Otto Wagner:
The Roman Catholic Church does not fit the definition of a destructive cult.
A very small percentage of religious groups fit this definition.
The definition provided by Robert Jay Lifton forms the nucleus for almost every working definition of a destructive cult and is not broad and is quite precise.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
Lifton offers three highly specific and focused criterion.
Cults can be identified by three characteristics:a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power;
a process I call coercive persuasion or thought reform;
economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
Lifton further very specifically defines what a thought reform program consists of based upon eight further criterion so that this issue is also understood in detail.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
Psychologist Margaret Singer offers a chart in her book "Cults In OUr Midst" that draws distinctions between various forms of persuasion including education, advertising, propaganda, indoctrination and thought reform.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
For example, the Roman Catholic engages in indoctrination not thought reform.
I devoted an entire chapter within my book "Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out" to "Defining a Destructive Cult" demonstrating how virtually every working definition of a destructive cult intersects Lifton's three principle defining characteristics.
See [
www.amazon.com]
That chapter and all the chapters in the book are very carefully footnoted so that readers can see the supporting research.