Making the American Religious Fringe: Exotics, Subversives, and Journalists, 1955–1993

McCloud, Sean

doi:10.1525/nr.2005.9.1.109

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Cowan 2003; Daschke & Ashcraft 2005; Shupe & Bromley 1985; Shupe & Darnell 2006), to news media’s coverage of significant events such as the Peoples Temple’s mass murders/suicides in Jonestown, Guyana and the Branch Davidians’ standoff with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (see, e.g. Cowan & Hadden 2004; McCloud 2004; Wright 1997), scholars have embraced numerous sources to understand NRMs’ social significance. One understudied data source is popular culture such as films, entertainment television, comic strips, and jokes (although see, e.g.…”

Section: Why New Religious Movements (Nrms) and Animated Sitcoms?mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Religious Movements in Animated Adult Sitcoms—A Spectrum of Portrayals

Feltmate

2011

Religion Compass

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As globally syndicated television programmes that are celebrated for their biting satirical content, The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy are popular culture phenomenons. Furthermore, they are programmes which have consistently featured a wide variety of religious traditions, including a significant selection of new religious movements (NRMs). This article provides an overview of the different movements depicted in the programmes, categorizing them as accepted, annoying, misguided, untrustworthy and dangerous. It concludes with a discussion of this pattern’s significance, and suggests avenues for future analysis of NRMs’ humorous depictions in popular culture.

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Section: Why New Religious Movements (Nrms) and Animated Sitcoms?mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Religious Movements in Animated Adult Sitcoms—A Spectrum of Portrayals

Feltmate

2011

Religion Compass

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“…Two more recent studies have added to this literature by examining how those in power have constructed religious ‘others’ in negative ways and thereby enacted intolerance. Religious historian Sean McCloud (2003), in The Making of the American Religious Fringe , analyzes journalistic constructions of the ‘cult fringe,’ the ‘margins’ of religious life. The term religious intolerance is absent, yet the concept itself is present as his analysis provides a model for understanding how those in positions of dominance ‘symbolically reproduced and legitimized inequalities’ (p. 4).…”

Section: Identifying Themes In Religious Intolerancementioning

confidence: 99%

Intolerance and American Religious History

Neal

2010

Religion Compass

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The burning of Catholic convents, the night riding of the Klan, the bombing of abortion clinics represent just a few examples of the ways religious intolerance has been a pervasive and persistent feature of American religious life; however, until recently, it has remained absent as a category of analysis in much of the scholarship on U.S. religion. To acquaint readers with this emerging topic of interest, this essay examines how scholars are addressing the challenges of researching and teaching the not‐so‐nice dimensions of American religious history. By surveying a wide range of sources, it familiarizes readers with the prominent challenges, themes, and approaches in the study of religious intolerance. This essay suggests that studying religious intolerance can help us more accurately chronicle American religious history and provide scholars with a broader analytical construct that promotes comparisons of intolerance against religious groups and across time periods and thereby helps illuminate the enduring power of religious hatred.

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“…The relationship of the contemporary religion of Witchcraft to the mass media is different to that of most other new religious movements. Media representations of new religious movements tend to be negative, characterizing them as “cults,” wacky, or deviant (Beckford 1999; McCloud 2004; Richardson 2001). In contrast, television programs such as Charmed or Buffy the Vampire Slayer portray Witchcraft positively, and even as desirable, associated with successful participation in mainstream society, even if the religion is not presented completely seriously (Aloi 2007; Foltz 2005).…”

Section: Witchcraft and Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, the representations of Witchcraft in the mass media and in popular books are overwhelmingly positive. Few other new religious movements have entire shelves in mainstream bookstores devoted to books by practitioners of the religion or magazines distributed on mainstream news stands that promote the religion in a positive light (McCloud 2006). Furthermore, where other religions struggle to redefine themselves to engage with environmental concerns (Tucker 2003), or an egalitarian role for women (Salomonsen 2002), Witchcraft is a religion that explicitly values the environment (it normally self-defines as an earth-based spirituality) and has been embraced by some feminists because of the worship of a Goddess instead of, or in conjunction with, the worship of a God (Jensen and Thompson 2008).…”

Section: Witchcraft and Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass Media and Religious Identity: A Case Study of Young Witches

Berger¹,

Ezzy²

2009

Scientific Study of Religion

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Drawing on interviews with 90 young people who have become Witches, we explore the visual media's influence on identity formation and maintenance. Witchcraft is a late modern religion that is highly individualistic and many young people report they have become a Witch without any interaction with other Witches. The rapid growth of interest in this religion among the young since The Craft was first shown provides an important example of the mass media's role in formation of contemporary religious identity. We argue that representations of Witchcraft in the visual mass media (along with other cultural trends such as environmentalism, feminism, and individualism) and cultural resources such as books, Internet sites, and magazines provide a mediated form of social interaction that sustains the plausibility of Witchcraft as a religion. It also helps the young to develop and legitimate their beliefs and practices and develop their Witchcraft persona.

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Making the American Religious Fringe: Exotics, Subversives, and Journalists, 1955–1993

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

New Religious Movements in Animated Adult Sitcoms—A Spectrum of Portrayals

New Religious Movements in Animated Adult Sitcoms—A Spectrum of Portrayals

Intolerance and American Religious History

Mass Media and Religious Identity: A Case Study of Young Witches

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