TG1
Angelic Poster
Scholarship around new religions has come under tremendous suspicion due to scholars whose research is perceived as collaborative with those new religions.
Some specific assumptions, behaviors and incidents have brought NRM scholarship under fire. One of the most egregious examples of cult apologetics was the behavior/missteps of a few NRM scholars in connection with the sarin bombing in Tokyo in 1995 by Aum Shinrikyo. NRM scholar Gordon Melton was at the very center of that clusterfuck.
Much of this criticism comes from inside the NRM community. For those who think NRM scholarship is worthwhile, you will find this essay interesting:
"Dear Colleagues: Integrity and Suspicion in NRM Research" by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
At http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c59.html
In this essay, the author, an NRM scholar, roundly criticizes the entire NRM field for its lack of objectivity, conflicts of interest (including, but not limited to, financial ties to the NRMs they study), and creating a "happy consensus" about the NRMs they study that, instead, is "a rhetoric of advocacy, apologetics and propaganda."
It's really worth a read.
The essay also links to other worthwhile documents that argue that many NRM scholars (e.g., Jeffrey K. Hadden, who testified for the Church of Scientology in the CoS v. Jeffrey Fishman litigation) are shills through their unwillingness to evaluate or recognize cult attributes in religious movements, their collaboration with lawyers (like Kendrick Moxon, top Scientology lawyer for the CoS) and the compensation they receive from these NRMs in return for publishing, testifying as experts, attending and speaking at conferences, etc.
"Jeffrey K. Hadden and the Religious Movements Site"
at http://www.apologeticsindex.org/h14.html#memo
And if anyone is truly interested in scholarly religious studies, including new religions, you might like to know about this upcoming program at the University of Virginia:
"Problems in the Study of Religion" (a 2014 NEH Summer Institute) at
http://uvareligion.org/about-2/
TG1
P.S. I posted the above in another thread this morning, but thought the NRM scholarship topic might receive more attention in its own thread.
Some specific assumptions, behaviors and incidents have brought NRM scholarship under fire. One of the most egregious examples of cult apologetics was the behavior/missteps of a few NRM scholars in connection with the sarin bombing in Tokyo in 1995 by Aum Shinrikyo. NRM scholar Gordon Melton was at the very center of that clusterfuck.
Much of this criticism comes from inside the NRM community. For those who think NRM scholarship is worthwhile, you will find this essay interesting:
"Dear Colleagues: Integrity and Suspicion in NRM Research" by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
At http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c59.html
In this essay, the author, an NRM scholar, roundly criticizes the entire NRM field for its lack of objectivity, conflicts of interest (including, but not limited to, financial ties to the NRMs they study), and creating a "happy consensus" about the NRMs they study that, instead, is "a rhetoric of advocacy, apologetics and propaganda."
It's really worth a read.
The essay also links to other worthwhile documents that argue that many NRM scholars (e.g., Jeffrey K. Hadden, who testified for the Church of Scientology in the CoS v. Jeffrey Fishman litigation) are shills through their unwillingness to evaluate or recognize cult attributes in religious movements, their collaboration with lawyers (like Kendrick Moxon, top Scientology lawyer for the CoS) and the compensation they receive from these NRMs in return for publishing, testifying as experts, attending and speaking at conferences, etc.
"Jeffrey K. Hadden and the Religious Movements Site"
at http://www.apologeticsindex.org/h14.html#memo
And if anyone is truly interested in scholarly religious studies, including new religions, you might like to know about this upcoming program at the University of Virginia:
"Problems in the Study of Religion" (a 2014 NEH Summer Institute) at
http://uvareligion.org/about-2/
TG1
P.S. I posted the above in another thread this morning, but thought the NRM scholarship topic might receive more attention in its own thread.
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