Toddler 'starved to death by religious cult because he wouldn't say amen'

A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase was starved to death by religious cult members - including his mother - because he refused to say 'amen' after meals, police said today. -Read more here

Teen Mania: Endurance Bootcamp Or Religious Cult?

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It's an intense military style Christian retreat that promises to transform lives and inspire a greater love for God…and for thousands - it did just that.

But Gina Silva reports some teens say they were traumatized, and accuse "Teen Mania" of being a cult. Check out the FOX 11 News Investigative video report. -Read more here

Family of deceased British Army officer calls for investigation of “cult”

The family of a 27-year-old British Army officer who died of cancer in November (2012) have called for an investigation into the brainwashing tactics of a group who claimed they could cure her cancer.  Leaders of Innersound, who have a clinic in London and are recognized as a cult by UK experts,  dissuaded Naima Mohamed from having the chemotherapy that could have saved her life. Innersound ‘masters’ claimed she would recover from their meditation and therapy alone,  and that chemotherapy was poison. The Sandhurst-trained officer rejected chemotherapy and all other NHS treatments in January 2011. She handed over more than £15k to Innersound, but then the cancer spread to her sternum and lungs. Naima was told  in July last year by hospital doctors her family persuaded her to see that she had around two years to live, but she died in a hospice near her family in Poole just four months later. -Read more here

China arrests 500 followers of religious cult over Mayan apocalypse rumors

Quasi-Christian religious group the Church of the Almighty God accused of spreading rumors that world will end on Friday

An ark-like vessel under construction in China's north-western Xinjiang province, where some are predicting a world-ending flood. Photograph: Chen Jiansheng/AP

"The Qinghai police bureau stated that the police had stormed numerous centers belonging to the Almighty God cult, arresting more than 400 members and confiscating over 5,000 items including banners, DVDs, slogans, books, computers, speakers, and cell phones," Xinhua reported, adding that the group had "advanced anti-detection capabilities".

Read more here

For Many Trapped in Religious "Cults," Steve Hassan Keeps Hope Alive

Author and mental health counselor Steve Hassan has made hundreds of television appearances in recent years to spread the alarm about the dangerous growth of "cults" in America. A former top lieutenant to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- the charismatic founder of the Unification Church, the fanatical South Korean religious group known popularly as the "Moonies" -- he clearly knows the perils of such groups from the inside. In Freedom of Mind, his fourth book, he presents an updated version of his practical handbook published in 2000 on how family members can approach and successfully "rescue" their loved ones from the clutches of groups that nurture extreme emotional and psychological dependency among their members to the point where many are prepared to do anything -- even commit mass suicide -- to fulfill their leaders' mission.

-Read Rest of Story Here

Sunday Night - Inside Australia's Chilling New Cult (AJ Miller)

In a 10 month investigation, Sunday Night infiltrates one of the world's most worrying new cults.
But most chilling, this cult is Australian, spreading and described as worse than WACO. We go inside the cult's headquarters to meet the leaders and their followers who claim their lives have been changed forever.

They teach you vanity and false hopes

15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with [the bitterness of] wormwood and make them drink the [poisonous] water of gall, for from the [false] prophets of Jerusalem profaneness and ungodliness have gone forth into all the land.

16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and fill you with vain hopes; they speak a vision of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord.

17 They are continually saying to those who despise Me and the word of the Lord, The Lord has said: You shall have peace; and they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own mind and heart, No evil shall come upon you.

Jeremiah 23:15-17

Amplified Bible (AMP)