Can you name some different Cults?

Question

The most common ones people say or think of is Mormons, Scientologist, and Jehovah's Witnesses. But recently I found out about another one called 'The Nation of Islam' that believe the blacker you are the closer to God, and the whiter the closer to the devil. A co-worker of mine told me that her sister is one, and because she is darker than her, curses her and her light-skinned children.

Many cults are destructive, what are some you can think of and the affects they have on people?

I thought the Moonies were a fake one used as an example!! They are actually real??? I've got to check this out. Thanks.

Answer 1

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Wicca, Bahai, Moonies, Heaven's Gate, Janism, Sufism, Rastafarianism, Koreshians.

One man's religion is another man's cult. The effects they have on people are to make them vulnerable to leaders who base their authority on imaginary beings. They make people morally lazy by dictating what is right and wrong (in their opinion), and discouraging them from discussing why something is right or wrong. They all use emotional manipulation to control people and get their money. They also use this manipulation to garner political power. They have caused people to die and be tortured, both physically and mentally. They have promoted intolerance based on race, gender, lifestyles, nationalities, and worldviews. They have attacked scientific progress and promoted their own fairytales as fact. They've targetted children, including children outside of their group. They have started and aggravated wars and promoted terrorism.

Answer 2

Southern dying Cult. The origins of the band could be traced back to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, the place vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band stated as the Southern dying Cult. The call replaced into chosen with a double meaning, and replaced into derived from the 14th century community American faith, the Southeastern Ceremonial complicated or Southern dying Cult because it at times usual, from the Mississippi delta section, in spite of the incontrovertible fact that it replaced into additionally a stab at what the band seen replaced into the centralisation of potential in Southern England (including that of the song marketplace), there has long been a perceived theory of a North-South divide in accordance with social, historic and financial motives.[

Answer 3

The Moonies are real. There is also Christian Science, Bahai, Unity School of Christianity, Zen Buddhism, Spiritism, The Theosophical Society and Swedenborgianism to name a few.

You can check http://waltermartin.org to find out more on cults.
He spent over 12,000 hours studying them and gathering documentation on them. He also has a book entitled "The Kingdom of the Cults" which is the most respected volume on the subject in Christendom.

Answer 4

A cult is defined as a group of people brought together by a shared belief. So technically all religions with more than one follower are cults.

Answer 5

How about the Moonies?

I suppose a lot of folks would call them a cult.

I'm not sure what defines a cult, though. Lack of members?

Answer 6

UM, I never thought Mormons, Scientologist, and Jehovah's Witnesses were cults? I thought they were faiths, just like Baptist, Catholics, Muslims, Jewish, etc..... what makes them a cult?
A cult is a group of people run by someone who thinks he/she is God or Jesus....like maybe The Coreshians, or what about Reverend Jones and his followers. Or the space guy (can't remember his name), they all committed suicide, because they believed the aliens were coming to take them to a better place.
Anyway I always thought those were cults. And, besides, who are we to judge?
I mean really, wars have been started in the name of Christianity - isn't that cult like if you really think about it. People who follow someone without asking questions, isn't that cult like?
Just wondering.

Answer 7

Mormons by themselves are not really a cult. The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) are a cult. They're the ones headed by Warren Jeffs who believe in polygamy and marry 14 year old girls off to middle aged men against their will. Another similar cult is the TLC (I can't remember what that stands for) but they have the polygamy thing and their leader was really only interested in having sex with lots of young girls.

Answer 8

actually if you go online and go to www.watchtower.org you will find we are bible users and follow it. We were decreed a religion in the late 70's I'll never figure why people still don't get that we are a christian group we love jesus we follow his example we believe in his father our god psalms 83
;18 and read matt 6:9, 10
How WE praay for GOD'S kingdom to come on "earth as it is in heaven".Hope this clarifies some misconceptions, we don't take donations by plate we give free litature except if somebody wants to contribute to the missionary work.We abide by mankinds laws as long as it don't interfere with God's law. JW are lovers of people, we care for others.There is so much lies about them its not even funny, examine the bible at least have a study for 6 months you'll see, no obligation, we don't earn brownie points for new members. We are picking up where Jesus said to in matt 24:14 preach this good news of the kingdom then THE END will come.Trinity is not mentioned in bible nither is saints and the bible CLEARLY states 144,000 people going to heaven in the mean time the dead are consious of nothing at all ecc.

Answer 9

Reasons why the LDS church is a cult:

1. False prophets
2. Created and plagerized their own scriptures and promoted it by telling a preposterous story about the angel Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith.
3. Belief of baptizing the dead.
4. Their afterlife belief:
Mormons believe that everyone who lives and dies on this earth goes to a place called the Spirit Prison, except faithful Mormons, who go to Paradise. Mormon Spirit Missionaries go down from Paradise to the Spirit Prison and teach the Gospel of Joseph Smith to the lost Christians and others there. Those who accept Mormonism must remain in prison until a worthy Mormon performs certain essential rituals, called "Ordinances," for them in one of the Mormon Temples. Then they are released from Spirit Prison to join the Mormons in Paradise. Since these rituals or Ordinances require a physical body to be washed, anointed, baptized, etc., they can only be performed by a living person in the place and manner prescribed by Deity, acting under Universal (Mormon) cosmic laws.

Answer 10

Sure, I can name many cults.
Catholics. Methodists. Lutherans. Mormons. Jehovah's Witnesses. Presbyterians. Buddhists. Hindus. Moslems. Jews. Moonies. Pentecostall/evangelical non-denominations.

Answer 11

The first Christians were a cult, from the point of view of the Jews.

Talking to one of my regular passengers, whose a Rabbi, I would say most Christians have much the same problem with JWs that ancient Jews had with the first Christians who they viewed as having been started by an uneducated ex-carpenter of the Jewish Lower Class who was executed for cause by the governing authority. The only education he had was by Mary and Joseph, and in the view of the Jews, he made up most of what he said.

He recruited other uneducated, lower class individuals, such as a failed fisherman (Peter) and a hated tax collector (Matthew).

Lacking any formal education, they were easy to manipulate into believing he was the Messiah, something that was impossible, as he did not bring about the destruction (Armageddon) of the enemies of the Truly Blessed People of God, the Israelites, as was prophesied.

After his lawful execution, these clearly brainwashed followers began going door to door telling their brethren that the traditional beliefs, rituals, and observances (holidays), dating back hundreds of years, were no longer valid. Most specifically, there was no more need for the sacrifice of the lamb in the Temple, as the Lamb of God had died for all sins.

To the Jews, they began creating their own scriptures, to support their false beliefs, instead of relying on the Holy Torah, which had sustained God’s People for hundreds of years.

Finally, there were highly educated individuals, especially in the religious arts, such as Saul of Tarsus, who could clearly prove that they were a false cult, bent on leading God’s People down a false path to destruction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_of_Tarsus

What happened to them, as a result of their false teachings, and their door to door work, was only to be expected of people who have lost their way.

Clearly, what you may or may not think of JWs is reliant on your point of view, just as it was in those first years. Having an advanced education in religion does not mean that you are right, only that you sound that way.

JWs may have come from a simple, and some times, erratic beginnings, but at least they are making a valid effort to do better. You cannot say that for other religions who:

Continue to get involved in politics;

Lie to the IRS about not doing so in order to get their non-profit status;

Avoids paying taxes on retail sales within the church;

Allows immorality to creep into the church;

Immortalizes their founders through the observance of a birthday, death, and/or anniversary of the founding of the church;

Places a pictures of the founders in all their churches, so that all can see and pay obeisance;

Gives tacit approval to the Theory of Evolution; and

Doesn’t teach their followers to preach and teach the Bible, as Christ instructed.