The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) is an non-profit Christian apologetics organization run and founded by Matt Slick. The organization is dedicated to defending what it considers 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. [1] (http://www.carm.org/index/statement.htm) The term Christian means belonging to Christ and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means anointed one, which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written Messiah), (and in Arabic it is pronounced Maseeh مسيح). ... Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. ... Matt Slick, whose full name is Matthew J. Slick, is the creator and webmaster of the popular Christian website CARM, or Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ... The Christian countercult movement is a loosely knit affiliation made primarily of Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians to resist viewpoints and organizations which they see as opposing what they view as the historic and orthodox Christian faith. ... Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error. ... The heavens are the sky, the celestial sphere, or outer space. ... Medieval illustration of the Mouth of Hell Hell (according to many religious beliefs about the afterlife) is a place of torment and pain. ... Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...

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 and of groups he considers cults, including Unitarian Universalists, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Universalists, and Mormons. Matt Slick, whose full name is Matthew J. Slick, is the creator and webmaster of the popular Christian website CARM, or Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. ... The flaming chalice is the universally recognized symbol for Unitarian Universalism. ... The Church of Christ, Scientist, often known as The Christian Science Church, is a nontrinitarian Protestant Christian denomination, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879. ... The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA), colloquially referred to as the Adventists, is an evangelical Protestant Christian denomination that grew out of the prophetic Millerite movement in the United States during the middle part of the 19th century. ... In comparative religion, a universalist religion is one that holds itself true for all people; it thus allows all to join, regardless of ethnicity. ... The term Mormon is a colloquial name, most-often used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). ...

The site then grew to include several more topics related to Christian apologetics and a discussion forum was added. The forum was intended to answer opposition to Christianity, and thus was made open to most faiths and beliefs. The webpage was also translated into several languages.

Facts and figures

• CARM exists in five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, and Arabic.
• CARM's homepage receives 26,000 mainpage views per week
• CARM receives 12,000 emails per year.
• CARM's discussion forums include 5340 registered users, 41 discussion boards, a shop, and a user profile page.

The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

Self-described mission

According to the "About Carm" page [2] (http://www.carm.org/index/aboutcarm.htm) its goals are to:

1. 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.

2. Answer opposition to the Christian faith Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...

• CARM pursues this goal by documenting the beliefs of what it considers to be aberrant or cult-like religious groups, as well as alternative religious systems, and then comparing these beliefs to its own mainstream Protestant interpretation of the Christian Bible.

3. Bring glory and honor to the name of Jesus In religion and sociology, a cult is a group of people (often a new religious movement) devoted to beliefs and goals which may be contradictory to those held by the majority of society. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... Interpretation, or interpreting, is an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. ... The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning books, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the sacred scripture of Christianity. ...

• 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.

Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Perspectives

Common complaints about CARM center around the CARM's forums' lengthy and sometimes confusing rules (http://www.carm.org/boards/boardrules.htm) (including concerns about the consistency of their application), and on the use of moderation to diminish opposition to Evangelical beliefs. Others find CARM a viable and effective environment for discussing a wide variety of both Christian and secular topics. On Internet websites which invite users to post comments, a moderation system is the method the webmaster chooses to sort contributions which are irrelevant, obscene, illegal or insulting from contributions which are useful or informative. ... Evangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion - good news) of the New Testament. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ...

External links

Official websites

• CARM website (http://www.carm.org/)
• CARM's forum (http://new.carmforums.org/dc/dcboard.php)

Neutral

• Christian Countercult Website Profiles (http://c.faculty.umkc.edu/cowande/ccw/carm.htm)
• Overview of Christian Countercult movement (http://www.cesnur.org/2001/london2001/cowan.htm)

Supportive

• My Journey, Your News (http://www.dgsinclair.com/) - An evangelical blog that endorses CARM.
• Apologetics Index (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/) - An apologetics site similar to CARM.

Opposing

• Mormonism (http://www.aros.net/~wenglund/dmormon.htm) - "A response to Matt Slick's anti-LDS web page."
• Contra CARM (http://www.geocities.com/katholon/) - A site dealing with experiences with Matt Slick and CARM
• Tentmaker: The Cult of CARM (http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/CARM.htm)
• The Secular Web (http://www.infidels.org) - A similar website organized by non-believers.
• AARM (http://aarm.mywowbb.com) - A site that is generally critical of CARM.