>> On a slight tangent, it is somewhat interesting that many Christians >> believe >> Mormonism is a cult, but we do not hear so much of Islam being considered >> a >> cult. I wonder why not. Isn't suicide borne out of religious devotion a >> sign >> of a cult? Would this not make the suicide bomber terrorist fringe of >> Islam >> also a cult?
"Cult" is one of those terms -- like "racist", "war crime", "fascist", "Islamophobe" -- that convey less information about what is being discussed than about the speaker's attitude toward it. A cult is a religion that has an incompetent PR department. The Jim Jones organization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Temple is a church that became a cult. Mormonism is an 1830s cult that became a church. -- Mark Spahn, resident of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned-over_district --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages prior to posting, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
