44 ICSA TODAY 42
of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to
actively exercise our faith.” (USA Today, 09/23/15)
Nearly a hundred people submit resignation letters to
LDS church
Nearly a hundred people marched through the streets of Salt
Lake City in late July 2015 to the headquarters of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Their purpose was to
resign from the Mormon Church. Women’s inequality and LGBT
discrimination were among the reasons behind their official
resignation from the church. (Fox 13 Now, 07/25/15)
Judge tosses NXIVM hacking lawsuit
In October 2013, NXIVM filed a lawsuit against two journalists
and three critics of the organization, accusing them of hacking
into the group’s computers. US District Senior Judge Lawrence
E. Kahn ruled that NXIVM “failed to file its federal lawsuit
within a two-year statute of limitations that began after the
corporation discovered suspected unauthorized intrusions
into its computer servers in late 2011.” Criminal cases remain
pending in Albany, New York against two of the critics, Joseph
O’Hara and John Tighe, and against Barbara Bouchey, a former
NXIVM financial advisor, who was also indicted in the computer
trespassing investigation. (Albany Times Union, 09/18/15)
“Cult” church backs pastor charged in sex assault of
parishioner
Peter Rigo, the leader of the One Community Church in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is facing sexual-assault charges
from an incident that occurred with a church member in 2006
or 2007, when the church was known as Dominion Christian
Center and had a membership of about 80. A woman from
the congregation claims that Rigo sexually assaulted her. On
September 4, 2015, the 50-year-old leader, of Hamilton, was
charged with sexual assault, and then was let go on a promise
to appear at a later court date. The church members stated that
they stick by their pastor’s word and are waiting for the police
to find the allegation false.
The church already has a reputation with people for being
known as a cult and for using the donations it receives to pay
for gym memberships and vacations to places such as Hawaii.
The church is inviting, with nice interior décor, and food and
drinks for all guests. The 2-hour service includes loud music
that has the congregation on their feet within minutes. At the
end of the service, associate pastor (and Rigo’s son-in-law) Matt
Shuttlesworth appear on stage to whip the crowd into a giving
frenzy for their weekly tithes and offerings: “The words they
print in the paper and on their websites, the stories, they don’t
matter. They don’t bother me. I want you to pray for them, that
Jesus will come into their lives and heal them,” Shuttlesworth
said, amid waving arms. Quiet calls of “Amen” and “that’s right!”
arose from his audience in the darkness. And then he said the
stories can’t stop the members from doing their work, from
being generous to the city that is their home, as volunteers
began passing offering buckets down the aisles.
Rigo’s church was stripped of its charity status in 2009 for
spending donor money on gym memberships, trips to Hawaii,
and high-end fashion. That status has not been reinstated.
Rigo’s Twitter account says he was in Vegas in late September
however, after the news broke of his charges, he changed
his profile picture. The police did not immediately release
information about the charges for investigative reasons.
(Hamilton Spectator, 10/1/15, 10/5/15)
Bountiful polygamy case heads straight to trial
The Canadian Ministry of the Attorney General has signed
off on special prosecutor Peter Wilson’s request to avoid
a preliminary inquiry and head straight to trial against
Winston Blackmore. Blackmore is a polygamist leader of a
fundamentalist Mormon commune and is alleged to have
more than two dozen wives. Blackmore has chosen to be
tried by judge and jury. No date has been set for the trial of
the Bountiful, British Columbia resident, but proceedings are
expected to take place in Cranbrook. (Global News, 09/02/15)
Fatal floods expose a delicate balance in polygamous
towns in Utah and Arizona
IIn Utah, two polygamous fathers, Sheldon Black, Jr., and
Joseph N. Jessop, who recently lost their families due to fatal
floods in their town, publicly expressed both their grief and
their frustration with local officials, who they say have evicted
numerous group members from their homes in recent years
“because of their religious beliefs.” Officials say religion has
nothing to do with the evictions, and leaders of the group
acknowledge that government officials are usually shunned in
the community.
However, Governor Spencer J. Cox said his recent welcome
when he visited the town to offer help after the devastating
floods was an encouraging sign.(Business Insider, 09/21/15)
Kids from polygamous sect say they harvested
pecans for years at leader’s orders
FLDS bishop Lyle Jeffs and a company that worked with FLDS,
Paragon Contractors, have been fined by the government for
using children and unpaid labor during harvests at the Southern
Utah Pecan Ranch near Hurricane. The case began when CNN
aired video of children working at the ranch in 2012, but the
Labor Department contends that kids worked there for years.
Alyssa Bistline, 21, who left the FLDS in 2014, was one of the nut
harvesters she says she began working at the ranch harvests at
age 13. The new court filings have affidavits from other people,
some of them still minors, who say they or their family worked at
the ranch. One girl who is now 14 says she worked at the ranch
when she was 10 to 12 years old. She said that even girls with
nut allergies had to work. (Salt Lake Tribune, 10/1/15)
of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to
actively exercise our faith.” (USA Today, 09/23/15)
Nearly a hundred people submit resignation letters to
LDS church
Nearly a hundred people marched through the streets of Salt
Lake City in late July 2015 to the headquarters of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Their purpose was to
resign from the Mormon Church. Women’s inequality and LGBT
discrimination were among the reasons behind their official
resignation from the church. (Fox 13 Now, 07/25/15)
Judge tosses NXIVM hacking lawsuit
In October 2013, NXIVM filed a lawsuit against two journalists
and three critics of the organization, accusing them of hacking
into the group’s computers. US District Senior Judge Lawrence
E. Kahn ruled that NXIVM “failed to file its federal lawsuit
within a two-year statute of limitations that began after the
corporation discovered suspected unauthorized intrusions
into its computer servers in late 2011.” Criminal cases remain
pending in Albany, New York against two of the critics, Joseph
O’Hara and John Tighe, and against Barbara Bouchey, a former
NXIVM financial advisor, who was also indicted in the computer
trespassing investigation. (Albany Times Union, 09/18/15)
“Cult” church backs pastor charged in sex assault of
parishioner
Peter Rigo, the leader of the One Community Church in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is facing sexual-assault charges
from an incident that occurred with a church member in 2006
or 2007, when the church was known as Dominion Christian
Center and had a membership of about 80. A woman from
the congregation claims that Rigo sexually assaulted her. On
September 4, 2015, the 50-year-old leader, of Hamilton, was
charged with sexual assault, and then was let go on a promise
to appear at a later court date. The church members stated that
they stick by their pastor’s word and are waiting for the police
to find the allegation false.
The church already has a reputation with people for being
known as a cult and for using the donations it receives to pay
for gym memberships and vacations to places such as Hawaii.
The church is inviting, with nice interior décor, and food and
drinks for all guests. The 2-hour service includes loud music
that has the congregation on their feet within minutes. At the
end of the service, associate pastor (and Rigo’s son-in-law) Matt
Shuttlesworth appear on stage to whip the crowd into a giving
frenzy for their weekly tithes and offerings: “The words they
print in the paper and on their websites, the stories, they don’t
matter. They don’t bother me. I want you to pray for them, that
Jesus will come into their lives and heal them,” Shuttlesworth
said, amid waving arms. Quiet calls of “Amen” and “that’s right!”
arose from his audience in the darkness. And then he said the
stories can’t stop the members from doing their work, from
being generous to the city that is their home, as volunteers
began passing offering buckets down the aisles.
Rigo’s church was stripped of its charity status in 2009 for
spending donor money on gym memberships, trips to Hawaii,
and high-end fashion. That status has not been reinstated.
Rigo’s Twitter account says he was in Vegas in late September
however, after the news broke of his charges, he changed
his profile picture. The police did not immediately release
information about the charges for investigative reasons.
(Hamilton Spectator, 10/1/15, 10/5/15)
Bountiful polygamy case heads straight to trial
The Canadian Ministry of the Attorney General has signed
off on special prosecutor Peter Wilson’s request to avoid
a preliminary inquiry and head straight to trial against
Winston Blackmore. Blackmore is a polygamist leader of a
fundamentalist Mormon commune and is alleged to have
more than two dozen wives. Blackmore has chosen to be
tried by judge and jury. No date has been set for the trial of
the Bountiful, British Columbia resident, but proceedings are
expected to take place in Cranbrook. (Global News, 09/02/15)
Fatal floods expose a delicate balance in polygamous
towns in Utah and Arizona
IIn Utah, two polygamous fathers, Sheldon Black, Jr., and
Joseph N. Jessop, who recently lost their families due to fatal
floods in their town, publicly expressed both their grief and
their frustration with local officials, who they say have evicted
numerous group members from their homes in recent years
“because of their religious beliefs.” Officials say religion has
nothing to do with the evictions, and leaders of the group
acknowledge that government officials are usually shunned in
the community.
However, Governor Spencer J. Cox said his recent welcome
when he visited the town to offer help after the devastating
floods was an encouraging sign.(Business Insider, 09/21/15)
Kids from polygamous sect say they harvested
pecans for years at leader’s orders
FLDS bishop Lyle Jeffs and a company that worked with FLDS,
Paragon Contractors, have been fined by the government for
using children and unpaid labor during harvests at the Southern
Utah Pecan Ranch near Hurricane. The case began when CNN
aired video of children working at the ranch in 2012, but the
Labor Department contends that kids worked there for years.
Alyssa Bistline, 21, who left the FLDS in 2014, was one of the nut
harvesters she says she began working at the ranch harvests at
age 13. The new court filings have affidavits from other people,
some of them still minors, who say they or their family worked at
the ranch. One girl who is now 14 says she worked at the ranch
when she was 10 to 12 years old. She said that even girls with
nut allergies had to work. (Salt Lake Tribune, 10/1/15)
