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Jeffrey K. Hadden (1937 - 2003) was a U.S. professor of Sociology who began teaching at the University of Virginia in 1972. Hadden earned his PhD in 1963 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was trained as a demographer and human ecologist.

Hadden published eleven volumes and numerous articles and essays on religion approaching the study of religion from the perspective of social movements theory and characterized his primary interest as the comparative study of religion and politics.

During the 1960s, Hadden studied and wrote about the involvement of liberal Protestant clergy in the Civil Rights Movement. He was probably best known for his studies of religious broadcasters and the emergence of the Christian Right in America during the 1980s, studying the ministeries of Jerry Falwell in nearby Lynchburg, and Pat Robertson in Virginia Beach.

During the years of peak civil rights activity in the South, Evangelical clergy consistently criticized the involvement of liberal clergy on the grounds that religion and politics shouldn't mix. Hadden's interest in religious broadcasters was significantly aroused as it became increasingly evident to him that they were making overtures toward involvement in the political process.

His first publication on the subject of religious broadcasting entitled "Soul-Saving Via Video" appeared in "Christian Century" in 1980.

In 1998, Hadden planned and oversaw the construction of three websites on religious freedom topics at the University of Virginia: The Religious Freedom Page, Religious Broadcasting, and The Religious Movements Homepage Project. The latter effort involved the contributions of hundreds of undergraduate students who took Hadden's New Religious Movements sociology course during the period.

In 1993 he edited a two-volume work entitled Handbook of Cults and Sects in America with David Bromley (Professor of Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University).

Hadden published 25 books and numerous articles throughout his life. He died on January 26, 2003 of pancreatic cancer in Charlottesville, Virginia at age 66.

Hadden's attitude to new religious movements also has some critics:

Psychology professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi refers in "Integrity and Suspicion in NRM Research" [1] to a confidential memorandum which he had received himself [2], dated December 20, 1989,

This document reports on a series of meetings and activities involving NRM scholars, NRM attorneys, NRM leaders, and some other scholars.... The memo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, not only behind-the-scenes contacts between scholars and NRMs, but the coordinated effort on the part of leading NRM scholars to work with NRMs.

In the first chapter of Zablocki's "Misunderstanding Cults" he identifies the author of the memorandum as Jeffrey Hadden. [3]

Charlotte Allen in "Brainwashed! Scholars of Cults Accuse Each Other of Bad Faith" mentions Hadden among other NRM scholars who admitted to have received funding by NRMs. Sociology professor Benjamin Zablocki comments: "This is an issue of a whole different ethical magnitude from that of taking research funding from the Methodists to find out why the collection baskets are not coming back as heavy as they used to." [4].

Rick Ross, a known protagonist in the anti-cult movement, wrote upon Hadden's death that "[Hadden] was often intolerant of former cult members that exposed abuses"" and that "[i]n the end, though some 'cults' may lament the loss of a friend and defender, much of Jeffrey Hadden's work as an academic scholar seems suspect." [5]

• Metropolis in crisis: social and political perspectives, (1967) F.E. Peacock, ISBN B0006D80Y4
• The Gathering Storm in the Churches, (1969) Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-03326-5
• Religion in Radical Transition, (1973) 166 pp. Transaction Publishers ISBN 0-87855-070-4
• Gideon's gang: A case study of the church in social action, (1974), 245pp, United Church Press , ISBN 0-8298-0275-4
• Prime Time Preachers: The Rising Power of Televangelism. w/ Charles E. Swann. (1981). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing.
• Prophetic Religions and Politics: Religion and the Political Order.(1986) 144 pp. Paragon House Publishers, ISBN 0-913757-53-5
• America's uneasy relationship with non-Christian and oriental religions (1986) Thomas Jefferson Institute (1986) ISBN B0007272G6
• Televangelism: Power and Politics on God's Frontier. w/ Anson Shupe. (1988). New York: Henry Holt.
• Secularization and Fundamentalism Reconsidered w/ Anson Shupe. (1989). Paragon House. ISBN 0-913757-96-9
• Religion and the Social Order: The Handbook on Cults and Sects in America w/ Bromley D. (1993). JAI Press ISBN 1-55938-477-8

• The Religious Freedom Page
• Religious Broadcasting
• The Religious Movements Homepage Project