> Continued from Part 2

=== Other News
22. Nepal: Jailed missionary before the court end of January
23. Natural Law party gives up fight for floating Irish voter
24. Temple tells militia to stay away
25. Priest arrested over chicken carcasses
26. Ritual Offering vs. Litter
27. Thou shall not ...: WVU spared 'religious explosion'
28. Aunt and 3 nieces fasted to death
29. The lives and slow deaths of four women who fasted for God
30. Sects may soon own TV licences
31. Religious group claims victory as judge grants injunction against school
32. Religious group, board dispute over fine print
33. Jacko to be Uri Geller's 'best man'
34. Mystery cross appears in bathroom window

=== Science
35. Stephen Hawking debunks astrology

> Part 4

=== Death Penalty and other Human Rights Violations
36. A Race to the Death
37. It's Hard To Justify Cuban Embargo

=== Noted
38. The exorcists (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God)
39. Missionaries flock to Britain to revive passion for Church
40. ''Biblically illiterate'flock to classes (Alpha Course)
41. Pastors with a past

=== Internet
42. Paternity test (Chopra)

=== The Y-ners around the corner
43. Fox aims to shut down university's science Web site


=== Other News

22. Nepal: Jailed missionary before the court end of January
The Norway Post, Jan. 19, 2001
http://www.norwaypost.no/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The case against the Norwegian missionary Trond Berg who has been in a Nepalese jail since October, will come before the court on January 31st.
(...)

Trond Berg was arrested in the town of Rajbiraj on October 29th, accused of illegal proselyting. A support group which has been working for Berg's release, said Thursday that his case would not be brought before the court before 3-6 months.
(...)

Berg was charged with trying to convert a Hindu to Christianity, by offering him a sum of 40,000 rupies (NOK 5,000). If sentenced, Berg risks up to six years in jail.

He denies that he at any time has tried to convert anyone to Christianity by offering money, or by using force.

Attempting to convert Hindus to Christianity is forbidden according to the Nepalese constitution.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Natural Law party gives up fight for floating Irish voter
The Sunday Times (England), Jan. 21, 2001
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Natural Law party, best known for transcedental meditation and failure at the polls, has given up its fight for the floating voter in Ireland and will contest no more elections.
(...)

''There was an international meeting of the party leaders after the American elections, in which we had a candidate for the presidency and other seats,'' said John Burns (no relation), who has stood unsuccessfully for the NLP in two European elections, one general election, and in a Northern Ireland poll.

''We chatted things out and in most places the party is not going to contest elections any more. Ireland is one of those places. We have the same goals, of changing collective consciousness, but we are going to pursue them by other means.''

Founded in 1992, the party opposed genetic engineering of food, value added tax, and southern entrances to buildings because they acted ''as a steady drain on good fortune''.

It claimed that yogic flying had been validated by more than 500 scientific research studies worldwide, but although it specialised in mind-to-mind communication, the public never quite got on its wavelength.
(...)

Losing has never apparently bothered the NLP, which follows the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, since it has been generously funded by supporters including George Harrison, the former Beatle.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Temple tells militia to stay away
Indianapolis Star, Jan. 20, 2001
http://starnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Indianapolis Baptist Temple members say they don't want help from a southern Indiana militia group, some members of which reportedly have moved to Indianapolis to help protect the church.

''We're repudiating what they're doing,'' said the Rev. Gregory A. Dixon, the church's senior pastor.

Roger Stalcup, commander of the Southern Indiana Regional Militia, told The Herald Times of Bloomington this week that about 50 militia members had been staying with friends in the Indianapolis area so they could protect the church from violence when federal marshals finally seize the property.

Dixon said Friday night that Stalcup had called the church to say the militia members were pulling out.
(...)

The church's relationship with militia members has been tenuous since the start of the holdout.

About a dozen people inside the church in early November were believed to be militia members.

However, church officials believe most left when they became disenchanted with the church's insistence on keeping the protest nonviolent and its focus on religious liberty.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Priest arrested over chicken carcasses
The Palm Beach Post, Jan. 17, 2001
http://www.gopbi.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
PALM BEACH -- A Santero high priest was arrested after police say he dumped chicken carcasses in the Intracoastal Waterway, a move one expert said could run afoul of the man's First Amendment rights.

Richard Rossie, 58, of Boynton Beach was arrested Sunday and charged with illegal disposal of an animal carcass, police said. Rossie told police the chickens were a religious offering.

''I had to throw the box with the chickens in the water for the ocean god Yemoja,'' Rossie said, according to police.

Rossie told police he was practicing Santeria, a centuries-old Caribbean religion that offers the blood of certain animals to its gods.
(...)

The citation may have violated Rossie's First Amendment rights, said Jim Green, an ACLU attorney based in West Palm Beach.

Green served as director of the Florida ACLU in 1993 when the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Hialeah city ordinance banning the ritual slaughter of animals violated the freedom of religion of a Santeria practitioner. The decision noted that the cruelty to animals law could not be applied only to religious practices because it permitted hunting, fishing and boiling of lobsters, Green said.
(...)

Rossie told officers that he was a babalawo, or high priest of Santeria, and that he is the leader of about 1,000 followers.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Ritual Offering vs. Litter
New York Daily News, Jan. 21, 2001
http://www.nydailynews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Holding fruit in his cupped hands, Bissember Misir came to Jamaica Bay to make an offering to his ancestors.

With the hood of his coat covering his head, snow blew in his face as he knelt down to the water's edge to pour out half a banana, a grape and piece of cantaloupe.

Misir, who traveled from Maryland to perform the Hindu ritual, made the offering to mark the death of his father, Narotam, as it is customary to do in his culture 13 days after the death of a loved one.
(...)

But such ceremonies have not agreed with some who frequent the bay. At the south end of the Joseph P. Adabbo Bridge, plastic bags and aluminum foil used to carry food offerings and other items litter the beach near shore parking lots.

And while the two Hindu worshippers only threw produce into the water and carefully discarded their plastic bags, park police for the National Gateway Recreation Area said they have found cultural garb, religious trinkets and decapitated animals - such as goats, pigs and chickens - that they believe were left by those practicing various religions.

Park police believe the sacrificed animals are left by those who practice voodoo or Santeria.

''A lot of people are not happy to see a beheaded goat on the shore,'' said Officer David Taft. ''That's quite disturbing. Those are the phone calls we get occasionally.''
(...)

Some visitors who use the park say they don't mind the religious practices, but think worshippers should be held more accountable for their actions.
(...)

Taft said anything tossed into the bay is considered litter, and officers will issue fines to those who violate the law.

''We'd like to be as fair-handed as possible,'' said Taft. ''The bottom line of this is, it's just litter. No matter what it is, we'd rather not see it.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Thou shall not ...: WVU spared 'religious explosion'
Charleston Gazette, Jan. 18, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MORGANTOWN - It might have been an explosion of religion on the campus of West Virginia University Wednesday morning if a bomb squad hadn't first defused the situation. Six identically wrapped packages found in various spots on WVU's downtown campus created the fear they could contain bombs.

The first of the 12- by 9-inch packages, all wrapped in a map- looking paper, was found just after 6 a.m. at the Personal Rapid Transit station on Beechurst Avenue, said Bobby Roberts, WVU security chief. Written on a Post-it note stuck to the outside was, ''Do you dare to open this?''
(...)

None, however, contained anything explosive on the inside.

In four of the packages, Roberts said, was an old-style ringed notebook containing religious tracts. All six packages contained a small, international Bible and other religious materials. Roberts said it appeared to be nondenominational Christian writings.

Around the time of the openings, security officers noticed a suspicious vehicle and pulled it over. Roberts said the driver, whose name he did not release, admitted placing the packages around the campus in an effort to get students to read the material.

The suspect is a minister and nonstudent who has not resided long in the Morgantown area. Roberts said prosecutors will have to decide whether to bring charges, but officers who interviewed him said the man appeared to have no malicious intent.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Aunt and 3 nieces fasted to death
The Guardian (England), jan. 17, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Four women found in a house near Dublin last summer starved themselves to death, an inquest was told yesterday.

Frances Mulrooney, 83, and her three nieces, Josephine, 46, and twins Catherine and Ruth, 51, were discovered by their landlord on makeshift beds in downstairs rooms of their home at Leixlip, Co Kildare, in July.
(...)

The inquest heard of notes written by Ruth Mulrooney.

In one, written to Josephine, Ruth said that they had not eaten for 36 days and appealed for ''some medical intervention''.

The note said that none of them could have thought ''our deaths would be so slow and while the idea of ascending into heaven together is a good one, we did not envisage this''.

It added: ''We must do something to get ourselves out of this slow, painful hell. There is no happiness or justice in earth; everything is transient.''

The notes were not dated. But Ruth Mulrooney also wrote to two friends in letters dated June 12 - which were discovered with a written request that they should be sent on - saying that the correspondence would be her last, and asking the friends ''not to grieve for me''.

She wrote of ''going into a spiritual world'' and said she would look down upon her friends.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. The lives and slow deaths of four women who fasted for God
The Guardian, Jan. 20, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
It is difficult to make sense of. This week, an inquest in the Republic of Ireland found that four women had died by suicide as a result of starvation.

Four women, who hid themselves away in a semi-detached house, eating nothing so that they might die together and move on to what they believed would be a higher realm.

The story of the women who ''fasted for God'' has left the country aghast. Three middle-aged sisters and their elderly aunt died slow, painful deaths in their rented suburban home in the village of Leixlip, just a short drive from Dublin.
(...)

The women had turned the living room of the house into a makeshift bedroom where they all lay down to die together. But their plan to ascend to a higher world turned out to be unexpectedly torturous and one sister begged another to let them stop starving themselves and take an overdose of morphine or something else.

In a letter to her sister Jo, Ruth Mulrooney wrote that they had not eaten for 36 days. She begged: ''Please listen. None of us foresaw it could be this cruel and slow. It can deteriorate worse into a slow hell for the four of us (horrible loss of sight, great pain). Please listen. I have thought long and hard about this. Let's think of exiting ourselves humanely... saving ourselves from slow painful hell. This is very grave. It will just get steadily worse. It would be cruel and neglectful not to intervene.'' But Jo must have said no.

Before long, Ruth was dead. The deputy state pathologist concluded that the aunt was the first to die, followed by Ruth, then Jo, then Catherine. One at a time they succumbed to their desperate pact, never asking anyone for help.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Sects may soon own TV licences
The Guardian (England), Jan. 22, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The government is considering relaxing the ban preventing religious organisations from owning television broadcast licences. Ministers have indicated they are open to suggestions on how the restrictions could be eased.

Cult-watchers, such as the Cult Information Network, oppose any move that would allow evangelical sects to extend their influence among vulnerable people.

The proposal is contained in a little-noticed section of the communications reform white paper, published late last year. The white paper noted that the rules had been strict until now because of the relatively small number of television licences available. But with the proliferation of satellite and digital channels extending viewers' choice, the rules could be changed.

It conceded that such a move would be controversial. ''There is a strong demand by some for religious content. But religious content has a particular capacity to offend those with different views and opinions, or, sometimes, to exploit the susceptibilities of the vulnerable. Religious issues may also shade into matters of political controversy.''
(...)

At present religious organisations may not run TV channels but can hold local radio licences. There are strict rules on what religious content can be broadcast. It is forbidden, for example, to try to convert listeners or solicit donations.
(...)

Organisations such as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God have extensive media interests abroad.
(...)

There are also concerns about exploitation. In the US the TV evangelist Jim Bakker publicly admitted using $265,000 from his Praise the Lord group in an unsuccessful bid to buy the silence of a church secretary who claimed he had sex with her.

Ian Howarth, spokesman for the Cult Information Network, said he did not object to mainstream churches starting digital TV stations, but cults should be firmly banned.

''Cults, by definition, remove personal freedom,'' he said. ''The definitions in any new legislation would have to be very tight.

''It is interesting that in the UK we allow cults to register as charitable institutions in the same way as religious or therapeutic organisations.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Religious group claims victory as judge grants injunction against school
The Associated Press, Jan. 20, 2001
http://www.syracuse.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- A religious group was granted a preliminary injunction from state Supreme Court against a school district that has a policy barring religious services in school buildings.

''There is a likelihood (of success) that this policy, on its face and as applied, will be found to be unconstitutionally vague and overbroad and subjects protected speech to an unconstitutional prior restraint,'' the ruling by Judge John S. Parker said.

The ruling was made Jan. 5. The American Center for Law and Justice, which represented the Liberty Christian Center, said it was released to the group on Friday.

The dispute dates back to late 1996 when Liberty Christian was denied use of the high school auditorium for its Sunday services.
(...)

Because state law prohibits schools from being used for religious purposes, the school district opted for a new policy.

The school prohibited ''prayer, religious services, religious instruction, religious testimony, evangelism, altar calls, preaching of the gospel and scriptural readings.''

In November 1999, Liberty Christian Center again sought permission to use school facilities for a concert. The school board rejected the application because Liberty Christian said the concert would include prayer, scripture readings and religious instruction.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


32. Religious group, board dispute over fine print
The Advocate, Jan. 20, 2001
http://www.theadvocate.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
LAFAYETTE -- A lawsuit filed against the Lafayette Parish School Board by a group of Rastafarians remains unresolved as attorneys quibble about the fine print of a settlement.
(...)

Georgiana Helaire and Edgar Green, parents of eight children, sued the board in September. The Rastafarians complained that the board's policy against hats and extreme hairstyles violated their religious tenets that require children to wear their hair in dreadlocks and cover their heads when away from home.

An agreement was negotiated in September, and the children were allowed to enroll in school with their hair and hats.

The children remain in school, but attorneys for both sides said that the details in the agreement remain at issue.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


33. Jacko to be Uri Geller's 'best man'
DotMusic, Jan. 21, 2001
http://www.dotmusic.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Michael Jackson has agreed to be psychic Uri Geller's best man at his wedding. Uri and Hanna Geller married 10 years ago but now want to exchange vows in a traditional Jewish ceremony.

According to The News Of The World the couple were delighted when Jackson agreed to be best man. He will help hold the chupah - the canopy under which the ceremony is conducted - as Uri, 54, and Hanna, 50, exchange vows.

Spoon-bending Uri said: ''It is going to be a very quiet and spiritual event. Michael and I go back many years, we have done spiritual things together. We are very close.''

He revealed that he and Hanna originally wanted the ceremony at Stonehenge but had to scrap that idea because of fears for Jackson's security.
(...)

The service will be conducted by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Next month the rabbi is set to give a lecture - titled What Parents Can Learn From Their Children - to the Oxford Union alongside Jackson.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


34. Mystery cross appears in bathroom window
Ananova, Jan. 21, 2001
http://www.ananova.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Kevin was taking a shower when he first saw the image of a cross, perfectly formed and radiant in the frosted glass window of the bathroom.
(...)

For six weeks, they said nothing. Eventually, though, they did. And since then a swelling trickle of spiritual seekers and the merely curious have been turning up at their modest home in the central Victorian hamlet to witness the phenomenon. Some fall to their knees. Some cry. Many hail it as an omen of wondrous things to come.

It is tempting to dismiss the image as an illusion created by the refraction of light on frosted glass, as two prominent members of the Australian Skeptics who visited Baringhup last week immediately did.

What is perhaps more difficult to explain is the fact that the Butlers are not alone.

As a trawl through the internet quickly reveals, ''crosses of light'' have been appearing in frosted-glass windows all over the world since 1988. There are literally dozens of them, from New Zealand to Bosnia. And they all look just like the Butler's.

The Skeptics say - same glass, same effect.

Many others, though, believe these crosses are the harbinger of a new messiah and a new age.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Science

35. Stephen Hawking debunks astrology
AP, Jan. 17, 2001
http://salon.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Jan. 17, 2001 | NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- British physicist Stephen Hawking debunked astrology -- along with some of Albert Einstein's theories -- in a lecture Wednesday in the capital of India, where most Hindus consult star charts and astrological signs for decisions on marriage and other matters.

''When it was discovered that the Earth was not the center of the universe, astrology became impossible,'' said Hawking, delivering a lecture through voice synthesizer to a standing-room-only crowd of thousands.

The reason most scientists don't believe in astrology is because it is not consistent with our theories that have been tested by experiment,'' Hawking said to a rapt and quiet crowd that had waited for an hour in lines winding around the block to see and hear him.
(...)

Explaining that scientists have been unable to make an exact measurement of an object's velocity and position at the same time, he said, ''One can suppose'' that information is ''known to God, but hidden from us.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


> Part 4