starting a NRM: advice please!

[Eddi]

So...

Me and a friend of mine (possibly me and two friends if we can get another person on board) have decided we are going to start a New Religious Movement...

We all have Messiah Complexes so I think we could put together a decent NRM

And I mean a New Religious Movement, not a cult

We don't want anyone's money and we don't want to control people or anything like that - that is not our business!

There are some issues I think we will face that I would like to ask the great wisdom of RF about:

1) After we have decided what is true, where do we go from there?
2) What topics should a comprehensive exposition of our movement's beliefs cover?
3) How can we ensure that it doesn't morph into a cult?
4) Any ideas what to do with it re: social media and all that business?

That's it for now, I may post some more questions sometime in the future

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Viker]

3) How can we ensure that it doesn't morph into a cult?

Know and understand how things like critical thinking and democratization are important. Avoid absolutes, dogmas, past orthodoxies, etc.

"The truth is slippery and flexible, it is much like a snake. Unlike a rock, it is more like a flowing river."

I'm quoting my religious texts, but oh well.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

There are some issues I think we will face that I would like to ask the great wisdom of RF about:

1) After we have decided what is true, ...

... focus on repenting such preposterous pretension?

 

[Secret Chief]

1) After we have decided what is true, where do we go from there?
2) What topics should a comprehensive exposition of our movement's beliefs cover?
3) How can we ensure that it doesn't morph into a cult?
4) Any ideas what to do with it re: social media and all that business?

1. Live by it.
2. Living.
3. Send the money to me.
4. Sexy name, sexy logo: sorted.

 

[Heyo]

4) Any ideas what to do with it re: social media and all that business?

Thanks in advance for any help

Look at existing NRM and learn.

Good examples are Jediism and Pastafarianism.

 

[Twilight Hue]

What would you call us then?

We don't want to control people

We want to free people from control without being controlling ourselves

Edit: we are all about liberation

Oh there's a can of worms for the fishing trip...

 

[Eddi]

... focus on repenting such preposterous pretension?

Isn't knowing what's true and what is not true important parts of any religion????

I'd have thought they were.

 

[RabbiO]

@Eddi -

Didn’t you create a thread asking the same question back in January 2020?

 

[Viker]

Oh there's a can of worms for the fishing trip...

It's like those Hamas videos but American.

 

[Eddi]

@Eddi -

Didn’t you create a thread asking the same question back in January 2020?

Maybe, but I've moved on since then

My circumstances have changed

Since January 2020 I have been through a lot

 

[Twilight Hue]

It's like those Hamas videos but American.

Indeed. Not surprising since it's still Abrahamic religion.


For those who viewed the trailer, it will send shivers up the spine more than any horror flick will.

 

[Shaul]

So you don’t want to control people but you want to control whether your NRM turns into a cult.

 

[Eddi]

So you don’t want to control people but you want to control whether your NRM turns into a cult.

No, I don't want to control people

Yes, I would like some influence over whether or not it turns into a cult

Controlling the membership and controlling the organisation are different things entirely

And of course, members would have a say in how it is organised

Controlling and running an organisation is different to trying to control the lives and beliefs of its members

I'd suggest that all religious movements have to do the former in order to exist

 

[Suave]

Interesting...

The Matrix club?!

 

[Suave]

The Matrix club?!

Darn it, somebody has already started a club just like that!
"Matrixism or The Path of the One is a purported religion inspired by the motion picture trilogy The Matrix. Conceived by an anonymous group in the summer of 2004, it claimed to have attracted 300 members by May 2005, and the religion's Geocities website claimed "over sixteen hundred members".

Could we perhaps copy off another club?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Maybe, but I've moved on since then

And perhaps this too shall pass.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

So...

Me and a friend of mine (possibly me and two friends if we can get another person on board) have decided we are going to start a New Religious Movement...

We all have Messiah Complexes so I think we could put together a decent NRM

And I mean a New Religious Movement, not a cult

We don't want anyone's money and we don't want to control people or anything like that - that is not our business!

There are some issues I think we will face that I would like to ask the great wisdom of RF about:

1) After we have decided what is true, where do we go from there?
2) What topics should a comprehensive exposition of our movement's beliefs cover?
3) How can we ensure that it doesn't morph into a cult?
4) Any ideas what to do with it re: social media and all that business?

That's it for now, I may post some more questions sometime in the future

Thanks in advance for any help

I seriously doubt the possibility of more than one person creating a religious movement. The problem starts (and probably ends) in your point 1 above ("after we have decided what is true"). Just the attempt at that will get you so bogged down you'll give the whole project up.

Messiah complexes are very much solo.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

"I think a some buds and I will start a new religion" belittles the subject far more than most atheist polemics I've read.

 

[Eddi]

"I think a some buds and I will start a new religion"

There is more to it than that

A lot more to it

 

[Suave]

So...

Me and a friend of mine (possibly me and two friends if we can get another person on board) have decided we are going to start a New Religious Movement...

We all have Messiah Complexes so I think we could put together a decent NRM


And I mean a New Religious Movement, not a cult

We don't want anyone's money and we don't want to control people or anything like that - that is not our business!

There are some issues I think we will face that I would like to ask the great wisdom of RF about:

1) After we have decided what is true, where do we go from there?
2) What topics should a comprehensive exposition of our movement's beliefs cover?
3) How can we ensure that it doesn't morph into a cult?
4) Any ideas what to do with it re: social media and all that business?

That's it for now, I may post some more questions sometime in the future

Thanks in advance for any help

Would you agree with the notion of a metaverse religious movement?

User avatars there may be guided to spiritual places where they can listen to religious scripts and witness holy events and experience miraculous healings. There'd be a range of spiritual experiences happening from more immersive to traditional church services and meditation.