Reply To: Is there any difference between a religion and a cult?

I believe that in addition to many of the above ‘stuff’, a huge determiner of cult is when the leader starts doing things that are wrong (halachically, morally) and people keep following anyway. Which is why Avirah is wrong about Berland followers. He may have been a talmid chochom at one time but as soon as he was rubbing his hands on female faces, telling people to put explosives under a bed and other things out in the open to followers who don’t call him out on it, well, that’s when it’s a cult. If CH”V a gadol or talmid chochom displayed these behaviors in public, yidden would shut him out.
The problem is when it involves bad behavior done in private. I am not addressing that because there are other factors involved, but PUBLIC displays of inappropriate behavior that are accepted by ‘followers’ indicates cult behavior at worst and non Jewish behavior at best.