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From:
http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/y2k/bapvsmor.htm
Baptists Attack Fellow Christians
It is ironic that the Southern Baptists would refer to their fellow Christians as "cults". Make a stand against this silliness! Just say no to evangelists who demand that you have "faith" while they clean out your bank account and run your personal life for you.
Baptists in N.C. aim to convert Mormon, Jehovah's Witness 'cult' members Associated Press
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) : Two Southern Baptist congregations are preparing a crusade to teach their members how to convert "cult" members, including Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Cult Awareness Impact Crusade is scheduled for Feb. 6-8 at Calvary Baptist Church and Oaklawn Baptist Church. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians, say the Rev. Mark Corts, Calvary's senior pastor, and the Rev. Philip Henry, assistant pastor for evangelism and new-member assimilation. They want to help prevent their members from joining those religions and teach them how to convert Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons to Christianity.
"This would be like the U.S. Army holding a seminar on Russian military tactics or something," said Henry. "In the military realm, they would call that understanding your enemy, but we do not consider them our enemy."
Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses members objected to the congregations' plans. "I'm disappointed that they would go to that approach," said Gary Smith, president of the Winston-Salem stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Robert Shields, one of the overseers of the South Congregation of Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Winston Salem, said he wasn't bothered by the cult designation. "But a cult follows a human leader. We follow Jesus," he said. The local crusade comes as the Southern Baptist Convention has been criticized for its effort to convert Jews, Muslims and Hindus.
The convention angered Jews last year by asking its members to pray that Jews convert to Christianity during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The denomination also issued a booklet last year saying Hindus have "darkness in their hearts that no lamp can dispel."
Published January 22, 2000
"A Commom Bond"
Echo Magazine Part 1
"Rick Ross is an internationally known cult expert and intervention specialist. He states, "I do not regard the Witnesses as a cult--although many do. Instead, my view of the group is that they are a totalitarian and destructive group that employs coercive thought reform techniques."
"I have been retained for interventions regarding Jehovah's Witnesses .... The group employs isolation, coercive persuasion and unreasonable fear to manipulate potential recruits and retain its members."
Note:
Rick Ross has also witten extenstively on other fundamental Protestant groups such Calvary Chapel, Assembly of God, and Vineyard Christian Fellowship.
When The Word "Cult" As Merely A Means Of Theolically Getting Even With Faith Groups You Don't Like Or Agree With
I would like you to read the following quotes from the article:Reconceptualizing the Word "Cult" by Jon Trott [first published in Cornerstone,Jesus People USA Issue 122] "The term “cult” has become a catchall word used, as one cynic put it , against any organized group one happens not to like."
THE WORD AS A WEAPON
"There are a few errors we Evangelicals continue to make regarding NRMs. The first and most glaring error we make is the often unspoken assumption that we have the entire truth and NRM members are lost in error. History teaches us of many evils committed by self-proclaimed Christians with a corner on “the truth.” Humility is in order."
"Christians should show profound respect for others’ spiritual journeys, realizing that in fact the others may be journeying toward Christian belief. We are Christ’s ambassadors, and as such it is our duty to present the great news and, by example, show forth His love."
Should we tag peaceful alternative religious groups like Hare Krishans and Bahia long side dangerous killer REAL "cults" like Jim Jones?!?
"Again, the word “cult” has become the property of mass media, and like the word “nigger” some decades ago, is used to completely dismiss those who don’t fit into the majority’s preconceived ideal of “American.” We’ve got to face it: the NRMs often bear little resemblance one to another, but like the Anglo-American viewing a person of color, we’re tempted to say “they’re all the same.” Christians should be on the forefront of defending the legal and social rights of even the smallest and oddest religious groups."
"The NRMs often make specific and exclusive claims regarding the nature of God, salvation, and other aspects of reality." And does not Fundamental 'Born Again' Protestants? Evangelical Protestants tagged Jehovah's Witnesses a "cult" because JW's claim that all who dare disagree with their take on the Bible will not get into paradise. Yet Evangelical Fundamental and/or Pentacostal Protestants claim all who dare disagree with their take on things be "left behind" and/or tossed into hell forever. If such exclusive claims to salvation are the marks that call for one to be marked "Cult"..then certainly such Evangelical fundamental Protestants should add themselves to the list!
"Joining an unorthodox [in both the Evangelical Protestant and the majority of society's views) group may in fact be a sign of coming awake, not of going to sleep. I’m not suggesting that joining the Moonies will lead one to salvation; it may lead to no change in one’s habits, or it may lead to a lifelong adherence to Moon’s false Messiahship. But as sociological studies have shown, the majority of those joining his Unification Church do not remain there. Do they stay awake, or do they go back to sleep? Did any Christians they met along their journey’s path treat them as fellow sojourners rather than brainwashed idiots?"
"Yet what of the gentle Baha'i faith, with its martyred leader and beautiful emphasis on reconciliation between races, peoples, and religions? A critique of Baha'i will certainly require our praise as well as our disagreement on key issues of God's identity and the nature of salvation."
"The New Age movement (host to a variety of NRMs as well as more mainstream groups) exhibits concern over ecology and the caretaking of our planet; this echoes scriptural standards despite their disavowal of personal sin and God's sacrifice for that sin." " Likewise, our discussions of Jehovah's Witnesses rarely, if ever, touch on the fact that the Nazis murdered many of them. To know these things takes commitment to learn about the world of ideas and assumptions a Bahaist or Jehovah's Witness lives in; easier is the quick-stick label, "cult ."
Many extremist branches of Fundamental Protestant try to prey on XJWs, X-Mormons and other faith groups that their community deems "unorthodox." Sometimes their claims are true and other times they are not. But underneath their surface image of wanting reach out to those who were spiritually abused in JW or Mormons, etc., is a hidden agenda, and that agenda is to replace the former JW or Mormom past brand of fundamentalism with 'their' own brand of fundamentalism.
Thus they may go from the frying pan into the fire. The frying pan being JW's Aramegeddon threats to fundamental Protestant's hellfire. However, the AMCs don't just go after the non-Protestant fundamental faith groups they don't like. They also Unitarian Universalists, Bahias and sometimes even their own more liberal or moderate peers, such as United Methodists, tagging them as a "cults."
The fellowing is a list of resources I have pulled together on the ACMs and their roots, as well as non-fundamental resources who research and study Alternative Religions of America. "Alternative Religions,ARs are what they call such religions that they see as not dangerous instead of cults. In contrast to the AMCs, such researchers have NO hidden agendas to spread a religious fundamentalist propagenda.
What You Should Know About many So-Called "Cult Outreaches," Ran By The Right Fundamental Protestants
The Facts About The Evangelical Author Of "Kingdom of the Cults."
The Roots of The ACM
ACM's Concern - Emotional Abuse Or Doctrinal Disagreement? What's Their Agenda?
Here The ACM Discribes Signs the Verify A "CULT", & They Discribe Theirselves!
What Motivates The Zeal Of The ACM? Fear
ACM Ignorance
An OUTSTANDING Resource on the AMCs By The Religious Tolerance Network
Bob Jones Gives Advice To XJWs?! That's Not Even Funny!
Resources That Study Alternative Religions of Amercia
Rick Ross Compares Neo-Evangelical Fundamentalism To JW and LDS
The Religious Tolerance Network
Recommended Books
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