=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
1. Ugandan Doomsday Cult Surfaces In Kenya

=== Falun Gong
2. Bashing one cult, backing another

=== Zhong Gong
3. Asylum Plea by Chinese Sect's Leader Perplexes the U.S.

=== Scientology
4. Scientologists' show aims to shed 'cult' image
5. Scientologists hold anti-drug essay contest

=== Unification Church
6. Moon's church from inside and out

=== International Church of Christ
7. U.S. Court Rejects Church Employee Suit in TV 'Cult' Story

=== Hate Groups
8. Former neo-Nazi leader helps military recognize racism
9. French group urges Yahoo! boycott over Nazi site
10. German government vows crackdown on racism

=== Cult Information Agencies / Cult Apologists
11. Cult advisers in clash over clampdown

=== Rebirthing
12. Therapist faces 2nd felony count
13. 2nd Jeffco judge curbs the use of videotape of fatal rebirthing therapy

=== Other News
14. Angry Mexicans try to lynch baby-snatch suspects
15. Sex sect guru jailed
16. Kiryapaawo Warns Healers On Human Sacrifice
17. Fake letter by missing Briton send to Japan police

=== Noted
18. Alternative Hospital Is Curing Skepticism
19. Therapy is replacing religion says Carey

=== Death Penalty
20. Head of Urban League calls for higher standard in death penalty cases


=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

1. Ugandan Doomsday Cult Surfaces In Kenya
Panafrican News Agency (Kenya), July 31, 2000
http://www.africanews.org/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NAIROBI, Kenya (PANA) - Suspected remnants of a Ugandan doomsday cult, the so-called Restoration of the Ten Commandments, have reportedly surfaced in Kenya and pulled a massive following in the Western Province.

The People's Daily, published in Nairobi, Monday reported that a religious group, toting similar beliefs that the doomsday cult conveyed in Uganda, was advising its members to sell their properties and share proceeds with other members.

Quoting a report from human rights groups operating in western Kenya and eastern Uganda, the paper warned in its lead story that the emerging religious group, calling itself 'Choma', could be a reincarnation of the northern Uganda sect that led to mass murder of over 1,000 people in April.

Choma is a Kiswahili word for burn.
(...)

Human rights officials revealed that after three months research, their two organisations established that the cult in Kenya is attracting members daily due to its strange beliefs and practices.

One of its closely guarded secrets is the identity of the sect leader. It is not to be revealed until after 31 December, when sect members believe the world will come to an end.

Government security officials in the Western Province have confirmed receiving a copy of the report from the human rights groups but downplayed its concerns.
(...)

Kyalo, however, urged residents to volunteer information on the alleged cult's activities to the police and promised thorough investigation.

Twenty-two followers of the cult, interviewed by the human rights groups, are said to have confessed living in fear of being led to mass suicide by 31 December.
(...)

Some of the practices which link Choma to the Ugandan doomsday cult include the claim that 31 December would mark the end of the world, selling all their property and sharing it with cult leaders, and belief that human beings should not toil, go to school or to hospital.
(...)

Human rights groups estimate that the church has a membership of close to 20,000 including children who drop out of school soon after their parents join the sect.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

2. Bashing one cult, backing another
China Daily (China), Aug. 1, 2000 (Editorial)
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Chinese saying ''do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire'' characterizes the US Government's two-faced attitude toward modern-day cults.

US Special Counsel John Danforth recently cleared the US Government of wrongdoing in the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, a conflict that killed more than 80 people.
(...)

To outsiders, the US Government acted beyond reproach. Its determination to wipe out the doomsday cult was certainly in the interest of the United States and its people. But the US Government's attitude towards its cults contrasts with its stance on those of other countries.

On its own soil, the United States used armed suppression without considering consequences. But it seems to tolerate cults in other countries.

The moment a foreign country takes measures against cult malice, the United States speaks out. Not concerned that fighting cults is a country's internal affair, the United States cites religious freedom or human rights as excuses to interfere.

Falun Gong is a classic case. When China banned this cult on July 22 last year, criticism against China fuelled by media and politicians surged in the United States.

Since then a new phase of anti-China sentiment has taken hold in the West.

To criticize China's anti-cult campaign, last year the United States issued a report and organized a congressional hearing.

It even granted refugee status to Falun Gong members.

This year, when the United Nations Human Rights Commission convened its annual meeting in Geneva in March, the Falun Gong issue became a handy excuse for the United States.

Playing its self-appointed role as world human rights protector, the United States accused China of interfering in people's religious freedom and breaching human rights.
(...)

Since mountainous evidence of the cult's crimes have been made public and clear facts indicate that Falun Gong is a cult, it seems unbelievable that the United States would back the evil organization.
(...)

As an evil organization disguises as a religion, Falun Gong is not ''a peaceful meditation group.'' It has spread hearsay, sabotaged social stability and imperiled people's health and lives.

Had the Chinese Government not applied its law on the cult, human rights would be breached in a majority of China.
(...)

The officials unconsciously follow a formula: to oppose whatever the Chinese Government supports and support whatever the Chinese Government opposes.

When the Falun Gong issue caught their eyes, they accordingly sided with the cult because it was outlawed by the Chinese Government.
(...)

Support from anti-China forces in United States has encouraged cult leader Li Hongzhi and his followers to continue their activity. US media have fuelled Li's attempt to confuse right with wrong by vilifying China's ban on the group as a violation of human rights and religious freedom.
(...)

As the majority of the cult followers have retreated, the illegal organization has become a rat running across the street. Any attempt to give the rat new life will fail in China.

Wallowing in the mire with Li and his cult has exposed US Government hypocrisy.

We are waiting to see what the United States does when one day Li turns Americans against their own government.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* A situation similar to the one described in the above editorial is the US
Government's support for the extremist Scientology movement.

=== Zhong Gong

3. Asylum Plea by Chinese Sect's Leader Perplexes the U.S.
New York Times, July 31, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HANGHAI, July 30 -- A request for political asylum in the United States by the leader of one of China's largest spiritual movements has put Washington in the difficult position of harboring a possible criminal or delivering to persecution a man hunted for his beliefs.

After trying to keep the case quiet for months, the United States delayed a decision on the request by Zhang Hongbao, the founder of a meditative discipline popularly known as Zhong Gong, at a court hearing in Guam on Friday.

Granting him asylum would amount to the United States telling China that it does not believe the country's criminal charges against him and reinforce China's perception that Washington acts as an agent for domestic groups that Beijing believes are intent on eroding the power of the Communist Party.

The case comes during a widespread crackdown on spiritual groups in China that began with the banning of the larger Falun Gong movement a year ago. Like Falun Gong, Zhong Gong is based on qi gong, traditional Chinese breathing and meditation exercises that seek to channel the vital energy of body and the universe to various ends.

Last year, the United States declined China's request for help in returning Falun Gong's founder, Li Hongzhi, who now lives in New York. The United States said that Mr. Li was a permanent resident and that it regarded China's charges against him as politically motivated.

But Mr. Zhang's case is more nettlesome because he arrived in Guam in February without a visa and, if he is to stay, the United States must play an active role in keeping him on American soil.

And China's claims that Mr. Zhang is wanted for criminal activity have a more complex history than the charges against Mr. Li, which were related primarily to his role in organizing a protest against the Beijing government.

By the mid-1990's, rumors of a dark side to Zhong Gong began to circulate. A close disciple defected from the group and wrote a scathing exposé alleging that Mr. Zhang was a fraud and had illicit sex with followers.

Those rumors were amplified by self-appointed ''cult buster,'' Sima Nan, who has made a career of exposing fraudulent claims by qi gong masters. He alleges that Mr. Zhang is guilty of rape and may even be responsible for the murder of some former followers.

Chinese officials have repeated the rape allegation to United States officials, though they have not presented any evidence or documentation of formal charges.

Mr. Zhang disappeared from public view in 1995 as criticism of his group grew. It operated a nationwide network of schools and healing centers based on his particular brand of qi gong before China outlawed it earlier this year.

While his followers insisted for years that he had simply retired from the world to seek further enlightenment, the group's Web site (www.zgzg.net) now says the police have been trying to arrest him since he disappeared.

The United States has no extradition treaty with China, but last month the two countries signed a mutual legal assistance pact that was intended to provide a framework for the return of criminals by either side.
(...)

Another Zhong Gong member was granted political asylum in Guam on Friday, said Frank Lu, a human rights advocate in Hong Kong.
(...)

After the violent suppression of the democracy movement by military force, millions of people flocked to the qi gong movement for spiritual solace, a sort of mass recoil from the perils of political engagement and the soulless materialism then sweeping the country.

During the early 1990's, Zhong Gong became the most popular of the various schools, but as controversy gathered around Mr. Zhang and his group, the rival Falun Gong group gained in popularity, eventually superseding Zhong Gong as the largest movement of its kind. In the book that Falun Gong followers regard as their bible, its founder, Mr. Li, makes veiled criticisms of Mr. Zhang, calling him a ''sham qi gong master.''
(...)

But despite its widely broadcast propaganda campaign against Falun Gong, China has moved quietly in its ban of Zhong Gong, charging that the group has misguided people and closing dozens of Zhong Gong schools around the country.

The movement's hospital near Qingcheng Shan, a mountain in Sichuan Province sacred to Taoists, has been shut down for practicing unlicensed medicine. Only last year it was in full operation, with dozens of patients.
(...)

Many others said Zhong Gong had given them paranormal powers, including the ability to go without food for months at a time.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

4. Scientologists' show aims to shed 'cult' image
Birmingham Post (England), Aug. 1, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Devotees of the controversial new religion Scientology will launch a four-day exhibition in Birmingham today in a bid to shake off their 'cult' image.

The exhibition, at the Burlington Hotel in New Street, is being held to dispel the wilder rumours surrounding the group, including a worship of beings from outer space and allegations of intimidation and harassment.
(...)

Scientology promoters said the exhibition would demonstrate the religion's openness and its work for the public good, which included drug rehabilitation and anti-crime programmes.

Spokesman Mr Graeme Wilson said: 'The cult image is a stereotype placed on any new religion. The purpose of this exhibition is for people to find out who we really are.
(...)

Mr Wilson said the confusion about Scientologists' worship of an alien race called Thetans may have arisen from the science fiction writings of the group's founder, L Ron Hubbard.

He said: 'Thetan is simply a name that we have given to the spirit. We believe and recognise that we are all made of three parts - a spirit, mind and body. I am a Thetan, you are a Thetan, we are not from outer space.'

Another source of concern for many people, including one caller to The Birmingham Post, was Scientology's method of recruitment.

The woman, from Birmingham, said her daughter had been approached by an unidentified person outside New Street Station and asked to complete a detailed questionnaire about every facet of her life, before she was offered expensive courses to correct her 'personality problems'.

Mr Wilson said personality tests were an important tool in recruiting, but every representative should announce who they were and why the test was being carried out.

He said the courses offered started at pounds 10 to pounds 20, and the top-level course, costing pounds 5,000 to pounds 6,000, equipped its students with skills and understanding equivalent to a university degree course.

The move towards openness was welcomed by a spokeswoman for the Birmingham diocese of the Church of England.

She said: 'The question of Scientology has always been whether it is a cult or religion. One of the definitions of a cult is a group in which services are closed to the general public.

'This exhibition suggests a spirit of openness and people wanting to be informed, which is fine.'
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* For accurate information about the Church of Scientology - an extremist UFO
cult - see:
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04.html

Save yourself 10, 20, thousands of pounds, and find out what Scientology is
by visiting this site:
Operation Clambake
http://www.xenu.net/

For documentation of intimidation and harassment by Scientologists, see:
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04.html#cosharass

5. Scientologists hold anti-drug essay contest
Mobile Register, Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.al.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A regional essay contest on the theme ''Anything is Possible When You are Drug Free,'' sponsored by the Church of Scientology, will help mark ''Drug-Free Marshal's Month.''

The Drug Free Marshals launched the contest with the hopes of educating children on the dangers, truths and devastating, long-term effects of drugs, said church official Tony Wisler.

All essays should be in by Aug. 8 and be no longer than one page. The contest is open to youths aged five to 14. Entrants should include their name, age and address with the submission. Essays should be mailed to Tony Wisler, Church of Scientology, 1 611 Mt. Vernon Road, Dunwoody, Ga. 30338.
[...entire item...]

* Parental advisory: Church of Scientology
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04.html
Educating the public on the dangers, truths and devasting, long-term
effects of involvement with the teachings and practices of Scientology.

=== Unification Church

6. Moon's church from inside and out
Mobile Register, July 31, 2000
http://www.al.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Gene Davis calls himself ''Fat Boy'' and plays golf balls emblazoned with messages such as ''The way to God is the cross.''

Teeing up at Bay Oaks Golf Club near Bayou La Batre and setting his ball so his club will smack the spot where it reads ''Jesus is Lord,'' Davis asked: ''You want the truth about the Unification Church?''
(...)

''These people are educated. They're not ding-a-lings. The spiel they put on you is good. Somebody who's disappointed in the way the world is going, he's going to fall for it very easily,'' Davis said. ''I know, son. I did.''

He was a Unificationist for 10 years. He left the fold two years ago because, he said, Moon's megalomania became overwhelming. He said he thinks Moon is a charlatan who wants to rule the world.

''Met him several times, and I was well taken with that little guy, well taken. He's a very charismatic fellow,'' Davis said. ''I think once he was following God, a long time ago, but he's been consumed by pride. Satan's got hold of Rev. Moon.''

Unlike most Unificationists, who sign on with spiritual leader Sun Myung Moon around age 20, Davis joined in his 40s. He said he was looking for the same answers other members seek.
(...)

''I was a professional, and I made a substantial salary,'' Davis said. ''I came to the church through the business, and let me tell you, there was no brainwashing or none of that.''

Instead, Davis said, there were a lot of really nice people. And when he expressed some interest in their faith, these people started giving him books and videos and telling him about Moon and the Divine Principle, the church's main text.

There was one thing that really tugged him into the church.

''Reverend Moon preaches that you can help people in the spiritual world, after they die,'' Davis said. ''In Christianity, that's a no-no, messing with the afterlife, but in Unification doctrine, you can help elevate a person's position in the spirit world. This really got me, because I wanted to help my father. He was a racist, and his soul wasn't saved before he died.''

The Washington Post reported that ex-members in Japan have sued the church and affiliated companies based on claims they were pressured to make donations and buy high-priced vases and religious trinkets to help dead relatives who were suffering in the afterlife. The Post reported that lawyers in Japan claim the church has shelled out $150 million to settle the suits.

Reed Darsey has heard all the negative stuff before. He is a member of the church and works at Master Marine in the Bayou. On two separate occasions, Darsey's parents paid deprogrammers to kidnap him in an attempt to break his allegiance to the church. It didn't work.
(...)

Darsey said there was a lot of deprogramming going on in the'70s and'80s. Members discussed strategies for outsmarting the deprogrammers. Victims talked about going to court to have the practice stopped.

''We talked about suing, but, you know, it's your parents,'' Darsey said. ''I can understand why they did it, the climate at the time and their fears. I'm one of the classic cases. I went to UCLA after high school, and in my first week I dropped out to join this group.''

He said five students from his high school joined the church at that time.

''I went to a weekend workshop, and they gave me some books by Reverend Moon,'' he remembered. ''Everything hit me all at once that this was it. This was the truth I had been looking for.''

Darsey doesn't deny the negative stories about the church. Instead, he said he believes they are the result of ''the typical faults in any group setting with a chain of command.''
(...)

Bishop Allen of Mobile's Word of God Church said the Unificationists know the Bible better than most Christians.

''We believe in Jesus and that he is the savior. They believe a little further,'' said Bishop Allen, whose church held a joint worship service with Bayou La Batre's Unificationists. ''They work hard. They're kind. They're moral-minded. They have integrity. You can't find anything bad to say about them, but they have that one belief that degrades them: Reverend Moon being the Messiah. Forget it. No way. People won't even deal with that.''

Allen said members of his congregation have referred him back to the Bible, the part about false messiahs, but his ties to the Unification Church go back to 1987, the first time he accepted an all-expenses-paid trip to Korea to attend one of Moon's international theological conferences.

Davis said these conferences are a big deal to Moon and are presented to members as evidence of Moon's influence among religious leaders, the same way images of Moon with ex-presidents and senators are used to prove to the faithful that Moon is a mover and shaker in the international halls of power.

''Why do you think they're buying up all these newspapers around the world?'' Davis asked. ''They've got so much bad press, they can make their own good press now. See, if Moon wants people to keep believing him, he's got to give them something good to read. That's why he's always cozying up to George Bush and Gorbachev in all those pictures.''

The Rev. Philip Schanker, head of the Unification Church's Family Federation for World Peace, which has paid George Bush to speak at one of its conferences, said the church has been attracting big-name supporters because its family programs are worthy, though he admitted that in the past they attracted celebrities with money.
(...)

Schanker also suggested that Moon might not be the messiah. He said Moon has to bring about the Garden of Eden on Earth to earn permanent bragging rights to the messiah crown.

Unificationists have started work on just such a paradise. A church Web site brags that the group purchased 40,000 hectares in a remote jungle region of Brazil where they will build ''a model of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.'' Moon's Brazilian newspaper, Tiempos Del Mundo, lends positive press to the project, which has met with resistance from the country's Catholic churches.
(...)

''Father may give an order for members to immigrate to Brazil,'' reads the church's ''Report on Jardim Project.''

Plans call for 20,000 members to move into the 33 cities that surround the area. The members would build hotels, restaurants, an ostrich farm, fish farms, mango and kiwi orchards, a snail farm and then ''give each of the 33 cities a specific job. For instance, six cities would be zoned for the industrial park. The inhabitants of those cities would help in building the factories and also work in them when they are completed.''

Schanker said Moon is not out to rule the world, just to have one nation where the church makes a difference.

''We have plans there for an international village, to really develop the area,'' Schanker said. ''We're not trying to build our own country. There's never going to be a flaming end or mass suicide.''

Davis said the church's members would drop everything at a moment's notice and move anywhere Moon sent them, even the Brazilian jungle.

''These people give him anything he asks, never mind the hardship it puts on their families. They're living at poverty level, and they would die for Reverend Moon, every one of them. That scares me. And they are becoming more and more powerful,'' Davis said. ''If you don't think they're powerful, you're stupid. I'm not slandering anybody, but they might sue me. They've got lawyers in the membership. That's how they keep ex-members quiet. They've been fighting cult awareness groups for years. They beat the federal government. What's one little old fat man in Alabama?''

Despite the sour taste left after 10 years of worshipping Moon as the Messiah, Davis said he feels a hole that the church used to fill.

''Yeah, I miss it. I'd be less than honest if I didn't say I miss it tremendously. And I'm sorry it wasn't what it was supposed to be, because it would have been wonderful if it had been what God wanted.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Theologically, the Unification Church is, at best, a cult of Christianity.
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/u05.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]

Christians who aid of support the Unification Church is any way, in so doing
help promote the movement's heretical doctrines.

=== International Church of Christ

7. U.S. Court Rejects Church Employee Suit in TV 'Cult' Story
Law.com/Fulton County Daily Report, July 31, 2000
http://www.law.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The newcomer was invited to the bedroom of the Atlanta International Church of Christ's campus ministry leader at Georgia State University for a private ''sin and repentance study.''

Once there, Pippa McCue -- who said she had moved to Atlanta to be with her boyfriend and was thinking of attending GSU -- was asked by ministry leader Esmeralda M. Lucas to ''confess every last detail'' of her sex life, according to records at U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

But ''McCue'' was not who she claimed to be. She was actually Pippa Bark, a television news reporter with the Fox News Network in New York. She was working undercover on an investigation of the campus activities of the International Church of Christ.

And she was carrying a hidden camera in her book bag.

The resulting video -- broadcast Jan. 21, 1999 on Fox as part of a news segment titled ''Cults on Campus'' -- prompted Lucas and her husband, Jonathan Lucas, to sue Fox and Bark. They claimed that Bark's hidden camera and her undercover reporting were an invasion of Lucas' privacy.

SUIT DISMISSED
On June 27, in Lucas v. Fox News Network, No. 1:99-cv-2638 (N.D. Ga. June 27, 2000), U.S. District Court Senior Judge Charles A. Moye Jr. dismissed the Lucases' suit, explaining that Lucas' proselytizing was a public activity. ''The surreptitious recording and broadcast of the Bible study session,'' Moye said, ''cannot amount to an invasion of any of plaintiffs' privacy interests.''

''The court found that under Georgia's 'one-party consent rule,' there is no invasion of privacy when a person who is participating in a conversation records and then subsequently broadcasts that conversation,'' says Robert L. Rothman, a partner with Atlanta-based Arnall Golden & Gregory who is defending Fox and Bark.

Says Rothman, ''In this case, the court found that because all the activities that were the subject of the news report involved [Lucas'] duties as a campus ministry leader, they were therefore public activities and not subject to the invasion of privacy claim.''
(...)

The Lucases are appealing the case, says their Savannah attorney, Mark A. Tate, a partner at Middleton, Mathis, Adams & Tate.
(...)

Fox had embarked on the reporting project after the International Church of Christ -- founded in Boston in 1979 as a breakaway branch of the Church of Christ -- was banned from recruiting on some other campuses across the country, among them Boston University and Vanderbilt University.

The church has been criticized for high-pressure recruitment tactics. Some news reports have said the church encourages students to drop out of college, sever relations with their families, and pay huge sums of money to the organization.

In a letter posted on the Internet in response to the Fox broadcast, church spokesman Al Baird suggested that the church was being persecuted ''now that God is blessing our renewed efforts on college campuses.''
(...)

Tate says the church is not a cult. ''It is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse religious groups in the country,'' he says. ''The beliefs they hold are based on a literal reading of the Bible. They believe that because they hold these devout positions, they are sometimes persecuted.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Consumer Alert: International Churches of Christ
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/i02.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...)
While the ICC proclaims itself to be "God's modern-day movement," Christian
apologists and countercult experts consider it to be a cult a Christianity
(theologically). In addition, the ICC includes many of the sociological
characteristics of a cult.

=== Hate Groups

8. Former neo-Nazi leader helps military recognize racism
AP, July 28, 2000
http://www.msnbc.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...)


The crowd shifted uncomfortably, but Leyden didn't seem to notice. Instead, he told them how he was once a leading skinhead recruiter and organizer for 15 years, and how he did some of his most successful recruiting on the nation's military bases.
(...)

Now, instead of spreading a message of hate, Leyden uses his unique brand of bluntness to spread a different kind of warning to the military bases that he once targeted.

''The U.S. military is the best trained group of people in the world. And that's why the racist groups send their people here - to get trained,'' he told the soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, an army base just off Interstate 44 in Pulaski County.

The former Marine is waging a war against the hate groups he once embraced. As a full-time consultant for the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Task Force Against Hate, Leyden travels the country speaking to thousands of military professionals, Pentagon, FBI, federal and law enforcement officials about his experiences in the white supremacy movement and the methods he used to recruit young people. His stories are staggering.
(...)

Change for Leyden came about four years ago, after watching his three-year-old son recoil in revulsion at seeing blacks on television. He said, at first, he was proud of his son's reaction. But a slow and steady transformation changed his mind. Pressure built from his family including his brother - a police officer - to leave the group known as ''Hammerskins.'' He also began to question the teachings of his church, which preached hate.

He eventually decided to quit the neo-Nazi movement and his marriage to a fellow skinhead. Today, the 34-year-old is a full-time consultant to the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and wages a personal war against the 457 active hate groups in the U.S. - from the old-fashioned Ku Klux Klan to the growing presence of a group called the Peckerwoods in the nation's prisons.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. French group urges Yahoo! boycott over Nazi site
AOL/Reuters, July 31, 2000
http://my.aol.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
PARIS (Reuters) - A French anti-racist group called Monday for a worldwide boycott of Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. for allowing access to a site selling Nazi memorabilia.

As well as asking Web surfers to avoid Yahoo!, the Movement against Racism and for Friendship among People (MRAP) urged governments to bar public services and schools from using the California-based portal and media to turn down its advertising.

''By rejecting any control (over the Web sites), Yahoo! is no longer acting as a mere go-between...but as an active agent for the profitable sale of historically tragic objects,'' MRAP said.

MRAP said it would join legal action against Yahoo!.

The International League against Racism (LICRA) and the French Union of Jewish Students (UEFJ) are already suing the Internet portal over a Yahoo.com site that offers hundreds of Nazi, neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan objects for daily auction.

French law bans exhibits or sale of Nazi memorabilia, and a French court last May ordered Yahoo! to block French access to the auction websites.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. German government vows crackdown on racism
AOL/Reuters, Aug. 1, 2000
http://my.aol.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BERLIN (Reuters) - German officials called Tuesday for a broad crackdown on right-wing violence after a media outcry over a mystery bombing last week which hurt a group of Jewish immigrants and other recent attacks on foreigners.

Though evidence for a widespread increase in hate crime is mixed, last week's bomb prompted criticism that Germany has done too little to protect vulnerable immigrants -- raising fears that image problems could hurt German business.

''We must turn up the heat on these skinheads,'' Cornelie Sonntag-Wolgast, deputy interior minister, told a news conference after calling a special meeting to discuss extremism with her counterparts in the family and justice ministries.
(...)

Sonntag-Wolgast said authorities should investigate right-wing crimes more quickly, while citizens should report gatherings of extremists and hate sites on the Internet.

The government would bolster programs aimed at preventing racism and integrating immigrants, she said.

Ten people including six Jews were injured in a bomb blast in Duesseldorf that the authorities say may have been planted by far-right extremists.

Police said Tuesday the explosion was caused by a hand grenade of the type used in the two World Wars, but prosecutors had no other firm leads as to who was behind the attack and doubled a reward for information to $18,980.

The mere fact they have said they suspect racism as the motive has prompted soul-searching over right-wing violence in the country that unleashed the Holocaust.
(...)

German media reported that government statistics show a rise in the number of right-wing and anti-Semitic crimes in recent months, although the country's internal security agency said it had recorded no increase in the number of attacks.

Susanne Karkowsky, spokeswoman for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said the agency saw little chance of an emergence of organized right-wing guerrillas but it was concerned extremists were arming themselves more heavily.

The agency logged 746 attacks by rightists last year, up five percent on 1998.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Cult Information Agencies / Cult Apologists

11. Cult advisers in clash over clampdown
The Daily Telegraph (England), July 31, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Government has promised to take a closer look at religious sects following the recent hullabaloo over the Jesus Christians. But it may be hampered by bad advice, according to one cult watchdog.

Tom Sackville, the former Tory Home Office minister and anti-cult campaigner, abolished government funding for the Information Network Focus on Religious Movement's (Inform) in 1997, only to see it reinstated this year.

''I cancelled Inform's grant and I think it's absurd that it's been brought back,'' he said. Inform is the result of research carried out by Professor Eileen Barker at the London School of Economics.

It has been criticised by other cult watchdogs, including Mr Sackville's own Family Action Information Resource (Fair), because she refuses to condemn all ''new religions'' as cults.

''The Government is taking non-judgemental advice as an excuse for its non-action on cults,'' says Sackville.

But Professor Barker is short with her critics. ''We are not cult apologists,'' she says. ''People make a lot of noise without doing serious research - so much so that they can end up sounding as closed to reason as the cults they're attacking. Besides, I imagine Fair was disappointed not to get our funding.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Eileen Barker, founder and chair of INFORM, is a board member of cult
defenders organization CESNUR.

About INFORM
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/i00.html#inform

About CESNUR
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c10.html


Among the recommended alternatives in the UK:
FAIR
http://xenu.net/fair/

Cult Information Centre
http://www.cultinformation.org.uk/

Catalyst
http://www.catalyst-uk.freeserve.co.uk/

Triumphing over London Cults
http://www.tolc.org/

=== Rebirthing

12. Therapist faces 2nd felony count
Denver Post, Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0801s.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Aug. 1, 2000 - GOLDEN - The Evergreen therapist who led a fatal ''rebirthing'' session was charged Monday with a second felony.

Connell Watkins already was facing a felony charge of reckless child abuse resulting in death stemming from an April session that led to the death of 10-year-old Candace Newmaker. On Monday, Watkins was charged with criminal impersonation, the second felony, and two misdemeanors: obtaining a signature by deception and unlawful practice of psychotherapy.
(...)

The new charges allege Watkins' claimed to practice therapy under the license of a Neil Feinberg, which was not true. She then deceived Jeane Newmaker into signing a disclosure form by claiming she practiced under that license, according to prosecutors. She also was practicing psychotherapy without being included in the state's database of unlicensed therapists, court documents show.

Newmaker, who was watching the rebirthing session, also has been charged with criminally negligent child abuse that resulted in death.

Also charged with reckless child abuse in the case are fellow therapist Julie Ponder, 39, of Buffalo Creek, Watkins' business manager Brita St. Clair, 41, of Lakewood and intern Jack McDaniel, 47, of Loveland.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. 2nd Jeffco judge curbs the use of videotape of fatal rebirthing therapy
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 1, 2000
http://insidedenver.com/news/0801rebi3.shtml
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GOLDEN - A second Jefferson County judge on Monday severely restricted use of a videotape showing the rebirthing therapy session that killed a 10-year-old girl.

County Judge Charles Hoppin set guidelines on copies of the tape after being reminded by prosecutors of the press attention showered on the JonBenet Ramsey case and the Columbine High massacre videos.

Hoppin also denied the district attorney's request to weigh and measure each of the four therapists accused of smothering Candace Newmaker of Durham, N.C. There's no need to get the measurements because the videotape shows what happened, Hoppin said.

Hoppin's order will cover five tapes, four that show therapy sessions with Newmaker before her death and a fifth tape shot on April 18 that details the 70-minute rebirthing therapy. During it, four therapists are shown placing pillows over the girl, who is wrapped in a blanket, in an attempt to simulate the birth process.

''This victim doesn't need to be exploited even after her death,'' said Laura Dunbar, a chief deputy district attorney.

Connell Watkins, 53, Julie Ponder, 39, Brita St. Clair, 41, and Jack McDaniel, 47, have all been charged with child abuse resulting in death. Newmaker's mother, Jeane, who was present during the therapy, has also been charged.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

14. Angry Mexicans try to lynch baby-snatch suspects
AOL/Reuters, Aug. 1, 2000
http://my.aol.com/

[Story no longer online? Read this]
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Furious residents of a central Mexican town went on a rampage when police refused to let them lynch a couple who the rioters believed were sacrificing children in satanic rituals, officials said on Tuesday.

Officials in Puebla state said 300 residents of the town of Tecamachalco torched police cars, destroyed bank cash machines and set fire to traffic lights on Monday night because they thought two alleged baby-snatchers held in the local jail would be freed.
(...)

Puebla state secretary Carlos Alberto Julian said the rioters and vandals would be punished, and he also promised residents to ensure justice was enforced in the case of the alleged child kidnappers.

The suspects were allegedly caught with three infants authorities accused them of kidnapping.

After their arrest, the rumor spread in Tecamachalco that the pair were part of a black magic cult that sacrificed babies in satanic rituals, residents said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Sex sect guru jailed
The Mercury (Australia), Aug. 1, 2000
http://news.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A self-styled spiritual guru with nine wives and about 63 children was behind bars last night after being convicted of a string of child sex crimes.

The one-time head of his own exclusive seaside sect at Bells Beach, Alistah Laishkochav was taken to a small holding cell pending his sentencing.
Laishkochav, 71, appeared mildly surprised by the verdict.

It took a County Court jury of nine men and three women less than two hours to find that the lifestyle preached and practised by Laishkochav was a smokescreen for his deviant behavior.

During the trial, the court heard how Laishkochav had attracted dozens of young devotees from around Australia, among them his wives, who slept upstairs in one giant, master bedroom.

The jury heard that as they slept, Laishkochav would prowl through the house, seeking out and molesting youngsters.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Kiryapaawo Warns Healers On Human Sacrifice
New Vision (Uganda), Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.africanews.org/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Kampala - Thomas Kiryapaawo, the minister of state for gender, labour and social development, has condemned traditional healers who practice human sacrifice.

In a meeting with the representatives of traditional healers and herbalists on Monday in Kampala, Kiryapaawo criticised them for engaging in witchcraft.

Kiryapaawo, who said reports of child sacrifice were on the increase, said, ''No doctor should work to kill but to save lives. What kind of medicine is this that requires you to kill one to heal another?''

''This must be the last time for me to address you on this matter. If it happens again, we shall ban the association responsible,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. Fake letter by missing Briton send to Japan police
Reuters, July 31, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - A letter with a fake signature of a young British woman missing in Tokyo has been sent to police urging her family not to worry, Japanese television said on Monday.
(...)

The letter said Blackman had disappeared of her own free will and urged her father and sister, currently in Japan to find her, to return to Britain, NHK said.

It also contained names of Lucie's friends and other details, signs that the letter was likely written by someone involved in her disappearance, the public broadcaster said.

NHK said police believed the letter was sent to mislead and confuse the investigation.
(...)

Her father has expressed doubts that there is any connection with any of Japan's numerous religious cults.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

18. Alternative Hospital Is Curing Skepticism
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Cradled here in the remote foothills of the Kohala Mountains on the island of Hawaii, the North Hawaii Community Hospital is the first in the country to integrate the latest in western, technology-based medicine with ancient Hawaiian, Asian and holistic healing arts. The 50-bed acute-care facility opened in 1996 and was ranked first last year by Dallas-based Solution Point, which rates hospitals according to patient satisfaction. It competed with facilities with fewer than 350 beds.
(...)

Along with a CAT scan, for example, a patient here might select healing-touch therapy, which involves ''light touch over energy centers of the body in an effort to restore harmony.'' The hospital has naturopaths, acupuncturists, massage therapists and chiropractors on staff, in addition to a full complement of medical specialists, from cardiologists to gastroenterologists. Its pharmacy stocks herbal remedies and homeopathic medicines alongside its regular drug supply.

''Physicians on the whole are cautious about alternative approaches, but in Hawaii, our population is very accepting and in fact practices alternative medicines,'' said Stephanie Aveiro, executive director of the Hawaii Medical Assn. ''What's happening on the Big Island is probably an indication of the changes to come because patients are becoming much more involved in their health care.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Therapy is replacing religion says Carey
The Times (England), Aug. 1, 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, said yesterday that religion is being replaced by therapy, with ''Christ the saviour'' becoming ''Christ the counsellor''.

Dr Carey denounced Western culture as beset by a ''reign of sin'' caused by an obsession with an unholy trinity of therapy, education and wealth.In one of his most strongly worded speeches for a decade he attacked even his own clergy for preaching sermons with an emphasis on therapeutic methods rather than Christian salvation.

''Western culture today is obsessed with three alternative saviours - therapy, education and wealth, among many others - none of which can provide lasting healing for our broken world,'' he said. ''Our society is fascinated with the healing of the body and mind. Its unspoken assumption is that if we can but keep in tune with the wellbeing of our inner selves, all will be well.''

Dr Carey attacked the ''false gods'' of therapy, learning and money in an address to 10,000 evangelists and church leaders from 185 countries at a convention in Amsterdam organised by Billy Graham, the American evangelist.

He conceded that there was nothing wrong with many therapeutic practices and described Christ as the supreme example of a ''whole person'', at one with himself. But he added: ''Therapy can easily fail to face up to the reality of sin in our lives. When therapy replaces faith and when therapeutic techniques are seen as the total answer to humanity's deepest needs and longings, another idolatry is introduced.''

This replaced the Gospel with a focus on ''my happiness, my needs and my desires'', he said. ''Listen to many sermons today and this therapeutic approach is uppermost - missing is the appeal to a holy God and his call to us to turn to him in repentance and faith,'' he said.

Dr Carey went on also to condemn an obsession with education as the answer to all the world's problems. He compared the adulation of education to the early Church heresy of ''gnosticism'' - a mystery religion based on the acquisition of esoteric knowledge. Dr Carey said that in spite of advanced education systems in the countries of the first world, crime, vandalism and family breakdown were still endemic.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty

20. Head of Urban League calls for higher standard in death penalty cases
CNN/AP, July 31, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW YORK (AP) -- National Urban League President Hugh B. Price called on governments Sunday to institute a tougher ''beyond any doubt'' standard of guilt for judges and juries in death penalty cases to ensure the innocent aren't mistakenly executed.

''It's barbaric for the state to kill someone who isn't a mortal enemy. The folks on death row may not be angels but they are children of God,'' Price told 1,500 people in a speech kicking off his organization's annual convention.
(...)

In his speech, Price called for a repeal or nationwide moratorium on executions.

But if executions are not halted, Price called on politicians ''to muster the courage'' and stiffen the standard of guilt in death penalty cases from ''beyond a reasonable doubt'' to beyond any doubt at all.

Of today's standard of guilt, Price said: ''I believe that standard is too lax when someone's life is at stake. Politicians know full well that some innocent people will be executed. But most of them lack the courage to say what error rate they find acceptable.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]