Yeah, I've felt that for awhile now. With the genuine five religions, if somebody steers too far from mainstream you can point to a source text or a chief guru to declare what is a reasonable level of independence. Honestly, it's a purely American phenomenon. The cults must be dependent upon the civil religion of capitalism/self-interest, which I am now currently under the belief is the problem. None of these new cults demand anything from their believers, just money. No change, no acts of willful obedience, just a quiet passing of filthy lucre.
As evil as the Roman Catholic Church and the House of Saud are, they actually demand things from their followers, and failure to abide by their declared doctrinal tenets amount in communal self-expulsion. Not so with Oprahtology.
As a former Lutheran, I've always thought that the positive thing about certain religious people compared to wishy-washy Methodists or people who are just "spiritualist" or "searchers" is that they're at least potentially willing to confront unpleasant truths, given that they're willing to confront an unpleasant fantasy
I despise Christians who both believe in hell and have never personally worried that they themselves will go to hell upon death. It shows a deep lack of introspection and self-awareness
Remember when that one UFO cult had 99% professed members in government and used the American military to wipe out a hundred thousand members of that other UFO cult in the Middle East, and now the whole region is in UFO cult open warfare?
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