» Continued from Part 1

=== Paganism / Witchcraft
16. Christians and witches face off in historic Salem
17. Salem profits as witching hour nears
18. Not-So-Practical Magic
19. Wiccans strive to shake satanic image
20. The way of the Wiccan
21. Halloween's Pagan Origins Are Pretty Scary, Kids

=== Hate Groups
22. Judge refuses Butler's request for new trial
23. Darkness ought not cloak doings of thugs
24. Anti-hate walk set for Sunday
25. Dutch Jews and Muslims talk to prevent violence
26. German states want ban on extreme-right party
27. Germans Protest Neo-Nazi Marches

=== Other News
28. Wonder Valley witness says she saw nothing criminal
29. Nigerian Church Ordered Out of Kenyan District
30. Complaint against Church dismissed
31. Group Moves to End Cultism, Communal Clashes
32. [T.D. Jakes]

=== Noted
33. A higher degree Hare Krishnas take learning to new level in KC seminary
34. Those memories can be made or simply borrowed
35. What would Jesus do -- about copyright?

=== Paganism / Witchcraft

16. Christians and witches face off in historic Salem
Star-Telegram/Religion News Service, Oct. 25, 2000
[URL removed because it currently refers to inappropriate content]/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SALEM, Mass. -- On the surface, Halloween season in this city of witch fame appears to mean little more than a ghoulish good time for 500,000 tourists and $42 million worth of serious fun for the retailers who sell to them.

But witch-emblazoned T-shirts and signs for ''eerie events'' mask the genuine October tension here between Wiccan pilgrims and Christian pastors who see them as ambassadors of something insidious, even evil.

A few thousand of those who flock to Salem every year at this time are self-proclaimed witches. Local witches, who count themselves at 2,000-plus in this city of 39,000, say their counterparts come from around the world to gather in circles, communicate with the dead and pay homage to the 20 alleged witches who died nearby in the Witch Trials of 1692.
(...)

The Rev. Kenneth Steigler also knows Salem is a witch mecca. He came here in 1991 not only to pastor Wesley United Methodist Church but also to use his expertise in cults to expose what he sees as dangers of witchcraft.

This year, Steigler and area evangelical pastors have given six months of preparation time and raised more than $10,000 to beef up a late October campaign to reach witches and seekers with the gospel. Students from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary will hand out 50,000 anti-Halloween, pro-Jesus tracts. The Wesley Church will have a weeklong open house where dabblers in paganism can hear praise music and testimonies every night through the 31st.

''Here are people looking for spiritual life, a little deceived, and we're here to say, `Here's a way to find real spiritual life,''' Steigler said. The week's events bear the name ''Holy Happenings,'' a purposeful twist on Salem's high-profile tourism campaign known as ''Haunted Happenings.''

Steigler's concern is that seekers, drawn to Salem by promotions and desires for new experiences, ''will die spiritually'' if they take up Tarot cards, crystals, drugs and free sex to gain ''control, authority and power'' in their lives. Imitating the novice witch, he says, ''I take a bite, then another bite. I lose my sense of right and wrong. I lose my moral compass.''

Not so, say Salem's witches.

At Crow Haven Corner, Salem's oldest witch shop and witchcraft hub, the owner says her goal is not just maintaining a thriving business but also helping others become ''good spiritual people and then choose their own religion.
(...)

Stathopoulos says circles are disciplined: no booze, no drugs, no one under 18 allowed. She says she's turned people away this year because so many serious seekers from far away want to communicate with the dead in circles and welcome their own new identities for the coming year in a community setting.

But Steigler fears that witches often recruit newcomers interested in new experiences to take part in the circles. From there, he says, seekers are apt to abandon their moral and spiritual roots.
(...)

Tensions in Salem have threatened to become violent at times. Steigler says he received a death threat warning him to stop teaching about cults. Stathopoulos says just this month she found a noose hanging outside her door at home.

Yet with business booming at Crow Haven Corner and other local witch shops, witches say they're not worried about Christian missionaries.

''We can't get too bent out about fringe groups,'' said witch Michael Pendragon. ''Christians are our biggest customers anyway.''

Meanwhile, as Salem gets ready for 80,000 visitors on Halloween and the witch community makes room for thousands of their own, evangelicals are hoping for at least 600 at the Oct. 31 ''concert of prayer'' from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. But according to Stephanie Petringa, a former Wiccan high priestess who joined the Wesley Church in 1998, few of those considering Wicca will be there.

The church ''isn't prepared to meet the needs of a lot of people,'' Petringa said. ''I don't think they have the right or authority to reach out to the pagan community because they don't understand it. . . . In the past nine years, I'm the only one who came.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. Salem profits as witching hour nears
Boston Herald, Oct. 27, 2000
http://www.bostonherald.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) From the Crypt Cafe to Crow Haven Corner, from Dracula's Castle to Boris Karloff's Witch Mansion, businesses cash in on Salem's historic witch trials and Halloween to the tune of $150 million a year.
(...)

Pendragon estimates he is one of at least 1,000 witches who live in Salem today.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Not-So-Practical Magic
ABC News/Reuters, Oct. 28, 2000
http://abcnews.go.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
O K L A H O M A C I T Y, Oct. 28 - An Oklahoma high school suspended a 15-year-old student after accusing her of casting a magic spell that caused a teacher to become sick, lawyers for the student said on Friday.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on behalf of student Brandi Blackbear, charging that the assistant principal of Union Intermediate High School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, suspended her for 15 days last December for supposedly casting a spell.

The suit also charged the Tulsa-area Union Public Schools with repeatedly violating Blackbear's civil rights by seizing notebooks she used to write horror stories and barring her from drawing or wearing signs of the pagan religion Wicca.
(...)

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, alleges that Blackbear was summoned to the office of assistant principal Charlie Bushyhead last December after a teacher fell ill, and was questioned about her interest in Wicca.

According to the lawsuit, Brandi Blackbear had read a library book about Wicca beliefs and, under aggressive interrogation by Bushyhead, said she might be a Wiccan. In fact, Blackbear is a Roman Catholic, according to the newspaper Tulsa World.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Wiccans strive to shake satanic image
The Post/U-Wire, Oct. 27, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(U-WIRE) ATHENS, Ohio -- For some, images of Halloween include ugly wart-covered witches with black hats, cats and broomsticks. Though today's paganism and witchcraft do not coincide with this fictional image, they are alive in Athens.

Vivian and Jean-Clare Dunbar, who live near Albany, practice the Wiccan religion throughout their daily lives. The images the media portray of witches connected to Satan are a misconception of the practice, Vivian said.

''The Wiccan Rede is 'do what you will but harm none,''' Vivian said. ''We are not into evil spells or hexes because we believe that anything you send out is coming back three fold. There isn't as such an evil entity in paganism.''

Sabre Jason, who prefers to use her Wiccan name, is a high priestess of an area 10-year coven, or group of witches. She said there is much misconception of the religion.

''People think paganism, witchcraft or Wicca must equal Satanism,'' Jason said. ''But the underlying theme is mainly about living with and together with the cycles of nature and acknowledging you are part of the greater cycle of life.''

Vivian said, in some sense, Wiccans are pantheists because they see God in everything -- including animals, trees and rocks.

''All matter has consciousness, some are just slower,'' Jean-Clare Dunbar said.

He said people might be surprised to find out how many people in this area and all over the nation share these beliefs and are involved in a pagan religion.

''It is typical for people to say 'This is what I've always been, I just didn't have a name for it,''' Vivian Dunbar said. ''Some may not claim to be pagans but are still tuned into natural phenomenon. They pay attention to the seasons, full moon, equinoxes and solstices.''

About every six weeks, Wiccans celebrate some type of holiday based on these natural occurrences. For example, what Judeo-Christians call Halloween, Wiccans call Samhain or Day of the Dead, Vivian Dunbar said. On this day, along with many other cultures, Wiccans celebrate the tie between the living and the dead.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. The way of the Wiccan
Daily Egyptian/U-Wire, Oct. 27, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(U-WIRE) CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The walls of New Ages/Other Worlds pagan shop are lined with books, herbs, oils and other Wiccan necessities mandatory for a successful Samhain holiday.

As Oct. 31 draws near, pagans are beginning to prepare for the holiday, but now without worry. Although Wicca is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, some Wiccans and pagans still live in fear of persecution. But on college campuses nationwide, more students are ''coming out of the broom closet'' and proclaiming themselves pagans and Wiccans.

Samhain, pronounced Sow-en, is the pagan holiday honoring ancestors. Planning and celebration vary widely because Wicca is such a diverse and individualistic religion. Oct. 31, better known as Halloween, is the night when the veil between the world of the dead and the world of the living is the thinnest, and is considered the best time to guide ancestors to the world of the dead.

A bonfire is used to symbolize the portal between the two worlds, and an altar with candles and pictures is constructed. Samhain is also the time to celebrate the end of harvest season.
(...)

Wicca is a polytheistic religion, but while it has structure, it allows for individual beliefs and worship. No one is told what to believe, and Wiccans can worship in private or with a coven. It is this freedom of beliefs that attracts some people to Wicca.

Nelson came to terms with her beliefs and accepted paganism 13 years ago. She was not raised with any belief or religious structure.

''I had always felt close to animals and nature,'' Nelson said. ''I was 13 or 14 when I finally found words to define what I believed.''

Whitestar said coming into Wicca during the early teens is not uncommon. During this age, many teenagers begin to question what they have been taught and begin to form their own beliefs.

College encourages a similar experience, and nationwide Wicca is spreading on campuses.

The veins of environmentalism and feminism that run through paganism and Wicca also add to the religious appeal. Wiccans see themselves as humanists more than feminists. They believe everyone is connected, to each other and the earth.
(...)

The popularity of television shows such as ''Charmed'' and ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' have spurned interest in Wicca and paganism, by portraying witches in a positive view. However, Nelson said, the abilities those witches have are not possible.

''They show witches doing things they are not capable of,'' Whitestar said. ''I would love to be able to freeze time, but I can't,'' she said, referring to ''Charmed.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Halloween's Pagan Origins Are Pretty Scary, Kids
Washington Post/AP, Oct. 28, 2000 (Richard Ostling)
http://washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Is Halloween more than a goofy night for candy and costumes? Those evangelical Christians who bemoan it as a pagan holiday know what they're talking about.

The authority for that assertion is none other than proudly pagan Gerina Dunwich, a self-professed witch of 25 years' standing. Dunwich, of Los Angeles, explains the spiritual significance of Oct. 31 in her new paperback, ''The Pagan Book of Halloween'' (Penguin).

Much to the author's regret, Europe's ''old religion'' of pre-Christian times and worship of various nature deities--she lists 43 goddesses and 21 gods around the world--was supplanted over the centuries by devotion to the one God of the Bible. Or, as Dunwich would have it, ''the Christians' patriarchal god.''

Today, with networking assists from the Internet, the ancient creed is being reconstituted by seekers, occultists and feminists. In his Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton catalogues dozens of groups, some defunct and none sizable, that practice ''Neo-Paganism,'' ''magick,'' witchcraft or Wicca, and related forms of worship.

Long ago, Dunwich writes, the church counteracted the pagans by Christianizing their old rituals. Since the pagans had their festival of the dead, the 7th-century papacy introduced All Saints' Day to honor early Christian martyrs. In 900, the date of All Saints' Day was switched from May 13 to Nov. 1, in line with the pagan date of Oct. 31.

For pagans, that was the holiest night of the year, the point when the connection to supernatural forces was strongest and the barrier between the living and the dead was weakest.

In the British Isles, Oct. 31 was the pagan Samhain, or ''summer's end.'' For Christians, the night before All Saints' was Allhallows Eve, which evolved into ''Halloween.''

By Dunwich's account, virtually all our associations with Halloween are rooted in pagan ritual:

Nighttime in general; bats, cats, spiders, broomsticks, skeletons, ghosts, goblins, cauldrons and masquerades; trick-or-treating (recalling deeds of mischievous spirits); jack-o'-lanterns (to scare away earthbound ghosts); and bobbing for apples (drawn from an old divination rite). Even the black and orange color scheme is symbolically pagan: black for death and magic, orange for harvest time.

Dunwich says 19th-century Irish immigrants brought to America the pagan holdovers that constitute what we think of as Halloween. At the same time, other immigrants were introducing Santa Claus, decorated trees and other non-Christian add-ons to create the modern American Christmas.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

22. Judge refuses Butler's request for new trial
The Spokesman-Review, Oct. 27, 2000
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Coeur d'Alene _ A judge has denied the Aryan Nations' request for a new trial, leaving intact a $6.3 million jury verdict that will close down the North Idaho hate compound.

First District Judge Charles Hosack said in a 20-page ruling Thursday that he won't interfere with the jury's decision, reached Sept. 7.

The judge said he personally may not have awarded the same amount of compensatory damages to Victoria and Jason Keenan, but said the punitive damages were appropriate based on the ''outrageous conduct'' of the Aryan Nations and its leader, Richard Butler.

''In situations of this nature, the sense of the community is extremely important,'' Hosack said in his ruling denying a new trial or a reduction of the damages.

The judge said he would defer ''to the collective wisdom of the jury, which was unanimous in its verdict.''

After a seven-day trial, the jury concluded that the Aryan Nations and Butler were ''grossly negligent'' for the actions of three Aryan guards who assaulted the Keenans in 1998.

The judge's ruling will clear the way for the immediate transfer of the 20-acre Aryan Nations compound, its buildings and other property to the Keenans.

The Keenans' attorney, Norm Gissel, said that could occur as early as next week.
(...)

Butler's attorney, Edgar Steele, had argued that the punitive awards were excessive and should be reduced because Butler and the Aryan Nations are poor and hold views that are politically incorrect.

Hosack said if the defendant had been a ''large powerful corporation, with ample monetary resources,'' he and the jury would have reached the same conclusion.

Steele didn't cite any case law in support of his argument that the award should be reduced because a defendant is poor or holds politically incorrect views, Hosack said.
(...)

The views of the Aryan Nations became relevant in the trial because Butler testified that his beliefs were nonviolent, the judge said.

There was ''substantial evidence'' that the beliefs of Butler and the Aryan Nations did condone violence, Hosack said.
(...)

The Aryan Nations and Butler ''are correct in their claim that they should be allowed to believe in hate,'' Hosack said.

But when hate beliefs foster a climate leading to foreseeable violence, the judge said, those who allowed it to occur should be held responsible.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Darkness ought not cloak doings of thugs
Our View: Should our community ignore neo-Nazis or expose them?
The Spokesman-Review, Oct. 27, 2000 (Editorial)
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Oh boy. Richard Butler is marching tomorrow. Again.

We understand why the good citizens of the Inland Northwest are unhappy with all of the attention given to Butler and his rag-tag group of cronies.

Local journalists feel the same discomfort. We live here. We don't enjoy telling the world there's a dark, ugly element in our midst. Yet, white supremacists in our area have been involved in bombings, robberies, assaults and murders, and we can't ignore that.

We struggle to find a balance between the stories that must be told and the ones that ought to be ignored. On today's Opinion and Roundtable pages, you will find a wide range of opinions on this subject. There is no simple answer. And there's liable to be discomfort whenever society is forced to deal with such a difficult issue as how or whether to respond to the Aryans. Some people insist the Aryan paraders must be ignored. Others, who share the same core values, insist the Aryans must be shouted down.

We hope that by shining a light in the dark corners of our community we help to identify and isolate the people who might threaten the safety of our friends and neighbors. We cannot overstate our position in support of human rights for all citizens, regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.

But the handful of outspoken racists are not the only threat to our community. In truth, the Aryans and their antics draw attention away from the more insidious, widespread forms of ignorance, fear and intolerance that plague us.
(...)

Butler will have his parade of darkness tomorrow and we'll be there, vigilant. We also promise to continue shining a light into the dark corners we all inhabit. We suspect it won't always be comfortable.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Anti-hate walk set for Sunday
The Spokesman-Review, Oct. 26, 2000
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Spokane _ The timing of the second annual Walk Against Hate is a fluke.

The event is scheduled for Sunday in Spokane, the day after Richard Butler and friends plan to march through downtown Coeur d'Alene again.

But the organizing committee, Churches Against Racism, didn't plan the walk as a counter-demonstration.

''That was God's timing,'' said the Rev. Ron Greene, interim co-director of the Spokane Council of Ecumenical Ministries. ''But it's great because we have every church in town on board.''

The success of the first Walk Against Hate last year was a huge surprise. The 1999 event, which began at Temple Beth Shalom and proceeded to St. John's Cathedral, was conceived as an alternative to a Butler parade last year.

Butler canceled his event, but the walk proceeded as a general stand against racism. Organizers were expecting a couple hundred participants. More than 1,400 showed up.

This year, they hope for a similar turnout.
(...)

''We are making it clear, we are not just distancing ourselves from Butler, we are confessing our own racism,'' Greene said. ''We have discriminated against our Native American brothers and sisters.''
(...)

Greene said the churches and their pastors are hoping to get beyond simply condemning racism and begin examining the ways that Christianity has been and still is racist.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Dutch Jews and Muslims talk to prevent violence
eCountries/Reuters, Oct. 27, 2000
http://www.ecountries.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
AMSTERDAM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Dutch Jewish and Islamic groups met on Friday to try to prevent outbreaks of violence in the Netherlands as a result of tensions in the Middle East.

''It is sad enough that in the Middle East there is so much violence at the moment. Every death is one too many. We should try to keep that far from us and live together in harmony,'' Rob Wurms, spokesman for the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands (CJO), told Reuters.

Nasr Joemman, spokesman for the World Islamic Mission, said: ''By meeting, we hope to extend a gesture of conciliation. We ask religious communities to respect one another and to stay calm.''
(...)

Only minor incidents have been reported in the Netherlands, where synagogues in Amsterdam and the Hague have been vandalised and there have been scattered cases of personal harassment.
(...)

Several Dutch Islamic organisations have published a statement distancing themselves from any violence towards the Jewish community, and representatives were happy to meet the Jewish group.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. German states want ban on extreme-right party
CNN/AP, Oct. 26, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- State police officials voted on Thursday to seek a ban on a German far-right party accused of fomenting racist and anti-Semitic violence.

Two of 16 state interior ministers abstained, reflecting divisions over whether a ban on the National Democratic Party would be a wise move in the government's fight against right-wing extremism.

Still, the decision was a signal that ''racist, anti-foreigner and anti-Semitic agitation is not acceptable in this society,'' North Rhine-Westphalia minister Fritz Behrens said after the extraordinary meeting in Duesseldorf, the state capital.

State governors were meeting later on Thursday in the northern city of Schwerin to discuss measures against the party, known by its German initials NPD.

Security officials say the party, though electorally insignificant, is a magnet for violent neo-Nazis and has helped create the climate for a surge of near daily far-right attacks on foreigners and other minorities that has left at least three people dead this year.

Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily, who is leading the push to outlaw the party, welcomed the decision by the state officials. Schily has said he wants to bring the government's case for declaring the NPD illegal to the country's constitutional court before the end of the year.

State ministers stressed that any decision to declare the NPD unconstitutional could only be part of wider attempts to fight the far right, for instance with better education and by getting citizens to stand up against neo-Nazis in everyday life.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Germans Protest Neo-Nazi Marches
AP, Oct. 28, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) - Thousands of Germans took to the streets Saturday to protest neo-Nazi marches in their cities, heeding calls by politicians and Jewish leaders to stand up against racism and a surge of hate crimes.

More than 10,000 people gathered for a rally in Duesseldorf, where a July bomb attack on immigrants jolted the nation into confronting the far right. A few hundred yards away, about 100 neo-Nazis marched through the city's old town section, heavily guarded by police.

Mostly young and sporting shaved heads, the neo-Nazis were met with shouts of ''Nazis out'' and ''Get lost.'' Duesseldorf police mounted their biggest operation since World War II to prevent clashes between the opposing groups, calling in reinforcements from several states.
(...)

Official figures have documented a sharp rise in far-right violence against foreigners and other minorities in Germany, leaving at least three dead this year. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has urged Germans to take part in an ''uprising of decent people'' against neo-Nazis.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

28. Wonder Valley witness says she saw nothing criminal
The Press-Enterprise, Oct. 26, 2000
http://www.inlandempireonline.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Morningstar Potts grew up in the isolated desert household where police say three adults abused two brothers, sometimes even chaining them up.

But 19-year-old Potts -- who six months ago left the ramshackle home where her mother, Faye Potts, and John and Carrie Davis lived -- says she never saw the Davises' two boys chained. John and Carrie Davis have both told reporters they did chain the boys.

Morningstar Potts never witnessed whippings that might have caused the scars investigators say marked the backs of the boys, Yahweh, 17, and Angel, 12.

''I never saw scars on them. . . . I don't know if they just kept it quiet from me,'' she said.

But she describes her memories of that life like someone emerging from a bad dream. Only lately has she realized how strange her upbringing was. And, as her family's lifestyle becomes public, she feels shame for how it must look.

''I actually can't believe how bizarre it was,'' says Potts, who moved in with her boyfriend in Wonder Valley and attends Copper Mountain College.

''When it all came out, I was kind of ashamed, because by this time I knew what was going on was bizarre. But there was nothing I could do.''

She maintains she never knew about anything criminal.
(...)

The Davises and Faye Potts are charged with torture, child abuse and false imprisonment of the two boys. Investigators also searched the desert for the bones of Rainbow, a son who John Davis said died and was cremated.

Having pleaded not guilty, the three adults each are being held on $2 million bail at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

Potts said she and her mother lived with the Davises for as long as she can remember.
(...)

She has a sneaking fear that Davis may be her father, despite another man's name on her birth certificate. She said John Davis was a domineering, disagreeable figure, and doesn't want to believe he's her father.
(...)

Morningstar Potts describes a household divided by gender, where John Davis dominated the women's lives, and they allowed him to do it.
(...)

Potts was 8 or 9 when Rainbow died in Twentynine Palms, she said. She remembers the whole family was sick, but Rainbow was sicker and then just laid still. John and Carrie Davis scooped him up from his bedroom and began ''freaking out,'' she said. She remembers being told Rainbow died in the hospital, but she said John Davis didn't believe in hospitals.

The police said they found Yahweh and Angel filthy, malnourished and underdeveloped when they answered the older boy's 911 call Oct. 14. The 17-year-old boy told the emergency dispatcher that he and his brother where chained up at home.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. Nigerian Church Ordered Out of Kenyan District
Panafrican News Agency (Kenya), Oct. 28, 2000
http://allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A church with its roots in Nigeria has drawn the wrath of a Kenyan cabinet minister who has accused it of various ills, including child abductions and ordered it out of his home district.

Energy Minister Francis Lotodo Saturday ordered the pastor of Winners' Chapel out of his West Pokot district, saying its leadership was working in cahoots with anti-government forces and members of the Mungiki traditional sect with the aim of removing President Daniel arap Moi from power.

He has called on the government to conduct a thorough investigation on the church countrywide with a view of banning it.

''Although the freedom of worship is provided for in the constitution, we are not going to allow such organisations to soil our people with evil doctrines,'' he said.
(...)

A spirited defence of the church by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who said that Winners' Chapel was one of the fastest growing churches in Nigeria where it is highly regarded, did not go well with Rutto.

''The government will not be intimidated by the church's successes elsewhere,'' Rutto retorted.

Child abduction has become highly an emotional issue in Kenya following a wave of mysterious disappearances and murders of children in the past one month.

There are also fears that ritual killers are on the loose since most of the bodies of the kidnap victims had vital body organs missing.

It is not, however, clear why Lotodo lumped Winners' Chapel with Mungiki, an unregistered group dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Kikuyu cultural traditions.

Among Mungiki's key practices is female circumcision and offering prayers while facing Mount Kenya, God's seat of power according to the Kikuyu community of central Kenya.

While issuing the marching orders to Winners' Chapel, Lotodo warned members of the Pokot community not to fellowship there or else ''you will follow these people to Nigeria.''

He advised the people to look for spiritual nourishment in ''recognised'' churches.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Complaint against Church dismissed
Neumarkt, Germany, Oct. 27, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/001027a.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Neumarkt/Nuernberg (ih) - Psychotherapists Guenter ''Seppo'' Schleicher and Leonhard Oesterle sued for about three million marks in damages in a civil chamber of the Nuernberg-Fuerth State Court. Grounds for the suit were statements by sect commissioner Ludwig Lanzhammer which they said harmed their business and reputations. Presiding judge Dietrich Drechsel unequivocally dismissed their complaint in his decision.

The disagreements between the two psychotherapists and the church, as told by Ludwig Lanzhammer, the sect commissioner of the Bamberg Archdiocese, went back to 1990. Back then Lanzhammer made statements to the media that Schleicher's and Oesterle's clientele were ''definitely a psycho-sect.''
(...)

The two psychotherapists were of the opinion that the assessment by the sect commissioner - and thereby the church - had been very harmful for their business. The did not get training contracts after that and their business contacts broke off. The estimated the total damages at about three million marks.

All they sued for, however, was 120,000 marks damages and recompensation. Schleicher and Oesterle were represented by an attorney known nationwide, Professor Martin Kriele, who authored an almost 150-page complaint for them. In it he took the opinion that the church, represented by its sect commissioner, had gone too far in this case. ''The whole thing is a picture of delusion'' like the witch trials, according to Professor Kriele.

Not illegal
Judge Dietrich Drechsel very clearly dismissed the complaint in his decision. He said in the grounds that the sect commissioner's statements were not illegal and were justified. The church had the same right as a private person to question and to take a position of general interest. An expression of opinion was not an assertion of fact. Ludwig Lanzhammer was completely within his bounds as even the church absolutely may be definitive and critical, and in individual cases even polemic.

This was the first hearing, and in it the complaint by Schleicher and Oesterle were dismissed. Because Schleicher also attributes his partial paralysis to the long-gone words of the church, a second hearing can be expected. The possibility exists of filing an appeal and the next hearing going to the Nuernberg Superior State Court.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Group Moves to End Cultism, Communal Clashes
Post Express (Nigeria), Oct. 27, 2000
http://allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The National Inter-Confraternity Council is set to midwife a truce among the various cult groups operating in higher institutions of learning in the country and thus extinguish the reign of terror and violence that have characterised the activities of secret cult groups in the respective campuses.

National leader of Neo Black Movement (NBM) World-wide, Chief Jasper Onobo, revealed in Calabar that leaders of all registered cult groups in the country have been putting heads together to ensure that through a new orientation, the fire of opposition among cultists turns to that of passion.

He said within this period of discussion, the council will seek government's consent to legalise the groups so that their aims/objectives, members of the public which in turn would demystify them.

According to him, since the Nigerian constitution guarantees freedom of association, there was the need for government to allow cult members operate legally since all attempts to eradicate cultism from the campuses have failed.

''Cultists are human beings. They have the right to propagate whatever ideals they have within the ambit of the law. Clashes between cult groups in our campuses is not for supremacy but to fight the gap between the have and the have not. Children of have see themselves as superior and by extension oppressors. Such clashes have economic undertones,'' he stated.
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32. [T.D. Jakes]
Washington Post/AP, Oct. 26, 2000 (Religion Today)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DALLAS -- High-tech gadgetry meets high-impact worship at Bishop T.D. Jakes' mammoth, $32 million sanctuary in southwest Dallas.

Built to accommodate a congregation of more than 26,000, the Potter's House sanctuary seems more like a state-of-the-art convention center than a traditional place of worship.

But Jakes has never been one to downplay his dynamic style of evangelism, which draws millionaire football players, gang members and the homeless, among others.
(...)

With the new structure, the church's mission has taken a high-tech twist, Jakes says.

''It was built toward the goal of propelling our people into the 21st century armed with modern technology,'' he says. ''Our message has not changed but our method has.''

About 200 seats in the sanctuary have data terminals so worshippers can download sermon notes and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on laptop computers. Altar attendants use handheld computers to input new member data and prayer needs. The service is translated into six languages and broadcast to audience members wearing wireless headphones. Huge video screens flank the stage, which features a lighting and sound system rivaling that of major concert venues.

''It sometimes feels like a spaceship to me,'' Jakes says of the new building, which replaces a 2,500-seat sanctuary.

Services also are broadcast over the Internet, and Jakes hosts a cable television show seen around the globe. He says churches must use every means available to minister to those in need.

''God is not afraid of the latest technology,'' he says. ''Jesus was the great communicator. It's time for the church to step out boldly to harness the resources available to us to change lives and communicate the Gospel.''

The Potter's House church started with 50 families who moved four years ago to Dallas from a storefront church in West Virginia. Jakes and his wife of 19 years, Serita, bought the land for the Potter's House from the ministry of W.V. Grant, who was sentenced to prison for tax evasion.
(...)

Jakes' ministry of empowerment and community giving flourished in Texas. Within two years, there were 15,000 members. The congregation of 26,000 is still growing.
(...)

Jakes, 43, was recently ranked among the ''Top 10 People to Watch'' in religion, by the PBS program Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. Celebrity baptisms - he has baptized National Football League players Deion Sanders and Emmitt Smith - have brought him attention, as have accomplishments outside his church. Jakes has written bestsellers and been nominated for a Grammy award.
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=== Noted

33. A higher degree Hare Krishnas take learning to new level in KC seminary
The Kansas City Star, Oct. 25, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) It's time for evening prayer at Rupanuga Vedic College, the first and only degree-granting seminary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
(...)

Rupanuga, which takes its name from a Hindu spiritual leader, opened in January at 52nd Street and the Paseo in an old brick and stone church formerly used by Presbyterians and Nazarenes.

The college has no sports teams - the Hare Krishnas consider sports a frivolous diversion from worship - and no women, another bothersome distraction from spiritual pursuits.

Rupanuga's 15 students have come here from around the world for rigorous monastic training. It begins with chanting at 4:30 every morning and doesn't end until after a final evening class at 7:30.

Their study focuses on the Hindu sacred texts called the Vedas, designed to prepare them to become spiritual teachers and administrators of the Hare Krishna movement.

A sedate Midwestern town like Kansas City with relatively few believers outside the Judeo-Christian mainstream may seem an unlikely place for a Hindu sect to open a college. But the Hare Krishnas see Kansas City as a congenial and convenient location for their students.

''We wanted a place centrally located in the United States, a reasonable size city that didn't already have one of our centers, a city with a not too extreme climate, where people are open-minded,'' said Danavir Swami, president of the college and the International Society's global director of ministerial education.
(...)

Krishna Consciousness is one of the many branches of Hinduism, an ancient Indian religion with more than 700 million followers worldwide.

The Hare Krishnas are devoted to Krishna, a heroic figure in Hindu literature who is seen as a human incarnation of God. Krishna Consciousness is a monotheistic faith, just as Western religions are, Danavir said.

''Our scriptures (of different faiths) all reveal the same things,'' he said. ''The essence of them all is God is supreme.''

A key belief is reincarnation, that upon death, the souls of living things enter new bodies. What kind of body a soul acquires depends upon karma, the accumulation of good and bad actions the soul has taken in prior lives.

''That explains why one person is born deformed and demented and in a poor family and another is born beautiful and in a wealthy family,'' Danavir said. ''Otherwise (injustices) are hard to reconcile.''

Krishna followers have to give up sports and gambling, abstain from illicit sex, swear off drugs, alcohol and caffeine, and banish meat, fish and eggs from their diet.

''We give up the pleasurable to give pleasure to Krishna, and in return get pleasure,'' Danavir said.

''The soul becomes completely satisfied spiritually and physically. A Krishna Consciousness person doesn't feel he's losing out on anything. Rather, he feels he has gained.''
(...)

Rupanuga students live in one of the three neighboring houses the college owns. The college can accommodate up to 45 students. Students receive their education tuition-free. The college's expenses are covered through donations and by the sale of books and literature.

Students, though, are expected to work at the college, doing computer publishing, accounting, gardening, cleaning or cooking.

Most of their time is taken up with spiritual and educational duties.

They attend chanting ceremonies three times each day. They are expected to pray the Hare Krishna mantra on prayer beads, similar to a rosary, for two hours daily. And every day there are five classes.

The classes concentrate on philosophy. But as the school grows, Danavir, who now is one of just two faculty members, plans to expand course offerings to include sociology, Vedic art, drama, psychology and science.
(...)

There are 330 million demigods who administer the universe for Krishna, Danavir said.

''You think the sun rises by chance on time every morning?'' he asked rhetorically. ''That's the view of science. It's very well- arranged by God and his 330 million assistants. He has a management structure.''

Such skepticism about western science is a regular part of Danavir's instruction. Last October he told the Kansas Board of Education he supported its controversial decision to de-emphasize the teaching of evolution.
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34. Those memories can be made or simply borrowed
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 25, 2000 (Column; Scott LaFee)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
I missed seeing ''The Exorcist'' when it debuted in 1973.
(...)

The movie, of course, is about demonic possession, based on a 1971 book that was, ostensibly, based on a true story. I've never personally believed in demons or becoming possessed, but, having seen bits and pieces of the movie over the years, I may soon change my mind.

At least that's a possibility based on the results of a study by Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist and memory expert at the University of Washington. Writing in the The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Loftus reports that nearly one-fifth of people who once said demonic possession was implausible and that they had never witnessed such an event later changed their minds.

Loftus and colleagues arrived at this finding after conducting a series of experiments. In the first experiment, college students filled out questionnaires rating the plausibility of various events and asking about life experiences. The students were divided into three groups for testing one month later.
(...)

Loftus said the results show that when people are exposed to a series of articles describing a relatively implausible phenomenon, such as possession, a significant number come to believe the phenomenon is not just more plausible, but that they may have actually witnessed or experienced it earlier in life.

''We are looking at the first steps on the path down to creating a false memory,'' said Loftus. ''As humans we are capable of developing memories of ideas that other people think occurred. Just being exposed to credible information can lead you down this path. This shows why people watching ''Oprah'' or those in group therapy believe these kinds of things happened to them. People borrow memories from others and adopt them as their own experiences. It's part of the normal process of memory.''

The study, said Loftus, reinforces the idea that therapists need to be careful about using potentially suggestive procedures that could change a patient's perceived likelihood of unremembered events.
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35. What would Jesus do -- about copyright?
Salon, Oct. 25, 2000
http://www.salon.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Oct. 25, 2000 | Long before the words ''What would Jesus do?'' became a bumper-sticker staple, 35 teenagers in a religious youth group in Holland, Mich., proposed to make the question a central part of their lives. They promised their youth group leader, Janie Tinklenberg, that they would ask it before every decision, following the example of the characters in ''In His Steps,'' a century-old collection of sermons that Tinklenberg was fond of citing.
(...)

And then she thought of W.W.J.D. bracelets.
(...)

Tinklenberg had no idea how cool the idea really was -- or how much money a whole host of entrepreneurs and corporations would make off her original brainstorm. But she does now. There's Lesco Corp., for example, which has sold 16 million bracelets to date. There is Zondervan, a Christian publishing imprint of HarperCollins, which publishes nine books related to what it calls ''the W.W.J.D. movement.'' There are hundreds of Christian bookstores too, stocking over a dozen items with the W.W.J.D. label. There are even Giorgio Armani and the NBA -- both of whom have ordered thousands of text-imprinted bracelets from Wordstretch, a Minnesota company started by a former actor named Ave Green who admits that she didn't come up with the idea until she saw the W.W.J.D. bracelets at a Nebraska truck stop.

But Tinklenberg's own bank account contains no proof that she played any role in the commercial marketing of four little words. She hasn't received a single cent from any of these ventures. This summer, she did manage to win control of the W.W.J.D. trademark, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that because the logo had already become so prevalent it was now part of the public domain. She would never have been able to copyright a phrase only four words long, but if she had trademarked it back in 1989, she would have been owed a royalty for every sale of a product bearing the W.W.J.D. logo. Today, however, Tinklenberg can only sue companies that market products that defame her idea -- such as the parody advice column, ''What Would Journey Do?''

Some people consider this a sin. ''She got totally screwed if you want to know the truth,'' says Mike Yacanelli, the founder of Youth Specialties, a for-profit provider of books, videos and other ministry materials. ''Even if it's legally right, it's morally wrong.''

''We've now reduced the Christian faith to buying a $10 T-shirt,'' says Yacanelli, who in 1971 founded the Wittenburg Door, a magazine dedicated to calling evangelicals on the carpet. ''Christians are very quick to point out pornography and drunkenness and a lot of other sins, but they're very slow to recognize that there is another sin in their midst that they're ignoring -- and that's the sin of consumerism.''

Tinklenberg herself eschews any black-and-white condemnation of W.W.J.D. exploitation. Perhaps she's mindful of the history of the book ''In His Steps,'' itself unprotected by copyright registration and consequently republished numerous times without any compensation for the author. But is profit the point -- or distribution? On one hand, by waiting until 1998 to seek a trademark on W.W.J.D., Tinklenberg helped the idea proliferate far and wide, thus fulfilling the Bible's mandate to ''spread the Good News.'' On the other hand, as several critics of Christian copyright violation have noted, she also failed to enforce Luke 10:7, which states that ''a worker is worthy of his wages.'' What would Jesus do with these alternatives?
(...)

The ''What would Jesus do'' industry was born in Topeka, Kan., in the 1890s. A Congregationalist minister named Charles Sheldon coined the phrase, making it the centerpiece of what was then merely an attempt to hold his parishioner's attention.
(...)

The narratives worked -- in part because Sheldon was a fan of cliffhangers. ''They were essentially soap operas,'' Miller says. ''He'd quit just at the point where something great was threatening. The parishioners loved it.''

They weren't alone. Sheldon also attracted a crowd in print. He published the sermons in a national Congregationalist magazine in 1896. The magazine then published the sermons together as a book -- ''In His Steps'' -- that quickly became a bestseller. By the end of 1898, says Miller, one publisher reported sales of 390,000. During the 1910s and '20s sales remained steady; there was an unexplainable spike in sales during the 1930s, and even now it has yet to fall out of print. As of the 1980s, the book had appeared in 20 languages, been published by close to 80 different houses and sold no less than 10 million copies, according to Miller's research.

This was possible only because of a copyright snafu. Unbeknownst to Sheldon, the magazine he chose to publish in wasn't copyrighted, so the book wasn't either. Sheldon didn't discover this until two years after the book came out. Yet, he largely didn't mind.
(...)

Plus, a few of the publishers did pay him; Miller estimates that Sheldon received about $10,000. These payments -- tips, essentially -- are a far cry from the millions he would have earned had he copyrighted even half the copies sold. Yet, Garrett Sheldon admits that there was a trickle-down effect. He believes that his updated version -- which came out in 1993 -- would never have been published if the original had not already been so well-known. It also wouldn't have sold as well if not for Tinklenberg's bracelets and the W.W.J.D. marketing bandwagon that those items created.

So, can one conclude, then, that Sheldon is a critic of copyright? That the realities of Christian merchandising and distribution put him in the ranks of today's Napster fans -- the online music traders who declare to anyone who will listen that looser copyright laws will benefit everyone?

Not quite. Sheldon, like Tinklenberg, isn't certain whether copyright helps or hurts. ''On the one hand, I'm glad my book has a copyright,'' he says. ''On the other hand, the W.W.J.D. movement greatly helped my book and my sense is that it never would have happened if not for the lack of copyright. The solution may be to have a certain amount of protection in some places but not in all.''
(...)

But Sheldon's, and particularly Tinklenberg's, experiences seem to prove that people like Hole lead singer Courtney Love are right -- those who create products, content or art ultimately need more protection from corporate hangers-on than from consumers.

After all, consider some of the excuses flowing from those who have made money from the question ''What would Jesus do?'' From the manufacturing end through wholesale all the way down to retail -- most of these self-avowed evangelical Christians (Russ Horton, the owner of Lesco, is not an evangelical Christian) see few problems with their expropriation of the W.W.J.D. movement.
(...)

''I think Jesus would be extremely pleased that these products are having such an impact on the world. That's the message that Charles Sheldon was trying to give,'' says Jeff Lambert, a spokesman for Zondervan Publishing, which filed a trademark application for W.W.J.D. just one week after Tinklenberg filed hers.

None of these folks would say how much revenue was being generated by its W.W.J.D product lines. But the Christian retailing industry earns about $4 billion each year, according to the Christian Booksellers Association, so it's reasonable to assume that millions of dollars are at stake.

And while there are those, like Yacanelli, who think that some portion of those millions should have been shared with Tinklenberg and Sheldon, Sheldon takes a lighter view, laughing as he points out the absurd humor of it all.

''It's ironic to see that either they aren't asking the question 'What would Jesus do?''' says Sheldon, ''or they've asked the question and decided that Jesus wouldn't pay and so they don't need to either.''

As for Tinklenberg, she eschews even a mild level of criticism. ''I don't begrudge people making some money,'' she says. Indeed, when she filed for a trademark of W.W.J.D. in 1998, compensation was the last thing she had on her mind. Sure, she wouldn't have minded the cash, which she says she would have used to create a nonprofit foundation for youth ministry. But of greater import was the purity of the idea. She wanted to protect the letters from absurd profiteering, from being plastered on every imaginable item -- such as a ''Christian'' version of the Polo horse. She didn't want cash, just control.
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