Voice of America: Stevens discusses what defines a cult

An article on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and religious cults on Voice of America News interviews Phillips Stevens, associate professor of anthropology, on what defines a cult. "In the 1980s, this imaginary danger of satanic cults spread across North America," he said. "And the word 'cult' was permanently changed. It had become defined as a group of people who had been brainwashed by a megalomaniacal deluded person who imposed severe restrictions on his followers. And most of these negative connotations are false."