For some decades American (and other) culture has been obsessed with cults. But what does "cult" mean? How should a religious group be identified as a cult? Who joins cults and why? These and other questions are answered in this book. It provides a basic introduction to cults, "unsafe sects," especially from an orthodox Christian perspective. Here readers will also find accounts of the author's personal experiences of cults.
"Recently, cults have been a source of fascination, with various TV shows, movies, and books portraying them in lurid detail. However, cults have existed since ancient history, and many new religious movements have proven to be harmless. What distinguishes a cult from a sect, and how do these new religious movements become accepted? What strategies are in place to prevent dangerous cults from forming, and how do these cults recruit members to begin with? Should cults and sects be granted the right to religious freedom? This volume explores the history of unorthodox religious groups and the debates surrounding them"--
The VLDB Secure Data Management Workshop was held for the 7th time this year. The topic of data security remains an important area of research especially due to the growing proliferation of data in open environments as a result of emerging data services such as cloud computing, location based services, and health-related services. Con?dentiality is the main driving force behind the - search that covers topics such as privacy enhancing technologies, access control, and search in encrypted data. We received 20 submissions from which the program committee selected 10 papers to be presented at the workshop and included in the proceedings (50% acceptancerate). In addition, we areproud that Elisa Bertino accepted our in- tation to give a keynote for which she selected the topic of data trustworthiness. We hope the papers collected in this volume will stimulate your research in this area. The regular papers in the proceeding have been grouped into two sections. The?rstsectionfocusesonprivacy.Thepapersinthissectionpresentabalanced mix of theoretical work on anonymity and application-oriented work. Thesecondsectionfocusesondatasecurityinopenenvironments.Thepapers address issues related to the management of con?dential data that is stored in or released to open environments, such as, for example, in cloud computing. We wish to thank all the authors of submitted papers for their high-quality submissions. We would also like to thank the program committee members as well as additional referees for doing an excellent review job. Finally, let us - knowledge the work of Luan Ibraimi, who helped in the technical preparation of the proceedings.
'Cult Wars' in Historical Perspective provides a broad characterization of the shifting religious contours over the past several decades. Offering an assessment of several important topics in the study of new religions, this book explores developments in well-known groups such as the Unification movement, The Family International (Children of God), the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and the Church of Scientology. Bringing together both insiders and outsiders from various academic disciplines and personal perspectives, this book takes account of the ways in which the cult question is defined and addressed in different countries. It offers a vivid depiction of how the cult wars or cult controversies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries first took shape; the transformation of deeply entrenched positions on cults and sects as at least some members of new groups, cult watchers, and academics entered into serious and sustained conversations about topics of mutual concern; the shifting foci and concerns of the general public, law enforcement and the courts, and academics in various countries; and the complex histories of individual groups in which many dramatic transformations have occurred despite their comparatively short life spans.
