Cults and Comparitive Religions

Cults and none-Christian religions

This is about organisations that are generally considered to be "cults" and about none-Christian religions. It is not my intention to be offensive here although inevitably, as this is written from a Christian perspective, some of the comments are likely to be disagreed with. I hope that you will treat this page as information and I will try to be as accurate and factual as possible. As always, I am happy to receive factual corrections and constructive discussions.

What is a cult?

Well, you can see the relevant link below for a full description and discussion but the best general definition of a cult that I have is an organisation or group with religious beliefs that practices unethical and immoral activities.

Of course, this is a highly subjective description as it requires one to decide what is moral and ethical but surely that is (for me at any rate) one of the key features of "religion". There are a number of attributes that would be commonly associated with cults, typically Dishonesty, and slavery of members (sometimes physically, often mentally and financially as well as spiritually).

From a Christian perspective, a cult might also be any religion that claims Jesus Christ as an inspiration but does not follow (or indeed rewrites) his teachings, even if their practices were reasonably moral and ethical.

Unfortunately, this later definition would also include quite a number of people in so called "main stream" Christian organisations! Indeed, as you can plainly see, throughout many times in history, the main stream Christian churches have displayed all of the attributes of cults and this lesson should not be overlooked by practicing Christians.

Furthermore, many organisations that ended up as cults have started life as Christ centred but somewhere along the way have become introverted and self-serving. I believe very strongly that it is our responsibility as Christians to be aware of this and to question and check everything that our leaders and teachers are saying both against the bible (which is our handbook for living) and against our conscience which God has provided for this very purpose.

External Links

These are some links related to this subject

• Apologetics Index
  An interesting looking site with information on all sorts of cults. It seems to monitor news on cults from around the world and seems fairly accurate on first sight.
• What does the term "cult" mean?
  A very good set of definitions and discussions from the same Apologetics Index site.