VOLUME 2 |NUMBER 1 |2011 35
and women who took prayer
requests from around the world and
made millions through religious
gatherings and the sale of books
and tapes by founder Nadine
Brown. The archdiocese said its
investigation revealed poor leader-
ship, bad financial decisions, disunity
within the group, "and use of intimi-
dation tactics to secure obedience
from members." Archdiocese
spokesman Timothy McNeil, who
says Brown stepped down voluntari-
ly, added that the Intercessors’ board
seemed not to care about the 50
members who remained, still penni-
less and needing food and clothes,
so the archdiocese took them in.
Brown, formerly a member of the sis-
terhood now called the Contempla-
tives of the Good Shepherd, has
denied any wrongdoing and remains
at the gated compound with 10 or
so still-loyal members. A dean emeri-
tus at Duquesne University called
the Church’s suppression of the
Intercessors a "form of death penal-
ty." (Kansas City Star, 11/26, 2010)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Following an emergency ruling in
December by a High Court judge in
Dublin, Ireland, a newborn was
given a life-saving blood transfusion
despite the objections of his
Jehovah’s Witnesses parents.
Justice Hogan said, in his subse-
quent written decision, that the
courts had the jurisdiction and the
duty to override the religious beliefs
of parents when there was a threat
to the life and welfare of a child. The
now-healthy baby’s twin died [of
causes not noted in this report]. (RTÉ
News, 1/12/11)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The head of the papal office that has
taken over running the Legionaries
of Christ has told the organization’s
leaders and members that they must
reform—be thoroughly "purified"—
and that the process will take three
years or more. Archbishop Velasio De
Paolis added that he believes the
order is still viable and suggested
that once reformed, it could play a
part in the papal effort to revitalize
Christianity. In response to the sexu-
al scandal involving the order’s
founder, several prominent Legion
priests have left to become diocesan
priests, and dozens of consecrated
members of the Legion’s lay branch,
Regnum Christi, have quit several
have called the movement cult-like.
De Paolis said that resistance to
change by the Legion’s leadership—
the Legion’s vicar general reportedly
refused to give up some of his
duties—"will be a certain shipwreck."
He also said that a commission
would likely be formed to deal with
claims against the Legion. The Vati-
can has said that the Legion needs
to review how it exercised authority
and deal with charges that superiors
had unchecked ability to manipulate
subordinates. (San Francisco
Chronicle, 10/27/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
California lawyer Steven Eggleston
has sued his former boss for alleged-
ly reducing Eggleston’s $15,000
monthly salary to zero because he
refused to sign up for the Mankind
Project’s $650 New Warrior Training
Adventure, which is promoted as “a
modern male initiation and self-
examination.” The weekend seminar
reportedly includes "getting naked
with a bunch of other men, passing
around a wooden phallus, and work-
ing toward a more ‘mature sense of
masculinity. Eggleston’s former firm
says that attending the warrior
weekend was "not a requirement of
employment," nor was his salary
reduction retaliation for not attend-
ing. The firm says it had an agree-
ment to pay him a draw against
business he brought in, and that he
owed the company money by the
time he left. A Harvard Law School
professor says that if Eggleston’s suit
is successful, he will likely have been
helped by the argument that his
bosses "brought sex into the work-
place in a way that was hostile."
(Bloomberg Business News, 9/28/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A judicial panel named to probe the
the disaster in which some 1,000 fol-
lowers of Joseph Kibwetere’s
Movement for the Restoration of
the Ten Commandments of God, in
Uganda, were killed or burned alive
in 2000, never met. Now, the only
person to have been arrested and
detained in connection with the
tragedy tells how unfounded suspi-
cion has ruined his life. Appointed
members of the judicial panel say
they still don’t know why it never
met. (Daily Monitor, 11/22/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A Texas judge has ordered
Prakasanand Saraswati (also known
as Shree Swami) to remain in the
U.S. until his trial on 20 counts of
indecency with a child by sexual
contact at his Austin ashram. The
guru’s attorneys say he’s too ill and
frail for a trial prosecutors say he’s
maintained an active overseas travel
schedule this year. (KXAN.com,
10/28/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A federal court judge in the Central
District of California in August dis-
missed two lawsuits against the
Church of Scientology that charged
the organization with labor law vio-
lations, human trafficking, and
forced abortions. Judge Dale Fischer
ruled Scientology’s Sea Org is pro-
tected by the First Amendment’s
guarantee of free exercise of religion.
He said complainants Claire and
Marc Headley performed religious
duties, and that the Sea Org falls
within the "ministerial exception"
commonly granted to religious
groups in employment cases. This
exception prevents the court from
prying into the church’s internal
workings in order to evaluate the
Headleys’ accusations to continue
the case, Judge Fischer said, would
require the court to analyze "the rea-
sonableness of the methods" used
to discipline Sea Org members and
to prevent them from leaving. As to
Mrs. Headley’s accusation that she
was forced to have abortions, the
34 ICSA TODAY
At the invitation of the Chinese gov-
ernment, the Indian guru Sri Sri
Ravishankar has opened his Art of
Living ashram in Beijing on a 168-
acre landscaped site that includes
hundreds of natural hot springs and
wooden buildings in the traditional
Chinese architectural style. The
ashram, calculated to help Chinese
deal with the stress, tension, break-
down of family values, and other
societal problems spawned by the
country’s rapid growth, will teach a
combination of spirituality, yoga,
and ayurveda. Ravishankar, whose
meetings are restricted by the gov-
ernment to a maximum of 500 atten-
dees, and strictly monitored on the
spot by Communist Party officials,
says his type of spirituality tran-
scends religion. (Indian Express,
11/29/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Twenty percent of ayurveda treat-
ments—which generally stress the
use of plant-based medicines—
contain lead, arsenic, and mercury
levels high above US safety stan-
dards, according to a recent research
study. Judging from the number of
ayurvedic schools and pharmacies in
India, ayurveda is very big business.
The high rate of illiteracy in India
explains the popularity of ayurveda’s
primitive treatments, about which
the Trinidad and Tobago Medical
Association has been silent. (Trinidad
and Tobago Express, 8/25/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Papua New Guinea’s Black Jesus,
Steven Tari, was found guilty in
October of raping a "flower girl" who
belonged to his cargo cult, which
once counted thousands of mem-
bers. About his having sex with
young female followers, Tari has said:
"What I did ...is under and in line
with my religion. It was religious and
was not wrong." (Sydney Morning
Herald, 10/8/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Terrill Dalton, leader of Montana’s
Church of the Firstborn and
General Assembly of God, has
waived extradition to Utah, where
he and a lieutenant are accused of
raping a 15-year-old girl in 2005 or
2006 [sic]. Church members fled to
Idaho after federal agents raided
their Utah headquarters to investi-
gate claims of sexual abuse as well
as threats to assassinate President
Obama, former President George W.
Bush, and the president of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Dalton has said he was raised
a Mormon but had a revelation in
which Jesus called him the Holy
Ghost and told him to found a new
church. (Salt Lake Tribune, 8/25/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Self-styled rabbi Elior Chen, called
"the king" by his followers, who has
said he communicates with God, was
found guilty in Jerusalem of violently
abusing eight children of a woman
disciple. The beatings, called ‘correc-
tions,’ included blows to all parts of
the body, stuffing the children into a
suitcase, depriving them of sleep
and food, and forcing them to eat
feces and drink arak. The judge said
that although Chen acted in con-
junction with his followers, "the
defendant should be seen as the
principal perpetrator." The mother,
also charged in the case—she
turned state’s witness—was sen-
tenced to five years in jail. She had
sent an injured child to a third party,
who called social workers because of
the child’s poor condition. Shortly
thereafter, Chen sent all of the
woman’s children to their grand-
mother and fled to Brazil, whence he
was extradited in October, 2009. Two
other followers charged in the
crimes recently received sentences
of between 17 and 20 years. Told
that it was the police and not
reporters who had called her son a
"monster," as she had alleged, Chen’s
mother said the police were corrupt."
(Jerusalem Post, 11/30/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Canadian government officials
doubt the truth of a report by a for-
mer member of parliament that
thousands of Chinese have been
killed in order to harvest their organs
for sale to wealthy foreigners for
transplantation. The research meth-
ods and inferences from the evi-
dence do not justify the conclusions
of the Kilgour-Matas report, accord-
ing to the Department of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade. The
Chinese government has admitted
using the organs of executed crimi-
nals—a practice it has now out-
lawed—but no credible human
rights organization has corroborated
the allegations that Falun Gong
members were slaughtered for their
organs. (Ottawa Citizen, 12/1/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Omaha has denounced the
Intercessors of the Lamb and physi-
cally removed some 50 members
from the group’s compound, taking
them to a retreat 70 miles away, all
this pursuant to a policy of "sup-
pressing" offshoot organizations that
deviate in form and function from
the Church’s standard modes. A reli-
gious scholar says the Church is
"always worried about a group
becoming a cult." The Intercessors,
with 2008 assets of more than $6
million, was a band of penniless men
Press Summaries
by Joseph F. Kelly
ICSA_volume3_proof6 5/10/11 12:14 PM Page 36
and women who took prayer
requests from around the world and
made millions through religious
gatherings and the sale of books
and tapes by founder Nadine
Brown. The archdiocese said its
investigation revealed poor leader-
ship, bad financial decisions, disunity
within the group, "and use of intimi-
dation tactics to secure obedience
from members." Archdiocese
spokesman Timothy McNeil, who
says Brown stepped down voluntari-
ly, added that the Intercessors’ board
seemed not to care about the 50
members who remained, still penni-
less and needing food and clothes,
so the archdiocese took them in.
Brown, formerly a member of the sis-
terhood now called the Contempla-
tives of the Good Shepherd, has
denied any wrongdoing and remains
at the gated compound with 10 or
so still-loyal members. A dean emeri-
tus at Duquesne University called
the Church’s suppression of the
Intercessors a "form of death penal-
ty." (Kansas City Star, 11/26, 2010)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Following an emergency ruling in
December by a High Court judge in
Dublin, Ireland, a newborn was
given a life-saving blood transfusion
despite the objections of his
Jehovah’s Witnesses parents.
Justice Hogan said, in his subse-
quent written decision, that the
courts had the jurisdiction and the
duty to override the religious beliefs
of parents when there was a threat
to the life and welfare of a child. The
now-healthy baby’s twin died [of
causes not noted in this report]. (RTÉ
News, 1/12/11)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The head of the papal office that has
taken over running the Legionaries
of Christ has told the organization’s
leaders and members that they must
reform—be thoroughly "purified"—
and that the process will take three
years or more. Archbishop Velasio De
Paolis added that he believes the
order is still viable and suggested
that once reformed, it could play a
part in the papal effort to revitalize
Christianity. In response to the sexu-
al scandal involving the order’s
founder, several prominent Legion
priests have left to become diocesan
priests, and dozens of consecrated
members of the Legion’s lay branch,
Regnum Christi, have quit several
have called the movement cult-like.
De Paolis said that resistance to
change by the Legion’s leadership—
the Legion’s vicar general reportedly
refused to give up some of his
duties—"will be a certain shipwreck."
He also said that a commission
would likely be formed to deal with
claims against the Legion. The Vati-
can has said that the Legion needs
to review how it exercised authority
and deal with charges that superiors
had unchecked ability to manipulate
subordinates. (San Francisco
Chronicle, 10/27/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
California lawyer Steven Eggleston
has sued his former boss for alleged-
ly reducing Eggleston’s $15,000
monthly salary to zero because he
refused to sign up for the Mankind
Project’s $650 New Warrior Training
Adventure, which is promoted as “a
modern male initiation and self-
examination.” The weekend seminar
reportedly includes "getting naked
with a bunch of other men, passing
around a wooden phallus, and work-
ing toward a more ‘mature sense of
masculinity. Eggleston’s former firm
says that attending the warrior
weekend was "not a requirement of
employment," nor was his salary
reduction retaliation for not attend-
ing. The firm says it had an agree-
ment to pay him a draw against
business he brought in, and that he
owed the company money by the
time he left. A Harvard Law School
professor says that if Eggleston’s suit
is successful, he will likely have been
helped by the argument that his
bosses "brought sex into the work-
place in a way that was hostile."
(Bloomberg Business News, 9/28/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A judicial panel named to probe the
the disaster in which some 1,000 fol-
lowers of Joseph Kibwetere’s
Movement for the Restoration of
the Ten Commandments of God, in
Uganda, were killed or burned alive
in 2000, never met. Now, the only
person to have been arrested and
detained in connection with the
tragedy tells how unfounded suspi-
cion has ruined his life. Appointed
members of the judicial panel say
they still don’t know why it never
met. (Daily Monitor, 11/22/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A Texas judge has ordered
Prakasanand Saraswati (also known
as Shree Swami) to remain in the
U.S. until his trial on 20 counts of
indecency with a child by sexual
contact at his Austin ashram. The
guru’s attorneys say he’s too ill and
frail for a trial prosecutors say he’s
maintained an active overseas travel
schedule this year. (KXAN.com,
10/28/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A federal court judge in the Central
District of California in August dis-
missed two lawsuits against the
Church of Scientology that charged
the organization with labor law vio-
lations, human trafficking, and
forced abortions. Judge Dale Fischer
ruled Scientology’s Sea Org is pro-
tected by the First Amendment’s
guarantee of free exercise of religion.
He said complainants Claire and
Marc Headley performed religious
duties, and that the Sea Org falls
within the "ministerial exception"
commonly granted to religious
groups in employment cases. This
exception prevents the court from
prying into the church’s internal
workings in order to evaluate the
Headleys’ accusations to continue
the case, Judge Fischer said, would
require the court to analyze "the rea-
sonableness of the methods" used
to discipline Sea Org members and
to prevent them from leaving. As to
Mrs. Headley’s accusation that she
was forced to have abortions, the
34 ICSA TODAY
At the invitation of the Chinese gov-
ernment, the Indian guru Sri Sri
Ravishankar has opened his Art of
Living ashram in Beijing on a 168-
acre landscaped site that includes
hundreds of natural hot springs and
wooden buildings in the traditional
Chinese architectural style. The
ashram, calculated to help Chinese
deal with the stress, tension, break-
down of family values, and other
societal problems spawned by the
country’s rapid growth, will teach a
combination of spirituality, yoga,
and ayurveda. Ravishankar, whose
meetings are restricted by the gov-
ernment to a maximum of 500 atten-
dees, and strictly monitored on the
spot by Communist Party officials,
says his type of spirituality tran-
scends religion. (Indian Express,
11/29/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Twenty percent of ayurveda treat-
ments—which generally stress the
use of plant-based medicines—
contain lead, arsenic, and mercury
levels high above US safety stan-
dards, according to a recent research
study. Judging from the number of
ayurvedic schools and pharmacies in
India, ayurveda is very big business.
The high rate of illiteracy in India
explains the popularity of ayurveda’s
primitive treatments, about which
the Trinidad and Tobago Medical
Association has been silent. (Trinidad
and Tobago Express, 8/25/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Papua New Guinea’s Black Jesus,
Steven Tari, was found guilty in
October of raping a "flower girl" who
belonged to his cargo cult, which
once counted thousands of mem-
bers. About his having sex with
young female followers, Tari has said:
"What I did ...is under and in line
with my religion. It was religious and
was not wrong." (Sydney Morning
Herald, 10/8/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Terrill Dalton, leader of Montana’s
Church of the Firstborn and
General Assembly of God, has
waived extradition to Utah, where
he and a lieutenant are accused of
raping a 15-year-old girl in 2005 or
2006 [sic]. Church members fled to
Idaho after federal agents raided
their Utah headquarters to investi-
gate claims of sexual abuse as well
as threats to assassinate President
Obama, former President George W.
Bush, and the president of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Dalton has said he was raised
a Mormon but had a revelation in
which Jesus called him the Holy
Ghost and told him to found a new
church. (Salt Lake Tribune, 8/25/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Self-styled rabbi Elior Chen, called
"the king" by his followers, who has
said he communicates with God, was
found guilty in Jerusalem of violently
abusing eight children of a woman
disciple. The beatings, called ‘correc-
tions,’ included blows to all parts of
the body, stuffing the children into a
suitcase, depriving them of sleep
and food, and forcing them to eat
feces and drink arak. The judge said
that although Chen acted in con-
junction with his followers, "the
defendant should be seen as the
principal perpetrator." The mother,
also charged in the case—she
turned state’s witness—was sen-
tenced to five years in jail. She had
sent an injured child to a third party,
who called social workers because of
the child’s poor condition. Shortly
thereafter, Chen sent all of the
woman’s children to their grand-
mother and fled to Brazil, whence he
was extradited in October, 2009. Two
other followers charged in the
crimes recently received sentences
of between 17 and 20 years. Told
that it was the police and not
reporters who had called her son a
"monster," as she had alleged, Chen’s
mother said the police were corrupt."
(Jerusalem Post, 11/30/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Canadian government officials
doubt the truth of a report by a for-
mer member of parliament that
thousands of Chinese have been
killed in order to harvest their organs
for sale to wealthy foreigners for
transplantation. The research meth-
ods and inferences from the evi-
dence do not justify the conclusions
of the Kilgour-Matas report, accord-
ing to the Department of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade. The
Chinese government has admitted
using the organs of executed crimi-
nals—a practice it has now out-
lawed—but no credible human
rights organization has corroborated
the allegations that Falun Gong
members were slaughtered for their
organs. (Ottawa Citizen, 12/1/10)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Omaha has denounced the
Intercessors of the Lamb and physi-
cally removed some 50 members
from the group’s compound, taking
them to a retreat 70 miles away, all
this pursuant to a policy of "sup-
pressing" offshoot organizations that
deviate in form and function from
the Church’s standard modes. A reli-
gious scholar says the Church is
"always worried about a group
becoming a cult." The Intercessors,
with 2008 assets of more than $6
million, was a band of penniless men
Press Summaries
by Joseph F. Kelly
ICSA_volume3_proof6 5/10/11 12:14 PM Page 36
