Editing New religious movement (section)

==Reception==
=== Academic scholarship ===
{{Main|Academic study of new religious movements}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=Three basic questions have been paramount in orienting theory and research on NRMs: what are the identifying markers of NRMs that distinguish them from other types of religious groups?; what are the different types of NRMs and how do these different types relate to the established institutional order of the host society?; and what are the most important ways that NRMs respond to the sociocultural dislocation that leads to their formation?|source=— Sociologist of religion [[David G. Bromley]]{{sfn|Bromley|2012|p=14}} }}

The academic study of new religious movements is known as 'new religions studies' (NRS).{{sfnm|1a1=Bromley|1y=2004|1p=83|2a1=Bromley|2y=2012|2p=13}}
The study draws from the disciplines of [[anthropology]], [[psychiatry]], [[history]], [[psychology]], [[sociology]], [[religious studies]], and [[theology]].<ref name="Teaching bromley">{{cite encyclopedia|year=2007|title=Disciplinary Perspectives on New Religious Movements: Views of from the Humanities and Social Sciences|encyclopedia=Teaching New Religious Movements|url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177299.001.0001/acprof-9780195177299-chapter-3|access-date=2014-03-17|author=Sablia, John A.|pages=41–63|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177299.001.0001|editor=David G. Brohmley|isbn=978-0-19-978553-7|publisher=Oxford University Press|archive-date=2021-11-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107141740/https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177299.001.0001/acprof-9780195177299-chapter-3|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>  Barker noted that there are five sources of information on NRMs: the information provided by such groups themselves, that provided by ex-members as well as the friends and relatives of members, organisations that collect information on NRMs, the mainstream media, and academics studying such phenomena.{{sfn|Barker|1989|pp=vii–ix}}

The study of new religions is unified by its topic of interest rather than by its [[methodology]], and is therefore [[interdisciplinary]] in nature.{{sfnm|1a1=Lewis|1y=2004|1p=8|2a1=Melton|2y=2004b|2p=16}} A sizeable body of scholarly literature on new religions has been published, most of it produced by [[social science|social scientists]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bromley|1y=2012|1p=13|2a1=Hammer|2a2=Rothstein|2y=2012|2p=2}} Among the disciplines that NRS utilises are anthropology, history, psychology, religious studies, and sociology.{{sfn|Bromley|2012|p=13}} Of these approaches, sociology played a particularly prominent role in the development of the field,{{sfn|Bromley|2012|p=13}} resulting in it being initially confined largely to a narrow array of sociological questions.{{sfn|Hammer|Rothstein|2012|p=5}} This came to change in later scholarship, which began to apply theories and methods initially developed for examining more mainstream religions to the study of new ones.{{sfn|Hammer|Rothstein|2012|p=5}}

Most research has been directed toward those new religions that attract public controversy. Less controversial NRMs tend to be the subject of less scholarly research.{{sfn|Melton|2004b|p=20}} It has also been noted that scholars of new religions often avoid researching certain movements that scholars from other backgrounds study. The [[feminist spirituality]] movement is usually examined by scholars of [[women's studies]], African-American new religions by scholars of [[Africana studies]], and Native American new religions by scholars of [[Native American studies]].{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=8}}

===Definitions and terminology===
[[File:Rainbow Gathering Bosnia 2007.JPG|thumb|right|A [[Rainbow Gathering]] in Bosnia, 2007]]
[[J. Gordon Melton]] argued that "new religious movements" should be defined by the way dominant religious and secular forces within a given society treat them. According to him, NRMs constituted "those religious groups that have been found, from the perspective of the dominant religious community (and in the West that is almost always a form of Christianity), to be not just different, but unacceptably different."{{sfn|Melton|2004|p=79}} Barker cautioned against Melton's approach, arguing that negating the "newness" of "new religious movements" raises problems, for it is "the very fact that NRMs are new that explains many of the key characteristics they display".{{sfn|Barker|2004|p=89}}

[[George Chryssides]] favors "simple" definition; for him, NRM is an organization founded within the past 150 or so years, which cannot be easily classified within one of the world's main religious traditions.{{sfn|Driedger|Wolfart|2018|pp=5–12}}

Scholars of religion [[Olav Hammer]] and [[Mikael Rothstein]] argued that "new religions are just young religions" and as a result, they are "not inherently different" from mainstream and established religious movements, with the differences between the two having been greatly exaggerated by the media and popular perceptions.{{sfn|Hammer|Rothstein|2012|p=3}} Melton has stated that those NRMs that "were offshoots of older religious groups... tended to resemble their parent groups far more than they resembled each other."{{sfn|Melton|2004|p=76}}

One question that faces scholars of religion is when a new religious movement ceases to be "new".{{sfn|Barker|2004|p=99}} As noted by Barker, "In the first century, Christianity was new, in the seventh century Islam was new, in the eighteenth century Methodism was new, in the nineteenth century the Seventh-day Adventists, Christadelphians, and Jehovah's Witnesses were new; in the twenty-first century the Unification Church, the ISKCON, and Scientology are beginning to look old."{{sfn|Barker|2004|p=99}}

The [[Roman Catholic Church]] has observed that the growth of sects and new religious movements is one of the "most noticeable" and "highly complex" developments in recent years, and in relation to the [[Ecumenism|ecumenical movement]], their "desire for peaceful relations with the Catholic Church may be weak or non-existent".<ref>{{cite book|author=Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity|date=1993-03-25|title=Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism|url=https://www.odwphiladelphia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1993Directory-Application-of-Principles-Norms-of-Ecumenism.pdf|page=12|via=Office of Divine Worship, [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia|Diocese of Philadelphia]]|access-date=16 November 2022|archive-date=2022-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218021244/https://www.odwphiladelphia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1993Directory-Application-of-Principles-Norms-of-Ecumenism.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some NRMs are strongly counter-cultural and 'alternative' in the society where they appear, while others are far more similar to a society's established traditional religions.{{sfn|Oliver|2012|p=5}} Generally, Christian denominations are not seen as new religious movements; nevertheless, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, and the Shakers have been studied as NRMs.{{sfn|Rubinstein|2023}}<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Paul J. |title=The Public Perception of 'Cults' and 'New Religious Movements' |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |date=2006 |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=97–106 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-5906.2006.00008.x}}</ref> The same situation with [[Jewish religious movements]], when [[Reform Judaism]] and newer divisions have been named among NRM.{{sfn|Clarke|2006b|pp=525–526|loc=Reform Judaism}}

There are also problems in the use of "religion" within the term "new religious movements".{{sfn|Oliver|2012|pp=14–15}} This is because various groups, particularly active within the New Age milieu, have many traits in common with different NRMs but emphasise [[personal development]] and [[humanistic psychology]], and are not clearly  "religious" in nature.{{sfn|Oliver|2012|p=15}}

Since at least the early 2000s, most sociologists of religion have used the term "new religious movement" in order to avoid the pejorative undertones of terms like "[[cult]]" and "[[sect]]".{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=24}} These are words that have been used in different ways by different groups.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=19}} For instance, from the nineteenth century onward a number of sociologists used the terms "cult" and "sect" in very specific ways.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=23}} The sociologist [[Ernst Troeltsch]] for instance differentiated "churches" from "sect" by claiming that the former term should apply to groups that stretch across social strata while "sects" typically contain converts from socially disadvantaged sectors of society.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=23}}

The term "cult" is used in reference to devotion or dedication to a particular person or place.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=21}} For instance, within the Roman Catholic Church, devotion to [[Mary, mother of Jesus]] may be termed the "[[Cult of Mary]]".{{sfn|Barrett|2001|pp=21–22}} It is also used in non-religious contexts to refer to [[fandom]]s [[cult following#Television|devoted to television shows]] like ''[[The Prisoner]]'', ''[[The X-Files]]'', and ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=22}} In the United States, people began to use "cult" in a pejorative manner, to refer to Spiritualism and Christian Science during the 1890s.{{sfn|Melton|2004b|p=17}} As commonly used, for instance in sensationalist tabloid articles, the term "cult" continues to have pejorative associations.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=20}}

The term "new religions" is a [[calque]] of {{nihongo||新宗教|shinshūkyō}}, a Japanese term developed to describe the proliferation of [[Japanese new religions]] in the years following the Second World War.{{sfnm|1a1=Lewis|1y=2004|1p=3|2a1=Melton|2y=2004b|2p=19}} From Japan this term was translated and used by several American authors, including [[Jacob Needleman]], to describe the range of groups that appeared in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s.{{sfn|Melton|2004b|p=19}} This term, amongst others, was adopted by Western scholars as an alternative to "cult".<ref name="Gallagher, Eugene V 2007">{{cite journal |last1=Gallagher |first1=Eugene V. |title=Compared to What? 'Cults' and 'New Religious Movements' |journal=History of Religions |date=2007 |volume=47 |issue=2–3 |pages=205–220 |doi=10.1086/524210|s2cid=161448414 }}</ref> However, "new religious movements" has failed to gain widespread public usage in the manner that "cult" has.{{sfn|Oliver|2012|p=6}} Other terms that have been employed for many NRMs are "alternative religion" and "alternative spirituality", something used to convey the difference between these groups and established or mainstream religious movements while at the same time evading the problem posed by groups that are not particularly new.{{sfnm|1a1=Barrett|1y=2001|1p=24|2a1=Oliver|2y=2012|2p=13}}

The 1970s was the era of the so-called "[[cult]] wars", led by "cult-watching groups".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barker |first1=Eileen |title=Stepping out of the Ivory Tower: A Sociological Engagement in 'The Cult Wars' |journal=Methodological Innovations Online |date=2011 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=18–39 |doi=10.4256/mio.2010.0026|s2cid=145184989 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The efforts of the anti-cult movement condensed a [[moral panic]] around the concept of cults. Public fears around [[Satanism]], in particular, came to be known as a distinct phenomenon, the "[[Satanic ritual abuse|Satanic Panic]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Petersen |first=Jesper Aagaard |title=Controversial New Religions |title-link=Controversial New Religions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-515682-9 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |edition=1st |location=New York |language=en |chapter=Modern Satanism: Dark Doctrines and Black Flames |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard}}</ref> Consequently, scholars such as Eileen Barker, [[James T. Richardson]], [[Timothy Miller]] and [[Catherine Wessinger]] argued that the term "cult" had become too laden with negative connotations, and "advocated dropping its use in academia". A number of alternatives to the term "new religious movement" are used by some scholars. These include "alternative religious movements" (Miller), "emergent religions" (Ellwood) and "marginal religious movements" (Harper and Le Beau).<ref name="ReferenceA" />

=== Opposition ===
{{Main|Cult}}

{{Quote box
| width = 25em
| align = right
| quote = The 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of a number of highly visible new religious movements... [These] seemed so outlandish that many people saw them as evil cults, fraudulent organizations or scams that recruited unaware people by means of mind-control techniques. Real or serious religions, it was felt, should appear in recognizable institutionalized forms, be suitably ancient, and – above all – advocate relatively familiar theological notions and modes of conduct. Most new religions failed to comply with such standards.
| source = — Religious studies scholars Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein{{sfn|Hammer|Rothstein|2012|p=2}}
}}
There has been opposition to NRMs throughout their history.<ref name="gallagher2004">Eugene V. Gallagher, 2004, ''The New Religious Movement Experience in America'', [[Greenwood Press]], {{ISBN|0-313-32807-2}}</ref> Some historical events have been: [[Anti-Mormonism]],<ref>Gallagher, Eugene V.,  ''The New Religious Movements Experience in America'', The American Religious Experience, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-313-32807-7}}, p. 18.</ref> the [[persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses]],<ref>Gallagher, Eugene V., ''The New Religious Movements Experience in America'', The American Religious Experience, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-313-32807-7}}, p. 17.</ref> the [[persecution of Baháʼís]],<ref name="affolter">{{cite journal|last=Affolter|first=Friedrich W.|year=2005|title=The Specter of Ideological Genocide: The Bahá'ís of Iran|url=http://bahai-library.com/pdf/a/affolter_ideological_genocide.pdf|journal=War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity|volume=1|issue=1|pages=75–114|access-date=2015-01-06|archive-date=2015-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150105203820/http://bahai-library.com/pdf/a/affolter_ideological_genocide.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[persecution of Falun Gong]].<ref name="orgharv"/> There are also instances in which violence has been directed at new religions.{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=43}} In the United States the founder of the [[Latter Day Saint movement]], [[Joseph Smith]], was [[Killing of Joseph Smith|killed by a lynch mob in 1844]].<ref name=DQDM>{{cite book|author=Quinn, D. Michael|chapter=On Being a Mormon Historian (And Its Aftermath)|editor=Smith, George D.|title=Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History|location=Salt Lake City|publisher=[[Signature Books]]|year=1992|page=141|chapter-url=http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/faithful/chapter6.htm#chap6|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527234212/http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/faithful/chapter6.htm#chap6|archive-date=2010-05-27}}</ref> In India there have been mob killings of members of the [[Ananda Marga]] group.{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=43}} Such violence can also be administered by the state.{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=43}}  In Iran, followers of the Baháʼí Faith have faced persecution, while the Ahmadiyya have faced similar violence in Pakistan.{{sfn|Barker|1989|pp=43–44}}   Since 1999, the persecution of Falun Gong in China has been severe.<ref name=orgharv>[[David Kilgour]], [[David Matas]] (6 July 2006, revised 31 January 2007)  [http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208015223/http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ |date=2017-12-08 }} (in 22 languages) organharvestinvestigation.net</ref><ref name="Amnesty1">{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/011/2000/en|title=China: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "heretical organizations"|date=23 March 2000|publisher=Amnesty International|access-date=17 March 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091110132555/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/011/2000/en|archive-date=November 10, 2009}}</ref> [[Ethan Gutmann]] interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.<ref name=Jay>{{cite web |author-link1=Jay Nordlinger |first1=Jay |last1=Nordlinger |date=25 August 2014 |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nordlinger_gutmann08-25-14.html |title=Face ''The Slaughter'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607203837/http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nordlinger_gutmann08-25-14.html |archive-date=2017-06-07 |website=[[National Review]]}}</ref><ref name=Viv>Viv Young [http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/slaughter-mass-killings-organ-harvesting "The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem"], ''New York Journal of Books''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019053030/http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/slaughter-mass-killings-organ-harvesting |date=2015-10-19 }}.</ref><ref name="Slaughter">Ethan Gutmann (August 2014) The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302164440/http://www.amazon.com/The-Slaughter-Killings-Harvesting-Dissident/dp/161614940X|date=2016-03-02}} "Average number of Falun Gong in Laogai System at any given time" Low estimate 450,000, High estimate 1,000,000 p 320.  "Best estimate of Falun Gong harvested 2000 to 2008" 65,000 p. 322.</ref><ref name=Tstar>Barbara Turnbull (21 October 2014)  [https://www.thestar.com/life/2014/10/21/qa_author_and_analyst_ethan_gutmann_discusses_chinas_illegal_organ_trade.html "Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707062227/https://www.thestar.com/life/2014/10/21/qa_author_and_analyst_ethan_gutmann_discusses_chinas_illegal_organ_trade.html |date=2017-07-07 }},''[[The Toronto Star]]''</ref>

====Christian countercult movement====
{{Main|Christian countercult movement}}

In the 1930s, Christian critics of NRMs began referring to them as "cults".  The 1938 book ''The Chaos of Cults'' by Jan Karel van Baalen (1890–1968), an ordained minister in the [[Christian Reformed Church in North America]], was especially influential.<ref name = siegler2007/><ref>J.K. van Baalen, ''The Chaos of Cults'', 4th rev.ed. Grand Rapids: William Eerdmans Publishing, 1962.</ref> In the US, the [[Christian Research Institute]] was founded in 1960 by [[Walter Ralston Martin]] to counter opposition to evangelical Christianity and has come to focus on criticisms of NRMs.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|pp=104–105}} Presently the Christian countercult movement opposes most NRMs because of theological differences.  It is closely associated with [[evangelical Christianity]].{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=97}}

In his book ''[[The Kingdom of the Cults]]'' (1965), Christian scholar Walter Ralston Martin<ref name=":1">[[Walter Ralston Martin|Martin, Walter Ralston]]. [1965] 2003. ''[[The Kingdom of the Cults]]'' (revised ed.), edited by [[Ravi Zacharias|R. Zacharias]]. US: [[Bethany House]]. {{ISBN|0764228218}}.</ref>{{Rp|18}}<ref name = "Free Lance Star">Michael J. McManus, "Eulogy for the godfather of the anti-cult movement", obituary in ''[[The Free Lance-Star]]'', Fredericksburg, VA, 26 August 1989, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19890826&id=FuBLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S4sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1201,1411394 p. 8].</ref> examines a large number of new religious movements; included are major groups such as Christian Science, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, [[Armstrongism]], [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]], the Baháʼí Faith, [[Unitarian Universalism]], Scientology, the Unity Church, as well as minor groups including various New Age groups and those based on [[Eastern religions]]. The beliefs of other world religions such as Islam and Buddhism are also discussed. He covers each group's history and teachings, and contrasts them with those of mainstream Christianity.<ref name = "Free Lance Star"/><ref>"unapologetically hostile to young and developing spiritual trends" {{cite journal|title=New Religious Movements in the 21st Century: Legal, Political, and Social Challenges in Global Perspective |author=Wendy Dackson |journal=Journal of Church and State|volume=46|issue=3 |date=Summer 2004|page=663|doi=10.1093/jcs/46.3.663}}</ref>

====Anti-cult movement====
{{Main|Anti-cult movement}}

In the 1970s and 1980s, some NRMs as well as some non-religious groups came under opposition by the newly organized anti-cult movement, which mainly charged them with [[psychological abuse]] of their own members.<ref name="siegler2007"/> It actively seeks to discourage people from joining new religions (which it refers to as "cults"). It also encourages members of these groups to leave them, and at times seeking to restrict their freedom of movement.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=97}}

Family members are often distressed when a relative of theirs joins a new religion.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=41}}  Although children break away from their parents for all manner of reasons, in cases where NRMs are involved, it is often the latter that are blamed for the break.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|pp=45–46}} Some anti-cultist groups emphasise the idea that "cults" use deceit and trickery to recruit members.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=29}} The anti-cult movement adopted the term brainwashing, which had been developed by the journalist [[Edward Hunter (U.S. journalist)|Edward Hunter]] and then used by [[Robert J. Lifton]] to apply to the methods employed by Chinese to convert captured US soldiers to their cause in the [[Korean War]]. Lifton himself had doubts about the applicability of his brainwashing hypothesis to the techniques used by NRMs to convert recruits.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=30}}

A number of ex-members of various new religions have made false allegations about their experiences in such groups. For instance, in the late 1980s a man in Dublin, Ireland, was given a three-year [[suspended sentence]] for falsely claiming that he had been drugged, kidnapped, and held captive by members of ISKCON.{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=39}}

Scholars of religion have often critiqued anti-cult groups of un-critically believing anecdotal stories provided by the ex-members of new religions, of encouraging ex-members to think that they are the victims of manipulation and abuse, and of irresponsibly scare-mongering about NRMs.{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=108}} Of the "well over a thousand groups that have been or might be called cults" listed in the files of [[INFORM]], writes Eileen Barker, the "vast majority" have not engaged in criminal activities.<ref>{{cite news| last= Barker| first= Eileen |year= 2009| url= https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/29/cults-new-religious-movements |title= What Makes a Cult?| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170710084301/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/29/cults-new-religious-movements |archivedate= 2017-07-10 | work= The Guardian| publisher= | access-date= }}</ref>

===Popular culture and news media===
{{Main|New religious movements and cults in popular culture}}

New religious movements and cults have appeared as themes or subjects in literature and popular culture, while notable representatives of such groups have produced a large body of literary works.  Beginning in the 1700s authors in the English-speaking world began introducing members of "cults" as [[antagonists]]. In the twentieth century, concern for the rights and feelings of religious minorities led authors to most often invent fictional cults for their villains to be members of.<ref>Ed Brubaker, Fatale #21, 2014, Image, pp. 20–21</ref> Fictional cults continue to be popular in film, television, and gaming in the same way, while some popular works treat new religious movements in a serious manner.

An article on the categorization of new religious movements in US print media published by ''The Association for the Sociology of Religion'' (formerly the American ''Catholic Sociological Society''), criticizes the print media for failing to recognize social-scientific efforts in the area of new religious movements, and its tendency to use popular or anti-cultist definitions rather than social-scientific insight, and asserts that "The failure of the print media to recognize social-scientific efforts in the area of religious movement organizations impels us to add yet another failing mark to the media report card Weiss (1985) has constructed to assess the media's reporting of the social sciences."<ref>van Driel, Barend, and James T. Richardson. "Research Note Categorization of New Religious Movements in American Print Media". ''Sociological Analysis'' 1988, 49, 2:171–183</ref>