Apostates and New Religious Movements
Bryan Ronald
Wilson, Ph.D.
Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, England
Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, England
Every religion which makes claim to a definitive body of doctrine and
practice which it regards as exclusively its own, is likely to be faced with
the fact that from time to time some erstwhile members will relinquish their
allegiance and cease to subscribe to the formalities of the faith, in at least
some, perhaps all, of its teachings, practices, organization, and discipline.
Apostasy has been a common phenomenon in the history of the various
denominations of the Judaeo-Christian-Muslim tradition. Each new schism from an
already established organization of faith has been likely to be seen, by those
from whom the schismatics have separated, as a case of apostasy. There have
been dramatic instances on a large scale, as in the so-called "great
schism" of the eastern (Orthodox) and western (Catholic) churches, and in
the emergence of Protestantism at the Reformation. (It needs to be added, if
only for the record, that the dissentient and departing parties have generally
no less often accused those remaining in the earlier established body of
apostasy from some earlier putative standard of faith and practice.) Given the
number of religious bodies in Christiandom which originated in schism, it must
be clear that apostasy has been of widespread and common occurrence.
Not every incident of apostasy results in the formulation of a deviant and
separate religious party or sect, however. Apostasy may be considered no less
to occur when a single erstwhile believer renounces his vows and his former
religious allegiance. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at
a time of crisis in Christian belief, there were some celebrated cases of
apostasy from the Roman Catholic Church. They were represented as occurring in
that church because of the rigour of its requirements of belief and practice;
because of its resistance to modernism; and in particular because it encouraged
the most devoted of its votaries to join monastic orders or congregations. Some
of the lurid stories of monastic life, purportedly related by apostated monks
and nuns -- the celebrated case of Maria Monk was widely publicised --
turned out to be largely fictional, but were much used by the anti-Catholic
propagandist media of the day. In the present age of religious pluralism, in
which a spirit of ecumenism prevails among many of the major Christian
denominations, and in which the so-called "switching" of allegiance
from one of these movements to another is not uncommon, the charge of apostasy
is less frequently heard. But since c. 1960, with the appearance in western
society of various new minority movements which have distinctive religious
teachings and which require a strong sense of specific commitment, a
member who departs is likely to be regarded as apostatizing, and all the more
so, of course, if that member then proceeds to ridicule or excoriate his former
beliefs and to vilify those who were previously his close associates.
In recent decades, given the emergence of so many new religious bodies
which make strong demands on the loyalty of their members, instances of
apostasy have become matters of considerable attention for the mass media. The
apostate's story, in which he is usually presented as a victim, is seen as good
news-copy for the media, particularly if he offers to "reveal"
aspects, and perhaps secrets, of the movement to which he formerly belonged. In
consequence, apostates receive perhaps an unwarranted amount of media
attention, particularly when they are able to present their previous allegiance
in terms both of their own vulnerability and the manipulation, deception, or
coercion exercised by the leaders and members of the movement into which they
were recruited. Because these accounts are often the only information normally
available to the general public about minority religions, and certainly the
most widely disseminated information, the apostate becomes a central figure in
the formation (or misformation) of opinion in the public domain concerning
these movements.
Academic scholars interested in religious minorities, and in particular
sociologists, in whose field this subject matter particularly lies, normally
pursue their scholarly enquiries by a variety of well-recognized methods. They
gather their data not only by archival research and the study of printed matter
and documents, but also by participant observation, interviews, questionnaire
surveys and, directly to the point at issue here, from informants. Apostates
are often very willing informants, but sociologists generally exercise
considerable caution with respect to this possible source of evidence. As I
have written elsewhere, in discussion of the sociologist's techniques of
inquiry:
Informants who are mere contacts and who have no personal motives for what
they tell are to be preferred to those who, for their own purposes, seek to use
the investigator. The disaffected and the apostate are in particular informants
whose evidence has to be used with circumspection. The apostate is generally in
need of self-justification. He seeks to reconstruct his own past, to excuse his
former affiliations, and to blame those who were formerly his closest
associates. Not uncommonly the apostate learns to rehearse an 'atrocity story'
to explain how, by manipulation, trickery, coercion, or deceit, he was induced
to join or to remain within an organization that he now forswears and condemns.
Apostates, sensationalized by the press, have sometimes sought to make a profit
from accounts of their experiences in stories sold to newspapers or produced as
books (sometimes written by 'ghost' writers). [Bryan Wilson, The Social
Dimensions of Sectarianism, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, p.19.]
Sociologists and other investigators into minority religions have thus come
to recognize a particular constellation of motives that prompt apostates in the
stance they adopt relative to their previous religious commitment and their
more recent renunciation of it. The apostate needs to establish his credibility
both with respect to his earlier conversion to a religious body and his
subsequent relinquishment of that commitment. To vindicate himself in regard to
his volte facerequires a plausible explanation of both his (usually
sudden) adherence to his erstwhile faith and his no less sudden abandonment and
condemnation of it. Academics have come to recognize the "atrocity
story" as a distinctive genre of the apostate, and have even come to
regard it as a recognizable category of phenomena [A.D. Shupe, Jr., and D. G.
Bromley, "Apostates and Atrocity Stories", in B. Wilson (ed.), The
Social Impact of New Religious Movements, New York, Rose of Sharon Press,
1981, pp. 179-215.] The apostate typically represents himself having been
introduced to his former allegiance at a time when he was especially vulnerable
-- depressed, isolated, lacking social or financial support, alienated from his
family, or some other such circumstance. His former associates are now depicted
as having prevailed upon him by false claims, deceptions, promises of love,
support, enhanced prospects, increased well-being, or the like. In fact, the
apostate story proceeds, they were false friends, seeking only to exploit his
goodwill, and extract from him long hours of work without pay, or whatever money
or property he possessed. Thus, the apostate presents himself as "a brand
plucked from the burning," as having been not responsible for his actions
when he was inducted into his former religion, and as having "come to his
senses" when he left. Essentially, his message is that "given the
situation, it could have happened to anyone." They are entirely
responsible and they act with malice aforethought against unsuspecting,
innocent victims. By such a representation of the case, the apostate relocates
responsibility for his earlier actions, and seeks to reintegrate with the wider
society which he now seeks to influence, and perhaps to mobilize, against the
religious group which he has lately abandoned.
New movements, which are relatively unfamiliar in their teachings and
practices, and the beliefs and organization of which are designed in terms that
are new or newly adapted, are most susceptible to public suspicion; If they
have secret or undisclosed teachings, or appear to be exceptionally diligent in
seeking converts, or have a distinctive appeal to one or another section of the
community (e.g., the young; students; ethnic minorities; immigrants, etc.) or
if the promises of benefit to believers exceed the every-day expectations of
the public at large, then they may easily become objects of popular opprobrium
or even hostility. The atrocity stories of apostates, particularly when
enlarged by the sensationalist orientation of the press, feed these tendencies,
and enhance the newsworthiness of further atrocity stories. Newspapers are will
known to recapitulate earlier sensationalist accounts when locating new stories
in similar vein about particular movements -- a practice designated by some
sociologists as the use of "negative summary events." ["This refers
to the journalistic description of a situation or event in such a way as to
capture and express its negative essence as part of an intermittent and
slow-moving story. An apparently isolated happening is thereby used as an occasion for keeping the broader,
controversial phenomenon in the public mind." -- James A. Beckford, Cult
Controversies: The Societal Response to New Religious Movements, London,
Tavistock, 1985, p. 235.] By this means, the dramatic import of each apostate's
story is reinforced in its significance, to the detriment of objective and
ethically neutral enquiry into religious phenomena of the kind undertaken by
academic sociologists. Contemporary religious bodies, operating in a context of
rapid social change and changing perceptions of religious and spiritual belief,
are likely to be particularly susceptible to the disparagement and
misrepresentation which occurs through the circulation and repetition of the
accounts of apostates.
Neither the objective sociological researcher nor the court of law can
readily regard the apostate as a creditable or reliable source of evidence. He
must always be seen as one whose personal history predisposes him to bias with
respect to both his previous religious commitment and affiliations, the
suspicion must arise that he acts from a personal motivation to vindicate
himself and to regain his self-esteem, by showing himself to have been first a
victim but subsequently to have become a redeemed crusader. As various
instances have indicated, he is likely to be suggestible and ready to enlarge
or embellish his grievances to satisfy that species of journalist whose
interest is more in sensational copy than in a objective statement of the
truth.
Bryan
Ronald Wilson
December
3, 1994
Oxford,
England
BRYAN RONALD
WILSON
Bryan
Ronald Wilson is the reader Emeritus in Sociology in the University of Oxford.
From 1963 to 1993, he was also a Fellow of All Souls College, and in 1993 was
elected an Emeritus Fellow.
For
more than forty years, he has conducted research into minority religious
movements in Britain and overseas (in the United States, Ghana, Kenya, Belgium
and Japan, among other places). His work has involved reading the publications
of these movements and, wherever possible, associating with their members in
their meetings, services and homes. It has also entailed sustained attention
to, and critical appraisal of, the works of other scholars.
He
holds the degrees of B.Sc. (Econ) and Ph.D. of the University of London and the
M.A. of the University of Oxford. In 1984, the University of Oxford recognized
the value of his published work by conferring upon him the degree of D.Litt. In
1992, the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium awarded him the degree of
Doctor Honoris Causa. In 1994, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
At
various times he has held the following additional appointments:
Commonwealth
Fund Fellow (Harkness Foundation) at the University of California, Berkeley,
United States, 1957-8
Visiting
Professor, University of Ghana, 1964
Fellow
of the American Counsel of Learned Societies, at the University of California,
Berkeley, United States, 1966-7
Research
Consultant for the Sociology of Religion to the University of Padua, Italy,
1968-72
Visiting
Fellow of The Japan Society, 1975
Visiting
Professor, The Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, 1976; 1982; 1986; 1993
Snider
Visiting Professor, University of Toronto, Canada, 1978
Visiting
Professor in the Sociology of Religion, and Consultant for Religious Studies to
the Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, 1980-1
Scott
Visiting Fellow, Ormond College, University of Melbourne, Australia, 1981
Visiting
Professor, University of Queensland, Australia, 1986
Distinguished
Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbera, California, United
States, 1987
For
the years 1971-5, he was the president of the Conférence Internationale de
Sociologie Religieuse (the world-wide organization for the discipline); in 1991
he was elected Honorary President of this organization now re-named as Société
Internationale de Sociologie des Religons
Council
Member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (United States)
1977-9
For
several years, European Associate Editor, Journal for the Scientific Study
of Religion
For
six years, Joint Editor of the Annual Review of the Social Science of
Religion.
He
has lectured extensively on minority religious movements in Britain, Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Japan, and the United States, and occasionally in Germany,
Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
He
has been called as an expert witness on sects in courts in Britain, the
Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa and has provided evidence on
affidavit for courts in Australia and in France. He has also been called upon
to give expert written advice on religious movements for the Parliamentary Home
Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.
Among
other works, he has published nine books devoted in whole or in part to
minority religious movements:
Sects
and Society: the Sociology of Three Religious Groups in Britain, London:
Heinemann and Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961; reprinted,
Westport, Conn., United States; Greenwood Press, 1978
Patterns
of Sectarianism (edited) London; Heinemann, 1967
Religious
Sects, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson; New York: McGraw Hill, 1970 (also
published in translation in French, German, Spanish, Swedish and Japanese)
Magic
and the Millennium, London: Heinemann, and New York: Harper and Row, 1973
Contemporary
Transformations of Religion, London: Oxford University Press, 1976 (also
published in translation in Italian and Japanese)
The
Social Impact of the New Religious Movements (edited) New York: Rose of
Sharon Press, 1981
Religion
in Sociological Perspective, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982 (also published
in translation in Italian; Japanese translation in preparation)
The
Social Dimensions of Sectarianism Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990
A
Time to Chant: the Soka Gakki Buddhists in Britain, [with K. Dobbelaere]
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994 (Japanese translation in preparation).
He
has also contributed to more than twenty-five articles on minority religious
movements, to edited works and learned journals in Britain, the United States,
France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Japan, and to the Encyclopedia
Britannica, the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, and the Encyclopedia
of Religion, and is currently preparing a contribution for the Encyclopedia
Italiana.
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