Robert "Bob" Passantino (11 August 1951 — 17 November 2003), was a North American Christian author and journalist who specialised in writing for a mass market readership on subjects related to Christian apologetics, philosophy, and the Christian countercult movement.
Passantino lived and worked for most of his adult life in Costa Mesa, California and received instruction in Christian teaching and practiced as a professing member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He emerged as an apologist for faith in Evangelical Christianity during the 1970s. He and his soon-to-be wife, Gretchen, had already begun to collaborate in a ministry of Christian evangelism toward adherents of the Jehovah's Witnesses when they became acquainted with the Baptist pastor and countercult writer Walter Martin. Martin was the founder of the apologetics ministry Christian Research Institute. In 1974 Martin relocated the Institute from New Jersey to southern California where he re-established his ministry in association with the Melodyland School of Theology. Martin officiated as the minister at the marriage ceremony of the Passantinos.
The Passantinos assisted Martin in the ministry of the Christian Research Institute for approximately five years from 1974-79. In that context Martin privately taught them the rudiments of the discipline of apologetics and of investigative reporting in countercult ministry. During the 1970s and 1980s Gretchen served as an editorial assistant in preparing revised editions of some of Martin's books such as The Rise of the Cults, The Kingdom of the Cults and The Maze of Mormonism. As a couple Bob and Gretchen began to develop their profile as speakers in evangelical churches delivering presentations about cults and general apologetics questions concerning the existence of God and the historicity of the Bible. Together they then branched out from working at Christian Research Institute and began to operate their own apologetics and countercult ministry known as Christian Apologetics: Research and Information Service (CARIS). This ministry subsequently was renamed as Answers in Action.
They founded Answers In Action with the intent to help both Christians and non-Christians apply logic and reason to religious inquiry and to assist in answering questions about apologetics, religion, philosophy, evangelism, and theology. Bob's approach to religion was to "represent their belief system as accurately as you would have them represent yours".
Some of their initial writing appeared as researched chapters in Martin's book The New Cults. Their first co-written book Answers to the Cultist at Your Door was designed as a popular apologetics handbook for Christians. The book consisted of brief chapters about the phenomenon of cults followed by specific chapters containing evangelical apologetic responses to the doctrines taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Unification Church, Hare Krishna, and the Way International.
Bob contributed an essay on Jehovah's Witnesses in Ronald Enroth's book Evangelising the Cults. This essay centered a basic Evangelical apologetic argument that challenged the stance taken by Jehovah's Witnesses on three doctrines: the Trinity, Christ, and Salvation. He also contributed a lengthy essay that explored the theory, techniques and application of religious research to the Evangelical Ministries to New Religions' symposium volume Contend for the Faith that was published in 1992.
During the 1990s the Passantinos emerged as critical evangelical voices on a number of questions connected to Protestant understandings about the subject of Satanism and the Occult. In both published essays and books they called into question what they regarded as misconceptions commonly held by Christians about the beliefs and practices of Satanist groups. This included their alarm at how Satanists were often accused in Christian literature or in popular media as being perpetrators of organized crime. They were highly skeptical about claims concerning Satanic Ritual Abuse and they argued that the basis of these claims could be explained as a combination of folklore and moral panic.
Robert Passantino's unflagging commitment to a libertarian concept of free-agency led to critical evaluations of theological, philosophical, and socio-psychological forms of determinism. Against a wide current of Christian and non-Christian opinion, the Passantinos published a controversial article in Cornerstone magazine in 1994, titled Overcoming The Bondage Of Victimization: A Critical Evaluation of Cult Mind Control Theories[1], in which they criticized the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of "mind control" and "exit counseling" models. The article was reprinted in a later edition of Martin's The Kingdom of the Cults, but has since been removed due to allegations that it didn't represent Martins own views.[2]
The Passantinos were highly influential on other apologists and this is evidenced by the acknowledgements made by other apologists who refer to them concerning their input and research.
Robert died on November 17, 2003, age 52, due to heart failure. He is survived by his three children with Gretchen. He is buried at Westminster Memorial in Westminster, CA.
In October 2007, Norman Geisler and Chad Meister published a collection of essays written in honor of Robert titled Reasons for Faith: Making a Case for the Christian Faith.
"Robert Passantino, 52: Author, Co-Founder of Evangelical Center" Los Angeles Times, 21 November 2003. [3]
"Robert Passantino 1951-2003", Christianity Today, February 2004, p. 17.
Books
Robert Passantino, Gretchen Passantino, & Robert Schafer, Answers to the Cultist at Your Door, Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1981. ISBN 0-89081-275-6
Bob Passantino & Gretchen Passantino, Witch Hunt, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1990. ISBN 0-8407-3129-9
___________________________________, Protecting Your Children from Satanism, Witchcraft, and the Occult Ann Arbor: Servant Publications/Guildford, Surrey: Eagle, 1991. ISBN 0 86347 065 3
___________________________________,Satanism Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. ISBN 0-310-70451-0
Articles
"The Kingdom Strikes Back", Christianity Today, 11 November, 1991, pp. 62 & 64.
"Satanic Ritual Abuse in Popular Christian Literature: Why Christians Fall For a Lie Searching for the Truth," Journal of Psychology and Theology, Volume 20, number 3, Fall 1992, pp. 299—305.
"Christians Criticizing Christians: Can It Be Biblical?" Christian Research Journal, Volume 15, Fall 1992, p. 39.
"Psychology and the Church" (Part 1) Christian Research Journal, Volume 17 Winter 1995, pp. 20—23 & 35-38.
"Psychology and the Church" (Part 2) Christian Research Journal, Volume 17 Spring 1995, pp. 24—31.
"Psychology and the Church" (Part 3) Christian Research Journal, Volume 18 Summer 1995, pp. 16—27.
"Psychology and the Church" (Part 4) Christian Research Journal, Volume 18 Fall 1995, pp. 18—23 & 42-43.
"Witness Lee 1905-1997" Christian Research Journal, Volume 20 July-September 1998, pp. 6—7 & 47-48.
"Imagine There's No Heaven: Contemporary Atheism Speaks Out in Humanist Manifesto 2000" (Part 1) Christian Research Journal, Volume 22, number 3 2000, pp. 12—21.
"Religion, Truth and Value Without God: Contemporary Atheism Speaks Out in Humanist Manifesto 2000" (Part 2) Christian Research Journal, Volume 22, number 4 2000 pp 26—29 & 45-49.
"Overcoming the Bondage of Victimization: A Critical Evaluation of Cult Mind Control Theories" Cornerstone Magazine, 1994. Available at www.answers.org
