Religious Organization

ecclesia
An ecclesia is a professionally trained religious organization governed by a hierarchy of leaders that claims everyone in a society as a member. Membership is not voluntary; it is the law. Consequently, considerable political alignment exists between church and state officials, so that the ecclesia represents the official church of the state. Ecclesiae formerly existed in England (the Church of England) which remains the official state church), France (the Roman Catholic Church), and Sweden (the Church of Sweden [Lutheran]). The Afghan constitution signed in 2004 declares the country to be an Islamic republic, makes Islam the official religion, and announces, "no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam." The Afghan government, however, guarantees non-Muslims the right to "perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the provisions of law".
Individuals are born into ecclesiae, newcomers to a society are converted, and dissenters are often persecuted. Those who do not accept the official religious view tend to emigrate or to occupy a marginal status. The ecclesia claims to be the one true faith and often does not recognize other religions as valid. In its most extreme form, it directly controls all facets of life.

Denomination
In contrast to an ecclesia, a denomination is one of many religious organizations in society. For the most part, denominations tolerate other religious organizations; they may even collaborate with other such organizations to solve problems in society. Although membership is considered to be voluntary, most people who belong to denominations did not choose to join them. Rather, they were born to parents who were members. an established religious group, which has usually been in existence for many years and has geographically widespread membership. It typically unites a group of individual congregations into a single administrative body. Denominations differ greatly in the sharing of power between individual congregations and the central authority. Baptist churches have historically allowed individual churches to hold diverse beliefs. (An exception is the Southern Baptists Convention who reversed centuries of tradition and expelled some congregations over their treatment of homosexuals.) Other denominations, like the Roman Catholic Church, centralize authority, and allow congregations little freedom to deviate in beliefs, practices, or policies. sect A sect is a small religious group that has branched off of a larger established religion. Sects have many beliefs and practices in common with the religion that they have broken off from, but are differentiated by a number of doctrinal differences. In contrast, a denomination is a large, well-established religious group. The word sect comes from the latin secta, meaning an organized religious body or organization, from Latin, meaning a course of action or way of life. Sociologists use the word sect to refer to a religious group with a high degree of tension with the surrounding society, but whose beliefs are (within the context of that society) largely traditional. Membership is by proof to sect authorities of some claim to personal merit. Such as knowledge of doctrine, affirmation of a conversion experience or recommendation of members in good standing; exclusiveness is emphasized and expulsion exercised against those who contravene doctrinal, moral or organization as precepts. Personal perfection is the expected standard of aspiration, in whatever the terms this is judged; it accepts, at least as an ideal, the priest hood of all believers.
Cult
However, the term has since been assigned at least eight new and very different meanings. The original meaning of "cult" remains positive; more recent definitions are neutral, negative, or extremely negative: * Positive Meaning:
This is the historical meaning of the word, but is rarely today heard outside of religious circles. A reference to the "Cult of Mary" appeared in a newspaper report on the Pope's 1999 visit to the Americas. It simply means that the Pope devotes special attention to the Virgin Mary. * Cultural usage: The word is often associated with cult films, cult bands, or cult TV programs. Here, the term "cult" refers to a small but devoted following of a movie, entertainment group or television program. Avid supporters of Star Trek may be referred to as devoted cultists. * Neutral Meanings: * General religious usage: A small, recently created, religious organization which is often headed by a single charismatic leader and is viewed as an spiritually innovative group. A cult in this sense may simply be a new religious movement on its way to becoming a denomination. The Christian religion, as it existed in 30 CE might be considered a cult involving one leader and 12 or 70 devoted disciples as followers. TheMormon denomination was started in the 19th century by Joseph Smith and a few followers; it met this definition of "cult" but has since grown to become an established denomination of about 15 million members. * Negative Meanings: * Evangelical Christians and Counter-Cult Movement (CCM) usage: They define a cult as any religious group which accepts most but not all of the key historical Christian doctrines (e.g. the divinity of Jesus,virgin birth, the Trinity, salvation by faith, not works, etc.). The implication is that the cult's theology is invalid; they teach heresy. Under this definition, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (theMormons), Unification Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many others would be cults. But the CCM would not classify Wicca as such, because it is not associated with Christianity. The earliest use of this meaning of the word "Cult" is believed to be a 1938 book "The Chaos of the Cults" by J.K. VanBaalen. On the other hand, new religious groups such as the Mormons, Unification Church and Jehovah's Witnessesgenerally regard themselves to be the true Christian church. They view all other denominations as being in error. Thus, one group's true church is another group's cult. One group's heresy is the other group's orthodoxy. * Anti-cult movement usage: The anti-cult movement (ACM) attempts to raise public consciousness about what they see as dangerous and authoritarian mind control cults and doomsday cults. Most do not care about the faith group's theology. They target only what they see as deceptive practices, and dangerous psychological pressure techniques, such as brainwashing. The ACM appears to hold opinions about the effectiveness of brainwashing that are not shared by the mental-health community generally. They see mind control/doomsday cults as a widespread social problem. * Very negative meaning: * Popular, media usage: A cult is considered a small, evil religious group, often with a single charismatic leader, that engages in brainwashing and other mind control techniques, believes that the end of the world is imminent, and collects large amounts of weaponry in preparation for a massive war. The earliest use of this meaning of the word is believed to have been in a 1965 book by Walter Martin "The Kingdom of the Cults"