What is a CULT?

[alanmolstad]

http://www.equip.org/bible_answers/what-is-a-cult-/

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

What is a CULT?

In the absence of qualifiers such as "religious" or "secular" or "rock music" the generic definition of a cult is something like this, taken from Merriam Webster:


a small group of very devoted supporters or fans; or
a usually small group of people characterized by great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book)

Why do you ask?

[theway]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

http://www.equip.org/bible_answers/what-is-a-cult-/

Well that depends on how old your dictionary is.

However we do know that the early Christians (the Way) were called a cult. But then the word Christian also started out as a derogatory word as well.

NLT
Acts 24:14 "But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Why do you ask?

I ask to introduce the link....

[Erundur]

cult
noun, often attributive \ˈkəlt\

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

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult

[alanmolstad]

In the real world.....it always comes down to sex.

In the real world, one of the things I have noticed about the World of the CULTS is that sooner or later the guys in charge of the CULT will be attempting to have sex with different young girls.

Chasing skirts is at least in America, one of the main things that point a thing out as beng a CULT.


sooner or later the conversation of the leader, or his teachings, or the doctrine of the church itself will always gets around to being concerned with "Mr Zipper"

[theway]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

In the real world.....it always comes down to sex.

In the real world, one of the things I have noticed about the World of the CULTS is that sooner or later the guys in charge of the CULT will be attempting to have sex with different young girls.

Chasing skirts is at least in America, one of the main things that point a thing out as beng a CULT.


sooner or later the conversation of the leader, or his teachings, or the doctrine of the church itself will always gets around to being concerned with "Mr Zipper"

Ahhhhhh.... So here is the real reason for your question.

I guess it doesn't really matter what the question is, or what the answer is, the only reason you guys ask questions, is so you guys can have material to build soapboxes on which to rant upon.

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Why do you ask?

I wanted to correctly introduce the link to people.

Its also the correct ***le given us in the link.
If you click on the link http://www.equip.org/bible_answers/what-is-a-cult-/ you will see that "WHAT IS A CULT?" is the ***le of that page.

At the time I made this topic I did not know how to introduce people in the future to this link and invite them to check out the information they will find there, so I just decided that the correct thing to do was use the link's own ***le and eliminate any confusion.

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

In the real world.....it always comes down to sex.

In the real world, one of the things I have noticed about the World of the CULTS is that sooner or later the guys in charge of the CULT will be attempting to have sex with different young girls.

Chasing skirts is at least in America, one of the main things that point a thing out as beng a CULT.


sooner or later the conversation of the leader, or his teachings, or the doctrine of the church itself will always gets around to being concerned with "Mr Zipper"

This is so very true with the Mormons.
From the very start the teachings of the church have centered around "Mr Zipper"
But its not just the founder Joe Smith* who chased skirts, for this seeking of sexual conquests is an idea that has been adopted by the Mormon men though history down to this very day as being the real goal of Mormonism's teachings.





* I think it's why they shot him.

[Phoenix]

So you post something, and then you make another post agreeing ("This is so very true") with what you said in your earlier post?

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

So you post something, and then you make another post agreeing ("This is so very true") with what you said in your earlier post?

If you are asking..."Does Alan need someone else on the forum?".....the answer is clearly "no"

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

If you are asking..."Does Alan need someone else on the forum?".....the answer is clearly "no"

You might have a point there. How does that old joke about schizophrenics go..."at least they always have someone to talk to..."

[theway]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

You might have a point there. How does that old joke about schizophrenics go..."at least they always have someone to talk to..."

LOL....
JohnT said basically that at the other forum when they kicked all the Mormons out. He said that they can finally talk to each other without interference from Mormons.
The only problem is that it wasn't more than a month before they ended up boring each other to death and left, then the forum died.

Ironically, it's the Mormons which keep these AntiMormon sites running. The AntiMormons come only to argue with the Mormons, and the Lurkers come to hear what the Mormons have to say, not the AntiMormons.

They need us, we don't need them.

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by theway

...the Lurkers come to hear what the Mormons have to say, not the AntiMormons.

I hadn't thought of that possibility before.

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

You might have a point there. How does that old joke about schizophrenics go..."at least they always have someone to talk to..."

See the idea many posters have, (Like the Mormon I was talking about) , is that they honestly believe that they don't have to worry about being BANNED here on this forum due to the low numbers of guests that visit this site.

They have this idea that they can get away with breaking the rules, attacking people personally, and using offensive words, just because if the MODs dared BANNED them for bad manners there would be no one left for guys like me to talk to.



But as you can tell.....they are in error about my so-called need to have someone always around to respond to ...

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

See the idea many posters have, (Like the Mormon I was talking about) , is that they honestly believe that they don't have to worry about being BANNED here on this forum due to the low numbers of guests that visit this site.

Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's just that they don't care if they are banned. Being banned from some forums is not the end of the world, after all. It's just an internet forum, and internet forums aren't exactly an endangered, rare species.

They have this idea that they can get away with breaking the rules, attacking people personally, and using offensive words, just because if the MODs dared BANNED them for bad manners there would be no one left for guys like me to talk to.

What if they are just using the offensive things you have said in the past as their guide to what's acceptable to say here? If that is the case, then can you blame them for patterning their speech after that of the poster who never gets banned?

But as you can tell.....they are in error about my so-called need to have someone always around to respond to ...

I still think you'd get pretty lonely if you were the only poster here, all alone.

[alanmolstad]

no...the Mormon Im talking about simply refused to keep the rules.

i warned him>
I sent a PM or two if I remember correctly....But it did not matter.

I posted the rule that the guy was breaking..
I warned him that he simply cant think he would be able to be around long with his manners and poor behavor....

But it was pointless....

he did not give a rat's patoot about keeping the rules...
He did not give a rat's patoot that he would be BANNED....

Being banned is part of the game...part of the sport...it was always the plan..

make a big splash...brake a lot of rules...refuse to keep your word that we all give when we long-on to this site and say we understand the rules...




And.....later when the guy runs into me when he is allowed to post on CARM again he shows that he has learned nothing..
he pats himself on the back.....


I truly find his behavior typical for the Mormons i have run into on this WM forum....
Not all are such people,,,but for sure most of them.

I do remember there were a few Mormons who knew how to disagree without being disagreeable...Guys like Fig.

I even saw Fig take to task other Mormons who clearly were getting out of line.
But......its so pointless to even try it seems.


Im not a psychologist,
I cant tell you why most all the Mormons that turn up here from CARM are such....
I can just report what i see...and what i see is that the Mormons who come here have a chip on their shoulder and seem to take an at***ude that because they think they are "in the right" that this is like a "Get Out of Jail Free" card as far as the forum rules are concerns....

They commonly expect that the given rules simply do not apply to people that Mormon.


Being banned is not just a "result' of their actions......it was the goal for coming here in the first place.
They never had a single thought of being able to stick around.....

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

I still think you'd get pretty lonely if you were the only poster here, all alone.

I do warn people.
Like the other day when I had to put that one Mormon on my Ignore List.

I always warn...
I try to send a PM or two if I think that would be helpful.
So its not like Im trying to chase people away.....far from it!


But I don't actually come to this place to learn anything from others, and Im not here to teach anyone.

I come here only to deepen my ability to express what I believe though my writing about things that are of interest to me.

I do like to be asked questions...I do find that allowing others to ask me questions about stuff I have posted in the past will give me the opportunity to dig even deeper into my understandings.

But, we don't have to think that I "need" others to be around before I can post here..
I think I have more than proved that I have plenty to say regardless of who else is around at the time.

I find that by just going over some of my old posts and commenting on what I have already said that Im able to both confirm and deepen the past views I have posted , sometimes years and years ago.

So......It's not lonely.....it would be more fun with people around to ask me questions I had not thought of....and that is why I do try to warn Mormons when they are walking down a path I know will end in them being Banned or Ignored...
But there are plenty of other things to review incase all the Mormons pack up and leave or get Banned....so there still is much to do here regardless......

[theway]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's just that they don't care if they are banned. Being banned from some forums is not the end of the world, after all. It's just an internet forum, and internet forums aren't exactly an endangered, rare species.


What if they are just using the offensive things you have said in the past as their guide to what's acceptable to say here? If that is the case, then can you blame them for patterning their speech after that of the poster who never gets banned?


I still think you'd get pretty lonely if you were the only poster here, all alone.

Oh I don't care if I get banned... It's a Medal of Honor. If you are not banned every so often, then you are not being effective confronting their attacks.
Over at CARM I was banned about 30 times and warned maybe 170 times... Almost all of the bans were for "Interfering with the ministry". This means that they believe you are starting to convince people that you are correct, or you are making AntiMormons question their beliefs. In fact, just recently Matt Slick banned all Universalists because he said they were drawing people to them.
The other reason for being banned is "Mocking another Poster". Mind you, they never use this excuse against an AntiMormon; however this excuse when used against a Mormon means that you have embarr***ed an AntiMormon. For example one time an AntiMormon claimed that something was not in the Bible to someone who was thinking about leaving the Church; all I did was post a scripture without comment that proved him wrong... They banned me for mocking him.
Another time an AntiMormon made a comment... I pointed out that he was either lying or plagiarizing. He then reported me to the Mods for calling him a lier. The Mods told me I could not call someone a lier without proof. I posted time stamped proof, to which HE ADMITTED to plagiarizing what he posted. I was then banned for mocking and my post with the proof was deleted... His posts were not deleted, and while I was banned he started backtracking on what he admitted to.

[alanmolstad]

The modern CULTS I see in the news today, (Mormons, JWs, Moonies, David Koresh, or many of the Korean-based new religions) mostly are what seems to be centered about male sexuality, and the ability of the male members of the CULT to achieve sexual gratification with various younger girls.

Sooner or later when you read about the teachings of a religion that may be a CULT you will find that "Mr Zipper" pokes his head into the conversation.

[Phoenix]

You read something about David Koresh and the Moonies in the news today?

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

You read something about David Koresh and the Moonies in the news today?

Yes, I was researching the whole topic and looking for the name of a girl I saw on TV who still claimed to believe that the guy was Jesus, and was about to return....


Im still looking....

[alanmolstad]

I did not directly deal with the Moonies, but because I study a lot of the Korean art of the sword, (Kumdo) I run into first hand stories of what is going on in the religious scene in Korea...

I was looking this morning into more information in a new religion that also believes their founder was Jesus...or some Korean-born Jesus....and the question as to who was his wife, and who was the girl that was just a girl he slept with and called his "spiritual wife"

[alanmolstad]

so what Im saying is that when I hear about a new religion that is making the claim to be a "restored" christian faith, I tend to start looking for how "Mr. Zipper" is connected to this new faith.

Chances are that any new religion that claims to teach a reformed or a "restored' Christian faith is going to have the result of someone using this religion with the goal being getting girls into bed with him.


All non-Christian CULTS are usually started, controlled, and maintained by guys who are just trying to get laid.