
An organisation can build
in checks and balances on the power of the leader, through constitutions,
relationships with outside groups, shared eldership and agreed procedures. A leader who likes idolatry and power will
usually leave such a ministry.
An idolatrous
sociological cult, even if it happens to be a church, will attract all kinds of
demonic forces that hide behind religiosity.
It is full of darkness. These
dark spiritual forces need to be driven out with prayer.
