In the past, clergy malfeasance was mentioned only in passing by group members or adherents. The subject was invisible and those who studied it were often stigmatized as hostile to religion itself. Today clergy misconduct is acknowledged as a social problem with growing conceptual and theoretical implications. In Pastoral Misconduct, Anson Shupe and Janelle M. Eliasson-Nannini argue that the history and traditions of black pastoral leadership, coupled with the close identity of many black congregants with their pastor, congregation, and racial subculture, creates opportunity structures that facilitate predatory behavior. Familiarity and mutual identity frequently leads victims to drop their normal levels of wariness. Major denominations and minor sects have been studied, but this unique study by Shupe and Eliasson-Nannini pursues nuances of pastoral bad behavior in a new context. This book is not a tabloid treatment of the American black church. In fact, the black church becomes the vehicle for a major new sociological development: a theory of clergy misconduct in any minority religion.
It is widely acknowledged that the United States has always provided fertile ground for the growth of new religious movements and cults, but modern organized efforts to oppose and restrict them have been less well understood. In Agents of Discord, Anson Shupe and Susan E. Darnell offer a groundbreaking analysis of the operations and motives of these oppositional groups, which they generally group under the umbrella term of the anticult movement. Historically there have always been parallel groups opposed to certain religious movements, whether these be anti-Quaker, anti-Roman Catholic, or anti-Mormon. The authors establish the cultural context of such movements in the nineteenth century. They point out the link between modern anticult movements and nativist movements in American history. Turning to the postwar era, the authors discuss the rise of anticult movements and focus specifically on one of the most prominent, the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). CAN was a two-tiered organization. Partly composed of volunteers, donors, and families affected by cult movements, it also included what the authors call an "inner sanctum" of behavioral science professionals, attorneys, and deprogrammers. Using never-before-reported data on CAN's activities, the authors cite an extensive history of financial impropriety that finally led to the organization's bankruptcy. They offer a pointed critique, informed by current scholarship, of the "brainwashing" model of mental enslavement presented by the anticult movement that has been a central assumption undergirding its activities. At the same time, they show how increasing professionalization has gradually begun a shift of such movements to a therapeutic model of exit counseling that rejects the crude methods of earlier intervention strategies. In their analysis of the anticult movement nationally and internationally, Shupe and Darnell merge sociological concepts and social history to make unique sense of a heretofore relatively unexplored phenomenon.
Violence, Inequality, and Human Freedom is a sociological introduction to the study of violence that looks at violence on three different levels—structural, institutional, and interpersonal. The third edition is updated throughout, including a new chapter on educational violence and revised sections on economic and international violence.
This book is about how Western social psychology interfaces with an Eastern Zen Buddhist perspective. It is neither a purely Zen Buddhist critique of the former, nor is it merely a social psychological interpretation of Zen. Rather, it is an attempt to create common ground between each through the systematic comparison of certain shared fundamental concepts and ideas. Anglo-American social psychology is not much more than a century old despite having its roots in a broad philosophical tradition. Alternately, the Zen version of Buddhism can trace its historical origins to roughly 1,500 years ago in China. Even though the two arose at different times and at first glance appear stridently antithetical, the authors show that they share considerable areas of overlap. The logic of Zen contemplates the consequences of the taken-for-granted tyranny created by personal memories and culture. These traits, common to every culture, include hubris, greed, self-centeredness, distrust, prejudice, hatred, fear, anxiety, and violence. Social psychology leans more toward a "nurture" rather than "nature" explanation for behavior. Both areas of research are firmly rooted within the domain of sociological social psychology; the processes are also sometimes referred to as learning or conditioning. Zen challenges in radical terms key assumptions of both sociology and psychology concerning individual identity, human nature, and human motivation. This stimulating volume will provoke new thoughts about an old tradition and a newer area of scholarly work.
During the past several years the mass media in the United States has been awash with reports of priestly pedophilia, ecclesiastical cover-up, and clerical intimidation or financial settlements intended to silence victims. Based on journalistic accounts, or scholarly research, it might be assumed that this is a recent phenomenon. Journalist reports began only within the past few years. Similarly, most sociologists of religion and particularly specialists in deviance and criminology did not reflect awareness of clerical misbehavior in their work. Despite this, Anson Shupe shows that clergy deviance, whether it is sexual or otherwise, is not merely a recent problem. It is as old as the church itself and is inevitably bound to recur due to the nature of religious groups. This comprehensive analysis offers the first up-to-date analysis of sexual, economic, and authoritative clergy malfeasance across faiths and denominational authority structures. Drawing on examples taken from antiquity up until the present day, and using reports by historians, theologians, church spokespersons, therapists, social scientists, and journalists, Shupe critically evaluates clergy deviant behavior, dividing it into various types. He also makes use of the therapeutic literature, addressing victimization at the level of the individual, church, and community at large. In this way, he compares the response of the clergy to victims' attempts to mobilize movements calling for church reform. Perhaps most controversial, this book considers the possible relationship of homosexuality in the clergy to the occurrences of scandals in all religious traditions across the board. As an overview of clergy misconduct, this book is singular. There is simply no other comprehensive serious examination of this subject. Written by a sociologist for a wide range of readers, its multi-disciplinary nature, vivid examples, and wealth of research, will make the volume of interest to sociologists of religion and crime, historians and theologians, as well as a general public.
Forword / Phillip E. Hammond - Interpreting the new Christian right : a commentary on the substance and process of knowledge creation / Anson Shupe and David G. Bromley -- The new Christian right and its parent company : a study in political contrasts / James A. Speer -- The wicked shall not bear rule : the fundamentalist heritage of the new Christian right / Ralph Clark Chandler -- Support for the Moral Majority and its sociomoral platform / John H. Simpson -- The Moral Majority viewed sociologically / J. Milton Yinger and Stephen J. Cutler -- Public and clergy setiments toward the Moral Majority : evidence from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex / Anson Shupe and William A. Stacey -- Explaining the new religious right : status politics and beyond / Charles L. Harper and Kevin Leicht -- Some potential causes and consequences of the use of religion broadcasts / Gary D. Gaddy -- Television and popular religion : changes in church offerings / Razelle Frankl -- The new Christian right and the new media / Wesley E. Miller -- Televangelism and the future of American politics / Jeffrey K. Hadden -- The new Christian right and the 1980 elections / Robert Zwier -- No Hoosier hospitality for humanism : the Moral Majority in Indiana / Richard V. Pierard and James L. Wright -- The "Old Right" in action : Mormon and Catholic involvement in an equal rights amendment referendum / James T. Richardson -- The politics of preachers : Southern Baptist ministers and Christian right activism / James L. Guth -- Mobilizing Christians for political action : campaigning with God on your side / Margaret Ann Latus.
This is an updated reprint of a minor classic in the socio-politics of religion, The Mormon Corporate Empire (by John Heinerman and Anson Shupe). This commercially successful (but scholarly respectable) expos_ blends sociological analysis with investigative journalism and demonstrates: (1) that those who investigate the underbelly of large American religions will not only find muck but likely experience derision and even persecution; and (2) that no religion in American society, as a protected institution, can expect or ultimately receive sacrosanct status that exempts it from public accountability. This book provides a factual update on that power as well as the consequences for those who attempt to penetrate its closelyshielded subculture. The LDS Church is not simply another American denomination, and this book shows why. $99.95 324pp. 1992
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