Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 1988 Page 77
[Ed – 1985] had left the church and apparently went through some rehabilitation
and we didn't really talk much. I was going to hang up on him if he started talking
about anything against the church because I was afraid he was going to start
deceiving me and I loved [Ed] but I was really convinced that he had talked to
deceptive men.
This woman [Shelly], suddenly broke off the wedding. This alerted her parents that something
was seriously wrong. Her parents asked Shelly to come home.
My dad was just real upset because he knew that [Ed] and I really loved each other
so much and he couldn't understand why I had cancelled the wedding. [My family]
sat me down and said, ―We have a couple of men that we would like you to talk to,‖
and right away I just can't tell you the fear that went through my body. It was just
like what I felt then was that Satan was present, and I don't want to exaggerate it
but that was really what was going through my mind... and my brother said to me,
―Well, it's either your family, you listen to them or you can walk out of here and not
talk to [your family] anymore.‖ And I thought, ―Okay,‖ and so I walked up to the
door to leave because I equated the church with God and I thought I was getting
persecuted now. I started to walk to leave... and I really wouldn't have talked to
my family after that. I would have thought, ―they are deceived, I can't have
anything to do with them.‖ Anyway, I walked to the door and they wouldn't let me
leave, and I was just petrified and I said, ―Let me out of here! Let me out of here!‖
And I was in a comer with my hands over my ears saying, ―I'm not going to hear
this, Satan is here! Satan is here!‖ ...I was really scared and my brother and my
dad had to take me by my arms and literally drag me into the living room and sit
me down in a chair and I had my hands over my ears and they had to hold my
arms down so that I would listen. And I think back and it's just insane. I would
never have acted like that. I really -I mean, I don't usually do things like that. It
was really just because there was such a fear there that if I ...it was as if they
could say a sentence and all of a sudden I would be deceived.
All of a sudden I would lose my conviction of being in the church, and that was
losing my faith at that point, for me, because I thought this church was it.
Shelly's fear of victimization was so real that her own fiancé' and her own parents and family
were seen as ―tools of the Devil‖ to try and deceive her. This powerful fear, placed upon her and
dozens of others in these excommunications, is created simply by elders' interpretations and
definitions of events. Definitions from leaders (in this case men she had known for only a year)
superseded those given by her family, and her future husband. Such obviously ―deviant‖
behaviors, by societal standards, accomplished in so quick a manner and with seemingly little or
no overt coercion by the sect itself, begs for an explanation out of the ordinary, and triggers the
imagination (Meerloo, 1952 Sargent, 1957 Schein et al., 1961).
Post-Labeling Behaviors: Perpetuating Deviance
Once the target is expelled, the crisis for the group is basically over. The crisis for the target has
only just begun. Often, shattered by the behavior of former friends, and struggling with the
implications of their ―crimes,‖ the targets will generally do one of two things. They may withdraw
altogether from their former life and shun religious reference groups altogether (thus ―confirming‖
the sect's belief that they were ―masquerading‖ all along), or attempt to negate the stigma and
the damage to their own perceptions of their identity by seeking a new religious reference group
and re-establishing their former life (thus confirming their ―factious‖ label by ―infiltrating‖ a new,
unsuspecting church).
If confirmed deviants attempt to shift reference groups and return to conventional religious roles,
they are often punished by the sect. Testimony, both from targets and the sect itself, as well as
[Ed – 1985] had left the church and apparently went through some rehabilitation
and we didn't really talk much. I was going to hang up on him if he started talking
about anything against the church because I was afraid he was going to start
deceiving me and I loved [Ed] but I was really convinced that he had talked to
deceptive men.
This woman [Shelly], suddenly broke off the wedding. This alerted her parents that something
was seriously wrong. Her parents asked Shelly to come home.
My dad was just real upset because he knew that [Ed] and I really loved each other
so much and he couldn't understand why I had cancelled the wedding. [My family]
sat me down and said, ―We have a couple of men that we would like you to talk to,‖
and right away I just can't tell you the fear that went through my body. It was just
like what I felt then was that Satan was present, and I don't want to exaggerate it
but that was really what was going through my mind... and my brother said to me,
―Well, it's either your family, you listen to them or you can walk out of here and not
talk to [your family] anymore.‖ And I thought, ―Okay,‖ and so I walked up to the
door to leave because I equated the church with God and I thought I was getting
persecuted now. I started to walk to leave... and I really wouldn't have talked to
my family after that. I would have thought, ―they are deceived, I can't have
anything to do with them.‖ Anyway, I walked to the door and they wouldn't let me
leave, and I was just petrified and I said, ―Let me out of here! Let me out of here!‖
And I was in a comer with my hands over my ears saying, ―I'm not going to hear
this, Satan is here! Satan is here!‖ ...I was really scared and my brother and my
dad had to take me by my arms and literally drag me into the living room and sit
me down in a chair and I had my hands over my ears and they had to hold my
arms down so that I would listen. And I think back and it's just insane. I would
never have acted like that. I really -I mean, I don't usually do things like that. It
was really just because there was such a fear there that if I ...it was as if they
could say a sentence and all of a sudden I would be deceived.
All of a sudden I would lose my conviction of being in the church, and that was
losing my faith at that point, for me, because I thought this church was it.
Shelly's fear of victimization was so real that her own fiancé' and her own parents and family
were seen as ―tools of the Devil‖ to try and deceive her. This powerful fear, placed upon her and
dozens of others in these excommunications, is created simply by elders' interpretations and
definitions of events. Definitions from leaders (in this case men she had known for only a year)
superseded those given by her family, and her future husband. Such obviously ―deviant‖
behaviors, by societal standards, accomplished in so quick a manner and with seemingly little or
no overt coercion by the sect itself, begs for an explanation out of the ordinary, and triggers the
imagination (Meerloo, 1952 Sargent, 1957 Schein et al., 1961).
Post-Labeling Behaviors: Perpetuating Deviance
Once the target is expelled, the crisis for the group is basically over. The crisis for the target has
only just begun. Often, shattered by the behavior of former friends, and struggling with the
implications of their ―crimes,‖ the targets will generally do one of two things. They may withdraw
altogether from their former life and shun religious reference groups altogether (thus ―confirming‖
the sect's belief that they were ―masquerading‖ all along), or attempt to negate the stigma and
the damage to their own perceptions of their identity by seeking a new religious reference group
and re-establishing their former life (thus confirming their ―factious‖ label by ―infiltrating‖ a new,
unsuspecting church).
If confirmed deviants attempt to shift reference groups and return to conventional religious roles,
they are often punished by the sect. Testimony, both from targets and the sect itself, as well as
