Is All of Christianity a Cult
I would answer that question with, no, not all of Christianity is a cult. Yet, it is an age-old question without a final answer. When people follow a leader, do what the leader orders even when it harms themselves and do not question, is that always a cult? Or is it a cult only when the beliefs of the leader are far outside the mainstream of current thinking? Is strange current thinking never a cult?
The link points out that cult followers are often idealistic people. They want to change the world for the better. This is a trait shared by nearly all people of all religions and nearly all people of no religion. In this way a slice of society is seeking a cult leader to abuse them.
Most atheists, in my observation, think of Christianity as a mechanism to control people. In the Bible Jesus sounds very much like David Koresh of Waco, Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate, Jim Jones of Jonestown and Rev. Moon when he was quoted in Luke as saying, "If any man comes to me and hates not his father, his wife, and children and brethren and sisters, yea, his own life, he cannot be my discipline." There is an old joke which says religion is just a cult plus time.
Many times on this blog believers have said, "If you don't believe in something, you don't believe in anything." Another version is, "If you aren't a Christian, you have no moral grounding and anything goes." My own paraphrasing of such remarks is, "If you aren't a member of my cult, you are wrong."
We all know, of course, the majority of people who refer to themselves as Christians seldom if ever attend church, only attend sporadically and seldom ponder the faiths tenets. If is not accurate to call them members of a cult. Jesus' words in the Bible do not motivate many to hate their families.
There places within Christianity that seem cult like if not cults. It is people who talk endlessly and devote their time to badgering others about one Christian issue or another. Prohibition must have been close. Some anti abortion is cult like. There are preachers who form their own circles of cult like devotion to the preacher or something the preacher preaches.
Someone might say a person like me who writes everyday about Christianity and atheism must be a "cult" member. Certainly I identify with others who do not believe Christian tenets. As far as me leading anyone else or being led by anyone, not happening.
I don't like the word "cult". It's definition is far too varying for it to have any specific meaning in this context, and I find that anti-theists tend to use the word ore as a pejorative than for its actual meaning.
ReplyDeleteFrom an etymological standpoint, the word originated as a reference to religious rituals in general, essentially meaning that any spiritual belief shared among different people could have been distinguished as a cult. The word slowly evolved to specifically refer to "obsolete" or archaic religions, and then it slowly evolved back.
With its modern usage, I would define "cult" as being any group of people who have a shared belief and/or ideology that unites them in some ways. Being a Vikings fan could be a cult. Being a fan of Buffalo Wild Wings could be a cult.
I believe the word has evolved into the same realm as words like "liberal", "socialist", etc. It no longer means anything specific. It only means what the speaker wants it to mean, and that is ambiguous 100% of the time.
Thanks for the comment. I agree the word "cult" is impossible to define precisely. I think it is used because we don't have another term or concept to use in its place. For example, if anti abortion zealots refer to themselves as Christians but have little interest or follow few of the its other tenets, what do we have? The same it true for Christians who opposed integration--they seemed to have few other interest in Christianity except anti integration. They are a religion, but what kind?
DeleteI think you're looking for a religious term to describe something that is not religious in nature. We have enough examples of people throughout history trying to control others via various means and methods to discount this as strictly a religious phenomenon.
DeleteThe colloquial term is "control freak", and there are a myriad of psychological disorders that cause it. I can give you an example. We have various leadership and psychological trainings at work. These training seminars are intended as a way for folks to govern their own actions in order to create more productive and trusting work environments. There are always folks who leave these seminars with the idea that they need to use what they have learned to govern other people's actions
The use of religion has historically tended to be an extremely powerful force to counter change management, but I don't believe for a moment that these beliefs are religiously motivated for precisely the reason you stated in your response:
"if anti abortion zealots refer to themselves as Christians but have little interest or follow few of the its other tenets, what do we have? "
What we have is a bunch of abortion zealots who don't have the courage to stand behind their own convictions, so they use religion to try to force people into their camp. There is nothing religious going on here. It's all a sham by reactionaries trying to use whatever means necessary in order to cling to the ability to conform others into their archaic beliefs, and the reason why religion tends to be a popular tool is precisely because of the First Amendment.
When people tend to worship a particular belief rather than the religion that they are abusing to try to promote that belief, I call that "worshipping false idols". I think Moses may have had something to say about that.