What constitutes a type of belief/group/religion to be a cult?

Question

What if that group becomes mainstream does it stop being a cult? Are there any large religions that you would consider to be a cult.

Answer 1

Honeslty, I don't know.

Maybe we can figure this out together.

I want to buy some land and have a particular belief that isn't mainstream.

I get some friends to join and we are self-sustaining.

We develop a community and try to live life the way we always wanted to, and not have outside obligations to distract us.

Since we have freedom of religion, we assume that we can do things as long as all members of the community are cool with them.

Hmmm.

This might be the beginning of a cult, but I think the leader is what the public sees. If you had a "cult" or new religion with no "one" leader, it might slip through the cracks.
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Also, the "cult" might get bad publicity from family members of the actual members of the church.

I would indoctrine them into knowing what to say and not to say to family.
Not in a brainwashing way, but in a smart and respectful way.

I think many "cults" have survived, but they don't get the bad PR because they are smart.

So I guess, unintelligence and new beliefs makes the cult, be a cult in public view.

Answer 2

A cult demands that the members follow the leader and they do not allow their leadership to be questioned. The leader could be a person or it could be an organization.

A cult has an extra-biblical source of authority. This means that they have other books that they need instead or along with the Bible and they say we need those books to either understand the Bible. At times, they value tradition or an organization over the Bible.

A cult denies the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; Some declare Jesus is an angle while other place more value on His mother or some other person.

A cult will tell you that without that group, that church or denomination or that organization, you have no hope for eternal life.

A cult will tell you to believe them period.

A true Christian will tell you to check out what they say with the Bible. Although we do believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to obtain salvation, we do also believe that many other denominations and churches do teach Biblical truth regarding salvation also.

Answer 3

This is tricky. If you define "cult" as a faith that has "weird" practices, then who gets to decide what's "weird"? As for "controlling" groups, some mainstream religions have very tight control over their followers.

I'll go with the definition I read in one of Heinlein's books; he credited to fellow science fiction author L. Sprague de Camp. A cult is a religion that had most of its followers convert to it as adults. Non-cult religions are ones for which most of the followers were born into the faith.

The early christians were an upstart cult by this definition, although now christianity is obviously a religion. It's also possible for a faith to be a mainstream religion in Asia but a cult in the United States.

Answer 4

The only real answer is numbers. Majority decides what gets called a religion and what's tagged as a cult. Other stuff, like a corpus of texts, some sort of heirarchy etc exist in some cults (and don't in some religions). Charismatic leaders who group followers around themselves are called cult-leaders... but that's exactly the way the Abrahamic religions began.

Answer 5

From the original latin cultus,meaning care or adoration, or adherents to a system of religious beliefs or ritual. In other words all religions are in the strict definition of the word cults. The fact that some have twisted the word around to provide it with a negative connotation is their own doing to attack those whos beliefs differ from their own. But since all religion is based on beliefs in things that cannot be proven all of them are equal and they are all cults,some are just bigger.

Answer 6

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary lists five different meanings of the word "cult".

1. Formal religious veneration
2. A system of religious beliefs and ritual; also: its body of adherents;
3. A religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents;
4. A system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator;
5. Great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book).

Given this definition, wouldn't all religions be cults?

Answer 7

I think all religions are a cult in their own way... from catholics to pagans to mormons..


Mainstream doesn't like to use cult for the larger religions, it has always had a negative vibe.

Answer 8

A cult is a religion that is said to be unorthodox or that emphasizes devotion according to prescribed ritual. Many cults follow a living human leader, and often their adherents live in groups apart from the rest of society.

Answer 9

Specifically, cults isolate people. They cut their members off from family and friends. Largely because it makes them easier to manipulate. Any cults belief system is usually pretty fragile. Hence the need to remove people from the main stream so logic and common sense don't get in the way.

Answer 10

Cult has the same basic meaning that religion does. Somehow it has become an insulting lable, reserved only for those religions that are different than your own.