Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1986 Page 54
team leader unless everyone on the DTS staff agrees that student is ready for the position. I
found out many months later from some of the staff that the school director alone had
made the choice. The students were never told of this change in policy, only continually
reminded that all of the staff must agree on decisions. The words of James (3:1, 2) apply
here: ―Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know
that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways.‖ Not
everything taught will be free from error, but at least the teacher should honestly present
what he believes to be true, not manipulating people but allowing them to question and
possibly correct his interpretation. We can never be certain that the ends achieved will be
worthy, but we should be able to take some comfort in honest means.
The basic thesis of this paper has been that the ends achieved by the lecture phase of DTS
can easily be unquestioning submission to corrupted leaders as easily as to honorable ones.
By the time of Outreach, it was no longer only the staff who blindly supported YWAM
doctrine, but the students as well. After telling my mother on the phone that I thought I
needed more time to consider all that I had been taught a teammate criticized, ―Why are
you like that? Why don‘t you just accept what they tell you?‖ Another student, still insisting
that he was ―committed to the team and leadership,‖ says that ―Outreach went badly
because we had bad team unity.‖ We students had come to feel that we were at fault for
refusing blindly to submit to every leadership directive.
I can only speculate as to what might have happened had I conformed as totally as the
King‘s sniff desired. I probably would then have complied with any of my Outreach team
leader‘s whims. Indeed, to some extent this is exactly what happened it was so wearing to
combat every strange idea that many times I said nothing. I felt that I must be wrong. The
leader couldn‘t be. It is impossible adequately to express the mental strain and spiritual
anguish involved when I finally did stand up for what I strongly believed in. I, who used to
argue recreationally with high school teachers, had undergone an extensive personality
change.
I am thankful that I managed to retain some of my independent nature -an inability to
conform completely. (It constantly irritated the staff that I spent so much time by myself. I
usually felt the need to get away from the one-sided input but I regarded this independent
spirit in me as a flaw.) I am thankful that there were one or two other people who had not
lost their ability to question they sparked in me some of the reasoning ability that I had
abandoned. I am also thankful that our team leader lacked the aura that has surrounded so
many destructive cult leaders -like Jim Jones. A crafty, charismatic cult leader could have
easily gained complete control of me.
I believe that the DTS program, as I experienced it is wrong, not only because it is
manipulative and destructive, but because it creates a vulnerability to cultic control. I
believe that it is a continuing danger because the people involved in my school were fairly
representative of the type of people who are attracted to this type of organization. Every
school is different because people are unique, but the program is fairly consistent and most
lectures are on videotape.
I do not believe that YWAM is deliberately ―brainwashing‖ recruits. But, as one student
lamented, ―I feel like they want to do God‘s work so badly, and yet it‘s wrong what they‘re
doing. That‘s what makes me cry in frustration.‖ I think that YWAM simply wants to
maintain control, and that they have found an effective and convenient method to achieve
this. They are trying to create a perfect community. Unfortunately, ―perfect communities
come at the expense of human freedom.‖39
team leader unless everyone on the DTS staff agrees that student is ready for the position. I
found out many months later from some of the staff that the school director alone had
made the choice. The students were never told of this change in policy, only continually
reminded that all of the staff must agree on decisions. The words of James (3:1, 2) apply
here: ―Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know
that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways.‖ Not
everything taught will be free from error, but at least the teacher should honestly present
what he believes to be true, not manipulating people but allowing them to question and
possibly correct his interpretation. We can never be certain that the ends achieved will be
worthy, but we should be able to take some comfort in honest means.
The basic thesis of this paper has been that the ends achieved by the lecture phase of DTS
can easily be unquestioning submission to corrupted leaders as easily as to honorable ones.
By the time of Outreach, it was no longer only the staff who blindly supported YWAM
doctrine, but the students as well. After telling my mother on the phone that I thought I
needed more time to consider all that I had been taught a teammate criticized, ―Why are
you like that? Why don‘t you just accept what they tell you?‖ Another student, still insisting
that he was ―committed to the team and leadership,‖ says that ―Outreach went badly
because we had bad team unity.‖ We students had come to feel that we were at fault for
refusing blindly to submit to every leadership directive.
I can only speculate as to what might have happened had I conformed as totally as the
King‘s sniff desired. I probably would then have complied with any of my Outreach team
leader‘s whims. Indeed, to some extent this is exactly what happened it was so wearing to
combat every strange idea that many times I said nothing. I felt that I must be wrong. The
leader couldn‘t be. It is impossible adequately to express the mental strain and spiritual
anguish involved when I finally did stand up for what I strongly believed in. I, who used to
argue recreationally with high school teachers, had undergone an extensive personality
change.
I am thankful that I managed to retain some of my independent nature -an inability to
conform completely. (It constantly irritated the staff that I spent so much time by myself. I
usually felt the need to get away from the one-sided input but I regarded this independent
spirit in me as a flaw.) I am thankful that there were one or two other people who had not
lost their ability to question they sparked in me some of the reasoning ability that I had
abandoned. I am also thankful that our team leader lacked the aura that has surrounded so
many destructive cult leaders -like Jim Jones. A crafty, charismatic cult leader could have
easily gained complete control of me.
I believe that the DTS program, as I experienced it is wrong, not only because it is
manipulative and destructive, but because it creates a vulnerability to cultic control. I
believe that it is a continuing danger because the people involved in my school were fairly
representative of the type of people who are attracted to this type of organization. Every
school is different because people are unique, but the program is fairly consistent and most
lectures are on videotape.
I do not believe that YWAM is deliberately ―brainwashing‖ recruits. But, as one student
lamented, ―I feel like they want to do God‘s work so badly, and yet it‘s wrong what they‘re
doing. That‘s what makes me cry in frustration.‖ I think that YWAM simply wants to
maintain control, and that they have found an effective and convenient method to achieve
this. They are trying to create a perfect community. Unfortunately, ―perfect communities
come at the expense of human freedom.‖39
