Stefano Pace, Università Commerciale Luigi
Bocconi, Milan, Italy
Abstract
A religious organization should communicate trustworthiness by attempting
correctly to interpret its message and by recruiting new members.
Modern communication involves new means of communication like the
Internet, which has become an important medium capable of spreading
a complex message to a large audience. Religious movements are a
growing social and organizational force that employ modern communication
methods and criteria. This paper addresses the convergence of religious
communication and the Internet, by focusing on trust, a fundamental
element of any type of communication, especially of a religious
kind. Two main drivers can elicit trust: capabilities (the skill
to realize what is promised) and benevolence (the lack of any opportunistic
or egoistic goal). This paper employs the content analysis method
to analyze the biographies of religious leaders posted on the their
official web-sites, in order to verify the existence of these two
trust drivers, i.e., leader’s capabilities and benevolence.
The results demonstrate the different stress placed on each.
Introduction
[1] Modern communication comprises new means of communication and
fields. For example, the Internet has become an important tool capable
of spreading a complex message to a large audience. Moreover, religious
movements are a growing social force that employs modern communication
criteria. This article deals with the convergence between religious
communication and the Internet, by focusing on trust, a fundamental
element for any type of social and commercial communication.
[2] Although sociologists and anthropologists among others have
studied religion, this topic is not particularly relevant to communication
studies. Marketing, which involves communication issues, deals with
religion in other contexts, like the influence religion exercises
on consumer behaviour and decision-making processes (Delener 1990,
1994; Hirschman 1982; Wilkes et al. 1986). However the communication
of religious ideas is not dealt with since it is not linked to consumption.
[3] In any case, religious communication is an interesting issue
from the macro-perspective since:
-
Religious movements are increasingly aware of modern communication
styles and apply them. Therefore, the study of religious communication
can enlarge the knowledge of other kinds of communication.
-
Since religious forces are one of the most relevant drivers
of social structure and change, scholars of communication should
also try to understand this topic.
[4] This paper is organized in the following way. The first section
illustrates the features and relevance of Internet communication
by religious movements. The second section introduces the distinction
between New Religious Movements (NRMs) and other religious movements
in order to assess the specific communication needs of the NRMs,
i.e., the central role of the NRMs’ leaders. The third section
is devoted to the concept of trust in communication and its main
drivers: the abilities and benevolence of the trustee (the religious
leader). The last sections illustrate the research method adopted,
i.e., content analysis of the leaders’ biographies, as well
as the findings of the empirical research and discussion.
The Internet as a Means of Religious Communication
[5] The Internet has become a very powerful means of communication
through which not only information, but emotions and empathy, are
exchanged, and where socialization occurs. Following a purely information
stage, when people surfed the ’net just to seek information,
today people go online to seek other people, to socialize within
virtual communities, thus adding a social dimension that may be
considered even more relevant than the informational one (Micelli
2000; Rheingold 1993). Once a cold medium, he Internet has
become a hot medium, in the sense that emotions and feelings can
be experienced and communicated online. Therefore, even religious
communication, which is an intense emotional experience, is at home
in this new medium. Religious movements were pioneers in adopting
new media to spread their beliefs and thoughts. This also true of
the Internet. Since religious communication deals with abstract
concepts, involves profound sentiments and can have specific and
difficult goals such as converting people, it differs radically
from business communication. At the same time, it can be studied
as a benchmark in order to obtain insights for other types of communication
and to explore the potential of web-based communication. Religious
communication via the web is quite lively and can elicit strong
reactions. So strong that some religious websites has been forced
to close their forums and chat rooms due to the excessive fighting
that sometimes emerged among the participants (Helland 2002, 295).
The religious communication via the web can be so intense that it
often takes on forms of blessing, virtual prayers and pilgrimage
(MacWilliams 2002).1
[6] Religious communication online is not a marginal phenomenon,
but a considerable part of the navigation of many cyber-surfers: “The
act of searching for spiritual material on-line has also been done
by more Americans than have traded stocks or bonds or mutual funds
on-line, or done on-line banking, or participated in on-line auctions,
or used Internet-based dating services, or placed phone calls on-line” (PEW
2001, cited in Helland 2002, 300). Chryssides confirms that “some
net surfers are using the Net to find varieties of religion that
may fulfill their spiritual needs” (Chryssides 1996, 1). Table
1 shows the most prolific newsgroups of the Usenet system, in terms
of postings (Kinney 1995). The religious newsgroups are the most
active communities. Religion is firmly rooted in the ’net
(Karaflogka 2002), both in the form of a personal quest and an “offer” of
religious doctrines. This online phenomenon is not simply a category
of some search engine’s sub-directory, but a purposeful and
rich means largely used by religious groups to convert subjects,
promote their doctrines and explain their ideals (Helland 2002).
Table 1: Usenet Newgroups activity (Source: Kinney, 1995)
Rank |
No of postings |
Name of group |
1 |
3580 |
alt.atheism |
2 |
3267 |
alt.religion.scientology |
3 |
2877 |
talk.origins |
4 |
2728 |
alt.pagan |
5 |
2222 |
alt.philosophy.objectivism |
6 |
1935 |
alt.religion.mormon |
7 |
1880 |
Talk.religion.misc |
8 |
1784 |
alt.astrology |
9 |
1781 |
sci.psychology |
10 |
1540 |
Misc.health.alternative |
11 |
998 |
Soc.religion.christian |
12 |
903 |
Soc.religion.christian.bible-study |
13 |
847 |
Alt.paranet.ufo |
14 |
751 |
Alt.magick |
15 |
726 |
Talk.philosophy.misc |
16 |
702 |
Alt.religion.islam |
17 |
641 |
Talk.religion.buddhism |
18 |
637 |
Alt.satanism |
19 |
632 |
alt.folklore.herbs |
20 |
566 |
Alt.dreams |
[7] Nearly every religious movement, large or small, has its own
website and the “official pages project how its leaders perceive
a religion or a religious institution and how they transmit this
perception” (Karaflogka 2002, 281). Webpages can be the first
and only contact between the movement and public or prospective
converts. Therefore, the way in which leaders are depicted and described
is the purest way to know how they wish to be considered and how
they solicit trust.
[8] An extreme example of the central role played by web communication
in the strategy of a NRM is the group known as “Heaven’s
Gate.” In 1997, 39 group members who lived in a Santa
Fe (California) mansion committed mass suicide. The few surviving
members (who lived far from the Santa Fe headquarters) and some
sympathizers kept a mirror of the group’s website active in
order to keep the memory of their beliefs alive. That website is
the only trace that remains of their religious belief. This illustrates
how this group was forcibly transformed into a virtual presence,
due to the deaths of its members. There are, however, other examples
of religious phenomena, such as "Partenia" (see http://www.partenia.org/eng/),
which have emerged and profess their beliefs exclusively online
(Karaflogka 2002, 285).
[9] Religious movements employ different communication tools on
the ’net and take advantage of the opportunities it offers:
from the supply of doctrinal material (both downloadable free documents
and through e-commerce) to the communication of some “websites
[that] invite queries from individuals surfers with the offer of
a personal response” (Chryssides, 1996, 2), employing a two-way
interaction with the site’s visitor.
Leader's Centrality in NRMs
[10] The concept of New Religious Movement is not clearly and univocally
defined in the literature. The great differences among the religious
groups, the variety of beliefs and origins, and the cult/anti-cult
debate, make reaching a single common definition difficult. After
a review of the main definition criteria used in the literature,
Chryssides (1997) suggests defining a religious movement an NRM
when it has the following features:
-
Recent. Chryssides intentionally does not specify a date
or an era like other scholars (Barker 1989). New and old are
categories that one can intuitively and correctly apply without
reference to a specific date. For instance, one can say when
a model of a product becomes old and another is new, even though
there is no clear timeline.
-
Outside the mainstream. This does not signify that
a NRM is “heretical,” but that it is different
from established religions in terms of theology and doctrine.
-
Attraction of new converts from indigenous culture. Many
scholars recognize the specific proselytizing needs felt by NRMs.
Due to the recent emergence of many NRMs, new first generation
members are particularly needed.
Although Chryssides himself acknowledges that this is not a totally
clear-cut definition and is not the final word on this topic, this
definition is at least a coherent one and it rules out subjective
interpretations.
[11] Unlike more established religions with other, more direct means
of communication, such as churches and ministers physically present
in the territory, the characteristics of NRMs make it extremely
active on the web since it is an alternative medium for their doctrines
and beliefs. NRMs usually elicit controversy and conflicting
views. Some NRMs are the object of harsh criticism by anti-cult
movements. For NRMs the ’net is sometimes the only way to
transmit its message in an unmediated way. This particular feature
represents a valuable opportunity for scholarly analysis of the
methods of communication they employ.
[12] Believers theoretically may embrace the doctrine of a religious
movement or become part of a religious community because they
are attracted by its members, and not necessarily by the leader.
In fact, sometimes the leader is not even favourably judged by the
minority groups within the movement. There are cases of persons
who leave a religious group because they disagree with the leader,
although fully adhering to the doctrine. They often try to establish
another community somewhere else as a reformed group that holds
the “true” tenets of the religion. Instead, the focus
of an NRM is usually its leader, since most NRMs are founded by
a person (less frequently more than one) who is the centre
of devotion. Therefore, NRMs are often leader-centered. An NRM is
founded by a charismatic leader who claims to have some divine or
supernatural power or knowledge and to have gained those powers
through a long period of self-study, including the discovery of
sacred texts or contacts with sages and gurus. More frequently,
these powers are claimed to be transmitted by a spiritual entity
through revelations.
[13] The above-mentioned characteristics are confirmed by Barker
(1989). In NRMs, “there is often a founder or leader who wields
charismatic authority—that is, he (or sometimes she) will
be unbound by tradition or rules, but may be accorded by the followers
the right to pronounce on all aspects of their life—whom they
marry, whether or not they have children, what sort of work they
should do, what sort of clothes they should wear and food they may
eat, where they should live, perhaps even whether they should live” (Barker
1989, 2). From the perspective of the NRM, followers of the
leader benefit from these powers. A believer usually has to
behave according to the doctrine of the NRM and be close to the
leader (not necessarily in a physical sense, but spiritually) in
order to obtain the benefits of belonging to the religious community..
[14] In some cases, the real leader is not the founder of the NRM.
In such cases, the devotion of the believer is either focused on
a master who has inherited the powers of the founder or devotion
continues to be expressed towards the founder, whose speeches and
scriptures are carefully kept and perpetuated. In any case, since
many NRMs are “new,” also in a chronological sense,
it is likely that the founder is likely still to be alive.
[15] We can conclude that the communications of NRMs are focused
on their leaders. The way the leader is described is important in
understanding the rest of the religious movement's doctrine.
Trust as an Element of Communication
[16] The central feature of online religious communications is trust.
In order to adhere to a religious movement, the subject must trust
their leader (variously called master, father, guru, etc.). How
do religious leaders communicate trustworthiness? This is the main
question this paper attempts to answer and this could provide new
insights into the different types of online communications.
Trust Construction and its Role in Communication
[17] Trust is a complex and multifaceted construct that has been
studied in various disciplinary fields, from psychology (Rotter
1967) to social psychology (Deutsch 1958) to sociology (Giddens
1990) to economics (Dasgupta 1988). In fact, there are so many different
definitions of trust that each scholar seems to have his/her own
subjective opinion (McKnight and Chervany 1996). Trust can
be defined as the expectation that the trustee (in this case, the
religious leader) will behave in a way that is beneficial to the
trustor (the believer) even in the presence of risk. In the definition
of trust, risk comes from the fact that the trustor cannot control
the behaviour of the trustee.
[18] The claim that believers “trust” the leader might
be considered a minimization of the believer’s experience,
since the correct expression could be that the believer “have
faith in” the leader. An individual has faith when emotions
play a relevant role and rationality has no relevance in the decision-making
process. Should rationality be involved, trust would be the correct
construct to use. Trust can be positioned between faith and
confidence in a continuum that goes from the absence of any rational
evidence to believe (faith), the presence of non-conclusive evidence
(trust), to the logic or sensorial evidence (confidence). Of the
constructs mentioned, trust is the only one that has both a rational
and irrational side. According to Luhmann (1979), trust begins when
information and rationality finish; it is a jump towards something
not perfectly known and not totally under control. However, it also
includes a rational side, since the boundary of rationality must
be reached before the jump into the “irrational” decision
to trust. Web communication involves a rational acquisition of information
and subsequently a choice that may not be entirely rational. Since
web-based communication by religious movements regarding their leaders
involves this type of process, trust is at stake.
[19] Moreover, trust is solicited during the initial contact with
the religious movement, when the future believer is first exposed
to the leader’s personality. Before fully embracing the religion,
the subject gets closer and closer to he movement through the teachings
of its leader. In this phase, trust plays a central role. In order
to overcome any possible doubts of the prospective believer, the
leader must be believable and charismatic. S/he must be or seem
to be trustworthy and communicate a sense of trustworthiness. In
that sense trust, is a necessary condition for the emergence of
faith and it is a close proxy of faith.
[20] Trust presents peculiar problems on the Internet. Online business
activities were the first to raise the issue of trust, since regular
exchanges of goods and money can only occur in a trustworthy environment.
The risk perceived on the Internet is manifold: functional (not
receiving what has been bought); financial (losing money); physical
(being harmed by the product); and social (poor adaptability to
the user’s social environment) (Cheskin 2000). The frequent
news regarding fraud or even more complex cyber-crimes on the Internet
provoke further anxiety. While Internet security has reached high
standards, what is relevant in trust issues is the users’ perception
of this security . Therefore every element that makes Internet safer
should be communicated to the users so that they feel that the environment
is trustworthy. The online business environment has devised safeguards
and methods to solicit the consumer’s trust (Cheskin Research,
2000):
-
Brands: known brands and brands that are also present offline
are more trustworthy than less reputable ones;
-
Technological sophistication: websites clearly created by professionals,
technically sound and fast are more trustworthy;
-
Navigation: how easy is it to find what the user is seeking;
-
Fulfillment: the process from order to delivery;
-
Presentation: overall layout of the site.
The above–mentioned points are suitable for websites. The
peer-to-peer systems of exchange (like eBay, the well-known auction
site) are based on reputation systems where a sort of social control
and ranking of personal reputation protect the user from fraud (Resnick et
al. 2003).
[21] The business environment is constantly at the edge of trust
issues, but trust is also growing in relevance for the social side
of the web. Relationships that can be established through the Web
can be quite personal, deep and intimate (Turkle 1997). Thus the
risk of being betrayed is even bigger than in a business setting
where the risk is only about money, not personal beliefs.
Drivers of Trust
[22] According to the current literature, trust is influenced by
two main drivers (Andaleeb 1992; Barber 1983):
[23] The trustor is concerned about the capabilities of the trustee
to accomplish what is promised. It is this accomplishment which
in the end will determine the trustor’s benefits. For example,
one cannot trust a physician, even if a good friend, if s/he lacks
medical competence. In the same way, the religious leader must possess
(truly or in the believer’s perception) the ascertained power
to save, heal, help, support, or empower the believer. It is this
power which lies behind the decision to join a religious community.
This is the capability side of the trust relationship.
[24] The second driver (benevolence) refers to the possibility that
the trustee, once trusted, will exploit the vulnerability of the
trustor. To trust another person is to make oneself vulnerable to
any opportunistic behaviour by the trustee. For example, if I trust
a fake financial advisor, he will defraud me due to my ill-placed
trust. It is theoretically possible that less than honest people,
posing as persons illuminated by religion, would exploit the gullibility
of a person or the wishful thinking of a misguided seeker. Thus,
to elicit trust, a religious leader should communicate lack of opportunism.
[25] We can conclude that power/capability and benevolence are the
two main drivers of trust. By communicating these two dimensions,
the trustee can gain trust from the trustor.
Propositions
[26] The main question this work poses is which of these two drivers
of trust (powers/capabilities and benevolence) do NRMs prefer. Does
the leader communicate honesty and altruistic behavior or is stress
put on powerful capabilities? The choice to communicate capabilities
without stressing benevolence in using them could impair trust in
a leader. Similarly, a benevolent leader without particular power
may not be fully effective. Thus one can expect that both the drivers
will be communicated. But the large number of existing NRMs may
make NRMs focus on one driver alone, thus acquiring initial trust
that is completed when the believer comes closer to the group.
[27] The following hypothesis is developed:
The NRMs’ leaders differentiate their communication of
trustworthiness. Some of them stress only one driver of trust
(capabilities or benevolence), while others stress both.
Empirical Method
[28] The method applied is content analysis of written communications
regarding their leaders used by movement members. The official biographies
of the leaders published on the official webpages of the movement
have been analyzed. Specifically, the content analysis applied is
similar to the paradigmatic analysis of texts (Berger 2000, 44)
where the meaning is not built up through the sequence of statements,
but is extracted by assigning them to different conceptual categories
(powers and benevolence). Content analysis is an appropriate tool
to study the intent of the communication sender. The units of analysis
are the statements included in the biographies.
[29] The religious groups studied were selected from the list of
240 religious movements and compiled by the group led by Prof. Jeffrey
K. Hadden2 (University of Virginia)
and available online.3 Most
of these groups can be defined as NRMs and the database provides
a description of each movements and the links to their official
web-site (when it exists).
[30] A random sample of 42 groups has been selected from the list.
Since the biographies are usually made up of hundreds of statements,
the number of units analyzed is quite large. Of the 42 movements,
21 do not mention an identifiable leader nor publish an official
biography and four movements have no website. As regards the 17
movements with biographies, the content of the leader’s biography
as published in the website has been analyzed. Every statement in
the biographical text has been codified whether referring to the
purported uncommon powers/capabilities of the leader or to his/her
benevolence. Every time a statement of a certain driver appeared
in the text, a point was given to that driver. In this way, each
driver obtained a “score.”4 The
term “statement” refers to the part of a text appearing
between two full-stops.
[31] The codification criteria used are the following:
-
Powers/capabilities: all the statements that show uncommon,
supernatural powers or capabilities possessed by the leader.
-
Benevolence: all the statements that show a particular sense
of humanity, selflessness, generosity and love for the destiny
of other persons.
Some statements can refer to both dimensions. This occurs when an
uncommon power is said to be exercised for the benefit of other
people.5
[32] The type of codification chosen cannot be obtained by an automated
procedure or a simple count of how many times a certain term occurs.
In order to understand the meaning of a statement and place it in
the appropriate category, each statement must actually be read and
refer to the specific context and language employed in the biographical
text. Although longer and possibly more subjective, this procedure
was selected in order to understand the real meaning of every statement.
That would be impossible with an automatic count of single words.
[33] The main limitation of this study springs from the question
whether a content analysis can correctly understand the profound
meaning of a religious text. One of the weaknesses of content analysis
seems to be its “dryness:” the researcher must simply
assign the units (here the statements) to predefined categories
without over-interpreting them. However, this is also a strong point,
since the subjectivity of the researcher is restricted. Subjectivity
can be further restricted by adopting a cross-coding procedure with
different coders.
Findings
[34] The results of the content analysis are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Results of the content analysis
Religious Movement (Leader,
Founder) |
SUPER POWERS/CAPABILITIES |
BENEVOLENCE |
TRUST DRIVER USED* |
International Church of Four
square Gospel (Aimee McPherson) |
1 |
14 |
Benevolence |
Ramtha School of Enlightenment
(Rathma – JZ) |
17 |
2 |
Power/Capabilities |
Maitreya (Benjamin Creme) |
7 |
4 |
|
Moral Re-Armament; Initiatives
for Change (Frank Buchman) |
4 |
8 |
|
Latter Rain Movement (Oral Roberts) |
2 |
0 |
|
Moody Church (Dwight L. Moody) |
1 |
5 |
Benevolence |
Sahajia Yoga (Shri Mataji Firmala
Devi) |
15 |
15 |
|
MSIA Movement of Spiritual Inner
Awareness (John-Roger) |
0 |
5 |
Benevolence |
Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization
-3HO (Yogi Bhajan) |
4 |
8 |
|
Swedenborgianism (Swedenborg) |
7 |
3 |
|
Local Church (Watchman Nee) |
22 |
17 |
|
Aetherius Society (George King) |
10 |
2 |
Power/Capabilities |
Unarius Academy of Science (Ernest & Ruth
Norman) |
22 |
10 |
Power/Capabilities |
I AM (Guy Ballard) |
12 |
0 |
Power/Capabilities |
Theosophy (H.P. Blavatsky) |
2 |
0 |
|
Nation of Islam (Elijah Muhammad) |
0 |
4 |
Benevolence |
International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (Prabhupada) |
4 |
7 |
|
* Statistically significant at the 95% level assuming as H0 an even
binomial distribution.
[35] Before analyzing the findings regarding the specific hypothesis,
it is worth discussing some general features that emerge from the
websites and biographies analyzed. The idea that religious movements
are predominantly present on the web is confirmed, since only two
of those listed in the database have no website. The movements without
an official website are usually a constellation of movements without
a central “portal” (Native American religions, for instance)
or movements that have ceased to exist, at least as single organizations
(for example, the “Holy Order of Mans”). As regards
movements that are present on the web, their websites are usually
complex, well designed, constantly updated and sometimes they form
a constellation of websites that deal with all facets of the movement.
[36] As stated earlier, one of the central aspects to distinguish
NRMs within the religious movement scenario is the central role
of the founder or leader. However in almost half the web-sites analyzed,
there is no biography of the founder, nor is the founder's role
stressed or emphasized. This is an interesting finding since the
centrality of the leader is stated in the literature on NRMs. That
result may be due to a number of factors:
-
A development and updating of the doctrine taught by the leader.
The group frees itself from the founder’s teachings
or adjusts them.
-
Controversial issues surrounding the founder. The movement tries
to distance itself from the founder, taking into consideration
the less controversial aspects of his/her teaching.
-
A sense of community according to which the founder is primus
inter pares who provides the initial spark subsequently
incorporated by the community that is the real bearer of the
tenets.
[37] The data show not only the leaders' centrality in NRMs, but
also the movements' tendency towards quick changes (Barker 1999).
These changes can explain why sometimes the NRM founder is not emphasized
or why s/he is even forgotten in the official webpages. Within few
years, a movement can have many new adepts who would challenge the
original tenets and the founder’s relevance. Moreover, the
line that separates the followers from the outside world (often
seen as antagonistic) may be softened over time. Thus the rigid
founder’s doctrine can be modified in order to accept more
people from the external society. Sometimes NRMs' detractors stress
the personal traits of the leader and her/his shortcomings. By removing
the leader from public attention, an NRM preserves itself from such
attacks.
[38] The powers of the leader usually have two types of origins:
a revelation and transmission from a divine entity or the personal
evolution of the leader. Benevolence is usually expressed towards
the human beings in general. Some religious movements tend to focus
on certain segments of society.
[39] As regards the two drivers of trust, if the biographies were
evenly balanced between powers and benevolence, the number of statements
expressing these two features would be approximately equal. Statistics
can help assess whether that is the case. In order to explain the
statistical method adopted, let us take one biography as an example. The
biography of Aimee Semple McPherson (International Church of Four
Square Gospel) has one statement that refers to supernatural powers
and 14 statements that indicate benevolence. Let us assume a zero-based
hypothesis that the probability of a statement of being either power-based
or benevolence-based would be even: 50%. Given this percentage,
the above configuration 1 versus 14 would appear with a probability
of less than 1/1.000. This probability is calculated through the
binomial distribution. We can conclude that the biography is significantly
unbalanced towards the benevolence communication.
[40] By applying that reasoning with a 95% level of significance,
the results are four biographies that communicate benevolence, four
that communicate capabilities and the rest (9) that are evenly distributed
between these two drivers. The biographies that express benevolence
are those of the following religious leaders and their movements (in
parentheses): Aimee McPherson (International Church of Four square
Gospel), Dwight L. Moody (Moody Church), John-Roger (MSIA Movement
of Spiritual Inner Awareness), Elijah Muhammad (Nation of Islam).
[41] For instance, the biography of John-Roger shows benevolence
in passages like the following: “John-Roger is an educator
in the broadest sense of the word, helping people to become more
aware of the Spirit in themselves and others and to make the most
out of their lives.”6 Here
the leader does not seem to possess supernatural powers. According
to this biography, the real power is inside people and John-Roger
would just help to retrieve it. The term "educator" is
low-key, referring to a role well known and common in society. Aimee
McPherson is described as a person who “performed an extensive
social ministry, providing hot meals for more than 1.5 million people
during the Great Depression.”7 She
is described as a person with great organizational skills and unshakeable
faith, not as a goddess on Earth.
[42] These movements’ tendency towards benevolence, rather
than power, may be explained with their religious stance that never
places humans above divinity. The human being can be an earthly
hand of the deity, but not a deity in her/himself. This is understandable
for the two Christian-based movements (Aimee McPherson's movement
and Moody’s Church) and for the Nation of Islam. In
these religious traditions, human beings are God’s creatures,
not gods themselves. Any supernatural powers are conceded by God
and the movement is no exception. MSIA instead comes from the New
Age culture (although Jesus Christ is considered by the movement
as its true “head” [Introvigne 1998]). However, the
first point of the MSIA’s doctrine is that everything proceeds
from God. Moreover according to John-Roger’s doctrine, everyone
has a spiritual light within and the movement would just help to
bring it forward; no external power would be transmitted from outside
the believer. This internal perspective originates from the self-help
schools movement, the Western Christian metaphysical tradition and
the Eastern-oriented esoteric culture that that John-Roger experienced
before the MSIA’s foundation (Introvigne 1998). Therefore,
for MSIA too there is no need of citing some supernatural powers
as relevant for its doctrine.
[43] The biographies that emphasize powers and capabilities of their
founders are the following: Ramtha—JZ (Ramtha School of Enlightment),
George King (Aetherius Society), Ernest & Ruth Norman (Unarius
Academy of Science), Guy Ballard (I AM). The Aetherius Society and
the Unarius Foundation are both UFO-based groups. The founders combine
millenarian themes and technological culture. The four movements
have in common the “channeling” powers of their founders.
The founder or leader is conceived by these movements as a representative
or “channel” of some supernatural entity. JZ Knight
is a famous medium whose roots come from the ’60s; according
to the movement’s doctrine, the spirit Ramtha communicates
through JZ Knight. The case is similar for Guy Ballard, whose biographical
notes are particularly vivid in their description of his encounter
with supernatural entities: “his body was filled with what
felt like a current of electricity flowing from his head to his
feet.”8
[44] In summary, half of the movements examined prefer to concentrate
on one driver of trust, while the other half do not focus on a particular
driver. The movements are thus evenly distributed between the two
communication strategies. The difference between the two types of
NRM resides in their theology. When benevolence is stressed, the
founder/leader
-
Is an intermediary of a superior divine love
-
Helps people to bring forward a light that is already present,
but “sleeping,” in their inner soul. It is a sort
of Socratic maieutic.
[45] When power is stressed, the leader/founder is considered to
be a channel of supernatural entities. The difference between the
two types of biographies and movements is not clear-cut. It is interesting
to notice that neither benevolence-based nor power-based biographies
depict the leaders as gods on earth or as incarnations of gods.
They are human beings, endowed with a mission to accomplish (save
their fellow humans) and a power to accomplish this mission. They
benevolently intercede with deities or they channel them. Intercession
or channelling are similar aspects of religious experience.
[46] MSIA is an interesting case between intercession and channeling,
between benevolence and power: John-Roger’s benevolence,
as seen before, is the central theme in his official biography.
However, according to some, his personal history outside the biography
reveals that purportedly he was possessed by an external spirit
called John in whose honour Roger Hinkins took the name
John-Roger (Introvigne 1998).
Conclusions
[47] The Internet has traditionally been studied as a business opportunity,
as a indefinitely large database, and as a communication and socialization
tool. Still, some surveys show that people often go online
for religious purposes, even for enlightenment.No wonder religion
is present on the web; the opposite (the lack on the internet of
any reference to religion) would be surprising. One can ask “But
isn’t most religion virtual in its orientation and emphasis?” (Maxwell
2002, 343). Religion is similar to the definition of virtual realms:
another space, a different place that does not exist in a physical
sense, still existing and interacting with the individual. The true
enthusiasts of cyberspace go even further; they compare the Internet
with the Heavenly City of the the Book of Revelation (Benedikt,
cited in MacWilliams 2002, 315-16). As a whole, Information
Technology seems to share some features with religious experience: “The
images on the screen may seem very real, but are the direct reflection
of an underlying and more fundamental reality ultimately existing
of digits and zeros: a parallel reality which remains invisible
to the common user” (Hanegraaff 2003, 370).
[48] As at the dawn of radio and television, religious movements
today commonly use the Internet to spread their teachings. In many
cases, that use is quite professional, in the sense that the power
of the medium is well understood and its potential is fully exploited.
This paper aims to shed some light on some of the communication
mechanisms in order to better understand the communication process
in itself and the ways in which a religious organization can
express its thoughts and tenets. Trust has become an increasingly
relevant issue for religious communication, because trust is the
first step towards a religious experience in such a varied “offer” like
those of NRMs. For this reason, the two drivers of trust (benevolence
and power/capabilities) have been put at the centre of this study.
Further research can study in greater detail the findings of this
work, by, for instance, linking the results to the religious and
spiritual needs that the society at large expresses over the years.
[49] This investigation of NRMs might be applied established religions.
But for old movements, the founder's/leader's biography is part
(and often the central part) of their sacred scriptures. This would
require some changes in the method and its aims:
-
A theological interpretation should integrate content analysis;
-
The sacred texts are usually quite complex, covering many aspects
of the founders/leaders, thus it would be likely that both aspects
of trust would emerge;
-
The length of the texts would be unlikely to provide results
with statistical significance, given the very high number of
statements;
-
The biography is often referred directly to the deity, thus
a leader/founder in the common meaning of the term would be absent.
[50] Miracles and love: ultimately, these are the two promises of
religion. New religious leaders interpret these two facets differently.
But in the end, these are different facets of the same phenomenon: “Ce
qui fait qu'on ne croit pas les vrais miracles, est le manque de
charité” (Blaise Pascal).
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Notes
1 An example is the online rosary offered
by some websites, like http://rosary.virtualave.net/.
At this site, the devotee can follow and read the rosary, pushing the button “Amen”,
going from one prayer to the next one. The “Amen” vocally expressed
is substituted by this “new economy” way of interaction.
2 The research group is currently headed
by Prof. Douglas E. Cowan.
3 The list is available at the address
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/.
4 Given the different lengths of the documents,
a relative measure can be computed in order to compare the biographies.
5 Naturally, when benevolence is considered
the main theme of a biography, it is not implied that other biographies and
movements are not benevolent. What is measured in this work is not the benevolence/malevolence
of movements, but the stress put in benevolence or power intended as communication
choices.
6 http://www.msia.org/msia.qry?ID=39 (October
2004).
7http://www.foursquare.org/index.cfm?cat=about&subcat=history&subsubcat=founder (October 2004).
8 http://www.lcrawfords-manymansions.com/Ascended%20Master%20Instruction/Guy%20Ballard/Guy%20Ballard%202.htm (October 2004).
