Name Anson Shupe | ||
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Born January 21, 1948 ( 1948-01-21 ) Died May 6, 2015(2015-05-06) (aged 67) Books Strange Gods: The Great Am, Violence - Inequality - and Hum, Agents of discord, Spoils of the Kingdom, Rogue Clerics | ||
Anson D. Shupe, Jr. (21 January 1948 – 6 May 2015) was an American sociologist noted for his studies of religious groups and their countermovements, family violence and clergy misconduct. He was affiliated with the New Cult Awareness Network, an organization operated by the Church of Scientology, and has had at least one article published in Freedom magazine.
Work
Shupe was a Professor of Sociology at the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne campus at Fort Wayne, Indiana. He completed his doctorate in political sociology at Indiana University in 1975 and has held office in various professional associations, including the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Association for the Sociology of Religion. In his research, Shupe has often collaborated with other scholars, notably David G. Bromley and Jeffrey K. Hadden.
An articulate champion of religious freedom, Shupe has conducted fieldwork on the Unification Church and other new religious movements, as well as their opponents. Together with David G. Bromley, Shupe is considered one of the foremost social science authorities on the anti-cult movement, based on a series of books and articles on the topic he coauthored with Bromley.
Other areas Shupe has researched include the New Christian Right, religious broadcasting, and the political impact of fundamentalism; he has also written about family violence and clergy misconduct, i.e. violent or exploitative behaviour on the part of pastors, ministers or gurus. He has frequently acted as a consultant to attorneys in lawsuits involving issues of religious freedom or clergy abuse.