Cults and New Religious Movements (Types)

In this article to show, you will find and know everything related to Sects and New Religious Movements, since sects are a phenomenon widely treated in recent years, which has left many church sectors surprised as each decade passes. , while on the other hand the appearance of new religious movements generally constitutes a cultural fact linked to its evolution over the centuries.

New Religious Movements – NMR

The so-called new religious movements, or also known as the NMR, are religious communities or they can also be defined as small groups, whether spiritual, ethical or even philosophical, which have emerged in recent decades, which is why they are called With the name of NMR, it is possible to say that all these have a peripheral place of the dominant religious culture, that is to say, that is where their origin comes from, or that in most cases.

Although there are exceptions where these religious movements do not necessarily have to be linked to the dominant religious culture since they have their own origin or it may also be the case that they are part of another religion less extensive than the one mentioned above. Currently the denomination of the new religious movements is defined as a neutral alternative to the word sect, according to several authors and social scientists.

A new religious movement can also include an extensive and high range of movements which can range from those with free affiliations, but with new approaches, whether spiritual or religious or even, in several cases, community, which have a high demand in terms of amount of conformity with the group and at the same time a social identity, which must self-differentiate its said followers who follow it with the other currents of society.

The denomination of new religious movements is not generally used or universally accepted by those groups to which they apply said movement, although it occurs only in a small part of said groups that apply it. This has a logical explanation since such new religious movements do not necessarily share a set of several particular attributes since these may have been specially assigned to the periphery of the dominant religious culture and only exist in a small contested space within the same society in your own set.

Definition of New Religious Movements

There is no specific or established criteria or set of criteria to be able to accurately describe a group with the denomination of “new religious movement” although said use of this term is generally used by groups that meet two fundamental requirements which are; that they are of very recent origin and that they do not have any ambiguity as they must also be different in some way from the already existing religions.

Although these also have a somewhat restricted approach regarding the aspect of the different existing religions, this according to several academics, since for them said “differences” would apply only to faith since although they could have similarities with another religion already existing also this gathers around the rejection of said religion all this for the fact of not sharing the same basic creed or simply it can also be declared as independent of the already existing religion.

But over the years, the measurement of this difference has expanded since new religious movements are now taken into account that could be taken from any type of context, rather than the entire cultural and traditional one, where they appear in new places until they reach to the point of appearing in new modified forms, all this according to other scholars.

Speaking more in depth about the subject, the sects or new religious movements can vary in terms of the terms of leadership, authority, religious teachings, organizational structures, on the basic concepts of individual, family and gender among others, all these aspects have been a difficult task for social scientists since in their various attempts to be able to formulate a broad and clear set of criteria to be able to classify the aforementioned sects or new religious movements, these terms make the search for these groups more complicated and therefore therefore there is no precise classification for these.

It should be said that Christian denominations are generally associated with such religious movements, but this is not the case, since they are part of the mainstream of Christianity, although those that have been arduously studied as sects or new religious movements are; the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christian Science Church, the Adventists, the Mormons and the Quakers all this by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and even several evangelical churches which, when studying them, cataloged them with the denomination of sects since they do not consider that these comply with what they consider to be Christian orthodoxy.

Terminology of the New Religions

The origin of how the study of new religions arose was in the piss of Japan, all this just after a significant increase in religious innovation, this was during and after the second world war so you could say, that this was the main cause of it. Previously the term of the new religions, was named in Japanese as shinshūkyō , but little by little this term was adopted by Western scholars but this was only done as an alternative to the word sect.

The concept of a sect today emerged in the 1890s but already in the 1970s it had a somewhat negative reputation since it was used indiscriminately by nothing more and nothing less by lay critics, this so that the small groups that they possessed doctrines that were different or opposed to theirs were seen in another way, and thus completely discredit them.

All this caused many consequences in those years, which is why some well-known scholars such as Eileen Barker, James T. Richardson, Timothy M. and Catherine Wessinger argued in their own words that the term sect was already very badly seen by society since it was loaded with negative connotations and they decided to no longer use it in the academic field altogether. That is why after several debates and statements by scholars, this expression was changed to what we know today as a new religious movement.

Although this term has currently been left in disuse in the religious academic field, even so some continue to retain it despite the fact that it is not seen in a good way, but this only in extreme cases, since they assure that they only use it to refer to said groups that have extreme manipulation and exploitation. Today there are several alternatives to refer to sects or new religious movements that are frequently used by scholars, some of these are; alternative religious movements, emerging religions and fringe religious movements.

Studies of the new religions

When the new religions originated, along with these, the studies of the same also emerged in the seventies approximately, which were seen as very strict and rigorous disciplines for those years. The first time that this term was coined in a document as such, was by J. Gordon Melton in 1999 where it was presented at a major CESNUR conference, which was the basis for it to be published later in an article in the Nova Religion, where the prestigious American Academy of Religion used it as one of the most important disciplines of said academy.

The concept of new religions was also used by very prominent and recognized academics since the study he used had very interesting and important disciplines, some of these were the following; anthropology, psychiatry, history, psychology, sociology, along with various religious studies of course and a part that was devoted to theology.

charismatic movements

Most sects or new religious movements have a charismatic leadership as a fundamental basis, although not all of them have this thought, but those who do, it is very common that they follow the model of the routinization of the charisma, described by the famous sociologist Max Weber (German), this in his book whose name he called the Theory of Religion, which is written step by step in a clear and precise combination in just four models where the formation is explained in detail and readable. of the sects, which will be shown below:

• «The psychopathological model: the founder of the sect suffers from psychological problems, and develops the sect in order to solve these problems, as a form of self-therapy».

• “The Business Model: The cult founder acts like an entrepreneur, trying to develop a religion that he thinks will be more attractive to potential recruits, often based on his experiences within other religious sects prior to the one he joined.” he has belonged.

• “The social model: the cult is formed through a social implosion, in which cult members drastically reduce the intensity of their emotional ties with non-cult members, and drastically increase the intensity of ties with others sect members. This emotionally intense situation naturally favors the formation of a system of shared beliefs and rituals.

• «The normal model of revelations: the sect is formed when the founder decides to interpret purely natural phenomena as supernatural, as well as by attributing his own creativity in developing the cult of the deity».

Membership

According to numerous studies, there is one that stands out from the rest due to the results obtained from it, said study was carried out by the expert Marc Galanter (professor of psychiatry University of New York), who was looking for the most common reasons why people join or want to be part of the sects, this led to the result that these people make this act of union since they are in search of some community as well as in their own spiritual search.

Although another case of looking for the reason why people do such an act, are those of the sociologists Stark and Bainbridge, who after discussing this issue, concluded that people join the current so-called religious groups, it is closely linked by conversion and affiliation, although this already depends on each individual.

Such were the doubts that a conference was held especially dedicated to this topic, which was called “Why do people join sects or new religious movements?” carried out by Jeffrey Hadden, where he is dedicated to talking about the sociology of the new religious movements, some of the key points that all were the following:

• Membership in groups is a natural human activity that has been carried on for generations.
• The main reason why people belong to religious groups is for essentially the same reasons that they belong to other groups.
• Conversion is understood as an experience charged with many and diverse emotions that leads to a radical reorganization of the convert’s life.
• The conversion has a very prominent variation in terms of the function of the intensity of the experience and the degree to which it is actually life-altering the conversion.
• Conversion is one, but not the only reason why people join religious groups, as there are many other reasons, only conversion stands out the most.
• All social scientists have offered various theories to explain why people join religious groups.
• Most of these explanations could equally be applied to explaining why people join many other types of groups, so it doesn’t come down to just this particular topic.
• No theory can explain all unions or conversions separately, that is already confirmed.
• What all these theories have in common is the idea that the union or conversion which, as is already known, is a natural process of absolutely every human being.

Disaffiliation

For the disaffiliation of a new religious movement, there are only three ways that this can happen, although it is worth mentioning that the first two are the ones that happen most frequently, these are: first, by the person’s own will, that is to say that said person withdraw because they wanted to, second, through an expulsion, this happens more than anything when the person does something they should not or to see a rule broken which was of the utmost importance, so there is no more option than to remove him from the group, third, through an intervention, that is, exit counseling or deprogramming.

Those most affected by such disaffiliation from new religious movements are generally the most dedicated and focused followers of the movement, as several former members are unfortunately not able to take new initiatives even after quite some time has passed since their disaffiliation from the new religion, all this is affirmed by the expert Eileen Barker, who also mentions that this does not apply to followers who have been in this movement for a long time but only superficially, nor does it apply to those who have a short duration in it even though they faithfully believe in said movement. new religion.

Leaving a new religious movement is not an easy task, since there are cases of people already excluded from said movement who feel that they cannot continue, so much so that it can lead to some kind of psychological trauma on the part of former members who still they cannot accept their departure from that group, all this according to the words of the expert Barret.

According to Barret himself, some of the reasons why it can lead to said trauma due to the act of being excluded from said religious group can be; having had strong experiences from that religion, the appreciation and love you feel for the new religion, emotional investment, the fear and anguish of losing the salvation you so longed for, the connection and appreciation you had with the other members of the group, the evasion and rejection by the other members or in some cases maybe even by their community as well, the conditioning by the same religion, understanding that all the effort, money, time donated to the new religion was a waste.

All these and more reasons completely prevent a member from wanting to leave of their own free will and at the same time not doing something improper for their expulsion, even if the same member already knows with certainty that there are some inconsistencies or mistakes within the same religion that follows. According to Kranenborg, in some of these new groups they seek to have all their social contacts and unite more than they have the same blood so that disaffiliation traumatizes them and at the same time makes them feel very unhappy for those who want to carry it out. .

Currently there is still no uniform “post-sect trauma”, that is, there is no trauma defined as such for these types of cases, since each person in the world is different, and therefore the trauma they present will depend on their psychological level and of how these were so attached to said new religion, together with their acquired experiences and friendships among other traits that also affect said trauma. Although if the case is that the person himself decided to renounce said movement then it will not be at all rare if he begins to have various psychological and social problems, since this is the most common trait that can be seen in those people.

It is worth mentioning that the majority of people who are part of these new religions end up leaving on their own, although the exact reason for this is not yet known, it is said that one of them is the lack of empirical support. According to a third of those who leave these groups, they state that it was a unique experience and that they consider that they have learned something from the experience gained there.

NMR and media

One of the first articles and one that had the greatest impact was the one published by The Association for the Sociology of Religion  , previously called or described as the Catholic Sociological Society,  this in the United States, where they talked about the categorization of sects or new religious movements, which At first glance, it doesn’t sound bad at all, but when we delve into it, we realize that instead of an article, it seemed like a critique where it did not recognize the effort of the social sciences specifically in the field of new religions, and only wanted to cause a trend using the popular term sect, which is not so well seen in these times of now.

In addition to using the term sect that we all know, also the use of the lists of anti-cult organizations, all this was done in such a way, to form such destructive criticism since they could see used the description given by scientific discernment- social, so for them this ended up becoming a resounding failure for said print media, which they accepted in their own words.

“The failure of the print media to recognize social scientific endeavors in the realm of religious movement organizations prompts us to add another missing mark to its report card that Weiss (1985) has constructed to assess reporting. of the media with respect to the social sciences.

Criticism of NMRs

Criticism of new things or things never seen before are not something new to learn about since there will always be people who do not like them, and even dislike them, but this already depends on the tastes of those people, the point is that the new religious movements for Of course they are not an exception to this, since those who are against this, some manifest it in destructive criticism towards it, damaging as much as possible both in image and reputation.

Some of these critics who go against these movements, often describe them with the term sect, when their current name is NMR, so this at the same time causes controversy with both sides. Several of the former members who are already disaffected, affirm that they always try to mend all kinds of grievances that arise or in some cases, expose to light some ill-intentioned actions perceived by them.

All this is because the NRM have always been the object of attacks, but according to the opposite side they do this because they affirm that the new religions are only characterized by causing controversy, hostility and abuse, all this both verbally and emotionally. , but even today there is not enough evidence to testify to this legally.

Since in this type of cases like this, the Church of Scientology enters to resolve said conflict, using the practice of doing a deep investigation of its critics and if they have committed said acts for which they have been blamed, then they take out in the light of all their crimes and even faults in the past committed by them so that in this way they lose their credibility, and that their number of followers decreases with this, although on some occasions they show faults but without any type of proof, at least As far as we know, therefore, these churches should not be trusted too much when they make statements without any hard evidence.

As for the critics of the members and former members, it has been shown that they have their character and credibility due to several political trials that some had to undergo, this is known since the president of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions ), Massimo Introvigne recounts in an article written by himself the following:

«So many evils: anti-cult terrorism through the Internet»

With this he wanted to make it clear that those who are in anti-cult activism could resort to less extreme methods and that are more favorable for those demonstrations where they discriminate outright and show all their hatred against the poor people who belong to some new religious movement, since this only creates more conflicts and therefore these manifestations of hatred and repudiation, when currently there are already various tactics which do not necessarily have to be aggressive and extreme, and these tactics that can be carried out, only seek to create a favorable atmosphere in these manifestations.

Examples of NMRs

The new religious movements have a great variety in terms of some basic aspects such as their beliefs, practices, organizations and of course their social acceptance. That is why the academic Irving Hexham, together with the anthropologist and historian Karla Poewe, proposed the idea that there are NRMs and that most of these have gained adherents in many countries around the world, which is why today it can be understood as the formation of subcultures at a global level, that is, they are groups of people, who have different behaviors and beliefs, so thanks to this they are differentiated from the dominant culture.

Generally speaking, the number of people who have decided to join these new movements around the world is relatively small, this is clear when compared to the dominant and main religions already existing in the world, although even so their number is not considered to be of followers is completely low since it continues to expand and continues to be recognized by a part of the population.

Some studies carried out in the West revealed the growing importance of religious syncretism, which is the union of two religious traditions that have mutual similarities, so that a new cult with characteristics of both sides results. Returning to the main topic, these studies revealed that the supporters who are part of these religions adopt elements of great importance such as Buddhist meditation techniques, some Hindu yoga methods or even the visual models of the New Age, which translated into Spanish means « The new age”.

One of the reasons why there is currently so much quantity and variety in tales of new religious movements is because they originated in various groups in countries which have a considerable number of people where the most prominent are Africa, Japan and Melanesia. . According to the documentary made by the British sociologist of religion David Barrett, in the African country approximately since the end of the 1960s, he documented more than 6,000 new indigenous churches, which was unimaginable numbers and even impossible to imagine for that time.

As for Japan, it was where a series of new religious movements began to emerge massively, which were based on the revitalized Shinto belief, which dealt with the veneration and praise of the kami or as they call it, spirits of nature, as well as the emergence of various neo-Buddhist and new age groups approximately in the 19th century, specifically in the Meiji era, although others appeared during the aftermath of World War II.

Finally Melanesia, this is characterized by having an exorbitant amount of different cultures and therefore of NMR, since it is estimated that twenty-five percent of all cultures in the world can be found in Melanesia, since it encompasses the nations islands of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. It was also the place where the phenomena of sects were perceived for the first time in history by anthropologists and numerous scholars of religious studies.

These sects were interpreted as new indigenous religious movements, which have their origin in response to the various colonial and post-colonial cultural changes, which had a significant influence of modernization and capitalist consumerism. Right at the time of its founding, several of the religious traditions that today are considered to be the “established” or “mainstream” ones, in those times were seen in a totally different way since they were considered as sects or new religious movements. .

It should be said that several of the naturalistic contemporary religions (naturalism) have seen all this in a stage of evolution from traditional Christianity and Judaism, this through the theology of the management or use of the denomination «God» that already all the world knows but this in metaphorical form. Although other new movements have emerged through a scientific perspective of a dominant nature or even sometimes by the atheist rebellion to the beliefs of their own culture. Although a few, they had the idea of ​​adding a religious ingredient to their humanistic way of thinking.

The majority of followers of sects or new religious movements have already witnessed various aspects of spiritual rituals in terms of religious practice, which are essential for a wide adoption by many people, some examples that could be mentioned of this would be the following ; religious naturalism, scientific pantheism, religious humanism and various liberal Unitarians, Quakers, Rastafarians among many others.

Classification of Sects and New Religious Movements

The sects and new religious movements have a complex classification, this is because various specialists agree on this, but for various reasons and confusion the same does not happen with the subdivisions. According to several investigations, the reasons for this are due to the following; doctrinal confusion, dogmatic and ritualistic influences, and dissidence, so all this makes it one of the most complex and difficult classifications of all the groups of the syncretic current.

Within this classification, the analogies between groups should be taken into account, which appear to have little or almost no similarity, since an example of this can be the Gnostic-type groups, comparing them with that of the Luciferians, as can also be found cases where there are several groups with very similar names, such as the case of “Christian Science” and “Church of Scientology”, which for obvious reasons delving into both have little or nothing in common only the applied emphasis of their origin that is He says they are from diseases and their possible cure for all of these. The classification of each of these will be given below:

Christian Origin Groups

• Fundamentalists:- Free Evangelical (Salvation Army)
  – Pentecostal Evangelical (Pentecostal Christian Alliance)
  – Adventist (Seventh-day Adventist Church)
• For – Christians:- Jehovah’s Witness (Watch Tower)
  – Spiritualist (International Spiritist Union)
  – Healing (Christian Science)
  – Mormon (Latter Day Saints)

groups of pagan origin

• Esoteric:- Rosicrucian (AMORC)
  – Theosophists (Theosophical Society)
  – Gnostic (Christian Gnostic Movement)
  – Metaphysist (Great Brotherhood of Saint Germain)
• Orientalists:- Hindu (International Society for Krishna Consciousness – Hare Krishna)
  – Buddhist (Zen Macrobiotic)
  – Shinto (Soka Gakkai)
  – Babista (Fa Baha’i)
• Neo-pagans:- Coven (Wolf Brotherhood – Asatrú)
  – Shamanist (Cleargreen Inc.)

Syncretic origin groups

• Sufi – Gnostic (Fourth Way Schools, Unification Church – Moon)
• Africanists:- Afro-Brazilian (Umbanda, Kinbanda, Vóvo Maria Fraternity, Angola Round)
  – Afro-American (Santeria, Voodoo, Ochá-Yoruba)
• Scientists (Church of Scientology)
• Cymbalists:- Atheist (Raelian Movement)
  – Esoteric (Cosmic Fraternity)
• Satanists:- Luciferian (The Process)
  – Satanist (Church of Satan)
• Comerciales:- Couching (Lifespring)
  – Venta directa (American Way-Amway)
• Environmentalists:- Ecoterrorist (Sea Shepherd)
• Political- Social (Humanist Movement)
  – Segregationist (White Aryan Resistance)

Difference between Cults and New Religious Movements

The sects and the new religious movements have their characteristics with which they are somewhat useful to be able to differentiate one from the other since they share a great similarity so much so that even the specialists themselves sometimes cannot know with certainty if any group belongs to the category of a sect or is a NRM, although for this they took on the task of forming a sum of conditions and specifications to be able to identify more easily if a group belongs to a sect or is a new religious movement. These specifications will be shown below as they were drafted and thus be able to differentiate this type of groups.

Sect

• Direct and markedly authoritarian leadership towards his followers, decision only of the leader.
• Community life (not in all cases).
• Little or medium flow of members.
• Recent chronological emergence (compared to NMR or great religions).
• Limited expansion and regional location.
• Little social recognition.
• Tendency not to register with state cult comptrollers.
• Pronounced aversion towards institutions, religions and social maladjustment.

New Religious Movements

• Indirect and direct leadership, exercised by one or more, delegated to others, decisions of one or more.
• Individual life, except for missionaries and others.
• Large number of followers.
• Ancient chronological emergence.
• Great expansion and continental or global location.
• Social recognition.
• Usually registered with state cult comptrollers.
• Generally philanthropic-social approach with some institutions and dialogue with other NRM or official religions.

There are several reasons why such groups should be called to know if they really are new religious movements or sects, but the one that stands out the most is so that researchers can avoid legal problems in case of conflict with other groups, or a bad vibe is simply perceived, so sometimes they are ordered to do in-depth research, for this reason it is of the utmost importance to know to which of these classifications said group belongs.

There are times when many little transcendent sects (this means that they are part of the immaterial and the infinite), share doctrines with other sects and even with the new religious movements themselves, but even if they do that, they function autocephalously, which are considerably reduced groups and in very few cases with little knowledge of each other, while they are also part of one of the currents.

What are sects?

The word sect has two meanings, the first is that it can be just a meeting of people who follow a common doctrine or second, it could also be a religious doctrine with the difference that it deviates from the main one. The word sect originates from the term sectare which means cut or separation.

Although today, when we say that a person belongs to a sect, we almost immediately think of the idea that said person is part of a more or less organized group, which has a series of diverse characteristics and strict rules which must be complied with at all costs. That is why this is the most common definition that can be found of the term sect and it is the one that we will use to describe these groups or associations.

The most traditional sects that are known today, which are also considered to have a considerable number of followers and are recognized by the general public, are named; the Gnostics, the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians, the Spiritualists, and of course the Satanic sects among others. These are mostly recognized because their existence derives from the beginning of Christianity although there are few exceptions that appeared approximately in the second half of the 20th century that also have a considerable degree of popularity.

What are the New Religious Movements?

The term “New Religious Movements” was used for the first time in 1991 by the prefect of the Vatican for an Inter-Religious dialogue, since according to his statement he preferred to use said NMR term than that of sect since it would describe best way the religious and spiritualistic phenomenon that was happening in the second half of the 20th century, this just after the Second World War.

Said name was given in this way since the term “new” meant the diffusion and proliferation that these had at the end of World War II, and although these were not literally new, because several of them have their origin long before their diffusion. Major gave rise to the term “religious” since 1950, this refers to the fact that they offer a broad vision of the sacred and of course of the religious.

Exactly four types of such movements were distinguished, which are:

1. Coming from Christianity and based on the Bible.

2. Coming from non-Christian religions.

3. Groups originating from or promoting a return to paganism.

4. Gnostic or occult groups.

To be able to locate a movement in any of the four said types is a complex task, since these groups are usually syncretistic, this means that they not only take elements of a single type but are capable of taking them from various sources. which are totally different, some examples of this are the Mormons, which have a Christian origin but for some reason use the occult, as well as the Santeria movement that at first glance presents a Christian façade, but later when studying it background we realize that it is pagan.

However, this does not mean that the classification is totally useless since it can be used for the analysis of said movements, although it would be much easier and more practical if all the New Religious Movements take diverse characteristics and traits from one or more of said sources shown. rather than trying to guess which of these four types each belongs to. Some of these movements will be shown below.

Mormonism

Mormonism is a movement whose own founder comes from Christianity but ironically the main message that this movement wants to give to its followers is anti-evangelical and anti-Christian. In 1998, it had approximately more than 0.02% of the world’s population, due to its economic power, which has a great capacity for penetration, despite the fact that it possesses an infinity of unusual fanciful legends.

However, despite so many fantasies and inconsistencies that it possesses, the proposals proposed by this sect do not look bad at all, they are even attractive to some baptized Catholics, who are attracted by offering them the help they need, the success they want, prosperity. in their future, a job where they lack nothing, the money they want among many other things, which end up convincing several individuals who end up staying in said sect without knowing exactly the consequences of it.

At first glance, with their little elegant but misleading propaganda, they use various phrases from the gospel while in turn they place sweet and tender images of Jesus and their most common form of contact is to go from house to house through their own written propaganda and They present themselves as if they were friendly Christians without any type of conflict and seek as much as possible that from the first contact people join Mormon baptism and membership in this sect.

Santeria

Santeria is one of the best known sects in the general public but also one of the least people want to join them due to the reputation that the Christian and Catholic Church has given it. This comes from paganism and has spiritualist and sometimes even satanic rites but has a Catholic facade. Santeria only pretends to be a Catholic cult of devotion to saints, but the harsh reality is that it is only a way in which they hide their idolatry, since it has extreme pagan rituals of sacrifices to poor and defenseless animals while also involving sessions divinatory, trances for possession of evil spirits among others.

The word “santeria” originates from the term “saints” since the santeros pretend to invoke the Virgin or another Catholic Saint when in fact they invoke an African deity in order that the wishes that are requested of him come true. reality whether it is the achievement of material success and extra-natural wisdom, healing, revenge with physical damage to people or enemies and even in some cases, they can achieve harmful psychological damage in their poor victims. If you want to know more about this sect here we will leave you a short video with some interesting facts about Santeria.

Jehovah’s Witnesses

It is one of the most aggressive and anti-Catholic sects that exist today since it considers the Catholic Church itself as the main enemy of all of society and they try to close themselves off when dealing with any influence from abroad since their very motto is ” speak and never listen. Only from time to time do they touch on one or another topic regarding the bible but they never do it in depth. Their main proselytizing is at a popular level and they do it in simple and successful 7 steps:

1) They deliver Jehovah’s Witness literature to the person they are trying to recruit.

2) They visit the person again.

3) They introduce the person to the study of their own literature.

4) They invite the person to teaching meetings.

5) They invite her to services.

6) Then they encourage her to become an activist, distributing material.

7) They encourage the person to be baptized by immersion as a Jehovah’s Witness.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have their own bible which is full of inconsistencies and errors where they extract many of their false teachings, and according to them the church founded by Jesus degenerated and is now used by the Devil so it is their duty to fight against the Church of Christ, they say this in order for new followers to join and terrify those who still do not believe.

If the article has been to your liking and you have found it informative and interesting, I invite you to take a brief look at these other three articles, which are related to this same topic, and surely one of them will call you the attention.