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Full Description
Misunderstanding Cults provides a uniquely balanced contribution to what has become a highly polarized area of study. Working towards a moderate "third path" in the heated debate over new religious movements or cults, this collection includes contributions from both scholars who have been characterized as "anticult" and those characterized as "cult-apologists." The study incorporates multiple viewpoints as well as a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, with the stated goal of depolarizing the discussion over alternative religious movements. A prominent section within the book focuses explicitly on the issue of scholarly objectivity and the danger of partisanship in the study of cults.
The collection also includes contributions on the controversial and much misunderstood topic of brainwashing, as well as discussions of cult violence, children brought up in unconventional religious movements, and the conflicts between alternative religious movements and their critics. Unique in its breadth, this is the first study of new religious movements to address the main points of controversy within the field while attempting to find a middle ground between opposing camps of scholarship.
Contents
Preface
Caveat
Introduction: Finding a Middle Ground in a Polarized Scholarly Arena
Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins
PART ONE: HOW OBJECTIVE ARE THE SCHOLARS?
'O Truant Muse': Collaborationist!! and Research Integrity
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
Balance and Fairness in the Study of Alternative Religions
Thomas Robbins
Caught Up in the Cult Wars: Confessions of a Canadian Researcher
Susan ]. Palmer
Pitfalls in the Sociological Study of Cults
Janja Lalich
PART TWO: HOW CONSTRAINED ARE THE PARTICIPANTS?
Towards a Demystified and Disinterested Scientific Theory of Brainwashing
Benjamin Zablocki
Tactical Ambiguity and Brainwashing Formulations: Science or Pseudo Science
Dick Anthony
A Tale of Two Theories: Brainwashing and Conversion as Competing Political Narratives
David Bromley
Brainwashing Programs in The Family/Children of God and Scientology
Stephen A. Kent
Raising Lazarus: A Methodological Critique of Stephen Kent's Revival of the Brainwashing Model
Lome L. Dawson
Compelling Evidence: A Rejoinder to Lome Dawson's Chapter
Stephen A. Kent
PART THREE: HOW CONCERNED SHOULD SOCIETY BE?
Child-Rearing Issues in Totalist Groups
Amy Siskind
Contested Narratives: A Case Shady of the Conflict Between a New Religious Movement and Its Critics
Julius H. Rubin
The Roots of Religious Violence in America
Jeffrey Kaplan
Appendix
Contributors
