Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 6, 2006, Page 56
scheme to involve young people ...with an organization whose leader is accused of
pedophilia.‖ The U.S. State Department says citizens should be aware of ―unconfirmed
reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader [apparently
Sai Baba] at an ashram or religious retreat located in Andhra Pradesh.‖
Salvation Ministry Church
Kenyan faith healer and self-styled prophetess Lucy Nduta Mwangi, head of her
Salvation Healing Ministry Church, in Nairobi, has been charged with defrauding
HIV/AIDS patients. She took money and goods from them and promised to cure them, or
their kin, through prayer.
Scientology
The German government has ordered security services to increase scrutiny of Scientology
because it believes that the organization, which it considers a cult, is recruiting
schoolchildren through its tutoring programs, which have tripled in number to at least 30 in
the past year ...Mark Foley, who recently resigned from the House of Representatives
because he sent sexually suggestive email to teenage male House pages, was the
beneficiary in May 2003 of a Scientology fund-raising event when he was considering
running for the Senate. Scientology is vociferously anti-gay, and the fact that Foley is gay
was well known in Washington. ..Scientology is set to open its largest center in Britain
soon — a 50,000 square-foot City of London building it bought for £23 million, a testimony
to the group‘s growing wealth. The event is likely to feature famous Scientologists like John
Travolta and Tom Cruise. ..Experts say paranoid schizophrenic Jeremy Perkins‘ brutal 2003
murder of his mother might not have occurred if he had gotten proper treatment. But his
parents, strict Scientologists, opposed psychiatric treatment because it is against their
religion. Actor Tom Cruise, a Scientologist, has called psychiatry a pseudoscience. ..
Brussels, Belgium, has refused to evict squatters from a property recently purchased by
Scientology for its European headquarters. The mayor says the ―only activity‖ of the church
is to raise money from ―idle people who can be tempted by their message,‖ and he says
he‘ll do anything he can to prevent Scientology from making Brussels its headquarters city.
Said a Scientology representative: ―It‘s like something from the last century. It doesn‘t fit
with Brussels‘s image as the capital of Europe.‖
Clearwater, FL, police arrested Scientologist Michael Fitzgerald in July on battery charges
after he got into a fight with Shawn Lonsdale, who was filming a documentary about the
group in front of its church. Now, posters have appeared in neighboring shop windows
alleging that Lonsdale was once arrested for sex crimes. Lonsdale, admitting he was once
charged with misdemeanors, says that Scientology is using this to frighten him and thus
prevent completion of the documentary. ..Scientologists attached to the church‘s Citizens
Commission on Human Rights, carrying signs saying ―Psychiatry Kills,‖ picketed the annual
Comprehensive Review of Psychiatry meeting, in Niagara Falls, NY. The head of the
University of Buffalo department of psychiatry said the picketers ―have the same credibility
as people who say they‘ve been kidnapped by aliens in flying saucers.‖ ...Narconon plans
to open a 66-bed facility on 30 acres at a rural site in upper Bouquet Canyon the formerly
housed a boarding school. Critics have questioned the efficacy of Scientology drug
detoxification treatments. Scientology representatives say there will be no religious
indoctrination. ..Scientology‘s Citizens Commission on Human Rights in July protested
a suicide prevention program at Littleton, MA, High School, saying it placed students on
drugs unnecessarily and that drug companies stood to benefit from increased prescription
drug use.
The Fiji State Minister for Sports has welcomed a group of Scientology volunteers on a
good will tour of the Pacific to help combat social ills that plague today‘s world ...Tom
Cruise‘s fiancé, Katie Holmes, was accompanied by a Scientology handler when she
scheme to involve young people ...with an organization whose leader is accused of
pedophilia.‖ The U.S. State Department says citizens should be aware of ―unconfirmed
reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader [apparently
Sai Baba] at an ashram or religious retreat located in Andhra Pradesh.‖
Salvation Ministry Church
Kenyan faith healer and self-styled prophetess Lucy Nduta Mwangi, head of her
Salvation Healing Ministry Church, in Nairobi, has been charged with defrauding
HIV/AIDS patients. She took money and goods from them and promised to cure them, or
their kin, through prayer.
Scientology
The German government has ordered security services to increase scrutiny of Scientology
because it believes that the organization, which it considers a cult, is recruiting
schoolchildren through its tutoring programs, which have tripled in number to at least 30 in
the past year ...Mark Foley, who recently resigned from the House of Representatives
because he sent sexually suggestive email to teenage male House pages, was the
beneficiary in May 2003 of a Scientology fund-raising event when he was considering
running for the Senate. Scientology is vociferously anti-gay, and the fact that Foley is gay
was well known in Washington. ..Scientology is set to open its largest center in Britain
soon — a 50,000 square-foot City of London building it bought for £23 million, a testimony
to the group‘s growing wealth. The event is likely to feature famous Scientologists like John
Travolta and Tom Cruise. ..Experts say paranoid schizophrenic Jeremy Perkins‘ brutal 2003
murder of his mother might not have occurred if he had gotten proper treatment. But his
parents, strict Scientologists, opposed psychiatric treatment because it is against their
religion. Actor Tom Cruise, a Scientologist, has called psychiatry a pseudoscience. ..
Brussels, Belgium, has refused to evict squatters from a property recently purchased by
Scientology for its European headquarters. The mayor says the ―only activity‖ of the church
is to raise money from ―idle people who can be tempted by their message,‖ and he says
he‘ll do anything he can to prevent Scientology from making Brussels its headquarters city.
Said a Scientology representative: ―It‘s like something from the last century. It doesn‘t fit
with Brussels‘s image as the capital of Europe.‖
Clearwater, FL, police arrested Scientologist Michael Fitzgerald in July on battery charges
after he got into a fight with Shawn Lonsdale, who was filming a documentary about the
group in front of its church. Now, posters have appeared in neighboring shop windows
alleging that Lonsdale was once arrested for sex crimes. Lonsdale, admitting he was once
charged with misdemeanors, says that Scientology is using this to frighten him and thus
prevent completion of the documentary. ..Scientologists attached to the church‘s Citizens
Commission on Human Rights, carrying signs saying ―Psychiatry Kills,‖ picketed the annual
Comprehensive Review of Psychiatry meeting, in Niagara Falls, NY. The head of the
University of Buffalo department of psychiatry said the picketers ―have the same credibility
as people who say they‘ve been kidnapped by aliens in flying saucers.‖ ...Narconon plans
to open a 66-bed facility on 30 acres at a rural site in upper Bouquet Canyon the formerly
housed a boarding school. Critics have questioned the efficacy of Scientology drug
detoxification treatments. Scientology representatives say there will be no religious
indoctrination. ..Scientology‘s Citizens Commission on Human Rights in July protested
a suicide prevention program at Littleton, MA, High School, saying it placed students on
drugs unnecessarily and that drug companies stood to benefit from increased prescription
drug use.
The Fiji State Minister for Sports has welcomed a group of Scientology volunteers on a
good will tour of the Pacific to help combat social ills that plague today‘s world ...Tom
Cruise‘s fiancé, Katie Holmes, was accompanied by a Scientology handler when she
