Sects and Cults

Sects and cults constitute a third Christian force, in addition to Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, in contemporary America. Sects are particularist groups with a basically negative orientation. Cults tend to be positively oriented and to be organized around a charismatic leader. Any discussion of the various religious groups in the United States must take into account the differences in context, rather than the differences in content, between them. Religious context largely determines whether or not religious groups are in the mainstream of historical development. The principal distinction between sects or cults and denominations is that sects or cults are established to achieve the spatial and psychic context of isolation. The denominations currently adapt to middle-class beliefs and values. The sects and cults are uneroded, unexposed, intransigent, and withdrawn. They provide a haven from social interpenetration and complexity. They do not wish to be assimilated into the mainstream of religious thought and practice. The sects and cults, in almost every particular, provide a counter current in the mid-twentieth century religious revival.—Ed.