What is in a Name? A Comparison of Being Branded a Religious Cult in the United States and the People's Republic of China

Religious beliefs are important in every society, and a study of them can enable scholars to better understand a society's norms and structures. Many social conflicts in the world today include a religious component and arise when religions spread to new areas through globalization. Understanding how different societies deal with religious conflict and controversial religious groups, especially in the context of global cultural flows, can provide insights into the workings of governments and social systems coping with globalization. This article focuses on a religious group that has been situated in and has moved between two very different social and political systems: those in China and those in the United States. The group is known by its members as the Local Churches1 but is called by its critics “the Shouters.” Despite its categorization as a cult in both the United States and China, as of 2011, church leaders reported approximately four thousand Local Churches throughout the world outside of China and another twelve hundred to fifteen hundred congregations within China's borders.2 The Local Churches arose in China following the introduction of Western Protestant Christianity. Local Church founder—Watchman Nee—localized Western Protestant teachings to match the cultural context of China in the early twentieth century. In the 1960s, the group and its teachings flowed back to the West in its indigenized form, where it challenged mainstream American Protestant groups. In the late 1970s, the Local Churches reappeared in China during the post–Mao Era.

China · Christianity · Context (archaeology) · Cult · Globalization · Ideology · Mainstream · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Religious organization · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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