Below is a transcript of this video which was produced to illustrate the typical characteristics of cults. The videos were sourced from cultinformation.org.uk with the kind permission of the owner. There are four main types of cults: (1) religious cults (2) political cults (3) psychotherapy/educational cults, and (4) commercial cults. This video is designed to incorporate features across of them all. The Westminster Tradition is a religious cult. Therefore I have removed from the transcript those elements which are not applicable and I have changed the wording to more closely reflect the specifics of The Westminster Tradition…
Don’t you want devoted followers, who will leave their families for you, give their money to you, give their bodies to you, give up their lives for you and consider you the anointed of God? Don’t you want to become a cult leader? Here’s how.
Structure your cult like an onion with the most benign and helpful features on the outside (‘preaching the Gospel according to the scriptures of the prophets and the apostles, declaring forth the tenets that ignited the Protestant Reformation, aligning faithfully to the doctrines of grace, practising Experimental Calvinism and debunking the heresies of the final apostasy’) and the most controlling, kookie and evil parts at the secret inner core.
Use deception. Don’t tell them who you really are. Lie (‘Creedwise, we subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Cambridge Platform’). Leave out important information such as the fact that anyone who joins The Westminster Tradition will be expected to separate from their former churches and probably their families as well. Or distort information. “Are you trying to recruit me?” “No, we just deposit the truth and move on.” “Are you trying to split the church?” “No, we haven’t come to cause schism and start churches.”
Establish front groups. “We’re an organisation set up to strengthen the churches against the heresies of our times.” Promise to fulfil their dreams. “Don’t you want… unconditional love and fellowship?” “You can join us and be special.” “Join our elite mission to restore all things.” Offer them something free and get them to feel obliged to give you something in return. “Well, we’ve spent a long time going through the scriptures with you – the least you could do is come to our Bible conference. The least you could do is gather your family to hear us. The least you could do is open your pulpit to us. The least you could do is help distribute our Bible Reading Calendars.” You can tell them time is running out and they must make their decision now or it will be too late. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Any hesitation amounts to apostasy. Nobody who rejected John the Baptist ever came to Christ.” “This is an issue of burning urgency.” Don’t give them time to think.
Diminish doubting commiseration by separating your new recruits from each other. Divide them among different dormitories during conferences and ensure they have a minimum of privacy or opportunity to talk amongst themselves. Stop married couples spending too much time together and if possible separate children from parents. Surround them with happy true believers so when in doubt they will tend to do what everyone around them is doing and believe that is normal. At all costs keep dissenters away from your new recruits. Ban them from conferences or sequester them far away.
Start with a prolonged period of love bombing. Surround new recruits with unconditional love and attention. Take them to special restaurants; to the zoo; to shopping centres; parks; seafront promenades. Arrange for families to entertain them in their homes. Tell them that they are very unique and the only ones from their former churches whose eyes God opened. In fact, they are their country’s only hope. Your cult family should act friendly and interested. Get information and hone their weak spots. “Tell us about yourself.” Encourage them to give their testimonies in public, then print the same without giving them any opportunity to edit the transcript. Use this information to manipulate them. Use it to attack them in sermons. Spread the knowledge of their sins secretly within the group so that nobody will trust them. Alienate them from the rest through WhatsApp denunciation sessions. Publicize things they spoke in confidence to the ends of the world through the medium of The Jerusalem Times. Gradually over time you’ll begin to shape the recruit’s behaviour by granting or withholding this love and attention. After they’ve bonded, slowly start making your demands upon them. The message being: “Nothing in this world has value unless it relates to our presiding pastor, or our special mandate.” Control their behaviour. Build them up with flattery, then smash them back down. Repeat.
Invite them to sell their property and live in a community. “Come live with us – how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity – therefore you should move to Block 173; you should move to Shiloh; you should move to Green Mansions; wear these clothes; eat this food; all you need is two hours sleep.”
Prescribe a rigid schedule. Keep them active by having mandatory sporting events and with as little sleep as possible by making them drive long distances; or by massaging pastor throughout the night; or by attending long response sessions; or by staying up through the night watching TV with the group. “Pastor’s love for our souls is such that he barely sleeps. He stays up all night seeking God for a fresh message. Pastor dies daily – he has the weight of the churches on his shoulders… and all you think about is sleep!” If you can, restrict their eating habits to low protein food.
Control their thoughts. “You know nothing! Pastor taught you everything! He picked you up from the dung-heap. You’re Asian mud! If you read the Bible a thousand times you could never understand it. God has granted our presiding pastor special illumination. What he teaches you can never be found in any commentary. He’s the Paul of our days. His doctrine is very pure.” Control their emotions. Induce guilt. “You haven’t changed an iota. You’re a blinking idiot. You’re like a dog returning to its vomit.” And fear. “I think none of you are justified. Many of you haven’t even left Egypt.” “The enemy will carry you off to hell.”
Control information. Keep them from knowing all the workings of the cult. Start a daily newsletter and ensure that not even those on the editorial team have access to all the facts. Block out any information which is critical of the group. Shun anybody who has left. “They’ve become the launching pad of Satan. They’ve bitten the hand that fed them. They’re like the sons of Korah. They’re treacherous!” Persuade your followers that the worst judgments come upon those who touch Elijah Chacko, the Lord’s anointed. Encourage members to spy and report on one another.
Separate the recruit from himself, by attacking the self and inducing a mental breakdown disguised as a spiritual awakening. “All my previous experiences were false. I’m convinced that pastor Elijah is truly the last prophet.” When they start to freak out, tell them they are flushing out the bad stuff inside. Make them paranoid about their own bodies or thought processes. “You’re battling your sinful nature.” “You have a sleepy spirit. You have a bloody Brahmin spirit. You have a liberal spirit. You have a fidgety spirit. You’re still a bloody Chinaman. The Chinese spirit is so strong in you. An evil spirit entered you when you questioned presiding pastor.” Tell them that there is a part of their mind they must eliminate in order to find true contentment. “Your pride, your bloody pride is the source of all your problems.”
Claim authority. It can come from a divine source. “Your Bible clearly states that I am the Second Elijah.” Or special knowledge. “How shall they hear without a preacher? I am the anointed preacher of our times. Mine is a special mandate to restore all things. What I know far surpasses all the Reformers and Puritans.” Make up stories about yourself to boost your importance. “I used to work in Singapore real-estate. I knew everything about Singapore. People used to call me ‘Thomas the Apostle’. They all used to want to see me…” “We had regular all night prayer meetings. When everyone else had fallen silent, the Spirit of God was still very strong with us.” “When I was leading the Sunday school at Jesus Saves Mission, everyone wanted to come to my group. It was by far the biggest group.” “I could have had a very successful career, but I gave it all up.” “My preaching in America was so loud that their recording equipment couldn’t deal with it.” “I could have been a very successful football coach.” “Before my stroke I was the fastest runner. I was on my way to representing Singapore in the Olympics.” “I don’t need to refer to my Bible because I know it so well.” “Poke me anywhere – Paul will come out.” But don’t be stupid about it – start slowly. A good con man takes a little bit of truth and a lot of lies and pulls the wool over the eyes of the ignorant.
Induce a trance state and self-hypnosis by practising repetitive acts like having lengthy and repetitive response sessions; prayer meetings in which everybody has to confess their sins; editing vast numbers of responses and ranking them in order; conveying messages multiple times. Practice prolonged hours of meditation. In these states they are more receptive and suggestible. Revert them back to childish dependence and mindless obedience.
Encourage separation from their families. “Your friends and family probably won’t understand.” “It doesn’t sound like your friends and family love you if they can’t support your new decision.” “Maybe you should stay away from them. It’s unhealthy for you to be around unenlightened people anyway.” “If you can’t recruit your friends, cut off from them.” “Stop wasting time with non-believers.”
Encourage dependency and conformity and discourage autonomy and individuality. “The special mandate must be the focus. Our own opinions and circumstances must be subordinate.” Have confessionals where people demonise their early lives and only praise their lives in the group. Baptise new members and persuade them that before joining The Westminster Tradition, they were completely under the power of the False Prophet. Rewrite the past as terrible even if it included genuine spiritual experiences. “Before I came to The Westminster Tradition I was a bad person. I was greedy, misguided, self-centered and lost. My life is wonderful now. I hate my old life.”
Isolate them from the rest of the world. Make them feel part of a special elite group with an important mandate. Tighten your group’s bond by establishing scapegoats and enemies. Demonise outsiders as being spiritual enemies, under the sway of the evil trinity: biased, corrupt, or conspiring against the group. Demonise them as being spiritual enemies, on the other side in the twin battles of Armageddon and Gog and Magog. Develop an ‘us versus them’ mentality.
Fighting resistance: tell them their critical thoughts are evidence they have committed sins against the group. Start investigating them and make up crimes. Spread rumours and conduct character assassinations. “I think I want to leave.” “You must be insane!” “Don’t forsake your salvation -Elijah’s gospel is the only one which can save.” Make them feel guilty. “We’re doing important work here! Do you expect following Elijah Chacko to be easy? Deny yourself! We’re all called upon to make sacrifices for the cause. Just when things get tough you want to give up. You’re weak. Do you want to fall back into your old, dirty ways? What’s more important? Our mission? Our family? Eternal salvation? Or your petty grievances! You’re being negative, ignorant, selfish and sinful! Our pastor is flawless. His doctrine is flawless. There must be something wrong with YOU.” “There must be something wrong with me.” “Yes, there is.”
Indoctrinate with fear. Tell them that they could be possessed by evil spirits, or suggest that if they should ever leave, something bad will happen to them. “I’m just warning you that without us, you’re liable to get into a bad accident, get sick, even die.”
It’s that simple. Now, don’t you want to become a cult leader? Don’t you want devoted followers, who leave their families for you, give their money to you, give their bodies to you, give up their lives for you and will kill for you? “I will do what you say for the cause. I will leave my family for the cause. I will give you my money for the cause. I will give you my body for the cause. I will die for the cause. I love you.”
This is a very insightful video showing how powerful the pressure is to conform to a group which holds to a unanimous belief. This is exactly the dynamic which is engineered by Elijah Chacko in order to put undue pressure upon people during response sessions, table talk, elder’s meetings and thanksgiving sessions. This dynamic is a large factor in coercing people into remaining silent – even when they know something has not been faithful to the facts, or has been unjust. Very few are willing to be that single voice of dissent.
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