What Are Cults and Sects?
Stevens warns against using the word “cult” loosely. He says the word acquired negative connotations in the 1960s and 1970s after Charles Manson, a California criminal, founded a commune and directed his followers to commit a series of murders. “And then in the 1980s, this imaginary danger of satanic cults spread across North America. And the word ‘cult’ was permanently changed. It had become defined as a group of people who had been brainwashed by a megalomaniacal deluded person who imposed severe restrictions on his followers,” says Stevens. “And most of these negative connotations are false.” Psychologist Newton Malony of the California-based Fuller Theological Seminary defines a cult as a religion that is not indigenous to the current culture. A sect, he says, is a deviation from a known religion. “For example, in the 1960 and 1970s, Hare Krishnas were a cult within the United States, but not a cult in India. There was no tradition of Hinduism in the United States. So they were a ‘
