=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. AUM's Joyu to leave Tokyo apartment next month, cult says

=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo
2. Japan ''foot cult'' leader gets suspended jail term

=== Attleboro Cult
3. Attleboro cult mother's newborn taken by DSS
4. State takes Corneau baby
5. Attleboro sect member gives birth

=== Falun Gong
6. Falun Gong Warns of Escalating Chinese Brutality
7. Falun Gong suppression will one day harm China
8. Chinese TV carries vox pop critical of Falun gong protests

=== Scientology
9. Suspicious connections with United Parcel Service (UPS)
10. Press Council : Rights and Duties

=== Nation of Islam
11. A Family Celebration
12. One nation under Farrakhan
13. Did Direction Get Muddled in The Marching?
14. By Passion and Purpose United
15. Minister Louis Farrakhan's Speech at the Million Family March

=== Islam
16. Turk court starts Islamic sect leader's trial

=== Catholicism
17. Racism in Catholic Church 'driving minorities away'

=== Witchcraft
18. 'Witchcraft' lynch mob members shot
19. 'Bewitched' MEC exorcises 'reptile' staff

=== Hate Groups
20. KKK appears to have law on side of its cross

=== Other News
21. Return of mystery child kidnappers
22. Utah to probe allegations
23. Hildale Schools Are Unusually Quiet After Exodus of Church's Children
24. Peyote raid riles church leader again
25. Temple Mount Faithful banned from Mount
26. Shriners open once-secret ceremony to public
27. Dracula puts bite on Britons to be blood donors
28. Gorbachev shares Cold-War stories in O.C.

=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance
29. Religious Freedom Abroad

=== Death Penalty / Human Rights Abuses
30. Reports: Texas' capital punishment system flawed, requires overhaul
31. Death penalty protesters march outside Bush governor's mansion
32. Bush's Style: Don't Bother With Details

=== Noted
33. Shamanism undergoes a spiritual revival across Russia


=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. AUM's Joyu to leave Tokyo apartment next month, cult says
Kyodo News Service/Associated Press, Oct. 16, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TOKYO, Oct. 16 (Kyodo) -- AUM Shinrikyo has sent a notice to the residents of the apartment building in Tokyo's Kita Ward in which senior AUM member Fumihiro Joyu resides, telling them Joyu will leave within a month, a ward official said Monday.
(...)

Last Monday, the ward set up a task force headed by ward chief Masao Kitamoto to deal with incoming AUM members and work out measures to prevent the apartment from becoming the cult's new head office.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo

2. Japan ''foot cult'' leader gets suspended jail term
Reuters, Oct. 17, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TOKYO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - A former leader of a Japanese ''foot cult'' that charged huge fees to diagnose ailments by examining soles of people's feet was given a suspended jail sentence on Tuesday.

Michiko Ichinose, the former head of a local branch of Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo (Flower of Law and Three Law Practice), was handed an 18-month suspended jail term, a court official said. That means Ichinose will not be required to serve the sentence as long as she is not convicted of any crime over the next three years.

The court found Ichinose, 37, guilty of swindling about four million yen ($37,010) from two women by telling them, after reading the soles of their feet, that unless they trained at the cult their children would be short-lived, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Attleboro Cult

3. Attleboro cult mother's newborn taken by DSS
Boston Herald, Oct. 17, 2000
http://www.bostonherald.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A member of a controversial Attleboro cult gave birth to a baby girl yesterday in a secure Boston medical facility where a judge had sent her to protect the fetus.

Rebecca Corneau gave birth to a 7-pound, 15-ounce girl at 2:40 p.m. at the Neil J. Houston House, a facility for pregnant women in state custody, in the presence of several relatives and a midwife, Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Gerry FitzGerald said.

The state Department of Social Services took custody of the child pending a custody hearing Oct. 26 before Attleboro District Court Judge Kenneth Nasif, who had sent Corneau to the Houston House Aug. 31.
(...)

Eight members of the Christian sect, which shuns any type of medical care, are jailed in contempt of court for refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the deaths of two children, including Corneau's infant son, Jeremiah.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. State takes Corneau baby
The Sun Chronicle, Oct. 17, 2000
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ATTLEBORO -- The state now has custody of a girl born Monday afternoon to a pregnant member of an Attleboro religious sect that has been the subject of a months-long grand jury investigation into the deaths of two children. (With photo)
(...)

The baby's father, David Corneau, who was recently released from jail after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, arrived at the Houston House a short time after his daughter was born.

Prosecutors say David Corneau is expected to be called before the grand jury next week.

Carol Yelverton, director of public affairs for the Department of Social Services, said the baby has been moved to a hospital where she was in good condition. Yelverton declined to identify the hospital.

``Mr. and Mrs. Corneau are allowed supervised visits,'' Yelverton said. ``The baby will be placed in foster care and the department wanted to make the transition as compassionate as possible.''
(...)

The state has custody of David and Rebecca Corneau's three other daughters.

Rebecca Corneau has been released from Houston House, a spokeswoman said this morning. It was unknown if she went to the hospital with the baby.

Assistant District Attorney Gerald FitzGerald said that Corneau indicated on Monday morning that she wanted a midwife. Midwife Atmakaur Khalsa was with Corneau during the birth, he said.

FitzGerald said two officials from Houston House also were present in case medical attention was needed, but ``the midwife was able to handle things.''

Also present were family members Karen Robidoux, Vivian Daneau, Trinette Daneau and Amy Daneau, he said. Trinette Daneau is believed to be about 5 months pregnant, officials say.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Attleboro sect member gives birth
The Boston Globe, Oct. 17, 2000
http://www.boston.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A member of a fundamentalist religious sect ordered into custody to protect her fetus gave birth to a girl yesterday at a state facility in West Roxbury for pregnant inmates. She is not expected to leave with the child.
(...)

The state Department of Social Services was expected to take custody of the baby after a medical review yesterday.

''That means that we act as parents on the baby's behalf,'' Carol Yelverton, DSS spokeswoman, said. ''We're making sure that she receives good quality care and medical attention, that all her needs are met.''

Physical custody of the infant will be granted to an aunt and uncle for the immediate future, according to FitzGerald. A juvenile court judge is scheduled to hold a custody hearing Oct. 26.

The prosecutor said Corneau is free to leave Neil J. Houston House, where she gave birth, as soon as she feels able.
(...)

David Corneau arrived within a half-hour after the birth. His attorney, Robert George, said yesterday that he intends to ask a Superior Court judge to suspend DSS custody at this time.

''It's our feeling that it was not the judge's intention for DSS to take the baby away from her mother before the 26th of this month,'' George said. ''If DSS takes the baby away from her mother before that time, they're violating the judge's order and are kidnapping the child.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

6. Falun Gong Warns of Escalating Chinese Brutality
Reuters, Oct. 16, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING (Reuters) - The banned Falun Gong said on Monday that Chinese rhetoric branding the spiritual movement an enemy of the state could presage an intensification of Beijing's harsh crackdown against it.

A statement issued by U.S.-based adherents said Beijing's vow last week to destroy Falun Gong pointed to a heavier hand in a 16-month campaign in which the movement says 53 people have died in police custody and 50,000 have been detained.

``We are worried and appeal now (for) the international community to intervene to stop more vicious human rights crimes against us,'' the statement said.

China responded last week to embarrassing protests by hundreds of Falun Gong followers on its October 1 National Day with an angry outburst calling the spiritual movement an anti-state force that must be destroyed.

``They have completely transformed themselves into an out and out reactionary political force,'' a commentary carried in major newspapers said.

``Its aim is to overturn the People's Republic of China and to subvert the socialist system,'' the commentary said.

The Falun Gong statement said language depicting the group as a political enemy could bring ``a new escalation in the use of state violence.''
(...)

Analysts said Beijing's latest tirade seems to reflect its growing concern that the group has set a political precedent with its relentless campaign of civil disobedience.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Falun Gong suppression will one day harm China
Taipei Times (Taiwan), Oct. 15, 2000 (Opinion)
http://www.taipeitimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Deng Xiaoping (...) left behind the ''June 4th Incident,'' and Jiang Zemin (...) will leave behind the suppression of Falun Gong (...), they say. These matters not only remain unresolved, they are matters which China will have to face eventually.

Ever since China branded the Falun Gong an ''evil religious sect'' last year, protests at Tienanman Square have persisted. The numbers of Falun Gong members and sympathizers grow at an astonishingly rapid rate. China's mishandling of the matter has escalated its seriousness. Falun Gong is becoming a major force both within and outside China.

Why brand as an enemy something that is essentially a type of health exercise? Many are now asking, ''Isn't communism also an evil religious sect?'' The suppression of Falun Gong is intensifying, becoming an enormous social phenomenon. Even supposing there has been illegal conduct on the part of Falun Gong members, they should have been dealt with as isolated incidents. Branding Falun Gong a ''religious sect'' and banning it entirely is definitely unwarranted.

I think Taiwan's experience in foreclosing sorrow over a painful part of its history is certainly a worthy lesson for China. If China truly intends to seek social peace and harmony, it must abandon its outdated obsession with militaristic rule. At the very least it must rule with compassion, if not democracy. Otherwise, the resentment will one day erupt.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. Chinese TV carries vox pop critical of Falun gong protests
BBC Monitoring/China Central TV, Beijing, Oct. 17, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Text of report from the ''National News Hookup'' programme by Chinese Central TV on 14th October
[Announcer] While the whole country was jubilantly celebrating the National Day and the glory brought back by the Chinese athletes from the Olympic Games, a small number of die-hard elements of the Falun Gong cult organizations, instigated by Li Hongzhi and his like who are residing abroad, illegally went to gather together on Tiananmen Square. This has aroused public indignation and denouncement. They said: Our motherland is thriving, and the people are living a stable and happy life. We will never allow anyone to undermine the very favourable situation, which has not come easily. Please watch the following: [video shows one interviewee after another]

[Su Yaozeng, retired cadre] Chairman Mao said long ago: Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again ... till their doom [punctuation inserted]; that is the logic of all reactionaries the world over in dealing with the people's cause. The reactionary acts of an extremely small number of Falun Gong die-hard elements will not help them escape their doom either.

[Wang Quanmei, retired cadre] At present, our country is so strong. A few Falun Gong reactionary elements have made trouble. They are just like an ant trying to topple a giant tree, ridiculously overrating their own strength.

[Li Deliang, a peasant of Lishuiqiao Village, Guangying Township, Chaoyang District, Beijing] Li Hongzhi and his like are shivering sparrows in late autumn and they will not last long. However, there are people who are dead set on following them. Are they not crazy?

[Zhang Dawei, student of the Beijing Normal University] They have attempted in vain to undermine the political situation of stability and unity. They have even attempted in vain to subvert our people's political power. What they have done is really ridiculous. Besides, they will never be able to stop the wheel of history from rolling forward. Their acts can only help us understand their nature thoroughly and quickly.
(...)

[He Xiaolei, student of the Central University for Nationalities] We have gained a better understanding of the nature of a reactionary cult of the Falun Gong organizations and will resolutely struggle against them. We will also strive to study better scientific and cultural knowledge, use such knowledge to arm ourselves, and endeavour to build our great motherland into a modern, stable, united, and strong socialist country, in which all nationalities enjoy common prosperity.

[Unnamed reporter] In light of the experience in the struggle against the Falun Gong cult organizations for more than one year, the broad masses of cadres and people said:

[Dong Boqing, retired cadre] A household has its domestic discipline and a country has its state laws. Since a handful of Falun Gong die-hard elements have defied the laws of our country, they should be severely punished according to law.
(...)

[Unnamed reporter] With the enthusiastic help of the people and cadres, many former Falun Gong practitioners have gained a better understanding of the reactionary nature of the Falun Gong cult organizations. They have expressed their determination to make a clean break with them.

[Unnamed former Falun Gong practitioner] While everyone is happily celebrating the festival, they have come out to make trouble. I think they have deliberately made trouble and they want to fight against the government.

[Unnamed former Falun Gong practitioner] I think their purpose is to oppose the government and to undermine the political situation of stability and unity. Therefore, I think it is time for those who have a swelled head and have followed a number of Falun Gong elements to wake up. They should sober themselves.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

9. Suspicious connections with United Parcel Service (UPS)
Newsgroups: de.soc.weltanschauung.scientology, Oct. 15, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/001012a.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Stuttgart consumer protection organization, ''ABI, Aktion Bildungsinformation e.V.'', in Stuttgart, published the following press release on October 12, 2000:

Press Release
Scientology sect business
Suspicious connections with United Parcel Service (UPS)
Berlin/Stuttgart October 12, 2000. A large cover organization of the U.S. Scientology financial sect and numerous American representatives have received considerable sums of money from the international delivery service, United Parcel Service (UPS). Besides that, the sect and its sub-organizations have delivery contracts with UPS. That was stated by Eberhard Kleinmann, chairman of the Stuttgart consumer protection organization ''Aktion Bildungsinformation, e.V.'' (ABI), today in a press conference in the Hotel Esplanade in Berlin.

''By its joint work with UPS, the sect has come one step closer to its goal of increasing its influence in the economy and continuing to spread the management technology of L. Ron Hubbard,'' said Kleinmann. Anyone who sends his package by UPS should know that, by doing so, he is indirectly contributing the finances and power, as well as the war chest, of the sect.

After a resolution of November of last year from representatives of the American Congress accused the Federal Republic of Germany of serious human rights violations and of persecution and discrimination against religious minorities, the Germans did some research with middlemen in New York and Clearwater, Florida.

The ABI has evidence that almost fifty of these representatives received payments in amounts of up to 240,000 US dollars from the UPS.

UPS donation money has also gone to the ''World Literacy Crusade Foundation'' (WLC), which works closely with another Scientology cover organization, ''Applied Scholastics.'' WLC founder Alfredie Johnson is said to be a member of Scientology and he appears in the sect's own publications as an accuser against psychiatry and against psychiatrists. In these writings, German psychiatrists and psychiatry are said to treat socially disadvantaged and handicapped people similarly to the euthanasia and extermination programs of the Third Reich. Both organizations follow the goal of leading both young people and adults to the sect's ideology and study technology.

Conspicuous similarities between UPS management technologies and L. Ron Hubbard's totalitarian management technology are evident from document the ABI has at its disposal. These report on inhuman working conditions, chicanery and manipulation of votes in the board of operations by UPS management and on illicit work hours.

The ''Aktion Bildungsinformation e.V.'' is a charitable consumer protection establishment in issues of education. Its charter mission includes observation of the entire education market and individual consumer consultation. The ABI's mission also includes the observation of the psycho-market and sects, especially the Scientology psycho-sect.

12. October 2000

ABI, Aktion Bildungsinformation e.V.
Mitglied des Paritätischen Bildungsverbandes Bundesverband e.V.
Alte Poststraße 5
70173 Stuttgart
[...entire item...]

Follow-up

* The publisher of Apologetics Index fully agrees with the German government's assessment of the Scientology organization:

''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.''

10. Press Council : Rights and Duties
Der Bund/sda (Switzerland), Oct. 14, 2000
http://www.bund.ch/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/001014a.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Media are not obligated to report on all individual candidates in elections. And it is permissible for a journalist to point out existing dangers, from his perspective, in regard to a controversial organization. The Swiss Press Council came to these decisions.
(...)

In the second case, the ''Aktion Dialog'' association complained about two reports which appeared in January 2000 in the ''Tages-Anzeiger'' about Swiss Scientology's approach to taxes and about the computer software of a Scientology-aligned, American EDP firm. The two articles were alleged to be part of a campaign of disparagement against the Scientology Church. The Swiss Press Council dismissed these complaints in the main. A journalist cannot be charged for pointing out the dangers of such organizations when he acts as ''legal representative'' of potential or actual ''sect victims.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Nation of Islam

11. A Family Celebration
Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2000
http://washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Many tens of thousands heeded Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's call for a historic march on Washington yesterday, crowding onto the Mall for the second time in five years to celebrate a day of prayer, speeches and spiritual atonement.

But even before the sun burned away the darkness in the morning, it was clear that yesterday's Million Family March would not rival its predecessor, the historic Million Man March of black men, in size, focus or energy. Yet those who came said that didn't matter.
(...)

Although the exact number of participants might never be known, the Nation of Islam claimed to have met its goal.

That wasn't the impression of some who attended the Million Man March. They said yesterday's gathering, while impressive, lacked the emotion and energy of the first rally, and it didn't come close to comparing to it in size.
(...)

But none of that mattered to either man. Hargrove said he would not have missed a chance to be there with his wife, Sheila, his son, John III, and his daughter, Jade. The family took in a spectacular fall day, bathing in the happy shouts of children, many of whose parents are members of the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The Unification Church helped pay for the Million Family March, the event its followers helped to organize.
(...)

As promised, Farrakhan delivered a two-hour speech. The speech rambled from one subject to another, touching on everything from white supremacy to the nature of women to divisive religious doctrines that lead to cultural isolation and war, such as the raging conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

The often fiery Muslim minister was decidedly mainstream, steering clear of derogatory comments that in the past have angered Jews, and he criticized black people's cultural habits with the same vigor that he used to attack racism in the United States and believers in white supremacy.
(...)

Some might say the rally was also a shell of what was intended. Throughout last week, march director Benjamin Muhummad, of the Nation of Islam, promised that hip-hop and rhythm and blues acts including Macy Gray, Mary J. Blige and Stevie Wonder would entertain crowds. Those acts never materialized.

Before the start of his speech, Farrakhan pointed out several entertainers, including singer Whitney Houston and her husband, singer Bobby Brown, rapper-actor Will Smith and his wife, actor Jada Pinkett Smith, and Stephanie Mills. None uttered a sound.

Even in his long speech, Farrakhan barely touched on the family and the complex interaction between husbands and wives, parents and children. Instead he focused on the value of women, telling them that their wombs are sacred. He put a new spin on the term ''pro-choice,'' telling women that he understood their desire to own the right to choose abortion over birth, then begging them not to.

''Be pro-choice,'' he said. ''Women, choose the right man.''

Shortly after his speech, Farrakhan orchestrated the Nation of Islam's first ''sacred marriage blessing ceremony,'' in the tradition of Moon's Family Federation of World Peace and Unification.

About 100 couples participated.
(...)

After the event ended about 4:30 p.m., about 15 minutes behind schedule, Farrakhan said he hoped the multiracial event demonstrated to the country that he's not a racist.
(...)

At the podium, Farrakhan reached out to Moon, saying that ''without the efforts of the Unification Church the event would not have been possible.''

Michael Jacobs, president of the World Federation of Peace and Unification, said he was pleased with the event, though members of his organization were largely absent from the stage. The overwhelming majority of speakers were black, leaving only enough room for two Unification Church members to address the crowd.

Jacobs declined to say how much the church donated. He would only say, ''We asked families to contribute not only money but their time, because we believe in the family.''

Jacobs added: ''What we wanted to do was to give the world a seminal view of what kind of world God would like. I am just grateful to God for all of the religious leaders coming together to strengthen and build the family.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. One nation under Farrakhan
Salon, Oct. 17, 2000
http://www.salon.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Oct. 17, 2000 | WASHINGTON -- On the fifth anniversary of his great triumph, the Million Man March, black nationalist and rabble-rousing racist Louis Farrakhan tested his drawing power once again, calling for a gathering of the faithful on the National Mall. The Million Family March was a collaborative effort between Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and the forces of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the power behind the Unification Church -- which owns the Washington Times newspaper, and recently acquired the United Press International wire service.

The mix of these two groups, both on the margins of American political life, was bound to result in a strange brew for the Million Family March. And it did.

First of all, there wasn't really a march at all.
(...)

The organizers' news release claimed that the event was meant to ''focus on strengthening the family through the principles of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility.'' That's all well and good, but it's hardly the kind of message that's made Farrakhan a household name, at least in white America. While there's always been a Billy Graham-ish, family-first aspect to Farrakhan's message, it's the anti-Semitic and anti-white words that landed his face in the national papers.

But you didn't hear any of them on the Mall Monday, at least not from Farrakhan. A speaker from Syria did slam ''the Zionist media'' for deceiving Americans about the latest Arab-Israeli conflict, and there were several calls for unity between different ethnic minorities and ''poor whites,'' as if whites who made a decent living were part of an enemy class. However, Farrakhan himself had few negative things to say about whites in general or Jews, who have been his favorite targets in the past. (He's called Judaism ''a gutter religion'' and once referred to Jews as ''bloodsuckers.'')

No, Farrakhan seemed to have been infected with the same ''inclusive'' spirit that seized the Republicans earlier this year. ''As I look at the children of Abraham, Christians, Muslims and Jews,'' Farrakhan intoned to the thousands gathered, ''Abraham would be totally upset when we recognize him as a father and God as a father, and then turn around and slaughter each other.'' With priests, rabbis and Baptist preachers literally beside him on the dais, Farrakhan spoke of the uniting power of God, no matter what the religious sect of the worshipper.
(...)

Most of his followers attributed the message of inclusion to the mood of the march and the moment, and the word most often used to describe the event was ''positive.'' ''Farrakhan focused in on the family,'' said Jerome Smith. ''It's a better message today,'' said Rob Austin, who has been listening to Farrakhan for years. ''He's trying to bring people together.''

The new rhetoric notwithstanding, the event itself was about as integrated as the Republican National Convention, which is to say that the podium showed a rainbow sensibility, but the crowd was a monotone. Almost everyone in attendance was black. There was a smattering of whites and some Latinos, and, like the convention, whoever controlled the cameras televising the event frequently honed in on the diverse faces.

Aside from that, the event had an African-American nationalist flavor, with the red, black and green flags of black nationalism lifted up in many hands and clusters of women floating by in the head-to-foot coverings mandated by some sects of Islam.
(...)

He graciously thanked Moon, along with several African-American celebrities -- rap mogul Russell Simmons, as well as power couples like Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. He then launched into a two-hour sermon covering everything from rap lyrics to abortion to this year's presidential race.

When he did talk politics, he kept partisanship at bay, only hinting at support for Al Gore and the Democratic ticket. However, his rhetoric resembled that of George W. Bush more than any other presidential candidate.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Did Direction Get Muddled in The Marching?
Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2000 (Opinion)
http://washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) So even if the crowd at yesterday's Million Family March was a small fraction of the huge assembly at Farrakhan's 1995 march for men, and even if this crowd lacked the emotion of that outpouring, and even if there were not 10,000 couples in the Sacred Wedding Ceremony but rather fewer than 100, and even if it was never quite clear what this march was supposed to accomplish, it was instructive to listen to Farrakhan.
(...)

But now, in the twilight of his preaching career, Farrakhan claimed to have changed, and many people in the crowd were taken by his statement that he has ''been preaching blackness for 46 years,'' but has now broadened his view.
(...)

Yet Farrakhan addressed himself largely toward blacks, and when he spoke directly to whites, it was to tell white supremacists that, ''If you want to keep your race pure, good. But then don't try to break into my race. 'Cause there's some of us that feel the same way.''

Not that that message--Farrakhan's same old separatist stuff--especially mattered. There were hardly any whites at the march, and only a few Asians, most at the command of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church leader who helped to bankroll and promote Farrakhan's event. (Many of Moon's followers wandered through the crowd handing out ''Sacred Marriage Candy,'' which turned out to be those pillow-shaped mints that hotels leave at your bedside. Go figure.)

You'd think Moon might be having second thoughts about this strategy. Yes, Farrakhan delivered on some of Moon's favorite causes, with a strong pitch against abortion and high-minded talk about family. But how do you think Moon--who has covered his decades of buying access to power and celebrity with a thick coat of anti-communism--liked Farrakhan's lengthy love song to Fidel Castro? Farrakhan praised Castro to the skies for his offer to train and deliver thousands of doctors to America's neglected poor.

Moon boasts of his ties to the George Bush family. Farrakhan spent considerable time dissing both Bush the Younger and Vice President Gore. Indeed, the only time the crowd really came alive was when Farrakhan described the presidential election as being ''almost like a choice between Beelzebub and the Devil. You lose with either one.'' The crowd chanted ''Farrakhan for president,'' and the man smiled as if he were truly touched, adding, ''My record is better than all the candidates'' and ''I will get you your freedom, your equality and your reparations.''

But the Nation of Islam leader would never run for office. It is, after all, one thing to preach responsibility and something altogether different to take it on.

So now what? What came, finally, of the Million Man March, even with its power, even with all those men who found a new outlook on life, who made genuine changes for the better? Could it be that that march led only to another march?
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. By Passion and Purpose United
Washington Post, Oct. 17 ,2000
http://washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) For Seth Shaheed Muhammad, and his wife, Marcia, the moment was the renewal of their vows of marriage. The plan had always been to wait until their 50th wedding anniversary. But here they were, having journeyed from Oakland, Calif., in the 48th year of marriage, pulling a luggage cart along the Reflecting Pool. The cart was packed with a camcorder, a camera, binoculars and a $300 official Million Family March marriage kit: a black velvet sash for her, a lapel pin for him and wedding rings for each.
(...)

The approximately 100 couples who participated with the Muhammads ranged from teenagers to retirees. Some were actually getting married, not just renewing vows. Most were members of the Nation of Islam, but several said they were Christian and a few said they had no religion.
(...)

The Schultz family of Jensen Beach, Fla., spent much of the day attaching banners to wooden dowels, which thousands of marchers waved. The banners--one orange and white saying, ''Million Family March,'' and the other blue and yellow saying, ''God Bless Our Family''--were donated by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
(...)

Schultz said members of the Unification Church get a more friendly reception from black churches than white churches. ''Anyone who has suffered discrimination and oppression is more receptive to us,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Minister Louis Farrakhan's Speech at the Million Family March
Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2000
http://washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful, we give him praise and thanks for his mercy and his goodness to the human family. The greatest of God's mercies comes to us in the form of divine revelation sent down through the mouth of God's prophets and messengers. We thank Allah for Moses and the Torah. We thank him for Jesus and the Gospel.

We thank him for Mohammed and the Koran. Peace be upon these worthy servants of Allah.
(...)

But I would also like to thank Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon and the International Interreligious Federation for World Peace for they were committed and worked very hard to make this day possible. So on behalf of all of us, we say to Reverend and Mrs. Moon, and to all of the members of the International Interreligious Federation for World Peace, our sincere thanks and deep sense of personal gratitude for your effort to make this day possible.
(...)

FARRAKHAN: Now, look at this. And I'll put this down for a minute. Now, look at this. You say I got Jesus. Others say, I've got Mohammed.

Others say, I've got Moses. Others say, I don't believe in God.

Fine. But Jesus would be upset today, because, I respectfully say to my Christian family, this may sound harsh, and I don't want you to fall out with me but I want you to think about what I'm saying, you have not yet risen into true Christianity as we speak.

(APPLAUSE)

Why do I say that, Christians? I think it's one of the apostles that said, ''In Christ there is no Jew or no Greek, there is no bond or no free, there is no male and no female, all are one in Christ.'' We have not gotten there yet, because sexism has put the woman down, materialism has exalted things over the value of human life, nationalism has exalted my flag over your flag.

That is why, at 9 this morning, on the Jumbotrons, I had all of the symbols of religion to come up on the screen. And when you saw your symbols, you said, Ah, there's the cross, that's me. Ah ha, there's the crescent, ah, that's me. Oh, look, there's the star of David, that's me. You have allowed symbols to define that which no symbol can define.

I showed you all the flags of all the nations and you can wave your flag, and this is beautiful, but that flag cannot describe you. That flag cannot define you. The flag limits you. They symbol limits you. And the only way that humanity can become what God intended, we must rise above symbols into the substance of the oneness of God.
(...)

I am a Christian. Did you hear me? Farrakhan said, I am a Christian. I am a Jew. I am a Muslim. I am Pentecostal. I am of the Church of God in Christ. I am a Jehovah's Witness. I am a Mason. I am a Shriner. I'm all of that and then some. Because I refuse to let things limit me as to who I really am. And you should not allow that either.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, when I say I'm a Christian, I delight in the cross. It means a lot to me.
(...)

FARRAKHAN: One more time. Allahu akbar.

AUDIENCE: Allahu akbar.

FARRAKHAN: That means, ''God is great.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Mr. Farrakhan deceives himself and others when he claims to be a Christian. A Christian is someone who follows Jesus Christ. Mr. Farrakhan contradicts Jesus Christ in word and in deed, and dismisses His claims:
''(John 14:6 NIV) Jesus answered, ''I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.''

More about religious pluralism

=== Islam

16. Turk court starts Islamic sect leader's trial
Reuters, Oct. 16, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court began trying the influential leader of a Muslim sect in absentia Monday on charges of seeking to substitute Islamic Sharia law for the existing secular order.

The trial of Fethullah Gulen, leader of the Nur (Light) sect, appeared to be part of a crackdown on leading Islamic figures underway since Turkey's first Islamic-led government was forced from office in 1997.

The main opposition Islam-based Virtue Party faces a possible legal ban next month on similiar charges.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

17. Racism in Catholic Church 'driving minorities away'
The Guardian (England), Oct. 16, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Roman Catholic church in England and Wales has been accused of discrimination against ethnic minorities by the director of the church's association for racial justice.

The move comes a month before a conference, called by the church itself, to review how it deals with multiracial issues and may cause concern to bishops still reeling from child abuse convictions among the clergy.

The association told the Guardian it will be pressing for an independent inquiry within the church similar to one recently appointed under Lord Nolan to review its procedures for dealing with accusations of paedophilia.

Stephen Corriette, the association's director, claims that there are fewer than 30 black parish priests out of more than 5,600 in the 22 dioceses of England and Wales, just six of them British-born, and that Catholics from ethnic-minority communities are being frozen out of positions of responsibility in parishes. The church itself acknowledged last week that the figures were ''probably correct'' and admitted that its most recent statistics for priests in training showed just 16 black priests being ordained and a further 21 in seminaries.

Roman Catholicism in Britain is perceived as the most white of the major denominations - the majority of British immigrants have not come from Catholic countries - though the association estimates that 12% of its communicants are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
(...)

The church has come close to acknowledging the problem. Earlier this year, guidelines for parishes to review their practices described institutional racism as ''a form of structural sin and primarily a sin of omission''.

It added: ''We can't assume that Catholic organisations... are unaffected. In such a situation we become culpable if we fail to take stock and examine carefully the nature of the service we offer.''

A spokesman for the Catholic media office said: ''There is no evidence to suggest deliberate exclusion of minorities but nor are a great number coming forward for training as priests.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Witchcraft

18. 'Witchcraft' lynch mob members shot
Telegraph (England), Oct. 15, 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk//a>
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Two members of a lynch mob in Lagos, Nigeria, who attacked a man they believed had turned two children into dogs, were shot dead by police.

A rumour had swept through the Lagos suburb of Oko-Oba that the man, a dealer from northern Nigeria, had transformed a missing boy and girl after giving them each 20 naira (10p). Local vigilantes detained the man and gathered up the dogs. Police arrived as they were about to lynch him and arrested 15 people.

During the fighting, two of the mob died. The rest, including the dogs, were taken to Lagos state police command in Ikeja.

A police spokesman, Victor Chilaka, said: ''We do not know quite what happened so we are detaining all of them.'' Including the dogs? ''Including the dogs.'' On what charge? ''I am not sure,'' he said. ''I am sure we will not hold them for long.''

Belief in witchcraft, and the power of humans to transform themselves into animals and vice versa, is widespread in Nigeria. In the past two years newspapers have reported alleged incidents of a vulture which became a man and a schoolboy who turned into a yam.
[...entire item...]


19. 'Bewitched' MEC exorcises 'reptile' staff
Independent/Daily News (South Africa), Oct. 16, 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/=
Suspicions of witchcraft have thrown the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education into chaos and led to staff being fired.

Newly-appointed Education Minister Faith Gasa is alleged to have abandoned her office because she believed it was bewitched.

And Gasa has promised to fire the remaining staff in her office employed by her predecessor, Eileen kaNkosi-Shandu.
(...)

Shandu said she was shocked at the witchcraft allegations.

She said she would not like to comment about the matter because she had only read about it in the newspapers.

''I cannot believe these allegations made about me.
(...)

The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal has called for a full investigation into the whole matter and said action should be taken against Gasa if it was true that she had failed to report for work.

ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said his party condemned the alleged actions by the minister of leaving her office based on suspicions of witchcraft.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

20. KKK appears to have law on side of its cross
Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 17, 2000
http://enquirer.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Cincinnati officials might not like the message, but they can't kick the messenger out of Fountain Square - not even if it's the Ku Klux Klan.

Despite the use of racist, derogatory and hateful invective in rallies past, city lawyers said Monday there is no legal reason to deny the Klan's permit to erect its Christmas cross downtown.

They also said enforcement of a city ordinance that prohibits masks or hoods, such as those worn by the white supremacists, would be unconstitutional.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The KKK is a hate group that has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity.

=== Other News

21. Return of mystery child kidnappers
Africa News Service/The Nation (Kenya), Oct. 15, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Nairobi - Four months since the first in a spate of ritual killings was reported in Nairobi, police are yet to find clues that could help solve the mystery.

Twice, police spokesman Peter Kimanthi has appealed to the public to take extra precautions to avoid falling prey to the killers. The fear over the killings was further compounded last week when President Moi and Nyanza PC Peter Raburu attributed the spate of child abductions and murders to cults. ''We cannot possibly be there all the time and the public should take greater responsibility for their safety,'' said President Moi.

This week, a street girl is said to have led six girls in a dramatic escape from an abductor in Murang'a.

Besides Nairobi, Nakuru and Mombasa have reported child abductions. School heads and parents are being urged to take stiff safety measures.
(...)

Last week, residents of Nairobi's Kasarani and Kariobangi North took to the streets to demonstrate over abductions and ritual killings of children in the two neighbourhoods. At Kariobangi North, an elderly man was lynched by an angry mob which mistook him for a child kidnapper. In Kasarani, a woman was killed when police opened fire on a mob rioting over child abductions and killings.

In all instances, the kidnap victims' eyes had been gouged out and their tongues and genitalia removed. ''It is certainly a case of ritual killings,'' said Father Emmanuel Ngugi, the administrator at the Holy Family Minor Basilica in Nairobi.

Police see a link in all the incidents and believe the ritual killings are by the same organised group. The first ritual murders, of adults, were reported in June at Njiru and Ruai on the outskirts of the city.''They have the same characteristics and there is cause to believe they were committed by the same group of people'' as the one killing the children, said a police officer at Buru Buru.

This is the second time in a decade that Kenya has been hit by mysterious ritual murders of adults and children. The first was in 1992 when dozens of victims were abducted and killed in the same manner. The victims, mostly from Nairobi's Eastlands, had their tongues and genitals removed.

While some of the people blamed murderous cults, others saw a political hand in the gruesome acts, ostensibly to frighten opponents ahead of the impending General Election. Eventually, the incidents fizzled out but the murders were not satisfactorily explained.

In Nairobi, police believe that there are two different groups involved in the abductions. One comprises men and the other women but both are kidnapping teenage girls. The girls are taken to a dark house said to be in Nairobi West where they are forced to sing and dance with other girls before being released.

''None of the victims involved in this aspect of abduction has claimed to have been harmed by their abductors,'' said a police officer.

In Nairobi, police said they found a pamphlet titled Black Mass on the body of one of the victims. The pamphlet contained names of people and the registration numbers of 200 vehicles alleged to be associated with devil worshippers in the city.

The author of the pamphlet, Lucas Muchoki, turned up at the Buru Buru Police Station and denied any involvement in the ritual murders. He claimed to have been shown the names of the people he listed and the car registration numbers in a divine ''revelation''.

Police are now convinced of his innocence and describe him as a devout Christian. ''We learnt that he has been publishing the pamphlet since 1998 and it is not a proscribed document. So we cannot charge him for possession of the publication either.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Utah to probe allegations
Canoe/CP (Canada), Oct. 17, 2000
http://www.canoe.ca/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[...fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...]
VANCOUVER -- A special investigator from the Utah attorney general's office will investigate allegations that young and underaged American girls are being married off to polygamists in Utah, Arizona and B.C.
(...)

Barton began work last week to look at abuse, fraud and other issues in Utah's so-called closed societies. He said he has contacted groups that are documenting the names and details of the young brides.

These include a California-based child advocacy group called For Kids Sake and Tapestry Against Polygamy, a support group for ex-wives of polygamists based in Salt Lake City.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Hildale Schools Are Unusually Quiet After Exodus of Church's Children
Salt Lake Tribune (reprinted from Los Angeles Times), Oct. 15, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HILDALE -- This remote territory straddling the line between Utah and Arizona has long been an outlaw community where residents practice polygamy with impunity. Now parents here have removed their children from school en masse at the behest of a 92-year-old religious ''prophet'' and may cause the public school system to crumble.

Three-quarters of the students in the region's schools did not return to their classrooms this fall, an exodus that has raised questions about how far parents can go in balancing their religious beliefs with the state's mandate to educate children.
(...)

Parents have told school officials they are home schooling, but authorities in both states say they do not monitor whether the children are being taught.

Both Utah and Arizona require only that a parent sign an affidavit pledging to educate a child at home. Unlike several other states, there is no required curriculum, and children schooled at home are not required to take standardized tests.
(...)

The families are obeying an order from their religious leader, Rulon Jeffs. In July, Jeffs, through a sermon delivered by his son Warren, ordered followers in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to cut off contact with outsiders. To his followers, that meant not mixing with children and teachers in public schools.

Church leaders and community members have declined to be interviewed.

Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church were excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nearly a century ago for practicing polygamy. For years, they have issued dire warnings about the ''end of days'' and the apocalypse.

Scores of apocalyptic predictions have come and gone -- the most recent was for Sept. 15 -- since polygamists established their theocracies in this barren stretch of high desert.

With the departure of the children, the end of days could soon come for this region's public schools, which receive state funding based on attendance.

''It's a situation that defies conciliation,'' said Steve Laing, Utah's superintendent of public instruction. ''It's amazing that a person can use a pulpit in this manner. It's a delicate thing.''
(...)

Jeffs, an imposing figure with his mane of swept-back silver hair, is reported to have 16 wives and as many as 90 children. He grew up in this community and owns immense tracts of land in southern Utah; most of the property in Hildale is held in his church's name, and his son Warren is poised to take over as the next church leader.

The Jeffs family runs the church, and Bistline said there is a healthy income from members who are encouraged to tithe. The ''prophet'' returned to the area from Salt Lake City two years ago, in part to straighten out the church's financial affairs, Bistline said.

The group's temple is by far the region's largest structure. It was here that Warren Jeffs read his father's lengthy missive that warned of the danger of association with anyone outside the church.

Bistline said that Rulon Jeffs' return seemed to drive a wedge between two groups of polygamists in the area. In a series of sermons, Jeffs advised his followers to disassociate from a splinter group of polygamists who follow a different leader.

His July message read, in part: ''Today our Prophet is drawing another line of guidance for his people. . . . He is now calling upon his people to let the apostates alone, and let there be a separating of this Priesthood people from associations, business and doings with apostates.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Peyote raid riles church leader again
Standard-Examiner, Oct. 16, 2000
16peyote@Ogden.asp">http://www1.standard.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SPANISH FORK -- The leader of a self-described American Indian church in Spanish Fork said his church and home were raided last week by police wielding a search warrant.

It's the second time in three months that police in Utah have seized peyote buttons from a high-ranking member of the church.

Church leader James ''Flaming Eagle'' Mooney said up to 15 Utah County sheriff's deputies searched the 6-acre Benjamin complex, home to the Oklevueha Earth Walks chapter of the Native American Church.

Mooney was not arrested after Wednesday's search.

He said police confiscated a computer and about 12,000 buttons of peyote, or some 33 pounds, from a metal vault. Peyote is a hallucinogenic cactus plant grown in Texas and regarded as sacred by Indians who use the buttons during prayer rituals.

According to a copy of the search warrant, obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, deputies also took waiver forms for church ceremonies, church donation slips and a pipe, which Mooney claims was sacred.

Mooney said ''nine-tenths'' of the building searched by police was the church where he and his members worship, which also serves as the living quarters for Mooney, his wife and seven children.
(...)

In August, police in Weber County raided the Ogden home of Nick Stark and confiscated $10,000 in cash and 3,500 peyote buttons. Stark is a self-described medicine man who runs the Ogden chapter of the Oklevueha Church.

Stark was charged with possessing peyote with the intent to distribute it, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He is awaiting trial.
(...)

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration regulations state that peyote use is legal only in ''bona fide'' American Indian church ceremonies.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Temple Mount Faithful banned from Mount
Jerusalem Post (Israel), Oct. 16, 2000
http://www.jpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
JERUSALEM (October 16) - In light of the tense security situation, Jerusalem police will not allow members of the Temple Mount Faithful to ascend the Temple Mount today on their annual Succot march.

The nationalistic group had scheduled a ceremony to anoint a ''cornerstone for the Third Temple.''
(...)

In years past, police had also rejected the Faithful's requests to ascend the Mount as a group, and allowed them to go up to Judaism's holiest site only as individuals. This year, however, no member of the group will be allowed on the Temple Mount.

Organizers had scheduled a march from the Western Wall to the Mount and on to the City of David, where they had planned on conducting a ''pouring of the water'' libation ceremony as was done in biblical times.

The group also had planned to bring a four-and-a-half-ton marble ''Temple cornerstone'' on a flatbed truck, that was to be covered with Israeli flags. A ''priest'' dressed in biblical garments and ''Levites'' playing music were to accompany the marchers.

The police said they will not allow the group to move the stone from its location at the American Consulate in east Jerusalem.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Shriners open once-secret ceremony to public
Amarillo Globe-News, Oct. 15, 2000
http://www.amarillonet.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
For decades, a secretive induction ceremony at the Amarillo Khiva Temple sent so-called ''sons of the desert'' symbolically ''across the burning sands'' to join the Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

On Saturday, the secret, burning sand ceremony became an oasis of openness as Shriners' wives, family members, guests and members of the media witnessed the closed ceremony for the first time. Four new members joined the group.

''We are not secretive,'' Bill Babcock, who heads the Khiva board of directors, said during the colorful ceremony. Babcock's official title is the potentate, or more formally the ''Illustrious Potentate Sir Bill Babcock.''

Breaking with past customs, Babcock said he opened the ceremony to the public to clear up misconceptions about the Shriners and to help with recruiting new members.

The Shrine is not a cult, but an organization dedicated to doing good, Babcock said. He said the Shrine of North America operates 22 children hospitals including two in Texas: the Galveston Shriners Hospital children burn care; and the Shriners Hospitals for Children-Houston children orthopedics.
(...)

Chris Reed, who played the role of the potentate during the induction ceremony, said, while the ritual was based on Arab and Islamic symbols, it was not meant to show disrespect to any religion or to promote any religion. The four inductees were instructed that Shriners believe in a Supreme Being and respect all religions.

The Shriners' handshake was displayed for all to see, but the Shriners' passwords were whispered individually to the inductees.

The new members were instructed on tolerance, friendship and charity.
(...)

The Amarillo Khiva Temple is following a national trend. Phil Johnson, the recorder at the Al Bahr Shrine in San Diego, said the San Diego Shriners had an open induction ceremony in May and, Johnson said, Boston had an open ceremony in July.
(...)

Membership in the Shrine is limited to men who are already members of the Masons, Babcock said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Dracula puts bite on Britons to be blood donors - and he won't touch a drop
Daily Express (England), Oct. 16, 2000
http://www.lineone.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Dracula wants blood - and he is coming to Britain to get it. The last living member of the legendary vampire's clan hopes to get a job with the blood transfusion service in the UK.

It sounds like a line from the Roman Polanski horror spoof Dance Of The Vampires, but according to Dracula it is no laughing matter.

The count, alias Ottomar Rudolphe Vlad Dracula, or Prince Kretzulesco to friends, has been forced to flee his castle in a German village after neo-Nazi death threats and arson attacks.

The scion of Transylvania's most famous clan, who has already persuaded thousands of Germans to give blood, is now banking on helping British blood donation chiefs, once he convinces them he can offer more than a bite on the neck.
(...)

The 60-year-old prince has lived in the village of Schenkendorf in the state of Brandenburg for six years and has turned his Castle Dracula into a tourist attraction, bringing money to the economically depressed region in former East Germany.

But far from the locals counting their blessings, Dracula says he is victimised by people who have tried to set his castle on fire 10 times and daubed swastikas and neo-Nazi slogans on the walls. He believes he may have upset neo-Nazi youths because his ancestors are connected with non-Christian activities.

Because of death threats he is packing up. ''I am frightened,'' he said. ''I don't feel secure in my own castle, and the grounds, at 160,000 square metres, are simply too big to make secure from people determined to break in.
(...)

He was persuaded to take part in collecting blood by the German Red Cross, which decided that Dracula would be the perfect person to bring glamour and attention to the need for donors. Since then parties at Castle Dracula have regularly attracted more than 12,000 guests who make financial as well as blood donations to the last of the Dracula dynasty.

Despite their success, the fund-raising activities at the castle - actually an ornate Italian Renaissance-style villa - have sparked numerous complaints about noise.

One family even persuaded a court to stop the outdoor parties. ''I'm sure Britain would be different,'' said the prince. ''I could work with someone to create another Castle Dracula.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Gorbachev shares Cold-War stories in O.C.
Orange County Register, Oct. 16, 2000
http://ocregister.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GARDEN GROVE -- An overflow crowd of 4,500 jammed the Crystal Cathedral on Sunday to hear former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev join the Rev. Robert Schuller in the pulpit in a call for peace and an end to world poverty.
(...)

Schuller's church and the Gorbachev Foundation recently signed a contract to jointly manage an agricultural improvement project in Gorbachev's home province of Stavropolye.

Gorbachev, on a speaking tour of Southern California, delivered a message of combining ''hope and realism'' to solve world problems.
(...)

Christian Quimpo, of Placentia, said he was surprised at the Russian's passion for world peace. ''He is no ordinary man. I came because, after his upbringing and social standards (under communism), I was mostly interested in his views on Christianity,'' Quimpo said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Religious Freedom / Religious Intolerance

29. Religious Freedom Abroad
The Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 13, 2000 (Opinion)
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
No one should begrudge Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch's sentiment that it is important to safeguard religious liberty. It is one of those essential individual liberties that undergird the American republic.

However, many can, and perhaps should, dispute his assertion that it is incumbent upon the United States to ramrod governments throughout the world to make sure they extend this and other liberties to their peoples, too.

Hatch, who spoke at a symposium last Sunday night at Brigham Young University's law school, said that the problem of ensuring religious freedom throughout the world is far from solved. It is even necessary in the Western world, among peoples who are ostensibly U.S. allies like France and Germany.

There is a degree of validity to his argument, but whatever the United States can do is perforce quite limited and dependent upon whether the nation's government -- and its people -- want to make ensuring religious freedom the top priority of its foreign policy.

Take France and Germany, for example. The governments of both countries have in recent years increased scrutiny and regulation of religious movements like Scientology. No one, including Hatch, has suggested emulating Oliver Cromwell, who as lord protector of England at least once threatened war against a continental principality unless its government quit picking on its Protestant minority.

If punitive expeditions are ruled out, about the only thing left is to threaten to cut off U.S. subsidies, impose trade sanctions or adopt punishing tariffs against goods from these European states. Any of these actions or a combination thereof are feasible, but it would first be necessary to decide if this was the primary reason why the U.S. wants good relations with these two nations.

More importantly, it is morally wrong for the United States to dictate the values of others.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Scientology is a commercial enterprise masquerading as a religion. Governments in Germany, France, and elsewhere not only have the right but also the obligation to protect their citizens against the actions of extremist groups.

The United States consistently supports cults and extremist groups, and tries to strong-arm sovereign countries into accepting its views on religion. Meanwhile, the USA ignores documented human rights abuses in America.

=== Death Penalty / Human Rights Abuses

30. Reports: Texas' capital punishment system flawed, requires overhaul
CNN/AP, Oct. 16, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A group that assists death row inmates has described the Texas criminal defense process as riddled by prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense attorneys, racial discrimination in sentencing and a weak appellate process.

The Texas Defender Service, in an analysis of hundreds of death penalty cases, said that in many appeals, defense attorneys raised no new claims or conducted investigations.

''We're drowning ... in a sea of deficiencies in the death penalty process, and while we're drowning everyone's standing around going 'Everything's fine,''' Maurie Levin, managing attorney for the service's Austin office, told The Dallas Morning News in Monday's editions.

The report, scheduled for release Monday, cited 84 capital cases in which a prosecutor or police ''deliberately presented false or misleading testimony ... concealed exculpatory evidence or used notoriously unreliable evidence from a jailhouse snitch.''

State Attorney General John Cornyn countered that the state's criminal justice system is working.
(...)

But in 42 percent of the habeas writs examined, the report said no new investigation was conducted or new claims raised. And in 121 cases, the nonprofit group's attorneys said, prosecutors relied on ''junk science'' to gain convictions and death sentences.

Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state, has executed 232 people since 1982, when the state resumed carrying out death sentences. Over half the executions -- 145 -- have come under Gov. George W. Bush's more than 5 1/2 years in office.

Bush, a strong death penalty advocate, has repeatedly rejected criticism of Texas' capital punishment, contending that no innocent person has been put to death in Texas since he took office in January 1995.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Death penalty protesters march outside Bush governor's mansion
CNN/AP, Oct. 16, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Shouting ''George Bush, serial killer,'' hundreds of people marched around the governor's mansion on Sunday, calling on the Texas governor to issue a moratorium on the death penalty.

''People ask us 'What should we do with serial killers?''' shouted Marlene Martin, director of the Chicago-based Campaign to End the Death Penalty. ''We shouldn't put them in Washington.''

Since 1982, when Texas resumed carrying out executions, 232 people have been executed, including 145 people under Bush's more than 51/2 years in office.

Bush spokeswoman Linda Edwards said that as governor, Bush has very limited authority to declare a moratorium on executions.
(...)

Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, has said he did not feel there is a need for a moratorium in Texas.
(...)

Many of the protesters carried signs that called on Texas to stop executing poor people, minorities and mentally ill and mentally retarded people.
(...)

Not all the criticism was aimed at Bush, however.

''The only thing more stunning than Bush's hypocrisy is Al Gore's silence,'' Mike Crown of the International Socialist Organization of Austin told the crowd.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


32. Bush's Style: Don't Bother With Details
International Herald Tribune, Oct. 17, 2000
http://www.iht.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
AUSTIN, Texas - Governor George W. Bush has written that ''by far the most profound'' decision he or any governor can make is whether to proceed with an execution.

''I get the facts, weigh them thoughtfully and carefully, and decide,'' Mr. Bush wrote in his autobiography. What he did not say is that he normally does this in 15 minutes.

A review of Mr. Bush's daily schedules, correspondence and other documents, obtained under public information laws in Texas, underscores how little he has devoted himself to policy details - including whether to go ahead with executions - and how he has instead spent most of his time wooing legislators, the public and the news media.
(...)

A spokeswoman for Mr. Bush, Linda Edwards, said that he might spend more than 15 minutes reviewing a death penalty case - the meeting might go longer than scheduled, or he might make a follow-up call later - and that the time schedule reflected Mr. Bush's confidence in his legal advisers. Ms. Edwards said the advisers might have spent hours reviewing a death penalty case before discussing it with the governor.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

33. Shamanism undergoes a spiritual revival across Russia
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 15, 2000
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
YELANTSY, Russia - Once considered enemies of the Soviet state, the shamans of southern Siberia are now tourist attractions.

They travel to exhibitions across Russia, sometimes to explain their complex, pagan beliefs, sometimes just to promote tourism to Lake Baikal. Shamans post their pictures and philosophies on the Internet and draw up price lists for services, from seances to healing rituals.

In the land some consider its birthplace, shamanism and its oral traditions and rituals are undergoing a revival. And they are helping some of Russia's ethnic minorities recapture a spirituality stifled by Soviet repression, as well as a sense of identity.

Shamanism can differ from continent to continent, from region to region, tribe to tribe, even shaman to shaman. Non-believers, especially Westerners, can find its concepts hard to understand.

At the core of Siberian shamanism is reverence for Mother Earth and Father Heaven, for animals, for all of nature.

The goal of life is to live in balance with the world. Humans live in a middle world, but there are upper and lower worlds as well. Only shamans can find the doorways to these spiritual worlds.

Sometimes the shaman eases such transitions with the help of hallucinogenic substances or alcohol. Indeed, alcoholic spirits play an integral role in many shaman ceremonies. Participants drink vodka during rituals, making sure to offer frequent drops to the gods. At some prayer sites overlooking Lake Baikal, vodka bottles, ruble coins and cigarette butts--all offerings--litter the ground.

''A shaman should have a social role beyond the religious role,'' said Valentin Khagdayev, 41, an ethnic Buryat shaman in the dirt-road town of Yelantsy. ''People would not understand me if I just cast spells and prayed for rain.''
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