The Family Survival Trust (FST) is a charity registered in the United Kingdom, established in order to support and offer counselling for members of abusive

cults 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 ...

, religions, and similar organizations, and their families members. It evolved out of the work of FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Rescue/Resource), Britain's main

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 a ...

group in November 2007.

History

The Family Survival Trust evolved from FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Rescue), Britain's first anti-cult group.

George D. Chryssides George D. Chryssides (born 1945) is a British academic and researcher on new religious movements and cults, has taught at several British universities, becoming head of Religious studies at the University of Wolverhampton in 2001. He is an hono ...

, "Britain's anti-cult movement," in ''New Religious Movements: Challenges and Response'', eds.

Bryan R. Wilson Bryan Ronald Wilson (25 June 1926 – 9 October 2004), was Reader Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Oxford and President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (1971–75). He became a Fellow of All Souls College, ...

and Jamie Cresswell, 257–73. London: Routledge, 1999. . p. 260 FAIR was founded in 1976 by MP Paul Rose, as a support group for friends and relatives of "

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 ...

" members, with an early focus on the

Unification Church The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or "Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spi ...

, although in the years following this focus expanded to include other

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 th ...

(NRMs) or what it referred to as "cults". In the late 1970s, it started to publish ''FAIR News'' to provide information and reports on new religious movements. FST is a member of FECRIS.

Family, Action, Information, Rescue

Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR) was founded by MP Paul Rose in 1976 to address enquiries from constituents and complaints from parents about their adult children joining NRMs. Its membership includes many committed

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

; however, FAIR regarded itself and its outlook as

non-religious Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and anti ...

.Elisabeth Arweck, "Anti-Cult Movement: FAIR, Cult Information Centre (CIC)," in ''Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements'', ed. Peter B. Clarke, 35–8. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. However, NRM scholar

pointed out at the time that " though FAIR officials

ejected Ejection or Eject may refer to: * Ejection (sports), the act of officially removing someone from a game * Eject (''Transformers''), a fictional character from ''The Transformers'' television series * "Eject" (song), 1993 rap rock single by Sense ...

the term '

', FAIR's main strategy seems designed to hamper the progress of NRMs in a variety of ways." It also publicly disapproved of activities like " Moonie bashing". Yet Elisabeth Arweck adds that FAIR's "commitment to raise cult awareness was tempered by repeated warnings against witchhunts". The organization renamed itself as "Family, Action, Information, Resource" in 1994 in order to denote a concern "more with the place of these cults in public life and governments than with the issues of recruitment and

brainwashing 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. Brainwash ...

, although these remain dimportant." FAIR was initially perceived as supporting "

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 be ...

", but then publicly distanced itself from it, citing such reasons as high failure rates, damage to families and civil liberty issues. In 1985, FAIR co-chairman

Casey McCann Michael Thomas M. Casey McCann (c. 1943–2000), commonly known as Casey McCann or M. T. M. Casey McCann, was an anti-cult activist in Britain, Sevenoaks School staff person in Kent, and headmaster of St. Paul's British School in São Paulo, Braz ...

said that FAIR neither recommended nor supported coercive deprogramming and disapproved of those practicing it, considering "coercive deprogramming a money-making racket which encouraged preying on the misery of families with cult involvement." FAIR's applications for government funding were not successful; such funding instead gone to

INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements) Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released between ...

, set up in 1988 by the sociologist

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 chairpe ...

, with the support of Britain's mainstream churches. Relations between FAIR and INFORM have at times been strained, with FAIR accusing INFORM of being too soft on cults. FAIR chairman

Tom Sackville Thomas or Tom Geoffrey Sackville (born 26 October 1950) is a British Conservative politician and anti-cultist. Family and early life Sackville is the second son of William Sackville, 10th Earl De La Warr (died February 1988) and Anne Rachel ...

as MP and Home Office minister abolished government funding for the INFORM in 1997 but funds was reinstated in 2000. In 1987, an ex-FAIR committee member,

Cyril Vosper Cyril Ronald Vosper (7 June 1935 – 4 May 2004) was an anti-cult leader, former Scientologist and later a critic of Scientology, deprogrammer, and spokesperson on men's health. He wrote '' The Mind Benders'', which was the first book on Sciento ...

, was convicted in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

on charges of kidnapping and causing bodily harm to German

Scientologist Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a Scientology as a business, business, or a new religious movement. The most recent ...

Barbara Schwarz in the course of a deprogramming attempt.

Cultists Anonymous

In 1985 ex-members of FAIR who believed that the group had become too moderate created a splinter group called

Cultists Anonymous Cultists Anonymous (CA) was a British anti-cult organization made up of ex-cultists from Family, Action, Information, and Rescue (FAIR), Britain's largest anti-cult organization. CA formed in 1985 but rejoined FAIR in 1991.George D. Chryssides, ...

. The hardliner Cultists Anonymous group was short-lived and rejoined FAIR in 1991.

Activities

The Family Survival Trust provides a confidential helpline for individuals and families effect by cult involvement and organizes national conferences.

External links

The Family Survival Trust Official site

References