Role of Discipline in Cluts

• Much of the propaganda of the anti-cult movement is based on a misunderstanding of the role of discipline within high-demand religious groups. For centuries, such groups have required their members to submit to a restricted diet, work hard, spend hours in repetitive prayers, live a very simple life without luxuries, conform to the rules of the group, remain celibate, abandon smoking and drinking, etc. Such requirements within convents and monasteries have been long accepted in society. Some within the Anti-Cult Movement attacked sincere religious faith groups for these same practices, and concluded that the groups are profoundly evil, dangerous and manipulative.

• The reality is that most people join these groups and stay as long as membership remains a positive experience. Some leave after a few days; others stay only for a few weeks; still others stay for years, but later leave for a variety of reasons. People are almost always physically free to leave religious groups. If organizations attempted to restrict freedom of movement, they would be vulnerable to a charge of kidnapping or forcible confinement.