CIA World Factbook

the CIA World Factbook doesn't even recognize Rastafarianism as a religion. if you look on their website and search Jamaica it says most of their population belongs to "other or cult" which is pretty sad seeing as how it's pretty much their main religion.
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im sorry if i'm sounding negative, i don't mean to, i think it's unfair to all rastafarians that the CIA World Factbook is no classifying them as a religion in Jamaica or anywhere

 

It's the CIA, intelligence agency for a fucking extremely right wing government, and your worried what they classify things as!?!?

 

Most Jamaicans are Christian...

It is weird that they don't separate from Rasta from "cult religions", though.

 

just like there are many forms of paganism, christianity, and so on, there are many forms of rastafarianism. this spiritual path is mostly made up of loose assosciations of people and individual churchs. there are only a few decently large organised denominations which could even be considered related to rastafarianism. there is no organized rastafarian religion, in short. since there are still distinguishing factors among different rasta groups, they may easily be viewed as seperate. some mandate stricter dietary practices than others, some practice a belief tied closely to it's christian roots, others a belief more judaic in nature, some others do away with most past beliefs and worship/revere none other than ras tafari. some only read the bible, some incorporate other writings (most notably the kebra negast and some other "gnostic" texts)

some regard ras tafari as a prophet, others the son or messenger of god, and then others regard him even as literal, physical god himself.

i'm sure you're not ignorant of these distinguishing factors and probably many more, so i won't bother dwelling on this. the basic and undeniable implication of all these things is that while on the whole individual rastafarians may feels more of a sense of unity among all rastas because of what they share in common, they could just as easily be viewed by outsiders as broken up, splintered, divided, as small individual groups making up the most of the body of the faith rather than a single organized religion with a set theology, scripture, rules, etc.

now you get angry that this website implies that it claims cult status for rastafarianism. "cult" is largely a misunderstood word with negative connotations today, but it really isn't a bad word at all. it has a number of different meanings depending on context, but lets go over just some of them.

the first entry in the american heritage dictionary for the word "cult" reads as such

whereas for religion, the entry reads like this:

clearly the only differentiation between the two in this context is the general public's view of the faith. does the overwhelming christian/jewish/hindu/muslim/nonreligious majority of people in the US view the idea that an ethiopian emperor who lived within the past hundred years is god incarnate as extremist or false? yes. do rastafarians, on the whole, live in generally unconventional manners? yes. maybe not in the same was as the nutcases in waco or guyana lived, but i'd say that wearing long dreadlocks, smoking cannabis as a religious sacrament, and so on, would be considered by almost everyone as unconventional, even if they dont consider it bad.

these are not negative statements about rastafarianism, they are comments on how the public perceives it and how the faith itself is structured as a religion. now lets take another view of the words "cult" and "religion." dictionary definitions are one thing, legal definitions are another. in the united states, religious institutions get tax-exempt status. now obviously we need a new definition of "religion," or just any guy could make up some phony belief system only he understands and his home is his church etc. etc., lots of people taking advantage of the tax breaks. so the government has set down certain standards for what does or does not count as a religion in a legal sense, which is different than in the literal sense. a religion from a legal standpoint must have a certain number of followers (i want to say the magic number is 100,000, but i'm not certain) and meet some other standards. obviously while many jamaicans follow rastafarianism, it is not generally an incredibly organized faith with many different churches and sects and what have you within itself, and even if they technically have over the number of people required to count as a religion in a legal sense, the division and lack of organization will keep them from meeting the status of a religion in the eyes of the government. for instance, to be rasta, you just have to believe. theres not much call to sign up and become a member of a church or this and that....so how do you even go about collecting information about how many people are rastafarianism if theres no one good definition or any information about how many people make up a church or whatever? this is not to say that even in the governments eyes the "cult" status is a bad thing; just that it is unorthodox and small and/or divided.

before you get too defensive and down about people calling rastafarianism a cult, remember that while in recent times it's become a "bad word," traditionally cults have had quite a different treatment at different times, and some have provided some terrific changes on the world. i mean hell, when christ walked the earth with his disciples, that was purely and simply a cult. an offshoot of the judaism at the time, but still a cult. does that mean christianity was bad or wrong or evil? no. it just simply was a "cult," with no judgment placed on it simply because of its membership and organization status. there was no church, there was no membership, it was a small group of people who simply believed some similar things and followed their charismatic leader, who was later declared to be god incarnate.

many organized religions have cults built into the upper eschelons of their organizations. many types of faiths have certain teachings or texts only taught to or accessable to monks, priests, and so on of a certain degree and senority. catholics have teachings not suitable for the unordained, for instance, and certain buddhist practices and teachings are reserved for the far more experienced people among them. the ones who are eligible to receive these teachings could quite acceptably be grouped together as a cult within a larger organized religion, because of their secretive, elitist or whatever teachings that only a smaller group can participate in. i hear tell, though its all hearsay, that freemasons and other secret societies often have further secret groups within their higher ranking members, some of which are of a cultlike spiritual nature.

none of these things are at all like the ku klux klan or the waco folks or anything of the sort. cult doesn't have to be a bad word, and i dont particularly think that the site was attempting to be offensive in the matter but just stating the facts from an outside point of view. you can believe with all your heart that what you're practicing is right, and who's to argue? but that doesnt stop the beliefs from being cult-like in nature, and being a cult or being cult-like does NOT imply anything inherently negative, its just that because of disturbing news of some actually dangerous cults over the past 40-50 years, the word cult has an almost frightening assosciation. however, emotions surrounding a word have no place in taking into account its actual literal meaning.

if rastafarians all grouped together and organized one solid church with memberships and regular services, holidays, charities, a clergy, and so on, i'm sure it would have no trouble reaching religion status in no time from the government's point of view. now that doesnt mean it wouldnt still have confrontations with the government regarding certain controversial practices such as use of cannabis, which is sad, but it still would be a recognized religion.

lets face it, there's serious consideration being given to allow US members of a brazilian based church which uses DMT (a schedule I drug, just like marijuana) as a sacrament to legally use and possess this substance in their method of choice, the incredibly psychedelic potion ayahuasca. this is currently being discussed in the supreme court, and it sounds like they do have a good chance of winning. but then, they're an organized church with established teachings and doctrines.

the native american church IS already allowed to legally use peyote (a mescaline containing cactus, mescaline being another schedule I substance) as a sacrament. despite the fact that they are legally allowed to use it, this doesnt stop their opponents (mostly police and politicians) from clashing with them, it just works as a rule for how the justice system is supposed to treat the cases once they get there. indians legally growing or possessing peyote still occasionally get busted, but generally the courts say the police or whoever were in the wrong because of the supreme court cases which have given them the right to use peyote.

IF rastafarianism where to organize into a recognized religion, i have no doubt that eventually it would receive legal right to use marijuana as a sacrament. however, i dont think there is a strong enough desire to unify into a large organized religion among rastas. large organizations and governing bodies are abhorrent to most rastas, and a more individualized and community oriented faith system works better for them it seems. apart from that, part of the faith is a sense of oppression and struggle for a brighter future. not to disrespect the followers of this belief system, but that IS a central theme among rastas. becoming organized and applying for tax exempt status and so on would be considered selling out, playing by "babylon's" rules, and polluting the rastafarian faith and culture. more than that, though this may not be admitted, it would help eliminate the oppression rastafarians face, and there would be less need to cling to the faith, less drive to keep on believing in the face of adversity. in short, there would be no need to "hope" and "struggle" for a future where they are allowed to believe and practice as they want; that would be the situation already. then what? just worship god? thats a good thing to do, of course, but it would make it just like any other church then. it would be normal. it would just become another church for kids to get bored in and eventually leave when they grow up...it would make it more boring, less personal, more like any other church, just with some different theology and a different sacrament. the unity, the drive to keep your faith no matter what, the belief that god is there for you....they would all seem less relevant to the followers if rastafarians became just another organized religion like baptists or jews or catholics or shi'ites or whatever.

take this into consideration: cult status is not necessarily a bad thing. in fact, for rastafarians, it may actually be a good thing. its just the negative connotations make the word seem offensive, but really, its integral to the belief. it wouldnt work as well an organized religion, and it's integrity would be more prone to attack by its own followers!

catholics are content to let their clerics commune with god and just silently go about being obedient drones. rastas want one on one personal relationships with the divine...

there is a difference, and its much harder for an organized religion to provide a personal experience of the divine. you need your friends and family, and yourself...not a church with a collection plate and fancy clothes. its not to say churches are inherently bad either, its just that the members are looking for different things and the results of both types of faith are different.

 

Wouldn't 'other or cult' under the religion category mean htey have aosme 'other' religion, or cult stuff? That's not saying rastafarianism isn't a religion, it's just not bothering to specify it.

 

not to mention theres more than one coptic church, afaik, which adds further to the division of rastafarianism and related faiths, such as coptic christianity

 

Eh, the CIA is corrupt anyway Rastafari doesn't need recognition, especially not as a religion, I an I have a faith, I an I are just JAH people tryin to live Ital lives, peace

 

Could you imagine how many people who would join just so they could smoke weed? The non organized, non dogmatic part of Rastafari faith is what makes it so special. The individual relationship means that people need to read religious texts for themselves and in this sense are probably more enlightend to their real meaning then many modern day Christians. This type of faith has also caused much less (perhaps none) violence then organised religion. Which is another beautiful aspect of Rastafari faith, because it is not organised it cannot be controlled, especially by governments.

I think cult status makes sense for the individual groups but as you said 'cult' has an emotional meaning now days.