Pastor's Thoughts

I was talking to a couple of friends on-line the other day and we were discussing the definition of a cult. It was interesting to say the least, but I found that I couldn't keep my stand. What does define a cult? Are religions cults? If not, what makes them difference. I've pondered it many times since then, and I still can't put a definition to it.
Cultism has a negative conotation to it. When we think of it, some might think of satanism, the millenium group, the church of signs and wonders, I've even heard Mormanism, and Jehova's witnesses being refered to as cults. However, there are also people out there that refer to any form of foundational belief as a cult: for example Christianity, Judaism, Buddism, Hinduism, Islam.... I was shaken by these thoughts. It's not that I've never heard people refer to Christianity as a cult, it is more that I have never actually sat down to debate it with another person.
I guess, because I now have my diary I can finally write it down and organize my thoughts a little.
What do we see as a cult?
Well, in movies we see sacrifices being preformed, worshipping devils, congiry, a small sect of people that believe in something that is not taken as what the majority think, I guess. Definitions I found for them were:
-A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
-The followers of such a religion or sect.
-A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
-A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
-Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
-The object of such devotion.
-An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.
A lot of these can be seen in a religion. I've been really unstable as the days go by with respect to my faith. I'm not saying that I belive less, only that I've begun to question what's going on around me.
So, anyway, I talked to a pastor yesteray. (I'm a good church girl. i go and I dan't comment about if I have to or if it's right. Going makes me feel good, so I do. There is no question on if it correct or not. It just is.) Now, Pastor Calhoun and I didn't actually get to get into a lot of my questions and problems, we just merely scratched the surface. He told me that some people do see us as a sect. Not that's it's wrong to us, but to some others it is, Just like we see other groups as being wrong. It's bound to happen that we run across other opinions. He said it's not wrong to question, he actually encouraged it. He said that sometimes the only way we can be stronger believers is if we fall in doubt. I hope that that's the case with me.
I hope this is just a phase I'm going through. It bothers me that I'm questioning my beliefs. It makes me feel uncomfortable in the places that I once was, like church. It throws me off. I feel really off balance.
I guess that's why I wrote that quotation this afternoon: "When you talk to God it's prayer, but when God talks to you it's Schizophrenia." Not that God's actually talking to me, but I hope I can take the hints he sends ;)
Also, it's not that I'm straying from my religion. It's more along the lines that I need to figure things out, and I guess no one can do that for me. I'll just have to get past it myself.
So I'll leave with another X-files quote for the day:
"I WANT TO BELIEVE"
Mosquito