Witnesses found themselves characterized as a "totalitarian sect" and a "destructive cult." This atmosphere, Baran contends, represented not merely a "simplistic carryover of Soviet-era tropes" but rather their amalgamation with Western
anticult rhetoric in a post-Soviet context (214).
It then proceeds to a detailed examination of the multifaceted
anticult movement, a loose association of individuals and organizations dedicated to opposing and sometimes eradicating "cults," meaning religious and social groups those individuals and organizations don't like.
Agents of Discord: Deprogramming, Pseudo-Science, and the American
Anticult Movement.
To conclude, we analyze the reactions of the public towards NRMs (the role of the media, court cases involving NRMs, other noticeable incidents or controversies involving NRMs,
anticult activities, how the dominant church--in most cases Roman Catholic Church--reacts towards NRMs).
One of them is against the
anticult propaganda emanating from the francophone countries in which Raelian presence has been strong.
That is, though he does not take what I would call an "
anticult" approach, Whitsel's history of the religious antecedents of the group (for example, Gnosticism, western hermeticism, Theosophy) is a somewhat superficial narrative drawn from a few general, introductory sources, and does not reveal much familiarity (nor concern) with the nuances of western esotericism.
The temple was slapped with an
anticult lawsuit by a former member in 1976, a common occurrence then.
Falun Gong books were burned and
anticult propaganda was disseminated weekly.
Petersburg was almost disrupted when police initially refused to provide protection against "
anticult" activists who protested the event.
Bromley (to which Ellis contributed a chapter), makes out a case for considering various anti-Satanist activities of the time as something like the
anticult preoccupation of the 1970s.
However, the department did express concerns about comparisons made by Hong Kong officials between the Falun Gong and notorious cults abroad, as well as the Hong Kong government's move to study
anticult legislation.
In France a proposed
anticult law criminalizing "mental manipulation" by religious groups has alarmed some American Evangelicals, who fear it will curtail their freedom.