39. Bainbridge, William S. Satan's Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1978.
An ethnography of a "deviant" psychotherapeutic cult-the Process Church of the Final Judgement-which towards the end of its career made valiant but doomed efforts to transform itself into a church. This group was "Satanic" only in that Satan came to be included as a co-equal member of its unique four-part pantheon. However it was accused of Satanism and of influencing, if not participating in, the Manson Family's Tate-La Bianca murders. The group's dramatic black and purple uniforms and their police dog escorts certainly contributed to a Satanic appearance.
In Bainbridge's view Lofland's (1977a: item 439) "tensions,"
problem-solving perspective and interpersonal relationships were
crucial elements to the group's success.
40. ---. "Cultural Genetics." In Religious Movements: Genesis, Exodus and Numbers edited by Rodney Stark. New York: Paragon House, New ERA Books, 1985: 157-98.
Cults are
choice carriers of cultural "genes" and can fruitfully
be studied as vehicles of the propagation and change of ideas.
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