<P> In the 1930s, Christian critics of NRMs began referring to them as "cults". The 1938 book The Chaos of Cults by Jan Karel van Baalen (1890--1968), an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church in North America, was especially influential . In the US, the Christian Research Institute was founded in 1960 by Walter Martin to counter opposition to evangelical Christianity and has come to focus on criticisms of NRMs . Presently the Christian countercult movement opposes most NRMs because of theological differences . It is closely associated with evangelical Christianity . The UK - based Reachout Trust was initially established to oppose the Jehovah's Witnesses and what it regarded as "counterfeit Christian groups", but it came to wider attention in the late 1980s and 1990s for its role in promoting claims about Satanic ritual abuse . </P> <P> In the 1970s and 1980s some NRMs, as well as some non-religious groups, came under opposition by the newly organized anti-cult movement which mainly charged them with psychological abuse of their own members . It actively seeks to discourage people from joining new religions (which it refers to as "cults"). It also encourages members of these groups to leave them, and at times seeking to restrict their freedom of movement . </P> <P> Family members are often distressed when a relative of theirs joins a new religion . Although children break away from their parents for all manner of reasons, in cases where NRMS are involved it is often the latter that are blamed for the break . Some anti-cultist groups emphasise the idea that "cults" always use deceit and trickery to recruit members . The anti-cult movement adopted the term "brainwashing", which had been developed by the journalist Edward Hunter and then used by Robert J. Lifton to apply to the methods employed by Chinese to convert captured U.S. soldiers to their cause in the Korean War . Lifton himself had doubts about the applicability of his' brainwashing' hypothesis to the techniques used by NRMs to convert recruits . A number of ex-members of various new religions have made false allegations about their experiences in such groups . For instance, in the late 1980s a man in Dublin, Ireland was given a three - year suspended sentence for falsely claiming that he had been drugged, kidnapped, and held captive by members of ISKCON . </P> <P> Scholars of religion have often critiqued anti-cult groups of un-critically believing anecdotal stories provided by the ex-members of new religions, of encouraging ex-members to think that they are the victims of manipulation and abuse, and of irresponsibly scare - mongering about NRMs . Of the "well over a thousand groups that have been or might be called cults" listed in the files of INFORM, says Eileen Barker, the "vast majority" have not engaged in criminal activities . </P>

What movement had a major impact on wicca in north america