The Lies Behind Bigotry
CHAPTER ONE:

   The Circular Lie: Religion as Mental Illness

   In secretly trying to lead travelers on a trip to a hateful destination, one must not be too obvious.

   A devious routing is preferred.

   In the case of the old CAN the journey was a circular lie.

   It went like this:

   FIRST STOP:

   religion = cult = something scary

   According to the Oxford dictionary, cult and religion were understood as related for hundreds of years - neither being harmful or alarming.¹

   This changed in the 20th Century when a new definition of "cult" as something strange or fearful was created, refined and constantly reworded by psychologists and psychiatrists.²

   A scholar updating a dictionary expects to be "informing the public of the state of the language as of the time during which his dictionary was compiled."³

   Thus, changing the dictionary meaning of a word is simple - get the new use into academic papers, studies, magazines, and the news (some big circulation publications seem to specialize in the anti-religious application of "cult").⁴ When dictionary editors subsequently survey to ensure they have the most up-to-date meanings, they add the new concept to the official definitions.

   In the case of the redefinition of "cult" the former CAN's files show how they helped this process along. Reinforced by symposiums, papers and conferences CAN's sister group, the AFF's psychiatrists and anti-religious psychologists, not religious scholars, incessantly quoted themselves.^{5a 5b 5c 5d}

   This enabled CAN to write letters, publish articles and get quoted by media hawking the potential harm of cults, using generalities such as "thousands" and "millions" without quoting any studies or specifics.⁶

   The fabricated definition for "cult" of overly devoted attachment, or somewhat irrational leanings, unheard of before the turn of the century, came to be included in popular English dictionaries.⁷

   The formerly benign word had been made sinister.

   HOW WAS THIS DISTASTEFUL TREK CREATED?

   Note the AFF's board and officers and compare them to the former Cult Awareness Network's advisors and affiliates,³⁶ read psychiatry's own manual on diseases³⁷ and decide for yourself if the psychiatric lie of "cult" brainwashing was anything more than an attempt to bilk insurance companies and to fraudulently obtain taxpayer dollars to fund endless research into a illusory problem.

   The old CAN's otherwise unemployable leaders,³⁸ operating CAN as a front group^{39a 39b} for the AFF's unpopular dollar hunters, seem to have conned themselves into believing the lie.

   The old CAN is no more.

   It is important when setting out to fool the world to keep oneself off the list.

   SECOND STOP:

   something scary = destructive

   The leap from scary to destructive was a short one.

   An isolated 1978 tragedy in a remote South American jungle (of a Christian group known for years as activists for racial equality and hailed for helping the homeless and jobless), was exploited as a "sample" of things to come unless action was taken. Yet the fear-monger message of a "mass suicide" is not borne out by the facts.

   CAN exploited the tragedy to position itself as the organization warning about "dangerous" and "destructive" cults. As evidenced by a 1984 letter by a CAN official, CAN had many members who would be very happy to furnish documented evidence of "the destructive nature of the groups in question."⁹ CAN's official 1986 affiliate agreement included the mandate to "supply information on the harmful practices of destructive groups."¹⁰ A 1989 memorandum from its National Office stated that CAN's central purpose was "educating the general public regarding the dangers of destructive cults,"¹¹ and this was again reiterated in the 1991 CAN affiliate agreement "to educate the public about the harmful effects of mind control as used by destructive cults."¹² The incorporated purpose by which CAN had obtained tax exemption "to educate the public regarding religious rights, freedoms and responsibilities"¹³ was long forgotten.

   By repeatedly using the words "destructive" and "cult" together as one phrase, CAN effectively redefined the word "cult" so that it had a dangerous connotation.^{14a 14b 14c 14d} Former executive director of CAN, Cynthia Kisser, wrote a 1993 essay for Skeptic magazine which exemplifies this technique. In a three-page article, Kisser used the term "destructive cults" twenty-six times.¹⁵

    Through this propaganda and redefinition the metamorphosis of "cult" was complete - from benign to sinister to destructive.

   THIRD STOP:

   destructive cults = abuse victims

   To perpetuate the "destructive cult" fiction, there had to be victims.

   Former members of a faith could not be individuals who made a choice, later changed their minds and then walked away.

   Instead they had to be positioned as unwilling prey to psychological abuse, and subject to untreated mental conditions.¹⁶

   These words, pure psychobabble, are easily applied to the experience of purchasing a used car or joining a health club.¹⁷

   (The fact that Christian groups were the largest category of churches about which CAN received calls, and which comprised the bulk of their files and made up the largest number of deprogramming victims, was never revealed by the old CAN.)¹⁸

   By labeling religious involvement as abuse (mental abuse, not physical) the obvious follows: no one can see it, no one can feel it, it cannot be measured and it is completely subjective. Unless one is an "expert" in fact, one might not even know it exists.¹⁹

   The result of the "psychological" abuse by religion then is that:

   There are victims who need help

   That help costs money

   The money must be lobbied for to back up the research

   To show that insurance is necessary

   Thus the government should subsidize such

   And the money needs to flow and flow and flow and flow.^{20a 20b}

   An essential ingredient to pushing through all of the above is authority opinion; get a lobbyist²¹ to convince the right people^{22a 22b} that "experts" recognize there is a problem the government must handle. It is important that the lobbyist pushing this agenda, a) fails to disclose the fact that the experts he is citing are actually on the research team of the group he represents²³ and, b) fails to mention certain aspects of his experts' careers that would bring to question their credibility.^{24 25 26 27}

   When perpetuating a myth²⁸some things are better left unsaid.^{29 30 31}

   FOURTH (AND FINAL) STOP:

   abused victims = mental illness

   The word victim implies harm.³²

   Former members of diverse religious groups, getting on with their lives, holding jobs and raising families obviously had no physical harm.

   Thus the "harm" must be psychological, unrecognized even by the subject himself for many years.³³

   That no studies existed to this effect, but instead this theory was disproven, was not a deterrent.

   Continuing to rely on the AFF's debunked stable of "experts", CAN and its affiliates lobbied, wrote newsletters, held workshops, put on conferences, spoke at hearings, coordinated with the American Psychiatric Association and international drug companies, met with public representatives, worked with mental health groups, all to link membership in a "destructive" cult to mental illness^{34a 34b 34c 34d} - and as their own writings reveal - entitle CAN's cohorts to big research funding.³⁵

   Thus we come to the end of CAN's guided tour and bring the journeyman full circle to an evil place he would never have willingly reached:

   religion =

   cult =

   something scary =

   destructive =

   abuse =

   mental illness =

   religion.

   1 - Oxford Dictionary definition of a cult from 1933 edition

   2 - Attachment to a letter from David Bardin of May 5, 1993, giving five different definitions of "cult"

   3 - Excerpt from the Forward of Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition

   4 - Clips of newspaper articles on "cults" from LA Times, New York Times, "Moment" magazine, Modern Maturity, The Washington Times, The Atlanta Journal, The Washington Post

   5a - Page of AFF's letterhead with some of its psychologists and psychiatrists highlighted
   5b - Paper called "CULTS" written by Louis ("Jolly") West where he cites himself and other AFF affiliated people eight times
   5c - Conference on "Cultism" moderated by Louis ("Jolly") West and Michael Langone, both affiliated with the AFF
   5d - Business and the New Age Movement symposium with Carl Raschke, Margaret Singer, Herbert Rosedale, and Richard Ofshe, all AFF affiliated

   6 - Newspaper articles qouting CAN official spokespersons

   7 - Definitions of "cult" from several dictionaries

   8 - Link to official documents released through FOIA requests, now up on the Internet, giving previously unknown account of the days after the tragedy

   9 - Letter to the National Council of Churches from CFF (original CAN) saying this

   10 - CAN's 1986 Affiliate Agreement

   11 - CAN's 1989 Memorandum giving this qoute

   12 - CAN 1991 Affiliate Agreement

   13 - CAN's originally incorporated purpose

   14a,b,c - Articles written by CAN about "destructive" cults

   14d - More recent definitions of the word "cult" where it now means something dangerous

   15 - Article by Kisser in Skeptic

   16 - David Bardin letter to Mental Health Liaison Group

   17 - Excerpt from Dr. Newton Maloney's paper on "Brainwashing, Coercive Persuasion, Undue Influence" stating this

   18 - Link back to the full list of all the groups which CAN had files on

   19 - Quote from Cynthia Kisser that some cults are invisible

   20 - Documents and presentations from CAN's people regarding the need for insurance coverage for "cult victims":
20a - Peter Georgiades letter to Hillary Clinton about the difficulty obtaining medical treatment for people who leave groups
20b - Letter from Lobbyist David Bardin to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation asking for $180,000 to cover "unmet" health needs

   21 - David Bardin lobbyist report, and letter saying he represents both CAN and AFF

   22a - Memo from David Bardin congratulating Congressmen pushing for funding for "cult" victim research
22b - Letter from David Bardin to Tipper Gore's office

   23 - Memos from David Bardin citing AFF and CAN affilitates

   24 - Link to the CESNUR website showing the APA rejected Singer's brainwashing/mind control theories

   25 - Letter from Dr. Lois Holzman outlining that Singer's theories are debunked in the academic community and courts

   26B Letter in which Ford Green writes "by extension, Margaret Singer is slightly short of a bigoted crackpot to assert otherwise

   27 - Daily Oklahoma piece on West killing an elephant while West, himself, was on LSD

   28 - Definition of "myth" from Webster's New World Dictionary

   29 - Dr. Lee Coleman's essay that only "deprogrammed" people ever say they were brainwashed or mind controlled

   30 - Study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of New Religions that Hare Krishna members were the same as people involved in traditional religions

   31 - Apologetic Research Coalition paper pointing out the media definition of the word "cult" is biased, ill-informed and should not be used

   32 - Definition of "victim"

   33 - Singer article which says it might take years to realize the harm

   34a - CAN's newsletter regarding lobbying in Washington DC

   34b - Mental Health Liaison Group approval of CAN for membership

   34c - Letter to the American Psychiatric Association

   34d - Letter from Eli Lilly thanking Cynthia Kisser Can Executive Director for her help

   35 - Memo from Michael Langone regarding David Bardin trying to obtain funding

   36 - Graphic which shows the incestuous relationship between AFF and CAN - plus photos and attachments on several of the names

   37 - Excerpt from Psychiatry's DSM IV - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - defining religious or spiritual problem, and from DSM III, where they label "thought reform" a mental illness

   38 - Declaration from Cynthia Kisser about how no one will hire her

   39a - Letter from Herbert Rosedale explaining how hard AFF had worked to appear separate from CAN

   39b - CAN Board Minutes from June 1986 where Michael Langone explains that AFF has no funds and wants to work closely with CAN to "benefit both organizations"