Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) is a non-profit Christian apologetics organization run and founded by Matt Slick. The organization is dedicated to defending orthodox Christian beliefs from alleged doctrinal error. It is part of the Christian countercult movement. CARM is known especially for its website, but Slick also attends public speaking engagements and holds conferences under the CARM banner. CARM teaches a variety of conservative Christian beliefs, including strict Biblical inerrancy, a literal Heaven and Hell, and Creationism. ^*

History

CARM was founded in October 1995 by Matt Slick. CARM began as a collection of information Slick had gathered from his studies of other religions considered by orthodox Christians to be cults, including Unitarian Universalists, Christian Scientists, Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Universalists, and Mormons. The site then grew to include several more topics related to Christian theology and apologetics.

CARM is now one of the largest apologetics websites: it offers text in five languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, and Arabic) and receives by its own statement 26,000 mainpage views per week and 12,000 emails per year. CARM is estimated by hitbox.com to be the 14th most visited religion-related website on the Internet.

The CARM site offers also a discussion forum administrated primarily by volunteers ^* with 41 discussion boards. CARM reports over six thousand registered users.

Self-described mission

According to the "About CARM" page ^* its goals are to:

Equip Christians in the truth: CARM pursues this goal by providing information concerning conservative Protestant views on Christian Doctrine, theology, evangelism, and other subjects. Its aim is to present an accurate and biblical representation of Christianity.
Answer opposition to the Christian faith: CARM pursues this goal by documenting the beliefs of what is aberrant or cult-like religious groups, as well as alternative religious systems, and then comparing these beliefs to its own Evangelical Protestant interpretation of the Christian Bible.
Bring glory and honor to the name of Jesus: CARM pursues this goal by presenting and defending the traditional view of Jesus Christ's identity and message, and by comparing the alternative interpretations of the same.

Critical views

CARM's methods and policies receive criticism from a variety of groups. Some groups described on the CARM website as cults, e.g. Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses, have posted responses to CARM's articles on their beliefs to the Internet. Also, some atheists, who disagree with CARM's published Evangelical conservative philosophy, have written counter-arguments to articles on the CARM site. CARM's forums also fall under fire from people who have been excluded for alleged or real rule violations and who interpret this exclusion as an attempt to diminish opposition to Evangelical beliefs through moderation.

An especially heated dispute originated in 2001, when the CARM Universalism board was closed down, followed by a ban of all discussion of Universalism on CARM. ^* According to CARM, the subject had to be banned due to frequent flame wars, personal insults, and ad hominem attacks used in discussions on the subject. ^*

A similar dispute arose in 2004, when John W. Ratcliff, under the impression that atheists were being systematically excluded from CARM created the unmoderated forum, AARM, as an alternative forum without CARM's rule limits. As some of the users of this new forum have been banned or suspended by CARM, and pointed criticism, personal insults and attacks of the organization and persons posting on CARM continues to be a subject in the new forum, mutual relations are less than amicable.^*.

External links

Official websites

Neutral

Opposing

AARM - An unmoderated website generally critical of CARM and populated primarily by former CARM posters.
- CARM response to AARM - Response from CARM to quotes on AARM website discussion boards.
Mormonism - A rebuttal to CARM's texts on Mormonism
Contra CARM - Some essays criticizing CARM's texts on atheism
- CARM's response
Tentmaker: CARM - An Universalist protest against CARM's closing the Universalist board (see ^*)

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