APnc 12/12 1447 Religion-Cults


   ASHEVILLE  (AP)  --  The  campus ministry at the University of
North Carolina at Asheville is trying to draw the  line  when  it
comes   to   "cult"   religions,   and  a  group  that  practices
"love-bombing" poses a special concern.

   David Smith, the director of religious affairs at the  school,
says  he  wants  the  students to be educated about the potential
dangers of cult groups.

   Smith said the ministry board is considering adoption of a set
of  guidelines  for  recruitment  and  educational  practices  by
religious  groups  in  an  effort  to protect the university from
legal problems that may occur if certain  groups  are  banned  or
challenged on campus.

   The  campus  ministry  is  comprised of mainstream Christians,
Jews, Ba'hais, Sufis, Quakers  and  members  of  other  religious
groups  and  is  not  opposed  to  the  content  of any religious
organization.  Instead, the ministry opposes some techniques used
to recruit members, Smith said.

   "The most common problem, and it's not unique to UNCA, is  the
Unification  Church,  the  Moonies,  who are extremely aggressive
with their recruitment practices," Smith said.

   Smith said the Moonies visit UNCA four or five  times  a  year
and also can be found selling roses at busy street intersections,
at airports  and  other public places.  He said he isn't aware of
"losing" any students to the Unification  Church,  "but  we  just
don't know.    All we can do is identify and make public who they
are."

   "The problems we've had have been  with  recognized  religious
groups  as  well  as  off-campus religious groups -- if we make a
decision that seems to be arbitrary and capricious without having
set standards, it can be a problem," Smith said. "Adopting  these
standards   would   put   at   arm's   length  any  challenge  of
discrimination."

   The list of "unethical" recruitment and educational  practices
includes  deliberate  deception  or misrepresentation; the use of
sleep deprivation  or  induced  exhaustion  for  the  purpose  of
religious  indoctrination;  contrived  dietary controls to induce
passivity and reduce resistance; and restriction of the right  of
any  participant  to continue or withdraw from any program at any
time.

   The first tactic of the Unification Church group, Smith  said,
is "love-bombing.     They're  instructed  to  hang  out  in  the
dormitories looking for students  alone  on  weekends.    They'll
befriend  them, offer to help them, and ask them to join them off
campus to meet new friends.

   "When they get the student  off  campus  with  new  `friends,'
they'll  say things like, `I can't believe you're just a freshman
and you thought that up,' or "Susie, you  think  just  like  us.'
Just  stroking  them,  feeding  their egos, making them feel like
part of a group."

   The next step, Smith said, is attendance at a "retreat."   The
recruits  have  no contact with the outside world, are fed a high
carbohydrate, low-protein diet, and are usually kept up 18  hours
a day with strenuous physical activity, he said.

   "That's  followed by a long, droning, rhythmic repetition by a
warm,  fatherlike  kind  of  person,  with  no  opportunity   for
questions,  answers  or  interchange," Smith said. "They're never
left alone, they always have someone continuing the  love-bombing
technique.  They're encouraged to keep a journal, and the leaders
will read them while they're asleep and the next day make oblique
references  to  the  person  as  if  they  know about their inner
feelings."

   The retreat "usually gets the  hook  in  them,  then  they  go
through  the process of `thawing' -- basically trying to take the
existing structure of the person and gradually melting  him  down
until he  becomes  vulnerable  to  indoctrination.   Then they're
given intense  instruction  like  not  talking  to  other  people
because it will confuse them.  It's always leading them away from
normal social contacts and toward the group."

   The Rev.   Dennis Orme, a spokesman for the Unification Church
in Washington, D.C., when asked to respond to  Smith's  comments,
said Smith's "imagination is close to being lunatic."

   "If all that were true, all I've just heard, no one would ever
dream  of  becoming part of the Unification movement -- that must
be obvious to the smallest mind," he said. "Furthermore, it's  so
far from, you might say, academic scholarship, that it just makes
me think that if he's a representative of your university campus,
you're  far  from  the  standards of academic scholarship down in
North Carolina."

   Smith said UNCA is "an open university, and anyone can come on
campus as long as they stay outside the buildings, don't obstruct
the normal flow of traffic  or  make  excess  noise.    They  can
proclaim  whatever  they wish, so to that extent we can't control
their activities.

   "We don't want to restrict the content of what any  group  has
to  say,"  he said. "But if you have a group that uses techniques
like  prolonged  psychological  pressure  and  contrived  dietary
controls,   and  they  misrepresent  themselves,  then  you  have
sufficient justification to provide information so  students  can
make an intelligent decision on whether they want to explore that
group."