Counteracting the constant allegation of cult status

[_moksha]

You've heard people say the LDS Church is a cult. It grows old and less delightsome every time the charge of cult status is made. Can't something be done about it?

These are three ideas that came to me to overcome this charge:

1. Have David Bokovoy and the Maxwell Institute host a large barbecue in June and have Dr. Peterson give an anti-cult status talk. Invite the members of this board to come incognito.

2. Be more open about Church history.

3. Give up nude clogging in the Temple.

Anyway, I was hoping that some of you might address what the Church could do to forever shed the charge of being a cult.

[_bcspace]

It never will. There will always be barriers to entry into Christ's Church provided by his enemies.

[_Drifting]

The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre.

The Church would have to downgrade its practices and beliefs that are considered abnormal and bizarre. In other words, it either has to mainstream or remain a cult.

[_MrStakhanovite]

My advice?

1: Drop the martyr complex, every worldview and organization has legitimate criticisms against it and falls short in some way.

2: Stop making it so costly for people who live in the bosom of Mormon culture to leave the Church.

[_Buffalo]

Well, there are really two things we're talking about when we say the word cult. The evangelicals think the LDS church is a theological cult - in that it deviates from Biblical Christianity (which it does). Ex-Mormons typically view the church as a sociological cult, in that there is a significant degree of emotional control and huge barriers to leaving the faith. The latter, in my opinion, is a far more serious matter, and I agree with Stak's advice for the church in order to lesson some of its cultiness.

[_moksha]

My advice?

1: Drop the martyr complex, every worldview and organization has legitimate criticisms against it and falls short in some way.

So you are saying everything is bound to have some criticism leveled against it? That is either an example of level-headed analysis or else an example of being anti-everything.

2: Stop making it so costly for people who live in the bosom of Mormon culture to leave the Church.

Come and go memberships like other organizations? That sounds counterintuitive to those who would not consider changing the channel of the world's only true television broadcast. Still, it is true that cults go to great lengths to see that members do not leave.

Bcspace: It never will. There will always be barriers to entry into Christ's Church provided by his enemies.

Brethren, it is time to break down the barriers and storm the Bastille! Let all enter who thirst. The water is freely given.

[_Buffalo]

It's very easy to become a member of the church. Hundreds of thousands have done it within 24 hours of meeting the missionaries. What barriers, bcspace?

Now leaving once they've got you by the family, that's another matter.

[_MrStakhanovite]

But it’s true, there is simply no such thing as a fool proof worldview, every single one has issues, short comings, inconsistencies, paradoxes, and problems that have not and may not ever be solved. I just see this as the result of our limited organic brains, and there isn’t much one can do about it.

I see it as a simple matter of integrity that if you want to bring someone into your line of thinking that you should at least make them aware of the objections to your faith/philosophy/worldview/ideology or whatever. If you won’t, then you have something to hide.

[_quaker]

I think parts of America may start to wake up someday and recognize that they are involved in a cult of money, 'free markets', and false democracy.

And when they do many will not use the word cult with such disdain and misunderstanding.

[_harmony]

3. Give up nude clogging in the Temple.

Dang it. I always miss the fun stuff.