Milieu Control

Controlling the Communication

Milieu control is one of the eight criteria for thought reform outlined by Robert J. Lifton. Milieu control "includes other techniques to restrict members' contact with the outside world and to be able to make critical, rational, judgments about information." (Source)  Cindy Kunsman states that "if any info is allowed to permeate the group, it has to come from a pre-approved source." (Source)

One of the ways that Homestead Heritage exerts milieu control is by restricting members' access to the internet. In 2010 they developed a pattern for "Cell Phones and Mobile Internet Use." 

1. No person under 18 years of age living in our community, baptized or unbaptized, may have a personal cell phone or wireless internet device (such as the iPad and the iPod Touch), and no unbaptized young person above the age of 18 living in our community may have such devices.

2.  Baptized members 18 years old and older who are single and living at home may not have a personal cell phone or wireless internet device unless their parents feel that an extenuating circumstance creates a need for it. Parents and the individual involved need to discuss and confirm their feelings with their minister before making such an exception. . .

The only SmartPhone we know of that has the capability of restricting and regulating internet use on the device itself is the iPhone (all of the following applies to the iPad and the iPod Touch also). It has the ability to access certain useful internet functions through specific applications that can be downloaded to the phone, while blocking and/or restricting other internet functions under a passcode. Because of this, we feel to allow for limited use of the iPhone at this time for those who have a real need for it, and have confirmed their decision to use one with their minister. If you will use one, you will need to follow a pattern of specific guidelines for restricting the iPhone that responsible brothers have already been using. This will involve asking a responsible church member (confirmed as such by your minister) to be your accountability partner who can set a restriction passcode (that only they will know) on your phone and configure the functions of your phone to deny access to internet browsing, iTunes, YouTube, app shopping, and so on. Again, if you feel you should use an iPhone at all, before you purchase or use such a phone, confirm your decision with your minister, as well as confirming who your accountability partner will be, and he can then give you and your accountability partner the detailed pattern for how to configure the phone so it will be in keeping with our patter one the use of these devices. (Emphasis added.)

Note that the final paragraph applies to all baptized adult members of Homestead Heritage. 

It's not just the internet that members are restricted access to. In Confession for Baptism and Communion members sign their name "to refrain from reading pernicious and insidious newspapers, magazines, periodicals and books that have no purpose for ministry."