It's different once you're just starting out. They hide a lot of what they are and draw people in with good principles, then as they become more involved they reveal more secrets, until the point where by the time they've revealed some of the things that seem crazy to us, they've been so brainwashed and put so much money into it that there's no turning back. That's why they are being protested, for the cult aspect.
It just brings the question, 'why do people join cults?'
You have to remember, a person is smart, but people are stupid. They don't get people to join by telling them, "Hey, we're going to get you to kill yourself in two years in a mass suicide in a field." It doesn't work that way.
edit:Holy run-on sentence batman.
I'm so tired, looks like bedtime now.