Quoting myself in a recent correspondence to James Knight:
The best sense I've made of pathological manifestations of the faith
revolve round the common themes of social marginalisation and alienation,
social anonymity, tribalism, paranoia, conspiracy theory and above all a desire
to have a sure-fire secure epistemology either based on "The word of
God" and/or gnostic revelation that can be used to oppose
"profane" & "secular" knowledge.
James Knight has recently provided
an interesting perspective on pathological religious communities by focusing on
the role of leadership. See here. He also links to this article on the sociology of leaders who exploit their position by talking up the fears, scares and threats which
draw a close knit community together and which discourage challenges to its leadership.
It is clear that leadership gurus are an important component
contributing to the maintenance of the sectarian status quo; in particular, when
the sect is embattled there is a need to talk up the paranoia and persecution
complexes which help cement the group to its leaders. Ken Ham, who James
mentions, is a classic case. Ham’s rhetoric against his detractors is always set at maximum fire power and he never minces his words; in particular Christians who don’t agree with
him are one of the main targets of his condemnatory bulls: They are accused of quite
extreme sins of compromise, of heresy, of attacking the Cross of Christ and of following another
Jesus (I can provide references). In this light Ham’s claim that Young
Earthism is not a salvation issue is ungenuine and merely academic. For Ham
Biblical literalism is every bit a faith testing shibboleth. He also tells us that Biblical literalism is an authority issue. But with that I certainly agree;
after all, in the final analysis it’s about the divine authority of Ham’s
opinions. If one identifies one's opinions with divine authority it is no surprise that detractors are perceived to be indulging in the worst of heresies and one will condemn them in the strongest possible terms.
Upping the ante can sometimes,
however, result in diminishing returns. The Jehovah’s Witness did this with their
rhetoric surrounding 1975 which lead many of their followers to believe that the
end of "this system of things" was set for that year. Of course, like many of their
other “prophecies” 1975 fell through and for a while membership eased off. But either people have short memories or are stupid, (probably both),
because it wasn't long before the membership recovered with the input of a new batch of
inexperienced and ignorant recruits. So perhaps the sectarian world''s strategy of living off sensationalist
capital actually works. It may pall for a bit, but the supply of fresh faced dupes who are ripe for exploitation seems inexhaustible; they are the sects renewable resource that keep it running.
See also Micheal Voris who
provides us with a fine example of a Catholic fundamentalist guru going forth
with all guns blazing. Fundamentalist rhetoric has just two settings: Maximum
volume and maximum volume.
See also:
http://quantumnonlinearity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/arbitrariness-in-mature-creation-theory.html
http://quantumnonlinearity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/arbitrariness-in-mature-creation-theory.html
Ken "Slam'em" Ham is leader of the pack
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