Religious Philosophy

Masters degree program ULC Seminary  Religious Philosophy Is the Marine Corps a cult? Lesson # 3 (Organized Religions)     Rev. Fr. Andrew R. M. Manley Assignment; 1) The anthropological tests provided to determine if something is a cult really said nothing about religion. In other words, with those 5 questions as a test, virtually any group might be considered to be a cult. So, let's consider one that clearly isn't a religion: the US Marine Corps! Is it a cult? Consider each of the 5 questions posed above, and see how many of them you think the Corps meets. Does that make it a cult? Probably a cult? Maybe a cult? Probably not? No way? How about the Parent-Teacher group at your local school? How many of the 5 questions do they meet? How would you classify them? Answer; The question being is the U.S. Marine Corps a cult. Well with my prior experience in a branch of the U.S. military, I feel strongly that the Marine Corps is not a cult. Although they do meet several aspects of the criteria that would suggest that they could be, to some degree. But unless they meet all of them plus the one that is missing due to bias and for the fact that they are not a religious entity although I'm sure that there are folks out there that would love to debate this and other forms of Governmental agencies till the end of time however, I don't see the purpose being resolved to a defining conclusion ether way. As I understand the comments of this statement I would have to conclude that most any organization, company or government agency would border on the qualifications of being labeled a cult. Most any group mentioned above or even those that you can think of, would meet at least several if not all classifications mentioned in this lesson. -- Reverend Father Andrew R. M. Manley ******************************************** To ordain yourself with the Universal Life Church, for free, for life, right now, click on the Free Online Ordination link. Rev. Long created the ULC seminary site to help ministers learn and grow their ministries. The Seminary offers a huge catalog of materials for ministers of the Universal Life Church.