Cults like us: Why cults are as American as apple pie

“We all have an idea of what constitutes a cult,” writes author Jane Borden in “Cults Like Us – Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America” (One Signal Publishers).“The word cult conjures a mental picture: a group of beautiful young people dancing trancelike in the sun, probably aspiring actors in Los Angeles who took a wrong turn at the beach and landed in an orgy.” But that image couldn’t be further from the truth and in “Cults Like Us” Borden charts not just the murky history of cult ideologies in America, but how the country remains a breeding ground for cult-like thinking.“It informs our suppositions about American identity and our very understanding of the immutable self,” she writes.

“It undergirds every vote, purchase, prejudice, and social-media post.Like fish that don’t know water, we swim through it without recognition.”Ever since the Pilgrim Fathers arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 with almost cultish puritanical beliefs, the nation has been susceptible to cult ideologies.

“But their Puritan doomsday beliefs didn’t go away; they became American culture,” she says.And, as Borden explains, the meaning of ‘cult’ has shifted from the original Latin, cultus (meaning any religion or religious practice), to something more derogatory, taking in fanatics, enthusiasts and imposters.“Today,” adds Borden, “cult carries strong valences of deception, abuse, and charlatanism.”But because of the First Amendment and, argues Borden, a nation ripe for indoctrination, non-traditional groups once treated with suspicion, like the Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, are now established and institutionalized religions.And with that recognition comes many benefits.

“If they can secure church status, we don’t even ask for taxes,” she adds. We all know the notorious cults of our time, like the Manson Family and David Koresh’s Branch Davidians, but today the number of cultlike groups in the United States is growing ...