The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions

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The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions
Authors Anson D. Shupe, David G. Bromley
Genre nonfiction
Publisher SAGE Publications
Publication date
1980
Pages267
ISBN 9780803915428
OCLC 06762468

The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions is a 1980 nonfiction book on anti-cultism, deprogramming, and new religious movements (cults) by sociologists of religion Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley. A foreword was written by Joseph R. Gusfield. It was published by SAGE Publications in its Library of Social Research series as volume 113. Some have described the volume as a companion to their previous work, "Moonies" in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade (1979). [1] [2] Shupe and Bromley approach the anti-cult movement in the United States through a resource-mobilization lens. [3]

Reception

Some scholars believe that The New Vigilantes has great scholarly value. Roland Robertson for Contemporary Sociology wrote that "the book is, for all of its theoretical disorganization, a helpful contribution to our understanding of modern American society". [3] Thomas Robbins for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion noted that the authors "exhibit a kind of detached evenhandedness" which "places the views of the concerned parents, clergy, deprogrammers, ex-devotees and clinicians… on the same ontological level as the notion of cultist zealots". [1] Stuart A. Wright for Review of Religious Research argues that combined with "Moonies" in America the two works "provide a valuable and scholarly contribution to the dynamics between a social movement (Unification Church) and countermovement (anti-cult movement)". [2] He adds that the book "also provides a provocative and critical analysis of 'psychological brainwashing' claims". [2] Meredith B. McGuire for Sociological Analysis called the book a "straight-forward descriptive account of the recent anti-cult movement", and adds that the book is "readable, though somewhat repetitive and short on theoretical interpretation". [4] Joe E. Barnhart for the Journal of Church and State calls the work a "major contribution to the study of a slice of American religious and organizational life in the 1970s". [5]

Other scholars found Shupe and Bromley's conclusions daunting and flawed. Arthur A. Dole for Journal of Religion & Health – who noted their paternal relationship with a former Unification Church member – believed that the movement is "too complicated and the facts too sparse to justify any comprehensive universal theory about cult and anti-cult". [6] Dole also criticizes Shupe and Bromley's apparent disregard for important elements of anti-cult behavior, like the parental instinct to protect a child, and apparent bias against the anti-cult movement; he also criticizes the lack of important works of scholarship available on the Unification Church like Irving L. Horowitz's Science, Sin, and Scholarship (1978). [6] William Sims Bainbridge for Social Forces notes how Shupe and Bromley seemingly miss entire portions of the anti-cult movement, like the United States federal government "war with Scientology", because they are too focused on the anti-cult attack on the Unification Church. [7] He also notes some severe methodological flaws of the work, primarily a lack of survey research conducted on the anti-cult movement. [7] In comparing the work to Michael W. Agopian's Parental Child-Stealing (1981), Roy L. Austin for The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science says that the works do not "make a worthwhile contribution to our understanding of deviance". [8] In reviewing this work, "Moonies" in America, and Shupe and Bromley's Strange Gods (1981), Jack C. Ross for the Canadian Journal of Sociology argues that their methodology relies too heavily on trusting that the authors conducted the interviews and observed the events as they say. [9]

Related Research Articles

Deprogramming is the controversial tactic that attempts to remove someone who has "strongly held convictions," often related to 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 religious, political, economic, or social group which created and controls that belief system. Some methods and practices of people who have deprogrammed have involved kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion, which have sometimes resulted in criminal convictions of the deprogrammers. Some deprogramming regimens are designed for individuals taken against their will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping, and civil rights, as well as the violence which is sometimes involved.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">New religious movement</span> Religious community or spiritual group of modern origin

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.

In modern English, a cult is 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, 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. The word "cult" is usually considered a pejorative.

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Anson D. Shupe, Jr. was an American sociologist noted for his studies of religious groups and their countermovements, family violence and clergy misconduct. He was affiliated with the New Cult Awareness Network, an organisation operated by the Church of Scientology, and had at least one article published in Freedom magazine.

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Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare is a 1981 nonfiction book by Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley about the "cult scare" in America in the 1970s. It was published by Beacon Press in Boston. Shupe and Bromley analyze six specific new religious movements (cults) – the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, the Children of God, the Divine Light Mission, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and the Peoples Temple – in order to partially dispel myths about them.

References

  1. 1 2 Robbins, Thomas (March 1982). "The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion . 21 (1): 80–1 – via JSTOR.
  2. 1 2 3 Wright, Stuart A. (December 1982). "The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". Review of Religious Research . 24 (2): 175–6 – via JSTOR.
  3. 1 2 Robertson, Roland (January 1982). "The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". Contemporary Sociology . 11 (1): 97–8 – via JSTOR.
  4. ↑ McGuire, Meredith B. (Summer 1981). "Alternative Religions: Government Control and the First Amendment; The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". Sociological Analysis . 42 (2): 177–9 – via JSTOR.
  5. ↑ Barnhart, Joe E. (Winter 1982). "The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". Journal of Church and State . 24 (1): 142–3 – via JSTOR.
  6. 1 2 Dole, Arthur A. (Spring 1982). "The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". Journal of Religion and Health . 21 (1): 89–90 – via JSTOR.
  7. 1 2 Bainbridge, William Sims (March 1982). "The New Vigilantes". Social Forces . 60 (3): 955–7 – via JSTOR.
  8. ↑ Austin, Roy L. (May 1982). "Parental Child-Stealing; The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . 461 (Young Children and Social Policy): 187–8 – via JSTOR.
  9. ↑ Ross, Jack C. (Autumn 1983). ""Moonies" in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade; The New Vigilantes: Deprogramming, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions; Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare". Canadian Journal of Sociology . 8 (4): 469–72 – via JSTOR.
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