What is this Cult thing?

BROTHERS & SISTERS !!

WHAT IS THIS CULT THING PEOPLE ARE BEING ACCUSED OF ??

Terminological history Further information: Cult (religious practice), Sociological classifications of religious movements, Holiness movement, Faith healing, Anti-cult movement, and ritual abuse panic

Howard P. Becker's church-sect typology, based on Ernst Troeltsch original theory and upon which the modern concept of cults, sects, and new religious movements is based. The word "cult" was originally used not to describe a group of religionists, but for the act of worship or religious ceremony. It was first used in the early 17th century, borrowed via the French culte, from Latin cultus (worship). This, in turn, was derived from the adjective cultus (inhabited, cultivated, worshiped), based on the verb colere (care, cultivate).[12] The word "culture" is also derived from the Latin words cultura and cultus, which in general terms refers to the customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a religious or social group.[13]

While the literal sense of the word in English is still in use, a derived sense of "excessive devotion" arose in the 19th century. The terms cult and cultist came to be used in medical literature in the United States in the 1930s for what would now be termed faith healing, especially for the US Holiness movement. This experienced a surge of popularity at the time, but extended to other forms of alternative medicine as well.[14] In the English speaking world, the word often carries derogatory connotations, but in other European languages, it is used as English-speakers use the word "religion", sometimes causing confusion for English-speakers reading material translated from other languages.[15]

By the late 1930s, the Christian countercult movement began applying the term cult to what would formerly have been termed heresy.[16] This usage became mainstream by the 1960s, via the best-selling The Kingdom of the Cults (1965). This terminological development, which had so far been characteristic of the religious sociology of the United States, entered international use with the "ritual abuse" moral panic of the 1980s, which originated in the United States. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the international spread throughout most of the Anglosphere and some parts of Europe.[17]

Also from the 1990s, as part of the discrimination discourse at the height of the US "culture war", US neopagan religions, especially Wicca, began to protest through literature their classification as cults as discriminatory.[18] Because of this usage of "cult" began to be discouraged in favour of the neutral new religious movement in sociological literature.[19] Proponents of such an approach have sometimes been denounced as "procult apologists" by members of the anti-cult movement.[20]

Most sociologists and scholars of religion also began to reject the word "cult" altogether because of its negative connotations in mass culture.[21] Some began to advocate the use of new terms like "new religious movement", "alternative religion" or "novel religion" to describe most of the groups that had come to be referred to as "cults",[22] yet none of these terms have had much success in popular culture or in the media. Other scholars have pushed to redeem the word "cult" as one fit for neutral academic discourse.[23]

In a survey study containing 258 participants, negative perceptions of the terms "new religious movement", "cult" and "satanic cult" were found. However, these terms differed significantly (i.e., not due to chance) in how negatively the participants perceived them. "New religious movement" was found to be the most favourable term, followed by "cult" and then "Satanic cult".[24]

Cult From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Cult (disambiguation). The term cult usually refers to a social group defined by their religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or common interest in a particular personality, object or goal. The term itself is controversial and has divergent definitions in popular culture and in academia and has been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.[1][2] In the sociological classifications of religious movements, a cult is a social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices,[3] although this is often unclear.[4][5][6] Other researchers present a less-organized picture of cults on the basis that cults arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices.[7] The word "cult" has always been controversial because it is (in a pejorative sense) considered a subjective term, used as an ad hominem attack against groups with differing doctrines or practices.[8][9] Cults range in size from local groups with a few members to international organizations with millions.[10]

Beginning in the 1930s, cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior.[11] From the 1940s the Christian countercult movement has opposed some sects and new religious movements, and labelled them as cults for their "un-Christian" unorthodox beliefs. The secular anti-cult movement began in the 1970s and opposed certain groups, often charging them with mind control and partly motivated in reaction to acts of violence committed by some of their members. Some of the claims and actions of the anti-cult movements have been disputed by scholars and by the news media, leading to further public controversy.

The term "new religious movement" refers to religions which have appeared since the mid-1800s. Many, but not all, have been considered to be cults. Sub-categories of cults include: Doomsday cults, political cults, destructive cults, racist cults, polygamist cults, and terrorist cults. Governmental reactions to cult-related issues have also been a source of controversy.

BEHAVIOUR IS THE KEY TO THE ACCUSATIONS !!