J. Gordon Melton

Early life and education

Melton was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Burnum Edgar Melton and Inez Parker. During his senior year in high school, he came across The Small Sects in America by Elmer T. Clark; he became interested in reading as much as possible on alternative religions.

In 1964, he graduated from Birmingham Southern College with an A.B. degree in geology. After completing his undergraduate education he matriculated into Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary to study theology and ancient church history, graduating first in his class with a Master of Divinity in 1968. He completed doctoral studies at Northwestern University with a Ph.D. in He married Dorothea Dudley in 1966, who had one daughter, Melanie. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. His second wife is named Suzie.

Career

As of 2017 Melton was the incumbent Distinguished Professor of American Religious History with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas where he resides. He had retired as professor by 2023.

Melton has authored several encyclopedic works on American religion. He authored the Encyclopedia of American Religions, first published by Gale in 1979, which he revised in several editions every few years. The book was a success. He also edited the later editions of the Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. In his Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, Melton distinguished the Christian countercult and the secular anti-cult movements. He articulated the distinction on the grounds that the two movements operate with very different epistemologies motives and methods. This distinction has been subsequently acknowledged by sociologists such as Douglas E. Cowan and Eileen Barker. As of 2006, he had edited 17 and written 30 books.

In addition to religious studies, Melton has an interest in vampires, on which he has written several books. In 1997, Melton, Massimo Introvigne, and Elizabeth Miller organized an event at the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles where 1,500 attendees (some dressed as vampires) came for a "creative writing contest, Gothic rock music and theatrical performances." When Sony was accused of copyright infringement over a story involving vampires and werewolves in 2003, the company contacted Melton, who testified that stories about conflicts between the two sets of creatures had been present since the 1950s. The case was settled.

Aum Shinrikyo investigation

In May 1995, during the investigation into the Tokyo subway sarin attack, the group responsible for the attack, Aum Shinrikyo, contacted an American group known as AWARE (Association of World Academics for Religious Education), founded by American scholar James R. Lewis, claiming that the human rights of its members were being violated. Lewis recruited Melton, human rights lawyer Barry Fisher, and chemical expert Thomas Banigan. They flew to Japan, with their travel expenses paid by Aum, and announced that they would investigate and report through press conferences at the end of their trip.

In the press conferences, Fisher and Lewis announced that Aum could not have produced the sarin with which the attacks had been committed. They had determined this with their technical expert, Lewis said, based on photos and documents provided by the group. British scholar of Japanese religions Ian Reader, in a detailed account of the incident, reported that Melton "had few doubts by the end of his visit to Japan of Aum's complicity" and eventually "concluded that Aum had in fact been involved in the attack and other crimes"; The Washington Post account of the final press conference mentioned Lewis and Fisher but not Melton.

Reader concluded, "The visit was well-intentioned, and the participants were genuinely concerned about possible violations of civil rights in the wake of the extensive police investigations and detentions of followers." However, it was ill-fated and detrimental to the reputation of those involved. While distinguishing between Lewis' and Melton's attitudes, Reader observed that both Japanese media and some fellow scholars also criticized Melton. Using stronger words, Canadian scholar Stephen A. Kent chastised both Lewis and Melton for having put the reputation of the whole category of scholars of new religious movements at risk.

Reception

The Los Angeles Times described Melton as "one of the nation's foremost authorities on religion (and vampires [...])". Melton's scholarly works concentrate on the phenomenology and not the theology of NRMs. Some Christian countercultists criticize Melton for not critiquing the groups he reports on from an evangelical perspective, arguing that his failure to do so is incompatible with his statements of professed evangelicalism. Some secular anti-cultists who feel that new religious movements are dangerous and that scholars should actively work against them have likewise criticized him. Stephen A. Kent and Theresa Krebs, for example, characterized Gordon Melton, James R. Lewis, and Anson D. Shupe as biased towards the groups they study.

Similarly, Perry Bulwer, B.A, LLB. has called Melton's research into The Family International "unreliable" and alleges bias and support for the NRM.

Publications

Books

References

References

1. (2013-08-23). "American Religions Collection".
2. Baylor University, "[http://www.baylorisr.org/about-isr/distinguished-professors/j-gordon-melton/ J. Gordon Melton, Distinguished Professor of American Religious History] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-12-22 ". Retrieved 12 April 2016)
3. Melton, J. Gordon. (1998). "Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom". [[Beyond Words Publishing]].
4. Sahagun, Louis. (2006-04-12). "He Wrote the Book on American Religions". [[Los Angeles Times]].
5. (2023-04-18). "Hollywood revival of a local '70s cult". The Los Angeles Times.
6. Rourke, Mary. (1998-10-30). "It's in His Blood: J. Gordon Melton, Author and Minister, Has Long Been Fascinated With... Vampires". [[Los Angeles Times]].
7. Melton, J. Gordon. (1992). "The Counter-cult Monitoring Movement in Historical Perspective". Garland.
8. Cowan, Douglas E.. (2003). "Bearing False Witness: An Introduction to the Christian Countercult". [[Praeger Publishers]].
9. Barker, Eileen. (2002). "International Perspectives on Freedom and Equality of Religion Belief". J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies.
10. Bidwell, Carol. (July 23, 1997). "Coffin Break to Vampires Everywhere, Fangs for the Memories". [[The Los Angeles Daily News]].
11. Reader, Ian. (April 2000). "Scholarship, Aum Shinrikyo, and Academic Integrity". [[Nova Religio]].
12. Watanabe, Teresa. (May 6, 1995). "Alleged Persecution of Cult Investigated: Japan: U.S. activists visit Tokyo. They're concerned about treatment of sect suspected in subway attack". Los Angeles Times.
13. Reid, T. R.. (1995-05-05). "Tokyo Cult Finds an Unlikely Supporter". [[The Washington Post]].
14. (1999). "Clarifying Contentious Issues: A Rejoinder To Melton, Shupe, And Lewis".
15. Lattin, Don. (1 May 2000). "Combatants in Cult War Attempt Reconciliation / Peacemaking conference is held near Seattle". San Francisco Chronicle.
16. (1999). "When Scholars Know Sin: Alternative Religions and Their Academic Supporters".
17. "ICSA Articles 1 - A Response to James D. Chancellor's Life in The Family An Oral History of the Children of God".