The United States has a long history of organizing religious sects, new religions and cults. The inherent individualism and right to self-determination that is fundamental to its culture makes it inevitable that many expressions of religion have emerged, many of them with cult-like characteristics. The term “cult” developed a negative stereotype as numerous cults arose in the 1970s. Current scholars prefer the term “new religion” or “alternative religion” to the term “cult.” A recent publication cited over 1,000 cults, sects and new religions in the United States. The number continues to grow as mainstream Protestant denominations (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists and Methodists) lose their appeal, while immigrants from non-Christian, non-Protestant traditions continue to flourish in the country (Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists), New Age movements continue to proliferate and an increasing number of individuals are alienated from religion altogether.

Major “new religions” or movements considered cults include the New Age movement, the Unification Church, the Way the Hare Krishna movement, the WICA movement and other goddess religions, and the Church of Scientology. Other communities in the latter part of the twentieth century that enjoyed cult-like status but no longer exist, owing to mass suicides or conflicts with lawenforcement officials, included Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, MOVE, the Branch Davidians, and Heaven’s Gate.

Mormons and Christian Scientists, now generally considered “new religions,” have also been considered cults, revealing the latter term’s instability and its dependence on perspective.

Characteristics that distinguish alternative religions from mainstream religions have been variously identified—from any religion that departs from traditional interpretation to socially dangerous groups led by cynical leaders who exploit their members. Another list of categories for distinguishing new religions or cults from mainstream include: leadership (often lay or charismatic), organization (usually less bureaucratic), size (usually small), membership (usually requires conversion to a community that excludes the unworthy), worship (often fervent or spontaneous), dedication to duty (makes more demands on time and controls members’ lives) and social status (often marginalized, uneducated or powerless) (Miller 1995:3–4).

The New Age movement is considered the outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture.

Baby boomers, former hippies and others suddenly seeking spiritual guidance may be drawn to New Age ideals as brought by David Spangler, a student of Alice Bailey, to America from the Findhorn Community in Scotland (described in My Dinner with Andre, 1981). These ideals are: 1. The possibility of personal transformation; 2. The coming of broad cultural/environmental transformation; 3. The transformation of occult arts and processes; and 4. The self as divine.

The Unification Church began in Korea in the 1950s with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, but it came to the United States in 1971 when Moon went coast to coast speaking, defending Nixon, and proselytizing on college campuses. His followers believe that Moon has revealed a “new truth,” as recorded in the 1973 Divine Principle, that he and Mrs Moon are the “true parents of humankind,” that he is the messiah whose task is to establish the true family and that he has ushered in a “completed Testament Age.” The true family begins with a “blessing,” often found in mass weddings of thousands of couples at one time.

A former evangelical and Reformed Church of America minister, Victor Paul Wierville founded the Way in 1942. His teachings reject the Trinity and deny the divinity of Jesus. The Way grew explosively during the 1970s as part of the national Jesus People revival. Teachings are spread through Power for Abundant Living classes. This group has been the subject of numerous de-programming actions, as well as federal investigations for their training in deadly weapons.

The Hare Krishna movement—or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness—set American roots in the 1960s, when A.C. Bhaktivendanta Swami Prabhupada entered New York City’s counterculture. It has aroused great hostility particularly through aggressive solicitation at airports and public places.

The Church of Scientology is a distinctive American “new religion” founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911–86). From his 1950 publication of Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health, his followers have asserted that humans can live without unwanted sensations and fears, that humans are essentially good and that thetans (humans as immortal spiritual beings) have lived many lifetimes before. This group has been the subject of numerous cult controversies, e.g. over tax evasion and health practices, and has a sizeable following among actors in Hollywood, including Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank and John Travolta, who brought Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth to the screen (2000), where it failed to become a summer blockbuster.