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Ditchdigger456 t1_j46xkgp wrote

Reply to comment by JohnPlayerSpecia1 in Japanese prosecutors charge man with murdering former prime minister Shinzo Abe by Nether_Button

I wouldn't even call it a church tbh, it's just a cult.

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CJYD21 t1_j47a8hp wrote

Most korean churches are.

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ClammyHandedFreak t1_j47fw20 wrote

Name a church that isn’t a cult itself or derived from a cult under some other guise of legitimacy in history?

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bored_typist t1_j47gxsk wrote

Isn't the term"cult" typically a way for one religionist to describe a religion that is not their own?

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Iunnrais t1_j48mpjm wrote

No.

A cult is a group of people centered around a central leader who controls literally every aspect of the followers’ lives in minute detail. If someone belongs to a religion and feels free to, for example, go find a different pastor/teacher/priest to follow, this alone would make it not a cult. If said person can leave the religion without dire personal consequences, it is not a cult. If said person is free to spend money on things unrelated to the religion, it is not a cult.

If it helps, you could say religion is to government as cults are to fascism.

I get that you are an atheist and think religion is stupid. But please understand there are important distinctions to make. And if you think religion is bad, you need to know cults are worse.

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Kenshin220 t1_j47i3q3 wrote

It gets used that way but cults are not inherently religions there are plenty of non religious cults like nxivm or est until the 80s or the Manson family. Cults tend to have some relgiosity but the more important thing is to have some sort of figure that gathers people in a way that tends to be both extremely exploitative to then and often destructive to the people involved. Cults often coop a mainstream religion to be the justification for their behaviors even if most followers of the religion would not necessarily condone the actions of the cult.

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veggeble t1_j47xvlx wrote

> Manson family

There was a Christian element to the Manson Family

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Kenshin220 t1_j484l1a wrote

Oh true I was thinking more of the race war component of it all but he was talking a Christian style apocalypse wasn't he.

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Wheresthecents t1_j4ejott wrote

Only difference between a cult and a religion is that a cult is a social movement in the now, and a religion is a social movement in the generational sense. They're equally bonkers, its just that religions are entirely self destructive enough to wipe themselves out out before it gets handed down to children.

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bored_typist t1_j47go4i wrote

Maybe sect might be a more precise term. They think they are the one and only truth/salvation and have a negative tension with society.

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