This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1998, Volume 15, Number 2, pages 139-150. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.
 

Bible-Cult Mind Control 101

David Clark
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

First I'd like to thank the American Family Foundation and Denver Seminary for giving me this opportunity to share my experience with you. Some personal background: I have always considered myself to be a Christian. I attended Methodist and Lutheran churches. I was confirmed and learned the basics of my faith. Although I was not initially baptized, I later decided to receive sprinkling baptism in the Methodist Church

Parenthetically, those who have had any experience with Bible cults will understand the significance of immersion and why these groups typically believe that one must be immersed. Almost all of the bible-based cults I have been exposed to in the past twenty three years contend that their organization is the true restoration of the first century/New Testament Christian church. They all require baptism by full immersion. Typically, the group does not accept previous family religious affiliations or non-immersion baptismal experiences as valid. Families are commonly cut off from group members and do not grasp the magnitude of this rite of passage.
 

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