New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America

Derek H. Davis is director of the J.M. Dawson Institute on Church-State Studies at Baylor University. Editor of the Journal of Church and State, his publications include Original Intent: Chief Justice Rehnquist and the Course of American Church-State Relations (1991) and Religion and the Continental Congress, 1774-1789: Contributions to Original Intent (2000). He has also published extensively in various law and academic journals. Barry Hankins is Associate Professor of History and Church-State Studies at Baylor University. He is author of God's Rascal: J. Frank Norris and the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism (1996) and Uneasy in Babylon: Southern Baptist Conservatives and American Culture (2002). He is also co-editor with Derek Davis of Welfare Reform and Faith-Based Organizations (1999).

• AcknowledgementPrefaceIntroductionBarry Hankins1. Controversial Christian Movements: History, Growth, and OutlookTimothy Miller2. The Cult Awareness Network and the Anticult Movement: Implications for NRMs in AmericaAnson Shupe, Susan E. Darnell, and Kendrick Moxon3. A Contemporary Ordered Religious Community: The Sea OrganizationJ. Gordon Melton4. Women in Controversial New Religions: Slaves, Priestesses, or Pioneers?Susan J. Palmer5. Satanism and Witchcraft: Social Construction of a Melded but Mistaken IdentityJames T. Richardson6. A Critical Analysis of Evidentiary and Procedural Rulings in Branch Davidian Civil CaseStuart A. Wright7. New Religious Movements and Conflicts with Law EnforcementCatherine Wessinger8. Christian Reconstruction after Y2K: Gary North, the New Millennium, and Religious FreedomAdam C. English9. A Not So Charitable Choice: New Religious Movements and President Bush's Plan for Faith-Based Social ServicesDerek H. Davis10. Fighting for Free Exercise from the Trenches: A Case Study of Religious Freedom Issues Faced by Wiccans Practicing in the United StatesCatharine Cookson11. The Persecution of West Virginia Jehovah's Witnesses and the Expansion of Legal Protection for Religious LibertyChuck SmithNotesAbout the ContributorsIndex

This excellent treatment of contemporary developments on the religious scene offers fresh insights into the dynamics of new religious movements and will help to relieve one's anxieties about their baneful effects. After all, Christianity was once a new religion, and the freedom we demand for ourselves must also be allowed to these faiths. In today's secular world we stand side by side in the struggle for religious liberty. Richard V. Pierard, Indiana State University, and Scholar in Residence, Gordon College