Cults: The Rise Of New Religious Movements

New Religious movements are religious organizations that has developed over the past few centuries. In the 1ate 1960’s and 1970’s cults first emerged as harmless religious sectors. Cults are centered around new ideas and new beliefs. The leaders of cults tend to be more educated and have an alternative way of thinking and that is how NRM’s gain followers. Cults are currently known as new religious movements. Cults gained a lot of peoples’ interest by furthering the ideas that others did not want to expand on.

Cult was once a terminology associated with religion and has changed over the course of years. When you hear the world cult you think of violence because of past encounters that has happened. Cult followers are trained to follow their

They start them in order to further their beliefs and find out who have similar beliefs. However, a life that is full of drug use and dedicated members can get to some leader’s head. According to Dawson, “as in much propaganda about drug use, it is suggested that all this tragedy can grow disastrously ‘out a simple flirtation with something different or unknown’. From youthful experimentation with marijuana, heroin addiction follows. From experimentation with alternative religious views, one runs the risk of becoming a zombie enslaved to an unbalanced and immortal cult leader. “ (Dawson Pg. 5). Once cult members have them in the place where they follow them, then they began to take advantage of them sexually and

However, there are some new religious movements that are still being practiced today and accepted in society. According to the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, “A high proportion of these NRMs have survived, the overall number has continued to rise. Through the 1950s, the religious triumvirate—Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism—dominated the American religious landscape.” (Encyclopedia of Religion and Society). This triumvirate was accepted into society and gained members quickly. These religions are still currently gaining members and not have been identified as a cult. According to the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, “The erosion of the cultural dominance of these established traditions along with the rapid influx of NRMs has enhanced awareness of religious diversity and of the minority traditions that historically have maintained a more subterranean presence.” (Encyclopedia of Religion and Society). New religious movements have encouraged diversity in religion. Furthermore, new religious movements have explored other ideas that other religious movements have not found interest in. New religious movements also do not have a strict set of morals and values, which attract more people interest to follow. According to the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, “A substantial number of typologies have been created, with differing objectives and perspectives—type of meaning system, form of movement organization