22 ICSA TODAY
Profile On...
The first time I saw Marcia Rudin was at an ICSA
conference. Sitting across from her at a very large round
table in a room full of noisy conversation, there was no
chance for anything but quick introductions. I remember
thinking, perhaps superficially, She’s so pretty… killer lips…
movie star lips… With a trim, petite figure, she was dressed
stylishly, her gray hair in a sophisticated bob. I would never
have taken her for a professor of religion. But Marcia Rudin
confounds expectation.
~
For more than 40 years, Marcia Rudin has been speaking
up for cult-involved persons and educating the public
about cultic-related issues. If you google the word cult
today, you will get 179,000,000 results. If you were to ask a
high-school class of sophomores if they know what a cult
is, they are all familiar with the term and can define it with
fair accuracy. Any number of television shows ranging from
South Park, Seinfeld, and Family Guy to Monk and Law and
Order have episodes featuring cults and their devastating
effects. Of course, there is the Leah Remini-sponsored
series on Scientology, hundreds of books, YouTube videos,
and also Ted Talks. And ICSA has done a phenomenal job in
educating people about this subject.
In the early 1970s, however, this abundance of information
was not the case. When Marcia’s husband, Rabbi James
Rudin (marrying him, she says, ”…was the best decision of
my life”), was being asked at that time by Jewish parents
about a strange new group led by someone calling himself
Reverend Moon, there were no resources to consult. The
Rudins’ response? Together, they wrote a book, Paradise or
Prison: The New Religious Cults.
As Marcia tells it,
We became “experts” by default because there was
little to no available information then, especially in
the Jewish community. After our book came out,
the countercult movement (such as it was then)
contacted us, and we got involved in it. This was
before the existence of the original Cult Awareness
Network or American Family Foundation.
Since then, Ms. Rudin has been tireless. She has appeared
on TV and radio shows, given lectures, participated in
seminars, supported the organizations dedicated to cult
education, and generally taken it as her responsibility
to advance the opposition to destructive groups, even
though “I have had no personal involvement [i.e., no
relatives in cultic activities or groups].”
Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Marcia was raised in Champaign,
Illinois. Her father was a college professor and her mother
typed theses for college students and then worked in
offices.
Majoring in philosophy and religion, she graduated
magna cum laude from Boston University, where she
was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society.
She received an MA in Religion jointly from Columbia
University and Union Theological Seminary, specializing
in the area of philosophy of religion. She also studied
social anthropology and theology at the University of
Edinburgh, earning second honors. She studied for a PhD
in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. She
taught at the high-school and both undergraduate and
graduate college levels. She has published two novels,
Hear My Voice and Flower Toward the Sun, nonfiction
books, film scripts, and articles. Seven of her 15 plays have
received productions. She was a resident at the McDowell
Colony of the Arts. (For her full resume, go to marciarudin.
com).
Some people have a positive effect on us without seeming
to try. Within a day of my making the initial contact with
Marcia about this profile, receiving an e-mail from her that
contained some biographical information she thought
might be helpful, and my reading that material, I am
asking myself why it takes me so long to get anything
accomplished, and why I hesitate so much before taking
action. At first, I’m intimidated by her truly impressive
accomplishments. But then I calm down and realize that
most of her life’s work has been driven by a serious inquiry
Marcia Rudin
Profile On...
The first time I saw Marcia Rudin was at an ICSA
conference. Sitting across from her at a very large round
table in a room full of noisy conversation, there was no
chance for anything but quick introductions. I remember
thinking, perhaps superficially, She’s so pretty… killer lips…
movie star lips… With a trim, petite figure, she was dressed
stylishly, her gray hair in a sophisticated bob. I would never
have taken her for a professor of religion. But Marcia Rudin
confounds expectation.
~
For more than 40 years, Marcia Rudin has been speaking
up for cult-involved persons and educating the public
about cultic-related issues. If you google the word cult
today, you will get 179,000,000 results. If you were to ask a
high-school class of sophomores if they know what a cult
is, they are all familiar with the term and can define it with
fair accuracy. Any number of television shows ranging from
South Park, Seinfeld, and Family Guy to Monk and Law and
Order have episodes featuring cults and their devastating
effects. Of course, there is the Leah Remini-sponsored
series on Scientology, hundreds of books, YouTube videos,
and also Ted Talks. And ICSA has done a phenomenal job in
educating people about this subject.
In the early 1970s, however, this abundance of information
was not the case. When Marcia’s husband, Rabbi James
Rudin (marrying him, she says, ”…was the best decision of
my life”), was being asked at that time by Jewish parents
about a strange new group led by someone calling himself
Reverend Moon, there were no resources to consult. The
Rudins’ response? Together, they wrote a book, Paradise or
Prison: The New Religious Cults.
As Marcia tells it,
We became “experts” by default because there was
little to no available information then, especially in
the Jewish community. After our book came out,
the countercult movement (such as it was then)
contacted us, and we got involved in it. This was
before the existence of the original Cult Awareness
Network or American Family Foundation.
Since then, Ms. Rudin has been tireless. She has appeared
on TV and radio shows, given lectures, participated in
seminars, supported the organizations dedicated to cult
education, and generally taken it as her responsibility
to advance the opposition to destructive groups, even
though “I have had no personal involvement [i.e., no
relatives in cultic activities or groups].”
Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Marcia was raised in Champaign,
Illinois. Her father was a college professor and her mother
typed theses for college students and then worked in
offices.
Majoring in philosophy and religion, she graduated
magna cum laude from Boston University, where she
was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society.
She received an MA in Religion jointly from Columbia
University and Union Theological Seminary, specializing
in the area of philosophy of religion. She also studied
social anthropology and theology at the University of
Edinburgh, earning second honors. She studied for a PhD
in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. She
taught at the high-school and both undergraduate and
graduate college levels. She has published two novels,
Hear My Voice and Flower Toward the Sun, nonfiction
books, film scripts, and articles. Seven of her 15 plays have
received productions. She was a resident at the McDowell
Colony of the Arts. (For her full resume, go to marciarudin.
com).
Some people have a positive effect on us without seeming
to try. Within a day of my making the initial contact with
Marcia about this profile, receiving an e-mail from her that
contained some biographical information she thought
might be helpful, and my reading that material, I am
asking myself why it takes me so long to get anything
accomplished, and why I hesitate so much before taking
action. At first, I’m intimidated by her truly impressive
accomplishments. But then I calm down and realize that
most of her life’s work has been driven by a serious inquiry
Marcia Rudin
