THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "ORTHODOX" CHURCHES AND TOTALIST GROUPS

(1)  Churches teach allegiance to [a] God [Goddess].
  Totalist groups demand complete obedience and subservince to
one individual, who claims to be God/Goddess, the messiah, a prophet
or some form of diety, who has revelations and gets his instructions
directly from God/Goddess.

(2)  Churches allow freedom to integrate with society as a whole.
  Totalist groups require separation from society.  Association
with non-members is discouraged except to gain money or [to]
proselytize.

(3)  Churches teach family love and unity.  The family is sacred.
  Totalist groups teach that parents are "satanic" or "demonic". 
Members are programmed to believe they will lose their salvation
if they continue to associate with their "flesh" family.  Only
their new "spiritual family" has meaning in their lives.

(4)  Churches teach respect for law, government and society.
  Totalist groups teach that they are above the law, and that
society's system is to be "worked" to suit their purpose.  The
law may be broken for a "higher cause".

(5)  Churches teach honesty and integrity.
  Totalist groups teach deceitfulness.

(6)  Churches teach that the body is a sacred vessel.
  Totalist groups have little or no concern for the material
body.  Only the soul is important.  Many cultists have died as
the result of self-neglect and poor nutrition.

(7)  Tithing is done on a voluntary basis in orthodox churches.
  Totalist groups take the members material possessions for their
own use or require that most or all of the weekly income be
turned over to the cult.

(8)  Churches encourage autonomy and individual growth.
  Totalist groups encourage conformity to the leader's every whim
and leaders determine all important life decisions, including
marriage.

(9)  Churches encourage members to think for themselves, to  
     question and seek answers.
  Totalist groups discourage, even forbid, any critical analyses,
thus creating a sense of utter dependence among their followers.

(10) Church members are free to leave a church if they wish.
  Totalist groups hold onto their members by using behavior
modification techniques that were used on prisoners of war: fear,
guilt, isolation from family and friends, low protein diet, and
sleep deprivation.  Members face psychic harassment at best,
physical threats at worst if they leave the cult.

(11) Churches promote good relations between parents and children.
  Many Totalist groups practice interference with all
communication between parents and children through misrouting of
mail and phone calls, by refusing to let parents visit a child,
or not letting them be alone together if they are allowed to
visit.

(12)  Churches do not teach methods of self-hypnosis.
  Totalist groups do.  Members are programmed to believe that any
doubt about what the leaders have taught is "satan creeping in". 
Therefore all doubts must be stamped out.  Methods of "thought
stopping" (self-hypnosis) such as chanting, meditation, quoting
the same scripture over and over, and speaking in tongues become
second nature to the cultist.  It may take weeks or months to
stop this after a person leaves the cult.  This is why rational
thought is virtually impossible and why parents feel they are
facing a "blank wall".

(13) Churches do not require members to abandon school(s) and job(s).
  Totalist groups usually require their followers to do this,
exceptions being when members are placed in strategic positions
to recruit.

(14) Churches sponsor hospitals, orphanages, community welfare
     projects and other programs.
  Totalist groups promise to save humanity, but generally sponsor
no social welfare programs of their own.  Money gained is used to
enrich the leader, while followers often live in poverty.