Maybe the Courts Will Decide: What is a Cult


What would have been an obscure case not making it into national news is expanding. The ramifications seem endless. The question is whether a denomination, or an individual church, that teaches its brand of beliefs is the only, absolutely the only, correct one is a cult. Many preach that being skeptical heads one to a fiery eternity. 

We'd all agree beliefs that "only we are right" is standard fare for the hundreds of millions of conservative Christians. But what happens if these beliefs are labeled "cult"? This has happened in Maine where a couple with a 12 year-old daughter separated. The mother wants to take the daughter to her fire breathing church but the father objects. He calls it a "cult". Here is one definition of a cult:

...a group (as an organization or religious sect) with tenets or practices regarded as coercive, insular or dangerous.."  

The mother's church is part of the Calvary Chapel denomination. This is an association of 1,800 charismatic churches that came from the hippy Jesus movement. There are many churches which have the word "calvary" in their name that are not part of this group. Calvary Chapel has experienced big abuse problems and lost some of its earlier luster. Nevertheless, it lives on.

A huge part of Christianity preaches exactly much of what Calvary Chapal preaches. It is the "our denomination" (or association of churches or group of churches or our stand-alone church) is right and everyone else is wrong. Another version is, "We know what the Bible means and no one else does." This includes Catholics, Southern Baptists, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Mormons and an endless list of others.

Perhaps the question in the case of the above mother's church is when does its teaching become "coercive, insular and dangerous?" It seems to me if the tenets scare people, even one person, either an adult or a child, harm is there. I hope the court system can go into this.

When I occasionally attend the liberal church near us I wonder why all religions including Christianity  are not required to read a disclaimer before or after reading from the Bible, sermonizing or praying  Advertisements for medicines are required to say, "Pill x has been shown to sometimes have side effects. If you experience bloating, bleeding...call your doctor." In Christianity, clergy should be required to say, "We don't know who wrote the Bible or why. No one has ever seen the god we talk to or seen hell or heaven. If the ideas presented here give you anxiety seek professional help outside of religion," 

 

 

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