International Cultic Studies Association

Anti-cult organization

International Cultic Studies Association

Formation| 1979, as American Family Foundation (AFF), renamed in 2004
Founder| Kay Barney
Location|

* Savannah, Georgia, United States

Area served

| Global

Executive Director

| Jacqueline Johnson, DSW

President

| Debby Schriver
Website| www.icsahome.com

The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) is a non-profit educational and anti-cult organization. It publishes the International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation, "ICSA Today", and other materials.

## History

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ICSA was founded in 1979 in Massachusetts as the American Family Foundation (AFF) – one of several dozen disparate parents' groups founded in the late 1970s by concerned parents.[1][2] For a time it was affiliated with the Citizens’ Freedom Foundation (CFF) which later became the Cult Awareness Network (CAN).[3] It also developed links with Christian counter-cult movements such as the Christian Research Institute.[3] In December 2004, it changed its named from American Family Foundation to International Cultic Studies Association.[4]

## Publications

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### Print magazines

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In 1984, the American Family Foundation's early print magazine, The Advisor, was replaced by the Cult Observer and the Cultic Studies Journal.[5]

### Cultic Studies Review

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In 2001, publication of the Cultic Studies Journal ceased, and the AFF began publishing the Cultic Studies Review as an online journal with triennial print editions.[6] In 2005, the final AFF published edition of Cultic Studies Review was released. Subsequent editions were published by the International Cultic Studies Association until 2010.[7]

### International Journal of Cultic Studies

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Academic journal

International Journal of Cultic StudiesLanguage| English

|

Standard abbreviations
ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt)
NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt )
ISO 4| Int. J. Cultic Stud.
Indexing
CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt)
MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L
ISSN| 2154-7270 (print)
2154-7289 (web)

LCCN| 2010204406
OCLC no.| 608305709

In 2010, the first print and online editions of the International Journal of Cultic Studies were published online, as a self-described "refereed annual journal that publishes scholarly research on cultic phenomena across a range of disciplines and professions".[8][9][10]

## Reception

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### Connections with post-communist governments

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Bryan Edelman and James T. Richardson state that China has borrowed heavily from Western anti-cult movements, such as ICSA, to bolster their view of non-mainstream religious groups, and so the support campaigns of oppression against them.[11] In a previous article Richardson and Marat S. Shterin said that Western anti-cult organizations, including the CSA, had been a source of anti-cult material in Russia.[12]

### Criticism

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In their book Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, sociologists Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley describe the ICSA as a "secular anticult" organization. They claim that the ICSA provides no indication of how many of its cult characteristics are necessary for a group to be considered "cultic," and that the checklist creators do not adequately define how much of certain practices or behaviors would constitute "excessive," nor do they provide evidence that any of the practices listed are innately harmful. Cowan and Bromley also allege that the ICSA’s list is so broad that even mainstream religious movements such as Buddhism, Evangelical Protestantism, Hinduism, and the Roman Catholic Church could fall within the criteria.[13]

## See also

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* Cult Information Centre
* Dialogue Ireland
* Decult Conference
* European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism
* Info-Cult
* MIVILUDES
* The Family Survival Trust

## References

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1. ^ George D. Chryssides; Margaret Wilkins (2006). A Reader in New Religious Movements: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 360\. ISBN 978-0-8264-6168-1. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
2. ^ Langone, Michael. "History of American Family Foundation". Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
3. ^ a b Peter Clarke (2004). Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-49970-0.
4. ^ "Cult Info Since 1979 – Name Change 2004". www.icsahome.com. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
5. ^ Langone, Michael (May 1984). "To the reader". Cultic Studies Journal. 1 (1): 3.
6. ^ Langone, Michael (2002). "Introduction to Inaugural Issue". Cultic Studies Review. 1 (1): 5.
7. ^ Wehle, Dana; Madsen, Libbe, eds. (2010). Cultic Studies Review. 9 (1). `{{cite journal}}`: Missing or empty `|title=` (help)
8. ^ Carmen Almendros; Dianne Casoni; Rod Dubrow-Marshall (2010). "About the International Journal of Cultic Studies". International Journal of Cultic Studies. 1 (1).
9. ^ "International Journal of Cultic Studies - International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)". Icsahome.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
10. ^ Dole, A. A. (1989). "Book review". Journal of Religion & Health. 28 (3): 245–246\. doi:10.1007/BF00987757. S2CID 40318380.
11. ^ Edelman, Bryan; Richardson, James T. (2005). "Imposed limitations on freedom of religion in China and the margin of appreciation doctrine: a legal analysis of the crackdown on the Falun Gong and other "evil cults"". Journal of Church and State. 47 (2): 243. doi:10.1093/jcs/47.2.243.
12. ^ Richardson, James T.; Shterin, Marat S. (2000). "Effects of the Western anti-cult movement on development of laws concerning religion in post-Communist Russia". Journal of Church and State. 42 (2): 247. doi:10.1093/jcs/42.2.247.
13. ^ Cowan, Douglas E. and Bromley, David G. Cults and New Religions: A Brief History. Blackwell Publishing. 2009. pp. 4, 219–222. ISBN 978-1-4051-6128-2

* v
* t
* e

Opposition to new religious movements

Concepts|

* Anti-cult movement
* Christian countercult movement
* Cult
* Deprogramming
* Doomsday cult
* Freedom of religion
* Heresy
* Heterodox teaching
* Mind control
* New religious movement

Secular groups|

* APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control
* Center for Religious Studies in the name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons
* Cult Awareness Network
* Cult Information Centre
* Cultists Anonymous
* International Cultic Studies Association
* The Family Survival Trust
* Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network
* National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales
* People's Organised Workshop on Ersatz Religion

Secular individuals|

* Jean-Marie Abgrall
* John Gordon Clark
* Steve Eichel
* Martin Faiers
* Leon Festinger
* Carol Giambalvo
* Steven Hassan
* Ian Haworth
* Galen Kelly
* Stephen A. Kent
* Masaki Kito
* Janja Lalich
* Michael Langone
* Saul V. Levine
* Casey McCann
* Jesse S. Miller
* Sayuri Ogawa
* Ted Patrick
* Tsutsumi Sakamoto
* Rick Ross
* Chris Shelton
* Margaret Singer
* Eito Suzuki
* Alain Vivien
* Cyril Vosper
* Louis Jolyon West
* Lawrence Wollersheim

Religious groups|

* Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
* Christian Research Institute
* Dialog Center International
* Dialogue Ireland
* Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
* Institute for Religious Research
* Personal Freedom Outreach
* Midwest Christian Outreach
* New England Institute of Religious Research
* Reachout Trust
* Spiritual Counterfeits Project
* Watchman Fellowship
* Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center

Religious individuals|

* Johannes Aagaard
* Graham Baldwin
* Robert M. Bowman Jr.
* Harold Busséll
* Gérard Dagon
* Maurice Davis
* Alexander Dvorkin
* Ronald Enroth
* Mike Garde
* Robin Garbose
* Norman Geisler
* Jan Groenveld
* Hank Hanegraaff
* Reinhart Hummel
* Roger Ikor
* Bob Larson
* Paul R. Martin
* Walter Ralston Martin
* Robert Passantino

Governmental organizations|

* 610 Office
* European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism
* Centre contre les manipulations mentales
* Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu
* MIVILUDES
* Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France

Individuals in government|

* Nicolas About
* Serge Blisko
* Georges Fenech
* Ford Greene
* Stephen Mutch
* Catherine Picard
* Kenneth Robinson
* Paul Rose
* Tom Sackville
* Nick Xenophon

Historical events|

* About–Picard law
* Anti-Mormonism
* Assassination of Shinzo Abe
* Governmental lists of cults and sects
* Mass suicide of Heaven's Gate
* Jason Scott case
* Arrest of Apollo Quiboloy
* Persecution of Baháʼís
* Persecution of Falun Gong
* Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses
* The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies and Associations Act
* Tokyo subway sarin attack
* Waco siege

Publications|

* All Gods Children (book)
* Another Gospel
* Bounded Choice
* Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control
* Captive Hearts, Captive Minds
* The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions
* Churches That Abuse
* Combating Cult Mind Control
* Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion
* Cults in Our Midst
* Cults of Unreason
* Deadly Cults
* The Incendiaries
* The Kingdom of the Cults
* The Making of a Moonie
* Misunderstanding Cults
* The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions
* On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left
* Recovery from Cults
* Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
* Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare
* Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
* Twisted Scriptures
* When Prophecy Fails
* The Wrong Way Home
* Zealot: A Book About Cults

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Israel

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