Scary Sermons are Used to Control COG Members

Recently I was reading Steven Hassan's book, Freedom of Mind, chapter 10, Unlocking Phobias. In the chapter Mr. Hassan relates that while he was a Moonie many Moonies within New York were summoned to view The Exorcist.

Moon made efforts to instill more direct, personal, and graphic phobias. In 1974, all New York members (myself included) were taken to see The Exorcist, a movie about a young girl who is possessed by an evil spirit. Moon then held a meeting at his Belvedere estate in Tarytown, NY, and told members that this movie was made by God, and was a prophecy of what would happen to anyone who left the Unification movement.

That reminded me of another story I heard about David Koresh. He only allowed his followers to watch three violent war movies. No doubt for the same foul purpose.

Thinking about this I then realized that HWA's WCG and the Armstrongite COGs also employ this method of social control by having their ministers talk at great length upon what would supposedly happen in the future. As just one example I could cite how Gerald Waterhouse insisted, with much emotion in a 1979 sermon, that Laodiceans would have to be beheaded by fanatical European imperialists in order to make up for their 'lukewarmness'.

I well remember how Richard Armstrong made a sermon in 1957 in which he justified having children sit through their long sermons. He essentially said that the children would get something out of it. He would say that it gave the children an awareness of 'the truth'. We know that it is a method of social control to scare followers into staying in the church. What the kids really got out of it was that they were told they must always stay with the church or else they will be sorely punished in a horrifying manner. It is a method of implanting phobias into COG members in order to keep them in the church paying their three tithes. No wonder so many of these precious children left the bizarre, fear based world of Armstrongism as soon as they could. Their defections are glorious acts of resistance against tyranny.

Many ex-members have spoken out against how children were forced to listen to scary, fear based sermons designed to keep COG members fearful in order to keep them in the church.

The old WCG ministers and COG ministers do that because they are cults.