Article Navigation  

International Cultic Studies Association 
 Articles: other

_______________________________________________

The History of the American Family Foundation
  Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.  

 Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002
     

 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

History of the American Family Foundation 2/10

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

  •   Inclusion in the Britannica Internet Guide.

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 15,000 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 (Lutz, A., & Borgman, D. Teenage Spirituality and the Internet - manuscript in preparation). 

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 Research, News & 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 will soon be supplemented by AFF’s latest Website, www.CulticStudies.org.  This site will complement the current site,  www.csj.org.  CulticStudies.org is rebuilding and greatly expanding the quantity and quality of free information available to visitors in order to more effectively address the needs of educators, clergy, mental health professionals, and individuals and families needing help.

In January 2002 AFF also made public a secure-pay bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.

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: Articles and Books

The following is a partial list of publications produced or commissioned by AFF or published by its staff and advisors.  The first section includes a list of articles published in AFF's scholarly Cultic Studies Journal.  These reprints can be purchased in our Web Bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.  We then provide a supplementary list of selected books and articles published by AFF staff and advisors.

1 <   [ 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10]  >  3 /10
Articles: -  In this issue
______________________________________________ ^
Last revised: February 11, 2008

Article Navigation  

International Cultic Studies Association 
 Articles: other

_______________________________________________

The History of the American Family Foundation
  Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.  

 Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002
     

 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

History of the American Family Foundation 2/10

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

  •   Inclusion in the Britannica Internet Guide.

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 15,000 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 (Lutz, A., & Borgman, D. Teenage Spirituality and the Internet - manuscript in preparation). 

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 Research, News & 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 will soon be supplemented by AFF’s latest Website, www.CulticStudies.org.  This site will complement the current site,  www.csj.org.  CulticStudies.org is rebuilding and greatly expanding the quantity and quality of free information available to visitors in order to more effectively address the needs of educators, clergy, mental health professionals, and individuals and families needing help.

In January 2002 AFF also made public a secure-pay bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.

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: Articles and Books

The following is a partial list of publications produced or commissioned by AFF or published by its staff and advisors.  The first section includes a list of articles published in AFF's scholarly Cultic Studies Journal.  These reprints can be purchased in our Web Bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.  We then provide a supplementary list of selected books and articles published by AFF staff and advisors.

1 <   [ 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10]  >  3 /10
Articles: -  In this issue
______________________________________________ ^
Last revised: February 11, 2008

Article Navigation  

International Cultic Studies Association 
 Articles: other

_______________________________________________

The History of the American Family Foundation
  Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.  

 Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002
     

 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

History of the American Family Foundation 2/10

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

  •   Inclusion in the Britannica Internet Guide.

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 15,000 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 (Lutz, A., & Borgman, D. Teenage Spirituality and the Internet - manuscript in preparation). 

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 Research, News & 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 will soon be supplemented by AFF’s latest Website, www.CulticStudies.org.  This site will complement the current site,  www.csj.org.  CulticStudies.org is rebuilding and greatly expanding the quantity and quality of free information available to visitors in order to more effectively address the needs of educators, clergy, mental health professionals, and individuals and families needing help.

In January 2002 AFF also made public a secure-pay bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.

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: Articles and Books

The following is a partial list of publications produced or commissioned by AFF or published by its staff and advisors.  The first section includes a list of articles published in AFF's scholarly Cultic Studies Journal.  These reprints can be purchased in our Web Bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.  We then provide a supplementary list of selected books and articles published by AFF staff and advisors.

1 <   [ 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10]  >  3 /10
Articles: -  In this issue
______________________________________________ ^
Last revised: February 10, 2008

Article Navigation  

International Cultic Studies Association 
 Articles: other

_______________________________________________

The History of the American Family Foundation
  Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.  

 Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002
     

 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

History of the American Family Foundation 2/10

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

  •   Inclusion in the Britannica Internet Guide.

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 15,000 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 (Lutz, A., & Borgman, D. Teenage Spirituality and the Internet - manuscript in preparation). 

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 Research, News & 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 will soon be supplemented by AFF’s latest Website, www.CulticStudies.org.  This site will complement the current site,  www.csj.org.  CulticStudies.org is rebuilding and greatly expanding the quantity and quality of free information available to visitors in order to more effectively address the needs of educators, clergy, mental health professionals, and individuals and families needing help.

In January 2002 AFF also made public a secure-pay bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.

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: Articles and Books

The following is a partial list of publications produced or commissioned by AFF or published by its staff and advisors.  The first section includes a list of articles published in AFF's scholarly Cultic Studies Journal.  These reprints can be purchased in our Web Bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.  We then provide a supplementary list of selected books and articles published by AFF staff and advisors.

1 <   [ 1 |  2  | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10]  >  3 /10
Articles: -  In this issue
______________________________________________ ^
Last revised: February 11, 2008