A candid conversation about the role of the media, Japanese scholars, and “apostate” ex-members in exciting Japanese public opinion against the church.
by Makiko Takita
Article 4 of 6. Read article 1, article 2, and article 3.
[Part 2 of Massimo Introvigne’s answers in an interview given to “Seiron” in Tokyo, compiled by the magazine].
“I am also considering the challenges facing the media. In particular, the issue of information sources. For example, in the coverage of the Unification Church in Japan, the aforementioned National Federation of Bar Associations has been actively providing information to the media, and the media seems to be relying on it. Since you hear that they have a lot of exposure in the media, you may believe they are a neutral organization. But in reality, they operate as an anti-cult movement. In a democratic society, anti-cult movements are also free to operate. The problem is that the media has to get information from various sources and report it in a balanced manner, but in Japan on this issue it seems they are effectively dependent on the National Federation of Bar Associations. It looks like there is no source of information that can replace or supplement the National Federation of Bar Associations. The media, when reporting, should hear from anti-cult organizations, but should also hear from the Unification Church. It is even better when the media can also hear from independent and neutral sources to cover the whole picture.”
“Overseas, there are institutions for this purpose, but in Japan there are none. So, the National Federation of Bar Associations says this, and the Unification Church says that, and each is saying the exact opposite, but the public opinion has been influenced in such a way that what the Unification Church says is not believed. I mentioned that there are neutral independent organizations abroad, and one of them is the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), which I co-founded in Italy. It aims to provide objective information on different religions. In England, Eileen Barker, a sociologist of religion, and a group of religious scholars founded an organization called INFORM to disseminate objective knowledge about religion. Both CESNUR and INFORM were founded in 1988 and their activities have already spanned more than three decades.”
“Why are there no such organizations in Japan? Certainly, in Japan there are religious scholars, and the media can interview them. However, after the Aum Shinrikyo incident in 1995, a peculiar situation was created in Japan, which led to the fact that if scholars appear sympathetic to new religious movements they are not trusted. Before the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, symposiums were held under the auspices of Aum Shinrikyo, to which Japanese and foreign religious scholars participated. After the sarin gas attack, some members of Aum Shinrikyo invited foreign scholars to visit their facilities, [including the late James Lewis] and Gordon Melton, an eminent scholar and the founder of the American Institute for the Study of Religion [who, unlike Lewis, never expressed the opinion that Aum Shinrikyo was innocent of the attack]. Both Japanese and foreign academics were fingered as having given a social endorsement to a criminal group. Even when some explained that they were not aware of the criminal action of Aum when they attended its events, their social credibility was damaged. However, the consequences were different in Japan and abroad. Notwithstanding some anti-cult criticism, foreign scholars such as Gordon Melton did not suffer too much, while in Japan even the most prominent scholar of new religious movements, current Professor Emeritus Susumu Shimazono of the University of Tokyo, had to adopt a different attitude when speaking to the media about ‘cults.’ I disagree with the attitude of the Japanese colleagues who support the dissolution of the Family Federation, but I also believe that they are conditioned by the Aum affair. By the way, before the sarin gas attack, also His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism, sent a video message to an Aum Shinrikyo event. This is still frequently reported by China and used for propaganda purposes.”
“Personally, I never attended any event organized by Aum and did not participate in the post-sarin-gas-attack visit to Japan of the American scholars. However, after the attack I interviewed members of Aum Shinrikyo in the United States [where Aum had a branch in New York]. I am satisfied that the American members I interviewed knew nothing about the criminal activities of the Aum leaders in Japan. My impression is that even in Japan, unlike their criminal leaders, most Aum ordinary believers were sincere and innocent people, but even so, they were often later demonized and blamed for being involved with Aum. I am fully aware of the bitterness existing in Japan about the question of scholars of religion and the Aum case. You interview me today after I attended a seminar on religious liberty and the ‘cult’ issue organized by independent organizations. Had it been organized by the Family Federation perhaps, given the peculiar Japanese situation, I would have been more reluctant to participate. As a scholar of religion, I am very careful when commenting about the Unification Church when I am in Japan because I do remember what happened after the Aum incident. I am sure I am not the only scholar who feels this way.”
“Another theme I would like to discuss concerning media coverage is the testimonies of ‘apostates.’ One of the dangers I feel in Japanese media coverage is that ‘apostates’ and ‘former believers’ are treated as if they were the same while in fact the two categories are different. A ‘former believer’ is a person who has abandoned the faith and left her previous church or religion. It is not unusual for believers to lose their passion towards their faith. But an ‘apostate’ is a former believer who actively engages in activities critical of the denomination he or she was a member of. In the United States and Europe, many critical books are written by apostates, and I have personally analyzed many of them in the past as an interesting research subject. The testimonies of apostates are a peculiar literary genre. They are not telling objectively the facts about the religion they have left; they are mostly talking about their feelings. What does it mean? Let me explain it simply with a parable. Suppose you have a case of a terrible divorce. To learn about the husband, can we interview only the ex-wife and thereby correctly determine the man’s real image? Certainly, the ex-wife’s story is an important source of information. However, there would be many emotional biases involved. If we want to evaluate the man fairly, it is not fair to judge him only by his ex-wife’s story.”
“A more detailed study of the difference between ‘apostates’ and ordinary ‘former believers’ has been performed by David Bromley, an American sociologist of religion. There are many ‘apostates’ in every religion, including Catholicism. But we know that the majority of those who leave a religious organization and become ex-believers do not attack their former religion, i.e., they are not ‘apostates.’ Even if the apostasy is due to a disillusionment, the percentage of apostates is very low because it is normal for people to say, ‘That was part of my life,’ or ‘I have entered a different phase of my life from the phase in which I believed.’ However, the media mistakenly use ‘former believer’ as a synonym of ‘apostate.’ The question is discussed as if the apostates were representatives of all former believers, as if all former believers were harboring resentment toward the religion they left. And many in the public perceive the situation as such. But that is far away from the real picture. Bromley also presents a variety of other interesting findings based on his research studies. He also found that people who have experienced forced conversion or deprogramming have a very high rate of becoming apostates.”
“The aforementioned Eileen Barker also stated that a new religion is like a revolving door, where one after another enters and one after another exits—but all those who appear in the media are apostates, who are portrayed and advertised as if they were typical former believers. The media itself assumes that all former believers have a burning hatred for the Unification Church. This is one of the ways in which the real image of the church is distorted.”