For some reason, people who don't know anything about the religion tend to call Santería a cult.  I suspect they don't know what the word cult means, or if they do, they don't know enough about Santería to understand why cult's the wrong word to describe it.  The dictionary definition of cult says that it's a new religious movement with a limited set of followers.  It's organized around a self-appointed charismatic leader who isn't accountable to anyone else.  Cults use psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain members.  None of these characteristics apply to Santería.  Santería's roots are in Africa and date back to the era before Christ.  Millions of people around the world practice Santería. No individual is at the center of the religion.  Religious beliefs are passed down from the ancestors and dogma isn't developed by any one person.  And, Santería doesn't recruit new members.  People who are initiated into the religion have free will.  They can study the religion, be involved with the community, and practice the religion to the degree they want. 

When we look at secondary definitions of the word cult, it becomes a little clearer why some people choose it when talking about Santería.  Webster's Dictionary, for example, says the word cult is used for religions that are considered unorthodox and spurious (that is to say, phony).  Another dictionary says it refers to a small group of people whose religious beliefs are considered strange or sinister by other people.  Cult carries negative connotations, and is used to put down the beliefs of people who are perceived to be outside the mainstream.  So, doesn't the choice of the word cult imply religious intolerance?  To me, it does.

Religion has a more positive meaning for most people  It refers to a belief system that puts human beings in communication with a higher power that's recognized as divine and sacred.  Religion helps humans understand the universe, their purpose in life, and proper conduct in human affairs.  Santería has all of these defining traits.  For anyone who practices Santería, there's no doubt that it's a religion.  Why are others reluctant to use that word to describe it?  There are some complicated thought processes at work behind the choice of words, and it's worthwhile to look at some of them more closely.

In the simplest terms, cults are bad and religions are good.  To grant a belief system the status of religion means showing respect for the people who practice that religion, having an awareness of the history and the culture that produced the religion, and being tolerant of religious differences.  In Western culture, the Judeo-Christian tradition is the predominant one.  Immigrants introduced other religions like Islam, Buddhism, and Hindu, and while people who practice those religions aren't necessarily integrated into the mainstream, for the most part there's an awareness among the general population that "foreigners" sometimes practice a religion different from our own.   They can be the victims of religious intolerance and negative stereotypes, but for the most part, no one questions that Islam and Buddhism are religions.  At least I've never heard anyone call them cults.

Santería is practiced by an estimated million people in the USA today, and globally, we're talking about as many as 100 million practitioners.  These aren't small numbers.  But, Santería isn't as visible as some other religions. For example, there aren't Santería churches where people congregate on a specific day of the week to attend Mass or hear a sermon.  There's no way to immediately identify a Santería practitioner, because they can be people of any race, ethnicity, age group or profession.  Many are people of color, bringing up the whole issue of racism for us to consider - notice how often people call Santería a "primitive" religion? What makes it primitive?  It's association with Africa?  African had highly developed civilizations when people in Northern Europe still lived in caves.   There's still a shadow over Santería, associating it with "those people" who are dark skinned and poor, due to the fact that for years in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean, it was a religion embraced by slaves and the descendants of slaves rather than the wealthy white elite.  Today, there are Santeros/as who are doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, architects, writers, artists, businessmen and women, entrepreneurs; not everyone who practices the religion is poor and undereducated.  The religion has been embraced by smart people who are leaders in their communities, but not everyone knows they practice Santería.  Why?  Because there's still some fear of rejection, loss of position and prestige, social marginalization by others who find Santería objectionable.  How many people in mainstream society would feel comfortable going to a doctor who openly declares that he's also a practicing Santero?

The process of making Santería more acceptable in mainstream culture is a slow and painful one.  It's something like the process of a gay person coming out of the closet.  There's risk involved.  Rejection.  Loss.  Punishment.  Despite the fact that our constitution says we have religious freedom, there's still a lot of intolerance for religions that are too different from the mainstream ones.  I don't know that there's any solution to the problem, but I do know that words matter. Choosing to use the word religion and correcting people who use the word cult to talk about Santería is a very tiny step, but at least it's a step in the right direction.  First, admit that it IS a religion, and from there, we'll work on correcting other misconceptions.