New Religious Movements: Typical Characteristics of a Cult
New Religious Movements: Typical Characteristics of a Cult

Author(s): Dragoljub B. Đorđević
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: new religious movements; new sects; new cults; North America; typical characteristics
Summary/Abstract: New religious movements – new sects and cults – in comparison with the sects and cults that have been around for several centuries, are considered “new” because they first began to appear in the 1950s, or more significantly at the end of the 1960s, in North America. They act in line with the slogan “Every cult would like to become a sect, and the latter, through denomination, a church” and the practice of “All and everything for the leader, the leader for no one, only for himself”; they possess and require: a charismatic leader, a strict hierarchy of relations, complete separation from the society, complete separation from the family, a small number of members, usually young believers, property and work for the leader, manipulative means and techniques of programming, economic, psychological (and sexual) abuse, and the existence bordering on legality (on the edge of crime).

• Details
• Contents