Wednesday, January 11, 2006
THE CATHOLIC SECT
The other day in a combox the subject of who is a "cult", who is a "sect" and who is a "religion" came up. I said that the Amish, who I admire for their dedication to family life, can still be called a "sect" and maybe even a "cult". I've just found this reference to the Catholics being a "sect" in the Philippines:
Miguk: "The Philippines is still a de facto theocracy. And God forbid if you happen to belong to other than the approved Roman Catholic sect."
I guess that when you are the state religion, your numbers are too large to be called a "cult"; but Catholicism is edging toward the "sect" categorization. If the culture keeps moving toward atheism and anomalous spirituality, "cult" is probably not far down the road, either in the Philippines or the U.S., or anywhere else.
Of course, we can say that the commenter is simply wrong, unless the definitions of religion itself are morphing. I'm inclined to go with the morphing, myself.
