What is a cult, and what seperates a cult from a religion?

A religion can be generally defined as a set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.

A cult can be defined as 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.

By these definitions, it would hard to separate the two concepts; the only obvious difference being the extremist aspect of a cult religion. Falseness, unconventionality, and charismatic leadership can arguably exist in well-established and generally accepted religions.

So, again...what's the difference?

There are a list of specific traits generally assumed to be characteristic of a cult. These traits are, for the most part, absent from the majority of religions.

Characteristics of a cult:

• The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment. The living leader is the focus, not God.

• The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members. Cult recruitment involves deception, concealment of identity and requirements of affiliation. Mainstream groups use no deception and new members are fully aware of the teachings and expectations before they make a commitment.

• Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

• Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines, hallucinagenic drug use, sleep deprivation) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s). Emotional needs are exploited and people are held psychological hostages through peer pressure, guilt, and fear.

• The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth)

• The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).

• The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.

• The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).

• The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities). The leader creates a seperate set of laws for group members which often conflict with local, state, and federal laws, claims group members are "exempt" from man-made laws and answer only to "divine" laws - those created by the leader.

• The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them. Members who show doubt about the leader and/or the cult's established belief system are shamed, and their loyalty and piety are called into question, often publicly.

• Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.

• Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.

• Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members. Members are socially and geographically isolated from former friends and family. (Most mainstream religions encourage family and community ties.)

• Members who express a desire to leave are implicitly or explicitly threatened with harm and/or death. Members who successfully leave the group are shunned by remaining group members.

• Sexual manipulation is employed. Women and children are told who to have sex with, and when. Cult leader often demands sex of members (men, women, and/or children) in exchange for their salvation.

• Physical abuse - "discipline" - is used to maintain control over followers.

• Cults are self-serving; that is, most or all of money amassed in the cult - oftentimes taken from the group members to the degree that they are left impoverished - is under the control of the leader and used for his gratification, instead of for the needs of the group.

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i went to a catholic church meeting once ( im not Catholic) and the people were speaking in tongues i was very uncomfortable and freaked out would this not be classified as a cult? i also was a Muslim and there was a lot of chanting in the Mosque along with prayer beads (tahasbi beads) they chant over and over with the beads the same thing.

Im a Baptist Christian but still some people in my church speak in tongues and i still feel uncomfortable with this stuff so i was just wandering if this is cult like?

the reason i asked the Muslim question is because i was a muslim for 3 years because i married a Muslim and my Husband is still Muslim.

Thanks again,

sure am glad i joined this group

thanks for the invite Toni.

Karen

Glad you came, Karen

The existence of any one of these conditions in and of itself does not qualify a group as a cult. Although there is no standard legal definition of "cult," my reading suggests that a majority, if not all, of the above conditions would need to exist simultaneously for the label to be applied.

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Karen,

I would have to agree with Toni! As I stated in the other post to you, these are Mainstream Religons.

 As Many religons speak in tounges or chant, these are just practices!

It is more so the immoral and often illegal (brainwashing, ex-communicating members from family and friends, physical abuse, child abuse &  child molestation,  financial fraud, &  a leader who presumes to be Godlike)  activities that occur that truly define the cult.

~Barb~

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What makes a CULT is SOME religious people who will not accept ANY OTHER POINT OF VIEW.

To them, any other point of view becomes a CULT.

MANY so named 'CULTS' are in fact religions and very well run.

It is a fact that there are many CULTS that have gone BAD and giving bad names to other religions that are actually very good.

The media brings out the worst in many of these groups.

Then mass hystera forms like it has in this group where people have just copied/pasted the same rumors and have aded nothing of personal experiences.

 HERE is the dictionaries difinition of CULT.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=cult

cult     (klt)
n.

1. 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. The followers of such a religion or sect.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5. 1. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
   2. The object of such devotion.
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

cultic

cultish

IN my experiences with both MORMON and SCIENTOLOGIST

I have found NOTHING CULTISH about either one!

So in my opinion this group has MIS-Classified these groups, based on what THEY think a CULT is.

 I look up Charismatic and find

char·is·mat·ic  (krz-mtk)
adj.

1. Of, relating to, or characterized by charisma: “the warmth of a naturally charismatic leader” (Joyce Carol Oates).
2. Of, relating to, or being a type of Christianity that emphasizes personal religious experience and divinely inspired powers, as of healing, prophecy, and the gift of tongues.

Where did you get your definition on CULTS?

IS that your own wording? Or you found it somewhere?

 [report anonymous abuse]

My original post is the result of reading a few books on cult behavior and the characteristics of cults - hence the bullet-pointed list of traits.

You seem to be repeatedly misunderstanding both the meaning and the purpose of this group. Yes, the majority of the information is from other source...it essentially has to be, since no one here (to my knowledge) is conducting independent systematic research into cults and hate groups. If any of us were, I'm sure we'd share it.

Does one have to make the news in order to discuss it? Of course not. Similarly, the information posted here is frequently not original to the author - we didn't make the message - it's simply being shared here for members to read, consider, and respond to.

As to Scientology and the Mormons - read more carefully. First of all, Mormonism in general isn't at issue here...the fundamentalist sect of Mormonism, which has been officially denounced by the Mormon church...is what is under discussion. And Barb's posts about Scientology - did you read the subject line? They contain the words "YOU DECIDE." She is endeavoring to provide information about a religion which, frankly, is considered cultish by many, so that people can make informed and educated decisions for themselves.

Now considering you've decided that this group's purpose is to engage in a libelous witch hunt, then I suggest that you remove yourself from the group, since it's obviously not one that suits your tastes.

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Nikki Jo...

... Since you do not seem to find the information we have posted in here acceptable, and choose to make false accustaions of people's intent, I suggest you unjoin the group....

Barb

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I am not expert on the subject, but I am a member of Soka Gakkai International which many times is labeled "a cult". 

I would like to add my two-cents worth if I may.  It is my free will to be  Buddhist. However, if anyone in the SGI ever attempts to take away my "free" will, it would be considered a cult. 

In Buddhism the rules are respect for all life. In my humble opinion that covers everything.  I think that was Jesus' objective as well.

Other than that there are no rules in Buddhism.  It's about cause and effect. Whatever you think, say or do makes an effect.

When a religion tells you how to live your life, I consider it a cult.  We are all adults, and we know when we are hurting another person or the earth.

I do not know much about Scientology, but I would like to suggest that Nikki Jo study long before making a decision about joining anything that effects decisions she can make about her own life.

If my opinion is not welcome here, let me know, and I will be happy to un-join.

Thank you.

Love and peace,
Sharron

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Welcome Sharron. Of course your opinions are welcome here. That's one of the purposes of this group as I see it - to present information so that people can make their own informed decisions. What is not welcome is specific bashing of members or general bashing of the group as a whole, as we saw above. Anyone who dislikes this group is obviously free to leave at any time...unlike in a cult. (Nice tie-in, don't ya think? )

When you have the time, you're welcome to post about Buddhism. I'd love to read more on it. I'm impressed with what I've read on the subject so far, especially it's focus on tolerance of differences.

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You're right Dynamite - those definitions are too broad and subjective. That's why I felt the need to clarify and add more detail in the bullet-point list of traits. I don't recall which of the books or websites I read proposed those definitions, or if they were from www.dictionary.com, but regardless of the source, they obviously aren't clear enough for our purposes.

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Tom...

Most Muslims do not believe that. Most Muslims believe in peace, love and honor. Like with many religions there are extremists, and the ones you are speaking of... are extremists.

Sharron... Welcome and yes... your opinions are also welcome. Feel free to share and post on any thread or start one of your own...

Hope & Peace

~Barb~

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I am not familiar with religous cults although I have watched programs about them and how they operate.  I do have a little more knowledge about hate groups. Did you know that there are over 400 different hate groups throughout the world. Many are unfortunately in our own backyards so to speak. I will give you a list of many of the names but 400 is a bit much to try and list however it would likely be a good thing for us to know the names of the ones that are in North America or perhaps more precisely U.S.A and Canada. I know for myself I was shocked and horrified when I found out about these groups. there are over 1400 problematic web sites run by these groups which include bomb making , hate music etc. I personally do noat understand why they are allowed to advertise this stuff on the internet where young people can be programmed to their sick way of thinking. I will try and get back to you all within the next couple of weeks and give you a bit of information on them but at moment I am really swamped with other things that must be attended to. I would suggest a visit to WWW.WIESENTHAL.COM would prove to be of interest to the members of this group. There is 500 pages of information on this site.

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A cult to me is like Jim Jones (I think that's who it was) that had all the members drink Kool Aid laced with poison, mass suicide. I had to laugh as I read the above, I think Catholism is a cult, and Hebrew, Muslim as well. Being told who to marry and such. With Catholic's if you leave you can be ex-communicated and go to hell and eternal damnation when you die. Pret-ty scary for a child.

The Christian Bible does say Jesus gave his Apostles the power to speak in tongues, so they would be understood by persons not knowing the language as the word was spread.

I think I know what a cult is, but won't know how to define one.

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Thanks for speaking out Paula!

We have at least one, probably more threads here, regarding the organization you speak of. I believe there is even a thread here somewhere titled, "Help the Child Brides," with a link to the website. Check the archives - it's likely off the main page now, since it's so old. You're more than welcome to add to the material here.

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