Criticism and Controversy
There have been allegations by former members that a number of YWAM leaders, including the founders, with authoritarian personalities and cultic practices have intimidated volunteers and reprimanded those acting in opposition to the organization's vision and values. A good example of this is the massive reorganization of the the University of the Nations in 2005 by the founders after coming out of retirement to take control of the institution through alleged fresh revelations and divine authority from God to tear down in order to build anew. Some of the political involvements of its founders and members have also been examined by the media. It is also claimed by Christian apologists that YWAM has taught some controversial doctrines.
In 1990, cult investigator Rick Ross published an evaluation of Youth with a Mission, that cited both positive and negative aspects of YWAM. Ross concluded that he did not "recommend Youth With A Mission" or its programs. After the 2007 shootings, Ross told the Fox News Network that he continued to receive occasional "serious complaints" about Youth With A Mission, but he believed it is "not a cult" ."
Read more about this topic: Youth With A Mission
Famous quotes containing the words criticism and/or controversy:
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)