A great response to this from the Indiana List:
From this website:
b. Cults tend to require members to undergo a major disruption or change in
life-style.
Lifestyle change is a given in Orthodox cults. You now have to fast
according to the cult's strict guidelines for 40 days before Christmas, 40
days before Pascha, 15 days in August, every Wednesday and Friday, etc. You
have to learn new customs that revolve around what they tell you is "truly
Orthodox." You have to learn the cult's jargon, most of which is negative,
and you have to begin explaining to family and friends that you've adopted a
new lifestyle that will help you "conquer your passions" and "pass through
the toll-houses."
Excuse me, but Orthodoxy requires that members undergo a major disruption
and change in your life-style. Or is someone saying Jesus is a cult leader
that should have been avoided?
And would someone please help me understand how anyone calling themselves
Orthodox could possibly equate guidelines to fast for 40 days before the
Nativity, and Pascha, as being a hallmark sign of a cult? Have things
drifted that far really in the new calendarist churches that its people
cannot even distinguish such a basic practice of the church?