Is The Mormon Church a Cult?

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Is The Mormon Church a Cult?

I asked this question recently on an Internet forum, www.whoquestion.com

And received some very interesting answers

DanAdams answered: That depends on What you mean by "cult". "Cult" primarily, in a strict dictionary definition, just means a religious organization and, yes; Mormonism is a cult in that respect. However, "cult" can also imply a group That uses psychological trickery or techniques to garner belief. Well, yes, Mormonism does this too. But then again so does Catholicism. What, after all, is "hell" other than an idea planted in the minds of peasants in Medieval Europe as a "psychological technique" to make them believe in Christianity...? Hope this helps ;-)

GnosisGuru answered: Your question is an interesting one, and works on many levels. Basically, I see it as a question of perspective. How would a Mormon answer your question? How would an Evangelical Christian answer your question? For Evangelical Christians, the question boils down to two main issues. Evangelical Christians are concerned with how Mormonism apparently adds a set of books (The Book of Mormon) to their already established corpus of scripture. And, they are concerned that Mormons apparently do not believe in the deity of Christ. This may or may not be an adequate characterization of Mormon belief. The best I can do is give you two resources that offer you the perspective from each side. The first is a web site designed to answer some of the concerns of the Christian groups. You can find it at www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/index.html for a more fundamental Christian perspective; it may be helpful to check out www.serve.com/larryi/lds.htm both of these sites seem to be done by individuals, not some well-funded think tanks. They assuredly will place the core issues in front of you and allow you to think deeply on the issues, letting you make up your own mind. I hope this is helpful.

dreamdust answered: it is a separate religion, not a cult, with parts of both Christianity and Judaism in it.

KariAnn answered: No! The Mormon Church is definitely not a cult. It is a bona fide traditional religion.

dylan answered: Scholars of religion define a "cult" as a group which strongly separates itself from the larger society. For example, a cult will tend to withdraw physically from the city to set up a community on more isolated land, will develop "code language," terms that have a special meaning only taught to group members, will prohibit marriage to people outside the group, etc. The Mormon church (or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as they call themselves) is definitely not a cult by this definition.

Popular usage of the term "cult," though, tends to be tied in with "occult," and tends to translate roughly to something like "a religious group I think is weird, wrong, and/or bad." There are certainly a lot of folks out there who think that the Mormon Church is a "cult" in this sense. Personally, I don't think it's very helpful either in terms of understanding religions or in terms of human relationships to label people in this way. Feel free to fire off another question if you want to clarify what kind of information you're looking for or what you mean by "cult."

grundair answered: Not that I know of. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is no more a cult than The Baptist Church or Catholic Church. While I am not a Mormon (Or even a Christian for that matter:) All the Mormons I know are great and decent people. They have no desire to separate them selves from the world as a whole.

ottercat answered: Well, it is a religion. Whether or not it is a cult depends on your definition of cults. I would suggest you take a look at the following form – the Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame, and based upon the score the group receives, decide for yourself. The instructions for the form can be found at http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.HTML

The Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame
(version 2.0)

Factors:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Low High

1 INTERNAL CONTROL: Amount of internal political power
exercised by leader(s) over members.

2 AIMED by leader(s); amount of infallibility
declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural
interpretations.

3 WISDOM CREDITED to leader(s) by members; amount of
trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made
by leader(s).

4 DOGMA: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of
doctrinal inflexibility or "fundamentalism."

5 RECRUITING: Emphasis put on attracting new members;
amount of proselytizing.

6 FRONT GROUPS: Number of subsidiary groups using
different names from that of main group.

7 WEALTH: Amount of money and/or property desired or
obtained by group; emphasis on members' donations;
economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.

8 POLITICAL POWER: Amount of external political
influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing
members’ secular votes.

9 SEXUAL MANIPULATION: of members by leader(s);
amount of control exercised over sexuality of members;
advancement dependent upon sexual favors or specific
lifestyle.

10 CENSORSHIP: Amount of control over members' access to
outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).

11 DROPOUT CONTROL: Intensity of efforts directed at
preventing or returning dropouts.

12 VIOLENCE: amount of approval when used by or for the
group, its doctrines or leader(s).

13 PARANOIA: amount of fear concerning real or imagined
enemies; perceived power of opponents; prevalence of
conspiracy theories.

14 GRIMNESS: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about
the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).

15 SURRENDER OF WILL: Amount of emphasis on members
not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of
individual disempowerment created by the group, its
doctrines or its leader(s).

16 HYPOCRISY: amount of approval for other actions (not
included above) Which the group officially considers immoral
or unethical, When done by or for the group, its doctrines or
leader(s); willingness to violate group's declared principles
for political, psychological, economic, or other gain.

Ed Responds: Pretty good guideline!!

OpheliaMac answered: Maybe. :) FYI -- half my family is Mormon, I'm dredging up childhood Sunday school lessons here. I *think* all this is correct.

If I remember my Sociology of Religion class correctly, the sociological definition of "cult" involves 4 things: * Founding by a charismatic leader
* Beliefs fundamentally different from those of the majority
* Insistence on total or near-total immersion in the cult (no seeing relatives, non-cult members, etc).

According to this definition, Mormonism did start out as a cult. Its charismatic founder was Joseph Smith. Among its fundamentally different beliefs are that Jesus came to the New World after his resurrection to bring Christianity to the American Indians, and that he placed a record of this event, the Book of Mormon, in a hidden spot Where Joseph Smith was later led by an Archangel. While the Mormons (properly members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) did not choose to be completely ostracized from society, they ended up being run out of (I think) 3 different states before heading out to the then-territory of Utah, Where they hoped to practice their religion in peace. The moving to Utah part was definitely a removal from mainstream white society. :)

FWIW -- Mormons are still infamous for the polygamy thing, which began during the days of the Spanish American War. The way it was told to me was that the men of the Mormon settlements were essentially Shanghaied into the U.S. Army on pain of more religious harassment, which left the women, children, and old and sick men at home. Since no woman could ever hope to live her life not attached to a man ;)(and of course he must be a Mormon man) several women were married off to one man. This practice was essentially discontinued after the Civil War and any Mormon Who tries it now gets excommunicated.

Mormons are hardly segregated from the world these days. Mormonism is the fastest-growing religious denomination in the world, in fact. So the long answer to your short question is while Mormonism may have been a cult, is not one now. To answer what I assume is the *subtext* of your question -- Mormons are not weird scary people who believe in hurting or brainwashing others. I'm sure you live in an LDS ward. Give one of the elders a call and he'll send the missionaries around -- they'll bring you potato and cheese casserole and show you videos of Jesus talking to the Indians. :) Or you could check out the church's website -- I think it's http://www.lds.org

Sunflower answered: Oh, no, no, no, no.....
Mormons are misunderstood...like Mennonites and Jehovah's witnesses are...
Very nice people, I've met so far...Got some discrimination from people about the marrying more than one wife deal, but far as I know, they've pretty much stopped that...Just misunderstood, I guess...

crowboy answered: A "cult", defined by most modern non-fundamentalist observers, is a religious group, generally small, Which is controlled by a single charismatic individual Who makes an exclusive claim to revealed truth, and Who often exerts significant psychological or even physical (particularly sexual) control over his/her followers. The modern Mormons, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, do not fit this description - it is governed by several ruling bodies of members, and actively promotes religious tolerance. An excellent resource for evaluating religious groups for "cult" activity can be found at:
http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.HTML. Applying these criteria to the Mormon statements of belief found at http://www.mormons.org or http://www.lds.org may be useful.

strider answered: Technically no. Well, see it's all a matter of public opinion, as cult is a highly subjective term, or at least it is in most people's minds. A long time ago, in early public opinion polls (I'm guessing around the '20s), the majority of Americans Who had even heard of Mormonism identified it as an obscure "cult" in Utah (or "out West"). Later, in the '50s and '60s, the percentage of Americans labeling it as a cult dropped, but the results were mixed. Now, if you check any public opinion poll, you'll find that Mormonism (and the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints) is though of a legitimate religion, albeit a newer one by the majority of citizens. This just goes to show you that with time, What starts off as a cult can grow into an established religion (well, established in the mind of the masses). This process has a long historical precedent. Just look at Christianity - an obscure Judaic Messianic movement that has flowered into something extremely powerful. This may happen with Mormonism given enough time (and perhaps with other "cults" like Scientology). God help us. =)

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