What really makes a cult a cult? I've come to an answer that helps me sort things out. And that is that a cult puts people down. If you are told what is right and wrong and you are not encouraged to make up your own mind. Then we are not dealing with a healthy tradition but with a cult.
And in the course of history any religious tradition that is two thousand years old, not infrequently puts people down, making them shut up, to just follow the guidelines, just follow the rules, do what you are told, don't think about it too much. Well that's not the healthy core of any tradition.
I'm committed to the healthy core of the tradition. That helps you stand on your own two feet. And the other one, well we just have to reject.
One of the things about all the great religious traditions is that when they are healthy they build people up, they help people eventually to stand on their own feet, to make their own decisions and come to their own conclusions. But every authentic tradition runs the risk of at any moment becoming a cult.'
Brother David Steindl-Rast
taken from the You Tube - Thinking Allowed with Dr Jeffrey Mishlove.
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