Bitter Winter Magazine: Taiwan, France, Japan: Roots and Consequences of an Anti-Cult Ideology

Taiwan, France, Japan: Roots and Consequences of an Anti-Cult Ideology 05/08/2024 MASSIMO INTROVIGN E

Some had predicted the demise of relig ion in the Global West after the end of the Cold War. It did not happen-which caused harsh reactions. by /Vlassimo lntrovigne·

‘A paper presented at the 4t h internat ional ISFORB (Inst itute for t he Study of Freedom of Religion and Belief) conference, Evangelical Theological Faculty, Leuven, Belgium. May 3, 2024.

/Vlikhail Gorbachev (1931 - 2022, credits), left, and Francis Fukuyama (credits), right.

Why did a reaction hostile to religious liberty manifested itself almost at the same t ime in France, Japan, Taiwan, and other democratic countries (but not alD in t he late 1980s and 1990s? Obviously, t here is not a single answer, but a look at the context may help.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Sov iet Union and announced substantial reforms. The process he started event ually led to t he fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and t he dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although inside the Soviet Union Gorbachev had a somewhat different image than in t he West. I do remember the euphoria generated by his advent and the subsequent events in Eastern Europe. The mood was captured in 1992 by t he famous book by Francis Fukuyama. “The End of History”-later w idely ridiculed, although the content was less na’ive than the t itle.

In short, t he prevailing theory was t hat the story had ended, and t he world or at least the so-called “first world” or t he “Global West” (including Westernized Asian countries such as Japan and Taiwan) will embrace unanimously t he values of a democrat ic, secular, and progressive society. It was admitted that a “Global East” and “Global South,” including the Islamic world. less-Westernized Asian count ries. Africa. Latin America. and Eastern Europe would remain different but many believed it was j ust a matter of t ime before they will also embrace t he victorious secular and liberal ideology as well. China, it was predicted, w ill also become democratic t hrough business and commerce.

These predictions were all wrong, but they were also applied to religion (I would charitably omit the name of some fellow sociologists who fervently believed in them). It was argued that religion in the global West during t he Cold War served to mark the identity and offer a defense against the t hreat of atheistic Soviet Communism. As the latter had disappeared, the need for religion will be greatly reduced. Not only scholars but liberal politicians and journalists repeated this t heory t ime and again.

At first. it looked like they were right. For different reasons. most of t hem not connected wi th the end of the Cold War, the largest Christian churches in the West started losing members and prestige, due in particular to the first sexual abuse scandals and bitter internal controversies about moral issues such as abort ion and homosexualit y, following the post-196os revolution in Western sexual mores.

However, somet hing totally unexpected happened. While in t he Global West (but not elsewhere) t he Cat holic Church

and the historical Protestant churches lost members, less tradi tional religions had a substant ial growt h or reaffirmed t heir presence. They included “old” new religious organizations such as t he Jehovah’s W itnesses, some Pentecostal denominations. or t he Mexico-based La Luz del Mundo. and newer religious movements such as the Church of Scientology or t he Unification Church. It was not only a question of numbers. The Unification Church remained comparatively small but had a substantial political influence, part icularly in Japan. Brand -new religions were also founded, and some were fairly successful. In Taiwan, after t he end of t he Martial Law, some religious and spirit ual groups, including Tai Ji Men, acquired growing visibility and prestige.

A large gathering ofJehovah’s Witnesses. Source: JW.org.

This went against the dominant predictions and mightily disturbed t he liberal politicians and intellectuals who had announced the demise of religion in the Global West T heir answer was that in fact there were no successful new relig ions. Perhaps they were successful. but they were not relig ions at all. but something different: “cults.” “frauds,” or political or even criminal groups d isguised as religions.

Using bricks that already existed, but that were put together in a full-blown theory and were accepted by some governments in the late 1980s and 1990s, they c reated an international ant i-cult ideology, w hich rested on four pillars.

First. “cults” are not religions. Not being religions, t hey are not entitled to religious liberty. Gifts to them should be taxed , which was argued both in France and in Taiwan and of course pleased the tax offices.

Second, they are not religions because, unlike religions, they are not joined freely. Their leaders use a mysterious technique called “brainwashing,” “mental manipulat ion,” or “psychological subj ection”- some were even accused of “raising goblins” as it happened to Tai Ji Men in Taiwan- to manipulate and lure their “vict ims.” This t heory was quickly debunked by scholars as a scientific fraud and a circular argument- we know that Scientology. for example, is a “cult” because it uses “brainwashing,” and we know it uses “brainwashing” because it is a “cult “- but cont inues to be used by governments and included in laws and regulat ions. from France to Japan.

Tai Ji /Vien protests in Taiwan.

Third, we know t hat “cults” use “brainwashing” because, while we should not believe academic scholars who are by defin ition na’ive or paid “cult apologists,” we should believe those ex-members who have turned into opponents of the movements they have left and claim t hey were “brainwashed” Sociologists call these hostile ex-members “apostates” and note t hat the majority of ex-members are not promoting campaigns against t he groups t hey have left and t hus are not “apostates.”

Fourth, we know that among m illions of ex-members, not to mention actual mem bers, of religions stigmatized as “cults,” we should believe t he “apostates,” and not t he others, although they are a tiny m inority, because they are presented to the governments, t he courts, and the media, by t he ant i-cult associat ions t hat, unlike t he scholars, “tell the t ruth” because t hey represent t he “victims” and occupy a higher moral ground.

Of course, this model can be shortened to one single passage: a group is a “cult” if anti-cult organizations or their international federations such as FECRIS say it is a “cult.”

German. Canadian. and Italian anti-cultists at an anti-cult conference in Russia.

T he model has no scientific value and j ust functions as a political tool to d iscriminate against groups some lobbies or powers do not like. However, it is very convenient for t hose w ho want to perpetuate the myth that in the post -Cold -War Global West (unlike in the ’ backward” Global East or Global South) religion, particularly conservative religion. is by definition declining and t he t riumph of progressive, liberal. and secular values is unavo idable and irreversible.

Ideologists are dangerous. If the realit y does not conform to their ideology, they usually take a hammer-or a hammer and a sickle in the case of Communists-and start hittin g t he reality. When you hit hard t he reality, blood normally comes out. Punishing Tai Ji Men and other groups as religious frauds and hitting them w ith taxes in Taiw an, mobilizing left-wing activists against t he Unification Church and creating a climate in Japan that is now assault ing other groups such as the Jehovah’s W it nesses, and legislating against “brainw ashing,’’ under any other name, in France are all by- products of the same obnoxious ideology.

TAGGED WITH: ANTI-CULT, FRANCE, JAPAN , RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, TAI JI M EN, TAIWAN

Massimo lntrovigne Massimo lntrovigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. lntrovigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclo12edia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the lnterdisci12linart Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religi,Q. From January 5 to December 31, 2011. he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination. with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Qrganization for Securitt and Co-012eration in Euro12e (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty. instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

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