Customer Reviews

Why We Left a Cult: Six People Tell Their Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is extremely insightful, documenting six people's experience with cults. Two are ex- Jehovah's Witnesses, two are ex-Christian Scientists, one formerly involved in witchcraft, another formerly involved in the New Age Movement. Although the author is an ex-Mormon, Mormonism is discussed very little in the book.

Part One provides the six personal testimonies to include when the individual departed the cult. Part two identifies factors involved leaving the cult and the effective nurture of ex-cultists. Other chapters include: advice for concerned Christians, helpful resources for people who are thinking about leaving a cult, and advice to parents on how to prevent children from entering a cult. There is glossary in the back describing terms typically used in the various cults.

The author of the book describes cults as an archipelago. At first they seem islands to themselves. However, once you start to study them, the water around the islands becomes clearer. Interconnecting links joining them can be seen under the water. For example, reincarnation, once a strictly an Eastern religious concept, shows up in Christian Science and New Age thinking. Pyramidology, spiritualism, and phrenology are not only connected to New Age, but also in the past thinking of Jehovah Witnesses. Christian Scientists, Mormons, and New Age believers teach we can be god-like as Jesus.

What impacted me the most in this book is the testimony of the individual who left the New Age movement. He has a dramatic story on how New Age closely counterfeits Christianity. After being taught in classroom-like environments, he and others were instructed to infiltrate Christian churches with their distorted messages. He also cites how much of the New Age movement has infiltrated Christian churches and society, and gives examples of both.

This book is an excellent resource for someone who wants to know what it was like to be involved in a cult. It provides instruction on what would be helpful (and hurtful) when interacting with someone involved in one of these cults.

I really like the compassion that is expressed in this book towards cult members. Most people who are involved in cults sincerely desire to please God, and think they are serving him. However, as the bible states, Satan can masquerade as an angel of light and deceives many. The most helpful advice in the book was to encourage cult members to read the bible alone, without any influencing material to guide them (i.e. The Watchtower or Christian Scientist guides). And to pray that the deception will be unveiled and that truth will be known.

This book was very easy to read and held my interest. It is a first hand account by people very familiar with their subject matter. They have helped hundreds of people who wanted out, so their advice is very practical. I enjoyed it so much that I bought several of the books by the 6 contributers to get more info. I am not qualified to know if they give the perfect way to help people or not, but their advice comes accross to me as helpful. They deal with New Age, Jehovah' s Witnesses, Christian Science, and witchcraft.

This book was an interesting look at 'cults' from the point of view of people who have been 'saved'. I learned an amazing amount about Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) and Christian Scientists (CS). However the portions about 'witchcraft' and the New Age are wide-ranging and confusing at best; leaving me to wonder about the veracity of the JW and CS information. There was only one person from a New Age perspective (I believe this is the person defined as a witch) - a nominal Catholic who used a variety of drugs and alcohol, who learned astronomy, hypnosis, Eastern mysticism and other New Age techniques. Interestingly enough, immediately after becoming saved as a Christian she and two other woman in the ministry "laid hands on a building being used for the devil's work and cursed its finances". Ohhh-kay, but not something my mama's pastor would advocate. The other person defined as a witch is from a different Christian cult - The Lighted Way - which incorporates Eastern mysticism with Christianity.

The book is set up in two parts; in the first the personal testimonies and life stories of the six are shared while the second presents a series of questions in the effective nurture of ex-cultists including personal costs/compensations of becoming Christian (or, at least, this brand of Christian), as well as mistakes made by Christians in witnessing to these hopefully-soon-to-be ex-cult members.

This really was a fascinating book regarding the Christian Scientists and Jahovah's Witnesses, but fails badly on the the New Age/witchcraft portions and so brings all the 'cultic' information in doubt. All in all, this book presents an interesting view of what this particular sect of Christianity (Southern Baptists?) believes to be cults.