Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Is Mormonism a Cult?

Is the Mormon religion a cult? That is sort of like asking "Is Australia an Island or a Continent". It is really only a matter of opinion. I commonly tell people I was raised in a Christian Mystic Cult(not Mormonism) because when I grew up in it there were only about 10,000 people in it worldwide that I knew of. However, during the 1930s there were over 1,000,000 in it including movie Stars from Hollywood. So, was it a cult then? And what of Scientology? Is that a cult? I think in some ways I tend to see all religions as cults but that's just me. I think the easiest way to decide is to think that is there one city over 100,000 people that are mostly in that religion? If you use this as a criteria for Mormonism it wouldn't be a cult. But others might have different viewpoints. So, Mormonism is not a cult because of Salt Lake City and Catholicism is not a cult because of Rome. I think this might be a useful way to look at it.

Also, since my parents were in Charge of the Los Angeles branch of the church I grew up in I also met the Mormon lawyer who represented our church in Los Angeles. He had specifically taken his position as our lawyer because of the persecution of Mormons the last 2 hundred years and because our religion had been persecuted as well. So, even though my childhood religion and I parted ways in 1969 when I was 21 I have a lot of understanding and compassion regarding the persecution of people in all religions everywhere.

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