I’d agree with that, for the reasons I stated above.
However, I will note that the media is pretty reluctant to label any religious movement a cult, as this tends to be a loaded word. in general, I agree with this, but I think it does apply in the Phelps case.
Westboro Baptist “Church” is a cult, not a church. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go the way of Heaven’s Gate one of these days…
I have to say I’m surprised no one has tried to off them at one of their many protests – especially at funerals of those who have died in the war.
They should just go ahead and call themselves the Westboro Baptist Cult, and be done with it.
C’mon, it would be convenient. They wouldn’t even have to change theri monogram…
So suburban sprawl is coming to hell, eh? I hope this doesn’t affect my property value.
I was under the impression that Baptists pride themselves on their segmentability: if you don’t like the pastor at your church, you can always split off.
In any case, I think it’s not helpful to deny that they’re a church. They’re also a cult, but they have a church building, meet on Sundays, worship their understanding of a Christian god, etc. They’re nutty assholes, but they’re also a church.
Daniel
Everything you said applies to Jim Jones as well. Would you play these semantic games with the old Peoples Temple?
You know, I wonder how miserable Phelps must be. He has no joy in his life. Everything is done in fear of his God.
How colorless his existence must be.
But, see, this is God’s dilemma: He hates sodomy, but he loves fabulousness.
Explains that neat stuff the Pope wears.
Best of both worlds, as far as the Church goes: take some very old man that nobody would ever actually want to sleep with, and stick him in retro-drag.
Okay; explain why the Westboro Baptist Church is not a church.
Between this and Kythereia’s comment, I’m not going to be able to ever set foot in a Catholic church again.
As a believer in re-incarnation, I think it would go more like:
“Sorry, God isn’t ready to see you yet. He says you have to go back to Earth and try again.”
Okay, explain how they are not a cult?
I said above that the term cult was somewhat problematic - it is a loaded expression with a generally negative connotation when used to describe a religious movement. At best it describes a group way out of the religious mainstream, at worst it connotes a group that is abusive and controlling to its members.
Still, in the case of the Westboro Baptist Church, I think all of these things apply - the group isn’t mainstream, it is abusive, and it controls its members. Calling it a cult would be a fair description. And this description hits much closer to the mark than just calling them a church, since churches by and large do not operate out of the religious mainstream or exert these kinds of controls on their members.
Now, certainly lots of exceptions can be found that will muddy this discussion quite a bit if we let it. These kinds of matters are why this is such a heated topic in the first place, and why you hear far more these days about New Religious Movements than you do of religious cults. Still, I think we ought to describe things as they are - and Phelps runs a cult. That’s just about the simplest way to describe it.
Add a salacious smile and a strap-on to that, and picture the look on Phelps’ face. :eek:
Ready, Freddy?
A cult is just a religion with logical consistency. Arguing the point will never get anyone anywhere as the discussion threatens both atheists and the religious.
I am surprised that no one joins the church to get hitched to one of the younger Phelpses, such as the pretty one on the Louis Theroux documentary. The things you could get away with doing to her…
No, Phelps gets plenty of enjoyment out of life. He’s a sadist, he enjoys the suffering and pain of other people. He especially enjoys making people hate his family, because he enjoys the pain his family causes to other people, and he enjoys the pain his family suffers when they experience the hatred of everyone else.
As for the discussion of whether this is a church or a cult, remember that the church is composed pretty much exclusively of Phelps and his family. This makes them different from most other cults in that they don’t try to maintain an attractive facade for the outside world in order to lure in new recruits. Almost no one joins the church, rather they’re born into it.
According to Merriam-Webster , a cult is:
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
Given common usage, I think meanings 3 and 5 are what most people think of when they say “cult.” According to Wikipedia , the WBC engages in the following specific practices:
Just these tenets are proof (at least in my eyes) that the WBC’s leadership structure is based on forcibly separating the cult members from their money, their individual identity, their chance of ever socializing with the outside world, and forcing them to comply with the strictures the cult places on their everyday behavior through undue social pressure. This differs from the practices of established churches with voluntary membership significantly enough to warrant a change of noun. There is very little comparison between what the WBC does and what a mainstream church does, primarily because of the amount of coercion used on the members to achieve the leadership’s goals.
This doesn’t even pretend to make sense.
There is really only one definition of the word that makes any kind of coherent sense: “A group of people that engage in controlling, abusive behavior designed to isolate members from the outside world and make them follow a religious path.” Any other definition is just as stupid as the one promulgated by Mytoehurts above and can only serve to muddy the waters.
Cults don’t have to be religious. They take on religious trappings, but it’s entirely possible to have Personality Cults, where they follow, say, Stephen Hawking like a god.
I’d change it to ‘fanatical’ path.