Sacred Tribes Journal
Volume 3 Number 1 (2008):1-96 ISSN: 1941-8167
Disclaimer notice: The views expressed in Sacred Tribes Journal are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the position of the journal, editors or institutions associated with the journal or editors. TABLE OF CONTENTS Editor’s Introduction
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The Family International: A Brief Historical and Theological Overview - James D. Chancellor
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Research Observations: The Meaning of Life in Contemporary Druidry - Michael T. Cooper
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Latter Day Saints, Rituals, Pilgrimage and Cultural Symbolics: Neglected Sources for Understanding Engagement - John W. Morehead
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Analysis US Religious Landscape: Analysis with Potential Implications for American Religious Identity - Michael T. Cooper, Jonathan Brown, Rebecca Erickson and David Liu
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Interview STJ Interview with Douglas Cowan
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Recent Entries to Sacred Tribes Journal's Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements The Druze - Rebecca Erickson Wicca - Philip Johnson Satanism - John Smulo Call for Future Articles Upcoming International Conference
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Johnson: Editor’s Introduction
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Sacred Tribes Journal
Volume 3 Number 1 (2008):1-96 ISSN: 1941-8167
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Philip Johnson It is with great pleasure that I introduce the third and latest edition of Sacred Tribes Journal. The journal was created in 2002 as a collaborative trans-Pacific project dedicated to Christian thinking about both new religious movements and emerging forms of non-Christian spiritualities. Although Sacred Tribes Journal was originally hosted on the web-site of the Cornerstone Community of Chicago, it was not an official publication of that community. The founding editors originally envisaged that the e-journal would occupy a literary position midway between Christian academic publications and mass-market periodicals that are produced outside the academy. To that end the founding editors collaborated in the editing of two editions of the journal between 2002 and 2005. The inaugural volume that was released in 2002 comprised several essays that employed heuristic devices to describe and critically assess apologetic styles and methods that can be discerned in a corpus of Protestant evangelical literature devoted to the subject of new religions. Those essays also tentatively explored ways of deepening Christian understandings of new religions by advocating the integration of interdisciplinary tools and methods. Some of the perspectives on methodology that were expressed in the inaugural volume were subsequently reiterated by various authors in the textbook Encountering New Religious Movements, and also in Religious and Non-Religious Spirituality in the Western World (“New Age”), the position paper produced by the Issue Group studying new religions and alternative spiritualities that participated in the Lausanne World Forum of 2004.1 Both of those publications point to the emergence of new critically informed thinking about attitudes and methodologies among Protestant evangelicals in their understanding of new religious movements and alternate spiritualities. Those two publications also herald new frontiers of engagement for both Christian scholars and practitioners in that field of enquiry known as missiology. The second volume of Sacred Tribes Journal was released in 2005 and brought together contributors from Australia, New Zealand and the
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Johnson: Editor’s Introduction USA in a themed edition on NeoPagan spiritualities. The essays included personal reflections and reassessments of Christian attitudes about NeoPagan practices and beliefs, and several creative dialogical responses to NeoPagan interests in mythology and ritual, ecology and animal ethics, and spiritual praxis. In October 2006 two of the founding editors met Michael Cooper in a mini-conference about new religions that convened at the Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre in Hong Kong. In the wake of that meeting discussions ensued about redeveloping the journal. The final result of those discussions is now apparent as Sacred Tribes Journal has been bibliographically transformed into an academic publication with the creation of a new editorial board, and the development of a new website. The primary intended reading audience has shifted towards professional scholars and tertiary students. Nonetheless, the journal maintains continuity with previous editions in that it remains as a forum concerned with the study of new religious movements that emphasizes and employs interdisciplinary methods, and encourages the development of integrated holistic Christian thinking and praxis. The third volume of Sacred Tribes Journal comprises a collection of essays that, amongst other things, point to questions about methodology in understanding the members of religious groups such as The Family (Children of God), Druidry, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. James Chancellor provides a succinct account of the internal history of The Family that charts the emergence, development, recession and regeneration of the group under the charismatic leadership of its founder Father David (David Berg), and his successors. Chancellor discusses how the structures of leadership developed around the authority of Father David as the prophet in the halcyon days of the 1970s counterculture, and the evolution of local levels of leadership among his disciples scattered in worldwide communes. In the course of his discussion Chancellor outlines the development of Father David’s concept of sexuality in the Godhead and the corresponding sexual mores of The Family, noting the controversial technique of “Flirty Fishing” to attract converts and the subsequent difficulties that the disciples faced through the transmission of sexually communicated diseases. Chancellor outlines the reforms that were introduced in The Family’s leadership structures in the latter part of Father David’s life, and notes the transition in structures that have occurred in the wake of the prophet’s death. Chancellor briefly outlines a few of the central doctrinal teachings of The Family concerning Jesus and salvation, the role of the prophet Father David, human communication with the spirit world, and the apocalypse. The Family’s understanding of the apocalypse has been a significant theme from its inception to the present. Chancellor describes the attendant tensions in The Family concerning the earlier expectations concerning the imminent return of Christ to the earth, and the current challenge of living with an apparent delay in the timing of the eschaton.
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Sacred Tribes Journal
Volume 3 Number 1 (2008):1-96 ISSN: 1941-8167
Finally, Chancellor discusses aspects of the social conflict generated between former members and current members of The Family. The strength of Chancellor’s narrative derives from relying on the primary sources and in his field interviews with Father David’s successors and disciples in a number of communes. Michael Cooper undertakes a phenomenological exercise by exploring how contemporary practitioners of Druidry address the problem of the meaning of life. Cooper briefly discusses the problem of defining Druidry and its phenomenological place within the wider tapestry of NeoPagan thought. He then proceeds to outline his methodology in undertaking both Internet-based and oral interviews with Druids from two specific groups: Ar nDraiocht Fein and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Cooper’s primary emphasis is on gathering together data from the interviews that best describes how Druids in these twin groups understand the meaning of life. In the course of his descriptive analysis Cooper centers attention on the rituals and mythology associated with the celebration of Nature and the cycles of life through the Wheel of the Year festivals. Cooper also notes the diversity of understanding among Druids about how the Divine is conceptualized. In considering the question of the practitioners’ identities Cooper includes some brief discussion on the role of ancestors in Druid rituals. Cooper concludes his preliminary map-work by indicating what areas of Druidry require deeper scholarly investigation and points to some unexamined horizons for future research. John Morehead takes as his point of departure some remarks made by M. Gerald Bradford in identifying some scholarly lacunae in understanding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The specific lacunae that Morehead refers to concerns the importance of ritual and pilgrimage and the associated cultural symbols linked to sacred spaces and ritual events. Morehead briefly explores the importance of LDS ritual pageants and festivals through the prism of the anthropology of pilgrimage. He suggests that ritual pageants, such as the annual Mormon Miracle Pageant at Manti, reinforce both LDS identity and ideology associated with sacred space. He also mentions how LDS Temples can be appreciated as tangible social symbols that contribute to the construction of LDS identity and boundaries. Morehead indicates that acts of LDS pilgrimage involve the rehearsal and re-enactment of sacral narratives. Morehead’s outline of these ritual elements within the LDS culture forms the basis for his subsequent discussion of symbolic protests that are undertaken by some Protestant evangelicals at LDS pageants and sacral sites. Those evangelicals who make their presence felt at such
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Johnson: Editor’s Introduction events and sites are committed to the goal of evangelization and discipleship of LDS members. In the course of Morehead’s discussion the impact of these acts of symbolic opposition on both LDS members and the protesting evangelists are then considered. Morehead indicates that as these ritual pageants and festivals are important for the confirmation and maintenance of LDS identity, symbolic acts of opposition from non-LDS evangelists tend to have the effect of strengthening LDS boundaries and identity. He also suggests that for the non-LDS evangelists their acts of opposition are best understood as another species of boundary maintenance. Morehead expresses the hope that Protestant evangelicals might reconsider their strategies by reflecting on the anthropology of the LDS culture. Jonathan Brown, Rebecca Erickson, and David Liu have collaborated with Michael Cooper in examining the US Religious Landscape Study (URLS) that was produced by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The authors summarize the statistical results obtained in the study concerning the religious profiles of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a cluster of other faiths that exist in the USA. The discussion then proceeds to briefly consider the implications of changing religious affiliations among the American populace vis-á-vis patterns of decline in mainstream Christian churches. The Canadian religious studies scholar Douglas Cowan is interviewed by John Morehead. Cowan’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Calgary comprised an analytical study of Protestant evangelical countercult apologetics through the prism of the sociology of knowledge and propaganda theory. The dissertation formed the backbone for his book published in 2003 with the title Bearing False Witness? The release of the book created some heated discourses among countercult apologists about Cowan’s motives, methods and message. The interview provides Cowan with the opportunity to explain why he wrote his book and to briefly explain in non-technical terms the methodological tools he employed to study evangelical countercult apologetics. The editors trust that its readers will be stimulated by the essays in this new edition of Sacred Tribes Journal.
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See Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost and John W. Morehead (eds), Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004).The Lausanne Forum convened in Pattaya, Thailand from September 29 to October 5, 2004, and the participant members of Issue Group No. 16 at the forum produced Religious and Non-Religious Spirituality in the Western World (“New Age”), Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 45, http://www.lausanne.org/documents/2004forum/LOP45_IG16. pdf
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