RELIGION ESSAY

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Assess sociological explanations for the increasing number of religious and spiritual organisations and movements in society today. (33 marks)
INTRODUCTION - Since the 1960s there has been a rapid growth in the number of sects and cults, and in the number of people belonging to them. For example, there are estimated to be over 800 NRMs and over half a million individuals belonging to these and other non-mainstream Christian churches in the UK.
MARGINALITY - TROELTSCH notes that sects tend to draw their members from the poor and oppressed. Similarly, according to WEBER, sects tend to arise in groups who are marginal to society. Such groups may feel that they’re disprivileged (not receiving their economic rewards or social status). In Weber’s view. Sects offer­­­­­­ a solution to this problem by offering their members a theodicy of disprivilege (a religious explanation and justification for their suffering and diadvantage). This may explain their misfortune as a test of faith, e.g. while holding out the promise of rewards in the future for keeping the faith. Historically any sects. As well as millenarian movements, have recruited from the marginalised poor. For example, in the 20th century the nation of Islam (black Muslims) recruited successfully among disadvantaged blacks in the USA. However since the 60s, the sect-like world-rejecting NRMs such as the Moonies have recruited mainly from more affluent groups of often well-educated young, middle0class whites. However, WALLIS argues that this does not contradict WEBER’s view because many of these individuals had become marginal to society. Despite their middle-class origins, most were hippies, dropouts and drug users.
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION - relative deprivation refers to the subjective sense of being deprived. This means that it is possible for someone who is very privileged to feel as though they are deprived or disadvantaged in some way to others. Thus, although middle-class people are materially well-off, they may feel they are spiritually deprived, especially in today’s materialistic and consumerist world, which they may perceive as impersonal and lacking in moral value, emotional warmth or authenticity. As a result, WALLIS argues, they may turn to sects for a sense of community. Similarly, STARK and BAINBIDGE argue that it is the relatively deprived who break away from churches to form sects. When middle-class members of a church seek to compromise its beliefs on order to fit into society. Deprived members are likely to break away to form sects that safeguard the original message of the organisation. An example of this could be that the deprived may stress Christ’s claim that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, and that the meek shall inherit the earth, both messages that the better off might want to play down. STARK and BAINBIDGE argue that the world-rejecting sects offer the deprived the compensators they need for the rewards they are denied. In
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