Cults:What should I include?

What should I do?

Introduction - This basically has to include your answer to the question which could be:

Yes society plays a large role in helping cults to form.

No society plays no role in the formation of cults, they are formed because they are……

Society plays some role although increasingly this role is getting larger / smaller as time progresses.

	What do we mean by society? - One of the problems you can point out here is that the role of society is hard to distinguish as everything eventually can be linked back to society.
	What is a cult? - In order to answer this question you have to deal with this first. You need to look at a variety of sources (at least 5) in order to build up a set of criteria of your own. Try and create a set of bullet points. Use quotes from different books and web sites in building up your own definition.
	Examples of Cults - Now that you have built up your own idea of what a cult is you need to find various cults that fit in with your criteria. The best way to do this would be to write a continuous prose piece on each of the cults you have chosen and then show how they fit in with each of the bullet points. The best cults to look at are The Branch Dravidians in Waco, the Moonies, Jonestown. Again dazzle the examiner with a plethora of quotations and sources. In this section you must also look at the 'success' of these cults. Define clearly what you mean by success - were they able to convince large groups that their teaching was correct. What evidence do you have to say they were 'successful'. (NB - you may argue that if they were 'successful, it is obvious why people join them). Did they actually fail? Are they still around today? Was there a mass killing involved? Did they get bad press? If so, this leads nicely into the next section.
	Why do cults form? - This is really the main answer to your question – what possible elements cause cults. Again you are going to have to research extensively on this answer using quotations to back up your answers and ideas. What you are trying to establish is: To what extent is society responsible for creating cults? Obviously society is going to play a part in their formation – the question is whether it will be a large or a small part. What other factors might contribute to the formation of cults? What about human nature? The breakdown of the family? The inadequacy of organised religions? The world of mass communications? The failure of the education system?

	Conclusion - This could offer some possible solutions to the question. For example are cults a bad thing? Are they just the new religions of today? Could it possibly be that the religions of the past were regarded as cults themselves when they first began? Make sure you link back to the question directly and that your answer here does not conflict with your intro.