Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The late 1960s and early 1970s constituted a remarkable period for spiritual experimentation and for the proliferation of new religious groups. Now the children born into these religions have come of age. While their parents made the decision as adults to embrace alternative religious practices, the children have been raised with a very different orientation toward the larger society. While they take their religious communities for granted, many of these children gaze with curiosity at the surrounding secular world which their parents, not they, chose to reject. The contributors to this volume examine children from many different alternative religious movements worldwide, including The Family, Hare Krishna, Wiccans, and Pagans, Messianic Communities, and the Rajneesh (Osho) Movement. The essays explore two general questions: 1) What impact does the presence of children have on a new religion's lifestyle and chance of surviving into the future? 2) Is child abuse more likely to occur in unconventional religions, or are children born into them, the 'new' religions have grown up and have become an important and rapidly changing social force that we cannot reasonably dismiss or wisely ignore
Synopsis
What's it like to grow up in a cult? The late 1960s and early 1970s constituted a remarkable period for the proliferation of new religious groups. In the 1990s, a second generation has come of age and, in some groups, outnumber adults. While the parents made the decision as adults to drop out of mainstream society and embrace alternative religious goals, the children have been raised with a very different orientation toward the larger society; they grew up assimilating their unique subcultures, many of them gazing with curiosity at the surrounding society it was never their choice to reject.