Addendum 9/15/10; edited 9/14/10 for accuracy and clarity. My thanks to Keith Stump.

The aspects of thought reform outlined by Dr. Margaret Singer give only a small sampling of the hell Tiffany went through with the NY Church of Christ. In an essay titled “Control Mechanisms in the ICC,” former member Keith Stump delved considerably deeper into the control techniques of the New York Church of Christ's parent organization. What follows is a brief outline of what he terms “The Architecture of Control” and “The Culture of Control”

The Architecture of Control

1. Illusion of wisdom--Church members seem to be authorities on the Bible, but in reality memorize a series of passages over time to give the illusion that they have mastered its text. Tiff was especially fond of quoting 1st Corinthians, Chapter 13, verses 4-7.

The ICoC further fostered the illusion of wisdom by requiring new members to make out “sin lists,” outlined confessions of past transgressions. Like Dr. Ewen Cameron’s pre-admission interviews, these made the subject feel as though the manipulator knew everything about her. It also led to false confessions if the manipulators deemed the person’s sins too paltry. For that reason, many members overdramatize the cult’s role in turning their lives around by exaggerating their past misdeeds. In this case, Tiffany left me with the impression (although she never said this) that she had engaged in a form of prostitution while strung out on drugs.

2. Artificially induced guilt--the church demands such high standards--not only of worship but obedience--that they’re nearly impossible to maintain. So church elders have an easy time finding fault. For example, when the pastor talked about a righteous person having the faith to murder someone or commit suicide in that Easter service I attended, he most likely knew that many of them would at least say to themselves “I don’t know if I could do that.” That little sliver of doubt would be enough to induce guilt.

3. Control of loved ones--more accurately, the control of access to loved ones outside the church, as illustrated by Tiff’s estrangement from her father and brothers.

4. Control of goals and decisions--anything from getting a haircut to getting hitched.

5. Discipleship partners/disciplers--see previous post

6. Eradication of boundaries--As Stump puts it, “The member is not free to tell his or her leaders that some particular aspect is none of their business.” The church fosters this by providing no avenue of privacy. For example, Tiff lived in an apartment with three other members. The place had two bedrooms, neither of which had a door. They had access to every phone call she made at home.

7. Breaking sessions--A dressing down or worse harassment over a perceived sin. Usually the sin is “pride” or individuality.

8. Fear--mostly of not being saved, or going to Hell.

9. Elimination of options--When ordered to do something, members aren’t given any options, and if necessary others will team up to show them why they have to take the course of action asked of them.

10. Manipulative affection--The most common term for this is ‘lovebombing.’ At first, cult members make you feel really good about yourself by praising you and lavishing you with attention and affection. Some cults go so far as to include sexual favors. In Tiffany’s case, this was muted in favor of a general sexual vibe, because of the stated anti-sex position of the church.
People like Tiffany, who are super attractive, and enthusiastically offer attention, fawning admiration, an unstated promise of sex, or outright sex are sometimes referred to as ‘lures.’* If you’re lonely or bored, lures can be a lot of fun. Once you join the cult, however, they become off-limits. After all, they’re out getting some other poor soul to join.


The Culture of Control

1. The vocabulary of control--Coded language that hides the agenda of the church. Click on the link for examples. During my time with Tiffany, I heard all of them, most more than once.

2. Denial that control exists--This is of particular importance when dealing with outsiders, especially new recruits (e.g., when Tiff said to me, “C’mon. It’s not like we’re going to lock you in a dungeon and throw away the key.”)

3. Control is good--Though this seems contradictory to denying that control exists, both aspects work sorta in tandem. After two years' refusal to acknowledge that the church didn’t control every aspect of her life, Tiff gave up her bicycle because the church told her to. To me, those wheels represented the last bit of freedom she had.

4. Poisoning the well--Preemptively dismissing a dissenting viewpoint by labeling it “spiritual pornography,” “persecution” or “opposing God.”

5. Propaganda--The belief in such things as the “persecution” by outsiders and blind obedience is fostered through all media outlets available to the church, especially music.

6. Illusion of Joy--Not only do church members have to comply, but they have to convince their disciplers that they like it. They smile constantly, no matter the circumstance. Everything they do on behalf of the church has to be extremely enthusiastic. Otherwise, church elders would deem them “lukewarm,” something the ICoC considers as an egregious a sin as rebelliousness.

7. Unwritten rules--A lot of church policy consists of unwritten rules, some of which consists of behavior expressly forbidden officially (i.e., to outsiders), but nevertheless demanded by church leaders. One example would be the torture of new recruits through sleep, water, and food deprivation.

8. The illusion of change--The church’s transgressions started to become known after the 20/20 exposé. Thus, it has periodically declared to either having reformed or to be in the process of reforming. More on that later.

9. The illusion of God’s hand--The insistence that church leaders are acting on God’s authority, and that doubting them is rebellion against Him.

10. Denigration of all other religious groups--The ICoC maintains that it alone is the one true church, and that all other faiths, including other Christian sects, are evil and will go to Hell.

11. The illusion of mission--Maintaining the belief that they have been charged by God to evangelize the world into their brand of Christianity.

12. Induced instability and transition--Basically, these are tactics designed to foster the feeling of uncertainty, or in other words to recreate the dangerous time that led the member to the group in the first place. The ICoC does this by a number of tactics, one of which (very similar to Jonestown, BTW) is the constant manufacturing of false crises.

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See Stump's comments to this post. The ICoC did not use "lures" in the way that many cults did, because of the risk of extramarital sex, and thus subsequent alienation from the church. I would still aver that her actions would remind someone of a lure in the classic sense, and could conceivably serve the same function.