The views expressed in ICSA Today are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of ICSA Today’s editors or editorial boards or of ICSA’s directors, advisors, or staff. Groups
analyzed or mentioned in ICSA Today are not necessarily cults, nor are they necessarily harmful.
Table of Contents
Note to our readers regarding website addresses (URLs): For all http website addresses, such as
http://www.icsahome.com, ICSA Today uses only the shortened address form (icsahome.com). In
all instances when the basic address is other than http, such as https or ftp, we give the full
address. Please keep this in mind when exploring sites mentioned in ICSA Today.
26
Profile On...
Ron Loomis
13
Book Reviews
Joseph Szimhart and Robin Boyle
6
Overview: Support Groups
William Goldberg
30
News Desk
10
Families Helping Families
Trudy Kendrick
2
How Can Faith Communities Help
Survivors of Spiritual Abuse?
Michael D. Langone
ICSA Today, Volume 9, No. 2, 2018
Editor-in-Chief
Michael D. Langone, PhD
Associate Editor
Ann Stamler, MA, MPhil
Family Editor
Lois Svoboda, MD, LMFT
Former Member Editor
Ashley Allen, MSW, LSW
Member Profiles Editor
Mary O’Connell
Mental Health Editor
Gillie Jenkinson, PhD
Research Coeditors
Linda Dubrow-Marshall, PhD
Rod Dubrow-Marshall, PhD
Point of View -Q&A
William Goldberg, MSW, LCSW
Correspondents
Austria/Germany
Friedrich Griess
Eastern Europe
Piotr T. Nowakowski, PhD
French-Speaking Countries
Catherine Perry, PhD
Italy
Dr. Cristina Caparesi
Dr. Raffaella Di Marzio
Nordic Countries
Noomi Andemark
Joni Valkila, PhD
Hilde Langvann
Håkan Järvå, MSc Psych
Spain and Latin America
Luis Santamaria, SThL
Erika Toren, MSEd
News Desk
Ana Rodriguez
Writing Consultant
Sharon Hamm
Bios of ICSA Today editors can be found at
icsahome.com/elibrary/peopleprofiles
International Cultic Studies Association
P.O. Box 2265 • Bonita Springs, FL 34133
Website: icsahome.com
Email: mail@icsamail.com
Phone: 239.514.3081
Fax: 305.393.8193
ISSN: 2154-820X
Printed in the USA
Artists and poets retain copyright
of their works and grant ICSA permission
to reproduce them. Unless otherwise
indicated, all other material copyright
International Cultic Studies Association.
8
Dallas Former-Member Support
Group
Doug Duncan
18
Arts: Poetry
F. E. Feeley Jr
Maeve Parker was born and raised in Zimbabwe. She moved to Cape Town to
study fine art and remained in South Africa, where she built a successful textile
business. “However, as a newly divorced, single parent and sole business owner,
I succumbed to a lot of stress. This put me in a fragile position of searching,
which eventually led me to join the Alon Christian Community. I spent the
next 20 years of my life committed to this group, over time losing my artistic
confidence and identity. Having left the group, I am learning the invaluable lesson that we
must never surrender our sense of self and our instincts. And that if we don’t look at ourselves
head-on and deal with our inner demons, they will eventually trip us up and lead us into
destructive situations.”
On the cover: Maeve Parker, Moving On (mixed
media): “This is a painting started when I was still
in a cult. I completed it a year after I left. It is a
self-portrait. I am standing in the doorway of my
beautiful little house on the farm that was the
cult. Beside me is a little feral cat that adopted
me when I was staying with my brother soon
after I left this group. This little cat was my closest
friend in that first tumultuous year. The special
thing about this painting is how it captures the
mood of the before and the after: The feeling
of being isolated, lonely, and misunderstood
was overwhelming while I was in the cult the
loneliness, confusion, and sense of waste and
desolation equally so when I left. But life is
opening up to me once again, bit by bit, much
like the rush of color of the flowers in this picture.”
Moving On was exhibited in the Phoenix Project at
the ICSA 2018 Annual Conference.
27
Correspondents’ Reports
the views of ICSA Today’s editors or editorial boards or of ICSA’s directors, advisors, or staff. Groups
analyzed or mentioned in ICSA Today are not necessarily cults, nor are they necessarily harmful.
Table of Contents
Note to our readers regarding website addresses (URLs): For all http website addresses, such as
http://www.icsahome.com, ICSA Today uses only the shortened address form (icsahome.com). In
all instances when the basic address is other than http, such as https or ftp, we give the full
address. Please keep this in mind when exploring sites mentioned in ICSA Today.
26
Profile On...
Ron Loomis
13
Book Reviews
Joseph Szimhart and Robin Boyle
6
Overview: Support Groups
William Goldberg
30
News Desk
10
Families Helping Families
Trudy Kendrick
2
How Can Faith Communities Help
Survivors of Spiritual Abuse?
Michael D. Langone
ICSA Today, Volume 9, No. 2, 2018
Editor-in-Chief
Michael D. Langone, PhD
Associate Editor
Ann Stamler, MA, MPhil
Family Editor
Lois Svoboda, MD, LMFT
Former Member Editor
Ashley Allen, MSW, LSW
Member Profiles Editor
Mary O’Connell
Mental Health Editor
Gillie Jenkinson, PhD
Research Coeditors
Linda Dubrow-Marshall, PhD
Rod Dubrow-Marshall, PhD
Point of View -Q&A
William Goldberg, MSW, LCSW
Correspondents
Austria/Germany
Friedrich Griess
Eastern Europe
Piotr T. Nowakowski, PhD
French-Speaking Countries
Catherine Perry, PhD
Italy
Dr. Cristina Caparesi
Dr. Raffaella Di Marzio
Nordic Countries
Noomi Andemark
Joni Valkila, PhD
Hilde Langvann
Håkan Järvå, MSc Psych
Spain and Latin America
Luis Santamaria, SThL
Erika Toren, MSEd
News Desk
Ana Rodriguez
Writing Consultant
Sharon Hamm
Bios of ICSA Today editors can be found at
icsahome.com/elibrary/peopleprofiles
International Cultic Studies Association
P.O. Box 2265 • Bonita Springs, FL 34133
Website: icsahome.com
Email: mail@icsamail.com
Phone: 239.514.3081
Fax: 305.393.8193
ISSN: 2154-820X
Printed in the USA
Artists and poets retain copyright
of their works and grant ICSA permission
to reproduce them. Unless otherwise
indicated, all other material copyright
International Cultic Studies Association.
8
Dallas Former-Member Support
Group
Doug Duncan
18
Arts: Poetry
F. E. Feeley Jr
Maeve Parker was born and raised in Zimbabwe. She moved to Cape Town to
study fine art and remained in South Africa, where she built a successful textile
business. “However, as a newly divorced, single parent and sole business owner,
I succumbed to a lot of stress. This put me in a fragile position of searching,
which eventually led me to join the Alon Christian Community. I spent the
next 20 years of my life committed to this group, over time losing my artistic
confidence and identity. Having left the group, I am learning the invaluable lesson that we
must never surrender our sense of self and our instincts. And that if we don’t look at ourselves
head-on and deal with our inner demons, they will eventually trip us up and lead us into
destructive situations.”
On the cover: Maeve Parker, Moving On (mixed
media): “This is a painting started when I was still
in a cult. I completed it a year after I left. It is a
self-portrait. I am standing in the doorway of my
beautiful little house on the farm that was the
cult. Beside me is a little feral cat that adopted
me when I was staying with my brother soon
after I left this group. This little cat was my closest
friend in that first tumultuous year. The special
thing about this painting is how it captures the
mood of the before and the after: The feeling
of being isolated, lonely, and misunderstood
was overwhelming while I was in the cult the
loneliness, confusion, and sense of waste and
desolation equally so when I left. But life is
opening up to me once again, bit by bit, much
like the rush of color of the flowers in this picture.”
Moving On was exhibited in the Phoenix Project at
the ICSA 2018 Annual Conference.
27
Correspondents’ Reports
