10 May 2010
Some odd friends of Introvigne ...
Rémi Boyer, a former Rosicrucian (AMORC) who had created Arc-en-ciel (Rainbow), a federation of occult and New Age groups (including Sri Chinmoy, The Grande Loge indépendante des rites unis, the Institut pour une synthèse planètaire, the Ordre chevaleresque de la Rose-Croix, the Spiritual University of Brahma Kumaris). The Groupe de Thèbes was Boyer's second creation, for a smaller, and presumably higher, group of "initiates". Boyer, by the way, claims to be an "advisor" for the French Ministry of Justice.
http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/storia/gb20.htm and http://www.hermetics.org/fudosi.html.
Massimo Introvigne is an Italian sociologist of religion. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of tens of books and articles in the field of sociology of religion.
CESNUR was co-founded with J. Gordon Melton and Eileen Barker and is seen by many as an organization of cult apologists. At the very least, it has an anti- anti-cult stance, meaning that it opposes the doctrines, methods and goals of anti-cult and counter-cult organizations. Some of CESNUR's principals have testified in court on behalf of cults, presented papers supportive of such movements, and have even accepted payments or other benefits from these groups.
In its fight against legislation, CESNUR always uses three main arguments:It argues against "brainwashing" theories. Long story short: CESNUR scholars play semantics games in order to deny that some movements use unethical persuasion tactics in recruiting and maintaining members. This issue is addressed here.
It calls into doubt the truthfulness of apostates. Rather than see them merely as ex-members who may or may not speak out against the movements they were involved in, CESNUR considers apostates to be "former members converted into active opponents of the group they have left." CESNUR board member J. Gordon Melton's comments on apostates are typical of the way these ex-members are maligned. This issue will be soon be addressed on this site.
It denounces and dismisses anticult organizations as ill-informed. In the process, CESNUR also ignores - willfully, or from ignorance - the differences between the anticult- and countercult movements. That issue is addressed here.