To answer that, you’d first need to know what a cult
is. Most people assume they know based
on some scant knowledge of the Moonies or a memory of the time when
hopping chanting members of Hari Krisna, with their bald heads and glazed eyes,
were seen in public airports across the country.
I remember hearing stories on shows like 60 Minutes or
Twenty Twenty about parents who were trying to kidnap their kids and put them
in deprogramming treatment to get them away from cult leaders. Then there was David Koresh whose compound
was raided in the early 1990’s in Waco, Texas, and Jim Jones, who led more than
900 people to Guyana in 1978 and persuaded them to kill themselves. And of course, then there is all the talk of Scientology which is a favorite of Hollywood stars.
