News Items of Interest to Apologists
and Counter-Cult Professionals
and Counter-Cult Professionals
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News Items of Interest to Apologists and Counter-Cult Professionals |
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Religion Items In The NewsSeptember 4, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 110)
Note: I am including a selection of items regarding the Waco cover-up
investigation, because many of the additional items are repetitive. To find additional stories, including the most current Wire Services-, CNN-, and Washington Post reports on the Waco Cover-up, use these pre-defined searches: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/b10.html#newscurrent [Story no longer online? Read this] Religion Items in the News - September 4, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 110) ================================================================ (Story no longer online? Read this)
=== Waco Cover-up Investigation1. Tenacity of 2 Played a Role in Reviving Inquiry on Waco 2. Tension Between Reno and Freeh Reaches Breaking Point on Waco 3. Reno Is "Very Troubled" by FBI Waco Revelations 4. Reno denies rift with Freeh; will name investigator for Waco 5. Former Sen. Danforth likely head of independent Waco probe, official says 6. Marshals Impound FBI Waco Evidence 7. Marshals confiscate FBI siege video 8. FBI Releases New Waco Videotape; Reno 'Troubled' 9. U.S. fights Waco evidence order === Other News 10. Courts resume Asahara trials (Aum Shinrikyo) 11. Cultist says he could not defy 'poa' order (Aum Shinrikyo) 12. Psychiatrist found negligent in repressed-memory case 13. Jury finds therapist negligent in repressed-memory lawsuit 14. Liberia-Religion 18 Sect Members Charged With Incest (Never Die Church) 15. Detained members of banned meditation sect stage hunger strike (Falun Gong) 16. Ex-Cult Leader Pledges To Assist VCs (Nigeria's campus cults) 17. A Daring Diva's Disappearing Act (Sergio Andrade) 18. 'Warlock' gets 110-year term for sex assaults 19. Jehovah's Witnesses' apartment trashed 20. Judge Rules for Million Youth March 21. U.S. Prepares For Possible Y2k Violence 22. Constitutional Security Agent believes Scientology has been overestimated 23. Bavaria wants to continue surveillance of Scientology 24. New jail ministry has controversial ties (Greater Grace World Outreach) 25. Calif. Minister Sentenced for Fraud 26. Francis Frangipane Drops Out of Mayoral Race 27. Britain facing Asian crime wave ("Muslims") 28. Integration brings more assertiveness ("Muslims") 29. Richard Ford examines why some Asians turn to crime ("Muslims") 30. Islamic confab will tackle more than religion 31. Americans flock to find out more about Buddhism 32. Unorthodox temple unsettles Thai Buddhist harmony 33. German Church's Fight for Survival Is 'Crucial' for Europe 34. [Removed] 35. Psychic hot line caller in LA gets 30 days in jail === Noted 36. The Robin Hood of American religion goes online (Universal Life Church) 37. Alternative-Lifestyle Guru Danny Seo, Doing Very Well By Doing Good === Newsgroup Posting 38. The Globalization of Scientology: Influence, Control and Opposition in Transnational Markets (by Stephen Kent) === Books 39. The respectable cult (Christian Science) 41. Like Jonestown in slow motion (Christian Science) 41. 'Tathea' a gold mine of Mormon doctrine === The Church Around The Corner 42. Is There Woof After Death? === Waco Cover-up Investigation 1. Tenacity of 2 Played a Role in Reviving Inquiry on Waco [Story no longer online? Read this] New York Times, Sep. 2, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/waco-debate.html Michael McNulty and David Hardy refused to let go. (...) Espousing views popular with many right-wing groups, McNulty, in particular, has blamed Federal agents for the deaths of the Branch Davidian leader, David Koresh, and about 80 of his followers, a position many critics regard as anti-Government propaganda. McNulty and Hardy, however, regard as Government propaganda the official explanation that Koresh and his followers carried out a suicide pact by setting fire to the cult compound and shooting themselves on the 51st day of a siege by Federal agents. (...) Hardy, 48, an Arizona lawyer, requested documents and evidence related to the siege and fire, then sued for them. Both men pushed the Texas Rangers to begin an inquiry into evidence under state control. They also gave information to lawyers representing the families of deceased Branch Davidians in a wrongful-death lawsuit. And McNulty, 53, a documentary film maker from Colorado, toured the state evidence lockers four times, unearthing what he says are potentially flammable devices capable of starting a fire. (...) In the midst of it all, McNulty and Hardy are enjoying a broad new forum, appearing regularly on radio and television news programs. McNulty often uses his media appearances to promote his forthcoming documentary, "Waco: A New Revelation." In an interview on Court TV, McNulty even waved a sign with an 800 number so that viewers could call about the film. Critics say they fear that while McNulty may have come up with some information worth examining, he has also spread much that is unsubstantiated and misleading. "It's really unfortunate," said Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors paramilitary and other anti-Government groups. "This has given credence to the rest of McNulty's views, which are unsupported." (...) A Vietnam veteran who converted 20 years ago from Roman Catholicism to the Mormon faith, McNulty said the Branch Davidian fire had reminded him of a bloody incident in Mormon history, the Haun's Mill Massacre of 1838. In that incident, a mob in Missouri herded Mormons into a grist mill and shot them to death with muskets. Ultimately, the Mormons, led by Joseph Smith, were ordered out of Missouri. (...) Despite the nomination (the film did not win), "Rules of Engagement" also was criticized for failing to accurately present evidence that placed the Government in a favorable light, and for numerous inaccuracies. Nonetheless, Mark Pitcavage, a historian who specializes in right-wing extremist groups and operates the Militia Watchdog Web site, said the film made McNulty a celebrity among followers of right-wing, anti-Government groups. "The Waco documentary was highly publicized, but the inaccuracies were not," Pitcavage said. "I don't think the McNulty Waco documentary could even remotely be considered objective." [...more...] 2. Tension Between Reno and Freeh Reaches Breaking Point on Waco [Story no longer online? Read this] New York Times, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/090399reno-freeh.html (...) The conflict between Ms. Reno, Director Freeh and their two agencies publicly erupted on Wednesday when Ms. Reno dispatched United States marshals to Freeh's headquarters to seize previously undisclosed tapes that contained radio voice communications of agents asking for and receiving authorization to fire the tear-gas rounds. Today, F.B.I. officials complained that Ms. Reno ordered the marshals to take custody of the tapes in a way that left a powerful impression that Ms. Reno no longer believed the Federal Bureau of Investigation could be trusted. [...more...] 3. Reno Is "Very Troubled" by FBI Waco Revelations New York Times, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/04waco.html (...) Reno defended the decision by senior Justice Department officials to send U.S. marshals to FBI headquarters this week to take possession of the videotapes and the other recently discovered evidence. She said she questioned why it took the FBI several days to inform the Justice Department about the tapes. "I questioned that. I think this is a matter the outside investigator should look at," she said. Reno denied that her relationship with FBI Director Louis had deteriorated and that she could no longer trust him. "I have a relationship with Louie Freeh and the people around him that I think is excellent," she said. [...more...] 4. Reno denies rift with Freeh; will name investigator for Waco [Story no longer online? Read this] San Francisco Gate, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/09/03/national1134EDT0614.DTL (...) While confirming that she had ordered agents not to use incendiary devices during the tear-gas operation, Reno said all the evidence she has seen supports the view that federal agents did not start the fire. ``If the truth shows what I believe to be the case -- that we tried to set up something that would bring the people out and give them a chance to come out in a safe and orderly way -- and that it was their determination and their judgment and their actions that brought that fire upon them, then I would use the experience we have here and figure out what we can do for the future,'' she said. (...) In addition to the Reno-ordered probe, congressional hearings will be convened this fall and the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill, is pushing for a congressional commission in hopes that would avoid the bitter partisanship exhibited during earlier Waco hearings on Capitol Hill. The infrared videotape made public Thursday, recorded from an FBI plane, runs from just before 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on the final morning of the 51-day siege -- covering the period during which the FBI assault began. (...) A second videotape, which runs from 8 a.m. to 10:42 a.m., surfaced Thursday; and FBI officials were taking steps to release it publicly as well. Bureau officials had previously insisted in sworn affidavits that they didn't have any infrared video footage before 10:42 a.m. -- hours after the tear-gas assault began at 5:55 a.m. FBI spokesman Tron Brekke said the apparent discrepancy is ``a legitimate point for inquiry.'' [...more...] 5. Former Sen. Danforth likely head of independent Waco probe, official says CNN, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/03/waco.danforth/ A senior law enforcement official tells CNN that former Republican Sen. John Danforth has emerged as the leading candidate to head an independent probe of the 1993 Waco siege. [...more...] 6. Marshals Impound FBI Waco Evidence Washington Post, Spe. 2, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990902/V000624-090299-idx.html (...) Senior Justice officials directed the marshals to seize the evidence Wednesday afternoon after being informed by the FBI that new information had been discovered in the files of the FBI's hostage rescue team at Quantico, Va., Justice and FBI officials said. The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times today quoted officials as saying an audio track on the infrared tape picked up the voice of an agent seeking and receiving permission from a commander to fire incendiary tear-gas grenades at the bunker. [...more...] 7. Marshals confiscate FBI siege video Dallas Morning News, Sept. 2, 1999 http://dallasnews.com/specials/waco/0902waco1fbi.htm (...) The seizure, which federal officials conceded was highly unusual and embarrassing to the FBI, was made within hours after senior bureau officials notified the Justice Department that the tapes had been discovered at the headquarters of the FBI's hostage rescue team. (...) FBI officials had previously insisted in sworn affidavits that they had no infrared videotape before 10:42 a.m., four hours into the gas assault. In a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Tucson, Ariz., lawyer David T. Hardy, FBI officials also told a federal judge under oath that the bureau had no recorded radio traffic of the entire six-hour tear gas assault. (...) Mr. Burton said the committee has also called in experts to help analyze previously disclosed infrared video shot by the FBI on April 19 and another videotape shot by the Texas Department of Public Safety. A documentary on the standoff scheduled for release this month by a Fort Collins, Colo., company includes the infrared and DPS footage. A former Defense Department expert alleges in the film, Waco: A New Revelation, that flashes caught on the videotapes are gunfire directed at the Branch Davidians from FBI helicopters and government personnel. (...) Mr. Burton said he was pleased that a federal judge in Waco had recently moved to take control of all government evidence relating to the 1993 standoff. On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Walter Smith to reconsider, arguing that such a turnover might handicap the wave of new investigations. (...) Lawyers for surviving Branch Davidians also have complained that they have been denied access to evidence that might help their pending wrongful death lawsuit against the government. [...more...] 8. FBI Releases New Waco Videotape; Reno 'Troubled' Excite/Reuters, Sep. 3, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/r/990903/14/news-crime-davidians (...) It marked the third key piece of evidence that the FBI has discovered in the past two weeks confirming that potentially incendiary devices had been fired during the assault, after six years of denying their use. [...more...] 9. U.S. fights Waco evidence order Dallas Morning News, Sept. 1, 1999 http://dallasnews.com/specials/waco/0901tsw100waco.htm U.S. Justice Department lawyers on Tuesday challenged a federal judge's authority to take control of evidence in the Branch Davidian case, setting up a high-stakes legal showdown. An Aug. 9 order in which U.S. District Judge Walter Smith demanded custody of all documents and other evidence is without any legal basis under federal or civil court rules, Justice Department lawyers argued in a 19-page motion. The judge's move "threatens a wholesale intrusion" into the executive branch and an "unwarranted and substantial burden" on the entire federal government. (...) The argument is the latest development in an escalating skirmish over who will control and investigate the vast array of evidence, documents, photographs and other materials tied to the Branch Davidian standoff. The government's filing came one day after a Waco federal prosecutor warned Attorney General Janet Reno in a letter that lawyers within her department had long withheld evidence that the FBI fired pyrotechnic tear gas within hours before the compound burned. For years, government officials had insisted otherwise. On Tuesday, the federal prosecutor, Bill Johnston, told The Dallas Morning News that he felt compelled to go public with his warning after being given a 5-year-old document that discusses the use of "military gas" by the FBI on April 19, 1993. (...) He said both the language in those nondisclosure notations and typewritten identification lines on the top of each page indicated that they were sent from the department's civil torts section, which is defending a massive wrongful-death lawsuit arising from the standoff. (...) On Tuesday, DPS Commission Chairman James B. Francis Jr. said he was disappointed that in the Justice Department's action. "From what I can understand of the Justice's Department's motion today, they're still attempting to prevent the evidence from being judicially reviewed," Mr. Francis said. "And I think that is most unfortunate." [...more...] === Other News 10. Courts resume Asahara trials Japan Times, Sep. 2, 1999 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news9-99/news.html After a monthlong summer recess, the trial of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara resumed Thursday at the Tokyo District Court. (...) Prosecutors are reportedly scheduled to begin hearings on the 1994 murder of Tadahito Hamaguchi, an office worker in Osaka, and other attempted murder cases involving the use of VX nerve gas sometime in late October. [...more...] 11. Cultist says he could not defy 'poa' order Japan Times, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news9-99/news.html#story11 A former key member of Aum Shinrikyo said Friday he had doubts about killing a fellow cultist in 1989 but acted upon the order from Shoko Asahara because he was not in a position to defy the guru. Kazuaki Okazaki, 39, was testifying before the Tokyo District Court in Asahara's 129th trial session. Okazaki said the guru ordered him and three other cultists to "poa" Shuji Taguchi because Taguchi was trying to flee from the cult and had said he would try to kill Asahara. In the cult's jargon, "poa" meant to kill. (...) Okazaki was sentenced to death last year over his role in the 1989 murder of an anti-Aum lawyer. He is appealing the decision to the Tokyo High Court. [...more...] 12. Psychiatrist found negligent in repressed-memory case San Francisco Gate, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/09/03/national0152EDT0452.DTL A jury awarded $850,000 in damages to a woman who claimed false childhood memories implanted by her psychiatrist made her believe she was molested by her father and had multiple personalities. The jury on Thursday found Dr. Juan Fernandez III negligent in his care of Joan Hess, who said the psychiatrist implanted memories during hypnosis that led her to believe she was sexually abused, that she had more than 75 personalities and that her parents belonged to a cult that forced others to have sex with animals and witness babies being killed and eaten. (...) Repressed-memory therapy contends victims of childhood trauma can forget the abuse for decades, and it can be the source of adult disorders. Recovering the memories can cure the disorders. [...more...] 13. Jury finds therapist negligent in repressed-memory lawsuit CNN, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/03/repressed.memory.ap/index.html A therapist was found negligent on Thursday for leading a woman to believe she was molested by her father, that her parents were in a baby-killing cult and that she had 75 personalities. She was awarded $850,000. "In my view, there is no defense for this kind of therapy. If that means that this is now a message that this stuff has to stop, I hope the message is delivered," said William Smoler, an attorney for Joan Hess and her family. Dr. Juan Fernandez III declined to comment as he left the courtroom wearing a necktie that featured a drawing of Daffy Duck. (...) Mrs. Hess, 47, the ex-wife of former Wausau Mayor John Hess, contended none of the horrors her therapy revealed actually occurred, and that she was permanently harmed by the ordeal. She contended some of the personalities caused her to threaten suicide, forcing her to be hospitalized numerous times. [...more...] 14. Liberia-Religion 18 Sect Members Charged With Incest Northren Light/ANS, Aug. 31, 1999 http://library.northernlight.com/FC19990831090000159.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0 The magisterial court in Monrovia has charged 18 members of a sect in Liberia of statutory rape and incest when they were arraigned, press reports said Tuesday. But the reports said the defendants, all members of the Kingdom Assembly church, also labelled by members as "the Never Die church," pled not guilty to the charges. (...) The police swoop followed a longstanding public criticism that activities of the sect were "immoral, unlawful and promiscuous," inviting the government to intervene. Leaders of the sect Friday told a radio talk show that their church does not honour marriage, and that every woman in the church belongs to every man who may engage them into sexual intercourse at will. They added that children born out of such intercourse do not have parents on earth because their church doctrine teaches that its members have their parents in heaven. Based on this belief, members of the sect have intercourse with persons who otherwise would be their mother, father, daughter, son or relations, they said on the radio programme. While the hour-long talk show was going on, a mammoth crowd besieged the radio station with probable intent to unleash their wrath on the sect leaders. But the police intervened and rescued them from the angry crowd. [...more...] 15. Detained members of banned meditation sect stage hunger strike San Francisco Gate, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/09/03/international1138EDT0616.DTL Female members of a meditation movement jailed in a crackdown ordered by China's communist government staged a hunger strike this week, group members and a Chinese prison official said Friday. Thirty-one followers of the Falun Gong movement were being subjected to hard labor at the Daguang detention center in Changchun, a provincial capital in the northeast, and the 24 women among them began refusing food this week in protest, a statement from Falun Gong practitioners in the United States said. (...) Wei said he was personally ``giving them education''-- making them read newspaper articles critical of Falun Gong and watch video tapes condemning the movement to ``help speed up the pace of their conversion.'' ``Most of them have repented but a few remain unchanged,'' he said. (...) Wei, the prison warden, denied charges by the U.S.-based Falun Gong members that the prisoners were being beaten with cattle prods, stamped on, doused in dirty or icy water and otherwise tortured. ''We treat them the same as other criminals in custody. No torture at all. We are only re-educating them,'' he said. [...more...] 16. Ex-Cult Leader Pledges To Assist VCs Northren Light/ANS, Aug. 30, 1999 http://library.northernlight.com/FD19990830190000067.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0 [Nigeria] Dayspring Foundation, an organisation founded in 1995 and owned by an ex-tertiary institution cultist has offered to assist VCs meet the target given them by President Olusegun Obasanjo to stamp out the menace of cultism on their campuses. Richard Uyanga, General Co-ordinator of the foundation told P.M News that the non-governmental organisation is poised to eradicate secret cultism from primary to tertiary levels in Nigeria. [...more...] * See related items: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/an990514.html#15 (May 11, 1999) http://www.apologeticsindex.org/an990720.html#15 (July 13, 1999) http://www.apologeticsindex.org/an990720.html#16 (July 15, 1999) 17. A Daring Diva's Disappearing Act Washington Post, Aug. 31, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/31/068l-083199-idx.html (...) Today, Trevi is in hiding and on the run from the law after a sordid, career-crashing sex scandal involving minors. The episode has rocked Mexico's entertainment industry and outraged fans and detractors alike. Trevi -- a working-class icon who stood for women's liberation, equal opportunity and helping the downtrodden -- is accused of luring dozens of young female fans, some just 12, into a cult-like troupe of sex slaves for Sergio Andrade, her manager and one of Mexico's top record producers. (...) According to the criminal complaints, two books by Andrade's former wife, and recent interviews with several girls who worked with Andrade and Trevi, girls who joined the group were subjected to a super-secret, degrading and humiliating life of subservience to Andrade. According to some accounts, the girls were allowed no contact with the outside world -- no visitors, no phone calls or trips home, no television, radio or magazines -- and sometimes were forced to sleep at the foot of Andrade's bed and drink water from a toilet. He allegedly fomented rivalries among the girls and switched loyalties, made them monitor each other's behavior, and meted out swift punishment when angered. [...more...] 18. ' Warlock' ' gets 110-year term for sex assaults Startribune.com/AP, Sep. 1, 1999 http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=80886546 A man who promised young girls witchcraft powers if they had sex with him has been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in a series of sexual assaults. [...more...] 19. Jehovah's Witnesses' apartment trashed Jerusalem Post, Sep. 1, 1999 http://www.jpost.com/News/Article-5.html (...) In addition to breaking glass, ripping pictures off the walls, destroying his library and fax machine, and cutting open the sofas in the apartment, the attackers also covered the walls with threatening graffiti, Levi said. They painted a cross and swastika on the walls and phrases such as "Nazi missionary," "Josef Levi, the missionary," "Christian dog traitor" and "Death." The incident marks a significant rise in the harassment the Levis have been subjected to since becoming Jehovah's Witnesses in 1974, said Levi. His wife was beaten and they receive death threats, over the telephone and from haredim outside their home. (...) Two haredi groups in the Bat Yam-Holon area have been harassing the over 100 Jehovah's Witnesses who live in the area, said Lon Koenig, of Watch Tower. He said some 160 complaints have been filed with the Israel Police over the last two-and-a-half years but none have gone to court. [...more...] 20. Judge Rules for Million Youth March Callaw/AP, Sep. 1, 1999 http://www.callaw.com/stories/edt0901y.html A judge ruled Tuesday that the Million Youth March can go forward in Harlem this weekend over the city's objections because the First Amendment protects even offensive speech. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said that many statements made by the event's organizers, including Khallid Abdul Muhammad, were ``bigoted, hateful, violent and frightening.'' But he said that did not justify denying a permit for the rally. (...) Michael Hess, the city's chief lawyer, argued that the rally should not be protected by the First Amendment because organizers made it clear they hoped to incite violence. (...) Roger Wareham, a lawyer for the Million Youth March, told the judge that the rally organizers were urging peace and could not be held accountable for everything every speaker said. (...) Wareham said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had a vendetta against Muhammad, who last year encouraged the crowd to beat or shoot officers if they were attacked. Some in the crowd threw barricades, chairs and bottles in the closing moments of the rally. At a Harlem news conference Monday, Malik Shabazz, a march organizer, vowed that ``all efforts to stamp out the Million Youth March will be met with divine doom and destruction.'' [...more...] 21. U.S. Prepares For Possible Y2k Violence NewsPage, Sept. 1, 1999 http://www.newspage.com/cgi-bin/NA.GetStory?story=c0831162.001&date=19990901&Query=violence The U.S. government is preparing for possible violence from cults, guerrillas, hate groups and end-of-world-fearing zealots as 2000 approaches. Law enforcement officials are working on contingency plans to cope with everything from cyber attacks to bombs at New Year's Eve parties, though they say they lack knowledge of specific, credible threats. (...) Michael Vatis, head of a new FBI-led interagency center to protect critical U.S. infrastructure, cited in particular a fringe view among white supremacists that the world is on the verge of a final apocalyptic struggle. (...) Groups with similar views or apocalyptic cults like Heaven's Gate, 30 of whose members committed mass suicide in 1997, may deem the rollover to 2000 ``a good time for them to make their mark on history,'' said Blitzer. [...more...] 22. Constitutional Security Agent believes Scientology has been overestimated Giessener Anzeiger (Germany), Aug. 31, 1999 Translation: German Scientology News http://www.lermanet.com/cisar/990831a.htm The Nordrhein-Westphalian Constitutional Security Chief Fritz Achim Baumann believes the importance of the Scientology organization in commercial and political areas has been overestimated, and has placed the necessity of further surveillance by the intelligence agency in question. In a pre-published interview with the Hamburg magazine, "Stern" on Tuesday, Baumann said that Scientology was "primarily a commercial undertaking which entices people with a mix of offerings which contain elements of church, religion and therapy." After a two year surveillance of the organization by Constitutional Security, he further stated in the interview, "Indeed we have found indications of endeavors taken by the Scientologists against our basic democratic principles. However according to our observation, these [endeavors] were not actually being transformed into reality." (...) He said the risks associated with Scientology lie primarily in personal areas. "Isolation, lack of ability to succeed, intellectual deficit - all the little, human weaknesses are immoderately magnified by the Scientologists. For the victims, that turns into expensive pseudo-therapy. The fact is that the sect counselor is more in demand than the secret agent," said the chief of the Nordrhein-Westphalian Constitutional Security office. [...more...] 23. Bavaria wants to continue surveillance of Scientology [Story no longer online? Read this] AFP (Agence France Presse), Aug. 31, 1999 Translation: German Scientology News http://www.lermanet.com/cisar/990831b.htm The Bavarian state administration believes it is necessary for Constitutional Security to continue surveillance of Scientology. Interior State Secretary Hermann Regensburger (CSU) dismissed considerations of Nordrhein-Westphalian (NRW) Constitutional Security to suspend surveillance by the intelligence agency. Even if the number of active Scientologists were under 5,000, this was "no reason for calling off the alarm," stated Regensburger. He said that Scientology had at its disposal "a well-constructed, strategic network intact which was born by an aggressive cadre organization." Besides that, the suggestion of the Director of NRW Constitutional Security, Fritz Achim Baumann, was contrary to the report of the "Federal State Work Group on Scientology" of October 1998 [see http://www.lermanet.com/cisar/trn1060.htm or http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News/trn1060a.htm], as well as the report of the NRW Constitutional Security. [...more...] 24. New jail ministry has controversial ties The Standard-Times, Sep. 2, 1999 http://www.s-t.com/daily/09-99/09-02-99/a01lo002.htm The new church providing religious services at the county jails has ties to a controversial preacher who, a court ruled, bilked millions from a wealthy parishioner in Massachusetts. (...) Some are also questioning the church's affiliation with Baltimore's Greater Grace World Outreach. That organization is headed by former Lenox preacher Carl Stevens, who a bankruptcy court judge ruled had improperly taken millions from an heiress to the Lechmere department-store fortune in the 1980s. (...) The 20-year-old Grace Church is listed on the web site of the Greater Grace World Outreach of Baltimore as a member. Greater Grace was founded, and is headed, by Carl Stevens, who for years ran The Bible Speaks program in Lenox, but left after allegations the church was cult-like. Mr. Stevens was sued in 1987 by Besty Dovyenas, heiress to the Lechmere fortune, who claimed Stevens and the church brainwashed her and coerced contributions totaling $6.6 million. Church members tried to persuade her to leave her husband and children and sign documents professing that God had prompted her to donate to Bible Speaks, she alleged. Family members enrolled her in a cult deprogramming course before suing for the donations she had made. A judge agreed with the heiress and ordered The Bible Speaks to give back the money in 1987. Bible Speaks declared bankruptcy that year and Mr. Stevens moved to Maryland where he founded Greater Grace. (...) Swansea's Grace Gospel spokesman Thomas Taylor said the Greater Grace and Grace Gospel no longer have any binding affiliation, and are "just friends." (...) But, according to Mr. Taylor, Grace Gospel made a formal announcement of disaffiliation with Greater Grace " a few years" back. (...) That letter of disaffiliation could not be located yesterday, he said. [...more...] Sidebar: Grace Gospel dedicated to spreading the word (...) From running a K-12 Christian school, to radio and cable-access programs, to a 24-hour manned prayer line, Grace Gospel tries to live in accord with the passage from the Gospel according to Mark: "And He said unto them, 'Go forth and preach the Gospel to every living creature.'" (...) Other Protestant ministers, such as Rev. Bob Thayer of the Inter-Church Council of New Bedford, which lost the contract to Grace Gospel after it was put out to bid, have described Grace Gospel's doctrine as one predicated on fear of hell and damnation, and out of step with mainstream Protestant groups. [...more...] 25. Calif. Minister Sentenced for Fraud Northren Light/AP, Sep. 3, 1999 http://library.northernlight.com/ED19990902800000028.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc A California clergyman who defrauded about 2,000 followers out of $1.4 million in a pyramid scheme was sentenced to nearly four years in prison. Charles Groeschel, 67, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison for a pyramid scheme based in his hometown of Palm Desert, Calif., in which he told followers they could make millions of dollars in a year. Groeschel, who ran the Association of Individual Ministries under the name Pastor Chuck, pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud. (...) Prosecutors said Groeschel carried out the criminal scheme in the name of God, quoting lines from the Bible that indicate profit is not a bad thing. One Biblical passage promised ``we will receive a hundred fold return in this life.'' In 1997 and 1998, he collected more than $1.4 million from about 2,000 lower-income individuals, many of them residents of New York City. [...more...] 26. Francis Frangipane Drops Out of Mayoral Race Charisma News Service, Sep. 2, 1999 http://www.charismanews.com/worldnews/worldnews.cgi?a=130&t=news.html A week after the surprise announcement that he intended to run for mayor of his Iowa hometown, author and international speaker Francis Frangipane has stepped out of the race. He withdrew his nomination Tuesday, less than an hour before the deadline for standing down. The senior pastor at River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids made the U-turn after realizing that he would be unable to continue his writing if he was appointed to the two-year office. "I felt I had reached the boundaries of what God wanted me to surrender," he explained in a message written for this weekend's church bulletin. [...more...] 27. Britain facing Asian crime wave The Times of London, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?2488675 The first Muslim adviser to the Prison Service has been appointed by Jack Straw amidst concern that Britain is on the verge of an Asian crime wave. The move by the Home Secretary follows a doubling of the number of Muslims in prisons in just six years, enough to fill eight medium-sized jails. Home Office researchers and academics have warned ministers and police of a serious upsurge in crime by young Asians, shattering the belief that they are more law-abiding than white or black people. The number of prisoners registering as Muslims is expected to accelerate sharply over the next few years as a demographic time bomb of young British Asians reaches the peak offending age of between 18 and 25. Ministers have been told that the upsurge in criminal activity could lead to a dangerous new "moral panic". (...) Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said young Muslims were drifting into Western lifestyles and then into crime: "We have been saying for a decade that this was going to happen. There has been family breakdown and the youngsters are rebelling against elders and tradition." [...more...] 28. Integration brings more assertiveness The Times of London, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?2488675 Asian youths are becoming more assertive. They drink, they take drugs, they get into trouble. Any rise in crime among Muslims is primarily because there are more young Muslims, according to police in Bradford, where in the predominantly Kashmiri Manningham district not one of the ten best-known burglars is Asian. Most are white. [...more...] 29. Richard Ford examines why some Asians turn to crime The Times of London, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?2488675 The huge rise in the number of Muslims in jail is fuelled by a large youthful Asian population reaching the peak offending age at the same time as Western values undermine the community's traditional strengths, academics said yesterday. (...) Within British Asian communities, it has been clear for some time that the social, cultural and sexual mores that controlled the lives of an older generation were being undermined by Western values. [...more...] 30. Islamic confab will tackle more than religion Philadelphia Daily News, Sep. 2, 1999 http://www.phillynews.com/daily_news/99/Sep/02/local/MUSL02.htm Politics Muslim-style will be part of the agenda for the National Islamic Convention of the Muslim American Society that starts in Philadelphia tomorrow. The convention's unofficial goal is to break down stereotypes and showcase the followers of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, predominantly African-Americans, as part of the American and Islamic mainstream. (...) Ali is leading two politics-based workshops Saturday. He said they'll show Muslims why and how they should get active in community affairs. (...) In 1975 W. Deen Mohammed founded a movement that took tens of thousands of blacks from his late father Elijah Muhammad's separatist Nation of Islam into mainstream Sunni Muslim practices. It has evolved into the Muslim American Society. (...) In Chicago this weekend, the Islamic Society of North America, predominantly Asian and Middle Eastern born and immigrant heritage Muslims, holds its convention. Shabazz said the differences between the groups are mostly in ethnic and racial composition, not in beliefs. [...more...] 31. Americans flock to find out more about Buddhism [Story no longer online? Read this] Lexington Herald-Leader, Aug. 28, 1999 http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/082899/faithdocs/buddhism28.htm It wasn't a leap of faith but rather the inability to take one that led Roger Bosse to a new religion. ``Accepting Jesus Christ as God is a bit of a step in faith which I found difficult to take,'' says Bosse, who was raised a Methodist. ``Buddhism ... doesn't recognize a god-creator of the universe ... but it does recognize a spiritual essence in all individuals that can be experienced and understood.'' Many Americans apparently are looking for that same type of experience. They're flocking to courses like ``Living Buddhism in America,'' a summer-school class at Colorado College with a waiting list. They're working toward graduate or undergraduate degrees at the ``Buddhist-inspired'' Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo., where the student body has tripled to 800 since the mid-1990s. They're meeting regularly in Buddhist centers like the one Bosse belongs to in Colorado Springs where he and dozens of others meditate and receive instruction from a Tibetan nun. Two distinct groups are playing a role in the growth of Buddhism in the United States. There is an ``ethnic and immigrant Buddhism,'' which is being brought to the country by Asian newcomers, says David Gardiner, an assistant religion professor at Colorado College. Then there's ``import Buddhism or white Buddhism,'' made popular by primarily white, upper middle-class Americans. [...more...] 32. Unorthodox temple unsettles Thai Buddhist harmony Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 31, 1999 http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/08/31/p7s1.htm In contrast with the low profile of most of Thailand's traditional Buddhist temples, the activity at Dhamma-kaya is more reminiscent of Christian television evangelism. Closed circuit monitors relay the image and voice of the temple's leader, Phra Dhammachayo. At the edges of the prayer hall, volunteers wait patiently behind cash registers at designated donation points. And in the normally harmonious world of Thai Buddhism, this unorthodox movement with several hundred thousand followers here and around the world is causing something of an uproar. Last week, after months of investigations and intense media speculation, Thai authorities arrested Abbot Phra Dhammachayo, along with his secular aide, on charges of abusing his authority and embezzling temple funds. The soft-spoken, media-shy monk was later released on bail of $54,000. Guilty or not, Phra Dhammachayo and his movement are shaking the religious foundations of this nation, where traditional Theravada Buddhism is the nominal faith of 90 percent of the population of 60 million. (...) Advocates say Dhammakaya could be the face of Theravada Buddhism for the new millennium. Wearing traditional saffron robes, the temple's monks, at least half of whom are university graduates, routinely carry mobile phones and use personal computers. Dhammakaya has its own Web site and has put ancient Buddhist texts on CD-ROM. Full-page advertisements in national newspapers and on billboards were used to promote a recent "miracle," when followers were said to have seen a crystal ball appear in place of the sun. Temple brochures exhort followers to donate up to $270 to purchase a personalized Buddha image that will be placed on or in the new Chedi. Critics say the temple's marketing techniques and the wealth it has achieved through donations are at odds with Buddhism, which teaches people to steer away from material attachment. [...more...] 33. German Church's Fight for Survival Is 'Crucial' for Europe Charisma News Service, Sep. 3, 1999 http://www.charismanews.com/news2.cgi?a=141&t=news.html (...) The 900-member independent church in Cologne had been given until today to voluntarily pay back taxes of around $50,000 or face the prospect of government officials taking the money from its account--and almost certain closure. The church already has paid $50,000 to tax authorities on another contested ruling. While attempting to raise the latest repayment funds from friends and supporters--though still maintaining the ruling is unfair--Christliche Gemeinde Koln (CGK) senior pastor Terry Jones, who began the church in 1982, has vowed to continue fighting the anti-charismatic movement he says is behind the ruling. (...) "The historical significance of the city helps us understand why we have had so much trouble," said Jones, whose early church meetings were held, he discovered later, in the same building where Karl Marx first preached communism. "It is such a gate of heaven or hell; things that happen there do spread through the world." In the last few years there have been media slurs against the church, physical attacks on the property, job discrimination against members, and bomb and assassination threats in addition to the revoking of CGK's tax-exempt status, he said. Families have had their children taken from them for being part of a "cult," and some have been ordered to pay back taxes on their giving. (...) The campaign against CGK prompted a 1997 delegation from Britain's House of Lords, which reported that they were "completely unprepared for the sheer scale of prejudice, discrimination and even persecution which our witnesses reported." Jones also gave evidence to U.S. Senate hearings into religious persecution in Germany. While accepting that the tax battle seems to be lost, Jones is continuing to fight the church's "cult" label. "We can live without the benefits. People will give without them," he said. "It's what it means if we don't have it--to us it is about justice and religious freedom...If we lose, then there is no stopping it." CGK's case is being taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by the European Center for Law and Justice, the international arm of the American Center for Law and Justice. "This is one of the most critical cases in Europe because it is about church autonomy," said senior counsel Joel Thornton. "It is crucial for Europe that this church survives this attack." [...more...] * Thomas Gandow, whose pastoral site for sect- and world view questions is here: http://www.ekibb.com/seels/sekten/index.htm states that for a while he handled more complaints regarding CGK then about all other movements combined. * Tilman Hausherr reports that in the tax case, the US State Department stopped supporting Terry Jones after he admitted that the church had somehow "forgotten" to file the correct papers. * A spokesperson for the Berlin Senate's Department for Youth and Family told me complaints about the church have diminished after the church split. The department still keeps its information online: Gemeinde auf dem Weg Evangelische Freikirche e. V. http://www.sensjs.berlin.de/familie/sekten/sekten_teil712.htm 34. [Removed] 35. Psychic hot line caller in LA gets 30 days in jail Excite/Reuters, Sep. 2, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/r/990902/21/ca-crime-psychic She might have seen it coming: a woman who pleaded no contest to charges of using her boss's phones to make $120,000 in calls to a psychic hotline was sentenced to 30 days in jail Thursday. Cheryl Burnham, 39, a former secretary for the Los Angeles County department of Public Social Services, was also placed on five years' probation and ordered to pay $98,000 restitution. [...more...] === Noted 36. The Robin Hood of American religion goes online Excite, Sep. 1, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/uw/990901/university-171 (...) But one unique church takes Internet ministry to the most radical extreme. The Universal Life Church (http://www.ulc.org) will ordain anyone to the ministry for free, for life and with no regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or theological position. And they'll do it online. It doesn't matter whether you are a Christian, Satanist, Kabbalist, Wiccan, atheist, or a creator of your own "homemade" religion. The ULC, from its international headquarters in Modesto, Calif., and its monastery in Tucson, Ariz., welcomes all. (...) The ULC actually pre-dates the cyber-era. This unique denomination was established in 1962 by Kirby J. Hensley, an illiterate former Baptist from North Carolina. Fed up with the hypocrisy and dogmatism of the mainstream churches, Hensley began ordaining anybody -- without question -- for free. Full page articles about him in Time (21 Feb. 1969) and Newsweek (5 May 1969) added to his status as the Robin Hood of American religion. [...more...] 37. Alternative-Lifestyle Guru Danny Seo, Doing Very Well By Doing Good Washington Post, Aug. 31, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/31/058l-083199-idx.html (...) If everything goes according to plan, this young Washingtonian aims to be the impresario of a whole new lifestyle, spiritual yet stylish, in which his followers wear hip, eco-friendly shoes and donate their frequent-flier miles to charities for sick children. He believes in yoking technology to philanthropy, in pairing fashion and environmentalism, in making activism cool. (...) His two books have received blurbs of praise from lots of big-name activists: chimp scientist Jane Goodall, children's lobbyist Marian Wright Edelman, Habitat founder Millard Fuller. Already he has earned two lifetime achievement awards, one of which, the Albert Schweitzer Reverence for Life Award, sent him scrambling to figure out who Albert Schweitzer was. (...) Above all, he intends that this kind of existence--a sort of cafeteria menu of good works--will come to be known as the "Conscious Style," by Danny Seo, and the planet will be a better place. He will become the green Martha Stewart, the trendy Mother Teresa, for the Gen X-, Y- and Zers. (...) For all the "Heaven" and "angel" references, Seo, who was raised Lutheran, does not practice any particular religion. Yet he maintains an almost monastic lifestyle in keeping with his beliefs. [...more...] === Newsgroup Posting 38. The Globalization of Scientology: Influence, Control and Opposition in Transnational Markets (by Stephen Kent) Academic Press, 1999 Posted to alt.religion.scientology; archived by Deja, Sep. 2, 1999 http://x46.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=520072333&CONTEXT=936273460.40697912&hitnum=24 (Revised version of a paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, November, 1991.) Locating itself within a sociological perspective that analyses religiously ideological organisations as transnational corporations, this study examines the global activities of Scientology. It summarises the organisation's resolution of its international conflict with Interpol, its take-over of its internationally influential opponent, the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) and its heightened rhetoric against psychiatry. The article also highlights Scientology's international marketing strategies that attempt to further the teachings of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and gain political and social influence. Despite Scientology's efforts to adjust its approach to fit the cultural realities of the countries that it enters, its apparent successes in some formerly Iron Curtain nations is counterbalanced by growing opposition in Western Europe [...more...] === Books 39. The respectable cult Salon, Sep. 1, 1999 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/09/01/christian/index.html A new book asks why Christian Science has gotten away with the kind of paranoid, secretive practices that usually push religions into the kook bin. God's perfect Child, by Caroline Fraser, Metropolitan Books Picture a relatively new American religious sect founded by a charismatic, paranoid, authoritarian leader. The church has a set of secret doctrines, and it threatens legal action against those who would reveal them. It vigorously pressures journalists, publishers and booksellers who attempt to disseminate anything but the officially sanctioned accounts of its deceased founder or its current autocratic leadership. It has a handful of celebrity followers and some really weird beliefs. It's also a potential threat to the well-being of many of its members. Chances are you weren't imagining the Church of Christ, Scientist. Yet, at various points in its approximately 130-year history, all of the above have been true of the religious movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy. While the Church of Scientology is burdened by a sinister public image resembling a cross between the KGB and a UFO-contactee cult, Christian Science has emerged from a bruising bout of legal suits and financial crises with its respectability essentially intact. That's astonishing when you consider that the sect is primarily known for its prohibitions against conventional medical care, strictures that have led to the avoidable deaths of children raised in Christian Science households. In fact, Americans are so given to orgies of sentimental outrage over the subject of child welfare, you'd think that by now Christian Science would be regarded as the embodiment of evil. (After all, the ATF supposedly stormed David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound because they thought he was molesting 13-year-olds, not killing them.) Instead, the Christian Science Church's defense of its members' actions on grounds of religious freedom has been taken seriously as a constitutional issue. [...more...] 40. Like Jonestown in slow motion Salon, Sep. 1, 1999 http://www.salon.com/books/int/1999/09/01/fraser/index.html Caroline Fraser, author of "God's Perfect Child," talks about the casualties of Christian Science's belief in the power of prayer and the media's soft spot for the church. Caroline Fraser's "God's Perfect Child" tells the remarkable, sometimes outrageous story of the Christian Science Church's journey from suspect sect to squeaky-clean personification of mid-century American religious do-it-yourself-ism to faltering faith whose aging leaders would like to tap into the current mania for spiritual healing. Her account is an enjoyably dishy story of mismanaged funds, trendy celebrity adherents and internecine warfare, but it has a darker side: the still-mounting body count the church has left in its wake, children who have died as a result of the faith's prohibition against the use of medical care. Salon Books interviewed Fraser, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., via e-mail. [...more...] 41. 'Tathea' a gold mine of Mormon doctrine Deseret News, Aug. 29, 1999 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,115005791,00.html? After 30 well-received mystery novels, with 7 million copies in print, Anne Perry is an internationally famous writer whose reputation is secure. And she continues to write two books each year for her American publisher, Ballantine Books. But "Tathea" is a completely different genre, which Ballantine passed on and Deseret Book's Shadow Mountain enthusiastically picked up. Why? Because it is a hefty Mormon epic. It doesn't say that anywhere in the book, but Perry, a Mormon convert who lives in Scotland, openly admits her intention is to reach people who normally do not read scripture but who might be spiritually touched by her book. (...) Filled with symbolism, the story centers on the empress of an ancient land who loses her husband and infant son, then begins a new journey, during which the meaning of life unfolds. Those familiar with the Book of Mormon will understand the "golden book in an ancient tongue" that must be translated for the benefit of the contemporary world. They will also relate to the "Council in Heaven," where a grand dispute takes place between the forces of good and evil. In fact, Perry's book is a veritable gold mine of Mormon doctrine, familiar phrases and scripture, reworded to fit the fantasy tale. (...) Surrounded as the doctrine is by a lengthy, complicated story, it seems doubtful that many readers will find enough religious direction to re-evaluate their lives or change churches. On the other hand, since several spiritual novels, such as "The Celestine Prophecy," have landed on the best-seller list in recent years, there is no reason to think this one could not. Some will find it thought-provoking, and others will be bogged down by the complexity. Dare I suggest that the Book of Mormon, purported to have been translated from reformed Egyptian, is easier to follow than "Tathea"? [...more...] === The Church Around The Corner 42. Is There Woof After Death? Washington Post, Aug. 31, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/31/052l-083199-idx.html Some magazines are not afraid to tackle the big, profound questions of the ages. With its September issue, Dog Fancy joins the ranks of those courageous magazines, raising a philosophical query that has perplexed sages for centuries: "Do Dogs Go to Heaven?" To find an answer, the magazine called upon the cast of a million jokes--a priest, a rabbi and a minister. Also a Buddhist, a Baptist and Mary Buddemeyer-Porter, author of "Will I See Fido in Heaven?" Immediately, these distinguished experts began scrapping like puppies fighting for a bone. The priest--the Rev. Brian T. McSweeney, vice chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York--started the controversy. "Heaven was designed for humans," he said. "The reason dogs may be there is for us, not for themselves. Dogs will go to heaven perhaps because of our relationship with them." (...) Rabbi Gershon Winkler of Cuba, N.M., did know the answer to that question: The desert island dog is eligible for heaven--but only if it is a good dog. "Every animal based on how it lives in this world will reap its reward, its divine bliss in the world to come." That's ridiculous, said the Rev. Andrew Linzey, a professor of theology at the University of Nottingham in England: "I think the idea that animals can make moral choices and should therefore be held responsible for their actions is absurd." Buddemeyer-Porter agreed. Dogs will get to heaven regardless of their behavior on Earth, she said: "It doesn't make any difference what dogs do because they are innocent of any sin." "I think the species as a whole is a natural shoo-in," said Stephen H. Webb, author of "On God and Dogs." "A dog is an animal that has sacrificed its bestial nature and has entered into a relationship of loving mutuality. Dogs are the lead animals, the example for all animals." "For me it is perfectly obvious and theologically essential that animals will go to heaven," added Linzey. "Indeed the only important theological question is whether humans will go to heaven. After all, animals have not been sinful, faithless and violent like we have." [...more...]
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