Social Control in Alternative Religions: A Familial Perspective

Abstract

This article highlights the pervasiveness of family models in both the theological self-conceptions of alternative religious organizations and the sociological scholarship on them. We argue that these models provide useful directions for studying alternative religions, since both institutions frequently enmesh their members in constraining social environments that facilitate the occurrence of sustained and systematic abuse. Noteworthy, therefore, is the failure of alternative religion scholars to incorporate insights from standard family violence literature in their analyses of various religious groups. We outline three approaches to family violence literature -- social structural, social systems, and feminist -- that provide explanations about why members remain in abusive social relationships. These explanations shed light on the reasons why members remain in abusive alternative religions, and they establish clear conceptual links between the sociology of religion and the sociology of the family.