Cult

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article does not discuss "cult" in its original sense of "religious practice"; for that usage see cult (religion). See Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".

In religion and sociology, a cult is a group of people (often a new religious movement) devoted to beliefs and goals which may be contradictory to those held by the majority of society. Its marginal status may come about either due to its novel belief system or due to idiosyncratic practices that cause the surrounding culture to regard it as far outside the mainstream.

See also List of purported cults for a list of groups that have been referred to as cults by diverse sources.

In English-speaking countries since about the 1960s, especially in North America, the term cult has taken on a pejorative and sometimes offensive connotation. This largely originated with highly publicized cults which purportedly exploited their members psychologically and financially, or which allegedly utilized group-based persuasion and conversion techniques. These techniques may include "brainwashing", "thought reform", "love bombing", and "mind control". The scientific validity, modern and historical use, and effectiveness (for religious conversion) of these techniques and terms are discussed within the linked articles.

Due to the usually pejorative connotation of the word "cult", new religious movements (NRMs) and other purported cults often find the word highly offensive. Some purported cults have been known to insist that other similar groups are cults but that they themselves are not. On the other hand, some skeptics have questioned the distinction between a cult and a mainstream religion. They say that the only difference between a cult and a religion is that the latter is older and has more followers and, therefore, seems less controversial because society has become used to it. See also anti-cult movement and Opposition to cults and new religious movements.

Problems surrounding the definitions of a cult

The literal and traditional meanings of the word cult, which are more fully explored at the entry Cult (religion), derive from the Latin cultus, meaning "care" or "adoration," as "a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same."

In French or Spanish, culte or culto simply means "worship" or "religious attendance"; thus an association cultuelle is an association whose goal is to organize religious worship and practices (not to be mistaken for an association culturelle or "cultural association"). The word for "cult" in the popular English meaning is secte (French) or secta (Spanish). (See false cognate.)

In German or Russian the word sekta (sect) has a slightly different meaning than the English word cult in addition to the German word Sekte.

In formal English use, and in non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word "cult" are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a case where English speakers might use the word "sect". Hence Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are cults within Christianity. In English, it remains perfectly neutral to refer to the "cult of Artemis at Ephesus" and the "cult figures" that accompanied it, or to "the importance of the Ave Maria in the cult of the Virgin."

However, in common usage, "cult" has a very negative connotation, and is generally applied to a group in order to criticize it. Understandably, most groups, if not all, that are called "cults" deny this qualification. Some groups called "cults" by some critics may consider themselves not to be "cults", but may consider some other groups to be "cults".

Definition of "cult" by the anti-cult movement

Although anti-cult activists and scholars did not agree on precise criteria that new religions should meet to be considered "cults," two of the definitions formulated by anti-cult activists are:

Cults are groups that often exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leadership's demands through certain types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind control, and through the inculcation of deep-seated anxious dependency on the group and its leaders [1]

Cult: A group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control . . . designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community. [8]

Cult, NRM and the sociology and psychology of religion

The problem with defining the word cult is that (1) purported cult members generally resist being called a cult, and (2) the word cult is often used to marginalize religious groups with which one does not agree or sympathize. Some serious researchers of religion and sociology prefer to use terms such as new religious movement (NRM) in their research on cults. Such usage may lead to confusion because some religious movements are "new" but not necessarily cults, and some purported cults are not religious or overtly religious. Furthermore, some religious groups commonly regarded as cults are in fact no longer "new"; for instance, the Jehovah's Witnesses have been around for over 100 years in the USA; Scientology is over 50 years old; and the Hare Krishna came out of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a religious tradition that is about 500 years old.

Where a cult practices physical or mental abuse, some psychologists and other mental health professionals use the terms cult, abusive cult, or destructive cult. The popular press also commonly uses these terms. However, not all cults function abusively or destructively, and among those that psychologists believe are abusive, few members would agree that they suffer abuse. Other researchers like David V. Barrett hold the view that classifying a religious movement as a cult is generally used as a subjective and negative label and has no added value; instead, he argues that one should investigate the beliefs and practices of the religious movement. [9]

The field of cults and new religious movements is studied by sociologists, religious scholars, psychologists and psychiatrists. The debates about a certain purported cult and cults in general are often polarized with widely divergent opinions, not only among current followers of a purported cult and disaffected former members, but sometimes even among scholars and social scientists. For example, the American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton holds the view that cults rarely do serious harm and that stories of critical former members cannot be relied upon. In correspondence with this view, he went to a trip to Japan paid by Aum Shinrikyo after the sarin gas attack and erroneously declared there that Aum Shinrikyo was innocent. [1] (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/a06.html)

Other scholars challenging the validity of critical former members' testimonies include Brian R. Wilson, and Anson Shupe. David G. Bromley who studied the social influences on these testimonies asserts that the stories of critical ex-members who defect from groups that are subversive (defined as groups with few allies and many opponents) tend to have the form of "captivity narratives" (i.e. the narratives depict the stay in the group as involuntary). Massimo Introvigne asserts that these public negative testimonies and attitudes are only voiced by a minority of the ex-members. Scholars who tend to side more with critical former members include David C. Lane, Benjamin Zablocki, and Stephen Kent. See also Apostates and Apologists.

Psychologists, among them those specialised in group psychology, studied what cognitive and emotional traits make people accept to join a cult and to stay loyal to it, see an analysis in the Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0004/ai_2699000433)

Some groups, particularly those labeled by others as cults, view the designation of "cult" as insensitive, and feel persecuted by their opponents whom they often believe to be part of the "anti-cult movement".

Such groups often defend their position by comparing themselves to more established, mainstream religious groups such as Catholicism and Judaism. The argument offered in this case can usually be simplified as, "except for size and age, Christianity and Judaism meet all the criteria for a cult, and therefore the term cult simply means small, young religion."

According to the Dutch religious scholar Wouter Hanegraaff, another problem with writing about cults comes about because they generally hold belief systems that give answers to questions about the meaning of life and morality. This makes it difficult not to write in biased terms about a certain cult, because writers are rarely neutral about these questions. Some writers who deal with the subject choose to explicitly state their ethical values and belief systems to deal with this difficulty.

For many scholars and professional commentators, the usage of the word "cult" applies to maleficent or abusive behavior, and not to a belief system. For members of competing religions, use of the word remains pejorative and applies primarily to rival beliefs (see memes), and only incidentally to behavior. It should be noted that there is no clear causal connection between extremist belief and the formation of a so-called destructive cult. Most far-right hate groups are not cults, although they have pathological ideas and are frequently violent. Some groups regarded as cults have quite benign belief systems--the devil is in the details of how the members relate to the cult's founder and inner circle.

In the sociology of religion, the term cult is a part of the subdivision of religious groups into sects, cults, denominations and ecclesias. The sociologists Rodney Stark and William S. Bainbridge define in their book "Theory of Religion" and subsequent works cults as "deviant religious organization with novel beliefs and practices", that is as new religious movements that unlike sects have not separated from another religious organization. Cults, in this sense, may or may not be dangerous, abusive, etc. By this definition, most of the groups which have been popularly labeled cults are indeed cults.

Definition of "cult" in dictionaries and other points of view

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as:

"a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents" [2] (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?cult)

Lloyd Eby calls this definition problematic, because:

"...then we must ask: regarded as spurious or unorthodox by whom? Who has or was given this authority to decide what beliefs or practices are orthodox or genuine, and what are unorthodox or spurious? In the realm of religion and belief, one person's or group's norm is another's anathema, and what is regarded as false or counterfeit by one person or group is regarded as genuine and authentic by another." (emphasis added) [3] (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/cultsect/mdtaskforce/eby_testimony.htm)

This definition is entirely subjective: it means that if you think a religion is unorthodox, then you will call it a cult.

Indeed, any religion involving unconditional worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be labelled as a cult (using the pejorative connotation of the word), since such a religion would have that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. Many mainstream religions still require their members to believe in God unquestioningly, to have faith that he is good and that what he does is good (even in light of problems of theodicy that make it reasonable to question this), to consider one's own wants and needs as unimportant while accepting the will of God as paramount. All of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any dogmatic religion that requires strict compliance with God's word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word "cult" to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those (e.g., Maltheists) who make this very claim: that those who worship God fit the classic depiction of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving obedience, and denial of self. This highlights the problematic nature of defining what is and is not a cult.

Christianity and Cults

Since at least the 1940s, the approach of orthodox or conservative or fundamentalist Christians was to apply the meaning of cult such that it included those religious groups who used (possibly exclusively) non-standard translations of the Bible, put additional revelation on a similar or higher level than the Bible or had practices deviant from those of traditional Christianity. Some examples of sources (with published dates where known) that documented this approach are:

Heresies and Cults, by J.Oswald Sanders, pub.1948.
Cults and Isms, by J.Oswald Sanders, pub.1962, 1969, 1980 (Arrowsmith), ISBN 0 551 00458 4.
Chaos of the Cults, by J.K.van Baalen.
Heresies Exposed, by W.C.Irvine.
Confusion of Tongues, by C.W.Ferguson.
Isms New and Old, by Julius Bodensieck.
Some Latter-Day Religions, by G.H.Combs.

Theories about the reasons for joining a cult

According to Gallanter¹¹, typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest.

Jeffrey Hadden summarizes a lecture named "Why Do People Join NRMs?" (a lecture in a series related to the sociology of new religious movements¹²) as follows:

Belonging to groups is a natural human activity;
People belong to religious groups for essentially the same reasons they belong to other groups;
Conversion is generally understood as an emotionally charged experience that leads to a dramatic reorganization of the convert's life;
Conversion varies enormously in terms of the intensity of the experience and the degree to which it actually alters the life of the convert;
Conversion is one, but not the only reason people join religious groups;
Social scientists have offered a number of theories to explain why people join religious groups;
Most of these explanations could apply equally well to explain why people join lots of other kinds of groups;
No one theory can explain all joinings or conversions;
What all of these theories have in common (deprivation theory excluded) is the view that joining or converting is a natural process.

Stark and Bainbridge have questioned the utility of the concept of conversion. They suggest, instead, that the concept of affiliation is a more useful concept for understanding how people join religious groups.¹³

Cult leadership

According to Dr. Eileen Barker, new religions are in most cases started by charismatic leaders. According to Mikael Rothstein, there is in many cases no access to plain facts both about historical religious leaders and contemporary ones though there is an abundance of legends, myths, and theological elaborations. According to Rothstein most members of any new religious movement have little chance of a personal meeting with the Master (leader) except as a member of big audience when the Master is present on stage.

See also Role of charismatic figures in the development of religions

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Development of cults

Cults based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma, as described by the German sociologist Max Weber. The death of the founder may lead to a succession crisis.

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it (http://wikipedia.cas.ilstu.edu/index.php?title=Cult&action=edit).

Cults: genuine concerns and exaggerations

The stigma surrounding the classification of a group as a cult stems from the purported ill effect the group's influence has on its members. The narratives of ill effect include threats presented by a cult to its members (whether real or perceived), and risks to the physical safety of its members and to their mental and spiritual growth. Much of the actions taken against cults and alleged cults have been in reaction to the harm experienced by some members due to their affiliation with the groups in question. Members of alleged cult groups have taken pains to emphasize that not all groups called cults are dangerous. Over a period of time, some minority religious organizations that were at one point in time considered cults have been accepted by mainstream society, such as Mormonism, Christian Science in the USA though faced with renewed opposition lately, and the Amish.

Certain cults, such as Heaven's Gate, Ordre du Temple Solaire, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Peoples Temple have demonstrated by their actions that they do pose a threat to the well-being of both their own members and to society in general; these organizations are often referred to as doomsday cults by the media, and their mass suicides and mass murders are well-documented. Other groups include the Colonia Dignidad cult (a German group settled in Chile) that served as a torture center for the Chilean government during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Certain other groups, while not universally condemned, remain suspect in the minds of the general public, such as Scientology and to a lesser extent the Unification Church and the Children of God. A problem in studying such high-profile groups is to distinguish between a group's public image (that may have become fixed decades earlier) and the group's actual practices in the here and now. This is especially important when one is studying a group whose founder has died or which has splintered, or a group with foreign origins that is gradually integrating itself into another culture.

It is worth noting that despite the emphasis on narratives of "doomsday cults" by the media and the anti-cult movement, the number of cults known to have fallen into that category is approximately ten, which is very few when compared with the total number of new religious movements (including cults that are psychologically destructive but not extremely violent or doomsday-oriented), which E. Barker estimates to be in the tens of thousands¹⁰.

According to the professor in sociology at the Rutgers University Benjamin Zablocki, cults are at high risk of becoming abusive to members, in part because members' adulation of charismatic leaders contributes to their becoming corrupted by the power they seek and are accorded. Zablocki defines a cult here as an ideological organization held together by charismatic relationships and demanding total commitment. ¹⁷

There is no reliable, generally accepted way to determine which groups will harm their members. In an attempt to predict the probability of harm, popular but non-scientific cult checklists have been created by anti-cultists for this purpose. One checklist by Eileen Barker claims to be based on empirical research.

According to Barrett the most common accusation made against alleged "cults" is sexual abuse. See some allegations made by former members.

According to Kranenborg, some groups, like Christian Science are risky when they advise their members not to use regular medical care. ¹⁵

Barker, Barrett, and the anti-cult activist Steven Hassan all advise seeking information from various sources about a certain group before getting deeply involved, though these sources differ in the urgency they suggest.

Stigmatization and discrimination

Some feel that the terms "cult" and "cult leader" are used pejoratively by anti-cultists, asserting that they are to be avoided to prevent harm. A website affiliated with Adi Da Samraj [4] (http://www.firmstand.org/) sees the activities of anti-cult activists as the exercise of prejudice and discrimination against them, and regards the use of the words "cult" and "cult leader" as similar to the manner in which "nigger" and "commie" were used in the past to denigrate blacks and Communists.

Leaving a cult, reasons and empirical evidence

Jean Duhaime of the Universit� de Montr�al distinguishes four ways by which members can leave cults

Kidnapping/deprogramming If the deprogramming succeeds, the ex-member will use in his testimony the interpretation frame of the people who have deprogrammed the member.
Expulsion. The member is rejected by the group. Dependent on the reason and the way this has happened, the member may either desire to go back to the group and describe the group in a positive way or denounce the group
Voluntary peaceful departure. The member finds that a group has brought him a lot but does no longer fulfil his needs, or that the group has changed since joining. This way of departure will probably not lead to negative testimonies about the group.
Rupture or flight.The member observes that the group is or has become a deception. and in addition finds that the leader, in the member’s view, slipped and life in the group has become unbearable. The member tries to talk to the coordinators of the group but he is hurt or angry at their refusal to listen to him. This will likely lead to negative testimonies about the group.

According to Barker (1989), the biggest worry about possible harm concerns the relatively few dedicated followers of a new religious movement (NRM). Barker also mentions that some former members may not take new initatives for quite a long time after disaffiliation from the NRM. This generally does not concern the many superficial, or short-lived, or peripheral supporters of a NRM. Membership in a cult usually does not last forever: 90% or more of cult members ultimately leave their group ^2,4

According to Hadden and Bromley, proponents of the brainwashing model such as Singer and others, lack empirical evidence to support their theory of brainwashing. They also affirm that there is lack of empirical support for alleged consequences of having been a member of a cult or sect, and that their accounts of what happens to ex-members is contradicted by substantial empirical evidence such as, the fact that the overwhelming proportion of people who get involved in NRMs do leave, most short of two years, the overwhelming proportion of people leave of their own volition, and that two-thirds (67%) felt "wiser for the experience"¹⁴.

According to Barret, in many cases the problems do not happen while in a cult, but when leaving a cult which can be difficult for some members and may include a lot of trauma. Reasons for this trauma may include conditioning by the religious movement, avoidance of uncertainties about life and its meaning, having had powerful religious experiences, love for the founder of the religion, emotional investment, fear of losing salvation, bonding with other members, anticipation of the realization that time, money and efforts donated to the group were a waste, and the new freedom with its corresponding responsibilities, especially for people who lived in a community. Those reasons may prevent a member from leaving even if the member realizes that some things in the NRM are wrong. According to Kranenborg, in some religious groups, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, members have all their social contacts within the group, which makes disaffection and disaffiliation very traumatic. ¹⁵ According to F. Derks and J. van der Lans there is no uniform post-cult trauma but psychological and social problems upon resignation are not rare but their character and intensity are greatly dependent on the personal history and on the traits of the person, and on the reasons for and way of resignation. ¹⁶

See also Shunning

Criticism by former members of purported cults

Allegations against cults come from a variety of sources including parents, relatives and close friends of cult members (who believe their loved one has undergone a personality change for the worse); victims of scams perpetrated by some cults; people who go to a few meetings and then back away out of fear; researchers who carefully study a cult's published literature; persons raised in cults who left after coming of age; and former adult members.

Usually the most dramatic allegations as well as the most systematic and detailed ones, will come from adult former members (also known by the pejorative term "apostates" in the writings of so-called cult apologists such as Melton) and in some instances from persons who were raised in the cult.

The role of former members in the controversy surrounding cults, has been widely studied by social scientists. Former members in this context are those individuals who become public opponents against their former movement. The former members' motivations, the roles they play in the anti-cult movement, the validity of their testimony, and the kinds of narratives they construct, are controversial with some scholars, who suspect that at least some of the narratives are artifacts of the exit-counselling (or formerly of the deprogramming) process.

The allegations of former members include sexual abuse by the leader, failed promises and failed prophecy, causing suicides through neglect or abuse, leaders who do not admit nor apologize for mistakes, false irrational or even contradictory teachings, exclusivism, deception in recruitment (by using "front groups").

See also Apostasy in new religious movements.

Allegations made by scholars and skeptics

False, irrational or even contradictory teaching made by scholar Dr. David C. Lane with regards to Paul Twitchell;
False miracles performed or endorsed by the leadership, made by the skeptics the late Abraham Kovoor, H. Narasimhaiah, and Basava Premanand for a variety of gurus and fakirs;
Discouraging regular medical care but instead relying on faith healing, made by the magazine salon.com with regards to Christian Science;
Plagiarism, allegations made by David C. Lane;
Incitement to anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, as documented in the writings of Dennis King [5] (http://www.dennisking.org);
Child abuse, for example subjecting blindfolded children to many hours of meditation, as documented by the scholar Dr. David C. Lane with regards to Thakar Singh [6] (http://members.tripod.com/~dlane5/turban2.html).

Other allegations

Harassment and ad hominem attacks on critics: Allegations regarding the use of such tactics have been made against Scientology, the Lyndon LaRouche organization, and the now defunct Synanon drug-treatment cult.

Prevalence of purported cults

By one measure, between 3,000 and 5,000 purported cults existed in the United States in 1995. [6] While some of the more well-known and influential of these groups are frequently labelled as cults, the majority of these groups vigorously protest the label and refuse to be classified as such, and often expend great efforts in public relations campaigns to rid themselves of the stigma associated with of the term cult.

In order to maintain a neutral point of view, a list of purported cults presents a listing of groups labeled as cults by various non-related, reasonably unbiased sources.

Cults and governments

In many countries there exists a separation of church and state and freedom of religion. Some governments are however worried about cults and have taken restrictive measures against some of their activities. Those measures were generally motivated by various crimes committed inside cults, especially by a string of murderous incidents involving doomsday cults circa 1995. However, critics of those measures hypothezise that the counter-cult movement and the anti-cult movement have succeeded in influencing governments in transferring the public's abhorrence of doomsday cults and make the generalization that it is directed against all small or new religious movements without discrimination.

Belgium

In Belgium, the Belgian Parliamentary Commission on Cults submitted a report to the Belgian Parliament in 1997 that included a list of 189 organizations that it labeled "cults". The list that had no legal status covered a wide range of religious groups, including the Amish Mission in Belgium, Buddhism, several Catholic groups such as Opus Dei, some Evangelical Christian denominations, Hasidic Judaism, Quakers, and Satanists.

The Quakers complained to Deputy Prime Ministers about their inclusion on the list, pointed out their humanitarian aid programs, and requested to see the evidence against them which had been presented the federal police in a closed session to the Parliamentary Commission. They were unsuccessful in their appeal.

As a consequence of the advice of the commission to the parliament, a law was accepted to observe cults that possibly break the law. This resulted in the foundation of a centre on June 2, 1998 for the information and advice on harmful cults, located in Brussels.[7] (http://www.ciaosn.be/)

China

An extreme form of measures against "cults" is the case of Falun Gong in China. The government of the People's Republic of China consider Falun Gong a dangerous cult and seeks to dismantle it; Falun Gong followers have been jailed, and occurrences of torture have been reported. Many anti-cult activists feel that, even if Falun Gong deserves the negative connotations associated with the term cult (which is not a judgement on which there is any clear consensus), the Chinese government violated the human rights of Falun Gong members in a criminal manner for which there can be no excuse.

The People's Republic of China has also engaged in repression against Buddhist worshippers, especially monks and nuns, in Tibet, on suspicions that they work for the end of the Chinese domination of Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama as ruler of Tibet.

Controversies have erupted concerning the reaction of various foreign governments with respect to the Chinese anti-Falun Gong and anti-Tibetan actions, or, rather, the lack thereof.[8] (http://bahai-library.com/newspapers/090500-4.html) Some foreign governments, including the French, were criticized for complacency with respect to Chinese authorities, especially for restricting demonstrations against the Chinese government during official Chinese visits and ceremonies organized in collaboration with the Chinese government. [9] (http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/1/29/zip.html#0) [10] (http://www.cesnur.org/2004/falun_001.htm#fbfj)

European Union

On May 22, 1984 the European Parliament passed a resolution with the title "New Organizations Operating Under the Protection Afforded to Religious Beliefs" that expressed the parliament's concern about the recruitment and treatment of the members of these new organizations. [11] (http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:plpVvm7CfYEJ:www.whyaretheydead.net/misc/Factnet/WILSHIRE.CSX+New+organizations+Religious+Afforded+European+Parliament&hl=en&client=firefox-a)

On March 1997, a "Resolution on cults in Europe" by the European Parliament, reaffirmed its attachment to the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law, such as tolerance, and freedom of conscience, religion, thought, association and assembly, as well as calling on its Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs to meet and work on collecting and sharing information that would enable conclusions to be drawn on the best way to restrain undesirable activities by sects and on strategies to raise public awareness about them. [12] (http://www.europarl.eu.int/workingpapers/cito/w10/annex1_en.htm)

On December 22, 1997 the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs released an ammended resolution named "Resolution on Cults in the European Union" that was originally to be voted by the European Parliament in Strasbourg during the session of January 1998. The text of the resolution was rejected by the plenary of the European Parliament in July 1998 by a coalition of anti-cultists and religious liberties activists (the former complaining that it was too weak, and the latter considering it out of the scope of the European Parliament to decide). The resolution was sent back to the Commission for further consideration.

France

Main article: French legislation for the prevention and repression of cultic groups that infringe on human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Following from the consternation over the criminal excesses of certain cults in 1995, the French government has encouraged public caution toward some minority religious groups that it considers to be cults. As a consequence, reports on alleged sectes (cults) were published, and legislation making it easier to prosecute alleged crimes committed by these groups was adopted; both the reports and the legislation have been controversial.

The French parliament passed a law (the About-Picard law), declared by its proponents to be aimed at repressing the excesses of groups infringing on human rights and fundamental freedoms. The law makes it possible to prosecute organizations, rather than individuals, for a number of crimes; in the case of established criminal behavior by an organization, courts may disband the organization. A controversial provision criminalizing "mental manipulation", included in early drafts, was not included in the final law, because of concerns about the vagueness of this notion.

This legislation attracted some critical remarks, but no condemnation, from the Helsinki International Federation for Human Rights (See index of documents (http://www.ihf-hr.org/documents/index.php?s_topic=10&s_countries%5B%5D=75&s_doctype=0&sec_id=3&submit=1&s_year=&s_keyword=&x=0&y=0)), the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, an Investigatory Commission for Violations of Human Rights hosted by the Omnium des Libert�, and from minority religious groups. The US government under the Clinton administration was also critical. The criticism argued that, if legislation was applied improperly, it could result in the arbitrary banning of unpopular religious groups; and that the legislation fostered in the public and officials an atmosphere of discrimination against members of emerging religions.

Germany

The German federal government does not accept Scientology's claim to be a religion but asserts that it is a business disguised as a religion. Scientology is monitored by the Verfassungsschutz (secret service) and Germany puts restrictions on its activities. [13] (http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/archives/background/scientology.html). The United States Congress failed to pass a resolution in 1997 related to "discrimination by the German Government against members of minority religious groups" that mentioned only Scientology related examples of discrimination [14] (http://home.snafu.de/tilman/krasel/germany/congress1.html). See also status_of_religious_freedom_in_Germany.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom a charity named INFORM was founded in 1988 by professor Eileen Barker of the London School of Economics, with the funding from the Home Office and the support of mainstream Churches. According to their website, their primary aim is "... to help people through providing them with accurate, balanced, up-to-date information about new and/or alternative religious or spiritual movements." [15] (http://www.inform.ac/infmain.html)

INFORM patrons includes Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia (Greek Orthodox Church) and Bishop Charles Henderson (Roman Catholic Church Bishop), Lord Dahrendorf and Lord Desai.

United States

The U.S. Department of State's travel warning for India mentions "unconfirmed reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader" in the section Andhra Pradesh. [16] (http://travel.state.gov/travel/india.html) (Former followers of Sathya Sai Baba claim that the Department of State, if asked, will confirm that they refer to their former guru whose main ashram is in the state Andhra Pradesh.) [17] (http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200406/1086748975.html)

See also

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Cult

External links

Traumatic abuse in cults (http://members.aol.com/shawdan/essay.htm) Long, scholarly, psychological essay by the psychotherapist Daniel Shaw, an ex-follower of Siddha Yoga, founded by Muktananda
Cult Awareness Network (http://www.cultawarenessnetwork.org/) website of the Cult Awareness Network, affiliated with Scientology that tries to fight, what they see as, unjustified stigmatization, hate and prejudice against "cults" and NRMs
"Cult Watch" (http://www.americanreligion.org/cultwtch/index.html) by Institute for the Study of American Religion led by J. Gordon Melton.
Apologetics Index: research resources on cults, sects, and related issues (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/) Large website published by anti-cultist Anton Hein, who operates from an evangelical Christian point of view, but links to and presents a variety of viewpoints.
Cult Index (http://www.csj.org/infoserv_groups/grp_index.htm). An anti-cult site of the American Family Foundation, a major American anti-cult organization
Psychological Issues of Former Members of Restrictive Religious Groups (http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ejcmmsm/article/index.html) an essay by Jim Moyers, MA, MFT originally written for psychotherapists working with ex-fundamentalists
University of Virginia Religious Movements Homepage (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu) Extensive website with entries on definitions, controversies and many religious groups, mostly written by the late sociologist Jeffrey Hadden (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/utilities/aboutus.htm) and his former students, now edited by Douglas E. Cowan (http://c.faculty.umkc.edu/cowande/)(old entries of individual religious groups have not been updated in the last two years and sometimes contain factual mistakes)
"So Many Evil Things": Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet (http://www.cesnur.org/testi/anticult_terror.htm) Article by Massimo Introvigne, the president of CESNUR (a network of scholars working in the field of NRMs), discussing anti-cult activism on the internet and the danger of its extreme forms
Cults in our Midst (http://www.forum8.org/forum8/singer/singer_cults.htm) Excerpts from the anti-cult book of the same name (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0787967416/ref=cm_rev_prev/102-3175768-2349726?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&customer-reviews.start=1&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER) by Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D.
On the psychology of spiritual movements (http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/psymove.html) long article by Michael Rogge
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (http://www.religioustolerance.org/), Extensive library of articles and essays, promoting religious understanding, tolerance and freedom. Website is somewhat critical of the Christian countercult movement and the anti-cult movement.
The Rick A. Ross Institute for the study of Destructive Cults, controversial groups and movements (http://www.rickross.com/) anti-cult activist Rick Ross' extensive website, contains groups database with media articles
Info cult (http://www.math.mcgill.ca/triples/infocult/ic-e1.html) Anti-cult website based in Quebec

References

William Chambers, Michael Langone, Arthur Dole & James Grice, The Group Psychological Abuse Scale: A Measure of the Varieties of Cultic Abuse, Cultic Studies Journal', 11(1), 1994. The definition of a cult given above is based on a study of 308 former members of 101 groups.
Barker, E. The Ones Who Got Away: People Who Attend Unification Church Workshops and Do Not Become Moonies. In: Barker E, ed. Of Gods and Men: New Religious Movements in the West'. Macon, Ga. : Mercer University Press; 1983.
Barker, E. (1989) New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, London, HMSO
Galanter M. Unification Church ('Moonie') dropouts: psychological readjustment after leaving a charismatic religious group. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1983;140(8):984-989.
Enroth, Ronald. Churches that Abuse
Singer, M with Lalich, J (1995). Cults in Our Midst, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Aronoff, Jodi; Lynn, Steven Jay; Malinosky, Peter. Are cultic environments psychologically harmful?, Clinical Psychology Review, 2000, Vol. 20 #1 pp. 91-111
West, L. J., & Langone, M. D. (1985). Cultism: A conference for scholars and policy makers. Summary of proceedings of the Wingspread conference on cultism, September 9–11. Weston, MA: American Family Foundation.
Barrett, D. V. The New Believers - A survey of sects, cults and alternative religions 2001 UK, Cassell & Co. available online (http://www.thenewbelievers.com)
Barker, E., The Making of a Moonie, Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1984), p. 147.
Galanter, Marc M.D.(Editor) (1989) Cults and new religious movements: a report of the committee on psychiatry and religion of the American Psychiatric Association ISBN 0-89042-212-5
Hadden, Jeffrey K. SOC 257: New Religious Movements Lectures, University of Virginia, Department of Sociology.
Bader, Chris & A. Demaris, A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with religious cults and sects. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 285-303. (1996)
Hadden, J and Bromley, D eds. (1993), The Handbook of Cults and Sects in America. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, Inc., pp. 75-97.
Kranenborg, Reender Dr. (Dutch language) Sekten ... gevaarlijk of niet?/Cults... dangerous or not? published in the magazine Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland/Religious movements in the Netherlands nr. 31 Sekten II by the Free university Amsterdam (1996) ISSN 0169-7374 ISBN 90-5383-426
F. Derks and professor Jan van der Lans (Dutch language) Post-cult-syndroom; feit of fictie?/Post-cult syndrome: fact or fiction?. published in the magazine Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland/Religious movemements in the Netherlands nr. 6 pages 58-75 published by the Free university Amsterdam (1983)
Dr. Zablocki, Benjamin [18] (http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~zablocki/) Paper presented to a conference, Cults: Theory and Treatment Issues, May 31, 1997 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Duhaime, Jean (Universit� de Montr�al) Les T�moigagnes de Convertis et d'ex-Adeptes (English: The testimonies of converts and former followers, article that appeared in the book New Religions in a Postmodern World edited by Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg RENNER Studies in New religions Aarhus University press, 2003 ISBN 8772887486
Rothstein, Mikael, associate professor in the department of history of religions at the University of Copenhagen Hagiography and Text in the Aetherius Society: Aspects of the Social Construction of a Religious Leader, article that appeared in the book New Religions in a Postmodern World edited by Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg RENNER Studies in New religions Aarhus University press, ISBN 8772887486

Cult | List of purported cults

Opposition to cults and NRMs | Christian countercult movement | Anti-cult movement

Religious intolerance | Post-cult trauma | Apostasy | Witch hunt | Bigotry

Cult of personality | Cult checklists | Charismatic authority

Mind control | Exit counseling | Deprogramming

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