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The application of the labels "cults" or "sects" to (for example) religious movements in government documents usually signifies the popular and negative use of the term "cult" in English and a functionally similar use of words translated as "sect" in several European languages.
The anti-cult movement, abbreviated ACM and also known as the countercult movement, [1] consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of religious groups that they consider to be "cults", uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices.
Term Location of origin Targeted demographic Meaning origin and notes References Campbellite: United States: Followers of Church of Christ: Followers of the Church of Christ, from American Restoration Movement leaders Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell, the latter being one of two key people considered the founders of the movement.
Cult is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members."
Cults range from the relatively benign to those that exercise extraordinary control over members' lives and use thought-reform processes to influence and control members. While the conduct of certain cults causes nonmembers to criticize them, the term cult is not in itself pejorative but simply descriptive.
Mobutu Sese Seko used his cult of personality to create a god-like public image of himself in Zaire, which today is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mobutu created a totalitarian state, amassed massive wealth for himself and presided over the economic deterioration of his country and human rights abuses.
The young Karl Marx is sometimes considered a humanist, as he rejected the idea of human rights as a symptom of the very dehumanization they were intended to oppose. Given that capitalism forces individuals to behave in an egoistic manner, they are in constant conflict with one another, and are thus in need of rights to protect themselves.
The cult is also marked by the intensity of the people's feelings for and devotion to their leaders, [108] and the key role played by a Confucianized ideology of familism both in maintaining the cult and thereby in sustaining the regime itself. The North Korean cult of personality is a large part of Juche and totalitarianism.