My childhood religion was a small American protestant branch of Christianity, many of which sprung up in the prosperous growth of America; in this case at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

While the church "didn't have a name," we called it "The Truth" amongst ourselves.

There is discussion amongst those who have gotten away from this particular church about whether it is a sect or a cult. The difference, of course, is fairly arbitrary, as is that between sect and religion.

And, or course, distinctions based upon status more than upon ideology are mostly a matter of numbers — membership.

After that, most people seem to draw distinctions according to the Bible. Useful, assuming the Bible is true. But that is clearly not the case.

My little church stuck pretty closely to the Bible, I'd say; and that's just being fair. Much of the criticism by past members seems to be the obsessive, and selective, much focused upon its variance from Scripture.

Some of this criticism leads folks to the conclusion that The Truth is a cult.

And people go round and around about this. That's reasonable, in one sense. Taxonomy is important, even if it is only abstract and relative. To give names to groups is a part of the way our minds understand the world around us.

But the assumption — unchallenged — always seems to be that the Bible is the final arbiter.