=== Japan - Takao Wasaka
1. Autopsies confirm siblings starved
2. Five found dead as Japan's police unmask house of horrors
3. Five found dead at self-styled guru's house
4. Bodies of 5 puzzle police
5. Man, sister left dead bodies for religious reasons

=== Catholic God's Spirit
6. Film damns troops in `massacre' of cult
7. Ping: There was 'sufficient provocation' in Bukidnon carnage

=== Branch Davidians
8. Judge Orders FBI Testimony in Waco

=== Falun Gong
9. Australia raises Falun Gong harassment in talks with China

=== Scientology
10. Scientologists revile politician

=== Buddhism
11. Incarnate lama denies China destroying Tibetan culture
12. Temple claims founder's ashes turning into figurines

=== Mormonism
13. Mormons and Christianity addressed
14. Spiritual Confessors or Informants?

=== Paganism / Witchcraft
15. Pagans Outrage Pell City Neighbors

=== Hate Groups
16. Commission eyes special rules for trial (Aryan Nations)

=== Rebirthing
17. Details of rebirthing death emerge

=== Attleboro Cult
18. Cultist's infant son officially ruled dead
19. Attleboro sect leader loses custody of surviving children

=== Other News
20. Cult survivor tells of death after Satan fails to rise
21. O'Hair conspirator may get life

=== Death Penalty / Human Rights Abuses
22. Appeal for decency as Georgia prepares to execute a mentally ill
child offender
23. USA. Abandoning justice
24. Russian Church Decries Death Penalty

=== Noted
25. Looking on the bright side can be bad for you

=== Books
26. Harry World: bewitching or bewitched?
27. Rowling wins legal victory in row over copyrights
28. Potter movie protest


=== Japan - Takao Wasaka

1. Autopsies confirm siblings starved
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Aug. 18, 2000
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
OSAKA -- Autopsies conducted on the bodies of four sisters and their brother, discovered Wednesday afternoon at the home of Takao Wakasa in Sennan, Osaka Prefecture, confirmed suspicions that they died from starvation at different times between late June and early August, police said Thursday.
(...)

Wakasa, 66, was quoted by police as saying he had instructed the five, who were aged between 27 and 41, to consume only water after the family spent the last of its savings.
(...)

Wakasa's mother, who died several years ago, was a member of a religious cult, police said. She reportedly told her children and grandchildren to avoid contact with outsiders because they would be tainted with the same bad luck as those they spoke with.

Police suspect the children led reclusive lives due to the influence of their grandmother and Wakasa and Akiko's determination to continue indoctrinating them with her religious philosophy.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Five found dead as Japan's police unmask house of horrors
AAP, Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.excite.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Japanese police said today they had discovered a house of horrors containing the badly decomposed bodies of five siblings whose uncle ordered them to starve to death in a bizarre religious rite.

The find in the western city of Osaka marks the latest in a series of grisly cases involving strange cults and deranged youths that has shocked Japan.

Police discovered the bodies, lying side by side on futons last night, following a call by a relative concerned at the behaviour of the family headed by the 66-year-old uncle, Takao Wakasa.
(...)

Police had to barge past Wakasa and his 64-year-old sister Akiko, who refused them entry because they were engaged in some form of Buddhist religious training, the official said.
(...)

All five were Akiko's children, identified as 41-year-old Suiko Wakasa, her sisters Kaoru, 38, Eiko, 29, Hiromi, 28, and Akiko's 27-year-old son Minoru.

They had not eaten anything for a month to mid-July when they died, the official quoted Akiko as telling investigators.

''Takao is a master. He commanded we should neither eat nor drink at all to attain higher religious achievement,'' she told police.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Five found dead at self-styled guru's house
Japan Times (Japan), Aug. 18, 2000
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
OSAKA -- The badly decomposed bodies of five adult siblings were found by police Wednesday evening in the Sennan, Osaka Prefecture, home of their 66-year-old uncle, a self-styled guru.
(...)

Investigators have begun questioning Wakasa and the mother of the deceased, both of whom were found lying in bed in a weak condition, the sources said.

Wakasa was quoted as telling investigators that the five were not slain, but died one by one starting about two months ago after the family ran out of food.

In explaining why the bodies were left in the house and authorities weren't notified, Wakasa and Akiko told police that they wanted to take care of things themselves, the sources said.
(...)

Wakasa was also quoted as telling police that the five were dirty and that he ''had God cleanse them,'' investigators said.

Police said there were indications that the incident may be tied to some religious belief, adding that Wakasa is a self-styled guru without an establishment.

According to those who know the family, Wakasa has been religiously active for about 30 years and alienated the family and himself from society because of his religious beliefs.
(...)

Some neighbors said they could hear music that sounded ''very religious'' emanating from the house from morning to night. They said the family would sometimes spread huge amounts of salt around the house.

Others said that the house had an altarlike space and that they thought the family was conducting religious rituals inside.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Bodies of 5 puzzle police
Asahi News (Japan), Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SENNAN, Osaka Prefecture-In a confession that raises more troubling questions than it answers, a mother and her brother told police they denied the woman's five adult children food and let them starve to death, following ``divine instructions.''

Osaka police found the decaying bodies of a man and his four elder sisters when they forcibly entered a house in the city of Sennan on Wednesday.

Investigators, stunned by the bizarre scene, were questioning the mother Akiko Wakasa, 64, and her brother, Takao, 66, for not reporting the deaths and abandoning the bodies.

According to police, the pair told investigators they deprived the children of food and allowed them to die because it was ``divinely willed.''

Police officials said they suspect the deaths may have resulted from the culmination of religious rites. Investigators said they plan to arrest the woman and her brother for abandoning the bodies. The couple remain in an extremely weakened physical state.
(...)

Takao told police the family did not eat from mid-June to mid-July and indicated that the children starved to death.

Their mother Akiko had previously told neighbors she had become a ``guru.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Man, sister left dead bodies for religious reasons
Kyodo News Service/Associated Press, Aug. 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
OSAKA, Aug. 17 (Kyodo) -- Police said Thursday a 66-year-old man and his 64-year-old sister whose five children were found dead at their house in Sennan, Osaka Prefecture, may have left the bodies there for religious reasons, as the man calls himself a cult leader.

According to police, Takao Wakasa and his sister Akiko Wakasa told them they ''do everything by ourselves'' in explaining why they had left the bodies inside the house and not contacted the proper authorities.
(...)

Police earlier quoted Takao as saying they had died ''due to shortage of food'' and that he had asked God to purify them.

The family had not applied for aid from the prefectural government even though none of them was employed, police said, adding there was no food in the house and they were behind with their gas and electricity payments.

Police suspect the family had lived on its savings and inheritance money but that this had recently run out.

They said Takao had been engaged in religious exercises for 30 years and called himself a cult leader, but his group had not registered as a religious corporation.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholic God's Spirit

6. Film damns troops in `massacre' of cult
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), Aug. 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Outrage over the apparent massacre last week of 16 members of a religious cult by troops has prompted inquiries by four government agencies.

The slaughter, having taken place in the remote southern province of Bukidnon, might have been dismissed as just another firefight between armed radicals and government forces if not for the footage taken by the cameraman of a local news station.

The film shows men armed only with short swords and knives being gunned down by policemen and soldiers wielding M-14 and M-16 assault rifles.

''If you look at the footage, apparently there was an overkill,'' said Aurora Recina, chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), which is investigating the killings.

The Ombudsman, the Senate, and the Office of the President have also initiated their own inquiries.

''It appeared that the arresting team indiscriminately fired their guns upon the cult members, including those who were already running away from them,'' said Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, who yesterday sent a three-member inquiry team to Bukidnon.

Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Robert Barbers said the footage showed excessive force was used by the government troops.

Nine policemen, four soldiers and 17 military reservists had gone to a community of the Catholic God's Spirit cult in Bukidnon province to arrest one of its members, Roberto Madrina, over a murder case. A battle broke out that left 16 cultists and four reservists dead.

The police reported that the sword-wielding cult members, who believe their rituals make them invulnerable to physical harm, charged the government forces.

But the video footage tells another story.
(...)

''It was mass murder,'' said Marie Hila-Enriquez, secretary-general of the civil rights group Karapatan.

Peterson Bergara, who took the video footage, contradicted the claim by government spokesmen that warning shots were fired. He also confirmed that it was only after Madrina was shot that the cultist drew his sword.
(...)

National police chief General Panfilo Lacson said it was apparent the armed forces were emotional, and might have been in a vengeful mood.

General Lacson is no friend of rights groups, having once been absolved for the summary execution of 11 robbery suspects five years ago. But even he said excessive force was used against the cultists. He hinted that murder charges might be filed against the government agents.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Ping: There was 'sufficient provocation' in Bukidnon carnage
The Philippine Star (Philippines), Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.philstar.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Panfilo Lacson blamed yesterday the Catholic God's Spirit or Tadtad cult for provoking the Aug. 11 killing of 16 of its members in Panguntacan town in Bukidnon.

The clash between the cultists and a 23-member composite team from the PNP, the Army and militiamen from the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) also left three of the militiamen and a civilian volunteer killed.

''There was sufficient provocation (before the clash),'' Lacson told reporters after viewing an unedited video footage of the incident.

However, Lacson added that the lawmen also committed ''excesses'' in trying to serve a warrant of arrest against cult member Roberto Madrina Jr., who was one of the fatalities.

Early yesterday, Lacson told reporters at Camp Crame that the lawmen involved in the incident committed murder.

''We are not talking here (of any violation) of the (PNP) rules of engagement or an overkill. It is plain and simple murder,'' he said.

But after viewing the full unedited video footage of the incident taken at the scene by ABS-CBN cameraman Apeng Peterson yesterday afternoon, Lacson said it was the cultists who provoked the lawmen into opening fire at them.
(...)

Lacson refused to make a categorical statement as to who he thought was responsible for the apparent overkill and violations of the rules of engagement. He left to reporters, who also viewed the tape, to make their own judgment.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Branch Davidians

8. Judge Orders FBI Testimony in Waco
AP, Aug. 11, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DALLAS (AP) - The judge deciding Branch Davidians' wrongful death lawsuit against the government said Friday he has changed his mind and will order a court-appointed expert to testify on whether FBI agents shot at the Waco compound the day it burned.
(...)

Smith on Friday set a Sept. 18 hearing for Oxlee to testify about the findings.

Smith had originally decided against requiring Oxlee to come from England to testify after plaintiff's attorney Michael Caddell said he wouldn't participate in the hearing.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

9. Australia raises Falun Gong harassment in talks with China
Kyodo News Service/Associated Press, Aug. 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SYDNEY, Aug. 17 (Kyodo) -- Australia raised concerns about China's treatment of Falun Gong practitioners and reports of harassment of the sect's followers in Australia during bilateral talks in Canberra this week, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday.

Downer said the issue was raised during the fourth round of annual human rights talks that ended Wednesday night.

Some Australian followers of Falun Gong -- a Chinese sect combining religious teachings with meditation and exercise -- have made complaints to local media that they have been harassed and put under surveillance by Chinese diplomatic officials here.

''We obviously wouldn't want to see harassment of any Australian citizens in Australia or for that matter anywhere by any embassies or diplomatic officials,'' Downer told reporters.

''We raised these concerns...with the Chinese not only in the past couple of days but also back in May,'' he said.

Earlier this week China's embassy in Canberra issued a statement rejecting the charges of harassment and claiming Falun Gong activities in Australia were damaging relations between the two countries.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

10. Scientologists revile politician
Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland), Aug. 11, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/000811a.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Ursula Caberta, Director of the Hamburg Agencies' Work Group on Scientology, did not believe her eyes and ears when she arrived at the airport in Tampa, Florida. About 50 Scientologists were shouting ''Nazi go home'' at her, as proved by video tape recordings. The Hubbard adherents were also holding up signs in the air which said the same thing.
(...)

The psycho-terrorism continued at her hotel. ''They followed every move I made,'' said Caberta of the Hamburg SPD administration, who is involved with Scientology as a result of her office. Nevertheless she still met with American Scientology critics. The Scientologists' attorneys took their revenge with an operation of a curious kind. They shoved a court summons under her hotel door. The attorneys had managed to motivate a judge to order an immediate deposition. ''It was a five-hour hearing like the Stasi used to have,'' stated Caberta. A German Scientology attorney had traveled from Munich for the occasion.

Lawsuit for Damages
The operation was rounded out with a lawsuit for damages from a Scientology-affiliated businessman who demanded 75,000 dollars. The businessman claimed Caberta ruined a major contract for him with her information work. ''It has become painfully clear to me why the Scientologists are able to operate unhindered in the USA,'' said Caberta, ''They can take care of any critic they want by using these court and legal proceedings.''

The German Consul General urged Caberta to depart ahead of schedule because he was concerned about further actions from the Scientologists. Caberta didn't have to think it over long: ''Unbelievable what they can do in the USA with tourists,'' she said. ''And of all countries, this is the one which regularly accuses Germany of violating human rights because we dare to talk about Scientologists.'' She lost her faith in the American legal system.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Though it claims to promote ethical behavior, the Church of Scientology
increasingly behaves like a hate group. It's harassment practices are
well-documented.

Ms. Caberta is, of course, not a Nazi. Lying is simply something Scientologists learn to do. After all, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard declared that the cult's enemies may "be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed. "

''The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.''
- L. Ron Hubbard, A Manual on the Dissemination of Material, 1955

Those kind of practices do not go unnoticed:

''Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious...It is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit''
- Justice Latey, ruling in the High Court of London, as quoted at
''Scientology Lies'': http://www.scientology-lies.com/

=== Buddhism

11. Incarnate lama denies China destroying Tibetan culture
BBC Monitoring, Aug. 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[Buddhism]
Text of dispatch by reporter Ni Siyi entitled: ''Living Buddha Jamyang says: Economic development is premise for protecting or developing nationality culture and for protecting freedom of religious belief in Tibet'' carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)
Beijing, 16th August: Jamyang Losang Jigme Tubdain [Thubden] Qoigyi [Choki] Nyima, vice-president of Buddhist Association of China and Living Buddha of Labrang Buddhist Monastery in Gansu, today severely criticized here certain people for obstructing economic development in the areas inhabited by the Tibetan nationality under the banner of ''maintaining characteristics of nationalities'' and ''protecting religious culture.''

Jamyang stated: ''Only by developing the economy in the areas inhabited by the Tibetan nationality and improving the livelihood of the people of the Tibetan nationality will we be able to better maintain the cultural heritage of the Tibetan nationality or protect the freedom of religious belief or otherwise the culture or traditional religion of the Tibetan nationality would become exhibits only to be 'admired' by others and would gradually wane.''

Jamyang made these remarks at ''China's Religious Circles' Symposium on the Question of World Peace,'' which is being held here.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Temple claims founder's ashes turning into figurines
The Star (Malaysia), Aug. 14, 2000
http://thestar.com.my/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
KUALA LUMPUR: A dead person's ashes turning to figurines resembling dragons, peaches and images of Buddha?

It may sound like a scene from an X-Files episode but this is what a temple in Cheras claims has happened to the ashes of its cremated master.

Disciples of the San Fook Lin House said the ashes of temple founder Hui Bao master Wong Sam Mui, 69, who died on Aug 5 and was cremated on Thursday, had also turned into different hues of black, green, red and blue.

Reverend monk master Kuang Suen, from Fujian, China, said such a phenomenon was said to be seen only among Buddhists who had truly achieved sainthood or nirvana.
(...)

Kuang said the figurines found among Wong's ashes included that of a dragon, peaches, grapes, images of Buddha, green crystals, stones bearing the colours of gold and black, pearls and an image of a person kneeling down.

Visitors and devotees thronged the temple to view the ''exhibits'', which had been put up for display on two trays.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormonism

13. Mormons and Christianity addressed
Deseret News, Aug. 6, 2000
http://www.deseretnews.com/?
''Are Mormons Christian?'' is a perplexing question to ask, according to Bill Martin, associate professor of philosophy at Chicago's DePaul University. That's because he's not sure what Christianity is, given the transformation of the movement during its first three centuries after Christ.

Martin, who is a Methodist, addressed the topic of ''Mormons and Christianity, or, Are Christians Mormon?'' during a Sunstone Symposium session Saturday at the downtown Marriott Hotel.

''Mormonism is a form of Christianity . . . and remains a valuable addition,'' he said.

Martin believes Greek philosophy took over Christianity about 300 years after Christ and turned it into a philosophy test or what he calls ''ontological Christianity.''
(...)

In his view, Mormonism was like a reinvention of Christianity, since Mormons believe other Christian churches had run out of steam.

What does it mean to be a Christian? What difference does it make? Why don't we just ask whether Mormonism is good? are key questions Martin said that need asking.

''It's become a game - I'm a Christian and you're not,'' he said. ''And the 'you're not' doesn't seem very Christian.''
(...)

He said some churches believe in the Trinity, a Godhead that's separate and yet three-in-one. Martin said he can't understand that concept and that even the Bible doesn't address it well.

''What does it mean to believe things that make no sense?'' he asked, saying if he's asked to believe something, he needs to understand it. Martin believes that was basically Joseph Smith's point of view, to ask what makes sense. He feels belief and action have to have a connection - beliefs have to make you live differently.

Martin admits a deep sympathy for certain aspects of Mormonism.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Mormons are not Christians. A Christian is a disciple of Jesus Christ as
presented in the Bible - not the Jesus Christ created by Mormonism's false
prophets. Just like attaching a Roll Royce logo to a Volkswagen does not
make the latter a Rolls Royce, using the name of Jesus Christ does not make
Mormonism ''Christian.'' Suggesting the Mormon Jesus is ''Christian'' is, in
fact, as dishonest as selling a counterfeit watch as a ''Rolex.'' After all,
the ''Jesus'' created by the Mormon Church is far different from - and
incompatible with - the biblical Jesus Christ

14. Spiritual Confessors or Informants?
Salt Lake Tribune, Aug. 15, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Declaring himself innocent of wrongdoing, LDS Bishop Bruce Christensen plans to challenge the constitutionality of a Utah law that sometimes forces clergy to inform on members of their own flock.

The ''failure to report'' statute requires clergy to report suspected child abuse to police or child-welfare officials unless the sole source of their information is the perpetrator himself.

Defense attorney Bradley Rich said Monday that Christensen's case is bound to land before the Utah Court of Appeals because the reporting statute improperly mixes government and religion -- forcing members of the clergy to assume the role of police officers.

''We ought not to require him [Christensen] to sit in judgment on his own ward members,'' Rich said.
(...)

Christensen is the third Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bishop charged this year with failing to report.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Paganism / Witchcraft

15. Pagans Outrage Pell City Neighbors
CBS/WIAT.com, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.wiat.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The small, quaint town of Pell City has been compared by many to Mayberry. To Sondra Mcdonald, it more closely resembles 17th Century Salem.
Then again, McDonald is a high priestess in the Wiccan Church.

She and other Wiccans gathered Tuesday in the 30th Street home of Robert Hamilton, a high priest in the newly incorporated Sacred Circle Covenent. Court papers signed by the a Saint Clair County probate judge legally make Hamilton's rented home a house of Wiccan worship.

Police surround the house on all sides - blocking off streets, they say, to keep the peace as the Wiccans prepare to celebrate a ''minor sabbath day'' under the summer's last full moon.

Neighbors - all Christians - are none too happy.

''It's witchcraft...demonic...it's devil worship,'' shout a group of protestors, adjectives flying too fast to attribute them to any one individual.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Wiccans do not believe Satan exists, and thus do not worship him.

=== Hate Groups

16. Commission eyes special rules for trial
The Spokesman Review, Aug. 15, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Kootenai County commissioners are expected to pass a resolution today to make it easier for deputies and bailiffs to manage crowds expected for the Aryan Nations civil trial.

The resolution would ban everyone - except the attorneys for both sides - from taking cameras, computers, cellular phones, pagers, video cameras and laptop computers into the Kootenai County Justice Building beginning Aug. 28 and lasting for the duration of the trial.
(...)

The resolution is part of county efforts to bolster security for the trial that will pit the Aryan Nations' organization and its leader, Richard Butler, against a mother and her son.

Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, allege in their civil lawsuit that members of the Aryan Nations fired shots at them while they were outside of the compound in July 1998.

The Keenans are represented by Morris Dees, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney, who has said he hopes to bankrupt Butler's group.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Rebirthing

17. Details of rebirthing death emerge
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 16, 2000
http://insidedenver.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Ten-year-old Candace Newmaker was on an anti-depressant and a psychotropic drug to calm her when she underwent a fatal ''rebirthing'' therapy in Evergreen, a Jefferson County sheriff's detective said Tuesday.

And in another detail to emerge from the preliminary hearing, Candace said on videotape - minutes before the therapy began - that she'd had a dream the night before that she was ''being murdered and thought she would die,'' said Diane Obbema, the sheriff's investigator.

A hearing for the four people charged in Candace's smothering death was continued until Thursday by Jefferson County Judge Charles Hoppin.

Julie Ponder, 39, Connell Watkins, 53, Brita St. Clair, 41, and Jack McDaniel, 47, are charged with child abuse resulting in death. Candace's adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker of Durham, N.C., was present during the April 18 therapy and has been charged with a lesser felony.
(...)

Rebirthing is a last-ditch effort to try to get a troubled child to heal birth trauma and bond with parents, its proponents say. The therapy's critics say it's voodoo science that creates even more trauma for the child.

Obbema testified that Candace's prescriptions dramatically fluctuated in the days before her death. She was on Dexadrine, an amphetamine, just before arriving in Colorado, which her mother said was to combat attention deficit disorder, Obbema said.

Evergreen psychiatrist John Alston took Candace off an anti-depressant, Effexor, seven days before her death, Obbema said. But the girl was placed back on the drug the day before she died because her therapy hadn't progressed as they'd hoped, Obbema said.

The psychotropic drug, Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug which is used to calm, was doubled on April 11 to 11/2 milligrams twice a day, Obbema was told by Jeane Newmaker, to counteract ''a long history of assaultive behavior.''

Ponder described Candace to Obbema as ''not emotionally present.''
(...)

Candace remembered being dropped by her birth mother from a two-story window before she was placed in several foster homes and then was adopted by Newmaker, Obbema said.

Candace told Ponder she wanted to be rebirthed ''since it would commit her to be safe and not fall out the window.'' But she also recounts the nightmare, just 10 minutes before the therapy begins, Obbema said.

''Candace told Julie that she had a nightmare, a nightmare she had had previously about being murdered,'' Obbema said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Attleboro Cult

18. Cultist's infant son officially ruled dead
Boston Globe, Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.boston.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ATTLEBORO - A juvenile court judge yesterday formally declared the infant son of Jacques Robidoux dead, and called Robidoux, who leads an obscure Christian cult, a ''false prophet'' who has led his followers into prison and their children into danger.

''I am convinced that he is dead,'' said Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth P. Nasif, his tone reflecting frustration at having tried for months to get Robidoux to reveal the whereabouts of his son.

''I feel very bad for you, sir. I truly do, and for the people you've led down your road,'' said Nasif, as Robidoux stood quietly before him.

''You are not a prophet. You are a false prophet. And your action, in my judgment, has caused the death of an innocent child who suffered before he died,'' the judge said.

Nasif then cited a verse from the Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 23: ''`I am against those who prophesy false dreams.'''
(...)

The judge's denunciation of Robidoux, who has told Nasif the fate of his son is between him and God, came as the Department of Social Services moved to gain permanent custody of 13 other children who have been associated with the cult.
(...)

Charges of civil contempt against Robidoux for refusing to cooperate in the custody case were dropped yesterday after the judge declared that Samuel Robidoux is dead.
(...)

In two private sessions yesterday, at the request of DSS, Nasif stripped Robidoux's wife, Karen, of her parental rights over her four children. The fathers of two of the children, both boys, were granted custody by Nasif yesterday, a court source said.

Both men declined comment. The other two children, both girls, may be adopted by an aunt from out of state.

Nasif also ended the parental rights of Tim and Rebecca Corneau over their three daughters, according to the court source. Authorities are trying to determine what happened to Jeremiah Corneau, their son, who may have been stillborn. A paternal aunt has expressed interest in adopting the children, the source said.
(...)

Today, Nasif will decide whether to allow former cult member Dennis Mingo to retain custody of his five children. Their mother, Rebecca Robidoux Mingo, is one of the cult members imprisoned on criminal contempt.

Nasif will also decide whether to end Tim and Rebecca Daneau's custody of their daughter.

Nasif's decision to end the civil contempt charges against Jacques Robidoux does not mean Robidoux and his followers will be freed from prison, according to Bristol Assistant District Attorney Walter Shea, who is leading the criminal investigation. Potential charges against the cult members range from improper disposal of a body to murder, he said.
(...)

''There is no one, whatever their religious beliefs, who has the right to simply refuse to answer questions or assert some constitutional right'' when called before a grand jury, Shea said. ''In essence, they are ignoring the law completely.''
(...)

When authorities became involved last fall, there were 13 adults and 13 children who were members of the cult, Shea said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Attleboro sect leader loses custody of surviving children
Boston Herald, Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.bostonherald.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A frustrated, scripture-quoting Attleboro judge called a reputed cult leader a ``false prophet'' yesterday before ruling that the man's missing 10-month-old son is dead and taking away his other four children.
(...)

Robidoux, sporting prison blues and his trademark long beard, is the target of a Bristol County grand jury probe into last summer's disappearance of his son, Samuel.

According to cult manifestoes and investigators, the boy starved to death after he stopped nursing and was buried last October in Maine's Baxter State Park by four adult sect members, including Robidoux.
(...)

Nasif took away Robidoux's other four children, as well as those of fellow cultists David and Rebecca Corneau, whose infant son, Jeremiah, is believed to have been stillborn and buried alongside Samuel. Jeremiah's death is part of the ongoing probe.

Adoption plans are in place for all of the children, state Department of Social Services spokeswoman Carol Yelverton said. The fate of the remaining cult children - including those of former member Dennis Mingo - will be decided today.

Mingo, who has taken out restraining orders against the cult, has temporary custody of his kids, while their mother, Michelle Mingo, is one of eight sect members behind bars for refusing to talk to the grand jury.

``It's a sad day,'' Mingo said, adding that he hasn't spoken with his wife or any other cult members since the probe began. ``I don't think these people are in their right frame of mind. I feel very bad for the children because they're the big losers.''

Robidoux, 27, claims he only has to answer to ``God'' and says the government has no say in the case.
(...)

Sources say Robidoux has brainwashed the group and pursuaded members not to talk to anyone outside the cult. His wife, Karen, refused comment yesterday, as did other sect members.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

20. Cult survivor tells of death after Satan fails to rise
Sunday Times (South Africa), Aug. 6, 2000
http://www.suntimes.co.za/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A member of a bizarre cult whose matriarch begged Satan to rise from the ocean has told how she was beaten and starved during five months of captivity in a dingy room on a banana plantation.

This week Nokwanda Mtshawu, 23, sobbed in front of the room on MacBanana Farm at Munster, on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, where she was held prisoner from January.

She has led police to the shallow grave of a sect member, Sandile Ngalo, who died in June after prolonged assaults and starvation before his body was left to rot in dense bush.

Mtshawu is thin, traumatised and terrified of the leader of the sect, Nophumzile Magadla, 34, who, wearing a red cloak and mustard cross, claimed she would convert Satan, a woman who would rise from the sea.
(...)

When Magadla's incantations failed to raise Satan from the Atlantic Ocean, the sect leader left Cape Town for her home at Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape, followed by 16 penniless devotees.

By January, only six remained.
(...)

The Magadlas, Mtshawu's husband and sect member Nkosovuyo Gecwa, 28, have been charged with murder and assault. The case has been postponed to August 31.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. O'Hair conspirator may get life
Dallas Morning News, Aug. 16, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Gary P. Karr, the only person charged in connection with the 1995 disappearance of American atheist icon Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her two adult children, has launched a last-minute effort to avert a life prison sentence.

Mr. Karr, 52, faces life in prison when he is sentenced Thursday in Austin. He was convicted June 2 on four counts of conspiracy and extortion in the theft of $500,000 in gold coins and jewelry from Mrs. O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray and her adopted daughter Robin Murray O'Hair.

The jury acquitted Mr. Karr on kidnapping charges.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty / Human Rights Abuses

22. Appeal for decency as Georgia prepares to execute a mentally ill child offender
Amnesty International, Aug. 16, 2000 (Press Release)
http://www.amnesty.org/
[Story no longer online? Read this]

''Are we better off today than we were eight years ago? You bet we are... But we're not just better off, we're also a better country. We are today more tolerant, more decent, more humane....''. President Bill Clinton, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, 14 August 2000

In the next eight days, US standards of decency and humanity will come under the international spotlight, Amnesty International said today issuing a report on the imminent execution of a mentally ill child offender.

Alexander Williams is scheduled to die in Georgia's electric chair on 24 August 2000.

''The execution of Alex Williams would be further evidence that the USA is something of a rogue state when it comes to the death penalty. It leads a tiny handful of countries which flout the global ban on the use of the death penalty against children -- those under 18 years old at the time of the crime,'' Amnesty International said.

Alex Williams was 17 at the time of the murder of 16-year-old Aleta Bunch in 1986. If executed, he would become the fifth child offender executed in the USA this year, more than in any year since 1954. It would also mean that the US has executed more child offenders in just over seven months than the rest of the world has in the past seven years.

''There is almost no other country on the planet where Alex Williams would be put to death,'' Amnesty International said. ''In the past three years, only Iran and the Democratic Republic of Congo are known to have executed child offenders.''

Contrary to international standards, Alex Williams, like many defendants, was denied his right to adequate legal representation. Williams' lawyer effectively abandoned him at the 1986 trial by not investigating the teenager's history of appalling childhood abuse and evidence of mental illness to present in mitigation.

Alex Williams' mental illness has worsened on death row, and the state has on occasion forcibly medicated him to control his symptoms, which include delusions and auditory and visual hallucinations. He has been variously diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder with bipolar features.

The report puts Alex Williams' case into a context of increasing national and international concern surrounding the US death penalty.
(...)

''The US death penalty is riddled with error and injustice,'' Amnesty International said. ''The execution of Alex Williams would be one more sign that US authorities would rather apply a cruel, brutalizing, and outdated form of state-sanctioned vengeance than to seek humane alternatives reflecting progressive standards of justice and decency.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

The publisher of Apologetics Index is a member of Amnesty International.
He considers the application of the death penalty - the willful killing of a
human being - to be murder.

23. USA. Abandoning justice:
Amnesty International, Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.amnesty.org/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
In violation of international law, the USA is preparing to execute a prisoner for a crime committed when he was a child. Alexander Williams, 17 at the time of the crime, is scheduled to be executed in Georgia's electric chair at 7pm on 24 August 2000. If this killing goes ahead, the USA will have executed five child offenders in just over seven months -- more than the rest of the world combined has put to death in the past seven years.

The Report 'Abandoning justice: The imminent execution of Alexander Williams, mentally ill child offender' is available in pdf format only below:

Full document without pictures
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/dp/amr6512100nopics.pdf

Full document with pictures
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/dp/amr6512100.pdf

Summary
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/dp/amr6512100sum.pdf


24. Russian Church Decries Death Penalty
The Associated Press, Aug. 17, 2000
http://wire.ap.org/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian Orthodox Church's highest body on Wednesday closed a meeting highlighted by the decision to canonize Czar Nicholas II.

The Bishops' Council also adopted a social doctrine that denounces the use of force in international affairs and that calls for the end of the death penalty, according to Russian news reports.

The church opposes the death penalty not only because it can make a judicial error irreparable but also because the penalty causes controversy in society, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

25. Looking on the bright side can be bad for you
The Telegraph (England), Aug. 16, 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[Positive confession]
Always looking on the bright side can damage your health, American psychologists believe.

Meeting at their annual conference, they urged their fellow citizens to embrace British pessimism. They attacked what they termed the ''tyranny of the positive attitude'': the kind of relentless optimism preached by American self-help gurus, business managers and religious leaders. Countless jaunty songs, such as Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry Be Happy, T-shirts, bumper stickers and books also peddle that view.

A symposium at the American Psychological Association conference decided instead to recommend ''the overlooked virtues of negativity''. Dr Barbara Held, a clinical psychologist from Bowdoin college in Maine, told the New York Times: ''I am worried that we are not making space for people to feel bad.

''If you are having a hard time, it can make it harder to cope if you feel pressure to act OK when you are not.'' A growing band of psychologists believes that the pressure to be cheerful glosses over a person's need for a good moan every so often and may make some people very depressed.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Books

26. Harry World: bewitching or bewitched?
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 12, 2000
http://www.accessatlanta.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) For the hopelessly Muggle-minded, here's a synopsis:

Harry Potter is introduced in volume one, ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' as an 11-year-old orphan living with the Dursleys, a mean aunt and uncle who make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs while they indulge their darling son, Dudley. But Harry, as it turns out, is really a wizard whose parents were murdered by the evil Voldemort, who also tried to kill the infant Harry. As a result of the encounter, Harry has a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead.

Harry is soon off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with friends who help him understand the difference between the Muggle world of his aunt and uncle and the world of magic, and who introduce him to goodies such as Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (that means every flavor).

The four volumes in what is intended to be a seven-volume series have broken all kinds of publication records --- including the largest first-printing in history for volume four (3.8 million in the United States alone). They have also become the most complained-about books in the country, according to the American Library Association.

The little wizard and his creator, British author J.K. Rowling, are sparking philosophical, ethical and theological discussions usually reserved for much heavier works of art.

The lightning bolt on Harry's head represents an ''S'' for Satan and the books are tools of the devil to ensnare the world's children, according to Berit Kjos. ''If you get them when they are young, then you have them for life,'' he says on his nondenominational ministry's Web site, headquartered in San Francisco.

But the magazine Christianity Today, founded by evangelist Billy Graham, editorialized, ''Rowling's series is a 'Book of Virtues' with a pre-adolescent funny bone. Amid the laugh-out-loud scenes are wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship and even self-sacrifice.''

The books have been compared to C.S. Lewis' ''Chronicles of Narnia'' and the fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien and George MacDonald. New Yorker critic Joan Acocella even related them to Milton, as in ''Paradise Lost.''

''The subject of the Harry Potter series is power, an important matter for children, since they have so little of it,'' Acocella writes. ''How does one acquire power? How can it be used well, and ill? Does ultimate power lie with the good? In other words, is there a God? If so, why is there so much cruelty around? These are questions that Milton, among others, addressed before Rowling, and she is not ashamed to follow in their wake.''

The books answer a deep human hunger that goes back through history as people have used stories to communicate transcendent truths, says Rolland Hein, professor emeritus of English at Wheaton College in Illinois and author of ''Christian Mythmakers,'' a book about Christian writers of fantasy.
(...)

Harry and his friends practice situational ethics with an end-justifies-the-means view.

There is no clear theology of the source of power and authority.

The scenario of poor misunderstood Harry finding acceptance among witches and wizards perpetuates the appeal of the occult, says Marcia Montenegro, a former Atlanta astrologer who now lives in Arlington, Va., operating a ministry called Christian Answers for the New Age. ''I talk to a lot of teenagers who are involved in the occult and witchcraft. It seems for a lot of them, it is an escape.''

Breaking the rules
John Andrew Murray, who taught at Whitefield Academy and Westminster Schools in metro Atlanta before becoming headmaster of Raleigh's St. Timothy's-Hale private Episcopal school this year, says he is also concerned about witchcraft in the Harry Potter books. But he is even more worried that children may emulate other aspects: Harry and his friends lie and steal and break rules to achieve their purposes. ''There are no absolute truths here,'' Murray says. ''You do what's right in your own eyes.''

Harry's defenders counter that the books present a classic battle in which good prevails over evil and that witchcraft and magic are just tricks of the storyteller's trade.

Author Rowling says she is not trying to encourage children to take up witchcraft and finds the idea ''absurd.''

''I have met thousands of children now, and not even one time has a child come up to me and said, 'Ms. Rowling, I'm so glad I've read these books because now I want to be a witch,' '' she told CNN. ''They see it for what it is. It is a fantasy world, and they understand that completely.''
(...)

Many people who have given serious consideration to the Harry Potter books find them much like Bertie Bott's beans --- a mixed bag.

Rowling's theology is ''a hodgepodge'' of traditional Judeo-Christian values, occult practices and secular elements, says Lindy Beam, a youth culture analyst for the Christian organization Focus on the Family. Parents need to be prepared to help their children sort out the meaning for themselves, she says.

Certain situations from Harry Potter books can even serve as ''trail markers'' to point to God, says Anne McCain, a Virginia children's minister who wrote an analysis of Harry Potter for World, a Christian magazine.

The ''Mirror of Erised'' (read Erised backward) in the first book --- which shows people their deepest wants --- can be used to spark a discussion of contentment, values and the longing for God, she says.

''People have pressed me --- are the books good or are they bad?'' she says. ''They're neither.''
(...)

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are sometimes compared to classical fantasy writing by religious authors. Here are sample books suggested by Rolland Hein, author of ''Christian Mythmakers,'' as alternatives or supplements to the Potter volumes.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Rowling wins legal victory in row over copyrights
The Herald (Scotland), Aug. 16, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Harry Potter author J K Rowling has won a legal victory in her dispute with an American author who says she owns the rights to the term ''Muggles''.
In the Harry Potter books, Muggles are ordinary human beings with no witchcraft or magical powers.

US District Judge Allen Schwartz has ruled that the case will be decided in Manhattan.

The decision is a boost for Ms Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, for the American publishers of her wildly popular children's books, and Time Warner Entertainment, which owns the film and merchandising rights.

The judge declined to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Ms Rowling and the companies against Nancy Stouffer, of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

They sought a court declaration that they have not infringed on any of her copyrights.

Ms Stouffer initially responded to the lawsuit with one of her own, and sought to have the Manhattan lawsuit thrown out or transferred to Pennsylvania.

However the judge ruled that Ms Stouffer, by having her own books published and asserting her claims against the Harry Potter books, had engaged in enough business in New York City to cause the case to be heard there.

Kevin Casey, a lawyer for Ms Stouffer, said he was unlikely to appeal against the ruling because he was eager to prove the similarities between the Harry Potter books and Ms Stouffer's creations.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Potter movie protest
Evening Mail, Aug. 16, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Christian protesters have vowed to sing hymns and wave banners to disrupt filming if plans to make the first Harry Potter movie at Gloucester Cathedral are given the go-ahead.

The 900-year-old landmark site was chosen as a key location for the making of J K Rowling's first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Gloucester Dean the Very Rev Nicholas Bury has given the making of the movie his blessing.

But religious campaigners have claimed filming the movie in the historic building will defile it and incite witchcraft.

A group of seven Christians have said they are prepared to picket the site with banners and hymn-singing when filming begins later this year.
[...entire item...]