@drtoddphillips: Are evangelical churches cults? I wouldn’t make that blanket claim. But after 20 years as a megachurch pastor in Southern Baptist and Bible church environments, I can now recognize how many of the dynamics I once called discipleship, holiness, biblical truth, and accountability can function as high-control religion. That was one of the strangest realizations of my deconstruction. I could watch Mormon Stories or learn about Scientology and immediately recognize religious control: boundaries around acceptable beliefs, behavior, questions, relationships, and what happened when someone rejected the system. Then I would look at my own evangelical world and use completely different language for remarkably similar mechanisms. We weren’t controlling behavior. We were encouraging people to “live righteous lives.” We weren’t controlling thought. We were teaching people to submit their thoughts to biblical truth. We weren’t demanding conformity. We had “accountability.” And I preached those ideas to thousands and thousands of people every week for years while sincerely believing I was helping people follow God. That sincerity matters. But sincerity doesn’t automatically make a high-control environment less controlling. Control doesn’t stop being control because you give it a spiritual name or wrap it in words like grace and love. If you grew up evangelical, Southern Baptist, or in a Bible church, where do you think the line is between legitimate religious discipleship and religious control? #Deconstruction #agnostic #exvangelical #faithjourney

Dr Todd Phillips

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Monday 28 September 2026 17:48:26 GMT