Cults & New
Religious Movements
2011-09-13
2011-09-13 Agenda
Attendance
NRMs in the News
Studying Cults and New Religious
Movements
Slide 2.
Cults in the News
• Arizona church is house of
prostitution, police say
• http://abcnews.go.com/US/phoenixgoddess-temple-raided-allegedbrothel/story?id=14481945
Slide 4.
Studying NRMs
• “Describe what a “cult” is in terms of its
necessary and typical characteristics.
How are the terms “Sect”, “New Religious
Movement” and “High Demand New
Religion” different?
• What is “cult”?
• What components does a “cult” have?
• What do “cults” have in common?
• Are all cults the same?
Slide 5.
What would you call a
“cult”?
• What qualifies a group to be called a cult?
• Name some.
• Necessary characteristics:
• What must a movement have in order to
qualify as a “cult”?
• Typical characteristics:
• What do cults typically but not necessarily
have?
Slide 6.
Necessary
characteristics
• Fringe (not mainstream in numbers or
area)
• Religious beliefs?
• Recently begun?
• High-demands placed on members
Slide 7.
(Stereo-)Typical
characteristics
• High-demand
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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• Self-sacrifice for the cause
Encapsulation (us & them attitudes)
Charismatic leader
Peculiar scriptures or teachings
Difficult to leave?
Unreasonable?
Aggressive recruiting?
Apocalyptic?
Violent?
Sexually deviant?
Slide 8.
Differences between
“cult” and:
• “Sect”
• More established than “cult”, a branch within a larger
religion.
• “New Religious Movement”
• Carries no negative connotations
• Not everything considered a “cult” (especially by the
ACM) is new. (e.g. gnosticism, Freemasonry)
• “High Demand New Religion”
• Not everything considered a “cult” puts high demands on
its members (e.g., New Age Movement, Wicca).
• “Alternative Religion”
• Who decides what is mainstream and what is not?
• Does it vary from place to place (Mormonism in Utah;
Judaism in Antigonish)?
Slide 9.
Biased portrayals of
cults
• Media portrayals
• Dangerous Devotion video
• Counter-Cult Movement:
• Walter Martin on Christian Cults
• According to Martin, what makes something
a cult?
• In these
Slide 10.
Hadden’s cult
opponent types
• Religiously grounded opposition
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•
•
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Purpose:
protect members (especially youth) from heresy
increase solidarity among the faithful
Method: expose teachings contrary to scripture
• Secular opposition
•
•
•
individual autonomy
getting people out of groups using mind control and deceptive
proselytization.
organized around families
•
Former members
•
•
broadcasters and journalists
Publishing and depgrogramming
• Apostates
• Entrepreneurial opposition
Slide 11.
The solution to the
media / ACM problem
• Academic research that:
• Doesn’t lump all NRMs together
• Recognizes NRMs are not something new
• Does not let truth claims about beliefs
interfere with research
• Seeks to learn about ourselves from NRMs
Slide 12.
For Next Class
(Thursday)
• Read the
introduction to
America’s
Alternative
Religions (pages 19)
• Write the online
quiz
Slide 13.