Types Of Religious Organizations

There are hundreds of different religious organizations found in the United States.  There are churches at one end of the spectrum and sects at the other.  But what are the differences:

• Church:  Is a type of religious organization that is well integrated into the larger society.  Church-like organizations usually persist for centuries and include generations of the same families.  Churches have well established rules and regulations and expect their leaders to be formally trained and ordained.  A church may operate with or apart from the state.  A state church is a church formally allied with the state, as illustrated by Islam in Morocco.  A denomination, by contrast, is a church, independent of the state, that accepts religious pluralism.  The United States, which has dozens of Christian denominations including Catholics, Baptists, Methodists and Lutherans, as well as various categories of Judaism, Islam and other traditions.  Members of a denomination hold to their own beliefs, but they accept the right of others to disagree.
• Sect:  is a type of religious organization that stands apart from the larger society.  Sect members have rigid religious convictions and deny the beliefs of others.  Members of a Sect believe religion is not just one aspect of life but a firm plan for how to live.  Sometimes sect members may withdraw completely from society in order to practice their religion without interference.  The Amish are one example of a North American sect that isolates itself.  Because our culture holds up religious tolerance as a virtue, members of sects are sometimes accused of being narrow minded in insisting that they alone follow the true religion.
• Cult:  is a religious organization that is largely outside a society’s cultural traditions.  A cult is typically formed around a highly charismatic leader who offers a compelling message of a new and very different way of life.  As many as 5000 cults exist in the United States.  The deaths of more than eighty cult members in Waco, Texas, in 1993 and the suicides of 39 members of California’s Heaven’s Gate cult in 1997 are examples of people who claimed that dying was a doorway to a higher existence, perhaps in the company of aliens from outer space, confirmed the public’s negative image of most cults.