------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ===================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The Reverend Father James McGuire, St.D., St. Thomas Aquinas University, Rome. The Rev. James McGuire (St.D., St. Thomas Aquinas University, Rome) is the Director of the University of Pennsylvania's Newman Center, the national Catholic campus student organization. Reflecting this setting, and his personal devotion to continuing formal education - doctorate notwithstanding - Father McGuire is now enrolled in a master's program at Penn concentrating on the moral and ethical issues raised by totalitarian systems in modern times. Father McGuire first really noticed contemporary cults in 1976 while teaching high school during the surge of cult activity which made "Moonies" and "Krishnas" household names. Unable to answer his students' questions about them, he went to workshops led by early workers in the field, and did his own research. He added to his understanding when he began counseling cult-involved families. In time, he has become the referral hub of the archdiocese and even taught a course on the problem at a local seminary. He also joined other clergy associated with AFF in drawing up, together with repre-sentatives of campus evangelical groups, an ethical code for proselytizers which AFF has disseminated on campuses throughout the United States. In addition, Father McGuire wrote an important chapter on models of cult education programs for Cults, Sects, and New Religions, edited by AFF colleague the Rev. James LeBar. Father McGuire reports that cult activities on the Penn campus are much reduced today. Students seem more able to discern between benign and potentially harmful groups. He says that his work on the ethical code project helped him to develop good relations with other campus religious groups; in discussions at the campus Interfaith Center he speaks frankly with them about problems and differences. Father McGuire has also dealt with Opus Dei, the Catholic lay organization widely questioned about the authoritarian regime to which it subjects recruits. The Newman Center director, who shares many other observers' concern about alleged cultic aspects of Opus Dei, had to find a way to deal with a potential problem for his charges when an Opus Dei priest, approved by the archdiocese, began to offer weekly spiritual counseling to a handful of Penn Catholic students. Since he is in charge of all Newman Center activities, Father McGuire, at the direction of the archdiocese, requires the Opus Dei priest to describe his activities in writing and monitors carefully the students' relationship to the visiting counselor to ensure that they are not isolated from outside influences and become "elitist." As with other evangelical groups on campus, then, Father McGuire keeps the rela-tionship up front and out in the open as he aims to make sure he knows what is going on while doing his best to maintain a high ethical standard of social influence among proselytizers. 2 Eugene H. Hethvin, Reader's Digest. Eugene H. Methvin (B.A., University of Georgia), of the Reader's Digest, will be renowned for years to come as the author of the first major article in a mass-circulation magazine on Scientology ("Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult"), published in 1980. With hundreds of thousands of reprints, the article has become an invaluable resource to cult education groups world-wide. Its sequel, "Scientology: the Sickness Spreads," (1981), is equal-ly in demand. In small-town Georgia, where his parents and grandparents were in the newspaper business, Mr. Methvin began his education in journalism "by sleeping on a bale of newsprint every Thursday night" while his parents "met the weekly deadline." He began as a reporter before he could write, wandering around his hometown's streets "with pad and pencil asking residents to write down their news" for him. Perhaps his first encounter with courage in the face of extremism involved seeing his father's front-page editorials that differed with a number of courthouse officials over a lynching. At the university, where he majored in journalism. he was named outstanding male graduate by Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists. He had a supplementary major, and did post-graduate study, in law at the University of Georgia Law School. After three years as a jet fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, he joined the Reader's Digest Washington Bureau, where he is now a senior editor. Mr. Methvin has covered many topics for the Digest, among them civil liberties and constitutional law, conservation, U.S. - Soviet relations, terrorism, and U.S. defense posture. Two of his hard-hitting articles on the Mafia were highly influential in forcing the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 out of an obstructive House Judiciary Committee. The act, with its limited testimonial immunity provision, ultimately enabled the Senate Watergate Committee to compel John Dean's testimony which paved the way to President Nixon's resignation. His two critically-acclaimed books, The Riot Makers-The Technology of Social Demolition and The Rise of Radicalism-The Social Psychology of Messianic Extremism, display Mr. Methvin's understanding of mass manipulation of crowds, his historical scholarship, and his reasoned approach to controversial or contentious subjects. His unchallengeable authority on extremism gives his articles on Scientology both depth and credibility. Lawsuits and vilification on a giant scale have not succeeded in suppressing his work. We are grateful to Mr. Methvin for being an AFF advisor since our early years, for sitting on the editorial board of the Cult Observer, and for vital help in gaining institutional support for our endeavors. ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photo copies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. FACTNet reserves the right to refuse to accept an order for copying or other duplication, or delivery of copied or duplicated material if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: E:\PCB\AFF\FILES\CO0592\CO0592AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: SECURITY CODE: DISTRIBUTION CODE: NAME FOR BBS: SORT TO: CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOC. OF ORIG: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. For additional verification see image files contained in the file with same name and .ZIP extension. UPDATED ON: UPDATED BY: F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0592AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer March 1993 SORT TO: AFF CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOCATION OF ORIGINAL: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. PROFESSIONAL PROFILES: | 1 The Reverend Father James McGuire, | St.D., St. Thomas Aquinas | University, Rome. | 2 Eugene H. Hethvin, Reader's Digest. For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 8/25/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================