![]() My understanding of the distinction (viz. #13 ::: Jonathan Vos Post ::: (view all by) ::: March 08, 2005, 03:04 PM:Įvery religion begins as a cult. I guess I'm trying to say that by Teresa's rule of thumb, the Catholic Church is a church. None of us thought there was anything the slightest anti-Catholic in the play. ![]() I saw it with a friend who, like me, had been a member of the Marist Brothers, and we came out with aching ribs. The writer, director and actor were all Catholic on a special preview night the theatre (a smallish one) was filled with Christian Brothers, whose lauighter by all accounts was more wholehearted than any subsequent audience's. One of the first reviews, clearly by a non-Catholic, described it as full of anti-Catholic jokes. It's very funny, alarming and in the end approaches tragic any number of the leitmotifs of Irish–Australian Catholic lore of the 50s and 60s is put on irreverent display. One man in religious habit teaches an imaginary class of boys, and becomes increasingly vioent, absurd and pathetic. The Christians Brother's is an Australian play that's a bit of a minor classic. (Teresa's razor is in there too, BTW: line 16, "Grimness.") The question it tries to answer is: "Relative to other cults, how dangerous is this one?" It presents guidelines about control, honesty, and identity however, it doesn't try to define whether something's a cult. Of complex standards, I think that Bonewits link presents a start (but only a start). It's easy to be pithy about this stuff, but I don't think there's one simple standard. I know things about my family that I wouldn't tell other people. My family's a cult too, by this definition. ![]() In a strict sense, any publicly traded company is required by law to be a cult. In my mind, it was always about secrecy - if things happen within the confines of the "church" that you are not allowed to mention to someone who is not a part of the faith (or even not a part of the ceremony in which said thing happened), then you belong to a cult. ![]()
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