Social Science and the Cults by John A. Saliba

Author:John A. Saliba [Saliba, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367085933
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Comparison Between New and Old Cults

Social scientists have found it both informative and useful to draw comparisons between several of the new religious movements and those of the nineteenth century. The Unification Church, for example, has been compared with the Hutterites (Miller, item 1386), with Mormonism (Hampshire and Beckford, item 1293), with Hasidism (Berger, item 1154.), and with Jehovah’s Witnesses (Beckford, item 1144.). In the first study, the author observes that among both Unificationists and Hutterites, the sexual and emotional relationships between married couples are subordinate to the perceived spiritual brotherhood of the group. In the second study, the authors compare the hostility that the activities of the Moonies and the Mormons have elicited and discuss its effects on the deviance of each group. In the third study, the writer compares two charismatic religions. Though he has a very negative opinion of the Unification Church, he admits that there are some glaring similarities between this religious movement and Hasidism, such as the indoctrination techniques and the stress on commitment to the community. In the final study, James Beckford traces the different organizational structures of the two religious groups in question, namely Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Unification Church, and states that in spite of their contrasting modes of political involvement and lifestyle, they share similar objectives.

A good example of how the comparative approach might contribute to our understanding of extreme cults is the comparison Thomas Robbins makes between the People’s Temple and the Russian Old Believers (item 1439). The popular and scholarly reflections that followed the tragic events at Jonestown illustrate how difficult it is to account for this catastrophic demise of a new movement without having recourse to the argument that the behavior of the leaders and members of the People’s Temple are instances of severe pathology. After carefully comparing the violent ends of the two religious groups, Robbins suggests that, among other things, apocalyptic pessimism and a conviction that evil had triumphed on earth provided adequate reasons for the suicidal frenzy that led both groups to selfdestruction.

While it has to be admitted that such comparative attempts have been relatively few, the results have questioned not only the newness of the current religious ferment, but also the appropriateness of giving a negative connotation to the term cult and of applying it almost indiscriminately to most, if not all, contemporary fringe religions.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.