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In 1987, CAN received an average of 6 calls a month on Satanism, representing 10% of the calls received on specific groups or social movements. By 1988, CAN was receiving an average of 100 calls a month on Satanism, representing 27% of the total number of calls on specific groups or social movements. -------------------------------------- By 1989, the calls on Satanism peaked, with an average of 165 calls received each month, representing 37% of the total number on specific groups or social movements. -------------------------------------- By 1989, the calls on Stanism peacked, with an average of 165 calls received each mont, representing 37% of the total number of calls. The highest number of calls on Satanism received in 1989 was 582 calls in the month of October, always a significant month for such calls. While 1990 phone statistics are available only through July, the average number of calls received for the seven-month period is 75, representing 25% of the total number of calls. CAN receives a large number of calls for information on specific aspects of the cult issue, such as child abuse, or for general information on cults and how they recruit, and requests for assistance in educational programs. These calls are not reflected in calculating the percentages reported here. 2 Satanic Abuse Changes -- Effects Are Real [Assemblies of God] From "Lost Souls," by Marney Rich Keenan, Detroit News, 10/20/90. A Michigan family has been torn apart by a married daughter's accusations that her father - a recently retired state police officer - sexually abused her in satanic rituals when she was a child, and that her husband similarly abused her own children in more recent years. The detailed and horrifying accusations, confirmed by a sister - but unsubstantiated by a four-and-one-half-month state police investigation - stem in part from the influence of the daughter's church. "I remember being tied up naked, spread-eagled on the basement floor when I was probably, I'm guessing, 4, 5, 6 years old," says Connie Smith, according to depositions she made. "I remember my father kneeling over me, choking me, and also (forcing me to have oral sex) . . . And my grandfather raping me. I remember being kicked in the head (by her father) with big black boots." Connie's sister Darlene says that although she was not herself abused, she remembers seeing the events Connie recounts, and says she believes that her mother and father are, or have been, members of a satanic cult. The daughters say they recalled these episodes, and more such, following counseling sessions at the Mount Hope Church, a 4,100-member affiliate of the charismatic Assemblies of God, which counts among its pastors Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, and (until recently) Jim and Tammy Bakker. The church holds such services as "Fightin' Friday Nights," in which the congregation speaks in tongues to cast out the devil. Sister Connie's memory was touched when, in a normal session with a church counselor to discuss a vague uneasiness, the counselor asked her if she had ever been abused as a child. She answered no, but still troubled by some indefinable problem, she went for further counseling. Following a 4-hour session with church counselors, she told her brother-in-law Chris Knight, Darlene's sister, about what she called the "really gross, horrible things" she remembered, the drinking of blood, family members in hooded robes, and more. Darlene, concerned about her sister's anxiety but still ignorant of its cause, followed Connie's advice to see the church counselors herself. Darlene emerged from the 4-hour session crying hysterically: she, too, now recalled the same terrifying events as Connie. In the months that followed, Darlene told police, she remembered more and more of what Connie had recounted, how her father urinated on her sister and forced her to have oral sex. "I remember seeing her later that night laying [sic] in bed . . . just her eyes like [sic] were in a wide open stare and she was curled up on her side, just staring like she was in shock or something." Fears of satanic influence now proliferated., says Chris Knight. Darlene thought a woman she knew was involved in the occult because she had a picture of a lion in her home. "I know that's a very strong satanic symbol," Darlene said in a deposition. Darlene hid her mother-in-law's presents to her children, and prayed over the gifts because something was wrong with them. Soon she accused Chris's mother of occult practices. Indeed, fear of the occult seems to have possessed Darlene, according to Chris. Because church members told her that Devil worshippers could cast evil spells over furniture, the couple threw out dressers and chests that Darlene's parents had given them. She also changed the door locks at the church's suggestion, Chris reports. Chris now expressed his concern to his wife's Mount Hope Church counselor, who told him that what was happening was not unusual. God was bringing a lot of this kind of thing into the open to oppose Satan. He said many people are into the occult, people from all walks of life that you least expect. Unknown at first to Chris, the accusations now included him. Darlene brought their daughters to see the church counselors, and after the second visit the older daughter recalled being tied up on the floor of the living room at grandma and grandpa's house where, with candles lit, grandpa rubbed his penis across her feet. More than this, the older daughter now charged Chris with sexually molesting her, and the younger daughter said much the same thing. In a later deposition, the younger daughter detailed a number of abusive incidents she says occurred when she was five or six. In one, she said her father and grandfather forced her to have oral sex as one of her teachers looked on. Darlene now asked Chris to move out and filed for divorce. When Chris protested his innocence, church counselors suggested that he might be suffering from a kind of demonic power that prevented him from remembering what he had done. ------------------------------- The report urged the court to discourage the amount of direct psychological treatment that especially the children may receive within the confines of their religious practices. ------------------------------- Alternate Explanations Two nationally reputed researchers on sexual abuse interviewed family members for a court-ordered evaluation and concluded that Darlene's relationship with the Mount Hope Church is similar to the overpowering influence of Patty Hearst's abductors over her. "While we are not suggesting that Darlene or (the daughters) have been taken hostage by some anti-social threatening process or procedure," they wrote, "we are, in fact, of the opinion that the belief that the overpowering influence of the charismatic process that surrounded the revelations for Connie and then Darlene and then the others is tantamount to such a 'captor' influence." The report also urged the court to discourage the amount of direct psychological treatment that especially the children may receive within the confines of their religious practices." Mount Hope pastor Gary Uptigrove feels the church did not unduly influence Darlene or Connie in any way. "If you talk to Chris or others," he said, "I know they think we somehow engineered this thing . . . But the state police would never have taken on this case if they didn't think (there was evidence of abuse.) They investigated. They felt there was reasonable proof. You have to remember, this was the state police investigating the state police. . . One of the officers told us that he felt very uncomfortable asking him questions. One of the investigators said he believed the children were molested." Edmund D. Cohen, Ph. D., an attorney, psychologist, and author of The Mind of the True Believer, calls the Assemblies of God denomination a "mind-controlling church. Dismissing someone by saying they are demon-possessed is common everyday stuff in the Assemblies of God church," says Cohen. "Making up history that never happened is rather seldom, but it happens. That your reality is a reality populated by malevolent demons is very widespread in the Assemblies of God." Cohen says two adult sisters can invent memories, particularly horrible ones including satanic symbols like black robes and candles, through the power of suggestion. "They can think they remember candles and black robes probably by being told a great deal about candles and black robes and confusing bad movies that they saw with what they were told by the church," Cohen says. Austin Martin, a former ordained minister in the Assemblies of God movement, calls the Assemblies of God church "home wreckers." His latest book, due out this fall, Setting the Captives Free, details destructive experiences people have had with the Assemblies of God churches. "They are all cults and they bend people's minds," Martin says. "I frankly think they should padlock all the doors." 3 Abusive Drug Ministry [Save the Seed, DC & MD; AME Zion Church; Robert "Shine" Freeman; alledged violence, obscenity, nudity; John A. Cherry] From "Drug Treatment Ministry Uses Exorcism, Physical Abuse," by Debbie M. Price, Washington Post, 8/5/90, A1, A16. The Save the Seed drug ministry, which uses 10-12-hour Bible study sessions to "detox people with the word of God," and occasionally treats addicts through the rites of exorcism and physical abuse, has been accused of cult-like behavior. Judges in the District of Columbia and Prince Georges County, MD, have been sending convicted, hard-core drug addicts for more than a year now to Save the Seed, which is headed by Rev. Robert "Shine" Freeman out of a split-level house in Port Washington. The program is not licensed or certified as a drug treatment center, nor does it have trained drug abuse counselors. Supported by a local African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, and public donations, Save the Seed does not charge for its services. The judges and probation officers, overwhelmed with offenders, were relieved to be able to place, at no charge, otherwise unplaceable and incorrigible addicts, but in recent weeks doubts have arisen about Save the Seed. A letter from a private duty nurse to court and government officials alleges abuses by Freeman including overcrowding, a lack of formal treatment plans, physical violence, obscenity-filled tirades, and forced nudity. Participants said they were required to stay indoors when they were not working or attending services at the Full Gospel AME Zion Church. Officials have found most of these complaints valid. Some judges have voiced concern while others have continued to send offenders to Save the Seed. Freeman, a convicted thief who has no formal training in the field, admits to many of the complaints but says people don't understand his work. He said he is not treating drug abuse, but sin. Current program members praise Freeman, saying he "saved" them. A reporter who visited Save the Seed four times noted that program participants followed Freeman's every order: sitting when he said to sit, standing when he said to stand, coming into the room and leaving it at his command. "I control the tempo . . . by not letting them know nothing that goes on," Freeman said. "They're off-balance at all times. They can't learn to beat the system because there is no system. They do what I say when I say." Drug treatment experts caution against such an autocratic approach, noting that it can have dangerous, even disastrous effects. Addicts, vulnerable and robbed of their free will by their habits, substitute a reliance on the program leader for dependence on the drug, they said. "Programs that teach people to do only what they're told to do create a greater handicap," said the Rev. Clinton D. McNair, an associate professor of practical theology at Howard University, who also is a Baptist minister and substance abuse counselor. John A. Cherry, pastor of Full Gospel AME Zion Church, declined numerous requests to discuss Save the Seed. He said in a letter to the Washington Post that the church finances Save the Seed, which he said also received donations from private citizens. "I am not personally aware of the allegations," Cherry wrote, "but I do know from the testimony of others that have been changed, set free, and delivered from drugs as a result of this young man's heart toward his brothers." The director for Social Services at the D.C. Superior Court said probation officers had erred by not visiting Save the Seed before making referrals there, but noted that they are desperate to place drug addicts in treatment. "We try to find any situation to deal with them." The majority of the people in the program, according to Freeman, come straight from the street, with criminal charges pending against them. Judges, learning that the people are now in a drug treatment program, often allow them to remain, on probation, Freeman said. The State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which can move against and fine uncertified programs, will not do so, it says, because religious organizations are outside its jurisdiction. An official in the licensing division said of Save the Seed: "It seem like it [is] more or less a religious cult." "I opened my home and took these people into my house when no one else would help them," Freeman said. "The overall picture is nobody is doing what I do. Nobody is reaching out trying to help them to keep them straight." 4 Yahwehs Indicted [Alleged fire-bombing, murder, sexual misconduct; Yahweh ben Yahweh] Yahweh ben Yahweh, the politically influential preacher who commands a white-robed religious sect and a multimillion-dollar real estate empire, was charged in November with masterminding 14 murders and terrorizing his disciples into silence. The indictment handed down by a Miami federal grand jury, which also included 15 of ben Yahweh's so-called "Death Angels" and his female companion, the financial "brains" of the operation, additionally accuses the preacher of directing the fire-bombing of a block of houses in Delray Beach and ordering the beatings of devotees who failed to make collection quotas. The grand jury charged Yahweh and his co-defendants with operating a racketeering enterprise while masquerading as religious people in white robes and turbans. According to the indictment, "the defendants engaged in violence as a mechanism for keeping discipline, and violence as a mechanism for making money." Yahweh death squads sometimes shot and stabbed neighborhood people who opposed efforts to collect donations, sell books and soft drinks, and buy property. The indictment also alleges that Yahweh established an ultra-secret group called the brotherhood; in order to join "an individual had to murder a white devil and bring a severed body part to the leader as proof of the killing." Prosecutors said additionally that Yahweh allegedly ordered murders to retaliate against defectors and dissidents. ------------------------------- Yahweh "exercized control by separating families of followers within the enterprise, by regu- lating the personal and sexual lives of married followers, and by having sexual relations with both adult and minor female followers." -------------------------------- The indictment noted the harsh life of children in the sect. Yahweh "exercised control by separating families of followers within the enterprise, by regulating the personal and sexual lives of married followers, and by having sexual relations with both adult and minor female followers." The history of the Yahweh sect during the 1980s projected two opposed images. On the one hand were the good deeds - the infectious self-esteem among the white-robed Yahwehs as they set up schools and restaurants, opened motels, and renovated apartment houses, each rising like a Phoenix from the ashes and burned-out crack dens of the inner city. But there was also a sense of evil - always just below the surface, rising first with rumors of Yahweh preaching a vicious hatred of whites, later with darker tales from former members of firebombings, beatings, and murder. From "Yahweh sect leader, 16 followers indicted," by Sydney Freedberg, and "Sect history: Good deeds, ugly rumors," by Patrick May, Miami Herald, 11/8/90, 1A, 24-25A. 5 Students "Targeted" [St. Louis Church of Christ; Washington University] From "Cult targets WU students fervently," by Cindy Glover, Student Life (Washington University, St. Louis, MO), 9/28/90. [A cartoon is shown in the center of the article. On the left, two men are standing together, both obviously thieves. One, holding a watch, says, "I got a student's watch." The other, holding a wallet, says, "I got a student's wallet." On the right, two men are standing together. One, with "Cult" written across his chest, has his arm around a college student holding books; the cultist says, "I got a student." The signature on the cartoon is not clear, Don or Dan Gerber, perhaps, September 25, 1990.] The St. Louis Church of Christ, part of the controversial Crossroads Church of Christ breakaway from the mainline Church of Christ, has targeted students at Washington University, in St. Louis, according to a former member of the St. Louis Church of Christ, Diane Placht. The [Chicago-based] Cult Awareness Network says the STLCC uses "mind control and brainwashing techniques." This fall, at least two STLCC "disciplers" are working full-time to recruit WU students. Dressed as students and carrying backpacks, they approach students anywhere they can easily enter into conversations with them. Tom Plog, campus minister for the Student Christian Fellowship, estimates that the STLCC may already have 150 student members at WU. Plog says that the STLCC overwhelms people with love. They get members to agree to be "disciples," which is to say they get them to submit to indoctrination by another follower. The group demands more and more of a member's time until all contact with non-members is cut off and the disciple begins to depend on the church to make all of his decisions, including whom to date and when to call home. According to the Cult Awareness Network, the STLCC stresses conformity to such an extent that, when given psychological tests, members show a remarkable tendency toward the same personality type and a loss of individuality and the ability to act independently. And the personality is that of the leader. Two ex-members' stories detail this. Joni Phillips says: "At the first Bible study, they tell you to list all of the sins in your life - at least all of the big ones. It's to get closer to God, and they're really supportive. "Then they seemed to structure every Bible study after that around what I told them. Of course, it took me a while to clue in. Meanwhile, I'm think-ing that they really understand me, that they were really in touch with what was going on with me," Phillips said. "They create a need in you that only they can fulfill by targeting your weak or vulnerable areas then showing you how they can help," said graduate student Cindy Dorman. She was involved in a [Crossroads] Church of Christ group at Butler University in Indiana. "They said that I should be trusting God to provide for me. By worrying about financial things I wasn't trusting God enough. I was showing laziness and hatred for God," said Dorman. "I was working part-time, going to school, and spending several hours a day for the church. They said it wasn't enough. I either had to quit working, quit school, or leave the church. "I became suicidal. I had given my life to this group," said Dorman. "My exiting the group was a devastating experience, and I wasn't a member for even a year. "We formed a group on campus - Educating Students with Cult Awareness for Personal Emancipation (ESCAPE). As we exposed the group, a lot of people came out," said Dorman, adding that she hoped the same thing would happen at WU. 6 "Move Over Krishnas" [St. Louis Church of Christ cult more subtle than Krishnas, but as insidious] From "Move Over Hare Kirshnas," editorial in Student Life, Wishington Universtiy, St. Louis), 8/125/90. [sic] One of the more frightening stories to hit the university in recent years came last week when it was reported that WU students have been targeted as prospective "disciples" by a local Christian cult. With estimates of the group's student membership at over 100, the exposure of the group's practices by a Christian Student Fellowship campus minister has come none too soon. For unlike the bald, flower-bearing Hare Krishnas that proselytize at airports, the full-time recruiters for the St. Louis Church of Christ apparently have a much more subtle, and insidious, presence on campus. Dressed as students, these evangelists shower unsuspecting students with love, eventually gaining their confidence and persuading them to become "disciples." At this stage the students receive heavy indoctrination and are asked to progressively sacrifice more and more of their individuality to the church. The psychological tactics of this group and the reported success the group has had at WU make this cult a serious threat to students. The pressure to succeed, the doubts about old belief systems, and the simple homesickness that many college students experience leave students vulnerable to promises of love and security. We would urge students therefore to be on guard against the pernicious efforts of this group, especially when they might actually be stressed from classes or feeling down in general. At the same time, however, we don't want to advocate a paranoia or hysteria about this group. It would be inappropriate, for instance, for the university to try to keep them off the campus. So long as the recruiters are not harassing students or threatening them with physical harm, they do have a First Amendment right to speak their beliefs. It would also be inappropriate for students to associate all religious groups on campus with this fanatical cult. There are many legitimate religious organizations at WU that are repelled by the practices of the St. Louis Church of Christ. An informed student body is the best way to combat the plans of this group. Before getting involved in any religious organization, students should find out as much as possible about it, and possibly take a friend along for support. The university should keep close tabs on the group and provide counseling for students who leave the group, conceivably through the Student Counseling Services. 7 Mainline Church Disclaimer St. Louis-area affiliates of the century-old Church of Christ took out a full-page ad in the September 20 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch saying, among other things, that they have no connection with the St. Louis Church of Christ and that they are "opposed to the methods they use." Using quotes from the Bible, the advertisement contrasts the alleged cultic methods of the St. Louis Church of Christ and the non-authoritarian principles and practices of the mainline Church of Christ. 8 Scientology Pamphlet in Schools [Way to Happiness; Concerned Businessmen's Association; El Capitan Middle School] 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 millions of copies of a booklet by founder L. Ron Hubbard on moral values. The program is designed to win recognition for Hubbard as 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 student 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. ----------------------------- The district's director of educational services and personnel made the connection to Scientology and asked that the Hubbard booklet not be used. ------------------------------ 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 [CA] Mercury News, 6/30/90, 10C, 12C. 9 End Time Ministries Neighborhood in Lake City, FL [Charles Mead; dire child neglect] Corrected Title: "End Time" Ministry Questioned. From "Faith, distrust come to the promised land," by Chris Lavin, St. Petersburg, FL, Times, 11/11/90, 1B, 10B. For the past several years, middle class followers of Charles Mead's End Time Ministries from South Dakota, Montana, Illinois, and elsewhere have been moving to northern Florida's Lake City to join their leader as model citizens in what is becoming an exclusively End Time neighborhood. Former 15-year member Joni Cooke Eddy says End Time teaches members to avoid association with non-members, especially relatives, shuns medical treatment for illness - a dozen members, mostly children, have reportedly died of untreated illness in recent years - and controls members' lives in great detail. Charles Mead teaches that a highly structured lifestyle, hard work, and faith can bring health and wealth, and that when the End Time comes - in his lifetime, he believes - those who live his way will be saved. Mead's taped lectures, circulated among individuals whom he personally influenced, were apparently keys to converting others to his approach and established links which he solidified with personal visits in regions where his followers resided. "They are a cult, not a religion," says Anne Connor, a Lake City resident who has been End Time's most outspoken critic. "I have real concern for the children. They have no choice how they live. It's just not right." Charles Mead will not speak with reporters, but his wife Marlene says that End Timers are victims of small town gossip - and paranoia. Joni Eddy describes life in End Time as like "living in a box, and the box became smaller and smaller over the years - no movies, no books, no telephone. All you knew was the group. It was your identity. You did not want to do anything wrong, or you risked offending the only people you really knew." Mrs. Eddy tells of her refusal to see a doctor during a terribly painful pregnancy when she suddenly gained 55 pounds. "You prayed," she said. "Seeing a doctor? That was totally from Satan. If someone died, well maybe they weren't listening to Mead enough. Maybe they didn't have real faith. Her baby was born prematurely and had breathing problems. On the fourth day, the baby died. The event that finally pushed Mrs. Eddy out of End Time was the death of the leader's first wife in 1986. Marie Mead, says Mrs. Eddy, had struggled for two years as untreated breast cancer literally ate away her tissue. "The last time Marie visited," Mrs. Eddy recalls, "blood was running down her arm." A resident of Southwood Acres, a neighborhood of many End Timers, says the group is harassing other residents hoping to get them to sell their homes to incoming End Timers. "They came in here real quietly," says Hudson Ayers, "and they're real smooth. But there's reason to be concerned, real reasons." A school psychologist, Ayers worries about the development of End Time children, who live isolated lives. Others are concerned about the very lives of the children. According to Mrs. Eddy, ten children in the group died before the moves to Lake City. In March, 1989, a 4-year-old in the group died from a nosebleed that doctors said could have been stopped by an injection of vitamin K. They state did not prosecute the parents because they tried to get medical help when the severity of the condition became clear. Even now, a 16-year-old is in serious condition at a local hospital because he almost starved to death as his heart ailment went untreated. Authorities are waiting to see what happens to the young man to determine whether charges should be filed against his parents. Lake City mayor T. Gerald Witt says he appreciates the talent, intelligence, and money brought into the community by End Timers and suggests that they are victims of religious persecution. Following the 4-year-old's death he said: "It may be necessary for some babies to die to maintain our religious freedoms. It may be the price we have to pay; everything has a price." And now he remarks: "I don't see much difference between them and Christian Scientists." 10 Werner Erhard Defense Werner Erhard and Associates took out a full-page advertisement in the Marin Independent Journal [Marin County, CA] in June protesting the newspaper's two-part series on the organization [June 17 and 18]. The series highlighted former employees' criticims of Erhard and his associates and training programs with which they are associated. The advertisement attempts to refute the accusations point by point, and purprots to provide the true "facts," and paints a picture of the organization's beneficence. Cult Observer Report. 11 Guidelines on Psychiatrists' "Influence" [Religious beliefs] From the American Journal of Psychiatry, April 1990, 542. Ethical guidelines regarding possible conflict between psychiatrists' religious commitments and their psychiatric practices have been approved by the American Psychiatric Association. The chairman of the APA committee that drew up the guidelines is Marc Galanter, M.D., a psychiatrist noted for cult-related research. The guidelines state that if an unexpected conflict arises in relation to the beliefs of the patient and the course of treatment, psychiatrists should respect their patients' beliefs. Such a conflict should be handled with a concern for the patient's vulnerabilities to the attitudes of the psychiatrist. Interpretations that concern a patient's beliefs should be made in a context of empathetic respect for their value and meaning to the patient. The guidelines emphasize that psychiatrists should not impose their own religious beliefs on their patients, nor should they substitute such beliefs or ritual for accepted diagnostic concepts or therapeutic practice. An example cited in the guidelines of the kinds of problems that may arise when strong beliefs are injected into a clinical practice involved a group of radical socialist psychiatrists who conducted a medical clinic dedicated to implementing their ideological system. They explained to a series of troubled patients that the cause of their symptoms lay primarily in their political plight and pressed them into participating in a political campaign without informed consideration of alternative therapy. Other examples cited in the guideline include: a psychiatrist's indication that he thought a patient's homosexuality was sinful: the introduction of a religious element in the therapy given by a religious psychiatrist to a non-religious patient; and a psychiatrist's interpretations of a devoutly religious patient's situation which, in effect, denigrated the man's commitments as neurotic, and may have led to a suicide attempt. 12 Fundraising After Armageddon [CUT] The Church Universal and Triumphant is conducting a fundraising drive as part of a campaign to get back to normal operations after the nuclear war predicted by leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet precluded most activity by church members except preparation for survival. In addition, according to a letter sent to followers around the world, the money will be used "to meet the many challenges we face from government agencies, religious bigots, and radical environmentalists who seek to stop or impose unreasonable restrictions on building and operating our community." Livingston (MT) Enterprise, 10/6/90. 13 Investors Say "Dianetics" Helps Discern Weakness [Feshbach, Southwood Partners Fund] Managers of Feshbach, a Los Angeles investment firm specializing in short selling, say they have outperformed the Dow Jones industrial average for eight years running through Dianetics, a controversial theory that is the basis of the Church of Scientology. They say that their Southwood Partners fund grew by 18 per cent in the first quarter while the Dow fell 1.7 per cent. They claim the fund has given investors an annual return of 44.4 per cent over the past five years. "Through Dianetics, we can tell what makes people tick - and that's a significant weapon," says general partner Matt Feshbach. The three Feshbach brothers claim that by using Hubbard's Chart of Human Evaluation they can predict whether a foundering company will go under, which helps them decide which companies to sell short, which is their specialty. "By using Dianetics, we can analyze management mentality and gauge how they handle stress," Feshbach said. "People who crack under stress are likely to fail as financial troubles worsen." With the aid if Dianetics, Feshbach hopes his firm will control $1 billion in assets by the end of the year. From "Investment firm chiefs claim Dianetics gives them an edge," by Brian Perry and Reuters, Tampa [FL] Tribune, 7/9/90, 8D. 14 Billborads Are "Dirty Tricks" [Scientology, Los Angeles Times] The Church of Scientology, responding to a series of critical Los Angeles Times stories, launched a three-month counter attack of billboards and bus cards using the words of the Times, but taken out of context in the manner that Broadway producers use to twist a pan into a rave. Washington,DC, representatives of the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, which has done work for Scientology, say the billboard campaign that borders on dirty tricks, and deny they helped engineer it. -------------------------------- The article's describe how the church paid millions to settle all the criminal charges against it and forever to seal the law- suits from public scrutiny. --------------------------------- Following the June LA Times series, the Scientologists in July began their promotional campaign of 120 small billboards, six or seven major freeway billboards, and almost 1,000 bus boards with excerpts such as, "It had weathered crises that would have crippled, if not destroyed other fledgling religious movements - testimony to the group's determination to survive." The notices fail to mention the article's following paragraphs, which describe how the church paid millions to settle all the criminal charges against it and to forever seal the lawsuits from public scrutiny. The billboards are positioned so that those who worked on the series - including reporters Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos - can't miss seeing them everyday. Sappell finds this clever and "typical of the Scientologists' manipulative ways." But Times lawyers have written to the Scientologists claiming that the billboards constitute an infringement of the newspaper's intellectual property, and have threatened a lawsuit. Washingtonian [DC], Nov. 1990, 19. 15 Scientology Newspaper [Clearwater Gazette] A publishing company run by Scientologists has transformed its weekly newsletter into a newspaper "to fill the void" left by the departure of the Clearwater Sun. Publisher Charlotte Chandler Anderson promises that the Clearwater Gazette - formerly the Down Town Clearwater Gazette newsletter - will be a community-oriented publication that "doesn't actually have anything to do with Scientologists," although the staff and many readers are members of the church. "It's not our purpose to proselytize Scientology," she said. But one of the first editions of the new paper mentioned Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard at least twice - once in a story about a [Scientology influenced] TRUE school educator who made a presentation at the state capitol, and once in a column on pulp magazines. The newsletter had a circulation of 2,000, and the Gazette was expected to circulate 5,000 copies of a mid-August edition. An ad in the paper offered jobs for distributors and ad sales people who wanted to "be a part of a growing team helping to create a publication for Clearwater and by Clearwater. Lousy benefits, long hours, low pay but lots of fun! That's the newspaper biz." ------------------------------- "The more I read about what has happened in the history of the Church of Scientology, the more I believe that it is a cult." -------------------------------- Clearwater mayor Rita Garvey criticized the paper, saying it might hurt the city's downtown redevelopment effort. "The more I read about what has happened in the history of the Church of Scientology, the more I believe that it is a cult," she said. St. Petersburg [FL] Times, 8/11/90, 3. 16 Renegade Krishna Leader's "Spiritual War" with Critics [Kirtinananda Swami Bhaktipada, formerly Keith Ham] From "In W. Va. hills a troubled temple to Lord Krishna, by Julia M. Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/22/90, 2A. Kirtinananda Swami Bhaktipada [formerly Keith Ham], the renegade Hare Krishna leader now under federal indictment for racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder, says the charges make sense only in the context of an ongoing spiritual war between the forces of good and evil. He told a reporter before an audience of devotees that persecution is an index of holiness - and his indictment represents nothing less. "Jesus Christ said to expect it. . . Every real active devotee of God will be persecuted - always has been, always will. That's the way you know whether he's doing his job." He adds, "Remember, not only was Christ crucified, but everyone of his disciples were put to death as well. Still, the message lived on." Most of their supporters are doing their best to match his confidence. A gray New Vrin-daban Construction pickup proudly sports this motto: "Whether he is wrong or right, he's right." Some of Bhaktipada's devotees - fewer than 300 remain from more than 600 residents in the mid-1980s - agree with his logic. "I see it as a conspiracy" said the leader's gardener, Narasingha. "I feel I can trust my own intimate knowledge of the man more than I can trust the rumors and hearsay. "The persecution is going on because of envy . . . of the success our community has had," said Sankirtan, who heads New Vrindaban's drama department. Others believe the indictment is a divine message. "I think [the Lord] Krishna has waited too long to cleanse us," said Jaya Mirari Swami, who is in charge of the community's plumbing and heating systems. "It got real loose around here. You could go into garbage and find remnants where people were eating meat." "New Age Goulash" Ravindra Svarupa, the Philadelphia-based North American chairman of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, said the ex-pelled Bhaktipada was an embarrassment because of his "misrepresentation" of the movement, his "messianic complex" and the "apparent criminal activities." "He was acting in a completely independent and autocratic manner. He felt we had no control over him. Yet we are going to have to take responsibility for all of his actions. We couldn't be put in that position," he said. Svarupa refers disdainfully to the religion practiced at New Vrindaban as "New Age goulash." Bhaktipada has replaced traditional Hindu dhotis with monk-like robes, translated the service from Sanskrit to English, and included hymns and references to Jesus Christ. In addition, male devotees at New Vrindaban no longer shave their heads, and women are allowed to ascend to the sannyasi, or celibate order, and take the title "swami." 17 "City of God" [Krishna, New Vrindaban, WV, Kirtinananda Swami Bhaktipada] The West Virginia Hare Krishna community at New Vrindaban, in Marshall County, plans to build a $10 million temple, according to leader Kirtinananda Swami Bhaktipada. He said that the "Cathedral of the Holy Name" - which with 100,000 square feet will be far larger than the community's existing Palace of Gold - will be the centerpiece of the City of God complex the group plans to construct. The city is to include temples, mosques, synagogues, and living quarters." Charleston (WV) Gazette, 7/23/90. 18 Nichiren Shoshu Expansion [Soka U, Soka Gakkai, NSA, CUT, Daisaku Ikeda, Tina Turner, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Patrick Duffy, Manual Noriega.] From "Canyon Controversy," by Stephen London, Gold Coast Lifestyle, Nov. 1990, 7-13, 37-37. The development of Nichiren Shoshu of America's (NSA) Soka University of Los Angeles (SULA) - on the Calabasas site of the Church Universal and Triumphant's former Summit University - continues to raise controversy. SULA is closely linked to the wealthy, evangelical Buddhist Soka Gakkai sect, a significant religion-political movement in Japan led by industrialist Daisaku Ikeda. Soka Gakkai, active in the U.S. through its NSA organization, has about 10 million members in Japan and claims 7 million more around the world. Soka Gakkai arose from post-war Japan's recoiling from the former state religion, Shintoism, which was widely identified with militarism. State and national park officials have wanted to buy for public use the valuable parkland on which SULA sits ever since CUT put it up for sale seven years ago. The govern-ment agencies, which could not afford what NSA paid for the 232-acre property seven years ago - more than twice the market value - are concerned about SULA's plans to buy additional adjacent acres of Los Angeles County's rapidly shrinking wilderness area. Homeowners, meanwhile, have joined park officials in objecting on environmental grounds - in an area already besieged by developers - to SULA's recently announced plans to scale up the student body of under 100 Japanese students - who come to the U.S.A. for 7-week English courses - to a 5,000-student four-year liberal arts college over the next 25 years. Unlike the closed and paranoid Church Universal and Triumphant establishment that preceded it, Soka University has been quite open to the public at certain hours of the day and invited the local community to special events, such as a symposium featuring a speech by Nobel laureate Linus Pauling. Both Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and Congressman Mervyn Dymally have accepted NSA-financed junkets. Starting next summer, Japanese language courses will be offered at a nominal fee to the public. And SULA officials have been holding public meetings to discuss its expansion plans with the wider community, assuring everyone that the development will be environmentally responsible. Representatives of the homeowners' association say SULA promised at first not to expand the original purchase, and now that it has, in fact, done so, they don't trust SULA's word. "If they tell us 5,000 students now," said one, "maybe 15 years from now it will be 15,000. "Mind Control" Another element in the controversy over SULA is the belief among some in the community, supported by a Boston Globe article now circulating in the community, that Nichiren Shoshu is a dangerous, deceptive, extremely well-polished cult that practices shakubuku ("break and subdue")when recruiting members, whom it then crassly manipulates. Priscilla Coates, Southern California chairperson of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), likens Soka Gakkai leader Daisaku Ikeda to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church leader. "They're both cut from the same cloth. They both want to rule the world and both want a theocracy," she says. "They claim to be a Buddhist sect, but they actually use very little Buddhism. They (followers) don't really know what they're getting into. They haven't got the foggiest notion that this isn't Buddhism." Rachel Andres, director of the Commission on Cults and Missionaries for the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, classifies Soka Gakkai's intensive chanting as a form of mind control. "It's a pretty powerful, pretty intense experience," she says. "We get a fair number of calls about NSA from friends and family members of people involved. It's in our top ten." According to Doug Lyon, an independent cult researcher in Los Angeles, "chanting is a big part of the indoctrination process because any time you chant for long periods of time, you bring on, more or less, feelings of euphoria. Once you accept their beliefs, you can't get out. You're slowly opened to areas you totally accept. It's cognitive dissonance theory." The notion that millions of Japanese, and others around the world, are under mind control is chilling, but schisms in Soka Gakkai and recent efforts at liberalization suggest that it's more like a religion and not a cult with absolute power over its members. Indeed, cult-associated features such as sleep or food deprivation and abduction for deprogramming by parents are absent from reports about NSA. Donations asked do not seem to be burdensome, and the fact that thousands have joined and dropped out suggests that chanting is not dangerous to all who try it. Authoritarian Aspects There are, nonetheless, other disturbing aspects of the group besides chanting. "It's a definite mind control process" says former high NSA official Brad Nixon. "The leadership becomes parental figures, then instills control over their [members'] lives. Yet NSA is a flop in the U.S., Nixon says, with membership plummeting and 30 times as many former members as current adherents. "They're amateurish," according to Nixon. "Only people with a real dependency complex stay." Most quit, he adds, because they won't put up with the pressure of endless meetings, control over their lives, constant pressure to proselytize, chanting, attendance at meetings and rallies, and general all-consuming lifestyle. "But we're not talking religion here," says Nixon, who is still a Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist. "They could be operating any religion. We're talking power here." According to an NSA members' handbook entitled Precepts for Youth, whatever the direction of your seniors, "don't question it. Even if the leader were to give the wrong direction, you should follow it. . . There is no need to doubt the direction you are given in faith and activities from your seniors, just take action." Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka called Soka Gakkai leader Ikeda a "sutra-chanting Hitler." When 180 Nichiren Shoshu priests in Japan, a full third of the country's priesthood, protested against Soka Gakkai's glorification of Ikeda and its twisting of the religion in favor of a materialist credo, the priests were excommunicated en mass. Worldly Power Soka Gakkai brings in $1 billion a year and holds extensive Tokyo real estate, all of which helped build or renovate 30 NSA community centers in the U.S. It owns the third-largest newspaper in Japan, and NSA's own paper, the 120,000 circulation World Tribune, is more widely read than the much better-known Unification Church-owned Washington Times. Both Soka Gakkai and NSA cultivate power brokers. The organizations' patriotic efforts, such as orchestrating a campaign to exhibit a facsimile of the Liberty Bell to hundreds of grade schools across America, have garnered congratulations from the likes of George Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Ted Kennedy. As an international ambassador of goodwill for Soka Gakkai, Ikeda received the United Nations Peace Award in 1983, and NSA has even been granted "NGO" (non-governmental organization) status at the U.N. "CELEBRITY" MEMBERS Soka Gakkai has a number of celebrity members including Tina Turner, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Patrick Duffy, and Manual Noriega. Even after the U. S. broke with Ikeda, Ikeda visited the Panamanian ex-dictator, who received him with all the trappings reserved for a head of state. Undoubtedly the celebrity members would bristle at the suggestion that they belonged to a cult rather than to a form of Buddhism. But Daniel Golden, author of the Boston Globe article on NSA, sees the sect as perhaps torn between the two. "NSA went from frantic flag-waving in the mid-1970s to a period of retreat and study, and now it's back to glitz again. When lay leaders go too far, the priests rein them in; but if recruitment then falters, the laity reassumes control. One might even say that NSA shifts back and forth from religion to cult, depending on who's in charge." ================================================================= 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." 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STORIES | 1 Satanism Concerns on Decline? | 2 Satanic Abuse Changes -- Effects | Are Real [Assemblies of God] | 3 Abusive Drug Ministry [Save the | Seed, DC & MD; AME Zion Church; | Robert "Shine" Freeman; alleged | violence, obscenity, nudity; | John A. Cherry] | 4 Yahwehs Indicted [Alleged fire- | bombing, murder, sexual miscon- | duct; Yahweh ben Yahweh] | 5 Students "Targeted" [St. Louis | Church of Christ; Washington | University] | 6 "Move Over Krishnas" [St. Louis | Church of Christ cult more subtle | than Krishnas, but as insidious] | 7 Mainline Church Disclaimer [Genuine | Church of Christ in St. Louis] | 8 Scientology Pamphlet in Schools | [Way to Happiness; Concerned | Businessmen's Association; El | Capitan Middle School] | 9 End Time Ministries Neighborhood in | Lake City, FL [Charles Mead; dire | child neglect] "End Time" Ministry | Questioned | 10 Werner Erhard Defense | 11 Guidelines on Psychiatrists' | "Influence" [Religious beliefs] | 12 Fundraising After Armageddon [CUT] | 13 Investors Say "Dianetics" Helps | Discern Weakness [Feshbach, | Southwood Partners Fund] | 14 Billborads Are "Dirty Tricks" | [Scientology, Los Angeles Times] | 15 Scientology Newspaper [Clearwater | Gazette] | 16 Renegade Krishna Leader's | "Spiritual War" with Critics | [Kirtinananda Swami Bhaktipada, | formerly Keith Ham] | 17 "City of God" [Krishna, New | Vrindaban, WV, Kirtinananda | Swami Bhaktipada] | 18 Nichiren Shoshu Expansion [Soka U, | Soka Gakkai, NSA, CUT, Daisaku | Ikeda, Tina Turner, Herbie Hancock, | Wayne Shorter, Patrick Duffy, | Manual Noriega.] For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 10/20/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================