J. Gordon Melton

Dr. J. Gordon Melton is the director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is a research specialist with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialization is religion and New Religious Movements and he is the author of more than twenty-five books, including several encyclopedias, handbooks, and almanacs on American religion and new religious movements. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

A graduate of Birmingham Southern College and Garrett Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1968), Melton was ordained as an elder in the United Methodist church and remains under bishop's appointment to this day. Melton pursued graduate studies at Northwestern University where he received his Ph.D. in the History and Literature of Religions in 1975. His doctoral dissertation surveyed some 800 religious groups known to exist in the United States at the time and led to the development of a classification system that has come to be widely used.

Melton is one of the more prominent critics of the anti-cult movement and some of the countercult organizations that he considers biased and ignorant.

In an interview on new religions with Speak Magazine in the summer of 2000, Melton said:

In the West, Christianity has had a corner on the market, religiously speaking, so the number of alternatives available to people has been limited. In essence, one has to get outside the culture to find a different authority. There was no more despised group in the colonial period than the Quakers. Now we think most highly of Quakers. I think that in this century many of the despised religious groups of the past will be rehabilitated and come into their own. As a Christian and an evangelical who wants to convert people to what I believe to be the truth, I want to do so in a setting where I can be assured the choices people make to come to Christianity are free choices. In so far as we coerce society to support us, we lessen our assurance of that freedom.

His interviewer, John Lardas, wrote that:

[Gordon Melton] is a staunch advocate of First Amendment rights and has defended the right of new religions to express themselves, filed legal briefs on their behalf, and taken much heat from his critics who see him as an apologist of nonconformity.

Criticism

Melton is criticized by the anti-cult movement and former members of cults and NRMs for what they consider his uncritical writings about cults and NRMs. Countercult activist Anton Hein has criticized him because of what he considers excessive skepticism of the testimonies of ex-members of new religious movements. [1]. Anti-cult activists label him a cult apologist.

According to the financial books of the Children of God, his institute received money from the Children of God. This happened after he wrote about them. Critics also forward criticism that Melton, in contrast to popular opinion, said about the Peoples Temple, "This wasn't a cult. This was a respectable, mainline Christian group." [2]

In 1995, Melton was part of an American delegation, funded by Aum Shinrikyo, that travelled to Japan to investigate Aum's activities and claims of persecution. Numerous leaders of the terrorist cult were later sentenced to death by Japanese courts.

Dr. David C. Lane praises his encyclopedic works but considers him not critical enough about gurus.

Books

• The Church of Scientology (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 1), Signature Books (August 1, 2000), ISBN 1-560851-39-2, 80pp.
• The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, ISBN 0-810322-95-1
• Prime-Time Religion: An Encyclopedia of Religious Broadcasting (co-authored with Phillip Charles Lucas & Jon R. Stone). Oryx, 1997.
• Magic, witchcraft, and paganism in America: A bibliography, compiled from the files of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, Garland Publishing (1982), ISBN 0-824093-77-1
• Encyclopedia of American Religions, Thomson Gale; 7th edition (December 1, 2002), 1250pp, ISBN 0-787663-84-0
• Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom', Beyond Words Publishing, Inc. Hillsboro Oregon, ISBN 1-885223-61-7 (1998)
• Cults, Religion, and Violence, David Bromley and Gordon Melton, Eds., Cambridge University Press (May 13, 2002), 272pp, ISBN 0-521668-98-0
• Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-Clio (September, 2002), 1200pp, ISBN 1-576072-23-1
• Encyclopedia Of Protestantism, Facts on File Publishing (May 30, 2005), 628pp, ISBN 0-816054-56-8

External links

Related sites

• Institute for the Study of American Religion Homepage
• American Religions Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Testimony of J. Gordon Melton Before the Maryland Task Force to Study the Effects of Cult Activities on Public Senior Higher Education Institutions July 14, 1999
• 'Apologist' vs. 'Alarmist' Time Magazine, January 27, 1997 vol. 149 no. 4
• J. Gordon Melton's Interview on New Religions with "Speak Magazine", by John Mardas - No. 2, Summer 2000
• The Organization of Scientology extract from the book "The Church of Scientology" by Melton

Critical sites

• James Gordon Melton on xFamily.org
• Critical study of Gordon Melton's book on Ramtha by Joe Szimhart
• Gordon Melton A set of media articles on Rick Ross website
• J. Gordon Melton page on Melton, by countercult activist Anton Hein