| Once upon a time Timothy Leary established this religious cult where they used drugs instead of wine as a sagrament. (hope I spelled that last word correctly). The Supreme Court ruled that you cannot start a new religion to legalize a unlawful drug. Under law the court cannot stop anyone for any ritual that involves a religous belief system, that is a religion. Or course cults on not unlawful as long as they do not violate any laws. During prohibition the Christians could use wine in religious rites in spite of the fact no one else could indulge (which is where Leary got his bight idea about making the LSD cult a religion. The court stated that a religion must have a long history that can be clearly documented. A cult might be old but has no recorded history of bieng in effect through out the ages or else it is some new "start up group".
Mainsteam Christians (sometimes) view any other belief system as a cult (more or less) but those views are just for the sake of programing their own people and is not a fact.
Many books about cults suggest that they use brainwashing methods that cut the members off from the rest of the world so that they become totally in service of the cult leader (such as the Bush cult does) but some mainstream religions also do that but in a much milder manner. Cults can also be non-religious if they believe in a different kind of process. Example; someone like Dr. Phil could have a cult following.
The trouble is that our culture often attempts to make the word cult sould evil, as they do for the term Occult. But you never know, todays cult could be tomorrows culture, they all started somewhere in much smaller numbers.
So currently the mainstream uses the word cult as meaning something negative to be avoided so that you do not become "abducted" and loose your social connections with family and friends.
Not sure what the dictionary said, that would be the best place to look.
Technosoul. |