Children and "Spiritual Abuse" in Alternative Spiritualities: Issues of Harm, Questions of Blame, and the Search for Solutions

Abstract:

Abstract: This presentation will address the issue of harm to children in alternative spiritualties. Eight specific groups, chosen as cases where children were abused or experienced maltreatment, will be described and analyzed in an endeavour to identify factors that contributed to harm. Problematic issues will be identified such as millennial expectations, charismatic authority, sectarian attitudes, "defamilialization", ascetic practices, and reliance on faith healing. The impact of militarized state raids on children will also be addressed. This presentation draws on the results of a five-year SSHRC-funded research project at McGill University, Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control, and features original academic studies of Ogyen Kunzang Chöling, Ecoovie, The Body of Christ, and The Old Order Mennonites of Westboro, Manitoba. It offers a comparative analysis of cases of child abuse, social conditions and sanctions in three “Jesus People" movements: The Jesus Army, Jesus People USA, and the Children of God/The Family.

Presenter bio: Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She is also Lecturer at McGill University and Principal Investigator of the research project, Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control, funded by the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council of Canada. She has authored twelve books; notably, Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers (1994); Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion (2004); The New Heretics of France (2011); The Nuwaubian Nation: Black Spirituality and State Control (2016); Storming Zion (co-authored with Stuart Wright, 2015), and The Mystical Geography of Quebec (2020).

Presenter affiliation: School of Religious Studies, McGill University and Department of Religions and Cultures, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada