What level of dissent is allowed in the LDS cult?
No one comes to your house to break your legs or make you drink poisoned Kool-Aid.
What level of dissent is allowed in the LDS cult?
bcspace wrote:What level of dissent is allowed in the LDS cult?
No one comes to your house to break your legs or make you drink poisoned Kool-Aid.
Or slit your throat or castrate you. Not anymore.
bcspace wrote:Cult is a four letter word and can also be a hate word. Hang the word cult member on somebody and you have already pegged them as lesser than you.
I enjoy reminding people of the old standard definitions of cult under which all of Christianity falls.
Parley P. Pratt wrote:We must lie to support brother Joseph, it is our duty to do so.
B.R. McConkie, © Intellectual Reserve wrote:There are those who say that revealed religion and organic evolution can be harmonized. This is both false and devilish.
bcspace wrote:Or slit your throat or castrate you. Not anymore.
Never happened in this context.
Parley P. Pratt wrote:We must lie to support brother Joseph, it is our duty to do so.
B.R. McConkie, © Intellectual Reserve wrote:There are those who say that revealed religion and organic evolution can be harmonized. This is both false and devilish.
sock puppet wrote:I agree, Moksha, the way words get used can cause them to become emotionally-laden in ways that their denoted definitions do not include, to the point those definitions are in fact changed with time.
Merriam-Webster defines cult this way (I've underlined those portions I think do apply to Mormonism:1 : formal religious veneration : WORSHIP
2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>
5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad
b : the object of such devotion
c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
I think when Mormons bristle at the suggestion that their religion is a cult, they are focusing almost entirely on #5, and #5 c in particular. Mormonism is not a small group; it numbers in the millions.
Designating cultural phenomena with a strong, often enduring appeal to a relatively small audience; (also) designating this appeal or audience, or any resultant success; fringe, non-mainstream. Hence: possessing a fashionable or exclusive cachet; spec. (of artistic figures or works) having a reputation or influence disproportionate to their limited public exposure or commercial success. Freq. in cult figure, cult status.
sock puppet wrote:The Mormon religion obviously fits ##1 and2, as it is a formal religious veneration, i.e. worship, and a system of beliefs and rituals.
The context this past week that Mormonism was publicly labeled a 'cult' seems to fit the #3 definition, because Mormonism is quite unorthodox as compared to traditional Christianity in the world. The nature of god as having a physical body like man's and the godhead being three distinct and separate entities, albeit with a singular purpose, is quite unorthodox.
sock puppet wrote:#4 seems to be an application of the word 'cult' that does not fit Mormonism.
As to #5 a (and b, for that matter), Mormons exhibit a great devotion to Joseph Smith and successor general authorities, particularly it's 'prophets'.
sock puppet wrote:Mormons exhibit a great devotion to the Book of Mormon, the D&C and the PoGP, and the ideas contained therein.
sock puppet wrote:So I think given the multi-faceted definition of the word, 'cult', and as Rick Perry's support applied it to Mormonism, I think it was a fair use.
maklelan wrote:sock puppet wrote:#4 seems to be an application of the word 'cult' that does not fit Mormonism.
As to #5 a (and b, for that matter), Mormons exhibit a great devotion to Joseph Smith and successor general authorities, particularly it's 'prophets'.
Christians exhibit a great devotion to Jesus Christ.
bcspace wrote:What level of dissent is allowed in the LDS cult?
No one comes to your house to break your legs or make you drink poisoned Kool-Aid.
bcspace wrote:What level of dissent is allowed in the LDS cult?
No one comes to your house to break your legs or make you drink poisoned Kool-Aid.
sock puppet wrote:I think that is precisely one of the points of mainstream Christians that refer to Mormonism as a cult. Jesus is supposedly diety, that devotion by mainstream Christians is worshipping diety. Mormons do not claim that JSJr is diety--at least not officially, they do not.
sock puppet wrote:Stepping back for a moment,