The Family Survival Trust

Last updated
The Family Survival Trust
Formation1976
Type Anti-cult organization
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Membership
500 plus
Chairman
Honorable Tom Sackville
Website thefamilysurvivaltrust.org

The Family Survival Trust (FST) is a charity registered in the United Kingdom, established in order to support and offer counselling for members of abusive cults, religions, and similar organizations, and their families members. [1]

Contents

It evolved out of the work of FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Rescue/Resource), Britain's main anti-cult group in November 2007.

History

The Family Survival Trust evolved from FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Rescue), Britain's first anti-cult group. [2] [3] FAIR was founded in 1976 by MP Paul Rose, as a support group for friends and relatives of "cult" members, [2] with an early focus on the Unification Church, although in the years following this focus expanded to include other new religious movements (NRMs) or what it referred to as "cults". [3] In the late 1970s, it started to publish FAIR News to provide information and reports on new religious movements.

FST is a member of FECRIS. [4]

Family, Action, Information, Rescue

Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR) was founded by MP Paul Rose in 1976 to address enquiries from constituents and complaints from parents about their adult children joining NRMs. [3] Its membership includes many committed Christians; however, FAIR regarded itself and its outlook as non-religious. [4] However, NRM scholar George D. Chryssides pointed out at the time that "[a]lthough FAIR officials [rejected] the term 'anti-cult', FAIR's main strategy seems designed to hamper the progress of NRMs in a variety of ways." [5] It also publicly disapproved of activities like "Moonie bashing". [6] Yet Elisabeth Arweck adds that FAIR's "commitment to raise cult awareness was tempered by repeated warnings against witchhunts". [7]

The organization renamed itself as "Family, Action, Information, Resource" in 1994 [8] in order to denote a concern "more with the place of these cults in public life and governments than with the issues of recruitment and brainwashing, although these remain[ed] important." [9]

FAIR was initially perceived as supporting "deprogramming", but then publicly distanced itself from it, [10] [11] citing such reasons as high failure rates, damage to families and civil liberty issues. In 1985, FAIR co-chairman Casey McCann said that FAIR neither recommended nor supported coercive deprogramming and disapproved of those practicing it, considering "coercive deprogramming a money-making racket which encouraged preying on the misery of families with cult involvement." [11]

FAIR's applications for government funding were not successful; such funding instead gone to INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements), set up in 1988 by the sociologist Eileen Barker, with the support of Britain's mainstream churches. [12] Relations between FAIR and INFORM have at times been strained, with FAIR accusing INFORM of being too soft on cults. [13] FAIR chairman Tom Sackville as MP and Home Office minister abolished government funding for the INFORM in 1997 but funds was reinstated in 2000. [14]

In 1987, an ex-FAIR committee member, Cyril Vosper, was convicted in Munich on charges of kidnapping and causing bodily harm to German Scientologist Barbara Schwarz in the course of a deprogramming attempt. [11] [15]

Cultists Anonymous

In 1985 ex-members of FAIR who believed that the group had become too moderate created a splinter group called Cultists Anonymous. [11] The hardliner Cultists Anonymous group was short-lived and rejoined FAIR in 1991. [16]

Activities

The Family Survival Trust provides a confidential helpline for individuals and families effect by cult involvement and organizes national conferences. [17] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that attempts to help someone who has "strongly held convictions," often coming from cults or New Religious Movements (NRM). Deprogramming aims to assist a person who holds a controversial or restrictive belief system in changing those beliefs and severing connections to the associated group which created and controls that belief system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eileen Barker</span> British professor of sociology

Eileen Vartan Barker is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairperson and founder of the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM) and has written studies about cults and new religious movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New religious movement</span> Religious community or spiritual group of modern origin

A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges which the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide, with most of their members living in Asia and Africa. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.

David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, specialized in sociology of religion and the academic study of new religious movements. He has written extensively about cults, new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.

The anti-cult movement consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of cults, uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices.

The Dialog Center International (DCI) is a Christian counter-cult organization founded in 1973 by a Danish professor of missiology and ecumenical theology, Dr. Johannes Aagaard (1928–2007). Considered Christian apologetic and missionary minded, the Dialog Center, led by Aagaard, was for many years the main source of information in Denmark on cults, sects, and new religious movements (NRMs). The Dialog Center is firmly against religious beliefs of cults but promotes dialogue between cult members and their families. It rejects deprograming, believing that it is counterproductive and ineffective, and can harm the relationship between a cult member and concerned family members. It is active in 20 countries. In Asia it also tries to spread Christianity with Buddhists.

Cyril Ronald Vosper was an anti-cult leader, former Scientologist and later a critic of Scientology, deprogrammer, and spokesperson on men's health. He wrote The Mind Benders, which was the first book on Scientology to be written by an ex-member, and the first critical book on Scientology to be published.

<i>The Mind Benders</i> (book)

The Mind Benders was written by Cyril Vosper, a Scientologist of 14 years who had become disillusioned, Published in 1971 and reprinted in 1973, it was the first book on Scientology to be written by an ex-member and the first critical book on Scientology to be published. It describes the lower levels of Scientology and its philosophy in detail and also includes the story of Vosper's expulsion from the Church.

The academic study of new religious movements is known as new religions studies (NRS). The study draws from the disciplines of anthropology, psychiatry, history, psychology, sociology, religious studies, and theology. Eileen Barker noted that there are five sources of information on new religious movements (NRMs): the information provided by such groups themselves, that provided by ex-members as well as the friends and relatives of members, organizations that collect information on NRMs, the mainstream media, and academics studying such phenomena.

<i>The New Believers</i>

The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, 'Cults', and Alternative Religions, is a book by David V. Barrett covering the origin, history, beliefs, practices and controversies of more than sixty new religious movements, including The Family International, International Church of Christ, Osho (Rajneesh), Satanism, New Kadampa Tradition, Wicca, Druidry, chaos magic, Scientology, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism</span>

FECRIS – (in French)European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism, a French non-profit association and anti-cult organization, serves as an umbrella organization for groups which investigate the activities of groups considered cults in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">INFORM</span> Organization

INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements) is an independent registered charity located in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College, London; from 1988-2018 it was based at the London School of Economics. It was founded by the sociologist of religion, Eileen Barker, with start-up funding from the British Home Office and Britain's mainstream churches. Its stated aims are to "prevent harm based on misinformation about minority religions and sects by bringing the insights and methods of academic research into the public domain" and to provide "information about minority religions and sects which is as accurate, up-to-date and as evidence-based as possible."

Peter Bernard Clarke was a British scholar of religion and founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary Religion.

The "New Cult Awareness Network" is an organization that provides information about cults, and is owned and operated by associates of the Church of Scientology, itself categorized in many countries as a cult. It was formed in 1996, with the name purchased from the now defunct Cult Awareness Network, an organization that provided information on groups it considered to be cults, and that strongly opposed Scientology.

Michael Thomas M. Casey McCann, commonly known as Casey McCann or M. T. M. Casey McCann, was an anti-cult activist in Britain, Sevenoaks School staff person in Kent, and headmaster of St. Paul's British School in São Paulo, Brazil. He is well-known for his co-leadership in Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR) in the 1980s with Lady Daphne Vane.

Ian Haworth is a British anti-cultist. Originally from Lancashire, United Kingdom, he moved to and lived in Toronto, Canada, in late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s. He returned to Britain in 1987 and founded the Cult Information Centre, a major anti-cult organization, of which he is "General Secretary." He also founded the Council on Mind Abuse (COMA) in 1979 in Toronto.

Cultists Anonymous (CA) was a British anti-cult organization made up of ex-cultists from Family, Action, Information, and Rescue (FAIR), Britain's largest anti-cult organization. CA formed in 1985 but rejoined FAIR in 1991. CA's leaders generally remained anonymous to avoid intimidation from new religious movements (NRMs). However, George D. Chryssides, a British religious studies scholar, believes that Lord John Francis Rodney, 9th Baron Rodney (Lord Rodney) was the leader of the group.

Graham Baldwin is a British anti-cult activist who formed and directs the organization Catalyst Counseling, commonly called Catalyst, which received charity status in Britain in 1995. Catalyst primarily provides "exit counseling" to ex-cultists, but occasionally Baldwin would be consulted for news organizations, court cases, etc. Baldwin received a Bachelor's degree in divinity from King's College and was a chaplain at the University of London. Baldwin has been called an "exit counsellor" by some newspapers like The Times and The Telegraph.

Martin Faiers is a British deprogrammer and former official in the Unification Church in Canada. He was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. His family members are publishers of This England, a quarterly magazine about small-town and country England. According to scholar Elisabeth Arweck, Faiers lives in southern France and works in the Spanish deprogramming "market." In addition to being a deprogrammer, he also organized for several years a UK organization called Council on Mind Abuse.

The People's Organised Workshop on Ersatz Religion (POWER), also called the People's Organised Workgroup on Ersatz Religion, was a British anti-cult organisation founded in 1976 based in Ealing, London. Some believe that POWER is a front organisation by large new religious movements (NRMs) meant to delegitimise other anti-cult organisations like Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR). POWER functionally disappeared in 1977 but caused major controversy within its roughly one-year lifespan. The organisation published a brochure called Deprogramming: The Constructive Destruction of Belief: A Manual of Technique, which advocated for mass deprogramming of cult members, including methods like sleep deprivation, food deprivation, forced nudity, kidnapping, and "aggressive sex".

References

  1. ↑ "OpenCharities".
  2. 1 2 Arweck, Elisabeth (2006). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Routledge. pp. 111–112.
  3. 1 2 3 George D. Chryssides, "Britain's anti-cult movement," in New Religious Movements: Challenges and Response, eds. Bryan R. Wilson and Jamie Cresswell, 257–73. London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN   0-415-20050-4. p. 260
  4. 1 2 Elisabeth Arweck, "Anti-Cult Movement: FAIR, Cult Information Centre (CIC)," in Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements, ed. Peter B. Clarke, 35–8. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
  5. ↑ Chryssides, George D. "Britain's Anti-cult Movement". In New religious movements: challenge and response, edited by. Brian R. Wilson and Jamie Cresswell. Routledge, 1999. pp. 260–261
  6. ↑ Arweck, Elisabeth (2006). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Routledge. p. 119.
  7. ↑ Arweck, Elisabeth (2006). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Routledge. pp. 124–125.
  8. ↑ Chryssides, "Britain's anti-cult movement," 263.
  9. ↑ Clarke, Peter Bernard. New religions in global perspective: a study of religious change in the modern world. Routledge, 2006. Page 52
  10. ↑ Woodhead, Linda, Kawanam & Fletcher. Religions in Modern World: Traditions and Transformations. Routledge, 2004. Pg. 322
  11. 1 2 3 4 Arweck, Elisabeth (2006). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Routledge. pp. 130–131.
  12. ↑ Arweck, Elisabeth (2006). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Routledge. pp. 147–148, 188.
  13. ↑ Arweck, Elisabeth (2006). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Routledge. pp. 147–148.
  14. ↑ Telegraph staff (2000-07-31), "Cult advisers in clash over clampdown", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 19 December 2009
  15. ↑ Victor, Peter (1994-10-09). "Anti-cult groups riven by schism and bitter feuds: Many despise rivals more than sects they monitor" . Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  16. ↑ Chryssides, George D. "Britain's Anti-cult Movement". In New religious movements: challenge and response, edited by. Brian R. Wilson and Jamie Cresswell. Routledge, 1999. pg. 266
  17. ↑ "fair-cult-concern.co.uk". www.fair-cult-concern.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
  18. ↑ "Operation Clambake present: Alt.Religion.Scientology Week In Review". www.xenu.net. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.