And so we couldn't say anything bad about Heaven's Gate until it was too late, and the mass suicide happened? After everyone is dead, then we can call it a cult?Salvete wrote:Now, sure, if the Mormons were committing mass suicide or poisoning Kool-aid that would be different.
Look, Salvete, I don't want to derail the Reverend's thread and get too deep into what a cult is, I had a thread for that, you didn't participate, you just told me I was wrong without responding to anything I had actually written. I'm happy to answer your questions more generally there or start another thread.
Specifically, in regard to the Reverend's post, think of a cult as an abusive partner. Indeed, as he notes, the institution is broken from an outside perspective, but it isn't necessarily broken according to it's own agenda. You can get an abusive partner in legal trouble, just as you can put legal pressure on a cult, but at the end of the day, my question is, what do you expect from a cult in terms of actual reform?
An abusive partner may never reform, but simply become more passive aggressive. JohnW sounds like he was a good bishop. But from an institutional perspective, he's the good cop. A "good cop" in "good cop / bad cop" isn't your friend. Joanna's daughter could have gotten a "good cop" bishop for the interview, but it wouldn't have changed anything in regard to the church's claim that it's the only true Church on the face of the earth and all other paths may have some good in them but do not have the complete truth.
Don't confuse any relativism that seems seems present in the Church's marketing pitch with actual relativism. Cults may learn to be diplomatic, but a diplomatic partner isn't necessarily a loving partner.