680. Tipton, Stephen N. "New Religious Movements and the Problem of a Modern Ethic." Sociological Inquiry 49 (2-3), 1979: 286-312.
People turn to new religions because old ethical rules no longer apply and the new groups' solutions seem more apt.
681. ———. "The Moral Logic of Alternative Religions." Daedalus 111 (1), 1982a: 185-213.
Sixties dropouts join these movements "to make moral sense of their lives," drawing on cultural truisms in the process (p. 185). Conversion occurs at least in part because old moral systems do not provide satisfactory answers to current problems, while new religions do [or at least might?]. In this respect there is basic contradiction between the two major themes of American moral life, biblical religion and individual utilitarianism: the former offers the freedom to do the right thing, the other demands freedom from moral restraint. The counterculture rejected both, opting for an ethic of untrammeled self-expression. This ethic replaces the rigidity of biblical prescription and the moral vacuity of individualism but cannot stabilize in a code. Tipton claims that est [which seems of dubious religious status] mediates the moral conflict between the counterculture and the mainstream.
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