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The Cult of Christianity: How Churches Control, Contain, and Convert
Jesus might love you, but does his cult following? In this book, a trained preacher, and former church leader, thoroughly accuses evangelical leaders in the United States of committing cult-like crimes. You'll want to evaluate you own allegiances, no matter your faith, after reading.
114 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 25, 2019
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December 31, 2019
I felt it fitting to read this book and provide a review of it since I knew John at the Bible school he attended.
First of all, it must be made clear that this book addresses mainly churches in their practice of Christianity, or at least what they define it to be. Honestly, I cannot say I disagree with much of the objections against churches that Verner gave in these things. I myself was raised in a church surprisingly similar to the one he describes. I found myself becoming a very dogmatic, hateful, fiery bigot, but I will blame my own immaturity in my Christian faith rather than the church I was raised in. I will not discredit the claims he made about his experience with it, because in many ways I can definitely sympathize. I often felt pressure to look like everyone else that I did not always give into (except for one time when I got a lip piercing and quickly got rid of it because I was afraid of the view I was projecting of myself to others in the church.) I even felt like after being raised in such a church that I had to start back at Zero and figure out if Christianity was a cult or if it was truth that can be distorted by imperfect followers of it. I found it to be the latter. It is inevitable to have imperfect followers of Christ. This is why the church I have been attending for a while has a class (and has for years now) about recovering from past hurts from churches. In this class everyone is encouraged to be open about what happened to them in past churches and help them heal from those hurts.
Verner makes numerous blanket statements that do not apply to all churches or all Christians. "traditional, less market-driven, churches will spend almost no money on effective marketing but rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on trips to third world countries, all the while refusing to allow homeless folks in their midst on Sunday." I can attest to this being quite untrue about the church I currently attend, although I understand that this is perhaps the typical. My husband and I for a while were picking up people from the homeless shelter and taking them to church with us. They were lovingly welcomed by the congregation. This is just one example of many blanket statements Verner makes in regards to churches and Christianity that do not apply across the board.
Verner brings to the forefront the idea of Conscience being the ultimate guide and you cannot rely on the "external" to find spiritual enlightenment. I suppose he is probably aware that he got this very idea from the very culture he finds himself in, as this idea is not unique to him. Most millennials believe this very same thing, and this is rooted in our highly individualistic ideals. Verner received these individualistic ideals through external means: his millennial culture. Other cultures who value collectivism would see no issue with certain things that Verner takes issue with. Our culture sees conformity as a highly negative thing, where Non-Western cultures see conformity as part of maintaining harmony with others. All of this to say that the ideas Verner has are all a result of the ideas the rest of those in his generation share.
This book does not cut at the claims of Christianity itself (except maybe those about textual criticism a bit). The main reason why this book is written was made clear at the very end of the book. Verner gives himself away as the reason for writing this book in these words, "The cult made me lose sight of the woman I loved more than any other human. Do not doubt their capability of heartbreaking destruction." He places the sole blame for his own shortcomings in his marriage on Christianity, refusing to own up to his own faults, "With no hesitation, I will blame my own shortcomings on the toxic ideas I was constantly around in both church and bible college."
There is a large shortcoming in this book that I was quite disappointed about as well. There are multiple staggering statistics that are provided to prove the authors point, and although I do think they may be accurate, no footnotes or bibliography is provided for the reader to check the authors facts. The author seems to be employing the same kind of methods of "control" that he accuses Christianity of by employing his persuasive style to his writing without providing sources for others to fact check him... I suppose he just wants the reader to take him at his word. He quotes,
"Using dialogue and persuasion to convert people to any ideology is not inherently wrong. I am doing that very thing by writing this book." Indeed.
Perhaps a good reason for reading this book would be to familiarize oneself for the very reasons why millennials are leaving the faith in droves. For that, it was quite helpful for me. Also I give him credit for writing very intellectually with well-organized thoughts that he communicated very well. Unsurprising, as I know this friend of mine for always having a great knack for writing.
First of all, it must be made clear that this book addresses mainly churches in their practice of Christianity, or at least what they define it to be. Honestly, I cannot say I disagree with much of the objections against churches that Verner gave in these things. I myself was raised in a church surprisingly similar to the one he describes. I found myself becoming a very dogmatic, hateful, fiery bigot, but I will blame my own immaturity in my Christian faith rather than the church I was raised in. I will not discredit the claims he made about his experience with it, because in many ways I can definitely sympathize. I often felt pressure to look like everyone else that I did not always give into (except for one time when I got a lip piercing and quickly got rid of it because I was afraid of the view I was projecting of myself to others in the church.) I even felt like after being raised in such a church that I had to start back at Zero and figure out if Christianity was a cult or if it was truth that can be distorted by imperfect followers of it. I found it to be the latter. It is inevitable to have imperfect followers of Christ. This is why the church I have been attending for a while has a class (and has for years now) about recovering from past hurts from churches. In this class everyone is encouraged to be open about what happened to them in past churches and help them heal from those hurts.
Verner makes numerous blanket statements that do not apply to all churches or all Christians. "traditional, less market-driven, churches will spend almost no money on effective marketing but rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on trips to third world countries, all the while refusing to allow homeless folks in their midst on Sunday." I can attest to this being quite untrue about the church I currently attend, although I understand that this is perhaps the typical. My husband and I for a while were picking up people from the homeless shelter and taking them to church with us. They were lovingly welcomed by the congregation. This is just one example of many blanket statements Verner makes in regards to churches and Christianity that do not apply across the board.
Verner brings to the forefront the idea of Conscience being the ultimate guide and you cannot rely on the "external" to find spiritual enlightenment. I suppose he is probably aware that he got this very idea from the very culture he finds himself in, as this idea is not unique to him. Most millennials believe this very same thing, and this is rooted in our highly individualistic ideals. Verner received these individualistic ideals through external means: his millennial culture. Other cultures who value collectivism would see no issue with certain things that Verner takes issue with. Our culture sees conformity as a highly negative thing, where Non-Western cultures see conformity as part of maintaining harmony with others. All of this to say that the ideas Verner has are all a result of the ideas the rest of those in his generation share.
This book does not cut at the claims of Christianity itself (except maybe those about textual criticism a bit). The main reason why this book is written was made clear at the very end of the book. Verner gives himself away as the reason for writing this book in these words, "The cult made me lose sight of the woman I loved more than any other human. Do not doubt their capability of heartbreaking destruction." He places the sole blame for his own shortcomings in his marriage on Christianity, refusing to own up to his own faults, "With no hesitation, I will blame my own shortcomings on the toxic ideas I was constantly around in both church and bible college."
There is a large shortcoming in this book that I was quite disappointed about as well. There are multiple staggering statistics that are provided to prove the authors point, and although I do think they may be accurate, no footnotes or bibliography is provided for the reader to check the authors facts. The author seems to be employing the same kind of methods of "control" that he accuses Christianity of by employing his persuasive style to his writing without providing sources for others to fact check him... I suppose he just wants the reader to take him at his word. He quotes,
"Using dialogue and persuasion to convert people to any ideology is not inherently wrong. I am doing that very thing by writing this book." Indeed.
Perhaps a good reason for reading this book would be to familiarize oneself for the very reasons why millennials are leaving the faith in droves. For that, it was quite helpful for me. Also I give him credit for writing very intellectually with well-organized thoughts that he communicated very well. Unsurprising, as I know this friend of mine for always having a great knack for writing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review