this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Atheism
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Cults are small. Christianity is big. And it was Christians who, during the satanic panic, created a false association in pop culture between cults and abuse. See, back in the 60s, the hippie movement was turning young people away from Christianity and towards new age spiritualities like wicca and thelema. The christians had to put a stop to these cults, so they created a myth that cult=abuse.
Cults can be small. They are not necessarily only small by definition.
If cults can be big, then there's absolutely no difference between a religion and a cult. Personally, I define a cult as either an NRM (The more common use in the 20th century) or a local sect (the more common use in antiquity). Christianity is clearly neither. I am politically motivated not to consider Christianity a cult, because I believe it makes unjust apology for Christianity. Cults are, politically speaking, groups which have been targeted by the Satanic panic. The fact that Christianity is not a cult, and that anti-cult religious leaders have not labelled Christianity a cult, is historically important. We can't go using words in a way that implies Christianity is the victim and confuses the history. I object to calling Christianity a cult precisely because I think ill of Christianity.
Sure, but that's a fairly narrow definition that ignores a large proportion of the actual dictionary definitions.
A somewhat subjective take that doesn't really explain how the term cult would imply "unjust apology"
Not true, by any commonly accepted definition of the word.
Christianity does in fact meet many of the dictionary definitions of the word "cult".
You could argue that the normalisation of christianity excludes if from adhering to the definitions that mention "unorthodox" or "small" but those definitions are relatively few.
How so ?
Other than power and money i mean.
I can't find any reference to the word "cult" that, when applied to christianity. would absolve them of the egregious historical shitfuckery perpetrated by and for them.