Criticism and Cult Allegations
Some groups have considered The Way's beliefs, viewed as heretical by a number of denominations, to be evidence of cult status. There have also been some accusations about The Way's supposed history of sexual abuse, excessive control over members' lives, and brainwashing. The anti-cult movement (ACM) attempts to raise public consciousness of what they feel are the dangers of cult membership. They view a cult as a religious or other group that uses deceptive recruitment techniques to lure new members into the organization, and then subjects them to sophisticated mind-control techniques to reduce their ability to think and act individually (brainwashing).
Given The Way's high-intensity nature, in the 1970s, there were some instances of family members, who weren't a part of The Way, hiring deprogrammers to illegally abduct their loved one because they believed exposure to these doctrines or the followers was harmful. According to Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (OCRT) "It appears that The Way operates like most high-intensity religious groups: their followers enter the organization because they perceive it to offer positive value to their life. If and when it becomes negative, they drift away."
Read more about this topic: The Way International
Famous quotes containing the words criticism and, criticism and/or cult:
“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art—and, by analogy, our own experience—more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Look at this poet William Carlos Williams: he is primitive and native, and his roots are in raw forest and violent places; he is word-sick and place-crazy. He admires strength, but for what? Violence! This is the cult of the frontier mind.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)