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Welcome to Cults.co.nz
and the New Zealand Cult List
New Zealand Cults, Sects, Religions, Christian Organisations,
and other groups.
"Cult" is an emotive word. It brings to mind all the
worst religious groups, where people commit suicide thinking they're going
to meet a UFO, launch deadly nerve gas attacks in subways, or stockpile
guns and ammunition fearing the end of the world, only to die in a blazing
inferno. But most cults don't do those things – quite the opposite. The
people in most cults are often model citizens. They live moral lives
and care about their community, their children do well in school. But
cults have a strong tendency to harm and control their members. This
site explains how and describes many of the cults in New Zealand.
Although called "The New Zealand Cult List", the list is now
much broader than just a list of the cults in this country. It contains
both religious and secular groups, Christian and non-Christian groups. Some individuals are also included. The list is written from a Christian
perspective and is primarily intended as a resource for New Zealand Christians.
However, it may still be of some use to non-Christians, and people in
other countries. For more information, please see the About
Cults.co.nz page.
If you have information or would like to contribute to
this site please see the Contact page.
The Main List
The list has grown to the point where each letter is now separate.
Featured listings for January 2025: Scientology cult, Scientology Closeup.
Featured listings for December 2024: Why don't people leave cults? in the Cult FAQ.
Featured listings for November 2024: Neville Cooper, Jung Myung-seok, Alistah Laishkochav, Imri Vallyon, and  Donald Trump – fine cult leaders, all of them.
Featured listings for October 2024: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Art of Living Foundation.
Featured listings for September 2024: Robert
Kiyosaki and his personality cult/scam book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Featured listings for August 2024: Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning.
Also on this site
- Cult Closeups – a look at some of the biggest cults in
New Zealand, in more depth than the list provides.
- Cult FAQ – includes
answers to the most commonly asked questions about cults.
- Books – religious books, publications and
other writings held holy or highly regarded by various cults and religions.
- Movies – movies with religious content.
- TV/Radio – religious programs on New Zealand
television and radio.
- Glossary – terms used
to describe religious ideas and terms, and jargon used by religious
groups.
- Census figures for religions in New Zealand
for the last few years (five year intervals). Also features basic election
results for several decades and a few of the moral laws introduced by various New Zealand governments.
- Wanted – a list of the groups, practices
and people currently under review or investigation. If you have information
about these groups, please let us know.
Ratings and Other Symbols
To help distinguish between the good and the bad, several icons are used
to rate the listings.
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Danger: The group/person or belief/practice is
considered dangerous due to mind control or particularly bad doctrine.
These groups (or people) have a strong tendency to damage their members/followers. |
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Caution: The group/person or belief/practice has
false or questionable doctrine that to varying degrees may be directly
or indirectly harmful to its members/followers and their families. Such
groups/people/beliefs/practices are not necessarily bad but should be
approached or used with caution. |
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OK: The group/person or belief/practice is considered
OK and/or helpful - at least most of the time. |
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Neutral: The group or belief/practice is considered
spiritually neutral, or quite secular (most companies and ecological groups,
for example). This list mostly does not attempt to define the pros and
cons of such organisations, or their morality. |
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False Religion: (Also used for false worldviews.)
According to Christian belief Jesus Christ is the only way to God. All other religions
fail to deal with the issue of sin, which sets us apart from God. Only Christianity
provides forgiveness of sin because of Jesus paying the penalty that we should
have paid. The price that Jesus Christ paid is a free gift that we can
choose to accept or reject. For more on this read the Pastor Notes pamphlet
We
All Need Our Sins Forgiven. |
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Not Yet Rated: The group or belief/practice has
not yet been assigned one of the above ratings. This is often because
not enough is presently known about the group to be able to issue a rating. |
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Hot Topic: The group/person or belief/practice has recently featured in
the secular news media, has generated notable correspondence, is a popular conversation topic, etc. Note
that this rating has nothing to do with the "cultishness" of a group.
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Very Hot Topic: At present we only have four listings which are so hot
they deserve two flames – Abortion, which
claims the lives of thousands of New Zealanders each year,
Scientology which actively tries to
suppress the rights of personal freedom, in particular free speech and religious freedom), and Mark Holloway and his book The Freedom Diaries because they are so unbiblical but so widely supported.
Note that this rating has nothing to do with the "cultishness" of a group.
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Printable: The listing has a printable version. In a
listing with this icon, click on the icon to get a pop-up window with just that one listing.
To comment on this feature please see the Contact page. |
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All links to other web sites open in a new window and are indicated with
a small arrow thus:
Words linked to definitions in the Glossary are designated in green. Words
linked to Cult Closeups are
designated in brown.
Please note that not all listings have been rated. For example, we normally
consider it inappropriate to rate people, or particular practices of world
religions, so they will not typically get ratings. The ratings are often
over-simplified, and are intended as generalisations only.
Note that whatever rating we give a group/person or belief/practice,
visitors to this site are free to come to their own conclusions – preferrably after reviewing much more information – and might
personally rate listings quite differently. We also note that even
in groups given the Danger rating (or False Religion rating,
for that matter) it is very unusual not to find at least some positive
aspects, and often there are many – if a group is completely bad there
would be no reason for people to join, after all. If you think that we
should be rating the listing differently, you are welcome to tell us why
you think we should change the rating. Please see the Contact page.
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