Wolves Within the Fold: Religious Leadership and Abuses of Power

edited volum

Spoils of the Kingdom : clergy misconduct and religious community /

Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-141) and index.Communities of faith and clergy malfeasance in modern times -- The logic of social exchange theory and clergy malfeasance -- The iron law of clergy elitism -- Authenticity lost : faith and victimization -- Reactance, crime, and sin

Deprogramming Violence: The Logic, Perpetration, and Outcomes of Coercive Interventions

The rationale, justification and prevalence of coercive deprogramming, i,e, forcibly removing persons (often legal) adults from unconventional religious groups during the years 1965-2000, are examined from a critical standpoint. Case studies are used to exemplify psychological and physical (assault, rape, etc.) forms of abuses committed during such \u22interventions,\u22 and reasons why the practice fell out of use

Internet Accessibility of the Mizuko Kuyo (Water-Child Ritual) in Modern Japan: A Case Study in Weberian Rationality

The mizuko kuyo is a Japanese (Buddhist, Shinto, New Religious, other) memorial service for infants or young children who have died through some misfortune, including disease, miscarriage, and increasingly, elective abortion. Indeed, abortion is the predominant form of contraception for many Japanese families. Here we consider, in Weberian terms of the rationalization of institutions, how internet accessibility and its created virtual reality of the mizuko kuyo has driven its popularity along the dimensions of privatization, bureaucratization, and commodification in persons’ decisions to perform the ritual by internet. We utilize a sample of Tokyo mizuko kuyo websites and the contexts of their advertisements and available services for mizuko kuyo, including fee structures and other advertising “lures,” to analyze this merging of traditional and modern technological paths of spirituality along Weberian theoretical lines