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The present study explored a minority oppositional religious culture, which continued practicing despite overt hostilities to their practices. The qualitative research project utilized interviews and observations of the Gardnerian Wiccans in Broward County, Florida. The narrative data were transcribed, coded, and categorized into three themes related to the following research questions: Why would individuals create a secretive religion? Given they had to practice in secret, what about this religion had people seeking out information and joining Covens? What would keep this group together despite opposition from dominant culture? As a microcosm for religious conflict in society, the study showed differences in the culture’s religious paradigm structure as a major factor for religious conflict.

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This thesis explores thirty-two individuals?? experiences of involvement in Siddha Yoga. Such groups have often been labelled as cults and accused of ??brainwashing?? their followers. The conceptualisation of affiliation as brainwashing has been influential within the helping professions, including psychology, counselling and social work. However, this conceptualisation is not supported by empirical research on cults, or what have become known as New Religious Movements (NRMs). The research problem which this thesis addresses therefore is: ??If a brainwashing model of affiliation does not give an adequate explanation for cult/NRM involvement how else might it be understood??? A primary objective of this study was to inform the helping professions, in particular social work. A secondary objective was to add to knowledge about Siddha Yoga Practice in Australia, which no other study had addressed, and thereby to add to the growing understanding of NRMs in Australia. The study applied a qualitative research framework, informed by grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology and used a purposive sampling technique. Materials were collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant observations and field notes, and analysed with the assistance of NVivo data analysis computer software. This study found that the conceptualisation of affiliation as brainwashing fails to account for the variety of individuals?? experiences of involvement in Siddha Yoga. Moreover, the findings highlight that involvement in regard to attraction, affiliation and disenchantment is not helpfully understood by adopting a ??brainwashing?? model and could be better understood through the lens of the sociology of religion, including studies of the experiences of those in mainstream religions. One implication of the findings for social work and other helping professions is that existing approaches to interpersonal helping could be used with individuals who seek assistance after leaving a NRM. For social work, this thesis also adds to the growing knowledge of the diverse religious orientations in the wider community. Such knowledge can enhance social work education, practice and theory in relation to social work??s diverse client population.

This thesis explores thirty-two individuals?? experiences of involvement in Siddha Yoga. Such groups have often been labelled as cults and accused of ??brainwashing?? their followers. The conceptualisation of affiliation as brainwashing has been influential within the helping professions, including psychology, counselling and social work. However, this conceptualisation is not supported by empirical research on cults, or what have become known as New Religious Movements (NRMs). The research problem which this thesis addresses therefore is: ??If a brainwashing model of affiliation does not give an adequate explanation for cult/NRM involvement how else might it be understood??? A primary objective of this study was to inform the helping professions, in particular social work. A secondary objective was to add to knowledge about Siddha Yoga Practice in Australia, which no other study had addressed, and thereby to add to the growing understanding of NRMs in Australia. The study applied a qualitative research framework, informed by grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology and used a purposive sampling technique. Materials were collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant observations and field notes, and analysed with the assistance of NVivo data analysis computer software. This study found that the conceptualisation of affiliation as brainwashing fails to account for the variety of individuals?? experiences of involvement in Siddha Yoga. Moreover, the findings highlight that involvement in regard to attraction, affiliation and disenchantment is not helpfully understood by adopting a ??brainwashing?? model and could be better understood through the lens of the sociology of religion, including studies of the experiences of those in mainstream religions. One implication of the findings for social work and other helping professions is that existing approaches to interpersonal helping could be used with individuals who seek assistance after leaving a NRM. For social work, this thesis also adds to the growing knowledge of the diverse religious orientations in the wider community. Such knowledge can enhance social work education, practice and theory in relation to social work??s diverse client population.

The study of alternative religious movements (ARMs) encompasses a wide range of groups, from Fundamentalist Mormons to Scientologists to Jehovah’s Witnesses. There is, however, little research, and almost none of it from a therapeutic perspective, on the experiences of children who are raised in these groups. This leads me to wonder about the stories of women who are raised in and then exit ARMs and how these stories might inform the work of helping professionals. This thesis provides a narrative analysis of memoirs written by women who were raised in and then left alternative religions. Through the lens of deconstruction and post-structuralist feminism, it considers the ways in which women who have left ARMs narrate their experiences and how their stories might inform practice. Findings indicate that the women experienced a life marked by a pervasive sense of difference (though not always expressed in a negative sense). Long periods of managing doubt, dissonance, and disenchantment resulted in exhaustion. In the context of an expanding world and motivated by relationships with those outside their religious groups, they experienced deconversion and, eventually, disaffiliated. Disaffiliation was experienced both as frightening and liberating, resulting in the need to construct new identities and sites of belonging outside their religious groups. I have displayed these findings in the form of a model of religious deconversion and disaffiliation. This research may help child and youth care workers, therapists, social workers, and other helpers develop wise practices when working with those who have been raised in ARMs. / Graduate / 2022-04-14

This thesis is a folkloristic examination of the religious beliefs and rituals associated with members of a religious movement known as Mission De L’Ésprit Saint. Mission De L’Ésprit Saint is a Quebecois religious denomination which believes that their founder was the physical incarnation of the Holy Spirit, and the movement strives to continue the teachings which were laid down during his lifetime. The major components of Mission theology and history, as well as an introductory consideration of their cosmology and worldview will be the major focus of this document, as well as a consideration of the role that Folklore has in understanding marginal religious movements.

ARAÚJO, Márcia Assunção. Itinerância no Ashram: alimentando corpo e alma na Brahma Kumaris. 2012. 285f. – Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2012. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-06-15T14:03:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_maaraujo.pdf: 3318636 bytes, checksum: dc2e21ad4f7ac15aeac50ed200024ea2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-06-15T14:11:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_maaraujo.pdf: 3318636 bytes, checksum: dc2e21ad4f7ac15aeac50ed200024ea2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-15T14:11:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_tese_maaraujo.pdf: 3318636 bytes, checksum: dc2e21ad4f7ac15aeac50ed200024ea2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / The present study inquires into cognitive and symbolic perceptions of individuals from the town of Fortaleza who adopt a vegetarian diet for religious motivations. They belong to a yoga line, in scope of the new religious movements. This study took place in the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University – BKWSU, in the aforementioned city, between the years 2007 and 2011, and used as methodological tools participant observation and semi-structured interviews with students and professors of this spiritual movement with a neo-hindu face. Initial interest was to understand foodrelated representations and practices, but as the research went on, the existence of a semantic confluence between religious sentiment and food became evident, both converging to the construction of a brahmin life regimen. So, food has its meaning widened and is considered here as a sign/metaphor to think the body and soul relationship, suggested by the behavior code – maryadas – of this spiritual movement. For the participants of this group, forms of thinking, feeling and seeing the world are the expression of a collective belonging, which is, at the same time, subjectified and resignified in terms of the self-improvement process and sacralisation of the world. / O presente estudo investigou as percepções cognitivas e simbólicas de indivíduos que adotam práticas alimentares vegetarianas por motivações religiosas, na cidade de Fortaleza, pertencentes a uma linha de yoga no âmbito dos novos movimentos religiosos. Este estudo teve como cenário a Universidade Espiritual Mundial Brahma Kumaris – BKWSU, na referida cidade, entre os anos de 2007 e 2011, e utilizou como recursos metodológicos a observação participante e entrevistas semiestruturadas com alunos e professores deste movimento espiritual de cariz neo-hindu. Inicialmente, interessava compreender as representações e as práticas relacionadas com a alimentação, mas ao longo da pesquisa ficou evidente a existência de uma confluência semântica entre o sentimento religioso e alimentação, ambos concorrendo para a construção de um regime de vida brahmin. Assim, o alimento tem seu sentido alargado e é tomado aqui como signo/metáfora para se pensar a relação corpo e alma sugerida pelo código de condutas – maryadas – deste movimento espiritual. As formas de pensar, sentir e ver o mundo dos participantes deste grupo são expressão de uma pertença coletiva que é, ao mesmo tempo, subjetivada e ressignificada em termos do processo de aperfeiçoamento de si e de sacralização do mundo.

Starting in November of 2016, a documentary series aired on the original network A&E where it continues to capture the attention of thousands of viewers in America. Scientology: The Aftermath, starring the well-known King of Queens and Dancing with the Stars actress Leah Remini and former senior executive of the church of Scientology International and Sea Organization Mike Rinder, aim to reveal the "truth" that hides behind the church of Scientology. The show interviews ex-practitioners who claim their lives have been deeply impacted by the church and who want to assist in revealing the shocking stories of abuse and harassment the church tries to keep secret. The goal of the show, in short, is to not only share the "real" face of Scientology to the public, but to also reach out and assist people who have been affected personally by the church; some have lost their family and friends while others have been followed or monitored by church members. A simple Google search on Scientology brings up multiple news headlines on the church being labeled as a "cult" and "criminal" while magazines in the lines of grocery stores display the downfall on the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes due to the intensity of the Church of Scientology. Yet Scientology isn’t alone in receiving negative attention from the media. Christian Science has been accused of depriving the ill of needed medical attention which has led to some members becoming severely ill and dying in some cases. Most of these cases are children that were deprived of needed medical assistance due to their parents' religious views. Religious Studies scholar, Mary Bednarowski, adds that due to these circumstances, Christian Science has long experienced harsh criticism. With families and anti-cult movements protesting in the streets, ads, books, and magazines displaying their opposition, and the media labeling these movements as "dangerous", why would people join and remain in these New Religious Movements? What is it that makes these religious movements alluring and what are their adherents benefiting from them?

From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, a minority conservative faction took over the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). This project seeks to answer the questions of how a fringe minority within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination could undertake such a feat and why they chose to do so. The framework through which this work analyzes these questions is one of competing worldviews that emerged within the SBC in response to decades of societal shifts and denominational transformations in the post-World War II era. To place the events of the Southern Baptist “crisis” within this framework, this study seeks to refute the prevailing notion put forth in earlier works that the takeover was an in-house event, driven purely by doctrinal disputes between conservative Southern Baptists and SBC leadership. Illustrating the differences between rhetoric and action on both sides of this intra-denominational conflict, this work seeks to provide perspective to the narrative of the Southern Baptist “crisis” by asserting that the worldviews guiding the opposing factions diverged not only on doctrine, but culture and politics as well. Placing the events of the “crisis” within the context of broader worldviews, this project highlights and examines the intertwined nature of religion, culture, and politics in modern American society.