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    Freedom Versus Devotion: An In-Depth Study of Cult Experience
    Freedom Versus Devotion: An In-Depth Study of Cult Experience
    Freedom Versus Devotion: An In-Depth Study of Cult Experience
    Ebook40 pages37 minutes

    Freedom Versus Devotion: An In-Depth Study of Cult Experience

    By D. Patrick Miller

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    About this ebook

    This in-depth report reveals the experience of a former "Moonie" cultist, Ellen Berlfein, as she recounts how she was drawn into six years of religious devotion to the organization founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and ultimately freed by a kidnapping and deprogramming engineered by her parents. While Ellen's personal story relates to the Moon sect of the 1970s, the themes of cult seduction, recruitment, dedication, and ultimate disillusionment are perennial. What's often missed in cult stories is the fact that some people value the experience of spiritual devotion over personal freedom, and it can be difficult to experience devotion outside the confines of a group that may present dangers for novice followers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherD. Patrick Miller
    Release dateDec 2, 2018
    ISBN9780463833735
    Freedom Versus Devotion: An In-Depth Study of Cult Experience
    Author

    D. Patrick Miller

    Patrick D. Miller is Charles T. Haley Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of numerous books, including The Religion of Ancient Israel. He is coeditor of the Interpretation commentary series and the Westminster Bible Companion series. In 1998, he served as President of the Society of Biblical Literature. He was also editor of Theology Today for twenty years.

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      Book preview

      Freedom Versus Devotion - D. Patrick Miller

      FREEDOM VS. DEVOTION

      An In-Depth Study of Cult Experience

      by

      D. Patrick Miller

      © Copyright 2018 D. Patrick Miller

      Published by Fearless Books

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the express written permission of the publisher.

      _________________________________

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Kidnapped

      Growing up discontented

      A place for love bombing

      The thought of God crying

      The life of a missionary

      A vacation for disillusionment

      Always the same distance to go

      UPDATE

      Kidnapped

      Ellen Berlfein was selling flowers from a stand in the parking lot of a Texas doughnut shop on November 7, 1981, when a nondescript van pulled up and two men got out to look over the blossoms. Soon several more men came out of the truck, and Ellen briefly thought that she might have a big sale on her hands. But as all the men gathered closer to her, Ellen began to feel wary. Suddenly the strangers grabbed her and opened the side door of the van, throwing her inside. She screamed violently, afraid that she was about to be raped, but as the doors of the van closed and the truck sped off, Ellen came face to face with yet another man inside — her father.

      This was a sight, she recalls, that was no consolation at all.

      Ellen would spend the next ten days with five bodyguards, two deprogrammers, her parents and her sister Judy. She resisted them all for three days, then decided to pretend that her deprogramming was taking effect. Three months later, by the end of her stay in a rehabilitation center, it had indeed taken effect — and Ellen’s six-year stay in the cult of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon was over.

      Decades later, America still faces the threats of religious extremists both from within and without, and our domestic experience with cults certainly seems far from over. The nation was shocked during the 1990s by the violent conflict with federal law enforcement that consumed the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, and the bizarre mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate commune near San Diego, California. While Ellen's personal story is specific to the 1970s era and the Moon sect, its themes of cultist seduction, recruitment, dedication, and ultimate disillusionment remain perennial.

      In a nation founded partly on the pillar of religious freedom, we have never known quite what to do about those who pursue that freedom to extremes — and the average citizen is often mystified about what draws people into extremist congregations or cults. In its emphasis on the sensational events and charismatic personalities associated with so-called cults, the mainstream press has done little to further an understanding of their appeal.

      In the following report, Ellen Berlfein and some members of her family look back on her experience as a Moonie — long after its sensational aspects have faded, and long enough for everyone involved to develop a thoughtful perspective

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