alexmegami (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexmegami) wrote2006-07-23 10:38 pm
alexmegami) wrote2006-07-23 10:38 pm
Entry tags:
For Allie
The characteristics of a cult/new religious movement, as defined in Sociology 262 at the University of Waterloo by professor Lorne Dawson, Jan 5 2005.
(That is to say: some things may have changed, but it is fairly recent information.)
There are two basic types of cults: "innovative" (Scientology, etc.) and "imported" (Hare Krishna, etc.)
The following characteristics are "ideals" of each type. Cults are a kind of offshoot of sects, which will be explained a little later. I'm going to do up the chart that we were given, as it seems easiest...
CHURCH/SECT TYPOLOGY
KEY FEATURES OF CULTS
1. Primarily concerned with satisfying the needs and desires of its members.
2. Lay claim to esoteric knowledge that has been lost (ex. Templars), discovered (ex. Atlantis), or repressed (ex. "true self"/Thetan)
3. Offer some kind of direct, ecstatic, or transfiguring experience (ex. magic)
4. Focused on a charismatic leader - often, a cult will disintegrate when the leader dies or is discredited
(5. Society tends to see them as "subversive")
Often times, especially back in the sixties, "cults" are/were offshoots of Eastern religions (for example, Hare Krishna was based in ecstatic devotional Hinduism), and a lot of the backlash towards these religions may have been based in anti-Eastern sentiment. Cults are often seen as the production of a backlash against "traditional American" values (Christianity, materialism and utilitarianism). They really saw a rise in the sixties and seventies as part of the counterculture movement, and as immigration started to rise.
Student activists tended to make up the bulk of cult memberships - and, seeing that their activism really wasn't doing much, they became jaded and cynical with the outside world, instead focusing on purifying the spiritual, inner world. "The external world can't be saved; the internal one can." Cults were also more personal than the world - whereas society at large was moving towards big corporations, faceless masses, and so on, cults wanted to know YOU, so they were very appealing.
This is also the time when religious "switching" began to rise - rather than being Catholic like your parents, and their parents, and their parents' parents, you might go join a cult, or become Protestant, or whatever.
So you've got your conservative, Christian, authoritarian parents, vs. your liberal, hippie, alternative-seeking student kids... yeah, what did you think would happen?
WHO JOINS CULTS? (Jan 26 2005)
The stereotype of one who joins a cult/NRM is a "naive idealist" who is lied to or manipulated into joining the cult (after all, they are/were believed to be a "social problem", "stealing" people from Christianity). Alternatively, the social losers and marginals that seek a safe haven may find "friends" in a cult. (Alternatively, if you believed the brainwashing theory - which is, again, not true and has NO foundation in psychology - ANYONE could be at risk).
Thought of in terms of "pushes" and "pulls", pushes (towards a cult) were thought to be poverty/low socioeconomic status (SES), "fringers", those who were deprived of friends or money... whereas the reality was, most cultists are university students, who are/were largely middle- and upper-middle class, and not often what we would consider "deprived". It more seems to be that those who are:
1. under enduring, acute tension...
2. and have a preference for using a religious outlook for problem-solving (i.e. petition God, prove faith, etc.)...
3. which leads to a self-definition as a religious seeker...
4. who encounters a cult recruiter during this time...
5. and forms an affective/emotional bond with a few cultists...
6. and begins to drop extra-cult attachments...
7. and experiences intensive interaction within the cult...
...is likely to become and remain a cultist. (Many cultists will "drop out" if the friends formed in (5) leave.)
Those who join cults are generally young (16-25), middle- or upper-middle class, higher than average education, usually from a secular or Jewish background, with few preexisting ties to social groups, consider themselves religious seekers, and are not currently strongly aligned with a worldview. They will also usually be the type of people who want straightforward, obvious rewards/results. They may be socially active but lack "true", permanent friends. They will also often be quite close to their parents (possibly too close - may use the cult to "replace" their family when they are away from home, missing their parents; they want to rebel, but they don't want to hurt their parents; and the parents have NO idea this is happening until the child says they're joining a cult).
...if people want me to keep typing up my notes, I'm more than glad to do the "four main points" of the cults that we studied, as well as my notes on "the Cult Conversion Controversy" (read: why not to trust Margaret Singer or Steve Hassan) and "Violence and Cults".
(The specific cults we studied in depth: neopaganism, Unification Church, Branch Davidians, Scientology, Hare Krishna/ISKCON, and I may have notes on Shambhala.)
(That is to say: some things may have changed, but it is fairly recent information.)
There are two basic types of cults: "innovative" (Scientology, etc.) and "imported" (Hare Krishna, etc.)
The following characteristics are "ideals" of each type. Cults are a kind of offshoot of sects, which will be explained a little later. I'm going to do up the chart that we were given, as it seems easiest...
CHURCH/SECT TYPOLOGY
| Feature | Church | Sect |
| Membership | involuntary (because of parents), inclusive, heterogeneous | voluntary, exclusive, homogenous |
| Beliefs/Practices | More dogmatic (but just accepting basic beliefs is OK), ritualistic | More radical, "stern" (require deeper faith/involvement), inspirational |
| Leadership | Hired/appointed, professional/trained | Lay leadership, chosen because of charisma |
| Organization | More hierarchical, impersonal administration | Smaller, more democratic, personal |
| Attitude to Dominant Society | Accomodating | Born of schism (either with larger religious group or society), often protest society (vice, etc.) |
KEY FEATURES OF CULTS
1. Primarily concerned with satisfying the needs and desires of its members.
2. Lay claim to esoteric knowledge that has been lost (ex. Templars), discovered (ex. Atlantis), or repressed (ex. "true self"/Thetan)
3. Offer some kind of direct, ecstatic, or transfiguring experience (ex. magic)
4. Focused on a charismatic leader - often, a cult will disintegrate when the leader dies or is discredited
(5. Society tends to see them as "subversive")
Often times, especially back in the sixties, "cults" are/were offshoots of Eastern religions (for example, Hare Krishna was based in ecstatic devotional Hinduism), and a lot of the backlash towards these religions may have been based in anti-Eastern sentiment. Cults are often seen as the production of a backlash against "traditional American" values (Christianity, materialism and utilitarianism). They really saw a rise in the sixties and seventies as part of the counterculture movement, and as immigration started to rise.
Student activists tended to make up the bulk of cult memberships - and, seeing that their activism really wasn't doing much, they became jaded and cynical with the outside world, instead focusing on purifying the spiritual, inner world. "The external world can't be saved; the internal one can." Cults were also more personal than the world - whereas society at large was moving towards big corporations, faceless masses, and so on, cults wanted to know YOU, so they were very appealing.
This is also the time when religious "switching" began to rise - rather than being Catholic like your parents, and their parents, and their parents' parents, you might go join a cult, or become Protestant, or whatever.
So you've got your conservative, Christian, authoritarian parents, vs. your liberal, hippie, alternative-seeking student kids... yeah, what did you think would happen?
WHO JOINS CULTS? (Jan 26 2005)
The stereotype of one who joins a cult/NRM is a "naive idealist" who is lied to or manipulated into joining the cult (after all, they are/were believed to be a "social problem", "stealing" people from Christianity). Alternatively, the social losers and marginals that seek a safe haven may find "friends" in a cult. (Alternatively, if you believed the brainwashing theory - which is, again, not true and has NO foundation in psychology - ANYONE could be at risk).
Thought of in terms of "pushes" and "pulls", pushes (towards a cult) were thought to be poverty/low socioeconomic status (SES), "fringers", those who were deprived of friends or money... whereas the reality was, most cultists are university students, who are/were largely middle- and upper-middle class, and not often what we would consider "deprived". It more seems to be that those who are:
1. under enduring, acute tension...
2. and have a preference for using a religious outlook for problem-solving (i.e. petition God, prove faith, etc.)...
3. which leads to a self-definition as a religious seeker...
4. who encounters a cult recruiter during this time...
5. and forms an affective/emotional bond with a few cultists...
6. and begins to drop extra-cult attachments...
7. and experiences intensive interaction within the cult...
...is likely to become and remain a cultist. (Many cultists will "drop out" if the friends formed in (5) leave.)
Those who join cults are generally young (16-25), middle- or upper-middle class, higher than average education, usually from a secular or Jewish background, with few preexisting ties to social groups, consider themselves religious seekers, and are not currently strongly aligned with a worldview. They will also usually be the type of people who want straightforward, obvious rewards/results. They may be socially active but lack "true", permanent friends. They will also often be quite close to their parents (possibly too close - may use the cult to "replace" their family when they are away from home, missing their parents; they want to rebel, but they don't want to hurt their parents; and the parents have NO idea this is happening until the child says they're joining a cult).
...if people want me to keep typing up my notes, I'm more than glad to do the "four main points" of the cults that we studied, as well as my notes on "the Cult Conversion Controversy" (read: why not to trust Margaret Singer or Steve Hassan) and "Violence and Cults".
(The specific cults we studied in depth: neopaganism, Unification Church, Branch Davidians, Scientology, Hare Krishna/ISKCON, and I may have notes on Shambhala.)