My Presbyterian Cult

[PETRUS]

by: Robert Jensen, Truthout | Op-Ed

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas and a supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, stirred up trouble by saying in public what many evangelical Christians say privately: Mormonism is a cult.

*snip*

But look at any list of cult characteristics, and it becomes clear that the distinction between a religion and a cult is fuzzy. For example: "Cults claim to be the only true way to live and the path to salvation." On that criterion, many evangelical Christians belong to a cult.

http://www.truth-out.org/my-presbyterian-cult/1320171274

More at the link.

[theoldman]

1. The major difference between a cult and most religions is the leadership.

People who belong to a cult blindly follow its leader. Since I am a Presbyterian, I know that Presbyterians do not blindly follow a leader. I don't even know who in next in line above the pastor of our church. Mormons do have a supreme leader with a lot more power than most religious leaders. Their leader is similar to the Pope who sets the rules for every member.

[PETRUS]

2. You're on to something.

My father was a Presbyterian minister. There is a national organization and there is leadership. But the leadership is accountable to the membership and the General Assembly.

[cleanhippie]

8. I think the only difference between the two is the size of the congregation.

[HereSince1628]

3. Leo Pfeffer is pretty close to understanding what a cult is...

If you believe in it, it is a religion or perhaps 'the' religion;

if you do not care one way or another about it, it is a sect;

but if you fear and hate it, it is a cult.

[provis99]

4. a cult is merely an unpopular or powerless religion.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Religions evolve just like everything else.

They all start out as cults. If they adapt and gain adherents, they become religions. It is my opinion that the Mormons will eventually merge with other evangelical Protestant religions, such as the Southern Baptists. Both religions do their best to maximize their political clout and I think they will see that they have more to gain by focusing on their similarities. Both religions have only been around for about 200 years or so and both have made changes when needed in order to sustain themselves and gain converts.

[ButterflyBlood]

6. There is really no way Mormons could ever merge with evangelical Protestants

To do so the Mormons would either have to reject what makes the Mormon, or the evangelicals would have to accept Mormon doctrine and the Book of Mormon, at which point they would basically just join the church.

Also a lot of people don't know this, but the Southern Baptist Convention really is nothing more than a body formed by a loose association of churches that runs a few schools and votes on resolutions which have about as much clout as UN General Assembly resolutions and has very little control over the individual churches involved, unlike the actual Mormon church or Roman Catholic Church. It's a completely voluntary affiliation, and up until relatively recently more liberal Southern Baptist churches did in fact exist, including many with female pastors, this mostly died out in the 90s as these churches slowly disaffiliated and instead went to more liberal Baptist associations, however a handful of churches affiliated with the SBC with female pastors do still exist despite the SBC's staunch official position against female ordination. So if this did somehow ever come to pass and the SBC agreed to merge with the LDS Church, you'd see more than a few church refusing to go along and splitting.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. It would take some bending, no doubt.

However, the doctrines of the Mormon Church have been readily changed through the years when the need is felt to do so. For instance, Mormons at one time would never have admitted a black member -- a shared racist history between the Mormons and the Southern Baptists. After a lot of criticism, the Mormons ended their racist policy. The LDS Church can be very flexible in matters of doctrine when the occasion suits them.

I was raised Southern Baptist, so I'm familiar with the structure of the SBC. In the past 30 years or so, they have become increasingly doctrinaire. The right wing politics of most of the members has worked hand in hand with their fundamentalist teachings so much that prominent ministers in the SBC have become de facto high priests of capitalism and the Republican Party. The liberal churches that were formerly in the SBC were driven out; they had no choice but to leave.

I agree that the fit would not be an easy one, but I think it could be accomplished. When you consider that the LDS can change a doctrine overnight when the need is there and combine that with the fact that SBC churches are increasingly being controlled by RW strategists, the possibilities for a merger, or at least a partnership, don't look so far-fetched.