------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 PROFESSIONAL PROFILE, Dr. Paul Martin Paul Martin (Ph. D., Pittsburgh) is a psychologist in private practice in Athens, OH - where he and his three assistants provide contract psychological services at Echoing Meadows Hospital - and the Executive Director of the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, an institution which he founded in 1986 expressly to work with the cult-involved and their families who had begun to ask for his assistance. Dr. Martin's background and experience especially fit him for diagnosing and treating victims of coercive persuasion and thought reform. He dropped out of graduate school in 1971 and rose to leadership in a Jesus Movement group called "The Blitz" (later known as The Great Commission International). When he eventually questioned the group's cultic qualities to no effect, he left. Like some others, he then went back to school partly to analyze his experience. He did so, and then began helping others to do the same. Apart from his three degrees in psychology, a year of advanced study of psychopharmacology, and an M.A. in humanities, Dr. Martin counts theological studies at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. Dr. Martin was a counselor for the Lutheran Service Society in Pennsylvania, a Senior Research Associate for the University of Pittsburgh's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, and Executive Director of Kansas City's Cornerstone Religious Foundation, which ministers to area campuses. He was also for five years a member of the department of psychology at western Pennsylvania's Geneva College, where he taught psychology, psychopharmacology, and the biblical basis of behavior. Dr. Martin recently published "Dispelling the myths: The psychological consequences of cultic involvement" (Christian Research Journal, Winter/Spring 1989, 9-14) and is working on a study entitled "Personality configuration and denial symptoms of recent and past members of cultic organizations." His presentations to professional associations include Self-injury Behavioral Programs at the 2nd Annual Behavior Modification Conference (Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 1986), and Psychological Aspects of Cultic Involvement (Rockford Conference on Discernment and Evangelism, 1989). Dr. Martin is a member of AFF's Victim Assistance Committee and is helping to develop a post-cult assessment instrument that can help professionals working with cult- leavers who have received no exit counseling or rehabilitation (the vast majority). He is also collaborating with AFF's Michael Langone on a clinical inquiry to determine what cult-related distress looks like, what factors can be identified to predict cult-related damage, and whether or not certain kinds of treatment work. 2 PROFESSIONAL PROFILE: The Reverend Richard L. Dowhower Rev. Richard L. Dowhower (A.B., D.D. [Hon.] Thiele), first worked with the American Family Foundation at a seminar for educators in the early '80s in Pittsburgh, where he was then serving. This was a time when most professionals saw neither the right nor the reason to be concerned about cults. His engaging explication of the problem then reflected an already well-developed "teaching ministry" that continues to reach a wide audience in a variety of forums. As early as 1975, he was working, from his parish base, with the Pittsburgh Association for individual Freedom (an early affiliate of the Cult Awareness Network). By 1979 he was making a TV presentation on cults in Harrisburg, PA, while serving a new parish, and testifying at a hearing on cults convened by the Pennsylvania state legislature. Quite apart from cult-related counseling in his own parish - and with others who learned of his sensitivity to the issues - Rev. Dowhower has worked hard to educate fellow pastors. In 1979, he testified before his own denomination's department of Church in Society and authored a pamphlet for the Pennsylvania Conference on Interfaith Cooperation entitled "The Dangers of Pseudo-Religious Cults, a Statement of Pastoral Concern for Parents and Youth by Catholic and Protestant Religious Leaders." In 1982, he published "Confronting the Cults," a two-part article in LCA Partners (Feb. and Apr. 1982) a journal for pastors and church professionals in his denomination. He has also reviewed books touching on cult-related issues for other Lutheran publications and for AFF's Cultic Studies Journal. In addition, Rev. Dowhower has written for AFF the important and widely distributed pamphlet "Cults: What Clergy Should Know." The education of military chaplains has been one of Rev. Mr. Dowhower's special projects, including presentations to U.S. Navy chaplains in Philadelphia (1979), in Groton-New London, CT (1981), and at their school in Newport, RI (1985-87, 1990). Apart from the military, Rev. Mr. Dowhower has presented at the Pastors' Conference of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, the Bowie (MD) Interfaith Clergy Association, and the Lutheran Social Services of Allegheny (PA) Region. He has also worked routinely with campus pastors and college students - at Bucknell, Dickinson, and Thiele colleges, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Maryland - as well as with high school students in the central Pennsylvania communities of Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, Shippenburg, Hamburg, and Lansdale. Rev. Mr. Dowhower continues his parish work and cult education ministry while serving as pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church in Bowie, MD, and as an active member of AFF's Clergy Education Committee. ================================================================= 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: CO0690AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: CO0690.TIF ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer November/ December 1990 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 Dr. Paul Martin | 2 The Reverend Richard L. Dowhower For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 10/19/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================