Seven Signs That You're In A Cult (Via BoingBoing)

Evangelical leader Mike Bickle proposed the following indicators of a cult.

1. Opposing critical thinking.
2. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving.
3. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture.
4. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders.
5. Dishonoring the family unit.
6. Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership).
7. Separation from the Church.

Reasonable, and doubtless critical knowledge for those eager to differentiate their fiery brand of religion from, well, that. The grim irony, today, is that they're cited in Boze Herrington's story about a prayer group's journey from dormroom club to deadly, sexually-abusive abusive cult under "Tyler", a creep working under Bickle's International House of Prayer. "Tyler was not an isolated individual," writes Herrington, "but the product of a phenomenally twisted system."