09AR14-32

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Subject line:

AR 14:32 - Secular approach inoculates teenagers against cults

In this issue:

JUDAISM - any justification for the Jewish rejection of blood atonement?

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - using Buddhist philosophy to help ex-members

NEW AGE MOVEMENT - how one of the world's most wanted war criminals became a guru and hid in plain sight

PERSUASION - secular approach encourages teenage skepticism

TOLERANCE - how it "drifts ironically toward true intolerance"

Apologia Report 14:32

August 20, 2009

JUDAISM

"Is the Shedding of Blood Necessary for Forgiveness?" by Daniel Mann -- the summary reads: "Jewish apologists argue against the need for blood atonement, both to dismiss the claim that Christ fulfills this need and to justify two thousand years of Jewish worship without a temple system. This convenient position, however, simply can't be justified from the Hebrew Bible." Christian Research Journal, 32:3 - 2009, pp38-43. [3]

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JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

"Ritual Separation: An Integrative Guideline for Helping Clients from High-Intensity Faith Groups" by Martin John Faulkner -- noteworthy for the author's promotion of Buddhist philosophy as a tool for helping ex-members. He explains: "Although I address clients from high-intensity faith groups generally, I focus on the eschatological religion, Jehovah's Witnesses, concerning which there are some valuable social studies...." He then briefly describes these studies and notes regarding John Spencer's article "Mental Health and Jehovah’s Witnesses" in the British Journal of Psychiatry (Vol. 126, 1975) that "Criticisms concerning the study's limited provenance remain valid, although it is still used as a benchmark by those antagonistic to the Watchtower Society (e.g., the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, www.carm.org)."

Faulkner writes: "Using PCT [Carl Rogers' Person-Centered Therapy] as a core model, I have found its philosophical principles receptive to Buddhist psychology and facilitative in working with clients from high-intensity faith groups." He goes on to explain how this works in his practice. Cultic Studies Review, 8:1 - 2009, pp16-42. [4]

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NEW AGE MOVEMENT

"Radovan Karadzic’s New-Age Adventure" by Jack Hitt -- Would you be able to name "the most hunted" criminal on the planet last year? We're talking about someone whom an Interpol staff member would identify as a dangerous fugitive on the same level as Osama bin Laden. (Hint: If you couldn't recognize the name in the title, you have failed to pass the test.)

Hitt tells the story of how the brutal Karadzic selected the the most insular and credulous group in which to hide his identity - and, in doing so, suggests the degree to which the New Age worldview has embedded itself around the globe.

The criminal, Karadzic, was apprehended a year ago in Serbia and charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s bloodbath in the Balkans. As "president of the Republika Srpska, and with the aid of Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbian government in Belgrade, Karadzic and his notorious military general, Ratko Mladic, carried out a brutal war against Bosnia’s Muslims, besieging Sarajevo for three years and perpetrating the worst war crimes in Europe since World War II. ...

"Karadzic, along with Mladic, managed to evade Milosevic’s fate by dropping out of view." He became Dragan Dabic, and melted into "Serbia’s alternative-medicine culture" moving about freely and eluding capture. Less interested in how Karadzic was finally apprehended, Hitt went to Serbia to answer the questions: "What was [Karadzic's] life like then, and how did he pull off this pose among a tofu-eating set more associated with one-world values? Who were these biofeedback healers and Serbian soothsayers he hid among for three years? And what did they think now? ...

"Over time, Karadzic found a healing method that would work for his Dabic character. He chose a very simple, rustic, ancient practice, something almost generic: bioenergy. Dabic would roam his hands inches away from someone’s body to cure him by balancing his energy flows. And while everyone had stories of miraculous Dabic cures, no one was ever able to introduce me to any happy patients." Lengthy. New York Times Magazine, Jul 26 '09, <tinyurl.com/nmf5r9>.

(Don’t overlook the collection of still photos that accompanies the feature as a slide show.)

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PERSUASION

Two of the three main articles in the current issue of Cultic Studies Review (noted above) have a focus on protecting innocents from the influence of cultic indoctrination. "Prevention Program on Psychologically Manipulative Techniques" by Esther Mate, et. al. (pp1-15) stands out for its focus on teenagers.

The abstract explains: "[A]dolescents are especially vulnerable to the lure of psychologically manipulative groups. We hypothesize that teaching adolescents strategies and capabilities for resisting such social manipulations can diminish their vulnerability. We have developed a program to counter psychologically manipulative techniques directed at 14-to-16-year-old teenagers. This program aims to (a) prevent group manipulation, (b) make members of this age group aware of their vulnerability to manipulation, and (c) offer information about psychologically manipulative groups and techniques of manipulation." (The authors do not identify any such groups by name. In the past, evangelical movements have attracted the suspicion of secular cult watchers due to their ability to alter the social behavior of young people.)

As to method: "The activities proposed to the teachers for the program consist of six different units, to be presented weekly, with an estimated duration time of one hour each. Unit 1, 'We need people like you!,' focuses on the knowledge and beliefs the typical recruiting process experience revolves around The adolescents receive a poster or a letter from their teacher that proposes their participation in a foreign course. Information about the activities included in the course is scarce, but the young adults are required to give personal information. In unit 2, 'Oscar's personal notebook,' the alumni read and discuss the diary of a young man who has been lured into a coercive group. The discussion will specifically focus on the young man's vulnerabilities, how he has been attracted and drawn in, and which of his actions are critical in facilitating his psychological manipulation and group involvement. Unit 3, 'I got you!,' proposes a discussion about different offers from various groups (e.g., groups focused on religion, solidarity, or specific topics of interest). This unit also includes the students' self-evaluation, based on the available information, of their potential to be enticed into a coercive group [by way of student response to a questionnaire specially designed for this program]. Units 4 and 5, 'What can I do?,' are oriented toward using role-playing exercises to analyze different psychologically manipulative situations within the adolescents' personal relationships. Unit 6, 'Where can I go?,' aims to promote active critical research skills among students to find information about who is providing the recruitment information and which options are in his/her best interests. An emphasis is given to Internet research because the Internet is often adolescents' principal research resource." [4]

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TOLERANCE

The Intolerance of Tolerance, by D.A. Carson [1] -- the publisher's web site reads, in part: "Any viewpoint must be accepted - unless it rejects other viewpoints.... [Thus,] poorly defined, tolerance drifts ironically toward true intolerance. ...

"Carson examines how the definition of tolerance has changed. It now has less to do with recognizing the right of another to disagree with us, and more to do with not saying that others are wrong. It is impossible to deploy this new tolerance consistently, so that actual practice is often whimsical and arbitrary. Worse, the word 'tolerance' has almost become an absolute good, and 'intolerance' an absolute bad. Tolerance and intolerance have become merely rhetorical terms of approval and disapproval.

"Despite many negatives about the new, often ethically silly definitions of tolerance, from a Christian perspective there have been gains as well. In fact, Carson says, the nature of the Christian revelation is such that some tension in our understanding and practice of tolerance is inevitable."

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - The Intolerance of Tolerance, by D. A. Carson (Eerdmans, Nov 15 '09, hardcover, 256 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/nbsza9>

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