Navigating New Religious Studies in the "Cult Wars": Changing Conditions influencing the Social Scientific Study of NRMs, 1975 to 2025

Based on first-hand research experiences in the field of new religious studies, this paper attempts to identify and analyze some of the changing conditions that have confronted researchers attempting to conduct field work in new religious movements (NRMs) over the last fifty years. Four major conditions are identified: i) the rise of “cult-watching groups” (CAG) in an increasingly global “anticult movement” (ACM); ii) the rise of institutional research ethics boards; iii) the advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s; iv) media treatment of NRMs. While these four changing conditions have, in some ways, contributed new methods and avenues of access to the field of NRM studies, this paper will focus on their negative impacts on the research field. Citing from research methods studies, and providing examples of researchers’ experiences in the field, this study will attempt to demonstrate how these four factors can impede or limit research access, delay projects, and divert the focus away from longitudinal research and “pure ethnography” towards short-term projects responding to religious freedom issues, legal cases, and human rights concerns.