[RoosterRedux]

Cult is also a word of many meanings.

I am an analytic sort and hot buttons mean little in the analytical world.

A cult might mean a simple deviation from the main stream of a religion.

But I use the word "cult" as the definition of a group of humans who are psychologically coerced into membership...brainwashed as to certain aspects of reality and "the truth"...and then prevented from leaving by coercion.

This is not the Merriam Webster definition but the behavioral/psychological/psychiatric definition. This is the kind of cult Mormonism is.

You of all people know that...or, at least, you will eventually. It is demonic in nature...not human at all. Humans are its victims.

[reaganaut]

I have posted before on the anthropological, sociological, and theological definitions of a cult and Mormonism fits all 3.

Short version...

Anthropological - its a religion
Sociological - its a ‘high demand group’
Theological - its doctrines are outside traditional Christian theology.

Your definition is close to the sociological one and very accurate. And, yes, I know that already. I learned the hard way.