Editing New religious movement (section)

==History==
[[File:Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions.jpg|thumb|right|1893 [[Parliament of the World's Religions]]]]
In 1830, the [[Latter Day Saint movement]] was founded by [[Joseph Smith]]. It is one of the largest new religious movements, with over 17 million members in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-04-04 |title=Facts and Statistics |url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}}</ref> In Japan, 1838 marks the beginning of [[Tenrikyo]].{{sfn|Clarke|2006b|pp=621–623|loc=Tenrikyo}} In 1844, [[Bábism]] was established in Iran, from which the [[Baháʼí Faith]] was founded by [[Bahá'u'lláh]] in 1863. In 1860, [[Donghak]], later [[Cheondoism]], was founded by [[Choe Je-u|Choi Jae-Woo]] in Korea. It later ignited the [[Donghak Peasant Revolution]] in 1894.<ref name="Yao">{{cite book | last = Yao | first = Xinzhong | title = An Introduction to Confucianism | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-521-64430-3 | pages=121–122}}</ref> In 1889, [[Ahmadiyya]], an Islamic branch, was founded by [[Mirza Ghulam Ahmad]].  In 1891, the [[Unity Church]], the first [[New Thought]] denomination, was founded in the United States.<ref name="siegler2007">[[Elijah Siegler]], 2007, ''New Religious Movements'', [[Prentice Hall]], {{ISBN|0-13-183478-9}}</ref><ref name="EBOnline">{{cite encyclopedia| title = Unity School of Christianity| encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica Online| publisher = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]| url = https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/617994/Unity-School-of-Christianity| access-date = 2009-06-26| archive-date = 2009-12-20| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091220113044/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/617994/Unity-School-of-Christianity| url-status = live}}</ref>

In 1893, the first [[Parliament of the World's Religions]] was held in Chicago.<ref name="McRae">{{cite journal|last=McRae|first=John R. |year=1991|title=Oriental Verities on the American Frontier: The 1893 World's Parliament of Religions and the Thought of Masao Abe|journal=Buddhist-Christian Studies|volume=11|pages=7–36|doi=10.2307/1390252|jstor=1390252}}</ref> The conference included NRMs of the time such as [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]], Baháʼí Faith, and [[Christian Science]]. [[Henry Harris Jessup]], who addressed the meeting, was the first to mention the Baháʼí Faith in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bahai-library.com/first_public_mentions_west|title=First Public Mentions of the Baháʼí Faith in the West|website=bahai-library.com|access-date=2013-02-24|archive-date=2012-07-16|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716222849/http://bahai-library.com/first_public_mentions_west|url-status=live}}</ref> Also attending were [[Soyen Shaku]], the "First American Ancestor" of [[Zen]],<ref name=ford>{{cite book| last =Ford| first =James Ishmael| title =Zen Master Who?| publisher =[[Wisdom Publications]]| year =2006| pages =[https://archive.org/details/zenmasterwhoguid00jame/page/59 59–62]| url =https://archive.org/details/zenmasterwhoguid00jame/page/59| isbn =978-0-86171-509-1}}</ref> the [[Theravāda]] Buddhist preacher [[Anagarika Dharmapala]], and the [[Jainism|Jain]] preacher [[Virchand Gandhi]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jain |first1=Pankaz |title=Virchand Gandhi, A Gandhi Before Gandhi |url=http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=80894 |publisher=herenow4u |author2=Pankaz Hingarh |author3=Bipin Doshi and Smt. Priti Shah |access-date=2013-02-24 |archive-date=2015-09-29 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150929003106/http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=80894 |url-status=live }}</ref> This conference gave Asian religious teachers their first wide American audience.<ref name = siegler2007/>

In 1911, the [[Nazareth Baptist Church]], the first and one of the largest modern [[African initiated church]]es, was founded by [[Isaiah Shembe]] in South Africa.<ref name = siegler2007/><ref>{{cite news
|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8458829.stm
|title=Unholy row over World Cup trumpet
|access-date=2010-01-16
|last=Fisher
|first=Jonah
|date=16 January 2010
|publisher=[[BBC Sport]]
|archive-date=2012-07-11
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120711124139/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8458829.stm
|url-status=live
}}</ref> The early 20th century also saw a rise in interest in [[Asatru]]. The 1930s saw the rise of the [[Nation of Islam]] and the [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] in the United States; the rise of the [[Rastafari movement]] in Jamaica; the rise of [[Cao Đài]] and [[Hòa Hảo]] in Vietnam; the rise of [[Soka Gakkai]] in Japan; and the rise of [[Zailiism]] and [[Yiguandao]] in China. In the 1940s, [[Gerald Gardner]] began to outline the [[modern pagan]] religion of [[Wicca]].

New religious movements expanded in many nations in the 1950s and 1960s at the height of the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture movements]]. Japanese new religions became very popular after the [[Shinto Directive]] (1945) forced the Japanese government to separate itself from [[Shinto]], which had been the [[state religion]] of Japan, bringing about greater [[freedom of religion]].

In 1954, [[Scientology]] was founded in the United States by [[L. Ron Hubbard]]. It can be considered a [[psychotherapy]]-oriented religion.<ref>{{Citation |last=Lewis |first=James R. |title=Scientology: up stat, down stat |date=2012-08-30 |work=The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements |pages=131–149 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521196505.010 |access-date=2024-10-10 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/ccol9780521196505.010 |isbn=978-0-521-19650-5 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1954 the [[Unification Church]] by [[Sun Myung Moon]] was founded, in South Korea.<ref name="siegler2007" /> In 1955, the [[Aetherius Society]] was founded in England. It and some other NRMs have been called [[UFO religion]]s because they combine the belief in [[extraterrestrial life]] with traditional religious principles.<ref>Partridge, Christopher Hugh (ed.) (2003) ''UFO Religions''. Routledge. Chapter 4 ''Opening A Channel To The Stars: The Origins and Development of the Aetherius Society'' by Simon G. Smith pp. 84–102</ref><ref name="James R. Lewis (ed.)1995">James R. Lewis (ed.) (1995), ''The Gods have landed: new religions from other worlds'' (Albany: State University of New York Press),{{ISBN|0-7914-2330-1}}. p. 28</ref><ref>Sablia, John A. (2006). ''The Study of UFO Religions'', ''Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions'', November 2006, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 103–123.</ref>
[[File:Russian Hare Krishna Devotee on Sankirtan.jpg|thumb|A member of the [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness]] [[Proselytism|proselytising]] on the streets of [[Moscow]], Russia]]
In 1965, [[Paul Twitchell]] founded [[Eckankar]], an NRM derived partially from [[Contemporary Sant Mat movements|Sant Mat]]. In 1966, the [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness]] (ISKCON) was founded in the United States by [[A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson |2002|pp=4, 6}}</ref> and [[Anton LaVey]] founded the atheist [[Church of Satan]]. In 1967, [[The Beatles in India|the Beatles' visit]] to [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]] in India brought public attention to the [[Transcendental Meditation movement]].<ref name="van den Berg">{{cite news|title=Beatles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies|date=5 February 2008|url=http://news.smh.com.au/world/beatles-guru-maharishi-mahesh-yogi-dies-20080206-1qno.html|first=Stephanie|last=van den Berg|agency=AFP|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|archive-date=29 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829093212/http://news.smh.com.au/world/beatles-guru-maharishi-mahesh-yogi-dies-20080206-1qno.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Corder">{{cite news|first=Mike|last=Corder|title=Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; The Beatles' mentor had global empire|work=San Diego Union-Tribune|date=10 February 2008|url=http://sports.uniontrib.com/uniontrib/20080210/news_1c10yogi.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717163436/http://sports.uniontrib.com/uniontrib/20080210/news_1c10yogi.html|archive-date=17 July 2011|agency=Associated Press|url-status=dead}}</ref>

From the late 1960s through the 1980s, new religious movements became especially visible and, in parts of North America and Western Europe, proliferated in ways that often drew heightened public and media attention, with many groups recruiting among young adults shaped by post-war social change and the counterculture.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barker |first=Eileen |date=2015-01-07 |title=The Not-So-New Religious Movements: Changes in ‘the Cult Scene’ over the Past Forty Years |journal=Temenos |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=235–256 |doi=10.33356/temenos.48461|doi-access=free }}</ref> In contemporary discourse—and occasionally in scholarly writing—this conjuncture was sometimes described as a so-called “cult boom”.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blonner |first=Alexa |year=2019 |title=Reimagining God and Resacralisation: New Religious Movements and the Sacred |publisher=Routledge |page=10}}</ref> In apologist literature of the [[Christian countercult movement]], this NRM visibility was also framed with labels such as “cult explosion”.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cowan |first=Douglas E. |year=2023 |title=The Christian Countercult Movement |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=2}}</ref> The same decades also saw what scholars describe as the “cult controversy” (or “cult wars”), involving disputes over conversion, allegations of coercive persuasion (“brainwashing”), family conflict, deprogramming and litigation, and the growth of organised opposition in the form of [[Anti-cult movement|anti-cult]] and Christian countercult movements, alongside the consolidation of [[academic study of new religious movements|new religion studies as an academic field]].<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor2-last=Tøllefsen |editor2-first=Inga Bårdsen |year=2016 |title=The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Subsequent decades brought marked changes in “the cult scene” as second generations emerged and many movements routinised, declined, or “denominationalised,” even as new forms continued to appear.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barker |first=Eileen |date=2015-01-07 |title=The Not-So-New Religious Movements: Changes in ‘the Cult Scene’ over the Past Forty Years |journal=Temenos |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=235–256 |doi=10.33356/temenos.48461|doi-access=free }}</ref> Although the phenomenon is often narrated through North American and Western European cases, reference works also document diverse new religious and revitalisation movements in Latin America and other regions, where trajectories varied by country and religious environment.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Leatham |first=Miguel C. |year=2005 |title=New Religious Movements: New Religious Movements in Latin America |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion |edition=2nd |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Lindsay |publisher=Thomson Gale}}</ref>

[[File:Origins-GuangzhouPractice.jpg|thumb|Practitioners of Falun Gong perform spiritual exercises in [[Guangzhou]], China]]
In the late 1980s and 1990s, the decline of [[communism]] and the [[revolutions of 1989]] opened up new opportunities for NRMs in Eastern Europe. In China, [[Falun Gong]] was first taught publicly in Northeast China in 1992 by [[Li Hongzhi]]. At first, it was accepted by the Chinese government, and by 1999 there were 70 million practitioners in China.<ref>Seth Faison (27 April 1999) [http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest.html In Beijing: A Roar of Silent Protestors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320142909/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest.html |date=2018-03-20 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]''</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=In July 1999, the CCP Created Exactly What It Had Feared|url=https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/in-july-1999-the-ccp-created-exactly-what-it-had-feared/|access-date=2020-06-06|website=thediplomat.com|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-08-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804104842/https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/in-july-1999-the-ccp-created-exactly-what-it-had-feared/|url-status=live}}</ref> But in July 1999, the government started to view the movement as a threat and [[Persecution of Falun Gong|began attempts to eradicate it]].

In the 21st century, many NRMs are using the Internet to give out information, recruit members, and sometimes to hold online meetings and rituals.<ref name = siegler2007/> That is sometimes referred to as [[cybersectarianism]].<ref>Paul Virilio,''The Information Bomb'' (Verso, 2005), p. 41.</ref><ref>Rita M. Hauck, "Stratospheric Transparency: Perspectives on Internet Privacy, ''Forum on Public Policy'' (Summer 2009) {{cite web |url=http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/summer09/archivesummer09/hauck.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-02-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420215019/http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/summer09/archivesummer09/hauck.pdf |archive-date=2013-04-20 }}</ref> [[Sabina Magliocco]], professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State University, Northridge, has discussed the growing popularity of new religious movements on the Internet.<ref>Magliocco, Sabina. 2012. “Neopaganism.” In O. Hammer and M. Rothstein, Eds., ''The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements'', pp. 150–166. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>

In 2006, [[J. Gordon Melton]], executive director of the Institute for the Study of American Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told ''The New York Times'' that 40 to 45 new religious movements emerge each year in the United States.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/nyregion/28religion.html?pagewanted=print Seeking Entry-Level Prophet: Burning Bush and Tablets Not Required] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204122936/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/nyregion/28religion.html?pagewanted=print |date=2016-12-04 }}, ''[[New York Times]]'', August 28, 2006</ref>

In 2007, religious scholar [[Elijah Siegler]] said that, though no NRM had become the dominant faith in any country, many of the concepts they first introduced (often referred to as "[[New Age]]" ideas) have become part of worldwide mainstream culture.<ref name="siegler2007" />