Customer Reviews

The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sociologist Eileen Barker spent considerable time "on campus" watching both old-time and potential Unificationists. She dispels the myth that the Unification Church uses some extraordinary set of techniques to trick or coerce people into joining (her statistics show that only a tiny percentage keep up their contact even after spending a whole weekend at a workshop).

Although Barker never warms to the church (no accounting for taste <g>), she presents a detailed and remarkably fair viewpoint, which may dismay both those who have preconceived notions about the church and those who think it should not be criticized at all.

With all the hoopla over "cults" in our society over the last forty years, the book certainly goes against the grain, of popular culture at least. Barker's conclusions are as interesting as they have been controversial. Such as on page 258, where in answer to her subtitle she writes a real zinger:

"...Moonies are no more likely to stagnate into mindless robots that are their peers who travel to the city on the 8.23 each morning."

The text canvases far more than I -- for one -- care to know about the group. But in consideration of the mountain of them that she presents to back up her conclusions -- documented during a years-long academic field study of the Unification Church -- her critics need to argue with her facts. Little surprise no such argument has been forthcoming, that I have seen anyway. Instead, like Singer and Lalich, they resort to mere name calling.

Very unimpressive.

Eileen Barker seems to spend most of this book apologising for the cult's behavior and practices and every turn rather than telling parents what they can do to help their troubled children. Barker should have spent more time listening to former members, and less time talking to the cult leaders.