College Kids Love the Kool-Aid
“Can you read this please?”
The woman sat next to me and pointed at the text in her bible that was underlined in red ballpoint pen. She had managed to slink up beside me under a shady Magnolia tree on the University of California Santa Barbara campus. The woman’s breath felt dewy on my neck as I read from the Book of Revelation: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
“Wife.” She scooted closer.
I knew the schpiel that was coming and hoped I could escape without another booklet I would just trash as soon as I was alone. Her voice trembled. She explained that in addition to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, there was also God The Mother, who was alive and well on earth. Then she dropped the bomb: the events that took place in the Book of Revelation had already transpired; the end times were now. She had my full attention.
She picked up intensity, and whispered about the “secret” I had to learn lest my soul be sent to the sizzling sauna down under. “I don’t really have time to talk any further right now, but do you have a website or something?” The question hung in the air and her placid perma-smile faltered.
“Oh. No. See, you cannot learn the secret to salvation on the internet. We would prefer to schedule a one-on-one bible study with you.” She left her contact information and a note reminding me to believe in the power of God The Mother. I messaged my own mother instead: “I’m pretty sure I just got a come-to-Jesus from a cult.”
The woman was a representative of World Mission Society Church Of God, a cult known for their “campus outreach,” that was founded in 1964 in South Korea by Ahn Sahng-hong. After Sahng-hong’s death, his followers began to preach that he was Jesus, and that Sahng-hong’s mistress, Zahng Gil-Jah, was his bride and the Mother God. WMSCOG promises eternal life to members who pay their tithes (10% of their yearly earnings) and “forsake family, friends and life as you knew it.”
My new friend relayed none of this information during our chat. William Goldberg, author of “Cults on Campus: How Can You Help?” explained to me in an interview that cults often censor aspects of their organization-- even their name-- when recruiting. Intentional withholding of information serves a purpose; most college students have no contact with cults, have never seen them in the news, and have never heard of their existence outside the fabled creepy compounds of the seventies and Kool-Aid drinking weapons hoarders. Substituting their name for the vague “bible study group” misnomer creates enough of a diversion to convince most that spontaneous trips to “truth rooms” and five hour prayer groups are nothing out of the ordinary.
But there’s more to these collegiate crusades then misdirection and infiltration. Students are passionate, inquisitive, naive and vulnerable. More importantly, college students are numerous given that college is now deemed a practically mandatory part of the education process. High school seniors are still told that they must not chew gum in class or speak out of turn, and six months later are expected to choose a career on their own. The school system in which millions of children are funneled from public high schools to university sets the perfect stage for groups looking to take advantage of newly independent youths with no sense of direction other than “forward.”
When I explained my experience on campus to my parents, my father chuckled. “I don’t think we need to worry about you joining a cult. You aren’t the type of person cults go for.” But aren’t I? The overwhelmed student with two jobs, an honors program with no value other than its pretty title on my diploma and zero career prospects-- I could use some simple answers. It’s only through a twist of fate that God isn’t my thing. In Lorne L. Dawson’s book The Sociology of New Religious Movements, Dawson asserts that cult members are disproportionately younger, more educated, less religious, and in a higher socioeconomic class than the average American. The majority of college students today fit this exact profile.
Goldberg theorizes that the college requirement indicates a cultural coddling of millennials. “We need more and more training to take our place in the world. Puberty is biologically determined, but adolescence is culturally determined. In our society we have a long period of adolescence.” It takes longer and longer to become an adult today. Where once our lives were set in front of us depending on our class, race, or gender; today opportunity arrives with indecision. This prolonged “transition phase” makes us vulnerable to groups with black and white beliefs, who provide answers to all the questions we have about the world. We’re students, we’re conditioned to be open to anything. What’s more, we think we’re too smart to be fooled. A generation raised on the internet, we think we know all about cults because we have read the Wikipedia article on Scientology.
Our connection to the information highway gives us a false sense of security when in reality it could be doing us more harm than good. Goldberg suggests the possibility that college students lack meaningful connections in their lives and establish shallow relationships via internet correspondence. It’s our seemingly innocuous reliance on the information absorbed through the web that has influenced the recent surge in young people joining ISIS, according to a US counterterrorism official. The terrorist group, known for their recruitment tactics, rely heavily on internet propaganda and the connections young people have with one another to spread their message.
The children of the baby boomers are not isolated, but rather hyper-involved, with so many connections made possible by social media that a lack of real human interaction pervades our lives. According to Rick A. Ross from the Cult Education Institute, “eighteen to twenty six year-old college students have historically been the most targeted single demographic group.” Perhaps because cultic relationships fill that missing piece. Cults celebrate the human-to-human contact we miss with a ritual known as “love-bombing,” in which members treat the new recruits with such kindness and sweet words that there leaves no room for doubt that these people are genuine.
So why are students so unaware of these dangers? Possibly because the cult members are students themselves. After contacting UCSB’s Office of Student Life with concerns about cult recruitment on campus, I was informed that there are no screening processes or requirements for religious groups to form on campus. UCSB only requires the officers of the group to be students. “I am also a student here at UCSB” was the opening statement of the woman who approached me.
Sitting inside the library reading, I looked up and made eye contact with the woman who had accosted me the day before. I smiled and my hand jerked up in a reflexive half-wave before I remembered how I knew her. She maintained eye contact and took a step in my direction, but my feet were already moving toward the exit.
“Can you read this please?”
The woman sat next to me and pointed at the text in her bible that was underlined in red ballpoint pen. She had managed to slink up beside me under a shady Magnolia tree on the University of California Santa Barbara campus. The woman’s breath felt dewy on my neck as I read from the Book of Revelation: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
“Wife.” She scooted closer.
I knew the schpiel that was coming and hoped I could escape without another booklet I would just trash as soon as I was alone. Her voice trembled. She explained that in addition to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, there was also God The Mother, who was alive and well on earth. Then she dropped the bomb: the events that took place in the Book of Revelation had already transpired; the end times were now. She had my full attention.
She picked up intensity, and whispered about the “secret” I had to learn lest my soul be sent to the sizzling sauna down under. “I don’t really have time to talk any further right now, but do you have a website or something?” The question hung in the air and her placid perma-smile faltered.
“Oh. No. See, you cannot learn the secret to salvation on the internet. We would prefer to schedule a one-on-one bible study with you.” She left her contact information and a note reminding me to believe in the power of God The Mother. I messaged my own mother instead: “I’m pretty sure I just got a come-to-Jesus from a cult.”
The woman was a representative of World Mission Society Church Of God, a cult known for their “campus outreach,” that was founded in 1964 in South Korea by Ahn Sahng-hong. After Sahng-hong’s death, his followers began to preach that he was Jesus, and that Sahng-hong’s mistress, Zahng Gil-Jah, was his bride and the Mother God. WMSCOG promises eternal life to members who pay their tithes (10% of their yearly earnings) and “forsake family, friends and life as you knew it.”
My new friend relayed none of this information during our chat. William Goldberg, author of “Cults on Campus: How Can You Help?” explained to me in an interview that cults often censor aspects of their organization-- even their name-- when recruiting. Intentional withholding of information serves a purpose; most college students have no contact with cults, have never seen them in the news, and have never heard of their existence outside the fabled creepy compounds of the seventies and Kool-Aid drinking weapons hoarders. Substituting their name for the vague “bible study group” misnomer creates enough of a diversion to convince most that spontaneous trips to “truth rooms” and five hour prayer groups are nothing out of the ordinary.
But there’s more to these collegiate crusades then misdirection and infiltration. Students are passionate, inquisitive, naive and vulnerable. More importantly, college students are numerous given that college is now deemed a practically mandatory part of the education process. High school seniors are still told that they must not chew gum in class or speak out of turn, and six months later are expected to choose a career on their own. The school system in which millions of children are funneled from public high schools to university sets the perfect stage for groups looking to take advantage of newly independent youths with no sense of direction other than “forward.”
When I explained my experience on campus to my parents, my father chuckled. “I don’t think we need to worry about you joining a cult. You aren’t the type of person cults go for.” But aren’t I? The overwhelmed student with two jobs, an honors program with no value other than its pretty title on my diploma and zero career prospects-- I could use some simple answers. It’s only through a twist of fate that God isn’t my thing. In Lorne L. Dawson’s book The Sociology of New Religious Movements, Dawson asserts that cult members are disproportionately younger, more educated, less religious, and in a higher socioeconomic class than the average American. The majority of college students today fit this exact profile.
Goldberg theorizes that the college requirement indicates a cultural coddling of millennials. “We need more and more training to take our place in the world. Puberty is biologically determined, but adolescence is culturally determined. In our society we have a long period of adolescence.” It takes longer and longer to become an adult today. Where once our lives were set in front of us depending on our class, race, or gender; today opportunity arrives with indecision. This prolonged “transition phase” makes us vulnerable to groups with black and white beliefs, who provide answers to all the questions we have about the world. We’re students, we’re conditioned to be open to anything. What’s more, we think we’re too smart to be fooled. A generation raised on the internet, we think we know all about cults because we have read the Wikipedia article on Scientology.
Our connection to the information highway gives us a false sense of security when in reality it could be doing us more harm than good. Goldberg suggests the possibility that college students lack meaningful connections in their lives and establish shallow relationships via internet correspondence. It’s our seemingly innocuous reliance on the information absorbed through the web that has influenced the recent surge in young people joining ISIS, according to a US counterterrorism official. The terrorist group, known for their recruitment tactics, rely heavily on internet propaganda and the connections young people have with one another to spread their message.
The children of the baby boomers are not isolated, but rather hyper-involved, with so many connections made possible by social media that a lack of real human interaction pervades our lives. According to Rick A. Ross from the Cult Education Institute, “eighteen to twenty six year-old college students have historically been the most targeted single demographic group.” Perhaps because cultic relationships fill that missing piece. Cults celebrate the human-to-human contact we miss with a ritual known as “love-bombing,” in which members treat the new recruits with such kindness and sweet words that there leaves no room for doubt that these people are genuine.
So why are students so unaware of these dangers? Possibly because the cult members are students themselves. After contacting UCSB’s Office of Student Life with concerns about cult recruitment on campus, I was informed that there are no screening processes or requirements for religious groups to form on campus. UCSB only requires the officers of the group to be students. “I am also a student here at UCSB” was the opening statement of the woman who approached me.
Sitting inside the library reading, I looked up and made eye contact with the woman who had accosted me the day before. I smiled and my hand jerked up in a reflexive half-wave before I remembered how I knew her. She maintained eye contact and took a step in my direction, but my feet were already moving toward the exit.