Editing New religious movement (section)

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

{{Quote box
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| 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}}
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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>