Spotting Deceptions in the Church - Stop your church from becoming a cult.

Right wing fanaticism is sweeping the nations today, with the emergence of nationalistic and hyper-nationalistic narratives all over the world.

Countries like India, Germany and Turkey, which have had largely pluralistic movements that held center stage, are also succumbing to this trend, leading to the emergence of the far right as a serious contender for political rights and a mainstream audience.

Far right movements all advocate the notion of a quasi-theocratic state where the religious and administrative centres of power merge into one body, a sycophantic coterie that succumbs to the will of a powerful family or sometimes even a powerful individual.This phenomenon is witnessed even in the churches of today, with both religious and administrative functions of the church being controlled by a single individual, a family, or a group of individuals.

The need of the hour is for identifying the roots of this systemic corruption that plagues churches , and transforms churches with cult like tendencies into fraternities, which resembles the body of Christ, that Jesus originally envisaged for his church.Here are a few questions you can pose to your church leadership , on the basis of which you can identify if your church is guilty of going down the road of far-right ideological bias.

• Does your church advocate members from maintaining relations with members of other churches  ?
• 
Does your church have one central authority figure , who is responsible for all major decision making in the church ?
• Does your church publish its finances on the website ? 
• Does your church have a committee or an annual general meeting to discuss the administrative aspects of the church?
• Is the process of electing leaders to the church board transparent and democratic ? 
• Does the church practice nepotism in any form ? 
• Does the church stress on monetary contributions over physical labour as a form of revenue generation ? 
• Does the church deny communion to those who are not saved ? 
• Does the church promote amateur talent in the Sunday Worship ? 
• Does the church have a functioning youth group ? 
• Does the church support orphans and widows in any manner ? 

Please put all these questions to your church leadership , and based on their answers , you will get a good understanding whether your church is a cult or in danger of becoming one.