Is Answers in Genesis a Cult?

The BITE Model, developed by Steven Hassan, is a framework used to understand how cults and high-control groups manipulate and control their members. "BITE" stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control. Here’s a brief overview of each component:

Behavior Control: This involves regulating an individual’s physical reality, such as dictating where they live, who they associate with, and how they spend their time. It also includes strict rules, rewards, and punishments to enforce conformity.

Information Control: This includes controlling the information members receive, often through censorship and propaganda. Cults may restrict access to outside sources of information and discourage critical thinking.

Thought Control: This focuses on manipulating how members think, often by using loaded language, thought-stopping techniques, and indoctrination to suppress dissent and promote group ideology.

Emotional Control: This involves manipulating emotions to foster dependency and loyalty. Techniques include love-bombing, inducing guilt or fear, and creating an "us vs. them" mentality.

For many evangelicals it is easy to see this pattern in other religious organizations and groups claiming to be Christian but who have deviated from orthodoxy. But what happens when we apply this same model to mainstream organizations that we typically consider to be trustworthy? Take Answers in Genesis for example.

Behavior Control:

Does AiG exert behavior control over people's physical reality?

Not exactly. They do discourage people from sending their children to "state-run educational institutions" and encourage them to treat higher education and non-AiG-approved scholarship with suspicion. But they don't tell people where to live or who to associate with, etc. Nor do they use a rewards/punishment mentality to enforce conformity per-se. However, as of Jan. 2023, they have begun diverting more and more attention to destroying the credibility of other Young Earth Creationists who do not accept their particular views verbatim, branding such traitors "Young Earth Evolutionists (YEEs)." (1)

As for strict rules, this has more to do with the "creeds" and interpretive stance of AiG. (2) As noted, deviation from the party line is enough to get you blacklisted by AiG–even if you are a Young Earth Creationist. So, in a way, they do seek to control people's physical reality. Albeit indirectly though subtle manipulation and suggestion. (i.e., "Don't trust these sources or associate with people who don't share our views, or your trust in the authority of God's Word may be compromises and you might end up abandoning the faith.")

Information Control:

Does AiG control the information its followers have access to?

Yes. Again, this is done through subtle manipulation and censorship. (3) AiG presents their materials and resources as a trusted, Christ-centered alternative to "mainstream" education which they claim is riddled with "evolutionary ideas." (4, 5, 6, 7) As a result, AiG provides most of the information distributed to their followers either through physical publications or online resources. Those publications which do not originate with AiG directly come from sources approved by the organization and subsequently share their views. Further, AiG leadership regularly discourages people from investigating critical sources insisting that these sources are merely "the words of fallible men" whose "minds are clouded by the lie of evolution and millions of years." Instead, their followers are encouraged to trust in "the authority of God's Word" alone (by which they mean their interpretation of God's Word) lest they succumb to the serpent's lie: "Did God really say?"

Thought Control:

Does AiG manipulate how its members think using loaded language, thought-stopping techniques, and indoctrination?

Absolutely. AiG's mantra is: "If you can't trust Genesis, you can't trust anything else the Bible says." They (and many other YEC organizations) also teach that they know that their interpretation is correct because they possess the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit informs both their reading of Scripture and their understanding of empirical science. (8) Additionally, AiG materials regularly encourage their followers (especially young children) to "never take off their bible glasses," (9, 10) by which AiG means their particular interpretative framework is never to be questioned. Those who disagree with AiG’s interpretation have "taken off their bible glasses" and clearly do not possess the Holy Spirit. (Which would imply that they are not saved per Romans 8:9.) This rhetoric discourages critical thinking and uses fear to keep AiG's target audience in line.

Emotional Control:

Does AiG manipulate emotions to foster dependency and loyalty by employing techniques like love-bombing, inducing guilt or fear, and creating an "us vs. them" mentality?

Yes. AiG celebrates people who abandon their "evolutionary upbringing" in order to accept Christ. (We should absolutely rejoice when a person comes to Christ. But nowhere in Scripture is the Gospel tied to a person's acceptance or denial of evolution and deep time.) As previously outlined, AiG absolutely uses guilt and fear in their materials to keep people from critically assessing AiG's claims. And they without a shadow of a doubt create an "us vs. them" mentality in their followers. If you were to pick up any given resource produced by AiG today, you will find it rife with pejorative language directed not only at critics of Christianity, but fellow Christians as well. Christians who do not hold AiG's views verbatim–even other YECs–are called "compromisers," "scoffers," (11) "wolves in sheep's clothing," "fallible human beings/men" who’s "minds have been clouded by evolutionary lies" in nearly every single book, article, social media post and DVD produced by AiG. Perhaps worst of all, devout followers of Christ who question YEC hermeneutics are frequently compared to the serpent in Eden and are in turn condemned by AiG and its followers for "calling God a liar" and "encouraging people to doubt the authority of God's infallible Word." Furthermore, AiG teaches that there is a Satanic conspiracy at work in mainstream science and academia, and that every non-AiG-approved source is actively trying to replace the "true history of the world revealed in Scripture" with the "pagan religion of evolution and millions of years," whether they are consciously aware of it or not. (12, 13) As such, some regard AiG to be the vanguard of a new reformation with Ken Ham acting as something of a modern-day Martin Luther. (14) This means that if you do not agree with AiG's interpretation of Scripture or the way their ministry conducts itself, then you are essentially working for the enemy (i.e., Satan). If you claim to be a Christian but disagree with them or their tactics, then they and their most die-hard adherents view your faith as either weak or counterfeit. 

All that to say, I want to be clear that Answers in Genesis is not openly preaching a false gospel. They do conform to Christian orthodoxy on all essential doctrines, and I actually agree with them on many issues. It is their methodology and interpretation of a handful of prooftexts that I disagree with. Furthermore, while they strongly imply that a Christian must accept their views in order to be a "true Christian," as far as I am aware of, they have never explicitly stated this in any of their materials. But the organization has definitely lost its focus in my opinion. They are more concerned with ensuring that Christians all over the world accept their interpretation of Scripture than preaching the Gospel to the lost. So much so that they cannot separate the Gospel from their interpretive dogma. Nor can they distinguish between their interpretation of Scripture–"the opinion of fallible man"–and Scripture itself.

All in all, I have my concerns. While AiG cannot be officially classified as a cult, they are employing cult-like elements according to the BITE model and could easily devolve into a cult if the organization's leadership does not take corrective action.

See Also:

Scoffers and Young Earth Creationism

Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis: The word of Fallible Man or the Authority of God's Word?