Chapter Two: Cult definitions and dynamics
2.2 The use of the term “cult”
The word “cult” is derived from the Latin “cultus”, a form of the verb “colere” which means to worship or reverence a deity.42 According to Gomes, cultus is used in the (Latin) Vulgate translation of the Bible in the general sense of worshipping: in Acts 17:13 it is used to describe the worship of false gods, while also being used to describe the worship of the true God in Acts 17:25.43 Cult could thus be legitimately used as a word that describes any worshipping group of people.
Theologians have used the term cult variously: to describe ritual practices associated with religious centres, to describe liturgical ritual, and to locate the origins of Christianity in a prophetic protest against the deadening rituals associated with the Temple cult in Jerusalem.44
According to Hexham and Poewe, academic discussion concerning the nomenclature of religious organizations is heavily influenced by the early 20th century work of Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch.45 They categorised different religious organisations through comparison to an ideal type which, they argued, expressed the essence of an organization in its purest form. Troeltsch used the term cult as something of a residual
42 A.W. Gomes, 1995. Unmasking the Cults. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 7.
43 Gomes, Unmasking the Cults, p. 7.
44 Irving Hexham and Karla Poewe, 2003. “The Erosion of the Social Link in the Economically Advanced Countries”, The INTERNATIONAL SCOPE® Review, 5. p. 129.
45 Hexham and Poewe, “The Erosion of the Social Link”, p. 129.
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category in this theoretical scheme, and the term has subsequently been developed by a number of theorists.
The media has tended to use the term in a popular and indiscriminate manner, such that cult now evokes thoughts of “zombie-like Moonies with glazed eyes who sell flowers in a supermarket parking lot, or chanting Krishna devotees in saffron robes, or violent megalomaniacs, such as Jim Jones and David Koresh, who lead an army of brainwashed automatons to their tragic deaths.”46
Shupe and Bromley (1980) contend that such negative characterisation reveals the work of the so-called Anti-Cult Movement (ACM).47 This movement, also known as the counter-cult movement, is a loose term used to describe groups and individuals who oppose, or are critical of cults. The ACM had its origins in the United States in the late 1960’s in response to the spread of the new and unusual groups of that time. It was comprised of parents of cult members, some lawyers, psychologists and social workers, ex-cult members and religious leaders. The precise organisation and influence of ACMs today varies significantly from country to country according to the social and political factors, and there is little co-ordinated activism between ACM groups. A useful distinction can be made between secular and Christian evangelical ACMs, ACMs formed to counter a specific cult, and ACMs that offer exit counselling from cults.
Some sectors of the ACM and psychologists use the term cult more discriminately to refer only to malevolent groups – groups that are believed to be extremely manipulative and exploitive.48
For many, the phonic similarity of “cult” and “occult” further lends an unsettling tone to the term cult. It must, of course, be noted that “occult” refers to a wholly different
46 Gomes, Unmasking the Cults, p. 15.
47Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley,1980. The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anticultists and The New Religions in Stuart A. Wright, 1991.“Reconceptualizing Cult Coercion and Withdrawal: A Comparative Analysis of Divorce and Apostasy”, Social Forces, 70. p. 127.
48 Stephan Pretorius, 2010. “Family Alienation is Presented as a Requirement for Total Commitment in Some New Religious Groups”, Journal for Christian Scholarship 46. p.3.
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reality.49 The term has even been regarded as a “social weapon” to undermine groups not viewed with favour by a society’s religious or political hegemony.50 But the bottom line, as Dillon and Richardson (1991) remark, is that cult usually connotes “some group that is at least unfamiliar and perhaps even disliked or feared.”51 Such is the negative connotation of the word that Lalich deems it “the ‘c’ word.”52
Indeed, the polemical and promiscuous usage of the term has overshadowed academic attempts to employ cult as a neutral term or to rehabilitate the term. Consequently, some academics have concluded that the “term cult is useless, and should be avoided because of the confusion between the historic meaning of the term and current pejorative use.”53
But Richardson acknowledges that other researchers continue to use the term cult “so that people who read their writings will know they are talking about phenomena popularly referred to as cults.”54
Sociologists, in attempting to provide a less objectionable term, coined the term “new religious movement” (NRM) which is probably the most academically accepted term used to describe non-mainstream religious groups known as cults. Stephan Pretorius, a UNISA academic and cult researcher, notes that this term originated in a period of religious innovation in Japan after the Second World War. Such groups were called shinshukyo (literally “new religions”) by Japanese sociologists.
However, this definition invites its own problems, as sociologist Eileen Barker points out: “Some new religious movements are no longer so new, some never were movements, and the religious status of some is a matter of dispute.”55
49 “Occult” is defined as “Kept secret, esoteric; recondite, mysterious, beyond the range of ordinary knowledge; involving the supernatural, mystical, magical...” The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1952.
Oxford University Press: London.
50 James T. Richardson, 1993. “Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative”, Reno Review of Religious Research, 34. p.355.
51 Richardson, “Definitions of Cult”, p. 348.
52 Janja Lalich, 2004. Bounded Choice: True Believers And Charismatic Cults. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press. p. xviii.
53 Richardson, “Definitions of Cult”, p.348.
54 Richardson, “Definitions of Cult”, p. 352.
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Pretorius, in his article on spiritually abusive new Christian religious movements in South Africa, uses the term “demanding new Christian religious movements”56 which may be a useful appellation for a particular type of cultic group.
Two other terms which are often connected, somewhat inaccurately, with cult are “sect”
and “heresy”. Sect, derived from the Latin “secta” which means a faction, or school of thought, or political party,57 is often used as a synonym for cult, or to denote a similar type of group. However, sociologists of religion, drawing from the pioneering work of Troeltsch, define sects as formally organised groups that form in protest against, and in competition with, the prevailing religion of a culture. They may have many features in common with cults but as Ellwood argues “the sect, as a particularly intense version of the dominant religion with withdrawal features, is usually said to possess more legalistic that charismatic authority and to represent a spiritual alternative only in a much narrower sense than the cult.”58
Sects thus lack some of the definitive qualities of cults (for example, charismatic leadership), form for different reasons (for instance, protest rather than unique revelation) and may be the type of group a cult, as it matures and becomes institutionalised, develops into.59 Sect, therefore, is a poor synonym for cult.
From a Christian perspective, heresy is regarded “as a deliberate denial of revealed truth coupled with the acceptance of error.”60 This understanding is based on the use of the Greek term hairesis (literally meaning “choice”) employed in 2 Peter 2:1 to mean a destructive opinion. In Christian usage then, heresy would ordinarily be understood as doctrinal error concerning a central point of Christian theology. Cults may or may not
55 Eileen Barker, “The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must be Joking!” in Lorne Dawson (ed.) 2003.
Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 2.
56 Stephan P. Pretorius, 2007.“Seemingly Harmless New Christian Religious Movements in South Africa Pose Serious Threats of Spiritual Abuse,” HTS Theological Studies 63. p. 262.
57 Gomes, Unmasking the Cults, p. 17.
58 Robert S. Ellwood, 1986. “The several meanings of ‘cult’. Thought , 61, p. 213.
59 James T. Richardson, 1979. “From Cult to Sect: Creative Eclecticism in New Religious Movements”, The Pacific Sociological Review 22. pp. 139-166.
60 Walter A. Elwell, (ed.) 1984. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Books. p. 508.
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embrace a heretical theology, and thus heresy should be seen as a specifier rather than distinctive of such groups.
Mindful of the adverse connotations of the term, it is necessary to justify the fact that the term cult will be employed in this research. Several factors motivated the decision:
firstly, the media coverage about Grace Gospel Church has included several references to it being a cult.61 This may be regrettable and another instance of the media’s sensationalist use of the term, but the fact remains that Grace Gospel Church has publically been declared a cult rather than a new religious movement, sect, or heretical group. To avoid using the term is to avoid reflecting on the use of the term in this context. Secondly, this research is found within the discipline of theology and the word cult has an established usage within theological circles as opposed to, for example, the term “new religious movement”. Thirdly, Lalich does not shrink from using the term in Bounded Choice. And finally, although research has been conducted into new religious movements at other South African universities, the phenomenon of new religious movements/cults has not been previously researched by a student from the University of KwaZulu-Natal; nor has there been any research into such groups in KwaZulu-Natal. As this dissertation represents “first generation” research, and in line with what Richardson noted above about the need to ensure that what is being researched is clear to others, the term cult will be employed.