Boston colleges on cult alert

[ICOC] The Boston Globe reports that colleges in Boston are starting to get cult-weary again.

Almost a decade ago many groups were banned from these schools. Since last year they’re back but this time the students haven’t received the education and warnings on these groups that their peers did.

Northeastern University’s residence director, Seth Avakian says they’re keeping an eye open to see if anyone is getting caught. Some colleges are reconsidering whether they should do more to teach students about the dangers of cults.

The Boston Church of Christ, which was founded in Lexington in 1979, and the LaRouche Youth Movement, a political group founded by former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, are the two groups appearing most often on local campuses, officials said.

The groups are considered high-pressure organizations because they have been accused of using strong-arm tactics to recruit and keep members. The church has raised concerns, its critics say, by telling students their parents are the devil and by assigning mentors, who tell students which classes to take so they don’t miss the frequent church gatherings. The LaRouche group, its critics say, encourages members to drop out of school and spend their time recruiting new members. Cult awareness specialists says the group also threatens members who try to leave the group. Leaders of both organizations have said they are not cults.

The Boston Globe spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan about the Boston Church of Christ:

Cult activity garnered statewide attention after dozens of universities began banning the Boston Church of Christ in the 1990s and forbade proselytizing on campus. The groups seemed to have a resurgence around 2001 and then faded for different reasons, said Steven A. Hassan, director of the Freedom of Mind Center in Cambridge, which offers counseling to former cult members. Hassan is a former member of the Unification Church, also known as the Moon cult, which had recruiters on BU’s campus last fall.

The Boston Church of Christ lost some steam after its founder, Thomas McKean, stepped down in 2002, Hassan said. The church has since regrouped and become active again, he said.

Other groups, such as the LaRouche movement, have grown along with the unpopularity of President Bush’s policies, because the organizations go after liberal college students, Hassan said.

But while these groups have grown more widespread in the past years, colleges have not increased their cult-awareness education, Hassan said.

”The schools want to ignore it,” he said. ”But they need to tell the students: ‘Hey, here is a whole list of questions you should ask. You should ask who the name of their leader is, what their mission is.’ “

The Boston Church of Christ was part of the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) which in the end of 2005 has fallen apart.

Steve Hassan stresses that individuals have spiritual responsibility.

If you think of joining a group, any group, ask these questions and see how the BITE model applies

* With information from the Boston Globe [Cache]