Anson D. Shupe, Jr. (21 January 1948 – 4 May 2015) was an American
sociologist noted for his studies of religious groups and their countermovements, family violence and clergy misconduct.[1]
An advocate for religious freedom, Shupe conducted fieldwork on the
Unification Church and other
new religious movements, as well as their opponents.[3] Together with
David G. Bromley, Shupe was considered one of the foremost social science authorities on the
anti-cult movement, based on a series of books and articles on the topic he coauthored with Bromley.[4]
Other areas Shupe researched included the
New Christian Right,
religious broadcasting, and the political impact of
fundamentalism; he also wrote about family violence and clergy misconduct, i.e. violent or exploitative behaviour on the part of pastors, ministers or gurus.[2][3] He frequently acted as a consultant to attorneys in lawsuits involving issues of
religious freedom or clergy abuse.[5]
Publications
"Moonies" in America: Cult. Church. and Crusade. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications, 1979. (with David G. Bromley). Introduction by
John Lofland. 269 pp.
The Anti-Cult Movement in America: A Bibliography and Historical Survey. New York: Garland Press, 1984. (with David G. Bromley and Donna L. Oliver) i-xiii + 169 pp.
A Documentary History of the Anti-Cult Movement. Arlington, TX, University of Texas Center for Social Research Press, 1986. (with David G. Bromley) 376 pp.
The Mormon Corporate Empire. Boston: Beacon, 1986. (with John Heinerman)
ISBN0-8070-0406-5
Televangelism, Power and Politics on God's Frontier, Anson Shupe and Jeffrey Hadden, Henry Holt & Co (April 1, 1988), 325pp.
ISBN0-8050-0778-4
The Darker Side of Virtue: Corruption, Scandal, and the Mormon Empire, Prometheus Books (May 1, 1991), 168pp.
ISBN0-87975-654-3
Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: Revival of Religious Fundamentalism in East and West, Bronislaw Misztal & Anson Shupe (Eds.), Praeger Publishers (November 30, 1992), 240pp.
ISBN0-275-94218-X
Anti-Cult Movements in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1994. (edited with David G. Bromley).
ISBN0-8153-1428-0
The Violent Couple. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers (1994) (with William A. Stacey and Lonnie H. Hazlewood). 182 pp.
"Religion, Mobilization, and Social Action". Bronislaw Misztal & Anson Shupe (Eds.), Praeger Publishers (1998), 260pp.
ISBN0-275-95625-3
Bad Pastors: Clergy Misconduct in Modern America New York: New York University Press, 2000, Edited by Anson Shupe, William A. Stacey, Susan E. Darnell;
ISBN0-8147-8147-0
"The Cult Awareness Network and the Anticult Movement: Implications for NRMs in America" (with Susan E. Darnell and Kendrick Moxon) in New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America. edited by Derek H. Davis and Barry Hankins. Waco: J.M.Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and Baylor University Press, 2002.
ISBN0-929182-64-2
"The North American Anti-cult Movement: Vicissitudes of Success and Failure." in The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements (with David G. Bromley and Susan E. Darnell), ed. by James R. Lewis. NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 184–205.
"Anticult Movements" entry in Lindsay Jones, editor-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd edition. Vol. 1 Thomson/Macmillan 2005, pp. 395–7.
"Deprogramming" entry in Lindsay Jones, editor-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd edition Vol. 4 Thomson/Macmillan 2005, pp. 2291–3.
Agents of Discord: The Cult Awareness Network, Deprogramming and Bad Science. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2006. (with Susan E. Darnell)
ISBN0-7658-0323-2
Jackson W. Carroll, Review of In The Name of All That's Holy, Review of Religious Research 38 (1996): 90-91.
Hans A. Baer, Review of The Darker Side of Virtue, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31 (1992): 242-243.
A.J. Pavlos, Review of Six Perspectives on New Religions, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22 (1983): 95-96.
Stephen A. Kent and Theresa Krebs, "When Scholars Know Sin: Alternative Religions and Their Academic Supporters," Skeptic, 6/3 (1988): 36-44. Also see J. Gordon Melton, Anson D. Shupe and James R. Lewis, "When Scholars Know Sin" Forum Reply to Kent and Krebs, Skeptic, 7/1 (1999): 14-21.
Hansen, Susan (June 1997) "Did Scientology Strike Back?", The American Lawyer.