Yesterday, one of my blog posts—published eight months ago—got nearly 13,000 views.
About 20% of that came from this post on Reddit, which showed a list of crazy rules at some church called the Word of Faith Fellowship.
For some reason, it seems to have driven a lot of traffic to one blog post titled “Word of Faith and a Cult Checklist.” It was not about that church in particular. I was involved in a movement called the Word of Faith back in the 1980’s and 90’s. Today, it is more likely to be called the Prosperity Gospel. I have written a lot on my blog about the Word of Faith/Prosperity Gospel. My sister once thought it was a cult, and I wanted to know myself. I found a cult checklist in an article called “Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups” from the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). I edited it a little for clarification on some points.
The idea for the post was to go through the checklist and answer according to my experiences with the Word of Faith movement. I cannot comment on the Word of Faith Fellowship, because I have no experience with that particular church. But their “do and don’t” list above sounds very cult-like. Just saying.
Nonetheless, it seems people who are interested in cults or the Word of Faith Fellowship are finding their way to that post. If you are wondering if you or someone you know belongs to a cult, here is the checklist.
Number 1: The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
Number 2: Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Number 3: Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
Number 4: The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
Number 5: The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and its members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
Number 6: The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
Number 7: The leader is not accountable to any authorities.
Number 8: The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before they joined the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
Number 9: The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
Number 10: Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and to radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before they joined the group.
Number 11: The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
Number 12: The group is preoccupied with making money.
Number 13: Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
Number 14: Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
Number 15: The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.
If you want to see my answers and conclusions about the Word of Faith movement, here’s the link. https://davidandersontheauthor.com/2021/08/18/word-of-faith-and-a-cult-checklist/
I also recommend another post I mentioned, “My Sister Thought I Was in a Cult (And I’m Not Sure She Was Wrong).”
Finally, you can find more resources on recognizing and freeing yourself from cults from the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA).
David Anderson 
Dear David
Hello from the UK. Very well put, thank you. I have Anderson’s in my family so maybe that is significant!
Mind you your cult list identifies reminds me of the Covid 19 cult today. Obey our governments come what may, get your vaccines, mask up etc., etc., no need to think critically as we have done it all for you.
Kind regards
Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
Please excuse the nom-de-plume, this is as much for fun as a riddle for people to solve if they wish.
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Thanks for commenting. My father’s family comes from England, so maybe it is significant. However, I want to point out I follow the CDC guidelines when it comes to pandemics. I don’t call that a cult. I call it common sense, because they know more about infectious diseases than I do. Yes, it is important to think critically, which is why I asked my doctor about it. I had heard that this was a totally new method for creating vaccines. He said it’s different and better. It’s such a leap forward he thinks all vaccines will be made this way within the next few years. Just remember, thinking critically doesn’t just mean questioning authority. It also means consulting people who know more about that topic than you do. That is how I got that cult checklist. If I say something is a cult, I don’t want it to be just my opinion. I want input from a neutral expert or two.
Anyway, I hope you’re doing well. I might check my ancestry.com again to see if there’s any connection.
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Dear David
Many thanks for your reply. Sadly the CDC in in bed with Big Pharma as I understand it funds much of what it does. People around the world are displaying cultist observance towards their governments, and advisors, despite the obvious fact that advice is frequently changing and governments, including the USA, are corrupted.
I could go through your excellent list in detail, but far too many people have fallen in the pro-vax camp and taken what is an experimental vaccine. In the UK there are those who are part of a specific trial with placebos. This includes a couple of my in-laws on my wife’s side. She was quite ill following receipt of a vaccine.
I know that most people have taken it without really thinking. Indeed, in the UK, people did not even bother to check on the whole that the government issued written guidance at gov.uk and that they did not have to do what MSM, let alone the daily briefings were telling them. Common sense should have said this was the case but far too many abandoned it, including most of my family and friends it seems.
As regards Covid 19 I have done a great deal of research and if I may, I attach below. It is standard text adapted as required.
“I have had my fair share of vaccines, including polio I believe. I used to think vaccines were of some use until, at 60 years of age in 2020, I researched properly. I changed my mind.
Covid 19 is the ‘flu, dressed up as a monster to scare people, re-branded if you will. This helps big pharma etc, control the populace and make more money.
The ‘flu is the internal toxicosis of the body, mainly via urea, partly due to metabolism of food and partly due to the many poisons in our environment which can and do enter our bodies in the air, food and water. The ‘flu cannot be transmitted to someone else as it is individual to each person.
Unless your blood is given to someone in a blood transfusion, for example.
In essence urea is a neuro-toxin due to the nitrogen which the body may use up to a point but must ultimately excrete as it is from ammonia which is highly toxic.
Injecting poisons such as via vaccines merely adds to the toxicosis problem. Vaccines have never been of any use, it is merely that constant and persistent ‘advertising’ persuaded people that they were of use. The various deaths and harm have been well-documented over the decades. It is being documented now.
Vitamin D deficiency is the true pandemic due to indoor working and living away from the sunshine which, if we do the right thing things, will give us vitamin D (free!). Big pharma etc. are not keen on free as they don’t make much money out of it.
Vitamin D levels drop in the winter months, depending on latitude, due to reduced sunshine levels and as any gains in the summer months are depleted.
Vaccines are neuro-toxins, if there is anything in them at all, as are most big pharma drugs. The toxic drugs contain nitrogen and can be readily identified as a consequence if you know the chemistry. Therefore they are at best pointless, suppressing symptoms and not dealing with the real issue. Indeed, they usually merely add to the issues, hence the ever increasing cycle of drugs to treat side effects of drugs etc.
This ever increasing cycle is good for big pharma business, but not for the human body.
If your immune system is in good order then by and large you will tolerate a poisonous vaccine. If weakened you will suffer various side effects. If your immune system is very poor you may die.
Boosting your immune system with vitamin D can go a long way to protecting you against the toxicosis, but vitamin C is very good as an anti-oxidant to help flush the toxins out of your system. By and large you should be able to gain your vitamins etc from good, untainted food. Highly processed foods will not help.
I have seen the statistics on Australia since February 2020. These show a close correlation between Covid cases and vaccination. It is abundantly clear the vaccines are causing the case numbers rise, as would be expected. Look at other statistics and you will no doubt see the same correlation.
Vaccine makers will say that correlation is not causation, although try telling that to those who fall ill immediately after the shot (or die!).
However, they use the same argument for justifying that vaccines do any good, that because people don’t fall ill or not so badly, it is the vaccines which have helped. Pure nonsense, and unsubstantiated at that. Lots of factors change over time and each person is an individual, not a herd.
I have done much on Covid 19 etc., here is my link to my summary. That gives access to the various other issues. I cover the statistics in the UK and USA and more recently those in Australia.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/covid-19-summary/
The following explains the variants. These are merely fear techniques to fool the gullible.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/various-variants-covid-19/
The following explains the media fear campaign.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/fear-is-the-key/
A useful website on the deceit.
https://timefortruth.blog/2022/02/01/how-the-media-lies-about-covid/
Fear is a major problem in health. It should be noted that fear tends to ‘freeze’ the body’s immune system from functioning correctly and can stop people doing sensible things. Like avoiding having foreign bodies injected into their systems.
And I wonder how many people would choose to have a vaccine if they had to pay for them directly rather than via their taxes (vaccination is not free)?
As regards vaccinated/unvaccinated I gather the goal posts keep changing so unvaccinated currently means not fully vaccinated in at least some countries. This means people who have had vaccines are lumped in with those who have not had recent vaccines. Therefore the people of the world are being duped into having something nasty put into their bodies.
Unless they like playing Russian roulette with their bodies of course. But then that is both sad and mad.
As regards reasons of variance of symptoms, if any, between those who are vaccinated the problem lies in not knowing what exactly in each vial; sadly people will sell nothing for something and the vial might contain only saline, it is impossible to tell without testing each vial.
Vaccines are causing the issues by and large nowadays and case numbers and deaths will rise as a consequence. I recommend avoiding vaccines like the plague.
Please note I do use humour as necessary on posts and pages to lighten the mood and help make the points. I will use strong salty language if required. I am not PC.”
If you follow this through you will see why it makes sense, and why the cultist behaviour of so many people is self-evident regards their government leaders, who are in reality public servants. They and the doctors are not gods to boss us around and they should be firmly reminded of this.
Kind regards
Baldmichael
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Okay, this is way too long for me to read, and I don’t want an endless debate. Vaccines are not a cult. They are common sense. Even if I don’t trust the media, I trust my own doctor to know good medicine. I have issues with Big Pharma, but in this case they really came through. If they had done it the old way, it would have taken eight to ten years to get a vaccine. Yes, some people had some adverse reactoins, that has always been the case. But the risks with the vaccine are miniscule compared to Covid.
I got the vaccine, and I thank God for it. Comparisons with the flu are totally invalid. No flu ever killed nearly 1 million Americans in two years, except maybe the Spanish Flu, i.e., the last pandemic. I don’t even know how many millions it’s killed worldwide. This is the last I’ll say about it. You are welcome to read anything I’ve posted, but this particular debate is over as far as I’m concerned.
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Dear David.
Thanks for replying. Be it on your own head. I have warned you and told you the truth. You have been conned by big pharma etc. You are part of a grand experiment, and if you take other vaccines and suffer adverse effects, please make sure your report them as the authorities will need to know.
And I wouldn’t thank God for it as He wouldn’t give it to his mother-in-law, even if He had one!!
I will have a look at your other posts in a moment.
Kind regards
Baldmichael
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