Mormonism and the Cult of Name-Calling
At The Washington Post, D.T. Bell and Ryan Bell, co-founders of Mormon American, analyze how some political pundits have recently used the word “cult” to describe Mormonism. Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast has written, “the question of the cultish qualities of Mormonism [is] worth exploring.” Bell and Bell suggest that what constitutes a cult “is more often a matter of politics than of theology or psychology.” They conclude, “Ultimately, calling a religion a cult is a cowardly act, because the vagueness of the word provides plausible deniability to any who use it.”