Word: sects
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JAPAN'S militant Nichiren Shoshu sect of Buddhism, better known as Soka Gakkai (the Value Creation Society), is a phenomenally successful blend of 13th century Buddhist theology and 20th century power-of-positive-thinking. Scarcely 3,000 strong in 1945, the sect numbers 8,000,000 members today, including at least 100,000 in the U.S. It was the founding force and remains the sustaining power behind Japan's third largest political party, the Komeito (Clean Government) Party. Its formula for success, both personal and collective, is simple: the relentless chanting of a brief ritual prayer before replicas...
...high-scoring center of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jabbar came to Harvard to pursue his education in the scriptures of Islam. He is a member of the Hanafi sect of Islam (not to be confused with the Nation of Islam or the so-called Black Muslims...
...electronic "white sound," sleep-inducing device he keeps near his bed. Also near his bed is the Bible he has carried with him constantly since he joined the Worldwide Church of God, a California-based fundamentalist sect...
...drug has had a worse press than hashish. The resinous extract from the flower heads of female Indian hemp plants (Cannabis saliva) is five to ten times as potent as bulky, unrefined marijuana. Crusaders returning from the Holy Land brought back the tale that the chief of a Moslem sect used hashish to give fanatical courage to his hirelings before they set out on murder missions. Thus, from a corruption of hashshashin, they added the word assassin to the language. What has since been learned about hashish suggests that while the crusaders may have been good fighters, they were rotten...
...Although Wisconsin v. Yoder was the first Supreme Court case in the long history of the Amish in the U.S., the Amish have always been a people apart, at odds with society. Their founder, Jakob Ammann, was a Mennonite bishop in 17th century Switzerland. After Ammann clashed with the sect's leaders over fine points of observance and demanded strict excommunication of backsliders, he and his followers broke away in 1693 and became the Amish. They sought refuge in America after William Penn's colony became a haven of religious freedom...