=== Waco / Branch Davidians

1. Judge blames sect for Waco tragedy
2. Judge says David Koresh responsible for Mount Carmel tragedy
3. Judge clears government in Branch Davidian case

=== Aum Shinrikyo
4. Court removes belongings from former AUM office

=== Zhong Gong
5. Court allows Qigong guru to stay in U.S.-group

=== Scientology
6. Court permits appeal against sect branch Dianetics Stuttgart

=== Islam
7. Keep Islam out of Italy, says cardinal
8. Muslim Network Condemns Doctor's Stance On Amputation

=== Catholicism
9. Archdiocese gets exorcist

=== Hate Groups
10. Black Mountain attorney included in special report by hate-group trackers

=== Rebirthing
11. Colorado therapists plead innocent in girl's death
12. Therapists plead not guilty in girl's death
13. Evergreen defendants each want day in court
14. New age 'rebirthing' treatment kills girl

=== Other News
15. Prosecutor Rebuts Polygamist's Time-Limit Challenge
16. Woman Beheaded
17. Ultimate questions: Jesus Seminar at TCU turning to issues
of the existence and nature of God
18. China's official Protestant church says times have never been better
19. Controversial Kazakh healer fails to get medical practice licence
20. Psychic Institute Celebrates 75th Anniversary in Virginia Beach, Va.
21. Native American Spiritual Leaders Move to the Forefront for World Peace
22. 'My grandad's an alien, so I bit him'

=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance
23. Jesuits' registration in Russia restored
24. Religious kids get a waiver

=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations
25. Group wants executions halted until changes in system proposed
=== Noted
26. Gays Who Tried A Straight Life Now Say It Didn't Work
27. Feng shui today
28. Why the Washington Post and NPR Should I.D. Genetic I.D.

=== Books
29. Harry Potter China Campaign Begins


=== Waco / Branch Davidians

1. Judge blames sect for Waco tragedy
Dallas Morning News, Sep. 21, 2000
http://www.dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Branch Davidians' long-running wrongful-death lawsuit ended Wednesday with a
federal judge's ruling that they and not the government were responsible for the
1993 tragedy.

In a 22-page judgment finalizing an advisory jury's recommendation, U.S.
District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. ruled that surviving sect members and their
families who had sought $675 million in damages would ''take nothing'' from the
federal agencies involved in the deadly standoff near Waco.

Judge Smith's ruling also included a lengthy rebuke of lead plaintiffs' lawyer
Michael Caddell of Houston, saying he abused the judicial process.

The judge wrote that Mr. Caddell had attempted ''for the past year ... to try
their case in the media through the use of innuendo, distortions and outright
falsehoods, rather than honestly presenting the true facts of the case.''

Mr. Caddell and other lawyers for the plaintiffs could not be reached Wednesday
evening.

The decision drew praise from Justice Department officials and FBI director
Louis Freeh, who termed it a ''most gratifying'' vindication of federal law
enforcement.

''No one in the FBI wanted anyone harmed. Everyone did their best under
extraordinarily difficult circumstances. In the end, no one fired a shot, the
government did not start the fires and the Davidians were found by the court to
be solely responsible for the unnecessary deaths that occurred,'' Mr. Freeh said.

The judge's decision came two months after an advisory jury concluded that
Branch Davidians alone instigated a Feb. 28, 1993, shootout with federal agents
and then ended a 51-day standoff by immolating themselves inside their besieged
building.
(...)

Judge Smith's ruling rejected the sect's arguments that FBI efforts to force
them out of their building with tanks and tear gas on April 19, 1993, were at
least partially responsible for the fire.

Blaming Koresh
Instead, the judge wrote, sect leader David Koresh and several of his male
followers intentionally set the fires, and ''adult Davidians kept the children in
the compound after starting the fire rather than sending them to safety.''
(...)

The judge concluded that the plaintiffs failed to prove their most controversial
claim: that blips of light recorded by an airborne FBI infrared camera just
before the fire were heat flashes from government guns firing into the compound.
(...)

Judge Smith also rejected the argument that FBI agents had failed to protect the
lives of more than 17 children and other innocents who died inside the compound.

''Because the fire was started by certain Davidians, the United States owed no
duty to protect the remaining Davidians from the fire,'' Judge Smith wrote.
''Despite this, a number of FBI agents risked their lives to assist Davidians
from the burning compound in an attempt to save the children.''

He added that the agents' rescue efforts were the ''most telling evidence'' to
debunk persistent conspiracy theories that the government intentionally set the
compound fire or tried to cut off escape routes with gunfire.
(...)

But even before the judge issued his final judgment, lawyers for the sect
declared that they would appeal what they predicted would be a hostile decision
toward them.

Mr. Caddell fired an opening salvo last week with a lengthy and caustic motion
charging that the judge had denied his clients a fair trial. Asking Judge Smith
to recuse himself and declare a mistrial, the motion alleged that the judge's
behavior, comments and rulings displayed ''profound and deep-seated prejudice''
against the sect members and their families.

He also condemned the judge's move to impanel an advisory jury to help him
decide the case, contending it was a ruse to provide the judge with cover for a
controversial decision.

Such litigation against the federal government is normally decided by a federal
judge alone. But Judge Smith announced just before the trial began in mid-June
that he was bringing in a jury because of the high degree of public interest and
controversy in the case.

After hearing four weeks of testimony, jurors returned a verdict for the
government in less than three hours, and court personnel later said their actual
deliberations took less than an hour.

Criticism from the bench
Judge Smith began his Wednesday ruling by castigating Mr. Caddell's recusal
motion as legally and factually baseless. He told the Houston lawyer that such
an unfounded and ''reckless'' public attack on a judge could constitute a
violation of the Texas Bar Association's disciplinary rules.

Although he acknowledged remarking during one bench conference that he
considered sect member Livingstone Fagan ''a lying, murdering son of a bitch,''
the judge wrote that the comment was a joking and ''off-the-record'' response to a
joking comment.

Mr. Fagan was among eight sect members convicted of federal firearms and
manslaughter charges after the standoff, and he acknowledged in a recent
deposition that he had shot at least one ATF agent. ''The court resents the
slight to Mr. Fagan's mother, should he have one,'' Judge Smith wrote Wednesday.
(...)

He wrote that the ATF's decision to rush the building with a large number of
agents was ''reasonable in light of the accumulation of weapons by the
Davidians,'' and he added that agents acted lawfully and reasonably after being
ambushed.

He noted that lawyers for the sect had admitted before the trial that their
clients had amassed an arsenal of more than 300 weapons, including sniper
rifles, illegal grenades and machine guns.
(...)

The ruling mirrors a preliminary July report by Waco special counsel John C.
Danforth absolving government agents and Attorney General Janet Reno of any
wrongdoing in their efforts to end the siege.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Judge says David Koresh responsible for Mount Carmel tragedy
Waco Tribune-Herald, Sep. 20, 2000
http://www.accesswaco.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
David Koresh is responsible for the 1993 Branch Davidian' debacle and no sect
survivors or their families are entitled to recover damages from the government,
a federal judge in Waco ruled Wednesday.

''The entire tragedy at Mount Carmel can be laid at the feet of this one
individual,'' U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. wrote in a 23-page order
that included his final judgment in the case and what are known as ''findings of
fact and conclusions of law.''

The judge's ruling in the wrongful-death lawsuit upholds the July 14 verdict
rendered by a five-person advisory jury impaneled by Smith to hear the case.

Jurors, after hearing four weeks of testimony, absolved the government of
wrongdoing in the Feb. 28, 1993, military-style raid at Mount Carmel and in the
April 19, 1993, fire in which Koresh and 75 of his followers, including 21
children, died.

A week after the trial, Special Counsel John Danforth also cleared the
government and blamed Koresh for the deaths.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney Michael Caddell of Houston, who has openly sparred
with Smith since near the end of trial, was out of state Wednesday and had not
seen Smith's judgment, a spokesman in his office said.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, another plaintiffs' attorney, also
was traveling and was not available for comment, his office said.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder said the government is pleased with
the ruling and said it ''appropriately recognizes that many law enforcement
officers risked their lives to uphold our nation's laws.''
(...)

Relating to the events on the day of the fire, Smith noted that the Davidians
shot at agents while the FBI was injecting tear gas and failed to leave Mount
Carmel as instructed.

The FBI's use of three pyrotechnic, military-style tear gas rounds that morning,
which the FBI belatedly admitted, had nothing to do with the cause of the
inferno later in the day, which was set intentionally by the Branch Davidians,
Smith said.

''At least 21 of the plaintiffs died of wounds that apparently were either
self-inflicted or inflicted by other Davidians; 20 Davidians died of gunshot
wounds and one child died of a stab wound to the chest,'' the ruling states. ''The
FBI did not prevent nor hinder any plaintiff from leaving the building. To the
contrary, The FBI repeatedly asked the Davidians to leave the building, warned
them that tear gas would be inserted, opened up egress routes, and cleared
material that was blocking the front door.''

The plaintiffs alleged that FBI officials deviated from the tear-gas plan
approved by Attorney General Janet Reno by the premature destruction of the
building. Smith rejected that argument, saying that the agents at the scene
acted within their discretion.

Branch Davidian Clive Doyle, whom the judge noted was among those who helped
start the fire, did not return phone messages Wednesday.

FBI listening devices placed in the compound during the 51-day standoff provided
the ''most telling evidence'' that sect members intentionally started the fire,
Smith wrote.
(...)

Before Smith's ruling addressed the heart of the lawsuit, he rejected motions
that Caddell filed within the past week for Smith to recuse himself from the
case and declare a mistrial and to reopen the case on two issues that Caddell
claimed the judge unfairly ''ambushed'' him on during trial.

Caddell claimed in his recusal motion that Smith displayed bias against the
plaintiffs throughout the trial and orchestrated the proceeding to ensure a
government victory.

''This motion is a further example of this attorney's abuse of the judicial
process,'' Smith said of Caddell. The judge said that the attorneys representing
the plaintiffs ''have attempted to try their case in the media through the use of
innuendo, distortions, and outright falsehoods, rather than honestly presenting
the true facts of the case.''

Although Smith said it should not be necessary, he reminded Caddell in his order
of a lawyer's responsibilities under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of
Professional Conduct, including an edict that lawyers make no statements that
they know to be false concerning the integrity of a judge.

''Many of the allegations contained in plaintiffs' motion are either false or
made with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity,'' Smith wrote.

Caddell alleged that members of the government's trial team gave presents to the
judge's staff after the trial. Smith said that while government attorneys gave
T-shirts and cookies to U.S. marshals and to members of the court clerk's
office, none of those are members of his staff.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Judge clears government in Branch Davidian case
CNN/AP/Reuters, Sep. 21, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO, Texas -- A federal judge has cleared the government of wrongdoing in the
deaths of 80 Branch Davidians during the 1993 standoff with federal agents at
the cult's compound.
(...)

With this finding, Smith dismissed a $675 million wrongful death lawsuit brought
by survivors and relatives of the dead, who alleged the government had caused
the standoff and contributed to the fatal fire.

The judge's conclusions mirrored those reached by an advisory jury and by
Special Counsel John Danforth ealier this year.
(...)

Judge Smith's ruling can be appealed.
(...)

Wednesday's verdict was the latest defeat for Davidians in a seven-year battle
with the U.S. government over responsibility for the Waco siege.

Specific findings of ruling

• ATF agents fired on the compound in reasonable self-defense after coming
  under heavy gunfire from Davidians when they raided the place to arrest
  Koresh on weapons charges. The February 28 shoot-out triggered the standoff.
  
• The FBI acted with restraint on April 19 when it used tanks to pour tear gas
  into the compound and did not block any exits.
  
• ''During the course of the day, certain Davidians prevented others from
  leaving the compound ... At least 21 of the Plaintiffs died of wounds that
  apparently were either self-inflicted or inflicted by other Davidians.''
  
• The FBI did not violate orders from Attorney General Janet Reno when it kept
  local firefighters away from the burning building because gunfire from the
  Davidians would endanger firefighters' lives;
  
• The FBI did not fire at Davidians trying to flee the building, as survivors
  have claimed. ''The only gunfire on April 19, 1993, was generated by certain
  Davidians inside the compound,'' the judge wrote.
  
• Finally, the FBI did fire three potentially flammable military tear gas
  rounds, but they struck a concrete bunker and did not cause the fires.
  

[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo

4. Court removes belongings from former AUM office
Kyodo News Service/Associated Press, Sep. 21, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
YOKOHAMA, Sept. 21 (Kyodo) -- Officials of the Yokohama District Court on
Thursday morning removed belongings left behind at a condominium in Yokohama
vacated the previous day by the AUM Shinrikyo cult.

The court on Sept. 6 ordered the cult to evacuate the room, which served as the
group's Yokohama branch since 1989, in line with demands by the building's
residents.
(...)

The AUM office was the home of Fumihiro Joyu, a senior cult member who was
released from prison in Hiroshima last December after completing a three-year
jail sentence for perjury, and served as the virtual headquarters of the
religious cult.

After moving out of the apartment Wednesday, Joyu, 37, relocated to a building
in Tokyo's Adachi Ward.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Zhong Gong

5. Court allows Qigong guru to stay in U.S.-group
AOL/Reuters, Sep. 21, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HONG KONG, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A court in U.S.-administered Guam has allowed the
leader of the banned Zhong Gong meditation group to stay in the United States
instead of deporting him to China, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on
Thursday.

Zhong Gong, like the better known Falun Gong spiritual movement, has been banned
in China as an ``evil cult,'' accused of ``using feudal superstition to deceive
the masses.''

The Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement the
court stopped short of granting political asylum to Zhang Hongbao, the group's
leader, as he had sought.

It said the court did not want to repatriate Zhang to China for fear of
persecution after he returned home. Zhang would be allowed to stay and work in
the United States but would not become a permanent resident, it added.

The Information Centre said the U.S. did not give Zhang political asylum because
it did not want to upset Beijing.
(...)

Zhang's hearing, which had been repeatedly postponed, forced the U.S. to choose
between sending the meditation guru back to possible execution and giving a home
to a fugitive from China.

Further complicating matters was U.S. criticism of China's ruthless campaign
against Falun Gong, in which rights group say dozen of adherents have died of
beatings and forced feeding or medication in police custody.

China interprets U.S. statements of general support for freedom of belief and
assembly as backing for Falun Gong. It is angry that Washington rejected as
politically motivated Chinese requests to arrest the group's New York-based
founder, Li Hongzhi.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

6. Court permits appeal against sect branch Dianetics Stuttgart
Rhein-Neckar Zeitung (Germany), Sep. 19, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Mannheim/Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) - The State of Baden-Wuerttemberg has scored a
victory in its legal dispute with the Scientology Organization. The Superior
Administrative Court in Mannheim has permitted appeal against a decision of the
Stuttgart Administrative Court, as the executive presidium stated in the state
capitol on Tuesday. The grounds are stated to be ''legal and factual problems.''

The Stuttgart judges decided last November that the sect branch of Dianetics
Stuttgart may retain its status as an association. The executive presidium had
revoked the group's status as a legal association in August 1994.

In its initial reaction, Executive President Udo Andriof welcomed the Mannheim
decision. ''We now have the opportunity to prove that the revocation of legal
capacity occurred correctly because Dianetics Stuttgart is engaged as a business
and pursues commercial goals,'' said Andriof.
(...)

The greatest effect a decision against the organization would have would be in
debtor liability. Creditors enjoy relatively little protection with registered
associations. If no association assets are available, they walk away
empty-handed. In contrast, a legal entity of trade law must maintain minimum
capital, and is required to keep balance and audit records.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The publisher of Religion News Report agrees with the German government's
view of Scientology:

"''The German government considers the Scientology organization a commercial
enterprise with a history of taking advantage of vulnerable individuals and
an extreme dislike of any criticism. The government is also concerned that
the organization's totalitarian structure and methods may pose a risk to
Germany's democratic society. Several kinds of evidence have influenced this
view of Scientology, including the organization's activities in the United
States.''"

=== Islam

7. Keep Islam out of Italy, says cardinal
The Daily Telegraph (England), Sep. 15, 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A senior Italian cardinal has provoked outrage by calling for Christian
immigrants to be given preference over Muslims. He said the policy would
''protect Italy's identity'' against ''Islam's ideological attack''.

Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop of Bologna and a traditionalist sometimes seen as a
possible successor to the Pope, said that the Church faced ''one of the most
serious and biggest assaults on Christianity that history remembers''. He said
aspects of Islam were not compatible with the Italian way of life. He said:
''Europe will either become Christian again or it will become Muslim.''

His remarks were immediately attacked by politicians and priests.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. Muslim Network Condemns Doctor's Stance On Amputation
Weekly Trust (Nigeria), Sep. 18, 2000
http://www.allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Muslim group based in the United Kingdom, Nigerian Muslim Network (NMN), has condemned a statement credited to the registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), to the effect that doctors who amputated limbs under the sharia law would be penalised.

In a statement signed by its leader, Abba B. Gumel, NMN [NOTE: Mr. Gumel states that he has never been the leader of NMN] regretted the position of the registrar but conceded that amputating the human hand or leg not based on medical grounds was unethical. But argued that since under Sharia, a law is always in place to sanction the amputation, it was wrong for MDCN to penalise doctors who amputate.

The Muslim group said it viewed MDCN's stance as an apparent reaction to the recent amputation of Mallam Bello Jangebe's hand in Zamfara State following his conviction for stealing.

The NMN further said that it did not believe that the council's registrar suggested the sanctioning of medical practitioners who carry out amputations in good faith.

It argued that amputations were aimed to serve as a deterrent and that it was not peculiar to the Sharia system. ''In the U.S.'', it revealed, ''it is well-known that medical practitioners are always called upon to administer fatal injections that kill murderers sentenced to death by the law courts of some states.'' NMN recalled the recent execution of one Mr. Gary Graham of Texas.

Commenting on the recent controversy over the question as to whether Christian graduates should serve under the NYSC scheme in states that operate the Sharia legal system, the NMN expressed surprise at what it called double standards of MDCN for keeping silent over the murderous activities of the OPC and the Bakassi Boys only to condemn Sharia. [...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* More on human rights abuse

More on America's death penalty human rights abuse


=== Catholicism

9. Archdiocese gets exorcist
Chicago Sun Times, Sep. 19, 2000
http://www.suntimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
For the first time in its 160-year history, the Archdiocese of Chicago has
appointed a full-time exorcist, who said his task is to ''heal those afflicted by
the Evil One.''

The archdiocesan priest, whose identity was withheld by the Roman Catholic
archdiocese to protect his privacy, was appointed without fanfare nearly a year
ago by Cardinal Francis George at the encouragement of a French cardinal.
(...)

The priest, speaking through an archdiocese representative, said he is reluctant
to appear publicly because, ''I collaborate with a number of health care
professionals, as well as officials of the archdiocese. Confidentiality is of
utmost importance in my work, so I prefer to be low-key and quiet about it.''
(...)

Exorcisms, which are centuries old in the Catholic church, are rituals involving
prayer, blessings and the command for the devil to leave the possessed person in
the name of Jesus.

Public interest in exorcism is almost certain to be revived with the re-release
Friday of ''The Exorcist,'' a 1973 blockbuster about a priest's battle for the
soul of a girl possessed by the devil. The re-release comes on the heels of a
reported ''failed'' exorcism by the pope recently.
(...)

An exorcism is a specific ritual for which exorcists are trained.

''They command demons . . . in the name of God that they should depart and no
longer injure human beings,'' the Chicago exorcist said.

There is no fixed duration of time for the healing, or any guarantee for
success. As such, the reported effort by Pope John Paul II last week was not a
''failure,'' LeBar said, because treatments can last decades.
(...)

The casting out of devils can be traced back to Jesus Christ for Christians. Not
only does Jesus himself tell the Tempter to get lost, but Christ charges his
closest followers to go forth and cast out demons--in other words, perform
exorcisms.
(...)

Exorcisms, while a valid ritual within the Roman Catholic church, have been
somewhat de-emphasized from their heyday of the early medieval era to the Second
Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, experts said.

That might be changing. Several dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Chicago,
have appointed exorcists recently. The Chicago exorcist was appointed Sept. 29,
1999, the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of exorcists.

''At present, there would be two major trends in terms of the value of exorcism.
One believes in a devil who is a person, who really exists, and who can as a
matter of fact possess people,'' said the Rev. Eugene Lauer, co-director of the
Hesburg Center at the Catholic Theological Union here. ''There is also a strong
contemporary trend that maintains the devil, or an evil spirit, is a
personification of the evil tendencies and evil directions that are inside the
human condition.''

Lauer estimated that American Catholics are probably about evenly divided on the
concept of evil.

The more modern viewpoint that evil is not wrapped up in an actual devil
resonates across other denominations.
(...)

As long as there have been human beings who believe in supernatural power there
has been the belief in exorcism, the driving out of evil spirits or devils.

The exorcist may be a priest, shaman, witch, or a medium such as a small child.
He or she may lay on hands and say prayers in a private room, or lead ritualized
public dances to end demonic possession and restore a person to physical and-or
mental health.

''It's all over the place,'' said the Rev. Martin Marty, a Lutheran minister and
analyst of religion in America.

Marty said exorcism is a smaller part of Western religions than it is of
religions in most other parts of the world. The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians
and Greeks had professional exorcists, as did early Jews and Christians. Witch
doctors in some African societies and shamans among Native Americans were
exorcists.
(...)

The jinn or genies of the Arabian Nights are part of Islamic belief, Marty said.
Some are good, some bad, and if you rid one person or place of them, they may
appear somewhere else.

Many peoples who did not yet have a written language were animists, believing
all nature is animated, Marty said. Such beliefs have been found in much of
Africa and Asia, and among Native Americans.
(...)

Even the pope can't claim 100 percent success when performing exorcisms.

Earlier this month, Pope John Paul II carried out an impromptu exorcism on a
teenage girl after she began ''screaming insults in a cavernous voice.''
(...)

The pope talked to the girl, exorcised her and prayed with her, assuring her he
would say a mass for her.

But it appeared afterward that the pope's intervention had only a temporary
effect on the girl.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

10. Black Mountain attorney included in special report by hate-group trackers
Asheville Citizen-Times, Sep. 18, 2000
http://citizen-times.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BLACK MOUNTAIN - The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has
issued a special report on the growing ''neo-Confederate'' movement and Black
Mountain attorney Kirk Lyons' role in it, as well as tracking Lyons'
associations with White supremacists.

The national magazine also featured former Asheville NAACP President H.K.
Edgerton, one of a very few Black men involved in the movement to preserve the
Confederate flag. The magazine characterized Edgerton, who is chairman of the
Southern Legal Resource Center's board, as a pawn Lyons is using so he can
appear unbiased.

Lyons and Edgerton called the article ludicrous and said it was based on lies
and half-truths. But Lyons declined to point out what he felt was inaccurate
about the article.

He also said SPLC leader Morris Dees is trying to demonize him to get donations
to run his ''poverty palace,'' because he is ''running out of enemies.''

Dees likes to use the term ''neo-Confederate'' movement because it sounds like
''neo-Nazi,'' Lyons said. ''This isn't the neo-Confederate movement. This is the
Southern civil rights movement. It's the same struggle for civil rights that
every other group in this country has made.''

But the magazine article didn't portray it as that innocent, and it listed some
of the Confederate-rights organizations as ''hate groups.''

In a 53-page report, the magazine traces Lyons' backgrounds from his wedding at
the Aryan Nations Church, his associations with Ku Klux Klan leaders and his
invitation to neo-Nazi skinheads to join him in commemorating a 1938 attack on
German and Austrian Jews.

The 53-page summer 2000 issue of the center's Intelligence Report is called
''Rebels with a Cause,'' and includes six pages on Edgerton, Lyons and Neill
Payne, Lyons' law partner and brother-in-law. Payne is also a chiropractor.
(...)

Some of the magazine's other claims include:

- Lyons spoke at the Aryan Nations World Congress in the fall of 1987.

- Lyons defended the former director of counterinsurgency for the anti-Semitic
Posse Comitatus in 1988.

- Lyons spoke at the ''Rocky Mountain Family Bible Retreat,'' hosted by a leading
ideologue of the anti-Semitic Christian Identity religion in 1989.

- Around 1990, Lyons was identified a member of the National Alliance, a
neo-Nazi group run by William Pierce, who wrote the race war book that Timothy
McVeigh used as a blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing. Then, Lyons had
organized the Patriot's Defense Foundation. Pierce urged his members to send
Lyons donations.

- Lyons told a German neo-Nazi publication in 1992 that if the Klan wants to be
stronger, it should ''become invisible. Hang the robes and hoods in the cupboard
and become an underground organization.''

- Texas Klan leader William Latham said in 1992 that Lyons is ''like a Klan
lawyer,'' and that he ''understands our beliefs. He shares them.''

- Lyons gave a speech to David Duke's Populist Party in 1992 and says White
rights are a global struggle requiring ''professionalism.''

- Lyons ran an ad in White Aryan Resistance's newsletter in 1993 describing his
law practice as ''America's only pro-White law firm.''

Then, Lyons was head of CAUSE, which stood for Canada, Australia, United States,
South Africa and Europe, places where he said conservative rights were
jeopardized.

- Lyons helped start a group called ENOUGH! to protest the opening of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He called it a ''monstrosity and
taxpayer-funded obscenity.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]



=== Rebirthing

11. Colorado therapists plead innocent in girl's death
AOL/Reuters, Sep. 18, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GOLDEN, Colo. (Reuters) - Two therapists pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges
of felony child abuse in the death of a 10-year-old girl who suffocated after
being wrapped in a sheet during a controversial ``rebirthing'' session.

Connell Watkins, 53, and Julie Ponder, 40, entered their pleas in Jefferson
County Court to one count each of reckless child abuse resulting in death.

The girl, Candace Newmaker, died April 18 after undergoing the treatment at
Watkins' clinic in her mountain home of Evergreen, Colo. west of Denver.
(...)

Two workers at the clinic, Brita St. Clair, 41, and Jack McDaniel, 47, who face
the same charges as Watkins and Ponder, did not enter pleas Monday and told
Jefferson County Judge Jane Tidball they will seek separate trials.

All four defendants and the girl's adoptive mother were present at various times
during the fatal session, prosecutor Steve Jensen said.

The girl's mother, Jeane Newmaker, 46, of Durham, North Carolina, paid $7,000 to
Watkins for the treatment to cure ''attachment disorder,'' according to Jensen.

Newmaker, a registered nurse, faces a lesser count of negligent child abuse and
is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 30.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Therapists plead not guilty in girl's death
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 19, 2000
http://www.insidedenver.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GOLDEN - Two Evergreen therapists pleaded not guilty Monday in the ''rebirthing''
death of a 10-year-old girl.

Connell Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder, 40, are charged with child abuse
resulting in death. The two were conducting the therapy session with Candace
Newmaker of Durham, N.C., in Watkins' Evergreen home.

The therapists' assistants, Brita St. Clair and Jack McDaniel, didn't enter
pleas and will instead be arraigned Oct. 19. McDaniel's attorney, Robert
Ransome, said he was just hired last week and needed more time to prepare his
case.
(...)

The four are seeking separate trials, which the Jefferson County District
Attorney's office is opposing. Each person needs his or her own trial because
there are ''various degrees of culpability, in my opinion,'' Ransome said.
(...)

Ransome said he'd like to see McDaniel and St. Clair have separate trials even
though they're married. St. Clair's lawyer, H. Michael Steinberg, said the
lawyers will meet this week.
(...)

If convicted, the two therapists and their assistants face 16 to 48 years in
prison. Newmaker was charged with a lesser felony, punishable by four to 16
years.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Evergreen defendants each want day in court
Denver Post, Sep. 19, 2000
http://www.denverpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Sept. 19, 2000 - A prosecutor wants all four of the defendants in the Evergreen
''rebirthing'' case tried together. But defendants' attorneys said they will press
for separate trials.
(...)

Prosecutor Steve Jensen said he will argue to keep the cases together to
conserve time spent in court and to allow the jury to decide who is most
responsible for the death of the fourth-grader from North Carolina.

''If tried all together, the jury can apportion responsibility among the
parties,'' Jensen said after a Monday hear ing in Jefferson County District Court
in Golden.

The case is expected to result in a trial of at least three weeks. If each
defendant had a separate trial, the case could absorb months of the court's
time, Jensen said.

But Jack McDaniel's attorney said he intends to ask to have McDaniel tried
separately from therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder.

''The biggest issue ... is going to be who is going to trial with whom,'' said Bob
Ransome, McDaniel's attorney.

Michael Steinberg, Brita St. Clair's attorney, said that he is considering
asking for a separate trial as well.
(...)

McDaniel was an intern working for the therapists; St. Clair served as Watkins'
office manager. McDaniel and St. Clair are married, and have argued at previous
hearings that they had nothing to do with the decisions made during the session.
Steinberg said Monday that throughout the rebirthing session, the two were told
what to do.

Craig Truman, Watkins' attorney, argued Monday that the cases already were
separate and Jensen would have to file a motion if he wished to consolidate
them.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. New age 'rebirthing' treatment kills girl
Skeptical Inquirer, Sep. 1, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A ten-year-old girl undergoing an unproven New Age therapy suffocated on April
18 in Evergreen, Colorado.
(...)

Rebirthing therapy was founded by therapist Leonard Orr in the 1970s, who is
said to have re-experienced his own birth while taking a bath. This led him to
develop breathing exercises that would supposedly release repressed traumas. In
the form of rebirthing practiced by Watkins, the blanket was said to represent
the womb, and the pillows were pushed to simulate labor contractions. Struggling
out of the blanket was supposed to help the child heal from past trauma by being
''reborn.''

Terry Levy, co-founder of an Evergreen clinic, admitted that there is ''a lack of
proper training, credentialing, and regulation in this field.'' A spokeswoman for
the American Psychological Association went much further: ''There is absolutely
no evidence that this works, that it helps people. This is far outside what
mainstream psychotherapists are doing.''

In the wake of the child's death, the Colorado Mental Health Grievance Board
barred Watkins from practicing further rebirthing therapy. This is not the first
time that a child has suffocated while in therapeutic restraint: Two other
children vomited and suffocated to death since 1993.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

15. Prosecutor Rebuts Polygamist's Time-Limit Challenge
Salt Lake Tribune, Sep. 20, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEPHI -- In an unusual move, the Juab County prosecutor took the stand during a
motion hearing Tuesday in the case of admitted polygamist Tom Green.

Prosecutor David Leavitt testified in rebuttal of Green's claims that the
statute of limitations expired years ago in the alleged rape of a girl who later
became his first plural wife.

Leavitt filed first-degree felony charges of rape of a child against Green
earlier this year.

The charges allege that Green conceived a child with Linda Kunz, then 13, in
1986. At the time, Utah law required rape-of-a-child charges be filed no longer
than four years after the crime or up to a year after an initial police report,
but no longer than eight years after the initial crime.

Lawmakers altered the statute in 1991, requiring only that charges be filed no
longer than four years after the crime was first reported.

Last month, 4th District Judge Guy R. Burningham ruled that since the law
changed in 1991, three years before the eight-year statute of limitations would
have expired on a 1986 child rape, the new statute could be applied
retroactively. If Green could prove a report was filed, however, the charge --
which could put him behind bars for life -- would be dropped.

But Leavitt testified Tuesday that no report had ever been filed. In fact, he
said he had no idea about the polygamist -- who lives on a west desert homestead
with his five wives -- until he saw him profiled on the television program
''Dateline NBC'' in the spring of 1999.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Woman Beheaded
ABC News/AP, Sep. 19, 2000
http://abcnews.go.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
D E L H I, Calif., Sept. 19 - Deputies found Aurelia Lange lying on the bathroom
floor, her decapitated head by her side. Her teenage son was nearby, naked,
covered in blood and reading a Bible.

Investigators believe David Lange cut off his mother's head with a kitchen
knife, but they don't know why.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. Ultimate questions: Jesus Seminar at TCU turning to issues of the
existence and nature of God
Star-Telegram, Sep. 19, 2000
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:METRO35/1:METRO350919100.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
FORT WORTH -- After declaring that Jesus was not born of a virgin and that many
biblical reports of his life were conjured by early Christians, the Jesus
Seminar is taking on God.

The small band of religion specialists often criticized by even established
scholars for their iconoclastic statements on Jesus will vote on whether God is
all-powerful, whether he intervenes in the affairs of humans and, more
radically, whether God even exists.

''We are opening up a new phase of the seminar,'' said the group's founder, Robert
Funk, director of the Westar Institute in Santa Rosa, Calif. ''We are discussing
the future of God, so to speak.''

Funk will preview the God questions in a lecture, `The Mythical Matrix & God as
Metaphor,' at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Texas Christian University's Brown-Lupton
Student Center. Admission is free.

Funk, 74, an inactive member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), said
that at the outset of the third millennium the seminar wants to ponder, ''What
does God do?''

During its semiannual meeting next month in Santa Rosa, about 75 seminar
participants will engage in discussions on several papers and return to their
system of using colored beads to cast ballots on questions related to God.
(...)

Although they are devotees of Jesus and his teachings, the scholars who founded
the Jesus Seminar in 1985 question the accuracy of the New Testament accounts of
his life. They attempt to use today's historical and scientific knowledge to
depict what they believe is a more accurate picture of the historical Jesus.
Those steps will attract even more followers, the scholars say.

One of the most controversial votes during October's meeting will be on whether
Jesus of Nazareth is actually a manifestation of God, Funk said.

The Jesus Seminar, in earlier votes, declared that Jesus never claimed to be the
Son of God. But most Christian denominations see Jesus as God, and many recite
in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is fully God and fully human.

In the book `Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Re- Invents the Historical
Jesus,' other biblical scholars attacked Jesus Seminar members, alleging that
they were trying to reduce Jesus to the level of an ordinary man.

One critic, the Rev. Roch Keresvty, a professor at the University of Dallas,
said the Jesus Seminar ''is not a serious scholarly enterprise.''

''In my judgment, the truth is not the result of democratic voting'' Keresvty
said. ''There might be some serious scholars involved, but the methods of the
Jesus Seminar are simply publicity-seeking. It is not serious scholarship.''

Funk said: ''Criticism is still strong. I think it is deplorable that they attack
us rather than deal with the issues.''

Ed McMahon, research associate with TCU's religion department and a participant
in the Jesus Seminar, said the scholars have stirred much interest in the Bible
by publicly addressing questions of faith.

''The critics attack the Jesus Seminar's credibility either by saying the
scholars are not good enough historians,'' he said, ''or that they have
preconceived ideas that dismiss supernatural beliefs.''
(...)

The Jesus Seminar will next address the issue of defining God in what they call
The Mythical Matrix & God as Metaphor. Members will vote on the following
issues:

1. Human beings can know God immediately and directly.
2. God interferes supernaturally from time to time in the course of events.
3. God is a primary datum for acquiring knowledge of the world.
4. Jesus of Nazareth is a manifestation of God.
5. God is.
6. God is the foundation of morality.
7. Belief in God is the foundation of morality.
8. God is a metaphor.
9. Humans have created God in their own image.
10. We will never know for sure whether God exists.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The Jesus Seminar consists of a group of scholars that continually proves
the truthfulness of this scripture:

(1 Corinthians 3:18-20 NIV) Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you
thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a ''fool'' so
that he may become wise. {19} For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in
God's sight. As it is written: ''He catches the wise in their craftiness'';
{20} and again, ''The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.''

18. China's official Protestant church says times have never been better
Yahoo/AFP, Sep. 21, 2000
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
China's official Protestant church said on Thursday Christians in the communist
country have never had it so good, despite rights groups' claims that
unauthorized religious movements are systematically repressed.

''We have never had a better time than now,'' Cao Shengjie, vice president of the
China Christian Council, said at a press conference in Beijing.

''In the 100 years prior to (the establishment of communist China in) 1949, there
were only 700,000 Protestants in China, and today in China there are 15
million.''

She was speaking at the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China's
Christian Patriotic Movement, which was set up to root out foreign influences
among China's Christians.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and
Democracy, the total number of Chinese Protestants is not 15 million, but 30
million, and many of them are reported to be persecuted and sent to prison.

Numbers like that are ''exaggerated'' and ''fabricated'' by foreign forces, said
Deng Fucun, vice chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Protestant
Churches, which encourages ''self-government, self-support and self-propagation.''

''They have been made up by unofficial foreign missionaries, who go back to their
own countries and exaggerate the numbers,'' he said.

At the press conference, official church representatives denied there was
religious persecution in China, arguing that those Protestants who are in jail
are there because they have broken the law, not because of their beliefs.
(...)

''It's double standards (if you say) that in the United States you are punished
by law, and in China it's religious persecution,'' he said.

Authorities have labeled 14 churches with a total estimated membership of five
million as ''evil cults'' for refusing to conform to the demands of the
government's religion bureau, which tightly monitors religious groups.

China started targeting these movements well before last year's crackdown on the
Falungong and other spiritual movements based on Buddhist and Taoist principles.

Repression of underground churches has been aided by the passage in China's
parliament last year of legislation on ''evil cults,'' the Hong Kong rights center
said.

These new rules make it possible for law enforcers to arrest underground
Protestants in their homes, even if they have not been involved in organized
cult activities.

Late last month, police in central Henan province detained about 130 members of
the China Fangcheng Church, which is one of the 14 targeted movements.
(...)

''Abiding to the law is a must for all citizens,'' said Han Wenzao of the China
Christian Council. ''When I'm in the United States, I must abide by US laws. The
same goes for foreigners in China.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Controversial Kazakh healer fails to get medical practice licence
BBC Monitoring, Sep. 21, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=14100114&ID=newsreal&scategory=AP+Top+Headlines
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A controversial Kazakh healer has for the second time failed to pass an
examination for a licence to practice unconventional medicine, the `Ekspress-K'
newspaper reported on 16th September.

''A notorious healer, Farkhat-ata, failed to pass the exam for the second time.
First time the healer failed his exam because the examiners had doubts about his
mental health,'' the paper said.

Farkhat-ata, or Farkhat Abdullayev, a former bus driver from Almaty Region, is
the founder of the Alla-Ayat mystic sect, which rejects God, all religions, laws
and modern medicine. The sect was founded 10 years ago. The authorities
instituted criminal proceedings against the sect after cases of suicides among
its followers.

The paper said that about 100 people came to the centre of unconventional
medicine in Almaty to support Farkhat-ata during the examination. The examining
commission decided to send the healer's patients for a further checkup.

''The members of the commission had to send his [the healer's] patients for an
additional checkup in city clinics. The centre of unconventional medicine could
not fully diagnose his patients because the building is being repaired. The
results will be known only in a month,'' the paper said.
[...entire item...]



20. Psychic Institute Celebrates 75th Anniversary in Virginia Beach, Va.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News/The Virginian-Pilot, Sep. 19, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Sep. 19--VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.--The tall, gangly fellow seemed to be sleeping,
hands folded across his chest, breathing long and slow. In a voice that was
garbled at first, then suddenly clear, he relayed a message from what he chose
to call the Source:

''As has been given, the better place to establish such an institute would be
near large bodies of water, preferably on the East Coast at or near Virginia
Beach, Virginia.''

So it was that Edgar Cayce, a one-time Kentucky farm boy who seemed to
dream-walk into the hidden realms of the universe, brought his small entourage
to these shores 75 years ago and began one of the most influential psychic
institutes in the world.

On Friday, his Association for Research and Enlightenment will celebrate the
75th anniversary of Cayce's arrival with an afternoon open house featuring
lectures, testing for extrasensory perception, dream interpretations and massage
demonstrations. Mayor Meyera Oberndorf will proclaim Friday Edgar Cayce Day.

All in the name of that curious and controversial man.

Over the course of 45 years, Cayce entered his trance-like state more than
14,000 times, offering diagnoses and cures for people he never saw, foreseeing
cataclysmic events, predicting stock market trends and imagining contact with
past lives.

Many, if not all, of these ''readings'' have been called into question by
skeptics, who say Cayce's predictions were either lucky or preposterous.

But the sheer volume of the trance readings, including some that seem
jaw-droppingly close to the mark, as well as remedies that appear to foreshadow
the movement toward holistic medicine, have made believers of some of the most
hardened skeptics.

Author Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, who started out trying to prove that Cayce was a
fraud, changed his assessment completely after studying the psychic's readings
and letters.

''You start realizing that even the cleverest con man was not going to be able to
repeat this trick twice a day, every day for 45 years,'' said Kirkpatrick, whose
new biography, ''Edgar Cayce, an American Prophet,'' is being published this week.

Among those who turned to Cayce's readings were Thomas Edison, Irving Berlin,
George Gershwin, Nelson Rockefeller, Harry Houdini and Marilyn Monroe, said
Kirkpatrick, who had access to Cayce's correspondence.

But it isn't just the famous who have tried to get on Cayce's wavelength.
Thousands of visitors every year keep his institute humming with supposed
psychic energy week after week.
(...)

The Cayce library, billed as the largest ''metaphysical library'' in the United
States, contains 63,000 volumes and includes copies of 14,246 transcribed
readings, as well as folders that contain Cayce's remedies for diseases ranging
from abscessed ears to X-ray burns.
(...)

The Association for Research and Enlightenment's meditation room, which looks
out to the ocean from the third floor of the 67th Street building, contains
framed prints of Jesus and Buddha along with windows of bright vertical glass
rods.
(...)

Edgar Cayce, a longtime member of a small Presbyterian church at the Beach, was
deeply religious, even though his belief in reincarnation put him at odds with
the church. He once speculated that he and his friends, in earlier lives, were
Jesus' apostles.

Cayce officials say 50,000 to 60,000 people come to the center every year.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Native American Spiritual Leaders Move to the Forefront for World Peace
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News/Indian Country Today, Sep. 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Sep. 17--WASHINGTON, D.C.--The prophesies of Turtle Island elders given at the
United Nations in New York City, Nov. 23, 1993, continue to bear fruit and will
be reinforced by ceremonies in coming days.

Chief William Commanda, Carrier of the Wampum Belts for the Anishnabe people,
Arvol Lookinghorse, Keeper of the Sacred Pipe of the Lakota, Manuel Hoyungowa,
grandson of Monongye, messenger of the Hopi, and others spoke at length to the
General Assembly of the responsibilities all people carry to create lasting
peace and brotherhood on this war-torn and environmentally beleaguered planet.

Four years later, on April 23, 1998, hundreds of thousands of people in more
than 80 countries stopped for 10 minutes to ''Pray for Peace'' while leaders of
the prayer movement, James Twyman and Gregg Braden, stood with 40 international
ambassadors in the U.N. Plaza to pray for peace and a healing for the earth.
Moments before the 10 minute international prayer vigil began, the prophesies of
the elders were again evoked as a reminder that peace is a course of deliberate
choice and individual action.
(...)

On Sept. 19, Millennium Peace Day, spiritual leaders from around the world
scheduled a prayer ceremony at the United Nations Building. In Washington, D.C.,
American Indian spiritual leaders will open the Eighth Annual Prayer Vigil at
sunrise Sept. 23. A circle of tipis will form the center of an International
Peace Village on the National Mall around the Washington Monument.

Thirty hours of continuous prayer will be led by elders and leaders of all
faiths. Talking circles, round dances and many other informational activities
are planned.

It is clear, by their active role, that the first people of North America are
taking a leadership role in the international drive for peace.

''We were told that we would be dormant for 300 years, maybe more, and that we
would be awakened in this new time,'' Commanda says, ''that we would be starting
to focus and to teach our white brothers and sisters what has to be done in
order to save their children.

''If they listen to us, they will survive. We have to do it through love, and
forgiveness is the key. Once the forgiveness is real... from the heart and (we)
forgive them of all the bad things, then they will wake up. They will dream and
see things and they will believe what's happening. We might just have time to
save the destruction that's coming ahead.''

One of the most spectacular ''voices'' for peace during this month's events is not
a voice at all. The Cloth of Many Colors is a peace quilt 3/4 of a mile long and
3 feet wide. It carries the peaceful intent of tens of thousands of individuals,
church groups, tribes, sewing circles and children from 38 countries who have
sewed cloths and small quilts to be used in the upcoming ceremonies.

Each cloth or quilt has been taken into spiritual ceremonies and religious
services and deliberately imbued with prayers for peace. More than 30 volunteers
from around the world have gathered in New York City to sew all the pieces
together in time for the ceremony at the United Nations.

At that time, the Cloth of Many Colors will be carried through the U.N. building
and used as part of the Millennial Peace Day ceremony in the U.N. Rose garden.
The cloth will then be taken to Washington, D.C., to be wrapped around the
Pentagon and then the Capitol building and then used during the Prayer Vigil on
the Mall.

The brainchild of singer James Twyman, the Cloth of Many Colors came in a dream
while he was touring a refugee camp of 30,000 people on the border of Kosovo and
Macedonia. Twyman saw the prayer-saturated cloth transmitting the frequencies of
love and harmony from people around the world to all the world's leaders.
(...)

After the ceremonies in Washington part of the cloth will be cut up into 9-foot
sections and presented as gifts to world leaders.

''The thought is, if these heads of state receive the shawl saturated with the
prayers of all of these people from different parts of the world ... they would
be moved or lead or directed, however you want to say that, to make an effort
from their side to create peace in the world,'' McManis says. ''Because there is
such a longing, at the grass-roots level, for peace.''
(...)

For more information visit http://www.oneprayer.org/program.html.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. 'My grandad's an alien, so I bit him'
Independent/Sapa/AFP (South Africa), Sep. 20, 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/=
Hong-Kong - A Hong Kong teenager has appeared in court after allegedly chewing
on his 90-year-old grandfather's face, thinking he was an alien from outer
space.

Cheung Chun-wai, 19, who allegedly bit chunks of flesh from his grandfather's
nose, ear, face and hands, faced a charge of manslaughter over the attack in
February last year.

His grandfather Cheung Po died of pneumonia two weeks after the attack.

Cheung told police that he thought he was Jesus Christ and his grandfather was
from outer space, the Sun daily said.

''The grandfather's lower lip, part of his left earlobe and the right side of his
nose were bitten away. Also his right thumb, index and ring finger and his left
thumb were chewed,'' prosecutor Wayne Moultrie told the court.

Moultrie said the major issue for the jury was to decide whether the accused's
acts caused the death of his grandfather.
[...entire item...]


=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance

23. Jesuits' registration in Russia restored
BBC Monitoring, Sep. 15, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance]
Text of report by Russian newspaper 'Segodnya' on 15th September
The ''Independent Russian Region of the Society of Jesus'', better known as the
Jesuit Order, has been registered in Russia. Like a number of other religious
organizations, the Society of Jesus, which has existed in Russia since 1992, had
been denied registration on the basis of the 1997 law ''On freedom of conscience
and religious organizations''.
(...)

The refusal to reregister the Society of Jesus was appealed against first to
district and city courts, and then to the Constitutional Court. Somewhat earlier
the Constitutional Court had given a go-ahead to the Jehovah's Witnesses and
three Pentecostal organizations, but their suits related only to 15 years'
service. On 23rd November 1999, the Constitutional Court decreed that all
organizations registered in Russia prior to 1997 should be deemed exempt from
the 15-year limitation. The Constitutional Court extended its previous decree to
include the Jesuits on 13th April 2000. Now all the aforementioned limitations
in the law have been abolished. Justice bodies took the Constitutional Court
decree into consideration and on 12th September the Jesuit Order was
reregistered.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Religious kids get a waiver
The Associated Press, Sep. 21, 2000
http://www.neworleans.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance]
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) -- Eight children whose Rastafarian religion forbids them to
cut their hair should be in class before the end of the week under a tentative
agreement approved Wednesday night by the Lafayette Parish School Board.

Several board members and attorneys met with U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty
earlier Wednesday to discuss a lawsuit filed Monday by the American Civil
Liberties Union on behalf of the seven children of Georgiana Helaire and the one
child of Edgar Green.

''It's foolish to try and fight it,'' board member John Earl Guidry said. ''The law
says they have the right to wear it. They told us there's no chance we can win.
The law is clear.''

The suit claimed that board officials kept the children out of school because of
their religious beliefs. The parents said their religion forbids the cutting of
their hair and requires that they cover their heads when they are outside of
their homes.
(...)

Several board members balked at approving a settlement that allowed the children
to attend school as long as their principals searched their headwear each
morning for ''weapons or contraband.''

The headwear also must be in the colors required by the uniform codes. But board
member Mike Hefner, one of the board members who met with the judge and ACLU
attorneys Wednesday, said fighting is useless.

''If we vote no, I can tell you that the judge will grant the temporary
restraining order and put them in school without these restrictions we've talked
about,'' Hefner said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations

25. Group wants executions halted until changes in system proposed
Dallas Morning News, Sep. 21, 2000
http://www.dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
AUSTIN - Gov. George W. Bush should seek a moratorium on executions and his
appointed parole board should implement one, a civil rights group critical of
capital punishment recommended Wednesday.

The ban on executions should remain until two commissions evaluate the
convictions of those on death row and propose changes in the death penalty
system, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.

The nonprofit organization reported on the state's use of capital punishment and
offered its suggestions in ''Report on the State of Human Rights in Texas.''

But representatives of the governor's office and the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles say only the Texas Legislature can issue a moratorium, and they disputed
findings in the report.

''While Governor Bush respects the views of death penalty opponents, including
this group, we believe that their conclusions are faulty,'' said Bush spokesman
Mike Jones.

''When we looked at it, it turned out to be an even worse situation than we
expected,'' said James Harrington, director of the project. ''There is blame at
every level of our legal system.''

Mr. Harrington cited six areas that he said need improvement to ensure that
executions are carried out fairly: appointed lawyers for defendants; district
attorney accountability; sentencing; the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; DNA
testing; and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Standards must be set for attorneys who are appointed to death-penalty cases to
prevent appointment of incompetent lawyers, Mr. Harrington said. He also said
court-appointed attorneys are paid less than one-fifth of what private-practice
attorneys charge.

The Texas Civil Rights Project is recommending that the state establish a public
defender program.

The civil rights group also recommended that the state stop executing retarded
inmates; that it provide a system for wrongly convicted defendants to recover
damages from prosecutors; and that life without parole be added as a punishment
option.

The report criticized the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - the state's highest
criminal appellate court - for its 3 percent reversal rate in death penalty
cases. It was about 33 percent before legislation that accelerates appeals was
passed in 1995, backed by Mr. Bush.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Amnesty International report on U.S. Human Rights Violations

=== Noted

26. Gays Who Tried A Straight Life Now Say It Didn'T Work
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sep. 15, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Mark Pierpont had perfected his approach: He would stroll into a Bible study
class for gays and lesbians and proclaim that he was one of them. Standing
before the circle of strangers, he would tell them that he, too, was gay and had
been misunderstood by his fundamentalist family.

Then, he would tell them that he had found, in a combination of religion and
therapy, an escape from the shame he'd felt all his life.

''I'd tell them they didn't need to be gay, that they needed to change just like
me,'' recalled Pierpont.

As the years passed, his tactics became more subversive: He spent large parts of
the 1970s and 1980s walking into gay bars in Seattle, Philadelphia and Atlantic
City with his team of followers, always pointing to his own life story as proof
that homosexuality is a choice. Over time, he became one of the most vocal
spokesmen in the controversial ''gay conversion,'' or ''ex-gay,'' movement.

Then Pierpont became a changed man once again.

He now embraces the fact that he is gay: Eight years ago he divorced his wife
and, in 1998, he moved to Provincetown, Mass., where he lives with his partner,
Nick Massoni. Every night, he performs in a gay cabaret. Today, Pierpont has
become an outspoken voice in an emerging backlash against gay conversion
therapy, a backlash dubbed the ''ex-ex-gay'' movement.

Last month, The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian
political organization, released a 37-page report outlining what it believed to
be the dangers of homosexual conversion therapy. Many gays, according to the
report, suffer depression and anxiety after trying everything from exorcisms to
lipstick seminars to change. The report included 14 stories of homosexuals -
pastors' sons, Jehovah's witnesses and gay conversion leaders - who say trying
to change one's sexual orientation is painful and fruitless.

Although no one knows just how many people proclaim to be ex-ex- gays,
specialists say thousands of homosexuals who spent years trying to overcome
their sexual orientation are now openly saying they never doused their desires
for the same sex.
(...)

But critics like Alan Medinger, who founded a Christian ministry in the
Baltimore area that says it helps people overcome homosexuality, argues that
most people experience ''significant change.''

''We never said it was going to be easy. It's a long road. . . . We are not
saying that it works for everyone,'' he said.

The gay conversion movement began around 1974 when a band of religious figures
came together in Anaheim, Calif. Many of them, said Medinger, had overcome
homosexuality and wanted to start an international gay conversion ministry.

From the very beginning, religious figures and medical experts worried that the
movement was a fraud and preyed on vulnerable people: In 1979, Gary Cooper and
Michael Bussee, who helped launch Exodus International, the main umbrella
organization for ex-gay groups around the world, left their wives for each
other.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Feng shui today
The Malay Mail (Malaysia), Sep. 21, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
What is feng shui? Feng means wind and shui means water. The words actually came
from an Old Chinese proverb that states ''The energy of a Dragon will be
dispersed by wind and will stop at the boundary of water''. Feng shui therefore
is simply an environmental study and if any feng shui Master deviates from
creating an environment that is not in harmony with nature then he or she is not
a great feng shui Master.

The ''Book of Rites'', an early feng shui book was first written by Kuo Po in
about 300AD. He emphasized that the harmony of the environment is very important
and told people not to hurt the Dragon. Feng shui masters in the Tang Dynasty
were taught to build structures that are in harmony with the energy fields of
the universe. Then that will give rise to good feng shui.

However, in the old days, most feng shui masters were overly selfish and would
keep the secrets to themselves. So most of the genuine knowledge was lost.

Since then, many schools of feng shui developed over the centuries and each
school has its own approach to this subject although the underlying principles
are about the same. The following is a brief introduction to the different
Schools of feng shui.

Form School
This school focuses on landscapes, their shapes, sizes and watercourses.

It also takes into consideration the relationship between man and his dwellings.

This schools focuses on the four directions of the compass. The North
representing the Black Turtle, the South representing the Red Phoenix and the
East, the White Tiger. Nestled within would be the most auspicious village or
house. Master Yang Yun Song (the savior of the poor) who lived in the tang
Dynasty was the most well known Geomancer for Form feng shui.

Traditional Chinese Compass School feng shui
The compass School uses the Eight Trigrams of the I-Ching to divide the house
into nine sectors. It follows the eight sided Pa Gua symbol and then, feng shui
cures are given to diagnose the quality of chi that comes from that location.

It also takes into consideration the directions of the ''chi''. That is, which way
the ''chi'' flows. It is said to be originated in China and uses some scientific
approach to feng shui. The weakness of this School is that it considers the
North Sector of every house as the career sector which may not hold true if you
apply other Schools of feng shui theories.

Black Hat Sect (BHS) feng shui
This is the more recent School of thought which is widely practiced in the
United States of America. The main focus for this School is the position of the
door. BHS feng shui also states that the main door to each room faces the career
sector. This however, may contradict some of the directions of the adjacent
doors.

Since 1986, this School has become popular in America . It is also usually based
on a more spiritual approach to feng shui and refers to the Eight Trigram as the
Pa Gua.

Flying Star School of feng shui
The Flying Star School of feng shui originates from '' The Lo Shu Grid''. This
Grid was derived from the legend that states that a tortoise emerged from the
River Lo sometime in 2,200 BC and on its back were found rounded colorful
symbols making a strong imprint on ''The Lo Shu Grid'' such that the numbers when
interpreted adds up to 15. Since it came from the River Lo, therefore the name
''Lo Shu'' was adopted.

The Flying Star School of Fengshui follows some important basic concepts: 1) The
Yin and the Yang 2) The Cycle of Birth and the Cycle of Destruction ( all based
on the five elements) 3) The I-Ching and the Eight Trigrams 4) The Lanscape 5)
The Time Dimension Master Shen Zhu Ying (Qing Dynasty) was one of the more
famous Geomancers who used the Flying Star feng shui school of thought.

Master Lynn Yap is a very popular and renowned feng shui Master in Singapore,
who studied and practiced metaphysics for over 10 years. She has personally
benefited from the practice of metaphysics in recent years.
[...entire item...]


28. Why the Washington Post and NPR Should I.D. Genetic I.D.
Reason Online/BrideNews, Sep. 19, 2000
http://reason.com/hod/rb091900.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
''Biotech Critics Cite Unapproved Corn in Taco Shells,'' blared a September 18
Washington Post headline. National Public Radio's Market Place program made the
claim its lead story later that same day. While there's no question that an
apparent expose of secretly modified food will get a lot of attention, the real
story has less to do with biotechnology and more to do with shoddy journalism.

The charge against those taco shells? A coalition of anti-biotech crop activist
groups, calling themselves the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, had had some
Taco Bell taco shells manufactured in Mexico tested by an Iowa laboratory,
Genetic ID. Genetic ID allegedly found that 1 percent of the corn DNA in the
tacos came from StarLink corn, which has been genetically modified to resist
pests. StarLink has not been approved for human consumption because of concerns
that it might cause allergies. StarLink is the only biotech corn approved for
animals but not for humans.

The anti-biotech coalition comprises seven organizations including the Ralph
Nader-founded Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), Friends of the Earth, the
National Environmental Trust, the Organic Consumers Association, the Pesticide
Action Network, the Center for Food Safety, and the Institute of Agriculture and
Trade Policy.

And the presumably independent lab, Genetic ID? The Washington Post blandly
described Genetic ID as a company in Fairfield, Iowa, ''which does substantial
testing of American products being shipped to Europe...[that has] in the past
been publicly skeptical about biotechnology.'' NPR didn't even provide that much
of a disclaimer.

But it turns out that Genetic ID is a bit more than ''skeptical'' about
biotechnology. The company's president is John Fagan, dean of the graduate
school at Maharishi University of Management. Formerly Maharishi International
University, the school was founded by Transcendental Meditation guru Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi; the university's Web site cites ''scientific evidence'' for ''yogic
flying'', e.g., disciples are supposed to be able to levitate. Fagan himself is
the author of the book Genetic Engineering: The Hazards, Vedic Engineering: The
Solutions: Health - Agriculture - The Environment. Vedic engineering?
''Maharishi's Vedic Engineering use[s] the most fundamental laws of nature to
naturally and thoroughly solve our health, agricultural and environmental
problems,'' explains a 1995 Natural Law Party press release announcing Fagan's
book. Fagan is an advisor to John Hagelin, the presidential candidate of the
Natural Law Party, which has been waging a political and consumer campaign
against biotech crops. Fagan told the Natural Law Party's newsletter that he
opposes ''genetic engineering [because it] manipulates isolated levels of natural
law rather than working on the holistic level of natural law.''
(...)

Taking an alarmist press release based on a sketchy ''scientific'' report
sponsored by activists and running with it is very definition of tabloid
journalism. The readers of the Washington Post and the listeners of NPR deserve
better.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Books

29. Harry Potter China Campaign Begins
AOl/AP, Sep. 20, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING (AP) - Children across China are being primed for a revolution, this
time through the bewitching world of boy wizard Harry Potter.

A publicity and printing campaign unprecedented for China began this week to
introduce the globally popular Harry Potter book series to a Chinese audience.
If the plan works, Harry Potter - or ``Ha-li Bo-te'' as he is known in Chinese -
could be the biggest thing since Chairman Mao's little red book, and shake up
the staid, preachy world of Chinese children's books.
(...)

Shepherding the ambitious undertaking is the stately, state-owned People's
Literature Publishing House. Its editors compressed into four months the
translation, marketing and distribution of the first three of the four books in
author J.K. Rowling's series for a planned Oct. 6 launch.
(...)

All the hoopla has left critics wondering whether ``Ha-li Bo-te'' will sell to
an audience raised on politically correct fare of a very different kind.

``It won't be as successful as in the West,'' said Chen Xiaomei, an editor of
the Chinese Readers News. ``All this talk of sorcerers, spells and phantasms is
from the Western literary tradition.''

``Chinese children like to read about beautiful, pure things. The stories are
very simple, not so complicated,'' Chen said.

A small test-market audience - the children of publishing house executives -
felt otherwise.
(...)

The translators and editors found much in Harry Potter that will resonate with
Chinese readers. Translators drew on China's 2,500-year-old tradition of ghost
stories and current pulp martial arts fiction. For Harry's magical spells, they
alluded to incantations legendary kung-fu masters recited before fighting.
(...)

Still, all the talk about spells and incantations sent in-house government
censors querying whether the books might promote the occult in the midst of the
communist government's campaign against superstition and the outlawed Falun Gong
sect.

``They said, 'Don't the books have to do with magic?' But we had read the books
and told them it promotes the 'three goods''' - kindness, courage and loyalty,
said People's Literature editor Ye Xianlin.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]