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The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick〔 that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers.〔Lucas, P.C. and T. Robbins. 2013. New Religious Movements in the 21st Century: Taylor & Francis.〕 It was founded in the wake of the November 18, 1978 deaths of members of the group Peoples Temple and assassination of Congressman Leo J. Ryan in Jonestown, Guyana, and was shut down in 1996. Its name and assets were later bought and used by the Church of Scientology in bankruptcy proceedings who used the name as the title of the unrelated organization, New Cult Awareness Network. CAN and its representatives were known for being highly critical of Scientology, Landmark Education, and some other groups and new religious movements, referring to some of these groups as "destructive cults". ==History== Ted Patrick founded the FREECOG organization, later known as the Citizen's Freedom Foundation, in 1971 before becoming successively the Citizen's Freedom Foundation ("CFF"), the "Cult Awareness Network of the Citizen's Freedom", and finally the Cult Awareness Network,〔Chryssides, G.D. and B.E. Zeller. 2014. The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING.〕 renamed in the wake of the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide. CAN was initially directed by Patricia Ryan, the daughter of US Congressman Leo J. Ryan (D-Millbrae, California), who died from gunfire while investigating conditions at the Jonestown compound. The Citizen's Freedom Foundation was originally headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and collected information on New Religious Movements. By 1991, the Cult Awareness Network had twenty-three chapters dedicated to monitoring two hundred groups that it referred to as: "mind control cults."〔 Actor Mike Farrell was one of the members of the board of advisors of CAN. In 1990, the Cult Awareness Network established the "John Gordon Clark Fund", in honor of psychiatrist John G. Clark, who had given testimony about Scientology and other groups. The fund was established to assist former members of destructive cults.〔 The CFF was originally in favour of deprogramming, but publicly distanced itself from the practice when public opinion turned against it in the late 1970s, when it changed its name to the Cult Awareness Network.〔Clarke, P. and R.M.H.F.P. Clarke. 2004. Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements: Taylor & Francis.〕 Despite this, The Cult Awareness Network also became the subject of controversy, when CAN-associated Galen Kelly and Donald Moore, were convicted in the course of carrying out deprogrammings. Detractors Susan E. Darnell Anson D. Shupe, Darnell, and Church of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon charge that CAN deliberately provided a distorted picture of the groups it tracked. They claimed it was "a Chicago-based national anticult organization claiming to be purely a tax-exempt informational clearinghouse on new religions". In 1991, ''Time'' magazine quoted then CAN director Cynthia Kisser in its article "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". Kisser stated: "Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members". This quote has since been referenced verbatim in other secondary sources discussing Scientology. These comments and other forms of criticism from CAN garnered the attention of the Church of Scientology and Landmark Education, and both separately began litigation proceedings against the organization. CAN was driven into bankruptcy when a court found it guilty of having conspired to violate the civil rights and religious liberties of Jason Scott, a Pentecostalist, who had been forcibly kidnapped and subjected to a failed "deprogramming" by Rick Ross, a CAN-referred deprogrammer.〔James R. Lewis ( Cults: A Reference and Guide: Approaches to New Religions ). Routledge, 2014 ISBN 9781317545132〕 The court ordered CAN to pay a judgment of US$1 million. The large award was intended to deter similar conduct in the future; the court noted that the defendants were unable to appreciate the maliciousness of their conduct towards the deprogrammee, and portrayed themselves, throughout the entire process of litigation, as victims of the alleged agenda of the opposing counsel, Church of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon.〔 Subsequently, the organization was bought out in bankruptcy court by Church of Scientology attorney Steven Hayes in 1996. As a result of a legal settlement with Landmark Education, CAN agreed not to sell copies of ''Outrageous Betrayal'', a book critical of Werner Erhard, for five years after it emerged from bankruptcy proceedings. Following its bankruptcy, the files of the "Old CAN" were made available to scholars for study and transferred to a university library. Since then, academics who published a joint paper with Kendrick Moxon and later others referencing their work have stated that the "Old CAN" covertly continued to make and derive income from referrals to coercive deprogrammers, while publicly distancing itself from the practice.〔〔 The Cult Awareness Network provided referrals to activist members who provided lists of deprogrammers, which in turn provided referrals to deprogrammers. Deprogrammers relied upon CAN to provide a steady supply of paying customers.〔Gallagher, E.V. and W.M. Ashcraft. 2006. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America (Volumes ): Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated.〕〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cult Awareness Network」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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