Transcript Slide 1

CREDIBILITY ATTACKS
AGAINST FORMER CULT
MEMBERS
by Stephen A. Kent
FECRIS 2011, WARSAW
1. FORCED DECONVERTS:
a. Began with 1970s
deprogrammings.
b. group denunciations at
the end of the
deprogramming as signed
statements or press
conferences.
Sociologists’ reactions:
a. developed non-coercive
conversion models
b. asserted that
deprogrammings caused
trauma, not cult involvement
2. RETURNEES:
a. deprogrammed/exit
counseled; denounced
group; then rejoined
b. called into question the
integrity of the
denunciations
Academics’ reactions:
a. deprogrammed—most critical
exit counseled—somewhat
critical
voluntary—least critical
b. all former member accounts
are untrustworthy ‘atrocity
tales’
3. DELUSIONAL ALLEGED
FORMER MEMBERS
Mentally ill; never
belonged, but probably
believed that they had.
3-PART (INADEQUATE) TEST
A) told the same story
consistently
B) Experts confirmed that
such things did happen
C.) Had good character
references
PROBLEM:
CONSISTENCY,
PLAUSIBILITY, AND A
CONVINCING CHARATER
DO NOT PROVE THE
VALIDITY OF HISTORICAL
EVENTS.
4. CON ARTISTS
a. Never belonged, and know
it.
b. Lie for money/power/fame
c. Religious, well-intentioned
people most vulnerable
5. SPIES:
a. Still belong, but pretend that
they don’t.
b. Espionage, theft, possibly
subversion
c. Be kind to a caught spy—some
do deconvert
6. EX-MEMBERS WITH
‘HISTORIES’:
a. Want to become spokespersons
against their former groups
b. May have done/said things that
groups will throw back at them
c. Anti-cult groups must help these
people make best decisions for
themselves
7. PROFESSIONAL FORMER
MEMBER ANTI-CULTISTS:
a. Become expert witnesses,
authors, exit counselors, anti-cult
organizational staff, etc.
b. Tough positions to maintain: little
money; one’s information likely
becomes dated
c. Must resist the impulse to
embellish/overstate/perjure
8. FORMER MEMBERS WHO BECOME
PROFESSIONALS:
a. Can be very effective critics
because they have professional
credentials
b. Credentials, however, are no
necessary guarantee of producing,
objective, critical work
9. CONCLUSION:
a. Blanket rejection of former members’
testimony is ideological—worse than bad
science
b. Triangulate—try to get similar information
from multiple sources
c. What happened to anti-cult groups in
North America likely will repeat (is
repeating) in Europe
d. Bottom line—former members are
valuable assets; just be careful