Chapter 4: Who Joins NRMs and Why? RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements

Slide 2. Joining NRMs: Who and Why? Stark & Bainbridge say not: Gullible Losers Everyone Not the dregs; more like the best & brightest.

Slide 3. One early theory 1.What were people lacking? 2.What does the movement offer? 3.Where do they overlap? That is where the ‘reason’ is to be found. Derived from deprived classes converting to Christian sects.

Slide 4. Then: the 60’s NRMs The converts in the 1960’s were privileged. So the theory was modified by Glock: Relative deprivation: Economic (poor) Social (power, prestige) Organismic (health, physical, & mental) Psychic (love & affection) Ethical (dissatisfaction with dominant values)

Slide Lofland & Stark John Lofland & grad student Rodney Stark (Stark published a recent book: Rise of Christianity) Best early work on conversion. Studied a group called “Divine Precepts” (Unification Church) The very first cell of “Moonies” of them. Proposed two kinds of conditions necessary for conversion to a NRM

Slide Lofland & Stark Predisposing conditions: 1.Experiencing Tensions 2.Religious orientation (predisposed) 3.Seeker (already reading, investigating)

Slide Lofland & Stark Situational Contingencies: 4.Encounter 5.Bonds-making 6.Bond-breaking 7.Interacting

Slide 8. Who in fact joins? 1.Join through social networks. 2.Affective ties They liked the people. 3.Intensive interaction Left when people disappointed them. 4.No other commitments (family, mortgage) 5.No ideological alignment 6.With history of seekership 7.People looking for rewards & compensations: Needs (Affirmation, belonging, empowerment) Meaning Status (job opportunities; opportinity for advancement; leadership roles) Other: hostile environment (Christianity?) Competition

Slide 9. Joiners are not: Brainwashed making us all equally as susceptible loners, social outcasts, or religious radicals.

Slide 10. CharacteristicsCharacteristics 1.Young Even younger in the 1970’s 2.Higher educated 3.Middle-upper middle class No appeal to working class 4.Balanced male-female Although varies by NRM: Moonies started male 5.More secular religious backgrounds But large Jewish representation, especially in Zen.

Slide : Two Resources Radical Departures, by Saul Levine. North American psychiatrist Good for parents of cult members. 800 interviews The Making of a Moonie by Eileen Barker British sociologist Interviewed/surveyed all Moonie attendees for 10 years. Compared with a control group.

Slide 12. Barker’s findings: Respectable families Overachievers Disrupted at university (disappointed with larger world)

Slide 13. Levine’s findings: No more psychopathology than normal Overacheivers Quietly suffering in frustration for years Identify too strongly with parents They like their parents. Try to please them No strong romantic relationship in adolescence No all-nighters stoned, pondering metaphysics. 90% of joiners left voluntarily in less than 2 years.

Slide 14. Further Factors 2. rationality of conversions Same as other large decisions e.g., what college to attend determine benefits outweigh perceived costs. 3. religious experience Or perhaps people join because they have indeed experienced some sort of enlightenment