VOLUME 4 |NUMBER 2 |2013 29 28 ICSA TODAY
hospital after having been sent there for
evaluation. He was detained again in
2005, but followers refused to give
evidence against him. When he was
arrested again, in 2010, 15 devotees
decided to speak out. He has been
sentenced to 11 years in a high-security
prison and ordered to pay £80,000
compensation to victims. The money will
come from selling his eight cars and two
houses, which the state has confiscated.
He says he’ll appeal. (Telegraph, 2/8/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Forensic anthropologists from the
University of South Florida are searching
the burial ground of the Arthur G.
Dozier School for Boys, an organization
notorious for brutal beatings, forced
labor, neglect, and deaths from the time
it opened in 1900 to when it closed in
2011. The effort was spurred in part by
parents and relatives of young people
who died at the facility over the
decades, and by former students who
have come forward to tell how they
suffered at the school. The families of
the dead want to know exactly where
their children are buried in the
graveyard, how they died, and whether
their deaths were accidental or
intentional. Some want the bodies
brought home. A 2008 State
investigation neither refuted nor
substantiated the abuse charges the
families called this outcome a
whitewash. Florida Senator Bill Nelson
now urges the Justice Department to
get involved: “I want to see if potential
crimes were committed.” (The New York
Times, 2/9/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Sarah Baughn is suing hot Yoga pioneer
Bikram Choudhury for sex-based
discrimination and sexual harassment.
She says she was denied the judge-
determined title “International
Champion” in 2008 because she refused
to submit to Choudhury’s “repeated
demands for sex,” and because she
successfully fought him off when he
sexually assaulted her. Baughn’s lawyer
says Choudhury, who founded the
widely popular Bikram Yoga in 1976,
used the yoga stardom he subsequently
achieved to exploit young women.
“These girls are young ...he seems to
have a hold over them that’s not unlike
what you see in some of the religious
cases. They see him as some spiritual
leader, and there’s a control that
happens.” (ABC News, 3/22/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
LaRhonda Renee Smith has pleaded
guilty to taking part in two 2010
murders that allegedly involved a black-
supremacist group led by Peter Moses,
who is said to have been guided by the
tenets of the Black Hebrews. Smith was
sentenced to between 23 years and 29
years in prison. Prosecutors said she
helped cover up Moses’ murders in 2010
of a child and an adult he suspected
were homosexuals. (News &Observer,
2/18/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Three devotees of senior guru
Gyaneshwar, of Chouli Monastery, in
southern India, committed suicide in
April so they could “join” the guru, who
had killed himself 2 months earlier.
Understanding that intrigue can be rife
at Hindu monasteries, where great
wealth and property assets sometimes
lead to deadly disputes, a local police
representative said Gyaneshwar ended
his life because of “attempts by real
estate agents to usurp the monastery’s
property in connivance with some
monastery disciples who wanted a share
of the deal.” (NDTV, 4/8/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A Chilean judge has ordered the arrest
of eight former police and army officers
in connection with the 1985 kidnapping
of Princeton University hiker Boris
Weisfeiler. They allegedly took him to a
secret police-torture center at Colonia
Dignidad, the German enclave founded
by an ex-Nazi nurse, the late Paul
Schaefer, where, according to witnesses,
Weisfeiler was tortured and executed. It
is believed that his abductors thought
he was working for antigovernment
militants because he was wearing
military garb. Schaefer’s close links to
Chile’s rulers allowed his colony to
operate with impunity as a “state within
a state,” rife with child abuse and other
crimes, according to a Chliean
congressional report. (BBC News,
8/22/12)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The multiracial North Christian Church
in Johannesburg—like the Grace Gospel
Church, in Durban, an affiliate of the
Mauritius-based Church Team Ministries
International (CTMI), is allegedly
involved in rape, the surgical sterilization
of congregants, and arranged marriages.
CTMI was founded by Miki and Audrey
Hardy, who live on Mauritius in what a
former follower calls a “palatial estate,
with tennis courts, stables, an affinity
pool, and a hill behind the house stocked
with deer for hunting” built mostly by
artisans who belong to the church, some
of whom worked “out of love” and for no
pay. Research provides evidence to
allege that CTMI brainwashes educated
young people and encourages them to
abandon their families and studies and
move to Mauritius. Yet a series of 2009
interviews found “young, spirited people
desperate to defend the church against
mind control allegations.”“The church
saved my life,” several claimed, and
church leaders, described by members
as “polite, and even warm towards me,”
firmly denied the allegations. It was clear
that many members had not had any
damaging experiences. When reporter
Victoria John went to Durban late last
year and called the local leader to
arrange a meeting, he said, “Are you
married, Victoria? No? Do you have a
boyfriend? If you are not prepared to
answer these questions, then how can
you ask us such personal questions
about our lives? You need to question
your own heart.”Yet descriptions of life
in CTMI churches mirror, in excruciating
detail, the life-controlling features of
what we have come to call cults. CTMI
claims to have 1,000 churches, mainly in
Africa, but also in the United Kingdom
and the United States. (Mail and
Guardian, 12/21/12)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Mexican authorities in January broke up
the Defenders of Christ, a small cult
near Nuevo Laredo led by Spaniard
Ignacio Gonzalez de Arriba, who says
he’s the reincarnation of Christ. The
action followed allegations that children
in the group, consisting of 14 foreigners
and 20 Mexicans, were forced into sex.
The possibility of human trafficking is
also being investigated. The National
Migration Institute said that all of the
foreign members of the group were
forced to work and tithe. The Support
Network for Sect Victims identified
Gonzalez’ deputy as Jose Arena Lozanger
of Venezuela. The Network says Gonzalez
forced women into prostitution, forbade
followers to bathe, and made them eat
raw animal parts such as heart, liver, and
tripe. According to the Support Network,
followers were indoctrinated through
hours of viewing videos of Gonzalez’
teachings. Men were encouraged to take
several wives, and women were forced to
take part in orgies. Members who
wanted to become “apostles,” with
privileges, had to pay as much as
$100,000. A former member said, “They
broke you down, punished you by not
letting you eat, and denigrated you.” (IOL
News, 1/31/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
“Olivia” tells how she was “forced into
extortion, mental torture, and sexual
depravity ...as one of thousands of
Mexican victims of the international
Defenders of Christ cult, led by Spaniard
Ignacio Gozalez de Arriba, who claims
to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
The sect attracts followers by offering
classes in “bio-programming” and other
pseudoscientific health care modes. The
classes, suggested by Olivia’s husband, at
first helped her deal with her depression
but when she was hired as an assistant
following completion of the third level of
the course, she says she began to suffer
psychological violence when her pay
was withheld for the slightest mistake.
Soon, she had to tithe once a week, then
every day, and “they made us believe
Ignacio was the master, a great being of
light. They wanted to establish the
Defenders of Christ as a religion, but in
Mexico it could not have been possible
because Ignacio is a foreigner. She said
that Gonzalez de Arriba, who discoursed
on polygamy, believed that women’s
bisexuality was good, and that the
apostles (followers) could each have
seven women—but that he could have
up to 10. He spoke of supernatural
power and magic, “catalyzed by sex.” She
recalled, “They told us that we should
have sex with women.”When Gonzalez
de Arriba said he had a heart condition
and was losing his power, “I had to go
out to the bars and clubs to find
prostitutes, seduce them, and take them
to Ignacio” for sex. “I lost my dignity and
my family fell apart.” (Metró, 2/21/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Utah Supreme Court has cleared the
way for the state to break up the real-
estate trust, now held in receivership, of
the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). The
court rejected an appeal from certain
FLDS members who were trying to block
the sale of an FLDS farm, ruling that the
appellants had no standing to challenge
the sale because they don’t own the
farm as individuals. The court ruled
previously that the FLDS could not stop
the takeover of $100 million in church
assets. Meanwhile, a 5th District Court
judge in St. George allowed a former
FLDS member to occupy 20 acres of land
he originally donated to the church. The
receiver actually sold the land to the
ex-member two and a half years ago, but
local authorities [controlled by the FLDS]
initially refused to give him water or
electric service. (Deseret News, 1/29/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Although the Supreme Court of British
Columbia has upheld the constitutionality
of the law criminalizing polygamy,
religious and propolyamory [sic] activists
will still forcefully argue against
criminalization, this despite the studied
disagreement of civil libertarian Craig
Jones, who represented the British
Columbia Department of Justice in the
matter. In his book, A Cruel Arithmetic:
Inside the Case Against Polygamy, Jones
says that in a polygamous society such
as the Bountiful, British Columbia
offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
(FLDS), the criminality is inherent in the
closed system. Every time a man takes
an additional wife, another man in the
community is left with no one to marry.
And as the adult females are married off,
younger and younger wives are taken.
This leads to child trafficking, sexual
exploitation of minors, and “lost boys”—
young men who are marginalized and
even expelled from their homes. Jones
believes that the state must take action
not only against “bad” polygamy, which
involves coercion and abuse in
polygamous marriages, but also against
polygamous societies. Those against
criminalization feel that the court’s
decision outlaws all polygamous
relationships rather than just
polygamous relationships that break
other laws on the books, such as statutes
against child abuse. (Canadian Lawyer
Magazine, 1/21/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is
investigating the possibility that
marshals in Colorado City, Arizona and
adjacent Hilldale, Utah are forcibly
preventing women from escaping the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Horne lost
an attempt in the Arizona Legislature last
year to abolish the Colorado City
Marshal’s Office and replace law
enforcement there with deputies from
the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. He
allocated funds for limited patrols by
deputies and will soon ask the
legislature to take up the bill again. (ABC
News, 1/23/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Utah Third District Judge Denise
Lindberg has given initial approval for
the creation of a trustees board to
oversee the properties of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) on the Utah-
Arizona border. But until Utah legislators
pay $5.6 million to the receiver, his
attorneys, and other firms hired to
liquidate the assets of the trust once run
by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, the process
of deciding how to redistribute the $100
million in property owned by current
and former members remains
gridlocked. Some suggest it will be
difficult to put together an impartial
trustee board since many of the
estimated 7,500 people living in the
towns where the properties lie are
followers of Jeffs, who continues to run
the FLDS from jail. Utah prosecutor
David Wolf said authorities would ensure
that board members are capable of
thinking for themselves, and an attorney
for the trust said that safeguards were in
place to prevent members from blindly
following Jeffs. (AP, 3/5/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The dozens of security cameras on the
streets of Hilldale, Utah and Colorado
City, Arizona—towns controlled by
followers of the Fundamentalist Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—are
designed to monitor community
members and keep them loyal to FLDS
leadership, according to former follower
William Jessop, who runs a school in
town for families that have quit the
church. The US Department of Justice
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has sued officials of the two towns,
alleging they have supported a
campaign of intimidation against former
FLDS members and denied them services.
Town officials say that the cameras are
used simply to monitor sensitive areas,
just as other municipalities use them. (Salt
Lake Tribune, 3/22/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Growing in Grace, founded by Puerto
Rican Jose Luis Jesus Miranda, who calls
himself “Jesus Christ the Man,”
encourages the tattooing of both
children and adults with the number 666.
A YouTube video made in Havana, where
the cult has gained followers in recent
years, shows a mother holding her 3-
year-old son as he is being tattooed while
crying hysterically. A member says that
666, which has apocalyptic associations
in Christian traditions and sometimes
represents Satan, identifies followers “as
God’s people and with God.” Miranda says
he started the movement in 1984 after a
visitation of angels persuaded him that
he was being chosen. Based in Miami,
Growing in Grace has spread to more
than twenty countries and has a strong
presence in Latin America. (Huffington
Post, 1/31/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Hare Krishna (International Society
for Krishna Consciousness/ISKCON)
Palace of Gold in New Vrindaban, in West
Virginia, is still decaying but new
leadership and new money are
rebuilding the community following
years of decline caused by child abuse,
corruption, and murder. As the history
related in some detail here indicates, the
intention of Prabhupada, the
community’s inspiration, was to create a
self-sustaining commune that
emphasized the spiritual and disdained
material wealth. But a charismatic and
authoritarian new leader, Kirtanananda,
an American convert, came to exert total
control over the community and the lives
of its inhabitants. He involved the group
in commercial activities, some of them
scams. Two of his lieutenants were
accused of murdering dissidents, and one
who was convicted said later that he had
acted on Kirtanananda’s orders. Finally,
ISKCON leaders excommunicated
Kirtanananda, and then the whole
community. In the end, Kirtanananda was
convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to
20 years in prison. Released in 2004, he
died in 2011 at a hospital in India at the
age of 74.
By the late 1990s, the New Vrindaban
population was down to 225 many by
then owned their own houses—
purchased from the organization, which
needed money to stay afloat—and
worked outside the community. In 1998,
ISKCON re-admitted New Vrindaban, and
today there are signs of new life. One
hundred and sixty devotees live above
the temple, others in an ashram, and
more in a nearby apartment complex or
in modest homes along a winding road.
Devotees who remain celibate wear
orange robes others wear jeans and
flannel shirts, flowing skirts, or patterned
saris. Attendance is not taken at religious
services. A small stream of young people
from other temples flows in—parents
looking to raise their children in a quiet
place, or those who want to live off the
land and study under Prabhupada’s early
disciples. The new leader is 59-year-old
Jaya Krishna, who became a devotee
following the death of his wife and 23-
year-old son in an automobile accident.
In a recent vote, the community decided
to take $4 million from Chevron in return
for the company’s right to drill on 2,000
acres of New Vrindaban land, which lies
above the Marcellus Shale. Community
renovation has proceeded apace, and the
group can expect additional revenue
when drilling starts. In light of the
growing popularity of yoga, meditation,
and Eastern spirituality, Jaya Krishna
thinks New Vrindaban might become an
ideal retreat. (Washington Post, 1/10/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Thousands of pages of recently released
testimony [reviewed in this lengthy
article] in the Rhode Island lawsuit
contesting the will of Gabrielle Mee—who
left her millions to the Legion of Christ—
detail the order’s decades-long
concealment of founder Fr. Marcial Maciel
Degollado’s wife and child, whom he
secretly supported. The testimony also
reveals the process by which Legion
officials gained control of Mee’s fortune
and spent portions of it for noncharitable
and personal purposes, and how and why
the Vatican, during the reign of Pope Paul II,
ignored problems with the Legion and its
leader, despite damaging evidence, until
Pope Benedict sent Maciel Degollado into
a life of reflection and penitence. (National
Catholic Reporter, 2/18/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Previously unheard audio tapes made by
the late Billy Boyd, the attorney who
represented Manson Family member
Charles “Tex”Watson, reveal that Watson
told Boyd in 1969 about “a bunch of
other people Manson had killed” in
addition to Sharon Tate Polanski, Jay
Sebring, Steven Parent, Abigail Folger,
and Wojciech Frykowski. (The
Independent, 2/7/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The latest editions of the four books that
constitute the Mormon scriptures
employ new language about race and
polygamy that the church says provides a
more accurate statement of its views. The
new editions say that founder Joseph
Smith ordained several black men, and
that it is not known when or why the
church “stopped conferring the
priesthood on black males of African
descent,” a prohibition that was officially
rescinded in 1978. The new editions,
however, do not deny myths that defend
the denial of priesthood to blacks, saying
only that Mormon leaders believed it
would take a revelation to undo the ban.
The head of a black Mormon support
group is “thrilled” with the statements
referring to blacks. As to polygamy,
according to a Mormon political science
professor at Texas A&M University,
we see that “plural marriage”
(notice, not a “plurality of wives”) is
to be viewed as a principle and not
as a commandment, and that the
“standard” of marriage is
monogamy... Small changes such
as these can be momentous in
their impact on the lives of current
and future Saints [Mormons],
which is no doubt why they are
attended to with such concern and
finesse.
Mormon researcher Brian Hales says, “We
are admitting our past better than we
ever have before.” (Salt Lake Tribune,
1/3/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Rev. Johnny Lee Clary, a former Imperial
Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in the United
States, says that the white supremacist
National Front is active in Melbourne
and recruiting across the country. “I have
spoken to kids in schools,” he said, “who
have told me they have been approached
30 ICSA TODAY VOLUME 4 |NUMBER 2 |2013 31
to join these groups.” He believes poor
economic conditions make such groups
appealing. (Herald Sun, 3/11/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Planet Aid is operating 10,000 used-
clothing receiving bins in the United
States and saying that it uses the money
it makes selling the clothing to fund aid
programs in Africa. But watchdog groups
say that only 30 percent of the money
goes to the organization’s aid program,
and that none of the clothing gathered
by Planet Aid, or the apparently related
charity USAid, goes to help needy
people in the areas where the clothing is
collected. Both Planet Aid and USAid
have been associated with Tvind, which
the Danish government alleges is a
multimillion-dollar business
masquerading as a humanitarian
organization. Tvind leader Moses Amdi
Peterson and seven associates were
acquitted of tax evasion and
embezzlement, but they fled when
prosecutors announced they would
appeal the court’s decision. (Philadelphia
Daily News, 12/5/12)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
JZ Knight, head of the Ramtha School of
Enlightenment (RSE), is suing former
student Virginia Coverdale for posting
videos on YouTube that show Knight
making derogatory remarks about
Catholics, gays, Jews, Mexicans, and
organic farmers. Knight calls the
postings a breach of the contract
Coverdale signed promising she
wouldn’t disseminate material she
received while studying at the school.
Coverdale has counterclaimed, accusing
RSE of misrepresentation and fraud while
she was a student there. Knight’s
attorneys say, “The First Amendment
prohibits courts from judging the truth
or falsity of one’s beliefs.” Coverdale
maintains that her claims concern
conduct rather than religion, and that
Ramtha’s teachings—Knight channels
the spirit Ramtha—“do not constitute a
religion.” (Nisqually Valley News, 2/8/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Rabbi Nechemya Weberman, of the
Satmar sect of Hasidim in the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, has
been found guilty on 59 counts of child
sexual abuse and sentenced to 103 years
in prison. The attacks against the victim
and her family that fellow sect members
mounted during the trial, and which
continue today, stem apparently from
her failure to talk to a rabbi about
Weberman’s abuse rather than bring
criminal charges against him. As the
author of this blog posting asks, “Why is
the victim treated as a troublemaker?
There is moral laziness and a deferral to
privilege, to tradition, or to one’s own
interests, that disguises itself as loyalty”
in this and so many similar cases. The
blog writer refers also to the response to
another recent rape case in which the
accuser, a young college student,
received a hailstorm of texts from the
perpetrator’s fellow football players
warning her not to report what
happened. And no criminal complaint
was filed. (New Yorker, 1/23/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The press is taking more seriously
allegations of Scientology’s abuse of
members, thanks to accounts that have
appeared on the Web site“Ex-
Scientology Kids.”The contributors speak
about the organization’s control and
interrogation practices as well as the
policy of “disconnection.” Astra
Woodcraft tells how she began
Scientology auditing at the age of 6
and signed a “billion-year” employment
contract at 14. Some ex-Scientology kids
have alleged that whenever they were ill
they had to report someone who was
against Scientology, for that person must
have been the one who made them sick.
Indeed, Scientology founder L. Ron
Hubbard created a “security”
interrogation check sheet for children as
young as 6 years, the first question being
“What has somebody told you not to
tell?” Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of
current Scientology leader David
Miscavige, has written a memoir, Beyond
Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology
and My Harrowing Escape. (The New York
Times, 1/9/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A California couple in late January filed a
lawsuit accusing five Church of
Scientology corporations of fraud,
deception, and high-pressure practices
employed to inveigle millions of dollars
from followers. Plaintiffs Luis and Rocio
Garcia, who say that several similar suits
by other former church members are
planned, allege they gave Scientology
more than $420,000 for the “Super
Power” building in Clearwater that has
not yet opened, church services they
never received, and humanitarian
projects that never materialized. They
say that the deception included phony
videos of church earthquake-relief
efforts calculated to induce parishioners
to donate. The Garcias add that
Scientology leader David Miscavige
controls the “interdependent network of
entities” and uses donated funds
improperly to support a “lavish lifestyle”
while employing private investigators
and lawyers to suppress critics. The
Garcias’ attorney, Theodore Babbitt, says
Scientology’s typical First Amendment
defense against investigations of its
operations will not prevent inquiry in
this case.
I’ve sued just about every large
corporation in the United States in
the past 40 some-odd years and
the Church of Scientology—I think
its power is overblown. The
corporations I’ve sued are some of
the wealthiest in the United States,
and I’m not any more worried
about taking on the church than I
was taking on them.
Luis Gracia, who joined the church in
1982 after he had read Scientology’s
Dianetics, eventually became an
“Operating Thetan VIII,” the highest
spiritual level in the organization.
(Tampa Bay Times, 1/24/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Concluding his lengthy review of
Lawrence Wright’s study of Scientology,
Going Clear, Paul Elie says,
The book’s power lies not so much
in the presentation of appalling
revelations (though there are
dozens of them) as in our awed
recognition that Mr. Wright spent
years of his life on this story—that
he interviewed dozens of odd or
compromised or fearful people,
assembled the intricate edifice of
Scientology’s beliefs, mapped the
territory of its empire, and traced
its ill effects, even though the
organization and its people aren’t
particularly interesting... Going
Clear is sometimes hard going on
account of its subject matter. But it
is an utterly necessary story even
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