Dodgy American pastor's top in cult (7)
I believe the answer is:
suspect
'dodgy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american pastor's top in cult' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'top' says to take the initial letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'cult' becomes 'sect' (I've seen this before).
The initial letter of 'pastors' is 'p'.
'us'+'p'='usp'
'usp' going within 'sect' is 'SUSPECT'.
(Other definitions for suspect that I've seen before include "Dodgy" , "Doubt - man being questioned by police" , "Consider or believe likely" , "Believe without being certain" , "Believe (something) possible or probable" .)