Assignment Before Class: Spend at
least two hours familiarizing yourself with the class home page. This class meeting will
be a hands-on presentation. When you get to class, open your machine to the class home
page. Check out site links
for a helpful guide to key locations of the class site. Four discrete tasks will be
presented: (1) how to use the class home page as a resource for navigating the Web; (2)
how to use search engines to locate materials not accessible from the home page; (3)
introduction of the term project [building a web page]; and (4) a brief demonstration on
how to use the class home page resources to create your own page.
At the conclusion of the class period, a list of groups available for individual
projects will be distributed. See Course Requirements for
information on how to claim a group. You should select and confirm a group by class on
February 11. Persons who have not selected a group by that date will have a group assigned
by the instructor.
JAN 28
Locating Cults
and Sects on the American Religious Landscape
- UNIT II:
CONCEPTUAL TOOLS FOR ANALYZING
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
- FEB 2
- How Are We To
Understand Religion in the Modern World?: Paradigms in Conflict
- FEB 4
- The Concepts of
Our Inquiry
- READ: Stark and Bainbridge, "Of
Churches, Sects, and Cults"
- FEB 9
- How Do New
Religions Get Started?
- READ: Bainbridge and Stark, "Cult
Formation:..."
- FEB 11
- Why People Join
NRMs: Social Science Models
- READ: Stark, "On Conversion";
Machalek and Snow, "Conversion to NRMs"
- WEB SITE SELECTION DUE: Those who have not
yet claimed a group by class time, must sign up for an appointment with Mr. Hadden to
discuss your term project.
-
- FEB 16
- Leaving Movements:
Rational Perspectives
- READ: Wright & Ebaugh, "Leaving
New..."
-
- FEB 18
- Group Survival:
Succession and Institutionalization
- READ: Roberts, "Emergence and
Viability of Religious Movements"
-
INTERLUDE:
Web Page Developoment
-
- FEB 23
- Workshop on Web Page Development
- ASSIGNMENT BEFORE CLASS: We will
create student web pages today. For everyone to succeed, it is critical that two tasks be
completed before class: (1) assemble as much information as you can on your group so that
you can insert it into your page, and (2) read the materials in the section entitled Soc 257 HTML Project
Resources, and carefully examine the materials under the section entitled NRM HTML Project
Templates
UNIT III:
POPULAR CULTURE AND THE CONSTRUCTION
OF EVIL
- FEB 25
- Why People Joint
NRMs: The Brainwashing Model
- READ: Barker, Ch 2; Anthony and Robbins,
"Brainwashing...."
-
- MAR 2
- Leaving
Movements: Deprogramming
- READ: Barker, "Forcible
Deprogramming"; Kelley, "Deprogramming and Religious Liberty"; Bromley,
" Deprogramming as a Mode of Exit from NRMs"
- MAR 4
- Organizing to
Fight Religious and Cultural Evil: the Counter-Cult and Anti-Cult Movements
- READ: Bromley and Shupe,"Organized
Opposition to NRMs"
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Use the class web page as a
jumping off spot to explore anti-cult and counter-cult organizations on the Internet. A
written homework assignment will be added later
-
- MAR 9
- A Social
Psychology Perspective: A Case for the Normalization of Influence
- Recommended Reading: Cialdina, Robert. Influence:
Science and Practice
-
-
- MAR 11
- Mid-Term Examination
-
- The examination is
objective and comprehensive of all readings, web assignments and class
presentations to date. Important: There is no
make-up exam. See Hour Exam under Course Requirements.
UNIT IV:
RELIGIONS MOVEMENTS IN AMERICA
HISTORY
- 19th and Early 20th Century Movements
- MAR 23
- Religious Outsiders
and the Making of America
- MAR 25
- 19th Century Religious Movements:
Mormons &
Catholics
- READ: Bromley and Shupe, Ch 2,
"Nineteenth Century Cult Scares: Mormons and Catholics as Subversives" [NB: this is two separate readings in the electronic text file.]
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Examine the LDS official
home page and at least one anti-cult page
- MAR 30
- Early 20th Century Religious
Movements: Fundamentalists
and Pentecostalism
.
- READ: Hadden, "Religious
Fundamentalism"
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Explore the materials
available on Pentecostalism from the class web page: Pentecostalism, Toronto Blessing,
Brownsville Revival.
- APR 1
- Televangelism and the Shape of
American Religion in the Late 20th Century
- READ: Hadden, "The Rise and Fall of
Religious Broadcasting"
- Contemporary Religious Movements
- APR 6
- Unification Church
- READ: Bromley and Shupe, "Unification
Church " [read introduction and the segment on the Moonies]
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Examine the Unification
Church home page; Steve Hassan's home page is a good illustration of an apostate activist.
- APR 8
- Scientology
- READ: Bromley and
Shupe,"Scientology"
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Use the Scientology page created
by Craig Hirsh as a jumping off place for learning about Scientolgy and the anti-cult
movement.
- APR 13
- The Family
- READ: Bromley and Shupe, "The
Family"; and "Our Family's Origins"
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Read Profile on The Family and then
examine the Home Page of The Family.
- APR 15
- The Millennium and Failed
Prophecies
- ASSIGNMENT: As we enter the last year of
this millennium, there are more media pundits predicting that 1999 will be produce a
bumper crop of religious fanatics doing crazy things. So far, every religious movement
that has predicted the return of Christ, has been wrong. So far, neither journalists,
social scientists, or theologians have successfully predicted an eruption that has
resulted in tragedy for a religoius movement. We'll see if they do any better in 1999.
We'll be exploring some sociological studies of groups that experienced failed prophecies.
Read the materials on Chen
Tao page. This is a group that predicted God would appear last March. We'll also keep
our eye on a group called Concerned Christians, a group predicts they will have a
significant role in the return of Christ. They mysteriously disappeared from Denver last
Fall. In January a group of them were deported from Israel becauses authorities believed
them to be dangerous.
- APR 20
- Branch Davidians: Some
Resources for Understanding Waco
- READ: Ammerman, "Report to the Justice
and Treasury..."; and Shupe and Hadden, "Cops, News Copy and Public
Opinion"
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: There is a lot of good
material on the Branch Davidians. I urge you to look at the Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum.
The creators of this site substantially hold to a conspiracy theory to which I don't
subscribe, but it presents much information for serious consideration. Waco-Inside Story
was created by PBS's Frontline. The general tone of the presentation is more
objective than most of the coverage of the standoff between the Davidians and the
BATF/FBI. One can access a lot of material from this site.
- APR 22
- Heaven's Gate
- READ: Rob Balch, a sociologist at the
University of Montana, studied this group from near their beginning. This selection from
his extensive writings provides a good historical account. Patti Gorman, a University of
Virginia student, demonstrates the utility of the concepts we have learned in this course
for understanding and interpreting the mass suicide of this group.
- APR 27
- Introduction: New
Age Religions
- WEB ASSIGNMENT: Several Profile pages have
been developed by students in this course which help to understand the origins of New Age
in the East and the syncretism that has happened in the West. Examine several sites. I
especially recommend Synchronicity
Meditation Foundation, a group that is located in Nelson County, only a short drive
from Charlottesville.
- APR 29
- Topic to be announced
- MAY 4:
- Showcasing Student Web Pages;
Concluding Remarks; and Evaluation
- MAY 13
- Final Examination [1400-1700] in
Wilson 308
- The examination will be comprehensive of
the entire course and will include both objective and essay questions. Essay questions may
be written on computer, or bring Blue Book. If you choose to write on the computer, bring
a disk for back up in case printer should malfunction
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