08AR13-32

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Apologia Report 13:32

August 22, 2008

Subject: Can we believe the ex-cultist?

In this issue:

CULT-WATCHING - the "c" word that refuses to go away

+ rethinking the value of ex-member testimonies

NEOPAGANISM - courteous disagreement between Wiccan and evangelical academics

UFO PHENOMENA - new discovery links all paranormal events

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CULT-WATCHING

For well over a decade many academics have opposed the use of the word "cult" regardless of context for the most part. Yet for other scholars, and certainly the general public, the word remains undeniably appropriate.

For a fresh example, Christopher Gerteis reviews Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo, by Ian Reader [2] - "a thorough survey of the theology and practices of the Aum religion balanced by a carefully crafted narrative of events since the cult's emergence in the early 1980s." Gerteis uses the word "cult" more than a dozen times to describe Aum:

"In many ways, the cult survives as a lark - the Japanese government stripped Aum of its official status as a religious organization in October 1995 and confiscated its property and financial holdings to partially compensate victims of the subway gas attacks. However, the teachings of Aum, renamed Aleph in 2000, survive within the daily practice of the devout because the 1947 Constitution of Japan guarantees religious freedom while limiting the state's right to intervene in religious affairs." Journal of Religion and Society, v10 - 2008, <http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2008/2008-8.html>

One of the many factors separating the three primary groups of cultwatchers (sociological, psychological, and theological - sometimes characterized as the cult-apologist, anti-cult, and counter-cult movements respectively) is the weight given to ex-member testimony. A majority of sociologists tend to avoid any reliance on what unfriendly ex-members report, while the other two groups often find observations by former members quite telling.

In a joint review of several books about the Asian dictatorship, "The Other North Korea" by Christian Caryl (New York Review of Books, Aug 14 '08, pp25-27), we noticed the following remarks about North Korean defector testimony and couldn't help but consider parallels with reports by former cult members: "As for defectors, the skeptics argue that they are inherently unreliable - members of a 'self-selecting' group whose obvious disaffection from the regime automatically implies disqualifying bias.

"Though this seems logical enough on the face of things, it ignores the fact that cold war-era defectors from the Eastern Bloc, whose testimony was frequently discounted on similar grounds by Western scholars and journalistic experts, proved in retrospect to have provided a far more accurate cumulative picture than the 'scientific' analyses of the professional intelligence analysts. Still, given all the constraints, it is hard to blame academia and the media for being somewhat risk-averse when it comes to publishing accounts of life within the country that appear to diverge starkly from conventional wisdom." <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=21713>

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NEOPAGANISM

Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue, by Philip Johnson and Gus diZerega; John W. Morehead, ed. [3] -- Johnson (lecturer on Cults, World Religions & Philosophy at the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Sydney, Australia) and Wiccan priest diZerega (a Third-Degree Gardnerian Elder [1]) take sides in a book that reviewer Craig L. Blomberg describes thus: "Framed by introductory and concluding chapters, the body of the book divides into six main chapters, discussing the topics of 'the nature of spirituality,' 'the divine,' 'nature,' 'humans and the divine,' 'Jesus and spiritual authority,' and 'Paganism, Christianity and the culture wars.' Following this last chapter, a Wiccan convert to Christianity (Lannie Petersen) and a Christian convert to Wicca (Don Frew) also weigh in with brief reactions to the debate. ...

"Johnson's egalitarianism allows him to agree with many of diZerega's criticisms of church history while insisting that Christianity has not always been and certainly today need not be patriarchal. He counters by pointing out that the Pagan emphasis on the divine feminine overreacts in the opposite direction and divinizes that which itself is only partial - one of the two complementary genders of humanity. He also stresses that God is not gendered at all, even if it is difficult in most languages to speak of him as a person without using gendered language. God is immanent, as in panentheism, but he is also transcendent; an overemphasis on either attribute distorts biblical truth. ...

"Johnson presses home the point that if you are going to admire Jesus and claim to follow him even in some limited fashion, you again encounter his demands that embrace all of life and claim an exclusivity over against other 'ways,' however appropriately nuanced those differences may need to be articulated. ...

"No one can fairly accuse this book of perpetuating these culture wars. Both writers are remarkably kind and calm in their discussion of each other's views. Some readers will no doubt wish that Johnson had in fact been a bit more forthright or pointed in his rebuttal of some of diZerega's points, even while remaining considerate and accurate in his writing. But for a pioneering venture of this kind, fraught with the potential for so much misunderstanding, erring on the side of too much civility should scarcely be seen as a weakness!" Denver Journal, v11 - 2008, <www.tinyurl.com/54qr7h>

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UFO PHENOMENA

Many occultists have ventured to interpret the mysteries of modern science. Most recently New Agers have excitedly fallen upon the unexplained quantum mechanics phenomena of non-local particle influence. Get ready for something new in this vein. In his essay, "The Paranormal: A New Science of the 21st Century," Philip J. Imbrogno ("chief investigator during one of the best documented of all UFO flaps," namely the Hudson Valley New York UFO sightings) lays out the details. These sightings "took place between the years of 1982-1995; thousands of people in that area of New York encountered something that they believe was not from our Earth; these sightings are documented in my book Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings [4]. During the duration of these sightings there were reports of a giant UFO (larger than an aircraft carrier) that silently flew over ten counties in New York and three in nearby Connecticut. These were 'typical' sightings of a UFO, but other types of reports that spanned the paranormal spectrum were also taking place at the same time, including the appearances of ghosts, outbreaks of poltergeist activity, and the appearance of alien and other strange creatures."

Imbrogno explains that "During my research I found a definite correlation between the locations of intense magnetic anomalies in the area and the paranormal reports. Also, although many of the people who saw the Hudson Valley UFO were from all walks of life, the majority had never before had a sighting. ...

"My new book, Interdimensional Universe: The New Science of UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena and Other Dimensional Beings [5], compares the paranormal cases with the UFO reports showing that they are related. Like Einstein, who searched all his life for a unified theory to tie together all the forces in the universe, I looked for a similar theory to show that all paranormal events are related. I believe I have finally found the connection to tie together all forms of paranormal phenomenon, from UFOs to hauntings."

<insert drum roll here>

Imbrogno uses string theory ("a relatively new idea that states that particles existing in the universe do not lie at zero dimension points, but are on building blocks or lines called strings") to solve the riddle behind ALL paranormal phenomena. Llewellyn Journal, Aug 4 '08, <www.llewellynjournal.com/article/1623>

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Sources, Digital:

1 - <www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/author.php?id=40235>

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Sources, Monographs:

2 - Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo, by Ian Reader (Univ of Hawaii Prs, 2000, paperback, 310 pages) <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824823400/apologiareport>

3 - Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue, by Philip Johnson and Gus diZerega; John W. Morehead, ed. (Lion Hudson, 2008, paperback, 192 pages) <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745952720/apologiareport>

4 - Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings, by J. Allen Hynek, Philip Imbrogno, and Bob Pratt (Llewellyn, 1998, paperback, 263 pages) <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156718362X/apologiareport>

5 - Interdimensional Universe: The New Science of UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena and Other Dimensional Beings, by Philip J. Imbrogno (Llewellyn, 2008, paperback, 312 pages) <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738713473/apologiareport>

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