Personal Freedom Outreach
Personal Freedom Outreach (PFO) is an evangelical countercult organization that serves to "educate Christians about the dangers and heretical doctrines of religious cults, to use the Gospel of Jesus Christ to reach members of those cults and to warn Christians of unbiblical teachings within the church itself."[1]
Its main office is located in St. Louis, Missouri. PFO consists of seven directors. It has a board of reference, which includes Jay E. Adams, Norman L. Geisler and Ron Rhodes.[1]
Focus
PFO was founded by M. Kurt Goedelman and his wife, Angela, in 1975. PFO publishes tracts and other materials that biblically critique the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, The Way International, the Unification Church, Christian Science, Christadelphians, and other new religious movements.
PFO publishes the Quarterly Journal since 1981 (since 1988 under that name). It has included articles on Protestant teachers and organizations which it considers marginal such as Benny Hinn, Rebecca Brown, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Bill Gothard, Joyce Meyer, and the Trinity Broadcasting Network, as well as groups which it considers cultic or theologically aberrant.[2]
In 1996, PFO began hosting its biennial discernment conferences which deals with what it perceives as challenges to sound doctrine and a biblical worldview which face the Christian church today.
Standards and credentials
PFO is a member of Evangelical Ministries to New Religions and has cosponsored a conference where they adopted a comprehensive manual, establishing guidelines in theology and ethical conduct for member organizations of the Christian countercult network. The standards are inspired by the Lausanne Congress in 1974.[3][4]
Bud Press of the Christian Research Service has endorsed PFO for their "well-written and researched articles, editorials, news updates, and book reviews."[5]
They have also been laudably evaluated in scholarly literature. Everett Shrophire and John Morehead note the wealth of information possessed by organizations as PFO and envisions a central place for them in the coming challenges to Christian mission.[6] Paul Carden makes much the same observation.[7]
References
- ^ a b "About Personal Freedom Outreach". 2006-07-07. Archived from the original on 7 July 2006. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
- ^ "Quarterly Journal Index". 2009-02-18. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
- ^ Howard, Judith Lynn (28 October 1996). "Cult-Watchers: Cult Watchers Adopt Guidelines". ChristianityToday.com. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
- ^ "Ethical and Doctrinal Standards – EMNR". Retrieved 2022-08-05.
- ^ "For Your Information". 2012-02-18. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
- ^ Everett Shrophire and John Morehead: "Hidden in Plain Sight: The Mission Challenge of New Religious Movements" International Journal of Frontier Missions Vol. 15:3, July–September 1998.
- ^ Paul Carden: "The Threat of the Cults on the Mission Fields of the World" International Journal of Frontier Missions Vol. 15:3, July–September, 1998.
External links
- Official website
- v
- t
- e
- APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control
- Center for Religious Studies in the name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons
- Cult Awareness Network
- Cult Information Centre
- Cultists Anonymous
- International Cultic Studies Association
- The Family Survival Trust
- Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network
- National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales
- People's Organised Workshop on Ersatz Religion
- Jean-Marie Abgrall
- John Gordon Clark
- Steve Eichel
- Martin Faiers
- Leon Festinger
- Carol Giambalvo
- Steven Hassan
- Ian Haworth
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- Stephen A. Kent
- Masaki Kito
- Janja Lalich
- Michael Langone
- Saul V. Levine
- Casey McCann
- Jesse S. Miller
- Sayuri Ogawa
- Ted Patrick
- Tsutsumi Sakamoto
- Rick Ross
- Chris Shelton
- Margaret Singer
- Eito Suzuki
- Alain Vivien
- Cyril Vosper
- Louis Jolyon West
- Lawrence Wollersheim
- Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
- Christian Research Institute
- Dialog Center International
- Dialogue Ireland
- Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
- Institute for Religious Research
- Personal Freedom Outreach
- Midwest Christian Outreach
- New England Institute of Religious Research
- Reachout Trust
- Spiritual Counterfeits Project
- Watchman Fellowship
- Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
- Nicolas About
- Serge Blisko
- Georges Fenech
- Ford Greene
- Stephen Mutch
- Catherine Picard
- Kenneth Robinson
- Paul Rose
- Tom Sackville
- Nick Xenophon
- About–Picard law
- Anti-Mormonism
- Assassination of Shinzo Abe
- Governmental lists of cults and sects
- Mass suicide of Heaven's Gate
- Jason Scott case
- Persecution of Baháʼís
- Persecution of Falun Gong
- Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses
- The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies and Associations Act
- Tokyo subway sarin attack
- Waco siege
- All Gods Children (book)
- Another Gospel
- Bounded Choice
- Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control
- Captive Hearts, Captive Minds
- The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions
- Churches That Abuse
- Combating Cult Mind Control
- Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion
- Cults in Our Midst
- Cults of Unreason
- Deadly Cults
- The Incendiaries
- The Kingdom of the Cults
- The Making of a Moonie
- Misunderstanding Cults
- The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions
- On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left
- Recovery from Cults
- Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
- Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare
- Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
- Twisted Scriptures
- When Prophecy Fails
- The Wrong Way Home
- Zealot: A Book About Cults