What I am about to declare below is not spoken to you, the general-public reader, as a government official of the State - but rather as an American citizen under the jurisdiction of the pluralistically-worded [religious] Non-Establishment/Non-Prohibition Clause of the First Amendment of the present United States Constitution.

Recently, there has been a flap pertaining to a statement made by a Rick Perry for President supportive pastor at a non-governmental-sponsored morality convention inferring that the Mormon religion of Mitt Romney is [purportedly]: a "cult."

The anti-Mormon statement was strongly objected to by jewish radio talkshow host Michael Medved, and by TV commentators and catholic Sean Hannity plus Dick Morris (among others also, I would guess).

The latter men mentioned must, of course, realize that under the United States Constitution and related government documents, selective discrimination and differentiation of various religions is quite permissible because of the American principle of free speech - even if that free speech seems to be ["legally"] condemnatory, slanderous, or defamatory in the opinions of some critics and naysayers.

The Ultimate Arbitrator, obviously, is the "God" in whom we all allegedly trust, as printed on our paper money and coins, and it is the very definition of that "God" and who He is and what He wants which is the crux of the matter....especially in defining exactly what is and what is not a "cult" to be respected and believed, or instead disdained and disbelieved.

Definining, for general-public approval, what a "cult" is, depends upon the criteria for describing not merely the tenents of the belief (and I prefer to use that word instead of the term: "faith") but also, of necessity, those who subscribe or adhere to such belief or superstition.

Taking into consideration all presently-available information which yours truly currently is aware of, and both fairly and honestly applying such, I would say that not only in view of researched documents of founding fathers forming early America, but particularly using the Holy Bible privately or publicly utilized by many of such men, determination can be made regarding evaluation of the subject of cults:

First Corinthians 2:15 The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

The Divinely-discriminatory non-egocentric Almighty-conferred credentials to judge what is and what is not a cult and associating who and who does not espouse the cultic doctrines and superstitions, is established, for example, by the following Divinely-discriminatory non-egocentric Scripture verses: First John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.

First John 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is an antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
First John 2:27 ...but the anointing which you received from Him resides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, stay in Him.

First John 3:1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
First John 3:2 Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
First John 3:10 By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the Devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.
First John 3:24 All who keep His commandments reside in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He resides in us, by the Spirit who He has given us.

First John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many [cultic] false prophets have gone out into the world.
First John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
First John 4:3 and every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.
First John 4:4 Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
First John 4:5 They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them.
First John 4:6 We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

First John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. First John 5:1 Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child.
First John 5:4 For whoever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
First John 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
First John 5:9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that He has given witness to His Son.
First John 5:10 He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given to His Son.
First John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of The Evil One.
First John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Is Judaism, a Messiah-rejecting superstition disbelieving the Divinity and Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Bible-declared Son of God, Creator of the heavens and earth, the Pre-Existing One with the [genuine] Holy Father and the Holy Spirit....rightfully considered a "cult?"

Is Islam another infidel presumption rejecting the Divinity and Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Bible-declared Son of God, Creator of the heavens and earth, the Pre-Existing One with the [genuine] Holy Father and the Holy Spirit....also rightfully considered a "cult?"

Defining a "cult" gets even more precisely defined by which religious writings are considered "Sacred Text" and "Holy Scriptures" - as contrasted to which are spurious and apostate heresies.

Here it gets really detailed and practical - because not merely are proponents of Judaism found to have a shorter "bible" than they should (consisting of simply the Old Testament books) and even additional Talmudic apocryphal-like additions essentially put on par pertaining to importance for reference in interpreting and applying Old-Testament sacred text....but even proponents of Roman and Eastern Catholicism have a larger "bible" than they should, with the addition not only of the apocryphal Old-Testament books of Sirach, Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Baruch, and others with additional pseudo-divine encyclicals from various popes.

It almost goes without saying that the ["allah"-substitionary] contents of the Qur'an (i.e. the Koran) satanic verses of muslims contains no books of the canonical Christian Bible, but instead is clearly a flowery-poetic plagiaristic rehash and somewhat-antisemitic revisionism against both the Judeo-Christian Old and New Testament writings which renegade-terrorist Mohammed stole from 500 years after the birth of Christ.

And Mormons (even more than Jehovah's Witnesses) put The Book of Mormon (written by Mormon-founder Joseph Smith) on equal status with their mis-renditions? of the Christian Bible.

So what do Mormons believe about the identity and nature of the Divine Creator and Trinitarian-Deity-Member Jesus Christ?

Do they, do jews of judaism, do muslims of islam, do buddhists, do native american indians, do hindu and shinto idolaters, and a conglomeration of tribal or mysticism others, consider the Lord Jesus Christ as being part of the always-having-existed Godhead and presently effective and alive as the Atoning Redeemer of the penitent? Do they regard Him as THE chief and vital component of "The [Christian] Gospel?"

IF not, if they have other gods or idols as substitutes or additions, they are by definition: "cultic."

Even if they belong to what has been called "mainline Christian denominations" (such as Lutherans, Methodist, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and even Catholics), do they espouse pro-feminist, pro-feminist, pro-evolutionists, and/or other anti-Scriptural heresies against the very Bible they profess to exhibit allegiance to?

If so, they themselves are individually cultic apostates within such protestant and catholic sects...and both rightly labeled and responded against as such.