Radical rhetoric and mystical religion in America's late Vietnam war era

Using primary documents from various religious groups, interviews with former activists, and an array of alternative press literature, this paper analyzes the appropriation of radical rhetoric within the anti‐activist ideologies of mystical religions that flourished during the late Vietnam War period in the United States. Examples from several Eastern‐based religions (Divine Light Mission, Hare Krishna, and 3HO) and Western‐based groups (including the Christian World Liberation Front and the Children of God) demonstrate the manner in which former activists converted to groups that utilized radical imagery to advocate patriarchalism along with individual rather than structural transformation. These ideological positions further subdivided an already fragmented New Left movement.

Notes

My appreciation extends to the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, California) and the Bancroft Library's Social Protest Collection 1960–1982 of the University of California, Berkeley for providing me with access to their material. Much of the funding for the research came from grants provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the University of Alberta. Many of the primary documents that I refer to throughout the text soon will be available for microfiche viewing as part of the Stephen A. Kent Collection on Non‐traditional Religions at the University of Alberta Library. I presented an earlier version of this paper at the Vietnam Antiwar Movement Conference: The Charles DeBenedetti Memorial Conference (4–5 May 1990) which was sponsored by the University of Toledo—Department of History and The Council on Peace Research in History.