================================================================
Religion News Report - November 27, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 137)
================================================================

=== Breatharianism
1. Couple sent to jail over breatharian-fast death
2. Prison for air cult disciples

=== Life Space / Shakty Pat Gury Foundation
3. Life Space sites raided; children taken into custody
4. Cult raided
5. Japan's police remove children from bizarre Life Space cult
6. Police raid Life Space facilities, take kids into protective custody
7 Cultists protest loss of children
8. Stayin' alive

=== Falun Gong
9. China expells Aussies for involvement in sect
10. Detained in China
11. China imposes new laws for mass meetings
12. China 'reeducates' its government workers
13. China Puts Four From Sect on Trial

=== Waco / Branch Davidians
14. Waco Investigator Gets Shell Casings
15. Years After Davidian Cult Fire, Legal Battles Gather Force

=== Scientology
16. L. Ron Speaks!
17. Planning Office has its eye on Scientology
18. Scientology moves into the city

=== Mormonism
19. U.S. judge weighing online restrictions in LDS copyright case
20. Mormons' property buy challenged
21. Mormon church flourishes in the South
22. 'Prophet' Relies More On Faith Than on Fact

=== Other News
23. End may be nigh for cult members
24. Vietnam has 31 illegal religious cults - media
25. New Buddhist sect worries traditionalists (Dhammakaya)
26. Doctors in Jerusalem Bracing for a Surge of 'Saviors' (Jerusalem Syndrome)
27. British Mother Can Stop Son's Circumcision - Court
28. Judge strikes down fortune telling ban
29. Healer lets fly at Clinton over feather

=== Noted
30. Scroll fragments tell professor an amazing story
31. Site of Goliath's home town unearthed
32. May the 'life force' be with you


=== Breatharianism

1. Couple sent to jail over breatharian-fast death
The Australian, Nov. 27, 1999
http://www.news.com.au/news_content/national_content/4360655.htm
A couple who claimed people could live on air were sentenced to prison
yesterday for allowing a woman to become critically ill during a "spiritual
cleansing" process from which she died.

Jim Pesnak, 61, was jailed for six years and his wife Eugenia, 63, for three
years.
(...)

Justice Margaret Wilson said yesterday Pesnak's "recklessness was of a high
order" and his wife had "actively assisted and encourage him".

"It is important other members of the community be deterred from dangerous,
cruel and inhumane conduct, albeit in the pursuit of spiritual beliefs," the
judge said.
(...)

Justice Wilson told the Pesnaks: "You are entitled to your spiritual beliefs
. . . However, the death of Ms Morris has demonstrated how dangerous this
21-day process was and how misguided you were."
[...more...]

2. Prison for air cult disciples
The Courier Mail (Australia), Nov. 27, 1999
http://news.com.au/news_content/state_content/4385738.htm
(...) Supreme Court Justice Margaret Wilson labelled the actions of Jim
Vadim Pesnak, 61, as "recklessness of a high order" and made no
recommendation for early parole. Pesnak's wife Eugenia, 63, was jailed for
two years for her role in encouraging her husband in his actions.
(...)

Followers of the cult believe an energy source called "Prana" can be gained
through fasting and living on air alone.

Justice Wilson said it must be remembered that Morris travelled from
Melbourne to attend the fasting process in June last year, of her own free
will. As part of the process, followers do not eat or drink for the first
six days and then spend the next 14 days drinking only limited amounts of
orange juice.
(...)

Justice Wilson said it was important "that other members of the community be
deterred from such dangerous, cruel and inhumane conduct, albeit in the
pursuit of spiritual beliefs".
(...)

Justice Wilson said she agreed with prosecutor Charlie Clark's description of
Pesnak's behaviour as "quite frightening". Pesnak had told police he had not
believed Morris was in any physical danger and thought she was suffering an
"ego battle". "This is a spiritual procedure not a medical procedure," he
had said. "When the question comes up 'should I call a doctor?' the answer
is 'no, trust in God'.
[...more...]

=== Life Space / Shakty Pat Gury Foundation

3. Life Space sites raided; children taken into custody
Japan Times, Nov. 24, 1999
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news11-99/news.html#story5
Chiba Prefectural Police raided several locations Wednesday linked to the
self-enlightenment group Life Space.

The searches were conducted in connection with a mummified body of one of its
members found earlier this month in a hotel room in Narita, Chiba Prefecture.
The search warrants did not identify any suspect but were based on charges of
abandoning a corpse.

During the raids, authorities said they found nine children inside some of
the Life Space facilities and took them in to protective custody under the
Child Welfare Law because they were determined to be receiving "inappropriate
care."

A preliminary checkup determined that the children are in good health.
Authorities said the children were wearing clean clothes and that there were
no bruises or other visible signs of physical abuse.
(...)

The sites raided included the offices of Life Space as well as those of a
support group, Shakty Pat Guru Foundation, located in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
A hotel in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, where Takahashi and other followers are
staying was also searched.
(...)

Prefectural police sources said they believe Kobayashi died because Life
Space followers did not give him proper medical care. The authorities were
trying to establish a criminal case.

However, investigators were proceeding with caution to determine how to
interpret the group's claims that they were "treating" the man and that he
was still alive when police carted the mummified body away.

Life Space organizes self-enlightenment seminars. It was founded by Takahashi
in 1983 in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. At its peak, it is said to have attracted
nearly 10,000 people to its seminars, but that has dropped to around 150.
[...more...]

4. Cult raided
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Nov. 25, 1999
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news02.html
(...) If social workers determine that the children's families could not
provide them with a suitable environment, they may be sent to children's
homes, center officials said.

Many Life Space cultists are reportedly not letting their children attend
schools, and police are probing the children's cases carefully to see whether
child welfare laws have been breached.

The children were found during police raids on Life Space offices and its
related facilities in Tokyo and Nagoya. A hotel in Ibaraki's Oarai, where the
cult's accountant-turned-guru, Koji Takahashi, 61, and other members were
staying, was also raided.
(...)

Kobayashi died because he was unable to receive proper treatment for a brain
hemorrhage he suffered in June this year, police believe. He was transferred
from a hospital in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, to the Narita hotel by his
31-year-old son, who is also a cult member, after only two weeks of
hospitalization. He was to receive "spiritual healing" called "shakty pat"
from Takahashi.

The healing reportedly involves the guru patting patients' heads.
Kobayashi's son and other Life Space members insist that Kobayashi was alive
and recovering from his illness until police took the body away for
postmortem examination.

In April last year, another 43-year-old follower of the cult died from his
illness, after refusing to receive hospital treatment.
[...more...]

5. Japan's police remove children from bizarre Life Space cult
Yahoo! Asia/AFP, Nov. 24, 1999
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/afp/article.html
?s=asia/headlines/991124/asia/afp/Japan_s_police_remove_children
_from_bizarre_Life_Space_cult.html
(...) In a television interview, 61-year-old Takahashi was asked about
allegations he had separated children from their parents in the cult and
taken them abroad to countries including Spain and the United States.

"They are studying abroad and you can't do that without moving," he said in
an interview recorded the previous day.

But he conceded that "there are many children not attending school," who
lived in the cult's facilities in Japan.
(...)

"We can definitely call them a cult," Sadao Asami, religious sciences
professor emeritus from Tohoku Gakuin University, told AFP.

Kobayashi's case was not the only death linked to the group, he said.

Kyoto District Court ordered the sect in November 1998 to pay 28 million yen
(268,000 dollars) in damages to the parents of a 22-year-old man who died in
1995 while taking a scalding bath in a "self-enlightenment" seminar.

The sect was similar to, though smaller than, the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday
cult, said Asami.
(...)

The Life Space leader's strange declarations have caught the headlines in
Japanese tabloid television. In one interview, Takahashi pointed to the veins
in his hands and claimed, "Air is running through here."
[...more...]

6. Police raid Life Space facilities, take kids into protective custody
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), Nov. 25, 1999
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/1125cr05.htm
(...) The Metropolitan Police Department is holding six children aged 14 to
17 in protective custody at a building in Bunkyo Ward, and three others under
12 years of age, including a baby, at a condominium in Shinjuku Ward. The
metropolitan government was investigating whether the group was in violation
of the Child Welfare Law.

Prior to the case, children of group members were living in the group's
facilities and hotels. There were reports of trouble when family members
belonging to the group asked for permission to take their children out of the
group's facilities.
[...more...]

7. Cultists protest loss of children
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Nov. 27, 1999
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news10.html
Members of a cult visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Office on Friday and
presented a letter demanding an explanation as to why police took the
children of some of its members into protective care.

On Wednesday, nine children were taken from facilities of the Shakty Pat Guru
Foundation in police raids.

Officials told the cult members that the children had been taken to the
Metropolitan Child Center because they had been prevented from attending
schools as part of the generally undesirable living conditions they were
forced to endure at the group's facilities.

The cultists denied the allegation, saying that their children receive proper
education at their facilities.

The foundation is affiliated with the controversial cult Life Space, who hit
the headlines recently after a member's mummified body was found at a hotel
in Narita.
[...entire item...]


8. Stayin' alive
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Nov. 21, 1999 ("Face of the Weeklies" column)
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/waiwai/face/face.html
Cross AUM Shinrikyo with the Unification Church, suggests Focus (11/24), and
behold a new mystery called Life Space.
(...)

Guru to the cult is 61-year-old Koji Takahashi, whose hirsute appearance
suggests a grandfatherly Shoko Asahara. Asahara, the light of AUM Shinrikyo,
is nearly blind, and Takahashi too has vision trouble: as a teen-ager,
reports Focus, his right eye was punctured by an air gun bullet. He graduated
from high school in his native Shikoku, Focus continues, and went on to
qualify as a tax accountant. Inspired by a "self-enlightenment seminar" he
attended in Tokyo, he opened a similar establishment in Osaka in 1983.
Sessions featured lectures and meditation. Takahashi was a good speaker and
his fees were moderate; he drew crowds.

Accounting knowledge combines dangerously with religious inspiration.
Takahashi's religious claims intensified, and his fees rose - to as high as 5
million yen, says Focus, for a five-day seminar. He formed a company, set up
a research center, and in 1992 began identifying himself as spiritual heir to
the Indian holy man Sathya Sai Baba. He healed the sick, or claimed to, by
tapping their palms or heads and thus altering their karma. He could, or so
he said, read your DNA, thus identifying the purpose for which you were born
in order to steer you onto your true course. He arranged ideal marriages and
a 1995 group marriage involving eight couples at Majorca, Spain, that recalls
the mass weddings of the Unification Church.

In February 1995, says Focus, a Life Space acolyte died while undergoing
religious training in a very hot bath. The family sued, and last July was
awarded 28 million yen in damages. Life Space has yet to pay.
[...more...]

=== Falun Gong

9. China expells Aussies for involvement in sect
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Nov. 27, 1999
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-27nov1999-63.htm
Four Australian members of a spiritual group have been expelled from China
two days after their arrest.
(...)

The four were amongst a group of practitioners of the Falong Gong spiritual
movement detained for organising a gathering in southern China on Thursday.
[...more...]

10. Detained in China
ABC News/AP, Nov. 26, 1999
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/falun991126.html
Police detained an American, two Australians and a Swedish student in
southern China at a gathering of the banned sect Falun Gong, a human rights
group and diplomats said today.

The foreigners were among 15 Falun Gong practitioners picked up Thursday in
the city of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong-based
Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
(...)

The main Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily accused the sect today of
plotting with “foreign anti-China forces,” but didn’t mention the detained
foreigners.
[...more...]

11. China imposes new laws for mass meetings
Detroit News, Nov. 24, 1999
http://detnews.com/1999/religion/9911/25/11250005.htm
China has set tough new rules for public gatherings that require groups of
more than 200 people to first get government approval, the official Xinhua
news agency said on Wednesday. Public gatherings of more than 200 people now
must be approved by public security departments above the county level and
gatherings of more than 3,000 people by a security body at or above the
prefecture level, Xinhua said.
[...more...]

12. China 'reeducates' its government workers
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 25, 1999
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/Nov/25/front_page/CHINA25.htm
China is moving to purge half of its 33 million government workers through a
"reeducation" program designed to reassert the dominance of the Communist
Party.

The push comes as the Communist leadership tries to combat rampant corruption
and perceived threats to government control. The country's top leaders, beset
by restive provincial governments and opposition from the outlawed Falun Gong
spiritual movement, apparently fear the public may begin to question their
right to rule.

Called the "Three Stresses" campaign for its emphasis on Marxist theory,
adherence to the party's political line, and personal honesty, the new
ideological initiative is part of China's effort to reconcile its
Marxist-Leninist roots with its pragmatic and semicapitalist economic
practices.
(...)

"Our members call it brainwashing," the official said. "The party wants to
arm cadres [civil servants] with Jiang Zemin's theories, and hopes all party
cadres will ideologically obey what the party tells them after centralized
brainwashing."

So important and distracting is the reeducation regimen that government
officials are doing little else. Two recent weeks of unavailing interview
requests to officials in Sichuan province, for example, ended with the
explanation that they were undergoing reeducation. Asked an exasperated
receptionist: "Can you call back next year?"
[...more...]

13. China Puts Four From Sect on Trial
Northern Light/AP, Nov. 25, 1999
http://library.northernlight.com/EB19991125260000047.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0
Four followers of Falun Gong went on trial Thursday on charges of illegally
publishing 50,000 books for the banned Chinese sect, a human rights group
said.

The court in the southern city of Nanning did not announce a verdict at the
end of a seven-hour trial, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center of
Human rights and Democratic Movement in China.
[...more...]

=== Waco / Branch Davidians

14. Waco Investigator Gets Shell Casings
AOL/AP, Nov. 24, 1999
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=1999112406225993
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the FBI to turn over a dozen bullet
shell casings to the special counsel re-investigating the Branch-Davidian
siege, but did not respond to a request for the FBI guns.

U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith of Waco said the casings must be turned
over to special counsel John Danforth for independent testing, along with
crime scene photographs taken by the Texas Rangers and FBI, and diaries,
notes and other paperwork.
[...more...]

15. Years After Davidian Cult Fire, Legal Battles Gather Force
New York Times, Nov. 26, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com
Six years after David Koresh's strange ministry of God and guns ended in
flames at the Branch Davidians' compound near Waco, more questions than
answers continue to rise out of the ashes.
(...)

"We're never going to know the entire truth about Mount Carmel," said Michael
Caddell, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "But can we answer the question of
whether or not the government fired on the Davidians? I think we can, and I
think we will in the course of this lawsuit."
(...)

Six people, including four federal officers, were killed in the initial
raid by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that sparked
the standoff. Fifty-one days later, Koresh and dozens of followers died as
fire swept through the compound when the F.B.I., which had assumed control
of the operation, used tanks to pump in tear gas in an effort to end the
standoff.
(...)

More than 20 of the bodies found in the wreckage of Mount Carmel showed
evidence of gunshot wounds. The F.B.I. has maintained that no government
officials fired their weapons during the standoff and subsequent fire.
They say that panic, fear of death by fire, or fear of capture led the
Branch Davidians to kill each other.

Lawyers representing the survivors say that infrared videotape shot from a
plane in the last hours of the standoff shows flashes of automatic weapon
fire directed toward the compound from government positions.

"You don't see these telltale flashes any other time; you don't see them
any at other location; there's no other explanation for them other than
gunfire," Caddell said. "Even the government's own experts have no
explanation for it."
(...)

Federal officials have said the flashes were probably reflections of mud
puddles or pieces of metal.
(...)

Court filings indicate that the materials now in the Texas court's
possession include thousands of audio- and videotapes, computers and
computer disks, nearly 171,000 pages of documents from the F.B.I., 588
White House documents and 37,000 pages from the Department of Defense,
7,000 of which remain classified.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which conducted the original
raid to arrest Koresh on automatic-weapon violations, turned over 134
boxes of materials, 9 of which were sealed for review by the judge.
[...more...]

=== Scientology

16. L. Ron Speaks!
LA Weekly, Nov. 26, 1999
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/00/01/offbeat-.shtml
"Affection could no more spoil a child than the sun could be put out by a
bucket of gasoline."

Don’t go looking for this maxim in your Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations — but
you just might find it in your local newspaper, courtesy of Scientology. The
IRS-designated religion — ministry to the stars (John Travolta, Jenna Elfman,
Tom Cruise), owner of vast worldwide holdings and co-sponsor of this year’s
Hollywood Christmas Parade — has been mailing out this and other pearls from
the lips of founder L. Ron Hubbard to newspaper "Quote of the Week" sections.
(...)

Hubbard public-relations director Kaye Conley says the quotes have appeared
in 80 publications, including the Orchard News (Nebraska), Clayton Today
(Oklahoma), and the Stratford Star, Iraan News, and Talihina American (all of
Texas). "I’m not saying they’re big, huge papers," Conley says. "They don’t
have to be to be popular."

Iraan News editor Clara Greer says her paper (circulation 900) printed
"everything that I got" during the two-month-old Scientology P.R. campaign.
"One of our customers didn’t appreciate reading them. She seemed to know a
lot more about Hubbard than I did," Greer explained during a phone interview.

Ann Driver, editor of the weekly Talihina American (part of a three-paper
chain of Texas weeklies, combined circulation 4,500) also confesses to
knowing little about Hubbard or Scientology. "I’ve heard of it, but I don’t
know anything about it," she says.

It’s no secret that Scientology aggressively courts good publicity — and the
group could use some good news. A French judge this month sentenced a former
Scientology leader to six months in prison on fraud charges. (The church
denounced the trial as an "inquisition.") Authorities in Moscow and
Switzerland also shut down Scientology-associated operations.
[...more...]
* To learn more about L. Ron Hubbard, see:

The Uncensored L. Ron Hubbard Papers
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/LRH-bio/lrhpaper.htm

To learn more about the Scientology cult Hubbard founded, see:

About Scientology
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04.html


17. Planning Office has its eye on Scientology
Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Nov. 24, 1999
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/991124a.htm
Is Scientology a religion or a cut-and-dried business operation? A legal
proceeding between the Scientology Church Germany, Inc, and the Municipal
Planning Office has been reduced to this question in the Munich
Administrative Court. In the foreground, this is about information with which
the Planning Office has denied the self-named church and its members special
permission to "conduct missionary work" on Leopold Street. What is actually
behind the legal dispute, however, is a feud which has gone on for years
between the Bavarian Interior Ministry and the Scientologists.

The Interior Ministry does not regard Scientology as a religion in any case:
its position is that the Scientologists are merely hiding behind a
pseudo-religious facade for the purpose of creating a lawless field in which
to carry out its constitutionally hostile activities which range from dirty
to criminal. The world Scientology is striving for according to its policy
has nothing to do with democracy. Scientology is said to be trying to spread
its constitutionally inimical system by winning new customers and making
things work according to that system.

Scientology counters that no type of danger emanates from the "church." All
accusations are said to be only worn-out phrases from apologetic opponents
like the sect commissioners of the major churches - and the Bavarian Interior
Minister is also included.
[...more...]

18. Scientology moves into the city
Hamburger Abendblatt (Germany), Nov. 24, 1999
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/991124b.htm
(...) The sale was managed allegedly through an attorney's office in
Washington. The sale price was said to have been set at 20 million marks,
which was paid for by the American Scientology center. The appearance of the
Americans as buyers emphasizes, in the opinion of Reinhard Wagner, Hamburg
Constitutional Security President, "the high importance which the Hamburg
organization holds in the USA."

Although the Elb Scientologists once ran the most successful organization
worldwide, they now find themselves in times of financial and personnel
difficulties. Nevertheless, Hamburg is of importance as a Scientology
stronghold. 1,000 of the total five to six thousand Scientologists nationwide
live here or in the surrounding areas. Although there have recently been
opposing sounds from Nordrhein-Westfalen, Wagner continues to believe that
the surveillance of the Scientology organization decided upon by the Interior
Ministers is still advisable.
[...more...]

=== Mormonism

19. U.S. judge weighing online restrictions in LDS copyright case
Deseret News, Nov. 24, 1999
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,135007287,00.html?
A federal judge is deciding whether to keep in place restrictions against LDS
Church critics Jerald and Sandra Tanner until a suit filed against them by
the copyright holder of church manuals is resolved.

On Tuesday the Tanners' attorney, Brian Barnard, tried again to convince U.S.
District Judge Tena Campbell that his clients are not violating copyright
laws by referring others to sites that might contain copyrighted LDS Church
material. Barnard said any possible copyright infringement ended when the
Tanners in October removed from their Utah Lighthouse Ministry Web site 17
pages of a church procedures handbook.

Attorneys for Intellectual Reserve Inc., the legal copyright holder of
publications for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the
Tanners are violating contributory copyright laws by posting on their Web
site the addresses of other sites where church manuals are illegally
available.

Campbell already has issued three temporary restraining orders in the case.
The first required the Tanners to remove from their Web site the 17 pages of
the church manual. The second order also restricted them from using their Web
site to refer others to sites where copyrighted material is available. A
third order kept in place her second order until she rules on IRI's motion
for a preliminary injunction.
[...more...]
* How to have your name removed from Mormon Church records

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/m07.html


20. Mormons' property buy challenged
USA Today, Nov. 23, 1999
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/19991123/1680003s.htm
On the streets downtown, it can be hard to know where the Mormon church ends
and secular commerce begins.
(...)

But in April, the city sold the entire block to the church for $8.2 million,
and last week, opposition to the deal crystallized when the American Civil
Liberties Union sued Salt Lake City to stop what it argues is unlawful
privatization of a public forum.

The church is building an underground parking garage on the Main Street block
it bought, then will landscape what was once pavement with gardens, walkways
and a reflecting pool. Under terms of the sale, the church must allow 24-hour
public access to the square but can prohibit virtually any other activity.

That includes, according to the deed, smoking, partying, begging, sunbathing,
lewd or vulgar behavior and inappropriate dress. Most alarming to civil
libertarians: The church also can ban assembling, demonstrating and
picketing. It can say no to outside music and speakers but can broadcast its
own Mormon Tabernacle Choir and church messages.

''It's an important case in terms of whose city this is, whose voice is going
to be heard and respected,'' ACLU lawyer Stephen Clark says. ''Is it just a
way to further entrench the dominant church and the most powerful corporation
in the city?''

The lawsuit accuses the city of violating the public's First Amendment rights
to free speech and assembly and the constitutional principle against favoring
any religion. The ACLU will argue that the city had no legal right to sell
property that historically had been used as a public forum.

In a city that is 50% Mormon, the sale was one more reminder of the church's
sway in everyday affairs. It was also seen as the latest example of friction
between Utah's Mormon majority and the rest of its increasingly diverse
population.
(...)

The church is not a defendant in the ACLU suit but could be brought in later.
Joining the ACLU were the Utah chapter of the National Organization for
Women, the city's Unitarian Church and a group called Utahns for Fairness.
(...)

''I think there's no separation between church and state here,'' says Kristin
Romeo, an administrative assistant who recently moved her with her husband
from Minneapolis. ''This wouldn't happen anywhere else in the U.S.''
[...more...]

21. Mormon church flourishes in the South
CNN/AP, Nov. 26, 1999
http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/26/mormons.in.the.south.ap/index.html
(...) But she'll soon be able to visit a temple whenever she wants, as
Raleigh is one of seven Southern cities scheduled to complete temples by the
end of 2000.
(...)

The church is now working to increase the number of temples in areas with
growing membership. Some Southern states have seen their Mormon population
grow by 80 percent to 100 percent since 1980, according to statistics in a
church-sponsored almanac.

In Alabama, church membership is 27,000 (up from 7,800 in 1974); Florida
105,000 (30,000 in 1977); Georgia 55,000 (14,630 in 1974); Kentucky 21,000
(13,956 in 1980); Louisiana 24,000 (16,000 in 1980); Mississippi 17,000
(6,527 in 1970); North Carolina 53,000 (29,512 in 1980); South Carolina
26,000 (10,775 in 1974); Tennessee 29,000 (15,839 in 1980); Virginia 63,000
(55,789 in 1990).

The growth is due primarily to an influx of Mormons from other regions and to
the church's efforts to increase its visibility in the South, said Nancy
Eiesland, a professor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology.
Conversions and in-migration are related because as Mormons move to the area,
they work to bring in new converts.
(...)

Elder Monte J. Brough, the church's regional president for most of the South,
says he expects the church to continue growing in the region. The South has
long carried a reputation for strict, family-oriented conservatism, which the
Mormon church shares.

"I think the reason we do so well is that we are very assertive in
proclaiming family values," he said. The church is concerned with "not only
family conduct and individual values, but the law of chastity and the sacred
nature of marriage. ... Part of that is very attractive to a lot of
Southerners."
(...)

Some traditional Bible Belt religions have spoken out against Mormons.
Southern Baptists used a 1998 annual convention in Salt Lake City to
evangelize to Mormons, whom they do not consider to be Christians.

Adding to interchurch tensions is the fact that Mormons and some evangelical
denominations in the South are competing for converts among the same group:
the unchurched, said Marie Cornwall, a Brigham Young University sociology
professor.

"Put together the incredible growth in the South with the increasing
anti-Mormonism rhetoric that comes out of the evangelical movement and, in
the marketplace of religion, these two groups are in competition," she said.
[...more...]

22. 'Prophet' Relies More On Faith Than on Fact
Washington Post, Nov. 26, 1999
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/26/104l-112699-idx.html
An unschooled religious zealot anoints himself king, takes as many wives as
he wants and forms an army to protect his holy commune. He wields cultlike
control over his followers. The authorities crack down: He's killed and
mourned as a martyr.

It's the story of a tailor named John of Leyden, who espoused the heretical
teachings of Anabaptism in Germany in the 1500s. It's also the story of
Waco's David Koresh, who met his fiery end in 1993. But mainly it's the story
of Joe Smith, a handsome country lad with an oversize ego who established one
of America's most successful new religions in the 1830s.

Like others in history, Smith brewed God, sex and politics into a fatal mix,
but his church prospered. The somewhat sanitized documentary "American
Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith" (tonight at 9 on WETA) attempts to
explain why.
(...)

It's an edifying two hours, but the saga of Smith's life could have been far
more gripping than this reverently rendered version. Smith saw himself and
his flock as vital actors in a grand drama staged by the Almighty. In a
sermon at Nauvoo, he claimed to have a more solid following than Christ
himself--and to Hell with the dissenters.

"In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the Devil--all
corruption. Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All Hell, boil over!
Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at
last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had."

That quote speaks volumes about the man, but unfortunately you won't find it
in "American Prophet."
[...more...]

=== Other News

23. End may be nigh for cult members
AOL/Reuters, Nov. 24, 1999
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=1999112411311502
As millions across Britain party the night away this millennium New Year, for
some it may be that the end of the world is really nigh.
(...)

``It is possible some cult leaders will do something drastic to mark the
millennium and it could happen here,'' Ian Haworth, a sect expert at the Cult
Information Center, said. ``You certainly can't rule it out. There has been
a bit of a lull, so maybe this is the proverbial calm before the storm,''
said Haworth, estimating Britain is currently home to some 500 cults and
thousands of followers.

Some say rumors of impending bids to trigger Armageddon are already
circulating.

``We have to be prepared that there might be some people planning serious
acts to coincide with the millennium,'' Audrey Chaytor of cult study group
FAIR (Family Action Information Resource) said. ``And we have heard rumors
about possible dangerous acts,'' she added, declining to elaborate.
(...)

But British police stopped short of predicting mayhem, simply saying they
were keeping a close eye on all groups deemed a potential threat to the
public.

``As a matter of routine, police monitor any groups or individuals who could
cause public disorder problems or terrorist-related activity,'' a Scotland
Yard Police special operations spokeswoman said.

``In the run-up to the millennium, officers will continue to monitor the
activities and behavior of any groups or individuals who could pose such a
threat,'' she added.

Some say the hype surrounding millennium festivities could, if anything,
decrease the chances of a repeat of mass suicides carried out by the Heaven's
Gate and Solar Temple sects.
(...)

``The fact everyone is expecting something to occur might decrease the
chances of dramatic action by religious movements as ... they will be sharing
in the raised expectation and excitement,'' said Rachel Storm, spokeswoman
for religious movement research group INFORM.
[...more...]

24. Vietnam has 31 illegal religious cults - media
AOL/Reuters, Nov. 23, 1999
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=01&id=1999112303524161
Communist Vietnam has 31 illegal religious cults that mainly exist in rural
areas, official media reported. The Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Rural Today)
newspaper, in a report seen on Tuesday, said the cults operated under a total
of 51 different names and were headed by ``eccentric people with low
education and poor knowledge.''
(...)

Vietnam's constitution enshrines freedom of religion, but curbs remain and
some Western governments say the country jails people for their religious
beliefs, a charge Hanoi denies. Vietnam is intolerant of cults and has
jailed some practitioners.

The strangest cults originated from Taiwan, Japan, China, India and France,
the newspaper said.
[...more...]

25. New Buddhist sect worries traditionalists
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 25, 1999
http://www.seattlep-i.com/national/thai25.shtml
The sheer psychic power of 30,000 people meditating together can make
miracles happen, say the monks here at the headquarters of Thailand's
biggest, richest and -- to the established priesthood -- most dangerous new
Buddhist sect.

Last Oct. 5, for example. In the harsh heat of the afternoon, worshippers
say, the sun seemed to soften above them into a cool crystal ball. Then the
vivid image of the sect's founder materialized within the ball, deep in
meditation along with his followers.
(...)

The spectacle was reported widely in Thai newspapers, along with pictures of
the sect's newly constructed temple, a vast, low-slung building that sits in
the dry fields, 30 miles north of Bangkok, looking like a slightly menacing
flying saucer.

People suddenly became aware that a huge and unsettling religious movement
had been growing in their midst and had put up by far the largest temple in
the land.

The movement calls itself Dhammakaya (pronounced tah-mah-guy), and the
circular shape of its main temple is meant to represent the universe, a
fitting symbol: Its leaders intend it to become the central landmark of world
Buddhism, a sort of Vatican or Mecca for their faith, whether the established
hierarchy likes it or not.

Already the movement claims to have more than 100,000 followers who gather in
temples around Thailand and 10 foreign countries, including the United
States.

Religious scholars and commentators say this is a movement for its time -- a
sign of the failure of the established priesthood in Thailand to minister to
a changing, modernizing nation.
(...)

The sect's leader, Phra Dhammachayo, 55, has been accused of fraud and
embezzlement as well as religious heresy. Newspapers are filled with demands
that he be tried or defrocked or both.

The top body of Thai Buddhism, the Sangha, has demanded the abbot's removal
and has summoned him for questioning -- all of which he has ignored, only
deepening the public's sense that the traditional religious structure has
become weak and irrelevant.

The controversy strikes at the cultural heart of Thailand, where Buddhism is
a state religion in all but name and most of the country's 60 million people
follow the established religion. There are 40,000 temples in Thailand and
300,000 full-time monks, whose numbers are augmented each year by tens of
thousands of young men who enter the monkhood for a short stay.

But respect for the monkhood has been shaken in recent years by scandals
involving corruption and criminality. Monks frequently attract followers and
make money by telling fortunes and suggesting lucky lottery numbers.
[...more...]

26. Doctors in Jerusalem Bracing for a Surge of 'Saviors'
New York Times, Nov. 26, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com
Jerusalem's main psychiatric clinic said that it expects a surge in
admissions among millennium pilgrims struck by a syndrome that convinces its
victims they are characters from the Bible.

"There is already an increase of about 50 to 60 percent," Gregory Katz, a
doctor at the Givat Shaul Mental Health Center, told Israel Radio.
(...)

The clinic is currently treating three foreigners affected by what is known
here as Jerusalem Syndrome, Dr. Katz said, including a woman convinced she is
a prophet.
(...)

The Givat Shaul clinic usually treats about 150 cases of the syndrome a
year, of which about 40 require hospital admission.

The disorder is most common among Protestant Christians and Jews,
predominantly from the United States and Europe, according to Dr. Katz and
to Dr. Yair Bar-El, the Jerusalem district psychiatrist who identified the
syndrome in 1982.

Some sufferers arrive mentally disturbed and become convinced they are
biblical figures: Old Testament prophets, King David, Jesus, John the
Baptist or the Virgin Mary. Others come to Jerusalem with visions of the
end of the world.

Still others arrive with no evident disorder, yet then feel compelled to
don white robes -- sometimes the sheets from their hotel beds -- and
preach rambling sermons.
[...more...]

27. British Mother Can Stop Son's Circumcision - Court
Excite/Reuters, Nov. 26, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991126/08/odd-britain-circumcision
A British mother won a landmark legal victory Thursday to stop her
five-year-old son undergoing ritual circumcision at the wishes of his Muslim
father. In the first case of its kind to reach British courts, the Court of
Appeal ruled the 29-year-old Christian woman from the Manchester area of
northwestern England was entitled to save her son from the operation.

"The decision to circumcise a child, other than on grounds of medical
necessity, is a very important one," judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss said.
"It is irreversible and should only be carried out where both parents agree
or where the court considers it in the interests of the child."

The appeal court upheld a High Court ruling earlier this year which said that
the 27-year-old Turkish-born father's wishes for circumcision should not be
carried out. Dame Elizabeth said that in future the legal priority in such
cases was the welfare of the child, not the religious wishes of the parents.
(...)

In this case, the father was not a practicing Muslim and the mother not a
practicing Christian. But the father argued it was his son's birthright to
be circumcised in accordance with Muslim practices and that it was his duty
as a father to ensure it was carried out.
[...more...]

28. Judge strikes down fortune telling ban
Boston Globe/AP, Nov. 24, 1999
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/328/nation/Judge_strikes_down_fortune_tel:.shtml
After a 17-year ban, fortune tellers may be back in business in New Iberia,
La. A federal judge on Tuesday struck down New Iberia's 1982 ban on palm
reading and fortune telling saying the southern Louisiana town of 31,800 went
too far to protect its residents and had created a threat to their First
Amendment rights.

Lawyers for New Iberia had argued that the ban protected against fraud and
unfair trade practices.
[...more...]

29. Healer lets fly at Clinton over feather
Sunday Times (South Africa), Nov. 21, 1999
http://www.suntimes.co.za/1999/11/21/news/news25.htm
President Bill Clinton has been asked to intervene in a row over a feather
that was confiscated by US authorities after it was used in a peace ceremony
in South Africa.

Roy Little Sun, a "peace messenger" from Arizona, has taken his two-year
campaign to retrieve the feather right to the top - the White House. The
humble spiritual healer believes the feather - from an endangered American
spotted eagle - is a vital symbol for reconciliation, the healing of Africa
and, ultimately, global peace.
(...)

The feather was confiscated after Little Sun returned to the US after meeting
Zulu spiritual leader Credo Mutwa two years ago. The feather had been tied
together with that of an African guinea-fowl feather in a ceremony held to
"heal" Africa and build unity between races and nations.
(...)

"The two selected feathers are irreplaceable. The guinea fowl is plentiful,
earthly and symbolises Mother Africa. The eagle is the highest flying bird of
life. It is honoured and sacred among native Americans. The ceremony
symbolises a meeting of heaven and earth."
[...more...]

=== Noted

30. Scroll fragments tell professor an amazing story
Nando Times, Nov. 25, 1999
http://www.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500061320-500101298-500414415-0,00.html
(...) Niccum is part of an elite team of 50 or so scholars around the world
struggling to reconstruct the Dead Sea Scrolls from tens of thousands of
fragments. Beginning in March, translations of all recovered portions of the
scrolls are expected to be published.
(...)

"In general, the work has confirmed my faith in the reliability of the
Scriptures," said Niccum, who lives in Oklahoma City and belongs to the
Church of Christ. "Seeing these things has strengthened my faith."
(...)

For those who will read the manuscripts, the work is only beginning, though.
From that point on, Christians and Jews, believers and nonbelievers, must
sort through the religious significance - if any - contained in the ancient
manuscripts.

Niccum, an assistant professor of Bible at Oklahoma Christian University,
said the public's interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls is nearly universal.
Anyone he encounters who learns of his work with the scrolls has the same
reaction.

"Believers or not, they have a high degree of respect for these scrolls, and
they're fascinated by them," he said. "I'm not sure their reasons are all the
same, but their reaction seems to be.
(...)

Now the main translation is finished and the printer's proofs lie before him.
Next year, manuscripts of the team's translations will be published.
(...)

"In particular, the vast amount of data about first-century Judaism found in
the scrolls has confirmed the trustworthiness of the portrait of Jesus found
in the four canonical gospels," he said. "This is just one reason why I
believe the Bible we have is truly the word of God."
[...more...]

31. Site of Goliath's home town unearthed.
Northern Light/M2 Communications Ltd., Nov. 25, 1999
http://library.northernlight.com/FB19991125380000083.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0
(...) To examine some of these conflicting realities, York University's 1999
Leonard Wolinsky Lectures on Jewish Life and Education will bring together
two leading archaeology and religion experts -- Dr. Aren Maeir, Director, Tel
Gath Archaeological Project and Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical
Archaeology Review. The lectures will take place on Sunday, Nov. 28, 1:45
p.m. to 4:45 p.m. in the Vanier College Study Hall (Room 003) at York
University, 4700 Keele St.
(...)

Tel Gath, the site of Goliath's home town, is one of the largest tels
(ancient ruin mounds) in Israel and was settled almost continuously from the
fifth century BC until modern times. Continuous excavations are planned for
at least the next decade. Scholars will apply state-of-the-art archaeological
research and provide a field school for students and volunteers from all over
the world. A web site detailing the Tel Gath Archaeological Project is
available at: http://faculty.biu.ac.il/maeira.
[...more...]

32. May the 'life force' be with you
The Telegraph (England), Nov. 24, 1999
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000647321007942
rtmo=quqeXRL9&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/99/11/24/eflife24.html
As cult beauty products go, few are as obscure or bizarre-sounding as the
ultra-natural, delicious-smelling potions by the German company, Dr Hauschka.
But neither the label's weird name nor the difficulty involved in tracking
down the products seems to put people off; Dr Hauschka has legions of fans.
(...)

Dubbed "the Birkenstock of beauty" by W magazine, the range is considered to
be one of the purest, most genuinely "natural" available.

Its gentle, plant-based formulas are free of artificial additives, colourants
and synthetic fragrances and the raw ingredients are grown organically and
"bio-dynamically" at the Dr Hauschka farm, in a remote village outside
Stuttgart. The plants and herbs are also grown and harvested according to an
alternative agricultural method developed by philosopher Dr Rudolf Steiner,
designed to follow "the natural rhythms of the cosmos".

The plants, flowers, herbs and roots are gathered by hand immediately before
sunrise, when the "life force" is believed to be at its strongest. The
non-smoking harvesters are encouraged to think happy thoughts and do not pick
plants when they are under stress. Wearing synthetic fragrances and nail
polish on the job is strictly verboten.
[...more...]