Chabad?

Private User An excellent observation, and intriguing suggestion. eg. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's Jewish Renewal Movement certainly belongs to category (b) while Baha'i to (a).

Now, how about the Berg Kabbalah Center that Madonna and other celebrities worship at----does it to qualify as a new religious offshoot?

I think the founders are disciples of a disciple of the venerable quasi-contemporary Kabbalist Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag. The Kabbalah Center seems to be more cult-like than an ordinary religious academic institution.

Thanks Malka

I don't claim to be an expert on categorising religions or cults or sects or religious movements or social movements within religions ...

Right now, that first paragraph: "Some famous examples include ..." has Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism seemingly standing out looking completely different from many of the others listed in that sentence.

It's also odd, because as has been discussed it has no different status than any other of the many Hasidic groupings. There are no new or changed religious beliefs involved in their foundation, unlike some of the other quoted "movements".

I appreciate this is work in progress and don't criticise an early draft. I was simply thinking that it would help to list all the movements included - and not just bring some of them out as "famous", and apply some kind of categorisation and explanations for clarity.

Besides the two categories I suggested, there could be other categorisations that might be helpful. Categorising helps split up large lists, adds clarity and informs. It also provides a test because if a "movement' doesn't fit into a category it provides a basis to question why it is there at all.

Private User You will be happy to see that many concerns have been addressed. ie. Link onto the project again
http://www.geni.com/projects/New-Religious-Movement-Founders
and see the following simplification to the introduction: (scroll down to end for text)

However, some "famous" examples is still there.
Maybe the word "famous" needs revision. If as you point out these "famous" are meant to examplify the whole list, including the less mainstream alternative religions?

David, your idea of having more project categories to improve clarity would indeed be extremely beneficial as a research tool. eg. something like . . .

1. Founders of Established Mainstream Religions
(a) a new movement within an existing mainstream religion.

2. Founders of Alternative Religious Movements
(a) a new religion 

(b) a new movement

(these are just sample arbitarary titles)

============================
Latest Version of Project Introduction (http://www.geni.com/projects/New-Religious-Movement-Founders)
============================

New Religious Movements are those traditions, either independent religions or movements within existing religious frameworks, established from roughly 1800 C.E. forward.

Some famous examples include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Pentecostalism, Scientology, Wicca, the Baha'i Faith, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism, and Messianic Judaism.

*Status of Project
*Current Objectives

The current priorities for the project are:
1. Gathering all related profiles currently on Geni
2. Creating basic profiles for founders not yet on Geni
3. Once profiles are gathered, tree-building and content-revising can be completed later.

*Future Objectives

If the project gathers enough steam, we might be able to do sub-projects based on which traditions inspired each of the founders -- for example, NRMs in the Christian tradition, NRMs in the Jewish tradition, etc.

An organized list of founders by theological thematics, geographic scope, or chronology might also be a nice addition.