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There are a handful of definitions for what a religious cult is, especially depending on who you ask within the Christian Church, and they can differ in important ways. Most cult experts agree that a “cult” is a high-control group that is held together or led by a charismatic, narcissistic, and authoritarian leader at its center.
Over the past several years, I’ve come up with a criterion to help me determine if a Christian church or ministry is a cult based on what I’ve learned about highly controlling cults and cult leaders. The first thing in that criterion is control.
6 Red Flags of Cultic Control in Your Church
If your church has a culture of control over its members, it’s a huge red flag that you may be in an abusive cult. Control is one of the main characteristics that defines a cult of any kind, and when it comes to a local church or Christian ministry, there are several red flags you can quickly and easily spot to determine their level of control.
False Authority
At the top of every cult’s government, there is a narcissistic and authoritarian leader who claims to have an ungodly amount of authority over their members. This authority is an essential for cult leaders to oppress and control people.
According to the bible, all authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is our only mediator and all believers in Christ have direct access to God through Him by the Holy Spirit. Nowhere does Scripture give “pastors” or elders authority to control people in an abusive or oppressive way, nor are they closer to God or higher in some spiritual hierarchy than all other believers.
This doesn’t leave much room for narcissistic church leaders, so to practice the amount of control they desire, they must resort to false usurped authority.
Without this veil of false authority, getting compliance and blind submission from cult members is virtually impossible. Without a title and an office, the pastor of any church is no more than a complete stranger who calls himself/herself a Christian and thinks they can order you around, tell you how to live, and determine your eternal status before God simply because they own a building legally classified as a church and you’re in it.
Once this false authority is established, cult leaders can enforce all sorts of mechanisms of control onto their members, which brings us to our next red flag.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.””
- Matthew 28:18
Legal Controls
Whether it’s a membership contract that obligates you to submit to your church leaders without question, an NDA that legally forces you to keep your mouth shut when you see abusive or other nefarious activity, or any other type of legal document that puts you at the mercy of your church leaders, legal controls of any kind in a church or ministry setting often have one-sided, controlling, and oppressive intentions.
Most Christians don’t realize when they sign a church membership agreement or contract, they’re legally submitting themselves to the church’s leaders as authorities over them in virtually any way the church deems necessary. If false authority is the veil through which controlling cults operate, the membership contract is the glue that binds it to your face.
If you’re thinking of joining a church or ministry and it feels like you’re signing your life away, that’s probably exactly what you’re doing.
In the earliest Christian churches, including the Apostolic churches of the New Testament, this kind of legalism didn’t exist. The first believers didn’t legally bind themselves to their church leaders and sign oaths to obey them in sickness and in health unto death do they part.
Don’t get me wrong. Some churches have official memberships and agreements that don’t subjugate or otherwise oppress members at all. I don’t think it’s cultic or abusive for ministry leaders to ask members to agree to some basic and reasonable prerequisites to join their group.
That being said, if your church has a clause (or several) in their membership agreement that gives them authority over you in the same way a parent has over their child, an employer has over their employee, or a god has over their creations, the control level in that church is far too high.
You’re an adult human being. They’re not paying you to work, they’re not your parents, and they’re not your mediator to God. Contrary to what many of them might claim, pastors and other ministry leaders are nothing more than your brothers and sisters in Christ who have a building where they gather and the gift of teaching. Any authority that comes with that isn’t much. Don’t let them take more.
“Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!”
Isaiah 10:1-2
Church Discipline
Another big red flag that a church wields cultic control over its members is church discipline, or in other words, narcissistic coercive control.
Church discipline uses the cult’s false authority to coercively (through threats of discipline, excommunication, etc) control, spy on, and punish church members. This is why there’s a membership agreement glued to your face: so they can use it against you.
In highly controlling churches, discipline often leads to humiliation, shaming, and it creates a culture of deception, unethical surveillance, and backbiting. What’s supposedly meant to keep everyone in check ends up being a weapon of totalitarian abuse wielded by narcissistic, power hungry, and often sadistic leaders.
Matthew 18 is commonly exploited to justify the abuse of power in churches, as well as abusive humiliation and tyranny, but Jesus’ instructions to His disciples as leaders paint a much different picture.
“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles domineer over them, and those in high position exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wants to become prominent among you shall be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.””
- Matthew 28:25-28
Isolation
Cults often use isolationist practices to maintain control over their members and limit other influences that could challenge the group's beliefs or false authority. Encouraging or requiring members to isolate themselves from family, trusted friends, non-members, and “worldly” outside influences is one example of cult isolation.
Many Christians can testify to being scolded, humiliated, or punished by their church for being “unequally yolked” with non-believers, non-members, former members, or people who criticize the church. Anyone that could be a threat to the church’s control over the member’s life will be demonized, ostracized, and condemned to maintain that control.
Additionally, controlling Christian cults will also isolate members from other members by their extreme church discipline practices. By establishing a system of legalistic rules and standards that must be governed by authoritarian leaders, they create a culture of perpetual spying and gossip.
Another isolationist tactic practiced by controlling churches is the echo chamber of information they bombard and surround members with. The controlling cult will set itself up as a one-stop shop for virtually anything a believer could want or need in their spiritual or social, or even educational, life.
Sunday School, church services, Bible studies, small groups, summer retreats, winter retreats, conferences, conventions, potlucks, podcasts, homeschooling resources, seminaries, and the list goes on. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a ministry or church creating helpful content and making it available to people. That’s not the problem.
The problem is when the church’s content becomes the only content the member is allowed, or able, to consume. This kind of information control isolates church members from any ideas, teachings, or influences that don’t align with their church’s, with the ultimate goal of controlling how and what church members think about anything and everything.
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12
Doctrinal Purity
Another tactic of thought control frequently practiced by controlling churches is the demand for doctrinal purity.
It’s impossible to have doctrinal perfection, but controlling cults demand it. In their narcissism, cult leaders believe they know everything there is to know about God, and you must agree with them, or risk eternal damnation.
Disagreements, questions, doubts, and debates between members and leaders aren’t tolerated in thought-controlling cults, and the truth or falsehood of a doctrine is determined, not by a reasonable examination of Scripture, but by the opinions of the leaders. They classify them as creeds, confessions, traditions, “historic” Christianity, “orthodoxy”, or the “essentials” of the faith, but in reality, there are few hills worth dying on.
For controlling cult leaders, however, everything is a hill to die on. If you don’t agree with every jot and tittle of the cult’s interpretation of Scripture in virtually every way, you will be punished, demonized, slandered, excommunicated, and condemned.
“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,And the understanding of those who have understanding, I will confound.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-19
Emotional Control
Last but not least, cults use emotional control tactics to manipulate members, ensure loyalty, obedience, and dependency on the cult. This one is easy to spot for people more attuned to their emotions because they can immediately tell when “something isn’t right.”
An intuitive and discerning person is a tremendous threat to the controlling cult, so those “feelings” and “emotions” must be kept under strict control. They’ll say, “Don’t trust your heart because it’s deceitful and wicked,” while also insisting you can trust theirs.
Some of the cult’s emotional control tactics can include love-bombing, humiliation, shaming, guilt-tripping, fear-mongering (ex: threats of discipline, excommunication, humiliation, Hell), emotional suppression (ex: feelings are bad and need to be controlled/suppressed), and creating an emotionally euphoric worship experience.
These tactics create an environment where members feel they can neither trust themselves nor safely express their true emotions, leading to a dependency on the cult for emotional validation and guidance. The result is a community where individual emotional autonomy is systematically dismantled, ensuring that members remain under the cult's influence through a cycle of emotional highs and lows. This manipulation not only keeps members in line but also makes leaving the cult emotionally daunting because they've been conditioned to fear the outside world and their own feelings.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1
Final Thoughts
Recognizing the red flags of cultic control is essential in protecting yourself and your loved ones from abusive and destructive cults, whether it’s a church, para-church ministry, a corporation, organization, or even just a one-on-one relationship. By recognizing these red flags, you can equip yourself with the knowledge to discern a safe church from a controlling cult.
Remember, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, not oppression or slavery. Christ liberates us from the shackles of sin, death, and oppressive religion.
So, check your church for these red flags of cultic control, use discernment, examine everything, and as always, please do not feed the wolves.
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