Professor Erica Baffelli’s talk will discuss how it feels to belong to a religious organization that inspires fear and, in some cases, has been at the centre of a moral panic. The analytical focus is on the tensions produced by belonging to a group that is perceived by external society as a threat or potentially dangerous and on emotions and emotional practices. While these emotional practices are shared among members, they also differentiate members from external society, reinforcing processes of minoritization and marginalization. The talk will draw on extensive fieldwork conducted with members of ‘new religions’ and minoritised religious groups in Japan over the last 15 years. Priority is given to the voices and experiences of members, since these are crucial for understanding the complexity of intra-community relations, why members are attracted to certain practices, and how commitment and belonging are sustained (and sometimes weakened and lost).