Speaking the sound of silence

I grew up in what I regard as a cult. The Seventh-day Adventist (emphasis on the Ad syllable) community of the late 1970s through the early 90s was going through a struggle to move into mainstream Christianity, and the denomination was never as bad as the Branch Davidians that were an offshoot, but the schools and churches during my time on the inside had many of the characteristics of Steven Hassan’s BITE model of authoritarian…