WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) The College of the Holy Cross has banned an international church from meeting, organizing and recruiting members on campus, calling it cult-like in its recruitment tactics.
Katherine M. McElaney, director of college chaplains, told The Worcester Telegram and Gazette that at least one Holy Cross student is a member of the church, which is known variously as the International Churches of Christ, the Boston Church of Christ or the Worcester Church of Christ.
The International Churches of Christ is entirely separate from the United Church of Christ.
Recruiters for the church group, she said, use tactics commonly associated with cults, including heavy proselytizing and religious harassment for the sake of gaining converts, mandatory tithing and psychological and spiritual abuse. Strict obedience without question, punishment through slander or exclusion and threats or intimidation are used to keep members in line, she said.
McElaney said the church pressures members to cut ties with friends and family, education and careers, and promotes dependency on the group and fear of reprisals for leaving it.
Calls placed by the Telegram and Gazette last night to Church of Christ offices in Worcester, Woburn and Springfield seeking comment on McElaney's statements were not returned.
''This is an international church,'' McElaney said Friday. ''I know their international work and reputation quite well. I'm not banning it on this campus because of the impact it has already had on students here. I'm banning it because of the very destructive results and steps it's taken in the lives of others across the country.''
Any group that uses disparagement, harassment, intimidation, fear-based tactics or pressure, she said, explicitly violates the principals of religious freedom and free inquiry on the Holy Cross campus.
As a result of concerns about the church, she said, neither the Boston Church of Christ nor any of its affiliates can meet, organize or recruit on the Holy Cross campus or in residential halls.
The Web site for the International Churches of Christ responds to charges that the church is a cult.
''The International Churches of Christ are no more a cult than was the church that Jesus started as described in the Bible,'' according to a statement contained in the Web site. ''The word `cult' is a prejudicial label in today's society.''
''This has been an issue and a problem for many colleagues at other Jesuit colleges,'' McElaney said. ''Holy Cross is fortunate in not having a cult-like or destructive group get a toehold here. In a lot of ways, it's a testimony to how successful the group is in insinuating itself into circumstances that would make recruiting possible.''
A new member's initial behavior involves an exaggerated interest and commitment to the church developed over a few weeks, she said. New members also tend to regard the church as the only true faith or true religion.
She declined to identify the Holy Cross student said to be a member of the religious group.
The Rev. Peter J. Scanlon, head of campus ministry at WPI, was the first to alert Catholic chaplains to the church's presence in Worcester. He said he met a woman member about a month ago at a WPI basketball game.
He did not describe the church as a cult, saying he was not sure that it is one.
The church was barred from Northeastern University, Boston University and the University of New Hampshire five or six years ago, he said, because it operated like a cult. According to the Boston University Web site, the church is officially banned from its campus.