Minimus you are highly reactionary. The point is that the term 'cult' carries with it a specific criteria that would need to be fulfilled in order for the term to be applied appropriately. As Europe has pointed out, the Catholic Church, regardless of its demerits, does not fulfill the criteria. It is disingenuous to try to equate an organization like the JWs with any of the major faiths in the world, or with the average political party. Sure these groups exert an influence over their members, but in terms of degrees of severity it is wrong to attempt to classify them as being equivalent to the JWs. The insularity and extreme nature of the conditioning that the JWs exert upon their members places them as a group under the definition of 'RELIGIOUS CULT'. Who is denying that other cults exist? Who is denying that governments use propaganda and spin? Rhetoric and sophistry abound in the fields of politics, commerce and religion but it is a far cry from that to an extreme group like the JWs. They've earned the mantle of CULT. They fulfill the criteria, it's as simple as that. You may not like the word, indeed many who study the cults of this world find it an awkward term, nevertheless it is the excepted term and as such it applies without doubt to groups such as the JWs.
