What a new religious movement is, and why the term is debated

Program / Course 18: World Religions / Lesson 5.1

What you will learn

• Define new religious movement and explain why scholars prefer it to the word cult.
• Distinguish church, sect, denomination and new religious movement as scholars use the terms.
• Describe the main reasons people join and leave such movements, and the real harms that sometimes occur.
• State a method for describing any movement fairly and testing its claims.

The big idea

A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious group that has arisen in recent history, usually within the last two centuries, and that stands in some tension with the dominant religion of its setting. Scholars use the term because the word cult has become a label of abuse. The category is broad and includes small harmless groups, large worldwide churches and a few dangerous communities. A fair student describes the group in its own terms first, then assesses its claims and conduct by clear standards.

Key terms

New religious movement (NRM)

The scholarly term for a relatively new religious group that is distinct from the established religions of its society.

Cult

In popular use, a pejorative label for a group thought to be dangerous or deviant. In the Christian sense, an older word for worship. In sociology, a small group with new ideas and few ties to established religion.

Sect

A group that has broken from a larger religious body, in strong tension with society, claiming to restore the true form of the faith.

Denomination

A well established religious body with relaxed relations with the wider society, such as the Methodists or Lutherans.

Charismatic leader

A leader whose authority rests on personal gifts or claims of special revelation, rather than on office or tradition.

Heresy and schism

Heresy is the denial of an essential Christian doctrine. Schism is a break in unity of the church without a necessary difference in doctrine.

Coercive control

A pattern of pressure, isolation and manipulation that restricts a person’s freedom, whether in a religious group or elsewhere.

Background

Every great religion was new once. Christianity began as a small movement in a first century province and was called a sect (Acts 24:5, 28:22). The study of new religious movements as a field arose in the 1960s and 1970s, when many young people in Europe and America joined movements such as the Hare Krishnas, the Unification Church and the Children of God. Scholars such as Eileen Barker, J. Gordon Melton and Rodney Stark studied them using interviews and field work.

Public attitudes were shaped by tragedies, such as the deaths at Jonestown in 1978, the Branch Davidian fire at Waco in 1993 and the Heaven’s Gate suicides in 1997. These events were real and terrible, but scholars warn that they are not typical. Most movements are small and nonviolent, and the great majority of members join and leave without harm. A fair account holds both facts together.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Why the word cult is avoided

In everyday speech, cult means a group that is strange, dangerous or controlling. Used this way, the word closes the question before any study. It can also be used unfairly against groups simply for being unfamiliar or small. Christians have sometimes used it to mean any group that departs from their doctrine, and this blurs two matters: a group’s theology and its treatment of its members.

Scholars therefore prefer new religious movement. This does not mean that all groups are good. It means that a group is first described, and only then judged, by identifying specific claims and specific conduct.

Step 2: Types of movements

NRMs differ. Some come from Christianity and reinterpret it, such as the Latter-day Saints or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some come from Asian religions and have spread to the West, such as Hare Krishna or Transcendental Meditation. Some are new religions of the twentieth century, such as Scientology or Wicca and modern Paganism. Some are loose spiritual networks, as in New Age practice. Some are large, such as the Latter-day Saints, with over seventeen million members, and others have a few dozen.

Scholars sometimes classify them by their relation to the world: some withdraw from it, some seek to change it and some accept it while adding spiritual practices. Not all are authoritarian. Some are loose and egalitarian.

Step 3: Why people join and leave

Early public theories held that people were brainwashed into joining. Most scholars today reject a simple form of this theory, since many people leave and most do not stay long. Studies find that people join through friends and family, through a search for meaning or community, and because the teaching appeals to them. Scholars also recognize that some groups use high pressure methods, such as isolation, sleep deprivation and control of information, and that these do harm.

Former members give varied accounts. Some regret their time, and some say it helped them. A fair student listens to those who stay, and to those who leave, without assuming that either account tells the whole story.

Step 4: Testing a movement

A useful method asks two sets of questions. The first concerns teaching: What does the group say about God, Christ, scripture, salvation and its own leader? How does this compare with the creeds of historic Christianity, if it claims Christian roots? Does it add new scripture or revelation as a final authority? Here Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches generally judge by the Nicene Creed and the Trinity, and many conclude that some movements fall outside historic Christianity even if they use Christian words.

The second concerns conduct: Are members free to question and to leave? Is the leader accountable? How are money, family ties and medical choices treated? Is there abuse or deception? Jesus’ test, that a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 7:16), is sometimes applied here. Both sets of questions matter, and they should not be confused: a group may be doctrinally far from Christianity and conduct itself decently, and a group with orthodox doctrine may still abuse its members.

Step 5: Speaking about members

Members of NRMs are persons, often sincere and intelligent. A Christian approach begins by listening and by naming accurately what the group teaches. Contempt does not help the member to hear a question. Many former members say that what held them was a sense of belonging, and that what helped them to leave was a friend who remained kind.

Christians also have a duty to guard their own communities: to teach the creeds clearly, to welcome strangers, and to respond to spiritual hunger so that it is not left to groups that exploit it.

1. What is the difference between disagreeing with a group’s doctrine and objecting to its conduct?
2. Why might calling a group a cult make honest study harder?
3. What draws a person to a new movement, and what might the church learn from that?
4. How do the criteria of teaching and conduct work together?
5. What would it mean to describe a group’s beliefs in a way its members would accept?
6. How would you respond to a friend who joins such a group?

Examples

Different perspectives

Scholars of new religious movements

Researchers such as Eileen Barker stress that most NRMs are small, short lived and not harmful, and that the brainwashing theory has not held up. Others, including some sociologists and former members, argue that some groups use coercive methods and that scholars have sometimes been too sympathetic. The debate is active.

Catholic

The Catholic Church has issued documents on sects and new religious movements (a 1986 Vatican report) that recognize the real spiritual hunger behind them and ask Catholics to respond with better catechesis and welcome. It also warns of groups that manipulate and deceive,.

Orthodox

Orthodox churches regard groups that depart from the apostolic faith as outside the Church, and speak of the need to hold fast to the Tradition. Orthodox writers also stress pastoral care for persons who have been drawn into such groups, and the need for the Church’s life to attract through worship and community.

Protestant

Evangelical Protestants have produced a counter-cult tradition that studies new groups to expose what it takes to be false teaching, often using the creed and Scripture as the test. Other Protestants criticize this approach as hostile and prefer dialogue. Protestants differ on how much weight to put on a group’s own account of itself.

Members of movements

Members often say that they feel misrepresented by outsiders, and that their group answers needs the older churches did not. They ask that critics read the group’s own texts and speak with members. Fairness asks that their account be heard, together with the accounts of former members.

Why it matters

Christians will meet members of newer movements as neighbors, coworkers and family. Knowing how to describe such groups carefully protects against slander and against naivete. It also helps the church to ask why people look elsewhere for belonging and meaning.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. What have you heard about new religious groups, and where did you hear it?
2. What needs might a movement meet that a church sometimes does not?
3. How would you discuss a movement with a member of your family who joined it?
4. Where is the line between disagreement and contempt?

Independent assignment

Describing a movement fairly

In your notebook, choose a movement you know little about and read a short statement by the group of its beliefs. Write about 250 words describing the group in its own terms. Then write about 250 words applying the two sets of questions: teaching (compare with the Nicene Creed) and conduct. Name your sources and mark which statements come from the group and which from critics.

Further study

• Council of Nicaea (325) and Council of Constantinople (381), The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Use as the standard historic Christian test of teaching about God and Christ.
• Huston Smith, The World’s Religions Read for the way fair accounts of other faiths are written.
• Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 14) Read for how the early church defined Christian teaching against rival views.
• Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits.
• 1 John 4:1 Try the spirits whether they are of God.
• Acts 24:14 Paul answers the charge of belonging to a sect.
• Galatians 1:8 Another gospel.