CULTS AND NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS BLACKWELL READINGS IN RELIGION The Blackwell Readings in Religion series brings together the knowledge of leading international scholars, and each volume provides an authorita- tive overview of both the historical development and the contemporary issues of its subject. Titles are presented in a style which is accessible to undergraduate students, as well as scholars and the interested general reader. Published The Blackwell Reader in Judaism Edited by Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck Cults and New Religious Movements A Reader Edited by Lorne L. Dawson CULTS AND NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS A READER Edited by Lorne L. Dawson Editorial material and organization © 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5018, USA 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton South, Melbourne, Victoria 3053, Australia Kurfürstendamm 57, 10707 Berlin, Germany The right of Lorne L. Dawson to be identified as the Author of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cults and new religious movements : a reader / edited by Lorne L. Dawson. p. cm. – (Blackwell readings in religion) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-4051-0180-6 (alk. paper) – ISBN 1-4051-0181-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Cults. I. Dawson, Lorne L., 1954– II. Series. BP603 .C86 2003 291–dc21 2002038285 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 9.5 on 11.5 pt Galliard by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: The Book and the Subject 1 I The Study of New Religious Movements 5 1 The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must Be Joking! 7 Eileen Barker 2 The Continuum Between “Cults” and “Normal” Religion 26 James A. Beckford II The Nature of New Religious Movements 33 3 Three Types of New Religious Movement 36 Roy Wallis 4 Cult Formation: Three Compatible Models 59 William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark III New Religious Movements in Historical and Social Context 71 5 False Prophets and Deluded Subjects: The Nineteenth Century 73 Philip Jenkins 6 The New Spiritual Freedom 89 Robert Wuthnow IV Joining New Religious Movements 113 7 Who Joins New Religious Movements and Why: Twenty Years of Research and What Have We Learned? 116 Lorne L. Dawson 8 The Joiners 131 Saul Levine v CONTENTS VThe “Brainwashing” Controversy 143 9 The Process of Brainwashing, Psychological Coercion, and Thought Reform 147 Margaret Thaler Singer 10 A Critique of “Brainwashing” Claims About New Religious Movements 160 James T. Richardson 11 Constructing Cultist “Mind Control” 167 Thomas Robbins VI Violence and New Religious Movements 181 12 The Apocalypse at Jonestown 186 John R. Hall 13 “Our Terrestrial Journey is Coming to an End”: The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple 208 Jean-François Mayer VII Sex and Gender Issues and New Religious Movements 227 14 Women in New Religious Movements 230 Elizabeth Puttick 15 Women’s “Cocoon Work” in New Religious Movements: Sexual Experimentation and Feminine Rites of Passage 245 Susan J. Palmer VIII New Religious Movements and the Future 257 16 Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail: A Revised General Model 259 Rodney Stark 17 New Religions and the Internet: Recruiting in a New Public Space 271 Lorne L. Dawson and Jenna Hennebry Index 292 vi Acknowledgments The editor and publishers gratefully acknowl- Berkeley: University of California Press, edge the following for permission to repro- 1998: 52–84; copyright © 1998 the duce copyright material: Regents of the University of California. Lorne L. Dawson, “Who Joins New Religious Eileen Barker, “The Scientific Study of Reli- Movements and Why: Twenty Years of gion? You Must Be Joking!” Journal for Research and What Have We Learned?” the Scientific Study of Religion 34, 1995: Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 25, 287–310. 1996: 141–61. James A. Beckford, “The Continuum Between Saul Levine, “The Joiners.” In Saul Levine, ‘Cults’ and ‘Normal’ Religion.” In Pauline Radical Departures: Desperate Detours to Cote (ed.) Chercheurs de dieux dans l’espace Growing Up, New York: Harcourt Brace public, University of Ottawa Press, 2001: and Company, 1984; copyright © 1994 by 11–20; reprinted by permission of the Saul V. Levine, reprinted by permission of publisher. Harcourt, Inc. Roy Wallis, “Three Types of New Religious Margaret Thaler Singer, “The Process of Movement.” In Roy Wallis, The Elementary Brainwashing, Psychological Coercion, and Forms of New Religious Life, Routledge and Thought Reform.” In Margaret Thaler Kegan Paul, 1984: 9–39; reprinted by per- Singer, Cults in Our Midst, Jossey-Bass, mission of Mrs Veronica Wallis. 1995: 52–82. William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark, James T. Richardson, “A Critique of ‘Brain- “Cult Formation: Three Compatible washing’ Claims About New Religious Models.” Sociological Analysis 40, 1979: Movements.” Australian Religious Studies 283–95. Review 7, 1994: 48–56. Philip Jenkins, “False Prophets and Deluded Thomas Robbins, “Constructing Cultist Subjects: The Nineteenth Century.” In ‘Mind Control’.” Sociological Analysis 45, Philip Jenkins, Mystics and Messiahs: Cults 1984: 241–56. and New Religions in American History, John R. Hall, “The Apocalypse at Jonestown.” Oxford University Press, 2000: 25–45; In John R. Hall, with Philip D. Schuyler and copyright 2000 by Philip Jenkins; used by Sylvaine Trinh, Apocalypse Observed: Reli- permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. gious Movements and Violence in North Robert Wuthnow, “The New Spiritual Free- America, Europe, and Japan, Routledge, dom.” In Robert Wuthnow, After Heaven: 2000: 15–43; reprinted by permission of Spirituality in America Since the 1950s, Taylor and Francis Ltd. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Jean-François Mayer, “‘Our Terrestrial Jour- Lorne L. Dawson and Jenna Hennebry, “New ney is Coming to an End’: The Last Voyage Religions and the Internet: Recruiting in a of the Solar Temple.” Nova Religio 2, 1999: New Public Space.” Journal of Contempo- 172–96. rary Religion 14, 1999: 17–39; reprinted Elizabeth Puttick, “Women in New Religious by permission of Taylor and Francis Ltd; Movements.” In Bryan Wilson and Jamie journal website http://www.tandf.co.uk/ Cresswell (eds.) New Religious Movements: journals. Challenge and Response, Routledge, 1999: 143–62; reprinted by permission of Taylor “CHURCH OF THE POISON MIND” and Francis Ltd and the author. Words and Music by George O’Dowd, Jon Susan J. Palmer, “Women’s ‘Cocoon Work’ in Moss, Michael Craig and Roy Hay New Religious Movements: Sexual Experi- © 1983, Reproduced by permission of EMI mentation and Feminine Rites of Passage.” Virgin Music Ltd, London WC2H 0QY. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 32, 1993: 343–55. The publishers apologize for any errors or Rodney Stark, “Why Religious Movements omissions in the above list and would be grate- Succeed or Fail: A Revised General Model.” ful to be notified of any corrections that Journal of Contemporary Religion 11, 1996: should be incorporated in the next edition or 133–46; reprinted by permission of Taylor reprint of this book. and Francis Ltd; journal website http:// www.tandf.co.uk/journals. viii Introduction: The Book and the Subject Most people in North America or Europe have religions we often hear distinct echoes of the never met anyone who is a member of a higher values and sentiments, the spiritual “cult,” or what scholars prefer to call “new insights, of the great religious figures of religious movements.” Thousands of such the past. Surely there is more to life we all groups exist in our societies, but they tend to sense at times, and the teachings of Jesus, be so small or last for so short a time that they Mohammed, the Buddha and others, may attract little or no attention. Yet almost every- seem to be more genuinely present in the one has read articles or watched television discourses of these still largely unknown or shows about these groups. In our increasingly already scorned men and women than in the secularized and supposedly rational societies sermons and pronouncements of the accepted our curiosity is peaked by the intense and religious leaders around us. But fear holds us seemingly peculiar beliefs and practices of the back from exploring these possibilities further minority of people who choose such alter- and the “cults” in our midst remain just a native worldviews and their accompanying curiosity. This fear of the unknown and the lifestyles. We are often simultaneously drawn different is natural and understandable, but it to and repelled by their sense of commitment is also exaggerated and in the long run detri- and purpose in life. As social and ideological mental to both our own spiritual development deviants they are fascinating yet threatening. and that of our societies. Their religiosity may seem strangely more We know about “cults” largely by what the real and compelling than the anemic variety of media tells us, and their views have been mainstream religion so many of us experience overwhelmingly negative (see Van Driel and as children and young adults in the churches, Richardson 1988; Pfeifer 1992). Mirroring synagogues, and temples of our parents. But the norms of conventional society, and the the beliefs espoused are often subversive of the interests of the powers behind it, the media values and goals to which we have been social- have preferred to be sensationalistic in ized by the dominant social institutions of our their treatment of new religious movements, society.