15 Signs Your Church Functions Like a Cult

Source: Karl Fredrickson / Unsplash

Most people presume that religious institutions are safe spaces and that religious leaders rarely distort or weaponize doctrine for harm. This general sentiment persists, even among people who are familiar with religious corruption and the many wars, holocausts, hate groups, colonial empires, and caste systems that religious leaders have influenced throughout history.

Religious psychologists attribute this denial to the fact that many people turn to religion to find emotional catharsis, to escape grief or tragedy, or to find a sense of control or certainty about the unknown.

Critical thinking can be less important to people whose religiosity is emotionally driven. For these people, religion is often connected to their will to live and is the primary lens through which they make meaning of life. Consequently, a bias emerges that defies critical thinking: They misperceive any critique of religious harm within a particular context as an attack on religion altogether. They are unable to see how one can critique a thing precisely because they see immense value in it and therefore wish to do right by it.

Emotional bias to this degree lends itself to religious fundamentalism, or a movement to interpret religious scriptures or dogmas strictly and literally while also pursuing revival of a romanticized/mythical past and juxtaposing the alleged purity of one’s in-group against the alleged impurity of “worldly” out-groups.

Source: Jakub Pierozynski / Unsplash

Religious fundamentalists/zealots typically have an absolutist, defensive, and militant view of religion. That their entire life is religion means their defense of religion rarely has reasonable limits, like exceptions for sexual abuse, fraudulence, or bigotry. Instead, they’re defensive of religion even when what or whom they’re defending directly contradicts their religion’s most basic ethical tenets (e.g., the Ten Commandments). They need to believe religion is perfect to feel powerful.

Such fundamentalists/zealots are often bystanders or proponents of religious abuse. While anti-intellectualism is a primary vehicle of religious abuse, abusive dogma is also reinforced by authoritarianism, castes, public humiliation rituals, and an organizational culture of spiritual one-upmanship/posturing/virtue signaling.

Fundamentalists/zealots justify these harmful practices by claiming that they have the right to their own identity. Yet, constructive identity does not need to emerge at the expense of any other person or group. It’s not a zero-sum game.

And this is where things get cultish.

An "us-vs.-the-world" mentality is one of the most significant points of overlap between religious abuse and cult abuse. In both instances, abuse often sounds like accusations of betrayal after requests for accountability from leadership or invitations to consider critical thinking that allegedly questions a leader’s anointing. Any criticism or feedback—no matter how constructive—threatens the group’s illusion of superiority, and that voice must be censored or ousted. At this point, many survivors of religious or cult abuse awaken to their indoctrination.

Research on the "us vs. the world" mentality of religious cults also refers to this as "dispensing of existence," which describes how fundamentalist groups and cults arrogate to themselves the authority or privilege of deciding who is spiritually or psychologically valid. This in-group bias is reinforced by:

• accountability deflection via a persecution complex: weaponizing the "us-vs.-the-world" framework to detract credibility from whistleblower evidence/testimonies of abuse

• isolation as a control mechanism: warning members that non-approved professionals or relatives will corrupt them

• milieu control: limiting information exchange/flow within an environment—i.e., thought/mind control

Source: Nathan Mullet / Unsplash

Integrating my previous research on religious abuse with insights on the organizational, leadership, and doctrinal dynamics of cults results in an original framework for understanding the signs of cultish religious abuse.

Extrapolating this framework to religious sects other than Christian fundamentalists may be possible; however, the framework is based on the specific context of fundamentalist churches, since my clinical work in this realm has focused on that particular population. The framework is not a generalization about all churches writ large.

Religion Essential Reads

An Insider’s Guide to Secular Humanist Funerals

A Reversal of the Religious Gender Gap

The Signs of Cultish Religious Abuse

Dogma

1. Literalism: Approaching ethical dilemmas with black-and-white thinking, even when that mindset is harmful, high-risk, impractical, or inhumane.
2. Fatalism: Celebrating natural disasters, pandemics, wars, etc., as miraculous signs that the rapture is near, without any concern for those negatively impacted.
3. Theocracy: Believing that God’s alleged appointment of all leaders shields them from impeachment or democratic accountability, even if they’re bigoted, exploitative, or inhumane.
4. Anti-modernity: Weaponizing "the good old days"—or an oversimplified version of history—to dismiss valid critiques from younger people and frame generational “rebellion” as the problem.
5. Anti-humanism: Believing that you are pleasing God by denying help or human rights to people who do not share your specific denominational beliefs.

Social Punishment

6. Groupthink: Calling anyone who fact-checks or questions the leader a demon, a false prophet, the Antichrist, the Enemy, a Jezebel, or an orphan spirit, or worldly, secular, earthly, carnal, etc.
7. Humiliation: Punishing those who dissent or give feedback by saying they're publicly slandering leadership, publicly sharing what congregants disclosed in private, or publicly casting doubt on congregants' private relationship with God.
8. Uniformity: Accusing anyone who encourages critical thinking or cultural pluralism of having an “agenda,” a plot, or an ulterior motive to tempt people away from God.
9. Favoritism: Accusing people of being jealous when they call out hypocrisy in a way that excuses leaders/the in-crowd from the same backlash and scrutiny as “regular” followers.
10. Victim-blaming/playing: Blaming conflict on a person's unwillingness to tolerate bullying, while never confronting leaders and letting abusive leaders pretend that self-defense against abuse is a “spiritual attack” on them.

Self-Perception

11. Suppression: Being discouraged from trusting your nervous system when your intuition or gut instinct signals that you’re unsafe or being targeted.
12. Narcissistic victimhood: Believing the ancient persecution of your group is recurring in response to valid critiques when your group’s defensiveness actually mirrors ancient oppressors.
13. Group superiority: Being indoctrinated into an “us-vs.-the-world” worldview that condemns coexistence and casts strangers as deceptive and calculating rivals in a “spiritual warfare.”
14. Co-dependency: Believing that changing your circumstances without approval/direction from leadership is going against God’s will, instead of realizing your leaders are playing God.
15. Self-deprecation: Encouraging negative self-talk about innate brokenness/depravity, yet conflating dignity/self-worth with boasting, showing off, and not giving God the glory.

Recovery From Cult Abuse and Religious Trauma

Source: John Price / Unsplash

Survivors of cultish religious abuse often suffer from a specific form of post-traumatic stress syndrome known as religious trauma syndrome. While defining and unpacking the symptomatology is beyond the scope of this post, you can read more about the disorder in my previous posts. What is important to remember is that religious trauma is not simply about the struggle to unlearn harmful dogma and fill a void. It also involves immense grief in the aftermath of losing an entire community and social support system—not to mention grappling with identity erasure, systemic gaslighting, and severe fear of venturing into a world that has been stigmatized as wholly dangerous. If you or someone you know is a survivor of cult abuse or religious trauma syndrome, reach out to a mental health professional who specializes in this particular sub-area of trauma recovery.

To find a therapist, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.