Christianity Can Be Cultish Part 1
YOUTH GROUPS
This blog began as a way for me to share how Jesus had revolutionized my life. My very first post is my "testimony." At the age of twelve, I was invited to join a youth group by my cousin. This group offered what I was missing-adventures, concerts, support, and inclusion. I came from an unhappy home and as a child wanted to commit suicide. My youth leader and sponsors at this new church presented the Gospel in a way I hadn't heard before. The message, 'Jesus wanted a relationship with me.'
Despite other teenagers calling us a cult, my Mom becoming concerned, and stickers agreeing with the statement that "we were brainwashed" because of Romans 12:1-2, I was a proud "Jesus Freak." From junior high all the way to receiving a Master's Degree, I was sold. Because of my extreme beliefs of what it meant to be a “true Christian,” I missed out on social opportunities, became weary of science, amplified my Borderline Disorder, and became unequipped for practical living.
I’m not talking about a going to church every Sunday, doing charity work, and singing in the choir type of Christian. No, I’m talking about the ‘I’m going to leave EVERYTHING and follow Jesus’ Christian. Youth Group was the fun and energetic just for kids church. When I got invited to the one I became a member of for six years, I was drawn in by fog machines, stage lights, talented musicians, funny games, and how the leader could talk about the Bible in a relevant way. These were the years of Adventure & Duct-taped Bibles. We were “challenged” to experience life in a way we hadn’t before; we were molded into something we were never meant to be.
If we examined the Evangelical Christian Youth Group which I was a part of according to Psychology Today’s post “12 Signs That Someone May be Involved in Cult” I would answer them as such:
The Big Idea-Presenting Jesus in a fun, relational, much-needed thing to have. To have Him, you must surrender your life (way of doing and thinking about things) and submit to the Spirit. Why wouldn’t you want to do this for the person who loved you so much to take away the sins you committed against God, your creator?
Love-Bombing-Jesus doesn’t just love you, He likes you. Since we are “heirs of Christ” we share in the royal status, we are ‘princes and princesses.’ We are the ‘chosen.’ God honors those who serve Him, all things work for the good for those who love Him. The church is Christ’s bride, we are cherished above all else.
A New Life-2 Cor 5:17 “Behold the old has gone and the new has come! Therefore anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.” We must be reborn, baptized even. We must have the fruit of the spirit. You are a little Christ. You are “god-image bearers,” the only chance someone might see Jesus today. You are set apart, called holy, and sanctified. Live like you have been saved or else it's like you’re crucifying Jesus all over again
Growth- Once you’re “saved or rededicated or reborn” you don’t just poof to heaven because God has a mission for you. You must study His word, the Holy Bible, to find out the solutions to everyday problems. It is your life support, your milk. You get into a group with like-minded (and same-gendered) people to hold each other accountable to this new lifestyle. You go on retreats to strengthen your walk with Christ. You fast to better meditate on scripture.
Rights of Passage-If you loved Jesus and loved getting your peers to experience what you have found join the ministry team. Wow, you’re so good at that skill we needed you to fill in for, how about you become a small group leader? Wow, people look up to you, why not become a sponsor? Then if you get all your credentials from a seminary you may be as lucky as a WASPM (white-anglo saxon protestant man) to become a pastor.
Isolution-Don’t go to that or this church because they teach things this and that way which is against what the Bible says here and there. You are a city on a hill, a light not easily broken, clothed in armor Satan himself can not defeat.
Hate-Bonding-we’re being persecuted because the Bible says the world hates us. We hate the sin, love the sinner. We will do anything to help the world see they are blinded.
Traitors-Joyce Meyers is a great author but she’s too prideful. Rob Bell is a great speaker but misinterprets the Bible. The 700 club makes Christianity look boring. America has numb Christians, most Christians don’t even read their own Bibles! Those who leave prove they were never saved to begin with.
Witch Hunts-Satan has disguised himself as an angel of light deceiving the world. It is us vs. them. How far will you go to prove Jesus is your all in all? Will you be the next Mother Teresa, Jim Elliot, Andy Stanley? What we invest our time into we become; who our friends are we soon mirror. Do you really want to be “left behind”?
Persecution Paranoia-in my youth group’s case, we were being hammered with how rumors, lies, and gossip would destroy us all. When in reality, it was to cover up a sex predator. The youth group severed over loyalty to this person.
Attack-in my youth group’s case once the truth finally came out, the pastors told us not to talk about it. We questioned not only our past with these people but also what the future would mean. How could someone “so godly” do something so horrible? Were all sins truly the same? Why was this covered up for so long? What else haven’t we been told? Was everything just a ruse?
Final Conflict-many left youth group and the church. Many still defended the culprit. Many just said fuck it…
But not me. I stayed in the faith for another ten years. I repeated the cycle over and over again. I was taught that our allegiance was to a God whom we could not see, not man. I was humbled because I put my youth leaders on a pedestal where they did not belong. I continued to witness three more churches with sexual misconduct, the fall of Mark Driscoll, and other “brothers & sisters” following a racist Christian president before I left. Christianity wasn’t my religion, it was my life thanks to my youth group.
And thanks to my youth group and those following, I now grow weary and skeptical of ever joining officially labeled groups. I despise the fact that we encourage our children to go to such events if we don’t know everything that’s being taught. As an adult who’s stepped away from Christianity, I can now see how my youth group’s tactics were similar to other cults. We had our own “godly” language, clothing, attitudes, politics, and music. We can’t ignore that the evangelical movement is making children drink the…(you get the point). Too much of a good thing can be bad and in this case, it was Jesus.
