Religious Cults

Antipapal Action, Fast and Furious

2005-10-29T15:57:30Z

There have been alot of shake-ups recently in the world of the sedevacantists. Manuel Alonso Corral has taken the name of Pope Peter II, taking the throne (and ridiculously large crown) from Clemente Dominguez AKA Pope Gregory XVII of Spain, who died not by crucifixion in Jerusalem immediately after handing the keys to Heaven back to Saint Peter as he predicted, but in Spain in a cloud of scandal after having improper relations with several nuns in the order he created. Pope Michael I of Kansas has restated his conditional offer to resign from the papacy in favor of a Universal papal Council. And instead of becoming the Holy Father immediately upon the death of Pope John Paul, the Australian antipope William Kamm AKA "The Little Pebble" has become a felon immediately upon his conviction for touching young girls. The Little Pebble is headed to jail and his followers are falling into disaray.

Pope Michael Issues an Updating of His Website

2005-10-29T15:35:10Z

And it is wonderful. Thoughts on the destruction of New Orleans (with the wonderfully bizarre phrase "partying, to use the modern term in vogue in the United States"- as if Pope Michael is neither alive in 2005 or living in the geographic center of the United States), guidelines for using the internet (delete your bookmarks for sites that include heresy, obscenity or dueling), plans to create a seminary and even a little fiction. Enjoy.

Pope Michael's Update Page Here

And You Thought The People's Court Was Shitty...

2005-09-29T05:13:43Z

Try the ecclesiastic court of Pope Michael the First of Delia, Kansas.
http://www.ecclesiasticalcourt.homestead.com/

Update: Ayah Pin On the Run, A Look Inside a Mormon Temple, Moonie Soccer Extravaganza

2005-07-21T18:43:41Z

AYAH PIN ESCAPES SKY KINGDOM DRAGNET (July 21, 2005: New Straits Times, Malaysia)

JERTIH, TERENGGANU (MALAYSIA) - The government crackdown on the Sky Kingdom sect intensified this week, as 59 members of the group were arrested at its compound in this remote village region. However, the group's charismatic leader, Ayah Pin, who believes he is God, escaped the dragnet.

The raid came just days after an angry mob stormed the compound and torched a number of buildings and vehicles. The Sky Kingdom group is non-violent, but has come under attack from the Malaysian government for "anti-Muslim" teachings and for allowing Muslims to convert. Apostasy from Islam is a civil crime in Malaysia.

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SPURS DEFEND INVOLVEMENT IN MOONIE 'PEACE CUP' (07-21-05: Associated Press)

LONDON - Tottenham Spurs, a leading English football club, defended today its decision to compete in the "Peace Cup," an exhibition tournament organized in South Korea by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

Moon, who believes he is an incarnation of God, has been banned from entering the United Kingdom since 1995 because of his church's involvement in recruiting and retention practices that the British government considers "brainwashing."

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L.A. MORMONS OFFER RARE LOOK INSIDE TEMPLE (7-21-05: Los Angeles Times)

NEWPORT BEACH (CALIFORNIA) - Starting Saturday, non-Mormons will have a rare opportunity to see the inside of a Mormon temple.

The Mormons will open a new temple in the Orange County town of Newport Beach, but in the month beforehand, they will offer open house tours to interested non-Mormons. Once the building is consecrated, only members in good standing of the Church of Latter-Day Saints will be allowed to enter.

While Mormons attend weekly services at "meetinghouses," the secretive temples are reserved for major rituals like weddings, induction of new members, and baptism of the dead.

Sikh Geek, this is a golden opportunity for you.

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BELGIUM REFUSES TO GRANT RECOGNITION TO SCIENTOLOGY (7-21-05: IRNA)

BRUSSELS - The Belgian government declined this week an appeal by the Church of Scientology to have the group recognized as an "official" religion. In Belgium, religions with such designations are entitled to state subsidies.

The Belgian Minister of Justice declined to meet with Scientologist representatives, describing the group as a "cult," and noting that a nationwide fraud investigation into the Belgian Scientology operation is currently underway.

Katherine Harris Saving Trees With Kabbalah Water

2005-07-17T03:42:47Z

Katherine Harris, the Devil-spawn made famous by her role in the 2000
presidential election recount in Florida, recently came under fire when
it was revealed that she wanted to treat Florida trees with Kabbalah
water.

Harris reportedly helped associates of the Kabbalah Centre to get
officials in Florida's agriculture department to test the water as a
potential curative to the canker disease then plaguing orange groves.
At the time, in 2001, Harris was still serving as Florida's secretary
of state, the same post she had held during the post-election fight in
2000.

According to a July 6 report in the Orlando Sentinel, at Harris's
urging, state researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to
test Celestial Drops — a product "promoted as a canker inhibitor
because of its 'improved fractal design,' 'infinite levels of order'
and 'high energy and low entropy.'"

(Link here)

Teenage Vandals Or a Jewish, Freemasonic, Papist Plot???

2005-07-17T02:46:56Z

Four teens got busted for minor vandalism in a Saint Pious X church in upstate NY.
(Link here)

Scientology: By the Numbers

2005-07-11T15:36:28Z

Tom Cruise's latest film, "War of the Worlds," shows signs of tanking. Perhaps the negative publicity from his Scientology-related meltdown has hurt him after all.

Although in its first week, the film took in $134 million, in its second weekend it took in less than a quarter of that. The second-week gross of $31 million means the movie's total box office so far is $165 million - but it cost $182 million to make.

However, it's not as simple as waiting for the overseas returns. Cruise and Spielberg each got $40 million for the film. Split the remaining $125 million in half, because each of the record 3,900 screens on which it's playing get 50 percent of the take. That leaves the studio with under $63 million to pay the bills, or roughly one-third of the break-even point.

Coupled with the toxic publicity from Katie Holmes' interview in W Magazine, in which a full-time Scientology "mentor" named Jessica Feshbach Rodriguez answers the interviewer's questions for Holmes, this bodes ill for the box office appeal of committed Scientologists.

Chicago Will Be Leveled

2005-07-09T03:48:20Z

With the impending sentencing of The Little Pebble on sex assault charges (see below), perhaps there's no better time to stop and reflect on one of the most remarkable aspects of his ministry: the prophecies received by him from Jesus and Mary.

The Little Pebble thoughtfully provides a database of some of his more notable prophecies, although he notes that this list only includes 288 of 5,166 total prophecies. The database helpfully supplies the gist of the prophecy, the date on which it was received, and whether it came true, plus links to the texts of fulfilled prophecies.

The Little Pebble is to be commended for pointing out his notable mistakes (or "yet-to-be-fulfilled" prophecies), such as:

Oct. 18, 1987: Adelaide: City will be annihilated.
June 5, 1988: America: Will be enslaved under rule of Iron Curtain.
Oct. 13, 1995: Annihilation of nations: fulfilled by end of century.
Nov. 13, 1995: Canada: Divided by civil war.
March 30, 1986: Comet "Halley": World destruction.
April 3, 1984: Grant Duffy will be resurrected (I'm not sure who Grant Duffy is, but The Little Pebble confidently prophecies his resurrection over a span of 11 years, finally giving up after 1995)
May 4, 1996: Lake Michigan: Something terrible is going to happen there shortly (I'm not sure why this is unfulfilled; surely something terrible happened near Lake Michigan in 1996, even if it was a Blues Brothers outdoor concert)
June 27, 1987: Pope John Paul II will announce his successor: "Little Pebble"

Some of the unfulfilled prophecies are so vague, you wonder why the Little Pebble hasn't claimed them as successes, like: "January 13, 1992: Mongolia: Fire." Some are clearly related to contemporary socio-political fears (he was apparently quite worried about nuclear war during the 1980s), but some have come unmoored from their mundane settings: the Little Pebble continued to prophecy a Russian invasion of the West long after the Cold War (and, in 1997, confusingly warned that China will soon "invade Asia").

The fulfilled prophecies are just as interesting. They range from the obvious and easily predicted ("Dec. 31, 1994: Yugoslavia: Heavy fighting" - this is less a prophecy than a glance at the newspapers) to the completely unverifiable ("Sept. 6, 1988: Little Pebble: bilocate to many apparition sites worldwide").

The language of the prophecies themselves, supposedly transmitted by Jesus and Mary, are classic paranoid, with details so intensely strange and personal they make you wonder whether the Little Pebble is schizophrenic. In a fulfilled prophecy of bad weather in the US and Australia (going out on a limb there, LP!), Jesus supposedly told him: "This is a ploy by the Secret Societies which control Russia and also the West - for there is a devious plan created by Lucifer to destroy the great power of the United States of America and, by doing this, destroy the free world! What you see with your eyes is only a camouflage. For this reason the Eastern Block [sic] nations have turned to democracy, but this too is a plan of the Secret Societies which I will not name at this time."

Okay, this is familiar from the language of Cold War cranks the world over. But it gets much weirder, like in the prophecies that a missing Australian child would be found (August 2, 1997: Jaidyn Leskie will soon be found).

The propechy starts off with Mary telling the Little Pebble that two children have been kidnapped and tells him "Our daughter who was kidnapped by a weak man: soon this child will also be found, for I wish Our children of the world to understand the Mercy of God, for the Eternal Father will now use Our little 'White Rock' and Our little son, 'Little Beau', of Seymour, to help the Police in this country to fight crime, and to bring justice to those children who are in sin."

We are deep in very personal symbolism and fantasy life here. After relating this strange message, "Our Holy Mother now takes me to the site in the mountains where the houses collapsed in a landslide; I can see 'Little Beau' with me, and Saint Michael. Our Lady is drawing a white Cross on the spot."

After drawing the cross, Mary again addresses the Little Pebble: "You are to advise those concerned. The Angels will watch over this soul...You must be patient, My dear 'Little Rock', for between you and Our 'Little Beau' much will be revealed in these coming months to help Our children understand the Mercy and Goodness of God."

This idea - that the Little Pebble believed himself entrusted by the Virgin Mary to fight crime and help "children who are in sin" - is more than a little creepy considering that he's just been convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl. But such are the wonders of the invisible world.

Short Update

2005-07-09T01:55:11Z

'LITTLE PEBBLE' FOUND GUILTY IN SEX ASSAULT TRIAL (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 7-08-05)

William Kamm, the leader of the Australian cult known as the Order of St. Charbel, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who was picked to be one of his "spiritual brides."

Kamm, 55, known to his followers as "The Little Pebble," sat impassively as the verdicts were read out in the NSW District Court.

His victim, who is now an adult, broke down and was comforted by her husband.

Prosecutors did not oppose a request by Kamm's barrister, Greg Stanton, that bail should be continued.

Kamm will remain free until he faces sentencing on September 12.

The court earlier heard that Kamm had passionately kissed the girl and fondled her breasts a number of times and masturbated her when she lived within the Order of St Charbel community based at Cambewarra near Nowra on the NSW south coast.

She had been chosen as one of Kamm's 12 queens and 72 princesses who would give birth to a new holy race when the world ended.

Outside the court, Mr Stanton said his client maintained his innocence and would appeal the verdict.

Suppression of the Sky Kingdom: Background

2005-07-06T17:22:37Z

Here's a worthwhile article which provides some interesting background to the current effort in Malaysia to suppress Ayah Pin's Sky Kingdom sect. Although Malaysia's government likes to portray the country as a moderate Muslim state (the Islamist party was beaten at the polls last year by centrists), it's a country where it's illegal to apostatize from Islam, where an actor and a lady friend were arrested for "close proximity" inside a private home, where couples are jailed for holding hands, and where blasphemy against the Muslim faith carries a civil penalty.

'If You Are Malay, You Are Muslim'

Ayah Pin

Ayah Pin Still At Large

2005-07-06T14:46:35Z

You have to admire this guy.

The Malaysian police raided his commune and arrested 21, "including a police inspector and the drummer of rock group Def Gab-C," but Ayah Pin, who claims to be God, didn't even go into hiding.

A reporter for the Star (Malaysia) finds him, days after the raid, hanging outin a coffee shop on the commune's grounds, "seated cross-legged behind the cashier's counter, sipping coffee and puffing on a cigarette."

"I won’t run away as I have to look after my family and children, as well as the car," he added. Pin, 65, whose birth name is Ariffin Mohammed, heads a sect called the Sky Kingdom, which uses the teapot, the umbrella, and the vase as symbols of God's beneficence.

There are about 120 members living at the commune, and an uncertain number of other followers, primarily in the Terengganu state. Many followers of the sect do not publicly proclaim their allegiance, since in Malaysia it's a crime to leave the Muslim religion.

After a state government's "fatwa committee" proclaimed that Pin was spreading "deviant beliefs" that are "humiliating to Islam," the federal government in Kuala Lumpur authorized the suppression of the group.

The police, which seized a number of VCDs from the commune in Saturday's raid, have proclaimed that the videos show scenes that are "controversial" and "unIslamic," citing footage of Pin meeting with Christians and Hindus, and having his feet washed in yellow water by followers.

On June 30, the Malaysiakini newspaper (Malaysia) reported that the government has listed 22 groups as "deviant," estimating that these sects have about 23,000 members nationwide. The government lists Sky Kingdom and another movement, Al Arqam, as the most dangerous. Others listed include ajaran Ghazali Othman, ajaran anti-Hadis, ajaran al-Mas, syiah, ajaran qadiani and ajaran hasan anak rimau.

Getting information about the Sky Kingdom's specific beliefs is difficult, although by most accounts it seems to be syncretistic, albeit with a belief that Pin himself is God. In an interview with the Standard newspaper (Britain), Ayah Pin said, "When I was 10 years old, I found myself to be dead for 40 days and up in the sky. Since then, it's a long story and the details don't matter, but I've been dead 17 times and each time have come back to save the lives of all people, of any religion."

He went on to say that all religions are essentially the same, and that all religious believers should live in peace.

"All things belong to Ayah, I am the Big Father. All Muslims belong to Ayah, all Hindus belong to Ayah, all Christians belong to Ayah," he told The Standard.

Keith Henson, Refugee from Scientology

2005-07-05T18:29:41Z

This story appeared in the Brantford Expositor (Canada) on July 2, written by staff writer Susan Gamble. It doesn't seem to be online, so I'm posting it here.

It's the story of Keith Henson, an American foe of Scientology currently seeking refugee status in Canada rather than face conviction for "interfering with a religion."

He's accused of being a convicted hate criminal, a child molester, an Internet terrorist, a self-proclaimed bomb expert and a fugitive from justice.

Well, that last part is true, says Keith Henson, a mild-mannered 63 year-old with a boisterous laugh and thinning hair.

The fugitive living in Brantford doesn't exactly fit the part written for him on the Internet by the Church of Scientology as a hate filled terrorist bomber, but he is somewhat peeved that his quiet life in Brantford has been disturbed.

Once, Henson was in the forefront as a critic of Scientology, posting the organization's secrets on the Internet, protesting outside the group's film studio in California and fighting its lawyers in court.

In a bitter legal battle, Scientology spent $1.4 million to pursue a conviction against Henson for copyright infringement. Henson responded against the $150,000 judgment and costs, by declaring bankruptcy and further picketing Scientology facilities.

The organization accused Henson of stalking members and compared him to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Eventually, Henson was convicted of interfering with a religion. Rather than take his jail time in Riverside County, Calif., where, Henson believed, Scientologists had infiltrated the system, the critic came to Canada in 2001.

"They warned that 'child molesters' are killed in jail all the time," says Henson. "Over the years, they've accused me of having sex with boys, girls and goats."

In fact, Henson is on the Scientologist's Religious Freedom Watch Web site as an anti-religious extremist.

"In their top ten list of people they hate, I'm probably in the low third. There are other people they hate more than me, but really, Tom Cruise has done more damage to Scientology in the last two months than I've ever done."

Enemy of the Church

Keith Henson says a recent run-in with a private investigator in Brantford, who he says was following him, prompted him to resume his role as an anti-Scientology crusader

In May 2001, while shopping with a fellow Scientology critic in Toronto, Henson was suddenly surrounded by SWAT-like police with body armour and sub-machine guns. He was tossed into maximum security and held on a Canadian immigration warrant for 12 days.

"They arrested me as if I was Osama bin Laden and they put Canadians at risk," says Henson. "They could have called me on the phone and asked me to come in, because I had a lawyer by that time, but they had to do a maximum security take down in front of the food court."

The police later said Scientology had tipped them off about Henson being at large. Henson sued the police in small claims court but lost.

He applied for refugee status in Canada and in 2002 came to live very quietly in Brantford.

No more picketing. Very little Internet posting. Just the quiet life of an electrical engineer waiting to hear good news from his lawyers about staying in Canada.

But the news wasn't good. Henson's application was turned down at the end of 2004. He's been waiting for months for the deportation axe to fall but is putting his hopes in the political route since Brant MP Lloyd St. Amand took his case to the Minister of immigration.

Henson's quiet existence came to an abrupt halt nine weeks ago.

He was on his way to work when he noticed a co-worker, Thomas Stratford, walking along Elgin Street and pulled over to pick him up.

Stratford saw a mini van pull over behind Henson and he looked into it to see if it was yet another colleague offering a ride.

"I did not recognize the person in the van," Stratford said in a statement given to police. "I did notice he was holding a video camera."

Getting into Henson's van, Stratford told him he was being videotaped by the guy in the van behind them.

Henson's heart sank. He knew the drill because, he says, he's been followed by private investigators and Scientologists plenty of times.

First, he wrote down the van's licence plate, then he popped out to confront the man.

"I approached the front of the car and asked 'Who are you? because, by law, a PI has to show you his card if you ask," Henson says.

The van backed away, with the driver still videotaping.

Henson followed, staying in front of the vehicle to prevent it from leaving.

That's when the van hit Henson. It wasn't enough to knock him down, but it jolted him across the hood and injured his leg. Shocked, Stratford jumped out of Henson's van and ran to help.

"I ... slammed on the passenger window," he wrote in his statement, "at which point he finally quit trying to push Keith out of the way with his van." Henson called 911.

The odd trio waited for police to arrive with Henson remaining in front of the van and the driver continuing to videotape.

Henson was excited: "I think I've trapped a PI working for Scientology," he told the police, who laughed.

Later, the police confirmed the man following Henson was a private investigator and they talked to his supervisor, but they refused to pursue the situation any further.

"Mr. Henson is a fugitive here who's been convicted of hate crimes," said Pat Felske, the director of special affairs for Scientologists in Toronto. She's referring to his conviction for interfering with a religion by picketing.

Felske wouldn't say that no one in the organization had hired private investigators to follow Henson, but she said she's never heard of such a thing.

"I have absolutely no idea about it," Felske said. "Absolutely none. I don't know what he's talking about."

And she said she's never heard of private investigators being hired in the past to collect in formation on Henson.

Henson hoots in amusement when asked to respond to that claim.

"That's ridiculous! They've had as many as 25 P.I.s on me, at various times."

Felske did offer to fax the court ruling where Henson lost his bid to sue the Toronto and Halton Police forces for his SWAT-like take-down at the mail in 2001.

The judge in the case, while noting the "ongoing battle" between Scientology and Henson, said it was Henson who constant harassing he organization under "cover of legal picketing a n d freedom of speech." The judge noted the police acted responsibly even though their initial informant against Henson was a Scientologist and even if, as Henson said the information from the Scientologist was false.

"The plaintiff is an admitted bomb expert and has a patented method for launching payloads," says Felske, reading from the judgment.

The reference to Henson as a bomb expert comment comes up a lot on the Internet because of a discussion Henson says he jokingly got into about a "Tom Cruise missile" "

"I was responding to a joke! How can people be terrorized by individuals of modest means talking about owning [strategic] weapons?"

As for the payload mechanism Felske says Henson has patented, it requires a 747 aircraft to launch, he says. "That's even sillier than me being accuse of threatening people with a cruise missile." But in response to Felske's claims, Henson says he has evidence acquired through Freedom of Information requests that points to Felske as the informant who kept calling the police before his SWAT team arrest.

Henson doesn't take any incident involving Scientology lightly. So when the recent incident involving the private investigator happened, Henson went back into attack mode. In June, he started the process of laying private charges of assault, mischief, conspiracy and criminal harassment against the private investigator, although his claim; have yet to be accepted by a justice of the peace.

He complained to an Ontario Provincial Police detective who investigates problems with private investigators and was able to learn that the investigator had been working for another private investigations firm--effectively halting the process of finding who hire them.

Henson says it won't stop him.

He's got anti-Scientology supporters all over the world who are ready to help him with research and he's hired his own private investigators to try and find the jurors from his California trial, who he says are notably unfindable.

He's fighting again and hoping that, in the meantime, Canada will continue to harbour him safely away from Scientology.

Today's Update: LDS, Order of Saint Charbel, Ban on Baggy Pants

2005-07-05T18:22:20Z

MALAYSIA AUTHORIZES CRACKDOWN ON 'TEAPOT CULT' (The Star, Malaysia, 7/04/05)

The Malaysian government has authorized state governments to suppress the Sky Kingdom cult headed by Ayah Pin, who claims to be God.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar said the government had reasons to believe that some of the cult's teachings had spread outside its base of Terengganu.

"Since the Terengganu State Fatwa Council has ruled that their teachings are deviant, we have asked all state governments to use existing laws to prosecute Ayah Pin and his followers."

"We will also continue setting up roadblocks where Ayah Pin’s headquarters is believed to be," he said at the Parliament lobby Monday, in response to the arrest of 21 Sky Kingdom cult members on Saturday including a police inspector and a woman believed to be Ayah Pin’s fourth wife.

"Although we have yet to arrest Ayah Pin, we are closely monitoring his activities. We know where he is," he said, adding that the man was still in the country.

Since 1998, many of Ayah Pin's followers have renounced their Islamic faith, which is a crime in Malaysia. The symbol of the cult is a teapot, which represents the showering of God's blessings on earth.

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JURY URGED TO CONVICT 'LITTLE PEBBLE' (Illawarra Mercury, Australia, 7-5-05)

Closing arguments have concluded in the trial of William Kamm, the 55-year-old leader of the breakaway Catholic sect the Order of Saint Charbel, which believes that Kamm, known to his followers as 'The Little Pebble,' receives messages from the Virgin Mary.

Kamm is being tried for allegedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in the 1990s whom he had chosen to be one of his 12 "spiritual wives." The prosecuting attorney read explicit excerpts from letters Kamm wrote to the girl, but Kamm's lawyer said the visionary was merely "an odd little man" whose desire for sex with the girl was never realized.

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BYU COLLECTS LDS 'MISSIONARY DEVIL' FOLKLORE (Salt Lake Tribune, 7-2-05)

The William A. Wilson Folklore Archives at Brigham Young University (btw, BYU has one of the best folklore programs in America) has been collecting folk tales of Mormon missionaries encountering the Devil - tales told so often in Utah they're often believed, despite originating as cautionary warnings from LDS elders.

One story, though, is true: LDS missionaries on their two-year missions are not allowed to swim, because of a Mormon belief that the Devil controls the water.

"The church takes any necessary precautions to ensure the safety of its missionaries from natural disaster, public health threats or other potentially harmful situations," says LDS spokesman Scott Trotter. "As a precaution, missionaries are advised not to swim during their missions."

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CHURCH TO KIDS: PULL UP YOUR PANTS, UNCAP YOUR TEETH (AP, 7-3-05)

Epiphany Baptist Church, a 250-member independent congregation, has asked the Jacksonville, Fla. City Council to ban sagging pants and cold caps on teeth, often sported by teenagers.

The church argues that changing the image of young people could help boost the city's sagging economic fortunes and cap the rising murder rate, currently the highest in Florida.

Update

2005-07-01T15:51:18Z

BROOKE SHIELDS RIPS CRUISE'S 'RIDICULOUS RANT' ON PSYCHIATRY (AP)

Brooke Shields took aim at Tom Cruise's "Today" show diatribe against antidepressants, saying the drugs helped her survive feelings of hopelessness after the birth of her first child. In an op-ed piece published Friday in The New York Times, Shields criticized what she called Cruise's "ridiculous rant."

Cruise had criticized the actress for taking the drugs, and became particularly passionate about the issue in an interview on "Today" last week.

"You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do," Cruise told Matt Lauer.

He went on to say there was no such thing as chemical imbalances that need to be corrected with drugs, and that depression could be treated with exercise and vitamins.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression," Shields wrote.

She added that Cruise's comments "are a disservice to mothers everywhere. To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general."

"If any good can come of Mr. Cruise's ridiculous rant, let's hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease," she wrote.

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HELLFIRE AND SEXUAL COERCION: THE DARK SIDE OF AMERICAN POLYGAMIST SECTS (The Guardian)

James Harmston's letters to his youngest bride threaten fire and brimstone for her refusal to sleep with him. Not only would Rachael, 43 years his junior, have "a lonely miserable life" in this world for not going to his bed, but it would be far worse in the next.

"Rachael, the facts are, whether you want to believe or not, the end is coming and judgment will be executed in severity, especially for those who have broken their covenants," Mr Harmston wrote, adding: "For certain I will deal with you in the future eternity."

He signed himself "Your Husband, King and Priest", and sent copies of his letters to five of his 18 wives, one of whom was Rachael's mother, Pauline.

Worth a read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1517590,00.html

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LIBERIAN PRESIDENT VOWS TO USE DEATH PENALTY TO CURB RITUAL MURDER (BBC)

The leader of Liberia's transitional government, Gyude Bryant, has promised to use the death penalty against anyone found guilty of sacrificial killings.

During an address on state radio Mr Bryant said people were killing in the belief it would make them successful, rich, or the next president.

A BBC correspondent in Liberia says the number of ritual murders are growing.

Sacrifices have been reported in three of Liberia's counties - the latest involving beheading and organ removal.

Human parts such as genital organs are believed to offer supernatural powers, especially by aspiring politicians and so the number of alleged ritual killing rises in the run-up to elections.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4633827.stm)

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FLORIDA KABBALAH CENTER HIT WITH LIENS FOR UNPAID BILLS (Palm Beach Post)

It may be time for west Boca's Kabbalah Learning Centre to hit up Madonna for some dough.

County records show that the controversial Jewish mysticism sect's nearly finished place on Palmetto Park Road has had five liens against it from building contractors for nonpayment of bills. Subcontractor GNC Welding & Piping in WPB has been owed $8,311 since May 2004.

"I'm suing," said owner Gary Lincul. "They say it's not their fault, that they paid the contractor who hired me. The Kabbalah people seem nice, but I have no choice."

Has Tom Cruise Reached the Level Above Human?

2005-06-27T12:16:31Z

An interesting article in Salon today about Scientology's recently higher profile promises to be the first of four.

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/06/27/cruise/index.html

Frankly, who could blame Cruise? After all, it's easy to see the appeal of something so logical, poetic, and not at all phony-baloney-made-up-by-a-chain-smoking-science-fiction-writer-pretending-to-be-a-Navy-spy:

The central creation story, according to Melton, Bartchy, Kent and the former member, is this: About 75 million years ago, a nefarious intergalactic warlord called Xenu rounded up the inhabitants of numerous planets, killed them, and brought them to Earth, then set off a chain reaction of cataclysmic volcanoes which dispersed their thetans into the atmosphere. These thetans now fester inside the bodies of all humans. They are to be located in specific body parts and summoned out.

Among the highlights:

*In an interview, Cruise claims that Scientology runs "the only effective drug treatment program in the world," and that psychiatry was invented by the Nazis. Jung, Cruise says, edited Nazi newspapers during World War II, and methadone was originally called Adolfine, after Hitler. None of these claims, it's pointed out, are true.

*New members of the Church of Scientology are strong encouraged to sign "covenants of faith" that bind them to the religion. The most common such contract lasts for a period of a billion years.

*A spokesman for the church says that "Scientology" means "knowing how to know," apparently unaware that it's actually a nonsensical combination of Latin and Greek words.

*High-level (or OT) members of the church are not allowed to discuss Scientology with lower-level members, or even among themselves. Based on the tedious, ridiculous nature of the creed, this is easily the most sensible teaching in Scientology.

News Update

2005-06-24T14:18:50Z

Kenyan Police Arrest 3 Suspected in Ritual Killings (BBC, June 21, 2005)

"Police in Kenya are holding three people in the coastal city of Mombasa, suspected of involvement in the ritual killing of children.

Relatives of the missing children have besieged the police station where the three are being held, demanding to be allowed to take revenge.

Twenty youngsters are known to have disappeared over the past six months and fear has gripped Mombasa.

Three mutilated bodies were recovered last week with missing limbs."

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Tom Cruise Targeted Scarlett Johansson for Recruitment (AZCentral.com, 6.21.05)

"Tom Cruise might have tried to recruit Scarlett Johansson to Scientology long before he set his sights on fresh-faced fiance Katie Holmes. MSNBC.com reports that the Lost in Translation star, who was expected to co-star with Cruise in MI:3 but dropped out due to 'scheduling conflicts,' attended a private tour of a Scientology center with her would-be co-star before fleeing the building and subsequently the project."

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Aum Shinrikyo Leader Needs Medical Attention, Relatives Say (AFP, 6.21.05)

"Asahara's daughters have told AFP previously that their father, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has become unable to express himself, wears nappies and mumbles unintelligibly after a decade in detention."

Sede vacante? Not according to the sedevacantists

2005-04-05T19:16:05Z

We live in strange times.

Ever since the mid-1960s, a small but dedicated band of Catholics has insisted that the Chair of Peter is essentially without an occupant, since each pope since John XXIII has been a heretic. This position, that the "sede" is without a pope, has earned them the term "sedevacantist."

Since Saturday, even orthodox Catholics know that the papal throne has been without an occupant. As New Advent's front page succinctly puts it, "Sede vacante."

In one of those strange twists that makes one wonder if perhaps we haven't all stepped through Mr. Carroll's looking glass, some of the more extreme sedevacantists now beg to differ.

"We would like to inform the world that the See of Peter is not vacant," says Pope Michael of Kansas, on a page featuring the enormous headline, "NO PAPAL ELECTION NECESSARY."

Of course, Pope Michael, who was proclaimed the 261st successor to St. Peter at a ceremony in 1990, is simply following the logic of his convictions. He's the pope, so the pope isn't dead; the dead man is antipope Karol Wojtyla. It makes sense, once you've drank the Kool Aid.

But did you ever think you'd live to see the day where 1.1 billion orthodox are sedevacantists while the splinter movement itself proclaims that the chair of Peter is occupied?

Pope Gregory XVII: Dead, But Not Like He Said

2005-03-23T21:12:02Z

'True Pope' Sect Leader Dies

MADRID (Reuters) - The leader of a secretive Spanish sect who said he was the true Pope and that the Vatican was controlled by the devil has died, a town hall official said Tuesday.
Gregorio XVII, 58, was the leader of a self-styled church whose followers believed he would be crucified before a kind of apocalypse would take place.

Gregorio believed God crowned him after Pope Paul VI's death in 1978 and he rejected changes made to the Catholic church in the 1960s such as saying mass in local languages rather than Latin and dialogue with other branches of Christianity.

Information packages handed out at the vast cathedral-like complex show pictures of Gregorio, who lost his eyes in a car crash, with bleeding hands, forehead and torso similar to the wounds of Christ on the cross.

The sect, based in the southern Spanish town of El Palmar de Troya but with members from as far away as the United States, conferred sainthood on former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. A town hall official said Gregorio had died, although she could not confirm when. A local police officer said the bells at the vast walled church complex had been ringing for about an hour Tuesday morning.

Officials at the church declined to comment on reports of Gregorio's death and whether anyone would succeed him.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=7986072&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews

Perhaps the most galling thing is that this news was featured on Reuters' 'Oddly Enough' wire, right between 'Economist Forfeits Mirror for Skirt-Peeking' and 'So What Rhymes With "Charles," Then?' Much like Rodney Dangerfield, antipopes can't get no respect, even in death.

Mormon Polygamy Meets The Branch Davidians

2005-03-19T23:22:55Z

The polygamous Mormon splinter group known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is trying to avoid the legal heat they face in Colorado City, AZ by relocating to desolate West Texas and constructing a gigantic compund there including an 80-foot temple. You would not be alone if the word "Waco" flashed across your mind.

KGBT4 Article Here.
Extra points for the horrible Texan journalism ("The group's pending West Texas arrival has been about as welcome among locals as a new breed of rattlesnake.") and handy guides to mispronounciation!

Elizabeth Clare Prophet Is Dying

2005-03-19T23:12:07Z

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, the leader of the Church Universal And Triumphant is now six years into Alzheimer's Disease. It must have been a challenge for her followers to realize she was becoming demented considering all of the insane channelled chatter she recieves from the Archangel Michael, Jesus, Buddha and the other members of her "Ascended Masters" pantheon.
Full Article From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle here.
Background on Prophet and the CUT here.

Huge LA Times Article on the Ricky Rodriguez/Children of God Fallout

2005-03-12T19:39:52Z

Article here.

Holding Banners Reading "We are not criminals or drug addicts."

2005-03-08T03:29:42Z

More on the Saint Death cult in Mexico...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Hundreds of Mexican devotees of Saint Death - a cult worshipping the skeletal figure of death - marched through downtown Mexico City Friday to demand respect for their religion and its followers.
Click to learn more...

Holding banners reading "Respect Religious Freedom" and "We are not criminals or drug addicts," marchers drawn from some of the city's roughest barrios carried statues of the elegantly-clad Grim Reaper down the city's main boulevard.

The march was called in response to an investigation launched last month by Mexico's Interior Department into complaints that the church falsely registered itself as an offshoot of Roman Catholicism, which neither recognizes nor approve of the death cult.

Some of the anger was directed at the government - which has not yet decided whether to sanction the group - but there was also resentment at the official Catholic church and society at large for looking down at the Death worshippers.

"In many parishes, they say our people are all drug addicts or criminals," said Juan Manuel Cortes, 27, who officiates masses at the main Mexico City death shrine in a crime-ridden section of the old downtown. "That's not true, but we also don't close our doors to anybody."

"They say we have some bad characters, but don't they also in the Catholic church, where they worship San Judas Tadeo?" Cortes noted, referring to an official Catholic saint, St. Jude Thaddeus, who has been informally adopted in Mexico as the patron of lost causes, thieves and police.

Lucia Sanchez, a street vendor who, like many on the march, carried white gladiolas in the procession behind the grinning skeleton shrines, said, "The Catholic church should remember it was once the new religion on the block here, too," Sanchez said.

Many of the faithful recount miracles performed for them by Saint Death - depicted as a smiling female skeleton known as our "Our Little White Girl," the right-hand servant of God.

Perla Almanza said her brother had been jailed on murder charges, but he was released on lack of evidence three months after she prayed to Saint Death. Asked why she didn't pray to San Judas Tadeo like many other inmates' relatives, she said, "San Judas already has too much on his plate."

While the official Catholic church did not file the complaint, some priests have accused the Saint Death, or Santa Muerte, cult of seeking to profit from people's faith.

The group registered as a religious group in 2003 under the name The Mexico-US Tridentine Church, also known as the Traditional Mex-USA Church, allowing it to legally raise money and own property.

But the Mexican government said it was considering withdrawing official recognition of the church after an excommunicated member accused the cult of forcing its members to worship death and failing to stick to its bylaws.

If recognition is withdrawn, the religion could continue but would lose money-raising and other privileges.

The faithful regard La Santa Muerte as an angel or saint who only kills based on God's orders. "It's better to make her you're friend," Almanza noted.

Mormon scholar, 95, is accused of rape by daughter

2005-03-08T02:43:01Z

"The daughter of a prominent Mormon scholar is to accuse her 95-year-old father of raping her as a child in a forthcoming memoir. Martha Beck, a sociologist and therapist, will claim that she has “recovered” memories of ritual sexual abuse more than two decades ago by her father, Hugh Nibley, Professor emeritus of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University in Utah. Dr Nibley is considered the leading living authority on Mormon teaching. "

THE daughter of a prominent Mormon scholar is to accuse her 95-year-old father of raping her as a child in a forthcoming memoir. Martha Beck, a sociologist and therapist, will claim that she has “recovered” memories of ritual sexual abuse more than two decades ago by her father, Hugh Nibley, Professor emeritus of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University in Utah. Dr Nibley is considered the leading living authority on Mormon teaching. “I didn’t write it to convince anyone not to be Mormon or not to join the Mormons,” Dr Beck said in an interview with The New York Times. “I just needed to get the story of my childhood out of my system.” In the book, Dr Beck will say that she suffered pain and bleeding from the age of five. She says that doctors have since confirmed that the unusual scar tissue in her vaginal area was not the result of childbirth. It was not until she was in her late twenties, however, that Dr Beck says she experienced a “flashback” of her father raping her while chanting verses about Abraham and Isaac. The Mormon Church has already released a statement on the book, calling it “seriously flawed in the way it depicts the church, its members and teachings”. Dr Beck and her publisher, the Random House imprint Crown, both say that they have received death threats. Meanwhile, more than 3,500 protest e-mails have been sent to the television host Oprah Winfrey after she featured the memoir in her magazine, O, in which the Harvard-educated Dr Beck writes a monthly self-help column. On her website, Ms Winfrey describes Dr Beck as “the woman with the blueprint to stress-free living” and “one of the smartest women I know”. Dr Beck’s memoir, entitled Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found my Faith, will come as yet another blow to the insular and patriarchal Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest Mormon denomination. This month alone, a Mormon leader in Idaho has been jailed for soliciting sex on the internet from an under- cover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl. Clayton Hildreth, 52, used the screen name “Sexy Montana Gentleman” and turned up to what he thought was the girl’s house with three condoms, a gift of thong underwear and a digital camera. Meanwhile, a horror novel entitled Wives and Sisters, based on the Mormon church, has also been published in America. The well-known author Jon Krakauer tackled the subject of Mormon culture in 2003. His book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, was also criticised by the Mormon Church ahead of its publication. At 95, Dr Nibley is said to be unable to respond to questions. Dr Beck’s seven brothers and sisters, however, have defended their father. They have also hired a lawyer who has sued therapists who practice “recovered memory” therapy. Dr Beck says she twice confronted her father about claims of sexual abuse. The first was at a family therapy session, shortly after she says she recovered the rape memories in 1990. She tried again in 2001 at a meeting in a hotel. One member of Dr Beck’s family, who has insisted on anonymity because of threats of physical violence, supports the claims of abuse. In 1990 Dr Beck wrote a book arguing that homosexuality was a compulsive behaviour that could be overcome. Now divorced, Ms Beck lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her three teenage children and her homosexual partner of ten years.

Article on the Saint Death Sect in Mexico City

2005-03-04T23:48:11Z

Over the past few years, mostly in Mexico City, a small group has been splintering away from the Catholic Church and started worshipping Santa Muerte, a grim reaper godess of death. The worship is most faithfully attended to by gang memebers, criminals and prostitutes. Extra points to the last quote of the article that chalks about the Catholic Church's disapproval of a heretical sect completely outside the Dogma to player-hating.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Praying to a statue of the Grim Reaper and collecting the faithful across the country, a small religious sect that worships death is now fighting the Mexican government for recognition. The church, an unofficial offshoot of Roman Catholicism, was registered as a religious group in 2003, allowing it to legally raise money and own property. But on Tuesday, the Mexican government said it was considering withdrawing official recognition of the church after an excommunicated member accused the cult of forcing its members to worship death and failing to stick to its bylaws. David Romo Guillen, the church's archbishop, denied the claims Wednesday at the group's headquarters in a rough Mexico City neighborhood. "The church continues to be run the same. They're just doing this because they want us to get rid of la Santa Muerte," or Saint Death, said Guillen. "We won't abandon our faith." As he spoke, devotees prayed before altars and crucifixes set up at the Traditional Mex-USA Church, a large house turned into the group's only national sanctuary. Faithful regard La Santa Muerte as an angel or saint who only kills based on God's orders. Altars and shrines are common throughout the country. Guillen said he plans to fight the government because he doesn't believe it should interfere with the church's internal affairs. "We're not going to allow our rights as citizens to be stepped on," he said. "This is a rogue government. They're acting like we're in the inquisition." Following a religious uprising in the 1920s, Mexico enacted anti-clerical laws that banned religious garb in public and strictly limited the rights of churches. Those laws were relaxed in the 1990s; religous groups are now required to register with the government, but are granted greater rights. The Roman Catholic Church speaks out against worshipping La Santa Muerte, linking it to black magic, Satanism and cults. Many of the church's members are thieves and prostitutes who attend the twice daily Masses. Guillen said these are just stigmas the Roman Catholic Church uses to scare people. "They're scared because our followers and our popularity is growing," Guillen said.

Two Articles From the San Fran Chronicle about The Children of God

2005-03-02T02:08:38Z

It seems that the pre-muder/suicide video from Ricky Rodriguez, the heir apparent to the Children of God cult, might be fulfilling its purpose, to expose the cult and bring a measure of justice to its first generation members. This SF Chronicle article describes the experiences of one young woman named Kristi who grew up in the cult, and her experience of sexual abuse within it. The best quote by far is from the current husband of Kristi's mother who says in defense of the COG, "The story is so slanted their way. Half of that stuff is exaggerated.” Um, but if half of the allegations of incest and child rape ARE true, isn't that still a bit unsettling? The SF Chronicle also ran this article taking somewhat of a counterpoint to the first article.