15 Signs Your Church Functions Like a Cult
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Most people presume that religious institutions are safe spaces and that religious leaders rarely distort or weaponize doctrine for harm. This general sentiment persists, even among people who are familiar with religious corruption and the many wars, holocausts, hate groups, colonial empires, and caste systems that religious leaders have influenced throughout history.
Religious psychologists attribute this denial to the fact that many people turn to religion to find emotional catharsis, to escape grief or tragedy, or to find a sense of control or certainty about the unknown.
Critical thinking can be less important to people whose religiosity is emotionally driven. For these people, religion is often connected to their will to live and is the primary lens through which they make meaning of life. Consequently, a bias emerges that defies critical thinking: They misperceive any critique of religious harm within a particular context as an attack on religion altogether. They are unable to see how one can critique a thing precisely because they see immense value in it and therefore wish to do right by it.
Emotional bias to this degree lends itself to religious fundamentalism, or a movement to interpret religious scriptures or dogmas strictly and literally while also pursuing revival of a romanticized/mythical past and juxtaposing the alleged purity of one’s in-group against the alleged impurity of “worldly” out-groups.
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Content retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-cultural-competence/202606/15-signs-your-church-functions-like-a-cult.
