New academic paper: Seeing “Apostates” Clearly: Reconsidering the Legitimacy of Ex-Member Testimony in Documentary Representations of Scientology

ISNOINews

Independent Scientology and Nation of Islam news
New academic paper: Seeing “Apostates” Clearly: Reconsidering the Legitimacy of Ex-Member Testimony in Documentary Representations of Scientology, by Michael Thorn

Journal of Media and Religion

Seeing “Apostates” Clearly: Reconsidering the Legitimacy of Ex-Member Testimony in Documentary Representations of Scientology

Michael Thorn


Published online: 09 Mar 2021


https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/15348423.2021.1875661?scroll=top&needAccess=true


https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2021.1875661


* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes popular and academic reviews of the book and film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief in relation to scholarly debates over the status of “apostate” testimony in the study of New Religious Movements (NRMs). Using a Foucauldian discourse analysis – an examination of contested statements of “truth” – it accounts for the significance of ex-member testimony in recent Scientology exposés and argues the tendency to dismiss such testimony as automatically unreliable needs to be reassessed. Using these exposés and the debate surrounding them as a case study, we can see that considering ex-member testimony as disputed but productive discourse, documentary and journalistic representations of controversial new religions can operate as important sources of information, helping us better map a larger discursive domain wherein allegations of harm intermix with claims of benefit in remarkably complicated ways.

* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *

/
 
Last edited:

ISNOINews

Independent Scientology and Nation of Islam news
This is the second recent academic paper that argues against the unthinking and automatic rejection of so-called "apostate" testimony by New Religious Movement (NRM) scholars. The first was "Apostate Memoirs and the Study of Scientology in the Twenty-First Century," by Carole M. Cusack in Implicit Religion, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2020), published online on 5 Mar 2021.

/
 

ISNOINews

Independent Scientology and Nation of Islam news
The following is courtesy of Incredulicide on WWP.

Hopefully it'll turn up in the future at Journal of Media and Religion | download

References used in it, in BibTex format:

@article {,
author = {Beckford J. A.},
title = {The mass media and new religious movements},
journal = {ISKCON Communications Journal},
volume = {},
pages = {17},
year = {1994}}

@article {,
author = {Blizek W. L.},
title = {Going clear: Scientology and the prison of belief},
journal = {Journal of Religion and Film},
volume = {19},
pages = {33},
year = {2015}
}

@article {,
author = {Bromley D. G.},
author = {Shupe A. D.},
author = {Ventimiglia J. C.},
title = {Atrocity tales, the Unification Church, and the social construction of evil},
journal = {Journal of Communication},
volume = {29},
pages = {42},
year = {1979}
}

@article {,
author = {Cantone J. A.},
author = {Kuss B.},
title = {Ruling through fear: Scientology and Hollywood},
journal = {PsycCRITIQUES},
volume = {60},
pages = {10},
year = {2015}
}

@article {,
author = {Clifford N.},
title = {Cruise control},
journal = {Commonweal},
volume = {140},
pages = {30},
year = {2013}
}

@article {,
author = {Collins B.},
title = {Going clear: Scientology and the prison of belief},
journal = {Religious Studies Review},
volume = {41},
pages = {107},
year = {2015}
}

@article {,
author = {Joly D.},
title = {Sexuality in three ex-Scientology narratives},
journal = {Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review},
volume = {6},
pages = {51},
year = {2015}
}

@article {,
author = {Jorgensen D. L.},
title = {Inside Scientology: The story of America ’s most secretive religion},
journal = {Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions},
volume = {16},
pages = {146},
year = {2013}
}

@article {,
author = {Kent S. A.},
title = {Scientology’s relationship with Eastern religious traditions.”},
journal = {Journal of Contemporary Religion},
volume = {11},
pages = {21},
year = {1996}
}

@article {,
author = {Kent S. A.},
title = {The globalization of Scientology: Influence, control and opposition in transnational markets},
journal = {Religion},
volume = {29},
pages = {147},
year = {1999}
}

@article {,
author = {Kent S. A.},
title = {Scientology – Is this a religion?},
journal = {Marburg Journal of Religion},
volume = {4},
pages = {1},
year = {1999}
}

@article {,
author = {Kent S. A.},
author = {Manca T. A.},
title = {A war over mental health professionalism: Scientology versus psychiatry},
journal = {Mental Health, Religion \& Culture},
volume = {17},
pages = {1},
year = {2013}
}

@article {,
author = {Kent S. A.},
author = {Swanson K.},
title = {The history of credibility attacks against former cult members},
journal = {International Journal of Cultic Studies},
volume = {8},
pages = {1},
year = {2017}
}

@article {,
author = {Langone M.},
title = {The two “camps” of cultic studies: Time for a dialogue},
journal = {},
volume = {},
pages = {},
year = {2000}
}

@article {,
author = {Lewis J. R.},
title = {Apostates and the legitimation of repression: Some historical and empirical perspectives on the cult controversy},
journal = {Sociological Analysis},
volume = {49},
pages = {386},
year = {1989}
}

@article {,
author = {Lewis J. R.},
title = {Free zone Scientology and other movement milieus: A preliminary characterization},
journal = {Temenos},
volume = {49},
pages = {255},
year = {2013}
}

@article {,
author = {Lewis J. R.},
author = {Xinzhang Z.},
title = {Westbrook, Donald A: Among the scientologists: history, theology, and praxis},
journal = {Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion},
volume = {55},
pages = {165},
year = {2019}
}

@article {,
author = {Manca T.},
title = {Book review: Scientology by James R. Lewis (editor)},
journal = {International Journal of Cultic Studies},
volume = {1},
pages = {90},
year = {2010}
}

@article {,
author = {Raine S.},
title = {Surveillance in new religious movements: Scientology as a case study},
journal = {Religious Studies and Theology},
volume = {28},
pages = {63},
year = {2009}
}

@article {,
author = {Richardson J. T.},
title = {Definitions of cult: From sociological-technical to popular},
journal = {Review of Religious Research},
volume = {34},
pages = {348},
year = {1993}
}

@article {,
author = {Schultz N. L.},
title = {Going clear: Scientology and the prison of belief},
journal = {The Journal of American History},
volume = {102},
pages = {972},
year = {2015}
}

@article {,
author = {Shriver G. H.},
title = {Going clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the prison of belief},
journal = {Choice},
volume = {50},
pages = {235},
year = {2013}
}

@article {,
author = {Straus R.},
title = {Scientology “ethics”: Deviance, identity and social control in a cult-like social world},
journal = {Symbolic Interaction},
volume = {9},
pages = {67},
year = {1986}
}.

@article {,
author = {Weir L.},
title = {The concept of truth regime},
journal = {Canadian Journal of Sociology},
volume = {33},
pages = {367},
year = {2008
}

/
 
Top