=== Aum Shinrikyo / Aleph
1. Poll: 80% still anxious about Aum activities
2. Aum announces 1997-99 sales revenue of 2.6 billion yen
3. Sarin attack survivors meet
4. Japan's Aum Cult Had $24 Mln Revenue in '97-'99, Yomiuri Says

=== Waco / Branch Davidians
5. FBI misled Reno to get tear-gas OK, ex-agent alleged
6. Amount of tear gas fired at Waco siege questioned
7. New questions raised about Waco siege
8. No agents are shown in 200 FBI photos of Waco siege
9. In deposition, ex-FBI agent disputes Waco allegations
10. Access to Waco re-enactment sought

=== Falun Gong
11. Police swamp sect effort to raise banners
12. Falun Gong Members Protest

=== Zhong Gong
13. Report: 600 Falun Gong Leaders Held

=== Scientology
14. Scientologists fail to budge judge
15. Judge in Scientology case won't remove himself
16. Scientology sect hunting for members in Neu-Ulm

=== Hate Groups
17. Probe unearths Klan influence

=== Bob Jones University
18. Bob Jones University answers critics in newspaper ads
19. A look at Bob Jones University
20. Jones Defends S.C. School's Fundamentalist Views
21. Demos push for resolution condemning Bob Jones U.
22. U.S. College Drops Ban on Interracial Dating
23. Transcript, Larry King Live interview with Bob Jones III
24. Interracial dating decision stuns campus

» Part 2

=== Mormonism
25. Gay Mormon Kills Self on Church Steps

=== Jehovah's Witnesses
26. Gardai called as parents refuse transfusion for boy
27. State clears way for Englewood heart surgery

=== Wicca / Witchcraft
28. Book raises witchcraft questions
29. Indianapolis Church Challenges the I.R.S. in a Battle Over Payroll Taxes
30. A push becomes a shove (Cults, Sects, Religious Movements on Campus)
31. A glimpse of cyberwarfare (Falun Gong)
32. Breach of Faith (Greater Ministries)
33. Martial-arts school hurt kids, pupils
34. Battle of the lamas
35. Gore Backer Guilty in Fund Raising Case
36. Church Eyes Samba Group for Symbols
37. Woman Barred From Contacting Houston
38. Transcendental Vessels (Transcendental Meditation)

=== Religious Freedom
39. Four sue over right to preach in public
40. Ore. Church Loses Permit Battle
41. Lawsuit Involving Display of Cross Necklace Settled

=== Noted
42. Vatican Outline Issued on Apology for Historical Failings
43. Sharing the secrets of the scrolls

=== Aum Shinrikyo / Aleph

1. Poll: 80% still anxious about Aum activities
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Mar. 5, 2000
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0305cr06.htm
More than 80 percent of people still feel anxious about the Aum Supreme Truth
cult, even though the government has tightened its restrictions on the cult,
according to the results of a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

In addition, nearly 60 percent of respondents said they thought the cult's
activities would continue as before.

The cult was officially put under surveillance by public security authorities
on Feb. 1, after the move was approved in accordance with a new law to
regulate dangerous organizations. The security authorities inspected the
cult's facilities soon after the new law took effect.

However, the survey revealed that many people believe that the new measures
will not be enough to control the cult's activities.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Aum announces 1997-99 sales revenue of 2.6 billion yen
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Mar. 6, 2000
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0306cr05.htm
The Aum Supreme Truth cult received revenue totaling about 2.6 billion yen,
including about 1.6 billion yen from sales at computer shops, during a
three-year period from 1997 to 1999, the cult announced at a press conference
Saturday night.

The cult used most of the revenue to purchase new facilities, support its
members and for other purposes, Fumihiro Joyu, a 37-year-old senior member,
and Aum spokesman Hiroshi Araki said at the cult's Yokohama branch.

According to the announcement, the revenue came from sales at its computer
shops in Akihabara, Tokyo, and other locations where about 200 followers were
employed. During the three-year period, the cult also generated about 400
million yen in revenue from sales at computer software companies operated by
its members, and about 600 million yen from seminars and other branch-level
activities.

Meanwhile, the cult's expenditure during the period totaled about 2.66
billion yen, they said.
(...)

Other expenses included 290 million yen to construct shelters and stockpile
food and other emergency equipment in the event of a global-scale disaster,
such as an ''Armageddon'' war predicted by Aum founder Chizuo Matsumoto, also
known as Shoko Asahara.

The legal costs to defend suits filed against the cult over various crimes
allegedly committed by it totaled about 33 million yen, they said.
(...)

Joyu and Araki said that Aum members are living off personal assets and
stored provisions as the computer stores are no longer profitable.

Commenting on a recent report that Aum-related companies had received
contracts to provide software to government offices and major companies, the
cult said the group of Aum members operating such software companies will be
disbanded after they complete the current contracts.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Sarin attack survivors meet
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Mar. 6, 2000
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0306cr05.htm
Survivors of Aum's alleged sarin attacks in 1994 and 1995 and victims' family
members held a symposium in Tokyo on Saturday, calling for social support for
the incurable injuries suffered by survivors of the attacks.
(...)

The Matsumoto poisoning attack killed seven people and injured more than 200,
while the gassing on the Tokyo subway system killed 12 commuters and sickened
thousands of others.
(...)

March 20 will mark the fifth anniversary of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo
subway system.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Japan's Aum Cult Had $24 Mln Revenue in '97-'99, Yomiuri Says
AOL/Bloomberg, Mar. 5, 2000
http://my.aol.com/business/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=2000030507052216
Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult said it had revenue of 2.6 billion yen ($24
million) from 1997 to 1999, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, citing an Aum
statement at a press conference. The doomsday cult is 60 million yen in debt
after spending 33 million yen on legal expenses and 290 million yen on
stockpiling food and emergency equipment on expectation of an apocalypse.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Waco / Branch Davidians

5. FBI misled Reno to get tear-gas OK, ex-agent alleged
Dallas Morning News, Mar. 6, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/44054_WACO06.html
A veteran FBI behavioral expert told a bureau lawyer in a 1995 interview that
he believed FBI officials "misled" Attorney General Janet Reno to gain her
approval to gas the Branch Davidian compound on April 19, 1993, a
confidential document states.

Retired FBI Agent Peter Smerick, whose psychological profiles were termed the
best predictors of the Waco tragedy by experts and negotiators involved in
the siege, told FBI interviewers that he believed "the FBI misled the
attorney general by giving her 'a slanted view of the operation' in Waco."

A 1995 report obtained by The Dallas Morning News says that Mr. Smerick
blamed FBI headquarters for convincing the attorney general that using tear
gas was the only way to end the standoff peacefully.

He said that he and one of the FBI's top negotiators had by then "concluded
that the best strategy would have been to convert the Branch Davidian
compound into a prison and simply announce to [sect leader David] Koresh that
he was in the custody of the United States. This idea was not endorsed,
however."
(...)

The 15-page FBI report of Mr. Smerick's interview, written by the FBI general
counsel's office, is labeled "attorney-client privileged and confidential."
It has never before been made public, and lawyers representing the Branch
Davidians in a federal wrongful-death lawsuit say they have never seen the
document despite repeated requests for such information.

The report states that Mr. Smerick based his allegation that Ms. Reno was
misled on the fact that his five Waco profiling memos were not in the
"briefing book" that FBI leaders gave her when they began lobbying her on
April 12 to approve using tear gas.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. Amount of tear gas fired at Waco siege questioned
Dallas Morning News, Mar. 5, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/43735_WACO05.html
Crime-scene records, videos and photographs from the Branch Davidian siege
call into question the FBI's account of where, when and how many pyrotechnic
tear gas rounds were fired by its hostage rescue team at the end of the 1993
standoff, investigators say.

The Texas Rangers completed a lengthy final report last month on efforts to
identify questioned evidence from the standoff and locate a pyrotechnic tear
gas projectile that disappeared in 1993 after it was photographed by a
Department of Public Safety photographer.

The photographer's field notes show the projectile was ''located about 200
yards northwest of the [compound water] tower,'' the Rangers report states.
That means the device probably was fired from behind the building, and not
from the area where FBI officials have previously said that only two such
devices were launched that day, said investigators involved in the ongoing
inquiries.

Based on the accounts from some FBI agents involved in the Waco operation and
commercial television footage of the April 19 tear gas assault, investigators
say they are also questioning whether members of the hostage rescue team, or
HRT, may have fired pyrotechnic gas rounds on April 19, 1993, at a time far
later than previously acknowledged.

One investigator also says the appearance of distinctive white smoke
characteristic of M-651 pyrotechnic tear gas grenades on video recorded by a
Waco television station about 12:09 p.m. suggests that one of the rounds
might have been fired as the sect's compound began burning.

''With all that we are seeing, it seems quite probable that the HRT fired
more pyrotechnic rounds than they've ever fessed up to,'' said the
investigator. ''You have to remember: They were running out of tear gas that
day.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. New questions raised about Waco siege
USA Today/AP, Mar. 5, 2000
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndssun04.htm
Evidence from the Branch Davidian siege suggests the FBI fired more
pyrotechnic tear gas rounds into the compound than the agency previously
admitted, government investigators said in Sunday's Dallas Morning News.

Crime scene records, videos and photographs call into question where, when
and how many rounds were fired by the FBI's hostage rescue team, or HRT, at
the end of the siege in 1993, investigators told the paper.

The paper did not name any of the investigators or the agencies for whom they
work.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. No agents are shown in 200 FBI photos of Waco siege
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar. 5, 2000
http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/
ByDocID/8A0DB74B0C509DAB86256899003A761A
No government agents are visible in the approximately 200 aerial photographs
that the FBI shot of the April 19, 1993, siege of the Branch Davidian complex
near Waco, Texas, according to a Post-Dispatch review of the photos.

That finding lends support to the government position that none of its agents
fired at the complex. The photos show no one standing in the places where the
Branch Davidians claim that agents opened fire. The Branch Davidians base
their gunfire claim on about 100 flashes visible on a separate, infrared
surveillance tape that recorded the same area.

But the photos do not answer the question definitively. Mike Caddell, the
lead trial lawyer for the Branch Davidians, questions the veracity of the
photos and points out that periods of five to ten minutes pass between shots
-- plenty of time for agents to get out of armored vehicles and fire on the
complex. He notes that the rear hatches on two of the armored vehicles are
open, making a quick exit possible.

The still photos were shot by an FBI photographer in one aircraft, while the
infrared tape was shot from a second FBI aircraft.
(...)

The photos are attracting quite a bit of attention among all parties. Caddell
said he plans to file a memo in court this week challenging their value as
evidence. He said he had found a five- or six-minute gap between photos
around 11:30 a.m. and another 10-minute gap from 11:45 a.m. to 11.55 a.m.
That means that there are no photos for some key periods when flashes appear
on the infrared tape. Agents could have been firing at the complex during
those intervals and still not show up in the 200 FBI photos, Caddell said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. In deposition, ex-FBI agent disputes Waco allegations
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar. 4, 2000
http://www.postnet.com/postnet/specialreports/waco.nsf/
ByDocId/100C02B58E8256AE862568980069B46F
A former FBI agent who was in command during the final siege on the Branch
Davidians said Friday that no agents fired guns or fire-causing rounds at the
sect's complex near Waco, Texas, in 1993.

The agent, Richard Rogers, also said he had not deviated from a plan approved
by Attorney General Janet Reno when he ordered tank-driving FBI agents to ram
deep into the complex during a tear gas attack.

Rogers said one converted tank had plowed into the back of the structure to
clear a path for another that was to insert tear gas in an area where the
sect's members had taken refuge. In the process, the gymnasium was destroyed,
but Rogers said he did not order that to happen.

Rogers made his statements during an eight-hour deposition in Washington,
D.C. He was questioned by three lawyers for Branch Davidian survivors, who
say his conduct contributed to the deaths at Waco. Rogers was represented by
two of his own lawyers and six others from the Justice Department and the
FBI.

Informed sources have described Rogers as a key focus of John C. Danforth's
investigation of Waco.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. Access to Waco re-enactment sought
Dallas Morning News/AP, Mar. 4, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/43359_WACO04.html
The special counsel investigating the 1993 Waco siege should not be allowed
to ''shroud in secrecy'' a court-ordered re-enactment of aspects of the
deadly standoff, several news organizations said in a federal court filing
Friday.

''Conducting the field test in secrecy will only increase the public's
skepticism about whether all the facts surrounding the Branch Davidian raid
have been completely and accurately disclosed,'' The Dallas Morning News ,
The Associated Press, The New York Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch said in
their motion, filed in federal court in Waco. The Waco Tribune-Herald also is
seeking public access.

The media organizations are asking the federal judge presiding over the
Branch Davidians' wrongful-death lawsuit against the government to open to
the public a field test that is designed to answer a key question: Did
federal agents direct gunfire at the compound April 19, 1993?

The demonstration, planned at Fort Hood for the weekend of March 18, is to
determine whether an infrared camera used by the FBI could have detected
gunfire.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

11. Police swamp sect effort to raise banners
Hong Kong Standard/AFP, Mar. 5, 2000
http://online.hkstandard.com/today/default.asp?PageType=afr3
Police flattened a wave of protests by the banned Falun Gong movement in
Tiananmen Square yesterday even as Prime Minister Zhu Rongji was calling for
a crackdown on the ''evil cult'' in his policy address to the National
People's Congress.

In at least 10 separate incidents during the morning, knots of Falun Gong
practitioners tried repeatedly to raise red and yellow banners bearing the
sect's name and the Buddhist swastika symbol.
(...)

The National People's Congress was the most public political event since
communist leaders banned the Falun Gong as a social menace and threat to
Communist Party rule more than seven months ago.

In his speech, Mr Zhu pledged to keep up the pressure on cults and to
continue the ''Strike Hard'' campaign against crime.

Hailing the crackdown on the Falun Gong as a major victory in a serious
political struggle last year, the prime minister said that ''evil cults must
be banned and prosecuted in accordance with the law'' for the sake of social
stability and state security.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Falun Gong Members Protest
Excite/AP, Mar. 5, 2000
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000305/01/int-china-banned-sect
As China's national legislature opened its annual session on one side of
Tiananmen Square, followers of the banned Falun Gong sect unfurled protest
banners at the edge of the vast plaza Sunday only to be swiftly arrested.
(...)

Opening the session in the Great Hall of the People beside Tiananmen Square,
Premier Zhu Rongji said the communist government ''took decisive measures
against the Falun Gong cult'' over the past year.
(...)

A Hong Kong-based rights group, the Information Center of Human Rights and
Democratic Movement in China, appealed to the legislature Sunday to
investigate the death of Falun Gong member Chen Zixiu and punish those
responsible. The center made the appeal in a statement faxed to foreign news
organizations.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Zhong Gong

13. Report: 600 Falun Gong Leaders Held
AOL/AP, Mar. 4, 3000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n
&cat=01&id=2000030408519180
Chinese authorities have arrested at least 600 leading members of a
meditation-exercise sect they outlawed as an ''evil cult,'' similar to the
Falun Gong spiritual movement, a human rights group said Saturday.
(...)

The government has quietly expanded the crackdown it began in July, when it
banned Falun Gong. Since October it has rounded up many leading members of
Zhong Gong, another offshoot of a traditional health practice known as
qigong, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights
and Democratic Movement.

The moves against Zhong Gong members have come with no official public
comment, unlike the government's vehement and aggressive campaign to portray
Falun Gong as a public menace.

However, the police this week notified relatives of Cheng Yaqin, a Zhong Gong
leader in the northeastern city of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province, that she
had been formally arrested and would be charged, the Information Center said.
(...)

Police have quietly moved against the group while trying to round up its
leaders, closing more than 100 Zhong Gong centers. The group's founder, Zhang
Hongbao, has gone into hiding as the government has begun confiscating the
assets of his Qilin Group, a conglomerate based in the port city of Tianjin
that employed more than 400,000 people.

According to the Information Center, Zhong Gong was founded in 1988 and has
20 million followers.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

14. Scientologists fail to budge judge
St. Peterburg Times, Mar. 3, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/News/030400/TampaBay/Scientologists_fail_t.shtml
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt C. Downey III ruled Friday that the
Church of Scientology's fears about an unfair trial are unfounded and that he
will continue to preside in the criminal case against it.

Immediately after the ruling, Scientology lawyer Morris ''Sandy'' Weinberg
asked Downey to stop the case completely until the judge's ruling could be
appealed. Downey quickly denied the request, advising Weinberg to be ready
for a significant hearing March 13.
(...)

In a motion filed Thursday, the church had argued that Downey's past
associations with mental health groups and with three former law partners who
once criticized Scientology could compromise his objectivity as the case
proceeds toward a scheduled October trial.
(...)

Weinberg said the church believes its fundamental beliefs are on trial. He
noted that the church's defense is based in large part on the argument that
the Scientologists who cared for McPherson were engaged in religious
practices rooted in the avoidance of psychiatry and psychology.

But prosecutor Doug Crow argued that one's beliefs on psychiatry and
psychology should not be a bench mark for presiding over the trial, lest all
non-Scientologists be excluded. He also said the church's efforts to link
Downey's mind-set to the actions of his onetime law partners were based on
hearsay. ''This is guilt by association, innuendo and speculation,'' Crow
said.

Weinberg was met with a testy response from Downey, who denied the motion,
saying the church had no evidence that ''would place a reasonably prudent
person in fear of not receiving a fair and impartial trial.''

The judge was equally short with lawyers for the Times and Tampa Tribune, who
asked Downey to release investigative records in the case. Downey said the
lawyers made it sound like he rushed to judgment on a ruling last week that
kept the records closed.''That does not sit well at all,'' the judge said,
denying their requests.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Judge in Scientology case won't remove himself
Tampa Tribune, Mar. 4, 2000
http://tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGI2K97SE5C.html
The judge presiding over the criminal case against the Church of Scientology
in the death of Lisa McPherson refused to remove himself Friday despite
church lawyers' claims he is biased.

Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge Brandt Downey also refused to put the case on
hold while the church asks an appeals court to remove him.

Downey then held a second hearing in which he ruled in favor of the church
and against The Tampa Tribune. The newspaper is seeking the release of an
estimated 10,000 pages of police reports and and other documents from the
investigation of McPherson's December 1995 death.
(...)

The suggestion that a judge must be sympathetic to Scientology's beliefs in
order to preside over the McPherson case is not a legitimate reason to seek
Downey's removal, Assistant State Attorney Doug Crow argued.

''They are not entitled to manipulate the court system to require a judge
whose beliefs match theirs,'' Crow said.

Crow called the church's complaint about Downey's former partners ''guilt by
association, innuendo and speculation.''

The church's Flag Service Organization is charged with practicing medicine
without a license and abuse of a disabled adult.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Scientology sect hunting for members in Neu-Ulm
Augsburger Allgemeine (Germany), Mar. 1, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/000301a.htm
For several days leaflets have been distributed in downtown Neu-Ulm by the
Scientology Organization, which has about 900 million [sic] members
worldwide.
(...)

This type of method of attracting members will, nevertheless, not be taken
lightly. Peter Ott of the city agency which has jurisdiction in the area has
confirmed that a permit is required for the leaflets. ''Scientology has not
obtained this permission. If this permission had been extended to the
organization, they would have had to pay the fees. But we have already often
experienced that Scientology tries to circumvent this regulation,'' he
confirmed.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

17. Probe unearths Klan influence
The Saginaw News, Mar. 5, 2000
http://sa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20000305skkk.frm
A four-year police investigation into a series of property crimes in western
Saginaw County has uncovered ties between some mid-Michigan residents and the
Ku Klux Klan.

The white supremacist group staged rallies in Saginaw in 1996 and 1997. The
leader of the Arkansas-based organization leader said local supporters
financed the events, which divided the community and spawned violence.

At about the same time, detectives were investigating allegations of a
complex fraud scheme. While searching homes for evidence, they began finding
Ku Klux Klan material.
(...)

The detectives found no evidence that any thefts or fraudulent activities
were designed to raise money for the Klan, said Sheriff Charles L. Brown,
saying that wasn't the focus of the probe.
(...)

Thomas Robb, national director of the Harrison, Ark.-based Klan faction that
staged rallies in Saginaw, Midland and Caro, said he's familiar with
Krawczak's name, but not the names of the other three men. He declined to
elaborate.

Robb boasted that his Knights of the Ku Klux Klan group is enjoying great
popularity in mid-Michigan and throughout the state.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Bob Jones University

18. Bob Jones University answers critics in newspaper ads
Nando Times/AP, Mar. 3, 2000
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500176353
-500229978-501112148-0,00.html
Bob Jones University has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements to
answer national criticism of its interracial dating ban and other issues that
cropped up after Republican presidential contender George W. Bush made a
campaign stop at the fundamentalist Christian school last month.

In the ''Letter to the Nation,'' University President Bob Jones III says the
school in Greenville has been wrongly painted as racist and anti-Catholic.
The issue is religious freedom, Jones wrote. The ad appears in USA Today and
the three largest South Carolina papers, in Columbia, Charleston and
Greenville.

''We do not expect everyone to agree with us or like us,'' Jones wrote. ''The
cross of Jesus Christ is a dividing line for some. We don't quake or blush
with embarrassment over the term 'religious conservatives.'''
(...)

Jones has an essay on the school's Web site that describes Roman Catholicism
and Mormonism ''as cults which call themselves Christian.''
(...)

The school's ban on interracial dating has drawn the most fire - including
proposals in state legislatures and Congress to publicly condemn the school
for its policy.

In Friday's ads, Jones says the school admits students of various races and
works at ''promoting racial harmony'' in the community.

The university is not anti-Catholic, said Jones, adding that those in the
school ''love (Catholics) in Christ.''
(...)

The school lost its tax exemption in 1983 after a 13-year battle with the
Internal Revenue Service that cited the school's discrimination. BJU now
admits blacks but keeps the ban on interracial dating based on a biblical
interpretation that God created people differently for a reason.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Bob Jones University: http://www.bju.edu/

Letter from BJU describing the reasons for its ban on interracial dating:

http://www.multiracial.com/letters/bobjonesuniversity.html

Note: the publisher of Apologetics Index believes that kind of "reasoning"
is a good example of eisogesis - reading into the text something it does
not say. It does not reflect sound Bible interpretation.


19. A look at Bob Jones University
Nando Times/AP, Mar. 3, 2000
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500176353
-500229978-501107228-1,00.html
(...) As for BJU itself, it did what it has always done when its views cause
controversy: It firmly restated its beliefs, retreated to its fenced 200-acre
campus and went about its business.
(...)

Now they refer the curious to the school's Web site, which says, among other
things, ''The University's refusal to compromise and contemporize makes it
the object of ridicule and hatred by those on the other side of the Cross.''

That same site likens Catholicism and Mormonism to cults and says the
university is the work of God and ''exists against all human odds.
(...)

The school has long established itself as a bastion of fundamentalism.

Bob Jones III, president since 1971, and his father, Bob Jones Jr., who died
in 1997, have been sharp-tongued about those they believe have abandoned the
strict teachings of the Bible, including Billy Graham and the pope. Graham
should not have reached out across denominations for his crusades, Jones III
says. And rather than meet Pope John Paul II when he visited Columbia in
1987, Bob Jones Jr. said he would ''speak to the devil himself.''
(...)

''The issue is, does a religious institution in the United States of America
have the right to believe something? That goes to the top of the
Constitution,'' says Pait, the university spokesman.

The school lost its tax exemption in 1983 after a 13-year battle with the
Internal Revenue Service that cited the school's discrimination. BJU now
admits blacks but keeps the ban on interracial dating based on a biblical
interpretation that God created people differently for a reason. Pait says
that policy actually arose in the 1950s when an Asian family threatened to
sue after their son, a student, almost married a white girl.

''Bob Jones University has students from all races that live together in
respect and love,'' Pait says. ''We'll take living in harmony and you can
take political correctness and stick it in your ear.''

The school has threatened to arrest returning alumni who say they are
homosexual, but it maintains an open-to-all policy at its notable museum of
religious art so the museum can keep its tax-exempt status.
(...)

In another racially charged controversy in the state, Jones III has said the
Confederate flag should be moved from atop the South Carolina Statehouse
because ''the Bible speaks against giving unnecessary offense.''
(...)

''If you really get to know the students, faculty and staff, you'd see their
actions speak louder than words,'' said the Rev. Alexander McCormick of
Heritage Bible Church in nearby Greer, who praises the community
contributions the school makes. ''They don't hate blacks and they don't hate
Catholics.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Jones Defends S.C. School's Fundamentalist Views
AOL/Reuters, Mar. 3, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=0111&id=2000030303004468
(...) For his part, Bob Jones III made no apologies for the staunch religious
views of the 73-year-old university. On its Internet site, Jones describes
Catholicism and Mormonism as ''cults which call themselves Christian'' and
defends a school policy against inter-racial dating.

The ban was imposed in the mid-1950s when the campus was embroiled in a
controversy over the religious implications of an Asian-Caucasian couple, and
has nothing to do with racism, particularly against blacks in the South,
according to the university.

''The warning about inter-racial marriages is not about the couple, but about
the one-world system,'' the university explains on its Web site. ''The
one-world principle -- every effort man has made, or will make, to bring the
world together in unity -- plays into the hands of the Antichrist.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Demos push for resolution condemning Bob Jones U.
Deseret News, Mar. 3, 2000
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,155007448,00.html?
A group of Democrats, including two members of the LDS Church, are pushing a
resolution to condemn Bob Jones University for preaching that Mormons,
Catholics and Muslims are members of cults.
(...)

Reid complained at a news conference that Bob Jones University has described
Catholicism, Mormonism and Islam as among ''the world's deceptions.'' ''I'm a
member of the LDS Church, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, and I'm
deeply offended by these comments, as I'm sure are Catholics and Muslims,''
he said.

He added that such comments offend ''the very American tradition of religious
tolerance. By attacking one religion, they attack them all. It's time we
stood up to this kind of bigotry.''

Reid also released copies of a university Internet site where Bob Jones III
says one of the six greatest challenges faced by fundamentalist Christians is
overcoming ''the diminution of evangelistic enterprise (by) cults which call
themselves Christian, including Catholicism and Mormonism.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. U.S. College Drops Ban on Interracial Dating
AOL/Reuters, Mar. 3, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=2000030309385031
South Carolina's fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones University lifted its ban
on inter-racial dating on Friday after the issue sparked a storm of
controversy for Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush.

''We don't have to have that rule. In fact, as of today, we've dropped the
rule,'' university president Bob Jones III told CNN's ''Larry King Live''
program.
(...)

Before announcing that the ban had been lifted, Jones defended the measure in
the CNN interview and denied it was racist.

He said the university still opposed the blending of racial, church and
national differences into the ''coming world of anti-Christ.''

He acknowledged there was no passage in the Bible that backed up the ban.

Jones defended the university's other policies, including a ban on music and
movies, accusing the media of being ''anti-God.'' He said students were
allowed ''filtered'' access to the Internet.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Transcript, Larry King Live interview with Bob Jones III:
CNN. Mar. 3, 2000
http://cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/03/lkl.00.html
(...)
JONES: Well, being a Bible believing institution, Larry, we try to base
things on Bible principle. The problem we have today is that our principle is
so greatly misunderstood. People think we don't let them date because we are
racist, in other words to be racist you have to treat people differently. We
don't. We don't let them date, because we were trying, as an example, to
enforce something, a principle that is much greater than this.

We stand against the one-world government, against the coming world of
anti-Christ, which is a one world system of blending, of all differences, of
blending of national differences, economic differences, church differences,
into a big one ecumenical world. The Bible is very clear about this.

We said, you know, way back years ago, when we first had a problem, which was
-- by the way, we started this principle, back in the mid-'50s, I was a
college student at BJU at the time and it was with an Asian and Caucasian is
-- we didn't even have black students for another 15 years. So it was not put
there as a black thing, I think people need to understand that.

KING: So the fear of one world relates back to two people dating?

JONES: Now, we realize that a inter-racial marriage is not going to bring in
the world the anti-Christ by any means, but if we as Christians stand for
Christ and not anti-Christ, and we see -- we are against the one world
church. We are against one economy, one political system.

We see what the Bible says about this, so we say, OK, if they're going to
blend this world -- and inter-racial marriage is a genetic blending, which is
a very definite sort of blending -- we said as -- let's put this policy in
here, because we are against the one world church and, way back, 17 years ago
when I was on your program, I was saying on programs all across America, we
are not going to the Supreme Court fighting for our rule and our -- we are
fighting for our right to it. There is a religious freedom issue, that's all
we ever fought for.

KING: You are a private institution, you don't get the tax benefit because --
but you are entitled to the thing -- I'm trying to find out why you have the
rule.

JONES: Yes. We have the rule, because it was a part of a bigger -- it was a
-- it wasn't the rule itself. We can't point to a verse in the Bible that
says you shouldn't date or marry inter-racial.

KING: You can't back it up?

JONES: No, we can't back it up with a verse from the Bible. We never have
tried to, we have never tried to do that. But we have said there is a
principle here, an overriding principle of the one world government. But let
me tell you how insignificant this is. Students never hear it preached. There
have been four, five, six generations of students that graduated from there
have never heard this preached in our chapel or taught in our school. To
us...

KING: But it's a rule, though, they know they can't.

JONES: It is a rule, it is, but it's the most insignificant thing, but now,
we are being defined as a racist school. I mean, that is all the media talks
about. KING: Partly, during the era -- you know -- the era of segregation,
segregationists said, well, we are not racist, we just think the races should
be apart, they should be treated equally, but not together, and that was
regarded as a kind of a cop-out.

JONES: Yes.

KING: Do you think maybe -- I mean, you could change that, you think it is a
stretch maybe? In other words, have you given thought to maybe that's taking
it too far, down to two people into a whole one world concept?

JONES: I don't think it's taking it too far, but I can tell you this, we
don't have to have that rule. In fact, as of today, we have dropped the rule.
We have dropped the rule for this reason.

KING: Today?

JONES: Today. I met with the administrators this afternoon before coming
here. But let me tell you why we dropped it. We don't want this to be a --
here is a great institution, one of the premier academic institutions in
America, one of the premier Christian colleges of America. We have a broader
testimony. And if all anybody can see is this rule, which we never talk about
or preach, which most of our students couldn't even tell you what it is. It
is that unimportant to us.

I said to our administration, you know, guys, this thing is of such
insignificance to us, it is so significant to the world at large, the media
particularly, why should we have this here as an obstacle? It hurts our
graduates, we love our graduates greatly, it hurts maybe the church, as well.
I don't want to hurt the church of Jesus Christ.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Interracial dating decision stuns campus
CNN/AP, Mar. 4, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/03/04/bob.jones.dating.ap/index.html
Bob Jones University's decision to lift its half-century-old ban on
interracial dating has stunned the fundamentalist Christian school's
supporters who learned about it Friday night in a national television
interview with President Bob Jones III.

''I don't think even his own secretary knew what he was going to do,'' said
school spokesman Jonathan Pait.

Thousands of students and supporters gathered at the university's auditorium
to watch Jones' interview on CNN's ''Larry King Live.'' Many gasped in
surprise at Jones' announcement, Frances Seibert, the mother of two
graduates, told The Greenville News.
(...)

The school had defended the dating ban based on a biblical interpretation
that God created people differently for a reason.
(...)

But the Jones family almost reflects the changes facing the school.

Bob Jones IV is the first in four generations to break ranks for a career
outside the university. Jones, 33, a writer for the Christian magazine World,
said he made a deliberate decision not to follow in his namesakes' footsteps.
[...more...]