Religious Organisation - Joining Sects

Question 1

What’s the marginalisation argument for joining a sect

Answer 1

-sects may be evidence of disillusion with institutionalised religion and a search for finding a more genuine way of satisfying spiritual needs
-Weber argues that sects are most likely to emerge amongst the poor
- such groups may develop a “theodicy of dispriviledge’
- for example, if a group believes that they are ‘god’s chosen people’ the promise of salvation is compensation for their poverty
-the growth of sects such as the Nation of Islam was accomplished through recruitment from disadvantaged groups

Question 2

Evaluation of the marginalisation argument

Answer 2

-since the 1960s world rejecting NRMs like the Moonies have recruited mainly from the more affluent groups of well-educated young middle class whites
- Wallis argues that this doesn’t really contradict webers view because many of these had become marginalised as they where hippies and drop-outs despite their middle class origins

Question 3

What is the relative deprivation argument for joining a sect

Answer 3

Glock and Stark suggest the relative deprivation is the reason that sects attract members of mc.
Social deprivation:
-stems from a lack of power
-those lacking job satisfaction may find alternative sources of satisfaction in evangelical goals set by sect e.g. jehovahs witnesses
Organismic deprivation:
-experienced by those experiencing ill health
- they might turn to sects for alternative healing e.g. Jim Jones’s “healing” blind lady
Ethical deprivation:
- people perceive the world to be in moral decline and therefore retreat into a introversionist sect e.g. the people temple

Question 4

Evaluation of relative deprivation

Answer 4

Post mods would argue that this lack contemporary relevance. In postmodern society old barriers like social class are no longer relevant meaning people aren’t likely to feel relatively deprived

Question 5

What is the social change argument for joint a sect

Answer 5

In response to change:
- social change creates what Durkheim calls anomie - sense of normlessnes
-this is because rapid change undermines traditional norms and values
-Wilson argues that the popularity of world-accommodating groups such as Methodism was a reaction to anxiety created by industrialisation
-this it because it creates a sense of community with clear norms and values
To create change:
-Robert bellah argues that increase in sect membership in the 1960s was because the middle-classs youth experienced a ‘crisis of meaning’ regarding the materialist values of their parents culture
- many turned to alternative drug/pop culture
-sects based on anti-materialist and ‘freelove’ values such as the Jesus people recruited in large numbers from young people in search of spiritual goals.

Question 6

Evaluation of social change arguments

Answer 6

Rather than joining a sect as a response to social change , a popular response today is to join a fundamentalist movement

Question 7

How does status frustration lead people to join a sect

Answer 7

• people feel frustrated by the position they find themselves in society
  -in particularly young people experiencing a long period of transition from childhood to adulthood
  -NRMs appeal to young people because they offer them an identity and overcome a sense of status frustration

Question 8

Evaluation of status frustration

Answer 8

Such periods of status frustration can be short lived and Wallis concludes that NRMs involve only a very small proportion of the population for a short period of their lives