religious fraud

Black Magic, False “Victims,” and “Religious Fraud”: Parallels Between the Cases of the Unification Church in Japan and Tai Ji Men in Taiwan

While certain features of criticism against “cults” are international, others are typical of the Sinosphere and are present in both cases. by Rosita Šorytė* *A paper presented at the third international ISFORB conference “Secular States Struggling with Freedom of Religion and Belief,” Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven, May 4–5, 2023. I always considered Taiwan and Japan … Read more

The Tai Ji Men Case Discussed at the Association for the Sociology of Religion Annual Meeting

Scholars argued that labels such as “cult,” “xie jiao,” or “religious fraud” have no real meaning and are used as tools for discrimination. by Alessandro Amicarelli The Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) held in Los Angeles on August 6–8, 2022, its 83rd Annual Meeting. It opened with presenting to senior sociologist James T. Richardson … Read more

“Cults,” “Xie Jiao,” “Religious Fraud”: Misusing Labels and the Tai Ji Men Case

Tai Ji Men was accused of being a “cult” or a “religious fraud.” These labels do not mean anything and are used as tools to discriminate and persecute. by Jeff Kuo* **An in-session response to the paper presented by Massimo Introvigne in the session “‘Cults’: The International Return of a Dubious Category,” at the 83rd Annual … Read more