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

 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 1 st 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: ,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 New Religious Movement?

1. Use sheet ‘Key beliefs’ from class. 2. On VLE open sheet that says ‘Key Beliefs Info’. – CODE: NRM 3. Fill in Engrams, Exteriorization and Bridge. 4. Also watch Panorama video on VLE link week Also respond to that video on the VLE clicking ‘9E Panorama Documentary Feedback’

HW: Research and bring in any information About Scientology.