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Anti-cult
The anti-cult movement (abbreviated ACM, and also known as the countercult movement) consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of cults, uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices. One prominent group within the anti-cult movement, Christian counter-cult organizations, oppose New Religious Movements on theological grounds, categorizing them as ''cults'', and distribute information to this effect through church networks and via printed literature. Concept The anti-cult movement is conceptualized as a collection of individuals and groups, whether formally organized or not, who oppose some "new religious movements" (or "cults"). This countermovement has reportedly recruited participants from family members of "cultists", former group members (or apostates), religious groups (including Jewish groups) and associations of he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined—having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia—and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. Richardson, James T. 1993. "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative." ''Review of Religious Research'' 34(4):348–56. . . An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, related to a particular figure, and often associated with a particular place. References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word. While the literal and original sense of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Religious Movements
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges which the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide, with most of their members living in Asia and Africa. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.Eileen Barker, 1999, "New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance", ''New Religious Movements: challenge and response'', Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge There is no single, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mind Control
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashing is said to reduce its subjects' ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values and beliefs. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them. Research into the concept also looked at Nazi Germany, at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers. In the late 1960s and 1970s, there was considerable scientific and legal debate, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used, or in the convers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult Awareness Network
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an anti-cult organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers. It was founded in the wake of the November 18, 1978, deaths of members of the Peoples Temple and assassination of Congressman Leo J. Ryan in Jonestown, Guyana. The "Old CAN" was shut down in 1996. Its name and assets were later bought by a group of private donors (some of whom were members of the Church of Scientology, an American cult) in bankruptcy proceedings; with the transfer of ownership, the organization was renamed the New Cult Awareness Network. History Ted Patrick founded the FREECOG (Parents Committee to Free Our Sons and Daughters from the Children of God) organization, later known as the Citizen's Freedom Foundation, in 1971 before becoming successively the Citizen's Freedom Foundation ("CFF"), the "Cult Awareness Network of the Citizen's Freedom", a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Countercult Movement
The Christian countercult movement or the Christian anti-cult movement is a social movement among certain Protestant evangelical and fundamentalist and other Christian ministries ("discernment ministries") and individual activists who oppose religious sects that they consider cults. Overview Christian countercult activism mainly stems from evangelicalism or fundamentalism. The countercult movement asserts that particular Christian sects are erroneous because their beliefs are not in accordance with the teachings of the Bible. It also states that a religious sect can be considered a cult if its beliefs involve a denial of any of the essential Christian teachings (such as salvation, the Trinity, Jesus himself as a person, the ministry and miracles of Jesus, his crucifixion, his resurrection, the Second Coming and the Rapture). Countercult ministries often concern themselves with religious sects that consider themselves Christian but hold beliefs that are thought to contra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apostates
Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. One who undertakes apostasy is known as an apostate. Undertaking apostasy is called apostatizing (or apostasizing – also spelled apostacizing). The term ''apostasy'' is used by sociologists to mean the renunciation ''and'' criticism of, or opposition to, a person's former religion, in a technical sense, with no pejorative connotation. Occasionally, the term is also used metaphorically to refer to the renunciation of a non-religious belief or cause, such as a political party, social movement, or sports team. Apostasy is generally not a self-definition: few former believers call themselves apostates due to the term's negative connotation. Many religious groups and some states punish apost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eileen Barker
Eileen Vartan Barker (born 21 April 1938, in Edinburgh, UK) is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairperson and founder of the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM) and has written studies about cults and new religious movements. Academic career Barker has been involved with the LSE's sociology department, where she received her PhD, since 1970. In 1988 she engaged in research on the preservation of cultural identity in the Armenian diaspora. In the same year she founded the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM), with the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury and financial help from the British Home Office. Barker has held numerous positions of leadership in the academic study of religion. She served as the chairperson of the British Sociological Association's Study Group for the Sociology of R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exit Counseling
Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that attempts to help someone who has "strongly held convictions," often coming from cults or New Religious Movements (NRM). Deprogramming aims to assist a person who holds a controversial or restrictive belief system in changing those beliefs and severing connections to the associated group (religious, political, economic, or social) which created and controls that belief system.Neal, Lynn S. (2012). "Deprogramming". ''Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States''. Edited by Bill J. Leonard and Jill Y. Crainshaw. Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Denver, CO: ABC-CLIO. Some methods and practices of people who have deprogrammed (''deprogrammers'') have involved kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion, which have sometimes resulted in criminal convictions. Some deprogramming regimens are specifically designed for individuals taken against their will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping, and civil rights, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deprogramming
Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that attempts to help someone who has "strongly held convictions," often coming from cults or New Religious Movements (NRM). Deprogramming aims to assist a person who holds a controversial or restrictive belief system in changing those beliefs and severing connections to the associated group (religious, political, economic, or social) which created and controls that belief system.Neal, Lynn S. (2012). "Deprogramming". ''Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States''. Edited by Bill J. Leonard and Jill Y. Crainshaw. Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Denver, CO: ABC-CLIO. Some methods and practices of people who have deprogrammed (''deprogrammers'') have involved kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion, which have sometimes resulted in criminal convictions. Some deprogramming regimens are specifically designed for individuals taken against their will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping, and civil rights, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Patrick
Theodore Roosevelt Patrick, Jr. (born 1930) is an American deprogrammer and author. He is considered to be the "father of deprogramming." Early life Ted Patrick was born in a red-light district of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which he was surrounded by "thieves, prostitutes, murderers ndpimps". He dropped out of high school in tenth grade to help support his family, worked a variety of jobs and opened a nightclub, then became co-chairman of the Nineteenth Ward in Chattanooga. At the age of twenty-five, he left his wife and infant son in Tennessee, and went with a friend to San Diego, California, where he became an activist for the black community. For his efforts in the Watts Riots in 1965, Patrick was awarded the Freedom Foundation Award, which ultimately led to his job as the Special Assistant for Community Affairs, under then-Governor Ronald Reagan. Career as a deprogrammer Despite a lack of formal education and professional training, Patrick was hired by hundreds of parents ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journal Of Contemporary Religion
The ''Journal of Contemporary Religion'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal which covers anthropological, sociological, psychological and philosophical aspects of religion. History and format The journal was established in 1985 as ''Religion Today'' by the Centre for New Religions at King's College London. Its founding editor was Peter B. Clarke (later at Wolfson College, Oxford).Clarke, Peter Bernard. ''New Religions in Global Perspective: A Study of Religious Change in the Modern World'', Routledge 2006, p. 46, The journal, which changed its name to the current title in 1995, is published by Routledge. Its current editor is Elisabeth Arweck (University of Warwick); Peter B. Clarke, who died in June 2011, remained listed as co-editor until the end of that year out of respect for his contributions to the field. Lipner, Julius (1997-10-17)"Social science & humanities journals: Prayers for today" ''Times Higher Education''. Retrieved 2010-06-19. An issue of the triannu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see how websites looked in the past. Its founders, Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, developed the Wayback Machine to provide "universal access to all knowledge" by preserving archived copies of defunct web pages. Launched on May 10, 1996, the Wayback Machine had more than 38.2 million records at the end of 2009. , the Wayback Machine had saved more than 760 billion web pages. More than 350 million web pages are added daily. History The Wayback Machine began archiving cached web pages in 1996. One of the earliest known pages was saved on May 10, 1996, at 2:08p.m. Internet Archive founders Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat launched the Wayback Machine in San Francisco, California, in October 2001, primarily to address the problem of web co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
