» Continued from Part 1

=== Catholicism
20. 'Rebel' Priest Shakes Malawi's Largest Church
21. Religion Runs Deep in China

=== Mormonism
22. Church Settles Copyright Suit
23. Purchase of Salt Lake Tribune Tangled in Claim of Complicity With Mormons
24. Mormon Research

=== Jehovah's Witnesses
25. Mom faced 'moral dilemma'

=== Paganism / Witchcraft
26. Witch doctors hold sway over tribal land

=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes
27. Aryan Nations Leader Owes$66,000 in Taxes, Idaho Says
28. A Berlin Wall in cyberspace
29. Haider's Vatican audience sparks uproar
30. Vatican tries to soothe anger at visit

» Part 3

=== Other News
31. Rival Surigao cults clash; 11 dead
32. Priest Stabbed While Investigating Sect
33. Spanish priest stabbed by suspected Satanists
34. Killed girl was 'possessed by the devil'
35. Green's Wife Retracts Her Abuse Story
36. Nuwaubian sues Putnam sheriff under open records law
37. Dec. 31 Deadline Spells End For Many Religious Groups (Russia)
38. Hungary's small churches, opposition, protest new religious law
39. Freedom of Religion bill passed, for now (Israel)
40. Indian protesters seek trial swear-in using pipe
41. Former dean sues college religious and gender bias
41a. Health inspection investigates Victory Outreach drug rehabilitation program

=== Death Penalty
42. The Texan way of death

=== Noted
43. A calling to the darker forces (Vampirism)
44. Religious E-tailers Spread Faith on the Web

=== The Comedian Around The Corner
45. Rabbi reaches past religious differences to lift the spirits - as a stand-up comedian


=== Catholicism

20. 'Rebel' Priest Shakes Malawi's Largest Church
Panafrican News Agency, Dec. 14, 2000
http://allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A splinter congregation formed by an ordained priest is causing a revolution that is threatening the foundation of the Roman Catholic church, Malawi's biggest.

Hundreds of believers are each week flocking to the newly-formed Catholic Ministry.

Catholic Church leaders have already reacted angrily to the development. They have since suspended its founder, Rev. Fr. Mark Kambalazaza, and has threatened to ex-communicate any congregation member seen praying with the 'rebel' priest.

Every Sunday after sermons church gurus are warning believers against being taken by the 'rebel' cause.

But Kambalazaza remains undaunted. He said Thursday church leaders were missing the point. He aim was not to break up the church which cerebrates 100 years of ecumenical work in Malawi in 2001.

''I only want to bring in certain modes of worship that are taboo to our conservative leadership in the church,'' he told PANA.

Among these are ritualistic healing prayers and praying in tongues - a charismatic mode of praying where believers, said to be possessed with the Holy Spirit, speak in a mumbo-jumbo of inaudible speech.

Kambalazaza said he does not see why the Catholic Church is hard against these things yet it also believes in the Holy Spirit, which possesses believers and accords them healing powers.

All eight bishops in Malawi have agreed not to allow Kambalazaza's faction in their dioceses. Rev. Fr. Robert Maungulu, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi - a committee of bishops, said Kambalazaza was suspended for breaking the cannon laws of the church and cannot be allowed to practice using the church's name.

''As a suspended priest he cannot carry out ecumenical duties, let alone use the name 'Catholic' in his ministry,'' he said.

Government authorities seem to have thrown their weight with the church establishment. The Office of the Registrar General, which registered the church in June, has made an about-turn and de-registered it, saying it cannot operate using the word 'Catholic' in its name.

''Our population is highly illiterate and so having two churches using a single generic name can cause confusion,'' the office said in a statement.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Religion Runs Deep in China
San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 13, 2000
http://www.sfgate.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Cizhong, China -- ''Hello, are you Catholic? I am Bernard-Marie.''

An elderly Tibetan stood in the middle of a dirt road in this isolated mountain village on the banks of the Mekong River.

In French only a little rusty after more than 50 years of disuse, Bernard- Marie identified himself as caretaker of one of the most intriguing structures in these parts: a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Tibetan-inhabited stretches of northwestern Yunnan province, where the mountains rise toward the Himalayan highlands of Tibet proper.

The story of this solid stone church in Cizhong, and of the Catholic communities that cling to the valleys and hillsides near the Mekong and Salween rivers, is either unknown or forgotten in the West. But it is a reminder of some enduring lessons about China as it enters a new century.
(...)

A few years back, this tranquil village of rambling wooden houses topped with satellite dishes was declared a lost Shangri-La by the prefecture of Deqen, to which it belongs. The decision was a moneymaking ploy to profit from the fame and exoticism of James Hilton's 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon.''

Since then, other towns in the area have followed suit. A race is on to be certified as the paradise depicted in Hilton's fantasy of monks and the fountain of youth. Cizhong did the others one better, instructing a local woman, Roanna, to tell visitors she was the granddaughter of Chang, the inimitable Chinese character in Hilton's book.
(...)

Catholicism came to this region in the late 19th century. For decades, French missionaries had planned to enter Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism in those days did not have the cosmic pull that it exerts on the West today, and Catholics and Protestants dreamed of ''civilizing'' Tibet's ''savages.''
(...)

Within a few years, Tibetan brigands, backed by Buddhist lamas, had killed 10 priests and destroyed all the Catholic missions but one, in Yanjing, or Yerkalo, a small salt-mining town on Tibet's border with Yunnan. It remained open intermittently and is still working today.
(...)

Tibet at that time was not under Chinese rule, and the Buddhist lamas who controlled it did not want competing religions inside its borders. China's government was more malleable. A series of foreign military victories against the Chinese had forced its rulers to grant foreign missionaries the right to proselytize in China.
(...)

To gain the Tibetans' trust, Catholic missionaries started farms, opened schools and dispensed medicine. In Cizhong, the missionaries obtained several acres of land and planted barley, wheat and grapes. One farmer still brews a pungent wine from vines transplanted from Europe 90 years ago.

They also adapted Catholicism to local tastes. The ceiling of the Cizhong church, completed in the early 20th century, is painted with the Taoist yin and yang symbol and lotus blossoms, central to Buddhist iconography.
(...)

Even the hymns were adapted to local tastes. Catholic priests used traditional Tibetan tunes, plugging in Christian lyrics.

In the twilight of a recent evening in Baihanluo, voices emanating from the creaky wooden structure, lit only by candles and filled with people smelling of wood fires and dust, sounded like those from a Tibetan monastery.

''He is more powerful than gold,'' said an 8-year-old boy, reading from a book of scriptures, ''because his gold will never fade.''

Chinese law bans people under age 18 from participating in religious activities and bans Catholics from expressing loyalty to Rome. But the long arm of the law has trouble stretching to Baihanluo.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mormonism

22. Church Settles Copyright Suit
Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 14, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The LDS Church has formally settled a federal copyright lawsuit against Jerald and Sandra Tanner, longtime critics who posted part of the Church Handbook of Instruction, a handbook for Mormon clergy, on the Internet.
(...)

Jerald Tanner maintained the couple did not violate copyright law and agreed to settle to ''end unnecessary, prolonged and expensive litigation,'' while the church continued to assert the Tanners illegally published church copyrighted materials.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The Tanners posted a *fair use* excerpt from the book on their site. Under international copyright law, that was not a copyright violation. Neither is the excerpt posted here.

23. Purchase of Salt Lake Tribune Tangled in Claim of Complicity With Mormons
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 14, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SALT LAKE CITY--The pending sale of the Salt Lake Tribune is being complicated by allegations that the prospective buyer is acting as a ''front'' for the Mormon Church, which already owns the Tribune's evening rival, the Deseret News.

The Tribune, Utah's largest newspaper, is now owned by AT&T. It is being sold to newspaper magnate William Dean Singleton. But the managers of the Tribune are trying to block the sale in court, claiming that Singleton would work with the Mormon Church to stifle the Tribune's independent voice. Singleton denied that charge in court earlier this week.
(...)

The church said MediaNews Group is not affiliated with or acting for the church. However, the church complained that its hopes of putting out a morning newspaper to compete ''head-to-head'' with the Tribune had been thwarted by the Tribune's current management.
(...)

Tribune managers testified they were proud to put out an independent secular publication in a state where 70% of the population is Mormon. The paper has carried stories critical of the church. Editorials at the Deseret News are previewed by Mormon officials.
(...)

Singleton testified Monday that he offered $200 million for the paper and said it was ''absolute nonsense'' to think that he would be working on behalf of the Mormon Church.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Mormon Research
The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 14, 2000 (Letters to the Editor)
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
I applaud your excellent and very interesting article concerning BYU's research of DNA and the connection, or non-connection, of the American Indian and the Book of Mormon's Lamanites (Tribune, Nov. 30). At one point in the article, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies spokesman John Sorenson is quoted as saying:

''With [DNA] sampling, you may or may not find evidence of a connection to the Old World,'' he says. ''If you do, that says something. If you don't, that says more research needs to be done.''

That is a most telling statement, and seems to be the status quo for FARMS research in general. Start with the result you want, and keep researching and twisting the facts until the results you want can be shown, or at the very least, implied.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Jehovah's Witnesses

25. Mom faced 'moral dilemma'
Chicago Sun-Times, Dec. 11, 2000
http://www.suntimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) To those who gather in this modest church of Jehovah's Witnesses, any hint of family disunity is taken seriously.

But there has been no rush to judgment against a woman charged with abducting her daughter from Chicago nine years ago--a woman, it turns out, who was one of the congregation's most active members.

That is in part because, as one longtime friend and congregant puts it, ''she's an outstanding mother.''

But it's mostly because the friend, Lorrine Tallberg, believed Joli A. Taylor when Taylor told her that the decision to take her daughter was an agonizing, but correct, choice because she alleged the father was abusive.
(...)

The girl, who is in the custody of Arizona Child Protective Services, was found when a classmate recognized an ''age-progressed'' missing persons photo of her. It is unclear if and when the daughter will be returned to her father, Michael Reichart of Arlington Heights.

Reichart has denied the charges--which were investigated and found unsubstantiated a decade ago. He has accused his ex-wife of being mentally unstable.

It was four years ago, Tallberg said, that she met Taylor, who then called herself Tina Jordan, and later, after she remarried, Tina Peters. Tallberg got to know Taylor and her daughter, who called herself Nicole, well during that time.

Each Sunday she saw the family--including Taylor's new husband, Dan Peters--join with the other families in worship at Kingdom Hall.

Tallberg said Taylor told her that she had fled a bad situation back East and that she was sometimes scared she would be found by her ex-husband or by the FBI. She did not say it was because she had allegedly abducted her daughter, and Tallberg said she had no reason to suspect anything like that.
(...)

Tallberg said Taylor began attending Kingdom Hall after she met Peters, who was a longtime member. Tallberg said she could not speak for the congregation, but she could not condemn her friend.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Paganism / Witchcraft

26. Witch doctors hold sway over tribal land
The Times of India (India), Dec. 12, 2000
http://www.timesofindia.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
VADODARA: The city, these days, is playing host to a new breed of refugees. This hapless lot, too, have been forced out of their homes, tortured, tormented and threatened with dire consequences if they return.

However, unlike other refuges, it is not tension sparked by religion or caste, but superstition that has made them homeless. They are all women, ostracised and victimised by the witch doctors ruling the roost in the Panchmahals and Dahod.

Saturiben Dudhamni is one such refuge living at Tarsali. She was thrown out of her village Sajoi in Dhanpur of Dahod district 11 years ago. A witch doctor had pronounced her a sorceress and held her responsible for the death of a 10-year-old village boy.

Since then Saturi has been attacked twice and lives under constant fear. There are scores like her who have fled from their villages and live like refugees in the city.
(...)

Galiben Rasik is another tribal branded as a witch by a 'bhuva' (witch doctor) in Dhanpur. Galiben was held responsible for the death of a village infant when she refused to 'entertain' the 'bhuva'. Galiben's family had to pay a bribe of Rs 12,000 to the 'panch'.
(...)

Incidents like these are common in Dahod, Jhalod, Godhra, Limkheda, Dhanpur and scores of other tribal regions.

Many a time the 'witches' are stoned by the villagers. While many die, the lucky ones survive and take refuge in the city. In most cases the 'bhuva' acts as the judge and the role of the village 'panch' is reduced to that of delivering the judgment.

Chokhali of Devdhi village was declared a witch by a 'bhuva' from Rajasthan. ''I and my two sisters-in-law were declared witches. They charged us with murdering and eating the 11-year-old son of a distant relative. We were tortured but managed to run away from Devdhi before they could kill us,'' says Chokhali.

''In Dahod and the Panchmahals the witch doctor's word is final. Many women have been victimised. The 'panch' act is in cahoots with the 'bhuva' while the police, despite complaints, does not act,'' alleges tribal activist Kanubhai Brahmbhatt.

Brahmbhatt, organising secretary of the All India Prohibition Council, runs a movement against the superstitious practices in tribal Gujarat.

''The 'panchs' are usually drawn from the rich and the powerful. They exploit the poor and the underprivileged. 'Bhuvas' wield tremendous influence and victimise a woman who does not entertain their sexual demands,'' alleges Brahmbhatt.

The police, too, concede that witchcraft is rampant in certain tribal areas.

Reveals Dahod DSP Mohan Jha, ''When someone dies of an ailment or disease, the 'bhuva' is called to identify the witch who caused the death. This superstitious practice is prevalent here and has taken the toll of many women's lives.''

Jha observes that social workers, tribal activists and the police need to work together to relieve tribal regions from the grip of superstitions.

He emphasises that the state needs to have a 'witchcraft practices prevention Act'. ''Such an Act has been implemented by some states. I think it will augur well for Gujarat,'' he adds.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes

27. Aryan Nations Leader Owes$66,000 in Taxes, Idaho Says
AP, Dec. 16, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- White supremacist leader Richard Butler owes the state of Idaho more than $66,000 in personal income taxes, interest and penalties for 1992 through 1999, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Ted Spangler, a deputy state attorney general for the Idaho Tax Commission, said the filing came in response to Butler's recent bid for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection from creditors in the wake of a $6.3 million civil judgment against him and his Church of Jesus Christ Christian-Aryan Nations.

Spangler said Friday that the claim was based on Butler's testimony about his income during a court-ordered examination of what assets were available to satisfy the judgment won by Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason.

''It's important to note that he will have the opportunity to object to that claim and come forward with whatever more specific information he might have,'' Spangler said.

The Tax Commission filed the claim to ensure the state has an opportunity to recover the money as Butler's bankruptcy case proceeds. Spangler said he could not comment on whether Butler actually filed tax returns for the years involved.

But a spokeswoman for the 82-year-old white supremacist questioned the move.

''He never earned any money,'' Debra Maggiore said on Thursday. ''How can he pay taxes?''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. A Berlin Wall in cyberspace
Infoworld.com, Dec. 14, 2000 (Opinion)
http://www.infoworld.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Gerhard Lauck is a Nazi, and publishes Nazi newspapers and a Nazi Web site. In the United States, this is not a crime. But he was arrested in Denmark five years ago and imprisoned in Germany for publishing Nazi propaganda received by Germans in the mail. He served four years.

Lauck still publishes a Web site for the overseas organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party in 16 languages, including German, from his home town in Nebraska. And even if he never mails another newsletter, his site makes German judges want to put him behind bars again. German laws against Nazi propaganda apply to any Web site accessible by Germans, even if the computer sending the content is out of the country, according to a new ruling handed down Tuesday by Germany's highest court on civil affairs, the Bundesgerichtshof.
(...)

The German court decision against Frederick Töben, convicted of denying the historical reality of the Holocaust in publications and on the Web site of the Adelaide Institute in Australia, is only the latest in a string of rulings pitting European judges and lawmakers looking for local control over Internet content against U.S. law and custom preserving freedom of speech.

Two years ago, free speech advocates might have thrown up their hands in despair and conceded that one country can control what people see on a Web site, said Jonathan Zittrain, head of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. However, technology today is moving toward the capability of ''virtual zoning,'' he said. ''There's a way to show people coming from one place one thing and other people other things.''

The German court wants Germans to see other things. The Nazi Party is outlawed in Germany, as is Nazi propaganda and racist speech. The German military suspended a soldier in October suspected of registering an Internet domain under the name ''heil-hitler.de.'' Yahoo Deutschland -- Yahoo's German subsidiary -- has been investigated by German officials for offering copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf for sale.

French courts want French people to see other things, too. It ruled last month that Yahoo has three months to find a filter that prevents users in France from using links leading to Web sites selling Nazi memorabilia.

The Internet -- pervasive, intrusive, at once a tool to broaden cultural awareness and an environment which homogenizes culture across borders -- is hard to tame with laws reflecting any single group's social mores or regional issues, as German officials concede.
(...)

Even as America wrestles with hate crime legislation, its advocates recognize the origins of free-speech arguments. ''Laws grow out of historical context. What is appropriate in Germany may not be appropriate in the U.S.,'' said Mark Weitzman, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center task force on hate. ''I don't think one society should be able to impose its values on another.''

The Wiesenthal Center released a study in October indicating that the number of Web sites promoting hate doubled to 3,000 in 1999, attributing most of the growth to European extremist groups moving online. It is that movement which has drawn European courts into battle over Internet issues.

''What we're seeing is two European countries with differing concepts of free speech, saying that they don't buy into the absolutist interpretation of freedom of speech that prevails in the United States. Fundamentally, this is a major culture clash,'' Weitzman said.

The clash will resolve itself as a new consensus emerges within the Internet community to minimize the influence of hate speech online, he said. ''I think that we're beginning to see a growing international voice ... these two cases are putting the Internet community on notice,'' he said. ''I don't think we will ever create a society that is free of haters, but I think we can marginalize them.''
(...)

''We have a five-digit daily hit count,'' Lauck claimed of his site. As news of the Töben trial was publicized in Germany, Lauck's hit count grew, he said. The Nazi site administrator will make no effort to filter German viewers out, Lauck said. The site actually posts instructions on how to work around blocking and filtering software.
(...)

Lauck's arrest and extradition for what some European nations considered a ''political crime'' caused some controversy, said Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center. ''I think if there are very many incidents like the Lauck case, there will be international repercussions ... it is out of the question that Americans would or could extradite someone for such an offense,'' he said.

The center also tracks Nazi and white-supremacist Web sites. ''The Germans say about 80 percent of Nazi sites written in German are on servers in the U.S.,'' Potok said. While he noted that the SPLC doesn't ''spend a lot of time tracking sites in German, for Germans,'' he said the ruling against Töben will have little if any effect on the practices of Web site operators in the United States. Still, he said ''I think this is a major area of international law that has yet to be settled.''

There's not much the German government can do unless Lauck visits there, Lange of the Verfassungsschutz investigative agency said. The ruling may effectively help to ban high-profile American Nazis and extremist right-wing advocates from Germany, however.

Richard Barrett, general counsel for the Nationalist Movement, said he recently had to cancel a trip to Germany for fear of arrest. While Barrett's site is white separatist rather than Nazi-affiliated, it gives Web space to like-minded groups.
(...)

With a medium which so easily crosses national boundaries as the Web, international organizations such as the Council of Europe are proposing measures to standardize computer laws across borders. Human rights and information freedom organizations from several countries -- including the U.S. American Civil Liberties Union, the U.K. group Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties, France's IRIS (Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire), and Spain's Kriptopolis have said proposals so far threaten individual liberties.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The publisher of Religion News Report, a European who lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands, believes freedom comes with responsibilities - including the responsibility to take decisive action against those who demonstrate that they can not be part of a civilized society. Providing hate groups with safe havens, as the U.S.A. does, is irresponsible at best.

29. Haider's Vatican audience sparks uproar
CNN, Dec. 16, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ROME, Italy -- Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider's planned meeting with the Pope is triggering anger in Italy.

Jewish groups, the Israeli government and leftist politicians have all protested against Saturday's Vatican audience with Haider, who is leading a 250-member Austrian group that will present the Pope with a Christmas tree.

Demonstrations are also planned around Rome and near the Vatican.

Leftist groups say they will try to erect a six-by-four metre banner depicting the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz to block the view of the tree.

Right-wing and neo-fascist groups have vowed to stage counter-protests. Italian military police have removed cars and rubbish bins from along the main road leading to St Peter's Square and have tightened security around the Vatican.

A statement from Italian Premier Giuliano Amato's office condemned comments made by Haider earlier in the week about President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as ''unacceptable.''

Haider had drawn criticism from Ciampi and other politicians after he accused Italy of lax controls on illegal immigration.

Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said he would be writing personally to Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to express his government's displeasure.

''The government cannot but judge extremely severely such criticisms, which are even more unacceptable coming from someone who holds an official position in another European Union country,'' Amato said in a statement released by his office.

More than 3,000 protesters, including nearly 50 Italian politicians, took to the streets of Rome on Thursday night brandishing anti-Haider placards and denouncing the Austrian's presence in the Italian capital.

Under an accord with the Vatican, the Italian state has to allow visitors to the Holy See passage through Rome.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Vatican tries to soothe anger at visit
AP, Dec. 15, 2000
http://www.bergen.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican on Thursday suggested the pope may preach respect for ''human and Christian values'' during a meeting with Joerg Haider of Austria.

The Vatican issued its first formal statement on Saturday's meeting, which has drawn protests from the Israeli government, Jewish organizations, and leftist politicians in Italy. Haider has been criticized for his anti-immigrant views and past remarks sympathetic toward Hitler's Nazi regime.

Haider will lead an Austrian group that will present the pope with a Christmas tree for St. Peter's Square. The tree was donated by Austria's Carinthia region, of which Haider is governor.

The Vatican noted that Pope John Paul II traditionally receives such groups and considers them ''pastoral'' meetings. ''This gives Roman pontiffs full liberty to call the parties' attention to the respect for human and Christian values,'' it said.
(...)

The plan for the hand-over of the Christmas tree was made before Haider became governor of Carinthia. He was received by the pope for a private audience in 1993.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» Part 3