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What Is Christianity?
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Christianity-Cult or not?
By KARAN MINNIS, Guardian Lifestyles Reporter:
Nassau, Bahamas:



"Jesus was only a man. He was not the Son of God. His mother, Mary, the wife of Joseph, was not a virgin. She got pregnant the normal way." Have you heard this before? If you haven't, what about this? "Jesus did not raise from the dead. He was killed and buried just like everyone else. Because if He did, more people would have seen him or there would have been proof."

It's because of arguments like this that some people believe that Christianity is a fake, and the reasons they claim religion as "fake" and a "cult".

There are many people who say that Christianity is the biggest scheme in the world, claiming that from its beginning, it has been used by monarchs to control the various classes. According to Bishop John Humes, President of the Bahamas Christian Council, those claims are completely false, and time to put to rest any claims of Christianity being "fake" or a "cult".

"A cult typically refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that a surrounding culture considers outside the mainstream," he said. "However in common or populist usage, the word 'cult' has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction, and fashion devotees, but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable therapeutic, and pyramidal business groups. Christianity is not a cult," he said.

Bishop Humes says that the root of the word "culture" comes from the word cult, and that speaks volumes. "However Christianity, especially Christianity as we know it in The Bahamas, is not a cult. It is genuine, and if you put it my way, everything else other than Christianity, is a cult," said Humes.

"By Christian definition, any form of religion other than a Christian-based religion is cultic. Even though we might have some roots in [a cultic organization], we are not cultic. We all know that our roots are based on the Old Testament similar to Judaism and Muslim or Islam, and that we're all based upon the same Abrahamic covenant, but the Christian church started with Jesus Christ and that's what makes us different from all the other churches. Different from all the other religions, and all the other faiths," he emphasised.

Adding that Christianity is the only religion that is based upon the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, Humes says that because Christians believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins, rose from the dead, and "because no other religion, leader or founder can assure his followers of that, Christians are not members of any cult.

"That's what makes us different," he said. "Our leaders are alive and well. Every other religious group leader, if he is not dead, he will eventually die. That's what separates Christianity from other cultic groups, and when I say 'cultic groups', what I'm referring to is the fundamental Christian values that we're based upon.

"We believe in the repentance of our sins. We don't believe that we will go to heaven because of our good works, or that we will go to heaven if we tie a bomb around our waist and blow ourselves up. We don't believe in that. We believe that we go to heaven because of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. By believing in who He is, what He has done for us, and what He is now doing for us even as a body of believers."

He further said that people are free in this religion, and that no one is held hostage. But if we did, then it would be a cult. "Everyone is free to join any church, to leave any church and to have somewhat alternative beliefs. However all Christians believe that Jesus died and was risen from the dead. No one can question that."

According to atheists worldwide, that statement is exactly what makes Christianity a cult.

"All religions can be made a cult," says Kreg Ross, an international Internet writer. "Even as most main Christians see what makes a cult, they, themselves, are subject to the meaning of what a cult is. Following a man, religion before family, sacrifice of one's person or material possessions, and not questioning leaders, that's a cult. I know some Christians will say it is to an extreme that makes it a cult, but this isn't true. And that's just a faithful cult response," writes Ross.

Matthew Sing, 33, and a local businessmen, says that even though he believes in the ideology of Christianity, to him, it's a cult.

"In my humble atheist opinion Christians are given the stereotype of being a cult, not as a dictionary reference to anything religious, but in order to convey the idea that Christianity is set up in a way to apparently condition individuals into their belief systems.

"I believe in the ideology of Christianity, and in God, however, I do not see why individuals have to conform to a universal belief system, and I do not see why Buddhists are unquestionably going to hell. I feel as though the condescending demeanor Christians display to the outside world is slowly encroached into the mindset of individuals seeking meaning and guidance. That is why Christianity is a cult."

John Carey, Director of Education for the Bahamas Conference of Seventh- Day Adventist says that his denomination has been fighting the "cult" stigma for years.

"I know that sometime ago some persons in our community threw that accusation at our church. However over the years, we were able to refute any truth to that statement. We have demonstrated our commitment to the teachings of the scriptures and the Christian philosophies based on the life of Christ, so there is no way we can be characterized as a cult. No religion based on the life of Christ is.

"I think that people try to characterize Christianity as a cult basically because of our rules, because of the 10 Commandments, and because people tend to characterize groups that follow strict beliefs/rules as cults, but we don't do that without compassion and freedom of choice."

Carey says the bottom line is that they deny that their beliefs and Christianity is a cult. "I can tell you that our beliefs and the fact that we have the freedom to believe what we believe is what makes Christianity not a cult. We have our beliefs, but we choose to follow them — no one is forced to believe what we teach — they choose too."

April 10, 2008 | 7:43 PM Comments  0 comments

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