Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002

This article was published in Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, pp. 3-50.  American Family Foundation was renamed International Cultic Studies Association in 2004.

History of the American Family Foundation

Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.

 

The American Family Foundation (AFF) was founded in Massachusetts in 1979 by Mr. Kay Barney, an engineer and business executive whose daughter had become involved with the Unification Church.  During the late 1970s several dozen parents’ groups had formed around the U.S.  Other countries also had parents’ groups, although there was little international communication at that time.  Many of the U.S. organizations became affiliates of the Citizens Freedom Foundation (CFF), which was chartered around the same time as AFF.  In the early 1980s CFF became the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), which was ultimately taken over by individuals associated with the Church of Scientology in 1996, when CAN was driven into bankruptcy because of litigation.  CAN had been the object of nearly 50 lawsuits, most filed by individuals associated with the Church of Scientology.

These organizations came into existence when parents of usually college-age cult members discovered their mutual concern and decided to take concerted action.  Some of these parents lobbied for legislation that would make it easier for parents of cult members to force their adult children to submit to psychiatric observation (“conservatorship” legislation); others focused on public and preventive education by speaking to schools, churches, synagogues, and civic groups and by telling their stories to journalists.  Many also became proponents of “deprogramming,” a process in which an adult child would be “snatched” from the street, for example, or lured to a secure place away from the group’s pressures so that he/she could be forced to listen to people tell about the negative side of his/her group.  Because so many parents had seen similarities between their children’s behavior and brainwashed prisoners of war in Korea, cult members came to be viewed as brainwashed, or “programmed.”  Hence, they coined the term “deprogramming” to describe the process of bringing somebody out of a cult.  Although initially “deprogramming” referred to involuntary and voluntary interventions, by the late 1990s most people used the term to describe involuntary interventions only, using “exit counseling” to describe interventions that the group member voluntarily agreed to participate in.

In the late 1970s there were also dozens of Evangelical ministries concerned about cults, mainly the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Some of these organizations had more than a dozen staff members (e.g., Christian Research Institute), but most were “mom-and-pop,” volunteer organizations.  They tended to define “cult” in theological terms, so that any group that was deviant from orthodox Christianity was considered a cult.  Many of the mainstream organizations rested on the pioneering work of Evangelical scholar, Dr. Walter Martin, author of The Kingdom of the Cults.

Initially there was little communication between the Evangelical ministries and the secular parents’ groups.  Over the years, however, communication between the two groups increased dramatically.  A number of people now serve on boards of both secular and religious cult educational organizations.

During the 1970s interest in cults increased substantially among sociologists of religion.  These sociologists, however, tended to oppose deprogramming and conservatorship legislation.  They also appeared to focus on the positive aspects of cults and to downplay the negative.  As a result, parents’ groups did not see them as resources.  Because media reports concerning cults focused on the negative, especially after the Jonestown horror of 1978, sociologists came to prefer the term “new religious movements” over “cult,” which they had used prior to the 1980s.

Finding little solace among sociologists of religion, parents turned instead to a handful of mental health professionals who seemed to be sympathetic to the notion that formerly traditional young people were indeed changing radically as a result of a group’s persuasiveness.  Most mental health professionals at the time tended to dismiss cult joining as a transient adolescent rebellion or as an expression of deep-seated emotional or family conflicts.  But some mental health professionals, most notably Dr. Margaret Singer in California and Dr. John Clark in Massachusetts, believed that cult environments were characterized by socio-psychological forces powerful enough to radically change the behavior and attitudes of recruits.

How AFF was Different

Mr. Barney believed in the cause that united the diverse people involved in secular and religious cult education organizations, namely, the necessity to warn people about and free people from the destructive controls wielded by certain new groups that were mostly, but not always, religious.  He also believed, however, that it was necessary to take a professional perspective, that is, to study the field scientifically and to apply these findings in a balanced, responsible manner.  He also wanted to avoid the internal political debates that took so much time from the parents’ groups, which were moving toward a national membership organization. 

Therefore, he founded AFF as a nonprofit, tax-exempt research and educational organization that did NOT have a membership base.  The founding board of directors appointed its successors, thereby ensuring a relatively smooth succession.  The founding directors included Mr. Barney, Rev. Dr. George Swope, a minister, Ed Schnee, a concerned parent, and David Adler, a publishing executive and former group member. 

Initially, AFF focused on publishing The Advisor, a bi-monthly newspaper that reported on cult-related news.  In 1980-81 he expanded AFF’s activities by formally joining forces with Dr. John Clark and his colleagues, who included Dr. Michael Langone, current executive director of AFF, and Dr. Robert E. Schecter, editor of the Cult Observer.  Dr. Clark, an Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School and Consulting Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), was one of the first prominent mental health professionals to speak out publicly about cult abuses.  He had published a paper, “Cults,” in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1979.  Dr. Clark’s team, which had been meeting informally, brought to AFF the professionalism that Mr. Barney and the founding directors thought was needed.

Early Years of AFF

In 1981 Dr. Clark’s team obtained several grants from foundations.  These grants enabled them to write a monograph, Destructive Cult Conversion: Theory, Research, and Treatment, in which they proposed a person-situation model of cult conversion.  This model, based more on the psychology of social influence than so-called “brainwashing” models, laid the groundwork for AFF’s future theoretical developments.

The grants also enabled them to set up systems for responding to the mounting number of information requests from families, former group members, helping professionals, and the media.  By 1985 AFF was responding to several thousand information requests (mostly from families and former members) and providing background information to dozens and sometimes more than 100 journalists annually.  AFF’s capacity to respond effectively to inquiries has improved over the years as we have learned more and produced practical books, articles, and other resources.  Today, most of our communications occur thorugh e-mail, although the effectiveness of telephone consultations should not be underestimated.  Appendix A provides additional information on AFF’s Information Service.

Dr. Clark also set out early on to establish an advisory board of professionals and scholars.  The first advisory board meeting, attended by several dozen people, was held in 1981.  (An advisory board meeting has been held every year since 1981.)  Advisors included, and continue to include, mental health professionals, attorneys, academicians, clergy, educators, executives, and former members and family members active in cult education.  Advisors help establish goals and objectives for the organization, advise staff on research and publications, write articles and books, and speak to professional and lay groups.  Since the first advisory board meeting, AFF advisors have written among the most prominent books in this field, many of which are available through AFF’s bookstore.  Appendix B includes a partial list of articles and books published by AFF and its advisors.

The first advisory board meeting in 1981 identified AFF’s three-tiered mission of research, education, and victim assistance.  Budget limitations have necessitated that the organization develop these areas in a cyclic manner:  sometimes the development focus has been on research; other times on education or victim assistance.  But attention has been paid to all three areas throughout AFF’s history.

AFF’s first research survey, conducted in 1983, had a practical focus, as has most of the research conducted since then.  This survey collected quantifiable data on one of the questions that most troubled parents and mental health professionals at that time, many of whom had serious reservations about the deprogramming that was often depicted as the way to get people out of cults:  How often does deprogramming work?  To answer this question, AFF’s Dr. Michael Langone surveyed 94 parents who had had their children deprogrammed.  Deprogramming failed in 37% of the cases, a significant percentage given the legal and psychological risks of the procedure.  The study concluded that “deprogramming is but one of several helping options and should not be viewed as the `cure’ for cult involvement.”

In 1983 Drs. Clark and Langone contributed to a symposium sponsored by Section K (Social, Economic and Political Sciences) of the Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled, “Scientific Research and New Religions.”  Their paper’s title was: “New Religions and Public Policy: Research Implications for Social and Behavioral Scientists.”  This symposium was one of the few gatherings that brought together academicians and professionals from what was already viewed as the two “camps” of “pro” and “anti” cultists.  Communication between these two “camps” decreased markedly in the 1980s as members of both “camps” were hired as expert witnesses in the growing number of lawsuits against and by cultic groups.  In the late 1990s, however, AFF reopened dialogue between the two “camps,” trying as much as possible to encourage openness to methodological differences among disciplines and to diverse theoretical orientations, while remaining focused on the irrefutable fact under girding AFF’s mission:  some groups harm some people sometimes.

In 1984 AFF markedly advanced the quality of its publishing efforts by founding the Cult Observer and Cultic Studies Journal (CSJ).  The former succeeded The Advisor and focused on press accounts.  It was printed, however, as a newsletter, rather than a tabloid newspaper.  The latter filled the need for a multi-disciplined, peer-reviewed journal that was open to critical perspectives on cult issues.   CSJ’s editorial board included helping professionals, academicians, attorneys, educators, clergy, and business executives.  Over the years CSJ has published more than 160 articles and several hundred book reviews.  Many of these articles provide practical help for families, ex-members, and helping professionals, while others report on scientific research, legal issues, theoretical speculations, and other subjects.  Several issues were special collections, including Women Under the Influence (edited by Dr. Janja Lalich), published in 1997.

One of its early issues (Volume 2, Number 2 – 1985) illustrated well AFF’s continuing mission of bringing together diverse parties interested in cultic abuses.  This special issue was entitled, “Cults, Evangelicals, and the Ethics of Social Influence.”  The issue arose from conversations AFF staff had had with the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, one of the leading Evangelical campus ministries.  InterVarsity strongly supports freedom of religion and the Christian obligation to preach the Gospel.  But InterVarsity recognized that sometimes its lay evangelists, who were often young and inexperienced, lost their ethical bearings and became manipulative or abusive.  The InterVarsity staff appreciated Dr. Clark’s statement that in cults we witness an “impermissible experiment” on the changing of human personality, an experiment that is “impermissible” because cults violate the unwritten ethical codes of human social influence.  InterVarsity’s vital contribution to this special issue was to organize a team of evangelical scholars to come up with an ethical code for the Christian evangelist.  Rev. Dr. Robert Watts Thornburg, Dean of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, later revised this ethical code with his staff and used it to determine when criticism of campus religious groups was warranted, as well as to keep their own house in order.  Other universities also expressed an interest in the ethical code.

This special CSJ issue also underlined one of AFF’s enduring themes, namely, the concern about cults rests not on their creeds but on their deeds, on the unethical ways in which they seek to recruit, retain, and exploit members.

Wingspread Conference

This theme was emphasized in a landmark conference that AFF organized in 1985 in conjunction with the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Johnson Foundation, which hosted the conference at its Wingspread campus in Racine, Wisconsin.  This conference brought together 40 individuals, including representatives from England and Germany.  Among the participants were mental health professionals, clergy, academicians, journalists, the president of the National PTA, attorneys, campus administrators, and the Head of the Private Office of Richard Cottrell, Member of the European Parliament from Bath, England.  The goals of the conference and its recommendations continue to guide AFF to this day.  The goals were to:

1. examine our level of knowledge about cultic groups and their effects on individuals, families, and society;

2. identify areas in which scientific studies of cults have been inadequate; and

3. consider ways in which social policy regarding cults might, without violating fundamental civil liberties, be changed for the greater protection of the public.

This Wingspread conference made 21 recommendations classified under research, education, and law.  The full text of the report was published in Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1986.

Resources for Families 

Recognizing that families needed practical, hands-on books to help them deal with loved ones in cultic groups AFF began in the mid-1980s to begin work on the first of a series of books aimed at families.

Cults: What Parents Should Know, published in 1988 was written by former group member and counselor, Joan Carol Ross, and Dr. Michael Langone.  This book addressed issues of assessment, defining the problem, communication, planning, and dealing with post-cult difficulties.

In 1992 AFF published the first edition of Carol Giambalvo’s Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention.  This book complemented Cults: What Parents Should Know by providing practical details and advice for families considering an exit counseling.  Its publication was a landmark event in the supplanting of deprogramming by noncoercive exit counseling approaches.  A revised, second edition of this book was published in 1996.

In 1996 Livia Bardin, M.S.W. led AFF’s first workshop for families (these have been held every year since in conjunction with AFF’s annual meeting).  She developed a collection of forms to better equip families (and friends) to help a loved one involved in a cultic group:  Summary of Changes, Pre-cult Identity Chart, Group Profile, Member’s Present Situation, Sending Important Messages, Using the Private Language, Listening and Responding, About the Family, Friends and Family Network, Strategic Planning Worksheet.  In 2000 she completed a book based on her workshops and forms, Coping with Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families and Friends.  This book helps families achieve a level of understanding far deeper than that provided by other written resources.

Education 

AFF initiated a preventive educational program, the International Cult Education Program (ICEP), in 1987.  ICEP’s goals were to develop educational resources for young people, educators, and clergy, to encourage educational programs for youth, and to provide support and guidance to those conducting such programs.  Founded and directed by Marcia Rudin until her retirement in 1997, ICEP produced two videotapes, Cults: Saying “No” Under Pressure and After the Cult: Recovering Together, a book, Cultism on Campus: Commentaries and Guidelines for College and University Administrators (revised in 1996 under the title, Cults on Campus: Continuing Challenge), a lesson plan, a collection of pseudoscience fact sheets, four educational flyers, and the semi-annual newsletter, Young People and Cults.  Funding cuts prevent AFF from maintaining ICEP as a distinct program today, although its functions continue to the extent resources permit.

That many people held AFF’s educational activities in high esteem became evident in June 1995, when AFF president, Herbert Rosedale (who has served as president since 1987), was asked to deliver a commencement address to the graduating class of the State University of New York’s Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, “Promises and Illusions.”  This address is printed in Cultic Studies Journal, 11(2).

In 1987 AFF organized a special conference on Business and the New Age Movement at the American Management Association in New York City.  This conference brought together journalists, researchers, and helping professionals to address the legal, ethical, and mental health controversies that surrounded certain training programs in business.  As a follow-up to this conference Drs. Arthur Dole, Michael Langone, and Steve Dubrow-Eichel conducted a series of studies designed to clarify what is meant by “new age.”  Reports on these studies were published in Cultic Studies Journal.  AFF’s contributions to the examination of cultism’s implications for business were recognized when AFF’s president, Herbert Rosedale, was appointed in 1992 Executive in Residence at the School of Business, Indiana University.  Mr. Rosedale also gave a talk on new age training programs and business to the annual meeting of the Association of Private Enterprise Education in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1996. 

In the late 1980s AFF witnessed a spate of Satanism inquiries arising from what in hindsight was a media craze.  In order to provide guidance to young people and educators, AFF’s Dr. Michael Langone and Linda Blood began work on a paper. This manuscript, however, soon grew into a book, which AFF published in 1990.  The book’s goal was to give some professional balance to the subject.  The authors reviewed the relevant professional literature, provided some historical background, and offered concrete advice for families and mental health professionals.  The book also addressed the credibility issue with regard to adult survivors of ritualistic abuse -- what was to grow into the false memory controversy. 

Throughout its history AFF staff and advisors have given talks at universities and professional associations in order to educate academicians, students, and helping professionals.  They have also consulted with journalists on hundreds, if not thousands, of occasions.  Appendix C provides a list of some of the more noteworthy educational programs and media outlets to which AFF has contributed.

Project Recovery

In 1990 AFF turned its research focus from families to former group members, for it had become clear that the majority of former members approaching AFF for help had left their groups on their own without any parental intervention.  Many of these individuals were seriously distressed and needed guidance and support.  In response to this need AFF initiated a series of study groups, composed of AFF’s volunteer professionals (i.e., members of its advisory board, which numbered about 120 by 1990) under the rubric “Project Recovery.”

The following are merely the more noteworthy achievements that resulted from the work of these study groups:

• Dr. Edward Lottick’s survey of 1396 primary care physicians in Pennsylvania, conducted under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Medical Society.  Among other findings, this  study reported that 2.2% of subjects said that either they or an immediate family member had been involved in a cultic group.  Pennsylvania Medicine (February, 1993) published the results of Dr. Edward Lottick’s survey.  This study, combined with other research data, suggests that approximately one percent, or about two to three million Americans have had cultic involvements.  Since other research suggests that people stay in their groups an average of about six years, we estimate that several thousand individuals enter and leave cultic groups each year.

• In 1992 AFF conducted its first weekend workshop for former group members at the Stony Point Retreat Center, Stony Point, New York.  At least one weekend workshop has been held every year since, and one-day ex-member workshops are typically held prior to AFF’s annual conference.  See Appendix D for a description of AFF workshops.

• In 1990 Dr. Langone surveyed 308 former group members from 101 different groups.  The Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA), the first measure of “cultishness,” was derived from these subjects’ responses to a segment of the questionnaire.  CSJ published a report on the development of the GPA in 1994.  A series of studies in the U.S., England, and most recently Spain have used or are using the GPA as a measure.

• Dr. Langone and Dr. William Chambers conducted another survey of 108 ex-members in order to evaluate how they related to different terms and discovered that ex-members prefer terms such as “psychological abuse” or “spiritual abuse” to “cult,” “brainwashing,” or “mind control.”

• Dr. Paul Martin and his colleagues at the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center (a residential treatment center for former group members) analyzed data Wellspring had collected on 124 clients.  CSJ published a report on this research in 1992.

• In 1992 in Arlington, Virginia AFF conducted a conference, “Cult Victims and Their Families: Therapeutic Issues.”  In 1995 AFF conducted a joint conference with Denver Seminary: “Recovery from Cults: A Pastoral/Psychological Dialogue.”  And in 1996, AFF, in conjunction with Iona College’s pastoral and family counseling department, conducted a conference, “Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Groups:  Psychological and Spiritual Dimensions.”

• Under Project Recovery, AFF published AFF News, a free outreach newsletter directed toward ex-members.  This periodicals function is now fulfilled through AFF’s Web sites and its free Internet newsletter, AFF News Briefs.

• In 1993 Norton Professional Books published AFF’s Recovery from Cults, edited by Dr. Michael Langone, a book that the Behavioral Science Book Service chose as an alternate selection.  This edited book consisted of chapters written by members of the Project Recovery study groups.

• In 1993 AFF published Wendy Ford’s book, Recovery from Abusive Groups, which provides practical guidelines for individuals struggling with post-group adjustment issues.

• In 1994 Hunter House published Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, written by AFF advisors Madeleine Tobias and Janja Lalich.

Research Advances

Project Recovery’s research component led to an important three-day research planning meeting, which was organized by Dr. Langone and hosted by Dr. Martin and his staff at Wellspring in 1994.  A follow-up meeting was held a year later.  The action recommendations identified at these meetings continue to guide AFF’s research program.  Appendix E contains an abridged version of these research meeting reports.

Among those attending these meetings were two teams of graduate students from Pepperdine University and Ohio University, working under Dr. David Foy and Dr. Steve Lynn, respectively.  These students later completed several dissertations and independent research studies (some published in Cultic Studies Journal) relevant to goals of the research plan enunciated at these meetings.  Some of this research was reported in a paper presented to the American Psychological Association’s Division 36, Psychology of Religion in 1996.  Other research was reported on at other professional meetings.

In 1995 Boston University named AFF’s Dr. Langone the 1995 Albert Danielsen Visiting Scholar.  In this capacity, he conducted a research study that compared former members/graduates of a cultic group and two mainstream religious groups on (a) members’ perceptions of group abusiveness, and (b) psychological distress.  This study’s design was a direct result of the research planning meetings conducted at Wellspring.

In 1994 AFF, with the Cult Awareness Network and the Cult Hot Line and Clinic of the New York Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services, funded and received a special report from the American Bar Association’s Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law:  “Cults in American Society:  A Legal Analysis of Undue Influence, Fraud and Misrepresentation.”  This report, published in Cultic Studies Journal in 1995, reflected AFF’s desire to support legal research with practical implications for former group members. 

In 1996 AFF published The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ (second edition published in 1998).  Edited by AFF’s Carol Giambalvo and Herbert Rosedale, this book provided historical background, personal accounts and analytical chapters on the group about which AFF had received more inquiries than any other during the 1990s.

Resource Guide

As the number of resources -- books, articles, pamphlets, videos, lesson plans -- available through AFF grew, it became necessary to describe all of these resources in one document.  Thus, in 1998 AFF published Cults and Psychological Abuse: A Resource Guide (revised in 1999).  This 119-page book provided brief suggestions for general inquirers, families, ex-members, current members, mental health professional, legal professionals, educators, students, clergy, and occult-ritual abuse inquirers.  It also included 18 essays and checklists on topics ranging from “On Using the Term `Cult’” to “How Can Young People Protect Themselves Against Cults.”  The book also devoted 36 pages to describing AFF’s books, reports, information packets, videos, preventive education resources, CSJ reprint collections, and individual CSJ article reprints.  This resource guide demonstrates how far AFF has come since its founding, when there were virtually no resources for people concerned about cult involvements.

Conferences 

AFF has organized conferences since its founding.  In recent years AFF’s conferences have become increasingly international in scope and larger with respect to the number of programs available to attendees.  Until 1998 all AFF conferences took place in the Northeast between Washington D.C. and Boston, which is where the bulk of AFF’s supporters live.  But in 1998 AFF decided to move out of that geographical base by organizing a conference in Chicago.  In 1999 the annual conference took place in Minnesota; in 2000 in Seattle.  Then in 2001 the conference returned to the Northeast, to Newark, New Jersey.  In 2002 the annual conference will head south for the first time and will take place in Orlando, Florida from June 13-15^th. 

The 2001 conference had approximately 270 attendees and nearly 70 speakers.  Attendees came from two dozen countries, including China, South Africa, Russia, and Brazil.  Approximately 40 attendees came from foreign countries.  A three-track organization was employed so that during most periods attendees could choose from research, victim assistance, and international/legal programs.  As with other annual conferences during the 1990s, this year’s conference included two preconference workshops, one for families and one for ex-members.  Next year’s conference, which will also have three tracks and family and ex-member workshops, will also include a preconference workshop for mental health professionals.

The Web:  AFF’s Future

AFF’s Web site was first posted on the Internet in 1995.  Begun initially through the volunteer efforts of Patrick Ryan, AFF’s Web site, www.csj.org, grew considerably over the years.  It now has over 1000 pages of material.  It won a number of awards, including:

• A three-star rating by Mental Health Net, the largest catalog of mental health, psychology, and psychiatry resources online.

• A review The Web Crawler, one of the main Internet indexes, which reviews very few web pages.

• Inclusion in the Britannica Internet Guide (http://www.ebig.com).

The Internet has markedly changed how AFF functions.  Until the late 1990s AFF traditionally depended upon journalists to get our message out.  Most people who contacted us found out about us either through word of mouth or from a newspaper article.  Today, because so many people, including nearly all journalists, are on the Web, more than 90% of the people who directly contact us -- usually by e-mail -- for the first time found us on the Web.  Inquirers come from all over the world.  Indeed, inspection of our Web site’s statistics reveals that during a typical week the site will be visited by more than 10,000 people from about 70 countries. 

Through the Internet more people can take advantage of AFF’s resources in a couple of months than during the prior 20 years.

For this reason AFF decided several years ago to transform the organization so as to make it Internet-based.  This has been a daunting and unpredictably time-consuming endeavor, for the transformation must occur while we continue to do all the work we have traditionally done – without any increase in manpower. 

We have made a great deal of progress.  For example, all Cultic Studies Journal articles and book reviews are now available in electronic format.  With a few clicks of a mouse and within a few seconds we can send five CSJ reprints to an inquirer in Ceylon.  We are gradually converting past issues of Cult Observer to electronic format.  When this project is completed, we will be able to e-mail about 4000 articles on more than 1000 different groups as easily as we can now send CSJ articles.  We are also looking into methods of making such material available on the Web.  In addition, we have collected and filed in our electronic folders more than 13,000 newspaper articles on more than 2000 groups.  Our goal is to put together an electronic library that will have these resources as well as selected books, articles from journals other than our own, and even videos.  How rapidly we progress toward the completion of this goal will depend upon how generously our supporters continue to donate.

We are also developing new Web sites.  In 2000 a special grant enabled us to launch a project that seeks to use the Internet to provide spiritual and religious seekers, youth in particular, with resources reviewed and recommended by an ecumenical advisory board of experts.  AFF's partner in this project is the Center for Youth Studies in Hamilton, Massachusetts, directed by Rev. Dean Borgman, the Charles E. Culpepper Professor of Youth Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  This project resulted from our observation that cultic and other dubious groups often project a more sophisticated Web presence than mainstream religions.  Such observations are especially troubling given that research indicates that 4% of the more than 8,000,000 teens who use the Internet do so for religious reasons and 16% of teens say the Internet will substitute for their current church experiences within the next five years (see “Teenage Spirituality and the Internet” in this issue). 

We believe that it is important to develop and effectively market a Web site that will direct seekers to credible information sources that will not exploit or mislead them.  This project revolves around a Web site, faithresource.org, which contains, or will contain, the following sections, in addition to information on the sponsoring organizations and the project's advisory board:

• Religion Showcase - Provides lists of Web sites, books, articles, periodicals, organizations, and other resources on the world's major faith traditions and the major branches of Christianity.

• Spiritual Abuse - Directs visitors to AFF's Web site and other resources focusing on the ways in which spiritual seekers can be exploited, manipulated, and abused.

• Religion News - Directs visitors to credible Web and print resources specializing in religious news.

• Newsletter - Provides visitors with a free newsletter that informs them about changes to the site, events of note, and, ultimately, conferences and workshops that faithresource.org might conduct.

• Interactive Web forums for youth - If this project continues to be funded, faithresource.org will, to the extent resources permit, answer, through e-mail, young persons' questions about religion, spirituality, and spiritual seeking.  Over time a Question-and-Answer Index will be developed and kept on the Web site for the benefit of all visitors (inquirers' identities will, of course, remain anonymous).  Project staff will answer questions, but, in a form of peer review, the staff's answers will not be posted until they have been reviewed and approved by at least two expert advisors.  Other interactive forums will also be explored.

Currently, this project is more or less on hold, for the seed grant expired in the summer of 2001.  We hope, however, to refund it in 2002 and continue its development.

In 2002 AFF merged Cultic Studies Journal and Cult Observer into the journal in which this article is published, Cultic Studies Review: An Internet Journal of News, Research, and Opinion (CSR).  Although designed as an Internet journal, CSR has a print version for those supporters not yet online, libraries, and those supporters who believe that cyberspace can never substitute for the heft of paper in the hand.  We decided to merge the two periodicals in order to make more efficient use of manpower and to take advantage of the Internet’s immunity to printing and postage costs.  CSR is supplemented by AFF’s free electronic newsletter, AFF News Briefs, which also includes a print version.  The newsletter provides limited group news, announcements of upcoming events, brief essays, and news on the activities of researchers and cult educators around the world.

CSR is supplemented by AFF’s latest Website, www.CulticStudies.org.  This site complements (and may eventually supplant) www.csj.org.  CulticStudies.org has rebuilt and greatly expanded the quantity and quality of free information that has been available on www.csj.org.  It also links to a special AFF bookstore Website, which is database driven and much more effective than what was formerly on www.csj.org.

Thoughts on the Future

Although AFF has grown remarkably since its founding, two vital elements of the organization have remained constant:

 

1. A focus on professionalism and research aimed at helping those harmed by cultic involvements and forewarning those who might be harmed in the future.

2. Continuity of leadership, management efficiency, and financial discipline.

AFF’s enduring focus on professionalism, its administrative efficiency and effectiveness, and the hard work and dedication of its volunteer professionals have resulted in the following general achievements:

1. A remarkable increase in the quantity and quality of information available to families, former group members, helping professionals, and others.

2. A more nuanced articulation of the cult phenomenon.  This journal’s name and the new Website’s name, “CulticStudies.org,” for example, emphasize that we do not see the issue that concerns us in black-and-white terms, “cult” and “not cult.”  We see a wide range of groups that change over time and reveal a spectrum of “cultishness.”

3. Much higher levels of understanding within professional communities, especially mental health and education.

4. Increased communication internationally and between the so-called “camps” of cultic studies.

AFF’s day-to-day work over the next several years is likely to revolve around the following programs:

 

1. Publication of Cultic Studies Review, AFF News Briefs, and books.

2. Providing information to Website visitors and e-mail, phone, and snail mail inquirers.

3. Updating existing Websites and developing a comprehensive electronic library.

4. Conducting and/or supporting scientific research studies, as financial resources permit.

5. Organizing an annual conference and workshops for families, ex-members, and mental health professionals.

6. Working with and supporting volunteer professionals who will continue to contribute to professional publications and to lecture on this subject.

Although AFF’s mission has remained constant, the methods it employs to fulfill that mission have changed with the times.  Most of our “space,” for example, now consists of dancing electrons; we use considerably fewer “square feet” of physical space to operate than was the case in 1981. 

Although raising enough money to do what needs to be done is as difficult as ever, the nature of our support has changed over the years.  We are still dependent upon several large contributions.  However, we are not nearly so dependent as we were 15 years ago.  Small donations, subscriptions, and purchases now constitute more than 60% of our income, compared to about 20% in the early 1980s.

The people who contribute to AFF have also changed, although many stalwarts – volunteers and financial supporters -- have stayed with us from the beginning.  In 1979 most of the energy behind AFF came from parents of the cult-affected.  Today, most of that energy comes from former group members, especially those who have gone on to get advanced degrees after recovering from their group experience.  These former group members will develop the new and refined conceptual models and will conduct the research studies that will carry the cultic studies field to a higher level of understanding. 

AFF began as one man’s vision to apply scientific methods to the problems of people hurt by groups that deceive, manipulate, and exploit in the name “love.”  This has been and will continue to be a difficult task, for the problems that motivate us to action are not easy to define with precision and are difficult to study scientifically.  But AFF’s history demonstrates that this task is not impossible, however difficult.  Much has been learned; many people have been helped.  Nevertheless, much work remains, and many more people will need help.

Appendices

Appendix A:  AFF Information Service 

People who seek information or assistance from AFF are typically concerned about groups that appear to be disturbingly manipulative and/or exploitative.  Many people use the term, "cult," to describe such groups.  Other terms include "new religious movement," "charismatic group," "high intensity group," and "sect."  In order to communicate effectively and respond to inquirers' needs AFF uses the term, "cult," which appears to be the preferred term among those concerned about a group.  However, we emphasize to inquirers that this term has limited utility.  We recommend that all inquirers read the essay, "On Using the Term `Cult.’"  We also recommend that inquirers read other essays and suggestion sheets available on this site, including information on resources for various categories of inquirers:  families/relatives, former group members, current group members, mental health or medical professionals, legal or law-enforcement professionals, educators, students, and clergy.

Most inquirers want information on a specific group that troubles them.  Often, we can provide information (our files include at least one article on more than 3000 groups).  But in other cases we know of no information on a specific group or have very little information.  Sometimes we can find information through diligent searches of written and electronic resources and AFF's network of volunteer professionals. Even when we have or can find information on a group, however, this information by itself does not usually help inquirers determine what to do about their concerns.  That is why AFF has developed resources that help inquirers understand how groups can manipulate, exploit, and harm individuals and what to do to address this harm. 

Groups may vary greatly in their beliefs and practices (e.g., eastern mystical, Bible-based, psychotherapy, political, New Age, commercial).  Those that cause concern, however (and it is important to keep in mind that many nontraditional groups do not arouse concern), tend to influence their members through subtle psychological processes that are strikingly similar from group to group.  In order to understand a person's group involvement well enough to help that person, whether that person be a family member, friend, client, or oneself, it is vital to understand these processes of psychological influence.  Superf