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Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson you should be able to:
understand what scholars mean by the term New Religious Movement
reflect on the appeal of NRMs for some people.
appreciate the many and varied types of people who are interested in NRMs.
consider and understand the features used to identify a NRM.
New Religious Movements
New Religious Movements The term was introduced in the 1980s by scholars
as an alternative to the older term cult, which during the 1970s became a negative term, and was used in a prejudiced way by some critics to discredit and belittle belief systems they saw as unusual or anti-Christian.
Some scholars use the term "new religious movement" (NRM) to describe any non-mainstream religion. Other scholars use NRM for the majority of harmless, alternative religions, and reserve "cult" to label groups—whether religious, psychotherapeutic, political or commercial—they believe to be extremely manipulative and exploitative.
While there is no one criteria for when a group is described as a "new" religious movement, it usually refers to ‘of recent origin’ and ‘different from existing religions’.
New Religious Movements
Members
• Britain: 6,000
• World: 6,000,000 (1999)
ISKCON
Members
• Britain: 10,000
• World: 1,000,000 (1998)
New Religious Movements
The Family
Members
• Britain: 290 (1995)
• World: 10,183 (1999)
New Religious Movements
Rastafarians
Members
• Britain: 5,000 (1987)
• World: 700,000 (1998)
New Religious Movements
Sai Baba
Members
• Britain: 4,000
• World: 10,000,000 (1999)
New Religious Movements
Scientology
Members
• Britain: 300,000 (1987)
• World: 1,000,000 – 8,000,000
(1999)
New Religious Movements
Soka Gakkai
Members
• Britain: 5,000
• World: 12,000,000 (1996)
New Religious Movements
[Courtney Love and Orlando Bloom]
Theosophy
Members
• Britain: 1,000
• World: 34,000 (1998)
New Religious Movements
Transcendental Meditation
Members
• Britain: 150,000
• World: 3,000,000 (1999)
New Religious Movements
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Members
• Britain: 214,351
• World: 13,896,312 (1998)
New Religious Movements
Heaven’s Gate
Members
• World: 39 deceased
San Diego(1997)
New Religious Movements
People’s Temple
Members
• World: 919 deceased Guyana (1978)
New Religious Movements
Branch Davidians
Members
• World: 82 deceased
Waco Texas(1993)
New Religious Movements
Old Religious Movements
Masada Jews
960 Jews committed suicide in the 1st Century C.E. at Masada in Israel.
They did this because the Romans were about to defeat them.
Jesus Army
Members
• Britain: 2,600
• Outside Britain: nil (1999)
New Religious Movements
Osho
Members
• Britain: 600 - 3,000
• World: 200,000 (1999)
New Religious Movements
est
Members
• Britain: 8,000 (1987)
• World: 1,000,000 (1996)
New Religious Movements
Christian Science
Members
• Britain: no figures
• World: 400,000 (1998)
New Religious Movements
Latter-day Saints
Members
• Britain: 180,000
• World: 10,000,000 (1999)
New Religious Movements
Mormonism
Kabbalah Centre
Members
• Claims 1,000,000 new followers every year
New Religious Movements
OPV
Why do you think people would join a Why do you think people would join a New Religious Movement?New Religious Movement?
1. Use sheet ‘Key beliefs’ from class.2. On VLE open sheet that says ‘Key
Beliefs Info’. – CODE: NRM3. Fill in Engrams, Exteriorization and
Bridge.4. Also watch Panorama video on VLE link
week 2.5. Also respond to that video on the VLE
clicking ‘9E Panorama Documentary Feedback’
HW:Research and bring in any information About Scientology.
