When Religion Becomes Deviance: Introducing Religion in Deviance and Social Problems Courses

Abstract

Sociologists have maintained an interest in fringe religion at least since the well-known research by John Lofland and Rodney Stark (1965) on the early years of the Unification church in this country. Fringe religions, often referred to as new religious movements (NRMs) or cults, are a fascinating and theoretically insightful form of deviant behavior. The connection between religion and deviance has not been lost on sociologists, and there is an important literature that considers religion as deviant behavior (e.g., Brornley and Shupe 1993; Dawson 1996; Miller 1995; Neitz and Goldman 1995). For the most part, however, those who have studied deviant religions have identified themselves as sociologists of religion rather than as deviance theorists, and their books and articles have primarily been written for and read by sociologists of religion. As a result, sociologists discuss religion as deviance in sociology of religion courses but not in deviance courses or social problems courses. A review of the content of deviance journals and courses, in fact, revealed no religion articles in the journal Deviant Behavior from 1979 to 1994 (Bader, Becker, and Desmond 1996). Only one deviance textbook, furthermore, includes a chapter on the topic (Ward, Carter, and Perrin 1994). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate just how logically and neatly the study of NRMs fits theoretical frameworks in the sociology of deviance and social problems, as well as to point deviance scholars and teachers to religion literature relevant to their courses. While some have suggested that religion should be discussed in deviance courses (e.g., Bader et al. 1996), and others have suggested that deviance courses should focus on deviant groups, including NRMs (Smith 1996), most teachers and scholars have paid little attention to how religion should be presented in a deviance course. This paper attempts to do just that.