Cults keep members trapped by threatening damnation for those who leave. The speaker describes how communities label defectors as sinners or lost sheep, creating fear of being cast out. This internalized shame, especially in youth, makes leaving feel impossible.
One characteristic that every single cult have in common is that they make it as impossible as possible to leave, and they use the tactic of fear to control you. If you leave, and they— and you hear how— I mean, maybe you've even heard this with your uncle. It's like, well, so-and-so is no longer with us. They're not dead. They just left this church to go to a different church. They're a sinner. They're going to burn in hell forever. Let's pray for them, even though it's too late, right? Yeah. And so you're like, I don't want to be like that. And at a young age, we think, I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be othered. I want— I don't want to even be the lost sheep. And so instead of focusing on Jesus finding the lost sheep, we focus on the fact that the sheep is lost. We think, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that person.
