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Soci 130
[Numbers in bold refer to the assessment goals (1-3) represented by the question]
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Exam #1
Spring 2016
Name (please print) _________________________________
1.
1
Which group illustrates progressive millennialism?
a.*
Unarius Academy of Science
b.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
c.
Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM)
d.
Seventh Day Adventism
2.
Which group promotes cloning as a means of achieving eternal life?
a.
ISKCON (Hare Krishna)
b.
Father Divine’s Peace Mission
c.
the Raelians
d.
HIM
3.
What
a.
b.
c.
d.
event triggered an upsurge in catastrophic millennialism in the late 20th century?
the Vietnam war
the Great Depression
the explosion of the first hydrogen bomb
the Pentecostal revival
4.
1
Stein
a.
b.*
c.
d.
thinks Brook Farm fell apart so quickly because:
its members were uneducated and lacked marketable skills.
it allowed too much intellectual freedom.
its members didn’t live communally.
its radical lifestyle provoked violent attacks from its neighbors.
5.
Which statement about the post-World War II baby boomers is true?
a.
They provided a critical mass of potential recruits for the emerging anti-war and hippie
movements.
b.
Relatively few were involved in the counterculture.
c.*
They were less concerned about their economic future than previous generations.
d.
all of the above
6.
Which is true of Anabaptist groups?
a.*
They include the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites.
b.
They require infant baptism.
c.
They have a long history of violent anti-government protests.
d.
They grew out of William Miller’s failed prophecy.
7.
Here are actual quotes from four ex-members of the Unification Church. Which one
illustrates synchronicity?
a.
"I started asking myself, `Is something wrong with me? Why do I seem to be the
only person questioning this stuff?'"
b.
"After several days of prayer, I received what I thought was the ‘sign’.... I reached
down, picked up one of my philosophy books, and opened it to a paragraph at
random, which said that history goes through certain cycles to help human beings
evolve to a higher plane. At that moment I thought I had had a spiritual experience."
c.
"A muffled voice deep within me kept telling me to watch out, to keep questioning
everything."
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3
d.
8.
1&2
“I never worried about using deception to recruit people because we were doing it for
God.”
Based on Stark's chapter on religion, which statement about cults is correct?
a.*
All world religions began as cults.
b.
Cults are religious movements that are based ideas that are new and different in
society.
c.
Cults become popular when traditional faiths have been weakened by secularization.
d.
all of the above
9.
What
a.
b.
c.
d.
10.
1
Which of the following groups would be a sect?
a.
A massage therapy class evolves into a new religion based on the belief that tactile
stimulation awakens God consciousness.
b.
PTA president Mabel Wilson starts a new religion based on hidden messages in the
music of Lady Gaga.
c.*
A break-away Catholic group forms the Holy Order of Corns to restore the Disciples’
practice of wearing sandals instead of shoes.
d.
The Temple of Cosmic Enrichment is brought to the U.S. by Swami Snatchadollar.
11.
The Shakers:
a.
practiced free love.
b.
disintegrated in less than a generation.
c.
believed their founder, Ann Lee, was the Second Coming of Christ.
d.
all of the above
12.
1
The version of millennialism popularized by evangelical Christian writer Hal Lindsey is:
a.
progressive
b.
utopian
c.*
apocalyptic
d.
all of the above
13.
1
Stark
a.
b.
c.*
d.
14.
According to my lectures on the 1960s, which of the following contributed to the rapid
growth of alternative religions of alternative at the end of the decade?
a.
the collapse of idealism in the counterculture
b.
a large pool of potential recruits with weak attachments to conventional society
c.
relaxation of laws excluding Asian immigrants
d.*
all of the above
When was the “communitarian movement” described by Stein?
a.
the Colonial era
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15.
are David Koresh and the Branch Davidians best known for?
predicting that the world would end on December 21, 2012
being the first African-American Buddhists in the U.S.
claiming that extraterrestrials will save us
an FBI assault on their compound which ended in their deaths
claims that sects:
appeal mainly to the wealthy.
reject the basic beliefs of the mainstream religious tradition.
form in response to secularization.
emphasize rewards in this life rather than salvation in the next.
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16.
17.
18.
1
b.
first half of the 19th century
c.
late in the 19th century.
d.
late 1960s
Which group became famous for its prediction that Christ would return in 1914?
a.
Unification Church
b.*
Jehovah’s Witnesses
c.
Millerites
d.
Seventh-day Adventists
Which of the following is an African-American religious movement?
a.
Seventh-Day Adventists
b.
Pentecostalism
c.
Nation of Islam
d.
Unification Church
Which of the following would be most likely to have a complete doctrine and require
members to separate from their families?
a.
client cult
b.
audience cult
c.*
cult movement
19.
1
Based on Stein’s book, which statement about American alternative religions is correct?
a.*
Cults and sects have existed during every period of U.S. history. b.
The appeal of
new religions has been confined to a few brief periods.
c.
Alternatives religions were rare until the 1960s.
d.
Alternative religions aroused little opposition until the 1960s.
20.
1&2
What
a.
b.
c.*
d.
21.
1
Which group best illustrates epistemological individualism?
a.
HIM
b.
Pentecostalism
c.
Jesus People
d.*
Brook Farm
22.
1
Within Christianity, a church is more likely than a sect to:
a.
have highly emotional worship services.
b.*
have a professionally trained clergy.
c.
see the world as an evil place.
d.
regard the Bible as the literal word of God.
23.
1
The Ghost Dance movement:
a.
was popular among white settlers in the Northeast U.S. during the early 1800s.
b.
used magic rituals to divert cargo away from white colonists to the native people for
whom it was intended.
c.*
developed into classic catastrophic millennialism.
d.
arose during the great plague that swept 14th century Europe.
do cargo cults, the Ghost Dance, and the Flagellants have in common?
They are UFO cults.
Their members came from the hippie counterculture.
They were responses to disastrous events.
They all were millennial movements in medieval Europe.
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24.
According to Ellwood and Partin (“The Sixties and After”), the most important theme of the
1960s was:
a.
exploration of consciousness
b.
sexual freedom
c.
communal living
d.
getting high
25.
1
Which of the following illustrates antinomianism?
a.
Bo and Peep’s belief that salvation requires cutting ties with the world
b.
the Shaker practice of ecstatic dancing
c.
Dr. Leland Jensen’s prediction that the apocalypse would begin at 5:55 p.m., April 29,
1980
d.*
the early Unification Church practice of “heavenly deception”
26.
2
According to Stark and Bainbridge’s theory of religion:
a.*
all religions are based on belief in the supernatural.
b.
the Communist ideology is a religion.
c.
cults are not true religions.
d.
religion ultimately will be replaced by science.
27.
Which group assembled in the thousands 1843 to await the return of Jesus Christ?
a.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
b.
The Millerites
c.
Seventh-day Adventists
d.
Father Divine’s Peace Mission
28.
1
In a brand-new religion you would be likely to find a:
a.
three-tier structure
b.
syncretistic belief system
c.
charismatic leader
d.*
all of the above
29.
1
Which statement best expresses the philosophy of epistemological individualism?
a.*
Truth is what works for you, not what somebody else says is true.
b.
Religion is a crutch that prevents people from learning how to solve their own
problems.
c.
The Bible is the literal word of God but people should not be pressured into accepting
it.
d.
My religion offers the only path to salvation.
30.
1
Which of the following is true of Pentecostalism?
a.
It started with a revival of fundamentalist Christianity in the 1960s.
b.
It is more cultic than sectarian.
c.*
It is based on belief in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as healing, speaking in
tongues, and casting out demons.
d.
It is best known for their practice of handing snakes in their services.
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31.
Which statement is true of HIM?
a.
No great sacrifices were required to join.
b.*
Members were told to avoid all unnecessary contact with humans.
c.
Married couples were encouraged to remain together.
d.
Daily life was structured to build strong social bonds among members.
32.
How did the Baha’is Under the Provisions of the Covenant respond when Dr. Jensen’s
predicted nuclear war failed to happen?
a.
The group disintegrated.
b.*
The failure was explained as a test of members’ faith and the group survived.
c.
Jensen was deposed as the group’s leader.
d.
Having been granted a reprieve, members tried harder than ever to recruit new
believers.
33.
1
Which of the following is an essential part of being a true charismatic leader?
a.
physical attractiveness
b.
being a powerful, inspiring speaker
c.
the ability to manipulate others without feeling guilty about it
d.*
followers who believe the leader possesses extraordinary qualities
34.
Which statement best describes the process of becoming a member of HIM?
a.*
New members left their families and gave away their possessions even before
physically joining the group.
b.
Deceptive, high-pressure tactics were used to get people to join.
c.
New members experienced great social pressure to submit to group authority.
d.
New members were expected to confess their human attachments to in regular group
meetings.
35.
The biggest sectarian movement in Western history was the:
a.
Pentecostal movement
b.*
Protestant Reformation
c.
rise of new religious movements in the 1960s
d.
19th century communal (communitarian) movement
36.
Because sexuality is so volatile, new religions must find ways of structuring it. How did
Human Individual Metamorphosis do this?
a.*
requiring complete celibacy
b.
enforcing total segregation of the sexes
c.
promoting “free love” without romantic attachments
d.
permitting sex only among the most committed members
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37.
1
Which of the following illustrates syncretism?
a.
The Children of God divided the world into good and evil, the saved and the damned.
b.*
Bo and Peep created a belief system based on ideas from the Bible, Eastern religions,
Spiritualism, and the UFO subculture.
c.
While walking home from work, John is thinking about UFOs when, on impulse, he
decides to take a different route. Ten feet down his new path he finds a poster on the
ground advertising a meeting about UFOs. The coincidence is so striking that John
thinks it’s a message telling him that he needs to attend that meeting.
d.
Some religions teach that God is inside of all of us.
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38.
Roger
a.
b.*
c.
d.
Williams:
took the name Uriel after founding the Unarius Academy of Science.
was an early advocate of religious freedom in New England.
became momentarily famous when he predicted that the Apocalypse would begin May
21, 2011.
founded a free-love community in the early 1800s.
39.
Which statement about Reverend Moon’s Unification Church is true?
a.
The group originated in California during the 1960s.
b.
The Moonies eliminated marriage and encouraged free sex within the community
c.*
Rev. Moon claimed God chose him to complete Jesus’s mission of fathering perfect
children.
d.
Compared to movements like the Krishnas and Children of God, the Moonies made
few demands on new members.
40.
Which of the following was not a characteristic of the hippie movement?
a.*
emphasis on political activism as a way of reforming society
b.
belief that mankind was about to enter a new age of peace and brotherhood
c.
fascination with Eastern religions
d.
belief that conformity to conventional norms and values is psychologically unhealthy.
41.
1
Which of the following would you be sure to find in a totalistic religious community?
a.
apocalyptic beliefs
b.*
sharp social and psychological boundaries separating members from non-believers
c.
epistemological individualism
a syncretistic belief system
d.
42.
Which of the following played the biggest role in the hippies’ spiritual awakening?
a.
fascination with Native American religions
b.
Pentecostalism
c.
the Jesus movement
d.*
LSD and other psychedelic drugs
43.
The early Quakers:
a.*
believed that the light of Christ is inside every individual
b.
were known for using violence against nonbelievers.
c.
demanded strict obedience to group authorities.
d.
were known for showing off their wealth because wealth was a sign of God’s favor.
44.
1
Which of the following illustrates epistemological authoritarianism?
a.
Human Individual Metamorphosis
b.
Shakers
c.
fundamentalist sects
d.*
all of the above
45.
Which of the following would you expect to find in a cult that you would never find in a true
sect?
a.*
a belief system that combines ideas from different religious traditions
b.
rejection of worldly laws that conflict with God’s law
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c.
d.
a totalistic structure
a dualistic belief system
46.
Oneida was characterized by:
a.
progressive millennialism
b.
practices that discouraged exclusive sexual relationships
c.
a communal lifestyle
d.
all of the above
47.
1
What
a.
b.*
c.
d.
48.
According to my lecture on the fate of the hippies, what was the main reason for the collapse
of most hippie communes?
a.
experimentation with free sex
b.*
inability to solve the free-rider problem
c.
harassment by law enforcement
d.
marijuana crop failures
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made HIM different from the classic millennial movement?
It promised collective salvation for true believers.
The perfect world promised by the leaders was not on this planet.
The leaders claimed that civilization was about to be destroyed.
Members believed that the huge changes facing humanity were part of a divine plan.
49.
Three of these groups rejected the world and separated themselves from it as much as
possible. Which one did not do this?
a.
Children of God
b.
Shakers
c.
HIM
d.*
Transcendental Meditation
50.
1&2
How were the religious cults of the 1960s and 1970s similar to those in indigenous societies?
a.
They appealed mainly to the poor and disenfranchised.
b.
They appeared in times of widespread prosperity.
c.*
They arose in response severe cultural crisis in which people began questioning the
meaning and purpose of their lives.
d.
They advocated violent revolution to overthrow those responsible for their plight.
51.
a.
The Rapture refers to:
the moment true Christians will be taken to heaven before the chaos of the end times.
b.
the peace that comes from accepting Jesus Christ as one’s savior.
c.
Satan’s power to blind people with false promises.
d.
the destruction of civilization during the Battle of Armageddon.
52.
1&2
Historian Norman Cohn found that millennial sects in late-Medieval Europe:
a.
appealed mainly to poor peasants who were bound to feudal estates.
b.
occurred on a regular basis in all parts of Europe.
c.
usually appeared in times of great calamities such as famines and epidemics.
d.
rejected Christianity and the Bible as false religion.
53.
According to Dawson’s article on prophecy failure, what is the most common response
when prophecies don’t come true?
a.*
The leader claims the prophecy was fulfilled spiritually rather than physically.
b.
Group members become violent toward the group’s critics.
c.
The group disintegrates.
d.
Members try even harder to recruit new believers.
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54.
1
What was the most important factor contributing to the sudden growth of imported new
religions in late 20th century America?
a.
Hollywood movies about exotic religions in India
b.
the hit TV series, “Meet the Moonies”
c.*
repeal of laws prohibiting immigration from Asian countries
d.
widespread use of LSD in the counterculture