A significant minority opinion suggests that analysis should treat the secular anti-cult movement separately from the religiously motivated (mainly Christian) groups.
[17] Anson Shupe, David G. Bromley and Joseph Ventimiglia coined the term atrocity tales in 1979,[18] which Bryan R. Wilson later took up in relation to former members' narratives.
Bromley and Shupe defined an "atrocity tale" as the symbolic presentation of action or events, real or imagined, in such a context that they come to flagrantly violate the (presumably) shared premises upon which a given set of social relationships should take place.
By sharing the reporter's disapproval or horror, an audience reasserts normative prescription and clearly locates the violator beyond the limits of public morality.
He mentions the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Christian Science, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarian Universalism, and Unity as examples.
[28][29][30] The secular opposition to cults and new religious movements operates internationally, though a number of sizable and sometimes expanding groups originated in the United States.
[32] The first organized opposition to new religions in the United States appeared in 1971 with the formation of FREECOG (Parents Committee to Free Our Sons and Daughters from the Children of God).
[37][38] In 1980, Patrick was convicted of "conspiracy, false imprisonment and kidnapping" of Roberta McElfish, a waitress in Tucson, Arizona, after accepting US$7,500 from her family to deprogram her.
[43] In the UK, MP Paul Rose established the first major British anti-cult group called FAIR (Family Action Information and Rescue/Resource) in 1976.
[47][48] One measure was the automatic denial of student visa applications for foreign nationals seeking to study at Hubbard College at East Grinstead or any other Scientological educational institution.
[52] Sociologist Eileen Barker believes that three reasons led to the lifting of the "ban": (1) it was unenforceable, (2) it was hard to defend before the European Court of Human Rights, and (3) it was unfair since it was the only new religious movement that received such treatment.
[53] In Austria, the anti-cult movement is represented by GSK (Gesellschaft gegen Sekten und Kultgefahren), renamed in 1992 from the Association for Mental Health (Verein zur Wahrung der geistigen Freiheit), founded by psychologist Brigitte Rollett on September 29, 1977, engaged in an information campaign against religious minorities and new religious movements.
[54] The Society for the Study of Sects and New Religious Direction (Společnost pro studium sekt a nových náboženských směrů), which is considered by religionists to be an anti-cult movement, has been operating in the Czech Republic since 1993.
[58] In 2010, independent Senator Nick Xenophon attempted to enact legislation against NRMs – though primarily against the Church of Scientology and their tax-exempt status – similar to those in France.
[59] Australia's main anti-cult organization is Cult Information and Family Support (CIFS), run by exit counselor Tore Klevjer.
[61][62][63] CIFS combats NRMs as well as lifestyle coaches and multi-level marketing schemes;[63] The Advertiser wrote in 2017 that it also represents ex-NRM members.
[66] Large sects listed included the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, and what were called "neo-Pentecostals.
[70] Chinese authorities claimed that by July 2001 that Falun Gong specifically was responsible for over 1,600 deaths through induced suicide by hanging, self-immolation, drownings, among others and the murders of practitioners' relatives.
[73] In response, Beijing specifically labeled Falun Gong an illegal religious organization which violated the People's Republic of China's Constitution in May 1999.
[78]: 33 Based on a 2006 Tokyo District Court decision, the circumstances of whether or not the Unification Church used illegal recruiting or donation soliciting tactics were to be determined on a case-by-case basis, which was upheld by a 2007 appeal.
[78]: 33–34 In 1995, Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese new religious movement, attacked a Tokyo subway with sarin gas, killing 14 people and injuring about 1,000.
Philip Zimbardo discusses mind control as "the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition and/or behavioral outcomes,"[105] and he suggests that any human being is susceptible to such manipulation.
[107] Margaret Singer, who also spent time studying the political brainwashing of Korean prisoners of war, agreed with this conclusion: in her book Cults in Our Midst she describes six conditions which would create an atmosphere in which thought reform is possible.
[109] For this and other reasons, sociologists of religion including David G. Bromley and Anson D. Shupe consider the idea that cults are brainwashing American youth to be "implausible.
"[110] In addition to Bromley, Thomas Robbins, Dick Anthony, Eileen Barker, Newton Maloney, Massimo Introvigne, John Hall, Lorne L. Dawson, Anson D. Shupe, J. Gordon Melton, Marc Galanter, Saul Levine of Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc, among other scholars researching NRMs, have argued and established to the satisfaction of courts, relevant professional associations and scientific communities that there exists no scientific theory, generally accepted and based upon methodologically sound research, that supports the brainwashing theories as advanced by the anti-cult movement.
Precedents for this exist in the treatment of certain mental illnesses: in such cases medical and legal authorities recognize the condition as depriving sufferers of their ability to make appropriate decisions for themselves.