Copyright (c) 1984 Vanderbilt Law Review, Vanderbilt University Law School
Vanderbilt Law Review
ARTICLE: When Religious Exercise Is Not Free: Deprogramming and the Constitutional Status of Coercively Induced Belief
October, 1984
37 Vand. L. Rev. 1071
Author
Richard Delgado *
Excerpt
I. INTRODUCTION
A previous article by this author, Religious Totalism: Gentle and Ungentle Persuasion Under the First Amendment, 1 showed that recruitment into many of the new religious cults 2 may be, and often is, nonconsensual. 3 Cult recruiters disguise that they are proselytizing for a religious group, 4 conceal the identity of the group, 5 and withhold from the prospective cultist the nature of the commitment expected, the procedures to be undergone, and the practices to be engaged in. 6 This deception effectively destroys the possibility of a recruit's giving informed consent 7 to induction into the movement because the recruit lacks the knowledge necessary for an intelligent choice whether to join.
After an initial period, the recruit's knowledge of the cult's nature and practices gradually increases, but informed consent is still not obtained. Although information increases, the capacity to choose decreases: 8 by a process of coercive persuasion, 9 sometimes called "thought reform" or "brainwashing," 10 religious cults deprive inductees of the ability to make an independent assessment of their cult membership. Cults discourage critical thought and choice, 11 and bring to bear a variety of physical, 12 physiological, 13 and psychological 14 techniques to induce conformity to a hierarchical system, 15 acceptance of a complex ideology, 16 and submission to an authoritarian leader. 17 Because of this structuring of the socialization process, knowledge of the nature and effects of the religious cult, and capacity for free choice--requisites for informed consent--are never ...
A previous article by this author, Religious Totalism: Gentle and Ungentle Persuasion Under the First Amendment, 1 showed that recruitment into many of the new religious cults 2 may be, and often is, nonconsensual. 3 Cult recruiters disguise that they are proselytizing for a religious group, 4 conceal the identity of the group, 5 and withhold from the prospective cultist the nature of the commitment expected, the procedures to be undergone, and the practices to be engaged in. 6 This deception effectively destroys the possibility of a recruit's giving informed consent 7 to induction into the movement because the recruit lacks the knowledge necessary for an intelligent choice whether to join.
After an initial period, the recruit's knowledge of the cult's nature and practices gradually increases, but informed consent is still not obtained. Although information increases, the capacity to choose decreases: 8 by a process of coercive persuasion, 9 sometimes called "thought reform" or "brainwashing," 10 religious cults deprive inductees of the ability to make an independent assessment of their cult membership. Cults discourage critical thought and choice, 11 and bring to bear a variety of physical, 12 physiological, 13 and psychological 14 techniques to induce conformity to a hierarchical system, 15 acceptance of a complex ideology, 16 and submission to an authoritarian leader. 17 Because of this structuring of the socialization process, knowledge of the nature and effects of the religious cult, and capacity for free choice--requisites for informed consent--are never ...
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