Joanne over at Clueless wrote a post about NRMs (New Religious Movements). I posted a couple of comments, which I'm also adding here:
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I read your other post on NRMs first and got kinda mad. Now I'm reading this one, and it occurred to me I could share my views, maybe provide some insight.
I know many people in traditional religions. Most of them are there out of inertia, because that's what their parents taught them, because they don't want to rock the boat.
Sometimes, people want more than that out of religion. Sometimes people want the orginal purpose, the original promise: spiritual fulfillment, salvation, a pathway to Heaven, or however you might define it.
In this case, some people choose to search for this in their traditional religion, but devote themselves deeper to it. (My sister just reunited with a childhood friend and found, to her surprise, that her friend is now a Nun.) This tends to throw off parents and friends.
Some others choose to seek for this higher purpose, this higher promise outside of the religion of their parents. They seek their own answers. Which is why you occasionally find Jews converting to Christianity or Christians adopting Judaism, or a non-believer becoming a Mormon or a Muslim.
NRMs have always been around. Christianity was an NRM in Roman times. (Roman parents would worry themselves sick if their patrician son became a Christian!) Islam was an NRM 15 centuries back. More recently, the Protestant Church was a big deal, and the Anglican. The Baha'i movement ruffled feathers a hundred or so years ago, and so did Mary Baker Eddy and Joseph Smith. In fact, the whole idea of NRMs is a bit strange, since new ideas and philosophies, new leaders and new prophets are showing up all the time. We're a culture in motion.
People who take their religion seriously devote a higher level of commitment to it than people who just cruise. Regardless of whether they express their passion within a traditional faith or a new religion. People who are not into that experience find these other people odd. Kierkegaard described this by expressing people's existence as nihilistic, or rationalistic, vs. those who choose to take a leap of faith in search of a deeper truth. A person living a life driven by morgage payments lives a different experience than a person who is driven by search for Truth.
Some people think they're just material beings. Others think they're material beings who experience spiritual moments. Some others still, believe that we're spiritual beings experiencing a material experience. These are three completely different views, and they define one's priorities and the way one deals with life.
Sociologists D. Bromley and A. Shupe once described the Tnevnoc Cult which recruited young women, required them to shave their heads, wear special uniforms, gave them new names in a foreign language, required them to give up their personal possessions and sleep on hard pallets. During their initial membership in the cult, they were isolated from family contacts. They were later required to ritually marry the dead founder of the cult.
Bromely and Shupe received many inquiries about this abusive cult from sociologists and others concerned about psychological manipulation within cults. The latter did not realize that "Tnevnoc" spelled backwards is "Convent".
Some good sites for your research could be: http://www.religioustolerance.org
http://www.cultawarenessnetwork.org
http://www.cesnur.org/
best,
Greg
Scientologist and proud of it
http://www.liveandgrow.org