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F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ===================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Judgment Against Tony Alamo The United States District Court in Fort Smith, AR, in April awarded over $1 million to Robert Miller, Cary Miller, and their sons, all formerly associated with fugitive evangelist Tony Alamo, after a trial that found Alamo guilty of violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, alienation of affections, abuse of civil process, beating, and outrage. Judge Morris S. Arnold rendered the default judgement in light of evidence presented by the former members and Alamo's failure to answer the charges. The court concluded that Alamo-linked corporations named in the suit had no separate existence from him and that he used them simply as "shells and shams for his own purposes, moving money from one to the other and to himself at will, causing false records to be made, personally directing all of the business, and ignoring the boards of directors and the corporate form in general." Corporal Punishment A key charge in the suit involved the assertion that Tony Alamo put on "public exhibitions of corporal punishment, in the form of paddling, upon minor children; and the proof amply showed that Kody Miller, while being restrained by four adult men, was struck vigorously 140 times with a large wooden paddle by a grown man. The evidence further showed that this punishment was inflicted in a room filled with adults and children and was not only painful (Kody's buttocks were bleeding) but humiliating in the extreme. One of the adult witnesses [to the event], indeed one of the principal participants, was Kody's mother. . . The court can . . . imagine no offense that could justify the amount of physical force used against Kody Miller . . . The court awards him $50,000 in compensatory damages." In addition, although admitting that punitive damages have been in general criticized for their arbitrariness and unpredictability, "in this case the court has no hesitation in finding that an award of such damages is appropriate." In view of the possibility that the fugitive Alamo will never be held to account in court, and that he may have a great deal of money, {the court therefore awards punitive damages to Kody Miller in the amount of $500,000. Court Financed "Deprogramming" Denied The judge refused to allow compensation to Kody Miller for past and future psychiatric and counseling expenses despite the fact that such treatment might benefit Kody - whose experience must have been "harrowing," the judge acknowledged. The judge argued from testimony given by a counselor on Kody's behalf that his experience at the Alamo Foundation made it difficult for him to adjust to life outside the cult. For instance, she said, the boy had embarrassed himself and earned the scorn of his schoolmates because he had openly criticized Martin Luther King in class. "What this suggests to the court is that the damages sought here are for what might be called deprogramming. The court does not think that it would be proper to award money to Kody on account of any discomfiture experienced by him on account of ideological nonconformity. Courts cannot compel parents and churches to contribute to the inculcation of religious or political beliefs with which they do not sympathize. Religious and political beliefs, no matter how bizarre and nonconforming, are personal matters, and the courts are not instruments of orthodoxy charged with the responsibility of keeping citizens on the ideological straight and narrow." Alienation of Affections Robert and Cary Miller had charged Alamo with alienation of affection. Alamo purported to divorce them from their wives and married the wives to other men, meanwhile telling their children that their fathers were thieves, embezzlers, dead, and no longer legally their fathers. The judge noted first that Arkansas law does not recognize alienation of children's affection as actionable, so that claim cannot even be judged. Alienation of a wife's affection, although no longer actionable, was grounds for a suit when the alleged actions took place. But even here, the judge asks whether, on grounds of religious freedom, Alamo can be deprived of his right to persuade a wife, for religious reasons, to leave her husband and take up with another man. In the end, the judge sees no reason to address this question directly because the complaint alleges that Alamo committed these acts "to further his schemes . . . and to cause further injury to the plaintiffs. Fairly construed, these allegations exclude a genuine religious purpose from the list of possible motives entertained by Mr. Alamo, and the court therefore holds these acts actionable." How to decide the damages - the value of the marriages - is the problem, said Judge Arnold, who finally awarded $50,000 to the two men in compensatory damages while refusing to award punitive damages. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Injury Acts contributing to emotional injury suffered by the plaintiffs - all of them actionable and admitted in default by the defendant - included causing business documents to be executed under physical duress, publishing defamatory statements, slandering plaintiffs to their spouses, filing false criminal charges, breaking and entering plaintiffs' houses, hiding their children and spouses, subjecting plaintiffs to humiliation and public ridicule, and a regimen including little sleep, poor diet and fasts that left them confused and unable to think clearly and reason, all designed to undermine and destroy self-esteem and ego. The judge has no doubt that all these acts are actionable, but he could not easily decide what the compensation should be. Nevertheless, he awarded between $1,000 and $150,000 each to the plaintiffs depending on the nature of the "premeditated psychological injury" done to them. 2 Hides Children from Satanists Faye Yager, who claims to run an underground network - Children of the Underground - that has hidden over 500 children from ritual abuse by Satanists, faces charges of browbeating the children of a Florida woman into falsely accusing their father of Satanism and sexual abuse. Cult Awareness Network News, 8/90, 2. 3 Grave Robbery Plea One of 5 persons charged with grave robbery in Lake City, FL, has stated that he attended a "satanic ritual" in a vacant house shortly before Christmas where he saw four men in black robes carry a body on a stretcher to be worshipped in a candle-lit ceremony. Lake City Reporter, 9/12/90. 4 Decapitated Animals Bags containing decapitated animals and indications of ritual sacrifice - a black sheet with a pentagram, a handmade doll, and candles - were discovered by hunters in California's Angeles National Forest in September. Washington Times, 9/4/90, B 7. (The Eashington Times is owned by Unification Church-controlled companies.) 5 LaRouche Solicitors Blocked The Supreme Court in July upheld the right of post offices to stop political activists from soliciting or distributing literature on sidewalks in front of their buildings. The case stemmed from a 1986 case involving the activities of Lyndon LaRouche's National Democratic Policy Committee. Cult Awareness Network News, 8/90. 1. 6 Alamo's Defamation Suit Fails A Los Angeles Superior Court judge in August dismissed fugitive preacher Tony Alamo's $250-million civil suit against the Los Angeles Jewish Federation and four other defendants because it did not state legal grounds for recovery. The lawsuit said that the Federation, and employee Rachel Andres [head of the Federation's Commission on Cults and Missionaries], as well as CBS and two other defendants, had cuased the public to stop buying deisgner jackets that supported a nationwide Christian foundation run by Alamo. The accustation included trade libel, interference with a contractual relationship, negligence, and slander. [The Jewish Federation had led a campagin to prevent sales of Alamo-designed items on the ground that they were produced by and supported a cult.] The Alamo attoney had been given time to amend and make acceptable the lawsuit, but failed to do so by the court's deadline. -- The Signal [Newhall, CA], 8/30/90. 7 Charges Dropped vs LaRouche Aid Theft charges against Lyndon LaRouche fundraiser Keith Levit were dropped in August when authorities decided they could not prove he committed a crime by persuading an 82-year-old Maryland woman to give him her $30,000 life savings. The defense claimed there was no evidence that the woman had been deceived or given the money against her will. Washington Post, 8/28/90, D 5. 8 Du Pont Smith Wants Money Lyndon LaRouche associate Lewis du Pont Smith asked West Chester (PA) County Orphan's Court for $25,000 to help in his congressional campaign. Smith's considerable fortune is available to him only at the rate of $15,000 per month following a 1985 ruling that he was not mentally competent to have unrestricted access to it. The court honored a similar request for $15,000 in July, prompting Smith to declare that the judge "says I'm competent to spend $180,000 (annually), but he's still maintaining that I'm incompetent to manage" money from the fortune. Delaware County (PA) News, 8/14/90, 6. 9 Death Sentence for Lundgren Religious cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren was sentenced to death by a Lake County, OH, Common Pleas judge in September for killing a family of five associated with the group. A jury deliberated just over three hours. The 40-year-old defendant showed no emotion at the verdict in the kidnapping and murder deaths of Dennis Avery, his wife, and their three young daughters, whose bodies were found buried on a farm rented by Lundgren and his wife 30 miles east of Cleveland. Earlier in the day, Lundgren's wife, Alice, 39, was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for the murders, for which she blamed her husband. She testified during the trial that her husband had criticized the Averys as being insufficiently zealous and had spoken of killing them. Lundgren had been a lay minister for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but was defrocked in 1988 for inappropriate conduct and later formed his own sect. New York Times, 9/1/90, 9. 10 Survival Program Embattled The Challenger Foundation desert-survival program for wayward teens is in danger of being closed down by the state and facing criminal charges in Salt Lake City. Challenger founder Stephen Cartisano says charges of negligent homicide and child-abuse are part of a vendetta by state officials whom he calls 'liars" jealous of his foundation's success. He says he may just pick up and move to another state. Sniping against the Delaware-based company became a barrage this summer with the heatstroke death of a teenage girl enrolled in the program and with allegations by other teenagers of being abused, starved, tied up, and forced to eat lizards and mice to survive. A state judge ordered Challenger to put up a $100,000 bond to prove its financial ability to continue business, or perhaps be shut down. The Kane County sheriff, meanwhile, has filed a misdemeanor negligent-homicide count against Cartisano and his former field director, Lance "Horsehair" Jagger, in the June 27 death of Kristen Chase, 16. Washington Times, 9/3/90, B 7. [The Washington Times is controlled by Unification Church companies.] 11 Suit Says Moon a "Racketeer" The Committee to Defend the United States Constitution, once allegedly a front for the Unification Church, filed a $122-million lawsuit in Washington, DC's U.S. District Court in September charging that the "Moon Organization" has "unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity . . ." The suit, brought by California attorney Ford Greene and an asso-ciate, is an attempt to use the recently enacted federal RICO (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations) Act to prosecute the allegedly illegal activities of the many-faceted organization headed by Sun Myung Moon. The suit maintains that the "dominant feature of [the Moon organization's] policy is the enforcement of an exacting code of conduct predicated upon the premise that the practice of deception is the preferred alternative for the achievement of any given objective designated by Sun Myung Moon . . ." A central example of this activity, according to the suit, is the Moon organization's alleged creation, deceptive use, and defrauding of the Committee to Defend the United States Constitution of its "money, property, and the right to honest service." A charter board member of the Committee to Defend says that the board had control in name only, and that its campaign to rehabilitate Moon's reputation following the leader's tax conviction imprisonment was undertaken without the Committee's authorization and without public perception of the link between the Moon organization and the committee. Another example cited in the suit is the alleged fraudulent activity of the more recently created Universal Ballet Academy, which has solicited, for a fee, applications from teenage students across the country to study dance full-time. As in the case of the Committee to Defend, the suit alleges, the public was not informed of the school's relationship to the Moon organization, and this is fraudulent. City Paper (Washington, DC), 9/28/90, 17. 12 LaRouche Accountant Convicted Lyndon LaRouche associate Richard E. Welsh was convicted in a Roanoke court in May of one felony and three misdemeanor counts of securities fraud. He had earlier pleaded guilty in a plea agreement with prosecutors, who agreed to suspend the felony sentence and jail him for no longer than 12 months on the other charges. He was accused of soliciting loans from people in an attempt to raise funds for the LaRouche organization while knowing the group would never be able to repay them. Virginian-Pilot, 5/23/90, D 3. 13 Lifespring Pays $300,000 A Washington, DC, jury has awarded $300,000 in damages to Democratic Party worker Mark Gorman who charged that the personal development Lifespring organization caused him to have a psychotic break after five days of mental and emotional manipulation. The jury found that Lifespring acted negligently in administering its training and that it made fraudulent representations to him, but that it had not intentionally inflicted emotional distress. Cult Awareness Network News, 8/90, 4. 14 Scientology Property Tax Rejecting "confusion" as an excuse for failing to file tax information, Pinellas County, FL, County hearing officer Thomas Harris in September recommended that the Church of Scientology be required to pay $556,425 in property taxes because the organization failed to file for exemption by the March 1 deadline. Scientology, which considers itself a religion - critics call it a cult or money-making organization - is currently involved in litigation over property taxes going back several years, for which it does not feel liable. St. Petersburg Times, 9/18/90, 5. 15 Bilking the Elderly [LaRouche Fundraisers] [From FRM Weekly (published by Fundraising Magazine) 6/20/90] Helen Overington is $741,268.84 poorer but Wiser after fund raisers for imprisoned political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. persuaded her to part with increasingly large chunks of her life savings. Overington made the donations over a year-long period, having first agreed to subscribe to the LaRouche periodical, Executive Intelligence Review for $250. The bulk of the gifts-of cash, stocks, and bonds-were solicited by Rochelle Ascher, who'd been convicted on nine counts of securities fraud involving a $30-million loan scheme and is free on bond pending appeal. Overington and her children have gone public, hoping to lay bare the LaRouche organization's tactics and prevent other vulnerable individuals from being fleeced. Daughter Peggy Weller says Overington "feels she was totally defrauded." She says there's "no evidence at all" the gifts actually went to fund the leaflets, ads, and Eastern European relief projects Ascher described during her repeated late-night visits to Overington's Baltimore apartment.. Weller says a petition has been circulated in suburban Loudon County, VA to revoke Ascher's bail, and Overington, who kept detailed financial records, would testify against her at a hearing to be scheduled. The VA state Attorney General's Office has also moved to have Ascher's bond revoked, alleging she solicited contributions using "misrepresentation and undue pressure," according to The Washington Post. Defectors Speak LaRouche organization defectors have told Weller its donations go into a general operating fund, bankrolling the WATS lines instrumental to its fund raising. Upper-echelon solicitors such as Ascher, she says "live really well." Weller doesn't expect to recover her mother's savings, noting the organization has a series of front companies, enabling it to transfer funds "from bank to bank." People have won judgments, but when they freeze the bank account assets, there's nothing in them. Ascher's attorney, John P. Flannery II, told The Post Overington "gave voluntarily." Weller, however, contends LaRouche specifically targets elderly, isolated people who have supported conservative causes, a description Overington largely met. Many of the people who'd "loaned" LaRouche money were also elderly, according to Federal Election Commission records. "Political Cult" Weller considers the organization "a political cult," charging they coerce donations by inducing guilt and pressure. She says she suspected her mother had become a LaRouche donor after the normally open woman rebuffed her questions on the subject. Principals at Southeast Literature Sales & Co., the firm Weller says Overington was solicited through, declined to respond to her assertions. Weller says Flannery has countered their statements by accusing the siblings of attempting to manipulate the press. They intend to start a victims' service hotline and newsletter, and may also circulate a cautionary video to retired and elderly groups. Weller says Overington felt her donations "could make a positive difference in the world. Obviously she's devastated that's not the case. Now she can't believe she gave so much so quickly." LaRouche, now serving a 15-year term for mail fraud and tax-evasion charges resulting from the $30-million loan trial, has raised $221,318 for his independent House run against Republican Rep. Frank R. Wolf in VA's 10th district, reports The Post. The "LaRouche For Justice" campaign is being directed out of his prison cell, from where he also controls his organization's financial, legal, and publishing operations. More than $99,000 of the funds have gone to PMR Printing-one of about 10 businesses previously connected to the LaRouche network-for producing fliers and brochures. 16 Treatment Center Cited for Abuse The Fairfax (VA) County-based Straight, Inc., a drug treatment facility with eight locations nationwide, was cited in September by state officials for failing to notify authorities that a 13-year-old boy in the program had been sexually abused by an older client. The charge is the latest of some 45 brought in recent years against Straight. They include allowing restraint of clients by other clients, depriving teenage clients of education during initial treatment stages, punishing them with food deprivation, and strip searching in the presence of peers. Also widely criticized are the program's rap sessions, which are held for up to 10 hours in warehouses where youths are required to sit in plastic chairs and confess their drug abuse. Some clients claim that when they were uncooperative they were forced to the floor and held down by others in the program. Despite a number of private lawsuits, state officials have said the violations have not been serious enough to warrant closing the facility. The 13-year-old said he had to ask permission to eat, drink, and go the bathroom."You don't have control over nothing. If you want to get up and go to the bathroom, you have to wait until somebody takes you. It's like a miniature hell." He said he was molested one night in a locked bathroom when his "oldcomer" monitored him as he was taking a shower. Among the lawsuits filed by parents and clients in the last decade against Straight is one by an 18-year-old woman in 1985 who reached a $37, 500 settlement after she said she was held against her will and physically and mentally abused in the organization's St. Petersburg, FL center. Another woman says she was put on water and peanut butter for 29 days and forced to strip naked in one of the host homes. In 1985, a federal appeals court in Alexandria, VA, upheld a $220,00 verdict against Straight after a Fairfax County man claimed he was falsely imprisoned. Some parents and Straight officials, who say the restraint of clients by other clients is no longer practiced, defend the program's restrictiveness as necessary for rehabilitation. Washington Post, 9/30/90, B 8. 17 Parents of Cultists Sorry The father and stepmother of Daniel Kraft, one of thirteen persons charged in the ritualistic slayings of a family of five in Ohio last year, blame themselves for failing to remove their son forcibly from a bizarre religious cult led by Jeffrey Lundgren. The Lundgren cult reportedly hoped to be cleansed of sin through the sacrificial slayings of the Dennis Avery family, who were also members. Daily Herald (Arlington, Heights, IL), 1/12/90. 18 American Buddhist Corruption American Buddhist groups are beset by scandals, the most recent in the Vajradhatu community in Colorado, where leader Orel Tendzin transmitted AIDS to some of his followers through sexual relations. (When the editor of the group's newspaper tried to cover the story he was censored by the community.) Similar, though less serious, incidents often involving alcoholism and casual sexual relations and secrecy, have been played out in Buddhist communities across America in the 1980s. Much of the problem stems from importing "Asian devotional traditions without importing corresponding Asian social controls," and the "soft-pedaling of basic Buddhist precepts against the harmful use of alcohol and sex." According to a student of the phenomenon, the deference of followers went far beyond what would have been granted a teacher in Japan or Tibet. There was little open confrontation on these matters because attitudes of subservience and denial were so strong. Buddhist communities are attempting to confront these problems but teachers involved in the scandals have not done so, and many dissenting students have broken away. Religion Watch, 9/90, citing "Encountering the Shadow In Buddhist America," by Katy Butler, in Common Boundary, May/June 1990, 19 CUT Shelter Prices Dip Bomb shelters built at great expense by members of the Church Universal and Triumphant in Montana, designed to withstand a prophesied apocalypse, are selling cheap now that the world conflict foreseen by leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet has not yet come to pass. Shelter spaces that sold for up to $7,500 just three months ago are being advertised as "highly discounted," "at low cost," and "will take best offer." Cathy Schmook, founder of a local organization that helps people who want to leave the church, said CUT members are trying to raise money so they can do just that. She says CUT members came to Montana "on shoe-string budgets, bought shelter space, and the world didn't come to an end. Now they need cash." Church officials say the bargain prices are simply due to surplus space and the wish of some members to upgrade their spaces. Still others, the officials explain, have decided to build shelters at their out-of-state homes. Livingston [MT] Enterprise, 5/15/90. 20 Soka Gakkai University Soka University, founded three years ago by the Japan-based Nichiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai sect on the Calabasas, CA, campus vacated by the Church Universal and Triumphant, is now expanding. The organization has acquired nearly 600 surrounding acres for as much as $56 million - perhaps twice what it was worth - and intends to grow into a four-year liberal arts college for 5,000 students. Los Angeles Times, 9/24/90, B1, 6. 21 Rajneeshees Meet Five hundred followers of the late Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh were scheduled to meet for various group sessions in September at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. New Frontier, 9/90, 24. 22 Messiah Identified Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon announced at an ecumenical meeting financed by his organization in San Francisco in August that he is the new world messiah. Moon said the world needs to find its "true parent," and "This person is the messiah. To help fulfill this very purpose, I have been called upon by God." Christian participants in the conference rejected Moon's message. Some others rejected the message but liked the apparent ecumenical thrust of the convocation and the opportunity to learn about other religions. Others said they simply could not pass up an all-expense-paid trip to San Francisco. J. Gordon Melton, of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, in Santa Barbara, said that a list of participants showed that the assembly was more of an interfaith fashion show than a significant gathering of major ecumenical leaders. San Francisco Chronicle, 8/17/90, 1. 23 Scientology Newspaper A publishing company run by Scientologists plans to expand its weekly newspaper to "fill the void" left by the departure of the Clearwater (FL) Sun. "It's not our purpose to proselytize Scientology," a spokesman said. Rita Garvey, mayor of Clearwater - which is Scientology's international headquarters - said: "The more I read about what has happened in the history of Scientology, the more I believe that it is a cult." St. Petersburg Times, 8/11/90, 3. 24 CUT Mending Image In the wake of a large oil spill at their giant bomb shelter complex in Montana earlier this year, and numerous conflicts with neighboring communities since relocating there several years ago, the Church Universal and Triumphant appears to be cultivating a new image. The group now stages weekly dinner theater productions at a church-owned restaurant, hosted local community leaders to a Fourth of July hoedown-barbecue, and went on the "Donahue" show in July to argue that they are, in the words of leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet, "happy, competent, normal people." Montana Standard (Butte) 8/21/90, 3. CUT has also announced plans to tap a hot springs at the edge of Yellowstone National Park - a proposal which has caused a furor among environmentalists - if a three-year federal study shows it will not damage other springs. Montana Standard, 6/17/90. 6. 25 Money to Congress Financial disclosure statements examined recently by the Washington Post indicate that Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Jesse Helms of North Carolina each received $2,000 speaker's fees in 1989 for speaking at meetings of the American Leadership Conferences, programs which represent the agendas of CAUSA, a political arm of the Unification Church. Cult Awareness Network News, 9/90, 2. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) received a $2,000 honorarium in 1989 from CAUSA Washington Post, 9/10/90, A13. 26 Interior Head Visits CUT U.S. Interior Secretary Manual Lujan visited Church Universal and Triumphant leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet in August in connection with issues involving the group's affect on environmentally sensitive public land in Montana. Lujan "came away with the feeling that we [the government and CUT] can be . . . good neighbors. " Chicago Sun-Times, 8/28/90, 2. 27 Magician and Yogi Combine Magician Doug Henning says he and Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi will build a $1 billion theme park near Florida's Walt Disney World featuring magic and Eastern-style meditation. Scheduled to open in 1993, the 450-acre park will offer 38 major attractions focusing on the themes of knowledge, enlightenment, and entertainment, according to Henning. It will include a courtyard of illusions and a building apparently suspended above the water. Similar parks are planned for sites in Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the Netherlands. The Maharishi, who has been credited with spreading Transcendental Meditation worldwide, oversees a conglomerate with assets of about $3 billion. Washington Times, 10/25/90, B5. [The Washington Times is owned by Unification Church-affiliated companies.] 28 Way International Active Almost 6,000 people converged on the New Knoxville, OH, grounds of The Way International in August for the group's annual Rock of Ages convention. The Way said every U.S. state and 20 to 30 foreign countries were represented. A highlight was the welcoming home of the group's Word over the World ambassadors who serve a year overseas proselytizing. Sidney (OH) Daily News, 8/13/90, 7A. The Way is bouncing back from from a five-year period of decline and internal strife following the death of founder Victor Paul Wierwille, according to the controversial group's president, L. Craig Martindale. Martindale shrugs off accusations from the Cult Awareness Network and the International Cult Education Program by saying: "I think we're in good company. Jesus Christ was also accused of being a ringleader of the Nazarenes." He conceded that The Way's recruitment strategies are aggressive and bold, but said that it stems from the membership's desire to help people. Dayton (OH) News, 8/11/90, 4C, 6C. 29 Hospital Accredited Course The Harbor Oaks Hospital in Fort Walton Beach, FL, presented a workshop on "Cults, Sects, and Satanism: Practices and Treatment Issues" on May 10 and 11. Approved by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the faculty for the course included Edwin Morse, Ph.D., a psychologist, consultant, and exit counselor from Madison, WI, and psychologist/psychometrist Julia Morse, also experienced in the field of cult research and counseling. Apart from the hospital, workshop sponsors included the University of West Florida, Okaloosa County Mental Health Association, and the Medical Education Council of Pensacola. Cult Observer Report, 10/1/90. 30 Kids Feel Invulnerable to Cults A recent Gallup Poll indicates that 90 percent of college students believe there is absolutely no chance that they would ever join a religious cult. Seven percent said there was little chance and two percent said there was some chance. Cult Awareness Network News, 9/90, 2. 31 LaRouche Estate for Sale The Leesburg, VA, estate used until recently as an operational base and "safe house" by political extremist and imprisoned felon Lyndon LaRouche is up for sale. But LaRouche has no intention of moving his organization out of the area, according to a spokeswoman, who said LaRouche has underscored his commitment to staying in the area. A source familiar with the LaRouche operation said the group has moved its headquarters to a smaller estate nearby, which records show was purchased for $1.07 million last year by a LaRouche supporter. The source said that guard posts and sophisticated electronic security devices have been moved from the old estate to the new one. Washington Post, 10/5/90, A22. 32 Rabbi Rubin Dobin Rabbi Rubin Dobin, a crusader against cults and Christians trying to convert Jews, died in Miami in September at the age of 74. After moving to Florida in the mid-1970s, supposedly to retire, Rabbi Dobin became senior consultant to the local Concerned Parents of Cult Children and a founder of the anti-cult and anti-Messianic organization Jews for Jews. Rabbi Dobin garnered headlines for his work against cults. In 1980, he vowed to run the Unification Church out of Florida. He recruited teams to patrol Dade and Broward (County) cities in search of groups posing as charity-collecting Santa Clauses at Christmastime and asked the city of Hialeah to revoke the Hare Krishnas' permit to collect money on the streets. Miami Herald, 9/15/90. 33 Failed Apocalypse Tal Brooke: The recent news stories of the underground shelters [built by CUT at their Montana community] certainly seem to embody this portrayal of paranoia and self-destruction [which Lewis has painted for Brooke]. Have you been able to find out from any insiders what's going on? Moira: Edward, now her fourth husband, was put in prison because of the stash of guns and weapons. Do you remember about that? He ordered a bodyguard to get the guns, using false I.D.s, and it was traced back to the ranch. It was the hot story last summer. So Edward was indicted and he went to prison, the last two weeks of January, the first two weeks of February. During those four weeks she became the craziest. She told people to give up their jobs, sell everything, put everything in gold and silver and then come there immediately no matter how. That area of Montana was just flooded within a week because they were going to have a vigil. The vigil was supposed to start during the Ides of March. She made all the critical mistakes when Edward, who is independently wealthy, was in jail and not around to monitor her. Ordinarily he's there propping her up. But while he was in jail, she sold property, all the printing presses. Things that meant "the end," that they had never done before. The restaurant closed. The dairy farm was sold, the ranch kitchen was closed. She told her members to sell everything, stop working, and put all their money into the bomb shelters. Suddenly money from the church dried up. As people's incomes stopped, the tithing stopped, and so the whole income for the church totally shut down. So when Edward got out of jail, he had to pull everything out of the fire. He started patching things up. With the mistakes she made while he was in jail, they had to resort to sending out all the disciples to make up with their families, earn money, and pay off their debts. TAL: It was a downshift from Apocalyptic expectancy to a things-as-usual existence. The "Oracle of truth" made the wrong call. And that must have hurt her credibility among the faithful. Along with another area of her guidance, the danger of large petroleum tanks lying near the sleeping quarters in the underground shelters (One could almost picture a Saturn rocket lying on its side). Indeed, the tanks leaked 20,000 gallons of fuel. Moira: If they went under there they would have died. Not intentionally, but because they are so out of it. They would have been asphyxiated. Tal: You mentioned bad fruits, things that were not right that caused you to leave. Let's get back to some of these. Moira: The diet was one of them. You've heard of the macrobiotic diet? Back in the '60s someone named Stanley Petrowski tried to introduce the Macrobiotic diet to my parents, Mark and Elizabeth Prophet. They turned it down, and so the organization went on. But over the years my mother tried practically every health food diet that you can imagine - and this is supposed to be the messenger of God. Now, suddenly over the last three or four years, the macrobiotic diet became the "in" thing. Someone else came along and sold her on it. I wondered why, if this was God's messenger, she couldn't discern the 'rightness' of the macrobiotic diet years ago and not go through all kinds of experimentation. She would have immediately "seen" it when Petrowsky came the first time and not years later. Other things that didn't make sense, the "sour fruit," were the results of the organization on people's lives. On their families, on all the things that we respect. It destroys them. It just tears people apart. It destroys aspirations, goals, the individual. Tal: You saw families constantly broken up? Moira: Yes. One member in, one out. Children in, parents out, or vice versa. Torn apart. For instance, several children were kidnapped from Belgium by their mother. The church hid them and he [the father] went to the church and met with church leaders and they denied it. A year later with the help of the INS they tracked them through Canada, up through Minneapolis, and finally found them in a church safe house. The woman was thrown in jail and the father finally got his kids back. When they did find them in Minneapolis, they never prosecuted the man who hid them in the church. Tal: That's illegal. What of legal recourse? Moira: They blackmail the parents by controlling their children in the church, who can then refuse to see their own parents. Like Marilyn, a parent who has been fighting to get her child out, her adult child. He's 32. But the parents are told: "If you work to get your child out, if you harass us and go to the press, you will never see your child again. At all." So the parents are blackmailed. The parents get the message - Cooperate, and don't make a fuss, and let your child work for us. Or you won't talk with them again. The kids will go along with it. There is a spiritual rationale for this - "Your parents are fallen ones. You had to be born through them to enact their judgment." One of their terms is "Family Mesmerism." That's their buzz word for being a captive of your family. Tal: Family alienation is so common. The cults have turned it into a specialized skill, taking it as far as they can. Moira: It's very destructive. And those were the first pointers that I'd say to someone. "Look at what the church is doing." When the shelters were built, some of the younger kids started running away from home rather than go into the shelters. Those of us on the outside felt that something was going to happen, an accident. People on the ranch live on very small amounts of sleep, water, and protein. When I pictured these people building and engineering the shelters I had the feeling that they were building their own death traps. They were stocking up on drugs, Valium, and straight jackets for people who freaked out. They had covenants for the kids, and if the kids freaked out they would give them cold ice water soaks, and separate them from their parents. Some of the kids weren't even going to be in the same shelters as their parents. Tal: Wouldn't you think that people would be bucking to get out after a while? The loss of freedom is a deceit that the soul feels strongly - we hate to be held down and limited. The Montana commune sounds so restrictive, so tightly controlled. Moira: I think people feel those instincts after they get out. Kind of an afterthought in their memories. Tal: Do people ever consider how she is absorbing their money? Moira: No, to them it's for God, it's for the church. "Decreeing" Tal: I take it the hours of "decreeing," or chanting, is one of the foremost means Elizabeth Clare Prophet uses to control her followers. Moira: Up to five hours a day. They probably borrowed it from Hinduism. They try to compare it to the Catholic repetition. I heard that on a live radio show once, and I just wanted to scream. It's not the same as prayer, and it's not the same as repetitive Gregorian chants. First of all, it's wishing something into reality. Often it's praying for ill, and judgment, and the smashing and destroying of people. Not all the time, but there's a difference. It's violent. It's shouting at God and repeating hundreds of times. It's acting as if He can't hear us, or listen to us. 34 Odd Couple "Jim Bakker and Lyndon LaRouche are sharing the same cell in the federal pen in Rochester, Minnesota, Fred Gardner reports in the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Given Bakker's preferences and LaRouche's gay-baiting down the years, this is an intriguing cohabitation. My sympathies are with Jim. Imagine being locked in a room with LaRouche for years on end." Alexander Cockburn in The Nation, 9/24/90, 299. 35 Scientology-linked School Assembly The principal of a Sherman Oaks, CA, elementary school canceled an assembly in October by an environmental group because he feared that the group's affiliation with the Church of Scientology would upset parents. The school's 927 students were scheduled to watch skits and hear songs from Cry Out, which was to have included an appearance by child actor Vonni Ribisi, who starred in the canceled TV show "My Two Dads." "I don't know the first thing about the Church of Scientology, but it would be a waste of time to have people worrying about whether or not we are trying to expound the teachings of Scientology," said principal Grace Shipper. "We can teach environmental lessons in other ways." Materials used by Cry out were prepared by Author Services, Inc., the literary agency for Scientology founder and author L. Ron Hubbard now controlled by influential Scientologists, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation. A school board member said, in agreeing with the decision to cancel the Cry Out appearance: "I don't think it is appropriate for any kind of Church or organization like this to be on campus, particularly if they are coming under the guise of something else." The Cry Out volunteer who helped arrange for the event denied any connection to Scientology save that L. Ron Hubbard had written the Cry Out song. Sherman Oaks parent Judy London said she approached school officials about bringing the Cry Out program to the school after picking up one of the group's booklets at the Los Angeles zoo. She said she grew nervous about the group when she went to pick up 40 booklets to distribute to teachers. "I went to the address they gave me, and it said Author Services, Inc. on the building, but inside you walk into the L. Ron Hubbard Gallery," London said. "I asked about the relation and they said there was no relation at all." Sandy Scholton, the principal of a Palos Verdes elementary school, said she was unaware of any connection between Cry Out and the Church of Scientology when he agreed to have the presentation at his school in June. "It was a very entertaining program," he said,"but if I had known the connection I would have taken a much closer look at the literature."Los Angeles Times, 10/14/90, B3, 8. 36 Pamphlet in Schools As part of a sweeping and sophisticated campaign to gain new influence in the U.S., the Church of Scientology is seeking a foothold in the nation's schools by distributing million of copies of a booklet by founder L. Ron Hubbard on moral values. The program is designed to win recognition for Hubbard and an educator and moralist and introduce him to the nation's youth. The booklet, titled "The Way to Happiness," includes such admonitions as "take care of yourself," honor and help your parents," "do not murder," and "be worthy of trust." In small print, the booklet is ascribed to Hubbard as "an individual and is not part of any religious doctrine." Scientologists estimate that 3.5 million copies have been introduced into 4,500 elementary, junior high, and senior high schools nationwide. It is distributed by the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, which is run by Scientologists who downplay their connection to the church. The Concerned Businessmen"s Association runs a nationwide contest encouraging students to follow the precepts of the booklet in order to stay off drugs. The association awards $5,000 to the stsdent who comes up with the best project using the booklet as a guide. Scientology critics say the contest is used to recruit new church members who, the theory goes, may be so inspired by "The Way to Happiness" that they will read Hubbard's other writings. A businessmen's association spokeswoman denies any other motive than to help children lead better lives. Students at El Capitan Middle School in Fresno participated in the contest for three years, in 1989 winning second place for organizing an anti-drug rally in which they passed one another a symbolic "torch" - Hubbard's booklet. But last year, organizers failed to get the 5,000-student Central Unified School District in Fresno County to participate. Geoff Garratt, the district's director of educational services and personnel, made the connection to Scientology and asked that the Hubbard booklet not be used. When the businessmen's association refused, the district declined to participate. San Jose Mercury News, 6/30/90, 10C, 12C. ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photo copies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. FACTNet reserves the right to refuse to accept an order for copying or other duplication, or delivery of copied or duplicated material if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: E:\PCB\AFF\FILES\CO0590\CO0590AB.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: SECURITY CODE: DISTRIBUTION CODE: NAME FOR BBS: SORT TO: CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOC. OF ORIG: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. For additional verification see image files contained in the file with same name and .ZIP extension. UPDATED ON: UPDATED BY: F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0990AB.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer Sept/Oct 1990 SORT TO: AFF CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOCATION OF ORIGINAL: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. U.S.A. STORIES | 1 Judgment Against Tony Alamo. | 2 Faye Yager Hides Children from Satanics. | 3 Grave Robbery Plea. | 4 Decapitated Animals. | 5 LaRouche Solicitors Blocked. [Supreme | Court Bans PO Solicitation] | 6 Alamo's Defamation Suit Fails. | 7 Charges Dropped. [Against Keith Levit, | LaRouche aid] | 8 DuPont Smith Wants Money. | 9 Death Sentence for Jeffrey Lundgren. | 10 Survival Program Embattled. [Challenger | Foundation, desert survival] | 11 Suit Says Moon a Racketeer. | 12 LaRocuhe Accountant Convicted. [Richard | E. Welsh of Roanoke] | 13 Lifespring Pays $300,000. | 14 Scientology Property Tax. | 15 Bilking the Elderly. [LaRouche | Fundraisers] | 16 Treatment Center Cited for Abuse. | [Straight-Inc., Fairfax, VA] | 17 Parents of Cultists Sorry. [Jeffrey | Lundgren. Dennis Avery family.] | 18 American Buddhist Corruption. [Boulder, | Colorado] | 19 CUT Shelter Prices Dip. [Bomb shelters | were $7,500, now much less] | 20 Soka Gakkai University. [Sect on campus, | Calabasas, CA] | 21 Rajneeshes Meet. | 22 Messiah Identified. [Sun Myung Moon] | 23 Scientology Newspaper. [In | Clearwater, FL] | 24 CUT Mending Image. [Elizabeth | Clare Prophet] | 25 Money to Congress. [Senators paid for | addressing Unification Church] | 26 Interior Head Visits CUT. [Secretary | Manual Lujan] | 27 Magician and Yogi Combine. [Doug | Henning & Maharishi Mahesh Yogi] | 28 Way International Active. [6,000 | meet in Ohio] | 29 Hospital Accredited Course. [Edwin & | Julia Morse] | 30 Kids Feel Invulnerable to Cults. | 31 LaRouche Estate for Sale. | 32 In Memoriam: Rabbi Rubin Dobin. | 33 Failed Apocalypse. [CUT] | 34 Odd Couple. [Jim Bakker & Lyndon | LaRouche in prison cell together] | 35 Scientology-linked School Assembly | Cancelled. [Sherman Oaks] | 36 Pamphlet in Schools. [Scientology, | Way to Happiness] For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 8/18/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================