He Escaped a Pious Cult-Then Found College to Be a New One

"Appel grew up in the Lamb of God, a patriarchal Christian covenant community. As he recounts in his newly released memoir, Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic, members "pledge[d] fealty to a small group of self-appointed leaders," men served as "coordinators," women as "handmaids" (yes, that is what they were called), and wives were required to obey their "husband-masters.""

"When he realized he was gay-something he was taught was spiritually contaminating and would not only condemn him but bring disaster upon his family-it drove him into compulsive, punishing rituals of prayer and self-surveillance. Cult expert Janja Lalich describes the "bounded choice" of cult life as living in a system in which one's entire reality is shaped by the group. "Members' choices are limited by the structure and ideology of the group, which permeate their very sense of self.""

"Illiberal norms can arise wherever dissent is treated as moral deviance. Us-versus-them thinking drives fear, guilt, and conformity. Constant surveillance-divine or ideological-undermines autonomy. When an ideology becomes coercive, it's like a cult. A cult-like culture is defined by method, not doctrine. The late cult psychologist Margaret Singer wrote that cults create "a polarized us-versus-them worldview," in which the in-group is right and outsiders are wrong, insiders are enlightened and good and outsiders are backwards and evil."

Ben Appel grew up in the Lamb of God, a patriarchal Christian covenant community where members pledged fealty to self-appointed leaders, men served as coordinators, women as "handmaids", and wives were required to obey their "husband-masters." Realizing he was gay, which the community taught was spiritually contaminating and dangerous to family honor, pushed him into compulsive prayer and self-surveillance. Janja Lalich describes cult "bounded choice" as a system that shapes a member's entire reality and limits choices through structure and ideology. Cults isolate members, foster a polarized us-versus-them worldview, and rely on constant surveillance and coercive methods that undermine autonomy.

Read at Psychology Today