What is a cult?
Mirriam - Webster defines the word cult a few different ways. One definition is: a system of religious beliefs and ritual which is the way most people perceive the word. Although another definition read as this: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work. Now in this definition they give the example of a film or book and it says: usually small group of people characterized by such devotion and that got me thinking.
At this point the words idea, devotion and movement kinda jumped out at me, so out of curiosity I looked up the word Ideology and it read: a : a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture b : a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture c : the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a socio-political program.
I know some of you are thinking that, hey this guy is trying to link these two words together but I assure you that's not my intention, on the contrary.
What I question is - Where do you draw that line? Where does one end and the other begin? When does Ideology become a cult and a cult become Ideology?
After all, most religions in their beginnings are and were considered by many to be cults, fringe movements at least until they became more mainstream and gained validity. Even Christianity was considered a radical fringe group and a cult to some in its infancy.
The reason I bring this up is because it seems to me that these lines are increasingly getting blurred. It's getting harder and harder to find the line between religion and politics or the radical fringe and mainstream America.
Just look at last weekends "Value Voters Summit" it's hard to tell if it's a political rally or a religious jamboree.
Of course political decent is one of the cornerstones of our system of government and as with any decent it can lend itself to the extreme elements of any society. Now this is not a new thing and certainly not exclusive to any one particular party or group but we have to be honest and recognize that the political decent in this Country has been getting more and more heated and at times down right ugly in recent years.
I'm only 45 and I was too young to comprehend or even remember the politics surrounding me during the Civil Rights struggle and the Vietnam War protests. Although from what I've learned since has become common knowledge to me now that it was an extremely ugly period in Country's history.
Assassinations, lynchings, bombing along with protests and riots in the streets with all sides believing their cause to be the just one. It makes me most thankful that I was too young and sheltered to be scared by these awful events and that brings me to the point of my article.What are we doing and what are we teaching our children? Haven't we learned anything from our past?
We see today little children at "Tea Party" protests with their parents holding up signs, mocking our President, chanting and accusing our government of socialism while comparing President Obama to Hitler. How is this even a bit healthy for the psychological well-being of our children?
I realize this type of behavior doesn't represent today's protest movement as a whole. While the majority of protesters have honest concerns about our Country and have every right to voice their opinion and show their children how Democracy really works but when some young children are being told that they can not listen to the President of the United States speak in their school for fear of being brainwashed, then there is something seriously wrong.
Now to anyone from the left reading this and thinking that the political tensions are all due to the rights behavior, I beg to differ with you. The left dealt their fair share of ugliness during the eight years of the Bush Administration. Most people remember the President Bush / Hitler comparisons during the Iraq war protests and of course we can't forget about the 9/11 "Truthers."
All I'm trying to say is that we should learn from our past and before we say or do anything that outraged us when the other side did it, just think about the children and even though you believe you are looking out for their best interests today and for the future, please just try not to forget how extremely impressionable their young minds really are.
Here is a link to a story that may shed some light on my concerns, it's called 8 Marks of a Cult written by Randall Watters, see if you recognize anything familiar in our politics today.