Is Terry Jones's Dove Center a Cult?

The 4/3/2011 Post story “Local Church that torched Koran has divided pastors, family, and others” noted that some former members of Terry Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville Florida have accused the church of being a “cult.” Sociologists of religion have mixed feelings about the word ‘cult,’ particularly after the 1993 Branch Davidian crisis in Waco Texas, where 76 ‘cult’ members died in a fire after their compound was surrounded and fired upon by government agents. Scholars of religion charge that government authorities investigating the Branch Davidians branded them a “cult’, using the term for ‘deviance amplification,’ in order to lower the public’s identification with the group thus freeing the FBI and BATF to charge the Davidian compound with tanks and tear gas.