Many people define a group as a cult based on what they believe rather than what they do. Scientology has a lot of bizarre beliefs, but are the beliefs harmful, or is it the level of control that they exert on their members what is actually harmful? And what constitutes a bizarre belief? Are the Scientologists sci-fi based doctrines really more unbelievable than an invisible god who is really his own son born from a mother who never had sex? Or this same god-who-is-really-his-own-son ascending bodily after being dead for three days? What about a boat with two (or is it seven) of every animal in it surviving a world-wide flood? The difference is that the majority of religious groups don't attempt to control every aspect of your life, and if your behavior is far enough outside their norms, you can just leave. The church that I grew up in was pretty oblivious to whether I attended services every Sunday and likely didn't notice when I left. Cults, on the other hand, engage in harmful practices. It's true that sometimes these harmful practices are based on harmful beliefs, the beliefs by themselves are not harmful.
The opposition of the people of Sidney (which I will get into shortly), was based on ignorance. They may have heard about a few things that The Way taught that deviated from standard Christian teaching, but it is highly unlikely that they were aware of the harmful practices that went on inside The Way. Groups that received the cult label based on their beliefs (or misunderstanding of their beliefs) were lumped in with the People's Temple and in the minds of the ignorant: dangerous. This ignorance fueled a counter-belief that any opposition to a cult was justified. People were kidnapped and mentally tortured under cover of the pseudo-righteous term "deprogramming". Families were broken up over these differences. Much of what I will describe about my time in Sidney is akin to the "villagers with pitchforks and torches storming the castle" that you see in old school horror movies. My own assertion that I was involved in a cult in no way absolves them of ignorant and bigoted thinking and actions. The very acts of persecutions was in fact something that stiffened my resolve and stick with The Way despite the obvious red flags that popped up throughout my WOW year.
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