[Cz-sociology] [Cz-religion] Article requiring urgent review

[Stockman, Robert]

Dear Friend:
 
I thought I would write you back as one of Citizendium's religion
editors. I have not been in touch with anyone else at Citizendium and
can only offer a personal response.
 
First, it would be very helpful to have a name other than "A.C." It
makes discussion richer and more effective.
 
I have only the slightest familiarity with Guru Maharaj Ji or Rawat. I
had a friend who was a follower of him in the 1970s and had no idea what
had happened to Rawat since about 1975. A proper edit of the Citizendium
article requires input from experts, and I personally do not know where
we would find one, though I have some ideas where we can look.
 
The only source of information I can use to comment on your comments is
the article itself. So perhaps I will ask you some questions to get a
better idea of what concerns you have found in the article. I will
comment in between your text in <angle brackets>. I look forward to
further suggestions from you.
 
        -- Dr. Robert H. Stockman, Religious Studies, DePaul University
 
1. Inaccuracies - examples:
 
 Rawat established the U.S. Divine Light Mission (DLM) in September
1971-
                                               
Rawat, was 13 years old in 1971, he had no capacity to establish a legal
entity.
 
<Technically, this sounds like an inaccuracy, but the question to ask
is, what does "established" mean? The article says he left India for the
UK and US without permission. He was either the charasmatic leader of a
movement at that time, or the charismatic child leader who was being
monitored and guided behind the scenes by someone else. I think I was
under the impression, in the 1970s, that he was being directed or
controled by his family. Who was his guardian at the time? How much
freedom did he have? Does this sentence merely need a different verb, or
are the problems deeper than that?>
                                             
In the early 1980s, Rawat moved to disband the Divine Light Mission -
 
Rawat had no legal standing within the Divine Light Mission and could
not therefore be an 'agent' of its disbandment. DLM was never disbanded
but simply renamed Elan Vital.
 
<If Rawat was 13 in 1971, he was 23 in 1981. If he had no legal standing
at that time, does that mean he didn't run the movement? Again, does
this sentence just need some simple rewriting?>
 
2. Contradictions - example:
 
Rawat appealed to premies to give up their beliefs and concepts
 
his appearance in a Krishna costume at an event on December 20th, 1976
in Atlantic City, New Jersey, signaled a resurgence of Indian influence
 
Practitioners describe Knowledge as internal and highly individual,
without social structure, liturgy or articles of faith, and say that
Rawat teaches no beliefs or ethical practices
 
<I'm afraid I am not sure which sentence here is meant to be in
contradiction to which. Did he appeal to premies to give up their
beliefs in the early 1970s, then show a resurgence of Indian influence
in 1976, then teach no beliefs or ethical practices later? That would
not be a contradition; that would be a change. My impression again from
the 1970s was that when Guru Maharaj Ji came to age, he changed the
teachings he had earlier been promulgating as a child guru. What
contradicts what, here? What changes do you suggest?>
 
3. Unrepresentative sources: 
 
A number of 'critical' scholars are described as 'Christian' in what
appears to be an attempt to demonstrate bias. In contrast Geaves, who is
quoted extensively, is not identified as a long time adherent of Rawat.
 
<This does look suspicious, but would dropping "Christian" be sufficient
to fix the problem? Is Geaves a reasonably reliable observer? Being an
adherent does not necessarily make him unreliable.>
 
4 Advertising:
                         A biography by Cagan is quoted extensively,
this work is itself entirely unreferenced and is promoted on websites
which support Rawat. 
 
<Are there other biographies? If the only source one can use is a
biography that is unreferenced, one would have to use it as carefully as
one could. Are there gaps in this article that need to be filled? Are
there controversies that are totally ignored? Is the tone of the article
too reverential or sympathetic?>
 
There are an excessive number of links to websites which promote Rawat.
 
<Are there other websites to include? Are they neutral or negative? What
neutral sources could be of assistance to someone wishing to improve
this article?>
 
Subsequent to the posting of the Rawat article on Citizendium, a
prominent author of the Wikiedia article has withdrawn from editing the
article because of a conflict of interest.
 
<What sort of conflict was it? This does not necessarily sound bad. It
may be good.>
 
AC
 
 

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