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

The Anti-Cult Movement

Lecture Outline:

• The Social Context of the Anti-cult Movement
• Organizational Opposition to "Cults"
• The Development of the Anti-cult Movement
• Professionalization of the Anti-cult Movement
• Suggested Readings

Part I: The Social Context of the Anti-cult Movement

Religious tolerance from the Pilgrim fathers forward:

"Despite all the elegant rhetoric about the Pilgrim fathers...Amerian has not set an exemplary record in the area of religious freedom. The English Calvinists who settled in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay did not come to found a society where spiritual liberty would reign supreme. They came to found a theocracy, as the four Quakers...who were hanged on Boston Common between 1659 and 1661 soon found out. Unpopular and unconventional religious beliefs and practices were not only unwelcome, they were not tolerated. Roger Williams, a Baptist, was hounded into the frozen wilderness. When Henry Dunster, the president of Harvard College, decided not to have his fourth infant baptized because he had come to accept adult baptism, he was forced to retire. Later on, in other parts of the country, Mormons, Jews, Masons, Jesuits, and ordinary Roman Catholics felt the hard edge of harassment and discrimination because of their religious convictions. A couple of generations ago, Jehovah's Witnesses were the main target of prejudice. Now we have the 'cults.' It seems Americans are never really happy unless there is some unfamiliar religious group to abuse. The spirit of theoracy lingers on."

Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard University

New religions challenge the status quo and, thus, are co-participants in the production of religious conflict. Cults and sects, by definition, exist in high tension with society.

• They have a vision of culture at variance with the established order.
• Proclaiming that established religious groups are wrong is to invite a fight.
• The response of established groups is roughly proportional to the perception of threat to the established order.
• The greater the perceived threat, the greater the mobilization to respond.

Conflict between new religions and the established order may go beyond religious ideology

• Immigrant groups (who are often of a single faith tradition) my constitute an economic threat because they flood the labor market with cheap labor.
• Anti-Catholicism in the 19th century was partially attributable to the fact that Catholic leadership was not interested in assimilation.
• Mormons sought to create a theocratic government independent of the U.S. government; they printed their own currenty, established a militia, etc.

Three arenas where conflict occurs:

• Family
• Churches
• Government

Response to NRMs takes predictable patterns

• Allegations of danger
  • Deception and coercion
  • Illegitimacy of beliefs
  • Sexual perversion
  • Political subversion
  • Financial exploitation

Part II: Organizational Opposition to "Cults"

Four distinct classes of opposition can be identified:

1. Religious opposition
2. Secular opposition
3. Apostates
4. Entrepreneurial opposition

1. Religiously grounded opposition

• Opposition usually defined in theological terms
• Cults viewed as engaging in heresy
• Mission is to expose the heresy and correct beliefs of those who have strayed from truth
• Deception rather than possession is the likely metaphore
• Opposition serves two important functions:
  • protects members (especially youth) from heresy
  • increases solidarity among the faithful

2. Secular opposition

• Individual autonomy is professed to be the manifest goal. This is achieved by getting people out of religious groups.
• The struggle is about control, not about theology.
• Organized around families who have or have had children involved in a "cult."
• Disabling or destruction of NRMs organizationally is latent goal.

3. Apostates

• apostasy = the renunciation of a religious faith
• apostate = one who engages in active opposition to their former faith
• anti-cult movement -- has actively encouraged former members to interpret their exerience in a "cult" as one of being aggregiously wronged and encourages participation in organized anti-cult activities.

4. Entrepreneurial opposition

• Individuals who take up a cause for personal gain.
• Alliance or coalition to promote their agenda is ad hoc.
• Broadcasters and journalists leading examples.
• A few entrepreneaurs have made careers by creating organized opposition.