DiscussMormonism.com

As i am no longer in the Mormon mindset; im unable to reconcile my understanding on how current Mormons, when confronted with clear definitions of what a cult is that they rationalize it away. I know there are some that attempt to use the dictionary term of cult, meaning (loosely) a tight knit private group. But when you look at harmfull cult diagrams as put forth by psychiatrists or people that study them for a living, what are the nessecary mental gymnastics that you need to jump through to rationalize though such a dark terminology?

As such examples see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_checklist
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/cult-checklist
http://www.anandainfo.com/cult_checklist.html
(one of the better ones) http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html

I honestly don't know that the LDS Church is any more "cult-like" than any other Church put to a similar test.

I think that if you put most churches through the paces, and talk to people who militantly live strictly within the bounds of any religion, they are going to appear "cultish".