roups as "cults": Christian Scientists, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists (Barkun, 1993, p. 597). One would be hard-pressed to find a politician seeking office labelling these groups "cults" today. So it has been throughout the history of western Europe since the Roman era, from the imperial persecutions of Christian "cults," to the Roman Catholic denunciations of Gnostic "cult" heresies, to the formation of Protestant "cults" - and on into America. North America was colonized by "cults" - Anabaptists, Quakers, Pilgrims - whose pressures from the English and north European mainstream were enough to make the harshness of the New World wilderness seem an amenable alternative to remaining in their homelands.
Before exploring any deeper into how a cult becomes part of the mainstream - or remains apart - it would be well to examine the reason behind human need for church and religion.
Religion, despite the assertions of theologians and apologists, is at its core a prescientific approach to explaining the mysteries of nature and the human heart (Hawking, 1990, pp. 171-175). "Panic" - the Greeks invented Pan, the god of the forest, to explain the primal fear that comes from a night spent in the wild darkness, where predators travel silently and noises without apparent source abound. Eros - the Tree of Knowledge: "reasons" for the uncontrollable urges between men and women that create - and destroy - beyond the realm of rational thought. When humankind began formulating explanations for these occurrences, religion gave logical shape to the mysterium, while reassuring the believers that there was a reason behind the apparent cosmic whimsy, even if not fully understood. As science has slowly carved away at the mystery, psychology at the heart, and social theory at the relationships among all, still, in essence, there is a primal longing for cosmic reassurance and connection that is addressed by religion.
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