Thus, Jacob Neusner, the well-known and prolific scholar of Judaism, edited a four-part volume titled Judaism, Christianity and Other Greco-Roman Cults. The word “cult” in the title of this volume used to describe both Christianity and Judaism makes perfect sense for the period addressed by the volume. During the Greco-Roman period, both Judaism, and later Christianity were not in the mainstream of Greek and Roman culture, hence they are, at that time, “cults”.

Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons are therefore accurately described as cults, at least in their histories, as each was not in the cultural mainstream of American life and faith as they have developed. Our earlier discussion by the “On Faith” panel on whether the Mormon faith is moving more into the mainstream of American life is evidence that the “outsider” status of any group can change as the norms of the dominant group change.

“Cult” status is often cultivated outside of religion. It mostly has a positive connotation today when used in art, writing, fiction or fashion.

The reason “cult” can carry such a negative bias for a religious group is because of the fanaticism of such cults as Jim Jones and Jonestown or David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Both of those religious cults resulted in extreme practices that led to violence and death. “Outsider” can move to the far extreme of “paranoid” and “fanatic”, especially when fueled by the special kind of fervor associated with religious imagery.

On the other hand, cultural centrism itself is not a guarantor of good behavior. Like the description of cult, it is neutral. Cultural centrists, in a corrupt culture, can perpetrate horrible acts. They are just not best described as “cults”.