New religious movements and cults in popular culture

New religious movements and cults can appear as themes or subjects in literature and popular culture, while notable representatives of such groups have produced, for their own part, a large body of literary works.

Terminology

The term "cult," as applied to non-mainstream religious or secular organizations, has multiple overlapping or contradictory meanings in both scholarly and popular usage.

Some anthropologists and sociologists studying cults have argued that no one has yet been able to define “cult” in a way that enables the term to identify only groups that have been identified as problematic; however, even without the "problematic" concern, scientific criteria of characteristics attributed to cults do exist. Note a little-known example: the Alexander and Rollins (1984) scientific study concluding that the socially well-received group Alcoholics Anonymous is a cult, yet Vaillant, 2005, further concluded that AA is beneficial.

Commentators other than social scientists participate to a greater degree in cultic studies than in many comparable topics, which may render it difficult to demarcate the boundaries of scientific research from theology, politics, journalism, family cultural values, and the anecdotal findings of some mental health professionals. According to James T. Richardson (1993), the "popular use" of the term "cult" has, since the 1920s, "gained such credence and momentum that it has virtually swallowed up the more neutral historical meaning of the term from the sociology of religion." A twentieth century attempt by sociologists to replace "cult" with the term New Religious Movement (NRM), was rejected by the public and only partly accepted by the scientific community. The term "New Religious Movement" is also used by scholars with the implication that the group in question either is not a "destructive" cult or has evolved away from past controversial practices.

Members of the groups in question usually strongly dispute the label "cult", especially as used in the media and popular culture, and some scholars and social scientists regard all definitions that focus on special authoritarian characteristics as being flawed.

This article deals with the treatment of such groups in literature and popular culture, which may depict exaggerated and or even inaccurate perceptions of particular or generic groups. The mention of any real (as opposed to fictional) organization or person in this article reflects only that some specific sources regards it as having (or having had in past generations) the characteristics associated with such groups. Some organizations or movements mentioned herein have evolved over the years, as has the surrounding culture, and are no longer viewed in the negative way they were viewed at the time particular literary works about them (or literary works by their founders or members) were written. Other historical groups, such as Theosophy in the late 19th century, were known for their novel beliefs and charismatic leadership but not necessarily for abusive practices, and are best described as the NRMs of their day.

Literature

Ancient

Alexander the False Prophet

Alexander the False Prophet is a deeply hostile satire by Lucian of Samosata in which this second century AD writer describes Alexander of Abonoteichus, an oracle who built a following in parts of the Roman Empire, and according to Lucian swindled many people and engaged, through his followers, in various forms of thuggery. The strength of Lucian's venom against Alexander is attributed to Alexander's hate of the Epicurians (Lucian admired the works of Epicurus, a eulogy of which concludes the piece), and whether he was the master of fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian may not have been any different than other oracles of the age, in which a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.

Sociologist Stephen A. Kent, in a study of the text, compares Lucian's Alexander to the "malignant narcissist" in modern psychiatric theory, and suggests that the "behaviors" described by Lucian "have parallels with several modern cult leaders." Ian Freckelton has noted at least a surface similarity between Alexander and the leader of a contemporary religious group, the Children of God.

Other scholars have described Alexander as an oracle who perpetrated a hoax to deceive gullible citizens, or as a false prophet and charlatan who played on the hopes of simple people, who "made predictions, discovered fugitive slaves, detected thieves and robbers, caused treasures to be dug up, healed the sick, and in some cases actually raised the dead" (ch. 24). Alexander did more than combine healing instructions with the oracle, which was not uncommon at the time, but also instituted mysteries. His main opponents where Epicureans and Christians.

Lucian also wrote a satire called The Passing of Peregrinus, in which the lead character, Proteus, described by Lucian as a charlatan, takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians.

The Golden Ass

In the last chapter of Apuleius' The Golden Ass, Lucius, the hero, eager for his initiation into the mystery cult of Isis, abstains from forbidden foods, bathes and purifies himself. Then the secrets of the cult's books are explained to him, and further secrets revealed before going through the process of initiation which involves a trial by the elements in a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of Osiris in Rome, and eventually is initiated into the pastophoroi—a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.

Early twentieth century

Mark Twain wrote a highly critical book (1907) about Christian Science. Willa Cather, a newspaper and magazine journalist and editor before turning to full-time fiction writing, co-authored a detailed muckraking book (1909) on the same religious movement. Christian Science gained a large measure of respectability in later years.

Zane Grey, in his Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), a Western novel that would have a major influence on Hollywood, lambasts the Mormons and has his gunslinger hero rescue a wealthy young woman in the early 1870s from the clutches of elderly polygamists via exceedingly bloody gunfights. The novel contains a portrayal of the psychological conflicts of the young woman, raised a Mormon but gradually coming to the realization that she wants a supposedly less constricted life. The Mormon misdeeds depicted in the story take place on the southern frontier of Utah and Grey makes no suggestion that Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City are involved. The harassment of the young woman reflects a popular literary theme in Victoria's England rather than Brigham Young's Utah — the orphaned young heiress besieged by unscrupulous suitors who often profess the Anglican or Catholic faith.

In Dashiell Hammett's The Dain Curse (1929), much of the mystery puzzle revolves around the Temple of the Holy Grail, a fictitious California circle that Hammett's characters repeatedly describe as a "cult". Hammett depicts it as having been started as a scam, although the putative leader begins to believe in his own fraudulent claims.

A.E.W. Mason, in The Prisoner in the Opal (1928), one of his Inspector Hanaud mysteries, describes the unmasking of a Satanist cult.

The Italian novelist Sibilla Aleramo, in Amo, dunque sono (I Love, Therefore I Am) (1927) depicted Julius Evola's UR Group, a hermetical circle and intellectual movement — strongly influenced by Anthroposophy — that attempted to provide a spiritual direction to Benito Mussolini's fascism. Aleramo described the character based on her former lover Evola as "inhuman, an icy architect of acrobatic theories, vain, vicious, perverse." The hero of the novel was based on Giulio Parise, who would unsuccessfully attempt to oust the pro-Fascist Evola as the circle's leader in 1928, resulting in an announcement by Evola that he would thenceforth exert "an absolute unity of direction" over the circle's publications.

Mid and late twentieth century

Science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein wrote two novels that deal with fictitious cult-like groups. A leading figure in his early "Future History" series (see If This Goes On--, a short novel published in Revolt in 2100 (1953)), Nehemiah Scudder, a religious "prophet", becomes dictator of the United States. By his own admission in an afterword, Heinlein poured into this book his distrust of all forms of religious fundamentalism, the Ku Klux Klan, the Communist Party and other movements that he regarded as authoritarian. Heinlein also stated in the afterword that he worked out the plot of other books about Scudder, but had decided not to write them in part because he found Scudder so unpleasant. (A Scudder-like dictatorship complete with sexual slavery for women would later become the theme of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985).) Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) features two cults: the Dionysian Church of the New Revelation, Fosterite, and the protagonist Valentine Michael Smith's own Church of All Worlds. Heinlein treats of the motives and methods of religious leaders in some detail.

Fictitious cults also feature in science fantasy and in horror novels. In That Hideous Strength (1945), C.S. Lewis describes the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments, or "NICE", a quasi-governmental front concealing a kind of doomsday cult that worships a disembodied head kept alive by scientific means. This head, who/which is plotting to turn the Earth into a dead world like the Moon, has been interpreted as a symbol of secularism and materialism. Lewis' novel is notable for its elaboration of his 1944 address "The Inner Ring." The latter work criticizes the lust to "belong" to a powerful clique--a common human failing that Lewis believed was the basis for people being seduced into power-hungry and spiritually twisted movements.

In William Campbell Gault's Sweet Wild Wench (Fawcett, 1956), L.A. private eye Joe Puma investigates the Children of Proton, a fictional cult that has attracted the support of the daughter of a wealthy businessman.

In Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon (1994), the heroine battles against a Goddess-worshipping cult led by a radical feminist with supernatural powers and a penchant for human sacrifice.

Gore Vidal's Messiah (1955) depicts the rise of a cult leader, while Vidal's Kalki (1978), a science-fiction novel, recounts how a small but scientifically adept fictitious cult kills off the entire human race by means of germ warfare.

Twenty-first century

Popular French author Michel Houellebecq's 2005 science-fiction novel, The Possibility of an Island, describes a cloning group that resembles the Raëlians.

Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code (2003), portrays a hero and heroine in flight from an assassin who belongs to the Catholic organization Opus Dei. Opus Dei has disputed the accuracy of the portrayal as has much of the media. For example, the villain in The Da Vinci Code is a monk, but there are no monks in the real Opus Dei.

Paul Malmont's The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (2006) portrays a young L. Ron Hubbard as one of three 1930s pulp fiction writers who fight the forces of evil in a novel that nostalgically mimics the pulps. Although Malmont portrays the young Hubbard and future Scientology founder as having a tendency to pad his resume (a charge also made by some biographers of the real Hubbard), Malmont's Hubbard is in most respects a sympathetic character as well as being a hero of the action.

Mike Doogan's detective thriller Lost Angel (2006) takes place at a fictional Christian commune in Alaska called Rejoiced. From the first, Doogan leads readers to see the group as a cult, but gradually it emerges that many members are reasonable people who routinely (if quietly) disobey the commune's founder and nominal leader (an elderly man with psychopathic tendencies), regard him as an embarrassment, and are horrified when his crimes are revealed.

Robert Muchamore has written a book for teenagers, Divine Madness, about a religious cult that has a vast number of members: the main characters of the book must infiltrate the cult to discover a sinister plot.

Literary works by founders of new trends or movements

Aleister Crowley, founder of the English-speaking branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis and of a short-lived commune (the "Abbey of Thelema") in Sicily, was a poet anthologized in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917) and a novelist (Diary of a Drug Fiend (1922) and Moonchild (1929)). Crowley died in 1947. His autobiography, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, was republished in 1969 and attracted much attention. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes Crowley's fiction and his manuals on the occult as examples of "lifestyle fantasy."

The travel-writer, poet and painter Nicholas Roerich, the founder of Agni Yoga, expressed his spiritual beliefs through his depiction of the stark mountains of Central Asia.[15] His classic travel books include Heart of Asia: Memoirs from the Himalayas (1929) and Shambhala: In Search of the New Era (1930).

L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, worked as a contributing author in the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1930s to 1950s) and in the horror and fantasy genres. In a bibliographical study of his works, Marco Frenschkowski agrees with Stephen King that Fear (1940) is one of the major horror tales of the twentieth century, and praises "its imaginative use of the prosaic and its demythologizing of traditional weird fiction themes." Other works cited as notable by Frenschkowski include Typewriter in the Sky (1940), To the Stars (1950), the best-selling Battleship Earth (1982), and the ten-volume Mission Earth (1985-87). Frenschkowski concludes that although Hubbard's fiction has been excessively praised by his followers, it also has been underrated by science-fiction critics who are leery of Scientology. John Clute and Peter Nichols, however, manage to praise much of Hubbard's oeuvre while also raising questions about the thematic link to Scientology. Hubbard's "canny utilization of superman protagonists" in his early work, they argue, came to "tantalize" s-f writers and fans "with visions of transcendental power" and may explain why so many early followers of Hubbard's movement came from the s-f community.

G.I. Gurdjieff, the Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher who introduced and taught the Fourth Way, authored three literary works that comprise his All and Everything trilogy. The best known, Meetings with Remarkable Men, a memoir of Gurdjieff's youthful search for spiritual truth, has become a minor classic and was made into a film (1979) by Peter Brook. Also in the trilogy is Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, a curious melange of philosophy, humor and science-fiction that some regard as a masterpiece. P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins series and a disciple of Gurdjieff, described Beelzebub as "soaring off into space, like a great, lumbering flying cathedral." It is included in Martin Seymour-Smith's 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written, with the comment that it is "...the most convincing fusion of Eastern and Western thought that has yet been seen." The final volume, Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', is an incomplete text published posthumously.

Ayn Rand, founder of Objectivism, wrote two mega-bestsellers, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). The Fountainhead sold over 6 million copies by 2005; and Atlas Shrugged over 22 million. Rand's science-fiction novella Anthem (1938) is also still widely read.

Eli Siegel, the founder of Aesthetic Realism, wrote highly regarded poetry. His "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana" (1925)[16]. (republished in Siegel's 1957 book having the same name) was described as his "major poem" by William Carlos Williams, who wrote that Siegel "belongs in the first ranks of our living artists." Among other critics and poets who praised Siegel's work were Selden Rodman and Kenneth Rexroth; the latter wrote that "it's about time Eli Siegel was moved up into the ranks of our acknowledged Leading Poets."

Important non-fiction writers among founders of movements

Helena Blavatsky, the Russian adventuress who founded Theosophy, wrote Isis Unveiled (1887) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), and had an immense cultural and intellectual influence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, helping to stimulate the Indian nationalist movement, the interfaith ecumenical movement, parapsychology, the fantasy literary genre, and what today is called the New Age movement. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes her two major books as "enormous, entrancing honeypots of myth, fairytale, speculation, fabrication and tomfoolery."

Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925), founder of Anthroposophy, wrote in a variety of fields (his collected works total 350 volumes) and influenced such figures as the novelist Herman Hesse and the philosopher Owen Barfield. Through his writings and lectures, Steiner stimulated the development of the cooperative movement, alternative medicine, organic farming, the Waldorf schools, and "eurythmy" in modern dance.

"Tract" literature

Several authors have prolifically produced tracts, and although their writings may not have influenced contemporary culture to the degree of a Reich or Blavatsky they have stimulated many to join their churches or movements and have expressed ideas that have been adopted and adapted by writers and spiritual "entrepreneurs" outside of their own circles. Examples include JZ Knight, founder of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, whose popular Ramtha books have done much to spread the practice of spirit channelling among New Agers; and Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the Church Universal and Triumphant who, with her late husband Mark Prophet, wrote over 75 books on the "Ascended Masters" and similar topics. Other examples include the late Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God, whose books on Biblical prophecy and British Israelism were widely read for over a half century; and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche — the author of over 500 books, articles and published speeches which have had a significant if often subterranean influence on various movements of the left and right as well as on the media in some countries.

Television

• In the Simpsons episode "The Joy of Sect", most of Springfield join a new sect called The Movementarians, led by the mysterious "Leader" who persaudes most residents to give up their material possessions to him. A skeptical Marge tries desperately to deprogram her family with the help of Reverend Lovejoy, one of the few town residents not to join the sect, and Willie (who offers to "kidnap Homer for fifty, deprogram him for a hundred, or kill him for five hundred", although he begins to worship the Leader as well after Homer tells him about the Leader, which lasts after the Leader is revealed to be a con artist). Eventually, they kidnap Homer, "deprogram" him with beer and the Leader is revealed to be nothing more than a con artist.

• The X-Files episode Via Negativa dealt with a murderous religious cult leader.

• In an episode of Monk, the leader of a cult is suspected to be the killer of a member of his cult.

• In an episode of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Norman Lear's 1976-1977 soap-opera parody, one of Mary Hartman's neighbors joins the Hare Krishnas and his family decides to have him deprogrammed.

• In a Seinfeld episode entitled "The Checks", Mr. Wilhelm joins a religious cult that masquerades as a carpet-cleaning service. When George tries to talk him out of it, Mr. Wilhelm says his new name is Tanya (a nod to the Patty Hearst case).

• Lyndon LaRouche has been spoofed several times on programs such as The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, and in the comic strip Bloom County. An episode of the science-fiction series Sliders depicts a parallel universe in which LaRouche has become President of the United States.

• "The Plan", an episode of Six Feet Under first broadcast on 17 March 2002, deals with a seminar reminiscent of an est or Landmark Education Forum.

• The Family Guy episode Chitty Chitty Death Bang deals with a fictional cult that parodies elements of Heaven's Gate and Peoples Temple.

• The science-fiction series The 4400 features the cultish 4400 Center, led by messianic figures Jordan Collier and Shawn Farrell.

• In a multi-episode 1992 story arc on the drama Sisters, Reed (Ashley Judd) and Kirby (Paul Rudd) distance themselves from their family when they become involved with a cult.

• The South Park episodes "The Return of Chef" and "Super Best Friends" dealt with cults. In "The Return of Chef", Chef joined the "Super Adventure Club", and in "Super Best Friends", the foursome joined the "Blaintologists", who revere David Blaine as a messianic figure. The episode " Trapped in the Closet" parodied Scientology.

Video and computer games

• The video game "Earthbound" features the "Happy Happy" Cult
• In the video game "Dead Rising" for XBOX360, the protagonist must defeat a cult.
• The Silent Hill series heavily involves a Religious cult.
• "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" has a cult called the "Mythic Dawn". The player must join the cult in an effort to defeat it.
• In Resident Evil 4, Leon Kennedy fights against a cult of Spanish villagers possessed by parasites.

Film

• The 1999 Australian film Holy Smoke featured Kate Winslet as a traveler newly returned from India, where she had fallen under the spell of a religious guru. Harvey Keitel played the cult-deprogrammer sent to persuade her to return to her original mindset.

• Tim Daly played David Koresh in the 1993 television movie In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco.