Cults and Sects and Their Influence in Contemporary Society

Cults and Sects and Their Influence in Contemporary Society

A sect is a small religious group that has branched off a larger

established religion. Sects have many beliefs and practices in common

with the religion they have broken off from, but are differentiated by

a number of theological differences. Sociologists use the word sect to

refer to a religious group with a high degree of tension with the

surrounding society, but whose beliefs are largely traditional. A

cult, by contrast, also has a high degree of tension with the

surrounding society, but its beliefs are new and innovative. Sects, in

the sociological sense, are generally traditionalist and conservative,

seeking to return a religion to its religious purity.

Some cults actually meet their demise once their charismatic leader

dies; no longer does the movement have any sort of leadership so it

gradually fades away - although, New Religious Movements which fall

into this category have been known to linger for additional decades or

even centuries after the death of the charismatic leader. Traces of

religious movements may well continue to live on even after the

informal network and organizational infrastructure of the movement

have passed away. Therefore, a religion that seemed to be dead can

suddenly spring to life again - The Adventists, Seventh-Day

Adventists, Davidian Adventists and Branch Davidians exemplify this

sort of organizational death and rebirth (Wright, 1195)

Cults can even come to an end due to incidents such as Mass Suicide,

as illustrated by The People's Temple led by Jim Jones. Jim Jones

developed a belief called 'Translation' in which he and his followers...

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...fringe organisations that are inevitably short-lived and of

little influence in contemporary society". As illustrated in this

essay you can quite clearly see that cults and sects have a huge

influence on society, whether they are short-lived or not, incidents

like The People's Temple will forever haunt (influence) society.

Evidence to disprove the fact that cults and sects are short-lived can

be found in The Quakers move from a sect to a denomination in the USA

over the past few hundred years. Sects and Cults meet some of the

specifications of religions and with society starting to see a decline

in traditional religion and an increase in Holistic Milieu (Based off

the Kendal Project, conducted by Heelas and Woodhead) I would expect

for them both to continue to live on and grow over the years, decades

or even centuries.