Talk:James R. Lewis (scholar)

message: First, I know my anonymous address detracts from my credibility. I'm honestly not a sock-puppet or otherwise need to hide my identity, it's just that I used to waste too much time editing so I got rid of my account to curb the habit. I'm also not an anti-Scientology (let along an anti-New Religious Movement) activist, although I've read a lot of the journalistic commentary on the Church and my opinion of it is generally negative. 
I saw this new book in the "new acquisitions" shelf of my university library, checked it out, and read it. I was struck by the apologetic tone of the book. J. Gordon Melton's overview of the Church's history, in particular, reads almost like a PR account. Throughout the book, discussions of the Church's payment policy for auditing are brief and offhand and don't contextualize it comparatively, i.e. they do not note that few if any other churches charge so much money so their essential religious rituals. The Church of Latter-Day Saints, for instance, expects a significant financial commitment from members, but they can still participate in all aspects of the Church (including, if I'm not mistaken, Temple rituals) while declining to contribute money. 
Almost none of the book's essays, furthermore, refer to the Church of Scientology's aggressive and explicit policy of suing critics. The well-researched article by James Richardson on "Scientology in Court," for instance, ignores that subject to concentrate exclusively on the Church's struggles for religion status in various countries. And Anson Shupe's chapter on "The Church of Scientology versus the Cult Awareness Network" seems to take clear sides in favor of the Church.
I do not for an instant question NRM scholars' good faith, but I suspect that the nature of the research, beginning from an explicit (and appropriate, for scholarly research) posture of non-judgment, can slide towards apologetics -- especially since the Church makes an effort to win scholars' good will, as it does with celebrities. I wish that researchers would be scrupulous about declaring any financial support for their research from the Church (including paying travel costs and subsidizing conferences). The situation, I suspect, is similar to that of medical researchers who overtime become more or more compromised by the support for their research provided by pharmaceutical companies.
I intend this comment in the spirit of honest discussion, and would be interested in others' opinions on it. I'm cross-posting it to other relevant talk pages. 152.160.39.70 (talk) 14:09, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  James R. Lewis, "Scientology", Oxford University Press 

message: I am James R. Lewis. I am a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin and I am published by the best academic presses, such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. The fact that I provide neutral, scholarly information on controversial topics has caused people to attack me, most often in an 'anonymous' fashion. Wikipedia should require individuals who attack other people in their entries to identify themselve and to provide documented evidence of accusations.ProfLewis (talk) 20:37, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for your input. This article falls under a very strict policy, "biographies of living people". All assertions, especially those that are negative, need to be well-sourced and presented with the neutral point of view. Regarding the material that you removed, it used the Washington Post as its source. The Post charged that a team of American experts, including Lewis, were paid by Aum Shinrikyo to travel to Japan, and once there, made statements in defense of the group or in opposition to the official handling of the case. I think we can agree that the source is reliable. Rather than delete the material outright, it'd be better to improve it. For starters, I'd say that the heading was prejudicial. A title like "Aum Shinrikyo" would be more neutral. Another thing is that more viewpoints would be better. Did Lewis ever issue a response, or has there been a follow-up? Have other publications addressed this matter? Further, the article is very short, so devoting so much space to the matter gives it undue weight. That can be helped by cutting down the material and also by adding more material on Lewis' other accomplishments and activities. Are there any profiles or significant mentions in reliable sources that we could use to fill out this biography more fully?   Will Beback  talk   21:30, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversial topics

message: "The scholars' [well-intentioned, but unjustified](removed fluff) defence of Aum Shinrikyo led to a crisis of confidence in religious scholarship"
Seriously? Every religious scholar everywhere suffered a "crisis of confidence" due to this? I suspect that the crisis was a little more focused that that. AndroidCat (talk) 07:51, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Have you read the cited source?[   Will Beback  talk   09:07, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes. Reader is rather wordy, but I don't think he comes close to "crisis of confidence", except where he's citing/quoting Watanabe Manabu, who is referring to the situation in Japan immediately after that misstep. AndroidCat (talk) 15:03, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think "crisis in confidence" is meant as a quotation. However it seems like a reasonable summary.   Will Beback  talk   22:34, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  What, ALL religious scholarship? 

message: Where we link to his "publications list", the list here is a bit of a waste. Collect (talk) 23:07, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  bibliography 

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thread_title:  External links modified (January 2018) 

message: Is he? The article does not say. --Hob Gadling (talk) 08:49, 29 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Category:American astrologers