------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 and preservational electronic archive. 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 Canada: Record Libel Award vs. Scientology by Bill Dunphy, Toronto Sun, Oct. 4, 1991, 4. A Toronto jury has hit Scientology with $1.6 million in damages for libeling one of Ontario's top Crown attorneys. It is by far the largest libel damages [decision] ever assessed by a Canadian jury. And the final total - if it stands up under an expected appeal - could go much higher once court costs and seven years of interest are worked into the equation. Scientology lawyer Morris Manning shares responsibility for $300,000 of that award. Crown attorney Casey Hill showed no emotion as the jury handed down its verdict in his favor last night after a month-long trial and nine hours of jury deliberations. Neither Hill, his lawyers, nor Manning would comment. Outside the courtroom, an angry Cathia Riley, Canadian director of legal affairs for Scientology, denounced the decision, saying the jury had been denied access to the truth. Heber Jentzsch, president of the International Church of Scientology, went further, saying what happened in court was reminiscent of "the most outrageous travesty of justice that came into being in the Nazi courts. Scientologists will not be taking this lying down. We're not a turn-the-other-cheek kind of religion," he said from his Los Angeles office. Hill, 42, began his lawsuit against the Church of Scientology of Toronto Inc. and Manning back in 1984. Manning, acting for Scientology, had taken part in a press conference at Osgood Hall that charged Hill and another government lawyer with 10 counts of contempt of court. The Scientology accusations against Hill arose out of a dispute over access to documents seized during an OPP [Ontario Provincial Police] raid of Scientology's corporate headquarters in March 1983. Scientology still faces criminal charges arising from that raid. Hill was prosecuted for criminal contempt of court by Scientology, but the case was tossed out by the judge. Hill sued for libel, asking for general and aggravated damages from both Scientology and Manning and punitive damages from Scientology alone. The Jury assessed general damages against both defendants at $300,000, aggravated damages against Scientology alone of another $500,00, and slapped on a whopping $800,000 in punitive damages against Scientology. - - - - - Just before the trial began, two TV stations and the Globe and Mail [newspaper], which had run reports of the news conference, reached an out-of-court settlement, paying $50,000 in costs to Hill and filing an apology with the court. Robert Armstrong, representing Hill, pointed to a file Scientology's intelligence branch had kept on Hill as evidence of malice on the part of that organization. (From "Big Scientology penalty urged," by Bull Dunphy, Toronto Sun, 10/3/91, 50.) 2 Rev. S. Moon Goes to College The student wing of the Unification Church - with origins in post-World War Two Korean and Japanese politics - has been an important part of the Moon organization for three decades. Rev. Mr. Moon, by also financing scholarly groups chartered to devise new approaches to problems of war, peace, and emerging world culture, has actually linked academia, intelligence agencies, and the political right in his underlying effort to gain legitimacy and further his special ideological crusades. "Despite religious trappings, Moon on campus is the political and moral equivalent of the CIA on campus." This process is now extending to academia in the formerly communist world. (From "Rev. Moon Goes to College," by Daniel Junas, Covert Action, Fall 1991, 22-27. ) 3 Fundraising in France From "Pour se renflouer, les sectes font fleche de tout bois," by Serge Richard, Le Canard enchaine, 8/28/91, 3. Two recent studies by cult monitoring groups, as well as other testimonies, seem to hint that cults are on the verge of bankruptcy. Most have faced serious diffi-culties this summer, and government fiscal inquiries sometimes made matters worse, although the larger groups still maintain a prosperous look. The Moonies have reopened part of the prestigious Trianon-Palace [a hotel resort, health, and conference center] after pouring enormous amounts of money (F 300 million) into its renovation, completely disregarding zoning laws. The mayor of Versailles has finally filed a complaint with the Attorney General, to no avail thus far, although Olivier Giscard d'Estaing (the brother of the ex-President of France) has resigned as President and General Director of the controlling company. But there is no money to renovate the Chateau de Challain-La-Potherie, another Moon-owned resort . A giant golf course was planned, but the Japanese did not come up with the money and the project has been abandoned for the time being. Even in the USA, Rev. Moon has been forced to perform the last rites for his New York Tribune. French cults are trying anything to generate income - and mailing lists. ECK (Energyochromkinse) sells training programs (for several thousand francs) to qualify for membership in the "New Order of Operative Templars;" members hope to be able "to fly to the limits of the universe together with beings of the Sixth Race." The New Acropolis (founded by an Argentine, Livraga) has rented the Sainte-Chapelle for several concerts in August. Concerts and lectures bring not only the entrance fees, but names and addresses. Scientology is staging a musical ("The Rain of the Sun") at the Theatre Caumartin, scheduled to run until October. The public can even buy a ticket (at F 1,000 costing more than a ticket to the opera) for one of the Scientology "galas" associated with the performances. The French IRS raided the "Rose-Croix" castle in Normandy, including the private quarters of the group's "Grand Master," Christian Bernard. But the IRS has experienced setbacks, for cults that go bankrupt tend to vanish without letting the authorities know, and of course they forget about their taxes. That is what happened with the Krishnas when the guru fled to the USA, taking with him what was left of their money. The group still owes F 200 million, 80 million to the IRS. 4 Letter from Paris France seems to stir faintly on the subject of cults. This week (Oct. 20-26) there were three relevant TV shows. The first, on station TF1, was a live talk-show about children and "sects" which included divorced fathers struggling to get custody of their children who remain in cults with their mothers. The cults discussed included the Raelians, whose interests are, among other things, UFOs and sex. The guru, garbed in supposedly cosmic white robes, made the worst of impressions, even on the anchorman, who is not prudish about sex. The program also noted Scientology, the Unification Church, and the Children of God. The same evening, on M6, there was a program on the Colonie Dignidad [the German/Argentine group]. And on Thursday, at prime time on A2, a "journey into the hell of cults," and "grannies against cults." One of the shows conducted a telephone poll during the broadcast on the question: "Do you think 'cults' [which really means "destructive cults" in the French context] should be banned by law?" Over 88% of callers said yes and some 11% answered no. In approaching the cult problem from the child's perspective, we can now use for support the UN International Declaration on Children's Rights and the more recent UN Convention on Children's Rights (1989). Unfortunately, the United States has not ratified the convention. I was recently told that the U.S. has not done so because it wants to be able to recruit 16-17-year-olds into the Marines. But I suspect that the reason has more to do with the "religious lobby" and the right of parents to abuse their children or deny them medical care in the name of their religious beliefs, as do members of the Christian Science church, and many new cults. Already, the convention has been cited in two legal judgments ordering children to be removed from cultic schools and environments. One involved Sanhaja Yoga schools in the Himalayas and in Rome; in the other, a judge forbade a mother to take her children with her when attending Jehovah's Witnesses services and meetings, or when peddling. (Cult Observer Report from Emanuelle Kaufmann, 10/24/91.) 5 Rev. S. Moon as Tourist A 1989 photo of Rev. S. and Mrs. Moon in front of the Unification Church-owned chateau at Challain-La-Potherie (near Angers). The picture was given to a Japanese member of the church, who has since left the group, as proof of Moon's wealth and power in France. The chateau has been lavishly refurbished with the cheap labor of Church members. (Cult Observer Report from Emanuelle Kaufmann in Paris, 1015 91.) 6 New Maccabees in Israel From "Combating Destructive Cults in the Capital," by Stacey Miller and Noanna Samuels, Jerusalem Post, 6/28/91. The Maccabee organization is a volunteer civic association operating in the Jerusalem region since 1979 dedicated to removing from destructive cults numerous individuals, both locals and tourists, searching for an alternative family or identity in this spiritual center of the world. Founded by rabbi/psychologist Avraham Feld, the Maccabees [named for the Jewish patriot who led a storied revolt, remembered by Chanukah, against foreign domination in the second century before Christ] provides a multi-denominational anti-cult field service that deprograms and counsels some 60 cult members each year throughout Israel. (The organization also provides a variety of other social outreach programs for the disadvantaged.) The Maccabee goal, says Feld, is to provide cult members with "meaning and a healthy way of life in harmony with traditional Jewish values." Maccabee volunteers, generally carefully selected and screened, range from social work students from Hebrew University to former cult members and include young adults, middle-aged people, and active senior citizens. Some are trained for "assault" teams, equipped to approach the cult member on all levels - intellectual, social, religious, etc. Volunteers are trained to act as exit counselors who offer alternatives to the cult way of life. For example, the new leader of the Maccabee professional volunteers, archeologist and social worker Alan Klein, has successfully infiltrated a variety of missionary cults, located many victims, and started them off on the road to recovery. The approach is based on the premise that individuals eventually choose what is best for themselves once they know their alternatives. Counseling is tailored to the individual's needs, past history, and the amount of involvement and assistance the family is willing to provide. Infiltration Klein and his assistants begin by infiltrating cult meetings, pretending an interest in membership, and seek out cult members who either seem uncertain about the cult's ideology or indicate that they may wish to leave. The infiltrators collect cult literature, write up reports on the cult's leaders, members, and activities, and verify an individual's cult participation at the request of family members. Next comes non-coercive counseling and deprogramming, undertaken in conjunction with family and friends of the cultist, who is free to break off the process at any time. This approach does not always work, however, and if it fails totally, the Maccabees will allow the family to consider forcible intervention, the next stage of deprogramming. This is a last resort and happens in a limited number of cases. Since it is legally prohibited for the Maccabees to hold someone against his will, the family must persuade the cultist to remain at the family home long enough for the Maccabee counselor to arrive and begin the deprogramming process. During the deprogramming, Maccabee counselors endure much physical and verbal abuse, but they do not retaliate, They point out inconsistencies in the cultic way and plant questions in the member's mind. But they never remove him from the cult group. They try to help him or her see the choices that he or she thought did not exist and encourage the victim to feel in control of his or her own destiny. It is an intensive process that can last for a number of hours or days. 7 British Father Blocks Moonie Trip The Managing director of a British firm in July forbade his daughter, a 20-year-old Oxford University student, to go on a six-week teaching trip to Eastern Europe organized by a Unification Church group. "We feared," Nigel Parsons told the Mail, " that we might not see her again or that when she came back she would no longer be our daughter." Juliette Parsons said she was part of a generation too young to know about the Moonies' reputation. I didn't know what I was letting myself in for. I think I'm well out of it. Juliette, who is in her second year studying philosopy, politics, and economics, was one of several students who responded to a poster from the International Cultural Foundation calling for volunteers to teach English. (From "Our fear over Moonies," by Bill Mouland, Daily Mail [London], 7/6/91, 13.) ================================================================= 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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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: CO1091AC.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer Vol. 8 No. 10 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. FOREIGN STORIES: | 1 Canada: Record Libel Award vs. | Scientology | 2 Rev. S. Moon Goes to College | 3 Fundraising in France | 4 Letter from Paris | 5 Rev. S. Moon as Tourist | 6 New Maccabees in Israel | 7 British Father Blocks Moonie Trip For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 8/30/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================