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 NewsSept. 10, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 111)
Religion Items in the News - Sept. 10, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 111)
================================================================ (Story no longer online? Read this)
=== Waco1. Waco probe seeks evidence of 'bad acts' 2. Expended flares found among siege evidence 3. Flares were fired to stop intruder at siege, FBI says 4. Waco trial could fix blame before probe Lawyers for the Branch 5. Families Seek `the Truth' About Waco 6. Waco Revelations Raise Questions 7. Documents on Waco Point to a Close Commando Role 8. `Shocking revelations' are old news for Koresh follower 9. Great balls of fire 10. The truth about Waco (by David Thibodeau) 11. Up-to-date News on the Waco Cover-up === Aum Shinrikyo 12. Murder Sentence Of Japan Cult Leader's Wife Cut On Appeal 13. State writing law to better handle Aum 14. New legislation to target Aum Shinrikyo 15. Fuji TV crew scares anti-Aum villagers === Scientology 16. Scientology's Revenge ("CAN") 17. Scientology vs. InfoSekta 18. French Justice Ministry investigates destruction of Scientology evidence 19. Files destroyed in Scientology case 20. Loss of Scientology Files Studied === Other News 21. Task Force Considers Recruiting On Campus 22. Making things right (NEIRR Safe House) 23. Sacrifice Zone (Santeria) 24. Prince of Darkness (Feral House) 25. Gold Dust Phenomenon Stirs Up Questions Among Charismatics 26. Waiting for Apocalypse, Militia Falls on Hard Times 27. News About Montessori 'Cold Shower' 28. Small Turnout for Peaceful NYC Rally ("Million Youth March) 29. London-based Muslim calls for holy war 30. U.S. Criticizes Countries For Religious Intolerance 31. Perspective on the year 2000 32. Mississippi preacher devotes life to birthing red heifer in Israel 33. Orthodox Church in America discovers an evangelical soul 34. Lucky Stars? Trusting Your Fate to Astrology Leaves a Lot to the === Books 35. Pres. Hinckley writes book aimed at general readers 36. Media Gets Story of Columbine Teen ("Bruderhof") 37. Falun Gong 38. 'Screwtape Letters' imitated in e-mail === Internet 39. When criticism is called "terrorism" (Introvigne/CESNUR) === Waco [Story no longer online? Read this] 1. Waco probe seeks evidence of 'bad acts' CNN, Sep. 9, 1999 http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/09/reno.waco.03/ Former Sen. John Danforth, named Thursday to head an independent investigation into the FBI's 1993 Branch Davidian standoff, said his primary goals will be to find out, "Was there a cover-up?" and "Did federal officials kill people?" "Our country can survive bad judgment," the Missouri Republican said at a news conference convened by Attorney General Janet Reno. "But the thing that really undermines the integrity of government is whether there were bad acts -- whether the government killed people." [...more...] 2. Expended flares found among siege evidence Dallas Morning News, Sep. 8, 1999 http://dallasnews.com/specials/waco/0908waco1111waco.htm Expended military illumination flares fired by U.S. government personnel have been discovered in the tons of evidence recovered from the Branch Davidian compound, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday night. (...) With the discovery of the spent illumination round, Texas law enforcement officials said they are concerned about what else may be found in the 24,000 pounds of evidence recovered after the compound burned. (...) But tons of other debris, including more than 300,000 rounds of ammunition and other ordnance stockpiled by the sect, has been kept in Waco. [...more...] 3. Flares were fired to stop intruder at siege, FBI says Dallas Morning News, Sep. 9, 1999 http://dallasnews.com/specials/waco/0909waco1flares.htm A military flare recently found among evidence stored after the Branch Davidian tragedy may have been one of two such devices fired by FBI agents to stop an intruder from entering the sect's compound during the standoff, an FBI official said Wednesday. (...) "From talking to people in our Hostage Rescue Team, at one time, when our floodlight illumination was not active, they shot two parachute illumination rounds because of concern about people trying to sneak into the compound," Mr. Collingwood said. (...) James B. Francis Jr., chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission, said the discovery of the device, in a mislabeled box marked "fired tear gas shell," was troubling because the government had powerful spotlights trained on the Davidian compound during most of the 51-day standoff and would not have needed a flare to light up the area. (...) A retired Ranger captain who headed the agency's Branch Davidian investigation said Wednesday that the spent pyrotechnic devices recovered or photographed after the fire may have gone unnoticed because of the complexity of the crime scene and the relatively narrow focus of the Rangers' investigation. The investigators had to comb through a burned building that yielded 24,000 pounds of evidence, and their assignment was largely limited to developing a murder case from the deaths of four federal agents killed during the Feb. 28, 1993, firefight that began the standoff, retired Capt. David Byrnes said. (...) Rangers focused on collecting evidence to prosecute surviving Branch Davidians for the agents' slayings and finding proof that the sect had stockpiled illegal weapons, he said. More than 40 illegal automatic weapons and a number of illegal silencers and homemade hand grenades were recovered from the compound wreckage, along with more than 300,000 rounds of ammunition. [...more...] 4. Waco trial could fix blame before probe Lawyers for the Branch Davidians hope to question FBI agents under oath. Philadelphia Inquirer, Sep. 5, 1999 http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/Sep/05/front_page/WACO05.htm While official Washington gears up for a new, independent investigation of the inferno that killed Branch Davidian cultists, the question of who was really to blame for the 1993 tragedy is likely to be answered sooner and more definitively in a courtroom in Waco, Texas. (...) On Thursday, an impatient U.S. District Judge Walter Smith ordered the government to turn over to him all the evidence in the case. And he has ordered both sides to get ready for a fast-track trial by Oct. 18. "The American people will learn a lot if they watch this trial," said Kirk D. Lyons, a North Carolina lawyer who filed the first suit against the government in 1993. "From the beginning, we said they created a death trap that resulted in the killing of Davidians. Now, people are listening to us." (...) Caddell does not claim that federal agents deliberately set the fatal fire. Instead, he asserts that the government was guilty of "gross negligence" that contributed to the deaths of innocent people. "You don't attack a flimsy wooden structure with tanks and tear-gas canisters and grenade launchers and automatic-weapon fire - and without a contingency plan for a fire," Caddell said Friday. "Everybody knew the place was a fire trap. And everybody knew there were innocent children inside. And they didn't even call for any fire-fighting equipment. [...more...] 5. Families Seek `the Truth' About Waco Yahoo UK, Aug. 27, 1999 http://www.yahoo.co.uk/headlines/19990827/independent/p5s1_935778555.html (...) British relatives said they had always been suspicious of the part played by the US authorities in ending the 51-day siege when Federal agents tried to execute arrest and search warrants at the Davidian compound. (...) In February 1994 three British survivors - Renos Avraam, Norman Allison and Livingston Fagan - were acquitted with eight other cult members. They had been charged with conspiracy to murder four agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and with conspiracy to set fire to the compound. Mr Allison, then 29, from Manchester, was acquitted of all charges and deported. In June 1994 Avraam, then 30, of Tottenham, north London, and Fagan, 34 at the time and from Nottingham, were among eight cult members jailed for their part in the Waco gun battle. The two Britons are now serving 40-year sentences - the maximum 30 years for firearms offences and the maximum 10 years for aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter. Both of them will be deported on release. [...more...] 6. Waco Revelations Raise Questions Washington Post, Sep. 6, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990906/V000352-090699-idx.html (...) ``After what I've heard about Waco, I'm beginning to blame the federal government for my grandchildren dying,'' said Ms. Coverdale, whose grandsons, Aaron and Elijah, were among the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. (...) Survivors of the bombing and relatives of those killed are divided over whether the government's new information about its role at Waco has any bearing on its investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. [...more...] 7. Documents on Waco Point to a Close Commando Role New York Times, Sep. 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/090599waco-special-ops.html The Pentagon's elite Special Operations Command sent observers to the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas more than a month before the final assault on the compound, suggesting that military commandos had a far longer and closer involvement in the disastrous 1993 operation than previously divulged, according to declassified Government documents. (...) The command, which is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, oversees the military's most secretive commando squads, including the Army's Delta Force and the Navy Seals, and the documents suggest that the command was monitoring the situation virtually from the start of the 51-day siege. The command's spokesmen did not return calls for comment on the documents. (...) The documents were provided to The New York Times by the National Security News Agency, a nonprofit research group in Washington that has often unearthed Government documents and other information embarrassing to the Pentagon. [...more...] 8. `Shocking revelations' are old news for Koresh follower Star-Telegram, Sep. 6, 1999 http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:POLITICS14A/1:POLITICS14A090699.html What journalists and pundits are calling "shocking revelations" about the use of pyrotechnic grenades and the presence of military forces at the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco on April 19, 1993, sounds more like old news to David Thibodeau. Now 30 and the father of a young daughter, Thibodeau was, on that spring morning, one of nine followers of David Koresh who clawed their way out of the Mount Carmel inferno and scrambled to safety. (...) The book, `A Place Called Waco,' is due in bookstores soon, and Thibodeau said the resurgence of news about the raid, the standoff and fiery ending should rekindle interest and boost sales. (...) "I expected to be shot once I got outside, but I figured it was better than burning up," he said. Thibodeau said that although he still admires Koresh's understanding of Scripture and remains influenced by his teachings, the book is not designed to lionize the cult leader. [...more...] 9. Great balls of fire The press got a little burned at Waco as well. Salon, Sep. 9, 1999 http://www.salon.com/media/feature/1999/09/09/waco/index1.html (...) Mark Pitcavage is a historian who charts the doings of the militia movement [ http://www.militia-watchdog.org/ ] and heard the Waco theories long before the FBI began "discovering" evidence the existence of which it had previously denied. Like a lot of people, he didn't trust the messenger. "They deserve a little bit of credit," he told the New York Times of the conspiracy theorists who kept this story alive, "but you wish that someone else had discovered this stuff instead. These guys have ulterior motives." ("Mr. Drudge, a Ms. Goldberg on line one.") (...) This is just the sort of attitude that drives those who see problems in the Waco siege wild. "I have heard this over and over again," says Dan Gifford, one of the producers of the 1997 documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement." (...) Gifford is downright moderate by the far right's standards; he was a producer at CNN for 10 years before lighting out for Hollywood, and his film wears the mantle of respectability, having opened at Sundance and been nominated for an Academy Award. (The video, recently released, is available at most video stores and on Gifford's Web site [ http://www.waco93.com/ ]. In keeping with the hall-of-mirrors reality of conspiracy theorists of all stripes, there are now two versions of "Rules of Engagement" out there. More on that later.) (...) Now about those two videos: Gifford's is the official version, the one nominated for an Oscar and lauded by critics across the country. The rogue version is the work of Michael McNulty, a co-producer and original researcher on the film who felt Gifford's film was not vehement enough. (For future versions, McNulty, who hosted a right-wing radio program in Colorado and has strong ties to the militia movement, has threatened to trace the decision to attack in Waco all the way to that mistress of the dark side, Hillary Rodham Clinton.) The matter is under litigation now, which may further complicate the film's message, and that's too bad. The film is heavily slanted toward the Davidians (it features several religious scholars who come off as cult apologists) and inconclusive in its charges that the government was firing on the building on April 19 or meant to start a fire. Still, it is persuasive to those who tend toward the view that the assault was a murderous travesty of justice and that no one was ultimately held accountable. [...more...] 10. The truth about Waco - A survivor says the government still isn't admitting its role in the deaths of 74 Branch Davidians. By David Thibodeau. Salon, Sep. 9, 1999 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/09/09/waco/index.html (...) Many have suggested that Koresh was a Jim Jones-like madman. But he wasn't. He had no plans for mass suicide; indeed, in sharp contrast to Jones, Koresh allowed members of the community to leave at any time, and many of them did, even during the siege. But many of us stayed, too, not because we had to, but because we wanted to. The FBI and ATF had been confrontational from the start, they had lied to us and they continued lying up through the siege. The FBI and ATF had many pretexts for their attack on Mount Carmel. The initial ATF raid, in which four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed, was based on allegations that we were running a drug lab. But later even ATF employees would admit the charges were "a complete fabrication." One member had allowed speed dealers to operate from the building in the mid-1980s, but everyone knew Koresh hated drugs, and he'd asked the Waco sheriff to remove the methamphetamine lab when he took over as leader in 1987. Charges that we were assembling an arsenal of weapons to be used against the government were equally off-base. We ran a business, buying and selling weapons at gun shows, to bring in revenue for the community. Only a few of us at Mount Carmel were directly involved with this -- I personally had an aversion to guns -- but it was a relatively profitable line of work. Everything was bought and sold on a legal basis. In fact, weeks before the raid, Koresh offered the ATF the opportunity to come out to Mount Carmel and inspect the building and every single weapon we had. They refused. Maybe the most disturbing allegation, to those inside the building, was that we were engaging in child abuse there. (...) A few former residents also complained that David paddled their children, harshly, but I never saw that, and the Texas Child Protective Services workers who investigated the complaints concluded they were unfounded. The biggest lie, though, is the FBI's claim that we set the building fire ourselves, to commit suicide. At the very least, the FBI has already provided proof that it created the conditions for a disaster. (...) The amount of gas the FBI shot into Mount Carmel was twice the density considered life threatening to an adult and even more dangerous for little children. (...) There are other questions: Why did the FBI call the local hospital hours before the siege and ask how many beds were available in its burn unit? Why did it not equip the tanks with a firefighting agent that would have put the flames out quickly? What did the FBI negotiator mean when he threateningly told us we "should buy some fire insurance"? Why did the FBI not allow anyone access to the crime scene for several hours, despite an agreement with the Texas Rangers that they would be allowed to inspect the area first? And on and on. (...) About the writer David Thibodeau's book, "A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story, has just been published by PublicAffairs/Perseus Books. He can be reached at his Web site. http://www.aplacecalledwaco.com/ [...more...] * A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story 11. Up-to-date News on the Waco Cover-up http://www.apologeticsindex.org/b10.html#newscurrent [Story no longer online? Read this] === Aum Shinrikyo [Story no longer online? Read this] 12. Murder Sentence Of Japan Cult Leader's Wife Cut On Appeal Excite, Sep. 9, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/r/990909/06/international-japan-cult The wife of the doomsday cult leader accused of masterminding the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system had her conviction upheld Thursday but received a one-year reduction in her prison term. The Tokyo High Court upheld last year's district court conviction of Tomoko Matsumoto, 41, wife of Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) guru Shoko Asahara, for conspiring with her husband and other cult members to kill cult member Kotaro Ochida when he tried to leave the cult. But presiding judge Tadaharu Kanda reduced Matsumoto's sentence from seven to six years, saying the longer sentence was "too severe." (...) But the judge also noted Matsumoto had paid some 20 million yen (US$183,300) in damages to Ochida's family, and had also contributed to a fund for victims of the Tokyo subway attack. Japanese courts are often lenient if someone accused of a crime shows remorse. [...more...] 13. State writing law to better handle Aum Japan Times, Sep. 8, 1999 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news9-99/news.html#story8 The government will draw up a new law that can specifically restrict the activities of religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday. The Justice Ministry will compile a bill to regulate a group that has committed indiscriminate mass murder in the past and whose basic demeanor remains unchanged, Nonaka said. (...) Although the ministry has not released specific details of the proposed law, authorities would supposedly be permitted to engage in activities such as surveillance and carry out raids on the group when necessary, Nonaka said. And if it becomes clear that the cult is ready to repeat its past crimes, the law would allow authorities to restrict its activities to some extent, he said. [...more...] 14. New legislation to target Aum Shinrikyo [Story no longer online? Read this] Asahi Evening News, Sep. 9, 1999 http://www.asahi.com/english/enews/enews.html#enews_24494 The government plans new legislation that will specifically restrict the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday. The planned bill will target groups that have committed indiscriminate mass murder in the past, Nonaka said. It would allow law enforcement authorities to conduct on-sight inspections, monitor the activities of suspicious groups by making them submit reports and publicize their findings. (...) Rather than revising the existing Antisubversive Activities Law to cope with cult-related problems, Nonaka said the government is specifically targeting Aum, whose resurgence has led to serious confrontations with local governments and residents. (...) In January 1997, the Public Security Commission rejected a request from the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency to outlaw Aum under the Antisubversive Activities Law. It said there was not enough evidence of "future danger" to justify application of the law. But Aum's recent moves have caused the Justice Ministry to study ways to legally cope with the cult. [...more...] 15. Fuji TV crew scares anti-Aum villagers Daily Yomiuri, Sep. 5, 1999 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm A Fuji TV film crew caught entering a property in a forest in Kawakamimura, Nagano Prefecture, without permission received a verbal warning from local police for disturbing local residents concerned about the possibility of Aum Supreme Truth cult members trying to establish a center there, it was learned Saturday. (...) The representatives raised the alarm when they found out the men were neither residents nor people working nearby. Shortly after 4 p.m., police confirmed that the men were staff of the FNN Super News program. [...more...] === Scientology 16. Scientology's Revenge New Times LA, Sep. 9, 1999 (6,274 words) http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/1999-09-09/feature_p.html For years, the Cult Awareness Network [the real CAN] was the Church of Scientology's biggest enemy. But the late L. Ron Hubbard's L.A.-based religion cured that -- by taking it over [the cult's CAN]. (...) The story of how the controversial L.A.-based church -- which Time magazine once termed "the cult of greed" -- commandeered the anti-cult group that was its nemesis is as bizarre as some of late church founder L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction. It is also a cautionary tale for anyone who goes up against Scientology, with its penchant for harassing enemies in the courts, and its rough-and-tumble reputation for retaliating against "suppressives," those deemed as having ridiculed Scientology's teachings. (...) But the ultimate indignity for the anti-cult crusaders occurred earlier this year in a Chicago courtroom. Already having vanquished CAN, appropriated its name, and moved its offices from Illinois to within blocks of Scientology headquarters in Hollywood, lawyers with ties to the church moved to take possession of 20 years' worth of CAN's highly sensitive case files. Filling more than 150 boxes, the materials contained names, addresses, and detailed information on thousands of people who had turned to CAN for help in rescuing their friends and relatives. (...) Incredibly, the foundation's chairman, who is also the chairman of the new CAN, is the old CAN's most indefatigable enemy, a self-described Baptist minister named George Robertson. (...) Since transporting the files to L.A. barely two months ago, the new Scientology-backed CAN has begun the arduous task of organizing and archiving them. It intends to hand over to each of the many groups targeted by the old CAN copies of all the documents that pertain to those groups, says Nancy O'Meara, the new CAN's treasurer and office manager. A 25-year veteran of Scientology, O'Meara sees the old CAN as made up of hate-mongers bent on persecuting any group they didn't like. Citing the old CAN's "reign of terror," she scarcely conceals her glee at the prospect that some of the formerly targeted groups may want to use the newly obtained materials to pursue lawsuits or even criminal prosecutions. (...) Even if George Robertson had never heard of the Church of Scientology, there's ample reason for him to be resentful of the original CAN. As an associate of the Reverend Carl H. Stevens Jr., founder of a now-defunct religious ministry called The Bible Speaks, the 58-year-old Robertson had been affiliated with a group that CAN had persistently decried as a dangerous cult. (...) Using Robertson's church as a beachhead, Stevens established a new ministry called the Greater Grace World Outreach. In 1987, the church bought an abandoned shopping center in Baltimore for use as its headquarters and as the campus for the church-affiliated Maryland College of the Bible and Seminary. Robertson is the school's vice president. (...) "My issue is freedom of religion," he says. "CAN is totally independent of the Church of Scientology." Yet the new CAN appears to be run by Scientologists, for Scientology. Its two most visible representatives and those responsible for its day-to-day operation, O'Meara and Bagley, are members of the church. (...) On a wall is a map of the United States that shows the locations of academics and other experts to which O'Meara and others who answer CAN's phones link callers needing more information. The list is a who's who of what the anti-cult movement would describe as cult apologists: Maloney, Shupe, J. Gordon Melton at UC Santa Barbara, and a dozen others, including CAN's very own Robertson. Listening to her, one gets the impression O'Meara has never met a cult she didn't like. [...more...] * About the Scientology-backed Cult Awareness Network: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c19.html [Story no longer online? Read this] 17. Scientology vs. InfoSekta [Story no longer online? Read this] Tages-Anzeiger (Switzerland), Sep. 8, 1999 Translation: German Scientology News http://www.lermanet.com/cisar/990908a.htm Scientologist Peter Thalmann is demanding from City Council that the city discontinue subsidies of 20,000 Swiss franks annually [about $14,000] to the InfoSekta Sect Counselling Center. His argument is that religious freedom is being violated with the supporting funds. Middle school teacher Thalmann, who calls himself an L. Ron Hubbard PR Representative (Hubbard is the found of Scientology), has submitted an individual initiative on this account. The individual initiative is another broadside which the Scientologists have been firing at independent sect counselling centers. [...more...] 18. French Justice Ministry investigates destruction of Scientology evidence CNN, Sep. 8, 1999 http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/08/BC-France-Scientology.ap/index.html France's Justice Ministry opened an investigation Wednesday into the destruction of key evidence against the Church of Scientology in a Marseille court, according to judicial sources. Marseille court officials alerted the Justice Ministry to the removal of more than three tons of evidence in August, the sources said on customary condition of anonymity. (...) The documents relate to an investigation opened in 1990 against regional Scientology leaders in the southern coastal cities of Marseille and Nice for fraud and the illegal practice of medicine. Seven of those leaders are scheduled to go on trial Sept. 20. The destruction of the evidence will not delay the trial, the sources said. According to a lawyer representing the plaintiff, a former Scientologist, the evidence destroyed includes financial statements, notes concerning Scientology members and apparatus known as "electrometers," designed to measure "self-control." (...) France registers the church on a list of 173 groups that should be tracked to prevent cult activities. Most other European countries also don't accept it as a religion. [...more...] 19. Files destroyed in Scientology case The Guardian (England), Sep. 9, 1999 http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,80482,00.html France's continuing battle with the Church of Scientology took a bizarre twist yesterday as the justice ministry announced an inquiry into the mysterious destruction of more than 3.5 tonnes of evidence against the organisation held in a Marseille courthouse. According to the state prosecutor the evidence, including dozens of sealed files, was apparently shredded through the negligence of a court clerk, not as a deliberate attempt to affect the outcome of a case against several Scientology leaders in the south of France. But the incident follows the suspicious disappearance last year of one and a half volumes of a 10-volume mass of evidence against the church in an almost identical case in Paris. The office of the prime minister, Lionel Jospin, issued an immediate statement: "The question must once again be asked as to whether certain services of the state have not been infiltrated by sects. Such a question cannot afford to wait long for an answer." [...more...] 20. Loss of Scientology Files Studied New York Times, Sep. 9, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/france-scientology.html (...) An appeals court in Paris is widely expected to rule on Sept. 29 in a similar case against the Church of Scientology in which evidence also disappeared. (...) The lawyer, Jean-Michel Pesenti, raised doubts about the court's contention that the files were accidentally destroyed. "We can imagine anything," Pesenti said. "Why not an infiltration by Scientology?" [...more...] === Other News 21. Task Force Considers Recruiting On Campus Washington Post, Sep. 8, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/08/025l-090899-idx.html (...) Rausch and Colvin are among those who have made their voices heard at meetings of a special task force set up by Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) to look into activities of certain groups at the state's public schools and universities. The task force's recommendations on how the state's public campuses should handle what the committee calls destructive groups could eventually lead to legislation affecting the campus activities of certain groups. (...) In its meetings over the last two months, the task force has heard testimony from more than 100 individuals, whose concerns include First Amendment rights and the need to protect students on campuses. (...) Members of the Seventh-day Adventists and Unification Church have filed a federal lawsuit in Baltimore against the task force, saying it is violating constitutional rights and conducting a "religious inquisition." One of the lawsuit's plaintiffs, Unification Church member Alex Colvin, said: "The resolution is unconstitutional. The state does not have the power to determine what a religion is." But Les Baker, one of the parents who petitioned the General Assembly, says the problem is extensive at state university campuses in Towson, Bowie and College Park, where his daughter, whom he doesn't want identified, was recruited to the ICOC when she was 19. (...) His feelings are shared by Denny Gulick, a professor of mathematics at College Park who has been working with former members of cults on campus since 1984. He believes that the faculty and staff at universities ought to be educated about cults so they can better help students. (...) A survey done by the Department of Resident Life at College Park in 1997 showed that 35 percent of the students on campus had been invited to join cults, and 21 percent knew someone who had joined a cult. [...more...] 22. Making things right New Bedford Standard Times, Sep. 5, 1999 http://www.s-t.com/daily/09-99/09-05-99/b01lo054.htm (...) Bought approximately two months ago, the dilapidated former nursing home will be used to assist families or individuals who have left groups such as the Children of God, Twelve Tribes and the House of Yahweh. (...) Ms. Barba said many of the people who volunteered for the work day were once members of high-pressure religious groups and had suffered tremendously when they chose to leave. (...) Marie Brown, administrative assistant for the institute, and former member of The Way International, a Bible-based group, said she initially joined the The Way because it offered something she was lacking. (...) "You have two options when you question the authority in a group like The Way," she said. "Either you repent for questioning (authority) or you leave. We chose to leave." Ms. Barba said after people leave, they don't usually get the help they need to survive outside the community. The safe-haven house will offer counseling and other services to teach people how to again become functioning members of society. (...) The institute anticipates opening in a year and assisting 20 to 25 people in a three-month, "fast-track" program. [...more...] * NEIRR [Story no longer online? Read this] 23. Sacrifice Zone When the country's prison chaplains need to understand Santeria, they come to Denver. Where else? Denver Westword, Sep. 2, 1999 (3,870 words) http://www.westword.com/issues/1999-09-02/feature2.html (...) Ramirez's visitors are all men and women of the cloth. And in a way, so is his friend Garcia. He's a santero, a priest in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, "the Way of the Saints" -- and Ramirez is one of the region's major suppliers of Santeria goods. (...) Although BOP officials estimate that only 361 of the almost 125,000 people currently incarcerated in federal prisons claim Santeria as their faith, this year the bureau will send a total of ninety chaplains to Denver for Santeria familiarization. "This is training," says Susan Van Baalen, the BOP's chaplain administrator, who's accompanied the first group to Ramirez's botanica. "Our purpose is to train the chaplains, because it's not a religion they're familiar with. We want to train them so they know what to look for and can comprehend the religion." And not only will they learn about Santeria, but they'll be able to buy some of the items necessary for its practice. [...more...] 24. Prince of Darkness New Times LA, Aug. 26, 1999 http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/1999-08-26/feature.html Adam Parfrey -- founder of the strange and influential publisher Feral House -- is getting impatient with the person on the other end of the phone, a young man who's confused as to why he hasn't gotten the books he ordered on the Internet. (...) "These retarded people will buy anything with Satanism in the title." He's not complaining, he quickly points out. Satan is important to him. Books by and about Anton LaVey -- the late founder of the San Francisco-based Church of Satan -- serve as cash cows for Feral House, much as cookbooks and best-selling legal thrillers keep some major New York publishers afloat. [...more...] 25. Gold Dust Phenomenon Stirs Up Questions Among Charismatics Charisma News, Sep 8, 1999 http://www.charismanews.com/news2.cgi?a=144&t=news.html [...Does God give people Gold Teeth and Gold Dust?...] (...) Two independent tests on samples of the gold-colored dust that falls from Silvania Machado's head during services have found the substance to be more like plastic glitter, with no gold content. But Machado, who attributes the manifestation to her divine healing from cancer, is untroubled by the conclusions of the analyses carried out on behalf of "Charisma" magazine. "To me, it doesn't matter what it is as long as it's from God," she said. "Some people focus on the signs instead of the fruit. I must continue to share with the world what God has done in my life and the life of my family." (...) In May, John Arnott of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF) canceled a scheduled four-day appearance by Machado after sending a sample of the flecks that cascaded from her head on the first night for testing. A geochemist at the University of Toronto concluded the specks did not contain any gold or platinum but were some type of plastic film. (...) "Charisma" had two samples of Machado's gold dust analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, D.C. Both were deemed to be plastic film with no traces of gold, platinum or silver. (...) Meanwhile, churches also are reporting incidents in which people's silver fillings are being miraculously renewed or even replaced by gold ones. A number of cases have been documented and verified at TACF, reinforcing Arnott's decision not to continue the Machado meetings. "I didn't want to have her here because we have had far too much of the real thing--gold teeth and gold dust--to have something suspect," he said. (...) A full report on the gold dust and gold teeth phenomena will appear in the November 1999 issue of "Charisma." The article contains an account--documented by dental records--of an Oklahoma woman who received seven gold crowns during a healing service in Tulsa six months ago. [...more...] 26. Waiting for Apocalypse, Militia Falls on Hard Times Washington Times, Sep. 9, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/09/171l-090999-idx.html These are not easy times for Norman Olson and his splinter group of self-described patriot guerrillas, the Northern Michigan Regional Militia. Winter will be settling in before long, and not far behind it the worldwide chaos and lawlessness that Olson believes will be triggered by the Year 2000 computer bug. The statewide armed force of militant patriots he co-founded five years ago is in disarray, riven by internal squabbling and defections following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. (...) Olson's frustration underscores a situation faced not only by his own struggling militia faction but also by the militant armed wings of the patriot movement across the nation. The groups often depend on publicized confrontations with law enforcement for the legitimacy they crave among like-minded sympathizers, but for several years have found themselves without them. [...more...] 27. News About Montessori 'Cold Shower' Volkskrant, Sep. 8, 1999 (Dutch-language only) Unofficial translation: Anton Hein http://www.volkskrant.nl/indruk/315024608.html?history=/i155000168 News that education reformer Maria Montessori maintained close ties with Italian facism has made an impact within the Montessori education movement. The connection between Montessori and Mussolini is described in a thesis by pedagogue H. Leenders, and is based on previously unresearched archive material. (...) "First we make the news because we allegedly aren't getting acceptable results with our eduction method, and now this," sighs F. Renz, director of the 14th Montessori school in Amsterdam. (...) Van Haren [director of the Montessori school in Oosterhout] emhasized that during his Montessori eduction in the eighties he never heard about the fascist sympathies of the Italian eduction reformer. "I did not know any better or she has distantiated herself from fascism and had fled Italy for that reason." Amsterdam academic G. Heyting is less shocked by the revelations. "Among historians Montessori is seen as a pragmatic lady, who was clever at selling her ideas within the existing societal context." [...more...] 28. Small Turnout for Peaceful NYC Rally New York Times, Sep. 4, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Million-Youth-March.html The second Million Youth March drew about 2,000 people to the streets of Harlem on Saturday after weeks of name-calling and a legal tug-of-war between organizers and city officials. The rally was calm in contrast to last year's march, which ended in a bottle-throwing melee and 28 injuries after police in riot gear tried to enforce a court-ordered curfew. (...) This year's crowd was barely a third of last year's turnout of 6,000. Harlem politicians had encouraged a boycott of the march after Muhammad -- a former Nation of Islam spokesman fired for his anti-Semitic comments -- made inflammatory statements during the Million Youth March's debut last year. Attorney Malik Shabazz, another rally organizer, held up a picture of the mayor at the rally Saturday and told the crowd, ``We charge this man with crimes against the black nation!'' ``Guilty! Guilty!'' some shouted back. Shabazz also made anti-Semitic remarks and told the crowd, ``The only solution any time there is a funeral in the black community is a funeral in the police community.'' [...more...] 29. London-based Muslim calls for holy war The Sunday Times, Sep. 5, 1999 http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/Sunday-Times/stinwenws02012.html?999 A Muslim cleric is running the risk of being deported after calling for attacks with biological weapons on western targets. Omar Bakri Muhammad, a refugee and father of seven living in north London, has emerged as the extreme voice of international Muslim fanaticism. He is a friend of Abu Hamza, the mullah with metal claws for hands, who was linked to the Britons imprisoned in Yemen on terrorist charges. In an open letter read out in mosques across Britain and published on the internet, Bakri called on Muslims to rise up in a jihad, or holy war, against America and its allies. Bakri, who has claimed disability benefit and income support, addressed his call to Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist suspected of bombing two American embassies and murdering 256 people. Bakri invited Bin Laden to "aim your weapons at occupying forces". "May Allah protect you and grant you victory," he said. He later advocated the use of germ agents against westerners occupying holy lands. The letter was taken off the internet after American officials complained. [...more...] 30. U.S. Criticizes Countries For Religious Intolerance Excite, Sep. 9, 1999 http://news.excite.com/news/r/990909/11/news-rights-religion The United States Thursday released its first annual report on religious freedom worldwide, concluding that much of the world's population lives in countries in which religious freedoms are somehow restricted. Many of the countries named, including China and Afghanistan, regularly show up on the annual U.S. list of overall human rights abusers. But the religious freedom report also cites a number of U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for intolerance. The report, written by the State Department, said although 144 countries are parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, "there remains in some countries a substantial difference between promise and practice." [...more...] * The report is found here: http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/1999/index.html [Story no longer online? Read this] Personal comment: In the area of human rights abuses, the USA itself shows a substantial difference between promise and practice: http://www.amnestyusa.org/rightsforall/index.html [Story no longer online? Read this] 31. Perspective on the year 2000 [Story no longer online? Read this] Los Angeles Times, Sep. 6, 1999 http://www.latimes.com/CNS_DAYS/990906/t000079564.html (...) Is it too late to do anything? It never is. Plan a meal for Jan. 1, 2000. Think about how to celebrate this date with dignity and profundity rather than silly excitement and equally superficial avoidance. We stand on the dawn of the first global millennium. It can be a great and life-giving moment; it can be a catastrophe; and we may well be able to muddle through. The choice is ours. Let me suggest we make interesting choices, not either dull or dangerous ones. (...) Know how to answer the madman and ask hard but helpful questions of people with vision. And if enough of us start to pay attention, then maybe we can prepare better for the real "first year of the new millennium"--2001. As always where millennialism is concerned, there is always an extension to deadline. (...) Richard Landes Is Director of the Center of Millennial Studies at Boston University. Web Site: Http://www.mille.org [Story no longer online? Read this] [...more...] 32. Mississippi preacher devotes life to birthing red heifer in Israel Jewish Telegraph Agency, Sep. 2, 1999 http://www.jta.org/sep99/02-cows.htm If Clyde Lott has his way, several hundred cows will fly to Israel this December. And the Mississippi preacher has some unlikely allies in his quest: Jews living in Israel and the West Bank. The cows, the first of what Lott hopes will be 50,000 sent to the Jewish state, are part of his plan to fulfill a biblical prophecy that a red heifer be born in Israel to bring about the ``Second Coming" of Jesus. The return of Jesus is part of a Christian apocalyptic vision of the end of time, which includes the slaughter of those who don't accept the Christian messiah as their savior. (...) Lott and the members of the Temple Institute, which is headed by Rabbi Chaim Richman, didn't talk about their religious differences, preferring to focus on their common desires to help Israel prosper and see a red heifer born in the Jewish state. Given modern technology and Lott's efforts to export an American breed of red angus cow, hundreds of red heifers could be born in Israel. The birth of a red heifer would ``unquestionably be seen as a sign from God to take further steps in rebuilding the Temple," says Richard Landes, the head of Boston University's Center for Millennial Studies, which is on the Web at www.mille.org This could have disastrous political implications because rebuilding the Temple on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, which contains several Muslim holy sites, could antagonize the entire Arab world. Lott's project is not the only one in which Israelis and Christians are working together to birth red heifers in the Jewish state. At least two other American Christians are breeding similar cows in the United States in hopes of bringing them to Israel, according to Gershon Solomon, the leader of the Temple Mount Faithful, another group dedicated to rebuilding the Temple. (...) The Temple Institute, which is no longer working on the project and declined to say why, helped connect Lott with cattle ranchers both in Israel and the West Bank. [...more...] === Noted 33. Orthodox Church in America discovers an evangelical soul Post-Gazette Sep. 5, 1999 http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990905orthodox6.asp Orthodox Christians in North America "are now going through our own Great Awakening," the Serbian Orthodox primate of the United States told 100 people at a conference on Orthodox missions and evangelism. For the first time in 100 years, there is a growing vision for a truly American expression of Orthodoxy, said Metropolitan Christopher of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Midwestern America. Beyond that, he said, an unexpected influx of evangelical Protestant converts to Orthodoxy has enabled its churches to look beyond their own ethnic communities and preach the gospel to all who need to hear it. (...) In the past decade the Antiochian archdiocese has started 65 new churches, bringing its total to 250. Active membership has increased from 225,000 to 250,000, said the Rev. Peter Gillquist, archdiocesan director of missions and evangelism and one of the original evangelical converts. Gillquist had expected that most clergy converts who followed his group into Orthodoxy would be Episcopalians and Lutherans with an affinity for Orthodox liturgy. But 80 percent are evangelicals and charismatics seeking a deeper experience of worship, roots in Christian history and a relationship with the saints, Gillquist said. The remaining 20 percent are mainline Protestants who believe their denominations have lost their biblical moorings. [...more...] 34. Lucky Stars? Trusting Your Fate to Astrology Leaves a Lot to the Imagination Washington Post, Sep. 8, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/08/072l-090899-idx.html (...) That's all the basic input astrologers use: the date and time of your birth. (Long ago, some forms of astrology used the date of conception, but that turned out to be hard to pin down.) That's a bit like letting an automobile mechanic diagnose what's wrong with your car based solely on its gas mileage. (...) Astrology boasts of being a mature discipline, perfected since the time of the famous Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy more than 1,800 years ago. Of course, three planets have been discovered since then. But that's the least of the credibility problems astrology faces. Perhaps the most profound is that even astrologers have no plausible explanation whatsoever for how arbitrary patterns of dots in the sky, or even comparatively nearby planets, might conceivably influence a human being at birth or any time thereafter. (...) With notoriety came scrutiny by scholars. However, because astrological predictions are not falsifiable, they are well-nigh impossible to test. Nonetheless, numerous studies have been conducted. A good list of recent papers can be found at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet-faqs/bygroup/alt/astrology/astrology:papers.html. These tests are mostly statistical, that is, they try to establish whether astrologers' assertions and predictions are correct more often than would be expected by chance alone. The impression from a brief overview is that almost all results are negative or inconclusive. Even those that imply positive correlations between predictions and outcomes are tantalizingly open to hedging or interpretation. [...more...] === Books 35. Pres. Hinckley writes book aimed at general readers Deseret News, Sep. 1, 1999 http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,115006567,00.html? LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley will publish a book to be released early next year aimed not only at Mormons but directed to "a general audience in contemporary America." "Stand for Something," to be published by Times Books, a Random House imprint, is scheduled for release in March 2000, according to LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills. (...) The book will reportedly address three topics - integrity, faith and family - presumably with much the same approach President Hinckley has used during his tenure as church president to explain the church's teachings to a worldwide audience. (...) LDS Church-owned Deseret Book traditionally publishes titles by LDS general authorities, but those books are generally geared to an LDS audience. [...more...] 36. Media Gets Story of Columbine Teen Washington Times, Sep. 9, 1999 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990909/V000734-090999-idx.html Her daughter's life cut short in a burst of gunfire at Columbine High School, Misty Bernall searched for the best way to tell the world what it had just lost. She found inspiration in the slain teen's own example. Rather than lock up a book deal with a publishing colossus, Mrs. Bernall turned to Plough Publishing House, an obscure, nonprofit publisher with an annual average of 10 titles and revenue of $1 million. (...) Based in Farmington, Pa., Plough has fewer than 40 employees. It is owned by the Bruderhof community, a religious sect formed in Germany in the 1920s and expelled during the Nazi regime. Today the group, which aims to live as much like first century Christians as possible, has about 2,500 members in eight communities in the United States and Southern Europe. (...) Unable to handle distribution on its own, Plough has split up rights of the books. Word Publishing, a unit of the Nashville, Tenn., publisher Thomas Nelson, will have the rights to sell the book in Christian bookstores and major discount chain stores. Doubleday Direct, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, has the book club rights. [...more...] 37. Falun Gong [Story no longer online? Read this] What the religious leader who made China tremble has to say for himself. Salon, Sep. 8, 1999 http://www.salonmagazine.com/books/feature/1999/09/08/falun/index.html (...) What accounts for such widespread appeal? Most of Li's followers come to his teachings through two books, "Zhuan Falun" ("Rotating the Law Wheel"), and "China Falun Gong" -- tracts that set established religious tradition on its ear by dispensing with concerns of reincarnation and the afterlife and promising salvation to individuals while they're still walking this earth (a journey, by the way, that Li promises to prolong). (...) Though Falun Gong, like most Eastern teachings, includes no mention of an omnipotent god, Li's messianic requirement that his followers put their faith in him and only in him harks back to Christianity's early days. Also reminiscent of Western religion are Li's accounts of his own miracles -- though much of "Zhuan Falun" is devoted to why such things cannot be displayed to the faithful, and why the "supernatural powers" that can be achieved through high-level cultivation are never to be used. (...) But despite Li's own bold claims, he is not one to tolerate any rival theories that might come down the pike. "Do not read those heterodox qigong books," he warns. "Do not even open them at all." And despite the role the Internet has played in spreading Falun Gong, he isn't likely to argue that information wants to be free. "Zhuan Falun" is filled with demur explanations of why acolytes may not be told of this or that aspect of what lies behind his teachings. [...more...] * China Falun Gong by Hongzhi Li http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9628143131/christianministr Zhuan Falun (Revolving The Law Wheel) by Hongzhi Li, Research Society Of Falun Xiulian Dafa http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9628143042/christianministr 38. 'Screwtape Letters' imitated in e-mail Toledo Blade, Sep. 4, 1999 http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/religion/9i04mail.htm If C.S. Lewis were to write The Screwtape Letters today, his collection of fictional missives from a senior to a junior demon probably would be in the form of e-mail. That's what Don Hawkins thought when, five years ago, he began working on a contemporary imitation of Lewis's famous 1941 volume. In fact, his working title was The Screwtape E-mails. Dr. Hawkins's completed project has been published by Kregel Publications of Grand Rapids, Mich., as flambeau@darkcorp.com, a series of 13 confidential e-mail memos from Scraptus, a vice president at the diabolical Darkcorp, to Flambeau, a regional manager. In them, Scraptus advises Flambeau how to turn the hostile takeover of one of his clients by the "Competition" into an acquisition. (...) But where Lewis focuses on a demon's efforts to subvert one person, Dr. Hawkins, co-host and producer of radio's Back to the Bible program, has enlarged the model to include instructions for subversion of a local church, portrayed as a "Local Competition Unit" in the book. So in addition to getting his client back, Flambeau is instructed to go after the client's associates. He is told to disrupt the influence of the Competition's Business Manual (the Bible) by appealing to such basic human behaviors as criticism, manipulation, gossip, discouragement, intimidation, sarcasm, stonewalling, flirtation, and lying. (...) Dr. Hawkins, 53, a church pastor for 19 years, said he wrote the book to call churches to a new level of insight and awareness about how such behaviors can impact congregations. (...) flambeau@darkcorp.com is the second work of fiction for Dr. Hawkins, who is best known for his nonfiction books, including How to Beat Burnout, Friends in Deed, and Master Discipleship. His wife, Kathy, also is an author who has written three books in Kregel's "Heart of Zion" fiction series. [...more...] === Internet 39. When criticism is called "terrorism" http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/terror/indexgb.htm Just after drinking my morning tea, I opened my e-mailbox and discovered that a document had been placed on a website in which I was called an extreme extreme terrorist. (...) To my amazement, I also discovered that I belonged to an "anti-cult" conspiracy, involving "secular humanists" and members of the political Left, right-wing European Identity promoters, Islamic fundamentalists, Latin American guerrillas, defenders of free speech and American Evangelicals, a plot backed by the French secret services. For some reason, the Illuminati were not listed among my accomplices. What makes this document peculiar is the fact that these allegations were made in what purports to be an "academic paper," on "Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet", presented on August 5, 1999, at the annual conference of the Association for Sociology of Religion (ASR) in Chicago, by Italian lawyer Massimo Introvigne. (...) [*] My comments here refer to the state of Introvigne's text as it was on the CESNUR website on August 7, 1999. Although it purports to be the text of a speech delivered on August 5, it apparently has a habit of undergoing little changes which "adapt" it to criticism. [...more...] * Introvigne's paper: "So Many Evil Things": Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet http://www.cesnur.org/testi/anticult_terror.htm About CESNUR http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c10.html
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