Religious orginisations Flashcards
Sects & cults
-Unlike churches and denominations, sects and cults tend to be seen as more deviant- involving beliefs and behaviour that are seen as odd, weird or bizarre, or as a threat to existing society.
-Barker (1989) suggests the terms ‘sect’ and ‘cult’ have a stigmatized and negative meaning attached to them that they should be abandoned altogether.
Stark & Bainbridge
What is a sect and cult
-Sects splits in existing organisations. They break away from churches usually because of disagreements about rules. They promise other-worldly benefits (place in heaven) to those suffering economic deprivation or ethical deprivation (where their values conflict with wider society).
-Cults are new religions, such as Christian Science, are new to that particular society that have been imported. Tend to offer this-worldly benefits (e.g. good health) to more prosperous individuals who are suffering psychic deprivation (normlessness) and organismic deprivation (health problems).
Stark & Bainbridge (1986)
Subdivided cults according to how organised they are
Audience cults: least organised, no formal membership or commitment, little interaction between members, participation may be through the media. (Astrology and UFO cults).
Client cults: based on relationship between consultant and client, provide service. Medical miracles, contact with the dead (historically). Emphasis is now on ‘therapies’ promising personal fulfilment and self-discovery.
Cultic movements: most organised, demand a higher level of commitment. Aims to meet all members religious needs, not allowed to belong to other religious groups at the same time. (Some Doomsday cults that practice mass suicide).
Main features of sects
Wilson (1982)
Exist in state of tension or conflict with wider society, rejecting society and its values.
Members, members claim they have the only route to salvation.
Stern discipline, regulating the beliefs and lifestyles of members, using sanctions against those who deviate.
Demand ongoing and total commitment from members, overriding all other interests.
Often led by charismatic leader that has power over other group members.
Niebuhr (1957) why are Sects short-lived
Sects tend to be short lived, as they will, over time, either turn into denominations or disappear altogether.
The problem of maintaining commitment.
The loss of charismatic leaders
Changing circumstances of members & appeal of sects.
Religious diversity in postmodern societies.
Aldridge
Disagree about break down of sects
Disagrees that death or denomination are the only options for sects. He points out:
-Many have existed a long time while still retaining their features as sects
-Not all depend on charismatic leadership
-Many have been successful in socialising their children and converting adults
-They can maintain strict standards of conduct over a long period of time.
-He points to Jehovah’s and the Amish to illustrate this.
Wilson (1959) - Conversionist
‘Conversionist’ sects most likely to develop into a denomination.
These are sects which think the best way to save the world is not to be hostile to and isolated from it, but to be engaged with it and to try and convert people by ‘saving souls’.
If they are successful and win lots of support they will turn into a denomination. Salvation Army was a small conversionist sect that is now a conversionist denomination.
Wilson (1959)
2 types not able to survive in denominational form:
Introversionist sects – like the Amish see only route to salvation is total withdrawal from corrupting influences of the world. These sects can only survive by keeping apart from the world.
Adventist or revolutionary sects – like JW, hold millenarian or doomsday beliefs, only a few will be saved. Cannot take on denominational form and compromise with other beliefs without abandoning their own values.
New Religious Movements (NRMs)
Wallis coined the term New Religious Movements. This is a broader classification system and typology and he divides them into three groups based on their relationship to the outside world:
World rejecting
World affirming
World accommodating
World-rejecting
Roy Wallis
Examples Children of God. They vary greatly in size, from a handful of members to hundreds of thousands. They have several characteristics:
-Clear religious organisations with a clear notion of God
-They are highly critical of the outside world, and they expect or seek radical change
-To achieve salvation, members must make a sharp break with their former life
-Members live communally, with restricted contact with the outside world. The movement controls all aspects of their lives and is often accused of brainwashing
-They often have conservative moral codes, for example about sex.
World-affirming NRMs
Roy Wallis
Example Scientology. Lack some of the conventional features of religion, such as collective worship. But still offer their followers access to spiritual or supernatural powers.
-Accept the world as it is. They are optimistic & promise followers success in terms of mainstream goals and values
-They are non-exclusive and tolerant of other religions, but claim to offer additional special knowledge
-Most are cults, whose followers are often customers rather than members, and entry is through training. The movement places few demands on them and they
carry normal lives
World-accommodating NRMs
Roy Wallis
Often breakaways from existing mainstream churches or denominations, such as neo-Pentecostalists who split from Catholicism
-They neither accept nor reject the world, and they focus on religious rather than worldly matters, seeking to restore the spiritual purity of religion
-For example, neo-Pentecostalists believe that other Christian religions have lost the Holy Spirit.
-Members tend to lead conventional lives
Evaluation Roy Wallis New Religious Movements
-Not clear whether Wallis is categorising them according to the movement’s teachings or individual members beliefs. He also ignores the diversity of beliefs that may exist within an NRM
-Wallis himself recognises that real NRMs will rarely fit neatly into his typology some may have features of all three. But many sociologists find such typologies useful as a way of analysing and comparing the significant features of NRMs
-However, Stark and Bainbridge reject the idea of constructing such typologies altogether. Argue that we should distinguish between religious organisation using just one criterion the degree of conflict or tension between the religious group and wider society.
Reasons for the growth of religious
movements
Since the 1960s, rapid growth in the number of sects and cults, & in the number of people belonging to them.
For example over half a million individuals belonging to these & other non-mainstream Christian churches in the UK. Sociologists have offered three main explanations for this trend:
Marginality
Relative deprivation
Social change
Reasons for the growth of religious
movements Marganilisation
Weber sect come from marginalizes groups of society. Groups who feel disprivileged not receiving economic reward or social stats. Weber says sect offer solution justification of suffering and disadvantage misfortune test of faith promised a reward in future for there loyalty.
In 20th century the nation of islam recruited disadvantaged blackes in the USA.
Reasons for the growth of religious
movements relative deprivation
Refers to subjective sence of being deprived. Someone who is really quite provladged still feel deprived or disprivladged. Though Mc materually well off may lack moral value, emotional warmth, athencity so Wallis argues this means they turn to sects for community.
Stark & Bainbridge relative deprivation breaks churches into sects. when MC members seek to compromise belifes in order to fit into society. Deprived members likely to break away form sects safeguard origin messages of the organization
Stark and Bainbridge’s sectarian cycle
- tension between the deprived and the privileged members of the church
- Initial fervour with a charismatic leadership and great tension between sects beliefs & those of wider society
- denominationalism the “protestant ethic” effects and the coolness of the second generation mean the favour disappears
- establishments sees sects becoming more world acceping tension with wider society reduced
- less privileged members break away to find a new sect original message
Wilson argues not all sects flow Stark and Bainbridge’s sectarian cycle
Wether or not they do depends on there answer to “what shall we do to be saved”
-conversationalist- sects such as evangegentic aim to conver large number of people grow rapidly more formal denomination
-Adventist- sects such as the seventh day adventists await the second coming of christ. To be saved belive they must hold themselves separate from corrupted world. This seperation stops them being a denomination.
Wilson globalisation
Globalisation makes it harder for sects to keep themsleves separate from outside world. on the other hand globalisation makes it easier to recruit Third world large number of deprived people whos the sects message will attract.
2 common themes that characterise the New Age Heelas (1996)
States there are two common themes that characterise the New Age:
Self-spirituality – New agers seeking the spiritual have turned away from the traditional ‘external’ religions such as the churches and instead look inside themselves to find it
Detraditionalisation – The New Age rejects the spiritual authority of external traditional sources such as priests or sacred texts. Instead it values personal experience and believes that we can discover the truth for ourselves and within ourselves.
Reasons for the growth of the New Age Movement (NAM)
Spiritual fulfilment Heelas
It provides spiritual fulfilment and identity. The growth of NAM ideas as a result of living in a postmodern world. Some of the reasons for the growth of NAMs are:
Consumerism – a world over saturated by consumerism has left people feeling dissatisfied with their lives – a lack of spirituality. The NAM offers ways to achieve spiritual fulfilment in a consumer culture world.
Identity crisis – the decline of religious traditions and the assimilation of cultures, class, ethnicity, in a fast changing world, has left people with a fragmented identity, people are unsure of themselves. New Age beliefs offer a sense of identity.
