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» Who Uses RNB?
» About Media Reports
» Our Disclaimer
» About Copyright
» RNB is a Reader-Supported Website
» About the advertisements
» Contact RNB
» How to link to Religion News Blog
What is Religion News Blog?
- Religion News Blog (RNB) provides religion researchers with expert-selected news items about world religions, religious movements, cults, sects, and related issues.
- Published by Apologetics Index, RNB allows researchers to see the news in context, with links to additional articles as well as to our collection of apologetics research resources.
- The publishers of Apologetics Index / Religion News Blog support freedom of religion in thought and expression. (See: Viewpoint)
Who Uses RNB?
- RNB's non-profit news clipping service is used by - among others - Christian apologists, countercult professionals, anticult organizations, teachers, religion professionals, government officials, legal professionals, reporters and other researchers.
- In short: RNB is a service that alerts Christian apologetics- and counter-cult professionals - as well as other academic and professional communities - to relevant religion-, apologetics-, human rights-, and ethics news from around the world.
- This non-profit service is provided as a research resource, and is intended for educational purposes only.
About Media Reports
When researching religious movements, news reports should not be your only source of information. However, news reports can provide lots of details often missed, dismissed, ignored, or even contradicted by academic researchers, including cult apologists - academics who have gained a reputation for their defence of (and what amounts to PR work for) cults.
Psychologist Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, in an essay critical of such 'collaborationism,' writes:
Psychologist Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, in an essay critical of such 'collaborationism,' writes:
The moral of recent well-publicized NRM tragedies, such as the Branch Davidians case or the Heaven's Gate case, as far as reporting and analysis is concerned, is that reading Newsweek, Time, or the New York Times may be just as profitable, or more, as reading scholarly works.
Media reporting in general is quite limited, but investigative reporting by major media, when time and effort are put in, and wire-service reports, are worth at least taking seriously. There are sometimes real errors in the media, but this happens in academic works too.
Reading the scholarly literature, with a few notable and commendable exceptions, does not result in a better understanding of what the Branch Davidians at Waco were all about. The most basic human questions are left unanswered. Newsweek reported quite accurately on who David Koresh really was, and at the same time was severely critical of U.S. government authorities and their outrageous mishandling of the case.
If you were just to rely on Newsweek to understand what happened at Waco, you would reach the conclusion that a group of deranged victims, led by a manipulative madman, was being decimated by superior federal firepower in a senseless and tragic confrontation ignited by the illegal acts of some group members.
Would you miss out on some fine points of scholarly analysis? Not if such analysis consisted of a scholarly defence of indefensible behavior. One way of looking at the Mt. Carmel tragedy is by comparing it to the many tragic confrontations between deranged individuals and insensitive or unaware members of police forces around the world.
The only acceptable defence for David Koresh may be the insanity defence, and this is something you will gather soon enough from the media, which have proven themselves just as accurate in the cases of Krishna Venta, Benjamin Purnell, Aum Shinrikyo, the People's Temple, the Solar Temple, and Heaven's Gate.
As we have demonstrated in the case of the Branch Davidians and Aum Shinrikyo, sensational media reports never die, they don't even fade away. They just come back as scholarly data, to be interpreted or euphemized.
Media reporting in general is quite limited, but investigative reporting by major media, when time and effort are put in, and wire-service reports, are worth at least taking seriously. There are sometimes real errors in the media, but this happens in academic works too.
Reading the scholarly literature, with a few notable and commendable exceptions, does not result in a better understanding of what the Branch Davidians at Waco were all about. The most basic human questions are left unanswered. Newsweek reported quite accurately on who David Koresh really was, and at the same time was severely critical of U.S. government authorities and their outrageous mishandling of the case.
If you were just to rely on Newsweek to understand what happened at Waco, you would reach the conclusion that a group of deranged victims, led by a manipulative madman, was being decimated by superior federal firepower in a senseless and tragic confrontation ignited by the illegal acts of some group members.
Would you miss out on some fine points of scholarly analysis? Not if such analysis consisted of a scholarly defence of indefensible behavior. One way of looking at the Mt. Carmel tragedy is by comparing it to the many tragic confrontations between deranged individuals and insensitive or unaware members of police forces around the world.
The only acceptable defence for David Koresh may be the insanity defence, and this is something you will gather soon enough from the media, which have proven themselves just as accurate in the cases of Krishna Venta, Benjamin Purnell, Aum Shinrikyo, the People's Temple, the Solar Temple, and Heaven's Gate.
As we have demonstrated in the case of the Branch Davidians and Aum Shinrikyo, sensational media reports never die, they don't even fade away. They just come back as scholarly data, to be interpreted or euphemized.
Source: Collaborationism and Research Integrity, an essay by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, published in, Part 1, Chapter 1 of Misunderstanding Cults. Editors: Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins. (University of Toronto Press, 2001), p. 63,64. An abridged version of Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi's paper is posted here.
Disclaimer
- Religion News Blog posts news items from - for the most part - secular news sources. Unless specifically noted, the inclusion of a news item does not constitute endorsement of the news source, the publication in which the item was found, the author or organization responsible for the item, or the ideas expressed within the item. The material is provided solely as a research resource, and is intended for educational purposes only. In other words, we hope this comes as no surprise but RNB, its publishers, associates, and web hosts are not responsible for the content of the news items quoted. Don't shoot the messenger.
- Opinions expressed by the publisher fall under the headings of privileged comment and free speech.
- In order to facilitate research, RNB adds links to relevant research resources.
- To aid researchers, headlines on this site are preceeded by a short subject header [bracketed like this]. Subjects headers are added by RNB, and are considered statements of opinion.
- Religion News Blog is a service operated by Apologetics Index. The extended disclaimer posted at Apologetics Index also applies to Religion News Blog.
Copyright
Religion News Blog includes copyrighted material the use of which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Religion News Blog makes such material available in its effort to aid religion professionals, academics, teachers, media organizations, and other researchers.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information see: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use any copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Copyright owners who object to having their material included in this archive may request, in writing, that it be removed. [Contact Form]
That said, we are grateful to the many publishers who have specifically granted their kind permission to include their material in Religion News Blog.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information see: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use any copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Copyright owners who object to having their material included in this archive may request, in writing, that it be removed. [Contact Form]
That said, we are grateful to the many publishers who have specifically granted their kind permission to include their material in Religion News Blog.
- Note: We always provide hyperlinks to the homepages of our sources. This practice encourages our readers to check into additional resources offered by these publications and authors.
- Note that in some cases, only excerpts are quoted. In those cases, if you want to read the full stories, try searching the original publication's archives - or contact the news source directly. The publication in question may also have additional material on the same subject.
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