=== Waco / Branch Davidians
1. Davidians to Appeal Loss in Suit Against Government
2. How many verdicts are enough?

=== Aum Shinrikyo
3. Yokohama evicts AUM stragglers
4. Released AUM member shifts back to Tokyo

=== Zhong Gong
5. Falun Gong Leader Denied Asylum
6. China demands that U.S. hand over Qigong guru

=== Mungiki
7. Mungiki attack officer dies

=== Islam
8. Saddam receives Quran written in own blood

=== Catholicism
9. Pope guides faithful in love of Virgin Mary
10. Thousands Flock to New Shrine Where Mother Angelica Lives
11. Nuns, `Knights' Live Simple Lifestyle at Angelica Shrine

=== Mormonism
12. House backs bill on religion
13. Law seen as victory for religious freedom

=== Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
14. Sect Ditches School
15. Church Owns Most of Land on Which Fundamentalists Live

=== Jehovah's Witnesses
16. Girl fights forced blood treatment
17. Court approves blood transfusion
18. Life spared, faith preserved: Accident victim gets experimental therapy
19. The Belief in Paradise on Earth

=== Paganism / Witchcraft
20. Pagans turn out to say 'We too belong'
21. Pagans find fellow believers online, emboldening them to go public
22. Son charged with father's murder

» Part 2

=== Hate Groups
23. Aryan Nations lawyer files to trim $6.3 million award
24. Aryan Nations Property Given Up
25. Germans Break Up Neo-Nazi Concert
26. Protesters Face German Party Meeting
27. Protesters attack Belgian far-right leader on TV

=== (Satanic) Ritual Abuse
28. A web of intrigue

=== Other News
29. Prosecutors Drop Charges in 1984 Cult Murder Case
30. Kenya: Five pupils lured out of school in west by suspected cult members
31. Signs of poster war everywhere
32. State Watchdog Over Polygamy Ready to Roll
33. Florida Investigators Examining Telephone Psychics
34. Clonaid receives overwhelming response

=== Death Penalty
35. States Without Death Penalty Have Lower Homicide Rates
36. Reno says she finds no basis for moratorium on federal death penalty
37. First federal execution in 37 years set for Nov. 15

=== Noted
38. Can you trust your own eyes?

=== Books
39. Reading Religion
40. Harry Potter Series Among 100 Most Challenged Books in Banned Books
Week List
41. Raising a holy ruckus

=== Waco / Branch Davidians

1. Davidians to Appeal Loss in Suit Against Government
AOL/Reuters, Sep. 22, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DALLAS (Reuters) - Lawyers for Branch Davidians suing the U.S. government said on Friday they will appeal a judge's verdict that cleared federal agents in the deaths of some 80 Branch Davidians in the 1993 Waco siege and fire.

``We don't feel we got a fair trial,'' Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general who was one of three lawyers representing a group of about 100 Branch Davidian survivors and relatives of those killed, told Reuters.

Michael Caddell, another lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, renewed his allegations that presiding U.S. District Judge Walter Smith was biased.

``It was clear soon after the trial commenced that Judge Smith had made up his mind, and he could have written his opinion then,'' Caddell said in a statement.

Smith, based in Waco, on Wednesday issued a final verdict that represented a sweeping defeat for the Branch Davidians in their wrongful civil death lawsuit, which had sought $675 million in damages for deaths they alleged the government had caused or contributed to.
(...)

Clark said the judge's ruling ignored all the evidence the plaintiffs had presented in 3-1/2 weeks of trial and had been hostile toward the Branch Davidians from the start.

``It (the final verdict) reveals a continuum of hostility toward the individuals and parties in this case,'' Clark told Reuters.

Clark also accused the judge of stripping the case of civil rights and constitutional issues raised by the plaintiffs when he ruled last year that the trial would be limited to questions of whether federal agents were negligent or contributed to the confrontation.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. How many verdicts are enough?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sep. 25, 2000 (Editorial)
http://www.postnet.com/postnet/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Judge Walter S. Smith issued a sound ruling last week, clearing the government of fault in the death of about 80 Branch Davidians at Waco in 1993. Judge Smith's ruling paralleled findings of both an advisory jury and an independent investigation by Special Counsel John C. Danforth. Widespread national distrust and dark conspiracy theories should now be put to rest. It is time for the country to begin healing from the wounds of Waco.

But Michael Caddell and Ramsey Clark, lawyers for the Davidians in the $675 million wrongful death suit, said they will appeal the ruling. They claim that Judge Smith had made up his mind soon after the trial commenced.

Mr. Smith did run his courtroom in his own blunt, heavy-handed style, at times operating it like a feudal fiefdom. Recently, when he learned that Mr. Danforth was about to charge former Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston, Judge Smith reportedly threw Mr. Danforth's investigators out of the courthouse. Mr. Smith's overly colorful remarks to lawyers outside the hearing of the jury also gave the impression that he had strong opinions about the case. It probably would have been better if the Davidians had succeeded in getting their case heard in a different courtroom.

But Mr. Smith's errors were more of style than substance. He did not railroad the case. He forced the government to turn over millions of pages of documents and gave the Branch Davidians an opportunity to attempt to prove that flashes seen on a videotape were gunfire from government agents. Millions of documents and scientific analyses of the tapes failed to prove the Davidians' accusations. They failed in court, and in Mr. Danforth's independent investigation. How many identical verdicts must there be before they accept one?
(...)

While attorneys should expend every reasonable effort for clients, this appeal seems like a pointless waste of more money and more time that will only prolong an already exhaustively lengthy ordeal.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo

3. Yokohama evicts AUM stragglers
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Sep. 22, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
YOKOHAMA - AUM Shinrikyo stragglers who remained in an apartment that the death cult was ordered to leave were forcibly evicted here Thursday morning.
The cult's eviction left residents of the area feeling a sense of relief that a deadly threat had finally been eradicated.
(...)

The Yokohama District Court had ordered AUM to vacate the premises on Sept. 6 after a residents union demanded that the cult be evicted.

However, AUM appealed to the Tokyo High Court, calling the decision unfair.

Some 20 people from the residents union, lawyers and court officials entered the apartment around 9 a.m. on Thursday where they found three remaining female acolytes.

''This is a forced eviction. Please remove all your belongings within half an hour,'' said a court officer.

A visibly shaken Eiko Takahashi, the leader of AUM's Yokohama chapter, pleaded for more time. But to no avail.
(...)

Most of the AUM members, including cult mouthpiece Fumihiro Joyu, vacated the apartment in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday. They moved to the group's complex in Tokyo's Adachi-ku.

Officials said that an altar remained in the room, but other objects such as computers and documents had all been moved to the cult's Adachi-ku complex.

A water-filled drum canister, about 1 meter in height, supposedly imbued with the electromagnetic waves of cult guru Shoko Asahara, remained in a corner of the room.

Cult members dipped PET bottles into the can, swilling the water happily, while court officials conducted the eviction proceedings.

When officials approached the altar to remove it from the premises, the acolytes screamed at them to stop.
(...)

Meanwhile, in a related development, members of the Adachi Municipal Government announced at a news conference on Thursday that they would refuse to register Joyu as a resident of the ward.

Officials summoned the landlord of the Adachi-ku apartment on Thursday, demanding that Joyu's lease be canceled.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Released AUM member shifts back to Tokyo
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Sep. 21, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
YOKOHAMA - AUM Shinrikyo mouthpiece Fumihiro Joyu on Wednesday for the first time left the Yokohama apartment he has been cooped up in since his release from prison in December last year, police said.

Leaving the apartment in the early hours of the morning, Joyu headed for an AUM apartment in Tokyo's Adachi-ku, moving even closer to the scene of the death cult's deadly 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12, sickened thousands and left millions shaking in fear for their safety.

Eleven members of the cult living in the building are registered with the Adachi Municipal Government as ward residents. Municipal government officials said they would refuse to register any more members of the cult as ward residents and appear likely to turn down any application Joyu might make.

Public safety officials also visited the Adachi-ku apartment in July to check whether the cult was doing anything suspicious.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Zhong Gong

5. Falun Gong Leader Denied Asylum [Incorrect headline. Deals with Zhong Gong]
AOL/AP, Sep. 23, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) - A federal judge ruled the leader of a sect banned in China can remain in the United States but denied his request for political asylum, the man's lawyer said.

Zhang Hongbao has been held on Guam since February after eluding a nationwide manhunt in China. China has requested his extradition from the U.S. territory 3,800 miles west of Hawaii.

Zhang's attorney, Charles Kinnunen, said his client was denied asylum Thursday because of legal technicalities. But the court granted Zhang permission to remain on Guam under U.N. conventions, Kinnunen said.

Kinnunen said he will appeal the asylum denial within 30 days.

Zhang was returned to Department of Corrections custody Thursday following a third day of proceedings at the U.S. Immigration Court in Hagatna.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. China demands that U.S. hand over Qigong guru
AOL/Reuters, Sep. 24, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING, Sept 24 (Reuters) - China has demanded the United States reverse a recent court decision allowing the leader of a banned Chinese spiritual group to live in America, saying the man is wanted for rape and should be handed over.
(...)

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said the decision allowed a suspected criminal to escape punishment and constituted a slander on the Chinese justice system, the Xinhua report said.

``China has expressed its strong resentment and firm opposition to the action made by the U.S. side, and strongly demands that the U.S. side correct its wrong decision and repatriate Zhang as soon as possible,'' Sun was quoted as saying.

``This action by the U.S. side helps a criminal suspect escape the punishment he deserves, and as a result the legitimate rights of the victims are not protected,'' Xinhua quoted him as saying.
(...)

The Xinhua article did not mention whether Zhang's role in Zhong Gong constituted a crime, saying instead the Chinese government had provided the United States with evidence of him raping followers, counterfeiting documents and immigrating illegally.

Human rights activists have said Beijing's pursuit of Zhang fits into a broad pattern of religious persecution in China, and Zhang would not receive a fair trial.

The U.S. immigration court turned down Zhang's request for political asylum and did not offer him permanent resident's rights, but it allowed him to stay in America, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy said.

The U.S. government apparently wants to avoid angering China unduly, partly to avoid jeopardising cooperation with China on transnational criminal investigations.

Sun was quoted saying deportation of Zhang to China would be to the ``benefit of the cooperation in law enforcement and bilateral relations between the two countries.''

The rights group in Hong Kong said on Sunday Zhang was still being held in a Guam detention centre, ostensibly for his protection, and that representatives from the Zhong Gong movement had arrived on the island to appeal for his freedom.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mungiki

7. Mungiki attack officer dies
Daily Nation (Kenya), Sep. 25, 2000
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/Today/News/News81.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The police officer whose gun was seized by Mungiki sect members at the weekend died yesterday.

The policeman died at the Murang'a District Hospital from wounds sustained during the Sunday attack.

At the same time, police recovered the gun - a G3 rifle - snatched from the officer, based at Nyakianga Police Station, by the more than 700 Mungiki members, after a fierce battle in Kianjai Village, Mathioya Division.
(...)

Sources told the Nation that the sect members inflicted a deep head wound on the officer during the attack.

However, police officers who had earlier said that the sect members had snatched the officer's gun in an attack on the station later changed their story, contradicting local District Commissioner Obondo Kajumbi who said that, contrary to Press reports, the Mungiki followers had confronted the officer in Kianjahi Village, where he was accompanied by four colleagues.

Mr Kajumbi, speaking after chairing a security meeting, said the policemen had gone to the village to disperse the sect followers ''because they were holding an illegal prayer meeting''.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* More about Mungiki
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/m09.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]


=== Islam

8. Saddam receives Quran written in own blood
Arabia.com/AFP, Sep. 24, 2000
http://www.arabia.com/
[...Islam...]
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has taken delivery of a copy of the Quran he ordered written in his own blood to thank God for escaping unharmed from his long political career, Iraqi newspapers reported Sunday.
(...)

The Iraqi leader commissioned the work in 1997 for his 60th birthday to thank God for having escaped unharmed from ''a life full of dangers, during which I will have lost a lot of blood.''

The press gave no indication how much blood Saddam provided for the team of Iraqi religious leaders and calligraphers to complete the work.

However, Ezzat Ibrahim, vice president of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, told papers: ''You can imagine the quantity of blood required for the holy book, which comprises 6,666 verses and 336,000 words!''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

9. Pope guides faithful in love of Virgin Mary
Independent (South Africa)/Sapa/AP, Sep. 24, 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/=
Vatican City - Pope John Paul II closed an international congress on the mother of Jesus on Sunday by encouraging the faithful in their devotion to her, but warning them against ''superstition'' and ''credulity.''

''Mary should be loved and honoured, but with a devotion that, to be authentic, is removed from every sort of superstition and credulity,'' the pontiff said to the thousands gathered in St Peter's Square.

He reminded them that the church recognises only a few apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

John Paul is a devotee of the Virgin Mary and has dedicated his pontificate to her. Sunday was the final day of the 20th international congress on Mariology, which attracted around 1 500 theologians.
[...entire item...]


10. Thousands Flock to New Shrine Where Mother Angelica Lives
Star-Telegram/Religion News Service, Sep. 21, 2000
[URL removed because it currently refers to inappropriate content]/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) The road gradually inclines as it approaches its destination -- the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery created by the controversial television nun Mother Angelica.
(...)

Inside the mammoth shrine -- which Mother Angelica calls a temple, because the Bible refers to the house of God as a temple -- is an altar covered in gold leaf that gives off warm hues when the candles are lit.
(...)

A statue of Jesus as a child, holding a heart symbolizing his own heart which he offers to everyone, stands in the middle of the courtyard. At the base of the statue is a biblical verse -- Isaiah 11:6 (RSV) -- reading, ''And a little child shall lead them.'' The verse is written on the four sides of the statue in English, Spanish, Italian and German in honor of the languages of groups that helped build the shrine.

In a nearby field is a barn, where six Knights (lay brothers) of the Holy Eucharist live in an upstairs apartment, and a giant satellite dish, the only hint of the 21st century in this rural scene.

The complex is also the home of Mother Angelica, the affable but often controversial and hyperbolic television nun who founded the Eternal Word Television Network and the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration, a traditionalist Franciscan order, as well as the Knights of the Holy Eucharist.

''We have about 10 or 12 groups a week come here, and about half of these are Protestant,'' said Julia Tucker, director of pilgrimage at the shrine, which took nearly four years to build.
(...)

Mother Angelica, 77, is internationally known for the Eternal Word Television Network she founded in Irondale, a Birmingham suburb, nearly two decades ago. An ardent doctrinal traditionalist, she has had run-ins with a number of members of the church's hierarchy, including Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, whom she accused on her television program, ''Mother Angelica Live,'' of heresy in the wake of a 1998 pastoral letter on the Eucharist issued by Mahony. Mahony has complained to the Vatican and sought changes in the management and tone of the EWTN.

Although she lives at the monastery with 32 other cloistered nuns, she has special permission from the Vatican to broadcast her television program, which originates in Birmingham, each Tuesday and Wednesday.

She decided to build the shrine six years ago, officials said, after traveling to Bogota, Colombia, where a priest invited her to visit a local church.

In a story retold by Brother Angelo, one of the Knights living at the complex, during Mother Angelica's visit to the church a statue of Jesus as a child with arms stretched upward ''came alive'' and told her to ''build me a temple where you live and I will help those who help you.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


11. Nuns, `Knights' Live Simple Lifestyle at Angelica Shrine
Star-Telegram/Religion News Service, Sep. 21, 2000
[URL removed as it currently refers to inappropriate content]
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HANCEVILLE, Ala. -- Mother Angelica, the popular but controversial nun of the Eternal Word Television Network, rarely travels anywhere these days except to Birmingham to do her twice-a-week television program, ''Mother Angelica Live.''

When she does travel, Mother Angelica is usually accompanied by Brother Angelo, who serves as her official spokesman both on the road and at the shrine, where she is usually in cloistered quarters with the other Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration.

Brother Angelo is one of six lay brothers of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, which is affiliated with the Franciscan order of brothers.
(...)

While the brothers, who do not take religious vows, are free to come and go around the grounds, the cloistered nuns remain in private quarters for their entire lives. They will even be buried in crypts at the back of the 200-seat lower church, directly underneath the main sanctuary, which seats some 300 people.

The cloistered nuns, who range in age from 18 to 77, maintain a prayer vigil 24 hours a day before the Blessed Sacrament -- the bread and wine of communion. They attend Mass each morning at 7.

To become a nun, the women go through an eight-year process of training after entering the monastery to determine whether they want to be ''extern'' or ''intern'' nuns. The extern nuns tend to duties of the shrine such as preparing the temple for Mass, giving the priest his vestments and greeting the many visitors.

The primary duty of the intern nuns is prayer. They also clean, cook and take care of elderly nuns who are sick. They are allowed to read only Catholic-related materials and have no television, radio, newspapers, computers or other modern communication devices. They learn of problems in the world only when they receive prayer requests, such as for earthquake or airline crash victims.

When the women who come to live here first arrive, they kneel in front of a door with no handle. They knock three times and Mother Angelica opens the door to the living quarters.

After a few quiet words are exchanged, each woman is ushered to the place where she will spend the remainder of her life. A funeral Mass is given for each nun after she arrives to show she has ''died to the world,'' said Brother Angelo. Then she takes part in a wedding-style ceremony with a gold ring that ''marries'' her to Christ and the church.

The nuns may visit with relatives at the monastery twice a year, for a total of 24 hours during four six-hour periods. The visiting room is divided by a half wall; relatives sit on one side and the nun on the other.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormonism

12. House backs bill on religion
Deseret News, Sep. 20, 2000
http://www.deseretnews.com/?
WASHINGTON - The House has passed a bill that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it needs to allow foreigners to continue serving as missionaries in the United States.

However, the House did not - as many churches sought - make permanent a soon-to-expire program that now allows up to 10,000 ''religious workers'' to enter the United States temporarily each year.

Instead, the House by voice vote merely endorsed a bill Tuesday that would extend that program for another three years, meaning churches will have to fight to extend or make it permanent again in a few years.

The current program will expire Sept. 30 unless extended by Congress. If it is not extended, it could prevent foreign LDS missionaries, Catholic nuns and other religious workers who do not plan to immigrate permanently from entering the country for limited-time service.

Rep. Ed Pease, R-Ind., said the program wasn't made permanent because of worries by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department that the program could be abused to allow unintended permanent immigration.
(...)

LDS, Catholic and Jewish leaders have lobbied heavily to make the immigration program permanent. In a rare formal congressional appearance by an LDS leader, Elder Ralph W. Hardy of the Quorums of Seventy testified at an April hearing that allowing foreigners to serve in America is ''a vital part'' of his church's missionary program.

''The missionaries are able to see how our church, with its volunteer lay leadership, operates in the United States, and they return to their home countries with this institutional knowledge, which in turn strengthens the church and its lay leadership in these countries,'' Elder Hardy testified in April.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Theologically, Mormonism is a cult of Christianity

13. Law seen as victory for religious freedom
Deseret News, Sep. 23, 2000
http://deseretnews.com/?
WASHINGTON - A bill that bans discriminatory land zoning aimed at hindering construction of new churches and temples was signed into law Friday by President Clinton.

The bill, by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ''does help to preserve our freedom of religion,'' said Elder Ralph Hardy, an area authority Seventy in the North America East Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elder Hardy attended the Oval Office signing ceremony with leaders of numerous churches that lobbied for the new law.

Hatch originally pushed a much more sweeping bill that would have done everything from ensuring that Jewish children could wear yarmulkes in public schools to preserving the ability of missionaries to proselyte in cities that ban door-to-door soliciting.

However, that broader bill stalled over concerns that portions might be unconstitutional. So Hatch scaled it back to focus only on discriminatory zoning and on religious freedom for prisoners.

''At the core of religious freedom is the ability for assemblies to gather and worship together. Finding a location to do so, however, can be quite difficult when faced with pervasive land use regulations,'' Hatch said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

14. Sect Ditches School
Albuquerque Journal, Sep, 24, 2000
http://www.abqjournal.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HILDALE, Utah, and COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - The world did not come to an end. A number of people in these side-by-side border towns believed the apocalypse was at hand late this summer after pronouncements by a polygamous Mormon splinter group. The entire congregation lent credence to the belief by removing hundreds of their children from public schools, presumably to prepare for the end.

But it turns out that the end of the world was not what the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had in mind. The church said reports of an impending apocalypse on Sept. 15 were the invention of the media.

What did happen - the mass withdrawal of fundamentalist children from public schools - will likely reverberate off the sandstone spires in the Utah and Arizona desert for some time to come.

So might questions about who's going to pay - financially and educationally.

Last month, more than 800 children were suddenly withdrawn from schools in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., in the far western corners of those states. About 35 teachers in the two school systems resigned.

The students and teachers left at the behest of Warren Jeffs, self-styled prophet of a Mormon sect and a practicing polygamist, who issued an edict from the pulpit in August, declaring the public schools in the two towns to be repositories of wickedness and evil.

Parents were told to begin home-schooling their children, ''so we can instruct them in the religious aspects of life.''

All of the departed students and teachers are members of the local Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a 5,000-member-plus splinter sect from the Mormon church.

''I came back for the first day of school and more than half of the students were gone,'' said Principal Max Tolman of Phelps Elementary School in Hildale. ''That same day - August 31 - most of my teachers resigned, too.''

If the powers that be wanted to keep this desert pocket of illegal polygamy low profile, the massive withdrawal did not help advance their plan.

Polygamy is against the law and was long ago denounced by the mainstream Mormon church. And, to the fundamentalists' chagrin, the school situation brought a lot of unwanted attention to their multiple marriages.

The news media showed up, attracted in part by a loosely knit rumor that many people in the two towns believed the end of the world was imminent.
(...)

Bradshaw said he never bought Jeffs' message about the evils of public schools - which is one reason Bradshaw has been branded an apostate - or dissident deserter - by the fundamentalist church.

A number of nonchurch members, like Bradshaw, expressed fear that religious fanaticism will create the fodder for illiteracy and ignorance.

''With such large families, I question whether we could do a good job in home-schools,'' said Bradshaw. ''Knowing how to teach is a gift from God, but many people here don't have the background material and the broad knowledge to teach everything.''

''I know some 8- and 10-year-old home-schooled children here who are illiterate,'' said Colorado City resident and former fundamentalist church member Lenore Holm.
(...)

The only people around town who said anything about the school situation were people who have been ''defellowshipped'' (thrown out) of the fundamentalist church, run by Jeffs and a small group of like-minded polygamists.

''They own everybody here,'' said Holm, who was tossed after she complained that the splinter church kidnapped two of her 13 children and turned their minds against her.

People who have been thrown out said the church works diligently ''to force you out of town, too.''

''They can take away your husband, your wife, your house, your children,'' Holm said.

Fundamentalist church members have been expressly forbidden from speaking to apostates, a ban that can extend to immediate family members and presumably to the news media.

Questions about the church, its people and their communities are met with short, noncommittal answers or long silences.
(...)

The Salt Lake Tribune, in an investigative report in 1998, said more than a third of the residents of the two towns were on welfare. Both ranked high in reliance on Medicaid and use of food stamps. Hildale received more than $400,000 in government housing grants to refurbish 19 homes on church-owned lands. It ranked dead last in Utah for the amount of income taxes ($651 annually) per tax filer.

Elsewhere in Utah, citizens wondered why polygamists were getting public assistance. State officials said they could not discriminate on the basis of religion.

One apostate resident said, ''I'll tell you how they make a living: six wives, for example - two stay home and the other four are out bringing home a paycheck.''

In advocating multiple wives, the fundamentalist church said the practice is not a sexual matter - it's a duty to promote procreation.

An estimated 85 percent of the families in Hildale-Colorado City are polygamists, Bateman said.

One man, say, with four wives and 20 children does not raise eyebrows here.

Warren Jeffs, who is said to have 60 wives, is heir apparent to his reportedly infirm, 90-year-old father, Rulon Jeffs. Rulon Jeffs is allegedly married to 100 women.
(...)

On or about Sept. 15, a rumor circulated in southern Utah saying Hildale and Colorado City would soon rise and carry the righteous to the heavens while fire rained death and destruction on the apostates and nonbelievers below. After the area had been so cleansed, the righteous would return and again occupy the land.

The hierarchy of the Jeffs' sect, in a rare public response earlier this month, said to the news media through their attorney that the rumor was bogus and largely an invention of the media.
(...)

Science teacher Bateman agreed to meet a reporter only off school grounds. He gave instructions about where to park and warned about being followed by town police.

The police never showed up but Bateman did, and he provided a lunch-hour tour of town, including a new house he is building himself. He is no longer a member of the fundamentalist church, but he has two wives and 17 children. His new house has 18 bathrooms.

He is crossways with the church primarily because his three eldest children married into the church. Now they are basically forbidden from contact with him. ''I'm allowed to visit with them for five minutes a week,'' he said. ''I can't go into their house because I'm judged so wicked that they would have to bless the house again.''
(...)

''The religious leaders here are fanatical,'' he said, ''but the rest (of the church members) are fine people.''
(...)

Marriages are arranged and usually involve teen-age girls and middle-aged men, who may already have other wives. The first marriage is legal, all others are ''spiritual'' and recognized only by the fundamentalist church.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Church Owns Most of Land on Which Fundamentalists Live
Albuquerque Journal, Sep. 24, 2000
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/133188news09-24-00.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HILDALE, Utah, and COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - Almost all the big homes in these adjoining border towns are built on land belonging to a private trust called the United Effort Plan.

The trust is administered by leaders associated with the local Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it is believed to be under the direct control of church leader Rulon Jeffs.

On-going attempts in the 1990s to throw some apostate, former church members out of their houses, off the land and essentially out of town, ended up in the Utah Supreme Court.

After a protracted controversy lasting more than a decade, the court issued an opinion in 1998 that said, in part, that the trust couldn't evict any of 20 resident plaintiffs, or claimants, without paying them compensation.
(...)

Salt Lake City attorney Rodney R. Parker, who represented the United Effort Trust in the Utah Supreme Court proceedings, says the opinion applies only to the 20 claimants, including those who reside on the Arizona side of the border. It does not provide similar protection to those not named as claimants, he said.

It also applies only in the event of eviction by the trust, Parker said.

But the claimants didn't win the case hands down. A residual issue that was decided in district court but wasn't considered by the supreme court limits the amount of money a claimant can spend on his property, Bradshaw said.

''I'm not allowed to make more than $500 worth of improvements a year to my house,'' he said. ''That's because we are prohibited from making so many costly improvements that the trust would never be able to compensate us for the house.''

The 15-page supreme court ruling provides a brief history of the two towns and explains how polygamy became so well-established here.

In the late 1800s, some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, broke away and organized a movement called The Priesthood Work ''to continue the practice of plural marriage outside that church.''

By the early 1900s, the movement decided to settle its membership in an isolated area to avoid interference with their religious practices. In the 1930s, they chose Hildale and Colorado City, which at that time were accessible by a dirt road. The Work acquired a large tract of land, and adherents to the church bought more land, which they deeded to The Work, which became the UEP Trust.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Jehovah's Witnesses

16. Girl fights forced blood treatment
The Edmonton Journal (Canada), Sep. 24, 2000
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Morinville teenager given a blood transfusion against her wishes has lost a Queen's Bench court appeal, but her lawyer says she will continue to seek justice.

Child Welfare and doctors intervened when the 16-year-old refused to have a blood transfusion because she is a Jehovah's Witness.
(...)

The girl wanted the courts to recognize that Child Welfare's intervention was wrong, said her lawyer. Child Welfare and the case worker are named as the respondents in the case.

The teen complained of unusually heavy and prolonged menstrual bleeding, according to court documents. She was admitted April 15, 1999 to Misericordia Hospital. Doctors concluded she needed a dilatation and curettage, or D and C, to stop the bleeding. In some cases, the procedure requires a blood transfusion.

The teenager cannot be named under the privacy clause in the Child Welfare Act. Alberta Child Welfare refused comment until the appeal process has been exhausted. The girl has 30 days from the Sept. 11 decision to take her case to the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Dr. May Sue Mah examined the patient last year and concluded she could die without a blood transfusion, according to court documents. Mah contacted Family and Social Services to intervene because the girl had signed a no-blood medical directive and her parents also refused the transfusion.

A hospital social worker told a provincial court judge: ''the doctor feels that there is no viable alternative and that the Appellant (girl) could in fact die if she is not given a blood transfusion,'' according to the Reason for Judgment.

Following a treatment hearing at the hospital, a judge allowed the transfusion.

Glen How, one of the teen's lawyers, said the case is important because she was forced into treatment against her wishes. At stake is the right of the individual, and freedom to practise religion.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Theologically, Jehovah's Witnesses is a cult of Christianity.
Sociologically, it has many cult characteristics as well.

17. Court approves blood transfusion
BBC, Sep. 22, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A judge has given the go ahead for doctors to give a blood transfusion to a 15-year-old Jehovah's Witness girl if she requires it during a life-saving operation.

The girl, whose identity is being kept secret, had refused to give consent for the transfusion if it became necessary during a kidney transplant operation.

Her father, also a Jehovah's Witness, would not give his consent either.

In the High Court in Belfast on Friday morning, Mr Justice Higgins said it was in the child's best interest to undergo a transplant operation and that the surgical team should be able to administer a blood transfusion if this was necessary - but he hoped it would not be.

He described the child as a brave and resilient young lady whose firmly held beliefs should be respected.
(...)

The girl's mother, who is not a Jehovah's Witness, is separated from her father and lives in England. She is understood to have agreed to the operation going ahead.

At present the girl receives dialysis treatment six nights a week for nine hours at a time.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Life spared, faith preserved: Accident victim gets experimental therapy
Sacramento Bee, Sep. 24, 2000
http://www.sacbee.com/n
[Story no longer online? Read this]
José Orduño lay dying. Doctors grumbled about their lack of options. And Orduño's sister, Angelica, wondered how she would tell their frail mother that he had refused lifesaving blood transfusions because of his faith.

''You walk around with your arms tied behind your back,'' said Mercy San Juan Hospital trauma surgeon Leon Owens. ''It's torture.''

But Orduño didn't die. After two weeks in the hospital, breathing through a tube in his throat, the baby-faced 34-year-old was offered a long shot: an experimental therapy made from the blood of cattle.

Before sunup July 21, Orduño was nearing the end of his 40-minute bike ride to McDonald's on Madison Avenue near Sunrise Boulevard, where he worked making salads, when he was hit by a car. He remembers nothing of the accident, but learned later that he was thrown about 90 feet, and that the driver of the car that hit him fled.
(...)

Orduño was losing blood, which was filling his chest cavity. That led to dangerously low levels of hemoglobin, the protein molecule that carries oxygen in the red blood cells to the heart, brain, kidneys and other vital organs. Without oxygen, tissue dies.

Owens ordered a blood transfusion.

After Orduño had received two units of a donor's blood, he awoke to tell the doctors and nurses surrounding him that he didn't want any more.

The transfusion was halted.

Although Orduño never officially has been baptized a Jehovah's Witness, he would explain later that he subscribes to the denomination's doctrine and is well-versed in its practices. ''I know in the text where it mentions that we should not receive blood by mouth or by transfusion,'' he said.

His belief is based on several Biblical passages, including Leviticus 17:12-14: ''No soul of you shall eat blood ... whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.''

The faith's prohibition against transfusions has inspired debates within the medical and religious communities: Should a person's freedom to worship overrule a doctor's oath to do everything possible to save that person's life?

Even among Jehovah's Witnesses, the blood policy is controversial. A group calling itself the Associated Jehovah's Witnesses for Reform on Blood maintains a Web site dedicated to analyzing the no-blood doctrine.
(...)

A local representative from the Jehovah's Witnesses Hospital Liaison Committee was summoned. Owens told him that Orduño would die without more blood. Already, the patient's hemoglobin levels measured just 3 grams per 100 ccs of blood; a normal level is 12 grams. Owens had never seen anyone live with less than 2 grams.

''We discussed his vital signs, his fluid output, his hemoglobin, his respiration,'' said Gregory Brown, the representative. Brown suggested ways to manage the patient without more blood, but would not yield on the transfusion.

Owens couldn't perform surgery to stanch the bleeding without further blood loss. So he tried other innovative procedures.
(...)

About two weeks into the ordeal, Dr. Roy Semlacher, a plastic surgeon, overheard another doctor discussing the case. ''I know exactly what to use,'' he told them.

Semlacher knew of a Cambridge, Mass., company called Biopure that had developed an alternative therapy for situations in which patients can't -- or won't -- accept blood transfusions.

A case in which the drug had been used had been published in the June 1 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The article described how the therapy had saved the life of a young woman whose own immune system was destroying her red blood cells.
(...)

The hospital called Brown to discuss whether Hemopure would be an acceptable alternative to whole blood. Brown agreed that the substance did not constitute a major blood component, as would plasma or red blood cells, which would be prohibited.

''Medicine has found ways of breaking down the components into many tiny pieces,'' he said. ''We are saying, that becomes a matter of conscience because the Bible doesn't really address that.''

Hemopure is made from cattle red blood cells that have been ultra-purified, processed and mixed with a salt solution. It can be given to anyone, regardless of blood type, said Jacobs. The drug is being tested in several clinical trials, and the company hopes to apply for permission to market it next year.

Packets of Hemopure arrived within two days of Semlacher's call. After getting the drug intravenously over three or four days, Orduño's hemoglobin level shot up, reviving his body's ability to produce new oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
(...)

The doctors and nurses, the drug maker, the Jehovah's Witnesses -- everyone involved -- were elated at Orduño's recovery.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. The Belief in Paradise on Earth
Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger (Germany), Sep. 21, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/000921a.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) In contrast to other Christian denominations, ''Jehovah's Witnesses,'' as they call themselves, do not believe that all Christians will go to heaven. They read out of the Bible that only 144,000 people can go that route. For those left over, however, there is a promise. They will find ''Paradise on Earth'' when the Kingdom of God has ''annihilated'' all ''who ruin the earth.'' For non-believers, this expectation of God's campaign of annihilation may sound somewhat martial, but the Witnesses find their belief ''refreshingly different.'' They constantly reckon that Paradise is right around the corner. As far as they are concerned, each report of bad news about environmental and natural catastrophes, wars and immorality is, at the same time, good news; it is proof that we are living ''in the end times.'' Previous predictions about the actual end of the world, such as in 1914 and 1975, did not come true.

For about the past ten years, the Jehovah's Witnesses have been trying to be classified as a ''corporation of public rights'' - like other churches. They would then be exempt from basic earnings and inheritance taxes, could better minister to their faithful in hospitals and prisons, and even impose church taxes. [In Germany, church tax can be withheld from pay, like income tax.] The Jehovah's Witness communities in Selters, Taunus, however, have no interest in the latter. Their 190,000 members (4.4 million worldwide) are so closely tied to the organization that there is no lack of ''voluntary donations.''

Efforts to be officially recognized not successful
But so far their efforts have not met with success. In 1997, the Federal Administrative Court in Berlin refused to recognize them because their faithful may not take part in political elections, which is thereby said to undermine the ''legitimacy of the state.'' And the legal dispute has been more counter-productive than not in its effect upon the public. While the discussion about the Scientology Church in Germany has become more hectic, the Jehovah's Witnesses have also gained the attention of the anti-sect fighters. The accusations made by former ''Witnesses'' have been taken under consideration because they are very reminiscent of those made against psycho-sects. ''The Jehovah's Witnesses are a totalitarian organization,'' said Hans-Juergen Twisselmann, ''because they so strongly control personal areas of life.'' Twisselmann, who left the Witnesses back in the 1950s, founded the ''Bruederbund'' in 1958, which cares for people who want to leave the Witness community. ''I don't use the word 'brainwashing' because that word implies force,'' said Joseph Wiltung, a Norwegian former member, he said it was more of ''a refined style of talking people into not thinking for themselves anymore.'' From early childhood, the strict teachings of the faith lead to children alienating themselves from others their own age. ''Apostates'' automatically lose all their friends and are relegated to a social vacuum.

Naturally, the Jehovah's Witnesses have also noticed that they are running against the wind. The press are constantly instructed in alleged false rumors.
(...)

But the Jehovah's Witnesses still have a special something in Germany. By virtue of their fate under National Socialism, they have acquired a moral nimbus which makes it difficult on critics today. Of the approximately 20,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany in 1933 (''serious Bible researchers'' back then), about every third was arrested, and about 2,000 even landed in concentration camps where they received a ''lilac chevron'' [a classist distinction within the camp].
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Jehovah's Witnesses can not be classified as Christians - followers of Jesus Christ. It denies central teachings of the Christian faith and, at best, practices pseudo-Christianity. Theologically, it is a cult of Christianity.

=== Paganism / Witchcraft

20. Pagans turn out to say 'We too belong'
Asheville Citizen-Times, Sep. 21, 2000
http://www.citizen-times.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ASHEVILLE - Pagans struck patriotic notes Wednesday in a rally for religious freedom - not only for their misunderstood beliefs, but those of all minority faiths.

''We pray too. We pay taxes. We are citizens and our children attend these schools. We don't want our children forced to pray the prayers of other faiths,'' said Diotema Mantineia, associate editor of the Witches Voice, an Internet Web site that links some 23,000 witches, druids and other pagan believers. ''There is room in this country for all religions. There is room in our schools for children of all religions.''
(...)

The We Still Work Magic rally attracted about 300 people, pagans as well as Christian observers, at Reynolds High School football stadium. The pagan gathering came in response to the ''We Still Pray'' rally that packed the same stadium on Aug. 17, when thousands of conservative Christians converged to protest a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned school-sponsored prayers before high school football games. Christians pledged to break into spontaneous recitations of the Lord's Prayer at high school games following the national anthem.

Ginger Strivelli of the Appalachian Pagan Alliance requested the use of the public stadium for the pagan rally. ''You can have no religion in the schools. You can have all religions in the schools, but you can't have only the Christian religion in the schools,'' Strivelli said.

''We come together as a community to respect the rights of all people and all religions,'' said speaker Darla Kaye Wynne, assistant national director of of Witches Against Religious Discrimination and a director of Alternative Religious Eduction Network, which provided funding for the rally.

Speakers stressed the need to educate the public about their practices. ''We are not devil worshippers because we do not acknowledge a devil. We're not Satanists. We're not a bunch of druggies,'' said Thomas Pendragon Brice, a member of the Appalachian Pagan Alliance.

Ami Peck, N.C. director of Witches Against Religious Discrimination, argued for greater acceptance for witches.
(...)

The rally also drew curious Christian onlookers, some who supported the pagans and some who disagreed. The Rev. Steve Scroggs of Mountain Vintage Fellowship, an evangelistic Christian congregation, had also been present at the ''We Still Pray'' rally in August and he attended Wednesday to pray for the pagans.

''God loves every one of the people here,'' Scroggs said. ''Many people who call themselves pagan have been hurt or offended by the church at some point. We need to say we're sorry as a church for the ways we've hurt them.''

Jim Harrison, a clinical psychologist and ordained Presbyterian minister, was on hand to support the pagan appeal for religious liberty. ''When I see 'We Still Pray' bumper stickers, I think it's prayer for bullies.''

While the rally drew pagans from as far away as Maryland and Virginia, the event did not pull as well among the several covens of pagans living in and around Asheville, said Byron Ballard, an Asheville witch.

Some pagans were wary of attending the rally, ''doing what Christians do just because Christians do it,'' said Ballard, while some in the broader community might misinterpret the rally as ''anti-Christian.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The vast majority of Presbyterians are wiser than Mr. Harrison with regard to
prayer, and would not consider the sentiment expressed on a bumper sticker
as bullying.

21. Pagans find fellow believers online, emboldening them to go public
The Indianapolis Star/AP, Sep. 22, 2000
http://www.starnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Wiccans, Druids, shamans, goddess-worshippers and people who revere members of the ancient lineup of Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Celtic deities are showing up online and in public more often these days. Modeling their emergence after the gay pride movement, many pagans say they are ''coming out of the broom closet'' -- a wry reference to the witches among them.
(...)

Not long ago, most pagans preferred to keep their beliefs secret, fearful of the public's mistaken belief that they are devil-worshippers. There were no coffeehouse meetings for them.

Brenda Brasher, an assistant professor of religion at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, says the cyber-realm has allowed isolated believers to connect with like-minded individuals as never before. It also provides a way to wage an inexpensive public relations campaign to burnish their beliefs' reputations.

''The Internet has given these minority religious movements a public forum to say, 'We don't do evil things, we don't cast spells and we are environmentally minded,''' Brasher said.

Going online also allows pagans to foster Pagan Pride events, which are planned around the autumnal equinox, which fell this year on Friday. At such public gatherings, pagans gather in the full regalia of their particular groups, frequently eager to engage the general public.

Suzanne and Duke Egbert, an Indianapolis couple who serve as high priestess and high priest of a coven of about three dozen people, run an Internet site that helps plan pride gatherings nationwide as shows of presence and civic responsibility.
(...)

The Egberts, who have two children, were both raised in traditional religions, she a Roman Catholic and he an Episcopalian.

By their early 20s both had found Christianity lacking in many areas, particularly tolerance, as their intrigue grew in pagans' reverence for nature and emphasis on the free will of the individual.

''Most religions will tell you that their beliefs are right and everyone else is wrong,'' said Duke Egbert, who goes by the pagan name Dagonet. ''We believe we are right for ourselves. My religious path is exactly right for me. Other people's religious paths may be right for them. I can't judge that.''

The Pagan Educational Network in Bloomington, Ind., estimates the United States has at least 600,000 practicing pagans, but the network's national coordinator, Cairril Adaire, believes that figure is too low. Counting them is difficult because few pagans belong to organized churches, she said.

Despite their growing numbers, pagans still face discrimination, particularly in rural areas, Adaire said.
(...)

Pagan Education Network: http://www.bloomington.in.us/~pen

Indianapolis Pagan Pride: http://shadowwyrd.tripod.com/ppd-indy.html

Pagan Pride: http://www.paganpride.com

The Witches Voice: http://www.witchvox.com

Web Pagans Network: http://web.pagans.net/
< [...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Son charged with father's murder
Lincoln Journal Star/AP Sep. 24, 2000
http://www.journalstar.com/n=
OMAHA - A 16-year-old boy performed a satanic ritual before smothering his sleeping father, a suspected accomplice told police.
(...)

Timothy J. Vlock, 20, was accused of helping dispose of the body and charged in Douglas County Court with being an accessory to the killing.
(...)

Vlock told police that he watched Walsh perform a ''satanic ritual'' before going into the bedroom and holding a pillow over his sleeping father's head and killing him, according to search warrants filed in district court.

Friends of the younger Walsh said he practiced Wicca, a religion based on the nature worship of ancient Europe.

''Our magic is just like a Christian or Catholic praying,'' said Zerlina Eischeid, a friend of Walsh's who practices Wicca.

Police said they confiscated a ''satanic ritual altar'' made from a box top, along with two candles, a dragon statue, dragon cards and a homemade water pipe from the Walshes' apartment.

A neighbor who became friends with the younger Walsh about six months ago, Amanda Solko, said the father was controlling and harassed his son with inane comments, like accusing him of being a communist because he was drinking red strawberry soda. Solko said she saw the father hit Walsh several months ago.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Witchraft is often, erroneously, confused with Satanism. Wiccans do not
believe Satan exists, and thus do not worship him. However, like Satanism,
Wicca is a form of occultism.

» Continued in Part 2