"Paul [w]as by all accounts, a self-confessed homosexual."

That's just plain rubbish. Complete a-historic clap-trap. Little wonder AlanB believes it. I've explained to him before where this anti-Christian meme came from, but facts don't matter if you really want it to be true.

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Is Christianity a cult? By one definition, the most benign, yes.

But this is all part of the bastardisation of the language that Orwell identified. Take a word with positive overtones (eg Gay) and apply it to things you like. Do it often enough and the dull of thought buy it.

Take a word with negative connotations and apply it to things you want to denigrate. Do it often enough and the dull of thought buy it.

"And the beat goes on....."

Of course Christian-ism is a cult. Anyone who suggests otherwise just has not done their homework.
These two related references describe the characteristics of cults and cultism. And in extreme cases the collective insanity of such.
http://www.beezone.com/adi-da/cultism.html
http://www.dabase.org/up-4-2.htm

Is there a definition of a cult which does not at least include some agreement over some ideas among its members?

With about 2,000 different groups which drastically disagree over practically anything, including even about their understanding of the teachings and identity of their central figure, Jesus Christ, at times even warring about their differences, how could any rational person suggest that all of those billions of people form one cult?

NO, christianity is clearly NOT a cult.

But secular, humanist atheism or "scientific" socialism or communism or Leftism or as i call it, Left Wing Religion is absolutely a cult.

Leftism deifies or worships their "Dear Leaders".
Leftism dogmatically drums leftist theology into it's cult members.
Leftists display ALL the symptoms of brainwashed cult members.

The rule of thumb for what is, and what is not, "a cult", Peter Bowden, is that organised religions with millions or billions of adherents are "religions", and new faiths populated by dozens, hundreds, or thousands, many with what most would consider bizarre beliefs, "cults." So no, Christianity is not a cult.

I get from the rest of your spray, that you seem to be another neo Marxist who quite obviously sneers at the right side of politics. My perception of neo Marxists is that they hate white people, since they never stop blaming my race for the dysfunctions of the dysfunctional races the Left now courts as their new electorate. So, I don't take too seriously anything that lefties like you say, although it is interesting to read your thoughts.

As a neo Marxist, it is only natural that you should hate Christianity and sneer at it in this essay you have written. After all, neo Marxism is very much a religion itself as it has it's own ideology it can not prove is right, and it does not want questioned. It also claims to be the protectors of the oppressed, and if it has the power, it savagely attacks anyone as a heretic who opposes it. And though neo Marxism does not promise paradise after death, it promises instead a multicultural utopia in life.

The main problem with neo Marxism is that by promising nirvana in the present life, it has to explain why it failed in every one of the 54 countries stupid enough to adopt it. At least the Christians have to wait until they are dead to realise that they were being had.

As Marxism is now resurgent as neo Marxism and is gaining believers all over the western world, where universities now seem to be the new cathedrals, I would grant both Christianity and neo Marxism the status of "religions."

Yes it most certainly is a cult..
The bible is a dangerous book that preys on the downtrodden and destitute like a pedophile grooms children.
It's full of harmful ideology that will make people lose all sense of themselves.

I'll show you some:

http://www.gotquestions.org/prodigal-son.html

"When our sons and daughters go off on their own—assuming they are of legal age to do so—and make choices that we know will bring hard consequences, parents must let go and allow them to leave. The parent does not follow after, and the parent does not interfere with the consequences that will come. Rather, the parent stays at home, keeps faithfully praying and watching for the signs of repentance and a change of direction. Until that comes, parents keep to their own counsel, do not support the rebellion, and do not interfere"

So basically, if your child does not follow your religion, you disown them and deliberately let them fail, so that they do come home on their knees begging for Jesus.

"If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city. 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear."

If your child's stubborn, rebellious, fat and drinks
The bible's quite clear, you need to have them stoned to death;
So that they don't bring shame upon you, in this religious theocratic utopia.

That's not 'Ensuring your child's physical and emotional wellbeing' or 'Having their best interests'.
Which makes it nothing more than a religious cult;