Brainwashing, conversion, some of each or none of the above? What is it that causes some groups to become downright deadly? Is there a right answer to the questions of balancing safety and freedom?
Who Leaves New Religious Movements, and Why?
Generally speaking, the transition out of a cult is the reverse of the transition into it. As events, relationships and impressions occur that disrupt the rewards, ideology, intensity, or affective ties of the cult, members choose whether to stay or move on to something different (or back to something they had before). Balch defines stages …
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Who Joins New Religious Movements, and Why?
In a family with three children, all growing up under the same roof & rules, with comparable life experiences, attending the same university, it is entirely possible for one to become a faithful Christian, one to become a drifter, and one to become a devout cult member. This flies in the face of the standard …
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Cults – What are they?
New Religious Movements, or Cults, are defined by sociologists to be groups and beliefs counter to the society’s accepted norm, and by theologians to be groups and beliefs counter to the established doctrines of the majority religion. For America, then, a cult would be any group that goes against the Judeo-Christian doctrines, whereas in Islam-dominant …