Cult vs. Community

Many years ago, I was fortunate to be a member of a solid, lay community. For almost seven years, I got up and prayed with my companions, a house of fourteen in a community of two-thousand, worked at various jobs, and even worked full-time for a while for the community. I learned discipline, order, virtue training, and servanthood.

The community was outward looking, involved in many "ministries" which reached out to the very pagan community in which it was located. We had street ministry, coffee house ministry, youth and children catechesis, members working in parishes in RCIA and other ministries, and homosexual rescue ministry.

This community had one huge focus which brought us all together. We all loved Jesus Christ, and He was (and still is) the center of our lives.

Communities bring life to other people, evangelize, grow.

Cults are inward looking, centering on the members themselves, and become stagnant spiritually. Frequently, Catholic cults, and, yes, there are some, care more about the group than the people outside the group.

Yes, commitment was an important and necessary part of the community to which I belonged. We met daily in our small groups, weekly in groups of one-hundred, based on the Mosaic organization, and weekly in larger groupings, monthly with the entire community. One met with one's spiritual director once a week, or once every two weeks.

Ministries met to organize, plan, go out into the world to spread the love of Christ to all.

Cults just exist to feed themselves. And, cults usually believe things which are not Catholic, and even against Church teaching.

The sign that a person is in a cult rather than a community can be isolationism, or paranoia. Indeed, the cult defends its own position by turning the wagons inward, or by digging a moat and throwing alligators in the moat.

Not good.

Not healthy.

As people come together for protection and common support, one can follow two simple rules to "take the temperature" of the group and determine whether the group has fallen into the sickness of a cult, or is a healthy community.

Rule One, are the members orthodox and following the teachings of the Catholic Church, loyal to Rome and to the Magisterium?

Rule Two, are the members reaching out to others, spreading the Gospel, doing works of mercy both spiritual and material?

If one can answer "yes" to both questions, one has encountered a healthy community.

If one of the answers is "no", run the other way.

Years ago, I encountered a Catholic community which had one goal-to sustain itself and keep the community going. This community had become cultic, focusing inwardly on itself and its members and not reaching out. Not surprisingly, many of the members had deviated in their beliefs so that they no longer followed Church Teaching.

Cults can seem orthodox, until one speaks with members who begin to exhibit paranoia, exclusivity, pride. Orthodoxy means following the Church in teaching and in practice. Sadly, cults may be found at either extreme spectrum of schismatic ideas, both traditional and liberal.

A healthy community does not have members who are hiding from the world, but members who are trying to save souls.

Preaching the Gospel and saving souls is the call of every Catholic.

Christ gave us a command, not a suggestion when He said this:

Matthew 28:19 Douay-Rheims

19 Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Each lay person is called to teach, to evangelize, to bring others to Christ. We are not called merely to protect ourselves from spiritual danger. 

A strong community does protect its members, but those members also must respond to the love of God for all people.

Learn the difference. To become a member of a cult will endanger your immortal soul.

Another sign of cultic behavior is liturgical rigorism. Those trads who do not believe the NO is valid have departed from Church teaching and have fallen into a cultic mindset. Rigorism is not the same as obedience to liturgical norms. Obedience to the Church's rules on liturgy, on ritual, is a virtue. Only attending a TLM on Sunday,and not attending Mass if only a NO is available is a mortal sin, and those who join together holding such a false idea have formed a cult.

Be careful, be honest, be open to others, be truly orthodox. love Christ above all, and be obedient.

Then, you will be in the loving arms of the Church and not in a cult.

See also

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2015/08/paranoia-vs-prep-and-ouroboros.html

Paranoia vs. Prep and The Ouroboros

Those of us who know the signs of the times are prepping, hopefully spiritually, and some, physically.

I find that for the most part, those who are prepping, getting ready by pursuing Christ as the focus of their daily lives are healthy, whole, and, even humorous people. I have always believed that a sense of humor was a sign of health and even holiness. I do not mean the raucous type of trickster humor, but the wit of a Thomas More, or Chesterton.

Prepping for heaven is the call of all Christians. We ask humbly for grace and opportunities to share God's love by caring for others, serving God and preparing for eternal life.

But, prepping is not the same, oh no, as being paranoid.

Now, on this blog, I have written upteen times about those ostrich-Catholics who do not "get it", that we are a Church heading for times never seen before on earth.

Today, I write about the extremes of the opposite problem, the paranoia of some Christians, who isolate themselves in deceit, rage, fear, and close the door to others in their lives.

Here is a min-definition, or rather, a description of the symptoms of paranoia.

Sad to say, I have met some people lately who exhibit some, if not all, of these symptoms.

Symptoms of paranoia and paranoid disorders include intense and irrational mistrust or suspicion, which can bring on sense of rage, hatred, and betrayal. Some people suffering from paranoid personality may have a high capacity to annoy or enrage others because of rigid and maladaptive behavior. Some identifiable beliefs and actions of paranoid-related disorders include mistrust, taking offense easily, difficulty with forgiveness, defensive attitude in response to imagined criticism, preoccupation with hidden motives, fear of being deceived or taken advantage of, inability to relax, argumentative, abrupt, stubborn, self-righteous, and perfectionistic.

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/paranoia-and-paranoid-disorders

Paranoia resists treatment, as frequently, because of the nature of the illness, the paranoid person blames others for their discomfort, fears, and isolation. Sadly, the paranoid person does the opposite of what would bring healing-becomes so defensive as to push away others and deny the illness.

Dangerous attitudes bloom in the mind and soul of the paranoid person, who cannot rest or trust God and, therefore, cannot trust any other person.

Preppers are not likely to be paranoid, but far-sighted people who can see the logical consequences of the actions of governments or individuals.

Conspiracy theories abound today, but those who are paranoid do not need conspiracy theories, as they make up their own versions of reality.

The world judges preppers, even saints who speak of the Kingdom of God and the ultimate goal of all of us as heaven, as complete loonies. Many saints have been accused of being "out of touch with reality", when the truth is that the truly holy person is in touch with the real, the most real, Who Is a Person, God.

Thousands of religious people were put into the Gulag as "nut-cases", as "delusional" because they were true Christians. Those who hate Christ and His Church, and who gain control over the rights of others to practice their religion, too often have the power to determine "sanity".

In the future, one can see how being politically incorrect will be considered a disease, a mental aberration.

Following Christ means being more sane that those who pretend that there is no spiritual world and that God does not exist.

Pray for those paranoid who are vulnerable now more than ever.

Pray for those who become hostile, or angry, or defensive. Pray for those who hold grudges and perceive attacks on their characters when none occur. Pray for those who isolate themselves. This personality disorder can be caused by many things. Woundedness may be one. 

Those who always reference all details, conversations, or events to themselves exhibit paranoia.

In this Age of the Narcissistic, paranoia becomes more common. Many occultic groups are made up of those who are either narcissists, or paranoid, or both. Self-referential behavior marks the paranoid.

The ancient symbol of the dragon eating its tail refers to the over-self-reflective. This thing is called the ouroboros, and appears in some occultic groups as a sign of Gnosticism. Some yoga, which is a religion, refers to the ouroboros of cyclic energy. Of course, such energies are false, or worse, demonic.

Pray for the paranoid. Sometimes one who suffers from such a trait can be healed, or delivered, depending on the source of the paranoia.

Bring peace to those who do not know peace.

And, be a prepper, without falling into the paranoia trap.