Cults

During the 1970s and 1980s, several dozen new religious movements were singled out and widely labeled “cults,” becoming the focus of significant public controversy. Prominent among these groups were the Unification Church, founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon (b. 1920); the International Society for Krishna Consciousness—popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement—founded by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977); the Church Universal and Triumphant, led by Elizabeth Clare Prophet (b. 1940); the Children of God (later renamed The Family), founded by David “Moses” Berg (1919–1994); the Divine Light Mission, led by Guru Maharaj Ji; and the Church of Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986).

In the United States, the cult controversy developed in the 1970s when a number of unfamiliar new religions took root in the baby boomer generation. During the late 1960s, this unusually large generation, born soon after World War II, came of age. American society was unprepared to receive so many young adults suddenly competing for jobs and living space. Many of them dropped out of mainstream life and began to develop alternative means of employment and living. While some in this alternative culture chose to live on the streets, others formed “hippie” communes and related groups that experimented with various forms of cooperative existence.

Simultaneously with the coming of age of the baby boomers, the United States changed its laws on immigration from Asia. Beginning in 1965, after half a century of being denied entry, tens of thousands of Asians began to move to the United States. Among them were some religious leaders who hoped to both serve the immigrant community and build a following among the larger body of American citizens.

The hippie movement made these many disconnected young adults more visible, and a variety of religious groups targeted them for conversion. Many of these groups invited converts not just into an affiliation, but into a full-time identity as a religious worker. They offered new members a place to live, regular meals, a job working for the group and its cause, and a sense of purpose. Because the ideology and practices of many groups were often at extreme odds with their new recruits' prior religious training, a period of intense indoctrination often followed. Devoting much time and energy to the group, new members were frequently cut off from former friends and their family of origin for a period of time.

In one common scenario, college students disappeared into the counterculture for the summer and, while out of touch with parents, joined a new religion. When they missed the fall quarter at school, parents became worried. When their offspring finally returned home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, parents were horrified at what they saw as an unwelcome religious transformation.