Christianity has always been a strong basis for the formation of cults and two examples of this happening are in the Westboro Baptist church (a cult like church) and in the Heaven’s Gate cult. There are many similarities and differences between the two and their ideologies are explored and compared using different sources. The Westboro Baptist Church is an unaffiliated American Baptist church known for its extreme ideologies, especially those against gay people. The church is widely described as a hate group and known for picketing events and on roadsides in the name of God with. Much controversy has been caused by this religious group, enough for them to have to be constantly monitored by associations such as the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. The church was founded in 1955 by Fred Phelps, who also headed the church, which consists primarily of members of his extended family; in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members. The church is headquartered in a residential neighborhood on the west side of Topeka about 5km west of the Kansas State Capitol. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of November 27, 1955. Heaven's Gate was a religious cult formed in America; they were a UFO religious group. The cult was based in San Diego, and founded in the early 1970s. This cult was led by a mentally disabled man named Marshall Applewhite as well as his nurse Bonnie Nettles. However, On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of the 39 members of the cult who had committed a mass suicide in order to reach what they believed was an alien space craft following Comet Hale–Bopp. Since the Westboro church consisted mainly of Fred Phelps and his extended family, there would have been a large amount of pressure on his family to conform and join his church. The feel to be accepted by your own family is great and the fear of rejection would have made them conform to a “social norm” within their f