Religious Movements and Social Change

Sue Darlington

Katherine Watier

Feb 1, 1998

Religious Movements: Cults or New Religions?

Religion represents many things to many different people, though for all it represents a codified belief system that not only supports one's own internal beliefs, but also gives support and guidance for the formation of new beliefs (usually involving the community). As a central aspect of an individual's identity, it provides answers and guidance to questions about one's existence and how one should behave. Religion also provides answers to question about the unknown and reassurance that one's life is meaningful and that one's existence is valuable to the greater community.

New religions go through many stages and their formation begins with the collection of followers and the moral movement of people from an existing belief system to the new system of spiritual beliefs. People can join movements for many reasons; and religious movements can be either the source of social change, the support system for a societal change, or a tool for reassurance during the period of adjustment to the social change.

During a change in societal organization, people can join a religious movement due to many reasons. The adaptation and conversion to a new form of spirituality can either be a voluntary or involuntary processes. During the Crusades in Europe, thousands of individuals were forced to change their religious convictions or risk their lives by refusing to do so. Other groups of individuals have flocked to religious movements in an attempt to find solace and meaning in a environment that is hostile and chaotic. For still others the joining in a new (or old) religious movement is motivated by the need to feel as though one belongs. A religious group often gives individuals a sense of identity and support that is personally lacking. The difference between a religious movement that is considered to be the formation of a new sect verses a new cult currently is rather vague.

Examples of religious movements are diverse and span the range from what might be considered conservative movements (the Christian Right for example) to more bizarre and outlandish cult movements (the Heaven's Gate cult). The agenda of the former is to influence society from within its own political system. Their goal does not seem to be to completely revamp the entire moral system, but to convince the masses to follow the moral code that they deem appropriate. The latter example (the Heaven's Gate cult) was created by one charismatic leader who fostered his follower's need to feel included as an integral part of something bigger than themselves, and promised answers to their life questions. Other motivations for creating or joining a religious movement are associated with the use of religions as a persuasive tool in order to gain political power (as was the case during America's colonization period). Mass religious affiliations have been the result of a mass need for solace during trying times.

When analyzing a religious movement, it is necessary to examine the motivations for the creation of such a movements and how the affect followers are converted and/or join the movement in order to determine what type of religious movement is being created-one that has the possibility of transforming into a new religion, or a cult. Whether or not a religious movement is considered a mass show of support for a religion or a cult is often hard to determine, and often when one examines religious movements, the immediate concern is whether the persuasiveness of the movement is supportive of the follower's best interest, or if it is manipulative of its followers. Often the movements that are viewed as positively supporting the follower's personal development are labeled a new religion, where ones that are viewed as detrimental to the follower's sense of personal growth are labeled cults. Conversely, some students of religion call a religious movement with certain defining characteristics (e.g., a small, recently founded religious group led by a single charismatic leader) a cult. Used in this way, "cult" is a neutral term that simply describes a type of religious organization.

The types of definitions used in relation to religious movements are obviously broad enough to include all of the relevant religious sects and many of the current cults as well. In the quest for a distinction between sect and cult one can only suppose that the definition and description of a new religion (and the movement of human moral creativity that it supports and often creates) can only be a ever-changing concept dependent upon the historical, geographical, economic, social, and political context.

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