Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1998, page 22
Bible-Cult Mind Control 101
David Clark
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
First I‘d like to thank the American Family Foundation and Denver Seminary for giving me
this opportunity to share my experience with you. Some personal background: I have
always considered myself to be a Christian. I attended Methodist and Lutheran churches. I
was confirmed and learned the basics of my faith. Although I was not initially baptized, I
later decided to receive sprinkling baptism in the Methodist Church
Parenthetically, those who have had any experience with Bible cults will understand the
significance of immersion and why these groups typically believe that one must be
immersed. Almost all of the bible-based cults I have been exposed to in the past twenty
three years contend that their organization is the true restoration of the first century/New
Testament Christian church. They all require baptism by full immersion. Typically, the
group does not accept previous family religious affiliations or non-immersion baptismal
experiences as valid. Families are commonly cut off from group members and do not grasp
the magnitude of this rite of passage.
My experience with this rite of passage, with baptism by immersion, occurred shortly before
I joined my group, The Walk (officially known as the Church of the Living Word). At the
time, I still had some involvement with the Jesus Movement, which the group‘s leadership
frowned upon. They encouraged us to cut off ―soulish realm‖ activity and submit completely
to the truly divine order of pyramidal authority they were restoring. I did eventually stop
attending Jesus Movement meetings and submitted to group leadership directives.
Background
To help you better understand my cult experience, I need to give a little background
information on the Restoration Movement, of which there are two basic categories. First,
there was the Restoration Movement of the 1830s, which had a tremendous impact on the
United States and the world. Many of the major groups that concern the Christian
community today had their beginnings in the Restoration Movement: for example, the
Jehovah‘s Witnesses, Church of Christ, and the Mormons. There is considerable Christian
effort to deal with the effects of these groups. Indeed, the vast majority of the counter-cult
ministries in the evangelical community focus on Mormons and Jehovah‘s Witnesses.
I was exposed to another category of the Restoration Movement, namely, the Latter Rain
Movement, which began in the late 1940s. The Jesus Movement, which began in the 1960s,
had its roots in the mainstream Pentecostal tradition of mainline Christianity. The
Pentecostal and Charismatic experience emphasizes personal direct experience with God,
which is much more subjective than the intellectual aspects of mainstream denominations.
In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the Latter Rain movement began to infiltrate the Jesus
Movement.
I graduated high school in 1971 at the height of the ―counter-culture‖ movement, or the
―hippie generation‖ (which by nature was quite anti-establishment and anti-organized
religion). My first exposure to the Jesus Movement occurred at a local mall shortly after
graduation. I was very responsive to the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s
because of its emphasis on a personal relationship with God, which meant a lot to me. I
also was introduced --and very open --to many of the first-century concepts that were said
to be based in the Bible: for example, speaking in tongues. I also became familiar and
comfortable with many practices, such as raising your hands to worship God, that were
common in Pentecostal circles, but not in mainstream denominations.
Bible-Cult Mind Control 101
David Clark
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
First I‘d like to thank the American Family Foundation and Denver Seminary for giving me
this opportunity to share my experience with you. Some personal background: I have
always considered myself to be a Christian. I attended Methodist and Lutheran churches. I
was confirmed and learned the basics of my faith. Although I was not initially baptized, I
later decided to receive sprinkling baptism in the Methodist Church
Parenthetically, those who have had any experience with Bible cults will understand the
significance of immersion and why these groups typically believe that one must be
immersed. Almost all of the bible-based cults I have been exposed to in the past twenty
three years contend that their organization is the true restoration of the first century/New
Testament Christian church. They all require baptism by full immersion. Typically, the
group does not accept previous family religious affiliations or non-immersion baptismal
experiences as valid. Families are commonly cut off from group members and do not grasp
the magnitude of this rite of passage.
My experience with this rite of passage, with baptism by immersion, occurred shortly before
I joined my group, The Walk (officially known as the Church of the Living Word). At the
time, I still had some involvement with the Jesus Movement, which the group‘s leadership
frowned upon. They encouraged us to cut off ―soulish realm‖ activity and submit completely
to the truly divine order of pyramidal authority they were restoring. I did eventually stop
attending Jesus Movement meetings and submitted to group leadership directives.
Background
To help you better understand my cult experience, I need to give a little background
information on the Restoration Movement, of which there are two basic categories. First,
there was the Restoration Movement of the 1830s, which had a tremendous impact on the
United States and the world. Many of the major groups that concern the Christian
community today had their beginnings in the Restoration Movement: for example, the
Jehovah‘s Witnesses, Church of Christ, and the Mormons. There is considerable Christian
effort to deal with the effects of these groups. Indeed, the vast majority of the counter-cult
ministries in the evangelical community focus on Mormons and Jehovah‘s Witnesses.
I was exposed to another category of the Restoration Movement, namely, the Latter Rain
Movement, which began in the late 1940s. The Jesus Movement, which began in the 1960s,
had its roots in the mainstream Pentecostal tradition of mainline Christianity. The
Pentecostal and Charismatic experience emphasizes personal direct experience with God,
which is much more subjective than the intellectual aspects of mainstream denominations.
In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the Latter Rain movement began to infiltrate the Jesus
Movement.
I graduated high school in 1971 at the height of the ―counter-culture‖ movement, or the
―hippie generation‖ (which by nature was quite anti-establishment and anti-organized
religion). My first exposure to the Jesus Movement occurred at a local mall shortly after
graduation. I was very responsive to the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s
because of its emphasis on a personal relationship with God, which meant a lot to me. I
also was introduced --and very open --to many of the first-century concepts that were said
to be based in the Bible: for example, speaking in tongues. I also became familiar and
comfortable with many practices, such as raising your hands to worship God, that were
common in Pentecostal circles, but not in mainstream denominations.
