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Conversion

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  (Redirected from Conversion (disambiguation))
Jump to: navigation, search

 Look up conversion or convert in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Conversion or convert may refer to:


Contents  [hide]
1 Economy and finance
2 Law
3 Science and technology 3.1 Linguistics
3.2 Computing
4 Sport
5 Music
6 Entertainment
7 Marketing and e-commerce
8 Communications
9 Other uses
10 See also
Economy and finance[edit]
Conversion (exchange), the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another
Conversion (options), an options-trading strategy in options arbitrage
Economic conversion, a technical, economic and political process for moving from military to civilian markets
Law[edit]
Conversion (law), a voluntary act by one person inconsistent with the ownership rights of another
Equitable conversion, a change in the nature of property so that real property is treated as personal property
Science and technology[edit]
Conversion (chemistry), the ratio of selectivity to yield or the change of a molecule
Conversion of units, conversion between different units of measurement
Electric vehicle conversion, modification of a conventional vehicle to battery electric
Energy conversion, the process of changing one form of energy to another
Linguistics[edit]
Conversion (word formation), the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form
Conversion of scripts, procedure of replacing text written in one writing system with characters of another writing system
Computing[edit]
CHS conversion, mapping cylinder/head/sector tuples to linear base address
Data conversion, conversion of computer data from one format to another
Type conversion, in computer science, changing an entity of one data type into another
convert (command), a command-line utility in the Windows NT operating system
Sport[edit]
Conversion (gridiron football), in American or Canadian football an opportunity to score an addition point following a touchdown Two-point conversion, a gridiron football conversion to score two points
Conversion (rugby), in rugby, a kick at goal to convert a try into a larger set of points
Athletics (Track & Field), an estimate of what a performance which has been measured in one system of measurements would have been if it had been measured in the other system.
Music[edit]
Conversions (band), the American alternative rock band from San Jose, California
Entertainment[edit]
"Conversion" (Doctor Who audio), an episode of the audio drama Cyberman
"Conversion" (Stargate Atlantis), an episode of the television series
"The Conversion" (The Outer Limits), a 1995 episode of the television series
"Conversion" (Portal 2 mod), a game based in the Portal universe running on the Portal 2 engine
Marketing and e-commerce[edit]
Conversion (marketing), the percentage of unique visitors to a website who take a desired action
Conversion funnel, the track a consumer takes through an Internet advertising or search system
Communications[edit]
Code conversion, in telecommunication converting from one code to another
Transcoding, analog-to-analog or digital-to-digital conversion of one video encoding to another
Other uses[edit]
Conversion (barn), conversion of old farming barns to commercial or residential use
Conversion (logic), in logic, reversing the two parts of a categorical or implicational statement
Religious conversion, the adoption of a new religious identity
Conversion disorder, in psychiatry, a condition in which neurological symptoms arise without a definable organic cause
Conversion therapy, pseudo-scientific treatments to eliminate or diminish same-sex desires and behaviors
Miniature conversion, altering the appearance of a miniature or model from the standard version
Converting timber to commercial lumber
See also[edit]
Internal conversion, a radioactive decay process
Translation (disambiguation)
Converter (disambiguation)
Template:Convert, a template for converting units within Wikipedia articles
Disambiguation icon This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Conversion.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
  


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Conversion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Conversion (disambiguation))
Jump to: navigation, search

 Look up conversion or convert in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Conversion or convert may refer to:


Contents  [hide]
1 Economy and finance
2 Law
3 Science and technology 3.1 Linguistics
3.2 Computing
4 Sport
5 Music
6 Entertainment
7 Marketing and e-commerce
8 Communications
9 Other uses
10 See also
Economy and finance[edit]
Conversion (exchange), the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another
Conversion (options), an options-trading strategy in options arbitrage
Economic conversion, a technical, economic and political process for moving from military to civilian markets
Law[edit]
Conversion (law), a voluntary act by one person inconsistent with the ownership rights of another
Equitable conversion, a change in the nature of property so that real property is treated as personal property
Science and technology[edit]
Conversion (chemistry), the ratio of selectivity to yield or the change of a molecule
Conversion of units, conversion between different units of measurement
Electric vehicle conversion, modification of a conventional vehicle to battery electric
Energy conversion, the process of changing one form of energy to another
Linguistics[edit]
Conversion (word formation), the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form
Conversion of scripts, procedure of replacing text written in one writing system with characters of another writing system
Computing[edit]
CHS conversion, mapping cylinder/head/sector tuples to linear base address
Data conversion, conversion of computer data from one format to another
Type conversion, in computer science, changing an entity of one data type into another
convert (command), a command-line utility in the Windows NT operating system
Sport[edit]
Conversion (gridiron football), in American or Canadian football an opportunity to score an addition point following a touchdown Two-point conversion, a gridiron football conversion to score two points
Conversion (rugby), in rugby, a kick at goal to convert a try into a larger set of points
Athletics (Track & Field), an estimate of what a performance which has been measured in one system of measurements would have been if it had been measured in the other system.
Music[edit]
Conversions (band), the American alternative rock band from San Jose, California
Entertainment[edit]
"Conversion" (Doctor Who audio), an episode of the audio drama Cyberman
"Conversion" (Stargate Atlantis), an episode of the television series
"The Conversion" (The Outer Limits), a 1995 episode of the television series
"Conversion" (Portal 2 mod), a game based in the Portal universe running on the Portal 2 engine
Marketing and e-commerce[edit]
Conversion (marketing), the percentage of unique visitors to a website who take a desired action
Conversion funnel, the track a consumer takes through an Internet advertising or search system
Communications[edit]
Code conversion, in telecommunication converting from one code to another
Transcoding, analog-to-analog or digital-to-digital conversion of one video encoding to another
Other uses[edit]
Conversion (barn), conversion of old farming barns to commercial or residential use
Conversion (logic), in logic, reversing the two parts of a categorical or implicational statement
Religious conversion, the adoption of a new religious identity
Conversion disorder, in psychiatry, a condition in which neurological symptoms arise without a definable organic cause
Conversion therapy, pseudo-scientific treatments to eliminate or diminish same-sex desires and behaviors
Miniature conversion, altering the appearance of a miniature or model from the standard version
Converting timber to commercial lumber
See also[edit]
Internal conversion, a radioactive decay process
Translation (disambiguation)
Converter (disambiguation)
Template:Convert, a template for converting units within Wikipedia articles
Disambiguation icon This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Conversion.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
  


Categories: Disambiguation pages





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















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Current events
Random article
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Interaction
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About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Eesti
Español
Esperanto
Français
Interlingua
Italiano
Simple English
Edit links
This page was last modified on 31 May 2015, at 04:37.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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About Wikipedia
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Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion













Christian Identity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Christian Identity movement)
Jump to: navigation, search
For the general identity of an individual with certain core essential religious doctrines, see Christianity.
Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity[citation needed]) refers to a belief system held by some individuals, churches and prison gangs[1] with a white supremacist theology[2][3] that promotes a racist interpretation of Christianity. Christian Identity beliefs were primarily developed and promoted by two authors who borrowed racialist doctrines from Rabbinic Judaism and then reversed their application to Jews and Europeans, so that the Europeans are the "chosen people" and the Jews are considered the cursed offspring of Cain. Many of these teachings were later adopted by white supremacist sects and gangs.
An early Christian Identity teacher, Wesley Swift, appropriated the Talmudic teaching on other races to formulate the doctrine that non-Caucasian peoples have no souls and therefore can never earn God's favor or be saved.[4][5]
Some of Christian Identity's ideas have roots in British Israelism, which teaches that many white Europeans are the literal descendants of the Israelites through the ten tribes that were taken away into captivity by the armies of Assyria. British Israelism teaches that these white European Israelites are still God's chosen people and that Jesus was an Israelite of the tribe of Judah. Christian Identity deviates from British Israelism by asserting that modern Jews are neither Israelites nor Hebrews but are instead descended from people with Turco-Mongolian blood, or Khazars, or are descendants of the biblical Esau-Edom, who traded his birthright for a bowl of red stew (Genesis 25:29–34).[citation needed]
The Christian Identity movement first received widespread attention by mainstream media in 1984, when the white nationalist organization known as The Order embarked on a murderous crime spree before being taken down by the FBI. Tax resister and militia movement organizer Gordon Kahl, whose death in a 1983 shootout with authorities helped inspire The Order, also had connections to the Christian Identity movement.[6][7] The movement returned to public attention in 1992 and 1993, in the wake of the deadly Ruby Ridge confrontation, when newspapers discovered that former Green Beret and right-wing separatist Randy Weaver had at least a loose association with Christian Identity believers.[8]
No single document expresses the Christian Identity belief system; however, adherents draw upon arguments from linguistic, historical, archaeological and biblical sources to support their beliefs. These groups are estimated to have 2,000 members in the United States,[9] and an unknown number in Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth. Due to the promotion of Christian Identity doctrines through radio and later the Internet, an additional 50,000 unaffiliated individuals are thought to hold Christian Identity beliefs.[9] The primary spread of Christian Identity teachings is believed to be through white supremacist prison gangs.[10]
Christian Identity believers reject the doctrines of most contemporary Christian denominations.[citation needed] They claim that modern Christian churches are teaching a heresy:[citation needed] the belief that God's promises to Israel (through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) have been expanded to create a spiritual people of "Israel", which constitutes the Christian Church. In turn, most modern Christian denominations and organizations denounce Christian Identity as heresy and condemn the use of the Christian Bible as a basis for promoting white supremacy and antisemitism.[citation needed] Adherents of Christian Identity claim that Europeans are the true descendants of the biblical Jacob, hence they are the true Israel, and that it is those who are against the interests of European-descended Christians that are the true anti-Semites.


Contents  [hide]
1 Origins 1.1 Relation to British Israelism
1.2 Early years
1.3 Key developers
2 Ideology, tenets and beliefs 2.1 Two House Theology
2.2 Origin beliefs
2.3 Adamites and pre-Adamites
2.4 Creationism
2.5 Racialism
2.6 World's end and Armageddon
2.7 Anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual
2.8 Anti-banking system
3 Groups 3.1 Aryan Nations
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 Bibliography
7 External links

Origins[edit]
Christian Identity (CI) as a movement emerged as an offshoot sect of British Israelism in the 1920s and 1930s.[11][12] However, the idea that "lower races" are mentioned in the Bible (in contrast to Aryans) was posited in the 1905 book "Theozoology; or The Science of the Sodomite Apelings and the Divine Electron" by Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels, a volkisch writer seen by many historians as a major influence on Nazism. Hitler, however, did not subscribe to the belief that the Israelites of the Bible were actually Aryans; in a speech he gave in Munich in 1922 titled "Why We Are Anti-Semites", he referred to and disparaged Abraham as racially Jewish.[13]
Relation to British Israelism[edit]
Paradoxically, while early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were philo-semites, Christian Identity emerged in sharp contrast to be strongly antisemitic.[14] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as an 'ugly turn':

Once on American shores, British-Israelism began to evolve. Originally, believers viewed contemporary Jews as descendants of those ancient Israelites who had never been "lost." They might be seen critically but, given their significant role in the British-Israel genealogical scheme, not usually with animosity. By the 1930s, however, in the U.S., a strain of antisemitism started to permeate the movement (though some maintained traditional beliefs—and a small number of traditionalists still exist in the U.S.)[12]
Another source describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as a "remarkable transition", also noting that traditional British Israelites were advocates of Philo-Semitism which paradoxically changed to antisemitism and racism under Christian Identity.[15] In fact, British Israelism itself had several Jewish members and it received support from rabbis throughout the 19th century and within British politics it supported Benjamin Disraeli who was descended from Sephardic Jews.[16][17] However, Christian Identity which emerged in the 1920s, began to be antisemitic teaching that the Jews are not descended from the tribe of Judah (as British Israelites maintain) but are instead descended from Satan or Edomite-Khazars.[18] The British Israel form of the belief held no anti-Semitism, its followers instead held the view that Jews made up a minority of the tribes of Israel (Judah and Benjamin), with the British and other related Northern European peoples making up the remainder.
Early years[edit]
Christian Identity (CI) has first been traced back to the 1920s to Howard Rand (1889–1991).[19][20]
Rand was a Massachusetts lawyer who obtained a law degree at the University of Maine. He was raised as a British Israelite, and his father introduced him to J. H. Allen's work Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902) at an early age.[21] While Rand's father was not an antisemite, nor was even Rand in his early British Israelite years, Rand first added an antisemitic element to British Israelism in the 1920s. He claimed as early as 1924 that the Jews were not really descended from the tribe of Judah, but were instead the descendants of Esau or Canaanites.[22] However, Rand never claimed that modern Jews were descendants of Satan, or that they were in any way inferior, he just claimed that they were not the true lineal descendants of Judah.[23] For this reason Rand is considered a 'transitional' figure between British Israelism and Christian Identity, but not its actual founder.[24] However Rand first coined the term 'Christian Identity'.[25] Rand had set up the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1933 which promoted his view that Jews were not descended from Judah, which marked the first key transition from British Israelism to Christian Identity. Beginning in May 1937 there were key meetings between British Israelites in America who were attracted to Rand’s new theory that the Jews were not really descended from Judah. This provided the catalyst for the eventual emergence of Christian Identity, and by the late 1930s the Jews were considered to be the offspring of Satan and were heavily demonised, as were non-Caucasian races.[26][27] William Dudley Pelley, founder of the fascist Silver Shirts movement, also promoted an anti-semitic form of British Israelism in the early 1930s.[28] Links between Christian Identity and the Ku Klux Klan also emerged in the late 1930s.[29]
Key developers[edit]
Wesley Swift (1913–1970) is considered by the FBI to have been the most significant figure in the early years of the Christian Identity movement. Swift was born in New Jersey, and eventually moved to Los Angeles in order to attend Bible college. It is claimed that he may have been a "Ku Klux Klan organizer and a Klan rifle-team instructor."[30] In 1946, he founded his own church in Lancaster, California. In the 1950s, he was Gerald L. K. Smith's West Coast representative of the Christian Nationalist Crusade. In addition, he had a daily radio broadcast in California during the 1950s and 1960s, through which he was able to proclaim his ideology to a large audience. With Swift's efforts, the message of his church spread, leading to the creation of similar churches throughout the country. In 1957, the name of his church was changed to The Church of Jesus Christ Christian, which is used today by Aryan Nations (AN) churches. One of Swift's associates was retired Col. William Potter Gale (1917–1988). Gale had apparently been an aide to General Douglas MacArthur, and had coordinated guerrilla resistance in the Philippines during World War II. Gale became a leading figure in the anti-tax and paramilitary movements of the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the California Rangers and the Posse Comitatus, and helping to found the militia movement. Numerous Christian Identity churches preach similar messages and some espouse more violent rhetoric than others, but all hold to the belief that Aryans are God's chosen race. Gale introduced future Aryan Nations founder Richard Girnt Butler to Swift. Until then, Butler had admired George Lincoln Rockwell and Senator Joseph McCarthy, and had been relatively secular. Swift quickly converted him to Christian Identity. When Swift died, Butler took over the Church, to the apparent dismay of both Gale and Swift's family. Neither Butler nor Gale were anything like the dynamic orator that Swift had been, and attendance dwindled under the new pastor. Butler eventually renamed the organisation "The Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations" and moved it to Hayden Lake, Idaho.
Lesser luminaries were also present as Christian Identity theology took shape in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Baptist minister and California Klansman San Jacinto Capt (who claimed that he had introduced Wesley Swift to Christian Identity), and one-time San Diego Deputy City Attorney (and lawyer for Gerald L. K. Smith) Bertrand Comparet (1901–1983).[31] But for the most part, today's Christian Identity groups seem to have been spawned by Wesley Swift, through his lieutenants William Potter Gale and Richard Butler.
Ideology, tenets and beliefs[edit]
Christian Identity asserts that the white people of Europe or Caucasians in general are God's servant people according to the promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It further asserts that the early European tribes were really the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and therefore the rightful heirs to God's promises, and God's chosen people. Professor Colin Kidd wrote that in America Christian Identity exploited "the puzzle of the Ten Lost Tribes to justify an openly anti-Semitic and virulently racist agenda."[32]
Two House Theology[edit]
Like British Israelites, Christian Identity (CI) adherents believe in Two House Theology.[33] However the major difference between British Israelism and CI is that British Israelites have always maintained that Jews are descended from the tribe of Judah.[34] In contrast, while also maintaining a Two House distinction, Christian Identity proponents believe that the true lineal descendants of Judah are not contemporary Jews, but are instead White Europeans whose ancestors settled mainly in Scotland, Germany, and other European nations, alongside the House of Israel. They are Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and kindred peoples.[33][35] Some CI scholars teach that many contemporary Jews are the descendants of Cain, citing Genesis 3:12, John 8:44 and 1 John 3:12 in support of their position and they also teach that Cain was the spawn of Satan.[36]
Origin beliefs[edit]
Identity teaches that "Israel" was the name given to Jacob after battling the angel at Peniel in Genesis 32:26-32. "Israel" then had twelve sons, which began the twelve tribes of Israel.[37]:101 In 975 B.C. the ten northern tribes revolted, seceded from the south, and became the Kingdom of Israel.[37]:101 After being subsequently conquered by Assyria, the ten tribes disappear from Biblical record, becoming the Lost Tribes of Israel.[37]:101
According to Identity doctrine, 2 Esdras 13:39–46 then records the history of the nation of Israel journeying over the Caucasus mountains, along the Black Sea, to the Ar Sereth tributory of the Danube in Romania ("But they formed this plan for themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the nations and go to a more distant region, where no human beings had ever lived. … Through that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and a half; and that country is called Arzareth").[37]:101 The tribes prospered, and eventually colonised other European countries. Israel's leading tribe, the Tribe of Dan, is attributed with settling and naming many areas which are today distinguished by place names derived from its name – written ancient Hebrew contains no vowels, and hence "Dan" would be written as DN, but would be pronounced with an intermediate vowel dependent on the local dialect, meaning that Dan, Den, Din, Don, and Dun all have the same meaning.[37]:101 Various modern place names are said to derive from the name of this tribe:[37]:101
Macedonia – Macedonia – derived from Moeshe-don-ia (Moeshe being "the land of Moses")
Danube – Dan-ube, Dneister – Dn-eister, Dneiper – Dn-eiper, Donetz – Don-etz, Danzig – Dan-zig, Don – Don
Some followers claim that the Identity genealogy of the Davidic line can be traced from its beginnings right down to the Royal rulers of Britain and Queen Elizabeth herself.[37]:102–105 Thus Anglo-Saxons are the true Israelites, God's chosen people who were given the divine right to rule the world until the Second Coming of Christ.[37]:101
Adamites and pre-Adamites[edit]
A major tenet of Christian Identity is Pre-Adamism. Christian Identity followers believe that Adam and Eve are ancestors of whites alone, and that Adam and Eve were preceded by lesser, non-Caucasian races often (though not always) identified as "beasts of the field" (Genesis 1:25); for example, the "beasts" which wore sackcloth and cried unto God (Jonah 3:8) are identified as the black races by Christian Identity adherents.[38] To support their theory on the racial identity of Adam, Christian Identity proponents point out that the Hebrew etymology of the word 'Adam' translates as 'be ruddy, red, to show blood (in the face)' often quoting from James Strong's Hebrew Dictionary #119 (1890) and from this conclude that only Caucasians or people with light white skin can blush or turn rosy in the face (because hemoglobin only appears under pale skin).[39] Proponents of Christian Identity believe that Adam was only created 6,000 years ago, while the other non-Caucasian races were created during far older epochs that occurred on the other continents.[35][40]
"Dual Seedliner" Christian Identity proponents—those who believe that Eve bore children to Satan as well as Adam—believe that Eve was seduced by the Snake (Satan), shared her fallen state with Adam by lying with him, and gave birth to twins with different fathers: Satan's child Cain and Adam's son Abel. Cain then became the progenitor of the Jews in his subsequent matings with the non-Adamic races. This is referred to as the two-seedline doctrine. While this belief ascribing the ancestry of legendary monsters such as Grendel to Cain.,[35] was somewhat widespread in medieval times, the oldest example of it is in the Babylonian Talmud. Ironically, Christian Identity's dual seed line doctrine originated in Jewish rabbinical literature, but has been turned around to identify white people as the children of Adam, and Jews as children of the Serpent.
The Serpent Seed idea appears in a 9th-century book called Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer.[41] In his book Cain: Son of the Serpent, David Max Eichhorn, traces the idea back to early Jewish Midrashic texts and identifies many rabbis who taught that Cain was the son of the union between the serpent and Eve.[41] Some Kabbalist rabbis also believe that Cain and Abel were of a different genetic background than Seth. This is known among Kabbalists as "The Theory of Origins".[42] The theory teaches that God created two "Adams" (adam means "man" in Hebrew). To one he gave a soul and to the other he did not give a soul. The one without a soul is the creature known in Christianity as the serpent. The Kabbalists call the serpent Nahash (meaning serpent in Hebrew). This is recorded in the Zohar:

"Two beings [Adam and Nachash] had intercourse with Eve, and she conceived from both and bore two children. Each followed one of the male parents, and their spirits parted, one to this side and one to the other, and similarly their characters. On the side of Cain are all the haunts of the evil species; from the side of Abel comes a more merciful class, yet not wholly beneficial – good wine mixed with bad." (Zohar 136)
A seminal influence on the Christian Identity movement's views on pre-Adamism was a book published in 1900 by Charles Carroll entitled The Negro a Beast or In the Image of God?. Carroll concludes in the book that the White race was made in the image and likeness of God and that Adam gave birth to the White race only, while Negros are pre-Adamite beasts and could not possibly have been made in God's image and likeness because they are beastlike, immoral and ugly.[43] Carroll claimed that the pre-Adamite races such as blacks did not have souls. Carroll believed that race mixing was an insult to God and spoiled God's racial plan of creation. According to Carroll the mixing of races had also lead to the errors of atheism and evolutionism.[44]
Creationism[edit]
Christian Identity proponents are Old Earth Creationists, but they believe that Adam (who was the father of the white race or Caucasians) was only created around 6,000 years ago, while they also believe that both the universe and Earth are billions of years old and that non-Caucasian races were created hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago.[40]
Wesley Swift strongly criticised Young Earth Creationism and the traditional Judeo-Christian view that Noah's flood was global. He instead believed that the flood was only local and that the Earth was billions of years old.[35] Christian Identity adherents claim that the flood in Genesis only rose high enough to drown the region of the Tarim Basin below sea level (Gen. 7:20) and that therefore the Hebrew word "eretz" which appears in those verses should be rendered "the land" (as in a specific place) rather than "the earth."[citation needed]
Racialism[edit]
Racialism, or race-based philosophy, is the core tenet of Christian Identity, and most CI adherents are White Nationalists or support racial segregation. Some believe that Jews are genetically compelled by their Satanic or Edomite ancestry to carry on a conspiracy against the Adamic seedline and today have achieved almost complete control of the Earth through their illegitimate claim to the white race's status as God's chosen people.[45] As a general rule, Christian Identity followers adhere to the traditional orthodox Christian views on the role of women (See Biblical patriarchy), abortion (Exodus 21:22), and homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), and they believe that racial miscegenation is a sin and a violation of God's law in Genesis 1:24–25 which commands that all creatures produce "kind after kind."
In addition to their strict fundamentalist racial views Christian Identity adherents distinguish themselves from mainstream Protestant Fundamentalism in various areas of theology. Some Christian Identity adherents follow the Mosaic law of the Old Testament (e.g., dietary restrictions, the seventh-day Sabbath, certain annual festivals such as Passover). It is also commonplace for adherents to follow the Sacred Name Movement and they insist on using the original Hebrew names when referring to God (Yahweh) and Jesus Christ (Yahshua). Some Christian Identity writers criticize modern Bible editions as well as the Jews for the removal of the original Hebrew name of God from the Bible. Although their adherence to Old Testament Mosaic law may make them appear "Jewish"; they claim that the Jewish interpretation of the law has been corrupted through the Jews' Talmud. Unlike many Protestant Fundamentalists, Christian Identity adherents reject the notion of a Rapture, believing it to be a Judaized doctrine which the Bible does not teach.[46]
World's end and Armageddon[edit]
Christian Identity supporters believe in the Second Coming and Armageddon. Predictions vary, including race war or a Jewish-backed United Nations takeover of the US, and they endorse physical struggle against what they see as the forces of evil.[47]
Anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual[edit]
While being anti-Jewish, Identity Christianity is a mirror image of rabbinical teachings on the separation theology of ancient Judaism and Jewish texts such as the Book of Enoch. Identity asserts that disease, addiction, cancer, and sexually transmitted diseases (herpes and AIDS) are spread by human "rodents" via contact with "unclean" persons, such as through "race-mixing".[37]:85 The first book of Enoch is used to justify these social theories; the fallen angels of Heaven sexually desired Earth maidens and took them as wives, resulting in the birth of abominations, which God ordered Michael the Archangel to destroy, thus beginning a cosmic war between Light and Darkness.[37]:85 The mixing of separate things (e.g., people of different races) is seen as defiling both, and is against God's will.[37]:86
Identity preachers proclaim that, according to the King James Bible, "the penaltys for race-mixing, homo-sexuality, and usury are death."[37]:86 The justification for killing homosexuals is provided by Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35–37 and Deuteronomy explicitly condemn usury.[37]:92 Ezekiel 18:13 states "He who hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him" and is quoted as justification for killing Jews, since Jews have traditionally had a large presence in the usury business.
Identity followers reject the label of "anti-Semitic", stating that they can't be anti-Semitic, since in fact the true Semites "today are the great White Christian nations of the western world", with modern Jews in fact being descendants of the Canaanites.[37]
Anti-banking system[edit]
Identity doctrine asserts that the "root of all evil" is paper money (in particular Federal Reserve Notes), and that usury and banking systems are controlled by Jews.[37]:87 The creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 shifted control of money from Congress to private institutions and violated the Constitution. The money system encourages the Federal Reserve to take out loans, creating trillions of dollars of government debt and allowing international bankers to control America. Credit/debit cards and computerised bills are seen as the fulfillment of the Biblical scripture warning against "the beast" (i.e. banking) as quoted in Rev 13:15–18. Identity preacher Sheldon Emry claims "Most of the owners of the largest banks in America are of Eastern European (Jewish) ancestry and connected with the (Jewish) Rothschild European banks", thus, in Identity doctrine, the global banking conspiracy is led and controlled by Jewish interests.[37]:91
Groups[edit]
Christian Identity is a major unifying theology for a number of diverse groups of white nationalist Christians. It is a belief system that provides its members with a religious basis for racial separatism. Herbert W. Armstrong is inaccurately described by some of his critics, as well as by supporters of Christian Identity, as having supported Christian Identity, due to his belief in a modified form of British Israelism, and the fact that during his lifetime, he propounded observances favoured by many Christian Identity groups, such as seventh-day Sabbatarianism and biblical festivals. The Worldwide Church of God that Armstrong founded did not subscribe to the anti-Semitism commonly espoused by the Christian or Israel Identity groups but instead adhered to the traditional beliefs of British Israelism; i.e., the belief held that modern day Jews were descendants of the Tribe of Judah whereas the Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Danes, etc. were descendants of the remaining Ten Tribes of Israel formerly known as the Northern Kingdom.
Christian Identity groups include "The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord", the Phineas Priesthood, the Oklahoma Constitutional Militia, also known as The Universal Church of God. Christian Identity is also related to other groups such as Aryan Nations, the Aryan Republican Army (ARA) and the Patriots Council, Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Thomas Robb, Mission To Israel, Folk And Faith, Jubilee (newspaper), Yahweh's Truth (James Wickstrom), Church of Israel[48][49] and Kingdom Identity Ministries.
South African branches of Christian Identity have been accused of involvement in terrorist activity, including the 2002 Soweto bombings.[50]
Christian Identity groups include the Heritage Christian Church and Legion for Survival of Freedom.
Aryan Nations[edit]


 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)
The Aryan Nations (AN) is a group that adheres to the Christian Identity belief system. The group espouses dislike towards Jews, blacks and other minorities, as well as the United States federal government. The original ultimate goal of the AN is to forcibly take five northwestern states – Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Montana – from the United States government in order to establish an Aryan homeland. This particular ideology is known throughout the White power movement as the Northwest Territorial Imperative. The AN was headquartered at Hayden Lake, Idaho from the late 1970s until February 2001. Its annual World Congress attracted a number of different factions from the far-right. The World Congress was a sort of round table to discuss racialist issues. Since the main Aryan Nations property in Idaho was dismantled following a costly lawsuit against the group and the death of Richard Butler, there have been several struggles over control of the movement that are as yet unresolved.
See also[edit]
August Kreis III
Byron De La Beckwith
Chevie Kehoe
Christian Patriot movement
Dewey H "Buddy" Tucker
Elohim City, Oklahoma
Kinism
List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups
Positive Christianity
Richard Girnt Butler
Samuel Bowers
Wesley Swift
Footnotes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/bigotry-behind-bars-racist-groups-in-US-prisons.html#.VWSe6vlVjBE
2.Jump up ^ Eck, Diane (2001). A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" has become the world’s most religiously diverse nation. New York:: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 347.
3.Jump up ^ Buck, Christopher (2009). Religious Myths and Visions of America: How Minority Faiths Redefined America's World Role. Praeger. pp. 107, 108, 213. ISBN 978-0313359590.
4.Jump up ^ Quarles, Chester L. (2004). Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion. McFarland & Company. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-7864-1892-3.
5.Jump up ^ Mason, Carol (2002). Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics. Cornell University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0801488191.
6.Jump up ^ "Sovereign Citizen Movement - Extremism in America". Adl.org. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
7.Jump up ^ King, Wayne (August 21, 1990). "Books of The Times; A Farmer's Fatal Obsession With Jews and Taxes". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
8.Jump up ^ Reason Magazine – Ambush at Ruby Ridge.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Barkun, Michael (1996). "preface". Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press. pp. x. ISBN 0-8078-4638-4.
10.Jump up ^ Cite error: The named reference adl.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11.Jump up ^ Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement, Michael Barkun, 1997, Preface, xii, xiii.
12.^ Jump up to: a b "Christian Identity". Adl.org. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
13.Jump up ^ http://carolynyeager.net/why-we-are-antisemites-text-adolf-hitlers-1920-speech-hofbr%C3%A4uhaus
14.Jump up ^ Barkun 2003, p. xii.
15.Jump up ^ Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion by Chester L. Quarles, 2004, p. 13.
16.Jump up ^ Quarles, pp. 13–19
17.Jump up ^ Life From The Dead, 1875, Vol. III, p. 154.
18.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 62–97.
19.Jump up ^ Barkun, p. 27.
20.Jump up ^ Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Charles H. Roberts, 2003, pp. 9-10.
21.Jump up ^ Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Charles H. Roberts, p. 9
22.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 45-54.
23.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 45-60.
24.Jump up ^ Charles H. Roberts, p. 9
25.Jump up ^ The Phinehas Priesthood: Violent Vanguard of the Christian Identity Movement, Danny W. Davis, 2010, p. 18
26.Jump up ^ Barkun, p. 140.
27.Jump up ^ Charles H. Roberts, pp. 11-15.
28.Jump up ^ Lobb, David. 'Fascist Apocalypse: William Pelley and Millennial Extremism', Paper presented at the 4th Annual Conference of the Center for Millennial Studies, November 1999
29.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 60-85.
30.Jump up ^ Christian Defense League by D. Boylan 2004 Revision.
31.Jump up ^ http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/who-deny/who-deny4.html
32.Jump up ^ Colin Kidd, The forging of races: race and scripture in the Protestant Atlantic world, 1600–2000, 2006, p. 44
33.^ Jump up to: a b Charles H. Roberts, pp.40-60
34.Jump up ^ Bosworth, F. E, The Bible Distinction Between the House of Israel and the House of Judah, Radio Address, 1920
35.^ Jump up to: a b c d "BASIC CHRISTIAN IDENTITY : Dr. Wesley A. Swift : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". Archive.org. 2001-03-10. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
36.Jump up ^ Jewish Rabbis recognize Serpent Seedline as well as Sumerians, Targums and Biblical Accounts
37.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p James Alfred Aho (1995). The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism. University of Washington Press. p. 86. ISBN 029597494X.
38.Jump up ^ Charles H. Roberts, pp.23-60
39.Jump up ^ "Basics for Understanding Yahweh's Kingdom". Anglo-Saxon Israel. 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
40.^ Jump up to: a b http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/verboten/vb-02.html
41.^ Jump up to: a b Cain: Son of the Serpent. Rossel Books. 1985. ISBN 0-940646-19-6.
42.Jump up ^ Rabbi Donmeh West. "Kabbalistic Genetics".
43.Jump up ^ Charles Carroll The negro a beast"; or, "In the image of God"; the reasoner of the age, the revelator of the century! The Bible as it is! The negro and his relation to the human family! The negro not the son of Ham, 1900
44.Jump up ^ Colin Kidd, The forging of races: race and scripture in the Protestant Atlantic world, 1600–2000, 2006, p. 150
45.Jump up ^ WHO ARE THE JEWS? By: Bertrand Comparet.
46.Jump up ^ I Come As A Thief.
47.Jump up ^ Kaplan, Jeffrey (2002). Millennial violence: past, present, and future. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-7146-5294-8.
48.Jump up ^ "Extremism in America: Dan Gayman". Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
49.Jump up ^ Max McCoy, "Separatist by faith: Church of Israel's patriarch rebuts claims of racism", Joplin Globe, January 28, 2001.
50.Jump up ^ Martin Schönteich and Henri Boshoff (2003). 'Volk' Faith and Fatherland: The Security Threat Posed by the White Right. Pretoria, South Africa, Institute for Security Studies. ISBN 1-919913-30-0.
Bibliography[edit]
Barkun, M. (1994). Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Hill, David. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981.
Ingram, W.L., (1995). God and Race: British-Israelism and Christian Identity, p. 119–126 in T. Miller, Ed., America's Alternative Religions, SUNY Press, Albany NY.
Kaplan, Jeffrey, (1997). Radical Religion in America, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. pp. 47–48.
Lakeland, P. (1997). Postmodernity: Christian identity in a fragmented age. Guides to theological inquiry. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Quarles, C. L. (2004). Christian Identity: the Aryan American bloodline religion. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
Roberts, Charles H. (2003). Race over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Omaha, Nebraska: iUniverse Press. ISBN 0-595-28197-4.
External links[edit]
FBI backgrounder on Christian Identity
  


Categories: Apocalypticism
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Late modern Christian antisemitism
Far-right politics in the United States
Politics and race in the United States
Racism in the United States
Religiously motivated violence in the United States
Terrorism in the United States
White separatism
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Christian Identity

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For the general identity of an individual with certain core essential religious doctrines, see Christianity.
Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity[citation needed]) refers to a belief system held by some individuals, churches and prison gangs[1] with a white supremacist theology[2][3] that promotes a racist interpretation of Christianity. Christian Identity beliefs were primarily developed and promoted by two authors who borrowed racialist doctrines from Rabbinic Judaism and then reversed their application to Jews and Europeans, so that the Europeans are the "chosen people" and the Jews are considered the cursed offspring of Cain. Many of these teachings were later adopted by white supremacist sects and gangs.
An early Christian Identity teacher, Wesley Swift, appropriated the Talmudic teaching on other races to formulate the doctrine that non-Caucasian peoples have no souls and therefore can never earn God's favor or be saved.[4][5]
Some of Christian Identity's ideas have roots in British Israelism, which teaches that many white Europeans are the literal descendants of the Israelites through the ten tribes that were taken away into captivity by the armies of Assyria. British Israelism teaches that these white European Israelites are still God's chosen people and that Jesus was an Israelite of the tribe of Judah. Christian Identity deviates from British Israelism by asserting that modern Jews are neither Israelites nor Hebrews but are instead descended from people with Turco-Mongolian blood, or Khazars, or are descendants of the biblical Esau-Edom, who traded his birthright for a bowl of red stew (Genesis 25:29–34).[citation needed]
The Christian Identity movement first received widespread attention by mainstream media in 1984, when the white nationalist organization known as The Order embarked on a murderous crime spree before being taken down by the FBI. Tax resister and militia movement organizer Gordon Kahl, whose death in a 1983 shootout with authorities helped inspire The Order, also had connections to the Christian Identity movement.[6][7] The movement returned to public attention in 1992 and 1993, in the wake of the deadly Ruby Ridge confrontation, when newspapers discovered that former Green Beret and right-wing separatist Randy Weaver had at least a loose association with Christian Identity believers.[8]
No single document expresses the Christian Identity belief system; however, adherents draw upon arguments from linguistic, historical, archaeological and biblical sources to support their beliefs. These groups are estimated to have 2,000 members in the United States,[9] and an unknown number in Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth. Due to the promotion of Christian Identity doctrines through radio and later the Internet, an additional 50,000 unaffiliated individuals are thought to hold Christian Identity beliefs.[9] The primary spread of Christian Identity teachings is believed to be through white supremacist prison gangs.[10]
Christian Identity believers reject the doctrines of most contemporary Christian denominations.[citation needed] They claim that modern Christian churches are teaching a heresy:[citation needed] the belief that God's promises to Israel (through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) have been expanded to create a spiritual people of "Israel", which constitutes the Christian Church. In turn, most modern Christian denominations and organizations denounce Christian Identity as heresy and condemn the use of the Christian Bible as a basis for promoting white supremacy and antisemitism.[citation needed] Adherents of Christian Identity claim that Europeans are the true descendants of the biblical Jacob, hence they are the true Israel, and that it is those who are against the interests of European-descended Christians that are the true anti-Semites.


Contents  [hide]
1 Origins 1.1 Relation to British Israelism
1.2 Early years
1.3 Key developers
2 Ideology, tenets and beliefs 2.1 Two House Theology
2.2 Origin beliefs
2.3 Adamites and pre-Adamites
2.4 Creationism
2.5 Racialism
2.6 World's end and Armageddon
2.7 Anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual
2.8 Anti-banking system
3 Groups 3.1 Aryan Nations
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 Bibliography
7 External links

Origins[edit]
Christian Identity (CI) as a movement emerged as an offshoot sect of British Israelism in the 1920s and 1930s.[11][12] However, the idea that "lower races" are mentioned in the Bible (in contrast to Aryans) was posited in the 1905 book "Theozoology; or The Science of the Sodomite Apelings and the Divine Electron" by Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels, a volkisch writer seen by many historians as a major influence on Nazism. Hitler, however, did not subscribe to the belief that the Israelites of the Bible were actually Aryans; in a speech he gave in Munich in 1922 titled "Why We Are Anti-Semites", he referred to and disparaged Abraham as racially Jewish.[13]
Relation to British Israelism[edit]
Paradoxically, while early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were philo-semites, Christian Identity emerged in sharp contrast to be strongly antisemitic.[14] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as an 'ugly turn':

Once on American shores, British-Israelism began to evolve. Originally, believers viewed contemporary Jews as descendants of those ancient Israelites who had never been "lost." They might be seen critically but, given their significant role in the British-Israel genealogical scheme, not usually with animosity. By the 1930s, however, in the U.S., a strain of antisemitism started to permeate the movement (though some maintained traditional beliefs—and a small number of traditionalists still exist in the U.S.)[12]
Another source describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as a "remarkable transition", also noting that traditional British Israelites were advocates of Philo-Semitism which paradoxically changed to antisemitism and racism under Christian Identity.[15] In fact, British Israelism itself had several Jewish members and it received support from rabbis throughout the 19th century and within British politics it supported Benjamin Disraeli who was descended from Sephardic Jews.[16][17] However, Christian Identity which emerged in the 1920s, began to be antisemitic teaching that the Jews are not descended from the tribe of Judah (as British Israelites maintain) but are instead descended from Satan or Edomite-Khazars.[18] The British Israel form of the belief held no anti-Semitism, its followers instead held the view that Jews made up a minority of the tribes of Israel (Judah and Benjamin), with the British and other related Northern European peoples making up the remainder.
Early years[edit]
Christian Identity (CI) has first been traced back to the 1920s to Howard Rand (1889–1991).[19][20]
Rand was a Massachusetts lawyer who obtained a law degree at the University of Maine. He was raised as a British Israelite, and his father introduced him to J. H. Allen's work Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902) at an early age.[21] While Rand's father was not an antisemite, nor was even Rand in his early British Israelite years, Rand first added an antisemitic element to British Israelism in the 1920s. He claimed as early as 1924 that the Jews were not really descended from the tribe of Judah, but were instead the descendants of Esau or Canaanites.[22] However, Rand never claimed that modern Jews were descendants of Satan, or that they were in any way inferior, he just claimed that they were not the true lineal descendants of Judah.[23] For this reason Rand is considered a 'transitional' figure between British Israelism and Christian Identity, but not its actual founder.[24] However Rand first coined the term 'Christian Identity'.[25] Rand had set up the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1933 which promoted his view that Jews were not descended from Judah, which marked the first key transition from British Israelism to Christian Identity. Beginning in May 1937 there were key meetings between British Israelites in America who were attracted to Rand’s new theory that the Jews were not really descended from Judah. This provided the catalyst for the eventual emergence of Christian Identity, and by the late 1930s the Jews were considered to be the offspring of Satan and were heavily demonised, as were non-Caucasian races.[26][27] William Dudley Pelley, founder of the fascist Silver Shirts movement, also promoted an anti-semitic form of British Israelism in the early 1930s.[28] Links between Christian Identity and the Ku Klux Klan also emerged in the late 1930s.[29]
Key developers[edit]
Wesley Swift (1913–1970) is considered by the FBI to have been the most significant figure in the early years of the Christian Identity movement. Swift was born in New Jersey, and eventually moved to Los Angeles in order to attend Bible college. It is claimed that he may have been a "Ku Klux Klan organizer and a Klan rifle-team instructor."[30] In 1946, he founded his own church in Lancaster, California. In the 1950s, he was Gerald L. K. Smith's West Coast representative of the Christian Nationalist Crusade. In addition, he had a daily radio broadcast in California during the 1950s and 1960s, through which he was able to proclaim his ideology to a large audience. With Swift's efforts, the message of his church spread, leading to the creation of similar churches throughout the country. In 1957, the name of his church was changed to The Church of Jesus Christ Christian, which is used today by Aryan Nations (AN) churches. One of Swift's associates was retired Col. William Potter Gale (1917–1988). Gale had apparently been an aide to General Douglas MacArthur, and had coordinated guerrilla resistance in the Philippines during World War II. Gale became a leading figure in the anti-tax and paramilitary movements of the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the California Rangers and the Posse Comitatus, and helping to found the militia movement. Numerous Christian Identity churches preach similar messages and some espouse more violent rhetoric than others, but all hold to the belief that Aryans are God's chosen race. Gale introduced future Aryan Nations founder Richard Girnt Butler to Swift. Until then, Butler had admired George Lincoln Rockwell and Senator Joseph McCarthy, and had been relatively secular. Swift quickly converted him to Christian Identity. When Swift died, Butler took over the Church, to the apparent dismay of both Gale and Swift's family. Neither Butler nor Gale were anything like the dynamic orator that Swift had been, and attendance dwindled under the new pastor. Butler eventually renamed the organisation "The Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations" and moved it to Hayden Lake, Idaho.
Lesser luminaries were also present as Christian Identity theology took shape in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Baptist minister and California Klansman San Jacinto Capt (who claimed that he had introduced Wesley Swift to Christian Identity), and one-time San Diego Deputy City Attorney (and lawyer for Gerald L. K. Smith) Bertrand Comparet (1901–1983).[31] But for the most part, today's Christian Identity groups seem to have been spawned by Wesley Swift, through his lieutenants William Potter Gale and Richard Butler.
Ideology, tenets and beliefs[edit]
Christian Identity asserts that the white people of Europe or Caucasians in general are God's servant people according to the promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It further asserts that the early European tribes were really the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and therefore the rightful heirs to God's promises, and God's chosen people. Professor Colin Kidd wrote that in America Christian Identity exploited "the puzzle of the Ten Lost Tribes to justify an openly anti-Semitic and virulently racist agenda."[32]
Two House Theology[edit]
Like British Israelites, Christian Identity (CI) adherents believe in Two House Theology.[33] However the major difference between British Israelism and CI is that British Israelites have always maintained that Jews are descended from the tribe of Judah.[34] In contrast, while also maintaining a Two House distinction, Christian Identity proponents believe that the true lineal descendants of Judah are not contemporary Jews, but are instead White Europeans whose ancestors settled mainly in Scotland, Germany, and other European nations, alongside the House of Israel. They are Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and kindred peoples.[33][35] Some CI scholars teach that many contemporary Jews are the descendants of Cain, citing Genesis 3:12, John 8:44 and 1 John 3:12 in support of their position and they also teach that Cain was the spawn of Satan.[36]
Origin beliefs[edit]
Identity teaches that "Israel" was the name given to Jacob after battling the angel at Peniel in Genesis 32:26-32. "Israel" then had twelve sons, which began the twelve tribes of Israel.[37]:101 In 975 B.C. the ten northern tribes revolted, seceded from the south, and became the Kingdom of Israel.[37]:101 After being subsequently conquered by Assyria, the ten tribes disappear from Biblical record, becoming the Lost Tribes of Israel.[37]:101
According to Identity doctrine, 2 Esdras 13:39–46 then records the history of the nation of Israel journeying over the Caucasus mountains, along the Black Sea, to the Ar Sereth tributory of the Danube in Romania ("But they formed this plan for themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the nations and go to a more distant region, where no human beings had ever lived. … Through that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and a half; and that country is called Arzareth").[37]:101 The tribes prospered, and eventually colonised other European countries. Israel's leading tribe, the Tribe of Dan, is attributed with settling and naming many areas which are today distinguished by place names derived from its name – written ancient Hebrew contains no vowels, and hence "Dan" would be written as DN, but would be pronounced with an intermediate vowel dependent on the local dialect, meaning that Dan, Den, Din, Don, and Dun all have the same meaning.[37]:101 Various modern place names are said to derive from the name of this tribe:[37]:101
Macedonia – Macedonia – derived from Moeshe-don-ia (Moeshe being "the land of Moses")
Danube – Dan-ube, Dneister – Dn-eister, Dneiper – Dn-eiper, Donetz – Don-etz, Danzig – Dan-zig, Don – Don
Some followers claim that the Identity genealogy of the Davidic line can be traced from its beginnings right down to the Royal rulers of Britain and Queen Elizabeth herself.[37]:102–105 Thus Anglo-Saxons are the true Israelites, God's chosen people who were given the divine right to rule the world until the Second Coming of Christ.[37]:101
Adamites and pre-Adamites[edit]
A major tenet of Christian Identity is Pre-Adamism. Christian Identity followers believe that Adam and Eve are ancestors of whites alone, and that Adam and Eve were preceded by lesser, non-Caucasian races often (though not always) identified as "beasts of the field" (Genesis 1:25); for example, the "beasts" which wore sackcloth and cried unto God (Jonah 3:8) are identified as the black races by Christian Identity adherents.[38] To support their theory on the racial identity of Adam, Christian Identity proponents point out that the Hebrew etymology of the word 'Adam' translates as 'be ruddy, red, to show blood (in the face)' often quoting from James Strong's Hebrew Dictionary #119 (1890) and from this conclude that only Caucasians or people with light white skin can blush or turn rosy in the face (because hemoglobin only appears under pale skin).[39] Proponents of Christian Identity believe that Adam was only created 6,000 years ago, while the other non-Caucasian races were created during far older epochs that occurred on the other continents.[35][40]
"Dual Seedliner" Christian Identity proponents—those who believe that Eve bore children to Satan as well as Adam—believe that Eve was seduced by the Snake (Satan), shared her fallen state with Adam by lying with him, and gave birth to twins with different fathers: Satan's child Cain and Adam's son Abel. Cain then became the progenitor of the Jews in his subsequent matings with the non-Adamic races. This is referred to as the two-seedline doctrine. While this belief ascribing the ancestry of legendary monsters such as Grendel to Cain.,[35] was somewhat widespread in medieval times, the oldest example of it is in the Babylonian Talmud. Ironically, Christian Identity's dual seed line doctrine originated in Jewish rabbinical literature, but has been turned around to identify white people as the children of Adam, and Jews as children of the Serpent.
The Serpent Seed idea appears in a 9th-century book called Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer.[41] In his book Cain: Son of the Serpent, David Max Eichhorn, traces the idea back to early Jewish Midrashic texts and identifies many rabbis who taught that Cain was the son of the union between the serpent and Eve.[41] Some Kabbalist rabbis also believe that Cain and Abel were of a different genetic background than Seth. This is known among Kabbalists as "The Theory of Origins".[42] The theory teaches that God created two "Adams" (adam means "man" in Hebrew). To one he gave a soul and to the other he did not give a soul. The one without a soul is the creature known in Christianity as the serpent. The Kabbalists call the serpent Nahash (meaning serpent in Hebrew). This is recorded in the Zohar:

"Two beings [Adam and Nachash] had intercourse with Eve, and she conceived from both and bore two children. Each followed one of the male parents, and their spirits parted, one to this side and one to the other, and similarly their characters. On the side of Cain are all the haunts of the evil species; from the side of Abel comes a more merciful class, yet not wholly beneficial – good wine mixed with bad." (Zohar 136)
A seminal influence on the Christian Identity movement's views on pre-Adamism was a book published in 1900 by Charles Carroll entitled The Negro a Beast or In the Image of God?. Carroll concludes in the book that the White race was made in the image and likeness of God and that Adam gave birth to the White race only, while Negros are pre-Adamite beasts and could not possibly have been made in God's image and likeness because they are beastlike, immoral and ugly.[43] Carroll claimed that the pre-Adamite races such as blacks did not have souls. Carroll believed that race mixing was an insult to God and spoiled God's racial plan of creation. According to Carroll the mixing of races had also lead to the errors of atheism and evolutionism.[44]
Creationism[edit]
Christian Identity proponents are Old Earth Creationists, but they believe that Adam (who was the father of the white race or Caucasians) was only created around 6,000 years ago, while they also believe that both the universe and Earth are billions of years old and that non-Caucasian races were created hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago.[40]
Wesley Swift strongly criticised Young Earth Creationism and the traditional Judeo-Christian view that Noah's flood was global. He instead believed that the flood was only local and that the Earth was billions of years old.[35] Christian Identity adherents claim that the flood in Genesis only rose high enough to drown the region of the Tarim Basin below sea level (Gen. 7:20) and that therefore the Hebrew word "eretz" which appears in those verses should be rendered "the land" (as in a specific place) rather than "the earth."[citation needed]
Racialism[edit]
Racialism, or race-based philosophy, is the core tenet of Christian Identity, and most CI adherents are White Nationalists or support racial segregation. Some believe that Jews are genetically compelled by their Satanic or Edomite ancestry to carry on a conspiracy against the Adamic seedline and today have achieved almost complete control of the Earth through their illegitimate claim to the white race's status as God's chosen people.[45] As a general rule, Christian Identity followers adhere to the traditional orthodox Christian views on the role of women (See Biblical patriarchy), abortion (Exodus 21:22), and homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), and they believe that racial miscegenation is a sin and a violation of God's law in Genesis 1:24–25 which commands that all creatures produce "kind after kind."
In addition to their strict fundamentalist racial views Christian Identity adherents distinguish themselves from mainstream Protestant Fundamentalism in various areas of theology. Some Christian Identity adherents follow the Mosaic law of the Old Testament (e.g., dietary restrictions, the seventh-day Sabbath, certain annual festivals such as Passover). It is also commonplace for adherents to follow the Sacred Name Movement and they insist on using the original Hebrew names when referring to God (Yahweh) and Jesus Christ (Yahshua). Some Christian Identity writers criticize modern Bible editions as well as the Jews for the removal of the original Hebrew name of God from the Bible. Although their adherence to Old Testament Mosaic law may make them appear "Jewish"; they claim that the Jewish interpretation of the law has been corrupted through the Jews' Talmud. Unlike many Protestant Fundamentalists, Christian Identity adherents reject the notion of a Rapture, believing it to be a Judaized doctrine which the Bible does not teach.[46]
World's end and Armageddon[edit]
Christian Identity supporters believe in the Second Coming and Armageddon. Predictions vary, including race war or a Jewish-backed United Nations takeover of the US, and they endorse physical struggle against what they see as the forces of evil.[47]
Anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual[edit]
While being anti-Jewish, Identity Christianity is a mirror image of rabbinical teachings on the separation theology of ancient Judaism and Jewish texts such as the Book of Enoch. Identity asserts that disease, addiction, cancer, and sexually transmitted diseases (herpes and AIDS) are spread by human "rodents" via contact with "unclean" persons, such as through "race-mixing".[37]:85 The first book of Enoch is used to justify these social theories; the fallen angels of Heaven sexually desired Earth maidens and took them as wives, resulting in the birth of abominations, which God ordered Michael the Archangel to destroy, thus beginning a cosmic war between Light and Darkness.[37]:85 The mixing of separate things (e.g., people of different races) is seen as defiling both, and is against God's will.[37]:86
Identity preachers proclaim that, according to the King James Bible, "the penaltys for race-mixing, homo-sexuality, and usury are death."[37]:86 The justification for killing homosexuals is provided by Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35–37 and Deuteronomy explicitly condemn usury.[37]:92 Ezekiel 18:13 states "He who hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him" and is quoted as justification for killing Jews, since Jews have traditionally had a large presence in the usury business.
Identity followers reject the label of "anti-Semitic", stating that they can't be anti-Semitic, since in fact the true Semites "today are the great White Christian nations of the western world", with modern Jews in fact being descendants of the Canaanites.[37]
Anti-banking system[edit]
Identity doctrine asserts that the "root of all evil" is paper money (in particular Federal Reserve Notes), and that usury and banking systems are controlled by Jews.[37]:87 The creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 shifted control of money from Congress to private institutions and violated the Constitution. The money system encourages the Federal Reserve to take out loans, creating trillions of dollars of government debt and allowing international bankers to control America. Credit/debit cards and computerised bills are seen as the fulfillment of the Biblical scripture warning against "the beast" (i.e. banking) as quoted in Rev 13:15–18. Identity preacher Sheldon Emry claims "Most of the owners of the largest banks in America are of Eastern European (Jewish) ancestry and connected with the (Jewish) Rothschild European banks", thus, in Identity doctrine, the global banking conspiracy is led and controlled by Jewish interests.[37]:91
Groups[edit]
Christian Identity is a major unifying theology for a number of diverse groups of white nationalist Christians. It is a belief system that provides its members with a religious basis for racial separatism. Herbert W. Armstrong is inaccurately described by some of his critics, as well as by supporters of Christian Identity, as having supported Christian Identity, due to his belief in a modified form of British Israelism, and the fact that during his lifetime, he propounded observances favoured by many Christian Identity groups, such as seventh-day Sabbatarianism and biblical festivals. The Worldwide Church of God that Armstrong founded did not subscribe to the anti-Semitism commonly espoused by the Christian or Israel Identity groups but instead adhered to the traditional beliefs of British Israelism; i.e., the belief held that modern day Jews were descendants of the Tribe of Judah whereas the Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Danes, etc. were descendants of the remaining Ten Tribes of Israel formerly known as the Northern Kingdom.
Christian Identity groups include "The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord", the Phineas Priesthood, the Oklahoma Constitutional Militia, also known as The Universal Church of God. Christian Identity is also related to other groups such as Aryan Nations, the Aryan Republican Army (ARA) and the Patriots Council, Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Thomas Robb, Mission To Israel, Folk And Faith, Jubilee (newspaper), Yahweh's Truth (James Wickstrom), Church of Israel[48][49] and Kingdom Identity Ministries.
South African branches of Christian Identity have been accused of involvement in terrorist activity, including the 2002 Soweto bombings.[50]
Christian Identity groups include the Heritage Christian Church and Legion for Survival of Freedom.
Aryan Nations[edit]


 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)
The Aryan Nations (AN) is a group that adheres to the Christian Identity belief system. The group espouses dislike towards Jews, blacks and other minorities, as well as the United States federal government. The original ultimate goal of the AN is to forcibly take five northwestern states – Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Montana – from the United States government in order to establish an Aryan homeland. This particular ideology is known throughout the White power movement as the Northwest Territorial Imperative. The AN was headquartered at Hayden Lake, Idaho from the late 1970s until February 2001. Its annual World Congress attracted a number of different factions from the far-right. The World Congress was a sort of round table to discuss racialist issues. Since the main Aryan Nations property in Idaho was dismantled following a costly lawsuit against the group and the death of Richard Butler, there have been several struggles over control of the movement that are as yet unresolved.
See also[edit]
August Kreis III
Byron De La Beckwith
Chevie Kehoe
Christian Patriot movement
Dewey H "Buddy" Tucker
Elohim City, Oklahoma
Kinism
List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups
Positive Christianity
Richard Girnt Butler
Samuel Bowers
Wesley Swift
Footnotes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/bigotry-behind-bars-racist-groups-in-US-prisons.html#.VWSe6vlVjBE
2.Jump up ^ Eck, Diane (2001). A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" has become the world’s most religiously diverse nation. New York:: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 347.
3.Jump up ^ Buck, Christopher (2009). Religious Myths and Visions of America: How Minority Faiths Redefined America's World Role. Praeger. pp. 107, 108, 213. ISBN 978-0313359590.
4.Jump up ^ Quarles, Chester L. (2004). Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion. McFarland & Company. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-7864-1892-3.
5.Jump up ^ Mason, Carol (2002). Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics. Cornell University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0801488191.
6.Jump up ^ "Sovereign Citizen Movement - Extremism in America". Adl.org. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
7.Jump up ^ King, Wayne (August 21, 1990). "Books of The Times; A Farmer's Fatal Obsession With Jews and Taxes". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
8.Jump up ^ Reason Magazine – Ambush at Ruby Ridge.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Barkun, Michael (1996). "preface". Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press. pp. x. ISBN 0-8078-4638-4.
10.Jump up ^ Cite error: The named reference adl.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11.Jump up ^ Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement, Michael Barkun, 1997, Preface, xii, xiii.
12.^ Jump up to: a b "Christian Identity". Adl.org. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
13.Jump up ^ http://carolynyeager.net/why-we-are-antisemites-text-adolf-hitlers-1920-speech-hofbr%C3%A4uhaus
14.Jump up ^ Barkun 2003, p. xii.
15.Jump up ^ Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion by Chester L. Quarles, 2004, p. 13.
16.Jump up ^ Quarles, pp. 13–19
17.Jump up ^ Life From The Dead, 1875, Vol. III, p. 154.
18.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 62–97.
19.Jump up ^ Barkun, p. 27.
20.Jump up ^ Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Charles H. Roberts, 2003, pp. 9-10.
21.Jump up ^ Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Charles H. Roberts, p. 9
22.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 45-54.
23.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 45-60.
24.Jump up ^ Charles H. Roberts, p. 9
25.Jump up ^ The Phinehas Priesthood: Violent Vanguard of the Christian Identity Movement, Danny W. Davis, 2010, p. 18
26.Jump up ^ Barkun, p. 140.
27.Jump up ^ Charles H. Roberts, pp. 11-15.
28.Jump up ^ Lobb, David. 'Fascist Apocalypse: William Pelley and Millennial Extremism', Paper presented at the 4th Annual Conference of the Center for Millennial Studies, November 1999
29.Jump up ^ Barkun, pp. 60-85.
30.Jump up ^ Christian Defense League by D. Boylan 2004 Revision.
31.Jump up ^ http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/who-deny/who-deny4.html
32.Jump up ^ Colin Kidd, The forging of races: race and scripture in the Protestant Atlantic world, 1600–2000, 2006, p. 44
33.^ Jump up to: a b Charles H. Roberts, pp.40-60
34.Jump up ^ Bosworth, F. E, The Bible Distinction Between the House of Israel and the House of Judah, Radio Address, 1920
35.^ Jump up to: a b c d "BASIC CHRISTIAN IDENTITY : Dr. Wesley A. Swift : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". Archive.org. 2001-03-10. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
36.Jump up ^ Jewish Rabbis recognize Serpent Seedline as well as Sumerians, Targums and Biblical Accounts
37.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p James Alfred Aho (1995). The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism. University of Washington Press. p. 86. ISBN 029597494X.
38.Jump up ^ Charles H. Roberts, pp.23-60
39.Jump up ^ "Basics for Understanding Yahweh's Kingdom". Anglo-Saxon Israel. 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
40.^ Jump up to: a b http://www.churchoftrueisrael.com/verboten/vb-02.html
41.^ Jump up to: a b Cain: Son of the Serpent. Rossel Books. 1985. ISBN 0-940646-19-6.
42.Jump up ^ Rabbi Donmeh West. "Kabbalistic Genetics".
43.Jump up ^ Charles Carroll The negro a beast"; or, "In the image of God"; the reasoner of the age, the revelator of the century! The Bible as it is! The negro and his relation to the human family! The negro not the son of Ham, 1900
44.Jump up ^ Colin Kidd, The forging of races: race and scripture in the Protestant Atlantic world, 1600–2000, 2006, p. 150
45.Jump up ^ WHO ARE THE JEWS? By: Bertrand Comparet.
46.Jump up ^ I Come As A Thief.
47.Jump up ^ Kaplan, Jeffrey (2002). Millennial violence: past, present, and future. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-7146-5294-8.
48.Jump up ^ "Extremism in America: Dan Gayman". Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
49.Jump up ^ Max McCoy, "Separatist by faith: Church of Israel's patriarch rebuts claims of racism", Joplin Globe, January 28, 2001.
50.Jump up ^ Martin Schönteich and Henri Boshoff (2003). 'Volk' Faith and Fatherland: The Security Threat Posed by the White Right. Pretoria, South Africa, Institute for Security Studies. ISBN 1-919913-30-0.
Bibliography[edit]
Barkun, M. (1994). Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Hill, David. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981.
Ingram, W.L., (1995). God and Race: British-Israelism and Christian Identity, p. 119–126 in T. Miller, Ed., America's Alternative Religions, SUNY Press, Albany NY.
Kaplan, Jeffrey, (1997). Radical Religion in America, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. pp. 47–48.
Lakeland, P. (1997). Postmodernity: Christian identity in a fragmented age. Guides to theological inquiry. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Quarles, C. L. (2004). Christian Identity: the Aryan American bloodline religion. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
Roberts, Charles H. (2003). Race over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Omaha, Nebraska: iUniverse Press. ISBN 0-595-28197-4.
External links[edit]
FBI backgrounder on Christian Identity
  


Categories: Apocalypticism
Christian Identity
Christian fundamentalism
Late modern Christian antisemitism
Far-right politics in the United States
Politics and race in the United States
Racism in the United States
Religiously motivated violence in the United States
Terrorism in the United States
White separatism
White supremacy in the United States










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Steven Hassan

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Steven Hassan
Steven Hassan 2012 Headshot.jpg
Steven Alan Hassan, M.Ed, LMHC

Born
1954 (age 60–61)
United States[where?]
Occupation
Mental health counselor, specializing in cults [1]
Author
Director, Freedom of Mind
Nationality
United States
Genre
Non-fiction
Subject
Psychology, cults
Spouse
Misia Landau Ph.D
Website
www.freedomofmind.com
Steven Alan Hassan(born 1954) is an American licensed mental health counselorwho has written extensively on the subject of cults.[2]He is the author of three books on the subject of destructive cults, and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order to recruit and retain members.
Hassan is a former member of the Unification Church. He founded Ex-Moon Inc. in 1979[3]before assisting with involuntary deprogrammingsin association with the Cult Awareness Network,[4]developing in 1999 what he describes as his own non-coercive methods for helping members of alleged cults to leave their groups, through his Freedom of Mind company. He has also developed therapeutic approaches for counseling former members in order to help them overcome the purported effects of cult membership.


Contents [hide]
1Education
2Background
3Public impact
4Mind control
5Criticism
6See also
7Bibliography
8References
9External links

Education[edit]


 This section contains embedded liststhat may be poorly defined, unverifiedor indiscriminate. Please help to clean it upto meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Where appropriate, incorporate items into the main body of the article.(May 2015)
M.Ed., Counselling Psychology, Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985
Licensed Mental Health Counselor(LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1992
Certified as a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC) by the National Board for Certified Counselors, 2003
Background[edit]
Hassan became a member of the Unification Church(aka Moonies) in the 1970s, at the age of 19, while studying at Queens College. He describes what he terms as his "recruitment" in his first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control, asserting that this recruitment was the result of the unethical use of powerful psychological influence techniques by members of the Church.[5]He subsequently spent over two years recruiting and indoctrinating new members, as well as performing fundraising and campaigning duties, and ultimately rose to the rank of Assistant Director of the Unification Church at its National Headquarters. In that capacity he met personally with Sun Myung Moon.[6]
Hassan has given an account of his leaving the Unification Church in his 1998 book Combatting Cult Mind Controland on his personal website: After having been awake for two days as the head of a fundraising team, he caused a traffic accident when he fell asleep at the wheel of the Church's van and drove into the back of a truck. He ended up with a broken leg, surgery and a full-leg cast. During his recuperation he was given permission by his superiors in the Church to visit his parents. His parents contacted former members of the Unification Church who engaged in a deprogrammingsession with Hassan. Because of his cast he was not able to run or drive away, but he resisted to the point that he states that he had an impulse to "escape by reaching over and snapping my father's neck", rather than to potentially succumb to the deprogramming and betray "The Messiah". His father convinced him to stay for five days and talk to the former Church members who were conducting the deprogramming, after which time Hassan would be free to make the choice to return to the Church. Hassan agreed to this. He subsequently decided to leave the Church.[7]
In 1979, following the Jonestowndeaths, Hassan founded a non-profit organization called "Ex-Moon Inc.", whose membership consisted of over four hundred former members of the Unification Church.[6]
According to his biography, "During the 1977-78 Congressional Subcommittee Investigationinto South Korean CIA activities in the United States, he consulted as an expert on the Moon organization and provided information and internal documents regarding Moon's desire to influence politics in his bid to 'take over the world.'"[6]
Around 1980, Hassan began investigating methods of persuasion, mind controland indoctrination. He first studied the thought reform theories of Robert Lifton, and was "able to see clearly that the Moon organization uses all eight" of the thought reform methods described by Lifton.[7]
He later attended a seminar on hypnosis with Richard Bandler, which was based on the work that he and transformational grammarianJohn Grinderhad done in developing Neuro-Linguistic Programming(NLP). Hassan felt that this seminar gave him "a handle on techniques of mind control, and how to combat them." He spent "nearly two years studying NLP with everyone involved in its formulation and presentation." During this period, Hassan moved to Santa Cruz, Californiafor an apprenticeship with Grinder. He became concerned about the marketing of NLP as a tool for "power enhancement", left his association with Grinder, and "began to study the works of Milton EricksonM.D., Virginia Satir, and Gregory Bateson, on which NLP is based." His studies gave him the basis for the development of his theories on mind control.[8]
Hassan continued to study hypnosis and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosisand The International Society of Hypnosis.[9]
In 1999, Hassan founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.[10]The centre is registered as a domestic profit corporation in the state of Massachusetts, and Hassan is president and treasurer.[11]
In Combatting Cult Mind ControlHassan describes his personal experiences with the Unification Church, as well as his theory of the four components of mind control. The sociologist Eileen Barker, who has studied the Unification Church, has commented on the book.[12]She expressed several concerns but nevertheless recommended the book. The book has been reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry,[13]and in the The Lancet,[14]and has been favorably reviewed by Philip Zimbardo[15]and Margaret Singer.[16]
In his second book, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves(2000), Hassan presents what he terms "a much more refined method to help family and friends, called the Strategic Interaction Approach. This non-coercive, completely legal approach is far better than deprogramming, and even exit counseling"[17]
In his third and most recent book, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs(2012), Hassan demonstrates how his approach has evolved over the last 13 years and offers a more extensive bibliography. In addition, Hassan presents Lifton'sand Singer'smodels alongside his own BITE model. The book has garnered a favorable review from Jerome Siegel, PHD[18]who says: "Its weakness is repetitiveness, flatness, and some theorizing that might turn off professional readers. Nonetheless, I recommend it highly for its intended audience." It has also received positive feedback from other professionals.[19]
Hassan, who is Jewishand belongs to a Temple that teaches Kabbalah, states that the actions of the Kabbalah Centrehave little in common with traditional or even responsible Jewish renewal Kabbalah teachers.[20]He describes himself as an "activist who fights to protect people's right to believe whatever they want to believe", and states that his work has the broad support of religious leaders from a variety of spiritual orientations.[21]He further states that "many unorthodox religions have expressed their gratitude to me for my books because it clearly shows them NOT to be a destructive cult."[22]
His late[23]wife Aureet Bar-Yam died in 1991 after falling through ice while trying to save their dog.[24][25]
Public impact[edit]
He consulted as an expert on the Unification Churchduring the 1977-1978 Congressional investigation of Korean-American relations.[citation needed]
He has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Dateline, Larry King Live, The O'Reilly Factor, CNNand CBSshows, and various documentaries. Since 1976, he has acquired over thirty years of experience with counseling both current and former members of groups he describes as cults.
In his first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control, he describes his experiences as a member the Unification Church, and describes the exit counseling methods that he developed based on those experiences, and based on his subsequent studies of psychological influence techniques. In his second book Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, which was published twelve years after Combatting Cult Mind Control, he describes the evolution of his exit counseling procedures into a more advanced procedure that he calls the "Strategic Interaction Approach." In Steven's third and most recent book, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, he presents further refinement of the "Strategic Interaction Approach" and includes a larger bibliography.
In 2009, Steven was invited to the Amber Alert Conference[26]by the Department of Justice (DOJ)to explain why victims like Jaycee Dugardand Elizabeth Smartdenied being who they were, and failed to use opportunities to ask for help. Law Enforcement officials such as police, FBI, Attorney General staff from many states, as well as other victims of kidnapping attended the conference.
After the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, Steven was brought in by the media to explain the bombers' mind state and how mind control was involved.[27][28][29][29][30][31][32]
Mind control[edit]
Although he does not name it the "BITE model", in his first book Combatting Cult Mind ControlHassan describes the "four components of mind control as:[33]
Behavior control
Information control
Thought control
Emotional control
Twelve years later, in Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, he developed these same components into a mind-control model, "BITE", which stands for Behavior, Information, Thoughts, and Emotions. Hassan writes that cults recruit members through a three-step process which he refers to as "unfreezing," "changing," and "refreezing," respectively. This involves the use of an extensive array of various techniques, including systematic deception, behavior modification, withholding of information, and emotionally intense persuasion techniques (such as the induction of phobias), which he collectively terms mind control.[34]
In the same book he also writes "I suspect that most cult groups use informal hypnotic techniques to induce trance states. They tend to use what are called "naturalistic" hypnotic techniques. Practicing meditation to shut down thinking, chanting a phrase repetitively for hours, or reciting affirmations are all powerful ways to promote spiritual growth. But they can also be used unethically, as methods for mind control indoctrination."[8]
He calls groups that employ such psychological influence techniques "destructive cults," a term that he defines by the methods used to recruit and retain members, and by the effect that such methods have on members, rather than by the theological/sociological/moral views the group espouses. He is opposed to the non-consensual deprogrammingof cult members, and supports instead counselingthem in order that they withdraw voluntarily from the organization. He writes:[35]

My mind control model outlines many key elements that need to be controlled: Behavior, Information, Thoughts and Emotions (BITE). If these four components can be controlled, then an individual's identity can be systematically manipulated and changed. Destructive mind control takes the 'locus of control' away from an individual. The person is systematically deceived about the beliefs and practices of the person (or group) and manipulated throughout the recruitment process — unable to make informed choices and exert independent judgment. The person's identity is profoundly influenced through a set of social influence techniques and a "new identity" is created — programmed to be dependent on the leader or group ideology. The person can't think for him or herself, but believes otherwise.
Hassan is a proponent of non-coercive intervention. He refers to his method as the "Strategic Interaction Approach".[36]
Twelve years after the last publication of Combatting Cult Mind Control, Hassan described his position on deprogramming in Releasing the Bonds. He states that "Deprogramming has many drawbacks. I have met dozens of people who were successfully deprogrammed but, to this day, experience psychological trauma as a result of the method. These people were glad to be released from the grip of cult programming but were not happy about the method used to help them." He further states that "A deprogramming triggers the deepest fears of cult members. They have been taken against their will. Family and friends are not to be trusted. The trauma of being thrown into a van by unknown people, driven away, and imprisoned creates mistrust, anger, and resentment." He quotes a person who was involuntarily deprogrammed as saying "What these deprogrammers did was attempt to change my mind through INFORMATION CONTROL — just like the cult did. They did not deal with the CUT-implanted phobias, which remained with me for years — the fear of certain colors, the identification of certain types of music with CUT rituals, the fear of retaliation and probable death should I ever leave this group."[36]
Criticism[edit]
In a research paper presented at the 2000 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference, Anson Shupe, professor of Sociology at Indiana/Purdue University, and Susan E. Darnell, manager of a credit union, state Hassan had participated two involuntary deprogrammings in 1976 and 1977.[37][38]One involving Arthur Roselle who claims that Hassan kidnapped, hit, and forcibly detained him. Hassan acknowledges that he "was involved with the Roselle deprogramming attempt in 1976. But...was never involved in violence of any kind."[39]
Hassan states that he spent one year assisting with deprogrammingsbefore turning to less controversial methods (see exit counseling).[22]Hassan has spoken out against involuntary deprogramming since 1980,[9][22][40]stating, "I did not and do not like the deprogramming method and stopped doing them in 1977!”[39]In Combatting Cult Mind Control, he stated that "the non-coercive approach will not work in every case, it has proved to be the option most families prefer. Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail."[41]Concerned that ministers in Japan [were] encouraged to perform forcible deprogramming because of [his] first book," Hassan wrote a letterto Reverend Seishi Kojima stating, "I oppose aggressive, illegal methods."
See also[edit]
Anti-cult movement
Bibliography[edit]
Combatting Cult Mind Control, 1988. ISBN 0-89281-243-5.
Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000. ISBN 0-9670688-0-0.
Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9670688-1-7.
References[edit]

Text document with red question mark.svg
 This section uses citationsthat link to broken or outdated sources. Please improve the articleor discuss this issue on the talk page. Helpon using footnotes is available.(December 2013)
1.Jump up ^See:"Data Mind Games". New York Magazine(New York Media Holdings). July 29, 1996. p. 52.;
"Ex-Moonie says cult groups are preying on russians; Analyst sees Ex communists as easy targets". The Globe(The Globe Newspaper Company). November 22, 1992. p. 9.;
Chalcraft, David J. (2011). "Jews for Jesus: Occupying Jewish Time and Space". In Stern, Sacha. Sects and Sectarianism in Jewish History. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 220–221. ISBN 978-90-04-20648-9.
Jones, Kathryn A. (2011). Amway Forever: The Amazing Story of a Global Business Phenomenon. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-470-48821-8.
Szalavitz, Maia (2006). Help at Any Cost. New York: Penguin/Riverhead. p. 66. ISBN 1-59448-910-6.
2.Jump up ^Verification of Licence byPsychology Today
3.Jump up ^Chryssides, G.D. and B.E. Zeller. 2014. The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING.
4.Jump up ^(notarized) Declaration of John M. Sweeney, Jr. on deprogramming and the Citizens Freedom Foundation. Maricopa County, Arizona. March 17, 1992.
5.Jump up ^Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, Ch. 1, ISBN 0-89281-243-5
6.^ Jump up to: abcBiographyof Steven Hassan, Freedom of Mind Center
7.^ Jump up to: abCombatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, Ch. 2, ISBN 0-89281-243-5
8.^ Jump up to: abReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 2, Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000
9.^ Jump up to: abReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 6Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Retrieved Dec 2006)
These organizations require that their members have professional credentials and make sure they have proper training and operate within ethical guidelines. I have been teaching workshops for both organizations for many years and find their members are able to quickly understand cult mind control due to their training[dead link][dead link]
10.Jump up ^Freedomofmind.com
11.Jump up ^Freedom of Mind Resource Center, Inc., Summary Screen
12.Jump up ^Church Times(UK) 23 November 1990 p. 13]
13.Jump up ^American Journal of Psychiatry 147:7 July 1990[dead link][dead link]
14.Jump up ^Review of BooksThe Lancet, Peter Tyrer, June 24th 1989[dead link][dead link]
15.Jump up ^Praise For Releasing The Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves[dead link][dead link]
16.Jump up ^What People Are Saying AboutCombatting Cult Mind Control[dead link][dead link]
17.Jump up ^Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 3Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Retrieved December 2006)[dead link][dead link]
18.Jump up ^Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs
19.Jump up ^Praise for Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs
20.Jump up ^THE KABBALAH LEARNING CENTRE IS THE LATEST POP CULTURE HOWEVER, MOST ARE UNAWARE THAT IT’S A DESTRUCTIVE CULT
21.Jump up ^What Religious Leaders Are SayingAbout Combatting Cult Mind Control[dead link][dead link]
22.^ Jump up to: abcRefuting the Disinformation Attacks Put Forth by Destructive Cults and their AgentsAccessed Dec 2006[dead link][dead link]
23.Jump up ^Zitner, A. (1992, Jan 12). A year later, quest for a legacy of safer ice. Boston Globe (Pre-1997 Fulltext)
24.Jump up ^Canellos, Peter S (January 10, 1991). "Victim's Family Wants to Know What Stalled Lincoln Pond Rescue". The Boston Globe.
25.Jump up ^Aureet Bar-Yam Memorial Site
26.Jump up ^2009 Amber Alert Conference
27.Jump up ^Was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Brainwashed?Wall Street Journal Live Interview
28.Jump up ^Radicalism and mind controlNECN Interview
29.^ Jump up to: abOfficials: Suspect claims they were self-radicalized on InternetCNN Erin Burnett OutFront Interview
30.Jump up ^Greater Boston Video: Mind Control?WGBH Interview
31.Jump up ^Expert Discusses How Mind Control Could Be Motive for Boston Marathon BombingsFOX 25 Morning Interview
32.Jump up ^How Fast Can Someone Be ‘Radicalized’?WBUR Interview
33.Jump up ^Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, Ch. 4, ISBN 0-89281-243-5
34.Jump up ^Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 4Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Accessed Jan 2007)[dead link][dead link]
35.Jump up ^Resources page on Freedom of Mind website[dead link][dead link]
36.^ Jump up to: abReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 3Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Accessed January 2007)[dead link][dead link]
37.Jump up ^CAN, We Hardly Knew Ye: Sex, Drugs, Deprogrammers’ Kickbacks, and Corporate Crime in the (old) Cult Awareness Network, by Anson Shupe, Susan E. Darnell, presented at the 2000 SSSR meeting in Houston, Texas, October 21.
38.Jump up ^Arthur RoselleClaire Kelley
39.^ Jump up to: abFreedom of Mind Center[dead link][dead link]
40.Jump up ^Mind Warrior. New Therapist24, March/April 2003.
41.Jump up ^Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, ISBN 0-89281-243-5, p. 114
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steven Hassan.
Freedom of Mind Resource Center, Steven Hassan's website
The Strategic Interaction Approach, Steven Hassan
Media/NewsFreedom of Mind Media Collection, Steven Hassan in the Media


[hide]
v·
t·
e

Opposition to new religious movements


Secular groups
APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control·
Cult Awareness Network·
International Cultic Studies Association- ICSA (Formerly: the AFF, American Family Foundation)·
The Family Survival Trust- TFST (Formerly: FAIR - Family Action Information and Rescue)·
Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network·
Cult Information Centre


Secular individuals
Carol Giambalvo·
Steven Hassan·
Galen Kelly·
Michael Langone·
Ted Patrick·
Rick Ross·
Tom Sackville·
Jim Siegelman·
Margaret Singer·
Louis Jolyon West·
Cyril Vosper·
Lawrence Wollersheim


Religious groups
Reachout Trust·
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry·
Christian Research Institute·
Dialog Center International·
Personal Freedom Outreach·
Watchman Fellowship·
New England Institute of Religious Research·
Midwest Christian Outreach·
Institute for Religious Research·
Spiritual Counterfeits Project·
Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center


Religious individuals
Johannes Aagaard·
Alexander Dvorkin·
Ronald Enroth·
Hank Hanegraaff·
Paul R. Martin·
Walter Ralston Martin·
Robert Passantino


Governmental organizations
European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism·
Centre contre les manipulations mentales·
Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu·
MIVILUDES·
Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France


Individuals in government
Catherine Picard


Concepts
Cult·
NRM apologist·
Deprogramming·
Freedom of religion·
Heresy·
Mind control·
New religious movement


Historical events
About-Picard law·
Governmental lists of cults and sects·
Persecution of Bahá'ís·
Persecution of Falun Gong·
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses·
Anti-Mormonism·
Scientology in Germany




Authority control
WorldCat·
VIAF: 20359514·
LCCN: n88026228·
ISNI: 0000 0001 1873 6997·
GND: 113477414





 
 
 
 
 
 
 



Categories: 1954 births
Living people
American psychology writers
American psychotherapists
American Reform Jews
American social sciences writers
Anti-cult organizations and individuals
Brainwashing theory proponents
Critics of Falun Gong
Critics of the Unification Church
Critics of Scientology
Deprogrammers
Exit counselors
Jewish American social scientists
Mind control theorists
Researchers of new religious movements and cults
Cambridge College alumni
Former members of New Religious Movements






















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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hassan














Steven Hassan

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 This biographical article relies too much on referencesto primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelousor harmful.(May 2015)

Steven Hassan
Steven Hassan 2012 Headshot.jpg
Steven Alan Hassan, M.Ed, LMHC

Born
1954 (age 60–61)
United States[where?]
Occupation
Mental health counselor, specializing in cults [1]
Author
Director, Freedom of Mind
Nationality
United States
Genre
Non-fiction
Subject
Psychology, cults
Spouse
Misia Landau Ph.D
Website
www.freedomofmind.com
Steven Alan Hassan(born 1954) is an American licensed mental health counselorwho has written extensively on the subject of cults.[2]He is the author of three books on the subject of destructive cults, and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order to recruit and retain members.
Hassan is a former member of the Unification Church. He founded Ex-Moon Inc. in 1979[3]before assisting with involuntary deprogrammingsin association with the Cult Awareness Network,[4]developing in 1999 what he describes as his own non-coercive methods for helping members of alleged cults to leave their groups, through his Freedom of Mind company. He has also developed therapeutic approaches for counseling former members in order to help them overcome the purported effects of cult membership.


Contents [hide]
1Education
2Background
3Public impact
4Mind control
5Criticism
6See also
7Bibliography
8References
9External links

Education[edit]


 This section contains embedded liststhat may be poorly defined, unverifiedor indiscriminate. Please help to clean it upto meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Where appropriate, incorporate items into the main body of the article.(May 2015)
M.Ed., Counselling Psychology, Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985
Licensed Mental Health Counselor(LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1992
Certified as a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC) by the National Board for Certified Counselors, 2003
Background[edit]
Hassan became a member of the Unification Church(aka Moonies) in the 1970s, at the age of 19, while studying at Queens College. He describes what he terms as his "recruitment" in his first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control, asserting that this recruitment was the result of the unethical use of powerful psychological influence techniques by members of the Church.[5]He subsequently spent over two years recruiting and indoctrinating new members, as well as performing fundraising and campaigning duties, and ultimately rose to the rank of Assistant Director of the Unification Church at its National Headquarters. In that capacity he met personally with Sun Myung Moon.[6]
Hassan has given an account of his leaving the Unification Church in his 1998 book Combatting Cult Mind Controland on his personal website: After having been awake for two days as the head of a fundraising team, he caused a traffic accident when he fell asleep at the wheel of the Church's van and drove into the back of a truck. He ended up with a broken leg, surgery and a full-leg cast. During his recuperation he was given permission by his superiors in the Church to visit his parents. His parents contacted former members of the Unification Church who engaged in a deprogrammingsession with Hassan. Because of his cast he was not able to run or drive away, but he resisted to the point that he states that he had an impulse to "escape by reaching over and snapping my father's neck", rather than to potentially succumb to the deprogramming and betray "The Messiah". His father convinced him to stay for five days and talk to the former Church members who were conducting the deprogramming, after which time Hassan would be free to make the choice to return to the Church. Hassan agreed to this. He subsequently decided to leave the Church.[7]
In 1979, following the Jonestowndeaths, Hassan founded a non-profit organization called "Ex-Moon Inc.", whose membership consisted of over four hundred former members of the Unification Church.[6]
According to his biography, "During the 1977-78 Congressional Subcommittee Investigationinto South Korean CIA activities in the United States, he consulted as an expert on the Moon organization and provided information and internal documents regarding Moon's desire to influence politics in his bid to 'take over the world.'"[6]
Around 1980, Hassan began investigating methods of persuasion, mind controland indoctrination. He first studied the thought reform theories of Robert Lifton, and was "able to see clearly that the Moon organization uses all eight" of the thought reform methods described by Lifton.[7]
He later attended a seminar on hypnosis with Richard Bandler, which was based on the work that he and transformational grammarianJohn Grinderhad done in developing Neuro-Linguistic Programming(NLP). Hassan felt that this seminar gave him "a handle on techniques of mind control, and how to combat them." He spent "nearly two years studying NLP with everyone involved in its formulation and presentation." During this period, Hassan moved to Santa Cruz, Californiafor an apprenticeship with Grinder. He became concerned about the marketing of NLP as a tool for "power enhancement", left his association with Grinder, and "began to study the works of Milton EricksonM.D., Virginia Satir, and Gregory Bateson, on which NLP is based." His studies gave him the basis for the development of his theories on mind control.[8]
Hassan continued to study hypnosis and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosisand The International Society of Hypnosis.[9]
In 1999, Hassan founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.[10]The centre is registered as a domestic profit corporation in the state of Massachusetts, and Hassan is president and treasurer.[11]
In Combatting Cult Mind ControlHassan describes his personal experiences with the Unification Church, as well as his theory of the four components of mind control. The sociologist Eileen Barker, who has studied the Unification Church, has commented on the book.[12]She expressed several concerns but nevertheless recommended the book. The book has been reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry,[13]and in the The Lancet,[14]and has been favorably reviewed by Philip Zimbardo[15]and Margaret Singer.[16]
In his second book, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves(2000), Hassan presents what he terms "a much more refined method to help family and friends, called the Strategic Interaction Approach. This non-coercive, completely legal approach is far better than deprogramming, and even exit counseling"[17]
In his third and most recent book, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs(2012), Hassan demonstrates how his approach has evolved over the last 13 years and offers a more extensive bibliography. In addition, Hassan presents Lifton'sand Singer'smodels alongside his own BITE model. The book has garnered a favorable review from Jerome Siegel, PHD[18]who says: "Its weakness is repetitiveness, flatness, and some theorizing that might turn off professional readers. Nonetheless, I recommend it highly for its intended audience." It has also received positive feedback from other professionals.[19]
Hassan, who is Jewishand belongs to a Temple that teaches Kabbalah, states that the actions of the Kabbalah Centrehave little in common with traditional or even responsible Jewish renewal Kabbalah teachers.[20]He describes himself as an "activist who fights to protect people's right to believe whatever they want to believe", and states that his work has the broad support of religious leaders from a variety of spiritual orientations.[21]He further states that "many unorthodox religions have expressed their gratitude to me for my books because it clearly shows them NOT to be a destructive cult."[22]
His late[23]wife Aureet Bar-Yam died in 1991 after falling through ice while trying to save their dog.[24][25]
Public impact[edit]
He consulted as an expert on the Unification Churchduring the 1977-1978 Congressional investigation of Korean-American relations.[citation needed]
He has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Dateline, Larry King Live, The O'Reilly Factor, CNNand CBSshows, and various documentaries. Since 1976, he has acquired over thirty years of experience with counseling both current and former members of groups he describes as cults.
In his first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control, he describes his experiences as a member the Unification Church, and describes the exit counseling methods that he developed based on those experiences, and based on his subsequent studies of psychological influence techniques. In his second book Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, which was published twelve years after Combatting Cult Mind Control, he describes the evolution of his exit counseling procedures into a more advanced procedure that he calls the "Strategic Interaction Approach." In Steven's third and most recent book, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, he presents further refinement of the "Strategic Interaction Approach" and includes a larger bibliography.
In 2009, Steven was invited to the Amber Alert Conference[26]by the Department of Justice (DOJ)to explain why victims like Jaycee Dugardand Elizabeth Smartdenied being who they were, and failed to use opportunities to ask for help. Law Enforcement officials such as police, FBI, Attorney General staff from many states, as well as other victims of kidnapping attended the conference.
After the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, Steven was brought in by the media to explain the bombers' mind state and how mind control was involved.[27][28][29][29][30][31][32]
Mind control[edit]
Although he does not name it the "BITE model", in his first book Combatting Cult Mind ControlHassan describes the "four components of mind control as:[33]
Behavior control
Information control
Thought control
Emotional control
Twelve years later, in Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, he developed these same components into a mind-control model, "BITE", which stands for Behavior, Information, Thoughts, and Emotions. Hassan writes that cults recruit members through a three-step process which he refers to as "unfreezing," "changing," and "refreezing," respectively. This involves the use of an extensive array of various techniques, including systematic deception, behavior modification, withholding of information, and emotionally intense persuasion techniques (such as the induction of phobias), which he collectively terms mind control.[34]
In the same book he also writes "I suspect that most cult groups use informal hypnotic techniques to induce trance states. They tend to use what are called "naturalistic" hypnotic techniques. Practicing meditation to shut down thinking, chanting a phrase repetitively for hours, or reciting affirmations are all powerful ways to promote spiritual growth. But they can also be used unethically, as methods for mind control indoctrination."[8]
He calls groups that employ such psychological influence techniques "destructive cults," a term that he defines by the methods used to recruit and retain members, and by the effect that such methods have on members, rather than by the theological/sociological/moral views the group espouses. He is opposed to the non-consensual deprogrammingof cult members, and supports instead counselingthem in order that they withdraw voluntarily from the organization. He writes:[35]

My mind control model outlines many key elements that need to be controlled: Behavior, Information, Thoughts and Emotions (BITE). If these four components can be controlled, then an individual's identity can be systematically manipulated and changed. Destructive mind control takes the 'locus of control' away from an individual. The person is systematically deceived about the beliefs and practices of the person (or group) and manipulated throughout the recruitment process — unable to make informed choices and exert independent judgment. The person's identity is profoundly influenced through a set of social influence techniques and a "new identity" is created — programmed to be dependent on the leader or group ideology. The person can't think for him or herself, but believes otherwise.
Hassan is a proponent of non-coercive intervention. He refers to his method as the "Strategic Interaction Approach".[36]
Twelve years after the last publication of Combatting Cult Mind Control, Hassan described his position on deprogramming in Releasing the Bonds. He states that "Deprogramming has many drawbacks. I have met dozens of people who were successfully deprogrammed but, to this day, experience psychological trauma as a result of the method. These people were glad to be released from the grip of cult programming but were not happy about the method used to help them." He further states that "A deprogramming triggers the deepest fears of cult members. They have been taken against their will. Family and friends are not to be trusted. The trauma of being thrown into a van by unknown people, driven away, and imprisoned creates mistrust, anger, and resentment." He quotes a person who was involuntarily deprogrammed as saying "What these deprogrammers did was attempt to change my mind through INFORMATION CONTROL — just like the cult did. They did not deal with the CUT-implanted phobias, which remained with me for years — the fear of certain colors, the identification of certain types of music with CUT rituals, the fear of retaliation and probable death should I ever leave this group."[36]
Criticism[edit]
In a research paper presented at the 2000 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference, Anson Shupe, professor of Sociology at Indiana/Purdue University, and Susan E. Darnell, manager of a credit union, state Hassan had participated two involuntary deprogrammings in 1976 and 1977.[37][38]One involving Arthur Roselle who claims that Hassan kidnapped, hit, and forcibly detained him. Hassan acknowledges that he "was involved with the Roselle deprogramming attempt in 1976. But...was never involved in violence of any kind."[39]
Hassan states that he spent one year assisting with deprogrammingsbefore turning to less controversial methods (see exit counseling).[22]Hassan has spoken out against involuntary deprogramming since 1980,[9][22][40]stating, "I did not and do not like the deprogramming method and stopped doing them in 1977!”[39]In Combatting Cult Mind Control, he stated that "the non-coercive approach will not work in every case, it has proved to be the option most families prefer. Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail."[41]Concerned that ministers in Japan [were] encouraged to perform forcible deprogramming because of [his] first book," Hassan wrote a letterto Reverend Seishi Kojima stating, "I oppose aggressive, illegal methods."
See also[edit]
Anti-cult movement
Bibliography[edit]
Combatting Cult Mind Control, 1988. ISBN 0-89281-243-5.
Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000. ISBN 0-9670688-0-0.
Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9670688-1-7.
References[edit]

Text document with red question mark.svg
 This section uses citationsthat link to broken or outdated sources. Please improve the articleor discuss this issue on the talk page. Helpon using footnotes is available.(December 2013)
1.Jump up ^See:"Data Mind Games". New York Magazine(New York Media Holdings). July 29, 1996. p. 52.;
"Ex-Moonie says cult groups are preying on russians; Analyst sees Ex communists as easy targets". The Globe(The Globe Newspaper Company). November 22, 1992. p. 9.;
Chalcraft, David J. (2011). "Jews for Jesus: Occupying Jewish Time and Space". In Stern, Sacha. Sects and Sectarianism in Jewish History. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 220–221. ISBN 978-90-04-20648-9.
Jones, Kathryn A. (2011). Amway Forever: The Amazing Story of a Global Business Phenomenon. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-470-48821-8.
Szalavitz, Maia (2006). Help at Any Cost. New York: Penguin/Riverhead. p. 66. ISBN 1-59448-910-6.
2.Jump up ^Verification of Licence byPsychology Today
3.Jump up ^Chryssides, G.D. and B.E. Zeller. 2014. The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING.
4.Jump up ^(notarized) Declaration of John M. Sweeney, Jr. on deprogramming and the Citizens Freedom Foundation. Maricopa County, Arizona. March 17, 1992.
5.Jump up ^Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, Ch. 1, ISBN 0-89281-243-5
6.^ Jump up to: abcBiographyof Steven Hassan, Freedom of Mind Center
7.^ Jump up to: abCombatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, Ch. 2, ISBN 0-89281-243-5
8.^ Jump up to: abReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 2, Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000
9.^ Jump up to: abReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 6Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Retrieved Dec 2006)
These organizations require that their members have professional credentials and make sure they have proper training and operate within ethical guidelines. I have been teaching workshops for both organizations for many years and find their members are able to quickly understand cult mind control due to their training[dead link][dead link]
10.Jump up ^Freedomofmind.com
11.Jump up ^Freedom of Mind Resource Center, Inc., Summary Screen
12.Jump up ^Church Times(UK) 23 November 1990 p. 13]
13.Jump up ^American Journal of Psychiatry 147:7 July 1990[dead link][dead link]
14.Jump up ^Review of BooksThe Lancet, Peter Tyrer, June 24th 1989[dead link][dead link]
15.Jump up ^Praise For Releasing The Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves[dead link][dead link]
16.Jump up ^What People Are Saying AboutCombatting Cult Mind Control[dead link][dead link]
17.Jump up ^Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 3Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Retrieved December 2006)[dead link][dead link]
18.Jump up ^Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs
19.Jump up ^Praise for Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs
20.Jump up ^THE KABBALAH LEARNING CENTRE IS THE LATEST POP CULTURE HOWEVER, MOST ARE UNAWARE THAT IT’S A DESTRUCTIVE CULT
21.Jump up ^What Religious Leaders Are SayingAbout Combatting Cult Mind Control[dead link][dead link]
22.^ Jump up to: abcRefuting the Disinformation Attacks Put Forth by Destructive Cults and their AgentsAccessed Dec 2006[dead link][dead link]
23.Jump up ^Zitner, A. (1992, Jan 12). A year later, quest for a legacy of safer ice. Boston Globe (Pre-1997 Fulltext)
24.Jump up ^Canellos, Peter S (January 10, 1991). "Victim's Family Wants to Know What Stalled Lincoln Pond Rescue". The Boston Globe.
25.Jump up ^Aureet Bar-Yam Memorial Site
26.Jump up ^2009 Amber Alert Conference
27.Jump up ^Was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Brainwashed?Wall Street Journal Live Interview
28.Jump up ^Radicalism and mind controlNECN Interview
29.^ Jump up to: abOfficials: Suspect claims they were self-radicalized on InternetCNN Erin Burnett OutFront Interview
30.Jump up ^Greater Boston Video: Mind Control?WGBH Interview
31.Jump up ^Expert Discusses How Mind Control Could Be Motive for Boston Marathon BombingsFOX 25 Morning Interview
32.Jump up ^How Fast Can Someone Be ‘Radicalized’?WBUR Interview
33.Jump up ^Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, Ch. 4, ISBN 0-89281-243-5
34.Jump up ^Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 4Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Accessed Jan 2007)[dead link][dead link]
35.Jump up ^Resources page on Freedom of Mind website[dead link][dead link]
36.^ Jump up to: abReleasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Ch. 3Steven Hassan, FOM Press, 2000 (Accessed January 2007)[dead link][dead link]
37.Jump up ^CAN, We Hardly Knew Ye: Sex, Drugs, Deprogrammers’ Kickbacks, and Corporate Crime in the (old) Cult Awareness Network, by Anson Shupe, Susan E. Darnell, presented at the 2000 SSSR meeting in Houston, Texas, October 21.
38.Jump up ^Arthur RoselleClaire Kelley
39.^ Jump up to: abFreedom of Mind Center[dead link][dead link]
40.Jump up ^Mind Warrior. New Therapist24, March/April 2003.
41.Jump up ^Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1998, ISBN 0-89281-243-5, p. 114
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steven Hassan.
Freedom of Mind Resource Center, Steven Hassan's website
The Strategic Interaction Approach, Steven Hassan
Media/NewsFreedom of Mind Media Collection, Steven Hassan in the Media


[hide]
v·
t·
e

Opposition to new religious movements


Secular groups
APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control·
Cult Awareness Network·
International Cultic Studies Association- ICSA (Formerly: the AFF, American Family Foundation)·
The Family Survival Trust- TFST (Formerly: FAIR - Family Action Information and Rescue)·
Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network·
Cult Information Centre


Secular individuals
Carol Giambalvo·
Steven Hassan·
Galen Kelly·
Michael Langone·
Ted Patrick·
Rick Ross·
Tom Sackville·
Jim Siegelman·
Margaret Singer·
Louis Jolyon West·
Cyril Vosper·
Lawrence Wollersheim


Religious groups
Reachout Trust·
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry·
Christian Research Institute·
Dialog Center International·
Personal Freedom Outreach·
Watchman Fellowship·
New England Institute of Religious Research·
Midwest Christian Outreach·
Institute for Religious Research·
Spiritual Counterfeits Project·
Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center


Religious individuals
Johannes Aagaard·
Alexander Dvorkin·
Ronald Enroth·
Hank Hanegraaff·
Paul R. Martin·
Walter Ralston Martin·
Robert Passantino


Governmental organizations
European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism·
Centre contre les manipulations mentales·
Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu·
MIVILUDES·
Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France


Individuals in government
Catherine Picard


Concepts
Cult·
NRM apologist·
Deprogramming·
Freedom of religion·
Heresy·
Mind control·
New religious movement


Historical events
About-Picard law·
Governmental lists of cults and sects·
Persecution of Bahá'ís·
Persecution of Falun Gong·
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses·
Anti-Mormonism·
Scientology in Germany




Authority control
WorldCat·
VIAF: 20359514·
LCCN: n88026228·
ISNI: 0000 0001 1873 6997·
GND: 113477414





 
 
 
 
 
 
 



Categories: 1954 births
Living people
American psychology writers
American psychotherapists
American Reform Jews
American social sciences writers
Anti-cult organizations and individuals
Brainwashing theory proponents
Critics of Falun Gong
Critics of the Unification Church
Critics of Scientology
Deprogrammers
Exit counselors
Jewish American social scientists
Mind control theorists
Researchers of new religious movements and cults
Cambridge College alumni
Former members of New Religious Movements






















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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hassan












Combatting Cult Mind Control

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Combatting Cult Mind Control
Combatting Cult Mind Control.jpg
Book Cover

Author
Steven Hassan
Country
United States
Language
English
Series
Freedom of Mind Press
Subject
Cults, Mind control
Genre
Non-fiction
Publisher
Park Street Press

Publication date
 1988
Media type
Print (Hardcover)
Pages
256 pp
ISBN
0-89281-243-5
OCLC
18382426

Dewey Decimal
 306/.1 19
LC Class
BP603 .H375 1988
Followed by
Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000
Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults is a non-fiction work by Steven Hassan. The author describes theories of mind control and cults based on the research of Margaret Singer and Robert Lifton as well as the cognitive dissonance theory of Leon Festinger. The book was published by Park Street Press, a New age and alternative beliefs publisher in 1988.
Hassan is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is a former member of the Unification Church.


Contents  [hide]
1 Reception 1.1 Positive Viewpoints
1.2 Critical Viewpoints
2 See also
3 References 3.1 Further reading


Reception[edit]
Positive Viewpoints[edit]
“ One is impressed by Hassan's candor in describing his experiences both within the Unification Church and after his departure from it, especially his work as an exit counselor. Beyond its value as an illuminating personal account, this book is an informative and practical guide to cult-related issues. It is recommended both to lay persons who wish to become better informed on this topic and to professionals in health-related fields, clergy, attorneys, judges, and others whose responsibilities bring them into contact with cults, their members, and the families whose lives are affected. ”
—Louis Jolyon West, M.D., American Journal of Psychiatry[1]

The sociologist Eileen Barker, who has studied the Unification Church, has commented on the book.[2] She expressed several concerns but nevertheless recommended the book. The book has been reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry,[3] and in the The Lancet.[4]
The book was well received by other authors on the subject, such as Dr. Margaret Singer, Rabbi James A. Rudin and conservative Rabbi and theologian Harold S. Kushner. Singer writes:[4]

"...A major contribution...For the first time, a skilled and ethical exit counselor has spelled out the details of the complicated yet understandable process of helping free a human being from the bondage of mental manipulation.....Steve Hassan has written a 'how to do something about it' book."
The book, originally published in 1988, is still in print and, according to the author's website, it has been re-published in seven different languages.[5]
Critical Viewpoints[edit]
John B. Brown II of the "Pagan Unity Campaign" criticized a policy stated in the book (page 114) which says that although Hassan had '"decided not to participate in forcible interventions, believing it was imperative to find another approach"', "Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail." Brown states that this indicates that Hassan advocates resorting to a forcible intervention if all other attempts fail.[6]
According to Douglas Cowan, in this book Hassan utilizes a language opposing "freedom" and "captivity", based on the conceptual framework of brainwashing and thought control, and the alleged abuses of civil liberties and human rights. He writes that these are the precipitating motivation for secular anticultists such as Hassan.[7]
Irving Hexham, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, writes that Hassan's description of destructive cults (page 37), as "a group which violates the rights of its members and damages them through the abusive techniques of unethical mind control" is not helpful as he fails to describe how to decide if a group is a cult or not, what are "abusive techniques" and what is "mind control".[8]
See also[edit]
Cults
List of cult and new religious movement researchers
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Louis Jolyon West, M.D. American Journal of Psychiatry. 147:7 July 1990.
2.Jump up ^ Church Times (UK) 23 November 1990 p. 13]
3.Jump up ^ American Journal of Psychiatry 147:7 July 1990
4.^ Jump up to: a b Review of Books The Lancet, Peter Tyrer, 24 June 1989
5.Jump up ^ Presskit, Freedom of Mind Center, Steven Hassan, 2006
6.Jump up ^ Brown II, John B. (13 July 2006), "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Anticult Movement: Human Rights Issues", Religion, Globalization, and Conflict: International Perspectives, San Diego State University, San Diego, California: CESNUR, retrieved 2010-03-02
7.Jump up ^ Cowan, Douglas E. Bearing False Witness?: An Introduction to the Christian Countercult, pp.22-3, Praeger/Greenwood (2003), ISBN 0-275-97459-6
8.Jump up ^ Hexham, Irving and Poewe, Karla, New Religions as Global Cultures: Making the Human Sacred, pp.27, Westview Press (1997), ISBN 0-8133-2508-0. "In his book combating Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan says a "destructive cult . . . is a group which violates the rights of its members and damages them through the abusive techniques of unethical mind control" ( Hassan 1990: 37 ). "The problem with definitions like this is that they raise more problems than they solve. Before we can decide whether a group is a cult or not, we must first define 'rights,' 'abusive techniques,' and 'mind control.' Hassan attempts to do this, but his explanations are not very helpful."
Further reading[edit]
Freedom of Mind website, Steven Hassan, 2006
Bromley, David G., The Politics of Religious Apostasy, pp. 95–114, Praeger Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-275-95508-7
Book reviewsThe Mind Control Hypothesis, in-depth discussion of the work, 1999, John Engle
Detailed review, The Lancet, Britain
MediaGeraldo Rivera, 1991 program, Combatting Cult Mind Control discussed


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Opposition to new religious movements


Secular groups
APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control ·
 Cult Awareness Network ·
 International Cultic Studies Association - ICSA (Formerly: the AFF, American Family Foundation) ·
 The Family Survival Trust - TFST (Formerly: FAIR - Family Action Information and Rescue) ·
 Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network ·
 Cult Information Centre
 

Secular individuals
Carol Giambalvo ·
 Steven Hassan ·
 Galen Kelly ·
 Michael Langone ·
 Ted Patrick ·
 Rick Ross ·
 Tom Sackville ·
 Jim Siegelman ·
 Margaret Singer ·
 Louis Jolyon West ·
 Cyril Vosper ·
 Lawrence Wollersheim
 

Religious groups
Reachout Trust ·
 Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry ·
 Christian Research Institute ·
 Dialog Center International ·
 Personal Freedom Outreach ·
 Watchman Fellowship ·
 New England Institute of Religious Research ·
 Midwest Christian Outreach ·
 Institute for Religious Research ·
 Spiritual Counterfeits Project ·
 Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
 

Religious individuals
Johannes Aagaard ·
 Alexander Dvorkin ·
 Ronald Enroth ·
 Hank Hanegraaff ·
 Paul R. Martin ·
 Walter Ralston Martin ·
 Robert Passantino
 

Governmental organizations
European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism ·
 Centre contre les manipulations mentales ·
 Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu ·
 MIVILUDES ·
 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France
 

Individuals in government
Catherine Picard
 

Concepts
Cult ·
 NRM apologist ·
 Deprogramming ·
 Freedom of religion ·
 Heresy ·
 Mind control ·
 New religious movement
 

Historical events
About-Picard law ·
 Governmental lists of cults and sects ·
 Persecution of Bahá'ís ·
 Persecution of Falun Gong ·
 Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses ·
 Anti-Mormonism ·
 Scientology in Germany
 

  


Categories: 1988 books
Cult-related books
Books about mind control





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Read

Edit

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This page was last modified on 17 June 2014, at 05:56.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combatting_Cult_Mind_Control














Combatting Cult Mind Control

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Combatting Cult Mind Control
Combatting Cult Mind Control.jpg
Book Cover

Author
Steven Hassan
Country
United States
Language
English
Series
Freedom of Mind Press
Subject
Cults, Mind control
Genre
Non-fiction
Publisher
Park Street Press

Publication date
 1988
Media type
Print (Hardcover)
Pages
256 pp
ISBN
0-89281-243-5
OCLC
18382426

Dewey Decimal
 306/.1 19
LC Class
BP603 .H375 1988
Followed by
Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000
Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults is a non-fiction work by Steven Hassan. The author describes theories of mind control and cults based on the research of Margaret Singer and Robert Lifton as well as the cognitive dissonance theory of Leon Festinger. The book was published by Park Street Press, a New age and alternative beliefs publisher in 1988.
Hassan is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is a former member of the Unification Church.


Contents  [hide]
1 Reception 1.1 Positive Viewpoints
1.2 Critical Viewpoints
2 See also
3 References 3.1 Further reading


Reception[edit]
Positive Viewpoints[edit]
“ One is impressed by Hassan's candor in describing his experiences both within the Unification Church and after his departure from it, especially his work as an exit counselor. Beyond its value as an illuminating personal account, this book is an informative and practical guide to cult-related issues. It is recommended both to lay persons who wish to become better informed on this topic and to professionals in health-related fields, clergy, attorneys, judges, and others whose responsibilities bring them into contact with cults, their members, and the families whose lives are affected. ”
—Louis Jolyon West, M.D., American Journal of Psychiatry[1]

The sociologist Eileen Barker, who has studied the Unification Church, has commented on the book.[2] She expressed several concerns but nevertheless recommended the book. The book has been reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry,[3] and in the The Lancet.[4]
The book was well received by other authors on the subject, such as Dr. Margaret Singer, Rabbi James A. Rudin and conservative Rabbi and theologian Harold S. Kushner. Singer writes:[4]

"...A major contribution...For the first time, a skilled and ethical exit counselor has spelled out the details of the complicated yet understandable process of helping free a human being from the bondage of mental manipulation.....Steve Hassan has written a 'how to do something about it' book."
The book, originally published in 1988, is still in print and, according to the author's website, it has been re-published in seven different languages.[5]
Critical Viewpoints[edit]
John B. Brown II of the "Pagan Unity Campaign" criticized a policy stated in the book (page 114) which says that although Hassan had '"decided not to participate in forcible interventions, believing it was imperative to find another approach"', "Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail." Brown states that this indicates that Hassan advocates resorting to a forcible intervention if all other attempts fail.[6]
According to Douglas Cowan, in this book Hassan utilizes a language opposing "freedom" and "captivity", based on the conceptual framework of brainwashing and thought control, and the alleged abuses of civil liberties and human rights. He writes that these are the precipitating motivation for secular anticultists such as Hassan.[7]
Irving Hexham, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, writes that Hassan's description of destructive cults (page 37), as "a group which violates the rights of its members and damages them through the abusive techniques of unethical mind control" is not helpful as he fails to describe how to decide if a group is a cult or not, what are "abusive techniques" and what is "mind control".[8]
See also[edit]
Cults
List of cult and new religious movement researchers
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Louis Jolyon West, M.D. American Journal of Psychiatry. 147:7 July 1990.
2.Jump up ^ Church Times (UK) 23 November 1990 p. 13]
3.Jump up ^ American Journal of Psychiatry 147:7 July 1990
4.^ Jump up to: a b Review of Books The Lancet, Peter Tyrer, 24 June 1989
5.Jump up ^ Presskit, Freedom of Mind Center, Steven Hassan, 2006
6.Jump up ^ Brown II, John B. (13 July 2006), "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Anticult Movement: Human Rights Issues", Religion, Globalization, and Conflict: International Perspectives, San Diego State University, San Diego, California: CESNUR, retrieved 2010-03-02
7.Jump up ^ Cowan, Douglas E. Bearing False Witness?: An Introduction to the Christian Countercult, pp.22-3, Praeger/Greenwood (2003), ISBN 0-275-97459-6
8.Jump up ^ Hexham, Irving and Poewe, Karla, New Religions as Global Cultures: Making the Human Sacred, pp.27, Westview Press (1997), ISBN 0-8133-2508-0. "In his book combating Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan says a "destructive cult . . . is a group which violates the rights of its members and damages them through the abusive techniques of unethical mind control" ( Hassan 1990: 37 ). "The problem with definitions like this is that they raise more problems than they solve. Before we can decide whether a group is a cult or not, we must first define 'rights,' 'abusive techniques,' and 'mind control.' Hassan attempts to do this, but his explanations are not very helpful."
Further reading[edit]
Freedom of Mind website, Steven Hassan, 2006
Bromley, David G., The Politics of Religious Apostasy, pp. 95–114, Praeger Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-275-95508-7
Book reviewsThe Mind Control Hypothesis, in-depth discussion of the work, 1999, John Engle
Detailed review, The Lancet, Britain
MediaGeraldo Rivera, 1991 program, Combatting Cult Mind Control discussed


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Opposition to new religious movements


Secular groups
APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control ·
 Cult Awareness Network ·
 International Cultic Studies Association - ICSA (Formerly: the AFF, American Family Foundation) ·
 The Family Survival Trust - TFST (Formerly: FAIR - Family Action Information and Rescue) ·
 Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network ·
 Cult Information Centre
 

Secular individuals
Carol Giambalvo ·
 Steven Hassan ·
 Galen Kelly ·
 Michael Langone ·
 Ted Patrick ·
 Rick Ross ·
 Tom Sackville ·
 Jim Siegelman ·
 Margaret Singer ·
 Louis Jolyon West ·
 Cyril Vosper ·
 Lawrence Wollersheim
 

Religious groups
Reachout Trust ·
 Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry ·
 Christian Research Institute ·
 Dialog Center International ·
 Personal Freedom Outreach ·
 Watchman Fellowship ·
 New England Institute of Religious Research ·
 Midwest Christian Outreach ·
 Institute for Religious Research ·
 Spiritual Counterfeits Project ·
 Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
 

Religious individuals
Johannes Aagaard ·
 Alexander Dvorkin ·
 Ronald Enroth ·
 Hank Hanegraaff ·
 Paul R. Martin ·
 Walter Ralston Martin ·
 Robert Passantino
 

Governmental organizations
European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism ·
 Centre contre les manipulations mentales ·
 Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu ·
 MIVILUDES ·
 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France
 

Individuals in government
Catherine Picard
 

Concepts
Cult ·
 NRM apologist ·
 Deprogramming ·
 Freedom of religion ·
 Heresy ·
 Mind control ·
 New religious movement
 

Historical events
About-Picard law ·
 Governmental lists of cults and sects ·
 Persecution of Bahá'ís ·
 Persecution of Falun Gong ·
 Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses ·
 Anti-Mormonism ·
 Scientology in Germany
 

  


Categories: 1988 books
Cult-related books
Books about mind control





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
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Help
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Related changes
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Cite this page

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Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

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This page was last modified on 17 June 2014, at 05:56.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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About Wikipedia
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Contact Wikipedia
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Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combatting_Cult_Mind_Control













Releasing the Bonds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves
Releasing the bonds.jpg
Book Cover

Author
Steven Hassan
Country
United States
Language
English
Series
Freedom of Mind Press
Subject
Cults, Mind control, Psychology
Genre
Non-fiction
Publisher
Aitan Publishing Company

Publication date
 May 2000
Media type
Hardcover
Pages
389
ISBN
0-9670688-0-0
OCLC
43631120

Dewey Decimal
 153.8/53 21
LC Class
BF633 .H37 2000
Preceded by
Combatting Cult Mind Control
Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves (2000) is Steven Hassan's self-published second book. It discusses Hassan's theories on mind control and cults. According to Arthur A. Dole, Hassan's Strategic Interaction Approach " ... stresses love, respect, freedom of choice, customized planned action fitted to the individual with the family as key participants, psychotherapy, and applied social psychology.[1]
Philip Zimbardo, former president of the American Psychological Association writes:[2]
Steven Hassan's approach is one that I value more than that of any other researcher or clinical practitioner. Hassan is a model of clear exposition, his original ideas are brilliantly presented in a captivating style. I am confident that readers of his new book will share my enthusiasm for what this author tells us about how to deal with the growing menace of cults.
Anton Hein, publisher of the Apologetics Index, an online Christian ministry[3] writes:
In what may well turn out to be the definitive handbook on cult intervention, Hassan presents his Strategic Interaction Approach (SIA) - a non-coercive, highly effective counseling system refined over the twelve years since he wrote the best-seller, Combatting Cult Mind Control. This tried-and-true approach has none of the drawbacks of involuntary deprogramming or voluntary exit-counseling.
See also[edit]
deprogramming
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ [1]
2.Jump up ^ Praise For Releasing The Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Freedom of Mind Center
3.Jump up ^ Summary Review: Releasing The Bonds, Anton Hein, publisher, Apologetics Index
External links[edit]
Freedom of Mind website, Steven Hassan


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Opposition to new religious movements


Secular groups
APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control ·
 Cult Awareness Network ·
 International Cultic Studies Association - ICSA (Formerly: the AFF, American Family Foundation) ·
 The Family Survival Trust - TFST (Formerly: FAIR - Family Action Information and Rescue) ·
 Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network ·
 Cult Information Centre
 

Secular individuals
Carol Giambalvo ·
 Steven Hassan ·
 Galen Kelly ·
 Michael Langone ·
 Ted Patrick ·
 Rick Ross ·
 Tom Sackville ·
 Jim Siegelman ·
 Margaret Singer ·
 Louis Jolyon West ·
 Cyril Vosper ·
 Lawrence Wollersheim
 

Religious groups
Reachout Trust ·
 Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry ·
 Christian Research Institute ·
 Dialog Center International ·
 Personal Freedom Outreach ·
 Watchman Fellowship ·
 New England Institute of Religious Research ·
 Midwest Christian Outreach ·
 Institute for Religious Research ·
 Spiritual Counterfeits Project ·
 Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
 

Religious individuals
Johannes Aagaard ·
 Alexander Dvorkin ·
 Ronald Enroth ·
 Hank Hanegraaff ·
 Paul R. Martin ·
 Walter Ralston Martin ·
 Robert Passantino
 

Governmental organizations
European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism ·
 Centre contre les manipulations mentales ·
 Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu ·
 MIVILUDES ·
 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France
 

Individuals in government
Catherine Picard
 

Concepts
Cult ·
 NRM apologist ·
 Deprogramming ·
 Freedom of religion ·
 Heresy ·
 Mind control ·
 New religious movement
 

Historical events
About-Picard law ·
 Governmental lists of cults and sects ·
 Persecution of Bahá'ís ·
 Persecution of Falun Gong ·
 Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses ·
 Anti-Mormonism ·
 Scientology in Germany
 

  


Categories: Cult-related books
Books about mind control




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 19 March 2015, at 02:33.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Releasing_the_Bonds












Releasing the Bonds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves
Releasing the bonds.jpg
Book Cover

Author
Steven Hassan
Country
United States
Language
English
Series
Freedom of Mind Press
Subject
Cults, Mind control, Psychology
Genre
Non-fiction
Publisher
Aitan Publishing Company

Publication date
 May 2000
Media type
Hardcover
Pages
389
ISBN
0-9670688-0-0
OCLC
43631120

Dewey Decimal
 153.8/53 21
LC Class
BF633 .H37 2000
Preceded by
Combatting Cult Mind Control
Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves (2000) is Steven Hassan's self-published second book. It discusses Hassan's theories on mind control and cults. According to Arthur A. Dole, Hassan's Strategic Interaction Approach " ... stresses love, respect, freedom of choice, customized planned action fitted to the individual with the family as key participants, psychotherapy, and applied social psychology.[1]
Philip Zimbardo, former president of the American Psychological Association writes:[2]
Steven Hassan's approach is one that I value more than that of any other researcher or clinical practitioner. Hassan is a model of clear exposition, his original ideas are brilliantly presented in a captivating style. I am confident that readers of his new book will share my enthusiasm for what this author tells us about how to deal with the growing menace of cults.
Anton Hein, publisher of the Apologetics Index, an online Christian ministry[3] writes:
In what may well turn out to be the definitive handbook on cult intervention, Hassan presents his Strategic Interaction Approach (SIA) - a non-coercive, highly effective counseling system refined over the twelve years since he wrote the best-seller, Combatting Cult Mind Control. This tried-and-true approach has none of the drawbacks of involuntary deprogramming or voluntary exit-counseling.
See also[edit]
deprogramming
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ [1]
2.Jump up ^ Praise For Releasing The Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Freedom of Mind Center
3.Jump up ^ Summary Review: Releasing The Bonds, Anton Hein, publisher, Apologetics Index
External links[edit]
Freedom of Mind website, Steven Hassan


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Opposition to new religious movements


Secular groups
APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control ·
 Cult Awareness Network ·
 International Cultic Studies Association - ICSA (Formerly: the AFF, American Family Foundation) ·
 The Family Survival Trust - TFST (Formerly: FAIR - Family Action Information and Rescue) ·
 Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network ·
 Cult Information Centre
 

Secular individuals
Carol Giambalvo ·
 Steven Hassan ·
 Galen Kelly ·
 Michael Langone ·
 Ted Patrick ·
 Rick Ross ·
 Tom Sackville ·
 Jim Siegelman ·
 Margaret Singer ·
 Louis Jolyon West ·
 Cyril Vosper ·
 Lawrence Wollersheim
 

Religious groups
Reachout Trust ·
 Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry ·
 Christian Research Institute ·
 Dialog Center International ·
 Personal Freedom Outreach ·
 Watchman Fellowship ·
 New England Institute of Religious Research ·
 Midwest Christian Outreach ·
 Institute for Religious Research ·
 Spiritual Counterfeits Project ·
 Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
 

Religious individuals
Johannes Aagaard ·
 Alexander Dvorkin ·
 Ronald Enroth ·
 Hank Hanegraaff ·
 Paul R. Martin ·
 Walter Ralston Martin ·
 Robert Passantino
 

Governmental organizations
European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism ·
 Centre contre les manipulations mentales ·
 Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu ·
 MIVILUDES ·
 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France
 

Individuals in government
Catherine Picard
 

Concepts
Cult ·
 NRM apologist ·
 Deprogramming ·
 Freedom of religion ·
 Heresy ·
 Mind control ·
 New religious movement
 

Historical events
About-Picard law ·
 Governmental lists of cults and sects ·
 Persecution of Bahá'ís ·
 Persecution of Falun Gong ·
 Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses ·
 Anti-Mormonism ·
 Scientology in Germany
 

  


Categories: Cult-related books
Books about mind control




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Releasing_the_Bonds