Cults

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

Prohibit the formation and practice of cults.

The government shall actively work to identify and disband cults.

Intent:

To protect the liberty of people who unknowingly entered a cult or who in the future will be born into a cult.

To protect the liberty of all people from cult members who are elected or appointed to public office.

Discussion:

A cult is a mode of oppression. People who organize cults and members of cults will try to defend their behavior as merely exercising their rights and liberties, such as right to consent, right to travel, right to property, right to peaceful assembly, right to honest and peaceful communication, and right to parental control. However, while cult members may appear to exercise those rights individually, their behavior is controlled by the cult and and they are oppressed, not free.

When a cult member is elected to any official position, that cult member will allow the cult to control their behavior and decisions and is likely to break their oath of office in service of the cult. For this reason, the right to civil government prohibits cult members from serving in elected or appointed government positions.

However, the people must go a step further and actively work to identify and disband cults. When a cult is small, it may seem harmless but it’s already oppressing its own members. As a cult’s power grows it becomes more difficult to disband and it may develop clandestine programs where some members are indoctrinated in secret and are used to circumvent the prohibition against cult members in public office, because if the public doesn’t know an official is a member of a cult they can’t disqualify them from election or impeach them on that basis, and the cult will be able to direct that official’s behavior until someone notices the conflict of interest and investigates.

While any one behavior or characteristic may be framed as exercising individual rights and liberties, taken together the behaviors and characteristics of cults are oppressive to their own members and dangerous to the public and they must be opposed and disbanded. There has been enough testimony from people who have escaped a multitude of cults over the years to understand the harm that they inflict on people and this should not be tolerated in a free society.

While some people may believe that a free society must be tolerant of any behavior, this is simply not practical. A free society that tolerates any behavior will not stay free. In order to protect and preserve the free society for everyone, there are some behaviors and modes of oppression that must not be tolerated. Cults are one of those modes of oppression.

Characteristics of cults

A cult has some of the following characteristics. The more of these characteristics are present in a cult, the more oppressive and dangerous it is:

* Zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leadership, who may be a real person or fictional character (instead of set of principles, values, and rights like the Constitution)
* Accepting anything the leadership preaches as the truth (instead of checking the facts and challenging misinformation and disinformation)
* Dissent is discouraged or punished (instead of promoting a peaceful dialogue and democratic process)
* Mind-altering practices such as meditation and chanting are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leaders (instead of a separation of religion from government)
* Leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel for example cult members might need permission to change jobs, marry, have children, and more (instead of asserting that liberty is foundational and the government only limits freedom to protect individual rights and keep the peace)
* The group is elitist and claims special status for itself and its leadership, such as being on a mission to save or purify humanity, and uses it to justify treating other people badly, especially any opposition (instead of liberty and justice for all)
* Polarized us-vs-them mentality applies to all issues and sets up a conflict with the rest of society (instead of inclusive government to address the needs of all people)
* Leadership is not accountable to any authorities (instead of all people being equal under the law and the Constitution, and instead of checks and balances between branches of government)
* Group teaches that its special purpose justifies whatever means necessary such as lying, cheating, stealing, or even killing to achieve its goals, things that its members would have considered to be immoral or unethical before joining the cult (instead of maintaining law and order)
* Leadership induces shame and guilt to control members (instead of honoring consent)
* Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with their family and friends and radically alter their personal goals and activities (isolating people instead of connecting them with community)
* Group is preoccupied with bringing in new members and will use empty promises, coercion, and threats to recruit new members because expansion means more power for the leader and the group (instead of rational political debate and discourse)
* Members are expected to devote significant amounts of time to the group and its activities, or even all their time to serve the group (instead of government serving the people)
* The group teaches members or makes them feel there is no life outside the group (instead of the government promoting prosperity and protecting equal opportunity for all)

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