Journal archive

Abstract: The article describes a series of extracurricular lessons for senior pupils, which focuses on counteraction against religious extremism at school. Due to informational overload in contemporary society, the younger generation are the most vulnerable, as they do not have the necessary skills to select the information. Teenagers are often the target for different destructive psycho- and religious groups, as they cannot feel manipulation used by the members of those groups, and moreover they cannot resist it. The article introduces a series of lessons to teach pupils counteract religious extremism. The goal of the lessons is to inform teenagers about the problems connected with destructive religious cults in Russia and to develop the skills to resist manipulative persuasion of the cult members. The first lesson gives an overview of the most dangerous and influential destructive religious sects in Russia (Word of Faith, The Church of Scientology, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Unification Church, Cult Anastasia, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)) and describes the main differences between the world religions and religious sects. The second lesson tells about the main ways of disguise used by destructive psycho- and religious cults and contains a training to develop skills to resist manipulation. The third lesson of the series is devoted to discussion of the ways of communicative defense, which is an effective element in counteraction against the leaders and the members of destructive sects. The final lesson summarizes all the information given before, so that teenagers might resist religious extremism.