ARE THE ANTI & COUNTER-CULT
MOVEMENTS A POSITIVE INFLUENCE?

The CCM is seen as a vitally needed resource in the defense of true Christianity. Many Fundamentalist and other Evangelical groups share certain beliefs that influence their assessment of new religious groups:

	They view their religion as the only truly valid faith. They see all of the other world religions as not being Bible-based, and thus not being founded on the Word of God.
	Many reject other denominations within Christianity, viewing mainline & liberal Protestantism and Roman Catholicism as being only partly Christian.
	They believe that the vast majority of individuals in the world are unsaved.
	They take the Great Commission seriously; this is the command to go into all the world, to preach the gospel, and to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
	Their belief in Heaven (for the saved) and Hell (for the unsaved) motivates them to save as many people as possible
	They believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. The Christian Scriptures (New Testament) contains many passages where Christians are warned against "false teachers."

Many who hold these beliefs are concerned that new Christian religious groups with untraditional beliefs are teaching unsound theology. They view members of such groups as being led astray with false teachings to the point where their salvation is in jeopardy. They see potential converts to conservative Christianity being adsorbed into quasi-Christian cults. They view the CCM as an important resource to help publicize the dangers of new Christian religious groups, and raise public consciousness against them.

The ACM and CCM is seen by many as as counter-productive: some view the formation of small, new religious movements as a natural process from which all denominations and major religions evolve. In the past, many faith groups have been founded by a handful of people and later grew to become major religions or denominations. For example:

	The Nazarene (Jewish Christian) movement in 1st century CE Palestine was started by Jesus and a small band of male and female supporters.
	Pauline Christianity is largely the work of a single individual, Paul. It morphed into the proto-Christian movement and grew to be the present religion of Christianity - the faith of one out of every three persons worldwide. In the United States, at its peak, 7 out of 8 adults once identified themselves as Christians. The current percentage of Christian adults are about 75% and is dropping about 0.8 percentage points annually.
	There have been perhaps tens of thousands of new religious groups created in the past 2 millennia.
	In recent decades, many legitimate new religious movements have been started. Most have failed. A few, like the Children of God, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the Mormons or LDS), Church of Scientology,  Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses (Watchtower Society or WTS), the Unification Church, and others, have flourished. The LDS Restoration Movement in particular began as a tiny organization, the Church of Christ, founded by Joseph Smith and a few other men. In the 19th century, its members were heavily persecuted by their orthodox Christian neighbors in eastern and mid-western states. The movement has have evolved into a group of about 100 denominations and sects with over 12 million members worldwide. Because of their high growth rate, the LDS Church is expected to become the dominant religion in the western U.S. within the next few decades.

The ACM & CCM are viewed as increasing public fear of new religions movements.

	France has promoted a public hysteria against small religious movements, including the Jehovah's Witnesses.
	Germany has seen extensive discrimination against Roma (a.k.a. Gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Scientology.
	China has oppressed many small religious and spiritual groups, including: Christians who are members of underground churches, which the state refers to as evil cults. China only allows Christian worship within those "patriotic churches" that the state tightly controls.  Members of the Falun Dafa healing and spiritual group have been found guilty in show trials and given jail sentences of 7 to 18 years. They were found guilty of using a cult to "obstruct justice, causing human deaths in the process of organizing an cult and illegally obtaining state secrets."

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