How Propaganda is Effectively Used to Promote and to Disparage Religion

A very good example of religious propaganda using 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22,
although the scripture does contain solid advice to the wise.

Propaganda

''Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause, religion or other point of view''

Propaganda was often used to influence opinions and beliefs on religious issues, particularly during the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches.

More in line with the religious roots of the term, propaganda is also used widely in the debates about new religious movements (NRMs), both by people who defend them and by people who oppose them. A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion or an alternative spirituality, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and which occupies a peripheral place within its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations.

Some NRMs deal with the challenges posed by the modernizing world by embracing individualism whereas others seek tightly knit collective means.

Scholars have estimated that NRMs now number in the tens of thousands worldwide, with most of their members living in Asia and Africa. Most have only a few members, some have thousands, and only very few have more than one million members.

The latter pejoratively call these NRMs cults. Anti-cult activists and Christian countercult activists accuse the leaders of what they consider cults of using propaganda extensively to recruit followers and keep them. Some social scientists, such as the late Jeffrey Hadden, and CESNUR affiliated scholars accuse ex-members of "cults" and the anti-cult movement of making these unusual religious movements look bad without sufficient reasons.

Many scholars consider religion to be man's oldest form of propaganda. What is religion? Information, usually from a book, that is used to promote a particular cause or point of view. Every religion claims that every other religion is of a misleading nature, so we can conclude that all of religion is propaganda from one point of view or another.

Whether it be Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Scientology, Mormonism, they all use  propaganda in one form or another. All are biased information used to push a particular point of view.

The point of view being pushed, regardless of which ideology it belongs to, is the existence of a particular god and set of codes and rituals.

Faith in Breaks the Grip of Propaganda

Simple faith in God.

Overcoming propaganda and the world means that you are no longer controlled by the things of this world. You are no longer moved by what happens around you, but you are only moved emotionally by what God says to you through His Word and His Spirit. When you are no longer moved by what situations of life dictate to you, any evil will have lost his grip on you.