Hi,

Well, a question like that brings to mind the definition that One man's cult is another man's religion. (Hm, that makes me wonder whether any cults self-identify as "cult".)

But back to the question: What do we/I believe cults have in common? Well, I don't know what the cat herd believe, but for me: As far as I know, all cults have people. I think that would be multiple persons, and being more than one person it/they would have a shared culture. It need not be, originally, a culture that's exclusively theirs. Minne Simens of Wytmarsum was mentioned, and all he wanted was for Christians to behave more like, well: Christians. It was only later that differences from Christians in general came into existence.

On the other hand, while there are cultures that include Christian fanaticism in their definition of a cult, that's not a common trait of all cults. E.g., what would such a requirement say about people who belong to the other 70% of the world? But that does bring us back to "One man's cult is another man's religion.", in that the members of a cult represent a minority viewpoint. If they represented a majority, they would be considered normal, but they are considered a cult for not belonging to that majority. I'm be tempted to translate that as the members to believe they are the chosen vessel. Being culturally a Christian, I'm too close to be able to determine whether the culture of any cult tells its members that they are nothing special, or worse.

So, I guess that's about it: A cult has people, a culture, and a minority viewpoint, and it's likely its members believe they are the chosen vessel. Other than that, it has non-members that brand them a cult. I guess that's about it.

Bye
Mysha