BIOGRAPHY
Lonnie D. Kliever, Ph.D., (1932–2004) served as professor of religious studies and department chair at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He received a bachelor of arts (magna cum laude) in psychology from Hardin-Simmons University (1955), master of divinity (cum laude) from Union Theological Seminary of New York (1959), and the doctor of philosophy in religion and philosophy from Duke University (1963). Dr. Kliever also held faculty appointments in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso (1962–65), the Department of Religion at Trinity University of San Antonio (1965–69), and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada (1969–75). He authored dozens of articles and numerous books on philosophy and religious studies, including Radical Christianity: The New Theologies in Perspective (1968); Shattered Spectrum: A Survey of Contemporary Theology (1981); The Terrible Meek: Religion and Revolution in Cross Cultural Perspective (1987); Dax’s Case: Essays in Medical Ethics and Human Meaning (1989); and H. Richard Niebuhr (1991). Dr. Kliever was a longtime member of the American Association of University Professors, American Academy of Religion, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, American Theological Society, Canadian Society for the Study of Religion, Canadian Theological Society, and Council on the Study of Religion.
EXPERTISES
The Reliability of Apostate Testimony About New Religious Movements
In this article from 1995, Professor Lonnie D. Kliever briefly surveys the history of apostasy in various religious traditions and then examines the unreliability of apostates (ex-members) of new religious movements. “I am convinced by reason of my own professional training and scholarly research,” Dr. Kliever asserts, “that the apostate should not be accepted uncritically by the mass media, the scholarly community, the legal system, or governmental agencies as a reliable source...
Scientology: A Worshipping Community
In this article, Professor Lonnie D. Kliever examines and answers two questions: (1) Is Scientology a religion, and (2) Are Scientology Churches places of worship? “I am convinced by reason of my professional training and scholarly research,” Dr. Kliever concludes, “that Scientology is a religious organization in all respects of that term because it meets the scholarly definition of any religious tradition, because it pursues the goals of any religious quest, and because it exhibits the dimensions...