Cult
- This article does not discuss cult in the sense of "religious practice." It discusses only religious or sociological cultist groups. See also: cult film, cult television, cult radio.
In English-speaking countries since about the 1960s, especially in North America, the term cult has taken on a pejorative and sometimes offensive connotation. This is largely the result of highly-publicized cults that were widely believed to exploit their members psychologically and financially, or were accused of group-based persuasion techniques (sometimes called "brainwashing", "Love bombing" or "mind control").
As typified by many of the widely-publicized North American cults from the 1960s and later, the quintessential modern cult is thought to be religion taken to the extreme, usually characterized by high levels of dependency and obedience to the cult's leadership, separation from family and non-believers, and infiltration of religion into nearly every aspect of daily life. Beginning in the 1980s, there has been a movement among conservative and fundamentalist Christians to expand the meaning of cult to include groups practicing unique forms of Christianity, whose marginality within society is highly controversial. Because of the increasingly pejorative connotation of the word cult, most members of these groups find the word offensive when applied to them. See anti-cult movement. On the other hand, some Skeptics have questioned the distinction between a cult and a mainstream religion. They say that the only difference between a cult and a religion is that the latter is older and has more followers and as a consequence is less controversial because society has become used to it.
The literal and traditional meaning of the word cult, from the Latin cultus, meaning "care" or "adoration", is "a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same." In French or Spanish, culte or culto simply means "worship"; an association cultuelle is an association whose goal is to organize worship (and is eligible for tax exemption). The word for "cult" is secte or secta. See false friend. In German or Russian the expression totalitarian religious group which has a slightly different meaning than the English word cult in addition to the German word Sekte. In formal use, and in non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word "cult" are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a purpose to which "sect" is put in English. Hence, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are cults within Christianity. In English, it is still perfectly neutral to refer to the "cult of Artemis at Ephesus" and the "cult figures" that accompanied it, or to "the importance of the Ave Maria in the cult of the Virgin."
There is no agreed-upon definition of what a cult is; however, there are several alternative formulations, including the following:
Definitions of a cult
The problem with defining the word cult is that (1) purported cult members generally resist being called a cult, and (2) the word cult is often used to marginalize religious groups with which one does not agree or sympathize. Some serious researchers of religion and sociology prefer to use terms such as new religious movement in their research on cults. Such usage may lead to confusion because some religious movements are "new" but not necessarily cults, and some purported cults are not religious. Where a cult practices physical or mental abuse, psychologists and other mental health professionals use the terms cult, abusive cult, or destructive cult. These are also common terms in the popular press. However, not all cults are abusive or destructive, and among those that psychologists believe are abusive, few members would agree that they are being abused. Other researcher like David V. Barrett hold the view that classifying a religious movement as a cult has no added value, instead, he argues, that one should investigate the beliefs and practices of the religious movement.
Some groups, particularly those labelled by others as cults, view the designation as insensitive, and feel persecuted by what the call the "anti-cult movement", the existence of which is disputed.
Such groups often defend their position by comparing themselves to more established, mainstream religious groups such as Catholicism and Judaism. The argument offered in this case can usually be simplified as, "Christianity and Judaism can also be defined as cults under some definitions of the term, therefore the term cult is superfluous and useless."
Another problem with writing about cults is that they generally hold belief systems that give answers to questions about the meaning of life and morality. This makes it difficult not to write biased about a certain cult because writers are not neutral about these questions. Some writers who deal with the subject choose to explicitly state their ethical values and belief systems to deal with this difficulty.
For many scholars and professional commentators, the usage of the word "cult" applies to maleficent or abusive behavior, and not to a belief system. For members of competing religions, use of the word is pejorative and applies primarily to rival beliefs (see memes), and only incidentally to behavior.
Some examples of cults whose adherents made history include:
While the religious, philosophical, and spiritual beliefs vary widely from one cult to the next, many believe that the actions of cults are characteristically similar. Many popular checklists of "cult behavior" have been created, and sources differ in the terminology they use and how they group the behaviors together. Two examples of checklist can be seen hereunder. [1,3,5]
The following characteristics need not all apply to every case but the more of them do apply the more likely this is a cult:
This has four basic aspects:
The above mentioned historical examples are extreme and rare. Informed relatives of cult members and ex-members of cults (in the meaning of abusive new religious movements) generally know this and are often concerned about other things than mass suicides or homicides.
For various reasons, it can be very difficult to leave a cult. One of the reasons is that a cult belief system and cult involvement can give meaning to life, both philosophically and in daily life. Members may love or feel devotion for the leader. Even if the member knows that something is wrong, leaving the cult and the transition to a life after the cult may be painful and long. The ex-member may either cling to some extent to the old belief system or be completely without any beliefs and value system at all. Besides the member usually loses a lot of friends. In some cases the ex member may lose all his friends and family. Some members live in a commune or ashram, have no money and job outside the cult. For them it may be nearly impossible to leave
By one measure, between 3,000 and 5,000 purported cults existed in the United States in 1995. [5] While some of the more well-known and influential of these groups are frequently labelled as cults, the majority of these groups vigorously protest the label and refuse to be classified as such, and often expend great efforts in public relations campaigns to rid themselves of the stigma of the term cult. For a list of groups frequently labelled as cults, see Purported cults.
In many countries there separation of church and state and freedom of religion. Some governments are however worried of cults and take restrictive measures against cults.
One notable exception seems to the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation in India that can break laws without getting persecuted.
Historical Examples
Checklists of cult behavior
First example of checklist
Additionally, many cults are described as having the following characteristics, though they are not as unique to cults as the behaviours listed above:Second example of checklist
Total control
These techniques make a mature, critical reflection of one's attitudes and the one-sided information given by the group largely impossible.Common concerns about cult involvement
Wasted time and opportunity
Betrayal of trust
Leaving a cult
Membership in a cult is usually temporary: 90% or more of cult members ultimately leave their group [2,3]Prevalence of purported cults
Cults and the governments
Some countries give cults almost total freedom and undertake action only when the laws are broken. E.g. in Japan, the Netherlands and the USA. In the Netherlands they can even found their own schools with money from the government. External Links
Note: The Internet offers a great deal of material (of greatly varying quality) beyond the following list of :
See also
References