The Growth of NRMs

• Explanations have been put forward for the growth of both world-rejecting and world-affirming NRMs.
• World-rejecting NRMs Wallis points to social changes from the 1960s impacting on young people, including the increased time spent in education. This gave them freedom from adult responsibilities and enabled a counter-culture to develop. Also, the growth of radical political movements offered alternative ideas about the future. World-rejecting NRMs were attractive in this context because they offered young people a more idealistic way of life. Bruce (1995) argues that it was the failure of the counter-culture to change the world that led to disillusioned youth turning to religion instead.
• World-affirming NRMs Bruce argues that their growth is a response to modernity, especially to the rationalisation of work. Work no longer provides meaning or a source of identity - unlike the past, when the Protestant ethic gave work a religious meaning for some people. Yet at the same time, we are expected to achieve - even though we may lack the opportunities to succeed. World-affirming NRMs provide both a sense of identity and techniques that promise success in this world.
• Wallis also notes that some 'movements of the middle ground' such as the Jesus Freaks have grown since the mid-1970s. These have attracted disillusioned former members of world-rejecting NRMs (which have generally been less successful) because they provide a halfway house back to a more conventional lifestyle.