XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage, sci.anthropology   
   XPost: alt.religion.christianity, alt.languages.english   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Thu, 30 May 2024 01:18:02 +0300, Anton Shepelev   
    wrote:   
      
   >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.   
      
   It is because of that usage that the academics want to ban all use of   
   the term.   
      
   But my Concise Oxford Dictionary has   
      
   cult n. System of religious worship; devotion, homage to person or   
   thing (the ~ of).   
      
   And I believe that there is no simple synonym to convey that meaning,   
   and that it should therefore not be banned from academic usage when   
   used in that sense, because it is not intrinsically pejorative, as it   
   tends to be when used in the other sense.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   >   
   >> 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.   
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa   
   Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm   
   Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com   
   E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)