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Cult Group Controversies: Links to Cult Controversy
Analytical sites
- Counter-Cult/Anti-Cult at the
OCRT
The Ontario Consultants for Religious
Tolerance site is, quite simply, the
most remarkable, comprehensive, and balanced presentation of information on New
Religious Movements anywhere on the Web. The particular resource linked to here
is but a tiny sampling of what is available at this site. This article, entitled
"Counter-Cult/ Anti-Cult Movement," is an attempt to scientifically define these
two ambiguous terms, as well as an attempt to address logically some of the
incendiary rhetoric anti-cult and counter-cult activists are often wont to hurl.
Without a doubt, worth visiting.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/acm.htm
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- CESNUR
(Center for the Studies of New Religions)
The Center for the Studies of New Religions is an international network of
scholars who study new religions. Headquartered in Torino, Italy, it operates
independently of any religious organization. Massimo Introvigne, an attorney
and social science scholar is the founder and director.
This is a very important web site for those interested in the study of new religions.
It is a serious scholarly site where one can often find significant papers and chapters
before they have appeared in print. It is also usually the best place on the Internet
to check when there is breaking news on religious movement groups around the world.
The CESNUR site has a running index of recently uploaded materials on the front page.
They have recently added a search engine that makes it much easier to locate materials
that have disappeared from the front page. The search engine is all the way at the
bottom of the front page.
CESNUR works closely with the Institute for the Study of American Religion, which is
located in Santa Barbara, California at the University of California, Santa Barbara
under the direction of J. Gordon Melton.
http://www.cesnur.org
- Thursby Site at the
University of Florida
This site is very useful as an analytical site as it provides links to academic
journals for the study of religions and to other academic sites for the study of
new religions. The site also includes an extensive bibliography. The site is in the
process of adding information about specific groups.
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthrusby/rel/newrels.htm
- NUREL Web Home Page
This valuable religious movements page is the creation of Irving Hexham, Professor of
Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. The web site contains a lot of valuable
information. Although the site does not have an intuitive organization, it is worth the
time to become familiar with the content. Hexham also runs a listserv by the same title.
The list was once a hotbed of passionate exchanges between anti-cultists, leaders of
several new religious movements, and scholars. A university policy change in early
1999 narrowed the scope of participation. To subscribe, write Hexham
at:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/
Graduate Union Theological Library
The new religious movements page from the Graduate Theological Union is not as
well developed as the other two listed here, but new materials are being added.
The page consists mostly of links. Its specific utility is that it organizes
groups following the structure of "families" found in J. Gordon Melton's
Encyclopedia of American
Religions.
http://aquinas.gtu.edu/library/LibraryNRMLinks.html
Anti-cult sites
- American Family
Foundation
With the bankruptcy filing of Cult Awareness Network, the American Family
Foundation is the most influential anti-cult organization in the U.S. They
publish The Cultic Studies
Journal. The site also highlights the
various outreach programs of the group which include education about, study of,
and assistance for those involved in groups determined by AFF to be cults. The
group was founded in 1979. They offer information packets about the various
groups by mail for a fee.
http://www.csj.org
- Cult Awareness
Network
CAN was recently forced into bankruptcy by a court decision requiring it to pay
damages to a deprogramming victim. The organization's logo, files, post office
box and other assets were purchased by a member of the Church of Scientology who
then turned the organization over to the control of the Scientologists.
The New Cult Awareness Network
page, run by the Church of Scientology,
focuses on promoting religious freedom and unbiased information about new
religious movements. In a sense, it is now an "anti-anti-cult" group.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9612/19/scientology/index.html
http://www.cultawarenessnetwork.org
- Rick Ross
Home Page
Mr. Ross is a deprogrammer or 'exit counselor' deeply involved in the anti-cult
movement. Mr. Ross was involved in the court case that drove CAN into bankruptcy.
He has been featured extensively in the media on programs like 48 HOURS. The
site, while comprehensive and helpful in understanding Ross's own theories, is
extremely slow to load as it contains extensive sound and graphics capabilities.
Rick Ross is a highly visible entrepreneur who has carved out quite a niche for
himself as a self-proclaimed expert and counselor to families desperate to
retrieve family members from new religions. His past has been called into
question by the Church of Scientology which has uncovered evidence of alleged
mental instability and an attempted robbery conviction (The Cult Awarness Network: Anatomy of a Hate
Group).
http://www.rickross.com
- Steve Hassan
Home Page
Hassan is a former member of the Unification Church who has turned apostasy into
a profession. Hassan is devoted to saving the world from "destructive cults" and
"abusive mind controllers." His entrepreneurial tendencies are baldly evident on
his home page. He has recently created the Resource Center for Freedom of
Mind to further his cause. The Center
for the Freedom of Mind provides information about "mind control" in cults based
on Hassan's own writings.It rejects deprogramming in favor of exit counseling and
provides links exclusively to anti-cult sites. Claims of 3,000 destructive cults
in the U.S. are terribly exaggerated. His books include Combatting Mind Control.
http://www.freedomofmind.com/
http://www.fom.org
- Ex-Cult
Archive
Site contains little substantive information, but links together significant
anti-cult resources. By no means comprehensive of anti-cult activity, this is
nonetheless the best available resource for the novice interested in becoming
familiar with anti-cult materials on the Internet.
http://ex-cult.org/
- F.A.C.T.Net 3 Home
Page
The site was built by Scientology apostates who have done battle with their
former group both on the Internet and in the courts. Lately they have taken some
legal hits and the vast archive of material is not present at this site. Click on
the name Lerma near the top and it will link you to lots of other anti-cultists.
The FACTnet site does include links to current news articles pertaining to cults
as well as links to the cults themselves.
http://www.lightlink.com/factnet1/pages/index.html
- Trancenet
This site is managed by a non-profit California corporation and focuses on
Transcendental Meditation and groups associated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Little else about the group's affiliation can be determined from the information
they provide, but they are definitely an anti-cult group despite their claims to
"unfiltered information."
http://www.trancenet.org/index2.shtml
- Cult Awareness and Information
Centre - Australia
This site is run by Jan Groenveld, a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses and
Mormon faiths, who has gathered information primarily from parents with kids
in cults. Groenveld maintains that cults use influence and mind control to obtain
and retain converts. This page turns up repeatedly on virtually any search for
anti-cult sites or for cults in general. Groenveld has compiled many links to
other anti-cult groups but does not represent an organization himself.
http://student.uq.edu.au/~py101663"
Counter-cult sites
- Watchman
Fellowship Inc.
This is far and away the most comprehensive counter-cult site on the Internet. It
includes at least some information on over 1100 groups. They present information
on many groups that are not otherwise represented on the Internet. As a
counter-cult site, the information should be approached with an awareness of the
fact that the authors' perspective is that of an Evangelical Christian. Each
group is assessed from the perspective of their theological perspective. While
they strive for objectivity, and are often successful in being objective about
much of the information they present, their theological perspective necessarily
results in some bias in their presentation of groups that are not faithful to the
Christian tradition as they understand it. Compared to many web sites, both anti-cult
and counter-cult in nature, this is a site that deserves both respect and
admiration for the enormous amount of information they have assembled. They
present information on many groups that are otherwise not available on the
Internet. New materials are constantly being added to the site, and the site has
recently undergone a substantial upgrading.
http://watchman.org
- Spiritual
Counterfeits Project
SCP was a product of the student counter-culture in the 1960s. The initial
founders were former members of Eastern mystical religions. Its history is
closely linked to the University of California and the 1960s Free Speech Movement
at Berkeley, specifically the "people's park." SCP members adhere to a
conservative Christian faith today and seek to uncover the "deceptions" of new
religions that fail to adhere to conservative Christian ideas. Early successes
included a victory in court against TM, forcing the removal of TM ideas from the
public schools. The site offers information about the journal, hotline and other
materials offered by the group.
http://http://www.scp-inc.org
- Christian
Research Institute
Founded by Walter Martin, the most successful author of the counter-cultists.
Martin's book, The Kingdom of the
Cults, is a guiding tome for a
substantial subset of the counter-cult movement. The Kingdom of the Cults is
formatted like a Bible, with cult belief in one column and counter-cult response,
or 'correction,' of that belief in the other column. The site is difficult to
search and primarily serves as an on-line store that sells the organization's
materials and The Kingdom of the
Cults. It also promotes the books of
the new president, Hank Hanegraaff, who is a strong opponent to many contemporary
theological developments in evangelical Christianity. Information from this site is
available by mail for a fee.
http://www.equip.org
- Mandate
Ministries
This is an Australian counter-cult site maintained by Mandate Ministries, an
organization created by Fred and Barbara Grigg after they and their 8 children
left the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1978. Attractively created, this is a good
example of a theological framework that has been geared towards opposition to
"cults" as profane and spiritually and psychologically damaging to adherents.
Grigg claims that Post-traumatic stress syndrome made him susceptible to
Jehovah's Witness conversion after the Vietnam War. He converted along with his
wife and children, but soon realized he was not following the "true God," and
moved to get his family out. He and his wife have now dedicated themselves to
preventing other people from "falling victim" to cult conversion.
http://www.pnc.com.au/~mandate/
- Bible Discernment
Ministries
This extensive counter-cult site run by Rick Meisel is bent on exposing "false
teachers and their teachings." The notebook section of the site offers
information about groups and specific group leaders. It is divided into Exposes,
Cults, and New Age Groups.
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/
Also available in this site section:
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