ORGANISATIONS, MOVEMENTS AND MEMBERS

TYPES OF RELIGIOUS ORGANISATION

CHURCH AND SECT

• Large organisation
• Large number of members
• Run by a bureaucratic hierarchy
• Claim monopoly of the truth

SECT

• Small exclusive group
• Hostile to wider society
• Expect high commitment
• Members are poor/oppressed

DENOMINATION

• Between church and sect
• Accept societal values
• Not much commitment

CULT

• Not organised
• Small group
• Shared themes and interests
• Tolerant of other organisations
• Not strong commitment

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

• ROY WALLIS (1984) highlights two characteristics:
• How they see themselves : churches and sects claim their interpretation of faith is the only legitimate/correct one. Denominations and cults accept that there can be many different interpretations
• How they are seen by wider society : churches and denominations are seen as respectable and lehitmate, whereas sects and cults are seen as deviant.

NRMs

WORLD REJECTING NRMs

• Big size - religious organisation with clear notion of God. 
• Expect radical change
• Want to acieve salvation
• Live communal moral lives
• Restricted contact with outside world, sex is forbidden
• All reject societies norms and values for a religious alternative
• EG - Jim Jones, Children of God and Moonies

WORLD ACCOMODATING NRMs

• Breakaway from church EG neo-pentecostalists
• Lead conventional lives
• Restore the spiritual purity of religion
• Neither reject or accept societies valyes but prefer to focus on religious matters

WORLD AFFIRMING NRMs

• Differ from all other religious groups
• May lack some of the conventional features of religion EG collective worship
• Offer followers access to spiritual/supernatural powers
• Examples include scientology, TM and human potential
• Accept the world as it is
• Are optimistic and promise followers success in terms of goals and values like careers and relationships
• Non-exclusive and tolerant of other religions, claim to offer additional special knowledge or techniques that enable followers to unlock own spiritual powers and achieve success, overcome problems such as unhappiness/illness
• Described as psychologising religions offering worldly gratification
• Most are cults whose followers are customers rather than members, entry is through training 
• These have been the most successful of the movements studied by Wallis EG Scientology had around 165,000 members in…