Before You Call Trump Supporters a Cult, Read This

About a year ago I wrote a long post on X answering the most common attack made against members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. People call us a cult. It's a simple one-word attack, and critics think that one word can shut down any defense of the Church. I got tired of retyping the same answer over and over, so I wrote it out once and started pointing people to it. Now I see the very same word being used on another group of people, and it's being used for the very same reason. Anyone who follows Donald Trump is called a cult member. That's it. Conversation over. Nobody has to come up with a real answer or a real objection, because once you've called someone a cult member you don't have to listen to anything else they say.

So I want to do the same thing here. I want this to be a page I can post on my website and hand to someone as a link, something they can go to that might help them change their mind. But I don't want to use it to condemn anyone. If you're the one who has been using that word, I'm not writing this to beat you over the head with it. I want to help you see that the tactic isn't working, and I want to show you a better way to persuade someone to see things differently. It's a way that almost nobody uses in religion or politics, and I'll admit right up front that I have not always been the best example of it either.

Cults Are Real, and So Is Devotion

Do cults exist? Yes, absolutely. Religion and politics are two of the most divisive subjects there are, and both of them ask the same thing of us. Both require people to devote their heart and mind to them, and people know that both have a dramatic effect on their lives. Our religious life helps us grow closer to God. And there are very sad stories of people who have taken that innate desire to worship God and turned it into something terrible. People have drunk the Kool-Aid and died. People have killed others in the name of religion. There's no doubt these things exist. The same is true with politics. Politics is over our government and the condition of our livelihoods. It's the taxes and the laws and the structure that give us either a life worth living or one worth rebelling against. With that much riding on it, it's easy to see why some people get very excited about a political candidate.

Why Only One Side Gets the Label

What's unfair here is the claim that only the people who follow Donald Trump could be classified as cult members. Look at the devoted following President Obama had, and still has. In my eyes, the man has done nothing worth that kind of worship. That's the way I see it. But I don't call his supporters members of a cult. Why not? Because it would offend them. It would shut off any communication between us, and it would shut off any possible way of changing their view. If I ever hope to persuade someone, the last thing I want to do is slam the door before I've said a word.

What the Word Really Says

When someone calls a Trump supporter a cult member, what are they really saying? They're saying they don't value anyone who follows him. They don't care about them. And it hasn't stayed in words. That kind of hatred has grown so hot that Christians and Trump followers have been attacked. Buildings have been burned. Riots have torn through our cities, and the news had the nerve to call them mostly peaceful while they stood in front of multiple buildings being destroyed.

I don't think most of the people using that word have ever sat down with a Trump supporter and asked why they feel the way they do. All they see is what the news has told them for almost a dozen years now. They believe the negative reviews and the articles, one after another after another, and what you believe colors everything you see. Isaiah saw this coming, and it's a big part of why I believe Donald Trump is in biblical prophecy. He described a servant whose reputation would be ruined in front of the whole world...

As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: (Isaiah 52:14)

They have marred the servant, just as Isaiah prophesied, and a lot of good people believe the marring. I've written before about why a destroyed reputation is part of the prophecy, and about how the cult leader charge itself was predicted. But in this article I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about how you actually win a person over.

A Better Way to Change a Mind

The great book How to Win Friends and Influence People should be used any time someone wants to persuade someone to see things differently. Dale Carnegie had a great method, and it's hardly ever used in religion or politics. First of all, you have to become their friend. You have to accept them for who they are. You have to recognize that they have value and worth in society. That's one of the things Donald Trump does very interestingly. Hardly any of us in the Western world would give any praise or credit to Kim Jong-un of North Korea because of the horrific tactics he uses to control his country. Yet Donald Trump does give him credit as being a leader. People don't see that. They think he's kowtowing to somebody who should be eliminated on the spot, but Trump knows that approach will never change the man's mind. He's done the same thing with many world leaders, including President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia. He takes them at their level and hopes to bring them up to his. People don't see that either, and it's a big part of what makes him the deal maker Isaiah saw coming.

The Same Wall in Religion

The same is true with Christians who are angry with members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Many of them won't even read the Book of Mormon, because they're absolutely certain it was written by the devil and that reading it will bring harm upon them. Yet anyone who has actually read that book would never come to that conclusion. They would know right away that it's one of the best books in the world for leading a person to Jesus Christ, because it mentions some version of His name more often than any other book in the world, including the Bible, and even the four Gospels! I've read it almost every day since 1986, and I've found it to be the best book there is for getting closer to God. But I want to keep this article mostly on politics, and the Book of Mormon happens to have one of the greatest examples in all of scripture of how to win someone over.

Ammon Served the King First

Ammon was one of the sons of Mosiah, and he went to preach among the Lamanites, a people who had been enemies of the Nephites for hundreds of years. When he entered the land of Ishmael, they tied him up and carried him before King Lamoni. If he had waltzed in there and told the king how wicked his people were, that they needed to repent, that they had followed horrible traditions for hundreds of years and were totally messed up people, he would have gotten nowhere. Instead, when the king was so pleased with him that he offered Ammon one of his daughters as a wife, Ammon gave an answer nobody expected...

Nay, but I will be thy servant. (Alma 17:25)

He sought to serve him first. The king set him among his other servants to watch over the royal flocks, and three days later a band of Lamanites scattered those flocks at the water of Sebus. The king's servants started weeping, because the king had already killed other servants whose flocks had been scattered. But when Ammon saw this, his heart was swollen within him with joy...

...I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is in me, in restoring these flocks unto the king, that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words. (Alma 17:29)

Why does that matter? What was he after? He wanted to win their hearts first, and only then lead them to believe his words. The power of God came upon him, and he defended those flocks in such a dramatic way that the other servants admired him greatly. He slung stones at the men, and when they came at him with clubs, he smote off every arm that was lifted against him. Then the servants went in to the king...

...bearing the arms which had been smitten off by the sword of Ammon, of those who sought to slay him; and they were carried in unto the king for a testimony of the things which they had done. (Alma 17:39)

All of a sudden the king recognized that something was different here. The Spirit of God started to work within his mind. When Ammon came back, the king started asking him questions, and once the countenance of the king had changed, it was possible for Ammon to teach him the full gospel. And he was converted. Not only was the king converted, but his family and many of the people of his city were converted too. That started a major conversion of Lamanites all over the land, and those converts became some of the most righteous people recorded in the Book of Mormon. All of this started because one man sought to become the friend of the king before he taught him anything.

Only the Spirit Can Change a Heart

The true way to convert anyone is through the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can change a person's heart. I can't change somebody's heart. But if I serve someone in such a way that they recognize I care about them, that I value them, that they are someone of worth and deserving of attention, then the Spirit can work on them. And the Spirit can change their heart.

Is there a way to do that in politics? That's a tough world. No one has that in mind, and no one works that way. It's all campaigning, one side against the other, and the one word used most often against the followers of Donald Trump is cult. But if we want to win someone over to our side, we have to try to understand the other side. Why do they feel this way? Why are they so against something a large percentage of the country appreciates? That's a difficult task to take on, because in one sense it makes it look like we're changing our mind, or putting down our guard, or not defending what we know to be true. Ammon never stopped believing a single word of what he came to teach. He served first, and he taught later.

So if you're one of the people who has been using that word, I'm not writing to condemn you. The word feels like it settles the argument, but all it really does is end the conversation, and once the conversation is over neither of us has any chance of seeing things differently. And to those of us on the other side, I'm talking to myself as much as anyone. We have to find out why people feel the way they do. We have to recognize their worth. We have to serve them before we ever try to teach them anything, and then let the Spirit do what none of us can do on our own.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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