Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2009, Page 64
The Lord Our Righteousness Church‘s self-proclaimed messiah, Wayne Bent, having
served a year of his 18-year sentence (subsequently reduced to 10 years) in New Mexico‘s
Los Lunas prison for molesting one of his teenage followers in 2006, vows in a statement
posted on his church‘s website to starve himself to death. A state appeals court recently
ruled against him. Bent claimed at his trial that his touching the girl‘s naked body was an
act of healing. Bent‘s son, Jeff, says: ―By remaining alive in prison, he [Wayne Bent] keeps
the story going, he keeps giving the state power to demonstrate that they have power over
‗cult‘ leaders.‖ At the end of the fourth week of his father‘s fast, the younger Bent
explained: ―For him to continue to accept food from the state. ..it is essentially, in his
mind, bowing down to an idol. So that‘s why, on religious grounds, he can no longer accept
food from the state. To force feed somebody‖ — which the state is considering—―is rape.
It‘s legal rape.‖
Members of the Manson Family, all on the verge of old age, continue to be haunted by
their experience. ‖I never have a day go by that I don‘t think about it,‖ says Barbara Hoyt,
who was 17 when the Tate-LaBianca murders took place. ―I long ago accepted the fact it
will never go away.‖ Some of those who aren‘t in prison live under assumed names to hide
their past. Others have had surgery to remove the ―X‖ that Manson ordered them to carve
on their foreheads. ―Manson made a lot of victims besides the ones he killed,‖ says former
follower Catherine Share. ―He destroyed lives. ..He took all of our lives.‖ Former
prosecutors worry that Manson, now 74, is becoming a cult hero to a new generation he‘s
the subject of several websites, and Manson souvenirs are sold online.
Pope Benedict says the alleged appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) for the past 26
years in Medjugore, Herzegovina, is a fraud, designed by the Devil to lure Catholics from
the path of righteousness. (Vatican officials have said that the apparition, nonetheless, is
virtually indistinguishable from reality.) The Pope also defrocked Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, the
―spiritual father‖ of the six children, now adults, whom the BVM has allegedly visited at 6:40
pm local time every evening for the past 28 years. Fr. Vlasic, who created his own religious
community to service the phenomenon, has now broken with the Medjugore ―seers.‖
Pope Benedict‘s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, neither endorsed nor explicitly denounced
the phenomenon, which by the end of his papacy had attracted 30 million pilgrims from
around the world. Local Franciscans, who run the Parish of Medjugore, have brilliantly
marketed the Medjugore BVM to the world while resisting the control of the Diocese of
Mostar. The head of the Franciscans recently announced Fr. Vlasic‘s dismissal from the
order.
Prominent Mormons who were excommunicated for practicing polygamy have been
posthumously re-baptized in Mormon temples, according to researcher Helen Radkey. They
include murderer Ervil LeBaron and Roulon Jeffs, former leader of the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints and father of current FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.
Having removed the anti-Iranian terrorist Mujahedin Khalk (MK) from its blacklist, some
100 members of the European Parliament (EU) are asking the U.S. to do the same, citing
the self-styled Marxist-Islamist group‘s commitment to the West and its opposition to
religious fundamentalism. The New York Times’ Elizabeth Rubin calls the Masoud Rajavi-
led Mujahedin Khalk a cult that operates like ―any other military dictatorship. No one can
criticize Rajavi, and everyone must go through routine self-criticism sessions ...if there is
a sign of resistance, you are not considered revolutionary enough and you need more
ideological training. Either people break away or succumb.‖ Other cult-like features include
psychological coercion, physical abuse, and forced sterilization.
The Niger government has banned Islamic preachers from the radio, streets, and markets in
order to prevent ―religious anarchy‖ in this almost entirely Muslim country. The insults that
the many competing Muslim brotherhoods hurl at one another ―are likely to upset the
The Lord Our Righteousness Church‘s self-proclaimed messiah, Wayne Bent, having
served a year of his 18-year sentence (subsequently reduced to 10 years) in New Mexico‘s
Los Lunas prison for molesting one of his teenage followers in 2006, vows in a statement
posted on his church‘s website to starve himself to death. A state appeals court recently
ruled against him. Bent claimed at his trial that his touching the girl‘s naked body was an
act of healing. Bent‘s son, Jeff, says: ―By remaining alive in prison, he [Wayne Bent] keeps
the story going, he keeps giving the state power to demonstrate that they have power over
‗cult‘ leaders.‖ At the end of the fourth week of his father‘s fast, the younger Bent
explained: ―For him to continue to accept food from the state. ..it is essentially, in his
mind, bowing down to an idol. So that‘s why, on religious grounds, he can no longer accept
food from the state. To force feed somebody‖ — which the state is considering—―is rape.
It‘s legal rape.‖
Members of the Manson Family, all on the verge of old age, continue to be haunted by
their experience. ‖I never have a day go by that I don‘t think about it,‖ says Barbara Hoyt,
who was 17 when the Tate-LaBianca murders took place. ―I long ago accepted the fact it
will never go away.‖ Some of those who aren‘t in prison live under assumed names to hide
their past. Others have had surgery to remove the ―X‖ that Manson ordered them to carve
on their foreheads. ―Manson made a lot of victims besides the ones he killed,‖ says former
follower Catherine Share. ―He destroyed lives. ..He took all of our lives.‖ Former
prosecutors worry that Manson, now 74, is becoming a cult hero to a new generation he‘s
the subject of several websites, and Manson souvenirs are sold online.
Pope Benedict says the alleged appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) for the past 26
years in Medjugore, Herzegovina, is a fraud, designed by the Devil to lure Catholics from
the path of righteousness. (Vatican officials have said that the apparition, nonetheless, is
virtually indistinguishable from reality.) The Pope also defrocked Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, the
―spiritual father‖ of the six children, now adults, whom the BVM has allegedly visited at 6:40
pm local time every evening for the past 28 years. Fr. Vlasic, who created his own religious
community to service the phenomenon, has now broken with the Medjugore ―seers.‖
Pope Benedict‘s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, neither endorsed nor explicitly denounced
the phenomenon, which by the end of his papacy had attracted 30 million pilgrims from
around the world. Local Franciscans, who run the Parish of Medjugore, have brilliantly
marketed the Medjugore BVM to the world while resisting the control of the Diocese of
Mostar. The head of the Franciscans recently announced Fr. Vlasic‘s dismissal from the
order.
Prominent Mormons who were excommunicated for practicing polygamy have been
posthumously re-baptized in Mormon temples, according to researcher Helen Radkey. They
include murderer Ervil LeBaron and Roulon Jeffs, former leader of the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints and father of current FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.
Having removed the anti-Iranian terrorist Mujahedin Khalk (MK) from its blacklist, some
100 members of the European Parliament (EU) are asking the U.S. to do the same, citing
the self-styled Marxist-Islamist group‘s commitment to the West and its opposition to
religious fundamentalism. The New York Times’ Elizabeth Rubin calls the Masoud Rajavi-
led Mujahedin Khalk a cult that operates like ―any other military dictatorship. No one can
criticize Rajavi, and everyone must go through routine self-criticism sessions ...if there is
a sign of resistance, you are not considered revolutionary enough and you need more
ideological training. Either people break away or succumb.‖ Other cult-like features include
psychological coercion, physical abuse, and forced sterilization.
The Niger government has banned Islamic preachers from the radio, streets, and markets in
order to prevent ―religious anarchy‖ in this almost entirely Muslim country. The insults that
the many competing Muslim brotherhoods hurl at one another ―are likely to upset the
