[Another in the series of “Responding to Bumper Stickers,” or “Long Answers to Short Questions,” in which I try to give a Latter-day Saint response to a question or claim commonly lobbed against us on X.]
In three parts:
I had had this topic on my to-post list for a bit, and then I got a copy of and re-read Are Mormons Christians? by the late Stephen E. Robinson for the first time in thirty years, and realized that quite a bit of what I wanted to say is exactly what he wrote. So rather than just recast it in my own words, here’s a lengthy quote:
The nasty name most frequently flung at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by its detractors is “cult.” Undoubtedly the term is meant to call up images of Druids burning captives alive in wicker baskets, of painted priests flinging virgins into volcanoes, or of satanic rituals performed in the dark of the moon. When critics call the LDS church a “cult,” the implied logic seems to be that there are objective criteria for distinguishing “cults” from “religions,” and that since Mormonism is a “cult” and Christianity is a “religion,” Mormons can’t be Christians. One flaw in this logic is that there are in fact no such objective criteria for distinguishing cults from religions, as a quick look at Webster’s Third New International Dictionary will show. There the pertinent definitions under the entry “cult” are as follows:
1: religious practice: worship 2″ a system of beliefs and ritual connected with the worship of a deity, a spirit, or a group of deities or spirits 3a: the rites, ceremonies, and practices of a religion: the formal aspect of religious experience b Roman Catholicism: reverence and ceremonial veneration paid to God or to the Virgin Mary or to the saints or to objects that symbolize or otherwise represent them 4: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: a minority religious group holding beliefs regarded as unorthodox or spurious: sect.
One can clearly see that in definitions 1, 2, and 3 there is no distinction between a cult and a religion — the terms are in fact quite synonymous. It is only definition 4 that comes close to the meaning desired by anti-Mormons. Use of the term cult in this latter sense, however, says nothing objective about a religion itself. With its negative connotations the term cult does not describe what a religion is, only how it is regarded, and simply means “a religion [usually one smaller and newer than mine] that I don’t like.” It is a word that communicates information about the speaker rather than the thing described. Cult is therefore a totally subjective rather than objective term. To both the pagans and the Jews, earliest Christianity was a “cult,” but this says nothing objective about Christianity except that it was disliked by those who so described it. There is no objective definition of the word cult in standard English that does what the anti-Mormons want it to do. (p.23-24)
(The most annoying use of the label is when someone says, “Mormonism is a cult, not a religion.” That’s like saying that something is an apple, not a fruit.)
People then say, “That’s not what I mean by ‘cult,'” and point to something like Walter Martin’s or Fritz Ridenour’s list of cult characteristics. (Dr. Robinson also mentioned Martin’s list, but (a) I’ve already quoted enough from Dr. Robinson’s book, and (b) I want to add something onto Dr. Robinson’s argument.)
Here, quoted from Ridenour’s book So What’s the Difference?, are his summary characteristics:
- “The first is that they reject the Trinity; that is, they disbelieve in Jesus Christ as God. Cults may say good things about Jesus and assign Him a certain position of importance, but they almost always attack or undermine the true biblical deity of Jesus Christ, either by lowering Him to the level of man or raising man to His level.”
- “Second, cultists usually believe that all Christian churches are wrong and that their group has the only real truth about God.”
- “Third, they claim to believe the Bible but they distort its teachings to suit their own peculiar view of mankind, God, the Holy Spirit, heaven and hell, salvation and many other doctrines. They usually find the source of these peculiar beliefs in their leaders, who claim to have new interpretations of the Bible or even valuable additions to it.”
- “A fourth point is that all cults deny that people can be saved by faith in Christ alone. They teach their members that they can make themselves right with God through good works and through obedience to the doctrines and requirements the cult has set down as ‘God’s will’ for their lives.”
- “Fifth, cults are skillful at using Christian terminology, but they are not talking the same language as biblical Christians. Beware of the semantics barrier. Commonly understood words like ‘God,’ ‘Christ,’ ‘faith,’ ‘sin,’ salvation,’ etc., mean entirely different things to a cultist and a Christian. The first task, then, when sharing your faith with someone who seems to have different ideas, is to define terms” (pp.111-112).
Now, Robinson’s rejoinder is that you could easily say most of these about first-century Christianity, or about many of the Christian denominations that have sprung up and become mainstream in the 2,000 years since.
But my biggest objection is that it’s an ex-post facto redefinition of “cult” so that Martin, Ridenour, etc. can use the scary word “cult” when what they mean is simply “not evangelical Christianity.”
Well, duh. Latter-day Saints aren’t evangelicals. That’s not a controversial statement; all of us agree on that.
But the assumption from this list is that Christianity is only found in post-Nicene, post-Reformation varieties thereof. It begs the question and curtails all theological debate or discussion. “If you don’t believe like I do, you’re a cult” isn’t a rational formulation; it’s name-calling to avoid the harder discussion about what the Bible actually says and actually means.
In keeping with my earlier fruit simile, it’s like saying, “If we redefine ‘fruit’ to mean ‘apple,’ then this banana isn’t really a fruit.”
Some people will then say, “Cult is as cult does!” as if the behavior of Latter-day Saints, encouraged by our leaders, is the emblem of a cult.
I could get into specifics, but let’s talk instead about the underlying argument, with a little syllogism as an example:
- Is the Eiffel Tower tall? Yes.
- Is Michael jordan? Yes.
- THEREFORE THE EIFFEL TOWER IS JUST LIKE MICHAEL JORDAN!!!
In the same spirit, then:
- Is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints socially insular? I guess, in some ways: We’re encouraged to be involved socially with our congregation (ward) members, and we discourage — but don’t in any way enforce — dating and marriage outside the faith because it’s hard to maintain your religion while joined to someone with different foundational beliefs and life goals. (But we’re also encouraged to be good neighbors, to actively engage in civic and political causes, and to “be a missionary” by being a good example of the light of Christ to those around us.)
- Was Heaven’s Gate socially insular? Yup — they severed all communication with friends and family and lived in complete isolation, with necessary interactions with “outsiders” limited to certain designated members.
- THEREFORE MORMONS ARE JUST LIKE HEAVEN’S GATE!
I think the more honest term people should use (if they weren’t looking for one which could also be an insult, which they definitely are) is “high-commitment religion.” And I’ll proudly own up to that, and point to the Bible for its foundations:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 10:37-39)
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15:18-19)
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1-2
So really, the definition of “cult” which most people really mean, even if they haven’t thought it through:
A cult is a religion whose adherents are more devoted to it than I am to mine.