Videos
ABC: Smallville's star Allison Mack speaks out about cult conviction
Former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack discusses her involvement in the Nxivm cult case.
The Parliament of Victoria: Witnesses share insights on coercive high-control groups
The parliamentary inquiry looking into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organized fringe groups has heard from a range of witnesses, including people with lived experience, cult advocacy and support groups, and representatives of various faith organizations. This snapshot looks at some of the evidence provided, with more updates to come from the hearings held so far.
Psychology Today: 15 Signs Your Church Functions Like a Cult
Religious cults mandate strict separatism, censorship, and autocratic control.
In the Psychology Today article "15 Signs Your Church Functions Like a Cult," Araya Baker, M.Phil.Ed., argues that religious fundamentalism can overlap with cult-like abuse when institutions prioritize authoritarian control, censorship, and strict separatism over human welfare.
Many turn to religion for meaning, but when belief becomes emotionally driven and dogmatic, critical thinking often diminishes. Fundamentalist groups frequently utilize an "us-vs.-the-world" framework, which Baker defines as "dispensing of existence"—arrogating the authority to decide who is spiritually valid while weaponizing persecution complexes to deflect accountability.
Baker categorizes the warning signs of cultish religious abuse into three areas:
Dogma: Characterized by black-and-white literalism, fatalism, theocracy that shields leaders from accountability, anti-modernity, and anti-humanism that justifies denying aid to those outside the faith.
Social Punishment: Involves groupthink that labels dissenters as "enemies," humiliation rituals to silence feedback, forced uniformity, favoritism for compliant members, and victim-blaming.
Self-Perception: Indoctrinates members into suppressing their own intuition, fostering narcissistic victimhood, promoting group superiority, and instilling co-dependency on leadership.
The article emphasizes that victims often suffer from "religious trauma syndrome," which entails not just unlearning harmful doctrines but also enduring the grief of losing their entire social and support network. Baker concludes that recovering from such environments requires professional support, as survivors often face identity erasure, systemic gaslighting, and severe fear of the "outside" world that has been systematically stigmatized by the group.
Columbia Magazine: Freedom, Religion, and the Strange Case of an American Desert Cult
In Columbia Magazine, author Kristen Martin interviews Harrison Hill about his book, The Oracle’s Daughter, which investigates the Aggressive Christianity Mission Training Corps (ACMTC). Founded in the 1980s in California before relocating to a New Mexico compound, the ACMTC was a woman-led, paramilitary religious cult commanded by self-proclaimed prophet Deborah Green.
Members of this small group—never numbering more than about 100—viewed themselves as soldiers in “God’s Army.” Their lives were defined by extreme isolation, indoctrination, and strict prohibitions against outside influences like television. The group was plagued by reports of physical and sexual abuse, starvation, and the denial of medical care. Hill’s narrative centers on Sarah Green, the daughter of the founders, who escaped the group in 1999. Unlike many members born into the cult, Sarah had experienced life outside the group, which fostered her desire to return to it.
The interview highlights the difficulty of addressing such groups within the American legal system. While abuse occurred for years, leaders were only held accountable in 2017. Hill attributes this delay to the complexities of the First Amendment, which protects religious freedom, and a hesitation among law enforcement to intervene in religious matters—a trend exacerbated by the traumatic fallout from the 1993 Waco siege. Ultimately, Hill contextualizes the ACMTC not just as an anomaly but as a reflection of broader American themes, including the desire to establish utopian societies and the precarious balance between religious liberty and the protection of individuals from exploitation.
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The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan, Joseph Kelly, or Ashlen Hilliard endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.
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