My fiancée and I just watched the first episode of Under the Banner of Heaven. It's a difficult show, but so necessary especially in light of how religious cults have gained traction in this country.
It made me think about the things that all religious cults have in common. Our podcast, Full Mutuality, has a forthcoming episode discussing the markers of a cult (so be sure to subscribe if you haven't already), but to spoil that conversation just a little bit, we use the BITE model of authoritarian control as the basis for our discussion.
So many of us have come from high-control groups pretending to not be cults or claiming that cults are groups that have "wrong doctrine," so our ability to determine what a cult is might be lacking in some areas.
Crucial to living life outside of those groups is finding a community of people who are willing to walk alongside you as you reflect on what you went through. That's part of the reason we created Dauntless Media Collective. In addition to producing podcasts for Exvangelicals and other cult survivors, we have a Discord server designed to build community for folks who are deconstructing and decolonizing their own faiths and traditions. If you're interested in connecting with other folks on a similar journey as you, swing by discord.gg/C3DUZdF3HJ. Hope to see you there!
