Something I've noticed in studying various cults and cultish religions is that they usually consist of one person (usually a man) or a few people who tell the entire rest of the group what to do. These systems operate under a common rule: Thou shalt not think for thyself. Read through this article and you'll see what I mean.
The Cliff's Notes version: a small, unaccredited Christian college in Pensacola, Fla. exercises an insane amount of control over its 5,000 students' lives. They don't allow dancing. They don't allow any contact at all between the sexes--not even handshakes. Even prolonged eye contact with someone of the opposite gender is forbidden; the school refers to it as "optical intercourse" or "making eye babies." Students are barely allowed off campus, and boys and girls can barely walk to class together without getting in trouble. Only a few hundred Web sites are accessible on the school's computers, TVs only work during the six o'clock news, and even then the commercials are blacked out. All movies and video games are verboten, and students can only listen to classical music or Christian music approved by the school. Photos of nude statuary are censored, and if a student wants to read a book that the library doesn't have, he must get it approved first. And this, unfortunately, is just the tip of the iceberg. Students who run afoul of the administration are essentially shunned.
Now, I could go on and on about this, about how the guy who started the college left Bob Jones--Bob Jones University--because it apparently wasn't strict enough. But what galls me the most about this story is the absolute, god-like control the school has over the lives of its students. These are adults, or almost adults, and they're capable of making their own choices.
One of my most firmly held beliefs--which stems from my faith in my savior, the Lord Jesus Christ--is that people should be allowed to make their own decisions, for better or for worse. A favorite trick of the enemy is to take something bad for people and just ban it outright, because if something is forbidden, it's hard to get information on it and make a competent decision. For example: alcohol. A lot of religions, including various Christian denominations, ban consumption of alcohol because it can be destructive. But alcohol itself isn't the problem--Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine, after all--but consumption without moderation is. But it's harder to teach people moderation than it is to just forbid something, so bannination is the more commonly chosen road.
Another example: there's a lot of smut on TV. But abstaining from smut because you have no choice doesn't really count. You can't force people to be righteous because righteousness stems from personal choice. The truly righteous man is the one who sees the evil and turns away from it, not the one who can't get at it at all because somebody higher up flipped a switch. Real godliness comes from self-control, not control of someone else.
Perhaps the best example of all is the Islamic attitude toward women and the female form. The reason they keep women covered is because they believe that men can't control themselves when they see an improperly dressed woman. Well, whose fault is that? In Western society--indeed, in any society based on reason and respect--it is the man's responsibility to control his passion, not the woman's to prevent it. Of course, this doesn't mean that women should walk around falling out of their dresses and hiking up their skirts, but neither does it mean that they should walk around swathed in burlap. Intsead of banning boys and girls from being together, wouldn't it be better to teach them how to behave responsibly and then trust them to do so? I guarantee that the latter tactic produces better-adjusted human beings than the former.
And in case you needed on more red flag about this school, the founder of Pensecola Christian College claims that the idea for the school "came from God," and that students who leave the college are going against God's will. As I've watched my sister spiral into a relationship with a guy who exerts far too much influence over her, this has been one of the recurring themes of her "new life." Something that this intensely painful experience has taught me is that my relationship with God is my business, and no one else's. If I'm going against God's will, He'll tell me. He may use another person to relay the message, but it won't be in the form of a condemnation. I have very little patience with and no tolerance for self-appointed prophets of any persuasion. Once I let someone else begin making my decisions for me, I have become their slave. Even God does not make our decisions for us; as He once told my sister before she became involved with this misguided young man, "I'm not a Magic 8 Ball, Sarah."
After all, we don't think much of a 35-year-old man whose mother still buys his clothes for him. Why should our relationship with God remain so immature?
