Editing Fellowship of Friends (section)

== Criticisms ==
In lawsuits that were settled out of court, two former members sued Burton, in 1984 and 1996 alleging that Burton used his position to sexually prey upon young men.{{ r | NYT_2022-06-16 }}{{ r | LAT_1996-11-04 | p=1 | q=“Burton would kiss [Troy Buzbee] on the forehead, which he said represented the seat of the soul and then instruct [Buzbee] to ‘separate’ from his body and just ‘let go,’ ” said the suit, which alleged the sexual encounters continued for more than five years and that Burton had sex with other young men. ... Numerous other ex-members have told similar stories in open letters to the membership and to each other, in newspaper accounts and in interviews with The Times. }}  About 100 members left the group after each of these allegations.{{ r | LAT_1996-11-04 }} Numerous other members have shared similar stories of Burton's activities.{{ r | LAT_1996-11-04 | p=1 | q=“Burton would kiss [Troy Buzbee] on the forehead, which he said represented the seat of the soul and then instruct [Buzbee] to ‘separate’ from his body and just ‘let go,’ ” said the suit, which alleged the sexual encounters continued for more than five years and that Burton had sex with other young men. ... Numerous other ex-members have told similar stories in open letters to the membership and to each other, in newspaper accounts and in interviews with The Times. }}

Burton has also been criticized for having a lavish lifestyle and for false prophecies.<ref name=LAT_1996-11-04>{{cite news |author=Jenifer Warren |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-11-04-mn-61189-story.html|title=Trouble Taints a Cerebral Sanctuary |date=November 4, 1996 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] | quote=Apollo is the worldwide headquarters of the Fellowship of Friends, whose 2,000 cerebral members believe that keen self-awareness, a positive outlook and immersion in life’s finest things--from Baccarat crystal to Johann Sebastian Bach--offer a path to higher consciousness. They have been led on this journey for 25 years by Robert Earl Burton, a former schoolteacher who has guided everything from when his followers bear children to what sort of shoes they wear. Burton tells members he speaks with 44 angels who watch over his flock--among them Abraham Lincoln, Plato and Jesus Christ--believers say. Burton also has predicted that Apollo will be the lone surviving outpost after a global nuclear holocaust in 2006. Disillusioned former members say the fellowship is more than just another California curiosity. A growing number of them--as well as some academics--call it a cult that entraps its mostly well-educated members with a false promise of spiritual evolution. A recently ended lawsuit and accounts from ex-members echo that claim and add another: Burton, they say, has for years seduced young males in the group.}}</ref> "Burton also has predicted that Apollo will be the lone surviving outpost after a global nuclear holocaust in 2006. Disillusioned former members say the fellowship is more than just another California curiosity. A growing number of them--as well as some academics--call it a cult that entraps its mostly well-educated members with a false promise of spiritual evolution."<ref name="LAT_1996-11-04" />

In 2006, an attendee at a Fellowship of Friends prospective student meeting wrote a report of his experience and posted it on a [[WordPress.com|WordPress]] site.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2006-04-16|title=Fellowship of Friends – a cult for intellectuals|url=https://animamrecro.wordpress.com/2006/04/16/fellowship-of-friends-a-cult-for-intellectuals/|access-date=2023-01-18|website=Animam Recro|language=en}}{{user-generated inline|date=August 2022}}</ref> This became a focus for many former members to air their views, and led to a lively discussion of the practices of the organization and its founder. It has passed through a number of moderators and platforms, and continues to exist as of 2022.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fellowship of Friends - Living Presence Discussion|url=https://fofdiscussion.wordpress.com/|access-date=2023-01-18|website=Fellowship of Friends - Living Presence Discussion|language=en}}{{user-generated inline|date=August 2022}}</ref>

In 2021, Jennings Brown, an independent reporter, created a series of Podcasts on the Revelations site hosted by Spotify that are the result of an extensive investigation into the Fellowship of Friends.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://open.spotify.com/show/2bJD2GgwlPxF2UFVS1h84c | title=Revelations | website=[[Spotify]] }}</ref>

In 2022, a lawsuit was filed against [[Google]] and its staffing firm Advanced Systems Group (ASG) which alleged that Fellowship of Friends members used the contracting agency as an easier way to hire others from the same group without the normal scrutiny applied to full-time Google hires.<ref name=NYT_2022-06-16>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/technology/google-fellowship-of-friends-sect.html | title=How a Religious Sect Landed Google in a Lawsuit | newspaper=The New York Times | date=16 June 2022 | last1=Metz | first1=Cade | last2=Wakabayashi | first2=Daisuke }}</ref> In the suit, Kevin Lloyd, a former Google video producer, alleges he was fired because he complained about the influence of the religious group in his business unit.{{ r | NYT_2022-06-16 }}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://medium.com/@kwilliamlloyd/the-cult-in-google-3c1a910214d1 | title=The Cult in Google | date=16 June 2022 }}</ref> The suit alleges that Google Developer Studio (GDS), which makes videos promoting the company's products, is run by Peter Lubbers, a Fellowship of Friends member who used his position to hire many members of the group and their relatives, and to feed some of Google's spending on video production to the group.{{ r | NYT_2022-06-16 }} In a similar lawsuit from 2008, Lynn Noyes was awarded $6.5 million in damages from [[Kelly Services]] for failing to promote her because she was not part of the Fellowship.{{ r | NYT_2022-06-16 | p=1 | q=M. Catherine Jones, Mr. Lloyd’s lawyer, won a similar suit against Kelly Services in 2008 on behalf of Lynn Noyes, who claimed that the company had failed to promote her because she was not a member of the Fellowship. A California court awarded Ms. Noyes $6.5 million in damages.}} Lloyd settled his lawsuit against ASG in December 2022, with terms undisclosed; Google confirmed at that time that Lubbers was no longer employed at the company, without explaining his departure.<ref name="nytimes-2022-12-20">{{cite news |last1=Metz |first1=Cade |title=Ex-Google Contractor Settles Lawsuit Over Religious Sect |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/technology/google-contractor-lawsuit-fellowship-of-friends.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-30_impression_cut_3_filter_new_arm_5_1&alpha=0.05&block=more_in_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=455500189&impression_id=56f3c307-82e9-11ed-8398-2b2ebb923c26&index=4&pgtype=Article&pool=more_in_pools%2Ftechnology&region=footer&req_id=853684706&surface=eos-more-in&variant=0_bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-30_impression_cut_3_filter_new_arm_5_1 |access-date=December 23, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=December 20, 2022}}</ref>