New Religious Movements are not Religious Cults

Many groups are accused of being religious cults by people who can't even properly define the term. Let's try to clear up the confusion. A quick peek at the ReligiousTolerance.org page on Cults reveals why this is such a confusing issue. There are ten accepted definitions of "Cult" listed. There has also been a relatively recent evolution of the term, starting in the 1970's. Prior to this time, the term Religious Cult had no negative connotation and was applied to virtually any group of believers. It was only after certain groups began campaigning against "dangerous" religions that the tern "cult" became a negative word.

The Meaning of "Religious Cult" depends on who you ask

The broadest meaning of Cult, as previously used by religious scholars, is "worship". This term is generally not used anymore due to its negative connotations, but it does appear in certain instances within religions. Today, scholars generally us sect or denomination instead. The Associated Press (AP) made a similar decision, using sect instead of cult in all their reports.

Sociologists use the term Cult to describe a small sect that is in conflict with the primary religion in a region. More generally, those who study religious have, in the past, used cult to mean any new religion, especially those led by a single charismatic leader. These meanings has also largely fallen into disuse. They have been replace largely by Alternative Religious Movement and New Religious Movement, respectively.

Starting in the 1930's, some of the more reactionary Christian groups began using Religious Cults to refer to any group that did not conform to all of the traditional Christian beliefs. However, this term was only applied to group that accepted some part of the Christian doctrine.

In the 1970's, the Anti-Cult Movement (ACM) began to focus on "Brainwashing" cults. Although largely invalid in their arguments and misleading in their interpretations, this view of what a cult is has become the most widely accepted definition of Religious Cult.

The Anti-Cult Movement Definition of Cult

According to the Anti-Cult Movement (ACM), Religious Cults are those which engage in "coercive persuasion" to acquire and keep members. The difficulty then become where, exactly, to draw the line between coercive persuasion and religious behavior. The ACM generally accepts these ten items as defining "brainwashing technique":

1. The isolation of the recruit and manipulation of his environment;
2. control over channels of communication and information;
3. debilitation through inadequate diet and fatigue;
4. degradation or diminution of the self;
5. introduction of uncertainty, fear, and confusion, with joy and certainty through surrender to the group as a goal;
6. alternation of harshness and leniency in a context of discipline;
7. peer pressure, often applied though ritualized "struggle sessions", generating guilt and requiring open confessions;
8. insistence by seemingly all-powerful hosts that the recruit's survival - physical or spiritual - depends on identifying with the group;
9. assignment of monotonous tasks or repetitive activities, such as chanting or copying written materials;
10. acts of symbolic betrayal or renunciation of self, family, and previously held values, all designed to increase the psychological distance between the recruit and his previous way of life.

The problem is that these items are not always easily defined: If a religious leader told you a three day fast would enhance your spiritual education, is that "debilitation through inadequate diet"? Is saying the same prayer seven times a day "repetitive activity"? What, exactly, is "diminution of self"?

The point here is that Cults are defined less by what they believe, and more by what they do and how they do it.

What you believe, what you don't

I leave it to the reader to decide whether paganism is a cult. The bottom line is that the word Cult, overall, means little more that "a religion that is better at recruiting than we are". Perhaps Leo Pfeffer said it best:

"...if you believe it, it is a religion or perhaps the religion; and if you don't care one way or another about it, it is a sect; but if you fear and hate it, it is a cult."

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