Gilgal

Mormons a cult?

Dear Gilgal: In regard to your recent removal of a link to Mormons on the cult page, your rationale was: reasons would need to be given for inclusion. As the term is subjective, what would you consider a reason suitable for inclusion? All religious groups could be considered cuts by some, but Mormons as especially known for some odd practices (underwear, post humus memberships, etc.) Please enlighten me. Lexlex (talk) 19:47, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Dear LexLex,

I did not remove Mormons as a cult, I was the one who added both Mormons and Lord of Our Righteousness religions. There are at least 400 groups which signify Mormons as a cult and whilst I may not agree with their definitions the fact is that they designate Mormons as a cult.

Recently the suggestion has been made that Mormonism is no longer a Cult, based on the size of it's membership and the fact that there is little tension with the surrounding society. However I would actually make the point that there are no independently verified membership details. The fact is that the reported membership numbers are likely to be exaggerated due to programs like the Church's baseball baptisms. The other issue of tension in surrounding society is also debatable considering the backlash Mitt Romney while he was running for president and the fact the Church itself recognized that California was less likely to join a campaign against marriage if the LDS Church was associated and so they wanted a "coalition". The backlash against their support for Proposition 8 could also be used to show the underlying tension with society as a whole.

In fact it was Mormonism which I included which is wider than just the LDS branch but includes many other branches, including Mormon Fundamentalism, which the LDS group itself recognizes as a cult. Also Steve Hassan who is mentioned in the article has himself recognized the LDS as a cult and it is included on his website as such.

The only question I have is why is Scientology still included on the page without any real explanation, but Mormonism is removed?