About a quarter century ago, a family that lived near us out west joined a church that was known both as The Walk and The Living Word. I can remember them talking excitedly about being "in the body," and how they would soon be "going to Shiloh." Shiloh, Iowa was the headquarters (if that is the right word) of the church. I can recall the father of the family started seeing "auras" around people's heads. I gather it was something like a colorful halo, and in fact the color that this man perceived had some significance, in his mind, as to the spiritual state of the person underneath the halo. I never could see the danged auras, but then I wasn't in the body.
We heard a few (five?) years later that the family had become disillusioned with the church. I was probably never told all the details about what happened when they lived in Shiloh. One thing I think I remember is that they were instructed to renounce Social Security. I would have thought a U.S. citizen working in the private sector cannot get out of paying into Social Security, and in fact I have never heard of any other case of such a thing happening. But if my parents got it right, that is just what the father of that family did. I guess the deal was that he didn't pay into S.S., and agreed that he would never collect benefits from it in retirement, despite having paid into S.S. prior to joining this church. There was also something about the founder, John Robert Stevens, inducing members to invest in a silver or gold mine that was purely a sham, or so it was explained to me. It was said that Stevens had a vision from the Lord that the mine was loaded with precious ore, and it was going to help The Walk expand its churches across the nation.
My parents called it a cult. For some reason, only today did I think of searching for information about it on the Net. I am finding some things, but I would be interested in hearing personal anecdotes from anyone who is/was a member, or who knows someone who was involved in it.
Originally posted by Draxusi think the word 'cult' generally does carry the connotation of a small minority, or as dictionary.com has it: 'A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader'.
2) Your parents need to realize that the word cult applies to every religion ever made, so they should stop using the word to describe small weird churches.
While Chistianity and Buddhism, for example, could rightly be considered cults in the periods after they were founded, that word would not generally be applied to them today, with their vast numbers of followers. however, small groups with radical beliefs that are Christian or Buddhist in nature can be considered cults. So using the word to describe 'small, weird churches' is a perfectly good use of the word.
EDIT: technically, the word 'cult might be used to descibe any religion, as Draxus pointed out, but it does also carry the special sense i discussed above, and so can be used in that way too.
Originally posted by Paul DiracThat , the poisoned kool-aid , and the whacky sex with the cult leader and your old lady .
Another common characteristic of cults is that the alpha male who runs things claims to be the only valid spokesman for the deity that they nominally worship, and as time goes by more of the worship is directed at the man himself.
Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines cult as:
I'll write the ones that apply, because there are definitions for things such as "cult classic" which doesn't apply here 🙂
1. a particular system of religious worship, esp with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc
Different churches wrongly use the word cult to describe religions that they don't like. Society has used the word to denote crazy groups of people that they don't like (however justified they may be in not liking them).
There, that's my rant. Society is ignorant, and churches that accuse other churches of being a cult are wrong. 🙂
Originally posted by DraxusMost Christians would label the snake-handling churches of rural Appalachia as cults. But this website I just found points out that it is precisely the snake handlers who are taking the New Testament seriously.
... Different churches wrongly use the word cult to describe religions that they don't like...
http://www.mupress.org/webpages/books/kimbrough.html