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Conversation with Sociologist and Cult Specialist Dr. Janja Lalich

2019

Meet Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist, cult specialist, author, researcher, and retired professor who has spent years studying high-control groups including the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Dr. Lalich is also herself a former cult member. See more...

55:24 min

‘Silent Exodus’ from Korean-American Churches as Younger Parishioners Find Community Elsewhere

The departure of young people from the churches, once the bedrock of Korean culture and identity in America, marks a significant social shift.

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Losing My Religion: Facing the Trauma of Leaving a Faith

Sherrie D’Souza was ostracised when she left the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith after four decades. She is now part of a group helping other ex-believers make sense of the “madness”.

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How to Get Someone Out of a Cult

“Do everything you can to stay in touch,” says Janja Lalich, a sociology professor and consultant who studies cults and coercive influence and control.

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The Violent Outcomes of Ideological Extremism: What Have We Learned Since Jonestown?

I do not deny that positive experiences occur in a cult context, but what is of interest for me is the interactional dynamic found in cults that brings moral human beings to occasionally engage in insidious or demeaning behaviors, or sometimes just the plain incomprehensible.

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Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why

Coming out as an atheist is a powerful, liberating act. It makes life better for you, for other atheists, and for the world. But telling people you're an atheist can be risky.

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The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion―and Others Should Too

Black women are the single most religious demographic in the United States, yet they are among the poorest, least educated, and least healthy groups in the nation.

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Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults

Heaven’s Gate, a secretive group of celibate “monks” awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide.

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Can Spirituality Exist Without God? A Growing Number of Americans Say Yes

Krista Tippett has made a career out of examining the question, What does it mean to be spiritual outside the confines of religion?

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A Secular Age

What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we—in the West, at least—largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries.

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Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

Barbara Brown Taylor, once hailed as one of America’s most effective and beloved preachers, eloquently tells the moving and delightful story of her search to find an authentic way of being Christian—even when it meant giving up her pulpit.

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EXPLORE TOPIC

Boundary Confusion