It's Official: Actions During Prop 8 Campaign Qualified Mormonism as a Cult

On February 25, 2011 Mitch Horowitz, with the Wall Street Journal, wrote a piece entitled: "When Does a Religion Become a Cult?"

He starts by explaining how the Mormon faith was born in the exceptionally weird climate of the "Burned-over District" of central New York in the early 19th century. He then goes on and writes the following:

Many academics and observers of cult phenomena, such as psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo of Stanford, agree on four criteria to define a cult. The first is behavior control, i.e., monitoring of where you go and what you do. The second is information control, such as discouraging members from reading criticism of the group. The third is thought control, placing sharp limits on doctrinal questioning. The fourth is emotional control—using humiliation or guilt. Yet at times these traits can also be detected within mainstream faiths. So I would add two more categories: financial control and extreme leadership.

Prior to Prop 8 I would have stopped at the first four of six qualifiers, but on June 28th, 2008 the Mormon Church qualified for "extreme leadership" by requiring that members side with the church on political issues or face disciplinary action, and with repeated satellite broadcasts both inside California and in the Inter-Mountain Region they qualified for the "financial control" element, where several families that I have heard of emptied their children's college funds to donate the lion's share of the $24 million that went into passing Prop 8.

Yes, the Mormon Church has now qualified with 6-out-of-6 prerequisites as a cult, according to experts.

Then Horowitz closes his article with these words (emphasis is mine):

Yet every coercive religious group harbors one telltale trait: untoward secrecy. As opposed to a cult, a religious culture ought to be as simple to enter or exit, for members or observers, as any free nation. Members should experience no impediment to relationships, ideas or travel, and the group's finances should be reasonably transparent. Its doctrine need not be conventional—but it should be knowable to outsiders. Absent those qualities, an unorthodox religion can descend into something darker.

Hello temple ceremony, secret handshakes and magic underwear! Strike Seven and you are DEFINITELY out! I was excommunicated for writing in my memoirs that I felt that I was born gay, and the Mormons could definitely not prove me wrong (I broke the second qualifier and at age 46...for the first time in my life...I consulted science about homosexuality), but they sure could excommunicate me fast! In less than 2 weeks I was gone, and no support materialized from my five older siblings to appeal the decision (they were trapped by the third qualifier...sharp limits on doctrinal questioning).

Too bad there isn't a law requiring that cults place a sign on their door, "Enter at your own risk." As noted in the final point, it is far easier to enter than it is to leave...unless you do something they don't approve of I guess.