Contents
Articles
Excerpts from This Issue's Articles
Guy Ford: RIP
Guy Ford was a vital leader
of AFF (American Family Foundation - the former
name of International Cultic Studies
Association) during its crucial first decade,
when the organization's survival often hung by a
thread. Guy organized our first advisory board
meeting in 1981 at Dunfey's on Cape Cod and,
because of his peerless management skills, ran
our advisory board meetings for many years
thereafter. His counsel helped us maintain
organizational discipline and find our niche in
this field. He understood the cult field from
the perspective of a parent who struggled to get
his daughter, Wendy, out of the Way
International. But he also understood the field
from the perspective of an executive who was
always aware of the difference between good
intentions and achievement and the complex
process by which the former produces the later.
Those of us who worked with him learned from
him. And we enjoyed and admired his humanity
and down-to-earth wisdom. We were so very
fortunate to have been able to rely on him
during our organization's precarious early
years. Find out more at:
http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_profile/ford_guy.asp
Johannes Aagaard, Ph.D.: RIP
The transcript of a seminar
with Dr. Johannes Aagaard
constituted a special issue of Cultic Studies
Journal (Vol. 10, No. 2). He was remembered
by his friend and colleague, Viggo Mortensen:
“Aagaard primarily became known for his work
with the new religious movements. If it had not
been misused, one could say that Johannes
Aagaard engaged in spiritual warfare against
some of the new religious movements. When
encountering deceit, compulsion or fraud, he
took on the full armour of faith and entered
into dialogue which, however, often ended in
confrontation. This controversial stand has
influenced the general notion of interreligious
dialogue in a Danish context, for good and for
bad. . . Johannes Aagaard will be remembered as
an ardent warrior of the Lord but also a fine
scholar who was always concerned with putting
the academic insights into practice.” More on
Dr. Aagaard:
http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_profile/aagaard_johannes.asp
Recovery from Abusive Groups - More
Translations
According to Evgeny Volkov,
Wendy Ford's practical handbook for former group
members, Recovery from Abusive Groups,
has recently been translated into Russian. Ms.
Ford tells us that the book was also translated
into Flemish and should be available at the
Brussels conference in summer 2007. The book is
available as an e-book through ICSA’s online
bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.
New Brochure on Health Issues in Cultic
Groups
The
Belgian organization, CIAOSN
(Centre d'information et d'avis sur les
organisations sectaires nuisibles)
has published a brochure in
French on health issues in cultic groups,
"Dérives sectaires et matière de santé":
http://www.ciaosn.be/sectes_et_sante.pdf.
ICSA Ex-Member Workshop
“After the Cult,” Estes
Park, Colorado, July 20-22, 2007.
http://www.icsahome.com/
infoserv_conferences/Workshops/2007_workshop_colorado.htm.
ICSA Annual Conference in Brussels Reaches
Capacity
With over 200 people
already registered, ICSA has closed
registrations for its annual conference in
Brussels, Belgium June 29-July 1, 2007. If
there are cancellations, we will consider
registering people who e-mail us to be on a
waiting list:
mail@icsamail.com.
Poem from 2007 SGA (Second-Generation
Adults) Workshop
We
are the poor banished children of Eve
From every cult and broken family afar
Scattered by the winds of rage
Sifted and separated in time's torrent.
Gathered here to salve and heal,
Recover lost years, to sooth ugly scars.
Through our weakness we shall become strong
Each to be a bright gem
rescued from the darkness of the world.
Will Farnsworth
Believers on the Rise in China
A study conducted by
researchers in Shanghai on behalf of the
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic
of China concludes that 31.4 percent of Chinese
aged 16 and above describe themselves as
believers, reports the Chinese magazine
Oriental Outlook, quoted in
Eglises d’Asie (Feb.
16). This figure is three times higher than the
official one. The results are part of a study on
contemporary cultural life in China initiated in
2004. Interviews were conducted with a
representative sample of 4,500 Chinese citizens.
Regarding religion, they were only asked if they
describe themselves as believers. No questions
were asked about actual religious practice.
Traditional Chinese
religions (i.e. Buddhism, Daoism, ancestor
worship and folk beliefs) are mentioned by 66.1
percent of believers; 15.5 percent of the
believers say they are Muslims, and 12 percent
claim to be Christians. This would mean around
40 million Christians in China: about twice the
number of Christians reported by officially
recognized Churches, but less than the figures
suggested in some evangelical circles in the
West. The survey did not differentiate between
different forms of Christianity. In rural areas
especially, more than one quarter of the
respondents claim that they adhere to a religion
because “it helps to cure sicknesses…prevent
disasters, and ensures a peaceful life.“ But the
scholars who conducted the research remark that,
besides poor people, more and more educated
Chinese are drawn to religion, as an answer to
questions about their life in a rapidly changing
society. Despite the fact that teaching religion
to people below 18 is still not legal in China,
the survey shows that 62 percent of the
believers are found in the 16-39 age range.
Eglises d’Asie,
128 rue du Bac, 75341 Paris Cedex 07, France -
http://eglasie.mepasie.org--By Jean-François
Mayer. Reprinted with permission
of Religion Watch, March 2007
Psychopathologies and the Attribution of
Charisma: A Critical Introduction to the
Psychology of Charisma and the Explanation of
Violence in New Religious Movements
Nova Religio: The
Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions,
vol. 10, no. 2, November, 2006, pp. 3-28. Lorne
L. Dawson. Charismatic authority is widely held
to be a defining mark of new religious movements
(NRMs). It is also thought to play a crucial
role in the onset of violence in some NRMs. We
have begun to understand both the psychological
and the social structural dynamics of this mode
of leadership and how, under specific social
conditions, it contributes to a dangerous cycle
of deviance amplification. This paper presents
a synthetic and critical analysis of several
different theories of the charismatic bond.
The Qur'an: A Short Introduction
Farid Esack (Oneworld,
2001, paperback, 224 pages). Theological
Review (Near East School of Theology), POB
13-5780, Chouran, Beirut, Lebanon
 Conversion
out of Islam
Khalil, Mohammad Hassan, &
Bilici, Mucahit. (2007, January). Conversion
Out of Islam: A Study of Conversion Narratives
of Former Muslims. The Muslim World, 97(1),
111-124. Muslim World (Hartford Seminary), (860)
509-9534,
http://macdonald.hartsem.edu/muslimworld.htm
"Love Supreme": On Spiritual Experience and
Change in Personality Structure
Bruce A. Stevens,
Journal of Psychology & Theology, Vol. 34,
No. 4, 2006, pp. 318-326
This article attempts to
address the crucial question of how an
experience of God might lead to changes in
personality. Important concepts are drawn from
psychoanalytic theory emphasizing relational
perspectives which have developed in recent
decades.
Measuring Faith Development
Stephen Parker, Journal
of Psychology & Theology, Vol. 34, No. 4,
2006, pp. 337-348
James Fowler's theory of
faith development has had a significant
influence on religious education, pastoral care,
and developmental psychology. since he
introduced the notion of faith "stages," there
have been several attempts to measure these,
beginning with Fowler's own work. This article
reviews and evaluates the adequacy of the
various instruments used to measure Fowler's
theory of faith development.
Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 6, No. 1
Now available on line.
Articles include:
- The Psychology of
Prophetic Charisma
- Former Members’
Perceptions of Cult Involvement
- Fear and Pride in
Ideographic Identification
- Former Members’
Perceptions of Cult Involvement
In a recent press
conference before his installation May 1 as
Catholic Bishop of Dallas, former Legionaries of
Christ member Bishop Kevin Farrell states
“differences of opinion” as the cause of his
departure from this Catholic religious group.
Farrell’s stated reason for his personal exit
clearly implies that he disagreed with the
Vatican-approved organization after having been
there for 20 years and having to start a new
life in an unknown setting. A logical
implication of this view is that he left because
a “difference of opinion” was not acceptable
within the organization, a stance that blends
with what many of us legionary survivors
describe as the cult-like characteristics of the
group (www.regainnetwork.org). . .
The “strongly conservative”
legionary label is part of traditional
Catholicism—Eucharistic adoration, Marian
devotion, papal fidelity, clerical dress,
Jesuitical retreats, blind obedience, strict
discipline, separation from worldly pursuits and
family ties—all given a strong spin in the
United States during the liberal 1980s to
attract vocations and finances from conservative
Catholics nostalgic for the established Church
they loved. Like most of us, Farrell probably
stayed in the Order because he was happy with
community life and the challenging ministry in
Latin America. . .
To suggest, then, that the
Legionaries and similar groups promote
“doctrinal orthodoxy” is therefore false: They
do not respect (given that they are cult-like)
the “doctrinal orthodoxy,” as I understand them,
of both Christ and Christianity, which reveres
conscience. The notion that they encourage
“doctrinal orthodoxy” also plays into their
tactic of attracting members and dollars from
naively generous “orthodox” Catholics and
“conservative” Christians.
Fagan, Kevin.
Bishop Farrell’s
“Differences of Opinion”
In a Denmark court ruling,
December 2006, Jehovah’s Witnesses lost a key
decision to suppress freedom of the press. They
were ordered to pay legal fees of 50,000 kroner
to one of the largest newspapers in Denmark,
Ekstra Bladet
[i] . Ekstra
Bladet had published a series of articles on
the epidemic of child abuse within the Jehovah’s
Witness organization. Since May of 2002, media
worldwide have circulated reports of child-abuse
problems. Stories include those from The New
York Times, Dateline, and eight different
countries offering testimony from sexually
abused kids within the religion. . .
Jehovah’s Witnesses have
long touted their record as an organization that
is a defender of “freedom of speech”. . . A
film/propaganda piece is circulating around the
United States of America called Knocking
that will soon air on PBS; the piece touts how
Jehovah’s Witnesses protect freedom. Yet another
side the public are not informed of is the
inverted use of these legal victories to punish
and humiliate people the Jehovah’s Witnesses do
not like. . .
So while Knocking, a
Jehovah’s Witnesses-endorsed documentary, airs
on PBS and provides accolades for court
victories that make the group champions for
freedom of speech, the facts show that lawyers
funded by a multi-billion-dollar corporation are
making a mockery of the U.S. Constitution. They
use the Supreme Court as a knife to cut out the
tongues of people who are victimized by this
religion. Professor Marci Hamilton’s online
article at FindLaw notes the irony of the
Denmark case:
It
is extraordinarily ironic, then, that the
Jehovah’s Witnesses have recently, in Denmark,
taken the position that speech, including speech
by the press, should be punished and
suppressed. It appears that when the topic is
alleged clergy abuse within the organization,
its position on freedom of speech makes a
180-degree turn. Apparently, the Jehovah’s
Witnesses support free speech for themselves,
but not for their critics.
Bowen,
William.
Jehovah’s Witnesses Lose
Court Battle to Suppress Freedom of Speech
This article addresses
concerns regarding possible cultic dangers of
philosopher Ken Wilber and his Integral
Institute. These concerns have been prompted by
Wilber's increasingly harsh comments toward
scholars who disagree with his philosophical
theories and opinions. To evaluate these
concerns, the author utilizes three cult danger
scales, with a dominant focus upon Isaac
Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame, and the
author's personal experiences with Wilber and as
a member and published author of Integral
Institute.
Based upon some of my
higher ratings in the Bonewits Cult Danger
Scale, my ambiguous ratings in the Anthony
Typology, and some of my red flags in the Wilber
Integral Model, I would say that patterns
definitely exist in the Integral Institute to be
cautious and observant about, not the least of
which is Ken Wilber’s strong ego and harsh
criticisms of many of those who disagree with
him. However, similar to conclusions I have
reached regarding both the Conversations with
God and Reiki groups (cf. endnote 5), I will
give both Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute
the benefit of the doubt and place this
organization in Neutral territory regarding cult
dangers vs. beneficial spiritual
characteristics. . . However, I most definitely
do not think that the Integral Institute belongs
in the Favorable category, in which I placed my
experiences with Neopaganism or the new-age
spiritual workshops in which I have participated
at the Omega Retreat Center or the Kripalu Yoga
Center (cf. endnote 5).
In conclusion, for those
people concerned about cult dangers related to
Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute, I offer
the following: Although I have made some
critical statements about both Ken Wilber and
the Integral Institute, at this point I do not
see anything serious enough to be very alarmed
about. As far as I can determine from my present
knowledge, if you do not like what you see at
the Integral Institute, then you can disengage
without repercussions. Big egos, strong ideas,
and harsh criticism of opponents are not
necessarily the same as significant cult
dangers; and if I ever have anything to add to
this appraisal in the future, I will not
hesitate to do so.
Benjamin, Elliot.
On Ken Wilber’s Integral
Institute: An Experiential Analysis
Additional information
on news reports is available in the ICSA
E-Library.
A federal jury in Salt Lake
City has fined four Amway distributors
$19.25 million for spreading the rumor that
Proctor & Gamble and its former corporate logo
were linked to Satanic worship. P&G argued that
the distributors perpetuated the preexisting
rumor by spreading it among other Amway
distributors in order to gain market advantage
for products that competed with P&G’s. The
decision relied partly on the Lanham Act, which
prohibits unfair competition and false
advertising.
Some 200 followers of
breakaway Aum Shinrikyo faction leader
Fumihiro Joyu, including 60–70 live-in
members, have officially cut ties with the cult
and disavowed the teachings of founder Chizuo
Matsumoto (Shoko Asahara), who has
been sentenced to death for masterminding cult
crimes. Security Agency officials doubt the Joyu
group can escape Matsumoto’s influence and say
they will keep members under surveillance.
The Branch, The
Lord of Righteousness, which took control of
Mount Carmel, refuge of the David Koresh
faction of the Branch Davidians, says it
plans to resume a communal life on the site of
the compound, near Waco, TX, that was destroyed
14 years ago. The leader, Charles Joseph Pace,
57, known by his “spiritual title,” Joshua
Solomon Branch, says he wants to make the
compound, the site of what he refers to as “so
many lies and deceptions, lawlessness and sin,”
into a holistic health center and organic farm
as well as a religious community modeled on the
one begun by Davidian founder Victor Houteff.
Houteff was expelled from the Seventh Day
Adventist Church in 1929 and settled in Waco in
1935. Pace split from the Davidians in Waco in
1984 but returned to live on the property with
his family in 1995.
Former Canadian MP David
Kilgour, who co-authored a report on the issue,
says that wealthy Albertans have traveled to
China to buy organs — for up to $70,000 each —
harvested from Falun Gong devotees
executed by Chinese authorities. . . The
Epoch Times newspaper, with offices in 30
countries, is said to be part of Falun Gong’s
global public relations campaign to gain
sympathy and new members, a strategy, according
to a political scientist at the College of
Staten Island (NY), calculated “to embed itself
into the larger civil society for influence and
legitimacy.” . . . A San Francisco Superior
Court judge has ruled that the business
association running a Chinese New Year parade
did not discriminate against Falun Gong when it
banned the group from marching. The businessmen
banned Falun Gong last year, as well, saying the
group had previously violated a parade ban on
political activity. Falun Gong says the Chinese
government pressured the businessmen to ban the
group from the parade.
The Chinese embassy in
Canada has protested the Canadian Prime
Minister’s letter of greeting to a traveling
cultural program, hosted by U.S.-based New Tank
Dynasty Television and Epoch Times
newspaper, which depicts Chinese government
attacks on Falun Gong followers. . . New
York federal judge Ricardo Urbina says a Falun
Gong practitioners’ suit alleging Chinese
government intimidation and violence against
them in the U.S. can go forward. He stated that
most of the claims against China were barred by
sovereign immunity, but not burglary and certain
other alleged crimes. . . A demonstration by
Falun Gong detainees in Australia in March
prevented the deportation of one of their number
to China. They said that An Xiang Tao, in
Australia since 2000 and held four years, is
likely to be persecuted if he is sent back to
China.
A bill has been introduced
into the Arizona House of Representatives that
would give sole custody of their children to
women who leave polygamous husbands. “What’s
clearly happening up there [in the polygamous
towns of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints] is clearly
child and spousal abuse,” said Rep. David Lujan,
D-Phoenix. The bill would also bar unsupervised
visits by polygamous fathers if courts found
sufficient evidence that the husbands continue
in polygamy. The father might gain sole or joint
custody or unsupervised visits if judges state
their reasons for granting it, in writing, and
they deem that there is no significant risk to
the children. Lujan says he’ll introduce another
bill to provide $500,000 so that shelters can
provide transportation and job training for
women who leave polygamous husbands.
Fundamentalist Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader
Warren Jeffs, already facing trial for
performing underage marriages among followers in
Utah and Arizona, has been indicted in Utah on a
charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
His defense attorney has asked that the charge
of “rape as an accomplice” — in connection with
the underage marriages — be declared
“unconstitutionally vague.” . . . A former FLDS
child bride has refused to testify in the trial
of her former husband, forcing prosecutors to
dismiss the criminal case against him. Candi
Shapley, now 20, said she’s even willing to go
to jail for contempt of court to maintain her
silence. The district attorney said,
“Unfortunately, tremendous pressure has been
exerted on her by her parents as well as by some
other members of the FLDS Church. . . I was not
willing to re-victimize our victim by trying to
put her in jail.” Shaply, who said someone had
broken into her home after she was named as a
witness, stated that she did not want to be a
crusader. “I would love to have it all just go
away and live my peaceful life.” Her decision
not to testify in this and related cases may
affect the prosecution of Jeffs, awaiting trial
on charges of forcing girls into underage
marriages. . . FLDS member Vergel Jessop, who
pleaded no contest to child abuse charges for
taking an underage wife, was sentenced in
Kingman, AZ, to a day in jail and three years’
probation. He must also register as a sex
offender.
Former IPIC Investments
head Gregory Setser has been sentenced to
40 years in prison for swindling hundreds of
Christian investors out of $170 million through
a pyramid scheme. Using his connections to the
noted televangelist Benny Hinn to persuade new
investors — Hinn paid back his profits when he
learned of the way others had been scammed —
Setser spent millions on mansions, a yacht, and
more.
The Texas Supreme Court has
let stand a Texas Court of Appeals decision to
reject a $136 million libel action by The
Local Church against Harvest House
Publishers, whose book, the Encyclopedia of
Cults and New Religions, includes commentary
on The Local Church. A coalition of groups
headed by the Association of American Publishers
(AAP), which filed an amicus brief supporting
Harvest House, reports the Appeals Court held
that labeling a group a cult “is not actionable
because the truth or falsity of the statement
depends upon one’s religious beliefs, an
ecclesiastical matter which cannot and should
not be tried in a court of law.” The AAP brief
referred to The Local Church’s “history of suing
it’s critics,” and said that “the ‘chilling
effect’ of meritless libel litigation occurs
because publishers are deterred from engaging in
truthful or non-defamatory speech by the
enormous costs of defending defamation lawsuits.
. . While they assume the role of victim, the
transparent weakness of petitioners’ arguments
reveals that their real aim is to punish speech
they do not like.” If The Local Church’s
argument is accepted, the AAP brief concluded,
“authors of compendia and survey texts would be
open to liability for general introductory
commentary that no reasonable reader would take
to apply to every person or group discussed in
the book.” Defense of The Local Church’s case by
prominent Christian apologetics personalities
Hank Hanegraff and Gretchen Passantino brought
protests from other Christian apologeticists,
who objected to the Local Church’s move to have
a court intervene in matters of doctrine. In
addition, 60 evangelical Christian scholars and
ministry leaders from seven countries signed an
open letter asking Local Church leaders to
withdraw unorthodox statements made by founder
Witness Lee and renounce their longstanding
practice of filing lawsuits and threatening
litigation in response to criticism.
Mike Kropveld, head of
Montreal’s Info-Secte, says the Raëlian
movement’s renewed use of the Swastika
intertwined with the Star of David is a
desperate attempt to generate flagging publicity
about the group, which claims 65,000 members;
Kropveld says the true number is probably a few
hundred. . . UFOland, the Raëlian “playground”
in Québec’s Eastern Townships, and home of it’s
peripatetic leader [Claude Vorhilon], is
for sale for $2.95 million. The sect says its
future is in the U.S., while observers say the
sale is a sign of the decline of a sect known
for its free-sex teaching and claim to have
achieved human cloning. The Raël museum closed
in 2003, and neighbors say the group’s
activities have slowed in recent years. . . The
isRaeli Raëlian Movement says it will open a
Rabbinical school and welcome young former
orthodox Jews who have been alienated from their
families because “they have found the truth
about our origins, thanks to our lectures.”
It is alleged that some
foreign-born followers of the late Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh, who number 2,000 in New
South Wales, Australia, are marrying Australian
sect members in order to gain permanent
residence status there. This process was
allegedly common in the Rajneesh commune in
Oregon in the 1980s. . . New South Wales
sanyassins (followers) are said to be recruiting
staff for a South Pacific island health resort.
People who agreed to “to work and live in
paradise” were not told of the sect connection.
A Superior Court judge in
Marietta, GA, has sentenced Joseph and Tonya
Smith to life in prison plus 30 years for
beating their 8-year-old son, locking him in a
wooden box, and confining him to a closet for
hours just before he died, in 2003. Authorities
say the child was habitually abused. The Smiths
belong to the Remnant Fellowship Church,
in Brentwood, TN, which stems from Gwen
Shamblin’s Weigh Down Workshop, a
Christian diet program that encourages corporal
punishment. The congregation is collecting funds
for an appeal. . . Meanwhile, Shamblin and 78
Remnant Fellowship members have filed a $3.3
million defamation suit against Raphael Martinez
— operator of the Internet-based Spirit Watch
— accusing him of saying church members use
“extreme discipline for children,” such as
“harsh spankings and whippings,” and suggesting
that members’ children have been starved.
With the aid of U.S. air
strikes, the leader of the messianic Soldiers
of Heaven, Dhia Abdul Zahra was
killed along with hundreds of heavily armed
followers, including some of their families, in
a battle with government forces near Najef,
Iraq, in late January. The millenarian cult,
said to have included Sunni and Shiite Muslims
as well as non-Iraqis, was allegedly planning to
attack the Shiite clerical establishment in the
nearby holy city. Authorities found $10 million
on the group’s farm outside the city. The leader
claimed to be the Mahdi, the earthly
representative of the “Hidden Imam,” the last of
12 Shiite saints who disappeared in the ninth
century, according to Shiite theology, and who
will return on Judgment Day. The Mahdi taught
that the Day could be hastened by killing the
religious leadership, including Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani. The Soldiers of Heaven are only
one among dozens of warring Shiite factions,
including other millenarian groups, which have
arisen in poverty stricken southern Iraq.
Observers say people are looking for a miracle
to save them from the general social collapse.
A group of Montreal-area
school principals wants to introduce
Transcendental Meditation into the
curriculum, an idea derided by The Gazette
newspaper editorialist on the ground that TM
is a religious practice best promoted in
community-based programs.
Excommunicated Zambian
Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is
reportedly in Seoul, South Korea, studying the
theology of Unification Church leader
Sun Myung Moon, who married the
controversial prelate to a Korean woman in 2001.
A source said, “The reason why we have been mum
regarding his visit here is so as not to stoke
the anger of Catholics.” Milingo has been
campaigning for the Vatican to allow priests to
marry. . . Reverend Kevin Thompson, San
Francisco Bay area leader of the Unification
Church, has been sentenced to a year in prison
for running the world’s largest baby leopard
shark poaching ring. Evidence in the case
suggests that Moon, who heads the international
seafood firm True World, knew of and approved of
the illegal operation.
Some Christians in Quesnel,
British Columbia, are protesting a province-wide
public school program that uses yoga to
promote fitness. They say it allows religion in
the schools. One complainant said she saw no
difference between incorporating yoga and
requiring recitation of the Lord’s Prayer every
morning. She believes yoga turns children’s
minds toward Hindu Gods. The district
superintendent says that if a parent or student
objects, alternate exercises will be provided.
Scientology has been
accused of trying to “infiltrate” British
politics through payments of between £3,500 and
£13,500 — from the Scientology-linked
Association for Better Living and Education
(ABLE) —for booths at both Labor and Tory annual
conventions. MPs are concerned that the payments
were part of an extensive lobbying operation to
promote the Scientology drug and criminal rehab
programs, Narconon and Criminon. Evidence
provided under the Freedom of Information Act
indicates that the chief British Scientology
spokesman met with then Home Office minister,
Baroness Scotland [sic] and then invited other
ministers to the opening of the new Scientology
headquarters in London. While a Liberal Democrat
MP called Scientology “a dubious cult at best,”
and said, “It only goes to show that some
politicians are prepared to take money from
anyone,” a Labor spokesman said that the
decision to let Scientology show at its
conference followed a policy of having
exhibitions that represent a “range of views and
opinions.” In 2001, London Mayor Ken Livingstone
refused to let Scientology promote its treatment
program, saying it is “a medically unproven
policy which I am advised could be dangerous,”
and “a spurious medical program which many drugs
professionals are concerned about.”
According to a London
Sunday Times reporter sent undercover to
investigate Scientology at its new
headquarters, near St. Paul’s Cathedral, “My
experience shook me. What I had expected to find
was an eccentric but largely harmless
organization. What I discovered was a paranoid
and dogmatic group which — through a mixture of
pyramid selling techniques and subtle
intimidation — preys on the vulnerable to expand
and enrich itself.” The experience included
being escorted into the establishment by “body
routers or greeters,” and a “personality test”
that “marked the start of a common theme: a
constant digging to establish and mark out my
insecurities and character flaws. I was told the
test revealed that I had problems with
‘concentration’, ‘depression’, and ‘confidence’,
but that work with Scientology would solve the
problems.” In the following weeks, he went
through various courses at a cost of £200 and
was recruited to be an “expeditor — the first
step in becoming a full-time employee.” He was
to be part of a team paid according to how much
money the organization made each week, which
partly depended on how many recruits they
brought in. During this time, “I witnessed a
number of highly unorthodox tactics and
practices” — the use of lie detector-like
e-meter to probe for vulnerabilities; pressure
on new members to detail their sex lives,
including the names of people they’d slept with;
encouragement to identify “suppressive persons”
in their lives (those who’d had a negative
impact), including parents and other family
members; and “perhaps the most troubling,” four
e-meter tests concerning his background, his
views on Scientology, and his past employment.
“It felt as if I was being turned inside out so
that they could assess the potential for me to
become a compliant member.”
Following an “expansion
summit” last year, Scientology has opened
new centers in a number of major European cities
and begun a propaganda “offensive” [according to
this lengthy report in Der Spiegel, March
27, 2007, summarized here]. A Scientology
document states: “If we are to implement our
planetary campaigns for salvation, then we have
to reach the top levels of the German government
in Berlin,” adding that the Berlin headquarters
is responsible for “building the necessary
in-roads to the German parliament in order to
ensure that our solutions are genuinely
introduced to the whole of German society.” In
response to this initiative, German federal and
state intelligence agencies want to increase
surveillance of Scientology. The director of one
such agency, in the state of Baden-Wütemberg,
said, “This is a dangerous group that uses
psychological manipulation and has an
anti-democratic self-image, a group that wants
to break the will of each of its members. That’s
why we have to take massive counter-action.”
Authorities, therefore, have mounted an
information campaign to warn citizens about
Scientology. Responses to Scientology’s outreach
have been more relaxed in many other German
states.
The creators of the “South
Park” TV series, who have caricatured
Scientology in the past, lampooned the group
once again, this time in a Rolling Stone
article celebrating the show’s 10th
anniversary. A group of characters from “South
Park” is shown spray-painting “Scientology is
dumb” and “Hi Tom” on the church’s Los Angeles
headquarters sign. . . The Miramar Beach, FL,
community is still opposing establishment by
Scientology’s Narconon of a drug and alcohol
rehab facility, concerned that it would destroy
the neighborhood. . . New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg has criticized as
“inappropriate” official proclamations drafted
by city councilman Hiram Monserrate —
“Scientology’s new cheerleader” — honoring Tom
Cruise and founder Hubbard for promoting
a detoxification program for 9/11 rescue
workers. “I think that reputable Scientists do
not think Scientology has any basis in Science.
It may be a cult, it may be a religion, it may
be beliefs,” the mayor said. “It’s other things,
but it’s not science, and we should only fund
those programs that reputable scientists believe
will stand the light of day and the scientific
method.” Fire Department leaders do not endorse
the Scientology-connected program and warn their
rank and file to avoid it. “I’m hearing stories
[says the Fox News reporter on which this
summary is based] of firemen who accepted free
treatment, only to be swallowed into
Scientology. And while tonight’s event is billed
as a ‘fundraiser,’ I’m also told that firemen
and their families aren’t paying for their own
tickets.”
A Baden-Wurttemberg
politician has asked that Scientologist
John Travolta’s scheduled appearance on a
prominent TV show be canceled because by
inviting him “you’re offering this organization
a platform to address millions of viewers . . .
and many people, parents in particular, are
concerned about Scientologists and their aims.”
But the producers have refused the demand. . .
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered
Russia to pay a fine of 10,000 Euros and 15,000
more for costs and expenses for refusing to
register Scientology as a church. . . In light
of a recent decision by the European Court
ruling that the Russia should recognize
Scientology as a religious organization, it may
be that Britain will have to reverse it’s own
long-standing ruling that Scientology is not, in
fact, a tax-exempt religion. The European Court
ruled that Scientology had been “discriminated
against as a religious minority” and “restricted
in exercising the full range of its religious
activities.”
The recruitment and
exploitation of young people by traveling
door-to-door magazine subscription sales
organizations continues. This seems clear from
interviews with more than 50 current and former
members about their lives “on the road” in a
lengthy account of the current state of the
“industry” responsible for 2–3 percent of all
magazine subscriptions nationwide, worth $147
million in 2005. One recent high school graduate
tells how he and his crew worked 10–14 hours a
day, six days a week, living three to a room in
cheap motels, with the lowest “producer” for the
day sleeping on the floor. They survived some
days on less than $10 in food money, while their
earnings were kept “on the books” for later
payment, which often amounted to very little,
thanks to expenses they incurred in the course
of their service. Former and current members of
such crews tell similar stories that include
accounts of violence, drug use, indebtedness,
cheating of customers, travel in unsafe
vehicles, and more. They relate how work in the
group can become more a lifestyle than a job,
that fellow crew members come to be “family,”
and that “negativity” is punished. A young
saleswoman tells how she remained with the group
for months after she was raped because, she
says, “I believed my manager when he said he
would never let that happen again, and I
believed him when he said my mom had told him
she didn’t care about me.” In some groups,
“enforcers” beat those who complain, and even
those who do not meet their quotas. The number
of door-to-door magazine subscription sales
crews seems to be increasing nationwide, thanks
to the decline in phone solicitations.
The Australian Electoral
Commission (AEC) has found that a company run by
a member of the Exclusive Brethren, which
is deeply involved in political lobbying,
totally funded a $420,00 (U.S.) advertising
campaign attacking the Green Party and calling
for the re-election of the Howard government in
2004. . . Prime Minister John Howard has now
warned his MPs not to accept donations from the
Brethren.
The New Zealand government
has accused the Australia-based Exclusive
Brethren of lying when it denied that, as an
organization, it attempted to influence New
Zealand elections. Senior Brethren members in
New Zealand, however, spent more than $1 million
on literature deriding the Government and its
supporters.
Redford Township, MI, has
reluctantly taken off the tax rolls a $3.5
million mansion recently purchased as a
parsonage for Detroit World Outreach Church
minister Pastor Ben Gilbert, who teaches
that wealth is God’s reward. Church members say
the mansion is proof that God has blessed them.
Said the church lawyer: “In this country we
value rock stars, movie stars, and athletes.
They can have a lavish lifestyle, and a pastor
who restores lives that were broken shouldn’t?
When our value system elevates a man who can put
a ball in a hole and not a man who does God’s
work, something is wrong.”
A Moscow court has rejected
Grigory Grabovoi’s $46 million lawsuit
against Komsomolskaya Pravda complaining
of “moral damages” he says he suffered following
the newspaper’s reports of his alleged
fraudulent activities, which included a promise
to parents that he’d resurrect children who died
in the Beslan hostage-taking tragedy.
The largest ISKCON
temple in India is set to open in Tiraputi,
Andhra Pradesh. Among the hundreds of devotees
from around the world who will attend inaugural
ceremonies there is Ambareesha Dasa (former
Alfred Ford), the great grandson of Henry Ford.
The Utah Supreme Court has
ruled that a juvenile court judge acted properly
in 2005 when she allowed the return home of
eight children of Heidi Mattingly Foster and
polygamist John Daniel Kingston. The
children had been removed from their parents’
custody following a finding of child abuse
against them.
John Harrell pleaded
guilty in San Diego in February to defrauding
investors, mostly churchgoers, of $20 million,
promising, according to the FBI, high rates of
return with no risk, and preying on “his
victims’ religious faiths and their suspicion of
government.” Harrell and his partners, who used
the money on high living, told his victims that
descendants of Mormon church founder Joseph
Smith had created a $1.6 trillion trust fund
held overseas, and that investors were needed to
bring the money back home.
A former advisor to the
Colonie, NY-based Nxivm human development
organization, who now calls Nxivm a cult and an
“extremely dangerous group” — he also leads the
Stop Nxivm/ESP Now Legal Defense Fund — has been
indicted on charges he swindled a Nxivm-related
foundation of $232,607 between 2004 and 2005.
Joseph O’Hara allegedly took money from wealthy
Saratoga residents Clare and Sara Bronfman and
other Nxivm supporters.
Opus Dei has accused
the BBC of defamation in the broadcaster’s
portrayal of the society’s members as, according
to the Opus Dei complaint, “murderers, thieves
and adulterers” in an award-winning fictional
drama that apparently mirrors concepts found in
The Da Vinci Code.
Alexander Dvorkin, head of
the Moscow-based Religion and Sect Study Center,
says there are from 600,000 to 800,000 people,
among a population of 142 million, involved in
“sects,” including 300,000 “Neo-Pentecostalists,
a charismatic movement dating from the 1960s,
and 140,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as
Mormons, Krishnaites, and Anastasians. Dvorkin
called for changes in the criminal code to
recognize “mind control” and “psychological
violence” as crimes. He said there were two
types of sects: one, consisting of “classic”
churches, like the Baptists, and totalitarian
ones, which are the most dangerous and
destructive, according to Dvorkin. The latter,
like Scientology and the Unification Church, are
not necessarily based on religion. They seek
power and money.
The Daily Mail
reports that Scientology — still denied
charity status in Britain — has given thousands
of pounds worth of gifts to City of London
police, including invitations to film premieres
and a £500 per head charity dinner headlined by
Tom Cruise.
Chiba, Japan, police in
January raided facilities connected to the
Setsuri cult, believing that a female senior
member, originally from South Korea, had
illegally gained her resident status and then
gone on to recruit followers for Setsuri founder
Jun Myung. He is on an international
wanted list for allegedly sexually assaulting
several former female members provided by the
unnamed Korean woman.
Stephen Tari, who
has called himself Black Jesus, was
arrested in March in Papua New Guinea — where he
led an obscure cult with 6000 followers — and
charged with murder and cannibalism. Tari, who
studied to be a Lutheran pastor but went into
the mountains after disputing Bible teachings,
allegedly raped scores of girls and carried out
sacrificial killings. It is said that he ate the
flesh and drank the blood of a girl whose mother
murdered her after forcing her to have sex with
the Black Jesus. The mother, called “queen of
the flower girls,” who allegedly joined in the
ghastly meal, denies the allegations
Maia Szalavitz, writing in
STATS (George Mason University, 1/22/07),
says that a recent Wall Street Journal
article on Scientology’s Second Chance Program
(SCP) for drug offenders in New Mexico — which
received a $350,000 federal grant — failed to
deliver on the Journal’s editorial wish
that reader’s “experience the increased focus
[of Journal stories] on interpretation,
insight, and ideas.” Szalavitz says the article
contained nothing about the enormous body of
literature from which one can infer that
Scientology methods are not those typically
found successful in treating drug addiction, and
that by neglecting these modalities,
Scientology and Second Chance therapies may
be harmful. . . Chief Albuquerque district
judge William Lang, a member of AA who supports
traditional treatment, does not want his
subordinate judges to sentence inmates to the
Scientology-linked Second Chance drug treatment
program. His predecessor, W. John Brennan, who
Judge Lang tried unsuccessfully to have unseated
in 2002, and who resigned after pleading guilty
to drunk driving and cocaine possession in 2004,
was hired by Second Chance to persuade fellow
judges to order prisoners into the program.
Brennan took some of the Second Chance
treatments himself. One of the world’s leading
experts on addiction treatment, William Miller,
a retired University of New Mexico professor,
says: “The components of SCP do not correspond
to what we know from science about the nature of
addiction and its effective treatment.” He also
said, replying to a question about whether or
not the program works: “We just don’t know.”
Second Chance has asked for $3.6 million from
New Mexico in order to continue. The current
program, to which some judges still sentence
prisoners, was financed partly by the state and
partly by Randall Suggs, a Scientologist and
part-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball
team.
Prescott, AZ, police in
February arrested Scientology critic
Howard Keith Henson, who had fled to Canada in
2002 to avoid serving a one-year jail sentence
for threatening the organization on the Internet
and picketing in front of church facilities in
Riverside County, CA. His website calls him one
of “the most effective critics of Scientology.”
. . .
Scientology says it
will now finish construction of its block-long
new spiritual shrine and headquarters in
Clearwater, begun in 2000. The organization has
incurred more than $55,000 in fines for not
meeting the city’s deadline to finish the
exterior. The church says the delay stems from a
desire to make perfect both this building and
other Scientology properties now being
developed.
ICSA
Founded in 1979, the
International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)
is a network of people concerned about cultic,
manipulative, and abusive groups. As the leading
professional organization in the field, ICSA
strives to increase understanding and awareness
of such groups and to help people that they
harm. ICSA consists of and responds to the needs
of people interested in cults, new religious
movements, sects, spiritual abuse, and related
groups and topics.
Editor: Michael D.
Langone, Ph.D.
News Editor: Robert
E. Schecter, Ph.D.
Researcher: Carol
Giambalvo
International Cultic
Studies Association
P.O. Box 2265
Bonita Springs, FL 34133
mail@icsamail.com
239-514-3081
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