Much appreciation for your post Dogma.
AFF does provide some good information such as their "Study Guides" (at least the ones I've read). [
www.csj.org] I particularly like their critical thinking topics which I feel is a nice addition for people interested in the field of cult recovery.
Although most of this information is compiled from alternate sources and is not reproduced in full. An example is the information on "Distinguishing Science and Pseudoscience".
[
www.csj.org]
This is taken from an article by Rory Coker, Ph.D. which can be found in full at:
[
www.quackwatch.org]
On AFF, I didn't find any acknowledgment of Rory Coker as the author of the material or any information as to where we could find the original article. They may have such information listed somewhere on the AFF site, but it's certainly not readily apparent as it should be (if there at all).
On the issue of the religious leanings of AFF, I'd assume the organization is largely comprised of those of a Christian orientation. On the left of this page: [
cultinfobooks.com] we have information listed according to "Inquirer Type". Sections for "Clergy" and "Preachers" are listed. This brought up my first red flag. The term clergy refers to ministers of the Christian church. Under this section we find "A Code of Ethics for the Christian Evangelist" and other disturbing reads. In my opinion, I feel that if AFF was truly unbiased, they should have articles for other types of religious ministers. Heck, just throw us a bone and give us something for at least [i:97259255e5]one[/i:97259255e5] other religion if they're going to be providing religiously oriented material.
On this same AFF page, down below on the left we find links to other "AFF Sites" including "Faith Resource" (which appears to be under construction). When we click on this link, at the top of the page that loads we find that Faith Resource is brought to us by AFF and CYS (Center for Youth Studies). [
www.centerforyouth.org] This site is highly disturbing. It's artificially divided between a "Community Edition" and a "Ministry Edition". I say artificially because right on their home page we find "CYS Affiliate Links" -- It appears that every single link here is for Christian organizations (and the list is huge). CYS is clearly a Christian outfit.
Since AFF works with CYS, and AFF provides information for Christian clergy, evangelists, etc. (without providing any for other religions), I think it's safe to assume the AFF is more or less a Christina outfit. This is just from a little poking around on their site. Perhaps there's more red flags, or perhaps there's material I've missed to counter my initial conclusions here.
This is potentially problematic for the cult recovery field. AFF may be a corporate Christian juggernaut masking it's intentions in similar ways as Scientology does. If the cult recovery movement becomes largely assimilated under a Christian banner (or any specific religious banner), this can alienate many who have other perspectives who are looking for cult recovery information. This can cause lose of interest and aversion to the wealth of information contained within the cult recovery field.