Mormon Direction

 There are some on the Internet that have called Mormons a cult, claiming that the definition of the word “cult” proves it. I read one claim from one person who said that he “pursued the most scholarly, objective approach” and proceeded to show a definition of the word cult according to the Webster Dictionary of 1913. The definition he showed was as follows:

Cult (k?lt) n .[F. culte, L. cultus care, culture, fr. colere to cultivate. Cf. Cultus.]

1. Attentive care; homage; worship.
Every one is convinced of the reality of a better self, and of. thecult or homage which is due to it. Shaftesbury.

2. A system of religious belief and worship.
That which was the religion of Moses is the ceremonial or cult of the religion of Christ. Coleridge.

(link:  http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster’s&word=cult&use1913=on&use1828=on target= )

 This particular person specifically used one definition of the word cult to justify his aberrant claims. Was he correct? No he was not and I will show why. 

The word cult came from the latin word “cultus”. Using the same 1913 Webster Dictionary on that same site, I typed in the word Cultus and obtained the following,

Cultus (Page: 355)

Cul”tus (k?l"t?s), n. sing. & pl.; E. pl.Cultuses (-z). [L., cultivation, culture. See Cult.] Established or accepted religious rites or usages of worship; state of religious development. Cf.Cult, 2.

(Link: http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster’s&word=cultus&use1913=on&use1828=on )

Please notice the meaning of Cultus, it shows to mean “Established or accepted religious rites or usages of worship; state of religious development”. Then it shows the word “cult” beside it. 

Obviously, many cult missayers will never show you the whole truth, leaving out parts that reveal their misuse of information, who would work long hours to lead people down a false path called “misinformation”. 

There is more to this word “cult”  and in the interest of peace and truth, allow me to reveal some history of this word . 

The word “cult” originated from the Latin word cultus:

The Latin word cultus meaning “care, cultivation, worship,” originally “tended, cultivated,” also the past participle of colere “to till”.

(Link: http://www.babylon.com/define/112/Latin-Dictionary.html  - type in “cultus” and obtain various reference sources with definitions )

When reading the origin of the word, the meaning and useage changes. The Unabridged Webster’s dictionary says cultus refers to an established or accepted religion,

Cultus

(n. sing. & pl.)

Established or accepted religious rites or usages of worship; state of religious development. Cf. Cult, 2

(Ibid)

Historically, the term “cult” had a totally different usage and meaning,

The term “cult” first appeared in English in 1617, derived from the French culte, meaning “worship” or “a particular form of worship” which in turn originated from the Latin word cultus meaning “care, cultivation, worship,” originally “tended, cultivated,” also the past participle of colere “to till”. Thus in French, for example, sections in newspapers giving the schedule of worship at Catholic churches are headed Culte Catholique; the section giving the schedule of protestant churches is headed culte réformé.

(Ibid)

Proper research of the word with the intention to find truth, irrespective of personal feelings and beliefs against the LDS Church (Mormons), one would see that the origin of the word “cult” clearly had a benign origin, one which had no application to the way it is used today as a stereotype label applied by Anti-Mormons. The history of the word cult does not speak against any religious group. By the historic definition of cultus or culte, all religions are a cult because all believe in and worship a deity, having their own forms of worship.

The research does not end there. 

When researching the use of a dictionary as to why it exists, we find the purpose and goal of a dictionary. It has to do with the use of words, their structure, use within a language, spelling and pronounciation. Words that are written into a dictionary exist there because a word has become common place in usage, meaning and application. It is here we find that the word cult has changed from it’s origin to it’s current day use.

One of the difficult things I find in blogs and web-pages that attempt to provide historic accounts of events, groups, places or people is their use of words. What was not called a cult during, lets say the 1400’s, is called a cult today. This says that an aberrant religious group in the 1400’s was tagged differently than how people would tag it today, because then, the word cultus or culte referred to an established religion and those words would likely not be used to describe an aberrant group. I believe the word heretic would have likely been the word used. 

A dictionary company determines how a word is entered into a dictionary and when we look at how they determine this, it can be revealing.  Take Websters Dictionary for example. If you read their article entitled, “How does a word get into a Merriam-Webster dictionary?“, you will read how they process a word and enter it into the book.

According to Merriam-Webster, they say,

To decide which words to include in the dictionary and to determine what they mean, Merriam-Webster editors study the language as it’s used. They carefully monitor which words people use most often and how they use them.

(Link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/words_in.htm)

This method used by dictionary companies has nothing to do with whether the word should or should not be used and bears no control on how the word was applied toward any particular group. It has to do with how often and widespread the word was used. This clearly does not account for proper use, or misuse, unethical or ethical use. The rules by which a dictionary company enters a word or changes a definition does not filter out improper use or misapplication of a word. A dictionary would even include a word that has mutated from it’s original meaning, spelling and pronunciation, which is commonly called “slang”.

Simply a dictionary company does not make judgements as to the proper use of the word. All they do is reflect the state of culture and language and this is surely not a means by which a group can be rightly classified as cult (as per the current day definition). Yet, this does speak volumes against cult missayers. 

Here is an interesting example, years ago the word “gay” had the meaning of joyful, happy etc, having no reference to homosexuality, but over time, the word “gay” changed because people began to use that word to make a derogartory reference toward homosexuals. Over time, the new usage of  ”gay” created confusion for people who knew it as to mean “happy” saying “I am gay“, not realizing the societal connotation the word had become. Today to see how this change has actually drowned out the original meaning, you will not find people using the word “gay” to mean happy or joyful, because of the reference to homosexuals. A negative change has effectively destroyed the original meaning. Was this change good and postive for everyone? No it was not. 

Again, there was no means to ensure that a word was ethically used. Stereotyping can easily take hold if such a change is popular, but popularity does not denote proper use or good scholarly application and by my example above, show that some changes to the meaning of words can be more harmful all around showing misuse and very poor development in language. 

In my view, the Webster dictionary does not provide definite evidence that Mormons are a cult (derogatory meaning). It is a cult in accordance to the original meaning of the word cultus or culte, but it is not in any way equal to and does not resemble the aberrant cult groups as the Moonies, etc. If we look at how the word cult is used today, it applies more toward groups of unique interests rather than religious ones. I am sure many would remember how many followings in society have been classified as “cults“. Famous cults or cult genres or followings as cult classics of novels or authors as “J.R.R. Tolkien“, “J.K. Rowling“, etc, or cult followings as cult bands, cult figures (Elvis Presley), cult movies as “Clockwork Orange” or the famous “The Rocky Horror Picture Show“, where people would actually dress up in the costumes and attend the film many times over.

So how many good people follow those cults? – are they now horrible people in accordance cult missayers?

We have to be very careful on these aberrant labels people attach to groups or things. People tend to follow fear based claims, which is why hoax emails are so rampant and destructive. A person only shows his/her ignorance and inability to discern falsehoods and filter out bad information that causes a person to instill his own hatred and issue with a Church. 

To do a “scholarly research” even for a layman, a person needs to take time to do the job rightly. For myself, as a result of proper research, I found a most reasonable scholarly article about the term “cult“. I found it on a website named “Religious Tolerance.org“. Their article explained that the word “cult” has been misused to satisfy personal viewpoints on religion, groups or people and now, they suggest, that we must use the word sparingly. With that suggestion, they noted current changes by a reputable news agency, Associated Press and a large Christian magazine called “Christianity Today“. Both have dropped usage of the word “Cult” because of serious problems it causes. Here is an excerpt from that article,

• In 1998-MAY, the Associated Press decided to avoid the use of the word “cult” because it had acquired a pejorative aura; they have since given preference to the term “sect.” 
   
• In 1990-FEB, an editorial by Terry Muck in Christianity Today — the largest Evangelical magazine in the U.S. — recommended that Christians should avoid using the word. He cited three reasons:
                   
  • “The spirit of fair play suggests it is best to refer to groups of people as they refer to themselves.”
     
  • “There is also a theological reason for avoiding [the label, for it wrongly implies that certain sinners] are the worst kind.”
     
  • “It simply does not work well to use disparaging terms to describe the people whom we hope will come to faith in Christ…. In fact, we are commanded to love them as ourselves.”
     
• We recommend that the word “cult” never be used in reports, articles, essays, sermons, etc. without careful definition in advance — and perhaps not even then. The negative associations linked to the word are so intense that its use will automatically lead to confusion and misunderstanding.

 

(link:  http://www.religioustolerance.org/cults.htm ) 

So where is the fair play and reasonableness from these cult missayers? I believe there is none because they are far too personal and subjective on their viewpoints, having no scholarly intelligence, sad to say. 

It is best to stay away from fear mongers and use spiritual common sense coupled with sincere “objective” study.