rity of religious sects in a country objected could be designated as a cult. As most Christian sects in the United States find the beliefs and practices of the Latter Day Saints objectionable, this definition could be used categorize the Mormons as a cult. Such a categorization, however, would hardly be representative of objective analysis.
Sixth, a system for the cure of disease based on the dogma, tenets, and principles of the system's promulgator, to the exclusion of scientific experience or demonstration is defined as a cult. This definition was used to define Christian Science as a cult in the early history of that sect. It may also be applied to some fundamentalist and charismatic Christian sects in the 1990s. The definition, however, is not applicable to most Christian sects, including the Latter Day Saints, and, thus, is not useful for the purposes of this research.
Seventh, a cult is defined as a great or excessive devotion to a person, idea, or thing. Almost all Christians exclude Christianity from this definition of cult, because they consider Christ to be the one True God, as opposed to being either a person or an idea. In fact, however, all Christianity is a cult according to this definition. This definition, however, may be narrowed for application, to include only individuals not generally considered to be God. Within this restricted context of the definition, the Latter Day Saints could be designated as a cult, if it could be shown that they give great or excessive devotion to Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. Whose definitions of great or excessive were used, however, would materially affect the outcome of such an assessment. Further, this definition could be used to designated the Roman Catholic Church as a cult based on devotion to both the Virgin Mary and the Pope. Roman Cat
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