Can anyone convince me that this is not anything more than a Billion member cult?! — Trey
Wiccans are not comparable to Nazi’s. — DingoJones
A part of these issues may be my fault, as I have Asperger's, and am very inept and clumsy when it comes to relating with people socially, as I have "social blindness". I often commit social blunders because of this. — Kevin Levites
How do I--in a practical sense--resolve this hypocrasy within myself, yet still adhere to my principle of being nonjudgmental when I work as a medic? — Kevin Levites
Here's the definition of "cult" I think is the most applicable to this discussion - "A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister."
Clearly, the Catholic Church does not meet that definition. — T Clark
Besides, accusations of cultism have been levelled at secular or semi-secular organisations as well as metaphysically inclined ones. Any organisation offering identity-building rituals and a coherent narrative of the world and how to live in it is a target, from Alcoholics Anonymous to the vegan restaurant chain the Loving Hut, founded by the Vietnamese entrepreneur-cum-spiritual leader Ching Hai, to the practice of yoga (itself rife with structural issues of spiritual and sexual abuse), to the modern phenomenon of the popular, paleo-associated sport-exercise programme CrossFit, which a Harvard Divinity School study used as an example of contemporary ‘religious’ identity. If the boundaries between cult and religion are already slippery, those between religion and culture are more porous still.
However, people tend to use it to disparage any religious belief they disagree with, — Sam26
"A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister." — T Clark
I regard a cult as an organization that affords special godlike powers to a single individual who abusively controls his followers, usually by extracting money, limiting contact with family members and close friends who are not followers, demanding free labor, requiring complete allegiance regarding all requests, and often involving requiring sex from anyone within the cult, sometimes with minors. — Hanover
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