Why Do People Join?

[jeffd]

This question is asked again and again, from Jonestown, to Waco, to
the Moonies, to the religious groups we are supposed to consider
legitimate.

Always the answer is that they want to be accepted. They want to feel
that they belong.

So what creates this sense of acceptance and belonging?

Authority, and the in versus out boundary.

Sometimes the authority is one person, or one body. Othertimes it is
just the group itself.

Sometimes the boundary is a real membership list, or a computer
account. But othertimes is a professions of supporting an ideology.

Doesn't Faith free one from the need for such? It seems that there is
no end to groups that pander to the need for crystalization and
subjugation.

No, we can't outlaw such. But we can keep on trying to speak to it.