Religious sects have been studied sociologically as social movements, minorities and deviant groups. The perspective of the sociology of deviance has principally been adopted in attempts to understand those instances when a sectarian group has aroused public hostility. This is interpreted as a reaction to the activities of the religious movement which have become publicly defined as deviant. The escalation of such a hostile public response towards religious, and other 'deviant', groups has sometimes been accounted for in terms of the so-called deviance amplification model. The model has often been used in conjunction with its conceptual cousin, 'the moral crusade', to account for the arousal and intensification of hostility towards various minorities.l If the origins and escalation of hostility have been accounted for in these ways, the consequences of such an adverse public reaction for a religious movement's development have been examined with only oblique reference to the sociological notion of deviarlce. The long term careers of religious groups, notably those defined as sects, have more commonly been considered in the context of the transition from sect to denomination. Such a transition is said to involve, inter alia, the weaning of the sect away from radical, and by implication deviant, practices. If one takes a societal-reaction approach to deviance, then it follows that the hostile response of the public might be expected to affect the nature and speed of this transition. Both deviance amplification and the sect-to-denomination models can offer important insights into the role of public hostility in the life of a religious movement-but only with due appreciation of their limitations. The aim here is not to dismiss these forms of explanation in favour of new, more radical and esoteric principles, but rather to demonstrate the need to take a broader perspective. Specifically, we suggest the need to look more closely at the internal dynamic of the situation which engenders hostility. Such a situation needs to be seen as one