question? cult vs religion

every element of cultism exists in the most dominant religions. forms of belief can do exist however without them.

 

A religion is funded and supported by the the man. A cult is not.

 

There are some great answers on this thread, here is a link if anyone is interested, it is for a guy named Rick Ross, he is an expert in cults and has lots of info on most known cults.

http://rickross.com/

 

For those claiming that Christianity is not a cult, check into catholic guilt. The Catholics may have started it, but it did not miss the other branches.

For those claiming Christianity is a choice, have you ever explained to your mother why you don't want to go to church anymore and had her cry? I have. She is also crying for those poor gay people that will never see heave because they are sinners. She's Lutheran.

The vast majority of Christians I have met fall into cult practice, though a few have the sense to be more in the belief category. The bible itself has many a passage that serves well to manipulate a branch of the cult to the minister/priest will and agenda. Lack of donations will get many an open public shaming in the form of glares and gossip that doesn't stop at the church doors. Charity is provided to poor parishioners, but again, expect it to come with heavy public shaming for the one receiving it. Even other branches of Christianity get met with hellfire because they follow a different cult leader.

Christianity is a cult that made the main stream.

 

Oh, and don't miss Sunday service or the church event, there will be public shaming.

 

If I had to come up with an example, I would say the Roman Catholic Church is cult-ish. Rules, regulations, legalism, weird secrets, etc. Religion has some of that, but the Catholic Church’s cover up of sexual scandals leading all the way to the Pope, seems like cult-like behavior. Anything to protect the cult.

Edit - and Scientology seems cult-like.

 

Membership. If you're in, its religion. To everyone else its a cult

 

The term "cult" is analytically useful only in distinction to mainstream religion. What is the definition of "cult"? The dictionary definitions are mostly unhelpful. Webster's: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents."
"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." The Free Dictionary. These definitions are lacking, because they depend on acceptance of mainstream views and use the term "cult" to describe virtually any unorthodoxy. Christianity would therefore be considered a cult until its acceptance by Constantine.
West and Langone identify three characteristics defining a cult: (1) zealous, unquestioning commitment to the identity and leadership of the group by the members, (2) exploitative manipulation of members by psychological techniques of mind control, such as isolating members from friends and family; and (3) policies emphasizing the interests of the leader or group over those of individual members; Lifton adds (4) a charismatic or messianic authoritarian leader.
R.J. Lifton, "Cult Fornation" Harvard Mental Health Letter, Volume 7, Number 8 February 1981,.By these characteristics, earliest Christianity shows cultish tendecies. Present-day churches vary: the more fundamentalist sects who are prone to characterize other churches as cult, have cult-like characteristics. The churches I go to are pretty loose in terms of leadership, authority, and beliefs--nothing approximating mind control..
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all religions are "cults", of which, whatever gods exist, are completely innocent.