Clergy and Cults: A Survey

The Rev. Richard Dowhower, D. D.

The Rev. Richard Dowhower, an advisor of the American Family Foundation (publisher of the Cult Observer conducted a survey late in 1993 of clergy attitudes toward, and experience of, cults. The 53 respondents, all from the Washington, DC area, included 43 Lutheran clergy and seminarians, one Roman Catholic and one Jewish clergyman, and an Evangelical minister. The Rev. Dowhower, pastor of All Saints Church in Bowie, MD, has spoken and written widely on cults and cultism.

I have had the following personal experiences with destructive cults:

Immediate members of my family have been involved	2
Members of my congregation or their relatives have been affected	22
My family and/or congregation are concerned by media coverage	8*
Close friends have been involved	8*
Acquaintance's relatives have been involved	2
No one whom I have known has been affected by cults	15*

The cults I am most concerned about are:
Unification Church, Hare Krishna	18*
Scientology, est/Forum, Lifespring	28*
Satanism and other ritual abuse	24*
LaRouche, political cults	15
Shepherding/discipling (Christian-sounding)	18
New Age	24*
Jehovah's Witnesses	3
Mormons	3
Amway	2
Other groups	2

I believe most mainstream clergy are:
Unaffected by cultic practices	7
Unaware of destructive cults	7
Mildly aware of cults	42
Seriously affected and concerned	2

Aware and concerned clergy need:
More information about cults	31*
Training on how to implement their concerns	29*
Referral resources to assist persons affected	35*
Other	2

*Indicates that 50% of number were seminarians

Cults Low on Clergy Lis

American clergy are so overwhelmed with other matters that cults are low on their priority list — unless one has personal or professional involvement with cult activity — according to a consultation on cults held last fall by associates of the American Family Foundation (publisher of The Cult Observer). The group concluded that while clergy in some areas of the country are more aware of cult activity than others, the phenomenon nevertheless does not bulk large in their consciousness. The conferees also believe that most clergy do not understand fully the effects of mind control, nor do they accept how extreme the effects can be.

In the post-Waco era, the group identified an ideological split among clergy. The left, “politically correct” thinking holds simply that the government made a mistake, while the others say, “It couldn't happen to me or mine, but I am interested in knowing more about cults.” Indeed, Protestant clergy seem to the researchers more resistant to the counter-cult movement than Roman Catholic and Jewish clergy, in part due to the ideological influence of the National Council of Churches, whose advisors on cults have been extremely hostile to criticism of cultic organizations.

The study group felt that such criticism threatens some clergy for several reasons: it may create a sense that religion itself, and the First Amendment, are under attack; a clergy person may also feel that his or her own use of “persuasion” is under attack; and the very existence of cults may be an indictment of mainline religions for failing to provide what some cults appear to provide.

This article was original published in Cult Observer, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1994).