New Religious Movements

Falun Gong (History)

Falun Dafa (Law Wheel of the Great Law), popularly known as Falun Gong, developed out of a Chinese Buddhist qigong tradition. The term qi (pronounced "chi" and often spelled chi in the older transliteration system) refers to unseen energy flowing through the body, while qigong refers to various techniques of breathing and movement that are said to permit energy to flow properly through the body, promoting healing, health, and long life. Although Western science has been reluctant to incorporate the flow of energy into its worldview, the belief in qi and the various ways to strengthen it have been part of East Asian cultures for centuries. Li Hongzhi, who brought Falun Dafa to prominence in China in 1992, explains it as a system of Buddhist cultivation passed down through the centuries, and considers himself only the most recent in a long line of teachers. The system's Buddhist roots are reflected in its name: the falun or Dharma Wheel is an auspicious symbol in Buddhism. Li's teachings of compassion and self- development are based on Buddhist principles and he uses Buddhist symbols and terms, but Falun Dafa is not officially recognized as a traditional school of Chinese Buddhism. Thus the Chinese government has been able to outlaw Falun Dafa without contravening its policy on the five religions it does recognize. Although Falun Dafa has traditional roots, Li Hongzhi adapted the practice to everyday life. It spread quickly in China and was openly accepted by the government as one of many recognized qigong practices. But Li's refusal to accept governmental control and the organization's rapid growth began to attract attention within the Communist Party, which was particularly concerned by Falun Dafa's popularity among younger party members and their children. When some senior party officials began expressing alarm in early 1999, the leaders of Falun Dafa organized a demonstration in the section of Beijing where the top government officials live and work. Sitting silently in orderly rows, without banners or placards, they intended only to call attention to their right to practice

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) (Practices)

As we saw in Chapter 6, the Bhagavad Gita depicts Krishna telling Arjuna that he, Krishna, is the highest of all gods, and that although the yoga (spiritual practice) of good karma actions and the yoga of spiritual wisdom are both valid paths, the best path is bhakti yoga: loving devotion to Krishna. These ideas, combined with Chaitanya's mystical practice of chanting the praises of Krishna while dancing in ecstasy, are at the heart of the tradition that Prabhupada introduced to the West. Devotional services, pujas, to Krishna are held several times a day. One male or female devotee, acting as the puja leader, stands near the altar and makes offerings of fire and vegetarian food to the images on the altar, which include, in addition to Krishna himself, his consort Radha and his brother Balarama. While the pujari performs these rituals, the other devotees chant and dance to the accompaniment of hand-held cymbals and drums and a small organ called a harmonium. As the pace builds, the chanting becomes louder and the dancing more feverish, and when it reaches a climax, many devotees jump high into the air. Devotees are given a Sanskrit name, wear saffron-coloured robes, and show their devotion to Krishna by adorning their bodies with painted marks called tilaka, made of cream-coloured clay from the banks of a holy lake in India. Two vertical marks represent Krishna's feet, or the walls of a temple, and below them is a leaf representing the sacred tulasi (basil) plant. The diet is strictly vegetarian, and recreational drugs of all kinds, including alcohol and caffeine, are avoided. Great effort is put into keeping the temple clean, and every activity is to be done "for Krishna," as an act of devotional service. In this way the mental state known as Krishna consciousness is developed. Some devotees attend the temple only for major activities, but others live in or near it. Single male and female devotees have separate living quarters, while married couples and families often live in nearby houses or apartments. Sexual activity is allowed only within marriage and only for the purpose of procreation. Some devotees have outside employment and turn their wages over to the temple. Others work full-time for the movement. Most temple-based male devotees shave their heads except for a pigtail at the back of the head. Women are required to dress very modestly. Devotees carry a small bag containing a string of 108 chanting beads (the number 108 is sacred in India partly because it represents the multiple of the 12 zodiac houses and 9 planetary bodies as understood in Indian astrology). Using the beads if their hands are free, devotees chant the Hare Krishna mantra hundreds of times each day as they go about their duties at the temple. The Hare Krishnas provoked strong reactions, both positive and negative. On the positive side was the enthusiasm shown by celebrities like George Harrison of the Beatles; his song "My Sweet Lord" (1970) contributed greatly to the acceptance of the movement. But there were many negative reactions as well. Some were provoked by the movement's efforts to raise money by chanting in public places. Others centred on the fact that in the early years ISKCON discouraged contact between devotees and their former friends and family. As a consequence, the media quickly branded the movement a "cult," and a new profession known as "deprogrammer" came into existence. Hired by concerned parents, deprogrammers would kidnap the young people and confine them in a motel room for days while trying to break the "cult program" that had been "brainwashed" into them. Sometimes these efforts succeeded, but many young people returned to the Hare Krishnas as soon as they were free to do so. The schools operated by ISKCON for children of devotees became controversial. In 2000 a class action suit was filed in Dallas by 44 former students who claimed to have been victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in ISKCON-operated schools in the US and India. By the time the final settlement was reached, hundreds of others had joined the list of plaintiffs and ISKCON had been forced to seek bankruptcy protection. The claims, totalling $20 million, were settled by 2008, and ISKCON emerged from bankruptcy protection. ISKCON now runs approximately 350 temples and centres worldwide. It has been especially successful in the former states of the Soviet Union, including Russia, and in South America. The spread of ISKCON back to India has been a remarkable development. After starting his mission in America, Prabphupada established a number of temples in India, where ISKCON has been welcomed as a movement reviving Gaudiya Vaishnava devotion. Today Indian devotees may outnumber Western ones.

Baha'i (History)

Baha'i developed out of Islam in the mid-nineteenth century, when Islam was already more than 1,200 years old. Although it has many elements in common with Islam, it gives those elements a new and more nearly universal configuration. The main point of divergence is that Baha'is believe that their leader, Baha'u'llah, was a new prophet, whereas Muslims believe there can never be another prophet after Muhammad. The roots of Baha'i lie in the eschatology of Iranian Shi'ism. Ever since the last imam disappeared in 874, Twelver Shi'a had been waiting for a figure known as the Bab ("gateway") to appear and reopen communication with the hidden imam. After 10 centuries, most people no longer expected this to happen anytime soon. But seeds of messianic expectation germinated in the soil of political unrest. Thus in 1844 Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad declared himself to be the Bab, the gateway to a new prophetic revelation. Although he was imprisoned in 1845, his followers, the Babis, repudiated the Islamic shari'ah law, and in 1848 the Bab proclaimed himself the hidden Imam. He was executed by a firing squad in 1850, but he left behind a number of writings that have been considered scriptural. The leadership momentum passed to Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri (1817-92), whose religious name was Baha'u'llah, "Glory of God." Although he had not met the Bab, he had experienced a profound feeling of divine support while imprisoned in Tehran in 1852. On his release the following year, he was banished, first to Baghdad in Turkish-controlled Iraq, where he became a spiritual leader of Babis in exile, and then, in 1863, to Istanbul. Before going, he declared himself to be "the one whom God shall manifest" as foretold by the Bab. He also claimed to have had a "transforming" 12-day mystical experience in 1862. The transfer to to the Mediterranean world expanded the sphere of Baha'u'llah's spiritual activity well beyond the horizons of Iranian Shi'ism. Now he was in a position to address the entire Ottoman Empire. Although he was banished to Acre in Palestine a few years later, his following continued to grow. Nearby Haifa (today in Israel) remains the world headquarters of the Baha'i faith today. Baha'u'llah wrote prolifically in Acre, producing more than 100 texts that Baha'is believe to be God's revelation for this age. Among the most important are Kitab-i Aqdas ("The Most Holy Book," 1873), containing Baha'i laws; Kitab-i Iqan ("The Book of Certitude," 1861), the principal doctrinal work; and Hidden Words (1858), a discourse on ethics. The Seven Valleys (1856), a mystical treatise, enumerates seven spiritual stages: search, love, knowledge, unity, contentment, wonderment, and true poverty and absolute nothingness. For 65 years after Baha'u'llah's death in 1892, authority was passed on to family heirs. His son 'Abbas Effendi was considered an infallible interpreter of his father's writings, and on his death the mantle of infallibility was bequeathed to his grandson, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani. Shoghi Effendi appointed an International Baha'i Council, and from 1963 leadership was vested in an elected body of representatives called the Universal House of Justice. Baha'i teachings are based on Baha'u'llah's writings. The soul is believed to be eternal, a mystery that is independent both of the body and of space and time; it can never decay. Yet it becomes individuated at the moment of the human being's conception. The Baha'i notion of prophethood is in line with the Abrahamic religions. Prophets are sent by God to diagnose spiritual and moral disorder and to prescribe the appropriate remedy. Baha'is, like Muslims, believe that the world has known a sequence of prophets. However, they do not believe the prophets' messages to have been community-specific: instead, they understand the prophets to speak to the entire world. They also believe that, in accordance with their doctrine of "progressive revelation," more prophets will come in future ages. It may well be their ideal of world community that has done the most to make the Baha'i tradition attractive to serious searchers. Baha'u'llah himself wrote that he came to "unify the world," and Baha'is have asserted the unity of religions. Over a doorway to one Baha'i house of worship is the inscription, "All the Prophets of God proclaim the same Faith." Baha'is actively advocate economic, sexual, and racial equality. Extremes of poverty and wealth are to be eliminated, and slavery rooted out—along with priesthood and monasticism. Women are to enjoy rights and opportunities equal to men's, marriage is to be strictly monogamous, and divorce is frowned on. Baha'is have consultative status with the United Nations as an official non- governmental organization. World peace is to be achieved through disarmament, democracy, and the rule of law, along with the promotion of international education and human rights. Although these goals are clearly compatible with modern secular values, they have a spiritual quality for Baha'is, who cite Baha'u'llah as saying that human well-being is unattainable until unity is firmly established. Unity of the races is actively proclaimed, and interracial marriage welcomed. In recent decades this emphasis has been a major factor in the appeal of the Baha'i Faith to African-Americans. Once the US eliminates racism at home, some Baha'is claim, it will be the spiritual leader of the world.

Baha'i (Practices)

Baha'is strive to live a peaceful and ethical life. Personal spiritual cultivation is encouraged, and recreational drugs and alcohol are forbidden. Since the Baha'i Faith sees itself as the fulfillment of other religions, Baha'is are unusually open to dialogue with other faiths. Baha'is follow a distinctive calendar in which the number 19 (which figured in the tradition's early mystical thinking) plays an important role. Beginning with the spring equinox (the time of the Iranian new year), there are 19 months of 19 days each, with four additional days (five in leap years) to keep up with the solar year. Local Baha'is gather for a community feast on the first day of each month, and the final month, in early March, is devoted to dawn-to-dusk fasting, as in the Muslim observance of Ramadan. Although the 19-day calendar does not recognize the seven-day week, many Baha'is in the West meet on Sundays for study and reflection. Important days in the annual cycle are essentially historical: several days in April and May are associated with Baha'u'llah's mission, for instance. In addition, the Bab's birth, mission, and martyrdom are commemorated, as are the birth and passing (or ascension) of Baha'u'llah. Baha'i devotions at the monthly feasts feature a cappella singing but no instrumental music. Prayers are spoken in Farsi (Persian), Arabic, or other languages. Readings are mainly from Baha'i scriptural writings by Baha'u'llah or the Bab, but they may be supplemented with devotional readings from other traditions. Those who grow up as Baha'is may make a personal profession of faith at the age of 15. Converts simply sign a declaration card. Baha'i weddings vary depending on the tastes of the couple, but always include the declaration "We will all, truly, abide by the will of God." At funerals there is a standard prayer for the departed, which is virtually the only prayer said in unison by Baha'is. Personal devotions are similar to Islamic practice: the faithful wash their hands and face before praying, and set prayers are said at five times of the day. Also reminiscent of Islam is the practice of repeating the phrase Allahu-'l Abha ("God is the most glorious"). These similarities notwithstanding, the Baha'i faith has gone its own way. Its revelation does not conclude with the Qur'an, and its ideals for society depart from those reflected in the shari'ah. There have also been political tensions with Islam. Muslims have tended to see the Baha'is as Israeli sympathizers, and in Iran the Baha'i community suffered serious losses in lives and property after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Since the late 1800s the Baha'i Faith has spread around the world. It now claims some 5 million adherents in 235 countries. These include 750,000 in North America and several times that number in India. More than one-quarter of local councils are in Africa and a similar number in Asia. There are nearly as many councils in the southwestern Pacific as in Europe.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) (History)

In September 1965 a 70-year-old Hindu holy man arrived by freighter in New York City with virtually nothing but a short list of contacts. A few weeks later, he sat under a now famous tree in Tompkins Square Park and began to chant. He had learned this "great mantra" from his guru in India, who had learned it from his guru, and so on—it was said—all the way back to a sixteenth-century Hindu mystic named Chaitanya, who was reputed to enter a state of mystical ecstasy while chanting the three names of his god: Krishna, Hare, Rama. Within a year of his arrival, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada had established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and the "Hare Krishna" movement had begun to take root in America. The Hare Krishna movement was new to the West, but it was not a new religion. Rather, it was a Western mission of Vaishnava Hinduism, the school devoted to Vishnu. Traditional Vaishnavas worship Vishnu both as the Supreme Godhead and in the forms of his 10 major avatars—the animal or human forms he has assumed at different times to "come down" (avatara) to Earth to save humanity. In this system, Krishna, "the dark-complexioned one," is the eighth avatar. However, Prabhupada belonged to a Bengali variant in which the Cowherd (Gopala) Krishna himself is the Supreme Godhead—the source of everything, including other divine forces. As such, Krishna is understood to encourage a very personal relationship between the devotee and himself. Like other forms of Hinduism, ISKCON teaches that the soul is eternal and subject to reincarnation according to the individual's karma; however, those who practise loving devotion to Krishna will go to his heaven when they die and thus escape the cycle of rebirth. The foundational texts for ISKCON are the Bhagavad Gita and a collection of stories about Krishna's life called the Srimad Bhagavatam. Between the founding of ISKCON in 1966 and his death 11 years later, Srila Prabhupada travelled throughout North America and around the world spreading his version of Hinduism. His recorded addresses and voluminous writings laid down the fundamental beliefs and practices of the movement. Soon the Hare Krishna movement was establishing centres across North America and abroad. Each centre included a temple with an altar area featuring images of Krishna and his consort Radha, as the male and female aspects of the divine, as well as pictures of the guru, Prabhupada. In addition, schools were started to educate the children of devotees in Vedic (ancient Hindu) culture, and farms were established that undertook to work the land in traditional ways consistent with Vedic norms. It is not uncommon for new religions to undergo a difficult period of adjustment after the death of the charismatic founder/leader. Following Prabhupada's death, ISKCON vested authority not in a single guru, but in a Governing Body Commission (GBC), which recognized 11 devotees who had risen to high positions under Prabhupada's leadership as gurus and authorized them to ordain recruits and oversee operations in 11 regional zones. Some of the gurus got into trouble with the law over matters including illegal guns, drugs, child abuse, and murder, and by the 1980s six of the original group had quit or been removed from office by the GBC.

Nation of Islam (History)

It is estimated that at least 20 per cent of the Africans taken as slaves to the Americas were Muslims. One early promoter of Islam (or a version of it) among African-Americans was Noble Drew Ali, who in 1913 founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark, New Jersey. By the time of his death in 1929, major congregations had been established in cities including Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Whether Wallace D. Fard (1893-1934?) was ever associated with the Temple is unclear; his followers say he wasn't. But the idea that Islam was the appropriate religion for African-Americans was in the air when he established the Nation of Islam (NOI) in Detroit in 1930. Fard's version of Islam bore little resemblance to either the Sunni or the Shi'i tradition. For Muslims, who understand Allah to be a purely spiritual entity, the most fundamental difference lay in the NOI's claim that Allah took human form in the person of Fard himself. These claims may have originated in Fard's first encounter with Elijah Poole (1897-1975), a young man who had felt called to a religious mission of some kind, but had stopped attending church before his fateful 1923 meeting with Fard. Fard was so impressed with the young man—who later changed his name to Elijah Muhammad— that he authorized him to teach Islam with his blessing. Elijah quickly became Fard's favourite disciple. The men who developed the theology of the Nation of Islam were more familiar with the Bible than the Qur'an, but the story they told was no more familiar to mainstream Christians than it was to Muslims. They maintained that all humans were originally black and lived in harmony as one tribe called Shabazz for millions of years, until an evil man named Yakub rebelled and left for an island where he created a white race by killing all dark babies. Eventually, the evil white race subjugated the blacks, bringing oppression and disunity to humankind. God sent Moses to try to redeem them, but that effort failed. Now the blacks needed to undergo a "resurrection" and recognize themselves as proud members of the great and peaceful Shabazz people. Martha Lee has argued that the Nation of Islam is a millenarian movement (1996: 3). In the NOI version of history, white rule has lasted more than 6,000 years and is approaching the "end time," when the Mother of Planes—a huge aircraft base in the sky—will destroy the "white devils." The "Fall of America" is to be expected soon. (In fact, Elijah Muhammad originally prophesied that it would occur in the mid-1960s, but when that prediction failed to come true, NOI thinking about the "end time" became less literal.) The NOI came to the attention of the authorities in Detroit when it was rumoured that Fard had promised life in heaven for anyone who killed four whites. This was probably not true, although he had preached that anyone who killed four devils would go to heaven. In any event, Fard disappeared after he was expelled from Detroit in 1933. Elijah Muhammad took over the leadership, but the movement fragmented, and some factions were quite hostile to him. In 1935, he moved to Washington, DC, where he preached under the name Elijah Rasool (Lee 1996: 26). In 1942, however, he was convicted of sedition for counselling his followers not to register for the draft. His wife, Clara, directed the organization during the four years he spent in prison, and after his release in 1946 the NOI's numbers soon began to grow. Much of the credit for the movement's expansion in the 1950s has been given to a convert named Malcolm X.

The Kabbalah Centre (Practices)

Kabbalists experience God as the energy that underlies and permeates all things. To illustrate how God and the material world interrelate, Kabbalah uses a diagram usually referred to as the Tree of Life. The space above the tree represents God as Ein Sof, "The Endless." The tree itself pictures the ten spherot, shining circles of fire, representing the ten attributes of God in the world. The topmost circle represents the Crown (Keter or Kether). Below it the other nine circles are arranged in three sets, each with a circle in the left, centre, and right columns. Read from the top down, these three sets represent the spiritual, intellectual, and material (earth-level) qualities of creation. The spherot in the right-hand column represent masculine attributes of God and those on the left feminine attributes. The spherah in the centre of the nine spherot is "Glory," which brings harmony and interconnectedness among the lower nine spherot. The 10 spherot are numbered from top to bottom, and are connected by 22 lines (corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet) that show how they interact. In an interesting twist on most theological systems, Kabbalists believe that their practice facilitates the flow of divine energy into the world. Whereas mainstream Judaism, Christianity, and Islam stress the absolute power of God, in Kabbalah God needs human effort to work in the world. Kabbalists do not attempt to interpret the Bible literally; instead, they use a complex kind of numerology. The ancient Hebrews used letters as numbers, assigning their numerical value according to their position in the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet. Totalling the numbers in certain words could reveal hidden connections between them and lead to new interpretations. For example the numerical values of YHWH, the name for God revealed to Moses, and aleph, the first letter of the alphabet, are both 26. For Kabbalists, this is significant because one of the words for Lord or Master in Hebrew, aluph, is based on the word aleph. Inspired by the numerological practices of ancient Kabbalah, modern Kabbalists maintain that determining the numerical value of one's name can lead to new insights. One of those practices involves meditating on the 72 names for God, based on combinations of Hebrew letters that Kabbalah finds hidden in Exodus 14: 19-21, the biblical account in which Moses calls to God for help before leading the people into the sea as the Egyptian army pursues them. Kabbalists took these three verses, each having 72 letters in Hebrew, and developed 72 names of God by combining them into triads of three letters each. To get the first name, they took the first letter of verse 19, the last of verse 20, and the first of verse 21. The next name is composed of the second letter of verse 19, the second from last of verse 20, and the second of verse 21, and so on for a total of 72. These 72 names are then arranged in a grid with 8 columns and 9 rows. According to the Kabbalah Centre, the 72 Names of God "work as tuning forks to repair you on the soul level"; each three-letter sequence "act[s] like an index to specific, spiritual frequencies. By simply looking at the letters, as well as closing your eyes and visualizing them, you can connect with these frequencies" ("72 Names"). Traditional Kabbalah employs a dualistic symbolism of light and darkness, and many of the Centre's teachings focus on moving from darkness to light. For example, it stresses that instead of running away from adversaries, one should confront and learn from them, just as the biblical Jacob wrestled with the angel and gained light from the experience. Kabbalists see Jacob's angel as a personification of the personal darkness with which every individual must struggle in order to reach the light. Kabbalah practice helps to remove the darkness that covers the ego so as to reveal the light, the spark. Like many other religious institutions, the Kabbalah Centre claims that its spiritual understanding fulfills other religions. In sharp contrast to most, however, it does not require its members to give up their former religious identities. Like Scientology (see below), the Kabbalah Centre has benefitted from the media attention attracted by adherents such as Madonna, who has sometimes included references to Kabbalah in her lyrics (Huss 2005). At the same time, the large sums of money donated by celebrities have raised questions about the Centre's finances and accounting. Some Jews have accused the Centre of exploiting Kabbalah for worldly gain, which the Kabbalist tradition explicitly forbids. Other criticisms have focused on the Centre's claims linking worldly happiness with Kabbalah practice. One leader of the Centre in London, England, was heavily criticized for seeming to suggest that the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust died because they did not follow Kabbalah practices to unblock the light.

Malcom X

Malcolm Little (1925-65) was born in Nebraska but spent much of his childhood in Lansing, Michigan. When he was six, his father was run over by a streetcar; the coroner ruled it a suicide, but the Little family believed he had been killed by a white supremacist group. After his father's death, the family was impoverished and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown, so the children were put in foster care. Eventually Malcolm moved to Boston and became involved with criminals. It was while he was serving time for theft that he was encouraged by his brother to join the NOI. He read widely, and after his release in 1952 became a key disciple of Elijah Muhammad. Like other converts at that time, he took the surname X to protest the absence of an African name and to recall the X branded on some slaves. Before long he had become the leader of the Harlem temple. His eloquence brought him national attention as an advocate for Black Power, and he came to symbolize black defiance of white racism in America. Despite his success, however, Malcolm X became alienated from the movement. In 1964 he broke away from it and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. Increasingly aware of the differences between NOI theology and that of traditional Islam, he converted to Sunni Islam and made the pilgrimage to Mecca, where he learned that Islam was not an exclusively black religion, as the NOI had taught. It was a life-changing experience. Changing his name to El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, he began to teach an understanding of Islam as a religion for all races. Less than a year later, in February 1965, he was assassinated while giving a speech in New York. Three members of the NOI were convicted of the murder, although some people suspected that the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program had instigated it.

Louis Farrakhan

Not all members of the former NOI agreed with these reforms, however. Among the dissenters was Minister Louis Farrakhan. In 1978 he broke with WCIW and formed a new organization modelled on the NOI. He restored the original name, reinstituted the Saviour's Day festival—formerly the most important holiday—and attracted many members. In 2001 a former member of the revived NOI published an account of his experience that was particularly critical of Farrakhan's financial dealings. According to Vibert L. White, Jr, members were pressured to donate large sums, and many struggling black-owned businesses were left with unpaid bills for their services to the organization, even as substantial amounts of money were finding their way to various members of the Farrakhan family (White 2001). Farrakhan also appears to have courted African Muslim leaders, including Libya's Muammar Gadaffi, for support. Perhaps this helps to explain why he has moved the NOI towards the Islamic mainstream by encouraging Islamic-style daily prayers and study of the Qur'an. The most difficult change he made was to drop the doctrine that identified Fard as Allah and Elijah Muhammad as his Messenger. In a 1997 conference, Farrakhan publicly affirmed that Muhammad was the last and greatest prophet of Allah (Walker 2005: 495). In 1995 Farrakhan organized a "Million Man March" on Washington, DC, to draw attention to the role of the black male and to unite for social and economic improvement. The March was a joint effort sponsored by many black organizations, and most of the participants had a Christian background. Although the March was criticized for excluding black women and promoting a Muslim agenda, as well as its lack of transparency in accounting, it did bring several African-American organizations into fuller cooperation and helped draw public attention to the challenges faced by African-Americans.

Sect

Offshoot of a mainstream religion Max Weber defined sect as Christian splinter groups, new institutionalized movements that had broken away from mainstream denominations, usually to practise what they considered to be a purer form of the faith. With the passage of time, however, most sectarian movements either faded away or moved back towards the mainstream.

Who do people join cults?

Sects and cults emerge from social periods of unrest. People look for ways out, need certainty in their lives. (People 18-24)

The Kabbalah Centre (History)

The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles teaches a new form of spirituality based on traditional Jewish mysticism. As an organization, it traces its roots to a centre for Kabbalah studies founded in Jerusalem in 1922 by Rabbi (or Rav) Yehuda Ashlag. But the tradition stretches back through the sixteenth-century master Isaac Luria to the (probably) thirteenth-century text called the Zohar and beyond. The Centre itself claims that its teachings go back some 4,000 years. The National Institute for the Research of Kabbalah (later renamed the Kabbalah Centre) was founded in 1965 by Rabbi Philip S. Berg. Raised in New York City, he had trained as a rabbi but was not practising when, during a trip to Israel in 1962, he met Rabbi Yehuda Brandwein, the Kabbalist dean of a yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City, and a descendant of many famous Hasidic scholars. With Brandwein as his mentor, Berg became an active Kabbalist. Berg's followers claim that he succeeded Rabbi Brandwein as leader of the entire Kabbalah movement, including leadership of the Jerusalem yeshiva. At the yeshiva itself, however, Brandwein's son Rabbi Avraham Brandwein is considered the leader, and the version of Kabbalah taught there is in no way new. In itself, Berg's Kabbalah is not new either, but his approach to it is radically different. Traditionally, the study of Kabbalah was restricted to mature male Jews, aged 40 or older, who had already completed years of Talmudic studies. Yet Berg taught Kabbalah to his secretary, who would later become his wife and a leading figure in the movement herself. Within a few years, the Bergs set out to make Kabbalah available to the world at large: young and old, male and female, Jews and Goyim alike. This was the new dimension of Berg's Kabbalah, and it sparked a great deal of controversy in traditional Jewish circles. On its website the Centre defines Kabbalah as "ancient wisdom and practical tools for creating joy and lasting fulfillment now." The emphasis on "practical tools" is significant, for the purpose of Kabbalah study, as the Centre presents it, is to unlock the human potential for greatness. It is a fundamental tenet of Kabbalah (as it is of Eastern traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism) that humans will be reincarnated over and over again, returning to this world as many times as necessary "until the task of transformation is done" (Kabbalah Centre). Another fundamental principle is that the reality perceived by our five senses is only a tiny portion of the totality, and that events occurring in the knowable 1 per cent of reality are the product of events in the unknown 99 per cent. Berg's followers maintain that Kabbalah teachings give access to the larger reality that normally remains unknown.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (Practices)

The Mormon code of behaviour included not only a rigid sexual morality but strict abstinence from tea and coffee as well as alcohol and tobacco. Young adults are expected to serve as volunteer missionaries for two years—a practice that has helped spread awareness of the faith and attract new members around the world. Distinctive Mormon doctrines include the notion that God is increasing in perfection as human beings improve. Distinctive practices include the baptism (by proxy) of the deceased; because of this practice, Utah has become a world centre for genealogical research. Mormons have also taken a keen interest in archaeology, in the hope that physical evidence of the events described by the Book of Mormon will be found in the western hemisphere. The controversial practice of plural marriage was officially dropped in 1890, after the federal government threatened to abolish it, and soon faded among mainstream LDS members. But a few congregations broke away to form independent sects known collectively as "Fundamentalist Mormons." The largest of these sects, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), in particular is known for allowing its male leaders to have multiple wives. Because the women involved are often quite young, FLDS congregations have come under intense scrutiny. In 2007, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for being an accomplice to rape. Whether the Mormons constitute a new religion or merely a new Christian denomination is open to question. Joseph Smith saw himself as reforming the Christian Church, and the fact that Mormons keep the Bible as scripture argues for inclusion under the umbrella of Christianity. On the other hand, the Mormons' new, post-scriptural revelations, new scriptures, and new modes of worship (e.g., using water rather than wine for the Eucharist) suggest a new religion. The issue came into focus during the lead-up to the 2000 federal election, when Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was seeking nomination as the Republican candidate for president. Some conservative Christians who admired his strong family values were reluctant to support his candidacy because of his Mormon faith. However, in the 2012 presidential campaign, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association removed Mormonism from its list of cults following a visit between Romney and Graham.

Wallace Muhammad

The early 1970s also saw a softening of the NOI's attitude towards whites and an increasing willingness to work with other black organizations. When Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, the leadership passed to his son Wallace, who moved the NOI closer to the mainstream and helped put the NOI on a more solid financial basis. He also renamed the temples, adopting the Arabic word for mosque, "masjid." This, together with a new emphasis on studying the Qur'an, brought the NOI into Sunni Islam. In 1975 Wallace renamed the organization the World Community of al-Islam in the West (WCIW), and in 1981 it became the American Muslim Mission. In 1985 the name was changed again to the American Society of Muslims. He also renamed himself, and as Warith Deen Muhammad (the inheritor of the religion of Muhammad) became a mainstream American Sunni leader until his death in 2008.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (History)

The founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith, Jr (1805-44), claimed that in 1820, as a boy in upstate New York, he had experienced a vision of God and Jesus in which he was told not to join any of the existing denominations. In subsequent visions, he said, an angel named Moroni had persuaded him that he had been divinely chosen to restore the true Church of Christ. He founded his new Church in 1830. As a textual basis for the enterprise, Smith published the Book of Mormon, which he said he had translated from gold plates inscribed in "reformed Egyptian" that had been entrusted to him by Moroni during a hilltop meeting near Palmyra, New York. Though subsequent editions referred to Smith as the "translator," the title page of the 1830 first edition declared him "author and proprietor." The Book of Mormon uses the language of the 1611 King James Bible to tell the otherwise undocumented story of two groups, both descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel that supposedly migrated from the Near East to the New World around 600 BCE and became the ancestors of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Including accounts of visitations by Christ sometime after his crucifixion, the book is understood by Mormons to be a scriptural account of God's activity in the western hemisphere, parallel with the Bible and its account of divine events in the eastern hemisphere. Also scriptural for Mormons are Smith's The Pearl of Great Price, a book of revelations and translations, and Doctrine and Covenants, a collection of his revelatory declarations. General reflection is interspersed with guidance for particular circumstances in a manner reminiscent of the letters of Paul or certain surahs of the Qur'an. Facing ridicule and persecution in New York, Smith led his followers westward. They established settlements in Ohio and Missouri, and, when driven out of Missouri in 1839, moved on to Nauvoo, Illinois. By now the Mormons were calling themselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was in Nauvoo that Smith secretly introduced "plural marriage" (polygamy), rumours of which added to the suspicions of outsiders. He also declared himself a candidate for the US presidency in the 1844 elections, advocating a blend of democracy and religious authority that he called "theodemocracy." Some of these innovations caused strife between factions of the Latter-day Saints, and in 1844 Smith and his brother were killed by an anti-Mormon mob. A number of the traditionalist, anti-polygamy Mormons stayed in the Midwest as the Reorganized Church of Latter-day Saints, with headquarters in Independence, Missouri. In 2001 they renamed themselves the Community of Christ. Although they continue to regard the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture, they emphasize the Bible and see their faith not as a "new religion" but as a branch of Christianity in the line running from the Hebrew prophets through Jesus to Joseph Smith. The larger branch of the Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a separate history. In 1847 many Mormons moved to Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young, who had been president of an inner council of 12 that Smith had organized on the pattern of the apostolic Church. Although they were unsuccessful in their bid to make Utah a Mormon state, they dominated the Utah Territory and the US government chose Young to serve as its governor.

Soka Gakkai (Today)

Today Soka Gakkai International (SGI)—founded in 1975 as a worldwide organization under the umbrella of Soka Gakkai in Japan—claims 12 million members. Most "new religions" in Japan promise this-worldly happiness, and Soka Gakkai is no exception. In particular, it stresses the here-and-now benefits of chanting the sacred mantra namu myoho renge kyo (translated on the Sokka Gakkai website as "I devote myself to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law"): passing a test, getting a promotion, improving one's outlook on life. Soka Gakkai is also active in youth activities, and sponsors events that give urban youth a taste of life in a more traditional setting. At the core of Soka Gakkai is the belief that the practice of Nichiren Buddhism can bring about a personal transformation that will empower the individual to take effective action towards the goals of peace, justice, social harmony, and economic prosperity. An example of the organization's economic perspective can be seen in a 2008 speech by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, in which he called for "humanitarian competition" in a new economic order that would avoid both the excessive greed of capitalism and the lack of competition historically associated with socialism (Ikeda 2008). The profile of Soka Gakkai in Japan has been somewhat diminished since 1991, when Nichiren Shoshu officially severed its links with Soka Gakkai. It was the climax of a long dispute between the conservative clergy and the reform-minded lay organization. But the international organization has continued to grow, even establishing a university in California in 1995, and the split has not affected Soka Gakkai's practice. Members continue to follow the religious teachings of Nichiren Shoshu, studying the Lotus Sutra and chanting the sacred mantra.

Falun Gong (Practices)

Whereas some people practise qigong purely for its physiological benefits, Falun Dafa practitioners seek both physical and spiritual purification. The organization describes Falun Dafa as "a high-level cultivation practice guided by the characteristics of the universe—Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance" (Li 2000: "Introduction"). Practitioners are said to develop a falun or "law wheel" in the abdomen. This is not the same as the qi, which is naturally present in everyone. Once acquired, the falun spins in synchrony with the rotation of the planets, the milky way, and other objects in the universe. When rotating clockwise, the falun absorbs and transforms energy from the universe, and when rotating counter-clockwise, it dispenses salvation to oneself, to others, and to the universe. According to Li, healing comes not from the qi but from the falun when it is rotating counter-clockwise. The falun changes its rotational direction according to its own dynamics, and it continues to rotate even when one is not actually practising the Dafa exercises. The energy cluster emitted by the falun is called gong—hence the alternative name Falun Gong. The gong is said to glow like light. Li divides Falun Dafa exercises into five sets, with names such as "Buddha showing a thousand hands," which is the foundational set of exercises, meant to open the body's energy channels. When the exercises are done properly, it is said that the body will feel warm, indicating that the energies have been unblocked and energy is being absorbed from the universe. The study of Li's writings, especially the Zhuan Falun (Turning the Law Wheel) is another central practice, intended to cultivate morality in everyday life. Although Falun Dafa teaches non-violence, practitioners have faced serious persecution in China, and it is regularly denounced as an evil cult working against the good of the people. Although it has not been banned in Hong Kong, which has been a part of China since 1997, when the organization wanted to hold a major international rally there in 2007, Beijing blocked the event by refusing to grant visas to Falun Dafa members from abroad. Outside mainland China, Falun Dafa is severely critical of the Chinese government. It maintains protest booths near the mainland government's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, showing pictures of torture in China, and a Falun Dafa band provided the music for a mass pro-democracy protest march by Hong Kong residents in 2014. Supporters say that many practitioners are imprisoned in long-term work camps, where they are used to produce goods that are sold in the West. The organization also claims that organs are involuntarily removed from prisoners to be used for transplants. Amnesty International has lent some credence to these accusations.

Cult

a small group under the control of a charismatic leader who is suspected of brainwashing followers and promoting self-destructive, illegal, or immoral behaviour.

millenarian

belief that a coming catastrophe will signal the beginning of a new age and the eventual establishment of paradise

Soka Gakkai (History)

founded in Japan before the Second World War and emerged as an important force only after 1945—a period that saw a flowering of new Japanese religions. But its roots lie deep in Buddhist history, in the tradition of the controversial thirteenth-century monk Nichiren. The dominant tradition of Nichiren's day was the Pure Land school of Mahayana Buddhism, which taught the saving power of Amida Buddha. Nichiren, however, believed that a Mahayana scripture called the Lotus Sutra represented the culmination of all Buddhist truths, and warned that Japan would be doomed if the people ignored its teachings. At the same time he became so critical of the Pure Land sects that their leaders persuaded the emperor to exile him to a remote island, where he continued to write tracts criticizing other Buddhist sects and promoting his own. Nichiren's prophecies of impending doom seemed to come true when the Mongols attempted to invade Japan in 1274. Thus he was allowed to return from exile and, with his followers, establish a sect based on his teachings, together with the Lotus Sutra. It is to this sect, eventually known as Nichiren Shoshu ("True Nichiren"), that Soka Gakkai traces its roots. Soka Gakkai ("Association for Creating Values") was established in 1930 as a lay organization within Nichiren Shoshu. Its founder was a reform-minded schoolteacher named Makiguchi Tsunesaburo, who wanted to promote moral values among young people. Many of its leading figures were imprisoned during the Second World War because they refused to recognize the divinity of the Emperor as required by the officially Shinto Japanese state, and Makiguchi himself died in prison before the war ended. His successor, Toda Josei, adopted an aggressive recruitment strategy based on an ancient Buddhist missionary principle. To break down resistance to their message, Soka Gakkai members might gather outside the home of a potential convert and chant all day and all night, or point out to shop-owners that Soka Gakkai members would shop at their stores if they converted. Although critics complained that this approach amounted to harassment and coercion, it was effective, and Soka Gakkai grew exponentially under Toda's leadership. Meanwhile, small groups of practitioners began to establish themselves throughout much of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Often the leaders of these local groups were ethnic Japanese, but the majority of the members were not. As usual with new religious movements, young people made up the majority of the converts.