Did somebody mention cult? I'll be the voice of cult out here.
The local church is not a cult like Jim Jones, or Heaven's Gate. Nobody is gonna drink poison Kool-Aid, or commit suicide expecting a spaceship to pick them up.
The local church is a cult because they usurp the mind. In fact, they are proud of being out of their mind.
And they are a cult of the personality type, a personality cult, because, they devote their life to following one man; their MOTA.
The problem of calling the local church a cult is that they are basically an evangelical Christian movement. So calling them a cult brands by extension evangelicalism a cult.
Why do you think CRI came out with "We Were Wrong? They didn't want to also be branded a cult ... which they are ... them and Hank, The Bible Answer Man. He's been constantly hitting me up for money in email for years now. And was prolly paid off by the local church cult to withdraw their claim that the local church is a cult.
http://www.equip.org/PDF/EnglishOpt.pdf
You boys, and gals, from the mid-west were buffered by Titus Chu. So I understand why you don't think the local church is a cult. But praise be to the Lord, ya'all were quarantined by that cult. That should tell you something about LSM. Stop cutting them slack.
Say it loud. Say it proud : LSM is a cult.