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Comment by cols | Hacker News Reader

I was born into a charismatic Christian cult and escaped in my early 20s, left to pick up the pieces of a completely shattered world view. No one in my life, at that point, really understood the internal turmoil I was in. This piece in particular and, in general, all of the Demon Haunted World couldn't have come at a better time for me. It gave me the tools I needed to overcome a lot of the biases and crazy charismatic thought patterns that were established at a very early age. I will forever be indebted to Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan for making my life a lot more bearable and for helping me out of the existential quagmire I was stuck in.

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> charismatic Christian cult

These words don't go together. Cults are definitionally aberrant, i.e., non-Christian. Many of us in high Christian orthodoxy would certainly regard the entire charismatic movement as heterodox at best.

Lest anyone should cry "no true Scotsman," the difference is Christianity has a well-defined view of orthodoxy, as propounded by Scripture and understood by the Church going back to its earliest days. The Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, etc. are excellent examples of a united, cross-denominational understanding recognized by all except the cults. That's not to say we don't disagree about some of the particulars in other areas, but all Christian churches believe in "one holy, catholic (universal), apostolic, Church."

Edit to add: I'm sorry you had trouble with a cult. I know there's a lot of real pain caused by many of these groups. Come check out the real thing. We'd love to have you.

You took someone’s painful experience with a cult and No True Scotsman’d it into a sales pitch for your religion.

There is a time and a place for everything. And for the record, having also left an evangelical cult that tried really hard to get me to hate myself because of my sexuality, I’m not too sold on any branch of Christianity at this point. The last thing I’d wanna hear after telling people about my experiences like that is “but have you tried my flavor of Christianity?”

The word "cult" is just a way for mainstream religions to look down on non-mainstream religions. "Cult" is definitionally aberrant because mainstream religions have defined it for their own convenience. Certainly cults have high potential for abuse, but then again, we've seen quite a bit of that in mainstream churches too.

It's also a bit silly to cite the harms done by cults when the "high Christian Orthodoxy" espoused the crusades, the inquisition, pogroms--the "high Christian Orthodoxy" is responsible for far more death and suffering than any of the small cults that spun off of it. And you can't distance yourself from that and claim the Nicene Creed which predates all of it. The Nicene Creed which is your supposed proof that you're the "real Christians" was written at the Council of Nicea, which was convened by Constantine I in 325, just 8 years after he had his soldiers slaughter Donatists[1], a group of Christians who opposed Constantine's attempts to unify the various churches. The document you claim shows the unity of your religion was practically written in the blood of Christians who refused to unify.

I'll happily admit that the vast majority of modern Christians are kind, decent people, on two conditions: 1. That you extend the same courtesy to members of other religions (including so-called "cults"), and 2. That you refrain from proselytizing on HN.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donatism

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