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| Formation | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Kay Barney |
| Location | |
Area served | Global |
Executive Director | Jacqueline Johnson, DSW |
President | Debby Schriver |
| Website | www |
The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), formerly the American Family Foundation (AFF), is a non-profit educational and anti-cult organization. It publishes the International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation, "ICSA Today", and other materials.
ICSA was founded in 1979 in Massachusetts as the American Family Foundation (AFF) – one of several dozen disparate parents' groups founded in the late 1970s by concerned parents. [1] [2] It was one of a few anti-cult groups founded in this period. [3] For a time it was affiliated with the Citizens’ Freedom Foundation (CFF) which later became the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). [4] The American Family Foundation was conservative in orientation. [5] [6]
It functioned as the "academic arm" of the anti-cult movement. [7] They promoted the idea of satanic groups connected to "satanic ritual abuse" as part of the Satanic panic. [5] [8] They had a "Task Force on Satanism", [9] and sold a "Satanism information packet" that checked for a "ritual abuse behavioral checklist" and included miscellaneous news clips on allegedly satanic crimes. [9] [5] [8] Their periodicals also ran articles on the topic, [8] and editors of their periodicals expressed a belief in ritual abuse. [7] Believers in Satanic ritual abuse referred to the AFF to help survivors of the alleged practice. [6] [10] At this time they were also connected to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. [5]
In 1999, its executive director was Michael Langone. [11] It also developed links with Christian counter-cult movements such as the Christian Research Institute. [4] In December 2004, it changed its named from American Family Foundation to International Cultic Studies Association. [12] [13] They had the "Center of Destructive Cultism" as an arm of the main organization. [11] Different cult monitoring organizations coordinate through the ICSA. [14]
In 1984, the American Family Foundation's early print magazine, The Advisor, was replaced by the Cult Observer[ citation needed ] and the Cultic Studies Journal. [7] The editor of the Cultic Studies Journal was for a time Michael Langone. [7]
In 2001, publication of the Cultic Studies Journal ceased, and the AFF began publishing the Cultic Studies Review as an online journal with triennial print editions. [15] In 2005, the final AFF published edition of Cultic Studies Review was released. Subsequent editions were published by the International Cultic Studies Association until 2010. [16]
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Int. J. Cultic Stud. |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 2154-7270 (print) 2154-7289 (web) |
| LCCN | 2010204406 |
| OCLC no. | 608305709 |
In 2010, the first print and online editions of the International Journal of Cultic Studies were published online, as a self-described "refereed annual journal that publishes scholarly research on cultic phenomena across a range of disciplines and professions". [17] [18] [19]
Scholars George D. Chryssides and Benjamin E. Zeller wrote that while material from its earlier journals and material under the AFF had been sometimes criticized, its material from the International Journal of Cultic Studies was better regarded and included contributions from well-known academics. [20]
Bryan Edelman and James T. Richardson state that China has borrowed heavily from Western anti-cult movements, such as ICSA, to bolster their view of non-mainstream religious groups, and so the support campaigns of oppression against them. [21] In a previous article Richardson and Marat S. Shterin said that Western anti-cult organizations, including the CSA, had been a source of anti-cult material in Russia. [22]
The former AFF's participation in the hysteria over Satanism has been criticized. [5] [8] [7] Writer Debbie Nathan called the American Family Foundation a "conservative group that distrusts nonmainstream religions", and criticized their accusations that such groups broke up "traditional families" and their belief in Satanic ritual abuse. [5] James T. Richardson wrote that they were one of several anti-cult groups at this time to "mix their usual message about brainwashing and mind control in religious cults with a heavy dose of atrocity tales and myths about satanism". [9]
In their book Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, sociologists Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley describe the ICSA as a "secular anticult" organization. They claim that the ICSA provides no indication of how many of its cult characteristics are necessary for a group to be considered "cultic," and that the checklist creators do not adequately define how much of certain practices or behaviors would constitute "excessive," nor do they provide evidence that any of the practices listed are innately harmful. Cowan and Bromley also allege that the ICSA’s list is so broad that even mainstream religious movements such as Buddhism, Evangelical Protestantism, Hinduism, and the Roman Catholic Church could fall within the criteria. [23]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of October 2025 (link)| International | |
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