Cults » (Library Edition)

Behind each policy debate over welfare reform, AIDS funding, and hate crime laws are the people struggling with poverty, illness, and discrimination. While the experts cite statistics and employ rhetoric about drug abuse, crime, and child abuse, individuals confront the horrors of addiction and the trauma of victimization.

Greenhaven Press's Social Issues Firsthand series illuminates the often-neglected human side of society's pressing problems. Each anthology presents a collection of personal narratives on a featured social issue. Contributors include those who have had personal experience with the topic under discussion-either as a participant, a witness, or an involved professional. For example, Terrorism includes the perspectives of terrorists, victims, families of victims, and emergency workers. Additional features include an introduction that provides each book with essential context, a thorough bibliography, a list of organizations to contact, an annotated table of contents, and a thorough index. Each book in the Social Issues Firsthand series will provide readers with a personal context for the most pressing topics of today's political discussions.

Foreword     9
Introduction     12
Exploring Cults
What Kind of Person Joins a Cult?   Maureen Griffo     17
You Better Get Right with the Lord   Scott Schwartz     23
Burning Man   Vendela Vida     35
Jonestown: Not the Paradise I Thought It Would Be   Deborah Layton     72
Leaving Cults
Growing Up in a Cult   Flore Astid     95
I Left Children of God to Keep My Children Safe   Miriam Williams     98
I Left Aum Shinrikyo After the Gas Attacks   Hidetoshi Takahashi     108
My Soul Needed Repair   Janja Lalich     120
The Impact on Families: The Dangers of Cults
My Son Was in a Cult   Ellie Brenner   Joan Reminick     126
Seeing My Family for the First Time in Six Years   Jim Guerra     137
My Father Tried to Help Me Leave Scientology$dAnonymous     150
They Convinced Me That My Parents Were Satanists   Brittany Morgan   Laura Billings     160
Organizations to Contact     172
For Further Research     176
Index     179