![]() |
![]() |
#1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: The People's Republic of Monsanto
Posts: 3,085
![]() |
![]()
according to the following factors using a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high):
1. Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members. 2. External Control: Amount of external political and social influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members’ external political and social behavior. 3. Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations; number and degree of unverified and/or unverifiable credentials claimed. 4. Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s); amount of hostility by members towards internal or external critics and/or towards verification efforts. 5. Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or “fundamentalism;” hostility towards relativism and situationalism. 6. Recruiting: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing; requirement for all members to bring in new ones. 7. Front Groups: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group, especially when connections are hidden. 8. Wealth: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members’ donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members. 9. Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups; amount of control exercised over sexuality of members in terms of sexual orientation, behavior, and/or choice of partners. 10. Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups. 11. Censorship: Amount of control over members’ access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s). 12. Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers. 13. Dropout Control: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts. 14. Violence: Amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s). 15. Paranoia: Amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; exaggeration of perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories. 16. Grimness: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s). 17. Surrender of Will: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual disempowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s). 18. Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group’s declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain.
__________________
"Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; " 1 Thess. 5:21 (NRSV) We all trust our own unorthodoxies. Last edited by Sleeping in EQ; 06-20-2007 at 09:43 PM. |
![]() |
![]() |
Bookmarks |
|
|