I somehow ended up reading about Scientology today, which lead to reading about the characteristics and warnings signs of cults. As I was reading, I noticed that the MRM, AVFM in particular, have almost every defining quality of a cult. Source for the definitions and warnings about cults can be found here.

I left out the ones that don't apply (such as religious chanting) and bolded the ones that are highly relevant. I'm sure for many of us this won't be a surprise, but I think it's still worth pointing out.

Characteristics of a cult:

• The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.

• The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

• The group is preoccupied with making money.

• Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

• The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).

• The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).

• The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.

• The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).

• The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).

• The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them

Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader:

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.

4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.

5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.

6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.

7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.

8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".

9. The group/leader is always right.

10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

What Cults Don't Want:

1. Cults are uninterested in altruism as a moral imperative. Most have self-serving moralities to benefit the organization and its leadership in particular. Individual fulfillment is irrelevant. Pseudoaltruistic activity helps image building.

2. Cults don't want high overhead. Members in cult enterprises may be underpaid or unpaid, work in unsafe environments, or have no provision for medical care.

3. No cult wants its inner workings exposed, although sophisticated cults may curry media interest or even employ public relations consultants and ad agencies to manage their image.