Wuhan Journal of Cultic Studies
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Volume 2: Issue 1, 2022
ARTICLE NXIVM, Religion, and “Cults”: Keith Raniere as Charismatic Leader and Transgressive Criminal Carole M. Cusack University of Sydney Abstract Keith Raniere, the founder and charismatic leader of NXIVM, was arrested by FBI agents in Mexico in 2018 and sentenced to 120 years in prison in 2020. The charges included sex trafficking, racketeering, child pornography possession, and other crimes. The question of whether NXIVM is a religion or a group that can be classified as “religious” arises due to the stereotype of new religious movements (NRMs) that emerged in the 1960s, which posited a charismatic leader (usually male) who predated sexually (and financially) upon members. The archetypes of this form of leadership include Jim Jones, who had sexual relationships with both male and female members of Peoples Temple, and David Berg (Moses David), the founder of the Children of God (later The Family International), whose movement has been accused of sexualizing young children, and abusing them in the context of an allegedly “sex positive” religion, as well as pimping female members as “hookers for Jesus” as a missionary technique. Memoirs by ex-members of the Children of God, Peoples Temple, the Church of Scientology, and many other NRMs have proliferated since the 1990s, and in the 2020s documentaries and books about NXIVM appear regularly. This article analyses NXIVM, its founder, its members, and group practices, identifying certain tropes familiar from the study of NRM leaders, in order to determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence to merit classifying it as a new religious movement (NRM) or a “cult.” Keywords: New religious movement; cult; NXIVM; Keith Raniere; charismatic leader; coercive control; crime | ||