The authors have published another article, based on the same empirical material (Frisk and Nilsson 2018). This article will give an in-depth “thick description” of child rearing and schooling in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in Sweden. The first part of the article is based on interviews with children and young people in the group conducted in 2014 and 2015, and focuses on Brethren identity and socialization. The second part of the article discusses the Labora School, a nonconfessional free school which was established by a group of Brethren parents and business owners in 2007. This part of the article also reflects the public debate about confessional and non-confessional free schools in Sweden. The Labora school has been criticized by both the Swedish Schools Inspectorate and the media. This section of the article is based mainly on official school inspection documents and media material. Since writing this article, the Labora School changed its name in 2019, to One School Global Nyby Campus, and is affiliated to One School Global, the Brethren schools worldwide (One School Global 2020). The third part of the article deals with parents’ and children’s experiences of the school, again using interview material.

Hur är det att vara barn och växa upp i en religiös minoritetsgrupp som Hare Krishna, Scientologi-kyrkan, Jehovas Vittnen, Knutby Filadelfia, Plymouth-bröderna, Enighetskyrkan eller Guds Barn/Familjen? Boken bygger framför allt på ett 70-tal intervjuer med såväl vuxna som barn som vuxit upp i dessa grupper, samt på intervjuer med ett 20-tal föräldrar, men också på fältobservationer och textstudier av gruppernas material kring barn och barnuppfostran. Livsvillkoren för barnen kan vara mycket olika, bland annat för att de olika religiösa grupperna har olika ideologier och syn på barnuppfostran, men också på individuella omständigheter inom olika familjer, fas i gruppens utveckling samt samhällets gensvar och reaktioner på gruppen ifråga. Boken diskuterar teman som socialisation, identitet, avhopp och skolgång, men tar också upp farhågor kring dessa grupper som auktoritär uppfostran, aga, isolering från samhället, separationer mellan föräldrar och barn, och bristande omsorg vad gäller mat och hälsa. Författare är professor i religionsvetenskap Liselotte Frisk, Högskolan Dalarna, fil. dr Peter Åkerbäck, Stockholms Universitet, och doktorand Sanja Nilsson, Högskolan Dalarna och Göteborgs universitet.

Hur man uppfostrar barn inom nyreligiösa rörelser är en ständig debattfråga. Ofta dras vitt skilda grupper över en kam, inte sällan styrs debatten av ett ensidigt perspektiv och gamla uppgifter. När föreställningar byggda på förutfattade meningar får ersätta fakta finns risk för att barn som växer upp inom nyreligiösa rörelser tar skada genom samhällets oförmåga att leta efter likheter snarare än olikheter. Bristen på kunskap om dessa barns faktiska uppväxtvillkor riskerar att underbygga fördomar och i längden medverka till ett ökat spänningsförhållande mellan allmänheten och den grupp barnen växer upp inom. Aktuell forskning på ämnet är därför av största vikt.Syftet med artikeln har varit att beskriva hur barn som växer upp inom Hare Krishna-rörelsens jordbrukskollektiv Almviks By i Sverige idag socialiseras och om möjligt besvara frågan om det finns anledning till oro från samhällets sida när det gäller barnens situation.Utgångspunkten är en lista över orosmoment man från samhällets sida upplever när det gäller barn som växer upp inom nyreligiösa rörelser. Denna är hämtad ur den statliga utredningen I God Tro: Samhället och Nyandligheten (1998). Genom deltagande observationer i Almviks Gård har socialisationen av barn analyserats ur ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att religiös socialisering integreras i den övriga socialisationen. Inga av de farhågor som beskrivs i den statliga utredningen präglar socialisationen på ett övergripande sätt.

A broad definition of what constitutes a sectarian group is social and theological deviance and/or innovation, often paired with some level of critique of and isolation or withdrawal from society. It is impossible to say how many children (under the age of 18) worldwide grow up in so‐called sectarian groups. There are primarily three reasons why such an estimation is problematic: the definitions of the terms new religions, cults, and sectarian groups vary according to time and location; the nature of sectarian groups tends to encompass withdrawal from society, which means that the beliefs of a group may not be known to wider society; and the groups are often wary about stating or have no knowledge of their own membership figures, sometimes due to unclear definitions of membership. This entry examines various impacts of the ways in which sectarian groups interact with socialization, education, health, and abuse, and the possible consequences for children reared in such groups.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a few examples of the experiences of three new religious movements operating in nations under authoritarian and totalitarian rule, and connect these to the definitions of religious freedom in the same countries. 

The Knutby Filadelfia Congregation, founded in 1921, started out as a Pentecostal congrega- tion. It has, however, been considered a deviant and semi-isolated new religious movement ever since it became known to the public after a murder took place within its community in 2004. The massive media attention it received revealed the presence of a charismatic leader within the group, and the development of a new theology in which the charismatic leader was con- sidered to be the Bride of Christ. After 2004, the congregation reinforced its boundaries with society, and then suddenly began to dissolve in 2016. This study discusses the development of totalistic features within the congregation from the perspective of sociologist Erving Goffman; it highlights the simultaneous presence of in-group as well as out-group social stigma; and it explores the conflicting presentations of childhood in the congregation in performances from before and after the dissolution of the congregation. The results are based on empirical material from 25 semi-structured interviews with children and youth aged 7–25, 2 focus group interviews with youths, and 24 days of participant obser- vations. Goffman’s theoretical framework, including the key concepts total institutions, stigma, and presentations, is used together with an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach in order to explore the experiences of childhoods as presented by children and youth within the congregation. The findings suggest that their individual understandings of and responses to the presence of a charismatic authority, as well as the consequences of such authorities on parent–child relations, are individual. The Pre-Narratives focus on stigmatisation from society, while the Post-Narratives include stigma within the congregation in the form of social exclusion. The study further indicates that the presentations of childhoods given prior to and after the dissolution of the congregation, the so-called Pre- and Post-Narratives, differ due to changing dramaturgical loyalties, although they should both be considered front-stage activity in Goffman’s terms.

The Family International (TFI) is a religious movement that emerged in the late 1960s. It was founded by David Berg (1919?1994), who later came to be perceived by adherents as the End-Time Prophet. The movement is based on Christian theology but has never had more than 10 000 followers. It has, however, made itself internationally famous through a radical interpretation of the Bible and critique of mainstream society. The Family has received media attention partly due to its liberal views on sexuality. The group is well-known within the research field of sociology of religion and new religious movements, and has been extensively studied as a “high-tension” group that has limited and regulated contact with mainstream society. Although there are some excellent in-depth case studies on the Family, the group is constantly changing due to its theology being based on continuous prophecy. This means that the group’s doctrines and praxis have changed considerably over the course of its 40-year history. This article examines the latest change in The Family International, called the Reboot, which was implemented in September 2010, in order to get a clearer picture of what constitutes this shift. This article also aims to show how changes in social boundaries due to the implementation of the Reboot are perceived by some members of The Family International.