This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Christian Movements gathers eleven groups that broke from or grew out of mainstream Christianity and were later widely described as cults, showing every stage such a movement can reach, from ordinary new religious movement to the deaths of its own members.
Several stayed within recognisable Christian doctrine while tightening control over followers. The Branch Davidians grew from a Seventh day Adventist schism and are known chiefly through the Waco standoff, though scholars caution against a simple cult label. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints broke away to continue plural marriage, and its leader Warren Jeffs was convicted in 2011 of the sexual assault of children. Twelve Tribes and The Family International both grew from the Jesus movement into communal arrangements that drew scrutiny over child discipline and control.
Others reworked doctrine more radically. The Unification Church, built on Sun Myung Moon's Divine Principle, is known for mass wedding ceremonies uniting many couples at once. The Way International rejected the Trinity outright and grew rapidly in the 1970s before schisms followed its founder's death. Word of Faith Fellowship faces allegations of a practice called blasting, loud group prayer paired with physical discipline.
Two ended in mass death. The Peoples Temple began as a Protestant social gospel movement before its leader's escalating control ended in tragedy, and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a Ugandan breakaway from Catholicism, ended the same way after a mass death event among its followers. Ant Hill Kids in Quebec and Colonia Dignidad in Chile document the same total control taken to violent extremes, their leaders convicted of murder and child abuse.