Dealing with the Media Circus

Confessions of a “Cult” Expert

Abstract

In The Archive, we republish an article that, in hindsight, may have been ahead of its time with its prescience. Our pull for this issue is a reflection by the late Paul Boyer (1935-2012) from 1998 on what it is like to work with the media in the wake of the Heavens Gate suicides because they presume his work in contemporary American belief in biblical prophecy makes him a “cult expert.” This piece was originally published in the April 18, 1997 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and Bulletin for the Study of Religion 27.1 (1998).