The court case is a classic example of anti-cult bias. The children should be allowed to return home.
Susan J. Palmer
The 2026 Raid on the Children of the Twelve Tribes in Hamburg, NY. 2. The Parents Speak Out
How anti-cult prejudices led social workers to misinterpret the lives of children in the community.
The 2026 Raid on the Children of the Twelve Tribes in Hamburg, NY. 1. An Anti-Cult Campaign
What happened to the movement can only be understood by looking at decades of attacks against the “cults” based on the rhetoric of “saving the children.”
The Rudnev Series: 7. The “Tutors”
Interviews with Rudnev’s advanced students reveal how a dispersed network preserved and adapted his teachings after the 2010 raid and exile.
How Media Defame “Cults”: The Case of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. 2. Be Scofield, Anti-Cultist
A self-proclaimed “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” of anti-cultism made claims that would be absurd if they were not causing significant unnecessary suffering.
How Media Defame “Cults”: The Case of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. 1. Inventing a “Cult”
A media campaign started by a bigoted anti-cultist transformed a peaceful Shia-derivative movement into the ultimate “doomsday cult.”
#SheToo: The Experience of MISA Women. 6. A Form of “Second-Wave Feminism”?
Female MISA students would say they are not feminists. But perhaps they are, in their own unique way.
#SheToo: The Experience of MISA Women. 5. The Paradox of Polyamory
MISA women talk about experiments with multiple-partner relationships and what they believe they had to do with spirituality.
#SheToo: The Experience of MISA Women. 4. Sacred Eroticism in Practice
MISA students talk about eroticism, Tantra, and their relationships with their men.
#SheToo: The Experience of MISA Women. 3. Erotic Continence
Women describe the most controversial practices of MISA, those related to sacred eroticism.
Susan J. Palmer
Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor in the Religions and Cultures Department at Concordia University in Montreal. She has directed the Children on Sectarian Religions and State Control project at McGill University, supported by the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She is the author of fourteen books, notably The New Heretics of France (Oxford University Press, 2012).