Abstract
It has been effective in shaping the political-economic religious lives of societies due to the great epidemics experienced in the history of humanity and its causes and consequences, and it continues to be influential. Due to the fact that our globalized world has become a small village thanks to the progress made in technology and science, an undesirable situation such as an epidemic or disaster in any country can naturally affect other countries. In order to overcome this negative process experienced worldwide with the least damage, it may sometimes be necessary to take extraordinary measures on a global scale. The virus, which emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and called as Covid-19, caused fatal cases in many countries in a short time and was accepted as a pandemic by the World Health Organization due to its threat to international public health. This situation, which threatens our social health, has made it necessary to take some restrictive measures around the world, and the tension and confidence crisis created by this isolation environment has made itself felt in all areas of our individual and social life. It is a well-known fact that religion, which provides a kind of rehabilitation service to different segments of the society in these extraordinary times, functions as a safe harbor with its faith practices and satisfactory solutions in the dimension of emotion. It is a fact that the formations, also called New Religious Movements, that emerged as a reaction to modernity and the mainstream religious tradition, were also affected by the Covid-19 epidemic process. In this article, the approaches of these religious formations against the Covid-19 global epidemic and the effects of the epidemic on the religious activities of these movements are analyzed sociologically. It is seen that Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, who are the subject of this study, comply with the measures taken to protect public health in the countries and local areas where they operate. It is observed that they make reference to their own Holy Book and religious doctrines while complying with these rules. The Scientology Church, on the other hand, has shown a similar reflex with the others regarding the measures taken regarding the epidemic, although it does not carry the traces of traditional religion. Another issue determined in the study is that these religious organizations, which are the subject of the study, state that they attach importance to treatment, that they are not against vaccination, and that getting vaccinated is an individual preference. It is even seen that they encourage their members to be vaccinated by taking into account human and public health.