Cults & New Religious Movements

Slide Agenda Attendance NRMs in the News Studying Cults and New Religious Movements

Slide 3. Typical Agenda Attendance New Religions in the News (4 minutes) Announcements / Administrativa (2 minutes) Explaining a concept (35 minutes) – for the exam’s paragraph answer section. What is a cult? Video with focus questions (20 minutes) and discussion Homework for Next Time (1 minute)

Slide 4. Cults in the News Arizona church is house of prostitution, police sayArizona church is house of prostitution, police say goddess-temple-raided-alleged- brothel/story?id= http://abcnews.go.com/US/phoenix- goddess-temple-raided-alleged- brothel/story?id=

Slide 5. Proposed change to syllabus Original wording For assigned readings from the textbook, this will consist of a summary and response. For assigned readings from other sources, this will consist of an online quiz. New wording The eight assigned readings from the textbook will be evaluated by submitting summary and response. Only the best five summaries/responses will be used to calculate the student’s grade. The assigned readings from other sources will be evaluated by an online quiz.

Slide 6. Studying NRMs “Describe what a “cult” is in terms of its necessary and typical characteristics. How are the terms “Sect”, “New Religious Movement” and “High Demand New Religion” different? What is “cult”? What components does a “cult” have? What do “cults” have in common? Are all cults the same?

Slide 7. What would you call a “cult”? What qualifies a group to be called a cult? Name some. Necessary characteristics: What must a movement have in order to qualify as a “cult”? Typical characteristics: What do cults typically but not necessarily have?

Slide 8. Necessary characteristics Fringe (not mainstream in numbers or area) Religious beliefs? Recently begun? High-demands placed on members

Slide 9. (Stereo-)Typical characteristics High-demand Self-sacrifice for the cause Encapsulation (us & them attitudes) Charismatic leader Peculiar scriptures or teachings Difficult to leave? Unreasonable? Aggressive recruiting? Apocalyptic? Violent? Sexually deviant?

Slide 10. Differences between “cult” and: “Sect” More established than “cult”, a branch within a larger religion. “New Religious Movement” Carries no negative connotations Not everything considered a “cult” (especially by the ACM) is new. (e.g. gnosticism, Freemasonry) “High Demand New Religion” Not everything considered a “cult” puts high demands on its members (e.g., New Age Movement, Wicca). “Alternative Religion” Who decides what is mainstream and what is not? Does it vary from place to place (Mormonism in Utah; Judaism in Antigonish)?

Slide 11. Biased portrayals of cults Media portrayals Dangerous Devotion videoDangerous Devotion Counter-Cult Movement: Walter Martin on Christian CultsWalter Martin According to Martin, what makes something a cult? In these

Slide 12. Hadden’s cult opponent types Religiously grounded opposition Purpose: protect members (especially youth) from heresy increase solidarity among the faithful Method: expose teachings contrary to scripture Secular opposition individual autonomy getting people out of groups using mind control and deceptive proselytization. organized around families Apostates Former members Entrepreneurial opposition broadcasters and journalists Publishing and depgrogramming

Slide 13. The solution to the media / ACM problem Academic research that: Doesn’t lump all NRMs together Recognizes NRMs are not something new Does not let truth claims about beliefs interfere with research Seeks to learn about ourselves from NRMs

Slide 14. For Next Class (Thursday) Read the introduction to America’s Alternative Religions (pages 1- 9) Write the online quiz