=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Aum left 2 gold ingots behind

=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
2. Team set up to probe Kanungu

=== Falun Gong
3. China refuses access to Canadian prisoner

=== Scientology
4. Scientologists, protesters keep their distance
5. Russia: consumption of hard drugs quadrupled here last year

=== Buddhism
6. Dalai Lama celebrates golden jubilee as Tibetan head of state
7. The search for Nirvana

=== Al-Ma'unah
8. Seven members of Muslim cult plead guilty in Malaysia

=== Mungiki
9. Leaders' woes over Mungiki

=== Mormonism
10. Lawsuit Details D-News-LDS Intrigues to Acquire The Tribune
11. The Deseret Alphabet Died With Brigham Young

=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes
12. Sydney, Olympics Host, Frets Over a Spate of Attacks on Jews
13. Rallying against racism
14. Group has become its own worst enemy (Bertollini/Butler)
15. Court rightfully denies Barrett non-profit status
16. Parents advised to be watchful

=== Other News
17. Federal push to control cults
18. Self-Proclaimed 'Devil' Threatens Killings At Courthouse
19. Amish Want Child - Labor Exemption

=== Death Penalty / Human Rights
20. Death row inmate nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

=== Noted
21. Society needs welcome mat for ex-cultists
22. A nightmare life left by a cult's dream of love
23. Degrees of divinity: Just what do theologians do?

=== The Saint Around The Corner
24. Tax Police Blessed With Patron Saint


=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. Aum left 2 gold ingots behind
Asahi News (Japan), Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]

Aum Shinrikyo members were in such a hurry to move out of a house they sold to the village of Tokigawa, Saitama Prefecture, they left two gold ingots behind that were worth 2 million yen, Asahi Shimbun learned Saturday.
(...)

The house was one of two facilities that had accommodated twin sisters of a former senior member of the cult, their aunt and other followers from January 1998 to last August.

After finding the gold ingots, the officials handed them over to Saburo Abe, a court-appointed bankruptcy administrator of the cult, now renamed Aleph.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

2. Team set up to probe Kanungu
New Vision (Uganda), Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.newvision.co.ug/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Government has appointed a commission of inquiry to probe the mysterious murder of hundreds of people including children by a Millennium doomsday cult at Kanungu, southwestern Uganda in March. It is set to start work soon.

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Mass Murder at Kanungu was appointed by the second deputy premier and internal affairs minister, Brigadier Moses Ali. It is headed by Justice Augustus Kania.

The other members are Dr Emilio B.L. Ovuga, an associate professor of psychiatry at Makerere University, Prof. Peter Matovu of the Human Intervention & Counselling in the Orthodox Church and Rev. Canon Mugarura Mutana, the Chaplain St Francis Chapel Makerere University and Reformed Theological College.

The others are Rev. Fr. Dr. Lawrence Lugolobi Ssemusu, the Chaplain of the Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, Dr Margaret Mungherera, the chairperson of the Uganda Medical Association, Christopher Ndozireho, a lawyer and Sarafiyano Bigirwekya of the UP&TC investigation department.
(...)

''They will start as soon as we can get funding for them,'' Ali told Sunday Vision.

The team will define a cult, establish what happened at Kanungu and the perpetrators of the murders, establish if there was any laxity on the part of any Government department and recommend ways of avoiding future recurrences.

They are also expected to identify similar groups and recommend ways of dealing with them.

The team is expected to do its job in six months and present its findings to the internal affairs minister.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

3. China refuses access to Canadian prisoner
Ottawa Citizen (Canada), Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A University of Ottawa student's quest to help free her father -- a Canadian citizen -- from a detention camp in northern China for practising the meditation exercises of Falun Gong has been dealt a serious blow after Chinese officials refused a Canadian request for a visit.

KunLun Zhang, a 60-year-old professor of sculpture at the Shangdong Art University, who lived in Montreal from 1989 to 1996, was arrested in July after he and several other Falun Gong practitioners were performing exercises in a public park.

He was later sent to a detention site and then sentenced, without a trial, to three years at a forced labour camp.

Foreign Affairs officials in Beijing say their attempts to visit with Mr. Zhang have so far been rejected.

''We attempted to gain consular access but they consider him a Chinese citizen and have the right to do so,'' said Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron. ''It doesn't stop us from continuing to try to gain access.''
(...)

Mr. Doiron said Canada's position is that Mr. Zhang's ''human rights have been infringed upon by Chinese authorities.''

He added that China's 16-month crackdown against Falun Gong practitioners has been condemned by Canada and other nations and that Canadian diplomats in Beijing are doing what they can with China's leaders ''to engage them in a process of reform.''

Mr. Doiron said the situation is complicated by the fact that Mr. Zhang used his Chinese passport when he re-entered China.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

4. Scientologists, protesters keep their distance
St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
CLEARWATER -- Members of the Church of Scientology stayed out of sight Saturday during a daylong demonstration downtown by church critics.

By noon, about 30 protesters had gathered across the street from the church's Fort Harrison Hotel with anti-Scientology T-shirts, camcorders and picket signs with messages critical of the church.

The protesters say they hold the demonstration this time of year to commemorate Lisa McPherson, the 36-year-old Scientologist who died Dec. 5, 1995, after a 17-day stay at the Fort Harrison Hotel. The demonstration, the sixth, will continue today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

It was largely a subdued event with sporadic moments of loud noise when protesters roused passers-by to honk their car horns and one critic brought a boom box with Queen's We Will Rock You blasting. Clearwater police officers were stationed along Fort Harrison Avenue and near the entrance of the Fort Harrison Hotel, an area that a Thursday injunction designated as off-limits to picketers. Authorities reported no trouble at the demonstration.
(...)

Church members, who normally fill the streets around Scientology's downtown facilities, stayed away, except for a handful of staff members who stood at the hotel entrance.
(...)

Protesters, who came from around the country and Europe, had different reasons for being there.

Mark Dallara, 29, of Tampa, said he participates because he is a ''free speech advocate.''

Tory Bezazian, 53, of California said she left the church only four months ago after 30 years as a member. She stood on the sidewalk wearing red devil horns and carrying a cardboard megaphone.

''When you get out and you get the whole thing, you're like, ''What was I thinking?' '' Bezazian said. ''I know the people inside are brainwashed and they're laughing at me. But to me, the truth is, I'm free. I can do what I want. I can say what I want.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Russia: consumption of hard drugs quadrupled here last year
BBC Monitoring/Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Dec. 1, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Excerpt from report by the Russian newspaper 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta' on 30th November
On 29th November 2000, Patriarch Aleksiy II opened a two-day conference, Russia without Drugs.
(...)

In his speech, the Patriarch emphasized the importance of the Church's participation in the battle against drug addiction. The absence of Russian Orthodox Church's participation in solving the problem of drug addiction has led to the religious niche in the battle against this terrible disease being occupied by the so-called Church of Scientology, which is doing more and more to cripple the souls of former addicts by offering them permanent enslavement instead of salvation, remarked the Patriarch. The Orthodox Church, Aleksiy II emphasized, has always assumed that drug addiction was above all a spiritual disease, a passion that strikes at the depths of a person's individuality. The most important task, therefore, is to elaborate principles of treatment and rehabilitation for drug- dependent people on the basis of Orthodox spiritual traditions.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» Narconon: Drug reformers or Scientology front?

=== Buddhism

6. Dalai Lama celebrates golden jubilee as Tibetan head of state
AFP, Dec. 3, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Dalai Lama celebrates 50 years as Tibetan head of state on Monday -- a golden jubilee marked in Indian exile as temporal leader of a government with no international recognition.

Now 65, the Dalai Lama added the secular title to his position as Tibet's spiritual leader at the tender age of 15. He fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and established a government in exile in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamsala.

The 50-year milestone comes at a crucial and difficult time for the Tibetan freedom movement.

While international respect for the Dalai Lama and sympathy for the plight of Tibetans under Chinese communist rule both remain strong, official support for the movement has been sacrificed to the necessity of maintaining political and trade relations with Beijing.

For several years, the Chinese government has frozen all direct and indirect contact with the Dalai Lama, issuing regular diatribes against his ''separatist'' tendencies and castigating any foreign government that champions his cause or allows him to visit.

In Tibet itself, Beijing exercises rigid control over religious practise, and its policy of populating the region with migrants from the majority Han Chinese community continues unabated.

Added to this is growing concern over the fate of the Tibetan movement after the Dalai Lama dies -- a concern he himself recognises.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. The search for Nirvana
Tulsa World, Dec. 2, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Tulsa's small but active Buddhist community this week welcomed a Tibetan lama, a teacher of Buddhism, the ancient religion with 180 million adherents worldwide, most of them in Southeast Asia.

On Saturday, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche went to Osage Monastery, a Benedictine facility 14 miles west of Tulsa, for a noon meditation, dinner and dialogue.

Sister Pascaline Coff said the monastery has hosted Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns several times over the years, as part of a monastic interreligious dialogue authorized by the Second Vatican Council.

She and other Benedictines from Tulsa have traveled to Tibet and other Asian countries four times for the exchange.

The purpose of the exchange is to foster harmony and understanding between Christians and non-Christians, she said.

''We don't water down what we believe,'' she said, noting differences between Christians and Buddhists on the nature of God, and the divinity of Christ, but ''that doesn't mean we can't love one another.''
(...)

Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1952, he said, and as a young boy was identified as the reincarnation of a particular lama, a teacher of Buddhism who had died recently.

He thus received the title Tulku, which means a reincarnated lama, and was trained from his early years to be a teacher of Buddhism.

When the Chinese invaded Tibet, he and his family hid in various parts of the country for two years.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, fled to Sikkim, a tiny country next to Tibet, and Rinpoche's family followed him.
(...)

He travels widely teaching the principles of Buddhism. He recently spent four months in Europe, teaching at 30 Buddhist centers, and before coming to Tulsa, he taught at the University of Colorado in Boulder for three weeks.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Al-Ma'unah

8. Seven members of Muslim cult plead guilty in Malaysia
Associated Press, Dec. 4, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Seven Muslim militants charged with treason stunned a courtroom Monday when they altered their plea after almost three months of hearings.

The seven men were among 29 members of the Al-Ma'unah sect who allegedly stole weapons from two Malaysian armories in July and sparked a four-day standoff with thousands of military troops in a northern jungle.

The cultists surrendered after allegedly torturing and killing two hostages. They pleaded innocent in September to an unprecedented charge of waging war against the King, which carries a maximum penalty of death by hanging or life imprisonment.

Government prosecutors last month offered to reduce the charge against 14 men who allegedly played smaller roles in sparking the country's worst security scare in decades.

The prosecution team reiterated its offer Monday to amend the charge to merely preparing to wage war -- but only seven agreed to change their pleas.
(...)

The closely watched trial has been bogged down by controversy from the start. Defense lawyers have accused the prosecution of using unconstitutional procedures against their clients and allowing the use of hearsay evidence.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders accused the government of not being forthcoming on how the members of the Al-Ma'unah, or Brotherhood of Inner Power, succeeded in stealing some 100 assault rifles and grenade launchers from the army depots.

Authorities have subsequently moved to stamp out the cult by arresting dozens of members under the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mungiki

9. Leaders' woes over Mungiki
Sunday Nation (Kenya), Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.nationaudio.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Muslim leaders in Nyeri yesterday complained of police harassment over the conversion of members of the unregistered Mungiki sect into the religion on Friday.

The leaders, who included the chairman of the local branch of Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Mr Uledi Majid and the Council of Imams, Nyeri branch chairman, Sheikh Jamil Rahaman, said the converts and their teachers were living in fear.

Mr Majid said: ''The police have been mingling with the worshippers every day, and since their intention is not known, we have reason to be alarmed.''

Local police boss, Mr Elijah Shamalla, denied that his officers were harassing the converts, or leaders, but acknowledged that they have been visiting the mosque ''for surveillance over skirmishes in Nairobi which have led to the burning down of a mosque.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormonism

10. Lawsuit Details D-News-LDS Intrigues to Acquire The Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
From the moment the news hit this fall that the Deseret News was trying to buy The Salt Lake Tribune, executives at the News have been adamant: The paper owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no interest in owning its rival and leaving Salt Lake City without a newspaper independent of the church.

The News, Chairman Glen Snarr has often said, merely wants fair treatment from Newspaper Agency Corp., the company the papers jointly own which is headed by The Tribune publisher and handles all advertising, promotion, printing and distribution of the papers. But in the lawsuit filed Friday to try to block the paper's sale, Tribune managers describe and document a concerted three-year effort by News executives and church attorneys to buyThe Tribune's parent company, Kearns-Tribune.
(...)

LDS Church pressure, Friday's lawsuit claims, culminated in AT&T's refusal to honor its contractual agreements to sell to Tribune managers and instead forge an LDS Church-approved deal with MediaNews. The church, the suit claims, only backed away from a purchase of its own when it learned it would violate antitrust law.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


11. The Deseret Alphabet Died With Brigham Young
Salt Lake Tribune/AP, Dec. 2, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
After leading thousands of Mormons on a grueling trek across the country to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, prophet Brigham Young declared the area ''a good place to make saints.'' He then set to work creating Zion in preparation for Christ's return to earth.

Convinced residents of his utopian world needed an easier way to write English, Young poured thousands of dollars into developing the Deseret alphabet, despite more pressing needs like growing crops and building homes.
(...)

The new alphabet had 38 characters. Some were squiggly with curly Q's, including one that looked like a bear paw. Others were simple letters that resembled the Roman alphabet. There was one letter for every sound and only one sound for every letter, eliminating any ambiguity over how a word was spelled or pronounced.
(...)

In January 1854, the Board of Regents of the University of Deseret and the government of the Territory of Utah officially adopted the Deseret alphabet.

But while the idea sounded grand, the alphabet failed entirely.
(...)

May said the advantages of Deseret's phonetic purity were overwhelmed by the disadvantages of trying to teach new symbols to a population of 50,000.

It was also extremely expensive to typeset the new characters and only four books were ever published: two elementary school readers, one partial Book of Mormon and one full Book of Mormon.
(...)

A few Mormon pioneers did write their diaries in Deseret. Clerks used the alphabet to transcribe speeches in the 1850s and 1860s. But when Young died in 1877, the alphabet died with him.

Scholars, however, still disagree over what motivated the prophet to launch into the arduous task of teaching Mormons a new way to spell.

Marianna Di Paolo, chair of the Linguistics Department at the University of Utah, says Young envisioned a society that kept Mormons isolated from the rest of the world. An alphabet understood only by Mormons furthered that goal.
(...)

Watt, however, contends Young was driven by neither a quest for separateness nor an urge to help immigrants settle in.

''Young wanted to perfect the language and then ship it everywhere else,'' Watt said. ''He didn't want a code that no one would understand.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes

12. Sydney, Olympics Host, Frets Over a Spate of Attacks on Jews
New York Times, Dec. 2, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SYDNEY, Australia, Dec. 2 - This multicultural city of four million people recently celebrated ethnic diversity and harmony at the 2000 Olympic Games, but local Jews and Muslims are now worried by more than 100 physical and verbal attacks on Jews since the Games finished on Oct. 1.

Leaders of both Jewish and Muslim groups have wondered aloud whether the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to blame, or is being exploited by racist fringe groups eager to cause trouble.

This weekend, the annual gathering of the Council of Australian Jewry has a report on recent anti-Semitism high on its agenda. So far, the report says, there have been no lasting physical injuries and only minor property damage, but many of Australia's 110,000 Jews - 40,000 of them in Sydney - are increasing security precautions.

Palestinian representatives have denied any part in the spate of attacks, from arson attempts at suburban synagogues to e-mail abuse of prominent clerics and businessmen.

Jeremy Jones, the report's author, and a vice president of the council, said he saw no direct evidence of Palestinian, Arab or Muslim involvement in the attacks and threats, most reported from Sydney's eastern suburbs, where many Jews live.

Unlike some Jewish activists, Mr. Jones concludes in the report that, so far, political extremists - from vocal Holocaust deniers to economic conspiracy theorists - are most likely behind the bulk of the reported incidents. The police have made no arrests, but have issued some warnings to known racists.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Rallying against racism
The Spokesman-Review, Nov. 30, 2000
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Racist fliers posted in residence halls two weeks ago prompted Eastern Washington University students to rally against hate Wednesday afternoon.

The images of a burning cross and a hooded Ku Klux Klan member were disturbing enough. But the words were even more hateful.
(...)

Only a few students actually saw them up, but news of the racist postings prompted some to sponsor the anti-hate rally, attended by dozens of students.
(...)

The Nov. 16 incident is being investigated by campus police, the FBI and local law enforcement as possible malicious harassment because specific individuals or groups may have been targeted, Eastern officials said.

The fliers were printed off several Web sites containing hate speech and calls for violence. Each flier was different, but most contained racist jokes and comments aimed at African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, gays and lesbians. A few promoted Aryan Nations propaganda.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. Group has become its own worst enemy
The Spokesman-Review, Dec. 2, 2000 (Guest Column)
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Like hundreds of other North Idaho residents, I opened my mailbox last week to find a rather plain piece of mail.

When I opened it, I found a repulsive message from the 11th-Hour Remnant Messenger lamenting Idaho's many human rights groups and activists and ranting about how Jews are conspiring to take control of the world, one human rights activist at a time. At first, I was repulsed and offended.
(...)

But then I thought better of it. Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations have been in Idaho for quite a long time, and look what the result has been: By allowing them to exercise their freedom of speech and assembly, we have allowed them to become their own worst enemy.

Their actions and speech have given rise to some of North Idaho's best: Bill Wassmuth, Norm Gissell, Tony Stewart (who were all named in the mailing) and others who have all spent an enormous amount of time trying to make sure the shadow of the Aryan Nations would not darken the doorway of our region forever.

The Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment was formed as a direct response to the presence of the Aryan Nations in 1987; since then, the human rights group has grown rapidly.
(...)

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights also has had a dramatic impact in helping to counter the message of the Aryan Nations and the 11th-Hour Remnant Messenger.

The fact that the 11th-Hour Remnant Messenger sent out a flier specifically naming the people involved with these two groups only shows that the racist group is scared that their message is not having its desired impact.

So, should we lament this mailing and wring our hands over the hatred printed on all that paper and the fact that it was delivered to hundreds of homes in North Idaho? We could.

Or we could sense a victory in the fact that the 11th-Hour Remnant Messenger just spent hundreds of dollars to publicly announce that it is worried about the abundance of human rights groups in Idaho.

It is somewhat ironic that the presence of hatred in our back yard has had the opposite effect Richard Butler (and now Vincent Bertollini) had intended: Instead of sowing the seeds of mistrust and suspicion, hundreds of people in North Idaho banded together to fight prejudice.

I would dare say that without the likes of Richard Butler and Vincent Bertollini, we would not have been shocked out of our complacency.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

The publisher of RNR suggests that those who receive mail from Bertollini and/or Butler, get in touch with the Association of Idaho Recyclers for suggestions on how to dispose of the material.

15. Court rightfully denies Barrett non-profit status
Daily Mississippian/U-Wire, Dec. 1, 2000 (Staff Editorial)
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(U-WIRE) OXFORD, Miss. -- Organizations that spread fact distortions and racial hatred should not be held in the same regard as humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross and the Southern Poverty Law Center. We're glad that a federal court agrees.

The U.S. Tax Court has upheld the denial of tax exemption status sought by the Jackson-based Nationalist Foundation, a white-supremacist group.

The court cited examples in the Internal Revenue Service regulation for tax exemption, which includes organizations formed to ease neighborhood tensions or eliminate prejudice and discrimination. The Nationalists Foundation is the reverse of these examples. It promotes hatred toward all Americans that are not of European descent: blacks, Jews, Mexicans, immigrants, gays and others. On its Web site the group writes that Bush's effort to ''woo aliens and minorities'' was a waste of time in Florida.
(...)

The court also said the foundation's materials contained distortion of fact, which is not surprising either.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Parents advised to be watchful
The Spokesman-Review, Dec. 3, 2000
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Kids from all walks of life are lured into white supremacy. Hate crimes researchers at the Oregon Spotlight suggest parents watch for an accumulation of these signs in children:

• Obsession with violence, Nazi history or conspiracies about government.

• Downloading or buying hate-rock music off the Internet.

• Disproportionate amount of time spent with hate Web sites or chat rooms.

• Shaved head, red bootlaces or suspenders, racist flags or other skinhead paraphernalia.

• Racist or bigoted jokes.

• Anger or hatred toward women.

• Involvement with peers outside their normal group.

Parents can also take these preventive steps to inoculate their children against white supremacist recruiters:
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

17. Federal push to control cults
The Courier-Mail (Australia), Dec. 4, 2000
http://thecouriermail.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Religious cults face tougher controls while established faiths could win more protection from persecution following a Federal Parliament report.

The report reveals more than 500,000 Australians are caught up in fringe religions or cults and also shows that many in established religions from Christians to Jehovah's Witnesses and Jews feel they are being persecuted.

Fears of persecution ranged from Jews listing 2248 incidents in 10 years which could be defined as racist or acts of violence towards them to Christians condemning popular television programmes such as The Vicar of Dibley and Father Ted for ridiculing them.

The report, titled Conviction with Passion, a Report into Freedom of Religion and Belief, was prepared and tabled by a federal parliamentary committee.

It found Australia was generally a tolerant society but many members of religions, including Christians, felt under threat.

One submission said Christians were under attack from ''abortionists, pornographers, sex liberationists, radical feminists, homosexuals, alternative educationalists and left-wing radicals''.

The parliamentary committee was also told that the Internet was being used as a rallying point for anti-semitic organisations.
(...)

But the report also identified a number of cults including Queensland's Magnificat Meal Movement based at Helidon, the Family (or Children of God), and the Vibrational Individuation Programme as well as a range of groups offering personal development programmes and claiming to be religious organisations.

Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams is now considering a recommendation from the report that a set of uniform standards be created to help control cults.

The standards would include issues of human rights, indoctrination and financial donations.

Max Wallace, a spokesman for Purple Economy Watch which fights tax privileges for religions, said a cult tragedy in Uganda in which 370 were massacred in a church highlighted the dangers.
(...)

A spokeswoman for Brisbane's Cult Hotline, which operates through the University of Queensland's chaplaincy service, said cults usually recruited people during a vulnerable or transitional time of life.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Self-Proclaimed 'Devil' Threatens Killings At Courthouse
Channel 6000, Dec. 1, 2000
http://www.channel6000.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A man was taken into custody in the Clark County Courthouse Friday after proclaiming himself the devil and threatening to kill several people.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Amish Want Child - Labor Exemption
AP, Dec. 2, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GAP, Pa. (AP) -- A community known for insulating itself from the outside world is reaching out to lawmakers in an effort to preserve a centuries-old tradition of having children work.

On Friday, about 25 Amish leaders met at a fire station with Rep. Joseph Pitts and Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republicans who support legislation that would allow Amish youths to work in limited, supervised settings.

The Amish leaders are seeking an exemption to federal child-labor protection laws barring teen-agers from working in sawmills and woodworking shops. They have pushed for the change in recent years since the Labor Department began fining some of their businesses thousands of dollars for employing youths.

The Amish leaders told Pitts and Specter they believe existing laws threaten their religious and work values.
(...)

Under Amish tradition, youngsters were supposed to work in apprenticeship settings after the eighth grade. For years that didn't conflict with federal law, because the Amish community's livelihood was rooted in agriculture, and farms are exempt from child labor laws.

But with the growing costs of farming in the last decade, many families have turned to woodworking and other small trades.

Federal labor laws prohibit children younger than 16 from working in manufacturing operations and children younger than 18 from working in other hazardous occupations.

Legislation proposed by Pitts would let teen-agers work in those settings but would also require additional anti-noise and safety features, including barriers to protect against flying debris.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty / Human Rights

20. Death row inmate nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
CNN, Dec. 2, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed killer?

The possibility is remote, but Stanley Williams, a founder of Los Angeles' feared Crips street gang, has been nominated for the prize.

Williams, who turns 47 this month and has been on death row for 20 years, writes children's books with an anti-gang message and donates the proceeds to anti-gang community groups.

In addition to his books, Williams promotes the Internet Project for Street Peace, an anti-gang Web site. The work has earned Williams, known as ''Tookie,'' a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

He says he is trying to keep young people from making the choices he did years ago.

''The only thing that I was doing was destroying my own kind,'' Williams told CNN in an interview from his cell.

Swiss Parliamentarian Mario Fehr nominated Williams for the prize after learning about Williams' Web site, and the fact that Somali youth immigrants in Zurich were using the site. The Web site links anti-gang counselors and youth in at least five countries.
(...)

In his book ''Gangs and Violence,'' Williams writes, ''We started the Crips to protect ourselves and our families from other gangs. We used violence against their violence. But starting the Crips only made things worse.''
(...)

Williams' most recent book is aimed at middle school students. Called ''Life in Prison,'' Williams says it is a plain spoken, graphic account of life in the abyss of a death row cell.
(...)

Williams was under tight restrictions, even for death row, four years ago when he was approached by author Barbara Becnel, who was researching a book on the Crips and Bloods gangs in Los Angeles.
(...)

Becnel, also executive director of Neighborhood House of North Richmond, California, said Williams is sincere.
(...)

San Quentin Prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Williams had a history of trouble at the prison. Williams spent 6 1/2 years in solitary confinement in the late 1980s, and was listed as a ''troublesome inmate'' until two years ago.
(...)

Law enforcement sources say Williams still has considerable influence over other gang member inmates. But Williams insists the gang life is history. ''They (prison officials) are being mendacious when they say those things,'' he said.

Becnel blames that on an institutional reluctance to believe someone can change, especially someone with a history of murder like Williams.

That history, Becnel said, only makes Williams' message all the more potent.

''He may not be the messenger that many adults want, but he has the message that many kids need. So are we going to throw away an effective message because we don't like the messenger?'' asks Becnel.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

21. Society needs welcome mat for ex-cultists
Asahi News (Japan), Dec. 4, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/
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The growing number of former cult members means there is a need for more counselors to assist an often lost and confused segment of society.

Unless the psychological and emotional scars borne by former cultists and their families are healed, they will be incapable of making a comeback as active members of society.

A care network similar to those seen in the United States and Europe is at last spreading across Japan as well.

Pascal Zivi, a French priest who arrived in this country more than 20 years ago, has been counseling ex-cultists and their relatives via his Web site since August.

Six years ago the Frenchman opened what he termed a self-control research center, in Sapporo. After countless hours spent speaking with young Japanese, he has come to realize that U.S. and European ways will not work here.

So many Japanese lack a sense of self or identity to begin with, he says.

Asked their attitude to a cult or what kind of lifestyle they aspire to, they have no opinion to offer: they do not respond to questions intended to make them think about who they are.

``Having never been educated to feel a strong sense of the self, they are easy prey for a religious cult, and that also explains why they cannot find meaning in life after leaving one of these groups,'' he says.
(...)

The government is also working to make psychological care available to citizens who have left religious sects or cults.

In fiscal 1999 the National Institute of Health and the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry-both operating under the aegis of the Health and Welfare Ministry-supervised the compilation of a report on how best to promote psychological healing for such people.

The report proposed the establishment of a research body with a twofold charter to prevent cults from forming, wherever possible, and limiting the damage done by those already in existence.

Then in January a think tank was formed, as a result of a related initiative (by the National Police Agency and the Health and Welfare and the Justice ministries), to discuss ways of helping former Aum Shinrikyo members become contributing members of society.
(...)

``If we take legal action against cults, people will inevitably leave them. But we need to provide a welcome mat for people who've recently escaped the clutches of a cult, if only to protect their human rights. What we want is some kind of cult research center.''

Critics of such an approach warn that government intervention could pose its own dangers.

Hiroshi Yamaguchi, a lawyer versed in anti-cult practices, says, ``We should welcome the fact that ministries and agencies are taking an interest in such research.

``But if the government adopts some of these measures, it may end up infringing upon freedom of religion and thought, not to mention invading people's privacy. It would be better for governments to subsidize outfits in the private sector that offer counseling services.''
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22. A nightmare life left by a cult's dream of love
Asahi News (Japan), Dec. 4, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
In this disturbing account, a student once hooked on the idea of saving souls describes the daily agonies she now goes through trying to `rebuild her identity.'
(...)

A college student, who wishes to remain anonymous, is describing a recurring nightmare she has had since leaving a new religious cult.

``In the dream, a cult member comes to take me back, urging me to go home with her,'' says the young woman.

``I feel suffocated and sick to the stomach just thinking about having to turn down her request.''
(...)

This woman had been in the cult for almost eight months before she left it more than three months ago. But despite that passage of time, she is still plagued by anxiety.

As an active cult member, she was instructed to recruit a certain number of followers every day. From the moment she awoke, the only thing she thought about for the rest of the day was meeting her quota.

Whenever she succeeded, the young acolyte was convinced she had saved those people's souls, and that gave her the incentive to go on. She felt that her life-and indeed staying alive-had meaning. Once she left the cult, that sense of meaning was lost as well.
(...)

She still feels hesitant about doing things that the cult declared taboo, such as watching a horror movie or having any contact with men.

Sometimes friends who are still believers call her up at night, crying and begging her to return-imploring her not to ``turn your back on God.''

Sometimes, though, the woman may be on a train when she feels an impulse to tell total strangers how terrible the cult is. But, once she starts talking about it, she feels guilty and finds herself asking God's forgiveness. ``Am I still brainwashed?'' she often wonders.

In fact, the more desperately the woman who turned on the cult now tries to rediscover her old self, the more confused she gets about who that self really is.

However, at the suggestion of a close friend she has begun seeing a counselor. Those sessions help her sort out her thoughts and, as the weeks go by, fresh perceptions are dawning on her.

``Before I joined the cult, I was a much happier person,'' she recalled having realized during one recent session. ``But all the news coverage surrounding Aum Shinrikyo and other groups made me curious about what attracted people to such sects in the first place.

``So when cult members recruited me at a cafe and encouraged me to join in their activities, saying that I had what it takes to work for the sake of others, I went along with it.''
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* After-effects of coming out of a cult
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c05.html
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23. Degrees of divinity: Just what do theologians do?
Dallas Morning News, Dec. 2, 2000
http://www.dallasnews.com/
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - They came to Opryland wearing tweed sports coats and soft-soled shoes. For four days, they walked through the junglelike maze of plants and kitschy shops to lecture halls. There they sat in 2½-hour shifts listening to academicians read long, technical research papers.

This is what the top theologians and religion scholars in the country do for fun every year the weekend before Thanksgiving. The annual gathering of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature is to this crowd what the Sundance Film Festival is to independent filmmakers.

In short, everybody who's anybody comes, and then some. Up-and-coming scholars cut their theological teeth presenting papers critiqued by the best of the Ivory Tower. Professors from Podunk U. banter theologically with those from Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities. Job candidates circulate polished resumes and schmooze with department heads.

This year, nearly 8,000 scholars were on hand for more than 400 presentations on so-called weighty academic issues such as ''Problems in Categorization of Hebrew Particles.'' (One participant described that talk as more mentally taxing than an episode of Survivor, but every bit the thriller.)

Newcomers quickly learn there's an etiquette at play in this crowd. Pure scholars of religion don't want to be confused with theologians, whom they see as muddying academics with faith. The theologians, on the other hand, aren't of one mind as to the purpose of their scholarship, or even their audience.

Jews, Muslims and Buddhists debate about whether ''theologian'' is strictly a Christian term. The Christians haggle over whether the academic study of theology is an end unto itself, or whether it should be grounded in a faith community.

While almost all the Christian theologians identify with a denomination, many gulp and swallow hard when asked whether they regularly attend a church. ''Not for a long time,'' said Dr. Petri Luomanen, a Lutheran pastor who's a biblical studies scholar from the University of Helsinki, Finland. ''I have nothing against it; I've just been too busy.''

Other theologians echoed that response, though none wanted his or her name in print. A few said they consider church nothing more than folk religion. The Jesus in churches cannot be reconciled with the Jesus of theological scholarship, they added.

All of this, of course, leads to questions about the role of theologians, not only in relation to churches, but to the world. Are their glory days long gone or are they prophetic voices crying for recognition in a vast academic wilderness?

And, in what some theologians call an age of disbelief, have they lost their relevance or are they more relevant than ever before? Even they aren't sure.
(...)

Fred Astren, who teaches in the Jewish Studies Program at San Francisco State University, believes that modern theologians have a lot to contribute to society. However, he laments that they aren't tapped more for insights about current issues such as school vouchers.

''The tragedy of Waco with David Koresh was almost written for religion scholars,'' he said. So what did it mean when key players didn't think of turning to religion experts until the final hour?

''That said a lot about our place in society,'' he said. ''We've lost ground.''

Dr. Wright said research regarding the historical Jesus was among the most important theological development in the last 50 years. He didn't include the controversial Jesus Seminars in that category.
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=== The Saint Around The Corner

24. Tax Police Blessed With Patron Saint
St. Petersburg Times (Russia), Dec. 1, 2000
http://www.sptimes.ru
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[...More offbeat news...]
MOSCOW - Russia's Orthodox Church has named the apostle Matthew patron saint of the country's feared tax police, the Segodnya newspaper reported on Thursday.

Russian tax police - known for storming buildings in black ski masks to conduct an audit - have had something of a public relations problem, as did the widely despised Roman tax collectors, or ''publicans,'' of biblical times.

St. Matthew himself was a publican, before giving up the profession to follow Jesus. In Matthew's book of the Bible, Jesus frequently lumps tax collectors along with prostitutes as being allowed to enter heaven if they accept God.
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