=== Aryan Nations Trial Aftermath
1. Butler: Racists To Stay in Idaho
2. Butler will ask for new trial
3. Sandpoint supremacists may back appeal
4. 'Lone wolves' line up to take hate mission underground
5. Celebrate verdict, but stay vigilant
6. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away
7. Butler wants a parade

=== Aum Shinrikyo
8. AUM bigwigs pay respects to cult victims
9. Hate Aum's teachings, not its followers

=== Unification Church
10. Employee of Wisconsin Company Utilizes Expert Watermarking Knowledge

=== International Churches of Christ
11. Sufiah and the love bomb cult, by father

=== Buddhism
12. Two Followers of Taiwanese Sect Condemned to 3 Years in Jail in China
13. Buddhist builder has monumental job

=== Hinduism
14. Hindus Flock to Temple to Meet Spiritual Leader

=== Al Ma'unah
15. Alleged cult members accused of trying to topple Malaysian govt

=== Catholicism
16. Exorcist Pope 'cast out demons' in the Vatican

=== Mormonism
17. Purchase Plus investments cost Mormons millions
18. 2,000 Gather for Genealogy Conference

=== Attleboro Cult
19. Hopes raised in sect mystery
20. How a quiet Bible group became a destructive cult

=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes
21. Hate crime on the rise

=== Witchcraft
22. Message in a bottle flushes out secret of folk charm to ward off witches

=== Other News
23. Dutch Approve Gay Marriages

=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance
24. Religious bias to be tackled by commission
25. School heads want Muslim assemblies

=== Death Penalty / Human Rights Violations
26. Judge says inmate wrongly convicted
27. Defense called lacking for death row's poor

=== Noted
28. Christian 'Two-by-Twos' worship quietly in U.S.
29. Keeping spiritual passports renewed: Shaman inhabits 2 worlds
30. Strangers in a Land Of Strange Mountains

=== Books, Internet
31. Beliefnet.com Forms Alliance With America Online to Offer Religious
and Spiritual Content, Interactive Features and Commerce
32. Harry Potter To Be Released in China


=== Aryan Nations Trial Aftermath

1. Butler: Racists To Stay in Idaho
The Associated Press, Sep. 9, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho (AP) - Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler vowed Saturday he
will not leave northern Idaho, despite a $6.3 million judgment against his
racist organization.

At a news conference on the 20-acre Aryan Nations compound, Butler said he did
not have the $960,000 in cash bond that would be required for him to appeal the
judgment issued Thursday by a civil jury Thursday.

But he said his neo-Nazi sect would continue, even if the compound is seized to
pay the judgment as he expects.

``They cannot run me out of northern Idaho with my tail between my legs,''
Butler said from a church pulpit, standing next to a silver bust of Adolf
Hitler. He said he may seek a new trial.
(...)

Butler compared his trial to trials in the former Soviet Union under dictator
Josef Stalin. He said local ``politicians want to improve the image of Idaho by
mongrelizing the white race up here.''

Idaho politicians and community leaders expressed hope after last week's
judgment that Butler would leave the area and take his organization with him.

Instead, Butler, 82, has applied for a permit to hold another parade down the
streets of nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in October.

He bemoaned the expected loss of the compound, which he bought nearly 30 years
ago and includes his home and church and has been the site of annual gatherings
by his supporters.

``This place was built on love,'' Butler said. ``It is a place to worship with
your own kind.''

There has been speculation that two wealthy computer industry executives who
have been supportive of Butler in recent years might come to his financial aid.
But Butler said Saturday that he has not asked Vincent Bertollini or Carl Story,
both of Sandpoint, Idaho, to pay the judgment.

``They don't have that kind of money,'' Butler said. ``We never talked about
it.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Butler will ask for new trial
The Spokesman-Review, Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler said Saturday he will seek a new trial in
the hope of reversing a $6.3 million jury verdict.

His attorney, Edgar Steele, is expected to ask 1st District Judge Charles
Hosack, who presided over the nine-day trial, to grant a new trial. Steele must
make that request by Sept. 18.

But if a new trial isn't granted in the next few weeks, Butler said he doesn't
have the money necessary for an appeal bond.

''There's no way we can appeal,'' Butler said, explaining that he doesn't have the
$960,000 -- or 10 percent -- to obtain the estimated $9 million appeal bond
required by Idaho law.

Butler said he doesn't intend to ask two wealthy, retired businessmen in
Sandpoint for help in raising the appeal bond.

Vince Bertollini, of the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, said the money needed for
the appeal bond ''would merely be pocket change,'' but they have other plans afoot
to help Butler. Bertollini didn't elaborate, but did pay a personal visit
Saturday to Butler at the Aryan compound.
(...)

Butler spoke Saturday from the same church pulpit where he has delivered sermons
for the past 25 years, telling his followers that white people are God's real
children and Jews are descendants of Satan.

Rick Cooper, a national socialist from Goldendale, Wash., and former Spokane
skinhead Robert Gmeiner were in the chapel with two other Aryan followers for
the press conference.

Since the verdict, Butler said he has received about 100 telephone calls and 300
e-mail messages from supporters, including William Pierce of the National
Alliance, Tom Metzger of the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and various KKK
leaders.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Sandpoint supremacists may back appeal
The Spokesman Review, Sep. 9, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler may be laying plans to appeal a $6.3 million
jury award with financial banking by two wealthy white supremacists from
Sandpoint.

Butler's attorney has until Sept. 18 to file motions, which likely will include
a request for a new trial.

If 1st District Court Judge Charles Hosack denies that request at a hearing he
will schedule, Butler will then have 54 days to file an appeal.

The 82-year-old Aryan leader ''will appeal'' the jury's verdict, ''ABC World News
Tonight'' reported Friday.
(...)

Butler and Steele were notified by certified letter on Friday that the
plaintiffs intend to immediately move to seize assets to partially satisfy the
judgment.

Attorney Norm Gissel reminded Butler of a court order ''freezing'' his assets,
including 20 acres of land and personal property, owned by Butler and the Aryan
Nations.

Gissel said his clients want ''all posters, artwork, memorabilia, Nazi symbols,
swastikas, alters, pulpits, church benches, plaques, flags, Aryan Nations
symbols, weapons'' and other property, including computers.

''Your clients or anyone acting in concert with them shall not dispose of,
destroy, remove or in any way damage, alter, sell, transfer or encumber'' any of
the property, the letter warned Butler.

Butler also was ordered to appear Oct. 13 at a ''debtor examination'' where he
will have to testify under oath about his assets.

That appearance could be canceled if an appeal is filed.
(...)

Without an appeal, Butler would be required to divulge all his assets at the
debtors examination.

The plaintiffs could then elect to get a court order forcing a sheriff's sale to
liquate the assets, or possibly could force Butler into involuntary bankruptcy.
(...)

To appeal, Butler would have to post $900,000 -- or 10 percent -- to obtain the
estimated $9 million appeal bond required by Idaho law.

Wealthy former California businessmen Carl Story and Vincent Bertollini, who
head the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger in Sandpoint, have openly supported Butler.
(...)

The two men promote the same Christian Identity, white-supremacy religion as
that espoused by Butler.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. 'Lone wolves' line up to take hate mission underground
The Spokesman-Review, Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Experts say the legal blow dealt to Butler by a jury last week in Coeur
d'Alene will further strengthen the ''leaderless resistance'' movement.

The philosophy urges ''lone wolves'' to act independently on their racist beliefs
and avoid being detected by law enforcement agents.

So hatemongers go underground instead of doing stiff-arm salutes at a neo-Nazi compound.

Butler could become their newest martyr.

The experts also say his waning leadership role could be superseded by William
Pierce of the National Alliance in West Virginia.

The World Church of the Creator, headed by Matt Hale of Illinois, also is a
re-energized hate group. Hale is talking about moving to Montana, where his
atheist-ideology group holds annual meetings and burns swastikas.

Also emerging are Internet hate guru Alex Curtis of San Diego, Posse Comitatus
leader August Kreis of Pennsylvania and two wealthy North Idaho retired
businessmen.

Vincent Bertollini and Carl Story, who head up the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger,
based in Sandpoint, began backing Butler and the Aryan Nations ideology in 1998
with mass mailings.

Bertollini said last week ''there's more to come.''

The 11th Hour Remnant doesn't have a meeting place or even a membership roster.
Story and Bertollini merely disseminate religious propaganda, hoping to convince
others that white people are the true children of God.
(...)

The leaderless resistance concept has been evident for years. One of its first
proponents was Louis Beam, Butler's longtime confidant and former Aryan Nations
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ambassador.

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Olympics bombing suspect Eric Robert
Rudolph and ex-Aryan guard Buford Furrow, who is accused of murder and
assault-rifle attacks in Los Angeles last year, are among the more notable
recent examples of leaderless resistance.

The concept also was advanced by Pierce, who has attended Aryan World Congress
gatherings at Butler's compound. Pierce's work of fiction, ''The Turner Diaries,''
in the early 1980s inspired several of Butler's followers to form a terrorist
group known as The Order.

Imprisoned members of The Order and its founder, the late Robert Mathews of
Metaline Falls, Wash., are glorified and idolized by many in the racist
movement.

Skinhead groups who don't buy into God or religion, as packaged by Butler's
Christian Identity message, look to forms of racist paganism. Their role models
are Order members and their acts of terrorism.
(...)

Pierce, who once taught physics at Oregon State University, has a 400-acre
compound near Hillsboro, W.Va., in the Allegheny Mountains.

The soft-spoken 66-year-old broadened his standing in the racist movement last
year by buying Resistance Records, the world's largest neo-Nazi music label.
(...)

Pierce is well-financed and has been able to position himself ''as a man capable
of bringing up the next generation of hatemongers,'' said Brian Goldberg of the
Anti-Defamation League.

''The National Alliance is poised to be the most dangerous organization in the
country,'' Goldberg said.

Goldberg and other experts who track hate groups also point to Butler's new
alliance with August ''Chip'' Kreis III of Ulysses, Pa.

Kreis is the Webmaster for the Aryan Nations' Internet site.
(...)

But he also predicts increased visibility by the two Sandpoint men who are the
11th Hour Remnant.

''If they succeed in becoming leaders, it's only because they have the money,''
Cochran said.

''I believe that in the end, you won't find many structured organizations with
guards and uniforms and guns,'' Cochran said.

Because of the successful suit against the Aryan Nations, similar military-style
hate groups ''will be concerned about being sued,'' Cochran said.

Devin Burghart, of the Center for New Community in Chicago, said the verdict
against the Aryan Nations ''will be a major setback to the already faltering
white supremacy group.''
(...)

The possible departure of the Aryan Nations headquarters from North Idaho ''does
not spell the end for organized bigotry in the region, unfortunately,'' he said.

''Other white supremacist groups in the area, like the 11th Hour Remnant and
America's Promise Ministries in Sandpoint, can easily step into the vacuum left
by the departure of the Aryan compound,'' Burghart said.

America's Promise, led by pastor David Barley, will host a three-day Christian
Identity conference next weekend at its church in Sandpoint.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Celebrate verdict, but stay vigilant
The Spokesman Review, Sep. 10, 2000 (Editorial)
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
If ever a man deserved to be shut down and run out of North Idaho, it's Richard
Butler.

For three decades, the Hayden Lake hatemonger has incited crime and acts of
violence with his racist rhetoric. His 20-acre compound has been a beacon for
racist ex-cons, ne'er-do-wells and pyschopaths. It has provided refuge for
murderers, bombers, counterfeiters, robbers -- a who's who of this country's
racists.

As a result, Butler and his ragtag band soiled their nest in beautiful North
Idaho.
(...)

On Thursday, a courageous Kootenai County jury finally said: No more. You're
through.
(...)

We say: Good riddance.

Three jurors struggled with the idea of turning an old man out into the cold,
penniless. But Butler isn't any old man. To the end, he staged his annual Aryan
Nations congresses. Even now he's planning another Coeur d'Alene parade, in
October, in defiance of the jury decision and his Kootenai County neighbors. The
$6.3 million is a small down payment for the damage Butler has caused
individuals -- and the region's reputation.

The Inland Northwest is indebted to the Keenans.
(...)

The region also is beholden to Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center,
and Coeur d'Alene attorneys Norm Gissel and Ken Howard for litigating the Aryan
Nations into oblivion. Each put his life on the line.
(...)

We should celebrate the verdict against Butler and the Aryan Nations. It's
overdue. But we shouldn't be lulled by it. The fruit of Butler's foul labor
remains. Some of the notorious racists he attracted to the region still live
among us. We must remain vigilant.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away
The Spokesman-Review, Sep. 9, 2000 (Opinion)
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Aryan Nation trial has returned North Idaho to the national spotlight again,
with significant negative publicity that will take years to overcome.

Local reaction has been puzzling. Why wasn't there a public outpouring of
support for the victims of the criminal assault that prompted the civil trial?
Why wasn't there a crowded march down Sherman Avenue, as has been done in other
communities, demonstrating our eagerness to rid ourselves of the bigots who have
blotted this splendid slice of our country? Why has so much reaction blamed the
lawyers, branding them outsiders?
(...)

North Idaho reaction was oddly divided. Some people welcomed an opportunity to
bankrupt the Aryan Nation and its founder Richard Butler. Others wished the
entire story would disappear. And some resented outsiders arriving in Coeur
d'Alene to stir up trouble.
(...)

A few letters appeared in the paper, citing the basic unfairness of trying to
give culpability to Butler for the actions of residents on his compound.
(...)

Responses and attitudes like these have blunted what should have been a united
community response against the Aryan Nation, a bane for 20 years to most of us
in Kootenai County.

Hatred is hatred is hatred, a wasted, negative emotion that blocks harmony,
chokes growth and interferes with a healthy life.

But to treat as equal the Aryans and those who despise them is ludicrous. The
Aryans believe Jews and blacks are mongrel races, and not only advocate but have
done violence against them. The organizations ranged against such hatred, from
the peaceful Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations to the militant
Jewish Defense League, do not preach killing, do not try to wipe people out, or
claim entire races are cursed.

So North Idaho's divided reaction is puzzling.
(...)

All told, North Idaho lost a great opportunity to do something about changing
its regrettable image.
(...)

There is a natural human reaction to believe that a problem may go away if
ignored. In the case of racism and racists, the opposite certainly is true. A
light needs to be beamed on race haters. Apathy must not be allowed to slide
into acquiescence.

We, the collective community, should have stood right up, and marched,
demonstrated, paraded and proclaimed that the racists who live here are few, not
tolerated and not welcome. Many people around the world would have noticed.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Butler wants a parade
The Spokesman-Review, Sep. 9, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HAYDEN LAKE _ The morning after a North Idaho jury slapped Aryan Nations leader
Richard Butler with a $6.3 million verdict, he filed a request to hold a parade
in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Butler woke Friday after the defeat and drove to Hayden for breakfast at
Rustlers Roost -- his favorite restaurant.

But he was denied service.

Butler then drove to Coeur d'Alene City Hall at 10:20 a.m. and filled out a
''Special Event Permit Application'' to hold a march down Sherman Avenue on either
Oct. 15 or Oct. 28.
(...)

The parade request shows that Butler is fighting back despite the verdict, said
22-year-old Bob Gmeiner, an Aryan Nations member.
(...)

''It's pretty much saying that you can take the church from us, but we are not
going anywhere,'' Gmeiner said.
(...)

City Councilman Ron Edinger said Butler has the same right as anyone to apply
for the parade.

''You can't deny a parade permit,'' he said. ''We found that out.''

The Aryans marched in 1998, and city leaders tried to move the Aryans' 1999
parade to Ramsey Road, next to the old city dump.

The Aryans and the ACLU sued the city over that move, and U.S. District Judge
Edward Lodge ordered the city to allow the 17 Aryans to march on Sherman.

Butler did not attempt to march this summer prior to the civil trial that
started Aug. 28.
(...)

If the Aryans do march, the task force might provide an alternative, much like
the ''Making Lemonade out of Lemons'' response to the 1998 Aryan Nations' parade.
That fund-raiser let residents pledge money for every minute the Aryan Nations
marched. About $35,000 was raised for human rights groups.

''Our philosophy basically is: We're not going to go out and demonstrate against
him,'' Cresswell said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo

8. AUM bigwigs pay respects to cult victims
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Sep. 12, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Two executives of AUM Shinrikyo have paid their respects to the souls of an
anti-AUM lawyer and his family, who they killed in 1989, by visiting sites where
cult members had dumped their remains.
(...)

They first visited the mountainous area in Uozu where members of the cult, which
now calls itself Aleph, discarded Satoko's body.

They placed a card written by Araki that read, ''We are very sorry Satoko. We
will live the rest of our lives with the fact that we have committed a crime
that can never been atoned for. We did not have the guts to face to the fact of
life at the time (of the killing).''
(...)

Araki said he was there to pray for the souls of the Sakamotos as a
representative of the cult.

''When we look back at what we've done in the past, we have no choice but to
accept whatever criticism comes. However, we decided that the first thing we
have to do is to apologize for the deaths,'' Araki said.

''We truly regret what we have done in the past, and promise that we'll never
repeat our past mistakes.''

The AUM pair also went to the place where Tatsuhiko's body was buried, and
prayed there for nearly 10 minutes.

However, Sakamoto's colleagues questioned the true intention of the pair's
actions.

''This performance is nothing but a public relations stunt,'' a colleague, who
wished to remain anonymous, said.

Uozu locals erected barricades to block roads to Satoko's memorial in protest at
the cult's gesture of reconciliation, forcing Araki and Ito to walk some 12
kilometers to and from the location.

AUM members stormed the Sakamotos' apartment in November 1989, and killed them
by giving lethal injections. The lawyer was helping families of AUM members to
pull their loved ones out of the group, and was one of the most vocal critics of
the doomsday cult.

Police, however, failed to connect the disappearance of the Sakamotos with AUM
Shinrikyo until 1995.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. Hate Aum's teachings, not its followers
Asahi News (Japan), Sep. 12, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
In his article in Asahi Shimbun's ``Rondan'' opinion column over the weekend,
former Lower House member Hiroshi Miyazawa began his argument by saying: ``As a
person who has long been involved with national and local administration and
legislative work in the Diet, there is something I cannot understand.''

In his political career, Miyazawa also served as justice minister and governor
of Hiroshima Prefecture. In his article, he referred to the fact that local
governments across the country have been turning away the children whose parents
are affiliated with the Aum Shinrikyo cult, refusing to let them enroll at local
schools or even move into the area.

The Education Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry, Miyazawa wrote, seem to be
turning a blind eye to this widespread practice. But isn't this discriminatory
measure highly questionable?

That municipalities are having a hard time dealing with such children deserves
sympathy, the former Diet member went on to say. But turning them away
constitutes a violation of the basic human rights of these children and a clear
infringement of the Constitution.

It was not the first time that such opinions had been presented. But many local
government chiefs rejected them, even while acknowledging their correctness.
``Intellectually, we know we should let the children in, but we can't do so when
we consider the feelings some parents hold against them,'' some explained. ``In
this case, the gulf is too wide between ethics and reality,'' others argued.

As justice minister, Miyazawa decided that since Aum Shinrikyo was still
considered to be a dangerous group despite the arrest of its top leaders, there
was no choice but to institute procedures for invoking the Subversive Activities
Prevention Law.
(...)

In the meantime, the Saitama cities of Niiza and Tokorozawa recently dropped
their anti-Aum policies. Niiza decided to turn away Aum followers and their
families only when they seek to relocate en masse. ``It is the teachings of Aum
Shinrikyo, not its individual followers, that are to be hated,'' said a
spokesman for Niiza city hall.

Miyazawa wrote: ``In a law-abiding country, no one can say the widespread public
sentiment against Aum Shinrikyo allows municipalities to treat its followers
differently from ordinary citizens under national laws.''

This seems to offer local government chiefs something to consider when they find
themselves wondering how to handle Aum followers wishing to move into their
area.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Unification Church

10. Employee of Wisconsin Company Utilizes Expert Watermarking Knowledge
The Post-Crescent, Sep. 10, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Sep. 10--Looking back, Harry Keddell still wonders what he was doing on that
flight.

Asked to testify in the government's 1982 tax evasion case against the Rev. Sun
Myung Moon, federal authorities recognized the longtime J.J. Plank employee as
one of the world's foremost experts on the art of watermarking.
(...)

His knowledge of watermarking -- a papermaking process allowing the molding and
shaping of fibers -- provided prosecutors with an ace in the hole in their case
against the cult leader.

Moon's financial ledger listed a series of dates in which he claimed to have
made contributions to various churches. The watermarks within the paper proved
he was lying. Simply stated, because only certain watermarks are produced in
certain years, officials verified the paper didn't even exist on the dates Moon
had inscribed in the log.

''There were clearly discrepancies among the pages,'' Keddell said. Although
watermarking is better known for its commercial and marketing uses, its role in
law enforcement, security and legal matters is less obvious.
(...)

Unlike chemical processes or printing, a watermark cannot be altered or forged.
''The fiber in the paper is authentic,'' said William Plank, chief executive
officer of the company that bears his name. ''It can't be changed without
damaging the paper itself.''

As a result, the government uses watermarked stock to create sensitive documents
such as U.S. Treasury checks (your tax refund check), currency, food stamps,
legal documents, lottery papers, etc.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== International Churches of Christ

11. Sufiah and the love bomb cult, by father
Daily Mail (England), Sep. 11, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The father of runaway Oxford prodigy Sufiah Yusof yesterday claimed he had 'hard
evidence' that she had fallen under the influence of a religious cult.

Farooq Yusof accused the International Church of Christ of brainwashing his
15-year- old daughter and driving her away from her family.

His comments come three months after Sufiah disappeared from Oxford University,
where she was reading mathematics. She was tracked down to Bournemouth, but has
refused to return to the family home in Coventry where she described life as a
'living hell' or to Oxford.

Mr Yusof, who has educated his five children at home, said he had not seen his
daughter but that she was in regular contact by email.

'Sufiah says people from the ICOC still call her and tell her what to say to
us,' he said.

'They have, in effect, brainwashed her and driven her away from us.

'She has also named international institutions at a governmental level which I
believe are either against my accelerated learning method, or making an effort
to copy it.' The ICOC has been banned from the campuses of more than 30
universities in Britain amid allegations of 'love-bombing' vulnerable students
into joining. Its leaders have been accused of brainwashing recruits against
family, friends and careers.

A spokesman for the ICOC in Oxford denied Sufiah had become involved with the
group, which has 2,000 British members.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Sufiah's father has made a variety of suggestions regarding his
daughter's disappearance from college. Related item

=== Buddhism

12. Two Followers of Taiwanese Sect Condemned to 3 Years in Jail in China
Inside China Today/AFP, Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.insidechina.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HONG KONG, Sep 10, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Two followers of a
Buddhist-inspired Taiwanese sect have been condemned to three years in jail in
China, a Hong Kong based human rights organization announced on Saturday.

Liu Yin and Gan Suqing, members of the Guanyin Famen, or Guanyin Method, were
convicted on July 18 by the Haishu district court in the eastern city of Ningbo,
the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.
(...)

The sect had half a million followers in mainland China where it appeared in
1992, four years after its foundation by Ching Hai, a Taiwanese woman living in
the United States.

Ching, treated like a queen by her followers, travels the world preaching a
mixture of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, although neither religions recognize her
movement.

The sect, which has followers in Hong Kong and in more than ten other countries
including Japan, the US and South Korea, was investigated by Taiwanese
authorities, but no wrongdoing was found.

The movement, is the fourth sect to be dubbed ''harmful'' by the communist regime
after Zhong Gong, Huhan and Falungong.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Buddhist builder has monumental job
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
As both a Buddhist and a general contractor, Bob King has found his dream
project. To build a stupa - a Buddhist monument representing the enlightened
mind - is an act of devotion, worthy to be called one's life work.
(...)

That was 12 years ago. Today, King, the project manager, is racing to finish the
108-foot high Great Stupa of Dharmakaya. Its consecration is set for next August
at the Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center, located on 600 acres of backcountry
beauty near Red Feather Lakes near the Wyoming state line.

The center, the largest in an international network, is already a thriving
summer retreat. Set in a forest clearing, the village is a pretty scene of
fluttering tents and modern buildings, including a sacred studies hall with
original artwork and a reputation as a major center for Buddhist studies. The
next step is a $20 million capital campaign to turn Shambhala Center into a
year-round retreat.
(...)

For now, it's a monument to the success of American Buddhism, introduced just 30
years ago.

Inside is an 18-foot-high, gold-leafed Buddha, and buried in its heart, the
ashes and skull of the man who made it all possible - Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche,
who died in 1987 at age 47.

The charismatic Tibetan monk escaped from communist China to end up in Boulder,
where he founded Naropa University and the Shambhala network, the community
outreach arm.

He is also recognized for his genius in transforming Eastern spirituality into a
brand-new Western religion now recognized as American Buddhism.
(...)

American Buddhists now number 4 million and Waltcher and King are among its
800,000 ''Caucasian converts.'' King, raised Presbyterian, was fresh out of the
Peace Corps in India when he met Trungpa Rimpoche. The flamboyant Tibetan leader
had taken on Western dress and a Western wife, and acquired both a graceful
mastery of English and a legendary drinking habit, as even his followers
acknowledge. He also had ''the best understanding of the human journey I had ever
seen,'' King says.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hinduism

14. Hindus Flock to Temple to Meet Spiritual Leader
Los Angeles Times, Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
They began arriving at the Swaminarayan Hindu temple in Whittier at 6:30 a.m.,
as the waking sun broke through the morning mist. Thousands of Indian devotees
from San Diego to Seattle, from Orange County to Oregon, flocked to the temple
Sunday for the rare chance to see their spiritual leader, Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

The 78-year-old Hindu guru is head of the Swaminarayan sect, one of the
fastest-growing Hindu denominations in the country. Pramukh Swami, also known as
Swamishri, arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday evening for a weeklong visit with
his followers in Southern California.
(...)

Several local politicians mindful of the surging South Asian population in
Southern California will visit the temple this week and meet with Pramukh Swami,
including U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty.
Gil Garcetti. After New York and Chicago, Los Angeles County has the largest
population of Indians in the country, with about 43,000.

But what does this gentle old man in the saffron robe mean to the Hindu
community? For the Swaminarayans, a visit by the swami is comparable to a
Buddhist meeting the Dalai Lama or a Roman Catholic seeing the pope. Pramukh
Swami is the manifestation of God on Earth. ''How do you describe something so
divine?'' asked one follower.
(...)

The Swaminarayan faith was founded in 1781 in the Gujarat region of India. In
1907, a splinter group--known as Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha, or
BAPS--broke away from the Swaminarayan movement. Of the four breakaway groups,
the BAPS sect is the one that has experienced the most phenomenal growth
worldwide and is the sect to which the Whittier temple belongs. The group claims
about 500,000 followers in the United States and millions worldwide.

Last month, in a testament to the sect's growing following, Pramukh Swami
addressed the United Nations at the Millennium World Peace Summit.
(...)

Swaminarayan devotees follow a puritanical path that preaches against drugs,
alcohol and television. To guard against illicit relations between the sexes,
men and women are separated during worship. And women are forbidden from
speaking to Pramukh Swami. All followers adhere to a strict vegetarian diet that
prohibits even onions and garlic.

The temple in Whittier was established in 1984 and has about 1,000 members.
(...)

Experts say the reason the Swaminarayan sect has grown so quickly is their
emphasis on relaying Indian culture and language to immigrant youths. Indian
families fearful of losing their identity are drawn to the temple's many
programs, which include Gujarati, music and dance classes, as well as religious
instruction.

The group has outgrown their Whittier temple and is searching for a site in
Southern California to build a monumental $50-million religious complex.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Al Ma'unah

15. Alleged cult members accused of trying to topple Malaysian govt
Yahoo/AFP, Sep. 11, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Some 29 alleged members of an Islamic cult appeared in court Monday to answer
charges of ''waging war'' against Malaysia's government, an offence punishable by
hanging or life imprisonment.

Defence lawyers said it was the country's first ever treason case.
(...)

Some 15 cult members disguised as soldiers raided two military armouries in the
northern state of Perak on July 2 and stole more than 100 high-tech weapons,
sparking the country's biggest security alert for years.

They fled to the south of the state and joined a dozen others in a jungle
hideout near Sauk.

Twenty seven people surrendered four days later to 2,000 police and troops. Two
of the four hostages being held by the cult were found murdered.

Another two alleged cult members were arrested later in separate states.
(...)

The prosecution, said Mohtar, would ''show the defendants have intended to topple
the ruling government.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

16. Exorcist Pope 'cast out demons' in the Vatican
The Times (England), Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The pope personally ''confronted Satan'' by ''casting out demons'' from a young
Italian woman during an impromptu exorcism rite on St Peter's Square last week,
it was reported yesterday .

The incident, which was kept secret by Vatican officials at the time, involved a
19-year-old woman from a village near Monza in northern Italy who attended the
Pope's weekly audience last Wednesday on the square in front of St Peter's
Basilica. Eyewitnesses said that she started screaming just as the Pope was
about to bless her, ''yelling obscenities at him in an agitated and cavernous
voice clearly not her own''.

Reports said that the woman, who was not named, not only yelled disjointed
phrases in Italian but also a stream of words in unknown languages. Papal aides
tried to make the ''possessed'' teenager drink holy water, but she ''pushed it
aside in fear and disgust''.

Monsignor Danzi was quoted as saying that he swiftly ''realised who was inside
the girl'' and told Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's personal secretary, who
informed the pontiff.

Witnesses said she showed ''superhuman strength'' when Vatican staff tried to
restrain her. The Pope was then said to have taken her to one side and spent
half an hour with her in prayer.

Vatican officials were reluctant to discuss the episode, saying that the Pope
had simply ''spent time in prayer'' with the afflicted woman. Father Gabriele
Amorth, 74, head of the International Association of Exorcists - who has
conducted exorcisms on 3,000 people in 14 years - said that he had tried to
exorcise her before she met the Pope ''but without success''.
(...)

The Catholic Church seeks to distinguish between those who are mentally ill or
psychologically disturbed and those it judges to be genuinely ''possessed''.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

=== Mormonism

17. Purchase Plus investments cost Mormons millions
The Columbus Dispatch, Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.dispatch.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Like a virus, the investment scam spread through the Mormon church family.

Church members nationwide succumbed to the pitch of a few Mormon businessmen in
central Ohio: 2,650 percent return on investment for doing next to nothing.
Purchase Plus

Although church leaders warned congregants to stay away from deals that sounded
too good to be true, many didn't listen. The Mormon community invested heavily
before Purchase Plus Buyer's Group shut down Sept. 1, taking at least $100
million in customer money with it.

Now Mormons across the country are confronting a disturbing question: Were they
preyed upon by their own?

''People were caught up with the idea that they could make a quick dollar,'' said
Bill Weidner, president of the Mormon community north of Columbus. ''We don't
presume that anyone is guilty until proven so in the courts. But if we have a
financial predator and they are a member of the church, we would be the first to
take action against them.''

Jay Richardson, former ward leader of a congregation in Westerville, said people
in any close-knit community would feel betrayed under similar circumstances.

''Whether you are a Mormon, Catholic, Buddhist or a Jew, when we put faith and
trust in something and it doesn't work out, it hurts,'' he said.

Purchase Plus was founded in October 1997 by Gene Armold, a Westerville resident
and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and several other
members of the church.

For each $400 membership fee paid to Purchase Plus, the company offered an array
of discount services such as health coverage and phone cards and promised that
consumers would make their money back in 90 days. If they recruited other
investors, they could make up to $11,000 in commissions over several years.

At first, investors made a lot of money, but then consumers began to complain
about defective merchandise and unpaid commissions. So last month, Ohio Attorney
General Betty D. Montgomery filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force the company
to return consumers' money. A week later, Purchase Plus disbanded, owing
customers more than $100 million, a company official said.
(...)

Church leaders stopped short of criticizing Purchase Plus by name, but said they
had been reminding members in recent months to do their homework and to not
invest in a company just because it is run by Mormons.
(...)

George Wagner, a former salesman at Purchase Plus, said the church was not
mentioned in official documents or presentations. But the fact that the leaders
of the program were Mormons often was mentioned to boost the company's
credibility, he said.

''They would bring it up as if to say, 'These are people of good moral fiber and
they wouldn't lie to me,' '' Wagner said. ''I believe that we, as salespeople,
were brainwashed into thinking this was a good company. And part of the way they
did that was by telling us they were good, Christian people.''
(...)

Church leaders said they would wait for the outcome of the attorney general's
lawsuit and other expected suits before deciding whether Armold and other
company officials should face sanctions by the church, which could include
losing their membership.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. 2,000 Gather for Genealogy Conference
Salt Lake Tribune, Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Leslie Smith Collier came to Salt Lake City this weekend on a pilgrimage. It
was, however, a spiritual journey that had nothing to do with the state's
predominant faith, or any other organized religion.

''For a genealogist this is the holy land,'' she said. ''And not because of Temple
Square, but because of the [Mormon family history] library.''

About 2,000 genealogy enthusiasts gathered in downtown Salt Lake City on
Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the Federation of Genealogical Societies
annual conference.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long encouraged
the religion's faithful to do genealogical research. Members of the Mormon
Church believe that families -- including extended families -- are reunited
after death. To that end, living family members are instructed to perform
''sealings'' in Mormon temples for their dead relatives.

And to do ''work for the dead,'' Mormon faithful must document the existence of
ancestors.

To that end, the church has developed one of the most comprehensive genealogical
research facilities in the world.
(...)

But only four of the genealogical federation's 20 board members are Mormon,
according to Dean Hunter who helped organize the event.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Theologically, Mormonism is a cult of Christianity.

=== Attleboro Cult

19. Hopes raised in sect mystery
The Sun Chronicle, Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ATTLEBORO -- A former member of a local separatist religious sect is optimistic
that David Corneau will break the group's wall of silence and cooperate with
authorities probing the presumed deaths of two infants.

Corneau, 32, is the husband of Rebecca Corneau, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant and
being held in a secure hospital because she has rejected a court-ordered medical
exam.

``If Dave wants to see the child he's going to have to go against the group,''
said Dennis Mingo, a former member of the Christian fundamentalist sect who
broke with the group in 1998.

``I'm hoping that's what he'll do, but it's going to be hard for him,'' said
Mingo, who left his wife Michelle and five children when the group took a
radical turn in their beliefs.

Mingo, who now has custody of his five children, has attempted to communicate
with his wife in jail, but she has not responded.
(...)

Like Corneau, Mingo was an outsider to the sect whose 13 current members are an
extended family.

``I knew these people before they went blank,'' Mingo said. ``I care about them.
But at the same time there are two children dead and someone is going to have to
pay for that.''

Last week, authorities were surprised and encouraged that Corneau agreed to
consult with a lawyer during a hearing on his wife's custody.
(...)

A cult expert, Robert Pardon, executive director of the New England Institute of
Religious Research who has studied the Attleboro sect, said Corneau's decision
to talk to a lawyer was ``monumental.''

A year ago Tuesday, Mingo went to visit the sect which was living in Seekonk at
the time to check on his belongings. The group was holding a yard sale and did
not talk to him.

He went into the basement of the farmhouse and, although he did not know it at
the time, was in a room next to where the bodies of the two infants were stored
in a bulkhead. Mingo learned about the makeshift grave afterwards from his
children. ``It's really shaken me up,'' Mingo said.

Mingo also went to the house to make a ``last ditch effort'' to convince his
wife to leave the sect. ``I talked at her for about an hour,'' Mingo said.

``I tried to persuade her to leave the group. Little did I know I was in close
proximity to the bodies.''

During his visit, Mingo also found the notes from a journal on a book shelf and
thought they would help him learn what the group was up to.
(...)

The visit set off the chain of events that ultimately led to a controversial
decision by Attleboro Juvenile Judge Kenneth P. Nasif to order Rebecca Corneau
held at a secure hospital for pregnant women in state custody.

Mingo said the sect, which does not believe in conventional medicine and
government, believes ``persecution is good.''

``They see this whole thing as them being persecuted,'' Mingo said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. How a quiet Bible group became a destructive cult
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SEEKONK, Mass. (AP) -- The group was in the yard praying the day Dennis Mingo
returned. Everyone ignored him -- even his wife -- because he was an outsider
now. Outside the group, and outside the Lord.

He'd been living apart for 10 months but tried to keep an eye on Michelle and
the kids. Sure, he still believed in God and the Bible, but the group had become
too strange, Mingo thought. Maybe even dangerous.

He kept remembering a disastrous trip the group took to Maine in June 1998 to
seek the New Jerusalem, which they believed was up north, a wilderness away from
the world of Satan. Sure that God would provide, they took no money, no food, no
water, no clean clothes, no diapers for the babies. It took three days before
the group gave up, with the kids falling sick and people arguing.

Dennis Mingo didn't want his children to go through anything like that again.
That's why he'd come back -- to find out what the group was planning next.
(...)

What Mingo found would bring the group into conflict with the world it had tried
so hard to reject and set into motion a bizarre legal and religious battle over
two missing children, feared dead.
(...)

The journal Mingo found covers a two-week period in March 1999. Its author is
unknown. The first entry describes Mingo's wife, Michelle, having a vision. It
said her sister-in-law, Karen Robidoux, needed to overcome her vanity.

Karen, already slender, should forsake the flesh by consuming nothing but almond
milk -- broth from boiled almonds -- and revert to only breast-feeding her
10-month-old, Samuel.

Another entry: ``Sunday, March 14: Karen's day started strong and positive with
a good attitude. As the day grew on, Satan used the physical sight of Samuel to
really get to her. He was obviously losing much weight and becoming much
weaker.''

In the last entry, March 17, God tells Karen, ``Just as it pleased Me for you to
grow your hair long, to stop drinking coffee and to pray for another child, it
would please Me if you took Samuel and left him in the palm of My hand.''

How had people Mingo trusted and lived with for more than 10 years veered so far
from their simple beginning?
(...)

In 1986, Mingo was working the night shift at a dairy, a lonely job. At 22, he
was uneasy with his life. He wanted his family to be close, but it wasn't.
Raised Catholic, he had questions about God. He was looking for something and
hoped he'd found it when he met Michelle Robidoux, a clerk in a video store.
(...)

Soon, Mingo was coming to Roland Robidoux's weekly Bible group, and after about
a year, he realized this was the closeness he'd been longing for. He and
Michelle got married.

At first, the Bible group was mostly about accepting Jesus as the savior, but
the focus changed to Jesus the healer.

Shortly after his wedding, Mingo got sick.
(...)

The group prayed for him. In a month, the lumps were gone. And Mingo was a full
believer.

Outsiders like Mingo's parents didn't understand the group's attitude toward
doctors or why members wouldn't send their children to school. For the small
circle around Roland Robidoux, though, it seemed the best way to serve God.

Robidoux's enthusiasm for whatever idea struck his fancy was irresistible. One
year, he got everyone to eat an all-protein diet. The next year it was
vegetarian. Under his guidance, women in the group gave birth at home,
eventually rejecting even midwives. And when he decided hymns like ``Amazing
Grace'' belonged to the ``false churches,'' the group made up its own songs.

By this time, Dennis and Michelle Mingo had been married five years and had
their first two children. To save money, they moved in with her family, joining
Roland and Georgette Robidoux and their younger children, Jacques and Trinette.

Back in the '70s, Roland Robidoux had been a member of the Worldwide Church of
God, a California-based sect well-known to organizations that monitor cults.
Many of the ideas he brought to his Bible group came from the Worldwide Church:
Visions, faith healing, home births, rejection of holidays such as Christmas and
Easter in favor of Old Testament holy days and festivals such as Pentecost and
Passover.

Other ideas Robidoux adopted seemed to come from books or articles he'd read or
people he'd meet. The Robidoux children grew up, and two of them married into
another family in the group, weaving the circle tighter. Their lives centered
even more on the family houses in Attleboro and Seekonk.

Bible study became a continuous event from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
Teachings focused on family life. Women should honor their husbands as the
priests of the household, second only to God. Discipline for children often
meant spanking.
(...)

After 10 years, Dennis Mingo was ready to leave to the group. He and Michelle
now had five children, and he had been hanging on for their sake. But the
group's way of living had become extreme -- odd enough to worry the neighbors,
who videotaped the dancing.

As the group rejected more and more of society -- banks, jewelry, photo albums,
prescription glasses -- members, like Mingo, started drifting away. Once about
40 strong, the sect shrank to about two dozen.

The last straw for Mingo was when they threw away their books: cookbooks,
phonebooks, even textbooks for home schooling, everything except the Bible.
Demons were blamed for everything from a stubborn child to a creaky stair.
(...)

Dennis Mingo agonized about what to do with the journal. He didn't want his wife
to get in trouble. He was afraid the state might take away their kids.

But the journal convinced him the group had gone too far. Soon after he found it
in September 1999, he gave it to police.

On Nov. 8, a Massachusetts state policeman and a state child abuse investigator
knocked on the door of the Seekonk house.
(...)

In April, a grand jury began investigating whether the state should press
charges for the death of Samuel from neglect and for the improper disposal of
his body and Jeremiah's. It is expected to make its report in October.

Sect members called before the grand jury have remained silent. Eight have gone
to jail rather than answer questions. Some have been there for months.

In mid-August, Judge Kenneth P. Nasif gave the state custody of six children
belonging to sect members. They will live with relatives outside the sect. Seven
other children went to their fathers, who also are outside the sect.
(...)

Dennis Mingo has a girlfriend now. He and Michelle are divorcing. He still
believes in some of the teachings of the sect, and sometimes, he misses the
closeness.

``If you had a problem, these people would actually contemplate it, think about
it, pray about it,'' he said recently. ``In that aspect it was a very special
thing.''

Mingo has custody of his five children, The oldest, 9-year-old Rachel, will go
to school this fall for the first time.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes

21. Hate crime on the rise
Calgary Herald (Canada), Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.calgaryherald.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Reports of racially or hate-motivated crimes in Calgary are up by 80 per cent in
the first six months of this year compared with the same time in 1999, according
to city police.

Const. Doug Jones, hate-bias crime co-ordinator for the Calgary Police Service,
says the average number of incidents reported each year is about 125 but that
has risen dramatically this year with 80 per cent more cases being reported.

But Jones says increased public awareness -- not more attacks -- is likely the
cause.

''Studies have shown that hate crimes are only reported about 10 per cent of the
time,'' he said.
(...)

The Aryan Nations once had a public presence in Alberta but was forced out after
a neo-Nazi cross-burning incident in 1990.

Former leader Terry Long now lives near Cranbrook, B.C., not far from the Idaho
border.

But there are other white supremacists quietly trying to recruit followers in
Calgary.

Police believe there are about 100 members of various racist groups here.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Witchcraft

22. Message in a bottle flushes out secret of folk charm to ward off witches
The Guardian (England), Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Chemical analysis of a sealed 17th century bottle found in the foundations of a
Surrey house has revealed not a secret Jacobean wine stash but a revolting folk
charm against witches.

It is made of human urine, pubic hairs, an eyelash and a handful of bent pins.
The witch bottle, as such charms were known, still contained almost half a pint
of 300-year-old urine.

Witch bottles were made by people who believed their illness or misfortune, the
death of family members or livestock, meant they had been cursed.

The bottles were intended to turn the curse back on the witch. Although the
urine was that of the victim, it was believed there was such a strong link
between the curser and the cursed that the charm would work on the witch, for as
long as the bottle remained sealed.

Alan Massey, a retired organic chemist from Loughborough University who carried
out the analysis, said: ''In this case the curse was intended to make the
unfortunate object of it feel as if they were weeing with a bladder full of bent
pins.''
(...)

This witch bottle was found sealed with all its contents intact despite being
buried more than 300 years ago in the foundations of a house which was
demolished in the 18th century near the ramparts of the castle in Reigate.

It was discovered by the archaeologist David Williams, who jumped to the obvious
conclusion about a sealed wine bottle. ''I managed to get a local vineyard
interested and they arranged to open the bottle, test the contents and possibly
organise a tasting,'' he said.
(...)

The bottle went to Mr Massey, who was already testing finds for Brian Hoggard, a
postgraduate student from Worcester University, who is completing a thesis on
witch bottles.

He has traced hundreds of reports of bottles found in the ruins of hovels and
mansions. The earliest finds date from the late 16th century in Nottinghamshire
and the most recent from a mid 19th century cottage in Pershore, Worcestershire.
''It was believed that they would cause such agony that the witch would come to
your door and beg to be released from the curse,'' he said.

He also analysed the nine brass pins and proved that they had been bent as a
single bunch. Bending the pins was a symbolic killing, as well as intended to
torture the witch.

Mr Hoggard found it impossible to trace the occupants of the long-demolished
house in local records, never mind discovering whether they suffered any
exceptional bad luck.

Mr Massey believes it may be possible to DNA test the human hairs which were
floating in the liquid, to get a profile of the maker of the witch bottle. ''The
bottle was already old when it was buried. The man who blew it was probably
alive in the 1665 plague and the Great Fire of London.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Brian Hoggard's web site:
Folk Magic in Britain


=== Other News

23. Dutch Approve Gay Marriages
Associated Press, Sep. 12, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The Netherlands, long among the gay rights
vanguard, enacted a bill converting the country's ''registered same-sex
partnerships'' into full-fledged marriages, complete with divorce guidelines and
wider adoption rights for gays.

Proponents say the legislation will give Dutch gays rights beyond those offered
in any other country.
(...)

In Norway and Sweden, gay couples can already register their partnerships and
Denmark has gone a step further -- it was the first country to allow gay
marriages in 1989. Two years ago, the Netherlands enacted a law allowing
same-sex couples to register as partners and to claim pensions, social security
and inheritance.

But the new Dutch legislation goes farther, creating full equality for gays,
activists said.

Same-sex couples will be able to marry at city hall and adopt Dutch children.
They will be able to divorce through the court system, like heterosexual
couples.

Boris Dittrich, a member of the centrist Democrats 66 party and a proponent of
the plan, said the law ''acknowledges that a person's sex is not of importance
for marriage.'' He spoke during what he called ''the most moving debate'' of his
parliamentary career.

''We will be able to call it what it is and that's marriage,'' said Henk Krol, an
activist and editor-in-chief of the Gay Krant magazine. He said the vote ''will
be an absolute first in the world.''

The law is expected to take effect early next year.
(...)

Displaying unusual solidarity, all three parliamentary factions in the governing
coalition -- the left-of-center Labor Party, the Liberal VVD and the smaller
Democrats 66 -- backed the proposal. Even a few members of the biggest
opposition party, the largely traditional Christian Democratic Alliance, or CDA,
have expressed support.

The plan hasn't been recognized by the dominant Protestant or Roman Catholic
churches, but a few breakaway churches have sent encouraging letters to
legislators.

The Remonstrant Brethren, which broke from the Protestant church in 1619, was
one step ahead of the Dutch parliament, having accepted gay marriages in 1986.
The Remonstrants and a group called the Old Catholic Church are the best-known
supporters of gay rights here.

While gays will enjoy new liberties in the Netherlands, they may run into
trouble when they travel in countries where homosexuality remains illegal. The
Foreign Affairs Ministry has proposed offering legal assistance to Dutch
citizens in such cases.

Some opponents fear the unique position of gays could isolate the Dutch and set
the Netherlands apart.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance

24. Religious bias to be tackled by commission
The Telegraph (England), Sep. 10, 2000
[Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A commission for Religious Relations to tackle discrimination could be created
under radical proposals being considered by the Government.

Demands for a body to monitor religious tensions among minority faiths, fuelled
by incidents such as the 1988 fatwa against the novelist Salman Rushdie, have
emerged in a report commissioned by Jack Straw, the Home Secretary.

The new body might have a similar remit to the controversial Commission for
Racial Equality. While the idea will be generally welcomed by Church leaders, it
was yesterday dismissed as an empty gesture by Lord Tebbit, the former Tory
Party chairman.
(...)

The Commission is one of a range of ideas to emerge from the report, an 18-month
research project by academics at Derby University which will be handed to
ministers at the end of this month. It is believed to have found no huge desire
among leaders of minority faiths for a watered-down ''multi-faith'' coronation for
the next monarch.

Many, though, favour the suggestion by the Prince of Wales that the monarch's
title ''Defender of the Faith'' be changed to the less exclusive ''Defender of
Faith''. Nor is there a great appetite for the rapid disestablishment of the
Church of England. Other faiths are already to be awarded seats in the reformed
House of Lords alongside Anglican bishops.

The report will reflect evidence of religious discrimination, both perceived and
real, mainly in the area of employment. Ministers believe that the current law
protecting minority groups is inadequate and that changes are needed to bring it
up to date.

At the moment, people are protected, under the Race Relations Act, only if they
belong to a clearly identified ethnic group. Sikhs and Jews are covered by the
legislation but Muslims, Hindus and Christians are not. Ministers are examining
ways of ensuring protection for all.

The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law as
well as new European Union regulations outlawing religious discrimination by
employers, will also have a dramatic impact.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. School heads want Muslim assemblies
The Telegraph (England), Sep. 10, 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance]
Pupils should be required to attend Sikh, Hindu and Muslim school assemblies to
produce better ''cultural understanding'', headteachers are to tell the
Government.

The Secondary Heads' Association claims that assemblies in the minority faiths
will make pupils more tolerant of other ethnic groups and be an ''enormously
powerful way'' of improving race relations. It says that the change would be
particularly beneficial in rural districts and provincial towns, where there are
relatively few ethnic minority pupils.

The headteachers' call will re-ignite the debate about the law on assemblies,
which requires schools to stage a daily act of mainly Christian worship. Many
schools already fail to comply with the law, complaining that a lack of space
and the ethnic mix of their pupils make the rules impossible and anachronistic.

David Blunkett, the Education Secretary, has refused to alter the law in
response to such complaints, insisting that schools should meet their legal
obligations. John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads'
Association, called for ''more inclusive'' legislation, giving schools a more
general instruction to promote pupils' spiritual and cultural education, and
removing the emphasis on Christianity.
(...)

Colin Hart, the director of the Christian Institute, a religious campaign group,
said: ''It would be very wrong to require pupils from a Christian background to
attend assemblies of another religion. Schools can teach other faiths during
religious education lessons, but asking pupils to take part in acts of worship
for a different religion would be a disaster.''

Theresa May, the shadow education secretary, said: ''I don't think it will help
pupils to abandon the central role of Christianity in assemblies. Schools
already teach respect for other cultures, which is right, but we should not
forget that this is an essentially Christian country.''

A Department for Education spokesman said that schools could incorporate other
faiths into assemblies if they wished, but added: ''All schools are required to
provide a broadly Christian daily act of collective worship. The Government has
no plans to change that.'' Statistics from Ofsted, the Government's inspection
service, reveal that one in 10 of the country's 16,000 primaries and seven out
of 10 of the 3,600 secondaries fail to comply with the law on assemblies.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations

26. Judge says inmate wrongly convicted
Dallas Morning News, Sep. 12, 2000
http://www.dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
IRAAN, Texas - A disabled oilfield roughneck was unknowingly drugged, denied
access to evidence and sentenced to die even though the state's case against him
lacked physical evidence, eyewitnesses or a motive linking him to the crime.

Only after Ernest Willis had been in Texas' prison system for years did his
appeals lawyers discover a hidden psychiatric profile that probably would have
kept him off death row. They also concluded that he had been needlessly dosed
with psychotropic drugs during his trial. Prosecutors characterized Mr. Willis'
drug-induced, detached, flat demeanor to jurors as that of an ''animal'' with
''cold fish eyes.''

Moreover, Mr. Willis remains behind bars even though a convicted serial killer
confessed on videotape to setting the June 1986 house fire that killed two young
women in this remote West Texas oil town. Mr. Willis and his cousin were also in
the house, but escaped the blaze.
(...)

Mr. Willis is among more than 100 inmates on Texas death row whose
court-appointed attorneys have been disciplined by the State Bar of Texas at
some point in their careers.

In recommending that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant a new trial,
Judge Jones concluded that Mr. Willis ''was convicted and sentenced to death in a
proceeding where there was ineffective assistance of counsel and the suppression
of the psychological examination. In addition, Mr. Willis sat through his entire
trial under the debilitating influence of significant doses of two
anti-psychotic medications that were administered to him by the state ...
without any medical basis or justification.''

The Court of Criminal Appeals, which previously had upheld Mr. Willis'
conviction, will review the judge's recommendation after it returns from summer
recess Monday.
(...)

Thirteen years ago, after winning the death penalty for Mr. Willis, Mr. Johnson
was jubilant. The verdict, he told The Odessa American, marked ''the first time a
Pecos County jury has returned the death penalty since they hung people in the
1800s.''
(...)

According to the trial transcript, the state did not introduce any physical
evidence, fingerprint or eyewitness that directly linked Mr. Willis to the
crime; nor did it offer a motive, which in Texas is not a requirement for
conviction. Mr. Willis apparently became the key suspect in the arson because
volunteer firefighters said he neither coughed from the heavy smoke nor appeared
particularly concerned that two women perished in the blaze - an issue that
prosecutors repeatedly emphasized at trial.

Authorities kept him so drugged during the trial, Mr. Willis said, that he can't
remember much about it.
(...)

He said he thought the drugs he was getting in jail were for his chronic back
condition. Instead, he said, they stripped him of much of his memory of the
trial.

Much of the newly discovered evidence was uncovered by lawyers from Latham &
Watkins, a New York firm that is handling the Willis appeal for free.

''Our discovery ... of the extent of anti-psychotic drugs he was under at the
time of trial was the final blow that convinced us that this man had been badly
wronged,'' said one of the lawyers, James S. Blank.

''If a man could be drugged by the state like he was, how can you give
credibility to anything the state has done?''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Defense called lacking for death row's poor
Dallas Morning News, Sep. 12, 2000
http://www.dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Poor defendants facing the death penalty in Texas have been appointed attorneys
with temporary law licenses, substance abuse problems, conflicts of interest or
records of mishandling clients' cases.

An examination of 461 capital cases by The Dallas Morning News found that nearly
one in four condemned inmates has been represented at trial or on appeal by
court-appointed attorneys who have been disciplined for professional misconduct
at some point in their careers. Others have been represented by court-provided
attorneys who dozed in trial, failed to investigate their case or put in minimal
preparation.

In addition, The News found that measures put in place in 1995 to ensure that
people facing the death penalty got at least an adequate defense often carry
little weight.

''When you think of a system, you think of some structure in place that is
orderly and consistent,'' said Elisabeth Semel, director of the American Bar
Association's Death Penalty Representation Project. ''Texas is the antithesis of
that.''

Defenders of the current system say that most appointed attorneys are effective,
although their pay is low and their ability to hire experts and investigators is
often limited. They point out that reversals of convictions for ineffective
assistance of counsel are rare.
(...)

In recent months, Gov. George W. Bush's presidential candidacy has drawn
national attention to Texas' busy death chamber and its patchwork system of
appointing attorneys for poor defendants. The Republican governor, who has
signed death warrants for 144 prisoners during his five years in office, has
expressed confidence in the system.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

28. Christian 'Two-by-Twos' worship quietly in U.S.
AOL/Reuters, Sep. 12, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GUILDERLAND, N.Y. (Reuters) - They travel in pairs spreading the Gospel, they
quietly worship with their families in people's homes every Sunday. As members
of the unchanging faith known to others as ``The Two-by-Twos,'' they have no
formal church.

Every year, there are 85 gatherings of this little-known religious group, also
known as ``The Way'' or ``The Truth,'' across the United States. At a convention
in mid-August at the Knaggs Farm in Guilderland, a rural community near New York
State capital Albany, 500 members gathered for a four-day retreat.

Since the 1920s, followers of this secretive sect have been meeting at this
165-acre former dairy farm at the invitation of the Knaggs family, who are also
members.

``We believe our heavenly father is the greatest name there is, so that is why
we don't give ourselves a name,'' said Charles Sniffen, the group's quasi-leader
and spokesman.

Through smaller weekly gatherings, members are encouraged to get back to the
Bible, using it daily to get through life's trials and tribulations and
constantly fight the devil's temptations, Sniffen said.

The faith seems to borrow from many others including adult baptism, common in
the Southern Baptist faith, simplicity and tranquillity associated with the
Quakers, and heavy emphasis on the Bible, which is found in many fundamental
faiths.
(...)

Usually very little attention is drawn to the group, but this year Guilderland
town officials found their dwellings failed health and safety regulations. As a
result, members were not allowed to stay on the farm in tents and camping vans,
as at past conventions, or cook on the premises in a large kitchen.

So food was catered under huge tents with warming trays, which were more
reminiscent of an outdoor wedding than a simple religious gathering.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. Keeping spiritual passports renewed: Shaman inhabits 2 worlds
Sacramento Bee, Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.sacbee.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Shortly after 8 a.m., Xong Lao Vang sees his first client: a man who has lost
his wallet. When exactly did you lose it? Vang asks, then plots the information
on an ivory calendar etched with X's and dots in domino patterns.

According to the calendar, a Hmong fortune-telling device, Vang figures the man
lost his wallet at home, somewhere low to the ground.

Lost wallets, sick babies, sore-backed grandmas, accident victims, funerals,
weddings, marital discord ... Vang, 73, works them all.

For half a century, he's been a Hmong shaman and flute player, making him an
indispensable part of Hmong culture.

America, for many Hmong, has been ''a puzzle of 1,000 pieces,'' says Vang's
contemporary Choua Thao, one of the few Hmong women educated in Laos. Only now,
after 25 years, are Vang and other Hmong solving that puzzle.

Vang's secret is that he never let America defeat him. He has balanced ancient
traditions with a pragmatic approach to the vastly different world of
Sacramento.

He realizes arranged marriages don't work here, that girls who marry in their
early teens are often destined to a life of poverty, misery and divorce. He
understands that Hmong without an education will lose the respect of their
children.
(...)

Traditional Hmong believe every person's soul is like a passport with an
expiration date -- the day you're scheduled to die -- and Vang helps Hmong over
age 50 renew their spiritual passports.

He's also trying to extend the expiration date on Hmong culture in America. In
the past few years, he has cut back his practice to become a one-man cultural
preservation society. He's training a new generation of Hmong shamans and flute
players to carry on centuries-old traditions.
(...)

Without a shaman, many Hmong believe they can't appease restless spirits that
cause illness and bad luck. And they believe a dead person's soul won't reach
its final resting place without a flute player's melancholy dirges.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Strangers in a Land Of Strange Mountains
TIME, Sep. 11, 2000
http://www.time.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Where the Dons come from, mountains are deities. When last week's
Millennium World Peace Summit, the grand religious confab affiliated with both
the U.N. and Ted Turner, sought South America's purest practitioners of Incan
and pre-Incan pantheism for its environmental panel, it turned to the Q'ero
nation. The Q'ero, who live at an altitude of 15,000 ft. in several villages
south of Cuzco, were amenable. They had had a prophetic vision about traveling
to a far land to discuss the world's growing disharmony: pollution in the clouds
that wreath their peaks, bizarrely early frost that threatens their potato crops
and new parasites that weaken their alpacas.
(...)

But could any ritual prepare the six shamans--so removed from modernity that Don
Nicolas can read the Incan code of knotted cords but speaks no Spanish--for the
big city? The Dons call the DC-10 that brought them a ''big bird.'' They don't
know how to open a Coke can. As the van enters the Lincoln Tunnel, one of them
remarks, ''This is the Uccu Pacha''--the Underworld. What will they make of Times
Square? Or of the Waldorf-Astoria, where the summit is based?
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Books, Internet

31. Beliefnet.com Forms Alliance With America Online to Offer Religious and
Spiritual Content, Interactive Features and Commerce
Business Wire, Sep. 11, 2000 (Company press release)
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000--Beliefnet.com, the Web's leading
multi-faith destination for religion and spirituality, today announced a
two-year alliance with America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), the world's leading
interactive services company. Beliefnet.com will provide comprehensive religious
and spiritual content and interactive features to several America Online, Inc.
brands.
(...)

Beliefnet.com offers a diverse range of content and analysis written by more
than 65 leading thinkers and theologians. Moreover, Beliefnet has become the
authoritative Internet source for information on religion and spirituality. This
year, Beliefnet's partnership with ABC for Peter Jennings's highly rated
documentary, ''In Search of Jesus'', along with their extensive coverage of the
Republican and Democratic National Conventions, were among the site's most
popular features.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Beliefnet.com promotes religious pluralism. Its self-acclaimed documentary
''In Search of Jesus'' is a study in poorly documented nonsense. Details


32. Harry Potter To Be Released in China
The Associated Press, Sep. 12, 2000
http://my.aol.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) A state-owned publisher plans to release Chinese translations of the first
three of British author J.K. Rowling's wildly popular books about the young
wizard in October.

The books were translated by a three-member team of women specially chosen
because of their supposed maternal instincts, said Wang Ruiqin, head of the
children's book division of the People's Literature Publishing House.
(...)

The deal puts the state-owned firm in the unusual position of promoting to
children novels about the occult at the same time that the government is
cracking down on religious groups that it claims spread dangerous superstition.

It wasn't clear how the Chinese translators would deal with such delicate
issues.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]