Vicissitudes of Public Legitimacy for Religious Groups: A Comparison of the Unification and Roman Catholic Churches
Media coverage of alleged scandals, malfeasance, and abuse committed by religious agents and their organizations have proliferated since the 1970s. Such "exposés" have included the gurus and messiahs of new religious movements, corrupt and hypocritical televangelists, and sexually predator...
| Published in: | Review of religious research |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer
1997
|
| In: |
Review of religious research
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | Media coverage of alleged scandals, malfeasance, and abuse committed by religious agents and their organizations have proliferated since the 1970s. Such "exposés" have included the gurus and messiahs of new religious movements, corrupt and hypocritical televangelists, and sexually predatory clergy. But even when such claims are alleged or confirmed, their exposures do not occur in a vacuum. Indeed, the reactions to such claims are affected by a number of factors. A major dimension of the contexts of such revelations is the influence of religious groups over two communities: (1) the internal community of faith; and (2) the larger external social environment of non-believers and the institutions they control. This article examines two well-publicized organizations, the Unification Church and the Roman Catholic Church, which have each experienced media coverage shifting from the negative to the positive and vice-versa, and the effects of these twin loci of influence on their respective fortunes in the United States. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3512181 |