New Religious Movements

New Religious Movements (NRM) refer to a range of new religion that have developed since the 1960’s.
Most of them are sects and cults. Roy Wallis divides new religious movements into three main groups
according to whether the movement and its members reject, accommodate or affirm the world outside the
movement. He notes the existence of some groups (those in the middle circle) that do not fit neatly into any
single category.

World-rejecting new religious movements

The world-rejecting new religious movements have many of the characteristics of a sect. They are highly
critical of the outside world and want to change society. They often have a communal lifestyle with
members living in relative isolation and the organisation having a strong control and influence over its
members. Many are seen as morally puritanical (very strict in moral or religious matters), for example the
Unification Church (often referred to as Moonies, due to their founder's name, Sun Myung Moon) is
particularly strict about restricting sex to monogamous marriage.
World-rejecting new religious movements vary enormously in size: the Moonies have an international
following with hundreds of thousands of followers, while other groups are small and locally based. Other
examples of World rejecting NRM are the Branch Davidians in Texas, the People’s Temple, Hare Krishna.
Despite the differences between world-rejecting groups, none of them is content with the world as it is, and
they are hostile to competing religions.

World-accommodating new religious movements

The world-accommodating new religious movements are usually offshoots of an existing major church or
denomination. For example, neo-Pentecostalist groups come out of Protestant or Roman Catholic religions,
while Subud is a world-accommodating Muslim group.
Typically, these groups neither accept nor reject the world as it is; they simple live within it. They are
primarily concerned with religious rather than worldly questions. They therefore do not try to change
society. They often want to restore the spiritual purity that they believe has been lost in more
conventional/traditional churches and denominations. For example, Pentecostalist believe that the holy spirit
has been lost in other Christian religion.
Members of world accommodating NRM live normal social life outside their religious activities.

World-affirming new religious movements

The world-affirming new religious movements may not appear to resemble a conventional religion in that
they often lack a church, rituals and a theology. However, they claim to be able to provide access to spiritual
or supernatural powers and, in this sense, can be regarded as religions. They offer promises of success in
terms of society’s dominant values such as career, relationship, health etc. They provide techniques &
trainings to unlock the spiritual and mental powers of followers.
World-affirming groups accept the world as it is, and they are not particularly critical of other religions.
Salvation is seen in terms of a personal achievement and as a solution to personal problems such as
unhappiness or suffering. Individuals usually overcome such problems by adopting a technique such as
meditation that heightens their awareness or abilities.
World-affirming movements seek as wide a membership as possible. Rather than attempting to convert
people, they try to sell them a service. Followers carry on their normal lives except when undergoing
training. There is little social control over the members or customers.
Examples of world-affirming new religious movements include Scientology, Erhard Seminars Training
(known as est) and Transcendental Meditation (TM) (where the meditation technique is said to provide
increased ability and awareness which have beneficial effects for individuals and society).
To Roy Wallis, most world affirming movements are cults, since, unlike sects, they tolerate the existence of
other religions, have a rapid turnover of membership and are relatively undemanding on their followers.

Criticisms of Wallis
 The 'middle ground'
Wallis realises that no religious group would conform exactly to the categories he outlined. Some,
such as the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO), combine elements of different types of
movement. The 3HO is like world-affirming movements in that it is an offshoot of an established
religion, in this case Sikhism. Like world-affirming movements, it employs techniques including
yoga that it is claimed will bring personal benefits, such as happiness and good health. Like world-
rejecting movements, the organisation has a clear concept of God, and members live in communes or
ashrams but hold conventional jobs outside the movement. Occupying the middle ground, 3HO
allows its followers to combine elements of an alternative lifestyle with conventional marriage and
employment.
 According to Beckford (1985), Wallis pays insufficient attention to the diversity of views that exists
within a sect or cult. Beckford, also questions the value of defining some groups as ‘world-rejecting’. In his
view, no group is able to reject the world altogether.

Growth of New Religious Movements

Religious sects and cults have existed for centuries but the 20th century has seen the rise and growth of many
such New Religious Movements. For example, in Britain there were 829 NRMs in 2005 compared to 775 in
2000. A considerable increase was found in the membership of Scientology and Moonies between 1995 and
2005. The explanation for the emergence and growth of New Religious Movements are:

 Marginality: Weber argued that people who are marginal in society are more likely to join sects.
These are people who feel they are not receiving the prestige and economic reward they deserve. Many
people who are poor and deprived become members of sects as sects provide a ‘theodicy of disprivilege’
which explain their disadvantaged position and promise a sense of honour either in the future or after life.

 Relative deprivation: It refers to subjectively perceived deprivation. In objective terms the poor are
more deprived than the middle class, but in subjective terms certain members of the middle class may feel
more deprived than the poor although they do not lack material wealth. For example: they may feel
spiritually deprived, lonely or not having mental peace. Such feelings attract them to sect where they try to
get relief and salvation. According to Stark and Bainbridge, NRM membership may help to overcome
those suffering a subjective feeling of being deprived or lacking something. For example, less successful
members of a church may feel relatively deprived compared to other members and may break away and join
sects.
 Social change: Wilson (1970) argues that sects arise during periods of rapid social change, when
traditional norms and values are disrupted. For example: industrialisation has led to the rise of sects such as
‘methodism’. They offered the support for clear norms and values to the urban working class. According to
Dawson, with industrialisation, people became more willing to accept beliefs and practices previously
rejected. This also contributed for New Religious Movements.

 Globalisation and Media: Globalisation and mass media have opened up access to new ideas and
belief systems from around the world. This is what Baudrillard refers to as a media saturated society. He
believes that this has allowed NRM’s to grow as the media gives the group more of a public profile and
visibility in order to attract members.

 Secularisation: Giddens argues that traditional religions have watered down their beliefs to fit in a
more secular world. People look to NRMs to receive comfort and community in NRM’s which the big
religions no longer offer. According to Bruce, people have lost faith in traditional religious leaders who are
seen as out of touch. NRM’s provide a refuge for those seeking spiritual and firm beliefs in a secular society.

 Protest: Glock and Stark argue that NRMs emerge as a form of religious or social protest; hence
many may appeal to those whose values are in conflict with those of the society around them, or of other
religious group.

 Status frustration: Wallis argues that marginality may cause status frustration. Wallis believes
NRMs appeal to the young as membership can provide some support for an identity and status independent
of school or family and so can help them to overcome the sense of status frustration.

The New Age

The New Age is associated with alternative forms of spirituality that became popular in the 1970s and
1980s. The New Age incorporates some world-affirming new religious movements and some cults. New
Age Movements are new ways of doing religion and being religious with the focus on finding solution to
individual and social problems by changing one’s life in some way.
Paul Heelas (1996) argues that the central feature of the New Age is a belief in self-spirituality. People with
such beliefs have turned away from traditional religious organisations in their search for the spiritual and
have begun to look inside themselves instead. According to Heelas, the New Age values personal experience
above 'truths' provided by scientists or conventional religious leaders.
Examples of New Age beliefs include:
 an interest in clairvoyance;
 crystals; tarot cards; magic
 belief in 'spirit guides';
 UFOs (unidentified flying objects),
 various types of meditation and psychotherapy;
 belief in astrology;
 an interest in self-healing and natural or traditional remedies for ill-health (for example, yoga,
aromatherapy and reflexology).

Key terms
New religious movements Religious/spiritual organisations and movements such as Seventh-Day
Adventists, the Unification Church and Pentecostalism that are of relatively modern origin and are in some
form of opposition to (or differentiation from) longer-established, more powerful religious organisations
such as the Roman Catholic Church.
World-rejecting new religious movements Religious movements that developed from the 1960s onwards
and are hostile to the social world outside the movement.
World-accommodating new religious movements Religious movements of relatively recent origin that
hold strong religious beliefs but reject mainstream religious doctrine. Nevertheless, they allow members to
have conventional lives outside their religious practice.
World-affirming new religious movements Religious movements that developed from the 1960s onwards;
they are positive about society, and their religious practices tend or facilitate social and economic success.
New Age The New Age refers to a range of spiritual beliefs focusing mainly on the development of the self
that became popular in the 1970s. People seek spiritual experiences, inner peace or growth through, for
example, meditation, crystal healing and/or aromatherapy.
Self-spirituality The practice of searching for spirituality inside oneself.