------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Professional Profile: Dean Borgman Dean Borgman (M. A., Fairfield University), Associate Professor of Youth Ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, in South Hamilton, MA, is the founder and director of that institution's Center for Youth Studies, which is developing a computerized encyclopedia of information on youth culture and youth ministry. Cults and the occult are important subjects of concern for both the Center and its encyclopedia, and the material it holds on the subject is a resource for youth ministry students at Gordon-Conwell and subscribers around the country. In one of his courses at the seminary, "Communicating the Gospel to Youth," Professor Borgman cautions his students to discern and draw the line between ethical and manipulative approaches to adolescents and otherwise vul-nerable persons. He also frequently directs outside youth leaders who seek his advice on cult-related matters to AFF for information and counseling referral. AFF associates will remember Professor Borgman for his involve-ment in the Ethical Code project - he recalls long and stimulating conversations with our executive director Michael Langone - which AFF sponsored to develop written guidelines for proselytizing groups, a task for which Professor Borgman's background and practical experience fitted him well. He has taught history and social studies on the high school and community college levels, and for one year served as education director of street academies with the New York Urban League. He has been a leader and participant in various workshops on training and urban issues around the country, often called upon as a consultant in youth ministry management. He was co-leader of a large church youth group in Connecticut and brought Young Life - one of the organizations associated with AFF in the ethical code project - to New England before serving several years as a streetworker on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Professor Borgman has been director of Young Life Metro-East Region and director of the Young Life Urban Training Institute. He now serves on the board of Campus Life Magazine while teaching at Gordon-Conwell and serving there as priest of the Episcopal, Catholic, Orthodox Fellowship at the seminary. He says that he and his Young Life staff have taken a hard look for any cultic tendencies in the retreats they run, and have judged them free of certain classic conditions of food and sleep deprivation and the undermining of family ties. Professor Borgman is often consulted more directly in cult-related matters; he recently counseled a young person who was being wooed by the orthodox but authoritarian Boston Church of Christ. And he also continues to answer calls from clergy, and the public, about many other cultic groups, most recently a spate of inquiries about Satanist "dabbling." 2 Professional Profile: Rev. Dr. Douglas E. Whallon The Reverend Dr. Douglas E. Whallon (D. Min., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is the New England Regional Director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an interdenominational ministry with college students and faculty. After his graduation from Princeton University, where he was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship for Theological Edu-cation, he worked for three years in the mid-'70s as an IVCF staff member at the University of Wis-consin. From there, he moved to the Boston area to work as a resource person and advisor for 200 under-graduate members of Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship. He describes InterVarsity as an indigenous branch of the Inter-national Fellowship of Evangelical students. The U.S. movement spun out of the one in Canada, which in its turn had come from the original one at Cambridge University in 19th century Britain. Each branch has its own national leadership. Dr. Whallon's doctoral thesis, "Leadership Development Among College Students," exemplifies his abiding interest in personality development and character formation, vital issues in the three-to-five-year "zone of unique freedom" when young people are thinking about life in a new way, asking questions not asked before, deciding who they are and what will be their choices in life. Dr. Whallon says his campus ministry makes him alert to the high-commitment groups' intrusion into this fertile territory where one is "confronted by it - nose to nose with it from A to Z." His AFF Ethical Code Study Group has identified two pathologies for such groups: 1) an approval orientation (with peer pressure and authoritarian leadership, and 2) an achievement orientation, prevalent among high-powered students who may "want to do the right thing for the wrong reason." His work with students thus focuses on training them in how to make good decisions. With leaders, he talks about how to call for commitment in a healthy way. This calls for analysis of cults and cultic groups at both the psychological and the theological levels. Beyond the college realm, Dr. Whallon greatly enjoys teaching adult Sunday school classes where he is currently engaged in the study of the life of Joseph - a classic example of the development of character under stress and duress, with obvious implications for our contemporary culture. He is also the co-author of Good Things Come in Small Groups and Chapter Leaders' Handbook (both published by InterVarsity Press, 1985). Dr. Whallon sees people hungry for a sense of peace and clarity of purpose of the kind that deals with real guilt and shame, and the cults "feed them plastic fruit." He wants to make sure that InterVarsity is there with real nourishment for their needs. ================================================================= DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0992AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer, September 1992 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 Dean Borgman | 2 Rev. Dr. Douglas E. Whallon For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 9/26/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================