Butterfield 1

AJ Butterfield
Professor Webb
English 1010
26 April 2016
Position Synthesis - Cults
Cults havent always been the dark, scary, taboo topic we all know today. The
original meaning of the word cult was, the act of worship or religious ceremony. But in
todays day and age it refers to a religious or social group with socially deviant or novel
beliefs and practices. When asked about cults, people normally think of: scientology,
satanists, mormons, pagans, marines, and southern baptists. Some of these dont fit in the
standards when describing a cult. The most popular assumptions of all cults are that they
are all satanic in nature, theyre violent, and that they are destructive. Not all cults are
destructive or violent, and the majority of them are not based upon satanism.
In his article, When Does a Religion Become a Cult?, Mitch Horowitz states,
America has probably supplied the world with more new religions than any other nation.
Since the first half of the 19th century, the country's atmosphere of religious
experimentation has produced dozens of movements, from Mormonism to a wide range
of nature-based practices grouped under the name Wicca. However, with the way some
groups have broken the veil of the media, society views them and any sort of new
religious movement in a negative light. Groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are considered to be cults. In fact, Al-Qaeda

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fits the description of a destructive cult perfectly. Their violent nature has been a major
concern for the United States for over a decade. Limitations need to be put in place so
that organizations like this cant harm other people. The real question is, how do we limit
the actions of what these groups can do without infringing on their rights from the first
amendment?
Since the 1970s, new religion has been the preferred term for a category of
movements that American sociologists had earlier referred to as cults, often as part of a
Troeltsch-derived classification of church, sect, and cult. Mormonism is one of the
movements that scholars have baptized as new religion since the 1970s. However, from
their movements formative period, Mormons have displayed ambivalence toward
outsiders characterizing theirs as a new religion. This applies to the FDLS movement as
well.
During this period, Mormonism became one of the primary targets of an
increasingly vigorous counter cult movement among evangelical and
fundamentalist Protestants, who classed Mormonism as a cult
because it deviated

from their definitions of Christian orthodoxy (Cowan 2003).

Responding to

evangelical countercultists became a leading priority for

Mormon apologists and

for less confrontational Mormon scholars who sought

to enter into theological

dialogue with evangelicals at the turn of the twenty-

first century. Meanwhile,

among mainline Christian groups, the post-1960s

impetus toward ecumenism

produced a need to clarify the boundaries of

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Christianity and thus the boundaries

recognize one another ecumenically. This

within which denominations could

imperative prompted some

mainline denominations to issue statements

Mormonism did not stand within the mainstream Christian

maintaining that
tradition,

normatively defined.
This relates to the Christian counter cult movement that was going on around the
same time. Groups claiming to be Christian, but were outside the Christian orthodoxy
were considered cults. Duffy addresses the reaction from the Mormon stand point. Being
referred to as a new religion wasnt what they wanted, but it is definitely accurate. Most
of these groups being referred to as new religions are not a danger to society. However,
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is definitely one of those
groups who needs to be monitored or limited to what they do.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) has
recently been the focus of intense government and media scrutiny regarding the practice
of plural marriage involving under-age girls. Girls, as young as fourteen, when their
prophet proclaims that God has commanded them to marry men (in some cases three
times their age), are forced to have sexual relations with their husbands. These girls and
their parents submit to the command believing their prophet's words are, in fact, the
words of God. The FLDS is definitely thought to be a cult. Its different, but it may be in
fact, a dangerous cult. It all started when polygamy was outlawed. The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints accepted the new ruling and on October 6, 1890, the Church's

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then prophet, Wilford Woodruff, issued an official declaration stating that the Church
would obey the laws of the federal government and cease the practice of polygamy.
Those that refused to give up polygamy, believing it an eternal principle, were the
predecessors of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
There are groups/cults similar to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints that are definitely a danger to society. The prime example being AlQaeda. Because of the tendency for these groups to tilt towards socially undesirable
forms, government authorities, citizens, and scholars share an interest in understanding
how specific hidden organizations can be dismantled.
When talking about cults, there are things that the general public knows. They
know that leaders of cults are not really religious but rather power-mad and
psychologically unstable master manipulators who seek only their own benefit. They
know that those who join cults cannot have done so with a full understanding and deep
appreciation of what they were getting into but must instead have been lost or aimless
individuals who were particularly vulnerable to a wily leader. They also know that
little, if any good can come of cult membership and that those who join are liable to
suffer personal harm or even do harm to others. For most cults, these statements are far
from the truth. However, there is some truth to these ideas. The most tragic cult of the last
century was Jim Jones's Peoples Temple, or what is also known as Jonestown, that ended
with a mass murder and suicide in the jungles of Guyana in 1978. Jones was dangerously
erratic, and few people observed this until it was too late.

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Not all cults are like Jonestown, or the FLDS. These assumptions create problems
when youre trying to explain the actual history, development, social processes, and
significance of a cult, group, or any other new religious movement. A lot of these cults
dont even consider themselves to be a cult. So it would be impossible to disband a
group without any means other than the popular opinions such as, cults are scary or I
dont want my child joining any cults. Nothing can be done in the United States unless
someone is in danger or the law is being broken. The first amendment states, congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. If we
dont have any proof of the law being broken, nothing can be done to stop the more
dangerous groups.
On the brighter side of things, some groups just want equality. There is a school in
Orange County Florida that has approved the distribution of Bibles and atheist materials.
The Satanic Temple hopes to hand out a coloring book called the 'Satanic Children's Big
Book of Activities.' The book itself offers plenty of activities for the kids such as: seven
word jumbles, a connect dots to create an inverted pentagram, as well as realistic
scenarios, "These bullies are mad and afraid of things they don't understand. Help
Damian use inclusive language to diffuse the situation. The group has submitted the
coloring book and other materials to Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Fla., for
review, to be distributed on National Religious Freedom Day. Lucien Greaves, the
Satanic Temple's co-founder and spokesperson, says he would not have submitted the

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materials if the Bibles had not been distributed first. "It's important to have more than one
voice in an institution of public education," he says. "...It's more educational, more of a
comparative religion setup. This story ties into the first amendment. If one religion has
the opportunity to voice their opinions in a school, they should allow other religions as
well. Those at the Satanic Temple arent looking to cause any trouble. They just want
their voices to be heard as well. The only reason they are being denied that, is because
their beliefs are a bit different than the norm.
Cults, sects, and new religious movements are not essentially different from other
religions, (most of which began as some sort of cult) Christianity being a classic example.
They should be judged by the same rigorous criteria as any other group according to Dr
Eileen Barker of the London School of Economics. Every religion has needed to start
somewhere. Just because something is different, doesnt mean its a bad thing. However,
you cant tell if something like a cult is going bad, especially if youre on the outside of it
all. Thats why it is so hard to talk about controlling cults or putting limitations on cults,
because they are so many of them, and they are all different in their own way.
In conclusion, cults are a topic that most people do not like to associate with. But
with that being said, a lot of those people dont even know what a true cult is. It would
be difficult to completely shut any cult down because they consider themselves to be a
religion of sorts. And in the United States, we have freedom of religion as a basic right.
Its hard when we have to deal with groups like Al-Qaeda and the FLDS because they are
either large in numbers and outside of our reach (Al-Qaeda) or are very good at hiding

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what they are doing, (FLDS). They are examples of cults that need to be stopped or more
likely reformed with limitations placed upon them.

Works Cited

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Bean, Hamilton, and Buikema, Ronald J. "Deconstituting Al-Qa'ida: CCO Theory and
the Decline and Dissolution of Hidden Organizations." SAGE, 2015. Web.
5 Apr. 2016.
Duffy, John-Charles. "Is It Good To Be A 'New Religion'?" Cross Currents 64.2
(2014): 180-201. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Ellis, Lindsay. "Will a Satanic Coloring Book Be Distributed to Florida School..."
Christian Science Monitor. 31 Oct. 2014: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.
05

Apr. 2016.

Guiora, Amos N. "Religious Extremism." The Price of Protecting Extremism

Tolerating Intolerance (2014): 55-72. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
Horowitz, Mitch. "When Does a Religion Become a Cult?." Wall Street Journal. 25
Feb. 2011: A.13. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Thompson, Damien. "Cults: How to Separate Truth from Fiction." Telegraph.co.uk.. 06
Jan. 2014: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
Zeller, Benjamin E. "But Aren't Cults Bad?:Active Learning, Productive Chaos, and
Teaching New Religious Movements." Teaching Theology & Religion 18.2
(2015): 121-32. SLCC. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.