Biographical dictionary of American cult and sect leaders

Dated (1986) but still interesting. Compiler J. Gordon Melton doesn’t allow a shred of skepticism to creep into his accounts, even when describing people like George Adamski (who conversed telepathically with a man from Venus), William Morrison Branham (who claimed to be a messenger of the last

days with the spirit of Elijah), Father Major Jealous Divine (better look him up), Ervil Morrell LeBaron (better look him up, too), James Warren Jones (of Jonestown, Guyana, notoriety), William Miller (who predicted the world would end on October 22, 1844), Cyrus Reed Teed (who taught the Earth was hollow and we live inside it); Melton treats all their claims at face value. (To be fair, I’ve picked out some of the weirder ones in the list above; most of the people were at worst harmless and at best quite decent folks with genuine compassion and love for their fellows. The book concludes with a summary by religious tradition, so if you want to track down Adventists or Methodists or Theosophists, you can. (Scientology is notably absent; perhaps Melton felt it was too risky to get involved with Scientologists, even in a dictionary). No bibliography, but each entry has a list of relevant publications, either by or about the person referenced. Interesting; I wonder if there’s an updated version?

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