Word: culted
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VLADISLAV LISTYEV BECAME A posthumous cult hero in Moscow in less than a week. At his funeral Saturday, March 4, thousands of mourners piled his grave with mounds of mimosas, roses, carnations and spruce boughs. As thousands more continued to arrive in Moscow's historic Vagankovskoye Cemetery and place flowers beside the crepe-trimmed portrait of the TV journalist gunned down in the stairwell of his apartment building, they were sending Russia's leaders a powerful message. This callous murder, like no other, has demonstrated to every citizen that President Boris Yeltsin and the men in the Kremlin are facing...
Groups that have no place at the Ministry include cults, as the Boston Church of Christ (BCC) has been called. The characteristics o these "DESTRUCTIVE RELIGIOUS GROUPS," according to the Ministry's brochure, include "a leader who claims divinity or a special relationship to God." One could logically include almost every religion now sanctioned by the Ministry in this definition, at least in their early stages. Webster in fact agrees with this all-encompassing usage of cult. In the 10th Collegiate edition of Merriam-Webster, a cult is described as "a system of religious beliefs and ritual...
Perhaps we would be more enlightened about the position of the United Ministry by redirecting our attention to Webster's second definition for cult: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious." The factor that currently differentiates the religious groups recognized by the Ministry from cults is that the groups have been around for a while--long enough, at least, not to disturb the current theological balance of power...
...first is: So what? Why is the "cult-like" BCC any worse a choice than the Swedenborgian Chaplaincy, which is recognized by the United Ministry? Will its members not go to heaven? This should really not be Harvard's concern. Does the BCC destroy students' lives? Those students make their own decisions about submitting to the groups' practices and policies...
...Bunch, the sitcom about an adage-spewing stepfamily cavorting on an Astroturf lawn, and Gilligan's Island, the tale of seven mismatched castaways on an island that seemed oddly close to Hollywood. Both shows had a goofy otherworldliness painfully out of step with their tumultuous times. Both spawned fanatical cult followings and countless spin-offs. Both, amazingly, were created by the same man, Sherwood Schwartz...