The topic of this week in PLP is New Religious Movements, or NRMs. This is a group of individuals that would commonly be referred to as cults by the general public. And as a class we’ve discovered that the term “cult” is given to religious groups with un-orthodox beliefs, or characteristics that create suspicion.
These New Religious Movements feed off of naivety, and a person seeking for easy answers to complex questions. This type of person just so happens to be “the young adult”, usually no longer living with their parents, and for the first time, out in the world on their own. This is the perfect scene for NRM recruitment.
Not only are we as a class studying these groups, but we are using our critical thinking, and adjusting our paradigms to see the before, during and after of these groups in a members eyes. Although I’ve never been recruited to an NRM, I’m able clearly understand how easy it could be to find myself in that position.
In this particular post I’ll be analyzing the Gloriavale Christian Community. Within the alps of West Coast New Zealand, sits a small self sufficient closed community, thats currently home to 90 different families. Together these families of all ages, cook, clean, and work in a society that claims to be “Christ-centred”. 
You may be thinking, what’s wrong with a group of likeminded people supporting a small society in the wilderness? Nothing. But Gloriavale has proved to represent much more than hard work, and bible study.
In PLP’s studies of New Religious Movements, we’ve been keeping track of the kinds of terms used in documentaries, interviews, and articles from past members. Terms such as isolation, authoritative, sacrifice, and manipulation. In a Ted Talk by Lilia Tarawa, an Ex- Member of Gloriavale, she speaks of the face that the community presents versus the horrors that are shoved under the rug.
The beginning of the Ted Talk starts off with an explanation of the positive environment that Lilia believed it to be as a child, and then she mentions she “couldn’t wait to grow up and marry a man and have his babies” or how “it was a really exciting day for me when I turned twelve and got my period. Because I could finally fulfill my purpose in life”. No twelve year old child should be thinking about pregnancy, but because Lilia was surrounded by women in a submissive, man-serving, position, it was normal for her. This is a technique of brainwashing used in NRMs throughout history, “everyone else is doing it, I guess its the right thing to do”. In the case of Gloriavale, this manipulation was aided by use of the bible, and respected figures in the community.
Another important term in the labeling of NRM’s is the use of isolation. Yes Gloriavale is in the middle of nowhere, and thats a big part of the power the group holds, but Gloriavale isolates people psychologically from the outside world as-well. Lilia explains how her childhood friend tried to escape, and ended up getting caught, and for that she was “taken before an inquisition of 20 men seated in a small room, condemned, forced to confess she was evil, forced to phone her outside family and say she didn’t want to leave anymore”. If that story doesn’t scream “cult”, I don’t know what does.
But like all “cults”, the people involved don’t know that they’re in one. And from an outside perspective, like you or I, we are unable to completely understand what this kind of brainwashing, and manipulation feels like. Being faithful to God, and the bible your entire life, while in a group that claims to love, and cherish you, while it does the opposite. You’re trapped, and because a group member is isolated (either physically or psychologically) from any beliefs either than their group’s, many don’t see the danger of their group. Luckily for Lilia she “realized the leaders of Gloriavale used cruel tactics to control and manipulate”, and she was able to escape with her siblings, and begin to lead a life in the world for the first time.
Although its easy to be critical of a member of one of these NRMs, or “cults”, its extremely important to understand the kinds of re-wiring their brains have been through, and that most of the time, members are completely hypnotized by their group leader’s, claimed knowledge, and answers to their burning questions.
Humans are all vulnerable to being manipulated.
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