Ano talaga ang meaning ng “CULT”? Bakit paboritong itawag ito ng mga religious groups sa ibang hindi nila kapanalig?

Yan ang tawag ng marami sa anumang religious belief or teaching na hindi nila naiintindihan, o ayaw nilang intindihin o sa tingin nila ay mali. (Siyempre, “mali” means iba sa paniwala nila kasi, natural, sila ang tama sa tingin nila.)

The word cult is derived from the Latin word “cultus” meaning worship. It was originally used to call a group of persons that worshiped a deity. Technically, all religious groups could be called cults. Even Christianity at first when it was an unknown and unpopular religion was called a cult.

In the last several hundred years when the world was dominated by a big and powerful religion, the word “cult: has been used by this dominant religion to describe, berate, belittle, insult, stigmatize and even demonize religious groups that did not belong to/with them. In this way, many Bible-based groups were first called cults, especially when they were still small and powerless. The word was, of couse, used by big religion to scare their members and prevent them from joining the other groups which, naturally, were threats to their dominance.

Most of the time, the term is used in a self-righteous, self-promoting, disrespectful and even cruel way. The word is is usually used to judge, label, insult, mock or destroy the reputation of others, especially the religious competition, the non-conformist, the different or the new which is not yet understood. Many people who use this word are usually not qualified or educated or trained enough to pass expert and informed opinion. Most observers notice that those who are quick to use this word are usually opinionated, bigoted, biased, unloving, cruel or grossly uninformed or misinformed. Or they are very zealous for their beliefs that they are quick to demonize any idea that they do not believe in.