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) ■
ICSA_volume4Issue2_Final 8/9/13 8:31 PM Page 34
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) ■
ICSA_volume4Issue2_Final 8/9/13 8:31 PM Page 34
