Cult Label Protested

I take exception to staff writer Amy Pyles’ continued, seemingly automatic labeling of Nichiren Shoshu of America (NSA) as a cult, as she has done in at least four separate articles dating back to last September.

The NSA organization of lay believers is a member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), which comprises some 12 million lay persons who practice Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in 115 countries. SGI’s Japanese organization, the Soka Gakkai, is the largest religious organization in Japan.

This branch of the Buddhist religion is more than 700 years old, and part of the 3,000-year-old Buddhist tradition.

SCI President Daisaku Ikeda in the past year alone has held dialogues with President Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and other distinguished persons, as part of his 30-year quest for world peace. He is also the recipient of the United Nations Peace Medal (1983) and the Humanitarian Award of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (1989), among others.

I once heard it said that a cult is a religion that you don’t understand and don’t like. Is it perhaps because this religion is not as large or well-known in this country as, say, the Roman Catholic Church or Judaism, that The Times feels it can continue to use this denigrating term with impunity to describe us? I think NSA members expect better judgment and more fair treatment from a distinguished publication like The Times.

AL ALBERGATE

West Los Angeles

Albergate is assistant director of community relations for Nichiren Shoshu of America.