RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

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RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

• Introduction to the course

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Peoples Temple (Jonestown) I

• November 18, 1978
• mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana
• Members of Peoples Temple Christian Church
• 914 people dead, 276 of them children
• Including James (Jim) Warren Jones
• following a killing of Congressman Leo Ryan

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Peoples Temple (Jonestown) II

• founded by James (Jim) Warren Jones in 1955.
• Pentecostal leaning
• campaign for racial integration as its primary
  cause
• 20 African American
• 1977
• under scrutiny for illegal practices and tax
  evasion
• relocation to Jonestown, Guyana
• conditions not as expected 
• supreme authority of James Jones
• Concerned Relatives
• 1978
• Leo Ryan sent to investigate

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Other mass suicides

• The Movement for the Restoration of Ten
  Commandments of God
• 2000 Uganda (300 - ? dead)
• Heaven's Gate
• 1997 - San Diego, CA (39 dead)
• Order of the Solar Temple
• 1997 - Canada (5 dead)
• 1995 France (16 dead)
• 1994 - Switzerland (48 dead)
• 1994 Canada (5 dead)
• Other
• Vietnam
• 1993 52 dead
• Mexico
• 1990 12 dead
• 1991 29 dead
• South Korea
• 1987 - 32 dead

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Branch Davidians I

• February 28, 1993
• BD compound at Mount Carmel in Waco led by David
  Koresh
• raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
  Firearms (BATF)
• suspected of firearms violations
• six Davidians and four BATF agents die
• FBI takes over and starts a siege lasting for 51
  days
• abuse of children?
• April 19, 1993
• compound attacked with tanks
• Koresh and 75 of his followers die (including 21
  children)
• Suicide, gassing, fire?

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Branch Davidians II

• Founded in 1929
• By Bulgarian Victor Houteff (divine messenger of
  God)
• Similar to Seventh Day Adventists
• Houteff dies in 1955
• A sequence of internal fights and divisions
• Early 1990s
• Vernon Howell
• assumes leadership
• gt David Koresh (a form of Cyrus/ Christ in
  Greek)
• apocalypse would occur in America
• survivalist tactics
• stockpiling food and weapons
• 1992 - Mount Carmel community "Ranch
  Apocalypse"

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Aum Shinrikyo

• June 27, 1994 sarin attack in Matsumoto
• 7 die and hundreds injured
• March 20, 1995 sarin attack Tokyo in subway
• 12 die and thousands injured
• Aum Shinrikyo
• Founded by Asahara Shoko (born Chizuo Matsumoto)
  in 1986.
• Aum "powers of destruction and creation in the
  universe" (Sanskrit)
• Shinrikyo "teaching of the supreme truth"
• Armageddon inevitable
• political action needed to save the world (see
  Beliefs)
• Shinrito ("Supreme Truth party") political party
  in 1989
• unsuccessful
• Early 1990s - shift in ideology
• the world cannot be saved
• new goals
• limit the number of deaths due to apocalypse
• protect themselves
• gt construction of nuclear shelters and communes
• gt production of sarin

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The Family

• Also known as The Children of God (COG)
• Founded
• in 1968 Huntington Beach, California
• David Brandt Berg
• "Moses David," "Mo," "Father David," and "Dad"
• Particularities
• incorporated the hippie lifestyle and
  anti-establishment ideology
• Community lifestyle (colonies, tribes etc)
• Mo Letters
• after Berg relocated to London
• The Laws of Moses / "Voice of God Himself"
• Openly aggressive proselytizing activities
• Musical groups
• Litnessing
• distribution of literature, specifically the Mo
  Letters.
• Flirty Fishing by women
• 1976-1987
• 1 million new recruits
• Anti-COG movement (1971)

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The Church of Scientology I

• Founded by Lafayette Ronald (L. Ron) Hubbard in
  1954
• Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health
  (1950)
• doctrinal/sacred book
• influence of psychoanalysis
• two components of the human mind
• Analytical
• similar to the concept of ego (Freud)
• knowingly utilized
• consciously awareness of this part of the mind
• Reactive
• beneath the analytical
• during moments of troubling emotional and
  physical pain
• controls the functions of the analytical
• takes note of all the details happening
• "recordings" "engrams"
• remain firmly placed in the mind

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The Church of Scientology II

• Auditing
• a deletion of engrams
• "preclear" gt clear
• restoration of full potential of the analytical
  mind
• use of E-meter (electropsychometer)
• measures the energy of the mind
• Scientology
• extends Dianetics into the realm of religious
  movements
• essence of being human
• soul thetan (Greek letter meaning "thought")
• humans thetans
• levels beyond being"clear"
• a "bridge of total freedom"
• OT (Operating Thetan) Bridge
• freedom from MEST (Matter, Energy, Space, and
  Time)
• Controversial practices, dependency creation,
  brainwashing

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Jon Frum movement

• New Hebrides (Vanuatu, Tanna)
• Jon/John Frum
• a mythic messianic figure
• arrives with airplane on February, 15, bringing
  "cargo"
• drives all other white people from the island
• an army in waiting in a volcano to help him
• 1940s
• 300,000 American troops in the New Hebrides
• egalitarianism of the Americans
• wealth and power
• gtconflation of Uncle Sam, Santa Claus and John
  the Baptist
• the quest for independence in 1980

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NRMs as a topic

• Anthropology?
• Sociology?
• Psychology?
• Theology?
• Legal studies?

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General information

• Times Thu 12-14
• Location Unioninkatu 38, D 113
• Instructor Toomas Gross
• Email toomas.gross_at_helsinki.fi
• Phone [phone]
• Office Hours Thurs 11-12, U38 E 309
• www http//www.helsinki.fi/antropologia/opetuso
  hjelma_kevatlukukausi_2004.htm

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Course requirements

• Essay
• on broader theoretical issues discussed in the
  lectures
• 5-6 pages
• three different secondary sources
• make your own argument
• due on 29 April
• Project work report
• 8-10 pages in length
• Case study of a particular religious movement
• first-hand collection of data encouraged
• focus on a particular issue or a problem
• research question, methodology, ethnographic
  setting, analysis
• due on 6 May

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Evaluation

• Essay 40
• Project work report 60

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Texts and reading materials

• Required readings
• Additional readings
• Readers and general background literature
• Various websites

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2. Lecture (29.1)New religious movements
terminology, typology, and characteristics

• Readings
• Richardson Definitions of Cult From
  Sociological-Techincal to Popular-Negative. (in
  Dawson 1998)
• Wilson The Problem of Definition. (in Wilson
  1970)

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3. Lecture (5.2)New religious movements and
social change

• Readings
• Hunter The New Religions Demodernization and
  The Protest Against Modernity (in Wilson 1981)
• Wallace Revitalization Movements. (in Lessa and
  Vogt 1979)

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12.2 no lecture
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4. Lecture (19.2)Prophets, gurus, and charisma

• Readings
• Bromley and Shupe The Leaders Gurus and
  Prophets, or Madmen and Charlatans? (in Bromley
  and Shupe 1981)
• Weber Charismatic Authority / Routinization of
  Charisma (in Economy and Society)

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5. Lecture (26.2)Ordinary members conversion
and apostasy

• Readings
• Bromley and Shupe Joining the New Religions
  Brainwashing or Conversion? (in Bromley and Shupe
  1981)
• Wright Leaving New Religious Movements Issues,
  Theory, and Research (in Bromley 1988)

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6. Lecture (4.3)NRMs in non-Western societies I
nativistic/revitalization movements

• Readings
• Kehoe The Ghost Dance Religion (in Lehmann and
  Myers 2001)
• Linton Nativistic Movements (in Lessa and Vogt
  1979)

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7. Lecture (11.3)NRMs in non-Western societies
II cargo cults

• Readings
• Lindstrom The Birth of Cargo Cult. (in Lindstrom
  1992)
• Worsley Cargo Cults (in Lehmann and Myers 2001)

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8. Lecture (18.3)NRMs in Western societies I
Movements of Christian origin

• Readings
• Bergman The Adventist and Jehovah's Witness
  Branch of Protestantism. (in Miller 1995)
• Introvigne Latter Day Revisited Contemporary
  Mormon Millenarianism (in Robbins and Palmer
  1997)

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9. Lecture (25.3)NRMs in Western societies II
Movements of non-Christian origin

• Readings
• Bednarowski The Church of Scientology Lightning
  Rod for Cultural Boundary Conflicts (in Miller
  1995)
• Puttick, E. New religions and Counter-culture.
  (in Lehmann Myers 2001)

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1.4 - Consultations
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10. Lecture (8.4)New religious movements and
violence

• Readings
• Melton, Bromley Challenging Misconceptions abou
  the New Religions Violence Connection (in
  Bromley and Melton 2002)
• Robbins Source of Volatility in Religious
  Movements. (in Bromley and Melton 2002)

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11. Lecture (15.4)Secularization The end of
religion?

• Readings
• Stark and Bainbridge Secularization, Revival,
  and Cult Formation (in Dawson 1998)
• Wilson Secularization The Inherited Model (in
  Hammond 1985)

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Deadlines

• 29.4 - Essay deadline
• 6.5 - Project work report deadline
• Grades posted in the department and feedback
  (20.5)

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Additional readings by topics

• Terminology Sect, cult, church
• Religious and social change
• Millenarianism / Apocalypticism
• Charisma, leadership, gurus, prophets etc
• Conversion
• Brainwashing
• Apostasy
• Revitalization and nativistic movements
• Cargo cults
• Other religious movements in non-Western
  societies
• Religious movements in Western societies
  (non-Christian)
• Religious movements in Western societies
  (Christian)
• Religion and violence
• Secularization