Westboro Baptist Church=Left Wing Cult?

[Annik]

Annik, they're actually productive members of society, just they want to change society as well. Lots of people want to change society, there's nothing unique about that, or 'culty' about that in and of itself.

I think you misunderstand how a cult is defined. Let me dig up the verbatim description for you from my psychology of religion textbook (as it will probably explain a little better).

Cults are novel forms of religion, which not surprisingly, are likely to emerge in tension both with established religious groups (such as churches and sects) and with the host culture. As such, we can expect that sects and cults share a rejection of their host culture or at least some aspects of their host culture, and are likely to be rejected by their host culture in turn. As with sects, there are belief differences between cults and their host culture. There are also likely to be close patterns of interaction among cult members, as well as retaliatory actions on the part of the host culture towards them-- all of which create a more defined religiously deviant subculture for cults rather than for sects. This occurs not only because cults are novel and hence lack previous religious legitimation, but also because their leaders likely to be a solitary, powerful, charismatic figures.

As I hope the above makes clear, WBC is a sect, but it also shares many, many similarities with cults. In fact, the only difference is that WBC is not a novel religion, but is based on Christianity. Whether or not the members are productive in society is irrelevant. The WBC is obviously hostile to the culture they are hosted in (doing such things as protesting at funerals of soldiers and massacred children) and in return, the host culture retaliates (by doing things like trying to keep the protestors from getting close to the funerals, trying to get WBC classified as a hate group, Anon. attacks, ect.). Since it is not a true cult, as WBC is not novel, it is a sect. However, the group toes the line with cults, making it resemble a cult-like sect (or, as my stellar word-smithry produced, "cult-y sect").