36 ICSA TODAY
their involvement should be curtailed: “...the children should
not attend Jehovah’s Witness[es] meetings or church activities
including seminars or witnessing.” And although “such a
direction is at odds with the children’s express wishes … the
evidence persuades me that … there should be a dilution in
… their exposure to their mother’s faith.” The judge said they
could engage in Bible study, watch videos, and read passages
from the Watchtower with their mother in her home but they
also could attend birthday parties, and Easter and Christmas
celebrations—all of which are prohibited in the Jehovah’s
Witnesses faith. (New Zealand Herald, 12/16/14)
Doctors can ignore “deeply held views” of two Jehovah’s
Witnesses to treat their burns-victim son
A judge in the Family Division of the High Court in London
has ruled following a hearing that the son of two devout
Jehovah’s Witnesses can be given a blood transfusion despite
religious objections from his parents, and a health trust with
responsibility for treating the boy, who suffered severe burns in
an accident, has been told it can ignore the religious objections
from his parents. In his detailed written ruling, the judge did
not name anyone involved and did not give the child’s age.
The judge said he was “extremely grateful” to the boy’s parents
“for so clearly and calmly explaining to me” their position on
the matter, and that he hoped “they will understand why I have
reached the decision which I have, governed as it is by [their
son’s] welfare.”
Two other High Court judges were asked to consider similar
issues earlier this year and reached differing conclusions based
on the details of the respective cases. In one case, the judge
gave permission for a baby boy to undergo blood transfusions
during an operation, notwithstanding his parents’ objections.
In the other case, the judge granted the permission to doctors
who had requested it to withhold a blood transfusion from a
63-year-old woman who was a Jehovah’s Witness. He concluded
the woman had made a decision when she had the mental
capacity to do so and was “adamant” that she wanted no
treatment with blood products, which was her right. He ruled
that the doctors rightly considered and had to respect those
wishes. (The Telegraph, 12/8/14)
Alberta government continued to use Landmark Education
despite employee complaints
Internal Alberta Health Services (AHS) documents obtained
by CBC News in late 2014 detail several complaints to human
resources from IT employees who felt pressured, even harassed,
to attend personal-development company Landmark
Education Corp. seminars, and to reveal personal details of
their lives at the seminars and at staff meetings. A for-profit,
employee-owned, private US company with hundreds of paid
employees and thousands of volunteers around the world,
Landmark has been criticized for employing high-pressure
recruitment tactics, intense psychological methods, and
conformist ideology.
“They are manipulative, they are controlling, they involve
coercive persuasion,” said Steve Kent, a University of Alberta
sociology professor and internationally recognized expert
in deviant ideological and religious groups. Kent said many
people will say they benefited from Landmark training, or
were not harmed by it. “And then there are the others,” he said.
“And it is the others that any workplace environment has to be
concerned with.”
Landmark’s director of public relations, Deb Beroset, told
CBC News her organization does not employ psychology or
ideology in its training. She stressed that “customers” are free
to reveal whatever they wish. Beroset said Landmark training
has been endorsed by top American psychologists, and the
company has provided training to thousands of high-profile
companies such as Reebok, Mercedes-Benz USA, and even the
U.S. navy.
Both Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial
Employees, and Wildrose member of the legislature Kerry Towle
said there should be an immediate investigation to determine
whether Landmark is still operating not only within AHS, but
anywhere within the Alberta government. (CBC News, 10/15/14)
Mexico’s flourishing LLDM church loses its apostle
The announcement came on December 7, 2014, that Samuel
Joaquín Flores, leader of Iglesia La Luz del Mundo (LLDM),
the largest Protestant church in Guadalajara, Mexico, had
died. His worldwide group of followers, who considered Flores
a living apostle of Jesus, responded instantly with a mix of
screaming, weeping, and falling to the ground in shock and
prayer.
Flores’ father, Eusebio Joaquín González, founded LLDM in
1926, 11 years before Samuel’s birth. Born into a poor family
in rural Jalisco state, Eusebio had left a distinguished military
career at the age of 30 to follow a pair of ascetic pentecostal
preachers he was accompanied by his wife, Elisa.
The story is that a divine voice had told Eusebio to change his
name to Aarón, and that he would soon be asked to go to “a
land that I will show you.” In time, his new Israel was revealed to
be Guadalajara.
Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, was an unlikely base
for a Protestant movement because it also was the country’s
most Catholic city. But Aarón had military connections in local
government and soon built a following among the poor, in part
by offering social services. He secured a piece of land on the
eastern outskirts of the city in 1954, which he named Hermosa
Provincia—beautiful province. Aarón died 10 years later, and
Samuel took over as the church’s president, father in faith, and
living apostle.
Samuel globalized LLDM over the next 50 years, and today
it has significant temples throughout Mexico and Central
America, and in Chile, Colombia, Spain, and the United States.
California has around forty churches, and there are major
congregations in Houston, Atlanta, and New York City.
Pinning down precise numbers for LLDM is almost impossible.
The church claims to have more than 3 million members abroad
and 1.5 million in Mexico if these numbers are accurate, LLDM
is the country’s largest non-Catholic religious institution.
Independent scholarly estimates for LLDM’s worldwide
population range as high as 7 million.
LLDM is firmly pentecostal and charismatic: Church members
receive baptism in the Holy Spirit as adults, undergo ritual
healings, and occasionally speak in tongues. In its history,
aesthetics, and social structure, though, LLDM’s closest relative
is probably the Mormon Church. In addition, there are Catholic
overtones, echoes of Hasidic Jewish sects, and a strong streak of
Mexican nationalism. The overall effect is of a kind of structured,
elaborate Protestantism. Both churches fashion themselves a
kind of new Israel and hold up living apostles, and neither uses
34
their involvement should be curtailed: “...the children should
not attend Jehovah’s Witness[es] meetings or church activities
including seminars or witnessing.” And although “such a
direction is at odds with the children’s express wishes … the
evidence persuades me that … there should be a dilution in
… their exposure to their mother’s faith.” The judge said they
could engage in Bible study, watch videos, and read passages
from the Watchtower with their mother in her home but they
also could attend birthday parties, and Easter and Christmas
celebrations—all of which are prohibited in the Jehovah’s
Witnesses faith. (New Zealand Herald, 12/16/14)
Doctors can ignore “deeply held views” of two Jehovah’s
Witnesses to treat their burns-victim son
A judge in the Family Division of the High Court in London
has ruled following a hearing that the son of two devout
Jehovah’s Witnesses can be given a blood transfusion despite
religious objections from his parents, and a health trust with
responsibility for treating the boy, who suffered severe burns in
an accident, has been told it can ignore the religious objections
from his parents. In his detailed written ruling, the judge did
not name anyone involved and did not give the child’s age.
The judge said he was “extremely grateful” to the boy’s parents
“for so clearly and calmly explaining to me” their position on
the matter, and that he hoped “they will understand why I have
reached the decision which I have, governed as it is by [their
son’s] welfare.”
Two other High Court judges were asked to consider similar
issues earlier this year and reached differing conclusions based
on the details of the respective cases. In one case, the judge
gave permission for a baby boy to undergo blood transfusions
during an operation, notwithstanding his parents’ objections.
In the other case, the judge granted the permission to doctors
who had requested it to withhold a blood transfusion from a
63-year-old woman who was a Jehovah’s Witness. He concluded
the woman had made a decision when she had the mental
capacity to do so and was “adamant” that she wanted no
treatment with blood products, which was her right. He ruled
that the doctors rightly considered and had to respect those
wishes. (The Telegraph, 12/8/14)
Alberta government continued to use Landmark Education
despite employee complaints
Internal Alberta Health Services (AHS) documents obtained
by CBC News in late 2014 detail several complaints to human
resources from IT employees who felt pressured, even harassed,
to attend personal-development company Landmark
Education Corp. seminars, and to reveal personal details of
their lives at the seminars and at staff meetings. A for-profit,
employee-owned, private US company with hundreds of paid
employees and thousands of volunteers around the world,
Landmark has been criticized for employing high-pressure
recruitment tactics, intense psychological methods, and
conformist ideology.
“They are manipulative, they are controlling, they involve
coercive persuasion,” said Steve Kent, a University of Alberta
sociology professor and internationally recognized expert
in deviant ideological and religious groups. Kent said many
people will say they benefited from Landmark training, or
were not harmed by it. “And then there are the others,” he said.
“And it is the others that any workplace environment has to be
concerned with.”
Landmark’s director of public relations, Deb Beroset, told
CBC News her organization does not employ psychology or
ideology in its training. She stressed that “customers” are free
to reveal whatever they wish. Beroset said Landmark training
has been endorsed by top American psychologists, and the
company has provided training to thousands of high-profile
companies such as Reebok, Mercedes-Benz USA, and even the
U.S. navy.
Both Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial
Employees, and Wildrose member of the legislature Kerry Towle
said there should be an immediate investigation to determine
whether Landmark is still operating not only within AHS, but
anywhere within the Alberta government. (CBC News, 10/15/14)
Mexico’s flourishing LLDM church loses its apostle
The announcement came on December 7, 2014, that Samuel
Joaquín Flores, leader of Iglesia La Luz del Mundo (LLDM),
the largest Protestant church in Guadalajara, Mexico, had
died. His worldwide group of followers, who considered Flores
a living apostle of Jesus, responded instantly with a mix of
screaming, weeping, and falling to the ground in shock and
prayer.
Flores’ father, Eusebio Joaquín González, founded LLDM in
1926, 11 years before Samuel’s birth. Born into a poor family
in rural Jalisco state, Eusebio had left a distinguished military
career at the age of 30 to follow a pair of ascetic pentecostal
preachers he was accompanied by his wife, Elisa.
The story is that a divine voice had told Eusebio to change his
name to Aarón, and that he would soon be asked to go to “a
land that I will show you.” In time, his new Israel was revealed to
be Guadalajara.
Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, was an unlikely base
for a Protestant movement because it also was the country’s
most Catholic city. But Aarón had military connections in local
government and soon built a following among the poor, in part
by offering social services. He secured a piece of land on the
eastern outskirts of the city in 1954, which he named Hermosa
Provincia—beautiful province. Aarón died 10 years later, and
Samuel took over as the church’s president, father in faith, and
living apostle.
Samuel globalized LLDM over the next 50 years, and today
it has significant temples throughout Mexico and Central
America, and in Chile, Colombia, Spain, and the United States.
California has around forty churches, and there are major
congregations in Houston, Atlanta, and New York City.
Pinning down precise numbers for LLDM is almost impossible.
The church claims to have more than 3 million members abroad
and 1.5 million in Mexico if these numbers are accurate, LLDM
is the country’s largest non-Catholic religious institution.
Independent scholarly estimates for LLDM’s worldwide
population range as high as 7 million.
LLDM is firmly pentecostal and charismatic: Church members
receive baptism in the Holy Spirit as adults, undergo ritual
healings, and occasionally speak in tongues. In its history,
aesthetics, and social structure, though, LLDM’s closest relative
is probably the Mormon Church. In addition, there are Catholic
overtones, echoes of Hasidic Jewish sects, and a strong streak of
Mexican nationalism. The overall effect is of a kind of structured,
elaborate Protestantism. Both churches fashion themselves a
kind of new Israel and hold up living apostles, and neither uses
34
