NEW RELIGIONS AND THE SOCIAL BOND IRVING …€¦ · NEW RELIGIONS AND THE SOCIAL BOND ... Europe, India, Japan, ... religious organizations that are not Churches, in the Weber and

The INTERNATIONAL SCOPE® Review, Volume 5 (2003), Issue 9 (Summer), Hunout & al., The Erosion of the Social Link in the Economically Advanced Countries, Hexham & Poewe, 126,

© Copyright The Social Capital Foundation, All Rights Reserved

NEW RELIGIONS AND THE SOCIAL BOND

IRVING HEXHAM AND KARLA POEWE 1. Introduction Since the late 1960’s numerous New Religious Movements, often identified as “cults” or “sects” have appeared in Western Society. Until 1979, however, only a few people paid serious attention to such movements. Then on 18 November 1978 over 800 people died in Jonestown, Guyana, in what appeared to be a mass suicide (note 1). Fifteen years later vivid television pictures of the last hours of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians at their compound in Waco, Texas, on 19 April 1993, reinforced the view that “cults are dangerous.” Add to this the Solar Temple suicides in Canada and Switzerland, and the AUM initiated gas attack on 20 March 1995 against commuters in the Tokyo underground and a very scary picture emerges (note 2). In this paper we explore the implications of new religions for modern society and the social bond needed to hold society together. How many people are cult members?

Answering the questions “how many people in the Western world are members of cults or sects?” or “how many cults and sects exist worldwide?” is an almost impossible task. Therefore, we will provide limited insight into these and related questions by discussing “cult” or “sect” membership in North America and Europe where considerable research has been undertaken, and South Africa, where new religions register with the government. This discussion will illustrate the problems associated with estimating membership of new religions and give some indication of their extent.

In 1965 the evangelical Christian counter-cult activist Walter Martin there were ten million cult members worldwide. To arrive at this figure he estimated the number



of people belonging to groups like Christian Science, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Jehovah’s Witnesses (Martin 1976, 12 : 17). Twenty-five years later the secular anti-cult activist Steven Hassan claimed that over three million Americans were involved with “destructive cults”. But, nowhere in his book does Hassan explain how he reached this figure (Hassan 1990). Sociologists Bromley and Shupe argued that contrary to popular opinion, which puts North American cult membership in the millions, we simply do not know how many New Religions exist in America nor how many people they attract. Nevertheless, they did estimate that the total membership of six better known groups was relatively small (Bromley and Shupe 1981, 24 : 56). In a similar vein it is estimated that there are about 600 New Religions in America with a total membership of no more than between 150,000 and 200,000 (Millar 1995, 4 : 5). Clearly these are not large movements.

Taking a very different approach Stark and Bainbridge estimate that in 1985 there were 417 sects and 501 cult movements in America. Using their figures it seems that around 7 million, or 3% of Americans may be involved with New Religions (Stark and Bainbridge 1995, 130 : 131). This figure seems to be confirmed by the Gallup Organization’s finding that in 1987, 2% of Americans identified themselves with “other” religions. Significantly, however, this figure went up to 5% among young people (Gallup and Castelli 1989 : 25). (note 3)

Given these findings it is no wonder that the attention of “cult experts” turned to the so-called New Age Movement and conservative Christian groups in the 1980’s. Yet in 1990 Gordon Melton was able to express his belief that the New Age Movement had managed to attract no more than a few “hundreds of thousands of individuals,” as a result he foresaw a “bright” but strictly limited future (Melton 1990 : xxv). Stark and Finke using a survey by Barry Kosmin estimated a much lower figure of “religious preference” for new age type beliefs at a mere 20,000 Americans (Finke and Stark 1992 : 245). Such estimates easily lead to the conclusion that New Religions are unimportant.



The problem is that attempts to estimate influence and membership using indirect means are very difficult. For example Finke and Stark argue that because the New Age Journal has a circulation of “fewer than 150,000” the “audience” for New Age ideas “is probably not all that large” (Finke and Stark 1992 : 245) But this argument is clearly false. The circulation of Christianity Today, the flagship magazine for American evangelicals, is around 250,000. Yet no one disputes the fact that around fifty million Americans identify themselves as evangelicals. Therefore, circulation figures can be very misleading.

Predicting future events is very risky. With few exceptions most observers failed to recognize the decline of the Soviet Union and were completely taken by surprise by the fall of the Berlin Wall. If political developments which absorbed a large proportion of the American defence budget are so difficult to track, should we expect a few academics with minuscule resources to fare any better in forecasting developments in religious and social life? For example in 1990 British sociologist Steve Bruce published a seemingly well researched book proclaiming the demise of the Christian right in American politics (Bruce 1990). Yet only a short time later the Christian Coalition emerged as a major force (Time 15 May 1995). Social scientists have an excellent track record for getting things wrong.

Estimating the number of cults, sects, or New Religious Movements in places like China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, North Africa and many other parts of the world is an almost impossible task. All we can say is that on the basis of the examples given and indications in the popular press New Religions are thriving throughout the world although their actual membership is probably far lower than most people imagine. A complicating factor in discussing new religions is the fact that we lack good historical statistics. In his recent book Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada, Professor Reginald Bibby suggests that religions other than Christianity in Canada have not really grown since records were first kept in 1871 (Bibby 2002 : 22). Indeed, Bibby argues that real religious growth is more likely to occur in mainline churches where there are small, but significant, indications of growth (Bibby 2002, 227: 248).



Similarly, in a major micro study of church life in Derbyshire between 1772 and 1832, based on reports of parish visits by the local Anglican Bishop, Michael Austin (1968) found that conventional wisdom about high rates of church attendance in a pre-industrial society were inaccurate. Instead there were high levels of non-attendance and considerable sympathy for, and involvement with, sectarian groups. These groups were the Baptists and Methodists that at the time were regarded as socially dangerous pseudo-religious movements and attacked in ways reminiscent of attacks on today’s “cults.”

Therefore, we must conclude that we really do not know whether new religions are growing in modern society or whether they have always existed although their existence was infrequently recorded. With this in mind we now turn to definitions of cult, sect and new religion.

Defining our terms

Before going on it is important to define some terms. For example “what is a cult?” The word “cult” has a long history of different meanings. During the nineteenth century various theologians used cult to describe ritual practices associated with religious centres (Harrison 1977, 46 : 66; Bright 1962 : 92). A similar use of cult is to be found in the work of some New Testament scholars who locate the origins of Christianity in a prophetic rebellion against the deadening rituals associated with the Temple cult located in Jerusalem. Once again cult is used to identify liturgical performances and religious rituals. It should be noted that this is also the way the word cult is used by the phenomenologist and historian of religion Joachim Wach in his Sociology of Religion (1944). Academic discussions about the classification of various forms of religious organization are strongly influenced by the work of Max Weber and his friend and colleague Ernst Troeltsch. Their aim was to distinguish between different categories of organization and they did so by the method of ideal types. An ideal type is an approximation that Weber and Troeltsch believed expressed the essence of an organization in its pure form (Burger 1976, 115 : 140). Weber and Troeltsch use “church” to refer to any religious organization that is universal in its scope and inclusive in membership. Its social bond is one of continuity with, not opposition to society.



That is, a church is a religious body that counts as its members, or potential members, anyone living within a certain geographic area. This definition uses the indiscriminate baptism of infants, or some similar rite, which secures membership as one basis for identifying a religious group as a Church. Churches in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Roman Catholicism, and older, often called “mainstream” forms of Protestantism, including almost all Lutheran and German Landeskirchen, and many Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches have little difficulty in being recognized as Churches. On the other hand almost all evangelical groups that preach conversion, be they Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Pentecostal or independent charismatic churches fall outside this definition. This is because, according to Weber and Troeltsch they display, or once displayed, sectarian characteristics. Initially, at least, they put a wedge between themselves and the larger society or church.

Weber and Troeltsch characterized sects by the exclusive nature of their social bonds. That is, not everyone can become a member of a sect. Some form of conversion experience is needed to secure belonging. According to them this insistence on conversion creates a tension with the surrounding society because some people are excluded from certain of the sect’s activities. In the words of British sociologist, Bryan Wilson, “sects are movements of religious protest” (Wilson 1970 : 2). They enhance bonding with one set of people, but separate themselves from another. According to Weberian thought it should be noted that any evangelical Christian group is by definition a sect. Thus the Baptists and early Methodists in England are a classic examples of a sectarian movements. Other groups defined as sects in the past include the Puritans, German Pietists, and the Plymouth Brethren.

Because it is clear that in terms of the Weber-Troeltsch typology some religious groups have characteristics of both church and sect, H. Richard Niebuhr, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Troeltsch, began using the term “denomination”. Denomination is a term derived from the Latin word meaning “to name”. Niebuhr uses it to distinguish religious organizations that are not Churches, in the Weber and Troeltsch sense. Denominations are organizations which do not encompasses everyone in a given geographical area. Instead, they base their bonding on a common affirmations of tradition, regular



attendance, and financial support of their community. Yet, they are not sects because they lack exclusivistic tendencies and do not demand a profession of faith or acceptance of particular teachings before granting membership (Niebuhr 1957). Here the social bond is more a matter of a preferred religious style.

Many denominations, however, began as new religious movements displaying sect like qualities that ameliorated over time. Therefore, some writers describe a denomination as “a sect on the way to becoming a church.” For example, Methodism emerged in the eighteenth century through the work John and Charles Wesley. It grew to be a major Christian revitalization movement that made a significant impact on the nineteenth century missionary movement and Christian enterprise throughout the world. It did this by emphasizing that true Christians must be “born again.” In the twentieth century, however, Methodism has tended to encourage liberal theology and has moved away from its revivalist roots to become a very respectable religious movement where a declaration of conversion is rarely regarded as a prerequisite for church membership.

Weber associated the notion of cult not with bonds based on ritual observance, as did contemporary theologians, but with an anti-rational and mystical form of religion. Here cult practitioners emphasized the direct and primary bond between the person and intercessor as still occurs in the Roman Catholic Church with its cult centred on saints (Weber 1956). His friend Ernst Troeltsch also uses a church-sect typology that is almost identical to that of Weber, although he added a third type that he identified as “Protestant mysticism (Troeltsch 1931, 691 : 808). The English translation of Troeltsch’s work does not use the word cult in relation to this form of religious expression. In the original German it falls under the heading Sekten that can be translated as either sect or cult. Nevertheless, it is fair to argue that in fact Troeltsch’s “mystical” groups conform to the ideal type that Weber recognized as a “cult”.

Building on Troeltsch’s work Leopold von Wiese explicitly developed the notion of cult (Wiese and Becker 1932 : 627). His understanding of cult was taken up by William E. Mann in his pioneering Sect, Cult and Church in Alberta (Mann 1955 : 6). To Mann “sects emphasize recovery of primitive, first-century Christian doctrine”. By contrast,



“cults blend alien religious or psychological notions with Christian doctrine” in order to obtain “a more adequate” or modern faith” (Mann 1955 : 6)

The big problem with these definitions is that they are too closely tied to doctrine and ideas and say little about the social relationships within groups and between groups and the larger society, world, or times. Further they are essentially based on Christian history and society. Since the mid-1960’s, however, many new religions have openly rejected Christianity. Therefore, we need to find a more satisfactory approach to the whole issue.

Contemporary sociologists Stark and Bainbridge criticize the use of Weberian ideal types because they believe the use of such an imprecise tool has misled generations of sociologists by confusing rather than clarifying issues. In their words ideal types “serve as tautological substitutes for real theories” and “often use correlates in their definitions of concepts. But it is attributes, not correlates, that belong in a definition” (Stark and Bainbridge 1985 : 20). As a result they propose replacing the use of ideal types with clear definitions. We agree, but must add that the attributes of conventional and deviant in specific ways imply different forms of social bonding. It is the implied new or different social bonds that tend to upset the public and apostates, just as they initially attracted the latter.

Using the work of sociologist Benton Johnson (1963, 539 : 549) to construct what they argue is a more reliable guide to religious organizations Stark and Bainbridge define church, sect, and cult as follows: “1 - A church is a conventional religious organization. To this we would add that here “conventional” implies that people are not so much bonded to one another as they are to the maintenance of a tradition and its continued place in an established society and the world. “2 - A sect is a deviant religious organization with traditional beliefs and practices.” Here we note that “deviant” implies that people are bonded to one another because of a common emphasis on specific traditions and practices that are different from, but not totally opposed to, those of conventional society and its established religion. “3 - A cult is a deviant religious organization with novel beliefs and practices”. Here “deviant” implies that people bond with one another in support of new ideas and practices that clearly oppose core beliefs and practices of existing mainline



churches and society. By taking social bonds into consideration, we sacrifice somewhat the clarity and precision of Stark and Bainbridge, but we include vital behavioural consequences that arouse such passionate and often negative responses from the public” (Stark and Bainbridge 1987: 124).

According to Stark and Bainbridge a religion must be based on some “supernatural assumptions” to distinguish it from secular thought. In short, religion is seen as “systems of general compensators based on supernatural assumptions” (Stark and Bainbridge 1987 : 39). By compensators they mean whatever people regard as rewards whether or not they are immediately apparent (Stark and Bainbridge 1987: 369). The nature of rewards is in turn closely linked to the nature of social bonds. Thus the mainline church sanctions supernaturally the core rewards of society that come with participation in the secular world as workers, politicians, parents and so on. By contrast, just these kinds of supernaturally sanctioned rewards of secular society are opposed in specific ways and to differing degrees by sects and cults.

It needs to be noted that those groups which Stark and Bainbridge identify as sects and many cults can also be identified as revitalization movements (Stark and Bainbridge 1987 : 188). Revitalization movements attempt to revive existing religious traditions through practical innovations and new expressions of traditional piety. They do not, however, seek to fundamentally change a tradition or incorporate radically new beliefs. Changes in social bonds, although often expressed in terms of strong criticism, are temporary and based upon an appeal to apply existing ethical and religious beliefs in a more consistent manner. They are therefore a way of reinforcing the essential bonds found in a society as expressed through its church. Consequently revitalization movements do not produce new religions rather they reaffirm the value of old traditions and social norms. Despite the wonderfully concise meaning that Stark and Bainbridge assign it, the word cult remains an emotionally loaded term burdened with negative imagery. For this reason many writers have adopted the convention of calling contemporary groups identified as either cults or sects, new religious movements or NRM’s. This terminology is useful when studying new groups because it avoids



negative labeling and allows the observer to recognize that many new religious movements are actually revitalization movements that seek to revive ancient traditions. Therefore, although the form of the movement may appear “new” it is actually the latest manifestation of a much older tradition. As Anthony Wallace has pointed out, we need to study not just how a prophet’s visionary reformulation of reality is communicated and transformed into an organization but also how it is adapted to different individual and societal needs and whether it is able to revitalize or revolutionize existing social bonds and cultural values (Wallace 1956).

New religions on the other hand break with existing traditions and social bonds to create something that did not previously exist in the society where they attempt to take root. Actually there are two quite different types of new religions in Western society. The first are religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam that have developed over the last fifty years as a result of massive immigration of people from traditional Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim societies. The second type of new religions are genuinely new religions that were created as self-consciously new religions by their founders usually since the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Studying the development of both revitalization movements and new religions is a major task that scholars are only now beginning to recognize and research. Although some good studies exist, such as Eileen Barker’s The Making of a Moonie (1984) and B. F. Cambell’s Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement (1980) serious in depth studies of both revitalization movements and new religions in Western societies have yet to be fully developed (cf. Hexham & Poewe 1997). 2. Religion in Western Society For at least a thousand years Western society has been essentially Christian. Today, however, as a result of the process of secularization and what appears to be a serious decline in church attendance many people view Western society as a multicultural society that is taken to mean a multi-religious society. If multiculturalism means a society where various ethnic groups and cultures live together than many Western societies, particularly places like Britain, Canada, France and Germany are indeed multicultural. Whether they are



also multi-religious is a very different question. Clearly in Western Europe large Islamic communities are well developed. But even this fact does not make European societies multi-religious because the percentage of the population who profess to be Muslims remains low. Nevertheless, the growth of European Islam needs to be seen as a long-term trend (Hunter 2002). For example in 1900 there were next to no Muslims in Germany. By 1970, 0.7% of the German population was Muslim this figure rose to 2.4% by 1980 and is around 3% or 4% today (Hunter 2002 : 314). The situation in the United Kingdom is similar. In 1900 there were no Muslims in Britain. By 1970 there were around 635,000 or 1.1% of the population (Hunter 2002 : 699). In France an almost identical picture emerges. In 1900 only 0.1% of the population were Muslim. By 1970 this number had risen to 2.7% and by 1980 it was 3%. Today the number is around 3.5% (Hunter 2002 : 295) (note 4). The growth rate of Islam in North America follows a similar patter. There were approximately 10,000 Muslims in the USA by 1900. The number had risen to one million or 0.5% by 1970 and increased to 1,883,000, 1.8% by the mid-1980’s (Barrett 1982 : 711). Today it stands around 6,000,000 or 2.3% (Newsweek 1998, 3 October).

From these figures, which may vary slightly depending on one’s source (note 5) it is clear that despite a lot of talk about multi-cultural and multi-religious societies most major Western societies are rooted in the Christian tradition that is the religion of choice of the vast majority of members. True more Muslims appear to be practicing believers than Christians. Nevertheless the vast majority of people still identify in some way with the Christian tradition whether or not they go to Church or even believe in God. The religious situation in Canada shows very clearly that Christianity remains the religion of choice for most people in Western society. According to census figures and estimates by various scholars there are between 300,000 and 400,000 Canadian Muslims, Canadian Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs each have around 150,000 members. Therefore the total number of Canadians who identify with a religion other than Christianity is less than one million. Further only 10% of Canadians describe themselves as having “no religion.” When questioned about their religious preferences and possible choice Reginald Bibby argues that “The Religious None category is characterized by a very high level of switching in and switching out.



This category is more like a hotel than a home for many people” (Bibby 2002 : 41). Further he notes that while the category “No Religon” has grown dramatically since 1971 it was not an option before 1971. Therefore, the exact significance is highly questionable because we lack historical statistics. Equally important is the fact that this category consists largely of younger people who tend to become more religious as they marry and grow older (Bibby 2002, 63 : 65).

It remains a fact that only 5% of Canadians identify themselves with a religion other than Christianity and this is surprisingly not very different from the 3% who did so in 1871 (Bibby 2002 : 22) (note 6). Reflecting on the surprisingly small growth of non-Christian religions over the last century Bibby argues that members of minority faiths are the most vulnerable to “conversion” (Bibby 2002 : 43). The one exception to this trend appears to be Islam where apostasy, i.e. defection to another religion, is punishable by death under Islamic law. Whether or not this acts as a deterrent to would be converts to other religions in Canada is debatable, but the European evidence suggests that it does and that while former Muslims may become practical agnostics they are unlikely to switch religions (note 7). There is however, one sense in which all Western societies appear to have become multi-religious over the last fifty years. This is in the diversity that is now apparent within the Christian tradition. Prior to World War II most people in Western society lived in denominationally homogeneous societies. For example Prussians lived in Protestant Prussia, Bavarians lived in Catholic Bavaria, and Canadians were almost divided between predominantly English speaking Protestants and French speaking Roman Catholics while most Americans were English speaking Protestants.

Today everything has changed. Prussia no longer exists. German Protestants live in Bavaria and Catholicism has gained ground in Northern Germany, Canadians are now almost equally divided between Protestants and Roman Catholics and America has a large Spanish speaking Roman Catholic minority. Further churches that barely existed in Western Europe or North America like the various branches of Eastern Orthodoxy have taken root and are growing at a steady rate. The growth of an increasingly diverse Christianity is actually more significant than the growth of new religions in Western



society. For example although it is never talked about there are now at least 500,000 Christians belonging to various Eastern rites in Canada.

From these figures we conclude that Western societies are multi-cultural but not really multi-religious. Christianity remains the dominant religion in all Western societies with the implication that most people share a common tradition however differently it may be expressed. With the exception of Islam, which is a new religion in the sense of being new to Western society, truly new religions as opposed to revitalization movements within the Christian tradition attract very few people in Western society. Nevertheless, we will now attempt to understand how people are drawn into truly new religions. In doing so we will limit our observations to new religions that are cult movements living in high tension with the host society and not revitalization movements. 3. The importance of experience A growing body of literature shows that the popular conception that people join new religions because they are “brainwashed” is wrong. By “brainwashing” we mean claims by apostates about sleep deprivation and other techniques that allow new religions to coerce people into membership against their will. Numerous scientific objections exist to show that the brainwashing understood in terms of an inexplicable decision to join a new religious movement is wrong. The brainwashing thesis actually fails to explain the full range of conversion experiences and discourages research into the real reasons why people are attracted to new religions (Hexham and Poewe 1997 11: 12, Levine 1989). Contradicting claims about brainwashing, sociologists have demonstrated people join new religions, or cults, along friendship networks because the group concerned meets a perceived need in their life and allows them to create new social bonds (Stark and Bainbridge1985 , 309 : 324).

Although sociological theories are very helpful in identifying the process involved in recruitment to cults, sects and new religions they fail to answer the question why people are attracted to such movements in the first place. In the case of new converts to new



religions the common denominator in numerous conversion narratives appears to be the ability of members of religious movements to interpret and explain otherwise confusing psychological experiences that for want of a better term may be described as “primal experiences”. By primal experiences we mean profound and unexpected vivid encounters that are considered to be other than “normal.” Such experiences take many forms. Above all, they not only shock those who experience them but also bring about a change in their attitude toward the material world. Primal experiences involve such things as dreams, visions, voices, spiritual healings, a sense of presence, notions of destiny, sightings of ghosts, inexplicable spiritual phenomena, and other “occult” events. When someone has such an experience they are faced with several choices. They can interpret them as meaningless psychological events and either dismiss them or go to see a psychiatrist, or they can attempt to find an explanation for them among those who had similar experiences and who found a religious framework that explained them (Wiebe 1997).

When people seek a deeper meaning for their primal experiences they inevitably turn to established churches, revitalization movements, or new religions. If they turn to established churches they often become members of revitalization movements like Charismatic Christianity but otherwise remain bonded within conventional society. Should they fail to find people with whom they can bond in terms of shared experiences within established churches they then turn to revitalization movements and new religions until they find a group with which they bond (Richardson 1977).

Research by David Hay and associates shows that primal experiences are remarkably common. Hay became interested in the phenomenon when some postgraduate students at the University of Nottingham, England, responding to a survey on their religious beliefs admitted that they had had primal experiences that profoundly affected their outlook (Hay 1975). The majority of these students said that they had no adequate explanation for their experience and would welcome one. Following his initial work with students, Hay and Ann Morisy arranged a statistically valid national survey of the British population. In this more qualified survey they found that 36.4 percent



of those included in the random sample reported having had strong primal experiences. Significantly, 45 percent of those who had had these experiences claimed to have had no previous contact with churches or organized religions (Hay and Morisy 1978, 1/7, 255 : 265).

In a similar national survey in the United States of America 30 percent of those surveyed responded positively to questions about primal experiences. A much higher figure was obtained by Robert Wuthnow in a survey of the San Francisco Bay area population where the positive response rate went up to 50 percent (Wuthnow 1978: 100; cf. also 64 : 65). In Canada, Reginald Bibby found that 60 percent of Canadians reported positively when asked about primal experiences. This evidence suggests, Bibby observed, a “pool of religiosity” that is largely untapped by established religions (Bibby 1985, 1987, 233 : 271; 2002, 237: 241; Hardy 1979).

From these studies we conclude that many, if not all, human beings at one point or another in their lives experience a deep need for personal explanations of the meaning of life that go beyond those provided by contemporary secular society. Therefore, the quest for spiritual values and moral norms is an unending one (Stark 1996, 428 : 432). This quest for an explanation reaches a crisis point after some vivid experience, which we label a “primal experience” that shatters the basic assumptions of materialism. At this point the individual is vulnerable to explanations offered by both traditional and new religious groups to explain both the catalytic experience itself and the meaning of life in general. They are also predisposed to form new social bonds on the basis of shared beliefs about the meaning and significance of such experiences.

4. Myth and Society

To appreciate how myths interpret primal experiences and create social bonds it is important that we reflect on the function of myth in society. In common speech, to call a story “a myth” is to say that it is untrue. This understanding of the meaning of myth dates back to the Greek philosophers of the third century B.C. and was popularized by Enlightenment thinkers in the late eighteenth century. Consequently many people in our culture find it difficult to think of myths as



anything other than fairy tales. This dismissal clouds their awareness of the way in which myths color their thoughts and actions. To understand the function of myths in the lives of individuals and in society as a whole we must suspend our skepticism about the truth value of myths and seek to understand their social function. Myths are stories that serve specific social functions. They enable members of different societies and subgroups within societies to understand themselves and their world. As anthropologist John Middleton puts it, “a myth is a statement about society and man’s place in it and in the surrounding universe… Myths and cosmological notions are concerned with the relationship of people with other people, with nature and with the supernatural” (Middleton, 1967 : x). Thus myths are stories that reinforce a sense of belonging and an awareness of common bonds within society. What makes a story a myth is not its content, as the rationalists thought, but the use to which the story is put. The success of the myth depends upon the belief of people in the truth of the story and the relevance of the way it interprets their social reality. Questions of historic, philosophic, or any other verifiable truths are unimportant in the creation of mythologies. What matters is the power of myths to inspire belief and to enable believers to make sense of their experiences within a believing community. Once accepted, a myth can be used to ennoble the past, explain the present, and hold out hope for the future. It gives individual and social life meaning and direction. This ability to guide action distinguishes myths from legends, folk tales, and other stories. In short, myths have the power to change lives and shape societies. Therefore, we define myths as “stories with culturally formative power that help create strong social bonds”.

From the time of St. Augustine in the fifth century to the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, biblical stories provided the framework of European mythology. Other myths found in different parts of Europe were Christianized and incorporated into this framework. Stories such as that of Beowulf, Icelandic and Germanic sagas were reinterpreted and given Christian meanings. The legend of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail is a striking example (note 8).



Since the end of the eighteenth century the importance of biblical stories as the central mythology of Western society has declined. Owing to the skepticism of the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century freethinking, Westerners no longer look to Christianity for the basic imaginative and mythological framework by which they understand their place in the world in an unquestioned manner. Rather while Christianity forms the backdrop for their thinking they are open to new and different ideas.

When primal experiences first occur they are profoundly moving events that have the potential to shatter preconceived views about the nature of life. Therefore, unless they are simply dismissed they require a religious interpretation. In the Catholic world of medieval Europe people who encountered the primal were led to see visions of saints and the Virgin Mary. Medieval Hindus saw the gods Krishna and Rama, Buddhists met Bodhisattvas, and Muslims shared visions of paradise. In modern industrial society however things are different. Even though most people share a Christian background many people are sufficiently distanced from the resources of the Christian tradition, or only familiar with liberal forms of Christianity that downplay the experiential. Consequently they encounter primal experiences without a socially sanctioned imaginative framework to give their raw experiences content and meaning. Such people fail to see Christianity as an integrative mythology that can bind their experiences to an interpretive framework. Instead they share a collection of disconnected beliefs and fragments of many myths that lack an integrative framework. In this situation the mythologies of new religious movements, created out of numerous disjointed myths have an intuitive appeal to people who have nothing to compare them with. By weaving these unrelated myths into coherent wholes new religions create a sense of continuity with a tradition even though the tradition may be entirely imaginary. Through the use of traditional myths they are able to give themselves an apparent historical depth that legitimates their claims to be the carriers of a high culture. Further most new religions integrate disparate myths through a bastardized version of the theory of evolution stripped of all scientific meaning and reduced to a story about human origins and destiny. Thus evolutionary mythology binds together the otherwise disparate and fragmented



myths that people find meaningful into a coherent whole and inspires people to join new religions (Hexham 1994, 303 : 321)

Central to this integrative mythology is the acceptance of a holistic vision of the universe that incorporates an evolutionary perspective that gives it an apparent scientific validity. Behind this vision is usually an assumption that the whole of reality is ultimately one and that our material world is really illusory because true reality only exists on a different nonmaterial plane. This holism is not one that develops social bonds within civil society rather it encourages a rejection of civil society in favour of redemptive communities that abandon this world. Here it is important to note that the holistic version found in the West is more unified and clear-cut in its monism than are the Indian religions that most new religions use as a source for their intellectual legitimation and ritual practices. All those who write about Indian religions maintain that serious meditation requires a guide or guru. Yoga practices produce trances or similar psychological states that can easily harm the uninitiated without the protection of one who is more experienced. Therefore a guru, who is a person that has already been initiated into the spiritual world, is needed to guide the uninitiated (Brent 1973). In Western new religions guru like figures often become the focal point of new redemptive communities created around their person. Thus strong social pressures are brought to bear on individuals who join such groups to accept the totality of the gurus teaching through a surrender of one’s own will to that of the guru. In this way a redemptive community that is quite different from even traditional Western sects is created where, following conversion, the individual is encouraged to surrender to the will of the guru. This self-surrender and the associated social pressures that maintain group cohesion is often described as brainwashing. 5. Conclusions New religious movements are not a major threat to Western society. Most are revitalization movements within the Christian tradition. Those that are genuinely new religions fall into one of two categories:



First there are historic religious traditions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism that have taken root in the West over the last 50 years and which are essentially immigrant religions. Evidence suggests that while some Westerners may convert to these religions, Buddhist and Hindu, perhaps even Sikh, communities are highly vulnerable to the influence of the surrounding Western society that is at its core Christian. Therefore they experience steady attrition with the result that over two or three generations most are likely to be indistinguishable from nominal Christians. Thus the social bonds between members of these communities and the host society are likely to flourish while the religions themselves do not challenge existing social bonds. On the other hand Islam presents a very different picture with the emergence of a genuine counter culture that creates its own strong social bonds that are at odds with those of the host society. By virtue of their faith and the importance of the Sharia, or Islamic Law, Muslims cannot accept the status quo of their host societies. Therefore of necessity they must establish their own institutions like the Muslim Parliament of Britain and continually seek to incorporate members of the host society into what they believe will eventually grow into the dominant culture. Second, there are genuinely new religions movements that are technically cult movements at high tension with the host society. Like Islam they seek to revolutionize society by converting its members to their belief system. Unlike Islam they lack the strong social bonds and genuine historic tradition that binds Muslims together. From interviews with ex-members of various new religions it is clear that despite strong social pressures, an ideological commitment to obedience, and the acceptance of the leader’s will or teachings the individual nevertheless continually chooses to remain in the group and submit her or himself to its rules. Consequently once an individual joins the movement the internal social pressure becomes so strong that it is virtually impossible for them to leave without a major social or psychological crisis. Such new religions clearly undermine existing social bonds while creating new bonds within their community.

With both types of new religion we are confronted with a situation that mirrors Kant’s call for responsible choice in his essay What is Enlightenment? (Kant 1990). Modern Western society nurtures free



choice and decisions based on rational arguments. Most new religions call upon individuals to accept the authority of a book, teacher, or community without question. Thus new religions almost by definition weaken both existing social bonds and critical thinking. Despite all the talk of post-modernism, most of us remain modern people who value the free choice, rational judgements, and democracy. Unfortunately, many new religions call into question these core social values in the name of faith. Therefore, while new religions must be tolerated in any democratic society their leaders ought to realise that they are actually on probation until it is clear that while they while may not contribute to the well being of all members of society they do not present a threat to society as a whole by undermining these core values. 6. Notes

1 Cf. Newsweek, 4 December 1978; Rose, S. (1979), Jesus and Jim Jones, New York, The Pilgrim Press; Hall, J.R. (1989), From the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History, New Brunswick, U.S.A, Transaction Publishers; Richardson, J. T. (1980), “People's Temple and Jonestown”, in: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 19, No. 3, 239 : 255. 2 Leppard, D. (1993), Fire and Blood: The True Story of David Koresh,and the Waco Siege, London, Fourth Estate; Reavis, D. J. (1995), The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation, New York, Simon & Schuster; Alberta Report, 24 October 1994; Stern, 13 October 1994; Time, 3 April 1995. 3 Similar figures are available for Canada, England and Germany: cf. Bibby, R. W. (1993), Unknown Gods: the Ongoing Story of Religion in Canada, Toronto, Stoddart, 45 : 57; Barker, E. (1989), New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, London, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 145 : 155; Daiber, K. F. (1995), Religion unter den Bedingungen der Moderne: Die Situation in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Marburg, Diagonal Verlag, 136 :138, : 148, : 151. 4 For all of these statistics compare the figures given in the Internet version of the CIA World Fact Book found at <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook> 5 A variety of sources for the membership of different religious communities can be found at: <http://www.adherents.com>; we also consulted Barrett’s Encyclopedia and the Internet version of the CIA World Fact Book. 6 cf. <http://www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus/bibby.html> 7 Personal conversations with Professor Jan Knappert, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, 30 May 1998 in Berlin, Germany.



8 Treharne (1971) shows how this body of pre-Christian stories was successfully incorporated into a Christian framework to produce a powerful medieval mythology.

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