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youth into a terrorist group] any different? It‘s a crime, too. A very dramatic one, maybe,
but just a crime.‖
Transcendental Meditation
The British singer Donovan, who went to India in the 1960s with the Beatles to study
Transcendental Meditation, is planning a world tour to reintroduce the public to TM
founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s style of meditation. He will stress the power of
meditation to deal with ―troubles of the psyche: anxiety, anger, stress and fear, which all
cause illness.‖ ...Ashley Deans, former leader of the now defunct Natural Law Party of
Canada [which is inspired by TM ideas] is traveling with a TM group across Canada aiming
to persuade schools to put TM meditation into classrooms in order, they say, to reduce
children‘s stress levels and improve learning. Montreal physician Guy-Paul Gagne, who will
travel with Ashley, says TM is proven to cut health care costs by half and reduce cancer and
coronary deaths, and has the potential to increase average life expectancy by 23%. ...
Nine pastors in Smith Center, KS, have written a letter to the editor saying that a proposed
TM facility will compete with them for residents‘ ―eternal souls.‖ A local bank president says,
―Sometimes people forget that this country is based on freedom of religion. If what they
[TM] want is peace and understanding, I‘m all for it. We need to wait and give these people
a chance. I don‘t see anything scary.‖ A public meeting heard from residents of Fairfield, IA,
the national TM center, saying that the town would die
Unification Church
Former British Home Secretary Michael Howard says he stands by his 1995 decision to
refuse Unification Church leader The Rev. Sun Myung Moon entry into the country. He
did so because he felt that the UC leader‘s presence would not be conducive to the public
good — he cited the church‘s recruiting practices and its effects on families. A judge
overruled him, saying that Howard should have given Moon a chance to argue in favor of
admission.
The Chicago Tribune of April 12, 2006, reviewing the current status of the Unification
Church in the U.S., notes that the church held a mass wedding ceremony for 4,600 couples
on August 1, 2005, in Cheonan, South Korea.
The New York State Education Department has approved the Unification Church’s
Unification Theological Seminary application to offer the doctorate degree at its Barrytown
campus, in Red Hook. The degree will, according to the church, provide students with ―the
opportunity to enhance and expand their ministerial skills.‖
Unification Church (UC) minister Kevin Thompson — recently indicted for selling $1.2
million worth of protected baby leopard sharks with a street value of over $1.2 million —
take young people onto the church‘s boat, deploy the fishing equipment, and start talking
about God and committing oneself to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. ―In the context of our
church, we try to use boats as a training place for young people,‖ Thompson explained. The
Unification Church is a major player in the U.S. domestic fishing industry, particularly in the
sushi trade, but it is not known whether Thompson‘s operation — which sold the sharks to
wholesale pet dealers, who shipped them around the world — was undertaken with the
church‘s knowledge.
One-time Zambian Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo recently left a convent
south of Rome, where he had been living in seclusion, and held a surprise news conference
in Washington in July announcing that his new mission is to persuade the Church to allow
priests to marry. A shocked Vatican says disciplinary measures could be announced soon. In
2001, Milingo married a woman chosen for him by UC leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
and escaped excommunication only by renouncing the nuptials. He subsequently said the
UC might have brainwashed him.

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Ariuntuya Shagj, a Mongolian, is one of six UC missionaries who spent a day recently in
Sterling, CO, asking for donations from local businesses to support AIDS prevention and
education as well as an orphanage in his home country. Five such small UC groups are
traveling in various states around the U.S.
United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors
Two sheriff‘s deputies, who are also members of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors,
have been suspended from their jobs while a grand jury investigates the group‘s activities
at the Clark County jail. Nuwaubian leader Dwight “Malachi” York is now serving a life
term following his conviction on charges of child molestation and racketeering. Some fellow
deputies say they‘re concerned about which side the Nuwaubian deputies would take in a
racial conflict at the jail. There have been allegations that the Nuwaubian deputies were
recruiting prisoners and that one violated policy by corresponding with York.
Westboro Baptist Church
Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, KS — which has 75
members, most of them his relatives — leads picketing at the funerals of people who, he
says, have been struck down by God and are on their way to hell because the country
tolerates gays.
The victims include soldiers killed in Iraq — ―Thank God for IEDs‖ (improvised explosive
devices) — and homosexuals — ―Fags die, God Laughs.‖ Phelps and his followers have also
picketed the funerals of Mr. Rogers, September 11 victims, and West Virginia coal miners,
among many others. The church blames disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the September 11
attacks, and AIDS on what it sees as America‘s permissive morals in violation of biblical
dictates.‖ They welcome disasters and pray that all of the chosen will join them in Kansas to
await the second coming and the end of the world.
Protests by Westboro Baptist at funerals, parades, and other events — it claims to have held
some 22,000 since 1971 —have led to 22 states enacting or proposing laws to limit the
rights of protestors at funerals. President Bush signed a federal law on Memorial Day that
now prohibits such protests at national cemeteries.
Phelps, 76, raised a Methodist, gained an appointment to West Point but felt a calling to
preach after attending a revival meeting. He later became a civil rights attorney, honored by
minority groups for his dedication to the cause, but he was disbarred for improprieties. He
ran as a Democrat for mayor, governor, and senator, but lost each time and is now rejected
by both parties.
Some of Phelps‘ children defend him unquestioningly, but others say he was abusive and
unstable, flying into rages over the way a child peeled an apple or forgot to wipe his shoes.
A loyal Phelps daughter, who lost one of her sons to the ―outside world,‖ says, ―What you
come to terms with is that the child is going to hell.‖ A disaffected daughter says followers
―believe that what my dad says is law. He‘s the shepherd and he gets his inspiration from
the Bible — he‘s the voice of God on earth.‖
The father of one of the soldiers whose funeral Phelps picketed has sued the Westboro
Church for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Church says it will counter-sue ―for conspiracy to violate civil rights, and violation of
civil rights.‖ ―We [protestors] were,‖ said the church attorney, ―seven people exercising
protected rights of free speech and religion.‖
Wiccan
Rebecca Sommers is suing the Georgia-based Crawford &Company branch in Schaumburg,
IL, for allegedly firing her because she practices Wicca, a ―pagan‖ religion some think it