re latest on branch davidians in article apr geneva rutgers edu conditt tsd arlut utexas edu paul conditt wrote i think it s really sad that so many people put their faith in a mere man even if he did claim to be the son of god and or a prophet i ll pose a question here that s got me thinking what distinguishes true religion from cults i m speaking generally here not specifially about christianity jerry falwell was on good morning america on tuesday ostensibly to answer this question basically he said that true religion follows a message whereas a cult follows a person but then christianity is a cult because the message of christianity is the person of jesus so what distinguishes for example the branch davidian cult from the presbyterian church doctrinal differences don t answer the question imho so don t use them as an answer scott at brandeis but god demonstrates his the lord bless you and keep you own love for us in that the lord make his face shine on you while we were yet sinners and be gracious to you christ died for us the lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace romans nasb numbers nasb there have been some attempts to characterize cult most commonly it uses characteristics involving high pressure brainwashing techniques etc but some people characterize it by doctrinal error in the end i m afraid it becomes a term with no precise meaning that s used primarily to dismiss groups as not worthy of serious consideration that doesn t mean that there aren t groups that do highly irresponsible things and have serious doctrinal errors but past discussions have not suggested to me that cult is a very helpful term clh
