If you were an undercover journalist

[jokerman93]

If you were an undercover journalist and your asignment was to crawl inside the Christian Dominionist cult and report on the subculture and politics of the people who follow it, what would you do? Where would you go? Who would you be?

[sweetheart]

1. I would dress up a 19 years old boy

Who has been exposed to full training about religions theology
and cult dynamics. Then move him in to the area with a new job
at burger snatch. He attends the church. Young men penetrate
organized stupidity better. ;-)

Not that a Christian Cult would not be stupid, perhaps jesus christ
himself has arisen in their chambres, and whilst i am a fool, he is
feeding the world's poor with one loaf of bread.

[jokerman93]

5. what makes you say that

what makes you say that about young men???

Do you have experience with these kinds of people?

[eleny]

6. I think the point was..

that a young man would be approached, thereby revealing things about the cult. Not that there would be something deviant about young men in general. That's how I took it.

[jokerman93]

7. yeah

I didn't see it as deviant, just that it's very specific. Do the seek out young men for conversion? Is there a reason for this?

That's the line I was thinking on. I doubt there's much overt interest in sex among these types of believers.

[sweetheart]

8. I myself spent

decades in a cult, and regret it not a bit... just my cult is
a buddhist one.

Christian patriarch's will not accept a woman infiltrator in to their
inner circle unless they fuck her. I suggest a man, as he will be
more likely to be accepted as a genuine christian nutter, as geesh,
check any college campus and its rife with young male christian
zealots.

I've enormous exposure to cults of all sorts and people in cults.

I believe the first amendment says freedom of religion. You are free
to believe that your car is god, and to form a church and evangelize
that wisdom. That is good. In religion, nobody is a sucker. There
are experiences of life, and the police should not meddle with the
first amendment unless underage, or WMD's are involved. Outside
these things. The first amendment is a last thin border dividing any
remaining consensus left in these United States. Touch it at our
peril.

[jokerman93]

9. thanks for the input

Sounds like you've seen allot of stuff on the inside.

[sweetheart]

10. Well if its really a personality cult

Which is what you're on to, eh? Then you're gonna have to gain the
trust of the authority of the cult, which means total sincerity.
If you can't look someone in the eye and tell them you love them
and have them believe you, even when you're totally lying. If you
can't do that, then you'll never survive cult trials.

Cults have lifestyles and group beliefs that define and insider
from an outsider. Inside of this are the "nobles" those senior
members of the cult who've been around the founder longer.

If the cult leader is tremendously poerful, then they themself will
be like christ, and sense your insincerity. People tried to
infiltrate our cult. They were obviously not hip to the subtlety
of buddhist enlightenment... our cult barred people at the door
unless an existing cult member would vouch for them.

The nobles are generally arrogant, and often the souls who, in life
are part of the clan of the teacher/master/cult leader. They can
sometimes have lots of family karma together and whatnot, so that
a visitor to the cult might feel these past life family karmas
playing out amongst the nobles.

The rank and file cult member is the luckiest one, in my opinion.
I always take that path. I'm the white belt in every bloody cult
going. The cult leaders are often charmed and inspired religious
people, and i wholly support that, innovation in religion is as
healthy as it is in technology.

Steps.

Pray to the lord jesus in your heart and surrender to your lord
god. Get used to talking about that. Say "Amen" a lot. Work your
own zealot style. The best is the cryer. The emotional cult member
who crys when the leader is around devotional tears. It'll take
you years to become that person, and god knows, you might be
in the cult by that time, having forgotten your infiltrator role.

You gotta be able to fake being a real lover of jesus and have a
fucking good story about how you have given up your life to come
to this town and be in a cult. The story is less important than
your passion for christ.

Basics on the bible. There was an enlightened guy 2000 years ago,
and they nailed him up, because he threatened the empire with his
power. Depending on the religion, you will either be lead to
believe the bible is actually literal? Or it will be kinda modern
like that christ is "you" because he has a body and took a life
suffereing on this earth, and that he died for your sins and that
by this, you, if you totally surrender to christs will and ask
his deepest forgiveness from every pore of your soul, that your
great gift is to life a life in the kingdom of god.

The cult meta-religion is something you'll have to learn, as if you
can't discuss the basic beliefs about things you'll not be accepted.
Especially important are beliefs about protocol and the master.
Never touch the master, always leave money offerings and be
generous and polite.

If you're going to infiltrate a religion, at least be generious and
good towards those there who wish you no ill. Donate a big good
donation to them after your done finding them out to be nothing
but americans.

PS. Here is a much more interesting cult to infiltrate, and i'm
afraid, were you to infiltrate, you will discover that he's for
real and it will change your life.

www.adidam.org

www.rigpaladrang.org

[ret5hd]

2. i would start out at one of the small...

fundamentalist neighborhood churches, maybe pentacostal, and familiarize myself with the lingo and the "act". get comfortable with the role. if you feel like you've been "outed" at one church, go to another.

after you feel you have it down, you would need to move up to one of the churches tied into the politics and money circles.

[Jane Austin]

3. Easy

I'd start with the financials.

I don't know how to do this, but I think if you followed the money, you'd find out a whole bunch of stuff that the perps sure wouldn't want their victims to know.

[jokerman93]

4. Thanks

These are some good ideas. Especially about starting small and getting the mannerisms down first.

Following the money is an important key, yes. Im also interested in looking at it from a kind of anthropological perspective too -- the folklore, beliefs, group traditions, interpersonal rituals, habits, etc. All that too. The devil is in the details as they say. It seems like a very different American counter-culture trying to pass itself off as mainstream. Makes me curious.

Thanks again.