SOC 257: New Religious Movements Lectures
University of Virginia
Department of Sociology
Jeffrey K. Hadden

Introduction: Cults and Sects in America

Lecture Outline:

• The Cult Legacy

  Where Do We Get Our Ideas AboutCults?

  Public vs Sociological Perspectives

  Why Study New Religions?

  Suggested Readings

  About This Course

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Part I: The Cult Legacy

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Pictures Without Words

Slide presentation: Cults, Charisma and Mind Control, (Source: IBIS Media, Part 1)

[Slides presented in rapid succession w/o audio text or other commentary.

Brief class discussion follows:

What is the message that these slides convey?

Try to imagine that you know nothing about cults.

What is this presentation communicating to you?]

 

Perceptions of "cults"*

Name of Group	Positive	Neutral	Negative
When you hear the word "cult," what kind of image comes to mind?	0%	18%	82%
Branch Davidians	0%	9%	91%
Moonies	0%	54%	46%
Scientologists	0%	47%	53%
Islamic Fundamentalists	7%	25%	68%
Bahai	24%	52%	24%
Mormons	32%	34%	34%
7th Day Adventists	7%	64%	25%
Christian Scientists	6%	45%	48%

* The results presented are from students enrolled in this class during several previous semesters.

The Cult Legacy Revealed

• We tend to view cults in highly negative terms.

• Why? Are the negative sentiments for reasons that are:
  • Intrinsic -- something inherent in the nature of groups we call cults?

  • Extrinsic -- somethng external, a cultural attitude we impose without specific knowledge about a group?

What is a cult?

• Operational definition: A cult is any group that I don't like!

A cultist is a person

• I would not trust to lead my children in prayer
• I would feel uncomfortable if they moved in next door
• I would be very upset if my sister started hanging out with

Conventional wisdom about cults:

• Is highly negative
• Is not based on first hand knowledge
• i.e. to pre-judge

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Part II: Where Do We Get Our Ideas About Cults?

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Where Do We Get Our Ideas About Cults?

• Established Religious Goups
• Word of mouth, rumors,
• Mass media

  Examples from the Mass Media

  Videotape illustrations:
  • Matlock episode
  • News coverage of the Matamoros incident

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Part III: Public v. Sociological Perspectives

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Public sociological v. perspectives

• As with vitually any topic we might discuss, sociology does not stand as a fountain of truth in the face of cultural ignorance.
• Sociology, rather, offers a different way of thinking about public issues

The sociological perspective is grounded in a commitment to:

• Build on empirical evidence
• Develop a conceptual or theoretical organization of infomation

Sociological claims can be independently assessed in terms of:

• The methods of social scientific inquiry
• Many other criteria for knowing

Public perspective:

• There is a proliferation of cults in society today.
• They are different from cults of yesteryear.
• Leaders have virtual hypnotic-like control over followers.
  • they use powerful mind-control technques to acquire and hold members
• Cult leaders are wealthy and live high at the expense of followers.
• Cults are dangerous to those who are members and they are a threat to the larger society.

Examples of Anti-Cult Sentiment

• "...these cults or groups are armies of willing, superbly controlled soldiers who wold not only kill thier parents or themselves, but are ready to act against anyone."
  • John Clark, psychiatrist -- Testimony before hearings on cults conducted by Senator Robert Dole, Feburary, 1979

• "The path of segregation leads to lynching every time. The path of antii-Semitism leads to Auschwitz every time. The path of the cults leads to Jonestown and we watch it at our peril."
  • Rabbi Maurice Davis, White Plains, NY -- Quoted in Rudin and Rudin, Prison or Paradise? The New Religious Cults

The Sociological perspective:

• Cults and sects are normal social organizations.
  They are present in all cultures.
• Cults and sects are different from the past, but they are different in the ways that the culture is different.
• There is no evidence to support the proposition that they are different in ways that render them dangerous as claimed by adversaries.
• People join new religious for different reasons.
• They remain members only as long as the group fulfills a meaningful purpose.
• Although cult leaders do use techniques of social influence to manipulate members, these techniques of influence are employed very broadly in virtually all social groups.
• New religions (cults and sects) provide a fundamental structure for the invigoration and renewal of religion in cultures.
• All religions were new at some point in time.

New religions are at odds with dominant culture:

• Values
• Life styles
• Aspirations of the majority

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Part IV: Why Study New Religions?

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Why Study New Religions?

• They Are Seriously Misunderstood
• Religion Has Always Been an Important Part of Culture
• All Religions Were Once New
• The Question of Religious Liberty
• The Question of Freedom in a Pluralistic World

Religious Liberty

• "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof"
  
  Constitution of the United States, First Amendment

Religious Liberty in Virginia

• The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
• Authored by Thomas Jefferson
• Introduced in the General Assembly 1779
• Promoted by James Madison
• Became law in 1786

Bill for the Establishment of Religious Freedom (1786)

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."

The natural rights of mankind

The statute concludes:

"...though we well know that this assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right."

Freedom in a pluralistic world

• The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during he second half of this century is one of the clearest cases we have of appeal to that "higher" authority.
• And few places do we find such an articulate explication of this principle as we find in Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. [portion of MLK reading Birmingham letter will be presented in class]

Religion and Human Rights in Tension

• If religion may be viewed as the foundation of human freedom and libery, it is also capable of being the source of oppression and human suffering. [slides demonstrating point]

Masses follow tyrants in the name of religion ...

• And spend an extraordinary amount of time fighting with fellow human beings primarily because they have a different religion. [slides demonstating point]

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Part V: Suggested Readings

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Noonan, John T., Jr., 1998.

The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Rudin, A. James and Marcia R., 1980.

Prison or Paradise? The New Religious Cults. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Bromley, David G. and Anson D. Shupe, Jr., 1981.

Strange Gods. Boston: Beacon Press.

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Lecuture last revised:
01/12/00