International Cultic Studies Association

International Cultic Studies Association
Formation 1979, as American Family Foundation (AFF), renamed in 2004
Founder Kay Barney
Location
Area served
 Global
Executive Director
 Michael Langone
President
 Steve Eichel
Steve Eichel, Carol Giambalvo, Michael Langone
Key people
 Michael Langone, Carol Giambalvo
Website www.icsahome.com

The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) is a non-profit anti-cult organization focusing on groups it defines as "cultic" and their processes. It publishes the International Journal of Cultic Studies and other materials.

History

ICSA was founded in 1979 in Massachusetts as the American Family Foundation (AFF) — one of several dozen disparate parents' groups founded in the late 1970s by concerned parents.[1][2] For a time it was affiliated with the Citizens’ Freedom Foundation (CFF) which later became the Cult Awareness Network (CAN).[3] It also developed links with Evangelical Christian counter-cult movements such as the Christian Research Institute[3]

ICSA is a non-profit organisation, with a stated mission "to study psychological manipulation, especially as it manifests in cultic and related groups".[1][3][4][5] Michael Langone, ICSA's Executive Director, defines a cult as "a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing, and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control designed to advance the goals of the group’s leader, to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community".[6]

Publications

Print magazines

The American Family Foundation's early print magazine, The Advisor, was replaced by the Cult Observer and the Cultic Studies Journal in 1984.[7]

Cultic Studies Review

Publication of the Cultic Studies Journal ceased in 2001 and the AFF began publishing the Cultic Studies Review as an Internet/online journal with triennial print editions.[8] The final AFF published edition of Cultic Studies Review was released in 2005. Subsequent editions were published by the International Cultic Studies Association until 2010.[9]

International Journal of Cultic Studies

The first print and online editions of the International Journal of Cultic Studies (IJCS) were published online in 2010 as a self-described "refereed annual journal that publishes scholarly research on cultic phenomena across a range of disciplines and professions",[10][11][12]

Reception

Connections with post-communist governments

Edelman & Richardson (2005) state that China has borrowed heavily from Western anti-cult movements, such as ICSA, to bolster their view of non-mainstream religious groups, and so the support campaigns of oppression against them.[13] In a previous article Richardson & Shterin (2000) said that Western anti-cult organizations, including the CSA had been a source of anti-cult material in Russia.[4]

Criticism

In their 2009 book, Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, sociologists Douglas Cowan and David Bromley describe the ICSA as a "secular anticult" organization. They point out that the ICSA provides no indication of how many of their characteristics are necessary for a group to be considered "cultic." The checklist creators do not adequately define how much of certain practices or behaviors would constitute "excessive," nor do they provide evidence that any of the practices listed are innately harmful. Finally, Cowan and Bromley criticize the ICSA list as being so broad that even mainstream organizations such as Evangelical Protestantism, the Roman Catholic Church, Buddhism and Hinduism fall within the criteria.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 George D. Chryssides; Margaret Wilkins (10 May 2006). A Reader in New Religious Movements: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-8264-6168-1. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  2. ↑ Langone, Michael. "History of American Family Foundation". Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Peter Clarke (1 March 2004). Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-49970-0.
  4. 1 2 Richardson, James T.; Shterin, Marat S. (2000). "Effects of the Western anti-cult movement on development of laws concerning religion in post-Communist Russia". Journal of Church and State 42 (2): 247. doi:10.1093/jcs/42.2.247. Another source of the Western anti-cult material have been "secular" anti-cult organizations, notably the French ADFI, the British FAIR (Family, Action Information and Resource; "R" used to stand for "Rescue"), the "old" CAN (Cult Awareness Network) and the American Family Foundation (AFF)
  5. 1 2 Cowan, Douglas E. and Bromley, David G. ‘’Cults and New Religions: A Brief History.’’ Blackwell Publishing. 2009. Pages 4, 219-222. ISBN 978-1-4051-6128-2
  6. ↑ Cults Questions and Answers Langone, Michael, 1988
  7. ↑ Langone, Michael (May 1984). "To the reader". Cultic Studies Journal 1 (1): 3.
  8. ↑ Langone, Michael (2002). "Introduction to Inaugural Issue". Cultic Studies Review 1 (1): 5.
  9. ↑ Wehle, Dana; Madsen, Libbe, eds. (2010). Cultic Studies Review 9 (1). Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ Carmen Almendros; Dianne Casoni; Rod Dubrow-Marshall (2010). "About the International Journal of Cultic Studies". International Journal of Cultic Studies 1 (1).
  11. ↑ "International Journal of Cultic Studies - International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)". Icsahome.com. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
  12. ↑ Dole, A. A. (1989). "Book review". Journal of Religion & Health 28 (3): 245–246. doi:10.1007/BF00987757.
  13. ↑ Edelman, Bryan; Richardson, James T. (2005). "Imposed limitations on freedom of religion in China and the margin of appreciation doctrine: a legal analysis of the crackdown on the Falun Gong and other "evil cults"". Journal of Church and State 47 (2): 243. doi:10.1093/jcs/47.2.243.
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