The Fate of NRMs and their Detractors in Twenty-First Century America

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the United States has emerged as the most religiously pluralistic society that ever existed. Over two thousand different primary religious groups (denominations) exist in the U.S. across the spectrum of the world’s religions. During the nineteenth century, the diversification of religion was primarily within the Christian community; the sixteen Christian churches that existed at the nation’s founding generated more than 300 new denominations a hundred years later. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, all of the major world’s religions had also established their initial centers, although they were relatively minuscule. From 1880 to the present, there is a steady decade-by-decade increase in the number of new religions present in American society, including both new Christian denominations and the wide spectrum of Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and even Jewish groups. The growth of new religions has continued unabated during times of social unrest and relative calm, war and peace, good economic times and bad. ¹