Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 172
10 Robin Munro. Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era.
Human Rights Watch/Geneva Institute of Psychiatry. 2002.
11 Jonathon Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ New York Review of Books, Vol. L, No. 3, Feb. 27,
2003.
12 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ 38.
13 Mirsky complains about the too exclusive focus of the forthcoming WPA investigation on Falun
Gong members. ―While members of Falun Gong are indeed detained in mental hospitals in large
numbers, it seems unjustifiable for the WPA to exclude virtually all other political detainees about
whom Mr. Munro provides so much evidence.‖ ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 38.
14 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 38.
15 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 41.
16 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 40.
17 Rosedale. ―Perspectives on Cults as Affected by the September 11 Tragedy.‖
18 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 39.
19 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 40.
20 Mirsky. ―China‘s Psychiatric Terror,‖ p. 40.
21 Lowe. ―Religion on a Leash.‖
22 Lowe. ―Religion on a Leash.‖
23 W.H.C. Frend. The Early Church. Fortress Press, 1962, 1985. p. 69.
24 Frend. The Early Church. p. 69.
25 Frend. The Early Church. p. 69.
26 Frend. The Early Church. p. 70.
27 Frend. The Early Church. p. 71.
28 E.R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety. Cambridge University Press. 1965. p. 67.
29 Thomas Robbins, ―Apocalypse, Persecution and Self-Immolation.‖ pp. 205-219 in Catherine
Wessinger, ed, Millennialism, Persecution and Violence. University of Syracuse Press, 2000. Dr.
Wessinger‘s book collects sixteen original case studies which probe the interrelationship of
millennialism, persecution and significant outbreaks of violence in different contexts. The groups
studied include early Mormons, Tiapings, Russian Old Believers, Solar Templars, People Templars,
Aum Shinrikyo, Branch Davidians, Native Americans at Wounded Knee and others. Persecution was
definitely a factor in the Old Believer episodes, as was the movement‘s initial apocalypticism and the
authoritarian politicoreligious context of Caesaropapism and lack of church-state separation.
30 Vatro Murvar. ―Messianism in Russia: Religious and Revolutionary,‖ Journal for the Scientific Study
of Religion. Vol. 14, No. 3. pp. 229-257, 1978.
31 Robbins. ―Millennialism, Persecution and Violence.‖
32 To avoid the whole issue of whether to accede to government demands that they publicly reject
Christianity and sacrifice to the Emperor, ―Christians had only to lie low, avoid being too obvious on
the day appointed for the sacrifice, and then resume membership of the church. Only prominent
Christians were pursued ...‖ Frend. The Early Church. pp. 99.
33 Frend. The Early Church. p. 86.
34 Frend. The Early Church. p. 63.
35 Quoted by Frend. The Early Church. p. 63.
36 Frend. The Early Church. p. 63.
37 Quoted by Frend. The Early Church. p. 80. Tertullian ultimately joined the Montanist sect.
38 Grant Underwood. ―Millennialism, Persecution and Violence: The Mormons.‖ pp. 43-61 in Catherine
Wessinger, ed. Millennialism, Persecution and Violence. U. of Syracuse, 2000.
39 Susan Palmer. ―Listening to Master Li.‖ Montreal Gazette. June 9, 2001, p. B5.
40 Palmer. ―Listening to Master Li.‖ p. B5.
41 Palmer. ―Listening to Master Li.‖ p. B5.
42 Palmer. ―Listening to Master Li.‖ p. B5.

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 173
43 Palmer. ―Listening to Master Li.‖ p. B5. See also Susan Palmer ―From Healing to Protest:
Conversion Patterns Among the Practitioners of Falun Gong,‖ Nova Religio, Vol. 6, No. 2, April 2003,
pp. 348-365.
44 Palmer. ―Listening to Master Li.‖ p. B5. See also the recent piece by Patsy Rahn, ―The Chemistry of
a Conflict: The Chinese Government and the Falun Gong‖, Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 14,
No. 2, pp. 41-65, 2002. Like Palmer, Rahn believes that the millennial message of Falun Gong is
presently being intensified partly as a response to state persecution. Although Falunist teachings
continue to condemn violence, Rahn believes that there is at least a potential justification for violence
in Master Li‘s evolving and increasingly dualist message. ―As groups feel an increased frustration of
their ultimate goal and an increased persecution, their apocalyptic idea‘s may increase and the battle
between good and evil intensify‖, p. 56.
45 Carolyn Evans. ―Chinese Law and the International Protection of Religious Freedom.‖ Journal of
Church and State. Vol. 49. No. 4 (Autumn, 2002). pp. 749-774.
46 Evans. ―Chinese Law and the International Protection of Religious Freedom.‖ p. 764.
47 Evans. ―Chinese Law and the International Protection of Religious Freedom.‖ p. 765.
48 Evans. ―Chinese Law and the International Protection of Religious Freedom.‖ p. 770.
49 Mr. Rosedale‘s statement that, ―all members of Falun Gong have individual rights that should not
be abridged‖ is welcome but given the spectacular Chinese repression, it is hardly an adequate
response to egregious persecution. Rosedale‘s statements concerning the limits of religious freedom
may have some abstract validity but cannot justify such heavy handed and brutal policies as the
Chinese State has ruthlessly pursued.
50 The Journal, Nova Religio just published a large symposium on Falun Gong. (Vol. 6, No. 2) entailing
nine papers which appeared in the Spring of 2003. Particularly salient in terms of this essay are four
contributions: Susan Palmer, ―From Healing to Protest‖ (see note 43 above) Gareth Fisher,
―Resistance and Salvation in Falun Gong: The Promise of Forbearance‖ Bryan Edelman and James
Richardson, ―Falun Gong and the Law: Development of Legal Social Control in China‖ and Craig
Burgdoff, ―How Falun Gong‘s Practice Undermines Li Hongzhi‘s Totalistic Rhetoric.‖
Note: This paper was largely written before the Falun Gong symposium appeared in Nova
Religio in Spring, 2003. The paper does discuss the views of S. Palmer and R. Loewe
published elsewhere.