1970's Cults: New Religious Movements

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s cults first emerged as harmless religious sectors. The term cult is originally associated with the term religion. Cults are centered around new ideas and new beliefs. A cult is defined as a religious movement that believe in a particular figure or object. Cults are smaller than denominations and different than sects. A sect is a religion that has separated itself from a larger church and a denomination is a sub-group of a larger religion that have their own set of beliefs. An example of a denomination would be the Catholics, an example of a sect will be Orthodox, and lastly a cult is an example of Scientology. The followers associated with cults are more educated and have more money than the followers that are associated with sects. Sects followers are usually in the lower or under class. As discussed in lecture, cult
“New religious movements are divided into five sets: groups associated with various Asian traditions of philosophy, groups associated with with the American human potential movement in popular psychology, groups associated with various forms of occult revival, so-called New Age groups, and groups that think their salvation depends on contact with UFOS and aliens.” (Dawson, 2006, Pg. 2). Cults gained a lot of people interest by furthering ideals on what the followers believed in. However, every great thing must come to an end.
A terminology once associated with religion has changed over the course of years. Cults are now associated with violence due to the repetitive tragedy that surrounds new religious movements. Cult followers are trained to follow their leader even if it is something that they know is wrong. “Cult members actually suspend their rational thought processes to do whatever the group leader asks them, even if it involves murder or suicide” (Dawson, 2006, Pg.5). The perfect example of this kind of behavior will be Jonestown in Guyana, South