=== Waco / Branch Davidians
1. Clinton discusses Waco

=== Aum Shinrikyo
2. Aum followers notify village they will vacate cult facility

=== Falun Gong
3. Split Develops on Leadership of Sect in China
4. Falungong splits between 2 masters
5. Falungong in fight over HK evictions
6. A Beijing Obsession

=== Zhong Gong
7. Grant asylum, sect urges

=== Scientology
8. OSHA fines church for safety violations

=== Buddhism
9. For Harmony, Dalai Lama Stays Home
10. China Steps Up Religious Repression In Tibet - Rights Grp

=== Islam
11. Taleban blames Afghans for drought
12. Over Islamic law, a religious divide opens in Nigeria
13. Uganda: Muslim youth right to flog pork woman

=== Catholicism
14. Million Costa Ricans ask Virgin for end to violence

=== Witchcraft
15. Witches, wizards head to Brasilia for annual convention

=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes
16. Church Arson on the Rise, Insurance Company Reports
17. Pekin hate fliers prompt FBI probe

=== General Assembly Church of the First Born
18. Clifton infant's death won't be ruled homicide
19. Coroner: Baby didn't have to die
20. Church holds fast to healing beliefs

=== Other News
21. Brazilian sect buys London radio station
22. Parents neglected boy after wasp attack, attorney says
23. Jesuit Order Settles Harrassment
24. Society's Lures: Is Polygamous Sect Circling The Wagons?
25. Kansans Eject Anti-Evolution School Board Leaders

=== UFOs
26. Science Fiction Writer Says Mankind'S Future In Stars Colonization Key
To Saving Race
27. Plan To Relocate UFO Museum Feared
28. Lawrence, Kan.-Based Publishing Firm Sponsors Scholarly Book on UFOs

=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance
29. Panel seeks labeling N. Korea, 3 others religious oppressors

=== Death Penalty
30. Panel investigating death penalty system takes public testimony
31. World's journalists try to explain Texas

=== Noted
32. Move afoot to detoxify ancient, once-benign swastika symbol
33. Spirituality, Not Exercise, Is At Root Of Yoga
34. The exorcists
35. Rethinking messianism
36. 'Crossing Over' Links to Hereafter
37. Evangelicals' conference confronts the complexity of reaching the
world for Jesus

=== Books
38. Literary World Is Making More Room for Religion
39. Former LA Times publisher named CEO of Chopra-backed media company


=== Waco / Branch Davidians

1. Clinton discusses Waco
Dallas Morning News, Aug. 3, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WASHINGTON - The special counsel reinvestigating aspects of the 1993 siege near Waco interviewed President Clinton by telephone Wednesday, the White House said.

In a three-sentence statement, the White House press office said the president and special counsel John Danforth had a brief conversation that morning.

''The president voluntarily agreed to be interviewed and spoke with Senator Danforth for about 15 minutes,'' the statement said. ''Consistent with past practice, no further statement about the interview will be made.''

Mr. Danforth's spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening. But the special counsel's office told The Associated Press that no comment would be forthcoming, citing the ongoing investigation.
(...)

Mr. Danforth's interview with the president comes as the special counsel is finalizing his investigation, which began more than 10 months ago and has cost $12 million.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo

2. Aum followers notify village they will vacate cult facility
Japan Times (Japan), Aug. 3, 2000)
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
URAWA, Saitama Pref. (Kyodo) Five people living in an Aum Shinrikyo cult facility have notified the village of Tokigawa in Saitama Prefecture that they are moving out, sources close to the five said Wednesday.

The group includes the twin daughters of 39-year-old Hisako Ishii, a former Aum follower serving a prison sentence for Aum-related crimes.

According to the sources, the new address of the 6-year-old twins, who were enrolled at an elementary school in the village for only one semester since April, and the others is unknown. The group earlier agreed with village officials to leave the facility by Aug. 20.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

3. Split Develops on Leadership of Sect in China
New York Times, Aug. 3, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HANGHAI, Aug. 2 -- Falun Gong followers in Hong Kong and the United States are squabbling over assertions by a woman in the southern Chinese territory that she is the ''true master'' of the spiritual movement, having taken over from its founder, Li Hongzhi, who has dropped from view.

The power struggle is a potentially important one for Falun Gong, which drew millions of adherents in the late 1990's, because most of its followers are on the Chinese mainland, across the border from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, the former British colony, reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, and whoever controls the group there has a chance of influencing Falun Gong's development in the rest of China.

The assertion that the woman, Belinda Pang, 37, is the ''Lord of Buddhas'' has led to more of a cat fight than catharsis for the movement, which went underground on the mainland after Beijing banned the group a year ago. Mr. Li, who is now based in New York, and Ms. Pang have traded accusations on competing Web sites.

The dispute began on May 11 -- celebrated as Buddha's birthday and, Mr. Li says, his birthday, too, though birth records in his hometown in China show otherwise. Ms. Pang, a tireless organizer in the Hong Kong chapter, organized a march through the city. Although only 24 people turned up, along the way most of them said they had experienced a vision of Ms. Pang seated in outer space while angels flew around her plucking flowers and dropping them to Earth. The flowers turned into raindrops when they hit the skin, said Mary Qian, one of those who said they saw the image.

''That's when we realized Ms. Pang was the Lord of Buddhas,'' Ms. Qian said by telephone today. They reported the finding on their Web site, www.falundafa.com.hk.

Mr. Li was quick to denounce Ms. Pang on the official Falun Gong site, www.minghui.ca.

Ms. Pang, who has drawn 30 hard-core believers, said all recent messages from Mr. Li were fakes, because he has left to ''quietly watch practitioners and people in the world'' from a cliff somewhere in the United States, where he is pictured in his last photo posted on the Falun Gong Web site, in January.
[...entire item...]


4. Falungong splits between 2 masters
Straits Times (Singapore), July 30, 2000
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HONGKONG -- One year after Beijing banned Falungong as ''''an evil cult'', the spiritual movement outside the mainland appears to be splitting into factions.

A number of overseas followers are now supporting Hongkong-based Peng Shanshan as the sect's new master, replacing Li Hongzhi, who lives in New York.

''''We have only one great universal law and one master.

''''But the master can accommodate in different physical bodies,'' Ms Tao Hua Lian, a Chinese-Australian disciple of Ms Peng, told the Hongkong iMail on Friday.

''''At the early stage, the master has shown up in (the physical body of) Li Hongzhi. Now Master Peng Shanshan is born,'' said Ms Tao, adding that Ms Peng declined to be interviewed.

In the near future, perhaps later this month, the giant Buddha statue at Lantau would bring about a series of changes to the world, including having all the detained and jailed Falungong devotees on the mainland freed, she said, quoting Ms Peng.
(...)

Ms Tao said that the transformation had already been predicted in Mr Li's master piece, Zhuan Falun (To Rotate The Wheel of Law).

According to Ms Tao, the master would leave the physical body when it reached the age of 50.

She said that on May 11 this year, Mr Li's 50th birthday, the master found a new physical body in Ms Peng. Ms Tao denied the split was the result of plotting by mainland secret agents who wanted to sabotage the sect from within.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Falungong in fight over HK evictions
Straits Times (Singapore), July 29, 2000
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HONGKONG -- Falungong practitioners vowed to continue their battle against alleged unfair rental conditions yesterday following a member's threat to leap to her death in protest.

Ms Mary Qian said that even though her landlord had withdrawn an eviction notice and agreed to abide by the three-month rental contract, the condition that her friends were unable to visit was unacceptable.
(...)

Ms Stephanie Liu, Ms Qian's friend, had threatened on Thursday to leap from the window of the 11th floor flat to protest at the landlord's alleged attempts to evict her and her 12-year-old son. She accused the landlord of cutting off the water and electricity supply and attempting to ban the family from the building, because of their religious beliefs.

The water and electricity supplies have since been restored.

She alleged that the landlord had been pressurised by mainland authorities to evict them because they were followers of Falungong, which is banned in China.

She said there were no other grounds for the landlord's actions as she had paid three months' rent in advance and signed a contract.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. A Beijing Obsession
International Herald Tribune/Washington Post, Aug. 2, 2000 (Editorial)
http://www.iht.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) The Communist government portrays its battle against Falun Gong as an effort to protect China from an evil cult bent on destabilizing society. In fact, the authorities are reacting out of instinctive hostility to the growth of an independent organization that appears capable of offering Chinese a spiritual alternative, however obscure, to official ideology.

Yet for all its determination to deny Falun Gong practitioners their right to the free exercise of their beliefs, Beijing has been unable in a year to restore the monochromatic ideological climate its rulers require. The effort to destroy Falun Gong will be a ''long-lasting, complicated and acute struggle,'' a July 20 editorial in the official People's Daily conceded. This backhanded compliment to the undeniable courage and tenacity of Falun Gong's adherents was also, alas, probably a threat of even greater official violence to come.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Zhong Gong

7. Grant asylum, sect urges
South China Morning Post, Aug. 2, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=12529672&ID=newsreal&scategory=AP+Top+Headlines
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Members of the Zhong Gong spiritual group have appealed to Washington in a last-ditch attempt to lobby for political asylum for their exiled leader.
In an open letter to US President Bill Clinton, the sect urged Washington to defy pressure from Beijing and grant asylum status to Zhang Hongbao, who is in Guam awaiting a decision on his fate by US immigration officials.

The group said Mr Zhang was being persecuted by Beijing, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

''The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the US law hold that anyone under political persecution will be given political asylum. Millions of sect members will lose faith in the US' belief if it fails to do that,'' the centre quoted the letter as saying.

Mr Zhang, 45, who founded the qi gong sect - which is similar to the banned Falun Gong - has been on the run from mainland authorities since a crackdown on the sect started in October. He reached Guam, a US territory, in February with an aide, Yan Qingxin.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

8. OSHA fines church for safety violations
The Press Enterprise (CA), Aug. 2, 2000
http://www.inlandempireonline.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The state fined the Church of Scientology's film studio $370 for safety violations. Investigators were looking into a woman's death, but found no violations related to that accident.

Golden Era Productions near San Jacinto was cited by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health for using an extension cord instead of permanent electrical wiring and for an improper connection of another cord next to the vault where 20-year-old Stacy Grove Meyer died, OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said.

Problems with the cords were not related to Meyer's death, Fryer said.
(...)

Meyer, the daughter of church attorney Kendrick L. Moxon and wife of church member Derek Meyer, died instantly on June 25 when she fell while climbing a ladder leading into a vault. She touched a 7,200-volt wire and suffered severe burns over most of her body, according to Riverside County sheriff's investigators.

Meyer did not come in contact with either of the wires that prompted the citation, Fryer said.

Sheriff's investigators concluded Meyer's death was an accident.
(...)

Meyer worked at Golden Era for about 2 ½ years, according to the report. The 500-acre center, which straddles Highway 79, produces training and promotional films for the church.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Buddhism

9. For Harmony, Dalai Lama Stays Home
New York Times, Aug. 3, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
More than 1,000 eminent religious leaders from around the world are expected to gather for a conference at the United Nations this month, but conspicuously absent will be the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, was omitted from the invitation list for the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, to be held in New York Aug. 28 to 31.

The conference, financed largely by Ted Turner and several foundations, is the start of an initiative designed to link religious leaders with United Nations efforts to help prevent, settle or heal conflicts around the world.

Some religious leaders are now saying that the exclusion of the Dalai Lama illustrates the need for such a conference, as well as its pitfalls.
(...)

Bawa Jain, secretary general of the conference, said that China, which is one of five permanent members of the Security Council, had made it clear from the start that it would not approve of inviting the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese invaded, and he has lived in exile in India ever since.

''It's been very clear with the Chinese from Day 1,'' Mr. Jain said, ''and it's been very clear with the office of the secretary general that within the political framework of the United Nations there are certain constraints, and if you decide to have this event with the U.N., then there are political constraints. Not that I agree with it, but I abide by it.''
(...)

Mr. Jain said the Dalai Lama gave the conference his blessings and called it an opportunity that should proceed despite his absence.

But last month, news of the Dalai Lama's exclusion began to spread through the international network of Tibet supporters, and letters of protest arrived at the organizers' offices in New York.

So late last month, five weeks before the conference, Mr. Jain belatedly invited the Dalai Lama to deliver the keynote address at the closing session, to be held not at the United Nations but at the Waldorf-Astoria.

But yesterday, organizers received a letter from the Dalai Lama's secretary in Dharmsala, India, declining that offer but promising to support the conference by sending a ''high-level Tibetan delegation'' to represent him.

Nawang Rabgyal, spokesman for the Dalai Lama in New York, said: ''His Holiness has never been comfortable accepting invitations that are made out of compulsion rather than willingly, and he has always avoided embarrassing or causing inconveniences to anyone, whether they are individuals or governments. And moreover the invitation has come far too late. His Holiness's program has been finalized many months in advance.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. China Steps Up Religious Repression In Tibet - Rights Grp
Yahoo/Dow Jones, Aug. 2, 2000
http://asia.biz.yahoo.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DHARMSALA, India (AP)--China has tightened its campaign of religions repression in Tibet, with police raiding private homes to seize religious objects, and primary school students banned from attending temples, a human rights body said Wednesday.

China prohibited government workers and communist party members in Lhasa from displaying pictures of the Dalai Lama, said the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala from where the Dalai Lama runs a government-in-exile.
(...)

The independent group said China in an order issued in March also prohibited Buddhists from keeping religious objects such as altars and prayer flags.
(...)

The crackdown represents a significant expansion of the four-year-old campaign of religious repression in Tibet. The Chinese government's Strike Hard campaign, launched in 1996, had previously concentrated on religious institutions such as monasteries and nunneries.

A report by the London-based Tibet Information Network last week claimed that the campaign against private religious activity in recent weeks had shifted beyond government workers and party members to all citizens of Lhasa for the first time.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Islam

11. Taleban blames Afghans for drought
BBC, July 31, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]

The Taleban have told the Afghan people that they are to blame for the severe drought affecting the country.

The Taleban leader, Mulla Mohammed Omar, said it was God's punishment for the people's discontent with Taleban rule, and neglect of their religious duties.

Correspondents say that it is believed to be the first time the supreme leader has conceded that some elements of Afghan society are unhappy with the Taleban.
(...)

The Taleban proclamation says that Islamic scholars have been sent dreams, explaining the cause of the drought.

''First, most people are slack in performing their great worship,'' the Taleban leader said in the proclamation.

''Second, some people in Afghanistan are not thankful for the Islamic Emirate and the Islamic system, nurturing discontent, unnecessary prejudice and jealousy against it,'' the statement said.

The proclamation said that such behaviour was a sin against God ''which could prompt his tortures'', and declared that its rule was the envy of the Muslim world.

Other explanations
But the BBC's correspondent in Kabul, Kate Clark, says it is is not just the Taleban who are asking why God has sent tribulation against Afghanistan.
(...)

And some wonder if it is the Taleban themselves who have attracted divine wrath.

After all, they say, some of the worst-hit areas are in the south of the country - the Taleban's heartland.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Over Islamic law, a religious divide opens in Nigeria
Yahoo/AFP, Aug. 2, 2000
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A sixth state in northern Nigeria opted Wednesday to introduce strict Islamic law in the face of growing calls in the mainly Christian south for a loosening of ties forged 30 years ago in the heat of a bloody civil war.

Many here believe Jigawa's plans to adopt Sharia, one day after the state of Katsina, will drive a growing religious divide between the north and the south of Africa's most populous country.

More than 1,000 people -- 2,300 according to local newspapers -- have been killed this year in fighting between Christians and Muslims over the code, which sets out punishments like beating for drinking and amputation for theft.

Nigeria is split into 36 states, populated by more than 200 ethnic groups and home to two major religions, held together by a fragile federal constitution.

Islam, the religion of the north, entered Nigeria six centuries ago, brought by Arab traders bartering gold and slaves with local Hausa kings.

Christianity was brought in the 19th century by European missionaries and took hold in the south, most particularly the southeast.

For Muslims, Sharia has been part of northern Nigeria since the 1400s, and was only partly rescinded by British colonialists in the 19th century.

The reintroduction of full Sharia by six states -- Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Kano, Katsina on Tuesday and Jigawa Wednesday -- simply restores the religious nature of the north, they say.
(...)

The arguments are complicated by ethnic animosities, a history of northern military and political domination of the south, and a struggle for the wealth of the country which comes from the southern oil-region.
(...)

He said the growing drive to implement Sharia -- the northern states of Kebbi, Yobe, Borno and Bauchi are expected to follow suit soon -- was in part religious and in part political.

''The political and religious leaders recognise that people want a religious explanation for what is going on around them,'' Yusuf said.

''Whether or not the politicians are sincere, is only part of the issue. The ordinary people have been disillusioned by the secular world in the last 10 or 15 years and have turned to God.''

Many people, particularly in the foreign media, predict a civil war in Nigeria, but a prominent academic told AFP this was unlikely, and a misunderstanding of politics in the country.
(...)

Under the Sharia, the sale and drinking of alcohol is banned, adultery and theft are strictly punished and co-educational schools have been made single sex, while in one state public transport has been separated into male and female-only buses.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Uganda: Muslim youth right to flog pork woman
The Monitor (Uganda) , July 28, 2000 (Editorial)
http://www.africanews.org/education/stories/20000728/20000728_feat1.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Kampala - The picture published by The Monitor showing a woman being whipped by young men has sparked off hot arguments in many circles (See The Monitor, July 26).

According to the caption to the picture, the ''victim'', Fatuma Nawegulo, was being punished by Mukono Muslim youth for working in a pork butchery.

Many people have since argued that it was wrong for the young men to beat up the young woman who was only doing a job (See, for example, The Monitor editorial ''Wrong To Flog Fatuma Over Pork Butchery'' of July 27).

It is my contention that we accord this sad affair its religious background and assess the motives of the characters involved in that context.

Then we shall discover, inevitably, that the Muslims in question were justified, responsible, and mindful of greater aspirations when they helped Fatuma with a few strokes of the cane.

Every religion has a package. It is assumed that we join religions by accepting them as a way of life. Even those who join as infants, have an option of defecting when they find that they cannot fit in with the demands of the package, as a whole.
(...)

When Fatuma accepts to stay a Muslim, she binds herself to all the demands, duties and responsibilities of Islam, the convenient; like her name, and the inconvenient; like desisting from pork.
(...)

The stroke of the cane is an acceptable punishment with various advantages. If this is not in contention, and the motive is genuinely religious, then the problem must lie with the person subjected to the punishment.

There is nothing like freedom in religion. When a society starts entertaining feelings of liberalism, morals decline, irresponsibility and corruption take root.

This is why Uganda, a ''God-fearing'' nation hardly deserves such a name.

If Fatuma needed a job that compromised her religious beliefs, why didn't she change her religion, first?
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

14. Million Costa Ricans ask Virgin for end to violence
AOL/Reuters, Aug. 2, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
CARTAGO, Costa Rica (Reuters) - A million people gathered in Costa Rica's holy city of Cartago Wednesday to ask the Virgin Mary for an end to a crime wave that has traumatized the normally peaceful Central American nation.

A long line of pilgrims, many wearing white ribbons on their lapels as a symbol of peace, trekked 19 miles from the capital to a shrine in Cartago in an endless column to commemorate the 365th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin de los Angeles, Costa Rica's patron saint.

Some pleaded for favors in the shrine where an image of the dark-skinned Virgin, carrying a baby, is kept. According to lore, the image appeared to an Indian woman Juana Pereira, on Aug. 2 1635.

Some asked the Virgin to bless Costa Rica's soccer squad in the preliminary rounds of the 2002 World Cup.

But, according to surveys carried out by local radio, most of the estimated one million Costa Ricans attending the religious event appealed to the Virgin to end a crime wave that has seen kidnappings soar 500 percent in the past six months.
(...)

Long used to regarding itself as the Switzerland of Latin America, and relatively safe by regional standards, the nation of 4 million people has been stunned by recent violence.
(...)

At the shrine in Cartago, the head of Costa Rica's Roman Catholic Church called on the people to heed the word of God.

''Then we'll see the kidnappings and violence vanish like magic,'' said Monsignor Roman Arrieta.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Witchcraft

15. Witches, wizards head to Brasilia for annual convention
Kyodo News Service/Associated Press, July 28, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, July 28 (Kyodo) -- By: Lenilson Ferreira Hundreds of women and men are flocking to Brasilia for an annual convention of witches and wizards which will take place this weekend amidst the tress and artificial lakes in the Brazilian capital.

Dressed in black and displaying esoteric symbols on their garments, these modern-day witches and wizards say they have chosen the modernistic Brazilian capital city for the convention for its ''energetic features.''

According to organizers, the participants of the witchcraft convention will worship the ''goddess'' moon and perform other rites like ritual dances and meditation practices to the sound of new-age and ancient music

Conferences and debates on general witchcraft will also be held, covering areas like the occult, the use of herbs for medicine purposes and spiritual counseling.

Most of the participants say they are followers of a neo-pagan religion known as Wicca, which worships the nature and is inspired by non-Christian and pre-Christian religions of Europe.
(...)

According to Bainchi, a self-proclaimed witch, the values that are currently changing the world are related to women's intuition. ''That's why women are getting more powerful throughout the world nowadays,'' she said.

''Our main task at this convention is to debate women's role in Brazil's culture, politics and science,'' said Carolina Motta, a 21-year-old a law student also known as Luanin Luaetita, the name she uses when she practices witchcraft.
(...)

Brasilia is a traditional center of pilgrimage for the esoteric believers who say the city is an energetic center and claim they often view unidentified flying objects over the city.

Hundreds of them flocked to the city in December 1999 claiming the end of the world was close and aliens would rescue them to live in other planets.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes

16. Church Arson on the Rise, Insurance Company Reports
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, July 29, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A few years ago, church arson was big news, particularly when it involved racial hatred.

While 1996 did show a spike in the number of African American churches torched, those aren't the only religious groups targeted by arsonists, according to Church Mutual Insurance Co.

''Arson has always been a problem with churches,'' said Patrick Moreland, the company's vice president of communications in Merrill, Wis.

In rural areas, houses of worship are often in isolated areas. Even in cities, they may stand on large pieces of property. Either way, they are often easy targets for vandals or people who hate religion, want attention or are trying to cover up other crimes, Church Mutual says.

From 1995 until May this year, the company, which insures 71,000 churches and synagogues -- more than any other insurer in the country -- received 338 claims involving fires deliberately set by juveniles or adults, Moreland said. And that's just part of the actual number, he said. Many times, the exact cause of a blaze isn't pinned down until weeks after the claim is filed.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. Pekin hate fliers prompt FBI probe
Peoria Journal Star, July 29, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Publication date: 2000-07-29

If somebody distributed fliers in your neighborhood with your picture on them, and your wedding announcement, suggesting that relationships such as yours ''must be punished by DEATH,'' you'd think the persons responsible must have broken some law, wouldn't you?

In the case of the latest savagery from anonymous wordsmiths linked to Matt Hale, they may have only skirted it. A lot of people would like to find otherwise, and law enforcement officials are trying. They should be encouraged.

The issue is whether fliers distributed in Pekin attacking the marriage of WEEK-TV newscasters Edgar Sandoval and Shannon Tebben as ''bestiality'' because his ancestors are Filipino and hers are not constitute legal free speech or an illegal death threat. The content is beyond awful and concludes with a recommendation of punishment ''by DEATH.'' Matt ''Not My Fault'' Hale says he didn't see the fliers before they went out, but if he had, he would have approved. He says he knows who's responsible but isn't telling.

That complicates the case, assuming there is one.

''It's a hard call,'' says Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. Potok is not a lawyer but has a storehouse of knowledge about Hale's World Church of the Creator and similar racist groups. Generally speaking, he says, ''It's perfectly legal to say all police officers ought to be killed. It becomes a criminal threat when you're at an excited demonstration to say 'you ought to kill that police officer over there.''' The keys are identification of the individual and immediacy of the threat.

Sometimes where there may be no violation of criminal law, there could be cause for civil suit. Potok cites an antiabortion group that maintained a Web site called the ''Nuremburg Files'' which featured ''Wanted'' posters of abortion doctors, their home addresses, phone numbers, license plates and other identifying details. The site did not threaten death in so many words, but whenever a doctor was killed, a line was drawn through his name. The jury decided a ''reasonable person'' would take it as a threat, shut down the site and awarded $108 million to the plaintiffs. It's been appealed.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== General Assembly Church of the First Born

18. Clifton infant's death won't be ruled homicide
Denver Post, Aug. 3, 2000
http://www.denverpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[General Assembly Church of the First Born]
Aug. 3, 2000 - GRAND JUNCTION - The death of Billy Ray Reed, the infant who died recently after being denied medical care on religious grounds, could likely have been prevented with treatment, but will not be classified a homicide.

Mesa County Coroner Dr. Rob Kurtzman has determined Billy Ray died on July 9 from respiratory problems caused by a common birth defect of the heart that is rarely fatal if treated.

But because he can't determine for certain how noticeably severe the 3-day-old infant's symptoms were before he died and can't say for sure that medical intervention would have saved him, Kurtzman has classified the manner of Billy Ray's death as ''undetermined.''

''I favor homicide (as the classification), but I don't feel as if I am able to get to that threshold,'' Kurtzman said. ''To call this a homicide, I have to be sure a lifethreatening condition was recognized.'' The undetermined classification does not mean that Billy Ray's parents, Billy and Barbara Reed of Clifton, won't be prosecuted for following the anti-medical-care beliefs of the General Assembly Church of the First Born and not seeking medical help for their baby.

Mesa County District Attorney Frank Daniels said he has not determined if he will prosecute the Reeds as he did the First Born parents of another Mesa County infant who died after being denied medical treatment in February 1999.
(...)

Despite Colorado law that Daniels said makes the prosecution of these cases ''very murky,'' in some cases treating religious faith-healing as legitimate, Daniels did charge Joshua and Mindy Glory, the parents of Warren Trevette Glory.
(...)

The Reeds, Barbara, 23, and Billy, 31, and other church members who had been helping them since Billy Ray's birth on Friday, July 7, first called elders to pray for the baby early Sunday morning. He appeared gray and listless and had difficulty breathing as his heart was losing the ability to pump oxygenated blood to his lungs.

Kurtzman said at this point if Billy Ray had received treatment, such as supplemental oxygen and nutrition, he likely would have survived.
(...)

The Reeds have three other children ages 1, 3 and 5. A 2-year-old child died in June in a camper fire started by the children playing with butane lighters.

Following that death, the Mesa County Department of Human Services ordered the Reeds to move their remaining children out of the home they occupied because the house was reportedly filthy and filled with trash.
(...)

Billy Ray's death has prompted a new outcry for legislation that would make it easier to prosecute parents who withhold medical care from seriously ill minors.

Colorado parents currently can be prosecuted for child abuse only if it can be proved they knew the child's life was in danger or there was a risk of serious disability.

Colorado law is also muddied by a religious exemption that specifies faith-healing treatments recognized as valid by the IRS and insurance companies - in other words, Christian Science treatments - are considered as legitimate as standard medical treatments.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Coroner: Baby didn't have to die
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 3, 2000
http://www.insidedenver.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Medical attention most likely could have prevented the death of an infant whose parents belong to a church that does not allow traditional medical care, the Mesa County coroner said Wednesday.

Dr. Rob Kurtzman said Billy Ray Reed died July 9 of a congenital heart defect after the boy's parents and caregivers deprived him of medical care.

''If medical care had been provided, Billy Reed's death would almost certainly have been prevented,'' Kurtzman said in a written statement.

The infant's parents are members of the General Assembly Church of the First Born, a close-knit Christian sect that believes God has the sovereign power to heal.

Charges against Barbara and Billy Ray Reed Sr. are ''yet to be determined,'' District Attorney Frank Daniels said Wednesday. His decision will come some time after he receives the coroner's autopsy report and sheriff's department reports into the death of 3-day-old Billy Ray.
(...)

In a 1999 case involving church members whose 18-day-old son died, the coroner found pneumonia to be the cause of death and homicide the manner of death, Daniels said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Church holds fast to healing beliefs
Denver Rocky Mountain News, July 30, 2000
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Now 18-day-old Warren Trevette Glory lies in a flower-strewn grave near Grand Junction, his memory marked by a stone cairn and the words, ''Our little wrangler, asleep with Jesus.''

And his parents, Josh and Mindy Glory, are marked by a felony reckless endangerment conviction that carries 16 years' probation, holding them responsible for the 1999 death of their cherished only son.

Then, a few weeks ago, 2-day-old Billy Ray Reed was carried lifeless from his parents' Grand Junction home, ''his arms flopping out and his face blue,'' recalled neighbor Autumn Johnson. The cause of his July 9 death apparently was congenital heart failure.

His parents, who have been living away from home because of media attention surrounding the child's death, also may be charged.

The church to which the families belong - the white clapboard Church of the First Born, nestled near a peach orchard in Mesa County - is undergoing trial by public opinion.

At First Born, members shun medicine and seek healing by faith alone.

And if someone dies?

''Then it's the will of God,'' says Larry Glory, a construction worker and Trevette's grandfather. Like his wife, he is a direct, well-spoken Oklahoman whose age, in the mid-40s, belies his grandparent status.

''God knows what's best. If a child dies, there may be a reason, some future danger that he is protecting the child from.''

After all, said Judi Glory, ''Graveyards are filled with people who went to hospitals, too.''

Even Mesa County prosecutor Frank Daniels believes there are no bad guys in this story.
(...)

Yet Daniels, a husband and father of four daughters, says that doesn't excuse what they did - stand by while little Trevette suffered for five days, before suffocating from pneumonia.

''This was not inadvertent,'' said Daniels, 51. During the 2000 legislative session, he asked for the repeal of a common provision of child abuse statutes, called the Faith Healing Exception, which allows parents to have a certain amount of latitude in using faith instead of medicine to heal their children.
(...)

''There is a right to belief in faith healing - to a point,'' says Daniels, an Episcopalian. ''I pray when my children get sick. My wife and I have disagreed about the best time to call a doctor. But the right to practice religion freely does not include the right to expose a child to ill health or death.''

The issue is equally clear for the 40 members who roll up to this church for Wednesday evening service, which begins as the sun sets across the rock-ribbed mesa wall circling the city.
(...)

Church members range from young families to old-timers. Children meet a stranger's eye with a friendly smile. The accents are Oklahoma and southern states where the group, which dates from 1702 in Texas, is common. The woman wear no makeup, their modest dresses fall below the knee.

That's why they were hurt when TV crews arrived, said Judi Glory.

''They came even wearing short-shorts. That's wrong - this is our church,'' said Glory, whose long print dress, erect bearing and brown hair tumbling halfway to her waist would make her a credible lithograph of a pioneer woman.

So peaceable are the members of the Church of the First Born that even the sheriff's department feels protective of them.
(...)

Inside the simple meeting room, marked by oak pews, is a plaque detailing the history of this group, which believes it has retrieved the original spirit of Christianity. There are no ministers, and anyone may rise to begin a hymn or a prayer.
(...)

But they believe the clearest way they can demonstrate to God that they are following his Scripture is to trust God to heal.

Until the horrible day last year when her grandson died, Judi Glory said she saw the joy of faith healing - over and over again.
(...)

Like most members, Glory can recite a litany of healings, going back generations - fountains of blood that stopped with the touch of a healing hand, broken ribs healed. She is puzzled by what she sees as society's inconsistency, which allows the choice of abortion but would punish parents who chose faith healing to save their child.
(...)

Judi Glory insists there is no broken body that cannot be healed by God. ''When we pray, God takes the pain away, a lot faster than aspirin ... even when they do end in death, they get great relief before that happens.''

Why include children in such a rigorous faith - shouldn't it be limited to adults, who can choose for themselves? Glory pauses for a moment and then says simply, ''Because that's the way we believe.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

21. Brazilian sect buys London radio station
The Guardian (England), Aug. 3, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Christian evangelical sect, which tells its followers that diseases are caused by demons and prayer can rid them of debt, has taken control of a London radio station from Mohamed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is surrounded by controversy, with its Brazilian founder at the centre of corruption allegations, while the French authorities have branded it ''dangerous''.

Last night the church pledged not to use Liberty Radio, a speech and music station aimed at young women, to spread its unorthodox message.

But it admitted it would target people ''in difficult situations'' in late night broadcasts.
(...)

Asked whether the church's number would be given to callers, Mr Cardoso said it would depend on the circumstances.

He denied they would be proselytising on air, which is forbidden by the radio authority's programme code.
(...)

The protestant evangelist movement in Brazil was founded by a lottery shop assistant, Edir Macedo, in 1977, and has a following of millions.
(...)

Followers pledge 10% of their income to the church in the belief that God will return it later with interest.

In 1995, leaked videotapes broadcast on Brazilian national television showed its founder 'Bishop' Macedo grinning as he counted piles of dollars, and whooping it up in luxury hotels. The 'bishop' is shown exhorting his preachers to collect more from their flocks, saying: ''If they don't pay, they can get out.''

In Britain, an attempt to buy Brixton Academy as its national centre fell through in 1995, but it established a foothold when it acquired the Rainbow Theatre in London.

Leaflets circulated in Britain said the sect offered ''strong prayer to destroy witchcraft, demon possession, bad luck, bad dreams, all spiritual problems'' and said people would gain ''prosperity and financial breakthrough''.

In France, the church was described as ''dangerous'' in a recent parliamentary report.

French MP Jacques Yard claimed groups such as the Universal Church should not be allowed to operate because they ''try to control people's minds''. He accused them of extorting money from believers.

Senior members of the church have taken up management posts at Liberty Radio, including the new director, Paulo Monteiro, a minister, and the financial controller, Neila Akutu, who is married to a UK administrator.

The news was announced to Liberty staff in a memo circulated on Monday; the station director, John Ogden, and his deputy, Louise Wood, have both resigned in protest.
(...)

A spokeswoman for the Cult Information Centre said: ''There are very strict rules as to how religious groups advertise and how they fundraise on air. The rules in this country would prevent some of the things that cause concern in other countries. This church has always wanted to get a media platform, but I think they will find, if they have not done their research, that regulations in the UK are quite different from Brazil.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Parents neglected boy after wasp attack, attorney says
Miami Herald/AP, Aug. 2, 2000
http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/dade/digdocs/033877.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TAMPA-- (AP) -- Harrison Johnson was stung 432 times by yellow jackets, but instead of calling for medical attention, all the 2-year-old boy's parents did was give him a bath and some juice, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Kelly and Wylie Johnson are on trial for aggravated child abuse in the September 1998 death of their son. Prosecutors don't contend the Johnsons caused the boy's death, but do allege they neglected his medical needs.

The six-member jury won't be told that the Melbourne couple belong to an evangelical Christian sect that does not believe in medical treatment nor that the couple previously were acquitted of failing to report the death of a friend's infant daughter.
(...)

The Johnsons were thought to be members of a tiny Brevard County evangelical group called Bible Reader's Fellowship when the attack occurred. The group equates medicine with sorcery, and detectives said the Johnsons' were uncooperative in the investigation.

Earlier in 1998, the Johnsons were acquitted in an unrelated case in which they were charged with failing to report a death of a 1-month-old Palm Bay girl whose parents reportedly were members of the same religious sect.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Jesuit Order Settles Harrassment
Associated Press, Aug. 1, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A former Jesuit seminarian who said his elders tried to engage him in sexual acts has settled a harassment case with a Jesuit order, the seminarian said Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Former seminarian John Bollard claimed in a lawsuit that he was subjected to unwanted sexual advances and sexual innuendoes during his six-year tenure at the St. Ignatius college prep school in San Francisco and the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.
(...)

Bollard, who quit the Jesuit order in 1996, claimed that a dozen priests at St. Ignatius and at the theology school sent him pornography and made unwelcome sexual advances.
(...)

During the court proceedings, a legal precedent was set.

A judge originally threw out the sexual harassment case, but it was reinstated by a federal appeals panel. In December, the appeals court said the Jesuits could not avoid the lawsuit by claiming the ''ministerial exception'' to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

That exception bars courts from applying the law in hirings, firings and promotions in religious institutions. The reasoning is that civil rights law might clash with religious principles, such as the Catholic requirement that only men can be ordained priests.

But the appellate panel found that in sexual harassment cases, there are no religious beliefs at issue.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Society's Lures: Is Polygamous Sect Circling The Wagons?
Salt Lake Tribune, Aug. 3, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Adobe blocks, stacked four decades ago, still support one end of the school's roof. New computers blink in one classroom. In another, boys barely old enough to shave learn without the distraction of girls, who typically drop out of school around the age of 15.

Now, if townsfolk agree to follow the word of their prophet, the boys, too, will disappear from the Utah border area's public schools, leaving educators and experts in child welfare struggling to understand life inside the largest polygamist group in America.

''They just don't want anybody in there,'' says Ruth A. Huth, a domestic violence counselor for Utah's Division of Child and Family Services. Other than the nonpolygamous teachers at the four public schools in Colorado City, Ariz., and adjacent Hildale, Utah, Huth is one of a few outsiders who get a glimpse inside the society of the twin Utah-Arizona border towns.
(...)

In sermons delivered the past two Sundays, Warren Jeffs, first counselor of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), has called on the church's 10,000 members to withdraw their children from public schools and to spurn ''apostates,'' including relatives.

Jeffs speaks for his father, Rulon Jeffs, the FLDS prophet who is wheelchair-bound and nearly mute following a series of strokes.

As recently as two years ago, the polygamists had begun displaying a more amiable side to their neighbors. Glimpses of girls in gunnysack dresses and boys in overalls reminded many visitors of the Amish.

That relative openness may have come at a price. Leaders recently chastised followers for ignoring social strictures -- high collars, long skirts and no pierced ears, makeup or the casual mixing of unwed couples.
(...)

Some experts believe FLDS leaders are fearful the next generation will be lost to the allure of the modern world or to the mainstream, predominant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which disavowed polygamy 110 years ago.
Others think the withdrawal has to do with Rulon Jeffs' apocalyptic prophecies.

Whatever the catalyst, Mike King, a special investigator for the Utah attorney general, says the latest moves are eerily familiar to patterns followed by other closed societies.

''It's just amazing to me that each of these cults are so much alike,'' says King, whose work a decade ago led to the arrest and conviction of polygamous child abuser Arvin Shreeve. ''These same kind of control tactics surface time and time again. It all comes down to dominion, control and power.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Kansans Eject Anti-Evolution School Board Leaders
AOL/Reuters, Aug. 2, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news//a>
[Story no longer online? Read this]
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., (Reuters) - Charles Darwin and his theory got revenge in Kansas on Tuesday as voters turned out two of three state education leaders who last year led an effort to downplay the theory of evolution in school science classes across the state.

By a wide margin, Kansas voters used Tuesday's Republican primary race to reject re-election efforts by state school board chairwoman Linda Holloway and board member Mary Douglass Brown, and embrace instead their opponents who pledged support for evolution instruction. Steve Abrams, another board member who voted against evolution teaching, handily won his district.

But the dismissal of the two members virtually ensures the controversial evolution decision will be revisited when the board reconvenes early next year, and should weight the board with enough support to return evolution theory to the schools, observers said.
(...)

The three board members were key votes in the 6-4 decision in August 1999 to de-emphasize the theory of evolution in classrooms across the state and make room for other theories, including views linked to Biblical beliefs.

The action by the Kansas Board of Education shocked scientists and educators, but was notched as a victory for religious conservatives who increasingly have been challenging evolution instruction in science education in U.S. schools.
(...)

The money and support flowing into candidates' coffers on both sides of the issue far outweighed a typical state school board race. And both sides pushed campaigning outside the typical boundaries of yard signs and fliers.

Last month, several organizations supporting evolution teaching held events across the state to raise awareness of the issue. And in Lawrence, Kan., actors re-enacted the famed 1925 Scopes ''monkey trial'' in which teacher John Scopes was convicted of illegally teaching 19th-century British scientist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to high school students.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== UFOs

26. Science Fiction Writer Says Mankind'S Future In Stars Colonization Key To Saving Race
The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA), Aug. 2, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Victor Koman began writing science fiction books and medical thrillers about UFOs and extraterrestrial activity because he believed in alien life.

Now he considers colonization of space a necessity for the future of mankind.

Koman told a recent gathering of the Free Sonoma Forum, a Libertarian dinner club, that he plans to sell off his assets to be ready to travel to the stars.

Koman, a Southern California resident, said he is living leaner so he can pay off his debts and start saving for his trip. Commercial space travel will start within his lifetime, he believes, and he is even selling his science fiction collection on eBay.

Koman won Prometheus Awards for his books, ''The Jehovah Contract,'' ''Solomon's Knife'' and ''Kings of the High Frontier.'' He also wrote ''Death's Dimensions,'' which he calls a psychotic space story and a fun little romp. His newest book is entitled ''The Microbotic Menace.''

According to author Ray Bradbury, ''The Jehovah Contract'' has a fascinating concept and is imaginatively delivered. Of Koman, he says, ''Would that there were a dozen more writers like him in the field.''

Koman, who attended four colleges, said he recently sold the movie rights for ''The Jehovah Contract,'' the story of an assassin hired to kill God. The book, like all his works, has a Libertarian theme, he said, with God as the ultimate authoritarian.
(...)

A long-standing believer in UFOs and extraterrestrials, Koman thought it likely that aliens would come to him -- if they were going to come to anyone. ''I thought they would get me off this planet, so I could see the universe,'' he said.

Koman's disenchantment began in the early 1970s, when he began asking himself where the extraterrestrials were. Quoting Lucy from the comic strip Peanuts, he said: ''There can't be life out there or they would have contacted me.''
(...)

Koman said his core beliefs have been challenged and changed. Intelligent life is a long shot elsewhere in the universe, he said.
(...)

Koman maintains the government doesn't want people out in space because they would be out of their reach. ''It is a psychological problem,'' he said. ''There is no way to protect from an attack from space.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Plan To Relocate UFO Museum Feared
Albuquerque Journal, July 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Roswell City business leaders fear a plan to move the International UFO Museum and Research Center from downtown Roswell to the city's outskirts would steer hundreds of thousands of visitors away from downtown and devastate its economy.

Max Littel, treasurer and co-founder of the UFO museum, said he plans to relocate the museum about 10 miles west of the city to a site off U.S. 70 because it has outgrown its current location downtown.

But Roberta Ahlness, president of MainStreet Roswell's Board of Directors, is convinced downtown would suffer ''a major economic rupture'' if the UFO museum moved. She said the museum draws between 250,000 to 300,000 visitors every year and should remain within the city.
(...)

Littel said the number of museum visitors increases annually. This year alone, he said they've already seen 4,400 more visitors than the same time last year.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Lawrence, Kan.-Based Publishing Firm Sponsors Scholarly Book on UFOs
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, July 27, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
For most scholars, abductions by extraterrestrial aliens in unidentified flying objects are the stuff of Hollywood or grocery-store tabloids and not worthy of study by university faculty.

That's why University Press of Kansas decided to publish a scholarly book on the topic.

''The feeling among scholars is this is a disreputable field because it does not have the participation of people in the academy,'' said Michael Briggs, editor-in-chief of Lawrence-based University Press.

''What the field really needs is the attention from the academy from a variety of different dimensions to bring the standards up,'' Briggs said. ''This book is an attempt to jump-start interest in what is a very, very understudied field right now.''

''UFOs and Abductions'' is a collection of essays by scholars and researchers studying the phenomena of UFO abductions from a variety of disciplines. There are examinations from the standpoint of history, psychology and neurology. The book was edited by David M. Jacobs, an associate professor of history at Temple University.

''There is no consensus among the people in the book or in the field or coming from us about what it is,'' Briggs said. ''The point of the book is to say there is an 'it' and it would be good for academics to study 'it.'''
(...)

Even an area man who believes in UFOs thinks the book will never achieve its goal.

''Scientists will not believe in UFOs until they land on the White House lawn,'' said Scott Corder, an Ottawa physician.

Corder's medical license was suspended for three years in the early '90s because of his belief that UFOs bear messengers from God.
(...)

With 3,500 copies of the book in print, about twice the usual press run for one of the publisher's political science volumes, Briggs hopes it will reach an audience beyond academics.
(...)

In the three years the book has been in preparation, Briggs used three times the usual number of reviewers to make sure the book would not make University Press ''look foolish.''

University Press of Kansas is supported by the six state universities overseen by the Kansas Board of Regents. University Press publishes about 60 titles a year. In fiscal year 2000 the publisher sold 181,354 books and had sales of just more than $2 million.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance

29. Panel seeks labeling N. Korea, 3 others religious oppressors
Kyodo News Service/Associated Press, July 31, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WASHINGTON, July 31 (Kyodo) -- An advisory panel to the U.S. Department of State has recommended to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that the country designate North Korea, Laos, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan as ''countries of particular concern'' in terms of religious freedom, according to a report issued Monday.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote to Albright on Friday, suggesting that the four countries be added to the list of countries where violations of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act occur, the report said.

The department is scheduled to issue a new list in September. The first list released last year designated seven countries -- China, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Serbia and Sudan -- as countries of particular concern (CPCs).

Under the law, the U.S. president is authorized to shrink diplomatic ties with listed countries and impose sanctions on them by such measures as preventing financial aid from international institutions.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty

30. Panel investigating death penalty system takes public testimony
Chicago Tribune, Aug. 2, 2000
http://chicagotribune.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A parade of witnesses, many urging the abolition of capital punishment in Illinois, testified today before a panel appointed by Gov. George Ryan to examine the flaws of the state's death penalty system.

The panel, composed of defense lawyers, prosecutors and former judges as well as former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon and lawyer/novelist Scott Turrow, held a hearing at the James R. Thompson Center to elicit ideas from the public on how the system could be improved.

Former federal judge Frank McGarr, who headed the panel, said from the outset that pleas to abolish the death penalty would do no good because ''we are not the legislature ... and we can't abolish it.''

Yet during the hearing, for which about 120 people had signed up to testify, most of the testimony centered on just that.

A proponent of Ryan's moratorium on executions in Illinois, John Lyons, an 18-year-old Will County resident who works with Amnesty International, called the death penalty a ''display of cowardice on the part of society'' that emphasizes revenge over rehabilitation.

Joseph T. Monahan, representing an interfaith group from Evanston, said, ''there is no way to insure that we will not wrongfully execute innocent people.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. World's journalists try to explain Texas
Dallas Morning News, Aug. 2, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
PHILADELPHIA - Journalists from around the world have descended on the GOP national convention, in part to cover George W. Bush's nomination as president but also to try to explain and define his state to their readers.

Gabor Nagy, who writes for the Hungarian Financial Weekly, says Texas still summons up certain buzzwords and names: oil, J.R. Ewing, gunslinging cowboys. ''If you ask someone in Hungary to mention something that is relevant to Texas, that's what they will come up with,'' Mr. Nagy said.

But there is something else that is sometimes easily summoned up with Texas, something that is sculpting the international preconception of a second Bush presidency. Texas, like it or not, is seen by many readers in other countries as a state wedded to the death penalty.

As they follow the death-penalty debate in Texas, many Europeans have concluded that it ''is a barbaric measure with no proof that it works as a deterrence,'' said Uwe Schmitt, a veteran German journalist.

The death penalty in Texas, where more than 130 inmates have been put to death during Mr. Bush's administrations, can't help but color the way people overseas view the presumed GOP nominee for the presidency, Mr. Schmitt said.

Rejecting the idea that some readers had developed an image of Mr. Bush and Texas as ''bloodthirsty,'' Mr. Schmitt said it was more a matter of appearing ''thoughtless.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

32. Move afoot to detoxify ancient, once-benign swastika symbol
Seattle Post Intelligencer/New York Times, July 29, 2000
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/swas29.shtml
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Can the swastika be redeemed?

Before the Nazi Party adopted the swastika and turned it into the most potent icon of racial hatred, it traveled the world as a good luck symbol. It was known in France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, China, Japan, India and the United States.

Buddha's footprints were said to be swastikas. Navajo blankets were woven with swastikas. Synagogues in North Africa, Palestine and Hartford, Conn., were built with swastika mosaics.

Now there is a small movement afoot to help ''the swastika get on with its benign life,'' to separate it from ''the sins of the Nazis.'' Is that possible? Should it be possible?
(...)

The most concerted effort to redeem the swastika comes from Friends of the Swastika, a group formed in 1985 and based in the United States. The group, whose Web site promises that it ''has no connections to any racist propaganda'' and no intention of denying the Holocaust, is led by an artist named ManWoman who claims to have 200 swastikas tattooed on his body. In order to ''detoxify'' and ''resanctify'' the swastika, the group sells T-shirts, stamps, postcards and ''other cool stuff'' with swastikas. Their watchword is, ''To hell with Hitler!''

Does it matter whether swastikas are used in ignorance or in hatred or to rehabilitate a symbol? Heller says: ''Nazi icons were strong enough to seduce a nation and still contain a graphic power that can be unleashed today.'' The swastika defenders counter with the question: ''How can a symbol be guilty for the acts of a madman?''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


33. Spirituality, Not Exercise, Is At Root Of Yoga
Dayton Daily News, Aug. 1, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) ''What meditation and yoga aims at is the highest spiritual goal of total liberation and full enlightenment,'' said Panditi, a treasurer of the Dallas/Fort Worth Hindu Temple Society in Irving.

Total liberation?

Full enlightenment?

A quick flip through recent issues of fashion magazines and fitness center brochures could leave the impression that yoga is all about sculpted arms and tight rears.

For many, physical fitness and relaxation are the goals of yoga, and certainly those are lofty aims in a culture of traffic jams and fast-food drive-throughs.

But yoga can also have a spiritual effect, one that may exceed the bounds of religious denomination, Panditi said.

''It keeps me in shape,'' said Panditi, who began practicing yoga 31 years ago. ''But there is much more beyond the physical being. I think that is what we need to realize in yoga.''

Practiced widely in fitness centers, studios and homes, yoga can be seen as a global phenomenon with Indian roots that stretch back at least as far as 200 B.C., said Andrew Fort, professor of Asian religions at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
(...)

''What yoga is the practice of is seeing beyond your physical reality and seeing beyond your mental blocks and detaching yourself so you can be a passive witness, merely observing, not suffering,'' he said.

Patanjali Yoga as set out in the Yogasutra has eight parts, or limbs, which can be divided into three general categories: living a moral life; assuming right postures or breathing; and conscious mental control, Fort said.

Within those categories are many kinds of yogas that include recitations, seeking of knowledge and the practice of physical postures.

The ultimate goal may be conscious mental control, but it cannot be achieved without a moral life or physical health, Fort said.

''It is way beyond what people do when they say they are 'Going to do some yoga,' ' he said.
(...)

''Anyone with any religion can practice yoga,'' said Rollins, who teaches some of the center's 19 weekly classes. ''It has a spiritual side to it, but not a religious side.''

Fort would agree that the common practices of yoga, popularized in the United States in the 1960s and being revived in local gyms and studios, do not constitute a religion.

''What makes it a religion is that it comes out of a centuries-old system that is committed to enlightenment or perfect liberation,'' he said. ''... The vast majority of what's going on isn't religion.''

However, even for those who practice yoga to improve their health and release stress, spiritual elements can surface.

''It can be used strictly on a physical level,'' she said. ''But that spiritual element creeps in.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


34. The exorcists
The Southland Times (New Zealand), July 29, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Deliver us from well-meaning clerics and lay people who are conducting exorcisms and dabbling in things they know not of, messing around with people's heads and dark forces, senior churchmen with experience in such matters say.

Untrained exorcists confuse bereavement, depression and psychological conditions with the work of dark spiritual forces, they say.

There's a fine line between evil possession, which they all say does exist, and someone suffering from psychological or psychosomatic conditions.

They also warn against New Age religion, mysticism, tarot card reading and aspects of the occult such as ouija boards.

When we think exorcism, we tend to think The Exorcist, the 1973 film in which a 12-year-old girl has swivelling head, scary voices and projectile vomiting. It's just about guaranteed to further frighten those fragile personalities who are susceptible to demon- fearing and to encourage the ''deliverers.'' The growth of the charismatic movement across the religious spectrum, from pentecostal churches to established denominations, has seen an increase in untrained people performing deliverance rites.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


35. Rethinking messianism
The Jerusalem Post (Israel), July 30, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
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The failure to reach agreement at Camp David does little to ameliorate the theological upheaval under way within Religious Zionism. For this ideological camp, the diplomatic process of territorial withdrawal which began at Oslo and undoubtedly yet will continue (whether before or after the upcoming war with Yasser Arafat's army in the territories) - is an earthquake.

The most interesting and tangible result of this earthquake is a rethinking within religious Zionism of the messianic concept as it is applied to the modern State of Israel.

Leading Religious Zionist thinkers now argue that ''the messianic process'' demands that their community's energies be refocused on ''rebuilding'' Israel with more emphasis on the social and spiritual - not territorial - side of things.

More than a little settling-of-accounts factors itself into this ''refocusing'' process too. Listen to Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, rosh yeshiva of Har Etzion, the country's largest and most prominent hesder yeshiva - an institution generally not associated with the Land of Israel messianic line of Gush Emunim or Rabbi Kook:

''I deplore the absolute certitude about Divine will and the territories that so forcefully has accompanied the bold religious messianists - as if they were plugged into the celestial central switchboard! For many years they heaped scorn on anybody not as certain as they were that settling all parts of Judea and Samaria was God's personal will and immediate demand. Today, these people ought adopt for themselves a little more modesty, instead of 'enlightening' us with the latest theological update from God's Web site,'' asserts Rabbi Lichtenstein.

''Greater humility is called for regarding our ability to read God into the ups and downs of political history,'' he says.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat and dean of Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, agrees, and puts things into historical perspective.

''The pure messianism that dominated our religious Zionist community over the past 30 years - all that talk about 'inexorable messianic clocks' and the impossibility of territorial setbacks - is very similar to the pure messianism of Rabbi Akiva and Bar- Kochba of 2000 years ago - which failed.
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36. 'Crossing Over' Links to Hereafter
Associated Press, Aug. 1, 2000
http://live.altavista.com/
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- ''Crossing Over With John Edward'' is a talk show with a difference: The studio audience is live but the guests are goners. Outta here and into the hereafter. In other words, dead.

Host Edward is on hand to act as go-between. He's a grown-up version of the boy in ''The Sixth Sense,'' if the melancholy kid eventually figured out how to make a career out of making eye contact with the dearly departed.

''What you are about to see is real'' we are told at the beginning of the new Sci Fi cable channel series, showing at 11 p.m. EDT Sunday through Thursday (with repeats at 4 p.m. EDT the following day).
(...)

There are no recriminations for cheaping out on the casket, no admonishments for blowing the inheritance. There also aren't any towering insights about the meaning of it all, at least none that Edward is willing to share.

Instead, he crisply leads New York audience members and celebrities including Linda Dano and Carmen Electra through heavenly exchanges with late relatives or friends. (No fireside chats so far; as Edward puts it, he has yet to field a complaint about the heat.)

The host tells one woman that a man, apparently her late husband, is reaching out to her. She is unnerved when Edward relates details of a trip she took to Niagara Falls with the couple's daughter.
(...)

Edward compares his visions of the dead to daydreams in which information is delivered by sight, sound and feeling. He hasn't been briefed, according to the show.

Is it real? Fake? Who are we to say? (As one thoughtful friend advised, there may be peril in cynicism; antagonize Edward and you could find yourself without a very long-distance carrier someday.)
(...)

The Long Island, N.Y., native also knows how to disarm with humor. Describing an image of a dog, Edward asks a woman if her family has a new pet. Yes, she says, a goldfish.

''Nah, not doing fish,'' he responds.
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37. Evangelicals' conference confronts the complexity of reaching the world for Jesus
Associated Press, July 30, 2000
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After absorbing the absence of their leading figure, Billy Graham, evangelical Protestants gathered Sunday at their largest world conference ever began exploring the complexity of spreading the Christian message to all peoples.
(...)

In a message prepared weeks ago and distributed Saturday night, Graham said he intended his meeting to ''re-establish the priority of evangelism in our lives and in our churches,'' and to equip soul-winners with effective tactics.

Graham noted that due to technology ''for the first time in human history it truly is possible for us to reach the whole world for Christ.''

But the Rev. Billy Jang Hwan Kim, a Baptist pastor from South Korea, told the throng that only a third of the world's people are Christians and ''half of the world has yet to hear about the Savior's death on the cross.''
(...)

The Rev. Ravi Zacharias, a native of India now based in Atlanta, Georgia, who has evangelized college campuses in 60 nations, said 21st century preachers face this question:

''How do you reach a generation that listens with its eyes and thinks with its feelings?''

He said the emerging post-modern culture rejects absolute truth, whether from religion or science, posing a severe challenge to Christian claims. The answer, he said, will be Christians' authentic lives and sense of community.

Asked about missionary work among other religions, Zacharias told reporters it's an illusion to think that Hindus or Muslims are not evangelizing among Christians, or that Christianity is the only faith holding to ''points of exclusivity.''
(...)

On the Net: http://www.amsterdam2000.org">www.amsterdam2000.org
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=== Books

38. Literary World Is Making More Room for Religion
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
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It is as if a flying saint slipped under the radar. That or a biblical prophet disguised as an ordinary guy. In high literary circles, where a fine mesh strains out only the rare talents, religion is a welcome intruder. Many fiction writers praised by critics for their ''brilliant'' and ''luminous'' work are building their reputation nowadays on life's deepest mystery.

The literary heritage behind this trend glitters with such names as Flannery O'Connor and Bernard Malamud. But while older generations frequently had no patience for religion's hairsplitting rules and false pieties, these new writers are more inclined to accept them, with respect and at times bemusement. In their hands the trappings of faith can seem as familiar as old furniture or as exotic as artifacts from a lost civilization. Religion itself does not attract them but, rather, the unpredictable effects of belief.
(...)

It is startling enough to watch our Judeo-Christian heritage being reclaimed by serious fiction, but with cultural diversity infusing the whole country, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Maya traditions are almost as likely a presence.
(...)

From the publishing point of view, the exploding interest in cultures from around the world is providing a natural carrier for religious themes. ''The industry is opened to groups not represented in the past,'' says Janet Silver, editor in chief for Houghton Mifflin in Boston. ''You find writers from cultures that define themselves by religion, in ways that Americans do not. Religion in fiction overlaps a trend toward interest in international writing.''

That plus the stratospheric sales figures attached to recent Christian fiction such as the ''Left Behind'' series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The seven installments so far have sold about 18 million copies. The critical and financial success of nonfiction books on topics of religion has also helped. Kathleen Norris' spiritual memoir ''Cloister Walk'' (Riverhead) and ''God a Biography'' (Knopf) from Jack Miles, a senior advisor at the J. Paul Getty Trust, are among those Silver mentions.

Wide as their range of subjects may be, the younger fiction writers who take up religious themes have a few things in common. Their references to beliefs and institutions may be explicit but they are not promoting a faith.
(...)

So many people have stepped back to question their religious traditions that entire generations of Americans now find themselves piecing back together what got tossed aside. Julia Robinson leads secular book groups whose members are fascinated by what they discover in fiction that touches on religion.
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39. Former LA Times publisher named CEO of Chopra-backed media company
Fox Market Wire, Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.foxmarketwire.com/
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SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Kathryn M. Downing, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times, has been named CEO of MyPotential Inc., a startup that will produce books, television programming and Internet content about health and well-being.

MyPotential, co-founded by spiritual counselor and author Deepak Chopra, will formally launch a Web site, MyPotential.com, and other ventures later this year, said Mallik Chopra, daughter of Deepak Chopra and also a co-founder.
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