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The Family Survival Trust
Organization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Family Survival Trust (FST) is a registered charity (No 1121388) whose mission is to prevent, and to provide information on coercive control, cultic behaviour and psychological manipulation. [1]
It evolved out of the work of FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Rescue/Resource), Britain's main anti-cult group in November 2007.
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History
The Family Survival Trust evolved from FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Rescue), Britain's first anti-cult group.[2][3] FAIR was founded in 1976 by MP Paul Rose, as a support group for friends and relatives of "cult" members,[2] with an early focus on the Unification Church, although in the years following this focus expanded to include other new religious movements (NRMs) or what it referred to as "cults".[3] In the late 1970s, it started to publish FAIR News to provide information and reports on new religious movements.
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Family, Action, Information, Rescue
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Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR) was founded by MP Paul Rose in 1976 to address enquiries from constituents and complaints from parents about their adult children joining NRMs.[3] Its membership includes many committed Christians; however, FAIR regarded itself and its outlook as non-religious.[4] However, NRM scholar George D. Chryssides pointed out at the time that "[a]lthough FAIR officials [rejected] the term 'anti-cult', FAIR's main strategy seems designed to hamper the progress of NRMs in a variety of ways."[5] It also publicly disapproved of activities like "Moonie bashing".[6] Yet Elisabeth Arweck adds that FAIR's "commitment to raise cult awareness was tempered by repeated warnings against witchhunts".[7]
The organization renamed itself as "Family, Action, Information, Resource" in 1994[8] in order to denote a concern "more with the place of these cults in public life and governments than with the issues of recruitment and brainwashing, although these remain[ed] important."[9]
FAIR was initially perceived as supporting "deprogramming", but then publicly distanced itself from it,[10][11] citing such reasons as high failure rates, damage to families and civil liberty issues. In 1985, FAIR co-chairman Casey McCann said that FAIR neither recommended nor supported coercive deprogramming and disapproved of those practicing it, considering "coercive deprogramming a money-making racket which encouraged preying on the misery of families with cult involvement."[11]
FAIR's applications for government funding were not successful; such funding instead gone to INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements), set up in 1988 by the sociologist Eileen Barker, with the support of Britain's mainstream churches.[12] Relations between FAIR and INFORM have at times been strained, with FAIR accusing INFORM of being too soft on cults.[13] FAIR chairman Tom Sackville as MP and Home Office minister abolished government funding for the INFORM in 1997 but funds was reinstated in 2000.[14]
In 1987, an ex-FAIR committee member, Cyril Vosper, was convicted in Munich on charges of kidnapping and causing bodily harm to German Scientologist Barbara Schwarz in the course of a deprogramming attempt.[11][15]
Cultists Anonymous
In 1985 ex-members of FAIR who believed that the group had become too moderate created a splinter group called Cultists Anonymous.[11] The hardliner Cultists Anonymous group was short-lived and rejoined FAIR in 1991.[16]
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Activities
The Family Survival Trust runs online support groups for individuals and families affected by cults or extremist groups. [17]
The FST hosts an Annual Public Event.[18]
External links
See also
References
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