What are the names of active cults in this day and age? what do you consider to be a cult by your standards?

Question

I am doing an indepth study ( I work nights and need something to keep me occupied why not knowledge?)

Answer 1

Scientology.

Scientology, which questionably calls itself a new "religion", is the brainchild of science fiction writer and occult enthusiast L. Ron Hubbard. The organization claims to be able to help rid members of any and all mental constraints including but not limited to emotional scarring (from this and "past" lives) due to "engrams" (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind), psychological disorders and chemical imbalances (the solution is to convince members that these things don't actually exist) & drug dependence (including legally prescribed psychopharmaceuticals which counteract the effects of psychological disorders Scientologists believe to be nonexistent).

The official Scientology organization is composed of a number of “levels”. One begins as a “preclear” and works their way up. One must purchase virtually every service crucial to advancement directly from the "church" and at staggering prices. "Auditing", for example, is purchased in 12½ hour blocks, costing anywhere from $750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 & $9,000 for advanced sessions. Visit this link to see how $380,000 is a conservative estimate for the total cost of moving all the way up the Scientology hierarchal ladder: http://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html
These are the total costs for auditing alone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business#Costs
Here’s an explanation of what “auditing” is: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061224182319AA2nnd6

At level OT III (Operating Thetan 3), some very strange and fiercely guarded secrets are imparted upon worthy members who have paid enough money to advance to such a level (and no, this isn't a joke): the evil alien ruler Xenu killed a lot of aliens (Thetans) from around the universe by kidnapping them, bringing them to earth in golden DC-8 “space-planes” & blowing them up inside volcanoes with hydrogen bombs. Scientologists believe the souls of these aliens (these souls are "Body Thetans") were captured, brainwashed and released; they then attached themselves to our ancestors (who passed them all the way down to us) & cause many of our mental & physical ills to this day. Auditing is said to “clear” us of these Body Thetans as well as the “mental implants” they supposedly impose on our minds. http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/spaink-ot3.html http://xenu.net/archive/leaflet/Xenu-Letter.pdf

Scientology has taken a very hostile stance towards psychiatry & psychiatric drugs irrespective of the fact that some people require medication to remain adequately functional in everyday life. The “church” has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from member (with deadly results). Suspiciously, it was discovered upon Hubbard’s death that the anti-anxiety drug hydroxyzine (Vistaril™) was present in his body, which several of his assistants would later attest was only one of many psychiatric & pain medications Hubbard ingested over the years. http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/16.gif
(visit this link to read about the uses of hydroxyzine: http://www.drugs.com/mtm/v/vistaril.html )

To be blunt, Scientology is a cult. It employs semi-legitimate psychotherapy and self-help methods to keep people loyal & convinced of its merit while it simultaneously sucks them dry financially and attempts to keep them far away from ANYONE, even friends and family, who would dissuade them from remaining in such a harmful situation. It’s a particularly greedy as well as manipulative & dangerous cult that takes its anti-psychiatry fanaticism to deadly limits. See this link for more information: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

Answer 2

Counterfeit Christianity is probably the best description I can give for a cult. Counterfeit Christianity is an imitation of real Christianity. Bible terms like "Jesus Christ, Resurrection, Salvation, and Atonement" are used by the Cult, but the various cult groups have assigned entirely different meanings to these terms.
Like counterfeit money which is sometimes difficult to detect, so it is difficult to detect counterfeit Christianity, since it looks like the real thing. Experts examining counterfeit money often hold it up to a strong light and look for identifying marks. Counterfeit Christianity also has identifying marks, which can be seen when, held up to an even stronger light, the light of God's word, the bible.
We are at an advantage if we know what to expect from a cult. Cultists are very well trained to appear "Christian", and indeed believe they are the true churches, and you need the deliverance! Therefore, be bold and ask the question, "do you believe the group you represent is the only true church on the face of the earth?"
If they reply that they are, or if they are evasive, making remarks like "Well, every church has a measure of truth but...", you have made an early detection of a Cultist.
Every true Christian, if asked the same question, regardless of his denomination, would reply that the true church is comprised of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and HE (not some organization) is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, (John 14:6). No legitimate denomination would claim that they alone and their members have salvation exclusively, but the cults (the counterfeits) do.
For a list of the Cults you can go to these two links.
http://www.macgregorministries.org
http://www.carm.org/cults.htm

Answer 3

Your minister has been critically misinformed. He of course is being prejudice and impolite and un-christian via badmouthing yet another faith. One definition of cult is as follows: (This definition isn't used anymore. the fashionable definition thoroughly excludes our church in each way.) a million: formal non secular veneration : worship 2: a equipment of non secular ideals and formality. we don't evaluate ourselves a cult. inspite of the certainty that via the definition of cult above your church alongside with another faith may well be seen a cult too. So i assume we are all in a cult except we are athiest! AHHHH!! Oh no!!!!! we don't condone polygamy or its 'evils' as you placed it. Being a polygamist is the quickest thank you to get excommunicated from our church, palms down. We had our motives for practising it 215 some unusual years in the past, and wager what, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had their motives for practising it too! there have been very strict regulations approximately polygamy and you had to be asked to marry a 2nd, 0.33, etc. spouse. you need to no longer in basic terms say, "ooh look at that 14 3 hundred and sixty 5 days previous hottie, i want her to be my spouse and then i will rape her!" like the FLDS church does. you're able to desire to be 18 to get married in our temples besides. the main considerable motives for polygamy have been that ladies human beings mandatory nutrition, and a place to stay and a attractiveness to possess factors in. maximum of husbands have been lost crossing the plains and abruptly there have been a majority of those widows. Polygamy stored lives. there have been a great number of alternative motives for it too. we don't practice it anymore for assorted motives which includes the certainty that that is against the regulation and between the commandments is to maintain the guidelines of the land.

Answer 4

I cannot think of any names of Cults at present. We live in a time where almost anything not believe in by so much as 1 person gets classified by at least one person as a Cult.

In response to:
Based on the following definitions, I might start with Mormonism, Jehovah's witnesses, Catholicism and Scientology. It gets darker from there on down, (and more obvious).

1.) 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.

In what way do we Witnesses live in an unconventional manner?? We live in a variety of ways. I live with my parents at the moment and am single. A friend lives with his wife and children, still others live in other combinations. We pay our bills, obey the laws, etc. I have never seen, aside from one or two people on Y!A someone refer to us as Extremeists. People who do not know us, just seeing us at work, where ever might not even know we are Witnesses aside from our trying to follow the rules and openly admiting to being Witnesses.

2.) A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
According to this anyone who follows any belief system, including atheism, is in a cult.

3.) The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

According to this anyone who follows any belief system, including atheism, is in a cult.

Answer 5

Any religion that's based on alienating you from your family or loved ones is a cult. Also the ones that either force you to do things or go crazy if you talk bad about them. God doesn't force, why should some so called religious leader? Scientology is a big one. Way too much secrecy there. They go out of their way to make sure detractors are silenced.

There's a ton of info out there on Scientology and how ex-Xenu clams have been killed if they try to expose their wacky ways. If that's not a cult, I don't know what is!

Answer 6

By the difinition from my Funk & Wagnalls's dictionary ('cause ya just gotta love a dictionary named "Funk & Wagnall's"), CULT means: 1. Worship or religious devotion; esp. a form of religion. 2. A system of religious observances. 3. Extravagant devotion to a person, cause, or thing; also the object of such devotion. From the Latin word "cultus" which means worship.

Dictionaries aside, to me the word 'cult' means religion. Usually a less conventional one. In common use I've found it to mean a maladaptive group involving forms of brainwashing and, on occasion, mass suicide.
For reference within this answer, let's just call them less-than-conventional religions.
I myself am a Satanist. A LaVey Satanist to be exact. That should NOT be confused with any other forms of devil worship. I do not--contrary to popular beliefe--slaughter goats at the peak of ritual. There are such groups that do, but I'm not a part of them.
I also have a friend involved with the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis; Oriental Order of the Templars) which was at one time lead by (please excuse my spelling, I've never been able to remember his name correctly) Aleistor Crowley, who was at one time named one of Brittain's greatest men.
Neither of our respective cults practice anything maladaptive. Quite to the contrary, LaVey Satanism preaches doing what's best for oneself and warns about ANYTHING maladaptive in the slightest. The O.T.O. on the other hand has secretive tendencies and I'm to understand many of their rituals are strongly sexual in nature. Unfortunately their members are sworn to secrecy and what little I know about the O.T.O. I've found through my own limited research.

Answer 7

A cult is worship of a personality. If the followers of a religion worship a personality, they are by definition, a cult.

(I don't want to name existing cults because I dont want to bash other's belief systems, but there are definitely some cults out there today!)

Answer 8

Based on the following definitions, I might start with Mormonism, Jehovah's witnesses, Catholicism and Scientology. It gets darker from there on down, (and more obvious).

1.) 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.

2.) A system or community of religious worship and ritual.

3.) The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

Answer 9

I go with the sociological definition of a religious group which has a sacred ideology and sacred symbols, and a set of rites related thereto.

With that in mind, the only cult I've had personal experience with: Catholicism.

Answer 10

I don't really care who's a cult and who isn't. People are essentially the same no matter where you go in the world, so I find it more effective in helping others to go after the literature, the dishonesty, and the violence and expose that as appropriate.

(By strict definition, Christianity itself is a "cult" of Judaism.)

Answer 11

Mormons,New Age, the Filipino Catholics ( but not the whole Church, they retained their paganistic selves in form of worshipping icons. the Chuch clearly condemns it. It says that worship is due God alone. theyre banal na aso, santong kabyo too)