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DISKUS Vol. 4, No.2 (1996) NEW RELIGIONS AND THE INTERNET Dr George D Chryssides University of Wolverhampton, Religious Studies Section Walsall Campus Gorway Road, Walsall WS1 3BD England UK Tel: +44(0)1902 323271 Fax: +44(0)1902 323271 e-mail: G.D.Chryssides@wlv.ac.uk http://www.wlv.ac.uk/ ABSTRACT The author explores NRM-related use of the internet, taking as examples two new religious movements and their critics. The Jehovah's Witnesses' attitude to the Net is cautious, fearful of 'apostasy'. The Church of Scientology provides a contrasting case study of legal battles and successes. Anti-cultists using the Internet include principally the American Family Foundation (USA) and the Reachout Trust (Britain). The article provides numerous website addresses, highlighting the problems posed for students and scholars by the Net's vast resources. The media are not renowned for sympathetic treatment of new religious movements (NRMs). NRMs have been portrayed as naive, bizarre or dangerous, and they have been afforded little opportunity to put their own case to the media. When Labour Party MP Ann Clwyd attempted to introduce a Right of Reply bill to the UK Parliament in 1988, her actions were strongly supported by The Church of Scientology, but when, like most private members' Bills, it failed to become law, the public perception of NRMs continued to depend almost exclusively on the image which was projected by the newspapers and the television channels. The advent of the Internet arguably heralds a change. NRMs are not reliant on sympathetic editors to be given a page in which to present their beliefs and practices or to rebut criticism. All they need is an appropriate computer and a server subscription, which can be obtained for a modest fee. The Internet, like the Savoy Hotel, is open to all! Many of the new religions have availed themselves of the opportunity to 'go on the Net', for a variety of reasons. The prestige value of a web page is no doubt a contributory reason; however, more importantly, numerous religious organizations have realized that some net surfers are using the Net to find varieties of religion that may fulfil their spiritual needs. One incident that reinforced the Unitarians' decision to provide web pages was a report of someone who wanted their newly born child blessed, but without a traditional baptism. The plethora of religions that feature on the Net can enable the seeker to choose from the widest possible range. Even if surfers do not convert to the religions they find, they can at least savour something of the spiritual practices, without even having to seek out the organization. ISKCON (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness) offers the Bhagavad Gita<1> in its entirety (in Prabhupada's 'As It Is' version, of course) and has made available a complete book on vegetarianism, presumably to entice readers to an alternative diet to meat, fish and eggs.<2> In addition to its wares, 'World of Osho' provides a 'No Thought for the Day' on which one's no-self might reflect!<3> As well as providing information on 'auditing' (that is, the distinctive form of Dianetics counselling), The Church of Scientology is one of a number of groups that enables the surfer to order books and goods by electronic mail. Some web sites invite queries from individual surfers with the offer of a personal response. For some new religions the dominant concern is to provide objective information that is unfiltered by unsympathetic critics, or even to rebut public criticism. Thus, The Family (formerly The Children of God) has used the Net to respond to recent allegations about child abuse. Those who visit the Worldwide Church of God's site can find back numbers of The Plain Truth<4> and the Unification Church (whose pages were still under construction at the time of writing) has made available, amongst other items, the Divine Principle text in its entirety (although not the new version, Exposition of the Divine Principle<5>), a fairly comprehensive electronic library of the speeches of its founder-leader, the Rev Sun Myung Moon, and the date of the next Blessing ceremony (November 1997).<6> The use and maintenance of web sites raises a number of issues for certain new religious movements, and in what follows I want to explore some of these. As case studies, I want to take two NRMs that have been particularly affected by Internet issues: the Jehovah's Witnesses and The Church of Scientology. The Jehovah's Witnesses It may come as a surprise that the attitude of the Jehovah's Witnesses to the Internet is a rather negative one. This is so, notwithstanding the fact that, since their early days, the Witnesses have proudly availed themselves of the latest modern technology for the propagation of their message. Joseph Franklin Rutherford ('Judge Rutherford'), their second leader, who took office in 1917, recorded many of his sermons on the gramophone - the high technology of the time - and the door-to-door missionaries would play his message to interested households.<7> More recently, the availability of computers and in particular the CD-ROM has enabled Witnesses to access all back numbers of The Watchtower and Awake! from the 1950s to the present, with search facilities which allow users to locate all available references on any selected theme. What, then, is the problem with the Internet? First, the Internet cannot serve as a substitute for the traditional door-to-door ministries. While some other denominations may rent Internet pages on the grounds that there may be seekers 'out there' who are browsing the Net to find a form of religion to suit their particular needs, the traditional door-to-door ministries of the JW's are justified on the grounds that they continue the early Church practice of taking the gospel message 'from house to house'.<8> By a remarkable coincidence, just as I was attempting to find the JW home page on the Net, two Witnesses rang my door bell. When I explained what I had been doing, their comment was, 'Why do you need the Internet when we are here?'! The Jehovah's Witnesses' main concern about the Internet, however, is the fear of 'apostasy'. Predictably there are many ex-members, Christian evangelicals and anti-cultists who seek to use the net to propagate refutations of the Witnesses' teachings and practices. Just as the door-to-door Witness will refuse to accept any 'apostate' literature, so maintenance of faith entails that the 'brothers' are cautioned to be extremely careful about how they use the Internet. It is not true, as has been claimed,<9> that they are prohibited from the Net: on the contrary, some Witnesses work with computers as their livelihood, and it is therefore inevitable that they will encounter web pages. A recent article in The Watchtower offered the following advice: Modern computers have opened other avenues to bad association. Some commercial firms enable subscribers using a computer and a telephone to send a message to electronic bulletin boards; a person can thus post on the bulletin board a message that is open to all subscribers. This has led to so-called electronic debates on religious matters. A Christian might be drawn into such debates and may spend many hours with an apostate thinker who may have been disfellowshipped from the congregation. The direction at 2 John 9-11 underscores Paul's fatherly counsel about avoiding bad associations.<10> Anxiety about the Net is understandable. The amount of Internet material on the Witnesses is profuse: at the time of writing, a subject search offered 25,813 potentially relevant sites, and it was extremely difficult to locate any material that was reasonably sympathetic. Furthermore, it proved extremely difficult to identify material produced by the Witnesses themselves. For example, one page called 'Jehovah's Witness Truthnet' is described by the search engine Lycos as the 'Jehovah's Witness Home Page', which it is not.<11> Another site claims reassuringly, 'There is no "Apostate" material on this page. What is presented is Watchtower material.'<12> This claim also proves to be untrue: although the authors present material from past editions of The Watchtower, these are interspersed with commentary which is designed to refute their claims. A further site, called 'The Interactive Bible' offers a page specifically designed for the new convert to the Witnesses. It reads: 'Welcome JW New Convert - We speak the truth in Love' and proceeds to offer counter-arguments to JW teachings.<13> The site offers the icon of a coastguard's life belt, bearing the instruction, 'How to be saved', and a further button invites the user to 'click here to tell us how we misrepresented Jehovah's Witnesses', offering immediate correction of misinformation. Whether new converts to the Witnesses are likely to use this site I very much doubt; but of course early converts are probably not in a position to distinguish accurate characterization from misrepresentation. I managed to find only one genuine official Watchtower home page.<14> It was extremely modest, offering no more than a couple of addresses for further information: no teachings, or even addresses of Kingdom Halls. There were a few unofficial pages which were provided by individual Witnesses in their personal capacity,<15> and some of these were grouped by one of the 'brothers', with hypertext cross-references.<16> Some offered an outline of the organization's teachings, and another offered a lively and light-hearted set of translations of JW jargon.<17> There are also sites offering information on alternatives to blood transfusion.<18> Some Witnesses will use the Internet to participate in discussion groups. In order to gain access to such groups, the brother or sister must secure the recommendation of one of the Elders: this is to prevent apostates gaining access, or members who might be unsuited to participate in electronic discussions. These groups are not, strictly, for 'discussion' of religious teachings, as might happen in a University seminar, since 'the truth' is not negotiable through discussion. Consequently, the JW discussion groups do not argue about Christian doctrines, but instead exchange experiences about door-to-door ministries and offer mutual support and encouragement. The Church of Scientology As a contrast to the Jehovah's Witnesses, I offer The Church of Scientology. Almost as soon as it was possible, Scientologists took to the Internet as a means of propagating 'the tech'. There are several official sites, offering generous supplies of Scientology and Dianetics resources.<19> One offers voluminous writings by their late founder-leader L Ron Hubbard, including information from the 1950 best seller Dianetics<20> and substantial sections of their definitive work What is Scientology?<21> Many of LRH's lectures are available in audible as well as written form, and one can listen to LRH's music from Mission Earth and The Road to Freedom. Any of seven different languages can be selected in which to access the material.<22> Excerpts from The Scientology Handbook are available, which instruct the reader in how to perform the various Scientology 'assists', amongst other things. The enquirer can also locate his or her nearest 'org' (Dianetics Centre). It is also possible, if one's computer memory is sufficient, to undertake 'virtual reality tours' of various Scientology 'orgs', and of the LRH Life Exhibition in Los Angeles. What is not available from The Church of Scientology is the Operating Thetan ('OT') material. This material has always been strictly controlled by the Church, and a Scientologist is only allowed to progress to this stage of spiritual development after being judged to be 'clear' - that is to say, rid of the 'engrams' (effects of bad past experiences on one's 'reactive mind') which can be eliminated through 'auditing'. It is the OT material that belongs to Scientology proper, and constitutes the specifically religious aspects of the organization; Dianetics, by contrast, is the study which prepares the seeker for this, by enabling him or her to become 'clear'. Although one can find much material on the Internet which disparages Scientology, The Church of Scientology has no intention of restricting its members' access to the Internet. On the contrary: internetting is encouraged, so long as members are not able to gain access to material that is beyond the appropriate level. While The Church of Scientology does not put such material on the Internet, problems have arisen when 'suppressives' have done so. In February 1995, the The Religious Technology Center (RTC) - the arm of The Church of Scientology which endeavours to ensure the purity of its teachings - filed a suit against Dennis Erlich, who posted material which The Church of Scientology regarded as 'Church scriptures'. A similar suit was filed against ex-member Arnaldo Lerma in January 1996, when he posted several dozen pages of OT material on the Internet, allegedly stolen from the Church.<23> The RTC approached the companies that provided Internet access to Erlich, requesting them voluntarily to remove this material. When Netcom Online Services refused, the RTC added them, together with the bulletin board operator, to their suit. The judge did not accept the argument that an Internet server was like a telephone company, which would normally expect to facilitate the communication of any material whatsoever, without restriction, in the name of freedom of speech.<24> The RTC's action effectively tested how the law relating to copyright applied to the Net, and the Scientologists' legal victory established the precedent that material on the Net was as much the originator's 'intellectual property' as material which appears in the printed word, or on tape. Anti-cultism on the Internet As The Church of Scientology's legal controversies indicate, the anti-cult movement has chosen to use the Net as a way of combating 'cultism'. The bulk of anti-cult Web pages appear to be provided by private individuals who have criticisms of, or even resentments against, new religious movements. Among new religions targeted for attack are what I call the 'New Christian' ones - principally the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons - against which the owners of the site readily compare their doctrines with the Bible. Apart from these, Scientology bears the brunt of much attack, with some 6,482 cult-specific sites offering caustic abuse. Surprisingly, there is little criticism to be found of Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God, perhaps because it is now judged by a growing number of mainstream Christians to be becoming more orthodox in its doctrines. The Seventh-Day Adventists, by contrast, receive much criticism, notwithstanding the fact that for many years they have been Associate Members of the British Council of Churches and are currently granted observer status within the CCBI (Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland). As far as the best known anti-cult groups are concerned, things are somewhat in a state of flux. The US anti-cult organization, the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), rented a site<25> but, largely as a result of lawsuits brought against them by the Church of Scientology, were forced to go into liquidation. The American Family Foundation, however - CAN's parent organization - lives on. By any standards, the AFF's site is an impressive one. It contains the AFF mission statement, which reads as follows: "What is AFF? AFF is a secular, nonprofit, tax-exempt research center and educational organization founded in 1979. AFF's purpose is to study psychological manipulation and high-control and cultic groups, to educate the public, and to help those who have been affected by a cultic experience or psychological abuse. AFF encompasses a growing network of more than 100 volunteer professionals in fields ranging from education, psychology, and religion to journalism, law enforcement, and business. AFF is funded by grants, literature sales, and donations. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent provided by the law."<26> Additionally, the reader can find a checklist of cult characteristics, promotion of AFF's two journals, Cultic Studies and The Cult Observer, and a comprehensive alphabetical index by means of which one can locate articles on selected cults. Some of the titles are somewhat bizarre, like 'Space Alien Get [sic] 20 Years for Abusing Children', but the range is impressive. There is a resource page, indicating where one might find help if one's friends or family are involved in a 'cult', and also a calendar of anti-cult events. If one wants to subscribe to the journal or make a donation to AFF, all one needs to do is to key in one's name, address and credit-card number. AFF has not inserted its own summaries of specific NRMs' beliefs and practices. Instead, the organization cross-refers to other web pages, which provide a range of information about NRMs. Perhaps surprisingly, these lists of pages include numerous favourable ones - even NRMs' own pages - as well as those of the aggrieved opponents. The AFF pages convincingly illustrate the advantages of the Internet over the conventional leaflets and booklets which the anti-cultists have distributed in the past. Concerned parents and friends have a comprehensive range of resources in their home, provided by the Internet, and do not have to rely on - probably meagre - public library resources, which may not include the relevant NRM, or on contacting a local religious leader, who may be insufficiently informed about it. When concerned parties 'do not know where to turn', the Internet can show them the entire map of available resources. Unlike the medium of the book or leaflet, a web notice can signal coming events, and information can be constantly updated. In Britain, Family Action Information and Resource (FAIR) is not on the Net. FAIR has only recently acquired the technology to produce its new-style desk-top published quarterly Newsletters: until late 1994 FAIR News was a 'church hall' style publication. FAIR claims to run on a financial shoe-string,<27> and at the moment disseminates information about NRMs by traditional means, providing occasional information about NRM-related Internet affairs and the odd site address, such as CAN's. The Christian evangelical organization The Reachout Trust, by contrast, has been more adventurous, although at the time of writing its site was still under construction.<28> The site offers some interactive use, offering a grid from which the browser may select 'CULTS', 'OCCULT', 'NEW AGE' and 'OTHER'. Reachout's taxonomies have always been somewhat problematic, but this is an issue which must await separate discussion elsewhere. Under 'CULTS' one finds the Baha'i, the Central Churches of Christ, the Christadelphians, The Family, Freemasonry (perhaps surprisingly), the Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter Day Saints, and - inevitably - the Unification Church. There is currently no information on Scientology or on ISKCON, although no doubt this will be provided in the future, since it is already covered in Reachout's written materials.<29> Reachout's choice of targets presumably reflects the strong concern which it has expressed in the past about 'pseudo-Christian cults' which in Reachout's view purport to offer salvation to the seeker but fail to deliver the goods. This makes them doubly dangerous: those NRMs that make no claim to be Christian cannot be confused with the true gospel message. Reachout's 'OCCULT' and 'NEW AGE' lists reflect a Christian evangelical concern with activities which can easily creep into Christianity and influence those who might see no harm in such activities, or consider them to be 'just a bit of fun'. Examples include Halloween, alternative therapies, yoga and the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, all of which have previously borne the brunt of Christian evangelical attack.<30> Reachout's web site provides skeletal accounts of its main concerns about its selected targets, and anyone surfing the web could with ease find numerous sites that would provide much more detailed information and - if one wanted - criticism. Although Reachout's site has some internal hypertext cross-referencing. it is surprising that it offers no external hypertext links to other sites which the seeker would undoubtedly find much more informative. It is difficult to see what motive a Christian organization has for posting material on the Net which already exists in more detailed and superior form. Perhaps Reachout is merely wanting to put its own mark on cult matters, feeling it has played its part in 'combatting the cults'. Conclusion As one might expect, the Internet affords an enormous variety of source material on new religious movements. The Internet has certainly enabled the new religions themselves to have a voice of their own, unobstructed by editorial processes, to which seekers and members of the public can gain access. Legal issues apart, however, the absence of editorial constraints has the consequence that some of the material that can be found on the Net falls far below the standard of even the worst examples of traditional vanity publishing. Scholars involved in the academic study of religions will not find themselves short of sources of information. Since it is impossible to call up 6,482 sources on Scientology, or whatever religion we want to research, the main problem is in ensuring that we have located all the best possible sources. As is their wont, the anti-cultists will always be able to point to some supposedly definitive source on the Net which we have not read and which will provide a compelling expose, of the NRM in question. For those of us who teach, our students will need to be encouraged to evaluate their sources all the more and to make an intelligent, and difficult, judgement about the balance to strike between using the new high-tech electronic sources and the more traditional activities of researching the written material in books and journals. --------------------------------------- NOTES <1> http://www.krsna.com/-btg <2> Adiraja Dasa. Vegetarianism: A Means to a Higher End http://webcom.com/~ara/col/books/VEG/hkvc1.html <3> http://www.osho.org.uk <4> http://www.wcg.org <5> Eu, Hyo Won Exposition of the Divine Principle. <6> http://www.cais.com/unification/index.html <7> Anon, Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, p.87 <8> Acts 20.20. <9> The Interactive Bible: http://www/bible.ca/Jw-inspiration.htm <10> Anon, 'Let no-one spoil your useful habits', p 15 <11> http://www.engfnd/org/tn/jehwit.htm <12> http://members.gnn.com/kingcome/cults/jw/jwl.htm <13> http://www.bible.ca/Jw-inspiration.htm http://bible.ca/bible.ca/bible.htm <14> http://www.afn.org/~witness/wtbts.html <15> http://www.afn.org/~witness/witness/exper.html#sweeden <16> http://www.wpg.ramp.net/~mptech/mpwhojw.htm <17> Newton, 'Glossary of American English Hacker Theocratese'. http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~lnewton/glossary/ <18> 'No Blood Resources': http://www.wpg.ramp.net/~mptech/mpblood.htm 'The Bloodless Resources Network': http://www.noblood.com/ <19> http://www.scientology.org http://www.dianetics.org http://www.lronhubbard.org <20> Hubbard, Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health. <21> The Church of Scientology, What is Scientology? <22> Anon, 'Scientology arrives on the Internet' <23> FAIR News, Spring 1996, p 15; CAN News November/December 1995. <24> Anon, 'Protecting Ownership On the Internet'. <25> http://www.xnet.com/can/ 1 July 1996. <26> http://www.csj.org/ <27> FAIR News, Summer 1993, p 14. <28> http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~reachout/ <29, Harris, Cult Critiques.; pp 95-98. Harris, Occult Overviews and New Age Agendas, pp 45-48 <30> Harris, Occult Overviews and New Age Agendas., pp 21-22. REFERENCES Adiraja Dasa. Vegetarianism: A Means to a Higher End. 4 September 1996; URL: http://webcom.com/~ara/col/books/VEG/hkvc1.html Anon. 'Legal Notes'; FAIR News, Spring 1996, p 15; CAN News November/December 1995. Anon. 'Let no-one spoil your useful habits'; The Watchtower, 1 August, 1993. Anon. 'Protecting Ownership On the Internet'. Freedom, 1996. Anon. 'Scientology arrives on the Internet' International Scientology News Magazine, Issue 1, 1996. Anon. FAIR News, Summer 1993. Anon. Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom. Brooklyn, New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1993 Church of Scientology: What is Scientology? Hollywood, California: Bridge Publications, 1992. Eu, Hyo Won. Exposition of the Divine Principle. New York, The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1996 Harris, D. Cult Critiques. Richmond, Surrey: Reachout Trust, 1995. Harris, D. Occult Overviews and New Age Agendas. Richmond, Surrey: Reachout Trust, 1995. Hubbard, L. R. Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health. Redhill, Surrey, New Era Publications UK, 1950, 1988. Interactive Bible, The 'Why the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses FEARS the Internet!' 1 September 1996. URL: http://www/bible.ca/Jw-inspiration.htm Newton, Lynn D 'Glossary of American English Hacker Theocratese', 1996. URL: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~lnewton/glossary/
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