=== Waco / Branch Davidians
1. Air Force expert said he couldn't rule out gunfire on Waco tape
2. Government refused to test for gunfire at Waco, officials say
3. Experts seek to determine what killed Davidian Jimmy Riddle

=== Aum Shinrikyo / Aleph
4. AUM trying to buy Fukushima hotel
5. Yokohama office of Aum searched
6. Agency plans new unit to deal with terrorism

=== Falun Gong
7. China Judge Put in Mental Hospital
8. China jails Falun Gong followers: HK group
9. China Distances Itself From Attacks On Japan Web Sites
10. Watchdog acts over pager gag on sect
11. Sect Members on Hunger Strike
12. Jiang compares sect's threat to Solidarity
13. Falun Gong Members in U.S. After Detention in China

=== Scientology
14. Paris mayor wants crackdown on sects
15. Clinton as Scientology Lobbyist
16. Sect experts concerned about Scientology's influence
17. Scientology to Get 'Earth' Toy Money
18. Big Mouth

=== Mormonism
19. Hinckley book targets non-LDS readers
20. African-American Churches in Utah

=== Kingston Clan
21. Polygamy and profit

=== Unification Church
22. 60,000 people ''matched'' and ''blessed'' in mass wedding
23. Rev. Moon Marries 20,000 People
24. 500 Attend Sex Rally in S. Korea
25. The stars come out for a Moon dance

The following items are found in Part 2 of this issue

=== Wicca / Witchcraft
26. Like Magic, Witchcraft Charms Teenagers
27. Witchcraft law up for review
28. Sangoma's lightning scam strikes
29. Horror as 'friend' cuts off man's testicle for witchcraft ritual

=== Hate Groups
30. White Supremacist Takes Law License Fight to D.C. (Matthew Hale)

=== Other News
31. Mystery, dispute persist in child's death (Plain Sect)
32. Judgment day comes for cult leader (''Master David'')
33. Cult-like conspiracy claim closes with 2 convictions (''Master David'')
34. Expert tells Marietta College Y2K cult activity not over yet (Rick Ross)
35. Psychologists turn to spirituality (Shamanism)
36. Trading One Cage For Another (Karmapa)
37. Masonic Lodges look to the future
38. Superstition brings good fortune to retailers (Japan)
39. Superstitions the bread and butter of daily life in Russia
40. Magician Doug Henning Dead At 52
41. Could it be magic? (Henning's ''Veda Land'')
42. Escondido residents still oppose Hare Krishna temple
43. Expelled Christians May Return to Israel (Pilgrim House)
44. Preacher says Pokemon leads kids into occult

=== Religious Freedom
45. Romania poised to withdraw controversial religion bill?

=== Science
46. Scientists move a tad closer to the big bang
47. 'New State of Matter' Recalls Big Bang

=== Noted
48. Scholars To Explore Images of God (Eck/Borg)
49. Spirituality by design

=== The Believers Around The Corner
50. Priest raps ''Judases'' who leave mass early

=== Waco / Branch Davidians

1. Air Force expert said he couldn't rule out gunfire on Waco tape
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Feb. 13, 2000
http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/
52CF09CFA5A4BBDA862568840039372D?OpenDocument
An Air Force expert told the Justice Department three years ago that he could
not rule out the possibility that the FBI's infrared camera had recorded
flashes of gunfire during the 1993 siege on the Branch Davidians at Waco,
Texas, the Post-Dispatch has learned.

At the Justice Department's request, the expert, Capt. John Perry, used an
infrared camera like the one used by the FBI at Waco, to see if it would
record M-16 rifle fire as flashes. Sources said he concluded that he could
not rule out the possibility that flashes on the tape were from gunfire
without performing field tests. But the Justice Department did not ask him to
go forward with those tests.

Lawyers for the Branch Davidians say that the Justice Department dropped
Perry like a hot potato because it did not like his answers. The Justice
Department denies it.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Government refused to test for gunfire at Waco, officials say
Dallas Morning News, Feb. 14, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/30946_WACO14.html
A military scientist told Justice Department lawyers in 1996 that the FBI's
infrared camera was capable of recording gunshots at Waco. But the government
never pursued his proposal for tests to determine whether gunfire caused
repeated flashes recorded at the end of the Branch Davidian siege, officials
said.

The scientist, a U.S. Air Force research physicist, was recently questioned
by U.S. Senate and House committees and the Waco special counsel's office
re-examining the government's handling of the deadly 1993 standoff, said
federal officials familiar with his interviews.
(...)

Justice officials tried last fall - three years after the scientist made his
recommendations - to discredit and derail proposals for a public field test.

Despite those efforts, the Waco federal judge overseeing a wrongful-death
lawsuit arising from the 1993 tragedy ordered a court-supervised field test.
It will be conducted next month at Fort Hood, and all sides in the case will
gather with experts Wednesday to finalize protocols.

The spokesman for the House committee re-examining the standoff said the
Justice Department's handling of the Air Force scientist's recommendations
and the recent field test proposals are the latest examples of what appears
to be a long effort to avoid full disclosure of government actions in Waco.

''This goes back to 1996. That's three years after the tragedy at Waco,''
committee spokesman Mark Corallo said. ''So here we are, three years after the
fact, with still unanswered questions, and the Justice Department somehow
decided not to get the answers.''

''The perception is that they don't want to get to the bottom of this.
Whatever their reasons are, the message that it sends to the public is one of
cover-up and obfuscation,'' said Mr. Corallo, whose committee held extensive
1995 Waco hearings and began a new inquiry last fall. ''Why not just do
everything they can to answer the questions and put this case to rest?''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Experts seek to determine what killed Davidian Jimmy Riddle
Waco Tribune-Herald, Feb. 12, 2000
http://www.accesswaco.com/auto/feed/news/local/2000/02/12/
950395997.15713.8839.0117.html
Trying to piece together how Branch Davidian Jimmy Riddle died hasn't proved
an easy task. A pathologist hired last year by his family found many of
Riddle's bones missing.

''What's missing are all the bones that would help answer questions about his
death,'' said Dr. Ronald Graeser, who has since retired as a pathologist and
now practices family medicine in Michigan. ''The cadaver was in a body bag. It
appeared that someone had gone in and taken out the key bones.''

In his autopsy notes, Graeser stated that the missing bones in question were
''clearly seen or described as being present in the original autopsy.''

Riddle was one of David Koresh's most ardent followers. He was arrested with
Koresh and six other Davidians in 1987 after a gunfight with the late George
Roden, who lost a power struggle for control of the group to Koresh. A
McLennan County jury later found Riddle not guilty of attempted murder. He
died on April 19, 1993 at Mount Carmel along with Koresh and 74 other
Davidians.
(...)

There has been speculation that Riddle was shot while outside Mount Carmel,
run over by a tank, then his body scooped up and deposited inside the burning
compound. However, apparently none of the surviving Davidians actually saw
Riddle outside the building.
(...)

In a new twist, depositions given by FBI agents in connection with the
lawsuit reveal a hunt for a person seen at the rear of Mount Carmel about 9
a.m. on April 19. That would have been three hours after the FBI began
inserting tear gas through the compound walls. The pilot of the so-called
Night Stalker testified he was ordered to try to focus the FBI's infrared
camera on the individual. The pilot of a surveillance airplane also said he
was asked to make a sweep over the compound. A tactical squad and helicopter
were also dispatched to look for the person, according to an audio tape
played during the depositions.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo / Aleph

4. AUM trying to buy Fukushima hotel
Mainichi Daily News (Japan) Feb. 12, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news09.html
The AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult may be making inroads into a Fukushima
Prefecture village as people believed to be AUM members are negotiating to
buy a hotel in the area, local sources have said.
(...)

People in the village and nearby areas had already formed a task force to
block the cult's advance into their area.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Yokohama office of Aum searched
Asahi News (Japan), Feb. 11, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0211/asahi021106.html
An Aum Shinrikyo facility in Yokohama, functioning now practically as the
headquarters of the cult, was searched Thursday by members of the Public
Security Investigation Agency.
(...)

Fumihiro Joyu, a senior member who was freed from Hiroshima prison in
December, currently resides at the Yokohama chapter.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. Agency plans new unit to deal with terrorism
Asahi News (Japan), Feb. 14, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0214/asahi021405.html
The Defense Agency says it hopes to establish an anti-terrorist unit as part
of the Ground Self-Defense Force.
(...)

The outline, which was influenced by the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attack
on the Tokyo subway system, details the GSDF's role in crises requiring more
than a police response. The creation of an anti-terrorist unit would
demonstrate the agency's willingness to respond to such crises.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

7. China Judge Put in Mental Hospital
AOL/AP, Feb. 11, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=2000021109284510
A judge who refused to renounce his belief in the banned Falun Gong movement
has been committed to a psychiatric hospital and injected with drugs daily, a
rights group in China said Friday.

Huang Jinchun displayed no symptoms of mental illness either at work or after
being sent to the hospital nearly three months ago, the Hong Kong-based
Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported,
citing former colleagues and nurses.

But at the Longqianshan Psychiatric Hospital in the southern Guangxi region,
medical personnel gave Huang daily injections of a narcotic that left him
sleepy and muddled, after he refused to stop practicing Falun Gong, the
rights group said.
(...)

The accounts could not be independently verified. Government, court and
hospital administrative offices and courts were closed Friday for the Lunar
New Year holiday.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. China jails Falun Gong followers: HK group
India Times/Reuters, Feb. 15, 2000
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/15worl27.htm
China sentenced two leaders of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement to
six and eight years of incarceration on Monday, Hong Kong rights group said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. China Distances Itself From Attacks On Japan Web Sites
Yahoo/AP, Feb. 15, 2000
http://asia.biz.yahoo.com/news/asian_markets/dowjones/article.html?
s=asiafinance/news/000215/asian_markets/dowjones/China_Distances_
Itself_From_Attacks_On_Japan_Web_Sites.html
China distanced itself Tuesday from suspected attacks on Japanese government
and commercial Web sites by Chinese hackers, saying Beijing doesn't encourage
disruptive acts on the Internet.
(...)

A human rights group reported Monday that a group called the China Extreme
Right-wing Anti-Japanese Alliance claims to have attacked 30 Web sites in
Japan - from the Science and Technology Agency to the Mainichi Shimbun
newspaper.
(...)

Despite Zhu's remarks, Chinese hackers have been very active, and their
relationship to the government remains questionable. The People's Liberation
Army is actively researching Internet warfare, and at least one attack on a
U.S.-based Web site of the banned Falun Gong has been traced to the Chinese
police.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. Watchdog acts over pager gag on sect
South China Morning Post, Feb. 12, 2000
http://www.scmp.com/News/HongKong/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-20000212015932525.asp
Paging companies must offer dual networks on both sides of the border to
avoid censorship of politically sensitive messages, the Telecommunications
Authority announced yesterday.

The new rule aims to avoid a repeat of incidents last November when some
China Motion Telecom operators refused to relay messages referring to the
Falun Gong sect, which is banned on the mainland.

The authority said it found no evidence the company deliberately censored
such messages as a matter of policy. It said it would not prosecute.
However, operators from the company again refused yesterday to send messages
referring to the Falun Gong. ''Please just state your phone number because we
can't pass on messages that have to do with Falun Gong,'' an operator said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


11. Sect Members on Hunger Strike
Excite/AP, Feb. 14, 2000
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000214/04/int-china-banned-sect
About 140 members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement have staged a
hunger strike in a northeast China detention center, and at least two are
already into their ninth day without food, a human rights group said Monday.
Practitioners stopped eating Feb. 4 to protest their detention and to demand
that they be released for the Chinese New Year, which began Feb. 5, the Hong
Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in
China said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Jiang compares sect's threat to Solidarity
South China Morning Post, Feb. 12, 2000
http://www.scmp.com/News/China/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-20000212032833790.asp
President Jiang Zemin has warned that the Falun Gong sect poses as much of a
threat to the Communist Party as the Solidarity movement did to the
communists in Poland in the 1980s.
(...)

A source said yesterday that Mr Jiang stressed the party must never
underestimate the threat of the Falun Gong because of its ''ability to
infiltrate society'' and win the hearts and minds of the people.
(...)

A security source said that while Beijing had made headway in detaining
''ringleaders'', the leadership was afraid of a possible rash of suicides in
prisons. ''There have been reports of Falun Gong practitioners committing
suicide in jail,'' the source said. ''Beijing has tried to suppress such
reports for fear they would fan emotions and stir up further resistance among
sect followers.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Falun Gong Members in U.S. After Detention in China
AOL/Reuters, Feb. 12, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=2000021206387629
A Chinese-born American citizen arrested in a Beijing crackdown on the banned
Falun Gong spiritual movement arrived in New York on Saturday looking weary
but saying ''it's great to be home.''
(...)

Zhao, who has been a Falun Gong member for about one year, said she was
arrested after three policemen noticed her snapping photographs of
authorities beating a demonstrator. They confiscated her camera and arrested
her without asking her questions.
(...)

A mother and son from Bridgewater, New Jersey, also Falun Gong practitioners,
arrived on the same flight as Zhao.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

14. Paris mayor wants crackdown on sects
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology/Reuters
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 18:42:57 GMT
Message-ID: <886tvg$47p$1@nnrp1.deja.com>

The conservative mayor of Paris said on Sunday he would push for the creation
of exclusion zones to prevent cults from recruiting near sensitive locations
such as schools and shelters.

Mayor Jean Tiberi said he would present to the National Assembly a draft law
that would also ban sects from advertising within a certain radius of
establishments considered vulnerable. A similar law currently applies to
pornographic businesses.
(...)

Tiberi said he would suggest to Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin the
creation of a monitoring unit to gather and update information about sects.

The move comes as local authorities warn of an increase in what they consider
to be cult activities in Paris, in particular by the U.S.-based Church of
Scientology.
(...)

The newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche said in a report published on Sunday
that members of the Church of Scientology were recruiting near high schools
in smart neighbourhoods.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Clinton as Scientology Lobbyist
Hamburger Morgenpost Online (Germany), Feb. 12, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/000212b.htm
Scientology's dubious business is apparently supported by U.S. President Bill
Clinton and the State Department in Washington.

That was asserted on Friday in Berlin by renowned Scientology expert,
Professor Steven Kent, in a meeting with sect experts at the invitation of
the SPD faction. In doing so the Canadian received support from Ursula
Caberta, the Hamburg Scientology Commissioner.

Kent indicated that the so-called ''church'' also ran into strong resistance in
the USA at first. Things changed suddenly in 1993 under Clinton. Since that
time, the Scientology lobby has received full support for its worldwide
activities from the White House.
(...)

Scientology expert Kent now hopes that Al Gore will become the next U.S.
President. Gore's wife is a psychologist - nothing is more feared by the
Scientologists.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Sect experts concerned about Scientology's influence
RPD/ekd/epd (Germany), Feb. 11, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/000211i.htm
Sect experts have expressed concern about the international political
influence of the Scientology Organization. They have strong reservations
about the current U.S. American government, Canadian Scientology expert
Stephen Kent told journalists in Berlin. High officials in the State
Department, as well as President Bill Clinton himself, are supporting the
organization in its campaigns and programs.

On top of that is the extremely effective lobby work by celebrities like
actors John Travolta and Tom Cruise, as well as musicians Chick Corea and
Isaac Hayes, who profess to the teachings of sect founder Ron L. Hubbard.
Kent gave the primary reason for the U.S. government's involvement in the
Scientology Organization as the commercial interests of the entertainment
industry.

Ursula Caberta, Scientology Commissioner of the Hamburg Interior Senate, also
called Scientology's influence on the U.S. government ''alarming.'' For
instance, the U.S. American Consul General intervened when the Scientologists
in Hamburg were required to answer up to the German authorities about their
new center [in Hamburg].
[...entire item...]


17. Scientology to Get 'Earth' Toy Money
AOL/Reuters, Feb. 15, 2000
http://my.aol.com/entertainment/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=03&id=2000021502518041
The most intriguing aspect of the toy line based on summer sci-fi epic
''Battlefield Earth'' may not be the ''Ratbastard''-spouting John Travolta
doll. It could just be the millions of dollars the Church of Scientology
stands to earn from the playthings.

Though the church did not participate in the making of the Warner
Bros./Franchise Pictures project, it was included in the merchandising
agreement, according to Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder. Any deal for
merchandising automatically includes Author Services, the agency that handles
all of the works of late writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
(...)

Exactly how much will the Church of Scientology recoup from the toys? No one
seems to know.
(...)

One thing is certain: Rinder told Daily Variety last summer that the church
would use the money for a good cause -- its charitable foundations.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Big Mouth
ZDnet, March, 2000
http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/stories/all/0,6605,2431702,00.html
An army of lawyers can't silence your dissatisfied customers.

Heading in with lawyers blazing is often the knee-jerk response from
companies confronted with criticism on the Net. In rare cases, the courts
will side with businesses—the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires
that online service providers remove material that is merely accused of
violating copyright—but more often than you might expect, American courts
side with the little guy. Entities as diverse as Playboy magazine and the
Church of Scientology have discovered, to their dismay, that copyright laws
can't stop people from talking about them.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormonism

19. Hinckley book targets non-LDS readers
Standard Examiner, Feb. 12, 2000
http://www1.standard.net/stories/relinews/02-2000/FTP0221@relinews@12hinckley@Ogden.asp
Principles in a new book by Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could be the salve to heal spiritual
wounds of the nation.

''Standing for Something, 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal our Hearts and
Homes,'' published by Times Books, a division of Random House (retail $24),
seeks to instill a renewed morality in the hearts of Americans.

In a ''repackaging'' and ''mainstreaming'' of the LDS message, the book calls for
great leaders to stand and be counted.
(...)

He speaks of the loneliness of moral leadership, something he is well
acquainted with as the leader of one of the fastest growing churches in the
world, which gains about 300,000 new converts a year. Hinckley now presides
over 11 million church members.

Much of the book is filled with moving anecdotes and insights, albeit the
writing is sometimes dry and drawn out.
(...)

And while members of the LDS church may flock to purchase the book, they
won't find any quotes from the keystone of their religion, The Book of
Mormon. The book quotes only the Bible.
(...)

Reorganization of chapters coupled with pruning of repetitive principles and
a tightening of the writing would make the book more palatable for its
intended audience. As it reads now, few outside the faith will buy it.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Quoting the Bible rather than the Book of Mormon is a recruitment tactic
designed to hide its unbiblical teachings, and intended to deceive
Christians and non-Christians alike into thinking Mormonism is a Christian
religion. However, Mormonism is a pseudo-Christian religion.
Theologically, it is a cult of Christianity:

A cult of Christianity is a group of people, which claiming to be
Christian, embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an
individual leader, group of leaders, or organization, which (system)
denies (either explicitly or implicitly) one or more of the central
doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in the sixty-six books of
the Bible.
- Alan Gomes, Unmasking The Cults


20. African-American Churches in Utah: They Have Come a Long Way SinceTrek
With Mormon Wagon Train
Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 12, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/2000/Feb/02122000/Religion/25279.htm
(...) They stayed, and with other African-Americans who trickled into Utah
during the latter part of the 19th century -- former slaves, railroad, mine
and hotel workers, and ''Buffalo Soldiers'' from Fort Douglas -- founded some
of the state's first and most resilient non-Mormon churches.

''They wanted a place where they might worship, and where they would have
the freedom to do so,'' said the Rev. France Davis, pastor of Salt Lake City's
Calvary Baptist Church. ''They had been effectively excluded from other
religious groups in our community, so they began their own.''
(...)

John Sparks, representing what he estimated were Utah's 150-200
African-American Catholics, joked that he knew what it was like to be ''a
minority within a minority.'' The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
claims 70 percent of Utahns; the Catholic Church is a distant second with
200,000.
(...)

Darius Gray echoed the sentiment. The self-described ''grandson of a slave''
leads Genesis, an African-American branch of the LDS Church. Black membership
has grown from 300-400 worldwide to more than 100,000 since the church lifted
its ban on priesthood for African males in 1978.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Kingston Clan

21. Polygamy and profit
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 13, 2000
http://www.insidedenver.com/news/0213utah1.shtml
A polygamist sect built on the twin pillars of incest and secrecy has moved
into cash-rich businesses in Colorado and six other Western states that
traditionally have attracted organized crime.

Based in Salt Lake City, the clan known as the Kingstons has cornered a large
piece of Colorado's amusement machine market, made a series of loans to bar
owners and distributed illegal slot machines from a subsidiary in Denver.

The Kingstons also cornered an unwanted piece of the national spotlight last
year during two Utah trials involving Kingston men. One was convicted of
having sex with his 16-year-old niece. The other was convicted of beating the
same girl, his own daughter, when she tried to flee a marriage with the
uncle.

But the trials only scratched the surface of the Kingston empire, one
seemingly built on contradictions, mixing God with gambling, great wealth
with abject poverty, an aversion to liquor with the funding of bars.

Beyond all else, these deeply religious people who shun worldly possessions
are tough business competitors.

If you have played pool in a Colorado bar, dropped quarters into a pinball,
foosball or game machine or played video poker at a neighborhood watering
hole, chances are you have contributed to the group's ample coffers.
(...)

The Kingstons own or lease coal mines, accounting firms, finance companies, a
garbage collecting business, pawnshops, bail bond firms, poker parlors and
large cattle ranches.
(...)

Estimates of the sect's holdings begin at $150 million. Tony Vina, owner of a
rival vending company in Utah, estimates the total at 10 times that. A
Colorado competitor gives an even more stratospheric guess, pegging the
clan's wealth at $11 billion.
(...)

Why would a deeply religious group whose members would not dream of wasting
their money gambling, drinking or dropping quarters into Mortal Kombat game
machines and jukeboxes engage in such businesses?

The answer is simple, said Scott Stoddard, an engineer who spent 25 years in
the clan before quitting: ''They believe they are converting money from
profane uses to God's uses.''

The Kingstons believe they are the chosen people who will inherit the world
in its last days, former member Malvern Hansen said. Until then, they will
speed the way to the end by corrupting the ''gentiles.''

And they believe the money must be made in a hurry and hoarded. Said former
clan member Rowenna Erickson: ''They're preparing for Armageddon.''

''I am not interested in corrupting the gentiles or anyone else,'' Elden
Kingston said. ''And no, I do not believe the world is going to end tomorrow,
next year or any time in the near future.''
(...)

The Kingston group has perhaps 1,000 members, but power is concentrated in
seven brothers and a small number of close relatives. The seven brothers,
all named Kingston, have from three to more than 30 wives each, former
members say. Each wife will bear an average of 10 children.

Paul Kingston, 40, a Salt Lake City attorney who heads the clan, has 32 wives
and more than 200 children, said Erickson, one of the few women to have left
the group.

Unlike several other Utah polygamist groups, the Kingstons believe that their
bloodlines are pure and must be carefully bred. Incest in the group is
epidemic, former members said, with Kingstons marrying nieces, half-sisters
and cousins.
(...)

Unlike most fundamentalist religious groups, the Kingstons do not proselytize
for new recruits, preferring to make new members by prodigious coupling with
their relatives.

Some male members observing this would ''complain all the time,'' said Nathan
Atwood, a former member who said he quit the group shortly after one of the
seven Kingston brothers asked to marry his 17-year-old daughter.

''You've got to realize that there's a shortage of females,'' Stoddard said.
''And those Kingston boys take most of them.'' ''Paul and Daniel (Paul's
brother) spot the young cute girls, and they go to them and say, 'We've
received direction from God to marry you.' And then they shower them with
gifts,'' said Bill Adams, who once worked for the Kingstons and has relatives
in the group.

''The girls are told to go pray and see if you receive direction,'' Adams said.
''It's sad in a way, because it's always the young cute girls. It's never the
overweight plump ones. It seems to me that somebody in the group would get a
clue as to what is going on here. But they don't. They don't question it.
They're taught to be obedient.''

Because polygamy is against the law in Utah and the Mormon church forbade
plural marriages in 1890, the Kingstons are careful not to leave many records
of their progeny.
(...)

In a state where polygamy is grudgingly tolerated, the Kingstons' incestuous
brand is not well-received. Last year, David Ortell Kingston, a sect leader,
was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for having sex with his 16-year-old
niece. His brother, John Daniel Kingston, was sentenced to 28 weeks in prison
for whipping the girl, his own daughter, after she tried to flee an arranged
marriage to David.

More prosecutions are possible, but they won't be easy, Chief Utah Deputy
Attorney General Reed Richards said. The key problem, he said, was the lack
of complaining witnesses.

Another practice sets the Kingston clan apart from other polygamist groups.
Despite the vast wealth the group has accumulated, group members and even
some of their leaders live in hovels scattered throughout Salt Lake City and
nearby towns. Some of the homes are mildewed, with rotting, unpainted walls
and cheap, tattered rugs.

The male members own the rundown housing, with a house reserved for each
wife. But the wives of the Kingston brothers must pay rent from their
earnings at mostly minimum-wage jobs at family-owned companies, according to
former members.
(...)

The clan was started in 1935 when founder Charles Elden Kingston had a
vision. He had been praying near a cave in Utah when, he said later, God told
him to found a new order based upon fundamentalist Mormon principles,
including polygamy.

Kingston called the new order the Latter Day Church of Christ, similar to the
official name of the Mormon church -- the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. The Kingstons have no connection with the Mormon church.
(...)

Scott Stoddard wants to write a book about his experiences with the Kingston
clan. But he is torn by conflicting loyalties. ''It's a highly emotional kind
of thing for me, because every single member of my family is in it,'' he said
of the clan.

''Ninety percent are real good, honest people who are in it for God's
purposes. I'm not interested in hurting the group. I only want to help them
understand how they're being used.''

Other former clan members say it is difficult for many to leave the group.

''I was brainwashed,'' said Nathan Atwood, another man who left the clan. ''I
did believe that Charles Elden Kingston had a vision.''
(...)

Perhaps the most bewildering aspect of the Kingston clan is the women. Why do
they stay?
(...)

Adams offered a possible answer to the mystery. ''If you were raised in the
whole group from when you were a kid, and the whole family, your cousins,
brothers, sisters, everyone in your family is part of it, where are you going
to go? And say if you have nine kids -- what are you going to do?''

''When you're coming out of (the group), you pretty much have to step into an
entirely different world,'' said Vicky Prunty, a board member of Tapestry of
Polygamy.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Unification Church

22. 60,000 people ''matched'' and ''blessed'' in mass wedding
Yahoo/AFP, Feb. 13, 2000
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/afp/article.html?
s=asia/headlines/000213/asia/afp/60_000_people__matched__and__
blessed__in_mass_wedding.html
Some 60,000 Unification Church members, known as ''Moonies,'' were married at a
mass wedding here Sunday as black-suited grooms waltzed with their new
brides, many of whom were meeting for the first time.
(...)

Church leader Sun Myung Moon, whose doctorine is based on a family values,
''matched and blessed'' 20,000 new brides and bridegrooms and had 40,000 people
''renew (marriage) commitments,'' church spokesman Robin Marsh said.

The church earlier put the number of those marrying or renewing their vows at
up to 70,000 including 20,000 foreigners.
(...)

The South Korea-based church, which claims 4.5 million ''full-time'' members
worldwide, has held similar mass weddings to recruit its new members.

Marsh said Moon plans to ''match and bless'' some 400 million couples in the
future through similar mass weddings.
(...)

Moon, known to his followers as ''True Father,'' says his religious teachings
are based on the principle of a ''true family'', but some critics consider his
doctrine offensive as he suggest he is the Messiah.

Former US vice president Dan Quayle and ex-British premier Edward Heath
joined in the five-day festival earlier in the week, before then heading for
home.
(...)

The church said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il had sent Moon rare wild
ginseng as a birthday gift, while US President Bill Clinton and South Korean
President Kim Dae-Jung also sent congratulatory messages.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Rev. Moon Marries 20,000 People
AOL/AP, Feb. 13, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=2000021312413762
(...) Lee was among 10,000 couples who tied the knot Sunday in a mass wedding
organized by the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The vast majority
of the newlyweds were complete strangers matched by church officials.
(...)

Church officials said Moon and some elder church officials appointed by him
paired the couples by examining their photographs. ''We want to allow God to
choose (the spouses),'' church spokesman Robin Marsh said. ''In our wedding,
we build, we develop our love for each other.''

About 40,000 married church members also attended the ceremony to renew their
vows. Church officials said ''hundreds of thousands'' of others renewed their
vows while watching the ceremony through the Internet and a satellite
broadcast.

Church officials said those who attended Sunday's ceremony included people
from 150 countries, including the United States, Russia, England, France,
Germany, Japan and Italy. It was the 16th mass wedding organized by the
Unification Church.
(...)

The Unification Church claims 4.5 million members worldwide. Its followers
are mainly from South Korea, Japan and the United States.

Its doctrines are a mixture of Christian, Confucian and traditional Korean
values. Followers believe the church's leader, Moon, came to the world to
complete the work of Jesus Christ.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. 500 Attend Sex Rally in S. Korea
AOL/AP, Feb. 12, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=2000021206482675
Waving signs that said, ''Free sex: No,'' hundreds of young people from
across the world rallied here Saturday, vowing to save sex for marriage.

About 500 people from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Latin America
and Europe danced to rock and folk music and waved balloons in the rally in
the plaza of downtown Seoul's main railroad station.
(...)

Saturday's rally was organized by the National Headquarters to Practice True
Family Values, a group associated with the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun
Myung Moon. Most of the participants were church members.

The U.S.-based Pure Love Alliance, made up of students celebrating their
virginity and members of church groups from around the world, also sponsored
the rally.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. The stars come out for a Moon dance
Australian Financial Review, Feb. 12, 2000
http://www.afr.com.au/content/000212/world/world2.html
It's not every day that Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid and Dan
Quayle share the same stage with Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the
Unification Church known worldwide as the ''Moonies''.
(...)

Most Church functions are attended by a motley assortment of
pseudo-celebrities, many clearly paid for their attendance.

So President Wahid's presence raised eyebrows, as it is highly unusual for an
incumbent leader to attend a ''Moonie'' celebration.
(...)

President Wahid is said to be hoping to entice the church to invest in
Indonesia, a sign of how desperate is Indonesia's need for foreign
investment.
(...)

Dan Quayle thanked Reverend Moon on behalf of US conservatives for founding
the Washington Times newspaper.

The Unification Church may be best known as one of the world's most
controversial cults but it is also a huge and multifaceted business empire
called the Tongil Group.
(...)

The ''Moonies'' are expanding aggressively into North Korea, having just opened
a car factory near the capital, Pyongyang.

The Church also believes it has a good chance of becoming the official
religion, should North Korea open itself up to the outside world.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Continued in Part 2 of this issue