I’ve read about half of The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them (2026, Otterpine). The author, Daniella Mestyanek Young, is “a cult survivor, a US Army veteran, [and a] Harvard-trained organizational psychologist ….” So I expected maybe a professional discussion of cults? That’s tough to come by, of course. The LDS Church and its members or former members show up in every chapter, but largely in passing. But so do a lot of organizations, from the Marines to your corporate employer or the start-up you work for. When you are a professional cult analyzer, everything is a cult.

Here is how Chapter 7, “Us-Versus-Them Mentality: We Are the Best, Down with All the Rest!”, starts out:

Every fall, they return. Young, eager, and easily molded. They arrive in droves, drawn by promises of belonging, status, and power. To the outside world, it all seems innocent enough …. But behind the polished surface lies something far older, far darker. (p. 173)

The author continues with, “The initiation is brutal. They are broken down, tested, made to prove their devotion through suffering.” And so forth. No, it’s not the MTC. It’s Greek fraternities and sororities. It doesn’t end with college, of course. She notes that “fraternity men make up … 63 percent of all US presidential cabinet members since 1900” and “85 percent of Fortune 500 executives.” Secret combination? Cult? Cultish? You should read the chapter if your kid is planning on rushing a fraternity or sorority in the fall.

Overall, the book sort of removes the stigma and even the meaning from the label “cult” but it does make you think harder about the organizations you affiliate with or join, every one of them. What do you give up? What do you get? What are you pressured or forced to do as part of the organization? How easy is it to get out?

Here are a few snippets from the chapter. [The whole book is just too much to go through.]

Secrecy further fuels this insularity. Hidden rituals and internal codes elevate members above the rest of campus, promoting the idea that outsiders just wouldn’t understand.

Yeah, churches too.

High-control groups thrive on an all-or-nothing mentality, perfectly captured by the phrase, “You’re either with us or against us.” … This binary worldview is everywhere in today’s America.

So maybe the high-control group characteristics of the LDS Church life are a byproduct of being an American institution more than being a small and marginalized, occasionally persecuted, church that grew up into a corporate behemoth with a hundred billion dollar portfolio?

After noting that “Cults are deeply rooted in American culture,” the author notes

[T]he Pilgrims and Puritans fled religious persecution only to turn around and enforce their own brand of rigid, exclusionary doctrine.

After mentioning a few other religious groups, including the Mormons, the author observes

While not all these groups were destructive, most shared one core trait: a belief that they were the chosen ones, the enlightened, and everyone else was lost, misguided, or actively working against them.

If the shoe fits, wear it. Later, the author discusses “groupthink,” noting eight characteristics, including silencing dissent, internal suppression (“individuals keep quiet about their own doubts”), and false consensus. That whole list sounds more MAGA than Mormon, but not by much. And of course there is a lot of overlap between MAGA and Mormon these days.

So let’s ponderize.

  • Does “high-control group” lead to a more informed discussion than “cult”?
  • Is your employer, who tells you what you can’t wear to work and maybe should wear to work, what time to show up and when you can leave, and (informally) what you can or can’t say to your boss, a “high-control group”?
  • Anyone with military experience? Please weigh in. The military, and even more some elite groups within it, are the very definition of a “high-control group.” But it seems misplaced to call the Army or even the Navy Seals a cult. At least until Pete Hegseth’s “white man’s Christian Army” initiative (my term), the military was highly respected by Americans.
  • The MTC is probably the most cultish of Mormon experiences. But a lot of young missionaries have a great experience there. Some don’t. It’s probably better than it used to be, maybe?
  • I suspect no discussion, however accurate or fact-laden, can dislodge the utility Evangelicals derive from labeling the LDS Church a cult. But, honestly, the whole Trump and MAGA experience with wholehearted Evangelical support has largely destroyed any Evangelical religious or moral credibility. At this point, who cares what Evangelicals think or say? Does the same critique apply to the Church and its members?