‘How can they believe that?’

Robbinsville – Kathe Lowney has been interested in the New Religious Movement since she learned of the Unification Church when she was in high school.

She wondered why and how people would join groups that are unpopular among the general religious population.

The Unification Church was founded in South Korea by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and often comes up in discussions about cults. Followers have been called “moons.”

But they are not brainwashed, she asserts; there is a process, but not brainwashing.

Lowney learned more in college, graduating with a bachelor’s degree, awarded magna cum laude with double major in Sociology (with honors) and in Comparative Religion. Not enough, she went on to a master’s degree and then PhD – both in Religion and Society.

Her doctoral dissertation was titled Passport to Heaven: A Feminist Sociological Analysis of the Gender Roles in the Unification Church as Evidenced in Its Vows of Blessing.

She taught in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at Valdosta State University in Georgia from 1998 until her retirement in 2019, when she and her husband moved to Brasstown.

Courses she taught regularly included Sociology of Disabilities; Mass Media and Popular Culture; Sociology of Gender; Mass Media and Popular Culture; Sociology of Deviance; Victimization of Women; and Religion and Culture.

Her interest broadened to other religions, such as Scientology, Jesus movement groups, and Mormon polygamous offshoots, which came to be a focus in her studies.

There’s a connection between how social problems are talked about in the media – specifically, broadcast – that deeply influences how we see problems, Doctor Lowney said.

She will be sharing her insights in Graham County in a lecture called, “How can they believe that? A sociologist shares insights about ‘cults.’”

She will share what she knows about conversion, reconversion and why cults have flourished in certain times in U.S. history.

The event is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, at the Graham County Public Library. Admittance is free.