In Reply to: Re: Cults and Isms posted by Niek0 on May 12, 2004 at 16:25:33:
Perhaps from the same pit where other grandiose yet charismatic people get their ideas? A big huge brain fart chasm maybe?
Way before Berg, Wilkerson was out on the streets witnessing and part of the Jesus people movement before Berg was known.
Watch some classic movies, like "Night of The Hunter" maybe. I don't think this is oversimplifying. I think to connect Berg to the Yates guru is oversimplifying. But that is just my opinion. To say they employed similar tactics, from the little I have seen with the Yates guru dressing up his children in bizarre outfits and doing street scenes to get attn to his "message" was similar abuse.
If I were to write a scholarly paper on the subject, I would have to research and have many FACTS that are substabtiated and documented or I would have an article for "The Globe Magazine" and that's about it. Do you want your paper to represent fact or to back up your belief however that can be twisted. If you can show some research that connects directly different people that became cult leaders, i would find that very interesting. That is why I had hoped you would do some serious research.
Berg did consider the JWs to be a cult, and we avoided them on the sts. As far as the mormons, he already liked the idea of more sex, so he adopted that doctrine from them but went a whole lot further with his one wife doctrine. The mormons don't do that. Also, it is not mormon doctrine to molest kids or have women be prostitutes for God. OR to "minister" to important people with sex if it is helpful. Or to throw away people that are no longer useful and also hold no secrets they don't want revealed.
So, don't take it personally as an ATTACK against your reasoning. I only mean to challenge your reasoning and get to the truth.