XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage, sci.anthropology   
   XPost: alt.religion.christianity, alt.languages.english   
   From: anton.txt@gmail.moc   
      
   Steve Hayes:   
      
   > A cult is something that people *do*.   
   >   
   > A cult is not something that people or a group of people   
   > *are*.   
      
   I have no problem with either meaning, and consider the   
   second one as bearing negative connotations in colluquial   
   speech.  Britannica online concurs:   
      
      usually small group devoted to a person, idea, or   
      philosophy.  The term /cult/ is often applied to a   
      religious movement that exists in some degree of   
      tension with the dominant religious or cultural   
      inclination of a society.  In recent years the word   
      cult has been most commonly used as a pejorative term   
      for a religious group that falls outside the   
      mainstream and, by implication, engages in   
      questionable activities. Many new religions are   
      controversially labeled as cults.   
      
   as do many dictionaries.  I also believe this is an old   
   meaning used by good writers.   
      
   > Illegitimate: The Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult   
   > phenomenon.   
      
   This is ugly anyway, because "cult phenomenon" is a lousy   
   phrase for "cult".  Some useful noun phrases with the   
   adjective "cult" are "cult following", "cult status", and   
   "cult building".   
      
   I should rather call YWs a sect, though.  Satatism, on the   
   other hand, is a cult.  Satanists comprise a cult.  Apple   
   afficionados comprise another.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)