What do you think makes an organization a cult?

Answer 1

1. Members swear total allegiance to an all-powerful leader who they believe to be the Messiah.
2. Rational thought is discouraged or forbidden.
3. The cult's recruitment techniques are often deceptive.
4. The cult weakens the follower psychologically by making him or her depend upon the group to solve his or her problems.
5. The cults manipulate guilt to their advantage.
6. The cult leader makes all the career and life decision of the members.
7. Cults exist only for their own material survival and make false promises to work to improve society.
8. Cult members often work fulltime for the group for little or no pay.
9. Cult members are isolated from the outside world and any reality testing it could provide.
10. Cults are antiwoman, antichild, and antifamily.
11. Cults are apocalyptic and believe themselves to be the remnant who will survive the soon-approaching end of the world.
12. Many cults follow an "ends justify the means" philosophy.
13. Cults, particularly in regard to their finances, are shrouded in secrecy.
14. There is frequently an aura of or potential for violence around cults.

Answer 2

There is usually a leader that all information gets "filtered" through. They usually have control in some way of their followers and are often very charismatic. Also, there is usually a doctrine that is lifted, for example, from the bible, and an entire belief system is made around it. Also, if you are speaking of a cult with regard to Christianity, there is usually a perversion of the biblical Christ...that is, the Jesus of that particular "cult" does not coincide with the biblical Jesus.

Answer 3

A cult ...whether it is a Christian cult or a cult related to other belief systems is something that alters an essential component of that belief system......That is why Christianity developed the creeds..........They were simple statements that cut to the very basics of what it meant to be a Christian....the apostle's creed for example is one that christians of all denominations including catholics have been able to agree upon for many centuries as common to all christians

Answer 4

When they actively choose to separate themselves from the mainstream culture. Most faiths operate within the spectrum's of basic human morality. Cults often choose to separate themselves by staying true to an obscure practice or belief even in the face of mainstream opposition. Most of the worlds religions started as "cults" at one point in their history.

Answer 5

Any group that indoctrinates small children into a thought system when they are under 18 and unable to logically determine if what they are being told is true is a cult.

If they reinforce their teachings with threats of hell and eternal damnation they are child abusers and a cult.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 6

odd behavior, that makes no sense but they all do it anyway. Like peeing to the west, or eating only at a certain time, or spinning around 5 times or praying to someone other than God,
JK, if it requires you to do something that you considered wrong, before you joined up...its a cult.

Answer 7

A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.

Answer 8

This website has a good following.. so it could count as a cult.

Answer 9

It is authoritarian in its power structure.

Its eaders tend to be charismatic, determined, anddomineering.

Its leaders are self-appointed, messianic persons who claim to have a special mission in life.

It tends to be totalitarian in its control of the behavior of its members.

It has basically only two purposes, recruiting new members and fund-raising.

Answer 10

When you base the socalled belief on obvious lies and fiction, when the it is finacially like a pyramid scheme, and when they lie to get others in, then control them...check this out, you will be shocked!