By ALICE von HILDEBRAND
You certainly know that cults are proliferating all over the world; this is a phenomenon which is bound to happen when religious authorities do not live up to their calling, and are caught up by the spirit of the time, which some of them, alas, confuse with the Holy Spirit.
Recently, I watched a French television program which related that in 1946 there were four sects in France; now they number over one thousand. The same is true of the USA and other countries. Innumerable young people are actually giving up everything to follow some guru who promises them happiness, fulfillment, and peace.
It is typical of times of crisis and turbulence that people desperately look for immediate “redemption.” It is also typical of periods of intense materialism that young people — disgusted by the surfeit of excitements and pleasures — long for something stable, spiritual, transcendent.
One of the great faults of contemporary education is that it has failed to give young people the spiritual food that they long for, in spite of their apparent rebelliousness and opposition.
You young know this better than anyone else: Am I wrong in saying that you have been very unhappy in high school, and (with rare exceptions) bitterly disillusioned about your teachers and their teaching; like most of your peers, you have been frustrated by the intellectual mediocrity, the spiritual vacuum offered to you; and, alas, the worst courses are those of so-called religious instruction which have as little to do with religion as cacophony has to do with music.
You heard much about sex; little about God. Is it surprising that thousands of young people — upon meeting a guru, whose honeyed tongue speaks only of spirituality, turn to him with awe and gratitude and give themselves body and soul to his guidance? They gladly give up everything to enter a sect directed by this “sublime” being, which claims either to have a direct line with God, or to be reincarnation of some sage of past ages or even to be God Himself.
I only need mention Moon (one among thousands of others), who captured a large number of idealistic young people who became known as his “creatures,” nay, his slaves.
What is so tragic about these religious aberrations is not only that they play God and ape holy things for sordid purposes, but also that they constitute the most obnoxious attack on the dignity of the human person. Those caught in these diabolical nets will either become zombies — incapable of ever making a decision on their own — thoroughly brainwashed for life, or if they happen to discover the fraud, they are likely to be spiritually and psychologically so wounded that they are likely to become anti-religious.
True, it is also possible to give the right response to these monstrous deceptions, and through God’s grace to have the humility of recognizing that one has been immature, gullible, and has given in to the allurement of sensationalism. God will do the rest; for a humble soul, the way to the one true God is always open.
But, you may object, is it not typical of religion that it claims everything; is it not said in the Gospels that when Christ called His apostles, “They left everything and followed Him.” And their example has been followed by innumerable saints: St. Clare — the lovely young girl of Assisi, gave up honor, marriage, riches for the sake of following the beggar Francis. Why should you object to this when it seems to be the warp and woof of an authentic religious calling?
Your objection is worth discussing. I grant you that this total self-donation is the religious gesture par excellence. Kierkegaard wrote that we should behave absolutely toward the absolute telos (end), and relatively toward the relative one. This is a deep truth. But once again, we should raise the question whether an exterior similarity does not hide an essential dissimilarity. Hopefully, I will succeed in showing you that there is a chasm separating true religion and sects.
Keep in mind there are innumerable copies and only one original; there are thousands of errors and only one truth; there are innumerable sicknesses and only one health. Similarly, there are hundreds of counterfeits for something genuine. For this reason, it is easier to fall for a sham than to recognize the right thing.
There are innumerable “false” miracles for one true one; there are innumerable false apparitions for one authentic one; there are innumerable false teachers for one who fully deserves to be called such.
Similarly, you will find hundreds of cults for one true Revelation, and hopefully you will learn the difficult art of discriminating between them in order to find your way through this maze of confusions.
Why are cults and true religion so easily confused? Both claim to aim at spirituality, sacredness, transcendence; both claim to be “otherworldly,” and to shed light on the riddle of human existence; both claim to give an answer to the “why” and “wherefore” of our troubled human life. In both cases, there is a “leader,” a guide who helps people find their way, someone whose position of authority gives power over his followers. In both cases, there is a ritual, there are ceremonies, and a training which aims at illuminating all the acts required of a disciple.
But all these exterior similarities only masquerade an essential dissimilarity. One of the striking things about sects is their eagerness to “catch” disciples, very much as a fisherman tries to hook a fish and rejoices upon his catch because it is to his own advantage. Similarly, the typical guru uses a whole series of techniques (psychological and others) to catch a naive, inexperienced youth into his net.
St. Augustine has masterfully described the technique used by the Manicheans to made new disciples; he compares them to bird-catchers who use glue to pin down their victims (Confessions, Book III, 6). In another work, he remarks that one can show kindness toward a person because this is the best and fastest way to catch him or her into one’s net. (This is how young girls are usually seduced). But one can do the very same thing because one loves this person and truly seeks his or her good.
Moreover, false profits are proficient at using sensationalism, fake miracles, fake prophecies, fake visions, and the like; these are their preferred tools to ensnare people, and to convince gullible and immature persons that they are privileged to face something divine.
In fact, these quack spiritual leaders are venal and exclusively concerned about their personal gain and their self-interest; they have no reverence for the person they are dealing with; while mimicking reverence, they are truly — as remarked above — like bird-catchers using glue to immobilize their victim.
What they artfully conceal is that they are crafty businessmen who aim at despoiling their victims, and pocket their money. Cults are big business; it is one of the fastest ways to make money without much effort. All one needs is a talent for counterfeiting, a few holy words, and an inspired expression on one’s fact, and a mean, despicable soul. These cheats aim at controlling the souls and bodies of their victims, imprisoning them in their clutches and keeping them for life, and what a life: Lies, counterfeits, and sham.
The tragic thing is that these victims have — humanly speaking — very little chance of ever being liberated; not only are they carefully watched and threatened with eternal damnation if ever they dare harbor doubts; but, worse, their minds have been so twisted that, controlled and duped, they no longer have eyes to see; they are totally depersonalized and have become mere cogs in the machinery of a gigantic fraud, masquerading as divine.
They can see only through the prism of their guru’s eyes. The latter is a genius at manipulating souls and playing with them like puppets. The whole thing is a gigantic fraud, but a very profitable one.
What an abyss separates this devilish attitude from the attitude of an authentic, saintly leader. Not only is such a person animated by a deep reverence for the persons he is dealing with; not only does he not seek his personal interest and advantage; he wants to serve those that he meets and only wishes for them what God wishes. What a chasm between their sober ardor and the inflated excitement of spiritual mountebanks eager to sell their quack medicines.
Notice the humility of those who truly seek to serve God and bring His message. They know themselves to be mere instruments in the divine hand and never seek — nay, abhor — the very thought of having the limelight on their personality. The spiritual charlatan, on the contrary, does everything in his power to attract attention on himself, and actually encourages his disciples to treat him as divine. Apart from his greed, he is animated by a poisonous pride: the worst of all prides: the one claiming to be divine.
There is another unfailing test that will enable you to distinguish between these deceivingly “identical” phenomena: money. Compare a multimillionaire guru to a Mother Teresa of Calcutta who lived in the greatest imaginable poverty, sharing the fate of the poorest of the poor, wearing the same clothing and feeding herself on the pittance of beggars.
Maybe you have read the lives of several saints; it must have struck you that they despised money as such and used it as a mere means for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of souls, never for their own personal advantage.
What an abyss lies between the word of God and the pronouncements of pseudo-prophets who plagiarize divine Revelation, while laughing in their sleeves at people’s stupidity. How deeply tragic that so many souls hungering for spiritual food should fall into the clutches of these unworthy men and take them to be messengers of God, or worse, incarnations of God Himself!
Once again, you will see how crucial it is not only to strive for the gift of discernment but to ardently pray for it, for it can be acquired through prayer and a holy distrust of one’ impulsivity and one’s self-assurance.
I am sure, young friend, that you not only desire it, but that you will acquire it.
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