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Wikipedia

Cult

January 13, 2023

For other uses, see Cult (disambiguation).
Further information: Cult (religious practice) and Sociological classifications of religious movements

In modern English, cult is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals,[1] or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined, – having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia – and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.[2][3]: 348–356 

An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, related to a particular figure, and often associated with a particular place.[4] References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word.

While the literal and original sense of the word remains in use, a derived sense of "excessive devotion" arose in the 19th century.[i] Then, beginning in the 1930s, cults became an object of sociological study within the context of the study of religious behavior.[5] Since the 1940s, the Christian countercult movement has opposed some sects and new religious movements, labeling them "cults" because of their unorthodox beliefs. Since the 1970s, the secular anti-cult movement has opposed certain groups and, as a reaction to acts of violence, frequently charged those cults with practicing mind control. Scholars and the media have disputed some of the claims and actions of anti-cult movements, leading to further public controversy.

Sociological classifications of religious movements may identify a cult as a social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices,[6] although this is often unclear.[7][8][9] Other researchers present a less-organized picture of cults, saying that they arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices.[10] Groups labelled as "cults" range in size from local groups with a few followers to international organizations with millions of adherents.[11]

Definition

In the English-speaking world, the term cult often carries derogatory connotations.[12] In this sense, it has been considered a subjective term, used as an ad hominem attack against groups with differing doctrines or practices.[8][13] As such, religion scholar Megan Goodwin has defined the term cult, when it is used by the layperson, as often being shorthand for a "religion I don't like".[14]

In the 1970s, with the rise of secular anti-cult movements, scholars (though not the general public) began to abandon the use of the term cult. According to The Oxford Handbook of Religious Movements, "by the end of the decade, the term 'new religions' would virtually replace the term 'cult' to describe all of those leftover groups that did not fit easily under the label of church or sect."[15]

Sociologist Amy Ryan (2000) has argued for the need to differentiate those groups that may be dangerous from groups that are more benign.[16] Ryan notes the sharp differences between definitions offered by cult opponents, who tend to focus on negative characteristics, and those offered by sociologists, who aim to create definitions that are value-free. The movements themselves may have different definitions of religion as well.[17] George Chryssides also cites a need to develop better definitions to allow for common ground in the debate. Casino (1999) presents the issue as crucial to international human rights laws. Limiting the definition of religion may interfere with freedom of religion, while too broad a definition may give some dangerous or abusive groups "a limitless excuse for avoiding all unwanted legal obligations."[18]

New religious movements

 
Howard P. Becker's church–sect typology, based on Ernst Troeltsch's original theory and providing the basis for the modern concepts of cults, sects, and new religious movements
Main article: New religious movement

A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious community or spiritual group of modern origins (since the mid-1800s), which has a peripheral place within its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations.[19][20] In 1999, Eileen Barker estimated that NRMs, of which some but not all have been labelled as cults, number in the tens of thousands worldwide, most of which originated in Asia or Africa; and that the great majority of which have only a few members, some have thousands and only very few have more than a million.[11] In 2007, religious scholar Elijah Siegler commented that, although no NRM had become the dominant faith in any country, many of the concepts which they had first introduced (often referred to as "New Age" ideas) have become part of worldwide mainstream culture.[20]: 51 

Scholarly studies

 
Max Weber (1864–1920), one of the first scholars to study cults.

Sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) found that cults based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma.[21] The concept of a cult as a sociological classification, however, was introduced in 1932 by American sociologist Howard P. Becker as an expansion of German theologian Ernst Troeltsch's church–sect typology. Troeltsch's aim was to distinguish between three main types of religious behaviour: churchly, sectarian, and mystical.

Becker further bisected Troeltsch's first two categories: church was split into ecclesia and denomination; and sect into sect and cult.[22] Like Troeltsch's "mystical religion", Becker's cult refers to small religious groups that lack in organization and emphasize the private nature of personal beliefs.[23] Later sociological formulations built on such characteristics, placing an additional emphasis on cults as deviant religious groups, "deriving their inspiration from outside of the predominant religious culture."[3]: 349  This is often thought to lead to a high degree of tension between the group and the more mainstream culture surrounding it, a characteristic shared with religious sects.[24] According to this sociological terminology, sects are products of religious schism and therefore maintain a continuity with traditional beliefs and practices, whereas cults arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices.[25]

In the early 1960s, sociologist John Lofland, living with South Korean missionary Young Oon Kim and some of the first American Unification Church members in California, studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win new members.[26] Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members, often family relationships.[27] Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes", and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall as Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization and Maintenance of Faith. It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of religious conversion.[28][29]

Sociologist Roy Wallis (1945–1990) argued that a cult is characterized by "epistemological individualism," meaning that "the cult has no clear locus of final authority beyond the individual member." Cults, according to Wallis, are generally described as "oriented towards the problems of individuals, loosely structured, tolerant [and] non-exclusive," making "few demands on members," without possessing a "clear distinction between members and non-members," having "a rapid turnover of membership" and as being transient collectives with vague boundaries and fluctuating belief systems. Wallis asserts that cults emerge from the "cultic milieu".[30]

J. Gordon Melton stated that, in 1970, "one could count the number of active researchers on new religions on one's hands." However, James R. Lewis writes that the "meteoric growth" in this field of study can be attributed to the cult controversy of the early 1970s. Because of "a wave of nontraditional religiosity" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, academics perceived new religious movements as different phenomena from previous religious innovations.[15]

In 1978, Bruce Campbell noted that cults are associated with beliefs in a divine element in the individual; it is either soul, self, or true self. Cults are inherently ephemeral and loosely organized. There is a major theme in many of the recent works that show the relationship between cults and mysticism. Campbell, describing cults as non-traditional religious groups based on belief in a divine element in the individual, brings two major types of such to attention – mystical and instrumental – dividing cults into either occult or metaphysical assembly. There is also a third type, the service-oriented, as Campbell states that "the kinds of stable forms which evolve in the development of religious organization will bear a significant relationship to the content of the religious experience of the founder or founders."[31]

Dick Anthony, a forensic psychologist known for his criticism of brainwashing theory of conversion,[32][33][34] has defended some so-called cults, and in 1988 argued that involvement in such movements may often have beneficial, rather than harmful effects, saying that "[t]here's a large research literature published in mainstream journals on the mental health effects of new religions. For the most part, the effects seem to be positive in any way that's measurable."[35]

In their 1996 book Theory of Religion, American sociologists Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge propose that the formation of cults can be explained through the rational choice theory.[36] In The Future of Religion they comment that, "in the beginning, all religions are obscure, tiny, deviant cult movements."[37] According to Marc Galanter, Professor of Psychiatry at NYU, typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest.[38] Stark and Bainbridge, in discussing the process by which individuals join new religious groups, have even questioned the utility of the concept of conversion, suggesting that affiliation is a more useful concept.[39]

Subcategories

Destructive cults

 
Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple

Destructive cult generally refers to groups whose members have, through deliberate action, physically injured or killed other members of their own group or other people. The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance specifically limits the use of the term to religious groups that "have caused or are liable to cause loss of life among their membership or the general public."[40] Psychologist Michael Langone, executive director of the anti-cult group International Cultic Studies Association, defines a destructive cult as "a highly manipulative group which exploits and sometimes physically and/or psychologically damages members and recruits."[41]

John Gordon Clark argued that totalitarian systems of governance and an emphasis on money making are characteristics of a destructive cult.[42] In Cults and the Family, the authors cite Shapiro, who defines a destructive cultism as a sociopathic syndrome, whose distinctive qualities include: "behavioral and personality changes, loss of personal identity, cessation of scholastic activities, estrangement from family, disinterest in society and pronounced mental control and enslavement by cult leaders."[43]

In the opinion of Sociology Professor Benjamin Zablocki of Rutgers University, destructive cults are at high risk of becoming abusive to members, stating that such is in part due to members' adulation of charismatic leaders contributing to the leaders becoming corrupted by power.[44] According to Barrett, the most common accusation made against destructive cults is sexual abuse. According to Kranenborg, some groups are risky when they advise their members not to use regular medical care.[45] This may extend to physical and psychological harm.[46]

Writing about Bruderhof communities in the book Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field, Julius H. Rubin said that American religious innovation created an unending diversity of sects. These "new religious movements…gathered new converts and issued challenges to the wider society. Not infrequently, public controversy, contested narratives and litigation result."[2] In his work Cults in Context author Lorne L. Dawson writes that although the Unification Church "has not been shown to be violent or volatile," it has been described as a destructive cult by "anticult crusaders."[47] In 2002, the German government was held by the Federal Constitutional Court to have defamed the Osho movement by referring to it, among other things, as a "destructive cult" with no factual basis.[48][49]

Some researchers have criticized the usage of the term destructive cult, writing that it is used to describe groups which are not necessarily harmful in nature to themselves or others. In his book Understanding New Religious Movements, John A. Saliba writes that the term is overgeneralized. Saliba sees the Peoples Temple as the "paradigm of a destructive cult", where those that use the term are implying that other groups will also commit mass suicide.[50]

Doomsday cults

Main article: Doomsday cult

Doomsday cult is an expression which is used to describe groups that believe in Apocalypticism and Millenarianism, and it can also be used to refer both to groups that predict disaster, and groups that attempt to bring it about.[51] In the 1950s, American social psychologist Leon Festinger and his colleagues observed members of a small UFO religion called the Seekers for several months, and recorded their conversations both prior to and after a failed prophecy from their charismatic leader.[52][53][54] Their work was later published in the book When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World.[55] In the late 1980s, doomsday cults were a major topic of news reports, with some reporters and commentators considering them a serious threat to society.[56] A 1997 psychological study by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter found that people turned to a cataclysmic world view after they had repeatedly failed to find meaning in mainstream movements.[57] People also strive to find meaning in global events such as the turn of the millennium when many predicted it prophetically marked the end of an age and thus the end of the world.[58] An ancient Mayan calendar ended at the year 2012 and many anticipated catastrophic disasters would rock the Earth.[59]

Political cults

See also: Political extremism
 
LaRouche Movement members in Stockholm protesting against the Treaty of Lisbon

A political cult is a cult with a primary interest in political action and ideology.[60][61] Groups that some have described as "political cults", mostly advocating far-left or far-right agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars. In their 2000 book On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth discuss about a dozen organizations in the United States and Great Britain that they characterize as cults.[60][62] In a separate article, Tourish says that in his usage:[63]

The word cult is not a term of abuse, as this paper tries to explain. It is nothing more than a shorthand expression for a particular set of practices that have been observed in a variety of dysfunctional organisations.

In 1990, Lucy Patrick commented:[64]

Although we live in a democracy, cult behavior manifests itself in our unwillingness to question the judgment of our leaders, our tendency to devalue outsiders and to avoid dissent. We can overcome cult behavior, he says, by recognizing that we have dependency needs that are inappropriate for mature people, by increasing anti-authoritarian education, and by encouraging personal autonomy and the free exchange of ideas.

In Iran, a "cult of Khomeini" developed into a "secular religion". According to Iranian author Amir Taheri, Khomeini is called imam, making a "Twelver Shiism into a cult of Thirteen." Khomeini's image is engraved in giant rocks and mountain slopes, prayers begin and end with his name, and his fatwas remain valid beyond his death (something that goes against Shiite principles). Also slogans such as "God, Koran, Khomeini" or "God is One, Khomeini is the Leader" are used as war cries of the Hezballah in Iran.[65] Even though Khomeini's photographs still hang in many government offices, it is said that by the late 1990s "Khomeini's cult had faded".[66]

Ayn Rand Institute

Main article: Ayn Rand Institute

Followers of Ayn Rand have been characterized as a cult by economist Murray N. Rothbard during her lifetime, and later by Michael Shermer.[67][68][69] The core group around Rand was called the "Collective", which are now defunct; the chief group which is disseminating Rand's ideas today is the Ayn Rand Institute. Although the Collective advocated an individualist philosophy, Rothbard claimed that it was organized in the manner of a "Leninist" organization.[67]

LaRouche movement

Main article: LaRouche movement

The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. It has been called "cult-like" by The New York Times.[70]

The movement originated within the radical leftist student politics of the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of candidates ran in state Democratic primaries in the United States on the 'LaRouche platform', while Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly campaigned for presidential nomination. However, the LaRouche movement is often considered far-right.[71][72][73][74] During its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the LaRouche movement developed a private intelligence agency and contacts with foreign governments.[75][76][74]

New Acropolis

Main article: New Acropolis

An Argentinian esoteric group founded in 1957 by former theosophist[77] Jorge Angel Livraga, the New Acropolis Cultural Association has been described by scholars as an ultra-conservative, neo-fascist and white supremacist paramilitary group.[78][79][80] The group itself denies such descriptions.[81][82]

Unification Church

Main article: Unification Church

Founded by North Korea-born Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church (also known as the Unification movement) holds a strong anti-Communist position.[83][84] In the 1940s, Moon cooperated with members of the Communist Party of Korea in the Korean independence movement against Imperial Japan. However, after the Korean War (1950–1953), he became an outspoken anti-communist.[83] Moon viewed the Cold War between democracy and communism as the final conflict between God and Satan, with divided Korea as its primary front line.[85] Soon after its founding the Unification movement began supporting anti-communist organizations, including the World League for Freedom and Democracy founded in 1966 in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan), by Chiang Kai-shek,[86] and the Korean Culture and Freedom Foundation, an international public diplomacy organization which also sponsored Radio Free Asia.[87]

In 1974 the Unification Church supported Republican President Richard Nixon and rallied in his favor after the Watergate scandal, with Nixon thanking personally for it.[88] In 1975 Moon spoke at a government sponsored rally against potential North Korean military aggression on Yeouido Island in Seoul to an audience of around 1 million.[89] The Unification movement was criticized by both the mainstream media and the alternative press for its anti-communist activism, which many said could lead to World War Three and a nuclear holocaust.[90][91][92]

In 1977, the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations, of the United States House of Representatives, found that the South Korean intelligence agency, the KCIA, had used the movement to gain political influence with the United States and that some members had worked as volunteers in Congressional offices. Together they founded the Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization which acted as a public diplomacy campaign for the Republic of Korea.[93] The committee also investigated possible KCIA influence on the Unification Church's campaign in support of Nixon.[94]

In 1980, members founded CAUSA International, an anti-communist educational organization based in New York City.[95] In the 1980s, it was active in 21 countries. In the United States, it sponsored educational conferences for evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders[96] as well as seminars and conferences for Senate staffers, Hispanic Americans and conservative activists.[97] In 1986, CAUSA International sponsored the documentary film Nicaragua Was Our Home, about the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua and their persecution at the hands of the Nicaraguan government. It was filmed and produced by USA-UWC member Lee Shapiro, who later died while filming with anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet–Afghan War.[98][99][100][101]

In 1983, some American members joined a public protest against the Soviet Union over its shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007.[102] In 1984, the HSA–UWC founded the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, a Washington D.C. think tank that underwrites conservative-oriented research and seminars at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and other institutions.[103] In the same year, member Dan Fefferman founded the International Coalition for Religious Freedom in Virginia, which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies.[104] In August 1985 the Professors World Peace Academy, an organization founded by Moon, sponsored a conference in Geneva to debate the theme "The situation in the world after the fall of the communist empire."[105]

In April 1990, Moon visited the Soviet Union and met with President Mikhail Gorbachev. Moon expressed support for the political and economic transformations underway in the Soviet Union. At the same time, the movement was expanding into formerly communist nations.[106] In 1994, The New York Times recognized the movement's political influence, saying it was "a theocratic powerhouse that is pouring foreign fortunes into conservative causes in the United States."[107] In 1998, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram criticized Moon's "ultra-right leanings" and suggested a personal relationship with conservative Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[108]

The Unification Church also owns several news outlets including The Washington Times, Insight on the News,[109] United Press International[110][111] and the News World Communications network.[112][113] Washington Times opinion editor Charles Hurt was one of Donald Trump's earliest supporters in Washington, D.C.[114] In 2018, he included Trump with Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II as "great champions of freedom."[115] In 2016 The Washington Times did not endorse a candidate for United States president, but endorsed Trump for reelection in 2020.[116][117][118]

Workers Revolutionary Party

Main article: Workers Revolutionary Party (UK)

In Britain, the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), a Trotskyist group which was led by Gerry Healy and strongly supported by actress Vanessa Redgrave, has been described by others, who have been involved in the Trotskyist movement, as having been a cult or a group which displayed cult-like characteristics during the 1970s and 1980s.[119] It is also described as such by Wohlforth and Tourish,[120] to whom Bob Pitt, a former member of the WRP, concedes that it had a "cult-like character" though arguing that rather than being typical of the far left, this feature actually made the WRP atypical and "led to its being treated as a pariah within the revolutionary left itself."[121]

Other groups

Organizations like the Mexican far-right group El Yunque, which sponsored the Spanish far right party Vox,[122][123] the QAnon conspiracy theory,[124][125] and the growing neo-Pentecostal political influence in Latin America,[126] can be characterised as cults.

Gino Perente's National Labor Federation (NATLFED)[127] and Marlene Dixon's now-defunct Democratic Workers Party are an examples of political groups that have been described as "cults". A critical history of the DWP is given in Bounded Choice by Janja Lalich, a sociologist and former DWP member.[128] Lutte Ouvrière (LO; "Workers' Struggle") in France, publicly headed by Arlette Laguiller but revealed in the 1990s to be directed by Robert Barcia, has often been criticized as a cult, for example, by Daniel Cohn-Bendit and his older brother Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, as well as by L'Humanité and Libération.[129]

In his book Les Sectes Politiques: 1965–1995 (Political cults: 1965–1995), French writer Cyril Le Tallec considers some religious groups that were involved in politics at that time. He included the Cultural Office of Cluny, New Acropolis, the Divine Light Mission, Tradition Family Property (TFP), Longo Maï, the Supermen Club, and the Association for Promotion of the Industrial Arts (Solazaref).[130]

Several former leaders of the Groyper movement – an alt-right faction that infuses white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and Incel ideology – have accused Nick Fuentes of leading it like a cult, describing him as abusing and demanding absolute loyalty from his followers.[131][132][133] Fuentes praised having a "cult-like... mentality" and admitted to "ironically" describing his own movement as a cult.[134]

Polygamist cults

Main article: Polygamy

Cults that teach and practice polygamy, marriage between more than two people, most often polygyny, one man having multiple wives, have long been noted, although they are a minority. It has been estimated that there are around 50,000 members of polygamist cults in North America.[135] Often, polygamist cults are viewed negatively by both legal authorities and mainstream society, and this view sometimes includes negative perceptions of related mainstream denominations, because of their perceived links to possible domestic violence and child abuse.[136]

From the 1830s, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) practiced polygamy, or plural marriage. In 1890, the president of the LDS Church, Wilford Woodruff, issued a public manifesto which announced that the LDS Church had ceased performing new plural marriages. Anti-Mormon sentiment waned, as did opposition to statehood for Utah. The Smoot Hearings in 1904, which documented that members of the LDS Church were still practising polygamy, spurred the church to issue a Second Manifesto, again claiming that it had ceased performing new plural marriages. By 1910, the LDS Church excommunicated those who entered into or performed new plural marriages.[137] Enforcement of the 1890 Manifesto caused various splinter groups to leave the LDS Church in order to continue the practice of plural marriage.[138] Such groups are known as Mormon fundamentalists. For example, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is often described as a polygamist cult.[139]

Racist cults

Main article: Racism
 
Cross burning by Ku Klux Klan members in 1915

Sociologist and historian Orlando Patterson has described the Ku Klux Klan, which arose in the American South after the Civil War, as a heretical Christian cult, and he has also described its persecution of African Americans and others as a form of human sacrifice.[140] During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the existence of secret Aryan cults in Germany and Austria strongly influenced the rise of Nazism.[141] Modern-day white power skinhead groups in the United States tend to use the same recruitment techniques as groups which are characterized as destructive cults.[142]

Vibert L. White, Jr., a former member and lead advisor for Nation of Islam, characterized the organization as a cult, accusing its leader Louis Farrakhan, along with other organizational leaders, of using black nationalism and religious dogma to exploit black people for personal and political gain.[143] The Nation of Islam preaches black supremacy, that its founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was a Messiah and his successor Elijah Muhammad was a divine messenger, and that white people were a race of devils to be overthrown apocalyptically.[144][145]

Terrorist cults

Main article: Terrorism

In the book Jihad and Sacred Vengeance: Psychological Undercurrents of History, psychiatrist Peter A. Olsson compares Osama bin Laden to certain cult leaders including Jim Jones, David Koresh, Shoko Asahara, Marshall Applewhite, Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro, and he also says that each of these individuals fit at least eight of the nine criteria for people with narcissistic personality disorders.[146] In the book Seeking the Compassionate Life: The Moral Crisis for Psychotherapy and Society authors Goldberg and Crespo also refer to Osama bin Laden as a "destructive cult leader."[147]

At a 2002 meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA), anti-cultist Steven Hassan said that Al-Qaeda fulfills the characteristics of a destructive cult, adding, in addition:[148]

We need to apply what we know about destructive mind-control cults, and this should be a priority in the War on Terrorism. We need to understand the psychological aspects of how people are recruited and indoctrinated so we can slow down recruitment. We need to help counsel former cult members and possibly use some of them in the war against terrorism.

In an article on Al-Qaeda published in The Times, journalist Mary Ann Sieghart wrote that al-Qaeda resembles a "classic cult:"[149]

Al-Qaeda fits all the official definitions of a cult. It indoctrinates its members; it forms a closed, totalitarian society; it has a self-appointed, messianic and charismatic leader; and it believes that the ends justify the means.

Similar to Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant adheres to an even more extremist and puritanical ideology, in which the goal is to create a state governed by shari'ah as interpreted by its religious leadership, who then brainwash and command their able-bodied male subjects to go on suicide missions, with such devices as car bombs, against its enemies, including deliberately-selected civilian targets, such as churches and Shi'ite mosques, among others. Subjects view this as a legitimate action; an obligation, even. The ultimate goal of this political-military endeavour is to eventually usher in the end of the world in accordance with their Islamic beliefs and have the chance to participate in their version of the apocalyptic final battle, in which all of their enemies (i.e. anyone who is not on their side) would be annihilated.[150] Such endeavour ultimately failed in 2017,[151] though hardcore survivors have largely returned to insurgency terrorism (i.e., Iraqi insurgency, 2017–present).

The Shining Path guerrilla movement, active in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, has variously been described as a "cult"[152] and an intense "cult of personality".[153] The Tamil Tigers have also been described as such by the French magazine L'Express.[154]

Anti-cult movements

Christian countercult movement

Main article: Christian countercult movement

In the 1940s, the long-held opposition by some established Christian denominations to non-Christian religions and supposedly heretical or counterfeit Christian sects crystallized into a more organized Christian countercult movement in the United States. For those belonging to the movement, all religious groups claiming to be Christian, but deemed outside of Christian orthodoxy, were considered cults.[155] Christian cults are new religious movements that have a Christian background but are considered to be theologically deviant by members of other Christian churches.[156] In his influential book The Kingdom of the Cults (1965), Christian scholar Walter Ralston Martin defines Christian cults as groups that follow the personal interpretation of an individual, rather than the understanding of the Bible accepted by Nicene Christianity, providing the examples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Unity Church.[157]: 18 

The Christian countercult movement asserts that Christian sects whose beliefs are partially or wholly not in accordance with the Bible are erroneous. It also states that a religious sect can be considered a cult if its beliefs involve a denial of what they view as any of the essential Christian teachings such as salvation, the Trinity, Jesus himself as a person, the ministry of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, the crucifixion, the resurrection of Christ, the Second Coming, and the rapture.[158][159][160]

Countercult literature usually expresses doctrinal or theological concerns and a missionary or apologetic purpose.[161] It presents a rebuttal by emphasizing the teachings of the Bible against the beliefs of non-fundamental Christian sects. Christian countercult activist writers also emphasize the need for Christians to evangelize to followers of cults.[162][163][157]: 479–493 

Secular anti-cult movement

Main article: Anti-cult movement
 
An anti-Aum Shinrikyo protest in Japan, 2009

In the early 1970s, a secular opposition movement to groups considered cults had taken shape. The organizations that formed the secular anti-cult movement (ACM) often acted on behalf of relatives of "cult" converts who did not believe their loved ones could have altered their lives so drastically by their own free will. A few psychologists and sociologists working in this field suggested that brainwashing techniques were used to maintain the loyalty of cult members.[164] The belief that cults brainwashed their members became a unifying theme among cult critics and in the more extreme corners of the anti-cult movement techniques like the sometimes forceful "deprogramming" of cult members was practised.[165]

Secular cult opponents belonging to the anti-cult movement usually define a cult as a group that tends to manipulate, exploit, and control its members. Specific factors in cult behaviour are said to include manipulative and authoritarian mind control over members, communal and totalistic organization, aggressive proselytizing, systematic programs of indoctrination, and perpetuation in middle-class communities.[166][167][168][169][170] In the mass media, and among average citizens, "cult" gained an increasingly negative connotation, becoming associated with things like kidnapping, brainwashing, psychological abuse, sexual abuse and other criminal activity, and mass suicide. While most of these negative qualities usually have real documented precedents in the activities of a very small minority of new religious groups, mass culture often extends them to any religious group viewed as culturally deviant, however peaceful or law abiding it may be.[171][172][58][3]: 348–356 

While some psychologists were receptive to these theories, sociologists were for the most part sceptical of their ability to explain conversion to NRMs.[173] In the late 1980s, psychologists and sociologists started to abandon theories like brainwashing and mind control. While scholars may believe that various less dramatic coercive psychological mechanisms could influence group members, they came to see conversion to new religious movements principally as an act of a rational choice.[174][175]

Reactions to the anti-cult movements

Because of the increasingly pejorative use of the words "cult" and "cult leader" since the cult debate of the 1970s, some academics, in addition to groups referred to as cults, argue that these are words to be avoided.[176][3]: 348–356  Catherine Wessinger (Loyola University New Orleans) has stated that the word "cult" represents just as much prejudice and antagonism as racial slurs or derogatory words for women and homosexuals.[177] She has argued that it is important for people to become aware of the bigotry conveyed by the word, drawing attention to the way it dehumanizes the group's members and their children.[177] Labelling a group as subhuman, she says, becomes a justification for violence against it.[177] She also says that labelling a group a "cult" makes people feel safe, because the "violence associated with religion is split off from conventional religions, projected onto others, and imagined to involve only aberrant groups."[177] According to her, this fails to take into account that child abuse, sexual abuse, financial extortion and warfare have also been committed by believers of mainstream religions, but the pejorative "cult" stereotype makes it easier to avoid confronting this uncomfortable fact.[177]

Governmental policies and actions

Main article: Governmental lists of cults and sects

The application of the labels "cult" or "sect" to religious movements in government documents signifies the popular and negative use of the term "cult" in English and a functionally similar use of words translated as "sect" in several European languages.[178] Sociologists critical to this negative politicized use of the word "cult" argue that it may adversely impact the religious freedoms of group members.[179] At the height of the counter-cult movement and ritual abuse scare of the 1990s, some governments published lists of cults.[ii] While these documents utilize similar terminology they do not necessarily include the same groups nor is their assessment of these groups based on agreed criteria.[178] Other governments and world bodies also report on new religious movements but do not use these terms to describe the groups.[178] Since the 2000s, some governments have again distanced themselves from such classifications of religious movements.[iii] While the official response to new religious groups has been mixed across the globe, some governments aligned more with the critics of these groups to the extent of distinguishing between "legitimate" religion and "dangerous", "unwanted" cults in public policy.[164][180]

China

Main articles: Heterodox teachings (Chinese law) and Persecution of Falun Gong
 
Falun Gong books being symbolically destroyed by the Chinese government

For centuries, governments in China have categorized certain religions as xiéjiào (邪教), sometimes translated as "evil cults" or "heterodox teachings".[181] In imperial China, the classification of a religion as xiejiao did not necessarily mean that a religion's teachings were believed to be false or inauthentic, rather, the label was applied to religious groups that were not authorized by the state, or it was applied to religious groups that were believed to challenge the legitimacy of the state.[181] In modern China, the term xiejiao continues to be used to denote teachings that the government disapproves of, and these groups face suppression and punishment by authorities. Fourteen different groups in China have been listed by the ministry of public security as xiejiao.[182] Additionally, in 1999, Chinese Communist Party authorities denounced the Falun Gong spiritual practice as a heretical teaching, and they launched a campaign to eliminate it. However, such claims only exist in party resolutions, and has not been legitimized by Chinese own law systems. This actually made such denouncement confusing and as outlawed actions secretly conducted by Communist Party's secret policemen. According to Amnesty International, the persecution of Falun Gong includes a multifaceted propaganda campaign,[183] a program of enforced ideological conversion and re-education, as well as a variety of extralegal coercive measures, such as arbitrary arrests, forced labour, and physical torture, sometimes resulting in death.[184]

Russia

In 2008 the Russian Interior Ministry prepared a list of "extremist groups". At the top of the list were Islamic groups outside of "traditional Islam", which is supervised by the Russian government. Next listed were "Pagan cults".[185] In 2009 the Russian Ministry of Justice created a council which it named the "Council of Experts Conducting State Religious Studies Expert Analysis." The new council listed 80 large sects which it considered potentially dangerous to Russian society, and it also mentioned that there were thousands of smaller ones. The large sects which were listed included: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and other sects which were loosely referred to as "neo-Pentecostals".[186]

United States

In the 1970s, the scientific status of the "brainwashing theory" became a central topic in U.S. court cases where the theory was used to try to justify the use of the forceful deprogramming of cult members.[15][179] Meanwhile, sociologists who were critical of these theories assisted advocates of religious freedom in defending the legitimacy of new religious movements in court.[164][180] In the United States the religious activities of cults are protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which prohibits governmental establishment of religion and protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. However, no members of religious groups or cults are granted any special immunity from criminal prosecution.[187] In 1990, the court case of United States v. Fishman (1990) ended the usage of brainwashing theories by expert witnesses such as Margaret Singer and Richard Ofshe.[188] In the case's ruling, the court cited the Frye standard, which states that the scientific theory which is utilized by expert witnesses must be generally accepted in their respective fields. The court deemed brainwashing to be inadmissible in expert testimonies, using supporting documents which were published by the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control, literature from previous court cases in which brainwashing theories were used, and expert testimonies which were delivered by scholars such as Dick Anthony.[188][189]

Western Europe

See also: MIVILUDES, Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu, and Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France

The governments of France and Belgium have taken policy positions which accept "brainwashing" theories uncritically, while the governments of other European nations, such as those of Sweden and Italy, are cautious with regard to brainwashing and as a result, they have responded more neutrally with regard to new religions.[190] Scholars have suggested that the outrage which followed the mass murder/suicides which were perpetuated by the Solar Temple[164][191] have significantly contributed to European anti-cult positions as well as more latent xenophobic and anti-American attitudes which are widespread on the continent.[192] In the 1980s clergymen and officials of the French government expressed concern that some orders and other groups within the Roman Catholic Church would be adversely affected by anti-cult laws which were then being considered.[193]

See also

References

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Compare the Oxford English Dictionary note for usage in 1875: "cult:…b. A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members.… 1875 Brit. Mail 30 Jan. 13/1 Buffaloism is, it would seem, a cult, a creed, a secret community, the members of which are bound together by strange and weird vows, and listen in hidden conclave to mysterious lore." "cult". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ Or "sects" in German-speaking countries, the German term sekten having assumed the same derogatory meaning as English "cult".
  3. ^ * Austria: Beginning in 2011, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's International Religious Freedom Report no longer distinguishes sects in Austria as a separate group. "International Religious Freedom Report for 2012". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
    • Belgium: The Justice Commission of the Belgian House of Representatives published a report on cults in 1997. A Brussels Appeals Court in 2005 condemned the House of Representatives on the grounds that it had damaged the image of an organization listed.
    • France: A parliamentary commission of the National Assembly compiled a list of purported cults in 1995. In 2005, the Prime Minister stated that the concerns addressed in the list "had become less pertinent" and that the government needed to balance its concern with cults with respect for public freedoms and laїcité.
    • Germany: The legitimacy of a 1997 Berlin Senate report listing cults (sekten) was defended in a court decision of 2003 (Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin [OVG 5 B 26.00] 25 September 2003). The list is still maintained by Berlin city authorities: Sekten und Psychogruppen – Leitstelle Berlin.

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General and cited sources

Further reading

Books

  • Barker, E. (1989) New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, London, HMSO
  • Bromley, David et al.: Cults, Religion, and Violence, 2002, ISBN 0521668980
  • Enroth, Ronald. (1992) Churches that Abuse, Zondervan, ISBN 0310532906 Full text online
  • Esquerre, Arnaud: La manipulation mentale. Sociologie des sectes en France, Fayard, Paris, 2009.
  • House, Wayne: Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements, 2000, ISBN 0310385512
  • Kramer, Joel and Alstad, Diane: The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power, 1993.
  • Lalich, Janja: Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, 2004, ISBN 0520240189
  • Landau Tobias, Madeleine et al. : Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, 1994, ISBN 0897931440
  • Lewis, James R. Odd Gods: New Religions and the Cult Controversy, Prometheus Books, 2001
  • Martin, Walter et al.: The Kingdom of the Cults, 2003, ISBN 0764228218
  • Melton, Gordon: Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, 1992 ISBN 0815311400
  • Oakes, Len: Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities, 1997, ISBN 0815603983
  • Singer, Margaret Thaler: Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, 1992, ISBN 0787967416
  • Tourish, Dennis: 'On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, 2000, ISBN 0765606399
  • Zablocki, Benjamin et al.: Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field, 2001, ISBN 0802081886

Articles

  • Aronoff, Jodi; Lynn, Steven Jay; Malinosky, Peter. Are cultic environments psychologically harmful?, Clinical Psychology Review, 2000, Vol. 20 No. 1 pp. 91–111
  • Langone, Michael: Cults:
  • Lifton, Robert Jay: , The Harvard Mental Health Letter, February 1991
  • Robbins, T. and D. Anthony, 1982. "Deprogramming, brainwashing and the medicalization of deviant religious groups" Social Problems 29 pp. 283–297.
  • Rosedale, Herbert et al.:
  • Van Hoey, Sara: . The Los Angeles Lawyer, February 1991
  • Zimbardo, Philip: , American Psychological Association Monitor, May 1997

External links

  •   The dictionary definition of cult at Wiktionary
  •   Quotations related to Cult at Wikiquote

January 13, 2023
cult, other, uses, disambiguation, further, information, religious, practice, sociological, classifications, religious, movements, modern, english, cult, usually, pejorative, term, social, group, that, defined, unusual, religious, spiritual, philosophical, bel. For other uses see Cult disambiguation Further information Cult religious practice and Sociological classifications of religious movements In modern English cult is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious spiritual or philosophical beliefs and rituals 1 or its common interest in a particular personality object or goal This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study 2 3 348 356 An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture related to a particular figure and often associated with a particular place 4 References to the cult of a particular Catholic saint or the imperial cult of ancient Rome for example use this sense of the word While the literal and original sense of the word remains in use a derived sense of excessive devotion arose in the 19th century i Then beginning in the 1930s cults became an object of sociological study within the context of the study of religious behavior 5 Since the 1940s the Christian countercult movement has opposed some sects and new religious movements labeling them cults because of their unorthodox beliefs Since the 1970s the secular anti cult movement has opposed certain groups and as a reaction to acts of violence frequently charged those cults with practicing mind control Scholars and the media have disputed some of the claims and actions of anti cult movements leading to further public controversy Sociological classifications of religious movements may identify a cult as a social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices 6 although this is often unclear 7 8 9 Other researchers present a less organized picture of cults saying that they arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices 10 Groups labelled as cults range in size from local groups with a few followers to international organizations with millions of adherents 11 Contents 1 Definition 2 New religious movements 3 Scholarly studies 4 Subcategories 4 1 Destructive cults 4 2 Doomsday cults 4 3 Political cults 4 3 1 Ayn Rand Institute 4 3 2 LaRouche movement 4 3 3 New Acropolis 4 3 4 Unification Church 4 3 5 Workers Revolutionary Party 4 3 6 Other groups 4 4 Polygamist cults 4 5 Racist cults 4 6 Terrorist cults 5 Anti cult movements 5 1 Christian countercult movement 5 2 Secular anti cult movement 5 3 Reactions to the anti cult movements 6 Governmental policies and actions 6 1 China 6 2 Russia 6 3 United States 6 4 Western Europe 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Explanatory notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 General and cited sources 9 Further reading 9 1 Books 9 2 Articles 10 External linksDefinition EditIn the English speaking world the term cult often carries derogatory connotations 12 In this sense it has been considered a subjective term used as an ad hominem attack against groups with differing doctrines or practices 8 13 As such religion scholar Megan Goodwin has defined the term cult when it is used by the layperson as often being shorthand for a religion I don t like 14 In the 1970s with the rise of secular anti cult movements scholars though not the general public began to abandon the use of the term cult According to The Oxford Handbook of Religious Movements by the end of the decade the term new religions would virtually replace the term cult to describe all of those leftover groups that did not fit easily under the label of church or sect 15 Sociologist Amy Ryan 2000 has argued for the need to differentiate those groups that may be dangerous from groups that are more benign 16 Ryan notes the sharp differences between definitions offered by cult opponents who tend to focus on negative characteristics and those offered by sociologists who aim to create definitions that are value free The movements themselves may have different definitions of religion as well 17 George Chryssides also cites a need to develop better definitions to allow for common ground in the debate Casino 1999 presents the issue as crucial to international human rights laws Limiting the definition of religion may interfere with freedom of religion while too broad a definition may give some dangerous or abusive groups a limitless excuse for avoiding all unwanted legal obligations 18 New religious movements Edit Howard P Becker s church sect typology based on Ernst Troeltsch s original theory and providing the basis for the modern concepts of cults sects and new religious movements Main article New religious movement A new religious movement NRM is a religious community or spiritual group of modern origins since the mid 1800s which has a peripheral place within its society s dominant religious culture NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion in which case they are distinct from pre existing denominations 19 20 In 1999 Eileen Barker estimated that NRMs of which some but not all have been labelled as cults number in the tens of thousands worldwide most of which originated in Asia or Africa and that the great majority of which have only a few members some have thousands and only very few have more than a million 11 In 2007 religious scholar Elijah Siegler commented that although no NRM had become the dominant faith in any country many of the concepts which they had first introduced often referred to as New Age ideas have become part of worldwide mainstream culture 20 51 Scholarly studies Edit Max Weber 1864 1920 one of the first scholars to study cults Sociologist Max Weber 1864 1920 found that cults based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma 21 The concept of a cult as a sociological classification however was introduced in 1932 by American sociologist Howard P Becker as an expansion of German theologian Ernst Troeltsch s church sect typology Troeltsch s aim was to distinguish between three main types of religious behaviour churchly sectarian and mystical Becker further bisected Troeltsch s first two categories church was split into ecclesia and denomination and sect into sect and cult 22 Like Troeltsch s mystical religion Becker s cult refers to small religious groups that lack in organization and emphasize the private nature of personal beliefs 23 Later sociological formulations built on such characteristics placing an additional emphasis on cults as deviant religious groups deriving their inspiration from outside of the predominant religious culture 3 349 This is often thought to lead to a high degree of tension between the group and the more mainstream culture surrounding it a characteristic shared with religious sects 24 According to this sociological terminology sects are products of religious schism and therefore maintain a continuity with traditional beliefs and practices whereas cults arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices 25 In the early 1960s sociologist John Lofland living with South Korean missionary Young Oon Kim and some of the first American Unification Church members in California studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win new members 26 Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members often family relationships 27 Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled The World Savers A Field Study of Cult Processes and in 1966 in book form by Prentice Hall as Doomsday Cult A Study of Conversion Proselytization and Maintenance of Faith It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of religious conversion 28 29 Sociologist Roy Wallis 1945 1990 argued that a cult is characterized by epistemological individualism meaning that the cult has no clear locus of final authority beyond the individual member Cults according to Wallis are generally described as oriented towards the problems of individuals loosely structured tolerant and non exclusive making few demands on members without possessing a clear distinction between members and non members having a rapid turnover of membership and as being transient collectives with vague boundaries and fluctuating belief systems Wallis asserts that cults emerge from the cultic milieu 30 J Gordon Melton stated that in 1970 one could count the number of active researchers on new religions on one s hands However James R Lewis writes that the meteoric growth in this field of study can be attributed to the cult controversy of the early 1970s Because of a wave of nontraditional religiosity in the late 1960s and early 1970s academics perceived new religious movements as different phenomena from previous religious innovations 15 In 1978 Bruce Campbell noted that cults are associated with beliefs in a divine element in the individual it is either soul self or true self Cults are inherently ephemeral and loosely organized There is a major theme in many of the recent works that show the relationship between cults and mysticism Campbell describing cults as non traditional religious groups based on belief in a divine element in the individual brings two major types of such to attention mystical and instrumental dividing cults into either occult or metaphysical assembly There is also a third type the service oriented as Campbell states that the kinds of stable forms which evolve in the development of religious organization will bear a significant relationship to the content of the religious experience of the founder or founders 31 Dick Anthony a forensic psychologist known for his criticism of brainwashing theory of conversion 32 33 34 has defended some so called cults and in 1988 argued that involvement in such movements may often have beneficial rather than harmful effects saying that t here s a large research literature published in mainstream journals on the mental health effects of new religions For the most part the effects seem to be positive in any way that s measurable 35 In their 1996 book Theory of Religion American sociologists Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge propose that the formation of cults can be explained through the rational choice theory 36 In The Future of Religion they comment that in the beginning all religions are obscure tiny deviant cult movements 37 According to Marc Galanter Professor of Psychiatry at NYU typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest 38 Stark and Bainbridge in discussing the process by which individuals join new religious groups have even questioned the utility of the concept of conversion suggesting that affiliation is a more useful concept 39 Subcategories EditDestructive cults Edit Jim Jones the leader of the Peoples Temple Destructive cult generally refers to groups whose members have through deliberate action physically injured or killed other members of their own group or other people The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance specifically limits the use of the term to religious groups that have caused or are liable to cause loss of life among their membership or the general public 40 Psychologist Michael Langone executive director of the anti cult group International Cultic Studies Association defines a destructive cult as a highly manipulative group which exploits and sometimes physically and or psychologically damages members and recruits 41 John Gordon Clark argued that totalitarian systems of governance and an emphasis on money making are characteristics of a destructive cult 42 In Cults and the Family the authors cite Shapiro who defines a destructive cultism as a sociopathic syndrome whose distinctive qualities include behavioral and personality changes loss of personal identity cessation of scholastic activities estrangement from family disinterest in society and pronounced mental control and enslavement by cult leaders 43 In the opinion of Sociology Professor Benjamin Zablocki of Rutgers University destructive cults are at high risk of becoming abusive to members stating that such is in part due to members adulation of charismatic leaders contributing to the leaders becoming corrupted by power 44 According to Barrett the most common accusation made against destructive cults is sexual abuse According to Kranenborg some groups are risky when they advise their members not to use regular medical care 45 This may extend to physical and psychological harm 46 Writing about Bruderhof communities in the book Misunderstanding Cults Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field Julius H Rubin said that American religious innovation created an unending diversity of sects These new religious movements gathered new converts and issued challenges to the wider society Not infrequently public controversy contested narratives and litigation result 2 In his work Cults in Context author Lorne L Dawson writes that although the Unification Church has not been shown to be violent or volatile it has been described as a destructive cult by anticult crusaders 47 In 2002 the German government was held by the Federal Constitutional Court to have defamed the Osho movement by referring to it among other things as a destructive cult with no factual basis 48 49 Some researchers have criticized the usage of the term destructive cult writing that it is used to describe groups which are not necessarily harmful in nature to themselves or others In his book Understanding New Religious Movements John A Saliba writes that the term is overgeneralized Saliba sees the Peoples Temple as the paradigm of a destructive cult where those that use the term are implying that other groups will also commit mass suicide 50 Doomsday cults Edit Main article Doomsday cult Doomsday cult is an expression which is used to describe groups that believe in Apocalypticism and Millenarianism and it can also be used to refer both to groups that predict disaster and groups that attempt to bring it about 51 In the 1950s American social psychologist Leon Festinger and his colleagues observed members of a small UFO religion called the Seekers for several months and recorded their conversations both prior to and after a failed prophecy from their charismatic leader 52 53 54 Their work was later published in the book When Prophecy Fails A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World 55 In the late 1980s doomsday cults were a major topic of news reports with some reporters and commentators considering them a serious threat to society 56 A 1997 psychological study by Festinger Riecken and Schachter found that people turned to a cataclysmic world view after they had repeatedly failed to find meaning in mainstream movements 57 People also strive to find meaning in global events such as the turn of the millennium when many predicted it prophetically marked the end of an age and thus the end of the world 58 An ancient Mayan calendar ended at the year 2012 and many anticipated catastrophic disasters would rock the Earth 59 Political cults Edit See also Political extremism LaRouche Movement members in Stockholm protesting against the Treaty of LisbonA political cult is a cult with a primary interest in political action and ideology 60 61 Groups that some have described as political cults mostly advocating far left or far right agendas have received some attention from journalists and scholars In their 2000 book On the Edge Political Cults Right and Left Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth discuss about a dozen organizations in the United States and Great Britain that they characterize as cults 60 62 In a separate article Tourish says that in his usage 63 The word cult is not a term of abuse as this paper tries to explain It is nothing more than a shorthand expression for a particular set of practices that have been observed in a variety of dysfunctional organisations In 1990 Lucy Patrick commented 64 Although we live in a democracy cult behavior manifests itself in our unwillingness to question the judgment of our leaders our tendency to devalue outsiders and to avoid dissent We can overcome cult behavior he says by recognizing that we have dependency needs that are inappropriate for mature people by increasing anti authoritarian education and by encouraging personal autonomy and the free exchange of ideas In Iran a cult of Khomeini developed into a secular religion According to Iranian author Amir Taheri Khomeini is called imam making a Twelver Shiism into a cult of Thirteen Khomeini s image is engraved in giant rocks and mountain slopes prayers begin and end with his name and his fatwas remain valid beyond his death something that goes against Shiite principles Also slogans such as God Koran Khomeini or God is One Khomeini is the Leader are used as war cries of the Hezballah in Iran 65 Even though Khomeini s photographs still hang in many government offices it is said that by the late 1990s Khomeini s cult had faded 66 Ayn Rand Institute Edit Main article Ayn Rand Institute Followers of Ayn Rand have been characterized as a cult by economist Murray N Rothbard during her lifetime and later by Michael Shermer 67 68 69 The core group around Rand was called the Collective which are now defunct the chief group which is disseminating Rand s ideas today is the Ayn Rand Institute Although the Collective advocated an individualist philosophy Rothbard claimed that it was organized in the manner of a Leninist organization 67 LaRouche movement Edit Main article LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas It has included many organizations and companies around the world which campaign gather information and publish books and periodicals It has been called cult like by The New York Times 70 The movement originated within the radical leftist student politics of the 1960s In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of candidates ran in state Democratic primaries in the United States on the LaRouche platform while Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly campaigned for presidential nomination However the LaRouche movement is often considered far right 71 72 73 74 During its peak in the 1970s and 1980s the LaRouche movement developed a private intelligence agency and contacts with foreign governments 75 76 74 New Acropolis Edit Main article New Acropolis An Argentinian esoteric group founded in 1957 by former theosophist 77 Jorge Angel Livraga the New Acropolis Cultural Association has been described by scholars as an ultra conservative neo fascist and white supremacist paramilitary group 78 79 80 The group itself denies such descriptions 81 82 Unification Church Edit Main article Unification Church Founded by North Korea born Sun Myung Moon the Unification Church also known as the Unification movement holds a strong anti Communist position 83 84 In the 1940s Moon cooperated with members of the Communist Party of Korea in the Korean independence movement against Imperial Japan However after the Korean War 1950 1953 he became an outspoken anti communist 83 Moon viewed the Cold War between democracy and communism as the final conflict between God and Satan with divided Korea as its primary front line 85 Soon after its founding the Unification movement began supporting anti communist organizations including the World League for Freedom and Democracy founded in 1966 in Taipei Republic of China Taiwan by Chiang Kai shek 86 and the Korean Culture and Freedom Foundation an international public diplomacy organization which also sponsored Radio Free Asia 87 In 1974 the Unification Church supported Republican President Richard Nixon and rallied in his favor after the Watergate scandal with Nixon thanking personally for it 88 In 1975 Moon spoke at a government sponsored rally against potential North Korean military aggression on Yeouido Island in Seoul to an audience of around 1 million 89 The Unification movement was criticized by both the mainstream media and the alternative press for its anti communist activism which many said could lead to World War Three and a nuclear holocaust 90 91 92 In 1977 the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations of the United States House of Representatives found that the South Korean intelligence agency the KCIA had used the movement to gain political influence with the United States and that some members had worked as volunteers in Congressional offices Together they founded the Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation a nonprofit organization which acted as a public diplomacy campaign for the Republic of Korea 93 The committee also investigated possible KCIA influence on the Unification Church s campaign in support of Nixon 94 In 1980 members founded CAUSA International an anti communist educational organization based in New York City 95 In the 1980s it was active in 21 countries In the United States it sponsored educational conferences for evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders 96 as well as seminars and conferences for Senate staffers Hispanic Americans and conservative activists 97 In 1986 CAUSA International sponsored the documentary film Nicaragua Was Our Home about the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua and their persecution at the hands of the Nicaraguan government It was filmed and produced by USA UWC member Lee Shapiro who later died while filming with anti Soviet forces during the Soviet Afghan War 98 99 100 101 In 1983 some American members joined a public protest against the Soviet Union over its shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 102 In 1984 the HSA UWC founded the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy a Washington D C think tank that underwrites conservative oriented research and seminars at Stanford University the University of Chicago and other institutions 103 In the same year member Dan Fefferman founded the International Coalition for Religious Freedom in Virginia which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies 104 In August 1985 the Professors World Peace Academy an organization founded by Moon sponsored a conference in Geneva to debate the theme The situation in the world after the fall of the communist empire 105 In April 1990 Moon visited the Soviet Union and met with President Mikhail Gorbachev Moon expressed support for the political and economic transformations underway in the Soviet Union At the same time the movement was expanding into formerly communist nations 106 In 1994 The New York Times recognized the movement s political influence saying it was a theocratic powerhouse that is pouring foreign fortunes into conservative causes in the United States 107 In 1998 the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram criticized Moon s ultra right leanings and suggested a personal relationship with conservative Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu 108 The Unification Church also owns several news outlets including The Washington Times Insight on the News 109 United Press International 110 111 and the News World Communications network 112 113 Washington Times opinion editor Charles Hurt was one of Donald Trump s earliest supporters in Washington D C 114 In 2018 he included Trump with Ronald Reagan Martin Luther King Jr Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II as great champions of freedom 115 In 2016 The Washington Times did not endorse a candidate for United States president but endorsed Trump for reelection in 2020 116 117 118 Workers Revolutionary Party Edit Main article Workers Revolutionary Party UK In Britain the Workers Revolutionary Party WRP a Trotskyist group which was led by Gerry Healy and strongly supported by actress Vanessa Redgrave has been described by others who have been involved in the Trotskyist movement as having been a cult or a group which displayed cult like characteristics during the 1970s and 1980s 119 It is also described as such by Wohlforth and Tourish 120 to whom Bob Pitt a former member of the WRP concedes that it had a cult like character though arguing that rather than being typical of the far left this feature actually made the WRP atypical and led to its being treated as a pariah within the revolutionary left itself 121 Other groups Edit Organizations like the Mexican far right group El Yunque which sponsored the Spanish far right party Vox 122 123 the QAnon conspiracy theory 124 125 and the growing neo Pentecostal political influence in Latin America 126 can be characterised as cults Gino Perente s National Labor Federation NATLFED 127 and Marlene Dixon s now defunct Democratic Workers Party are an examples of political groups that have been described as cults A critical history of the DWP is given in Bounded Choice by Janja Lalich a sociologist and former DWP member 128 Lutte Ouvriere LO Workers Struggle in France publicly headed by Arlette Laguiller but revealed in the 1990s to be directed by Robert Barcia has often been criticized as a cult for example by Daniel Cohn Bendit and his older brother Gabriel Cohn Bendit as well as by L Humanite and Liberation 129 In his book Les Sectes Politiques 1965 1995 Political cults 1965 1995 French writer Cyril Le Tallec considers some religious groups that were involved in politics at that time He included the Cultural Office of Cluny New Acropolis the Divine Light Mission Tradition Family Property TFP Longo Mai the Supermen Club and the Association for Promotion of the Industrial Arts Solazaref 130 Several former leaders of the Groyper movement an alt right faction that infuses white supremacy Christian nationalism and Incel ideology have accused Nick Fuentes of leading it like a cult describing him as abusing and demanding absolute loyalty from his followers 131 132 133 Fuentes praised having a cult like mentality and admitted to ironically describing his own movement as a cult 134 Polygamist cults Edit Main article Polygamy Cults that teach and practice polygamy marriage between more than two people most often polygyny one man having multiple wives have long been noted although they are a minority It has been estimated that there are around 50 000 members of polygamist cults in North America 135 Often polygamist cults are viewed negatively by both legal authorities and mainstream society and this view sometimes includes negative perceptions of related mainstream denominations because of their perceived links to possible domestic violence and child abuse 136 From the 1830s members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints LDS Church practiced polygamy or plural marriage In 1890 the president of the LDS Church Wilford Woodruff issued a public manifesto which announced that the LDS Church had ceased performing new plural marriages Anti Mormon sentiment waned as did opposition to statehood for Utah The Smoot Hearings in 1904 which documented that members of the LDS Church were still practising polygamy spurred the church to issue a Second Manifesto again claiming that it had ceased performing new plural marriages By 1910 the LDS Church excommunicated those who entered into or performed new plural marriages 137 Enforcement of the 1890 Manifesto caused various splinter groups to leave the LDS Church in order to continue the practice of plural marriage 138 Such groups are known as Mormon fundamentalists For example the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is often described as a polygamist cult 139 Racist cults Edit Main article Racism Cross burning by Ku Klux Klan members in 1915 Sociologist and historian Orlando Patterson has described the Ku Klux Klan which arose in the American South after the Civil War as a heretical Christian cult and he has also described its persecution of African Americans and others as a form of human sacrifice 140 During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the existence of secret Aryan cults in Germany and Austria strongly influenced the rise of Nazism 141 Modern day white power skinhead groups in the United States tend to use the same recruitment techniques as groups which are characterized as destructive cults 142 Vibert L White Jr a former member and lead advisor for Nation of Islam characterized the organization as a cult accusing its leader Louis Farrakhan along with other organizational leaders of using black nationalism and religious dogma to exploit black people for personal and political gain 143 The Nation of Islam preaches black supremacy that its founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was a Messiah and his successor Elijah Muhammad was a divine messenger and that white people were a race of devils to be overthrown apocalyptically 144 145 Terrorist cults Edit Main article Terrorism In the book Jihad and Sacred Vengeance Psychological Undercurrents of History psychiatrist Peter A Olsson compares Osama bin Laden to certain cult leaders including Jim Jones David Koresh Shoko Asahara Marshall Applewhite Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro and he also says that each of these individuals fit at least eight of the nine criteria for people with narcissistic personality disorders 146 In the book Seeking the Compassionate Life The Moral Crisis for Psychotherapy and Society authors Goldberg and Crespo also refer to Osama bin Laden as a destructive cult leader 147 At a 2002 meeting of the American Psychological Association APA anti cultist Steven Hassan said that Al Qaeda fulfills the characteristics of a destructive cult adding in addition 148 We need to apply what we know about destructive mind control cults and this should be a priority in the War on Terrorism We need to understand the psychological aspects of how people are recruited and indoctrinated so we can slow down recruitment We need to help counsel former cult members and possibly use some of them in the war against terrorism In an article on Al Qaeda published in The Times journalist Mary Ann Sieghart wrote that al Qaeda resembles a classic cult 149 Al Qaeda fits all the official definitions of a cult It indoctrinates its members it forms a closed totalitarian society it has a self appointed messianic and charismatic leader and it believes that the ends justify the means Similar to Al Qaeda the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant adheres to an even more extremist and puritanical ideology in which the goal is to create a state governed by shari ah as interpreted by its religious leadership who then brainwash and command their able bodied male subjects to go on suicide missions with such devices as car bombs against its enemies including deliberately selected civilian targets such as churches and Shi ite mosques among others Subjects view this as a legitimate action an obligation even The ultimate goal of this political military endeavour is to eventually usher in the end of the world in accordance with their Islamic beliefs and have the chance to participate in their version of the apocalyptic final battle in which all of their enemies i e anyone who is not on their side would be annihilated 150 Such endeavour ultimately failed in 2017 151 though hardcore survivors have largely returned to insurgency terrorism i e Iraqi insurgency 2017 present The Shining Path guerrilla movement active in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s has variously been described as a cult 152 and an intense cult of personality 153 The Tamil Tigers have also been described as such by the French magazine L Express 154 Anti cult movements EditChristian countercult movement Edit Main article Christian countercult movement In the 1940s the long held opposition by some established Christian denominations to non Christian religions and supposedly heretical or counterfeit Christian sects crystallized into a more organized Christian countercult movement in the United States For those belonging to the movement all religious groups claiming to be Christian but deemed outside of Christian orthodoxy were considered cults 155 Christian cults are new religious movements that have a Christian background but are considered to be theologically deviant by members of other Christian churches 156 In his influential book The Kingdom of the Cults 1965 Christian scholar Walter Ralston Martin defines Christian cults as groups that follow the personal interpretation of an individual rather than the understanding of the Bible accepted by Nicene Christianity providing the examples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints Christian Science Jehovah s Witnesses and the Unity Church 157 18 The Christian countercult movement asserts that Christian sects whose beliefs are partially or wholly not in accordance with the Bible are erroneous It also states that a religious sect can be considered a cult if its beliefs involve a denial of what they view as any of the essential Christian teachings such as salvation the Trinity Jesus himself as a person the ministry of Jesus the miracles of Jesus the crucifixion the resurrection of Christ the Second Coming and the rapture 158 159 160 Countercult literature usually expresses doctrinal or theological concerns and a missionary or apologetic purpose 161 It presents a rebuttal by emphasizing the teachings of the Bible against the beliefs of non fundamental Christian sects Christian countercult activist writers also emphasize the need for Christians to evangelize to followers of cults 162 163 157 479 493 Secular anti cult movement Edit Main article Anti cult movement An anti Aum Shinrikyo protest in Japan 2009 In the early 1970s a secular opposition movement to groups considered cults had taken shape The organizations that formed the secular anti cult movement ACM often acted on behalf of relatives of cult converts who did not believe their loved ones could have altered their lives so drastically by their own free will A few psychologists and sociologists working in this field suggested that brainwashing techniques were used to maintain the loyalty of cult members 164 The belief that cults brainwashed their members became a unifying theme among cult critics and in the more extreme corners of the anti cult movement techniques like the sometimes forceful deprogramming of cult members was practised 165 Secular cult opponents belonging to the anti cult movement usually define a cult as a group that tends to manipulate exploit and control its members Specific factors in cult behaviour are said to include manipulative and authoritarian mind control over members communal and totalistic organization aggressive proselytizing systematic programs of indoctrination and perpetuation in middle class communities 166 167 168 169 170 In the mass media and among average citizens cult gained an increasingly negative connotation becoming associated with things like kidnapping brainwashing psychological abuse sexual abuse and other criminal activity and mass suicide While most of these negative qualities usually have real documented precedents in the activities of a very small minority of new religious groups mass culture often extends them to any religious group viewed as culturally deviant however peaceful or law abiding it may be 171 172 58 3 348 356 While some psychologists were receptive to these theories sociologists were for the most part sceptical of their ability to explain conversion to NRMs 173 In the late 1980s psychologists and sociologists started to abandon theories like brainwashing and mind control While scholars may believe that various less dramatic coercive psychological mechanisms could influence group members they came to see conversion to new religious movements principally as an act of a rational choice 174 175 Reactions to the anti cult movements Edit Because of the increasingly pejorative use of the words cult and cult leader since the cult debate of the 1970s some academics in addition to groups referred to as cults argue that these are words to be avoided 176 3 348 356 Catherine Wessinger Loyola University New Orleans has stated that the word cult represents just as much prejudice and antagonism as racial slurs or derogatory words for women and homosexuals 177 She has argued that it is important for people to become aware of the bigotry conveyed by the word drawing attention to the way it dehumanizes the group s members and their children 177 Labelling a group as subhuman she says becomes a justification for violence against it 177 She also says that labelling a group a cult makes people feel safe because the violence associated with religion is split off from conventional religions projected onto others and imagined to involve only aberrant groups 177 According to her this fails to take into account that child abuse sexual abuse financial extortion and warfare have also been committed by believers of mainstream religions but the pejorative cult stereotype makes it easier to avoid confronting this uncomfortable fact 177 Governmental policies and actions EditMain article Governmental lists of cults and sects The application of the labels cult or sect to religious movements in government documents signifies the popular and negative use of the term cult in English and a functionally similar use of words translated as sect in several European languages 178 Sociologists critical to this negative politicized use of the word cult argue that it may adversely impact the religious freedoms of group members 179 At the height of the counter cult movement and ritual abuse scare of the 1990s some governments published lists of cults ii While these documents utilize similar terminology they do not necessarily include the same groups nor is their assessment of these groups based on agreed criteria 178 Other governments and world bodies also report on new religious movements but do not use these terms to describe the groups 178 Since the 2000s some governments have again distanced themselves from such classifications of religious movements iii While the official response to new religious groups has been mixed across the globe some governments aligned more with the critics of these groups to the extent of distinguishing between legitimate religion and dangerous unwanted cults in public policy 164 180 China Edit Main articles Heterodox teachings Chinese law and Persecution of Falun Gong Falun Gong books being symbolically destroyed by the Chinese government For centuries governments in China have categorized certain religions as xiejiao 邪教 sometimes translated as evil cults or heterodox teachings 181 In imperial China the classification of a religion as xiejiao did not necessarily mean that a religion s teachings were believed to be false or inauthentic rather the label was applied to religious groups that were not authorized by the state or it was applied to religious groups that were believed to challenge the legitimacy of the state 181 In modern China the term xiejiao continues to be used to denote teachings that the government disapproves of and these groups face suppression and punishment by authorities Fourteen different groups in China have been listed by the ministry of public security as xiejiao 182 Additionally in 1999 Chinese Communist Party authorities denounced the Falun Gong spiritual practice as a heretical teaching and they launched a campaign to eliminate it However such claims only exist in party resolutions and has not been legitimized by Chinese own law systems This actually made such denouncement confusing and as outlawed actions secretly conducted by Communist Party s secret policemen According to Amnesty International the persecution of Falun Gong includes a multifaceted propaganda campaign 183 a program of enforced ideological conversion and re education as well as a variety of extralegal coercive measures such as arbitrary arrests forced labour and physical torture sometimes resulting in death 184 Russia Edit In 2008 the Russian Interior Ministry prepared a list of extremist groups At the top of the list were Islamic groups outside of traditional Islam which is supervised by the Russian government Next listed were Pagan cults 185 In 2009 the Russian Ministry of Justice created a council which it named the Council of Experts Conducting State Religious Studies Expert Analysis The new council listed 80 large sects which it considered potentially dangerous to Russian society and it also mentioned that there were thousands of smaller ones The large sects which were listed included The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints the Jehovah s Witnesses and other sects which were loosely referred to as neo Pentecostals 186 United States Edit In the 1970s the scientific status of the brainwashing theory became a central topic in U S court cases where the theory was used to try to justify the use of the forceful deprogramming of cult members 15 179 Meanwhile sociologists who were critical of these theories assisted advocates of religious freedom in defending the legitimacy of new religious movements in court 164 180 In the United States the religious activities of cults are protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution which prohibits governmental establishment of religion and protects freedom of religion freedom of speech freedom of the press and freedom of assembly However no members of religious groups or cults are granted any special immunity from criminal prosecution 187 In 1990 the court case of United States v Fishman 1990 ended the usage of brainwashing theories by expert witnesses such as Margaret Singer and Richard Ofshe 188 In the case s ruling the court cited the Frye standard which states that the scientific theory which is utilized by expert witnesses must be generally accepted in their respective fields The court deemed brainwashing to be inadmissible in expert testimonies using supporting documents which were published by the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control literature from previous court cases in which brainwashing theories were used and expert testimonies which were delivered by scholars such as Dick Anthony 188 189 Western Europe Edit See also MIVILUDES Union nationale des associations de defense des familles et de l individu and Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France The governments of France and Belgium have taken policy positions which accept brainwashing theories uncritically while the governments of other European nations such as those of Sweden and Italy are cautious with regard to brainwashing and as a result they have responded more neutrally with regard to new religions 190 Scholars have suggested that the outrage which followed the mass murder suicides which were perpetuated by the Solar Temple 164 191 have significantly contributed to European anti cult positions as well as more latent xenophobic and anti American attitudes which are widespread on the continent 192 In the 1980s clergymen and officials of the French government expressed concern that some orders and other groups within the Roman Catholic Church would be adversely affected by anti cult laws which were then being considered 193 See also EditCult following Cult of personality Greco Roman mysteries Secret societyReferences EditExplanatory notes Edit Compare the Oxford English Dictionary note for usage in 1875 cult b A relatively small group of people having esp religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister or as exercising excessive control over members 1875 Brit Mail 30 Jan 13 1 Buffaloism is it would seem a cult a creed a secret community the members of which are bound together by strange and weird vows and listen in hidden conclave to mysterious lore cult Oxford English Dictionary Online ed Oxford University Press Subscription or participating institution membership required Or sects in German speaking countries the German term sekten having assumed the same derogatory meaning as English cult Austria Beginning in 2011 the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor s International Religious Freedom Report no longer distinguishes sects in Austria as a separate group International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor Retrieved 3 September 2013 Belgium The Justice Commission of the Belgian House of Representatives published a report on cults in 1997 A Brussels Appeals Court in 2005 condemned the House of Representatives on the grounds that it had damaged the image of an organization listed France A parliamentary commission of the National Assembly compiled a list of purported cults in 1995 In 2005 the Prime Minister stated that the concerns addressed in the list had become less pertinent and that the government needed to balance its concern with cults with respect for public freedoms and layicite Germany The legitimacy of a 1997 Berlin Senate report listing cults sekten was defended in a court decision of 2003 Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin OVG 5 B 26 00 25 September 2003 The list is still maintained by Berlin city authorities Sekten und Psychogruppen Leitstelle Berlin Citations Edit cult Merriam Webster Dictionary a b Zablocki Benjamin David Robbins Thomas 2001 Misunderstanding Cults Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field University of Toronto Press p 473 ISBN 0802081886 a b c d Richardson James T 1993 Definitions of Cult From Sociological Technical to Popular Negative Review of Religious Research 34 4 348 356 doi 10 2307 3511972 JSTOR 3511972 cult Oxford English Dictionary Online ed Oxford University Press Subscription or participating institution membership required 2 a A particular form or system of religious worship or veneration esp as expressed in ceremony or ritual directed towards a specified figure or object Fahlbusch Erwin and Geoffrey William Bromiley The Encyclopedia of Christianity 4 p 897 Retrieved 21 March 2013 Stark amp Bainbridge 1996 p 124 OED citing American Journal of Sociology 85 1980 p 1377 Cults like other deviant social movements tend to recruit people with a grievance people who suffer from a some variety of deprivation a b Shaw Chuck 2005 Sects and Cults Greenville Technical College Retrieved 21 March 2013 Olson Paul J 2006 The Public Perception of Cults and New Religious Movements Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45 1 97 106 Stark amp Bainbridge 1987 a b Barker Eileen 1999 New Religious Movements their incidence and significance New Religious Movements Challenge and Response edited by B Wilson and J Cresswell Routledge ISBN 0415200504 cf Brink T L 2008 Unit 13 Social Psychology Pp 293 320 in Psychology A Student Friendly Approach p 320 Cult is a somewhat derogatory term for a new religious movement especially one with unusual theological doctrine or one that is abusive of its membership Bromley David Melton and J Gordon 2002 Cults Religion and Violence West Nyack NY Cambridge University Press Ingram Wayne host Turkey Ritual transcript Ep 2 in Study Religion podcast Birmingham Dept of Religious Studies University of Alabama a b c Lewis 2004 Ryan Amy 2000 New Religions and the Anti Cult Movement Online Resource Guide in Social Sciences Archived from the original on 18 November 2005 Wilson Bryan 2001 Why the Bruderhof is not a cult Retrieved 12 July 2017 p 2 via Scribd Wilson makes the same point saying that the Bruderhof is not a cult pointing out that the public imagination is captured by five events that have occurred in religious groups Jonestown the Branch Davidians Solar Temple Aum Shinrikyo and Heaven s Gate Casino Bruce J 15 March 1999 Defining Religion in American Law lecture Conference On The Controversy Concerning Sects In French Speaking Europe Sponsored by CESNUR and CLIMS Archived from the original on 10 November 2005 Clarke Peter B 2006 New Religions in Global Perspective A Study of Religious Change in the Modern World New York Routledge a b Siegler Elijah 2007 New Religious Movements Prentice Hall ISBN 0131834789 Weber Max 1922 1947 The Nature of Charismatic Authority and its Routinization Ch 4 10 in Theory of Social and Economic Organization translated by A R Anderson and T Parsons Available in its original German Swatos William H Jr 1998 Church Sect Theory In William H Swatos Jr ed Encyclopedia of Religion and Society Walnut Creek CA AltaMira pp 90 93 ISBN 978 0761989561 Campbell Colin 1998 Cult In William H Swatos Jr ed Encyclopedia of Religion and Society Walnut Creek CA AltaMira pp 122 123 ISBN 978 0761989561 Stark amp Bainbridge 1987 p 25 Stark amp Bainbridge 1987 p 124 The Early Unification Church History Archived 22 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Galen Pumphrey Swatos William H ed Conversion and Unification Church in Encyclopedia of Religion and Society Hartford CT AltaMira Press ISBN 978 0761989561 Archived from the original on 21 January 2012 Conversion and 13 January 2012 Unification Church Ashcraft W Michael 2006 African Diaspora Traditions and Other American Innovations Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America 5 Greenwood Publishing Group ISBN 978 0275987176 p 180 Chryssides George D 1999 2001 Exploring New Religions Issues in Contemporary Religion Continuum International Publishing Group ISBN 978 0826459596 p 1 Wallis Roy 1975 Scientology Therapeutic Cult to Religious Sect British Sociological Association 9 1 89 100 doi 10 1177 003803857500900105 Campbell Bruce 1978 A Typology of Cults Sociology Analysis Santa Barbara Oldenburg Don 2003 2003 Stressed to Kill The Defense of Brainwashing Sniper Suspect s Claim Triggers More Debate Defence Brief 269 Toronto Steven Skurka amp Associates Archived from the original on 1 May 2011 Dawson 1998 p 340 Robbins Thomas 1996 In Gods We Trust New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America Transaction Publishers p 537 ISBN 978 0887388002 Sipchen Bob 17 November 1988 Ten Years After Jonestown the Battle Intensifies Over the Influence of Alternative Religions Los Angeles Times Stark amp Bainbridge 1996 Gallagher Eugene V 2004 The New Religious Movement Experience in America Greenwood Press ISBN 0313328072 p xv Galanter Marc ed 1989 Cults and New Religious Movements A Report of the Committee on Psychiatry and Religion of the American Psychiatric Association American Psychiatric Association ISBN 0890422125 Bader Chris and A Demaris 1996 A test of the Stark Bainbridge theory of affiliation with religious cults and sects Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 35 285 303 Robinson B A 25 July 2007 Doomsday destructive religious cults Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance Retrieved 18 November 2007 Turner Francis J Arnold Shanon Bloch Ron Shor 1 September 1995 105 From Consultation to Therapy in Group Work With Parents of Cultists Differential Diagnosis amp Treatment in Social Work 4th ed Free Press p 1146 ISBN 0028740076 Clark M D John Gordon 4 November 1977 The Effects of Religious Cults on the Health and Welfare of Their Converts Congressional Record United States Congress 123 181 Extensions of Remarks 37401 03 Archived from the original on 16 December 2005 Retrieved 18 November 2007 Kaslow Florence Whiteman Marvin B Sussman 1982 Cults and the Family Haworth Press p 34 ISBN 0917724550 Zablocki Benjamin 31 May 1997 A Sociological Theory of Cults paper Annual meeting of the American Family Foundation Philadelphia Ben Zablocki s Homepage Archived from the original on 8 March 2005 Retrieved 29 March 2005 Kranenborg Reender 1996 Sekten gevaarlijk of niet Cults dangerous or not in Dutch Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland 31 Free University Amsterdam ISSN 0169 7374 ISBN 9053834265 The impacts of cults on health PDF Dawson 1998 p 349 Seiwert Hubert 2003 Freedom and Control in the Unified Germany Governmental Approaches to Alternative Religions Since 1989 Sociology of Religion 64 3 367 375 p 370 BVerfG Order of the First Senate of 26 June 2002 1 BvR 670 91 paras 1 102 paras 57 60 62 91 94 Zur Informationstatigkeit der Bundesregierung im religios weltanschaulichen Bereich in German Press release 68 2002 Federal Constitutional Court Press Office 30 July 2002 Archived from the original on 14 May 2013 Saliba John A J Gordon Melton foreword 2003 Understanding New Religious Movements Rowman Altamira p 144 ISBN 0759103569 Jenkins Phillip 2000 Mystics and Messiahs Cults and New Religions in American History Oxford University Press US pp 216 222 ISBN 0195145968 Stangor Charles 2004 Social Groups in Action and Interaction Psychology Press pp 42 43 When Prophecy Fails ISBN 184169407X Newman Dr David M 2006 Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life Pine Forge Press p 86 ISBN 1412928141 Petty Richard E John T Cacioppo 1996 Attitudes and Persuasion Classic and Contemporary Approaches Westview Press p 139 Effect of Disconfirming an Important Belief ISBN 081333005X Festinger Leon Riecken Henry W Schachter Stanley 1956 When Prophecy Fails A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World University of Minnesota Press ISBN 1591477271 Archived from the original on 3 February 2003 Jenkins Philip 2000 Mystics and Messiahs Cults and New Religions in American History Oxford University Press pp 215 216 Pargament Kenneth I 1997 The Psychology of Religion and Coping Theory Research Practice Guilford Press pp 150 153 340 section Compelling Coping in a Doomsday Cult ISBN 1572306645 a b Hill Harvey John Hickman and Joel McLendon 2001 Cults and Sects and Doomsday Groups Oh My Media Treatment of Religion on the Eve of the Millennium Review of Religious Research 43 1 24 38 doi 10 2307 3512241 JSTOR 3512241 Restall Matthew and Amara Solari 2011 2012 and the End of the World the Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse Rowman amp Littlefield a b Tourish Dennis and Tim Wohlforth 2000 On the Edge Political Cults Right and Left Armonk NY M E Sharpe Lalich Janja 2003 On the Edge and Tabernacle of Hate review Cultic Studies Review 2 2 Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 Retrieved 6 June 2020 Tourish Dennis 1998 Ideological Intransigence Democratic Centralism and Cultism A Case Study from the Political Left Cultic Studies Journal 15 33 67 Tourish Dennis 1998 2003 Introduction to Ideological Intransigence Democratic Centralism and Cultism What Next 27 ISSN 1479 4322 Patrick Lucy 1990 Library Journal 115 21 144 Mag Coll 58A2543 Amir Taheri 2009 The Persian Night Iran under the Khomeinist Revolution Encounter Books p 83 ISBN 978 1594032400 Elaine Sciolino 2005 Persian Mirrors The Elusive Face of Iran Simon amp Schuster p 65 ISBN 978 0743284790 a b Rothbard Murray 1972 The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult Retrieved 6 June 2020 Revised editions Liberty magazine 1987 and Center for Libertarian Studies 1990 Shermer Michael 1993 The Unlikeliest Cult in History Skeptic 2 2 74 81 Shermer Michael 1993 1997 The Unlikeliest Cult In Why People Believe Weird Things New York W H Freeman and Company ISBN 0716730901 Severo Richard 13 February 2019 Lyndon LaRouche Cult Figure Who Ran for President 8 Times Dies at 96 The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 7 July 2021 King 1989 pp 132 133 Toner Robin 4 April 1986 LaRouche savors fame that may ruin him The New York Times p A1 Bennett David Harry 1988 The party of fear from nativist movements to the New Right in American history UNC Press Books p 362 ISBN 978 0807817728 a b King Dennis Radosh Ronald 19 November 1984 The LaRouche Connection The New Republic Mintz John 1985 Some Officials Find Intelligence Network Useful www washingtonpost com Retrieved 7 July 2021 Jindia Shilpa Here s an insane story about Roger Stone Lyndon LaRouche Vladimir Putin and the Queen of England Mother Jones Retrieved 7 July 2021 The Theosophical Society s Position on New Acropolis International Secretary Office The Theosophical Society Adyar 9 June 2004 Archived from the original on 5 February 2020 Retrieved 25 May 2020 via Centre for the Study of New Religions Martinez Jan Un profesor de instituto ensena teorias racistas a menores El Pais Retrieved 29 January 2019 Palmeri Juan Carlos 22 February 1998 Letter to the Vice Chairman of the European Council from Theosophical Society Secretary General Retrieved 25 May 2020 via Theos Talk Goodrick Clarke Nicholas 2003 Black Sun Aryan Cults Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity New York University Press p 86 ISBN 978 0814731550 A recent example of the neo fascist potential in Theosophy is provided by Nouvelle Acropole movement of Jorge Angel Livraga b 1930 the charismatic Argentinian Theosophist who by the 1980s had built up an argent youth following in more than thirty countries The structure organization and symbolism of the Nouvelle Acropole is clearly indebted to fascist models New Acropolis Frequently Asked Questions www acropolis org Retrieved 29 January 2019 New Acropolis Assembly Resolutions www acropolis org Retrieved 29 January 2019 a b Moon Sun Myung 2009 As a Peace Loving Global Citizen Gimm Young Publishers ISBN 978 0716602996 The Way of Restoration April 1972 Christianity A Global History David Chidester HarperCollins 2001 ISBN 978 0062517708 pp 514 515 The World s Religions Continuities and Transformations Peter B Clarke Peter Beyer Taylor amp Francis 2008 ISBN 978 1135211004 Korean denies influence peddling Bangor Daily News Retrieved 21 March 2012 Introvigne Massimo 2000 The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion Signature Books Salt Lake City Utah ISBN 1560851457 excerpt Archived 2003 04 29 at the Wayback Machine page 16 Quebedeaux Richard 1982 Richard Quebedeaux Lifestyle Conversations with Members of Unification Church ISBN 978 0932894182 Retrieved 9 October 2012 Thomas Ward 2006 Give and Forget The Resurrection of Reverend Moon Frontline PBS 21 January 1992 Archived from the original on 7 January 2011 Sun Myung Moon Changes Robes The New York Times 21 January 1992 Spiritual warfare the politics of the Christian right Sara Diamond 1989 Pluto Press Page 58 Ex aide of Moon Faces Citation for Contempt Associated Press Eugene Register Guard August 5 1977 Moon s Cause Takes Aim At Communism in Americas The Washington Post August 28 1983 Sun Myung Moon s Followers Recruit Christians to Assist in Battle Against Communism Christianity Today June 15 1985 Church Spends Millions On Its Image The Washington Post 1984 09 17 Another church political arm Causa International which preaches a philosophy it calls God ism has been spending millions of dollars on expense paid seminars and conferences for Senate staffers Hispanic Americans and conservative activists It also has contributed 500 000 to finance an anticommunist lobbying campaign headed by John T Terry Dolan chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee NCPAC Corry John 29 July 1986 On 13 Sandinistas Vs Miskitos The New York Times Retrieved 19 January 2019 Revista Envio How to Read the Reagan Administration The Miskito Case www envio org ni Retrieved 19 January 2019 FAIR Retrieved 19 January 2019 2 Americans Reported Killed In an Ambush in Afghanistan The New York Times 1987 10 28 1 San Francisco Chronicle September 3 1983 For a second day the Soviet Consulate in Pacific Heights was the scene of emotional protests against the shooting down of a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet About 300 people held demonstration yesterday morning Among them were members of the Unification Church or Moonies whose founder is the Rev Sun Myung Moon the controversial South Korean who has melded a fierce anti communism into his ideology Eldridge Cleaver the onetime black radical who recently has had ties with the Moonies spoke at the rally Many pickets carried signs accusing the Soviet Union of murdering the 269 passengers and crew aboard the airliner In another development San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli filed a 109 billion lawsuit against the Soviet Union on behalf of the 269 victims Church Spends Millions On Its Image The Washington Post 1984 09 17 Ribadeneira Diego 21 August 1999 Ire at school Star of David ruling unites ACLU Pat Robertson The Boston Globe The New York Times Company p B2 Projections about a post Soviet world twenty five years later Goliath Business News EVOLUTION IN EUROPE New Flock for Moon Church The Changing Soviet Student from The New York Times Goodman Walter 21 January 1992 Review Television Sun Myung Moon Changes Robes New York Times The same old game Archived 2009 02 15 at the Wayback Machine Al Ahram November 12 18 1998 The Washington Times is a mouthpiece for the ultra conservative Republican right unquestioning supporters of Israel s Likud government The newspaper is owned by Sun Myung Moon originally a native of North Korea and head of the Unification Church whose ultra right leanings make him a ready ally for Netanyahu Whether or not Netanyahu is personally acquainted with Moon is unclear though there is no doubt that he has established close friendships with several staff members on The Washington Times whose editorial policy is rabidly anti Arab anti Muslim and pro Israel Insightmag a Mustread Columbia Journalism Review 2007 01 27 Atwater James D 24 December 1989 U P I Look Back in Sorrow book review of Down to the Wire UPI s Fight for Survival By Gregory Gordon and Ronald E Cohen The New York Times Retrieved 15 March 2011 Spiegel Peter 1 June 1998 Old dog new tricks Forbes Retrieved 15 March 2011 Ahrens Frank 23 May 2002 Moon Speech Raises Old Ghosts as the Times Turns 20 The Washington Post Retrieved 16 August 2009 As U S Media Ownership Shrinks Who Covers Islam Washington Report on Middle East Affairs December 1997 Lowry Rich 20 July 2016 The Trump Dynasty Takes Over the GOP Politico Magazine Archived from the original on 27 October 2016 Retrieved 3 May 2017 Boot Max 2018 The Cost of Capitulation The Corrosion of Conservatism Why I Left the Right Liveright Publishing p 124 ISBN 978 1631495670 LCCN 2018036979 Washington Times 10 26 2020 Donald Trump for Reelection Archived October 27 2020 at the 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July 2021 Stern Steven J ed 1998 Shining and Other Paths War and Society in Peru 1980 1995 Durham NC Duke University Press Palmer David Scott 1994 Shining Path of Peru 2nd ed New York St Martin s Press Gerard Chaliand Interview L Express in French Cowan 2003 J Gordon Melton Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America New York London Garland 1986 revised edition Garland 1992 p 5 a b Martin Walter Ralston 1965 2003 The Kingdom of the Cults revised ed edited by R Zacharias US Bethany House ISBN 0764228218 Martin Walter Ralston 1978 The Rise of the Cults revised ed Santa Ana Vision House pp 11 12 Abanes Richard 1997 Defending the Faith A Beginner s Guide to Cults and New Religions Grand Rapids Baker Book House p 33 House H Wayne and Gordon Carle 2003 Doctrine Twisting How Core Biblical Truths are Distorted Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press Trompf Garry W 1987 Missiology Methodology and the Study of New Religious Movements Religious Traditions 10 95 106 Enroth Ronald ed 1990 Evangelising the Cults Milton Keynes UK Word Books Geisler Norman L and Ron Rhodes 1997 When Cultists Ask A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations Grand Rapids Baker Book House a b c d Richardson amp Introvigne 2001 Shupe Anson 1998 Anti Cult Movement In William H Swatos Jr ed Encyclopedia of Religion and Society Walnut Creek CA AltaMira p 27 ISBN 978 0761989561 C ertain manipulative and authoritarian groups which allegedly employ mind control and pose a threat to mental health are universally labeled cults These groups are usually 1 authoritarian in their leadership 2 communal and totalistic in their organization 3 aggressive in their proselytizing 4 systematic in their programs of indoctrination 5 relatively new and unfamiliar in the United States 6 middle class in their clientele Robbins and Anthony 1982 283 as qtd in Richardson 1993 351 Bromley David G 1998 Brainwashing In William H Swatos Jr ed Encyclopedia of Religion and Society Walnut Creek CA AltaMira pp 61 62 ISBN 978 0761989561 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10 1146 annurev so 12 080186 001553 Ayella Marybeth 1990 They Must Be Crazy Some of the Difficulties in Researching Cults American Behavioral Scientist 33 5 562 577 doi 10 1177 0002764290033005005 S2CID 144181163 Cowan 2003 ix Werbner Pnina 2003 Pilgrims of Love The Anthropology of a Global Sufi Cult Bloomington Indiana University Press p xvi the excessive use of cult is also potentially misleading With its pejorative connotations a b c d e Wessinger Catherine Lowman 2000 How the Millennium Comes Violently New York London Seven Bridges Press p 4 ISBN 1889119245 a b c Richardson amp Introvigne 2001 pp 143 168 a b Davis Dena S 1996 Joining a Cult Religious Choice or Psychological Aberration Journal of Law and Health a b Edelman Bryan Richardson James T 2003 Falun Gong and the Law Development of Legal Social Control in China Nova Religio 6 2 312 331 doi 10 1525 nr 2003 6 2 312 a b Penny Benjamin 2012 The Religion of Falun Gong University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0226655017 Center for Religious Freedom February 2002 Report Analyzing Seven Secret Chinese Government Documents Washington Freedom House Lum Thomas 25 May 2006 CRS Report for Congress China and Falun Gong PDF Congressional Research Service China The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so called heretical organizations Amnesty International 23 March 2000 Archived from the original on 11 July 2003 Retrieved 17 March 2010 Soldatov Andreĭ and I Borogan 2010 The new nobility the restoration of Russia s security state and the enduring legacy of the KGB New York PublicAffairs pp 65 66 Marshall Paul 2013 Persecuted The Global Assault on Christians Thomas Nelson Inc Ogloff J R Pfeifer J E 1992 Cults and the law A discussion of the legality of alleged cult activities Behavioral Sciences amp the Law 10 1 117 140 doi 10 1002 bsl 2370100111 a b United States v Fishman 743 F Supp 713 N D Cal 1990 Introvigne Massimo 2014 Advocacy brainwashing theories and new religious movements Religion 44 2 303 319 doi 10 1080 0048721X 2014 888021 S2CID 144440076 Richardson amp Introvigne 2001 pp 144 146 Robbins Thomas 2002 Combating Cults and Brainwashing in the United States and Europe A Comment on Richardson and Introvigne s Report Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40 2 169 176 doi 10 1111 0021 8294 00047 Beckford James A 1998 Cult Controversies in Three European Countries Journal of Oriental Studies 8 174 184 Richardson James T 2004 Regulating religion case studies from around the globe New York Kluwer Acad Plenum Publ ISBN 0306478862 General and cited sources Edit Cowan Douglas E 2003 Bearing False Witness An Introduction to the Christian Countercult Westport CT Praeger ISBN 978 0275974596 Dawson Lorne L 1998 Cults in Context Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements Transaction Publishers ISBN 0765804786 Lewis James R 2004 The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements US Oxford University Press ISBN 0195149866 Richardson James T 1993 Definitions of Cult From Sociological Technical to Popular Negative Review of Religious Research 34 4 348 356 doi 10 2307 3511972 JSTOR 3511972 Richardson James T Introvigne Massimo 2001 Brainwashing Theories in European Parliamentary and Administrative Reports on Cults and Sects Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40 2 143 168 doi 10 1111 0021 8294 00046 Stark Rodney Bainbridge William Sims 1987 The Future of Religion Secularization Revival and Cult Formation Berkeley University of California Press ISBN 978 0520057319 1996 A Theory of Religion Peter Lang Publishing ISBN 0813523303 Further reading EditBooks Edit Barker E 1989 New Religious Movements A Practical Introduction London HMSO Bromley David et al Cults Religion and Violence 2002 ISBN 0521668980 Enroth Ronald 1992 Churches that Abuse Zondervan ISBN 0310532906 Full text online Esquerre Arnaud La manipulation mentale Sociologie des sectes en France Fayard Paris 2009 House Wayne Charts of Cults Sects and Religious Movements 2000 ISBN 0310385512 Kramer Joel and Alstad Diane The Guru Papers Masks of Authoritarian Power 1993 Lalich Janja Bounded Choice True Believers and Charismatic Cults 2004 ISBN 0520240189 Landau Tobias Madeleine et al Captive Hearts Captive Minds 1994 ISBN 0897931440 Lewis James R Odd Gods New Religions and the Cult Controversy Prometheus Books 2001 Martin Walter et al The Kingdom of the Cults 2003 ISBN 0764228218 Melton Gordon Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America 1992 ISBN 0815311400 Oakes Len Prophetic Charisma The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities 1997 ISBN 0815603983 Singer Margaret Thaler Cults in Our Midst The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace 1992 ISBN 0787967416 Tourish Dennis On the Edge Political Cults Right and Left 2000 ISBN 0765606399 Zablocki Benjamin et al Misunderstanding Cults Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field 2001 ISBN 0802081886 Articles Edit Aronoff Jodi Lynn Steven Jay Malinosky Peter Are cultic environments psychologically harmful Clinical Psychology Review 2000 Vol 20 No 1 pp 91 111 Langone Michael Cults Questions and Answers Lifton Robert Jay Cult Formation The Harvard Mental Health Letter February 1991 Robbins T and D Anthony 1982 Deprogramming brainwashing and the medicalization of deviant religious groups Social Problems 29 pp 283 297 Rosedale Herbert et al On Using the Term Cult Van Hoey Sara Cults in Court The Los Angeles Lawyer February 1991 Zimbardo Philip What messages are behind today s cults American Psychological Association Monitor May 1997External links Edit The dictionary definition of cult at Wiktionary Quotations related to Cult at Wikiquote Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cult amp oldid 1132821848, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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