Cult controversies: societal response to new religious movements

The controversies surrounding new religious movements or
'cults have become more heated and complex in many
countries since the 1960s. Violence against cult members has
increased; campaigns to monitor and control movements have
grown in strength; the volume of cult-related litigation has
expanded; and the mass media have sensationalized the plight
of ex-cultists. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive
interpretation of these controversies in terms of a sociological
theory about the location of various types of new religious
movements in supposedly secular societies. Societal responses
are shown to be conditioned by the movements' strategies for
retaining their members and influencing their host societies.
The book draws on the author's interviews with ex-members
and their relatives in order to explain the controversial aspects
of recruitment to, and defection from, the main types of new
religious movements in Britain, France, the USA, and West
Germany. The implications of cult controversies for public
policy-making are examined, and the changing attitudes of
mainstream religious organizations towards their marginal
competitors are also assessed. Finally, the increasingly intrusive
role of state agencies in regulating religious controversies is
explained in terms of the expansion of the 'therapeutic state'
and the growth of privatization in the sphere of religion.
Cult Controversies will be of interest to sociologists and those in
the related fields of religion, law, and politics.