18 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 8, 2017
may respond to allegations by attempting to
compartmentalize the perpetrators as a few “bad
apples” or a small number of deviant
members.
12F
13 Reactions to the time in groups’
histories in which the allegations occurred may
result in self-presentations by the group as
having reformed in relation to a previous period.
Accountability may force groups to initiate
safeguards
13F
14 or, in extreme cases (usually
involving systemic problems through which
leadership perpetrated sexual crimes), will drive
groups into oblivion.
14F
15
In this article, we identify the three different
levels of court procedures in which child sexual-
abuse allegations in controversial alternative
religions are most likely to appear. We then
present basic strategies that alternative religious
defendants have used, and appropriate
counterstrategies that prosecutors and plaintiffs’
counsel might utilize. Most if not all of the cases
that we examine attracted considerable attention
at the time they were argued, so extensive
material about them exists on reputable (and in
NY: PublicAffairs). When she was 12 years old, he began sexually
assaulting the young girl and had a child by her when she was 14.
Soon afterward, he took other girls and young women, aged 13, 14,
17, 19, and 20, as lovers (Thibodeau, 1999, p. 109).
13 See, for example, the debate about an admitted child sexual
abuser within the Emissaries of Divine Light. In 1990, Ray
Mickelic admitted to Loveland, Colorado police “that he had
sexually assaulted children over a ten-year period” (Mike O’Keefe,
1990 [February 21–27], “Sunset at Sunrise Ranch: There’s a Dark
Side to the Emissaries of Divine Light,” Westword, p. 10). A
debate ensued about whether Mickelic “found justification for
what he did from the Emissaries” (as one former member claimed),
versus the belief of a local detective, which was that the
Emissaries’ teachings had no role in the perpetrator’s crimes
(O’Keefe, 1990, p. 14). From the detective’s perspective, Mickelic
simply was a “bad apple” within the group.
14 For the exposure of extensive child sexual abuse in the Hare
Krishnas, and the organization’s establishment of the Association
for the Protection of Vaishnava Children in April 1998, see David
Wolf, 2004, “Child Abuse and the Hare Krishnas: History and
Response,” in The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic
Fate of a Religious Transplant, Edited by Edwin F. Bryant and
Maria L. Ekstrand (pp. 321–344) (New York, NY: Columbia
University Press).
15 The second generation’s negative reaction and subsequent defect
from the Children of God/The Family played a major role in the
group’s decline and eventual extinguishment. See Stephen A.
Kent, 2004, “Generational Revolt by the Adult Children of First-
Generation Members of the Children of God/The Family,” Cultic
Studies Review, (1)1, 56–72 Stephen A. Kent, 2005, “Education
and Reeducation in Ideological Organizations and Their
Implications for Children,” Cultic Studies Review, (4)2, 136–139.
almost all cases, official) Internet sites. We
obtained additional primary and secondary files
on child sexual abuse on alternative religions
housed in the Stephen A. Kent Collection on
Alternative Religions in the University of
Alberta Library system. Further research by us
and others will verify whether the cases that we
selected are representative of other groups’ legal
cases, but our familiarity with the literature on
alternative religions suggests to us that they are.
We assume that the organizations in which
accused parties are members will be assessing
how to respond to the allegations in ways that
still preserve their respective groups. For these
groups, justice for victimized children may or
may not be a priority greater than or even equal
to preservation. Thus, child sexual-abuse cases
are different in kind from other types of
religious minority deviance involving such
issues as blood transfusions, corporal
punishment, fasting, financial donations, and
excommunication. Our firm position is that court
systems and the attorneys involved in child
sexual-abuse cases have a responsibility to
ensure that all guilty parties face both legal
accountability and social exposure for their
actions, and religious groups are no exceptions.
Consequently, we advocate that, whenever
possible (which primarily means whenever
litigation will not further traumatize
survivors),
15F
16 child sexual-abuse cases involving
members of alternative religions should go to
trial, thus producing decisions (and often written
judicial decisions) that identify what if any roles
the groups themselves played in facilitating the
abuses.
16F
17
16 Both the United States and Canada have Children’s Advocacy
Centers, designed to minimize stress to children who give
evidence, along with attempting to secure accurate and usable
statements from them. See, for example, Melissa Lindsay, 2013
(December 5), “Just Facts,” Government of Canada, Department
of Justice. Available from http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-
jp/victim/jf-pf/cac-cae.html
17 The most dramatic example of a case discussing the role of a
group and its leader in child sexual abuse is W 42 In the High
Court of Justice, Family Division, Principal Registry in the Matter
of ST (A Minor) and in the Matter of the Supreme Court Act 1991,
Lord Justice Ward (19 October 1995). We discuss this case
following.
may respond to allegations by attempting to
compartmentalize the perpetrators as a few “bad
apples” or a small number of deviant
members.
12F
13 Reactions to the time in groups’
histories in which the allegations occurred may
result in self-presentations by the group as
having reformed in relation to a previous period.
Accountability may force groups to initiate
safeguards
13F
14 or, in extreme cases (usually
involving systemic problems through which
leadership perpetrated sexual crimes), will drive
groups into oblivion.
14F
15
In this article, we identify the three different
levels of court procedures in which child sexual-
abuse allegations in controversial alternative
religions are most likely to appear. We then
present basic strategies that alternative religious
defendants have used, and appropriate
counterstrategies that prosecutors and plaintiffs’
counsel might utilize. Most if not all of the cases
that we examine attracted considerable attention
at the time they were argued, so extensive
material about them exists on reputable (and in
NY: PublicAffairs). When she was 12 years old, he began sexually
assaulting the young girl and had a child by her when she was 14.
Soon afterward, he took other girls and young women, aged 13, 14,
17, 19, and 20, as lovers (Thibodeau, 1999, p. 109).
13 See, for example, the debate about an admitted child sexual
abuser within the Emissaries of Divine Light. In 1990, Ray
Mickelic admitted to Loveland, Colorado police “that he had
sexually assaulted children over a ten-year period” (Mike O’Keefe,
1990 [February 21–27], “Sunset at Sunrise Ranch: There’s a Dark
Side to the Emissaries of Divine Light,” Westword, p. 10). A
debate ensued about whether Mickelic “found justification for
what he did from the Emissaries” (as one former member claimed),
versus the belief of a local detective, which was that the
Emissaries’ teachings had no role in the perpetrator’s crimes
(O’Keefe, 1990, p. 14). From the detective’s perspective, Mickelic
simply was a “bad apple” within the group.
14 For the exposure of extensive child sexual abuse in the Hare
Krishnas, and the organization’s establishment of the Association
for the Protection of Vaishnava Children in April 1998, see David
Wolf, 2004, “Child Abuse and the Hare Krishnas: History and
Response,” in The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic
Fate of a Religious Transplant, Edited by Edwin F. Bryant and
Maria L. Ekstrand (pp. 321–344) (New York, NY: Columbia
University Press).
15 The second generation’s negative reaction and subsequent defect
from the Children of God/The Family played a major role in the
group’s decline and eventual extinguishment. See Stephen A.
Kent, 2004, “Generational Revolt by the Adult Children of First-
Generation Members of the Children of God/The Family,” Cultic
Studies Review, (1)1, 56–72 Stephen A. Kent, 2005, “Education
and Reeducation in Ideological Organizations and Their
Implications for Children,” Cultic Studies Review, (4)2, 136–139.
almost all cases, official) Internet sites. We
obtained additional primary and secondary files
on child sexual abuse on alternative religions
housed in the Stephen A. Kent Collection on
Alternative Religions in the University of
Alberta Library system. Further research by us
and others will verify whether the cases that we
selected are representative of other groups’ legal
cases, but our familiarity with the literature on
alternative religions suggests to us that they are.
We assume that the organizations in which
accused parties are members will be assessing
how to respond to the allegations in ways that
still preserve their respective groups. For these
groups, justice for victimized children may or
may not be a priority greater than or even equal
to preservation. Thus, child sexual-abuse cases
are different in kind from other types of
religious minority deviance involving such
issues as blood transfusions, corporal
punishment, fasting, financial donations, and
excommunication. Our firm position is that court
systems and the attorneys involved in child
sexual-abuse cases have a responsibility to
ensure that all guilty parties face both legal
accountability and social exposure for their
actions, and religious groups are no exceptions.
Consequently, we advocate that, whenever
possible (which primarily means whenever
litigation will not further traumatize
survivors),
15F
16 child sexual-abuse cases involving
members of alternative religions should go to
trial, thus producing decisions (and often written
judicial decisions) that identify what if any roles
the groups themselves played in facilitating the
abuses.
16F
17
16 Both the United States and Canada have Children’s Advocacy
Centers, designed to minimize stress to children who give
evidence, along with attempting to secure accurate and usable
statements from them. See, for example, Melissa Lindsay, 2013
(December 5), “Just Facts,” Government of Canada, Department
of Justice. Available from http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-
jp/victim/jf-pf/cac-cae.html
17 The most dramatic example of a case discussing the role of a
group and its leader in child sexual abuse is W 42 In the High
Court of Justice, Family Division, Principal Registry in the Matter
of ST (A Minor) and in the Matter of the Supreme Court Act 1991,
Lord Justice Ward (19 October 1995). We discuss this case
following.
