Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2009, Page 55
News Summaries
Kenneth Delcalf, an elderly member of a the Abbotsford Church of God in Christ, a
Mennonite congregation in British Columbia, has been convicted of sexually abusing his
daughter for at least a decade beginning in 1980, when she was 14. The judge who
sentenced him to nine months in jail said that the Abbotsford Church had known about the
abuse for almost two decades but failed to report it to police. When a family member in
1990 told the church about the abuse, Delcalf was excommunicated for ―lasciviousness,‖ but
he was allowed back in after a few months. The victim said the abuse ―began the night I
became a Christian, and it lasted until the very day I left the church, when I was 22.‖
Before that, in 2006, she went to church elders seeking help for herself and her family, and
there were promises of counseling, but when she learned that her father‘s counselor would
be another elder, and not an outside professional, she went to police with her story, being
especially concerned about the welfare of her grandchildren, who were within her father‘s
orbit.
Regarding the church‘s approach to the issue, the judge said: ―The defendant‘s actions were
not merely sins which could be expiated by confession to spiritual mentors, but crimes,
offenses against the social order which fail to be dealt with by civil society. Both the
defendant and members of his church appear to have forgotten or ignored the Biblical
injunctions to render unto Caesar those things that properly belong to Caesar.‖ A college
professor observing the case noted, ―The Mennonite church is of the Anabaptist tradition
and tends to be ‗antinomian.‘ That is, to put the church above the law. They have a
tendency to believe everything can be solved in-house.‖
Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan‘s new prime minister, says she was the victim of alien
abduction nearly 20 years ago and taken to Venus. The lifestyle guru, macrobiotics
enthusiast, cookbook author, and retired actress wrote in her book, ―Very Strange Things
I‘ve Encountered,‖ ―While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-
shaped UFO to Venus. It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green.‖ She says
she knew Tom Cruise in a former incarnation—he was Japanese at that time—and wants to
make a movie with him. Her husband, for whom she campaigned, says: ―I feel relieved
when I get home. She is like an energy-refueling base.‖
A document entitled, ―A Course in the Art of Recruitment,‖ now making its way through al-
Qaida‘s distribution network, has been characterized by the Combating Terrorism Center at
West Point as a manual ―designed to provide less-skilled jihadist recruiters operating
independently of a cohesive terrorist organization with the tools to effectively recruit secular
and moderate Muslims into the global jihadist movement.‖ The document advises using a
―soft sell‖ that does not, early on, mention al-Qaida, because if it did, the recruit might be
―negatively affected by the calumnies of the media‖ toward that organization. The training
advises recruiters to befriend prospects and encourage them to read religious pamphlets
and view religious tapes, especially material that discusses heaven and hell, paradise and
damnation. A primary goal, says the training, must be to isolate the recruit from his old
environment. Non-religious Muslims are the best targets because they can‘t refute religious
arguments and they don‘t attract attention. Converts from other forms of radicalism tend to
be too much trouble. But "Youth in remote areas" are likely to be "naturally religious‖ and
"easy to shape and convince."
In response to abuses by some direct marketing operations, Amway has called on the
Indian government to legislate regulations to protect the interests of both the industry and
consumers. An Amway spokesman said, ―There is not a country that I know of where the
industry has prospered but doesn‘t have specific legislation relative to the industry.‖
Bulgarian authorities in April were considering whether or not Astrologist Emile Leshtanski
committed the crimes of spreading false information and causing panic when he forecast a
News Summaries
Kenneth Delcalf, an elderly member of a the Abbotsford Church of God in Christ, a
Mennonite congregation in British Columbia, has been convicted of sexually abusing his
daughter for at least a decade beginning in 1980, when she was 14. The judge who
sentenced him to nine months in jail said that the Abbotsford Church had known about the
abuse for almost two decades but failed to report it to police. When a family member in
1990 told the church about the abuse, Delcalf was excommunicated for ―lasciviousness,‖ but
he was allowed back in after a few months. The victim said the abuse ―began the night I
became a Christian, and it lasted until the very day I left the church, when I was 22.‖
Before that, in 2006, she went to church elders seeking help for herself and her family, and
there were promises of counseling, but when she learned that her father‘s counselor would
be another elder, and not an outside professional, she went to police with her story, being
especially concerned about the welfare of her grandchildren, who were within her father‘s
orbit.
Regarding the church‘s approach to the issue, the judge said: ―The defendant‘s actions were
not merely sins which could be expiated by confession to spiritual mentors, but crimes,
offenses against the social order which fail to be dealt with by civil society. Both the
defendant and members of his church appear to have forgotten or ignored the Biblical
injunctions to render unto Caesar those things that properly belong to Caesar.‖ A college
professor observing the case noted, ―The Mennonite church is of the Anabaptist tradition
and tends to be ‗antinomian.‘ That is, to put the church above the law. They have a
tendency to believe everything can be solved in-house.‖
Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan‘s new prime minister, says she was the victim of alien
abduction nearly 20 years ago and taken to Venus. The lifestyle guru, macrobiotics
enthusiast, cookbook author, and retired actress wrote in her book, ―Very Strange Things
I‘ve Encountered,‖ ―While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-
shaped UFO to Venus. It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green.‖ She says
she knew Tom Cruise in a former incarnation—he was Japanese at that time—and wants to
make a movie with him. Her husband, for whom she campaigned, says: ―I feel relieved
when I get home. She is like an energy-refueling base.‖
A document entitled, ―A Course in the Art of Recruitment,‖ now making its way through al-
Qaida‘s distribution network, has been characterized by the Combating Terrorism Center at
West Point as a manual ―designed to provide less-skilled jihadist recruiters operating
independently of a cohesive terrorist organization with the tools to effectively recruit secular
and moderate Muslims into the global jihadist movement.‖ The document advises using a
―soft sell‖ that does not, early on, mention al-Qaida, because if it did, the recruit might be
―negatively affected by the calumnies of the media‖ toward that organization. The training
advises recruiters to befriend prospects and encourage them to read religious pamphlets
and view religious tapes, especially material that discusses heaven and hell, paradise and
damnation. A primary goal, says the training, must be to isolate the recruit from his old
environment. Non-religious Muslims are the best targets because they can‘t refute religious
arguments and they don‘t attract attention. Converts from other forms of radicalism tend to
be too much trouble. But "Youth in remote areas" are likely to be "naturally religious‖ and
"easy to shape and convince."
In response to abuses by some direct marketing operations, Amway has called on the
Indian government to legislate regulations to protect the interests of both the industry and
consumers. An Amway spokesman said, ―There is not a country that I know of where the
industry has prospered but doesn‘t have specific legislation relative to the industry.‖
Bulgarian authorities in April were considering whether or not Astrologist Emile Leshtanski
committed the crimes of spreading false information and causing panic when he forecast a
