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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VOLUME 4 |NUMBER 2 |2013 33
so. As In Cold Blood [by Truman
Capote] is now a monument to the
age of New Journalism, Going Clear
may wind up a monument to an
age of enlightened corporate
journalism, a time when powerful
magazine editors and their book-
publishing counterparts had the
wherewithal to devote resources to
vital stories of scant direct
pertinence to their readers—
stories told by full-time, expenses-
paid writers backstopped by
researchers, fact checkers, lawyers
and insurance companies. (The Wall
Street Journal, 1/11/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In a long letter, Scientology reviewed
and rebutted, point-by-point, the
contents of the Tampa Bay Tribune report
on Scientology of January 14, 2013. The
church argued that any problems with its
operations were resolved long ago,
extolled Scientology’s virtues, and listed
new locations worldwide that indicated
Scientology’s popular appeal. (Tampa Bay
Times, 1/15/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Jenna Miscavige Hill, a niece of
Scientology leader David Miscavige, tells
in her new book how she tried to commit
suicide at the age of 17 by jumping off a
roof because “Scientology had destroyed
my life and taken away everyone that I
cared about—my parents, my brother,
my friends.” In Beyond Belief: My Secret Life
Inside Scientology and My Harrowing
Escape, she details her experience
growing up as an elite member of the
church, noting along the way that
Scientologist Tom Cruise’s 6-year-old
daughter Suri was fortunate to escape
when mother Katie Holmes filed for
divorce. “Looking back, and with children
of my own now, it [growing up in
Scientology] was terribly cruel, but I
didn’t know any different.” Her
reminiscences include the nature of work,
education, punishment, and “auditing” for
young people in Scientology, as well as
attitudes toward sex and child bearing—
no sex before marriage and no children
even for married couples. The book also
includes a glossary of Scientology jargon.
(The Sun, 2/16/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Nevada state health agencies want to
inspect the Scientology-run Narconon
drug treatment center in Lincoln County,
150 miles north of Las Vegas. The
initiative follows an I-Team investigation
that highlights years of complaints by
patients and allegations of dangerous
conditions. State databases indicate that
none of the Narconon employees
identified by the I-Team have licenses or
certification for drug counseling. Current
law prevents inspection of the
Scientology facility because it does not
receive any state funding, but the State
Senate Health Committee will soon vote
on a bill to allow state oversight of all
drug and alcohol rehab centers. (KLAS TV,
4/9/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Malaysian police on Malacca in January
raided the home of the leader of Sky
Banner, a 30- to 40-member Muslim sect,
and found a stockpile of weaponry,
including swords, as well as gunpowder
and camouflage clothing, all collected so
the group would be prepared for last
December’s Mayan Apocalypse. “It was a
survivalist thing,” said the Chief of Police.
“I think the weapons were for protection
or hunting.” (Time, 1/14/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the
traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, has
described the Jewish people as “enemies
of the Church” and says that Jewish
leaders’ support of the Second Vatican
Council “shows that Vatican II is their
thing, not the Church’s.” Speaking at Our
Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in
Ontario, Bishop Fellay also marked as
enemies Masons and modernists, as well
as Jews, because they opposed the
Vatican’s granting canonical recognition
to the Society of Saint Pius X, recognition
that Pope Benedict XVI denied the
Society not long ago. (Irish Central, 1/7/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A lawsuit in Montgomery (Maryland)
County Circuit Court accuses past and
current members of the 100-church
Sovereign Grace Ministries of covering
up sexual abuse of minors, forcing small
children to “forgive” abusers, and
ostracizing families that would not hide
the alleged crimes. Former coleader Larry
Tomczak is among the churches and
individuals charged, he with forcing a
victim, over a period of 25 years, to strip
“against her will” and assaulting her.
(Washington Post, 1/14/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Sri Lanka government is considering
a law that would enable authorities to
move against religious groups that are
deemed to be cults. The legislation would
aim to prevent anyone from “distorting
the original teachings” of the country’s
four main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism,
Islam, and Christianity. The Barnabas Aid
coordinator for South Asia said, “This is a
very dangerous proposal as it will affect
all Evangelical churches in the country.”
Last month, 10 anti-Christian incidents
were recorded in the country, most
involving the harassment of churches by
Buddhist extremists. The representative
of a Buddhist hardline group declared
that Sri Lanka should be ready to rally
against what he described as Christian
and Muslim extremist groups. Some
Buddhists are pressing for legislation to
control religious conversion. (Christian
Today, 4/15/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Members of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-
based Anoopam Mission USA have
established a temple of the nationwide
Swaminarayan Hindu sect in Lakeland,
Florida. A teacher at the temple’s
religious school says,
There are parents who are Indian
but their children don’t have the
opportunity to attend this temple
or this camp (in Pennsylvania). They
are Indian only in name. Having this
temple locally will provide my
family as well as other families in
the area searching for this sort of
thing.
(The Ledger, 1/20/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch, a
Transcendental Meditation practitioner
for 40 years and creator of the David
Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-
Based Education and World Peace,
teaches the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s
version of meditation in his Hollywood
studio and around the world (where he
speaks mostly to college-age audiences).
His approach seems to have two strains:
32 ICSA TODAY
the first strain includes relaxation
techniques aimed to assist a range of
individuals as disparate as school
children and war veterans suffering from
PTSD the second strain, and apparently
unconnected to the first, is a spiritual
approach to existence. Lynch’s initiates
include numerous public figures, such as
Gwyneth Paltrow, Ellen DeGeneres,
Russell Simmons, Katy Perry, Susan
Sarandon, Candy Crowley, and Soledad
O’Brien. Some of them assist in his
fundraisers, and some became involved
thanks to testimonials from Martin
Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Jerry Seinfeld,
and other celebrities. The name of
Maharishi Mahesh Yoga, and past
controversies concerning TM, do not
seem to appear in Lynch’s program. (The
New York Times, 2/22/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Some 3,500 identically dressed couples
from 70 countries were married in a
Unification Church mass wedding in a
stadium at the church’s world
headquarters in Gapyeong, near Seoul.
The late Sun Myung Moon’s widow, Hak
Ja Han, 70, officiated. Parents are now
tending to make the matches, but 400 of
the latest to be married had chosen to be
paired by Hak Ja Han only a few days
before the ceremony. “Yeah, I was pretty
nervous,” said Jin [sic] Davidson, 21, a
student from the United States, whose
Australian father and Japanese mother
were matched by Sun Myung Moon.
“Then, all of a sudden, she popped up in
front of me,” referring to Kotona Shimizu,
also 21. “We struggle a little to
communicate right now, as I speak no
Japanese at all, and she only speaks a
little English, but we see it as an exciting
challenge and proof of our faith.” (Agence
France-Presse, 2/17/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Sookyeong Kim Sebold, a former
bookkeeper for the Unification Church-
affiliated Korean Cultural and Freedom
Foundation, has been convicted of
embezzling more than $800,000 from the
nonprofit and failing to report it as
income on her tax returns. She was
sentenced to 2 years in prison and
ordered to pay the Internal Revenue
Service $133,000 in restitution. Sebold
used much of the money for personal
expenses, including casino gambling. The
defense argued that she used the money
for day trading and blackjack in order to
support the foundation, and not for her
personal benefit. (Washington Examiner,
3/2/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Libby Phillips Alvarez, granddaughter of
Fred Phelps, founder of the antigay, anti-
Semitic Westboro Baptist Church (WBC),
says her life has completely changed for
the better since she left the Kansas-based
group. The most bizarre thing she had to
do as a member was “pray for people to
die,” she told an interviewer. She decided
to leave when the church objected to her
wearing a bikini during a family vacation.
Instead of apologizing and asking
forgiveness, she fled the strictures of the
church. Forbidden while a member to
leave the United States, she has now
visited numerous countries in Europe.
She only wishes her cousin would leave
the WBC:
I would take her to Covent Garden
in England for ice cream and tea in
London. And there was a place in
Germany, the Hofbrauhaus, it’s
really famous, there’s a brass band.
And I know that Megan would love
going on the tube in England.
(Opposing Views, 1/28/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
An independent commission of Zen
Buddhists has concluded that 105-year-
old Zen Buddhist spiritual leader
Joshu Sasaki Roshi sexually abused
female students in New Mexico and
California—fondling and intercourse—
during one-on-one study sessions for
more than 50 years. Since the allegations
[detailed here] have been made public,
many victims of the alleged abuse have
said they are grateful for the exposure,
which stimulated a Bearing Witness
Council of Buddhist teachers from
Buddhist organizations not connected to
Sasaki, who formed the investigative
commission. Senior teachers in Sasaki’s
community admitted that they have
struggled with our teacher Joshu
Sasaki Roshi’s sexual misconduct for
a significant portion of his career in
the United States... We fully
acknowledge now, without any
reservation, and with the heaviest
of hearts, that because of our failure
to address our teacher’s sexual
misconduct, women and also men
have been hurt, women and men
who trusted us with their Zen
practices and whose trust we failed
to honor in a fundamental way.
Yet, Sasaki’s accusers say, none of the
Bearing Witness Council members has
signed the letter, and no one close to
Sasaki has resigned. Sasaki, they say, is
“still absolutely in control of the
operational functions.” It is reported that
at various times monks would warn
female students that Sasaki might try to
sexually assault them, and that it was
“okay” to resist. Years ago, a number of
nuns and monks sent an unsigned letter
to Sasaki saying that many women
students still suffered from his behavior,
and a senior priest responded, “If you
don’t like what’s going on, leave.”The
letter’s organizer says Sasaki was a gifted
teacher who created what amounted to a
personality cult, and that there was no
forum in the community for complaints.
When he came to the United States,
under the auspices of the largest Renzai
Buddhist temple in Japan, he left behind
allegations of fathering illegitimate
children and mishandling temple funds
but he became a Buddhist rock star while
establishing Zen centers in the United
States and Canada. Singer-songwriter
Leonard Cohen is one of his famous
students. (ABQ Journal, 2/3/13) ■
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