================================================================
Religion News Report - December 8 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 141)
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=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Prosecutors demand death for cultists in subway attack
2. Two anti-Aum laws promulgated

=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo
3. Ex-followers finger Fukunaga for false foot findings
4. Cult interested 'only in greed'
5. Ho-no-Hana eyed existing members' cash
6. Cult cans huge fund-raiser
7. Ex-assemblyman raided over sole cult
8. 32 more cult facilities targeted by authorities
9. Foot cult is sued over £500m 'to ward off strife'

=== Falun Gong
10. China blasts U.S. for stance on banned sect
11. China Against U.S. Double Standard on Falun Gong Cult
12. Quick action
13. Falun Gong Members to Hold Conference in Hong Kong, SCMP Says

=== Scientology
14. Scientologists facing protest
15. Scientology foe moves in, digs in for a long fight
16. Scientology TV
17. City prevails over Scientology
18. Scientology Bug in Windows 2000

=== Unification Church
19. Rev. Moon's followers turn Brazil swamp into paradise

=== Concerned Christians
20. More suspected American doomsday cult members deported from Greece
21. Expelled Sect Members Make Way to New York
22. Deported cult members arrive in U.S.
23. Suspected American cult members deported to U.S.
24. Greece expels 18 suspected members of millennium cult

=== Cults - General
25. Allure of cults hard to resist
26. Ho no ... this heel's after soles in cult-crazed Japan

=== Militias
27. Alleged Calif. Bomb Plot Sought Revolution -FBI

=== Mormon Church
28. LDS Church Donates to Polygamy Tapestry

=== Other News
29. Michigan man charged with conspiring to kidnap atheist leader
30. Sikh Cleric Knife Charge Dropped
31. Navajo legislators stuggle with peyote issue
32. Attorney General Warns of Illegal Building on Temple Mount
33. Waqf works go on
34. Trying to keep a sect going (Sufi)

=== Noted
35. Reformation Top Religious Event

=== Interfaith
36. Spirits and cash raised at religious parliament (PWR)

=== Science
37. Dead Sea Scrolls Broke 19 Centuries of Silence

=== Books
38. The cult that sought to end our world

=== The Lawyer Around The Corner
39. Judge Throws Out Suit Against Holiday

=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. Prosecutors demand death for cultists in subway attack
Japan Times, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news12-99/news.html#story1
Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for two former Aum Shinrikyo followers
Tuesday for carrying out the March 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway
system.
(...)

Kenichi Hirose, 35, and Toru Toyoda, 31, stand accused of releasing sarin on
subway trains during the morning rush hour in an attempt to avert the
attention of investigative authorities from Aum. The gassing killed 12 people
and injured more than 5,500.

The prosecution also demanded life in prison for Shigeo Sugimoto, 40, for
chauffeuring one of the gas-attackers to a train station and for his
involvement in the killing of followers in January and July 1994.
(...)

Hirose, a graduate of Waseda University, and Toyoda also joined in the cult's
attempt to manufacture 1,000 rifles between June 1994 and March 1995. Only
one rifle was produced.

In addition, Toyoda, who received a master's degree in physics at Tokyo
University, took part in the May 1995 cyanide gas attack at Shinjuku Station
by producing the gas, prosecutors said.

After that attack failed, Toyoda and other members sent a letter bomb to
then-Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima later in the month, they said. The bomb tore
off the fingers of the governor's secretary.

Prosecutors added that Sugimoto lynched and strangled to death his fellow
follower Toshio Tomita in July 1994 and cremated his body in a microwave
incinerator.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Two anti-Aum laws promulgated
Japan Times, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news12-99/news.html#story2
Two laws aimed at cracking down on the activities of Aum Shinrikyo were
promulgated Tuesday by the Justice Ministry.
(...)

The laws will take effect Dec. 27, and the Public Security Investigation
Agency, after consulting with the National Police Agency, is expected to ask
the Public Security Examination Commission on the same day to consider
putting Aum under surveillance, Justice Minister Hideo Usui told a regular
news conference Tuesday.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo

3. Ex-followers finger Fukunaga for false foot findings
Japan Times, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news12-99/news.html#story3
Five former followers of the Honohana Sampogyo religious sect Tuesday filed a
criminal complaint against its guru, Hogen Fukunaga, and 12 other cult
executives, their lawyers said.

The former followers filed the suit because fraud allegedly committed by the
sect has become a serious social issue and needs to be stopped before more
people are victimized, their lawyers said.

A total of 1,107 people from across the nation, including the five who filed
the complaint, have already filed damages suits against the group. The suits
seek a total of 5.389 billion yen.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Currency converter:
http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/ESSENTIALS/


4. Cult interested 'only in greed'
Asahi News (Japan), Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.asahi.com/english/enews/enews.html#enews_26374
The cult Ho no Hana Sanpogyo was so concerned with making money that
followers felt compelled to slavishly borrow once they had given everything,
according to a former member.
(...)

The 39-year-old man served as the group's branch chief in the Hokuriku
region. He said branch managers were required to meet new membership targets,
with many resorting to unorthodox methods to achieve their goals.
(...)

Recruits were called "hearts'' and branch managers were paid up to 90,000 yen
when they found new recruits. "Many of the branch managers were already deep
in debt because they had to donate millions of yen before they were allowed
into managerial positions,'' the former member said.

They therefore tried to collect as many 'hearts' as possible, just so they
repay their debts. The man reasoned that every time he collected a "heart''
he had "saved'' someone.
(...)

Potential new members were first asked to write down details of their life,
prior to being given a "consultation.'' If someone wrote that he or she was
in debt, they were told they didn't have the "soul'' to get any money.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Ho-no-Hana eyed existing members' cash
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Dec. 6, 1999
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/1206so06.htm
The Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo religious group began offering new training sessions
earlier this year for existing followers to raise funds because an increasing
number of lawsuits filed against the group made it difficult to recruit new
followers, according to sources close to the group.
(...)

The group offered a new training seminar titled "Chojin Ningen Shacho Juku"
(Superhuman President School) for followers, according to the sources and
bulletins issued by the group. To enroll in the session, a follower had to
meet four conditions, such as rounding up more than seven people to join a
five-day training session that cost between 1.25 million yen and 2.25 million
yen; participating in a session for middle-aged people that cost more than 7
million yen; or joining a session for young people that cost about 3.8
million yen. To be entitled to enroll in the special seminar, a follower had
to pay a total of about 20 million yen.
(...)

Senior members of the group told the followers that the session aimed "to
nurture new leaders to save companies and society in the 21st century." They
also said that the followers were assured to have opportunities to use their
abilities in fields such as education, politics, medicine, economics and
science once they completed the session.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. Cult cans huge fund-raiser
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news02.html
The Ho no Hana Sanpogyo foot-reading cult canceled its biggest event of the
year to be held in Yokohama on Dec. 15 - pulling the plug just a day before
police raided it on Wednesday, the Mainichi has learned.
(...)

Ho no Hana Sanpogyo claimed that, despite the last-minute cancelation, the
festival would still go ahead on time, just at another venue.

Until a few years ago, the "Tengyo-riki Taisai" ("Grand Festival of Heavenly
Power)" was held every year at the Tokyo Dome in the capital's Bunkyo-ku,
with around 10,000 people participating in the biggest moneymaking event on
the cult's calendar, police said.

According to Ho no Hana leader Hogen Fukunaga, tengyo-riki is heavenly power
that gives life to all creations, and the taisai is the day that the power
falls on the face of the Earth most strongly.

Many "miracles," such as a case in which a wheelchair-bound person could walk
again, regularly occurred during the grand festival, cult publications claim.
All first-time participants of the event have to buy a tengyo-riki pocket
diary - which the cult claims is a transmitter of the heavenly power to
holders - with its price starting from 50,500 yen. Repeat participants can
join the event for a participation fee of 20,000 yen or over, plus a 500 yen
booking fee.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Ex-assemblyman raided over sole cult
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news01.html
The home of a former speaker of the Fuji Municipal Assembly in Shizuoka
Prefecture and a resort hotel owned by the Ho no Hana Sampogyo cult were
among the locations raided by police Saturday over the group's alleged fraud,
investigators said.
(...)

Police said the search was necessary partly because the cult tried to destroy
evidence prior to the first raids on 73 other locations in Tokyo, Shizuoka
and seven other prefectures last Wednesday.
(...)

Also among the premises targeted by police in Saturday's raids was Ningen
Yuin (human healing house), a resort hotel owned by Ho no Hana, in the
Shizuoka Prefecture city of Atami. Ho no Hana officials are named as
executives of the hotel that the cult purchased from an Osaka real estate
agency in September last year.

One of the cult-related Web sites claims that the hotel is filled with "minus
ions" produced by 50 tons of expensive binchotan charcoal stacked on its
basement floor. Minus ions "purify" the whole hotel complex and increase
natural healing power of human bodies, the home page claims.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. 32 more cult facilities targeted by authorities
Asahi News (Japan), Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.asahi.com/english/enews/enews.html#enews_26344
(...) The most recent searches included the group's branch offices in Akita,
Nagano and Miyazaki prefectures, and a sanatorium in Atami, Shizuoka
Prefecture. A private company in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, that is affiliated with
the religious organization, was also targeted by police investigators.

The 11-story sanatorium, named "Ningen Yuin" (house to cure humans), was
formerly a members-only hotel. Ho no Hana Sanpogyo bought the hotel through
its affiliate and uses it as a sanatorium for cult members.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. Foot cult is sued over £500m 'to ward off strife'
Electronic Telegraph, Dec. 2, 1999
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
(...) Police searched 74 facilities of Hono hana Sanpogyo in connection
with more than 1,000 law suits brought by followers seeking £337 million in
compensation because they say they were forced to give the cult money.

The cult's name translates roughly as Flower of Law and the Three Law
Practice but more people in Japan know it as Heavenly Energy, the slogan that
shines out from huge red and white neon hoardings in key locations in
Japanese cities.

The cult's literature claimed that since it was incorporated as a religion in
1987 more than 30,000 people have attended its seminars seeking help with any
problem from terminal illness to marital strife. It said it had collected
£500 million from followers.
(...)

The group's leader, Hogon Fukunaga, 54, has justified the high fees by saying
the funds were a "contribution to heaven".
(...)

He claims to be the next saviour after Christ and Buddha. His foot philosophy
is loosely based on Buddhism, in which feet are the untouchable part of the
anatomy, being closest to earth. The cult's main temple has a garish fountain
in gold shaped like Buddha's footprints.
(...)

He said his own £20,000-a-month salary was dictated by heaven.

But many former followers complain that despite handing over thousands of
pounds their problems were not solved.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

10. China blasts U.S. for stance on banned sect
Nando Times, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500139305-500163939-500588832-0,00.html
China on Tuesday accused Washington of ignoring abuses by the Falun Gong
spiritual movement, which communist Chinese leaders have banned as a menacing
cult.

On Monday, in his first comments about China's crackdown on the sect,
President Clinton criticized the imprisonment and detention of Falun Gong
members as a "troubling example" of the government acting against those "who
test the limits of freedom."

Without mentioning Clinton by name, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Zhang Qiyue said Tuesday that the U.S. government was ignoring the dangers
posed by the multimillion-member spiritual movement.

"The U.S. government has adopted a double standard on the cult, and also
turned a deaf ear to the adverse effect and the damage of Falun Gong to the
Chinese people and society, and even tried to beautify this cult and
interfere in China's internal affairs," she said when asked about Clinton's
remarks during a briefing for reporters.
(...)

Zhang also expressed "strong indignation" over a recent U.S. government
decision to extend a ban on exports of crime control and detection equipment
to China for another two years because of continuing religious repression.

The decision followed a U.S. State Department report in September that
criticized Chinese mistreatment of Tibetan monks, underground Christians and
Muslim Uighurs from western China.
(...)

Falun Gong members from the United States, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore,
Australia, England, France and other countries plan to meet this weekend in
Hong Kong, it said. Hong Kong's autonomous status has allowed Falun Gong
members to continue to practice openly there.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


11. China Against U.S. Double Standard on Falun Gong Cult
Northern Light/Xinhua, Dec. 7, 1999
http://library.northernlight.com/FA19991207730000080.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0
(...) In reply to a question that U.S. President Bill Clinton expressed
concern over China's stance on dealing with the Falun Gong cult yesterday,
Zhang Qiyue said China urges the U.S. government to take back comments made
on the sect that might place new obstacles to Sino-U.S. relations.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 1,400 people have died
practising Falun Gong. Many practitioners have lost their mind and families
have broken up, causing untoll social problems, she said.

"Numerous undisputed facts have shown that the Falun Gong cult undermines
Chinese society and harms the Chinese people," said Zhang, adding that the
vast majority of Falun Gong practitioners have come to realize the
destructive nature of the cult and that the Chinese government banned the
cult according to law, protecting basic human rights and freedom of all
Chinese citizens.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Xinhua is a state-controlled news agency


12. Quick action
Yahoo! Asia/AP, Dec. 6, 1999
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/newspapers/wisers/article.html?
s=asia/headlines/991206/newspapers/wisers/Quick_action.html
About 20 members of the banned group Falun Gong sat down together in a
protest at Tiananmen Square and were quickly whisked away by police.
(...)

Falun Gong members have been going to the square to protest against the
government's declaration in July that the group is an illegal cult. Police
who patrol the square in large numbers immediately stop any protests and
detain participants.
(...)

Meanwhile, public security officials have removed more than 100 followers of
the Zhong Gong movement from one of its bases, a Hong Kong-based rights group
said in a statement yesterday.

The removal represents the last batch of followers who were dispersed from
the Chinese Traditional Culture Training Institute at Mei Xian in Shaanxi
province, Zhong Gong's largest base in the country, a statement from the
Information Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Falun Gong Members to Hold Conference in Hong Kong, SCMP Says
AOL/Bloomberg, Dec. 7, 1999
http://my.aol.com/business/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=1999120708064427
About 1,000 Falun Gong members from Hong Kong and overseas will hold a
conference in Hong Kong and perform a mass exercise outside the Xinhua news
agency headquarters on Saturday, the South China Morning Post reported. It
will be the first significant Falun Gong gathering in the city since the
Chinese government outlawed the sect in July and later branded it an ``evil
cult.''
[...entire item...]


=== Scientology

14. Scientologists facing protest
MSNBC, Dec. 4, 1999
http://www.msnbc.com/local/WFLA/66076.asp
(...) Scientologists are keeping a low profile this year. One high ranking
church leader says the community just wants to move beyond discussion fo Lisa
McPherson’s death.

According to the Associated Press, lawyers for the Church of Scientology have
given the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner new evidence on the 1995 death of
Scientologist Lisa McPherson. The evidence turned over to Joan Wood, the
examiner, casts doubt on her original opinion: that McPherson was severely
dehydrated when she died while in the care of Scientology staffers, claim
lawyers for the church.
(...)

Wood originally listed the manner of McPherson’s death as ``undetermined.”
She said it is possible her review could lead to a finding of accidental
death.
(...)

Wood said she will review the materials and will join a church-hired
toxicologist in testing a second sample of McPherson’s eye fluid, which has
been stored by Wood’s office since the autopsy. That test could take
place as early as next week at a lab near Philadelphia.
(...)

McPherson was hospitalized in December 1995 after police found her
disoriented following a fender bender. Several Scientologists showed up at
the hospital and checked her out against doctor’s advice. Scientologists
kept McPherson in the hotel room blocks from the hospital for another 13
days. She was eventually taken to another hospital 45 minutes away and
pronounced dead from a blood clot.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Scientology foe moves in, digs in for a long fight
St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.sptimes.com/News/120599/news_pf/TampaBay/Scientology_foe_moves.shtml
An opposition group to the Church of Scientology said Saturday it is
well-financed and "here to stay" with plans for a variety of activities, from
speaking to school children and civic groups to counseling Scientologists
about leaving their church.

The group is called the Lisa McPherson Trust Inc., named for the 36-year-old
Scientologist who died in 1995 while in the care of church staffers. Its
intentions were made public during a "Scientology/Clearwater Relations
Conference" at a local hotel.
(...)

Robert Minton, the New England millionaire who formed the new trust, said its
offices would be a "safe zone" for Scientologists and others who find fault
with the church or have questions that only its critics would answer.

"We will be encouraging people to think for themselves, and we will be
offering people any information they want to listen to," Minton said as he
waved and held a picket sign at downtown's main crossroads, Cleveland Street
and Fort Harrison Avenue.
(...)

When the trust registered with the state in October as a for-profit
corporation, church officials said it was a scheme by Minton to recoup the
$2.5-million he has spent so far on anti-Scientology causes.

But Minton, a 53-year-old retired investment banker, said Saturday that if
his motivation was money, he wouldn't be giving it away so readily to
anti-Scientology causes. He said he registered the group as a for-profit to
avoid the open financial reporting requirements of non-profits and to prevent
Scientology from harassing potential donors.
(...)

Alexander, a former Scientologist, said he spent $1-million on Scientology
over 20 years and last year moved his business from Clearwater to Tampa to
get away from the church. As one of the trust's 23 board members, he tried to
find office space for the group but was met, he said, with resistance from
downtown landlords fearful of Scientology. Alexander said the new trust
would be "the force that people can get behind so they won't be afraid any
more."
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* About the Lisa McPherson Trust
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/l31.html


16. Scientology TV
taz Hamburg Nr. 6010 Seite 21 (Germany), Dec. 7, 1999
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/991207b.htm
"I know only too well what master and what purpose they are serving," said
Walter Zuckerer. A recently installed video camera on the roof of the
building at 9 Dom Street has come under the scrutiny of the current chairman
of the SPD faction of the state representatives. There, in the middle of the
city, is where Scientology's Germany Central has been located since November
27.

And Zuckerer does not at all like the Scientologists having "public
thoroughfares being under private surveillance. That could be an "illicit
encroachment of the personality rights of specific people," unsuspecting
passersby, for example. Therefore, he has submitted an extensive inquiry to
the Senate yesterday as to whether they or the Hamburg Data Security
Commissioner were already involved with the matter.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. City prevails over Scientology
Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Dec. 2, 1999
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/991202a.htm
The provincial capitol of Munich prevailed against Scientology in court
today. The city had prohibited Scientologists from accosting pedestrians on
Leopold Street to talk them into taking a personality test so that they would
buy courses and books. Scientology had object, but lost in Administrative
Court. The planning office which had jurisdiction in the area had founded its
decision on the idea that this type of recruitment activity bothered
pedestrians and was impermissible on public land.
[...entire item...]


18. Scientology Bug in Windows 2000
Der Spiegel (Germany), Dec. 3, 1999
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/991203a.htm
One of the software components integrated into Windows 2000 comes from
Executive Software, a California company led by a Scientologist. That was
reported in the latest edition of "c't", a computer technical magazine. Craig
Jensen, head of Executive Software, lets the public know via the internet
that his corporation follows the controversial methods of Scientology's
founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
(...)

In contrast, churches and agencies do not regard the the Scientology
business' software to be safe: "That interests not just the Catholic Church,
but also all German provinces, Constitutional Security and even German
industry," said Harald Baer, one of the German Bishop Conferences sect and
worldview commissioners.

According to Ursula Caberta, Director of the Hamburg Interior Agency's Work
Group on Scientology, Executive Software is one of the leading enterprises of
Scientology's WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises.) WISE is said
the "decisive arm of Scientology for the purpose of infiltration and covert
data collection." She pointed out decisions in the German provinces of
Bavaria and Hamburg which state that no products or services may be purchased
from Scientology corporation, especially not in the area of information
services.
(...)

The argument of the churches that the purchase of Windows 2000 could
contribute to Scientology's finances was rejected by Microsoft. "Whoever has
such objections is free to express them in his decision to buy," said Braatz.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Unification Church

19. Rev. Moon's followers turn Brazil swamp into paradise
Detroit News, Dec. 6, 1999
http://detnews.com/1999/religion/9912/06/12070007.htm
(...) In just five years since that revelation, the controversial leader of
the Unification Church has built a secretive community for his followers --
known to their critics as "Moonies" -- in an area roughly the size of
Chicago.
(...)

"Why Brazil? Because this place is so underdeveloped and and protected from
the evils of civilization. The Reverend thinks this is the best place to
practice heavenly life on Earth," said Joo Hyun Lip, education leader for
Moon's believers in Jardim.
(...)

Several hundred church members from the United States, Japan and South Korea
flock to this no-man's-land every month, paying a $1,000 fee to pray under
the scorching sun and fish in "sacred" lakes once visited by their leader.
(...)

Some 100 locals, mostly unmarried, now come to New Hope every month to learn
how to read and write. They also receive free meals if they will tolerate
several hours of sermons.
(...)

This is Moon's way of enlisting new followers from Brazil -- the country
with the world's largest Catholic population -after suffering a drop of
popularity in South Korea, Japan and his adopted home, the United States.
(...)

Authorities started questioning Moon's ambitious expansion plans after local
police reported two foreigners were found drowned in nearby lakes last year.
Police said the victims had actually drowned fishing, but the incident
aroused suspicion and the state government of Mato Grosso launched an
investigation with the Federal Police into Moon's activities.
(...)

"The Federal Police's major concern is that a lot of drug trafficking goes on
in the very region where Moon is buying land," said Rilton Araujo, police
chief in Jardim, some 50 miles from the border with Paraguay and not far from
Bolivia.
(...)

Jardim Mayor Marcio Monteiro also fears New Hope could be used as a tax
haven, pointing to Moon's history of being jailed for tax evasion in the
United States in the 1970s. "They should be paying taxes in Jardim. They are
not just a religious organization but they are actually in a business of
accommodation," he said of the thousands of Moon's followers who stay at New
Hope.
(...)

While locals generally welcome his largess, the Catholic Church is not
happy to see his preaching, blending Buddhism, Christianity and Confucianism,
spread its influence in Jardim. "Their geographic expansion is worrying,"
local priest Bruno Brugnolaro said. "Moon's belief of substituting for Jesus
Christ is absurd."
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Concerned Christians

20. More suspected American doomsday cult members deported from Greece
Nando Times/AP, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500139561-500164300-500591350-0,00.html
Greek authorities deported two suspected members of an American doomsday cult
on Tuesday, the second group expelled from Greece ahead of the millennium.

Under police guard, the members of the Denver-based group Concerned
Christians were put on a plane to New York at Athens international airport,
police said. Eighteen others were expelled Sunday amid fears the group was
planning to mark 2000 with mass suicide.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Expelled Sect Members Make Way to New York
New York Times, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/07/news/national/regional/ny-millenium.html
Members of a doomsday sect, expelled from Israel this year, arrived at
Kennedy International Airport on Sunday night after being expelled once
again, this time from Greece.

Greek authorities rounded up 18 members of the Concerned Christians over the
weekend, saying they feared that the group might be planning a mass suicide
or other violence for the millennium. The officials said the group members
were being deported after overstaying their residence permits.

At a brief, impromptu news conference and meeting with worried relatives at
the airport, group members denounced America as "the great Babylon." Then
they departed in taxis, destination unknown.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Deported cult members arrive in U.S.
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Dec. 6, 1999
http://insidedenver.com/news/1206cult1.shtml
(...) Some Colorado relatives of the members of the group, Concerned
Christians, waited in the New York airport in the hope of speaking with their
loved ones. Group members severed their family ties, sold their homes and
quit their jobs when they joined the group.
(...)

Dave Cooper of Boulder succeeded in talking briefly with his brother, John
Cooper before the members left the New York airport by taxi for destinations
unknown.
(...)

Another woman learned she is a grandmother and -- although she wasn't allowed
to hold the baby -- was able to embrace her daughter. Both women wept.

A member of the group read a statement during the broadcast calling America
"Babylon the Great," meaning America is evil. He said the group has been
subjected to "extreme slander and prejudice."
(...)

Denver police officer Mark Roggeman, who monitors cults on his own time, said
he didn't know which members of the group were on the plane. "I don't think
they'll come to Denver," Roggeman said Sunday.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Suspected American cult members deported to U.S.
Denver Post/AP, Dec. 6, 1999
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1206h.htm
(...) The suspects were living in towns near Athens, where the group is
believed to have settled after 14 alleged members of the group were expelled
from Israel in January.

Police sources said officials feared the group members may have planned
violence or suicides on the eve of the millennium. The group's leader, Monte
Kim Miller, has said he would die in the streets of Jerusalem this month and
be resurrected three days later.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Greece expels 18 suspected members of millennium cult
Nando Times/AFP, Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.nando.net/24hour/adn/global/story/0,1970,500138559-500162650-500576921-0,00.html
Greece on Sunday expelled 18 U.S. citizens believed to be members of the
controversial Concerned Christians sect, police said. The 18, including five
children, were taken to Athens airport under police escort and put on a plane
to New York, police said.
(...)

Sixteen had been detained Friday in the coastal town of Rafina, about 30
miles southeast of Athens, and the other two were picked up Saturday.
Informed police sources said other presumed members of the sect, most of them
Americans, were under surveillance in Rafina and Larisa, central Greece.
(...)

An Israeli newspaper, citing U.S. police sources, reported at the end of
October that 90 members of the millennial sect, based in Denver, were now in
the Athens area.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Cults - General

25. Allure of cults hard to resist
Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 4, 1999
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9912/04/text/world16.html
(...) This week, newspapers here were filled with album pictures of Mr
Fukunaga shaking hands with Mikhail Gorbachev, raising glasses with Margaret
Thatcher and presenting his church canon to the Pope. According to Mr
Fukunaga's account of the papal meeting, the Pope told him three times, to
''please take care of things after I'm gone''.
(...)

Mr Fukunaga, who claimed to be able to cure cancer and AIDS because he could
hear ''the voice of heaven'', cannot be found. His embattled group is
fighting court cases in which more than 1,100 people are seeking 5.4 billion
yen ($83 million [australian]) in damages.
(...)

The huge revenue stream says as much about the gullibility of the sect's
followers as it does about the rapacity of its organisers.

Ho No Hana is one of several of religious and quasi-religious bodies which
have risen to public prominence in recent weeks, suggesting that they retain
a stubborn allure for many disaffected people.

Despite the notoriety surrounding the Aum Shinrikyo sect, the Government had
to legislate this week to curb its activities.

Last month, the previously unknown Life Space cult made headlines when police
discovered a mummified corpse in an airport motel room. It had been kept
there by sect members who argued the body was still alive.
(...)

Concerns have also been expressed about the emergence of several radical
Buddhist groups. Kensho Kai, which advocates revising the country's
Constitution to establish the group's philosophy as a national religion,
boasts a membership of about 600,000, including many senior-ranking members
of the armed forces.

Some experts blame the apparent susceptibility of many Japanese to the charms
of dubious cults on the country's World War II excesses, which prompted
United States occupying forces to go to great lengths to rid the system of
''state Shintoism''. The strict separation of church and state left Japan
without a spiritual core, they say.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Ho no ... this heel's after soles in cult-crazed Japan
AFR (Australian Financial Review) news, Dec. 6, 1999
http://www.afr.com.au/content/991206/world/wtokyo.html
The Aum Shinrikyo ("Supreme Truth") cult was founded by a near-blind yoga
teacher who claimed he was Jesus Christ in a former life.

Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, told his followers they
would be able to read minds and levitate if they obeyed the religion he
pieced together from strands of Buddhism and Hinduism.
(...)

There has been a surge in cult news in Japan recently, although it probably
has little to do with the looming millennium as we are only in the 11th year
of the Emperor's rule in Japan - the official measure of years.

Also last week, police raided facilities of the Ho no Hana Sanpogyo cult
("Flower of Law") in the biggest operation since Aum was investigated in 1995
to collect evidence relating to claims the cult fraudulently obtained money,
primarily through its foot-reading activities.
(...)

And in perhaps the most bizarre incident, a mummified corpse was found in the
cupboard of an airport hotel where it had been kept by the family of the
deceased who believed their relative was only "resting" while their cult,
Life Space, cured his brain haemorrhage by patting him on the head. Seminars
on proper living from that cult cost up to ¥5 million ($70,000 [Australian])
each.
(...)

Many Japanese who would not describe themselves as religious move happily
between Buddhist, Shinto and Christian teachings and are often superstitious.
The New Komeito, part of the coalition Government, is backed by the
incredibly rich "sect", Soka Gakkai, a relatively benign but nevertheless
secretive organisation often likened to a Japanese Salvation Army.
(...)

Rather than looking for some cultural predisposition it is more instructive
to see cults as a symptom of sometimes unacknowledged stresses in a society.

The Chinese cult Falun Gong, for example, attracted many followers because it
appeared to offer sanctuary to those who fell through the cracks of an
inadequate communist health and welfare system.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Militias

27. Alleged Calif. Bomb Plot Sought Revolution -FBI
Excite/Reuters, Dec. 6, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991206/22/news-crime-militia
Two suspected militia members arrested in connection with an alleged plot to
blow up a California propane plant had been involved with a group that hoped
to use violence to spark the overthrow of the U.S. government, court
documents released on Monday said.
(...)

An FBI affidavit said a report found that an attack on either of the two
storage tanks could cause a deadly firestorm. "The ... report concluded, in
part, that a successful attack on either of the larger 12 million gallon
storage tanks would likely result in a firestorm that could reach as far out
as 14 kilometers from the site and could cause a fatality rate as high as 50
percent up to five miles away," the affidavit said.
(...)

The affidavit also said both men had past involvement with the right-wing San
Joaquin County Militia, which had planned on using violence to bring about
martial law in the belief that this would help the group attract a public
following to launch a revolution.

"It was further believed that if the government declares martial law, the
militia will develop a public following and the current United States
government will be overthrown by revolution," the affidavit said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormon Church

28. LDS Church Donates to Polygamy Tapestry
Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 4, 1999
http://www.sltrib.com/1999/Dec/12041999/Religion/3191.htm
The LDS Church has made a "modest" donation to Tapestry of Polygamy, a group
devoted to helping women and children escape polygamous families.
(...)

Morrison, of the church's First Quorum of Seventy, said leaders in The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are concerned with all victims of abuse,
including at the hands of polygamous husbands. "I was glad to visit with
them [Tapestry representatives]," Morrison said this week. "I think their
position is just."
(...)

The LDS Church once condoned polygamy but disavowed it in 1890.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

29. Michigan man charged with conspiring to kidnap atheist leader
CNN/AP, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.cnn.com/1999/US/12/07/missingatheist.ap/index.html
An ex-convict in custody in Detroit was indicted Tuesday on charges that he
conspired to kidnap Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the atheist leader who has been
missing since 1995.

A federal grand jury accused Gary Karr, 51, of conspiring with others to plot
and carry out the kidnappings and extortion of Ms. O'Hair, her son Jon Garth
Murray and adopted daughter Robin Murray O'Hair. Authorities have said the
three were killed, but their bodies have not been found.
(...)

American Atheists Inc. spokesman Ron Barrier called the indictment against
Karr "a step in a positive direction towards clearing the American Atheists'
name and our founders."
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Sikh Cleric Knife Charge Dropped
New York Times/AP, Dec. 7, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Sikh-Knife.html
A charge of carrying a concealed weapon was dropped Monday against a Sikh
cleric who carries a 6-inch knife as a sign of his religious faith.
(...)

Bhatia, 69, of Cleveland, began wearing the knife 20 years ago when he was
baptized in India. The kirpan, which is kept in a sheath and harnessed to a
shoulder strap, symbolizes his willingness to defend his faith and his
promise to fight injustices.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Navajo legislators stuggle with peyote issue
Arizona Central/AP, Dec. 6, 1999
http://www.azcentral.com/news/1206peyote.shtml
As illegal use of hallucinogenic peyote buttons rises, including Navajo teens
who are smoking it, Navajo Nation legislators are looking for ways to
restrict the drug's usage without obstructing those who use it for religious
purposes.

Under federal law, only American Indians can use the hallucinogenic cactus
button as part of their religion. Native American Church members ingest the
peyote cactus in a tea, mush or powder form. Seeing visions is part of the
spiritual experience. Sun Dancers and Navajo traditionalists also use the
cactus button for religious purposes.

It is the nonbelievers who use peyote to get high or to make money the Navajo
lawmakers are concerned about.
(...)

A proposed new section of the law would authorize the use, possession, sale,
trade and delivery of peyote by an Indian for bona fide ceremonial purposes
in connection with a Navajo religion or a Native American Church.
(...)

The federal law protects the use of peyote as a part of any Indian religion,
Boos said. Some practitioners of the traditional Navajo religion and the Sun
Dance ceremonies have incorporated peyote into their rituals.

In New Mexico and Arizona, there are Anglos who practice the peyote way. An
occasional non-Indian can be seen inside prayer meetings on the Navajo
Nation, too. So Navajo lawmakers must decide how strict the law will be for
those people, including non-Indian spouses of Indians.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


32. Attorney General Warns of Illegal Building on Temple Mount
Israel Wire, Dec. 3, 1999
http://www.israelwire.com/New/991203/9912035.html
Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein charged Wednesday that the Moslem Wakf on
Jerusalem's Temple Mount had "trampled" remnants of Jewish history by
proceeding with illegal construction projects.

"Remnants of the history of the Jewish people are being trampled," Rubinstein
said at a debate hosted by Internal Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami. "We
have tolerance for ritual, but we must tell the Wakf and the Muslims that we
too have a history. You will not trample our history."
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


33. Waqf works go on
Arutz Sheva (Israel National Radio - offshore), Dec. 6, 1999
http://www.a7.org/English/newspaper/news/news.htm#one
Despite Jerusalem Affairs Minister Chaim Ramon's announcement today that the
Waqf construction works on the Temple Mount have ceased, Knesset Members
touring the site this morning learned that such is not the case.
(...)

Chairman Zevulun Orlev said, "There is no ethnic dispute here, it is a
dispute over sovereignty - does the State of Israel enforce its laws on the
Temple Mount or not?" Committee member MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) disagreed:
"It is not just a question of violating the Antiquities Law, which is an
important issue in itself. There are also deep religious-political
ramifications: We heard from several sources that the reason the Waqf is
doing this is to prevent the Jews from being able to pray on the only place
on the Temple Mount where they are halakhically permitted to do so."
(...)

Gershon Solomon, head of the Temple Mount Faithful: "We plan to petition the
Supreme Court tomorrow - this will be our second petition on this matter.
Until now, the Court has shown a tendency to justify the Waqf positions and
its right to act on the Temple Mount as if it was its own. I'm a bit more
optimistic regarding tomorrow's petition, but the government will still claim
- falsely - that the Waqf activities were done with its consent."
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


34. Trying to keep a sect going
Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 3, 1999
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/Dec/03/international/DERVISH03.htm
(...) Mohammed and Maher al-Jamal are members of a nearly 800-year-old branch
of Sufi Islam, a mystical movement that uses poetry, singing and dancing to
reach a trancelike state of communion with Allah.

The Jamal brothers are known as whirling dervishes - masters of a spinning
dance that they say channels God's energy earthward. By day, Mohammed is a
furniture builder and vendor, and Maher works as an accountant. But their
true calling is Sufi dance.
(...)

As part of an end-of-century wave of interest in mystical and spiritual
teachings from eastern Buddhism to Jewish Kabbalism, Sufi whirling has
attracted new devotees in North America. But in Syria, where the art is
passed from grandfather to father to son, the ranks of the initiated are
dwindling.
(...)

Often performed in larger groups, the ritual seeks to unite three aspects of
human nature - the mind, the heart, and the body - in an exercise aimed at
intimacy with God. The choreography and costumes are laden with symbolism.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

35. Reformation Top Religious Event
Yahoo!/AP, Dec. 7, 1999
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991207/bs/top_religion_events_2.html
The nation's religion newswriters have selected the Protestant Reformation
and the invention of the movable type printing press as the leading religious
events of the second millennium.

The newswriters also picked the Nazi Holocaust and resulting establishment of
Israel as the top event of the last century. The Second Vatican Council and
the Russian Revolution rounded out the century's top three.

Survey responses came from 30 members of the Religion Newswriters
Association, made up of specialists covering the field for the general media.
(...)

Richard DuJardin of the Providence Journal-Bulletin administered the
newswriters survey. Full results, and other top events listed on survey
ballots, are posted on the association's Web site, www.rna.org.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Interfaith

36. Spirits and cash raised at religious parliament
Sunday Times (South Africa), Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.suntimes.co.za/1999/12/05/insight/in04.htm
(...) A firebrand representative of the United Democratic Movement in the
national assembly, Mndende proved she may have friends in almighty places
when she received a R300 000 cash donation from a little-known spiritual
leader from the Far East on the opening day of the week-long, multi-faith
event.

Mndende said the donation had done more for traditional religion than her
months of lobbying in the corridors of power and could even be a sign from
above.
(...)

The mystery benefactor turned out to be Supreme Master Ching Hai -
little-known in the West but much-loved in the East due to widespread
humanitarian and disaster-relief work - one of the many outspoken spiritual
leaders who landed in Cape Town this week.

As one delegate observed, the only person missing from a procession of gurus,
swamis, priests, nuns, pharaohs, white witches and saffron devotees was God.

In contrast, many delegates - Mndende included - said God was plainly visible
in the spirit of tolerance and learning that prevailed at the event, which
drew together thousands from diverse faiths.
(...)

The gathering also offers spiritual teachers the chance to meet
representatives of lesserknown religious groups or cults from around the
world, which are seldom given the chance to air their views.

As such, it has earned praise from many quarters, particularly the
fast-growing neo-pagan movement interested in reviving ancient traditions.

It has also sparked outrage from fundamentalist groups opposed to
globalisation and the multi-faith principle. Sternfaced Islamic protesters
made their presence felt at Wednesday's opening ceremony, brandishing banners
decrying the event as a global conspiracy. A small group of Christians
huddled outside Company Gardens and asked God to combat the "demonic" world
gathering.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Science

37. Dead Sea Scrolls Broke 19 Centuries of Silence
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 6, 1999
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/19991206/t000111216.html
(...) By the mid-1980s, scholars outside the scroll cartel, as it was
derisively called, had become increasingly restless, fearing that they might
never see the work finished. Then, in 1991, the Huntington Library in San
Marino changed everything, announcing that it had in its vaults a set of
photographs covering the entire body of scroll fragments and that the library
would release microfilm copies of them. That move, in turn, prompted the
Israeli Antiquities Authority to end all restrictions on scholarly access to
the scrolls, leading to a deluge of new scholarship.

During the years of waiting before the scrolls were fully revealed, many
extravagant hopes and fears were attached to them. Perhaps among the
fragments would be some contemporaneous proof of the events of the New
Testament, some speculated. Perhaps a piece of parchment would contain a
description of John the Baptist. Maybe Jesus himself would figure in one of
the writings. Others feared the opposite--an ancient document that would
undermine the faith.

The reality was less dramatic, but no less wondrous. The ancient writings
included more or less complete texts of almost every book of the Hebrew
Bible--versions whose closeness to the modern texts demonstrate the amazing
fidelity with which generations of scribes copied the Scriptures.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Books

38. The cult that sought to end our world
Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 5, 1999
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/Dec/05/books/WORLD05.htm
Destroying the World To Save It
Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism
By Robert Jay Lifton
Metropolitan Books. 374 pp. $26
Reviewed by Daniel Berger

(...) Lifton, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at John Jay College
and the City Univeristy of New York, is the latest in the line of post-war
writers - including Erich Fromm, Rolly May and Erik Erikson - who have sought
to develop a "psycho-social" or "psycho-historical" perspective on society,
culture and contemporary affairs.

Lifton's new book is a fascinating (if frightening) investigation into the
psychology of the Aum cult and the dangers posed in the modern age by the
accessibility of weapons of mass destruction.
(...)

Lifton's book is a valuable aid to understanding the old problem of
fanaticism in a new, particularly sinister form.
(...)

Lifton gives an ingenious and plausible account of why apocalyptic thinking
turned up, of all places, in Japan. His explanation lies in the
"psycho-historical dislocation" that has buffeted Japanese society over the
last century and a half. According to Lifton, Japan has modernized (that is,
it adopted Western ways), suffered a crushing military defeat in World War
II, was occupied by an alien (if benevolent) power, the United States, and
adopted the trappings of a Western-style consumerist culture.

Wrenching changes such as these left portions of Japanese society -
particularly young people who were preyed upon by Aum - vulnerable to
extremist belief.

Thus, while Lifton makes clear that peculiarly Japanese conditions are at the
root of the Aum phenomenon, Aum's apocalypticism embodied views that have a
particular resonance in the West. Moreover, the psycho-historical
dislocations experienced by Japan in its transformation to modernism have
been repeated in the West, although not in such a disruptive fashion. Indeed,
societies in the West, including the United States, exhibit the same type of
alienation and psychic distress that could, if conditions got worse, be a
breeding ground of extremist or even nihilistic groups like Aum.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Destroying the World To Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and
the New Global Terrorism



=== The Lawyer Around The Corner

39. Judge Throws Out Suit Against Holiday
Excite/Reuters, Dec. 7, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991207/08/odd-christmas
Ruling that Christmas is celebrated by non-Christians as well as Christians,
a judge late on Monday threw out a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality
of observing Dec. 25 as a federal holiday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott said in her dismissal of the lawsuit that
just as Christians observe Christmas as a celebration of the birth of Jesus
Christ, non-Christians celebrate the occasion to welcome the arrival of Santa
Claus.

Therefore, she said, Christmas cannot be regarded as a holiday that
establishes one religious faith above all others in violation of the demand
for a separation of church and state enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's
First Amendment.
(...)

Richard Ganulin, 48, a lawyer who filed the suit, told Reuters he would
appeal the dismissal to the Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th Circuit Court of
Appeals on grounds that the judge did not treat the issue with the "strict
scrutiny" it deserved.
(...)

A Washington-based organization of U.S. Christian employees was granted its
request to be added to the lawsuit as a defendant along with the U.S.
government.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]