Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 176
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)/Hare Krishna
Conversions in India
Scores of young Indian men have left the comforts of home and family to join the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness. An ISKCON ashram in Delhi has 45
initiates: one of them is a postgraduate in sociology from Lucknow University another is a
postgraduate in commerce from Meerut and a third is a software engineer. Some are
married and have children. They all proselytize. The chairman of the Delhi group says
people join because they are unhappy, and seek peace, and also in order to finish the
service to God they could not complete in their previous lives. He added that some also join
for material reasons— they have been in the movement for a long time and are allowed to
go to overseas branches in Dallas, London, and elsewhere. (IANS (India), Internet,
9/19/04)
King of Kings
Members Leave Prosperity Gospel Church
Sixty members of Mary Sheridan’s King of King’s Church, in County Galway, Ireland,
have left, accusing the ―prosperity gospel‖ preacher of psychological abuse and breaking up
families. The former financial controller of the organization says Sheridan and her husband
got members to give them thousands of dollars by saying she could exorcise their Demons.
(Ireland on Sunday, 7/18/04 from FAIR News, Britain, 2/2004, p. 7)
Lyndon LaRouche
Running Again for President and Recruiting Youth
Perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche’s organization has come under greater
scrutiny following the death last year of 22-year-old law student Jeremiah Duggan, who had
become involved briefly with LaRouche supporters in Germany.
Chip Berlet, of Political Research Associates, which monitors right-wing groups, says it is
wrong to treat LaRouche as a ―fringe eccentric,‖ because ―the truth is he recruits a lot of
talented young people ...and attempts to turn them into followers who will mindlessly
celebrate a cause that‘s going nowhere.‖
Scotland Yard says the LaRouche organization appears to be ―a political cult with sinister
and dangerous connections,‖ and anti-Semitic. (Duggan was Jewish.) The eccentric
LaRouche, who embraces a host of conspiracy theories about world affairs, calls the Duggan
case a hoax contrived by ―admirers of Dick Cheney and Tony Blair.‖
Berlet asserts that the organization ―combines totalitarian forms of social control, fascist
forms of political ideology, and dualistic apocalyptic style, which encourages followers to
fear that time is running out and that they must act immediately to stave off some
cataclysmic event.‖
Linda Ray, a Jewish former follower from Chicago, says many Jews become involved with
LaRouche perhaps because ―the members get so hypnotized by the simplistic ‗good guys‘
and ‗bad guys‘ approach to history that they do not hear what LaRouche is really saying.‖
According to many former members and relatives of current members, recruits leave school
and even professions to work for the LaRouche organization, and reject former social links.
The relatives of one current member, who gave up a master‘s degree in astrophysics to join
LaRouche, said: ―When we do get to talk to him, all he does is try and convert us, which is
when he acts like a missionary and comes out with all this conspiracy stuff. He‘s very
suspicious of other people now. Our parents are very concerned and scared he‘s almost
destroyed our family.‖ (Terry Kirby, The Independent, UK, Internet, 7/21/04)
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)/Hare Krishna
Conversions in India
Scores of young Indian men have left the comforts of home and family to join the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness. An ISKCON ashram in Delhi has 45
initiates: one of them is a postgraduate in sociology from Lucknow University another is a
postgraduate in commerce from Meerut and a third is a software engineer. Some are
married and have children. They all proselytize. The chairman of the Delhi group says
people join because they are unhappy, and seek peace, and also in order to finish the
service to God they could not complete in their previous lives. He added that some also join
for material reasons— they have been in the movement for a long time and are allowed to
go to overseas branches in Dallas, London, and elsewhere. (IANS (India), Internet,
9/19/04)
King of Kings
Members Leave Prosperity Gospel Church
Sixty members of Mary Sheridan’s King of King’s Church, in County Galway, Ireland,
have left, accusing the ―prosperity gospel‖ preacher of psychological abuse and breaking up
families. The former financial controller of the organization says Sheridan and her husband
got members to give them thousands of dollars by saying she could exorcise their Demons.
(Ireland on Sunday, 7/18/04 from FAIR News, Britain, 2/2004, p. 7)
Lyndon LaRouche
Running Again for President and Recruiting Youth
Perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche’s organization has come under greater
scrutiny following the death last year of 22-year-old law student Jeremiah Duggan, who had
become involved briefly with LaRouche supporters in Germany.
Chip Berlet, of Political Research Associates, which monitors right-wing groups, says it is
wrong to treat LaRouche as a ―fringe eccentric,‖ because ―the truth is he recruits a lot of
talented young people ...and attempts to turn them into followers who will mindlessly
celebrate a cause that‘s going nowhere.‖
Scotland Yard says the LaRouche organization appears to be ―a political cult with sinister
and dangerous connections,‖ and anti-Semitic. (Duggan was Jewish.) The eccentric
LaRouche, who embraces a host of conspiracy theories about world affairs, calls the Duggan
case a hoax contrived by ―admirers of Dick Cheney and Tony Blair.‖
Berlet asserts that the organization ―combines totalitarian forms of social control, fascist
forms of political ideology, and dualistic apocalyptic style, which encourages followers to
fear that time is running out and that they must act immediately to stave off some
cataclysmic event.‖
Linda Ray, a Jewish former follower from Chicago, says many Jews become involved with
LaRouche perhaps because ―the members get so hypnotized by the simplistic ‗good guys‘
and ‗bad guys‘ approach to history that they do not hear what LaRouche is really saying.‖
According to many former members and relatives of current members, recruits leave school
and even professions to work for the LaRouche organization, and reject former social links.
The relatives of one current member, who gave up a master‘s degree in astrophysics to join
LaRouche, said: ―When we do get to talk to him, all he does is try and convert us, which is
when he acts like a missionary and comes out with all this conspiracy stuff. He‘s very
suspicious of other people now. Our parents are very concerned and scared he‘s almost
destroyed our family.‖ (Terry Kirby, The Independent, UK, Internet, 7/21/04)
