Sociological Imagination: How to Gain Wisdom about the Society in which We All Participate and for Whose Future We Are All Responsible (part 39)

Although, from the point of view of sociology, the overt ambition of 'American Pastoral' - to imagine the impact on a good man of America's fall from the family decencies of the '30s and '40s to the self-centred violence of the '60s - outstrips anything Sabbath's Theater attempts, the writing is no less fervid an excurse into the writer's mind.

Howard Jacobson

Religion (Part D): Cults, Sects, and Structural Change in Modern Religion

by

Charles Lamson

Religion today is a highly structured institution, with numerous statuses and roles within a variety of organizations as well as many kinds of smaller, less bureaucratic groups. This was not always so. The religions of tribal peoples were not highly institutionalized; that is, there were no separate organizations like churches or interfaith councils or youth fellowships. It is true that the occupational status of a holy person or a priest might exist.

Thus most Native American peoples had spiritual leaders who specialized in the rituals and symbols through which the members of the tribe could address the great spirit and the sacred spirits of their ancestors. But even in societies that had spiritual leaders or priests, religious practice was intertwined with tribal and family life. There was no concept of the church as a separate institution specializing in religious rituals.

Religion as a fully differentiated institution developed in agrarian societies, and formal religious organizations first appeared in such societies. Agrarian societies produce enough surplus food to support a class of priests and other specialists in religious rituals. In those less complex societies, religion was incorporated into village and family life; it had not yet become differentiated into a recognized, separate institution with its own statuses and roles (Warner, 1998, Work in Progress Toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 98, 1044-1093). Over time, however, the development of religious institutions resulted in a wide variety of organizations devoted to religious practice. Today those organizations include the church, the sect, and the denomination.

Forms of Religious Organization

Churches and Sects A church may be defined as a religious organization that has strong ties to the larger society. Often in its history it has enjoyed the loyalty of most of the society's members; indeed, it may have been linked with the state itself (Weber, (1963/1922), The Sociology of Religion). An example is the Church of England, or Anglican Church.

A sect, by contrast, is an organization that rejects the religious beliefs or practices of the established churches. Whereas the church distributes the benefits of religious participation to anyone who enters the sanctuary and stays to follow the service, the sect limits the benefits of membership (i.e., salvation, fellowship, common prayer) to those who qualify on narrower grounds of membership and belief (McGuire, 1987, Religion; Weber, 1963/1922).

Rasputin went from peasant thief in rural Russia to one of the most influential men in the country. Legend has it, he did it after getting his powers from his connection to the Khlysty sect (Maria Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards, (July 15, 2019),The Religious Sect Rasputin Supposed Got His Powers From. Culturacollectiva.com).

An important difference between churches and sects is that churches draw their adherence from a large social environment (i..e, from a large pool of possible members), whereas the size of the population from which a sect draws its members tends to be small (Iannaccone, Stark, & Finke, 1988, Rationality and the "Religious Mind." Economic Inquiry, 36, 373-390). Also, churches make relatively limited demands on their members, whereas sects make heavy claims on members' time, money, and emotional commitment. As Robert Wuthnow (1988, Sociology of Religion. In N. J. Smelzer, Ed., The Handbook of Sociology) writes: "Church's attempt to regulate or fulfill a few of the activities or needs of large numbers of people; sects attempt to regulate or fulfill many of the activities or needs of small numbers of people (p. 495). 

Denominations A third type of religious organization is the denomination. Unlike a sect, a denomination is on good terms with the religious institution from which it developed, but it must compete with other denominations for members. An example of a denomination is the United Methodist Church, a Protestant denomination that must compete for members with other Protestant denominations such as Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Baptists. Denominations sometimes evolve from sects. This occurs when the sect is successful in recruiting new members and grows in both size and organizational complexity (Wuthnow, 1994, God and Mammon in America).

Before a sanctuary full of parishioners photos, Father Clayton Elder rehearses his Holy Thursday service before going live on YouTube at St. Philip Episcopal Church in Frisco, Thursday, April 9, 2020. So that Elder can feel a connection with his congregation, the community life director printed the photos emailed to her and posted them in the pews. About 250 parishioners tuned into the live broadcast on YouTube.(Fox, T., (April 11, 2020), Dallas Morning News Outtakes: Photographer Tom Fox captures religious leader’s effort to stay connected with congregation. Dallasnews.com).

Cults Still another type of religious body, the cult, differs in significant ways from the organizations just described. Cults are usually an entirely new religion whose members hold beliefs and engage in rituals that differ from those of existing religions. Some cults have developed out of existing religions. This occurred in the case of early Christianity, which began as a cult of Jews who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and who practiced rituals that were often quite different from those of Judaism. Cults may also be developed by people who were not previously involved in a church or sect, such as individuals who become active in pagan cults like those based on ancient forms of witchcraft (Barrett, 1996, Sects, "Cults," and Alternative Religions). Most major religions began as seemingly insignificant cults, but new cults are formed every day throughout the world, and few of them last long enough to become recognized religions (Kornblum, 2003, p. 529).

David Berg (seated) founded the Children of God cult whose members included River and Joaquin Phoenix and Rose McGowan when they were children. (Simon O'Reilly, 12 September, 2018, Brainwashing, child abuse, even bioterrorism: six sex cults that went well beyond ‘love thy neighbour’. South China Morning Post).

In a study of trends in church, sect, and cult membership, sociologists Robert Finke and Rodney Stark find that, contrary to common assumptions, the rate at which cults are formed is no higher today than it was in earlier historical periods. Moreover, compared to some of the earlier cults, contemporary cults often have less success in gaining members:

No cult movement of the sixties or early seventies seems ever to have attracted more than a few thousand American members, and most of even the well-publicized groups counted their true membership in the hundreds, not the thousands. (Finke and Stark, 1992, The Churching of America 1776-1992, p. 241; see also Melton, 1989, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, 3rd ed.)

One reason cults and sects do not always grow in numbers or influence is that established religions often absorb them through the process known as co-optation. This term is not limited to religious institutions; it refers to any process whereby an organization that deals with potentially threatening individuals or groups by incorporating them into its organizational structure (Selznick, 1966, TVA and the Grass Roots). For example, over the centuries the Roman Catholic church has been particularly successful at co-opting regional Catholic sects by including their leaders in the panoply of lesser Saints, thereby allowing people to worship a holy person of their own culture while remaining true to the world Church.

Religious Interaction and Change

Sects and cults are a major source of change in religious organizations. People who are not satisfied with more established churches and denominations, or are otherwise alienated from society, often form or join a cult or sect (Barrett, 1996). One of the most convincing explanations of the emergence of sects was suggested by H. Richard Niebuhr (1929, The Social Sources of Denominationalism), borrowing from Max Weber's (1922, Gesamelte Aufsatze Zur Religionssoziologie) pioneering analysis of churches and sects. According to Weber, churches tend to justify the presence of inequality and stratification because they must appeal to people of all classes. Sects, on the other hand, may be led by charismatic individuals who appeal to people who have felt the sting of inequality. Niebuhr agreed with Weber that class conflict is a primary cause of sect formation. But he observed that as a sect becomes more successful and better organized, it becomes more like a church and begins to justify existing systems of stratification. This creates the conditions in which new sects may emerge.

Another motivation for the formation of sects or cults is dissatisfaction with the interactions that occur in more established organizations. In church rituals, for example, prayer is often led by a priest or other religious professional and is relatively restrained, whereas in sects and cults communication between God and the individual is more direct and typically allows the individual to expressed deep emotions. The different styles of interaction in different types of religious organizations can be illustrated by the contrast between the hierarchy of statuses and roles that characterizes the Catholic church (with its pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, and other well-defined of statuses) and the seemingly greater equality and looser structure of a cult.

People who are attracted to cults are often influenced by a charismatic leader who inspires them to new and very personal achievements, such as ecstatic experiences, a sense of salvation, or a release from physical or psychological a suffering. Some become cult members simply because they are lonely; others are born to cult members and are socialized into the cult.

Some, but by no means all, cults are extremely authoritarian and punitive. Their leaders may demand that members cut themselves off entirely from family and friends and sacrifice everything for the sake of the cult. The leaders may also insist that they themselves are above the moral teachings to which their followers must adhere. Under these conditions of isolation and submission to a dominant authority, cult members may be driven to incredible extremes of behavior---even mass suicide, as occurred in the case of the followers of Heaven's Gate in 1997. However, not all cults are so dangerous or so easily condemned, and there is an ongoing conflict between norms that protect the right of individuals to belong to cults and efforts to protect people from the harm that can occur when cult leaders place themselves above morality and the law. 

Sociological Insights into Waco and Wounded Knee The confrontation that took place in Waco Texas on February 28th, 1993, between the Branch Davidians and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) revealed the need for greater understanding of alternative religious groups (Foster, et al., 1998, Forum: Interpreting Waco. Religion and American Culture, 8, pp. 1-30). Among sociologists who study religion and social change, there is growing consensus that the term cult can be dangerous when it is applied as a pejorative label to all religious groups that are outside the mainstream of religious organizations.

Nancy Ammerman, one of the foremost authorities on Protestant religious groups in the United States, notes that one of the primary interpretive lenses through which the general public views groups such as the Branch Davidians is is the lens supplied by cult awareness groups and exit counselors. Namely most people think members of a group like the Branch Davidians must have been brainwashed into joining (Foster, et al., 1998, p. 27). Analyses of the Waco tragedy now place greater emphasis on the deep misunderstandings that existed between the government agencies, primarily the FBI and the BATF, that laid siege to the Branch Davidian community, and the members of the community---especially its leader, David koresh. These misunderstandings appear to have deep been deepened by hysterical press and television coverage during the episodes of violence and siege (Bates, 1999, The Siege at Waco. Booklist, 1050-1051).

Sociologist Joel Martin observes that the Branch Davidians were not newcomers but an established alternative religious group that had lived in the Waco area since the 1930s. The group did believe in an unconventional variant of Seventh-day Adventist millenarianism and that Armageddon and the end of times were close at hand. They also had some unorthodox and disturbing sexual practices, but these charges, and the charge that they were stockpiling weapons could have been addressed by quietly apprehending the group's leader for questioning rather than engaging in the large-scale operation that resulted in an armed standoff and the eventual death of the entire group in a blaze of fire and bullets.

Many sociologists point to the similarities between the Waco disaster and the tragedy at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890. In both cases, and many others like them, a new religion attracts men and women with visions of a new heaven and earth. As they seek to live in accord with these visions, they withdraw into their own community, altering their behavior in ways that may seem strange and even threatening to others. People outside the community begin to spread rumors about them. Government authorities get nervous and plan to move against the group. Journalists congregate, anticipating a big story. When a confrontation takes place, gunfire erupts and a few of the authorities are killed. In the end, the millenarian community is destroyed. After the tragedy, officials, scholars, historians, and journalists interpret what happened. Many conclude that the community's members had been caught up in a "messiah craze." Thus the dead are blamed for their own deaths.

Such was the case with the Lakota Indian Ghost Dancers who were killed at Wounded Knee in 1890. In the Ghost Dance religion,  some Indians began to believe they might be invulnerable to white attackers. In a sense, they courted death at the hands of white men. Many believed that if the Ghost Dance did not protect them, they would at least achieve speedy transport to a happier existence than the one they led among the conquering white people (Hackett, 1955, Religion and American Culture). The situation of the Branch Davidians killed outside Waco a century later was similar. The issue is not whether either group was right or wrong, but how people in a position to bring understanding to these tragic situations can help prevent similar events from occurring over and over again. 

*MAIN SOURCE: KORNBLUM, W., 2003, SOCIOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD, 6TH ED., PP. 527-531*

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