Copyright Ian Ellis-Jones 2012 - All Rights Reserved.

1. IS UNITARIANISM A CULT?
By The Rev. Dr Ian Ellis-Jones
Unitarian Ministries International Clergy, Columbia, South Carolina, United States of America
Former Senior Minister, Sydney Unitarian Church, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Definitely not, but all of the mainstream Christian churches are cults, as are many other
religious bodies and associated belief systems. Here’s why.
A cult, in the belief that it alone possesses the complete truth, almost always claims
some new, special or unique revelation or asserts that it has or holds the "keys" to the
inner mysteries of life or to salvation, and it is usually the case that the cult's leaders
and/or founders make similar claims, often going so far as to consider all other religious
systems to be apostate or simply wrong, and almost always making hostile remarks
about those other religious systems (even where they are mainstream). Unitarianism
does not, nor do any of its clergy.
A cult invariably pays unhealthy and disproportionate homage to its founders and
leaders, and often invests or envisages those persons with special powers not ordinarily
possessed by the bulk of humanity (eg supposed powers of prophecy, clairvoyance,
etc), whilst also investing the teachings and writings of its founders or leaders with the
impress of great authority, even finality, if not infallibility. Unitarianism does none of
those things.
A cult is a system of religious beliefs and/or religious movement that does one or other
or both of the following things:
• it directly or indirectly, and often subliminally, replaces one’s own beliefs with its
own (whether by means of outright indoctrination or, more usually, by more
subtle but no less insidious means such as submission, express or implied
agreement, and acquiescence)
• it gives legitimacy only to its own teachings (often making claims for and about its
sacred scriptures that the scriptures don't make themselves), such that, if a
person cannot or does not conform, they are excluded whether by formal
excommunication or other means (eg disconnection, censure, ostracism, etc).
Unitarianism is and does none of the above, and is totally inclusive, leaving nobody out.
(Ethnic and culturally based churches are inherently vulnerable to becoming cultish in
nature, worshipping a "tribal God" largely of their own respective making. As the
American Baptist minister Harry Emerson Fosdick once wrote, "Better believe in no God
than to believe in ... a tribal God, a sectarian God.")
Unitarianism is altogether different, being both a denominational and a
transdenominational vehicle for all spiritual seekers ... irrespective of their religious
affiliation (if any), ethno-cultural background, sexual orientation, and so forth.
Unitarianism freely shares its teachings with all churches and organizations and with all
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2. peoples, and it has always had a broad and liberal spiritual focus ... a "free church"
based on the principles of reason, freedom and tolerance.
Unitarianism came out of the Protestant Reformation when many people claimed the
right to privately read and interpret the Bible for themselves and to set their own
conscience, as well as reason, as a test of the teachings of religion.
The theological roots of Unitarianism can be found in early Judaism as well as in 16th
century Europe (in particular, Hungary, Poland and Romania) when some prominent
Biblical scholars affirmed the notion that the Divine was One and Indivisible, and
challenged the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was uniquely and exclusively God.
The philosophical roots of Unitarianism can be found in such people as the Stoics, the
Epicureans, and the Skeptics, all of whom affirmed natural morality, freedom from
superstition, and salvation by character.
Unitarian churches impose no particular creed, article or profession of faith upon our
members and adherents. Unitarians are therefore free to explore and develop their own
distinctive spirituality and are encouraged to do so in a responsible way ... that is, with
reason and freedom from superstition. Unitarianism is often described as religion with
reason, and spirituality without superstition.
Unitarianism has expanded beyond its Christian roots with many modern day Unitarians
embracing Humanism, agnosticism, various forms of theism and post-theism, non-
theistic belief systems such as Buddhism, progressive Christianity and earth-based
spirituality. In short, Unitarianism affirms the underlying truth of all open and tolerant
religion, sensibly interpreted.
Unitarians believe that the sacred or holy is ordinarily made manifest in the
enchantment of everyday life, and embraces all persons and things as part of an
interdependent cosmic web.
Unitarians seek to live together in peace and promote the highest good for all, relying
upon the authority of reason, conscience and experience in order to arrive at solutions
to problems in a spirit of rational humaneness.
Yes, most if not all of the mainstream Christian churches regard Unitarianism as a cult.
As proof of this Unitarian churches have consistently been denied membership to the
World Council of Churches and their affiliated bodies around the world. However, keep
in mind the above mentioned definition of a cult, namely, a system of religious beliefs
that replaces one’s own beliefs with its own, and a religious movement that gives
legitimacy only to its own teachings, such that, if a person cannot or does not conform,
they are excluded whether by formal excommunication or other means.
By this definition all of the mainstream Christian churches are cults, with the Roman
Catholic Church being the largest and most successful of them all. Each member has to
conform and fit the denominational bed ... or else! Ditto with Sydney Anglicanism, which
has become a cult within a much larger cult (the latter being the worldwide Anglican
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3. Communion) ... a cult which wishes to continue calling itself Anglican, thereby retaining
its valuable real estate and properties, but rejecting the primacy of the Archbishop of
Canterbury by, for example, boycotting the most recent decennial Lambeth Conference
convened by the worldwide head of the Anglican Communion.
In my relatively short lifetime (55 years) I have witnessed a religious body such as the
Seventh-day Adventist Church go from being a cult to a church, and the Sydney
Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia go from being a church (or group of
churches) to a cult. (Bishop John Shelby Spong is banned by the Anglican Archbishop
of Sydney from speaking in Anglican [Episcopalian] churches in the Diocese of Sydney.)
Amazing!
A cult says things like:
• "God has spoken His final word in His one and only Divine Son Jesus Christ.”
• "Unless you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and Lord, you will go to Hell."
• "God has spoken His final word in His final prophet Muhammad."
• "Muhammad was the last person in history with whom God communicated directly."
• "Jesus is the only way to God, and the only name by which one may be saved."
• "Outside the [Roman Catholic] Church there is no salvation (extra ecclesiam nulla
salus).”
• "The Roman Catholic Church is the one, true Church - all other churches are man-
made."
• "When the Pope speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals, he is infallible - he
cannot err on any such matters."
• "If Christianity is right, all other world religions are wrong."
• "In the case of all other religions their founder has died and is still in the grave.
Christianity is the only faith where their leader is alive."
• "The Book of Mormon is divine scripture, equal in authority to the Bible, having been
taken from the earth with the death of the original apostles, but restored to Joseph Smith
Jr by those who held them anciently, thereby resulting in a full restoration of primitive
Christianity."
• "Emanuel Swedenborg [the Swedish occultist and purported medium who believed his
own writings were the Second Coming of Christ] received a new revelation from
continuous heavenly visions which he experienced over a period of at least 25 years."
• "The Liberal Catholic Church exists to recover the lost Gnosis, and to establish it in its
rightful place as true teaching and, therefore, essential to the Catholic religion”; "Each
word of the [Liberal Catholic] Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist was clairvoyantly inspired";
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4. "The World Teacher, the Lord Maitreya, brought the Church into being and approved its
Liturgy." (In the case of the last mentioned church, the stated intent of one of its founding
bishops, C W Leadbeater, of and on the occasion of his consecration to the episcopacy,
was that of self-empowerment, namely to increase his supposed psychic powers, which
is not true sacramental "intention", the latter being one of the necessary Catholic
requirements for the reception of valid holy orders and the dispensing of valid
sacraments.)
Unitarianism, although by no means perfect, makes no such claims or assertions. We
believe that no one religion is right to the exclusion of all others. We believe that no one
church or religion or person has a monopoly on the Truth ... and we do not believe in
supposedly infallible sacred scriptures or infallible leaders. Everything must be
subjected to the light of reason. Unitarianism's tolerance toward other religions,
philosophies and ideologies does not mean we tolerate what is wrong, harmful or just
plain stupid.
True it is that the word “cult” is inherently pejorative, and in the eyes of the law all
religions are equal and are “cults”, but that does not render nugatory what I have written
above.
Unitarians are proud to be different. We don’t mind being called heretics. The word
“heretic” comes from a Greek word meaning “one who chooses”. Unitarians choose to
be different. They choose to believe in what, in good conscience, they are each capable
of believing.
-oo0oo-
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