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In Reply to: Is The Family a cult? posted by Acheick on July 26, 2004 at 13:05:05:
Although others have already posted some very interesting and informative responses, here is my two cents on the issue.
Despite its perjorative connotations, the term "cult" is still very useful in many contexts and as a general term. For example, if I told the average person that I grew up in a "new religious movement," it is likely that my statement would be met with some incomprehension and confusion that would almost certainly have to be remedied with an explanation that included the more commonly known term "cult" and perhaps some additional qualifying adjectives identifying the nature of the "cult" in question more precisely.
However, having minored in sociology and taken several courses exploring new religious movements and intentional communities from a sociological perspective, I completely understand the reluctance of sociologists to use the term "cult."
In "Religious Movements in the United States" ( http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/essays/miller2003.htm ), Tim Miller wrote:
"If the term does not enable us to distinguish between a pathological group and a legitimate one, then it has no real value. It is the religious equivalent of “nigger”—it conveys disdain and prejudice without having any valuable content."
While I would vehemently disagree with Miller's assertion that the term "cult" is "the religious equivalent of nigger," it is certainly understandable that if some groups percieve it as such, a sociologist may be well advised to find some a more politically correct and precise term to describe such groups. The real problem is that the cults will not be appeased by the simple elimination of the term "cult" from our vocabulary. Instead, they would like to frame the issue solely in terms of religious freedom and its limits (if any).
I would also disagree with the assertion that "big business also does a lot of harm to individuals and no one ever seems to question that." On the contrary, it would seem to me that this is constantly questioned and that sociologists are the ones asking a lot of the questions.
This "Cult" entry at Wikipedia has quite a bit of useful information and anyone can edit that page if they want to correct mistakes or add missing information.
