Totally not a Cult

I'm watching the new Hulu series called The Path right now. Which seems like a really good and a really bad idea. A surprising amount of the portrayal of cult life reminds me of Adventist life, which I am surprised to find surprising. I mean, we used to talk about how Adventism used to be a cult, but was now considered a respectable religion. We were all jazzed to realize we were not technically part of a cult, despite the many cultish aspects of the lifestyle. It is both helpful in confronting it, and borderline triggering.

The major difference of course, is that you can leave Adventism without threat of violence, which is important to note. Which isn't to say there aren't guilt trips, peer pressure, mind games and loss of community involved, but no real threat of force or overt coercion. So that's positive. Also, Adventists are strict teetotalers, so the pot and the ayahuasca would be right out.

That said, a lot of the portrayals of cult life were uncomfortably resonant. The jargon, that you all use so much you forget it sounds weird to outside observers. The focus on The Future, where sinners will be destroyed for their sins and a chosen few, the cultists of course, will be saved to create a bright new future. The prophet, widely believed to have access to divine wisdom. The strict legalism, especially concerning sexuality and marriage. The resulting sexual repression leading to weird and neurotic sexual behavior.

I'll probably keep watching it, but it's a roller coaster if you've ever lived anything close to something like that experience. On the bright side, feeling constantly weird is starting to make more sense to me. I grew up in a weird religion, that was totally not a cult* apparently!

*It just felt like one. Frequently.