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Cult Information Bookstore
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Number 8, 2002 |
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____________________________________________ Cultic Studies Review Vol. 1, No. 3 — New PostingsWe have begun posting materials to the Web version of Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, Number 3, which is due for completion in December 2002. Subscribers may go to www.culticstudiesreview.org and click on “Table of Contents (Coming Issue)”. This will bring you to the contents page for number 3. Scroll down and you will find the following interesting guest column by Donna Orme Collins, first western “blessed child” born into the Unification Church: “Death of a Moonie: Reflections of a `Blessed Child.’” Scroll down a little further and you will find a list of several dozen news summaries on such groups and topics as Aum Shinrikyo, Falun Gong, Scientology, the Attleboro sect in Massachusetts, the Unification Church, and polygamy. Only subscribers with valid pass codes will be able to access the articles. If you are not a subscriber, you may subscribe by going to our bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com, and clicking "Periodicals" on the upper shared border. (If you access this newsletter through our bookstore, simply go to the top of the page and click on "Periodicals.") If you click on the Table of Contents for Vol. 1, No. 2 you will find, in addition to several dozen summaries of group-related news and seven book reviews, the following articles:
Call for PapersDr. Janja Lalich is organizing a panel for the June 2003 AFF conference in Southern California on the topic of “Gender and Cults.” Topics to include issues related to men, women, sex, sexuality, relationships, intimacy, power, or gender roles. These can be papers with either a sociological or psychological framework. If you are interested in presenting, send a 50 – 100 word abstract of your paper by e-mail to Janja at JLalich@csuchico.edu. Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2002. Include title, abstract, your name and location, and 1 or 2 sentences of background about the presenter.
Déjà Vu: Death of a Moonie Door-to-Door SolicitorHerbert L. Rosedale, Esq., President AFF I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of a young woman engaged in selling costume jewelry door-to-door in a low-income, urban area to raise funds for the Unification Church (UC). It reminded me why, when I hear about recent changes attesting to the Unification Church’s becoming part of the establishment, I say that the trappings have been altered but the core remains. In this instance, a young woman sent to a dangerous area to make cash sales of products was murdered. The incident reminds me of stories from a generation ago: stories of road-side assaults, urban robberies, highway deaths caused by sleep-deprived Moonie drivers, and violations of the rights and physical integrity of mobile fund-raising teams. Examining this recent incident, we must again ask, “Why?” What criteria did UC leaders use to select locations for these sales? Are we again seeing the elevation of greed for gain over risk to members? I was reminded of the past when I read a news report claiming that it was the young lady’s choice to go alone to this apartment complex rather than to an office building with a companion. Frankly, this lame explanation won’t wash. Office buildings almost without exception have rules prohibiting solicitation on the premises. This seems like just another bit of dastardly deception in an attempt to cover up the insensitivity of UC officials. If the Unification Church is really bent on mainstreaming, it is about time the organization showed real accountability and honesty. I also wonder whether or not we are again dealing with situations in which there is a disregard for ordinances affecting the sale of merchandise door-to-door, ordinances that are often enacted to protect the solicitor as well s the prospective purchaser. It is a tragedy, and my sympathies are with the solicitor and her parents. This incident cries out for the UC leaders to show genuine concern for their members by subordinating the need to enrich the group to the safety of the Unification Church’s members.
AFF Bookstore Special – New Edition of Coping with Cult InvolvementLivia Bardin’s Coping with Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families and Friends, has been published in a new bound version. It is now available on our online bookstore at a time-limited, discount price of $15.00. This book, according to AFF’s Dr. Michael Langone, is an indispensable book for families and friends with a cult-involved loved one.
Education and Research NewsSpanish Research with GPAUniversity of Madrid graduate student Carmen Almendros Rodriguez and her colleagues have been in contact with Latin American researchers about collaborative studies involving the Spanish version of AFF's Group Psychological Abuse Scale (see CSJ reprints, Vol. 11, No. 1 and
Vol. 16., No. 1). A Puerto Rican researcher is collaborating in a comparative study of subjects in Spain and Puerto Rico. Negotiations with other researchers are under way. Researchers interested in using the GPA should contact
Dr. Langone.
Hal Reynolds' Work at University of California, BerkeleyHal Reynolds continues to give talks to groups both on and off the UC Berkeley campus on the subject of "Cults on Campus." He also directs the university's Cult Awareness Center, in which capacity he counsels, consults, and refers students, family, and friends of students; maintains extensive resources on cults, including books,
articles, videos, etc.; and maintains a campus network of concerned and interested faculty and staff.
Sandy Andron, Ed.D.In recent months, Dr. Sandy Andron of Miami has done at least two radio talk shows, given no less than a dozen seminars to classes of teens, Women's ORT, Temple men's clubs, Haddassah groups, a lawyers' lunch-bunch, social clubs, and more. In most cases the prime question posed by his audiences is whether cults are still a
threat, rather than, as was formerly the case, whether a particular group is a problem in Southwest Florida. A local University asked Dr. Andron to address freshman orientation regarding the threat of cults on campus. Dr. Andron has gotten inquiries from the media in Canada, Israel, England and Korea regarding specific groups and information he might have on the group
of their interest. He has also been asked for help by about half-dozen families.
Frank MacHovec, Ph.D.Edwin Mellen Press has published Dr. Frank MacHovec's new book, Spiritual Intelligence: The Behavioral Sciences and the Humanities. eNovel.com has published Psychonautics: Exploring Inner Space as an ebook and a print-on-demand paperback. Dr. MacHovec has also returned to Rappahannock Community College to teach
introductory psychology.
Joe RizzoliJoe Rizzoli recently completed a video that will air on a local (Framingham, Massachusetts) cable channel. The one-hour video addresses the Silent Lambs protest, in which about 125 persons took part, against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society on September 27, 2002. The Silent Lambs protest addressed the issue of sexual abuse in
the organization, a subject of a recent Dateline program.
Hal MansfieldHal Mansfield, Director, Religious Movements Resource Center, has conducted a number of educational programs during the past few months, including: (a) training new officers at the Colorado State University Police Academy, (b) participating on a panel on hate groups at Front Range College, (c) conducting a class on extremist groups/cults at the University
of Northern Colorado, (d) conducting a class on terrorism at Front Range Forum, (e) training for 16 law enforcement agencies at Colorado Crime Prevention, (f) conducting a class on extremist groups for Colorado's Child Protection Services, (g) participating as a facilitator at the AFF recovery workshop in Estes Park, and (h) approximately 12 presentations on cults/extremists groups at
Colorado State University.
Steve Hassan Program for Ex-MembersSteve Hassan will conduct a program entitled, "Former Member Healing Workshop regarding the Watchtower and Other Undue Influence Groups (Cults)." The program will take place March 15-16, 2003 in Los Angeles.
Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR)SSSR’s 2002 annual meeting will take place November 1-3 in Salt Lake City, Utah. AFF’s president, Herbert Rosedale, Esq., and Drs. Stephen Kent and Eileen Barker will participate in a program entitled, “How Scholarship and Advocacy Interact in Dealing with NRM and Mind Control Issues. Also of interest: “Boundaries and Commitments in NRM Research” (Drs. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Douglas Cowan, Bryan Rennie, Tom Robbins, and William Shaffir). More news in the next issue of AFF News Briefs.
Books and Articles Brought to Our AttentionFrom Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War EraWritten by Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta, this book is published by Syracuse University Press, 2001, with a foreword by Benjamin Zablocki, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University.
The Impact of Cults on Health - CE module for nursesWritten by Anne Tapper, R.N., M.A., M.S.N. and published in Nursing Spectrum (vol. 11, Sept. 9, 2002, pp. 18-20), this continuing education module for nurses seeks to familiarize nurses with healthcare issues related to cults.
Inside the WatchtowerSt. Joseph's Communications (SaintJoe.com) has pubulished a 6 CD (or 6 audiotape) collection of Mary Kochan's talks on the Jehovah's Witnesses. Addressed to a Catholic audience, this series examines questions such as: What motivates JWs to do such intense solicitation? What do they really believe? How and why should we attempt to
evangelize them back to Catholicism?
La Patria Sublevada: Una Historia de la Argentina PeronistaAlfredo Silletta, director of the Argentine organization FAPES, is a writer who has recently turned his attention to Argentina's economic travails. He has published La Patria Sublevada: Una Historia de la Argentina Peronista.
A Social Psychological Analysis of Aum Shinrikyo's Criminal BehaviorWritten by Kimiaki Nishida, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Shizuoka, and published in Japanese Journal of Social Psychology (vol. 16, no. 3, 2001, pp. 170-183), this paper examined the psychological process of Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult members who committed crimes such as scattering poison gas. Seventy-six former members
(40 males, 36 females) and 4 criminal defendants of the group were studied. Results: many Ss were absolutely obedient to their guru as authority; the guru's psychological manipulation was stronger toward the defendant Ss than toward others; higher manipulation levels were associated with higher status within the group; crimes were due to obedience to authority and from fear of being
killed themselves.
Religious Movements and the Internet: The New Frontier of Cult ControversiesWritten by Jean-Francois Mayer, Ph.D. of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and published in Religion and the Social Order (vol. 8, 2000, pp. 249-276), this article suggests that the Internet has probably up to this point helped critics of religious movements more than the movements themselves. The chapter also defines various types of
strategies adopted in relation to the Internet (aggressive counter-attack, strong official presence, multiplication of Web pages by members, delegitimation, refusal). Using the concept of "cyberspace propaganda wars," it attempts finally to identify some of the new battlegrounds.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Victims of Destructive Religious SectsWritten by Jorge de la Pena of the U. Nacional Autonoma Mexico and published in Revista Academica para el Estudio de las Religiones (vol. 3, 2000, pp. 181-194), this study analyzes the pathology of PTSD in the context of the structural organization of cults and the psychopathic personality aspects of cult leaders.
"It's All to Do with Words": An Analysis of Spirit Possession in the Venezuelan Cult of Maria LionzaWritten by Barbara Placido of the Department of Social Anthropology of the London School of Economics and Political Science and published in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (vol. 7, 2001, pp. 207-224), This article suggests that the tendency to focus on the form & not the content of possession episodes has allowed for another form of ventriloquism, in which anthropologists themselves use the mediums to speak to their own agendas. Against this tendency, participants in the cult of Maria Lionza see words as central to the cult, to be listened to carefully. An analysis of the content of their possession episodes reveals how, far from being passive, deprived of agency, & "muted," the possessed in the cult are actively engaged in an ongoing conversation with anthropologists, historians, the media, and the state.
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Last revised: May 16, 2005