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Apr 9, 2008 7:07 am US/Mountain
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Cult Control On Members Makes Leaving Difficult
Good Question: Why Is It So Hard To Leave Compound?
(CBS4)
An expert in family support and cult education believes the control that extreme belief groups like the polygamist sect in Texas exert on followers is a key reason why members find it hard to leave compounds. CBS4's Alan Gionet asked the Good Question: Why is it so hard to leave?
"And what's amazing is when you strip away the doctrine and what you see is the control of the environment, the control of the language," said Mark Roggeman, a Haven Ministries Board Member, a former Denver police officer and volunteer with a cult education and family support organization. "One of the other steps is everybody on the outside is viewed evil. The doctrine is always sacred."
While cult groups come from vastly different religions, Roggeman said the way they work is pretty much the same.
"What makes them similar is the structure," Roggeman said. "The doctrine is obviously going to vary."
Former polygamist sect member Carolyn Jessop told the CBS Early Show Tuesday that her group became more isolated and things got worse.
"And as the community became increasingly more restrictive and their religion became, you know a lot more strange, the abuse was escalating at a rapid rate that was just crazy," said Jessop.
Roggeman knows how difficult it is for people to leave.
"And when they came out, that was the thing, where do they go?" he asked.
The mothers and children who have been removed from the Texas compound this week could find it difficult to establish a new life.
"I've actually dealt with people who've grown up in groups and it's a lot harder," Roggeman said. "Because usually when you talk to someone you try to compare what's going on in there with something else that they can critically think about."
The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints is believed to be the largest polygamous sect in the United States. It has an estimated 6,000 members.
Roggeman said that every religion has extremes. The cults are often the extreme elements of the belief systems.
"Yeah every group has, I haven't found one that doesn't have one," he said.
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