English
中文1. Introduction
Bruce (1996) observes that the Western world (in particular) experienced a significant proliferation of new religious movements (NRMs) from the 1960s, and has attributed this to the effects of the counter-culture movement of this period, which precipitated a move by Westerners to experiment Eastern spiritualities like Zen Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation. Mainstream churches also lost a lot of their members, and especially, “young people in large numbers began to experiment with a wide range of new cults and sects” (Bruce 1996: 169).
This essay briefly presents how two NRMs – the Hare Krishna Movement and the Family of God – secure allegiance from their followers.
2. The Hare Krishna Movement
a. A Brief History and Doctrinal Background
The Hare Krishna Movement, also known as the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was established in New York in 1965 by the late Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Nye, 2001). Like many NRMs that borrow from already established religions (Bruce 1996), ISKCON has its roots in Hinduism, a religion which has been in existence for millenniums. Consequently, certain notable practices and beliefs of Hinduism are still very conspicuous in ISKCON. The Supreme Being of the ISKCON faith, Krishna, is for instance believed by ‘orthodox’ Hindus to be the avantra (incarnation) of Vishnu. ISKCON also uses the Bhagavad-Gita – the scriptures of Hinduism – as its main scriptures and its message of Krishna Consciousness is based on a belief in the revelation of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita. ISKCON thus requires of its adherents to spread the message of Krishna Consciousness using what the Bhagavad-Gita reveals about Krishna (Nye, 2001).
A notable mark of ISKCON followers is their adherence to the daily chanting of the maha mantra. (Knott, 1986, p.21)
Followers of ISKCON are also required to practice or adhere to the four regulative principles – prohibitions against indulgence in gambling, intoxicants, eating of flesh and illicit sex. Compliance with these regulative principles and the daily chanting of the maha mantra assures followers of spiritual enlightenment and blissfulness (Nye, 2001).
b. ISKCON – Securing Allegiance From Followers
ISKCON employs a variety of ways of securing allegiance from their followers worldwide. These include requirements of monasticism, forms of congregational worship, public expression of ISKCON faith (Knott, 1986) and a strong emphasis on discipleship (Dwyer, 2003). Requirements of adherence to the four regulative principles and the daily chanting of the maha mantra (presented above) are also a means by which ISKCON secures allegiance from its followers.
It appears the emphasis on certain particular forms of securing allegiance from followers depicts the different epochs in the development of ISKCON as a religious movement. For example, requirements of monastic living were more strongly emphasized from the period of ISKCON’s establishment in 1965 through to the 1980s (Nye, 2001).
Winning followers with family and occupational commitments however presented a challenge to the requirements of monastic living as such followers could not combine their commitments with adherence to monasticism. Thus, while maintaining some level of monasticism, ISKCON also effected a moved towards congregational worship during the 1980s. This ensured ISKCON’s ability to secure the allegiance of followers whose socio-economic commitments were not compatible with monasticism (Nye 2001).
Securing of allegiance through public expression of faith in ISKCON is achieved through requirements of public selling or distribution of books (harinam) and chanting and dancing performed by followers in public places (sankirtan) (Nye, 2001). For followers to be faithful adherents, ISKCON places a lot of emphasis on discipleship. All followers of ISKCON are disciples of the late Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Dwyer, 2003). Neophytes are however placed under the tutelage of a guru who operates as their initiator and spiritual guide (Dwyer, 2003).
3. The Family of God
The Family of God (founded as The Children of God and also called The Family of Love or The Family) was founded in 1968 by David Brandt Berg, “a third generation evangelist” whose grandfather and father were preachers in Christian denominations (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Family.html).
Berg’s strong Christian family background greatly impacted on his establishment of ‘The Family’. His mother is reported to have related to him a ‘warning prophecy’ she had received about the ‘end-time’ and the advent of the anti-Christ and claimed that: “Even now the skies are RED, RED with WARNING, and BLACK, BLACK with clouds gathering for the GREAT CONFUSION which is ALMOST UPON YOU!” (Bainbridge 1997: 218). Inspired by this prophecy and having read the Bible to confirm its scriptural basis, Berg made a commitment in 1968 to preach to the ‘hippie’ youth of the counter culture in the Huntington Beach area of California (Melton 1986).
Evangelistic soul winning became the focus of Berg’s ministry as all the energies of the new movement were channelled towards proselytising programmes in different parts of the USA and Canada.
By 1970, the aggressive proselytisation campaigns of The Family had yielded some results and group numbered about 200 members (Van Zandt, 1991). The allegiance of converts was secured through a strong emphasis on teaching, public expression of faith through the proselytisation activities and a strong adherence to claims of prophetic messages. Berg for instance claimed that his personal marriage was a prophetic example of how God was dealing with the mainstream churches and that his wife (who he had abandoned) represented the mainstream church that God was doing away with and his relationship with his secretary, Maria, was symbolic of God’s approval of his movement (Melton 1986).
The Family also adopted ‘unorthodox’ ways of recruiting new converts which Berg termed ‘Flirty Fishing’ (Bainbridge 1997: 222). Flirty Fishing involved the use of erotic approaches to proselytisation. Emotional and sexual relationships were endorsed as a means of recruiting and maintaining converts. Berg’s movement thus endorsed pre-marital and extra marital sexual relationships for evangelistic purposes (Bainbridge, 1997).
Other evangelistic mediums like printed material (e.g. Mo Letters), music and mass mailing were used by Berg’s movement. Through these varied forms of activities and its spread to many countries with varied cultures The Family was transformed “from a California-based, hippie, fundamentalist group, rigidly and centrally structured under the authority of Moses David Berg to a more eclectic, multi-ethnic, decentralized missionary movement of relatively independent communities dispersed all over the globe” (Lewis and Melton 1994: 123)
Conclusion
As is evidenced by the presentation above, NRMs are very varied, and employ different modes of securing allegiance from followers. It appears though that practices like proselytisation and the use of the belief systems of already established religions, as evidenced in the practices of ISKCON and The Family, are some common features that underpin the modes by which NRMs secure allegiance from followers.
