For the past few months, my girlfriend has been hanging out with a friend from work and her church group on the weekends. She says she has been learning a lot that has changed her views on things, but doesn't go into a lot of details. She says the things she has been taught would "sound crazy" if she told me because she isn't well versed enough to really back them up with evidence but that she is impressed with how much this church seems to have answers to questions. She also has not told her parents about these things. Strange, but no biggie. I try to be open minded about things as I am not religious at all, but I don't claim to have any big answers either about god or anything like that.
Tonight I found out she has some "special meeting" with someone important in the church. With further probing I found she is meeting with someone from Korea in the World Mission Society Church of God. I know very little about this group, but from what I can tell they are relatively culty and tend to aggressively recruit young vulnerable/lonely women going through a big life change. There are some past controversies with the group possibly being a doomsday cult, but idk how big that plays into their belief system really, they seem far less scary of a group than Scientology but something gives me the impression that they are manipulating her. I am already trying to tow a fine line of not pushing her away as we have been struggling with other relationship/mental health issues, but I really don't want to let her go deep down a rabbit hole here if it is something that is dangerous. FWIW, it also looks like this group does a decent amount of legitimate charity work.
Yes. Good point (thought that was understood).
Yeah, I wanted to specifically name it because I had a now ex-friend who wound up in a fucking pyramid scheme after he went in with an “open mind”. Can’t do that with cults and other scams that have manipulative recruiting strategies.
Agreed. That's mest up. My intention was OP would be a dissenting voice, but if they're in relationship problems that could also be counterproductive hence the neutral party suggestion a friend or relative perhaps. Even if not a directly dangerous position also watch for financial scams 4 sho! Good point again.
Yeah, I really feel for OP with this. Pulling someone out of a cult is a really fucking hard thing to navigate. The person who is being targeted is being preyed on by the rest of the cult and gradually groomed until they’re dependent on them. I thought that shit was just in horror movies until I saw it in real life.
Full disclosure when I started participating in left wing politics whether mutual aid or more explicitly political organizations. Many of my friends were cult sceptical of my interests. Tbh, around 2007 that wasn't an unfair assessment in many respects.
There are definitely left wing cults, so it's good your friends were keeping an eye out.
Any ideology with a strong mission has the potential to be exploited by cranks or turn inward.
Perfect example despite the memes:
:posadas:
Did you wind up in a full-on cult or was it more of an overzealous org? The line between those two can sometimes be grey.
Why are so many leftist orgs either cultish or yoga clubs? I feel like this is a primarily American issue as unions have been so fully hobbled here.
Latest example: Black Hammer