Oct 2, 2024

JMS Cult Leader, Who Sexually Assaulted Three Women, Gets Sentence Reduced to 17 Years

KBS WORLD
October 2, 2024

Cult leader Jung Myung-seok will spend 17 years in prison for sexual assault and related offenses after an appellate court reduced his sentence.
 
The Daejeon High Court ruled Wednesday that Jung’s original 23-year sentence for preying on women in the religious group was excessive and out of line with sentencing norms.

Conceding to some of the arguments from Jung’s defense counsel, the high court said the lower court went beyond its judicial discretion in sentencing Jung and should have imposed no more than 19 years and three months.  

Jung, the leader of the Christian Gospel Mission, also known as the Providence religious movement or JMS, was found guilty in 2023 of sexually and physically assaulting a woman from Hong Kong on 23 occasions and also of sexually assaulting an Australian woman and a South Korean woman.

The prosecution initially sought a 30-year sentence, saying Jung was a repeat offender who used his position to take advantage of his victims.

https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_view.htm?lang=e&Seq_Code=188234

Oct 1, 2024

Scott Homan's film "Witness Underground"

The first cult conference in New Zealand is coming up soon. DECULT (19 - 20 Oct in Christchurch) will have a panel with former JWs, hosted by Anusha Bradley from RNZ. Everyone can join online, it will be live-streamed (and recorded, to watch later).

We will also have the premiere of Scott Homan's film "Witness Underground" at Lumiere cinema in ChCh that weekend: https://lumierecinemas.co.nz/movie/witness-underground

Hope to see many from the ex-JW community there or at Decult.


Seagrams Heirs Unable to Shake All Claims Linked to Sex Cult

Bernie Pazanowski
Bloomberg Law
September 30, 2024

Cult victims sued Bronfam sisters for damages under RICO

RICO, TVPRA beneficiary claims survive; all others dismissed

Sara and Clare Bronfman, who are heirs to the Seagrams estate, must face civil claims against them by victims of the sex cult NXIVM, a federal court said.

According to the complaint, Keith Raniere created NXIVM to offer courses ostensibly designed to help people reach their full “human potential” by overcoming psychological and emotional pitfalls. Many of the groups’ members paid thousands of dollars to attend self-help workshops. Some women belonged to a subgroup called DOS, which had “masters” and “slaves” and performed sex acts at Raniere’s direction.

Sara joined NXIVM in 2001 and Clare joined in 2004, the suit says. Both were on its executive board and held other management positions within the organization. “Together, Clare and Sara Bronfman provided NXIVM and its related entities with more than $100 million in funding,” Judge Eric Komitee of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York said Sept. 27.

A grand jury handed down indictments against Raniere, Clare, and others, in 2018, alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act. All of the defendants except Raniere pleaded guilty, and he was convicted. Clare was sentenced to 7 years in prison.

Seventy former members of NXIVM sued for civil damages, including claims under RICO and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Some of the defendants, including Raniere, didn’t respond to the civil suit, but Sara and Clare moved to dismiss the claims against them.

Komitee said that the plaintiffs’ complaint inadequately pleaded a number of their claims against the sisters that were needed as predicate acts for RICO violations, including witness tampering, forced, labor, sex trafficking, and human trafficking.

But they adequately pleaded mail and wire fraud, by alleging that as leaders and chief financiers of NXIVM, the Bronfmans had “knowledge of and influence and control over the content of NXIVM’s doctrines, curricula, sales materials and practices,” the judge said. They also sufficiently alleged immigration fraud against Clare, and witness tampering against Sara, he said.

To have RICO standing for their civil claims, each plaintiff had to assert a specific injury, Komitee said. But their attempts to do so were “insufficient” and they were directed to file a revised schedule of their alleged injuries within 60 days.

The plaintiffs adequately alleged RICO conspiracy claims against the sisters, Komitee said. As for Clare, he said that the plaintiffs raised “a plausible inference that Clare agreed to join a racketeering scheme with the intent that its overall goals be effectuated, and that the scheme involved two or more predicate acts.” The conspiracy claim against Sara survived because the plaintiffs adequately alleged that her status at NXIVM showed that she joined the conspiracy, Komitee said. Sara had de facto power to control NXIVM and gave it large amounts of money, he said.

The plaintiffs didn’t adequately plead that the sisters directly violated the TVPRA, Komitee said. But they did sufficiently allege that their positions in NXIVM and their constructive knowledge of Raniere’s activities allowed them to benefit from various actions of the venture, exposing them to liability under the act, he said.

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP and Kohn, Swift & Graf PC represent the plaintiffs. Ronald Sullivan Law PLLC and Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins PC represent Clare. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP represents Sara.

The case is Edmondson v. Raniere, 2024 BL 341906, E.D.N.Y., No. 20-cv-485, 9/27/24.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bernie Pazanowski in Washington at bpazanowski@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nicholas Datlowe at ndatlowe@bloombergindustry.com

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/seagrams-heirs-unable-to-shake-all-claims-linked-to-sex-cult


Sep 30, 2024

Dhyana Levey is the next speaker we're pleased to announce in the lead-up to Decult 2024!



Dhyana Levey
Dhyana Levey is the next  speaker we're pleased to announce in the lead-up to Decult 2024!

Dhyana is a media consultant and founder of Cult Media Messaging, a service for people going public who’ve had experiences with high-demand groups. She also produces and hosts the podcast Generation Cult with a focus on those who grew up in these groups.

She will take part in the 'A new media narrative: Survivor-focussed cult reporting' panel on the second day of Decult 2024. For the full programme, visit: decult.net/programme

Don’t miss out on DECULT 2024, 19-20 October. You can purchase tickets here: https://decult.net/tickets/

Rachel Lees, an IBLP survivor

Rachel Lees, an IBLP survivor
Rachel Lees, an IBLP survivor, is an award-winning New Zealand writer in Tauranga and the author of “Sacred Grooming”. The online memoir details her experience of being hand-selected at 20 and groomed over the years by American fundamentalist cult leader Bill Gothard of the Institute in Ba

sic Life Principles (IBLP). As one of the whistle-blowers which led to the downfall of the Christofascist organisation and resignation of the leader, and then filing a lawsuit against Gothard in 2015, Rachel withstood many personal attacks against her. She is finally pursuing her academic education in the Social Sciences to write and speak more on predatory grooming and the healing that comes from the pursuit of justice.

Rachel will be speaking at Decult 2024 - make sure you don't miss out on purchasing tickets. A link to purchase tickets can be found in the comments of this post.


Sep 29, 2024

The Children of the Cult

DIRECTED BY: MAROESJA PERIZONIUS & ALICE MCSHANE

’The Children of the Cult’ is an international investigation into the Rajneesh movement. One of the world’s biggest and most successful cults, it had communes in more than 30 countries in the 70s and 80s and was immortalised in the Netflix series ‘Wild Wild Country’. But until now, a central truth about the organisation has remained hidden.

Filmmaker Maroesja Perizonius, herself a child of the communes, has connected with other former commune children and together, they’ve decided to change that.

 Part retrospective, part unfolding investigation, this film tells the barely believable story of the treatment of children within the cult. Children who grew up in an environment where sex was everywhere, where they were separated from their parents and where there were no boundaries. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh built an entirely new society with its own moral code- where terrible crimes against children were facilitated and normalised.

 The organisation still thrives today, profiting from Bhagwan’s teachings, yet no one has yet been called to account for the harm caused to children in its communes across the world. In the course of her unflinching investigation Maroesja unmasks perpetrators and demands answers from the closest members of the Cult’s inner circle.

https://www.dartmouthfilms.com/childrenofthecult

Sep 26, 2024

Apostasy Conference 2024 – The Systemic Nature of Religious Abuse | Faith to Faithless

October 9th, 2024 10:00 -- 16:00

An online conference for academics and practitioners who care about the needs of apostates. The theme of the Apostasy Conference 2024 is 'The Systemic Nature of Religious Abuse.'

Register Now.


The theme for the Apostasy Conference 2024 will be 'The Systemic Nature of Religious Abuse'. Abuse happens in all areas of society, not just within religious contexts. However, the use of religious texts and doctrines, enforced by religious leaders and followers, and the religious patriarchy, means some religious systems create a culture for abuse to happen, they create the abuse itself, they promote the abuse as morally right, and they cover up abuse where they want to avoid blame, shame, or accountability.

The conference will have two halves. The first half will have the theme of how some religions create rape culture and how this impacts apostates. And the second half will talk about how some UK state policies facilitate or obscure religious abuses (all forms of religious abuse, not just sexual) and how this impacts apostates.

Keynote speaker
Pragna Patel
, Co-founder and co-director of Project Resist
Religious abuse in South Asian contexts

Dr Kristin Aune, Professor of Sociology of Religion at Coventry University
Christianity and Domestic Abuse

Dr James Murphy, The Open University
Leaving a High-Control Religion: Legacies of Trauma

Alexander Barnes-Ross
From Apostate to Activist: How Scientology gets away with abuse in the UK

Rachael Reign
Abuses within the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG)

Zara Kay
Addressing Religious Trauma and Apostasy Laws Impacting ex-Muslims

Yehudis Fletcher
Replicating and Reiterating Harm: how UK state policies enable abuse within high-control religions.

We will be announcing more names very shortly.

Man reveals pain, shame of growing up as Unification Church 'blessed 2nd gen.' in Japan

Man reveals pain, shame of growing up as Unification Church 'blessed 2nd gen.' in JapanThe Mainichi
September 26, 2024

TOKYO -- Garbage piled 
up in his family's home. He had to miss long stretches of school to take part in "study sessions." These were just two aspects of being a "blessed second-generation" member of the Unification Church (now the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification), according to a man in his 30s who publicly shared his experiences for the first time on Sept. 21 at an event in the Japanese capital.

The man, going by the pseudonym Yukihiko Nonami, was born to parents who met through one of the church's mass weddings, and were devout followers.

Due to his parents' deep faith, they prioritized church doctrines over their children's welfare. However, Nonami himself never practiced the faith. "I was always ashamed and resentful of my family and the church. Because of them, I hated the fact that I existed," he shared.

From a young age, he was made to bow down in front of photographs of the church's founder and his wife. He was also forced to attend Sunday worship and take part in long-term study sessions, known as "workshops," held in places including South Korea, Brazil and Japan. These sessions were so long that he had to miss school. He was also forbidden from developing romantic feelings for anyone.

"I had only the bare minimum food, clothing and shelter. The house was a mess, and sometimes the school had to call my parents because they didn't pay for my school meals," Nonami recalled.

By the time he was in upper elementary school, he began to see the Unification Church as a cult. At the same time, he struggled with the stigma of being associated with it.

Despite not being a believer himself, Nonami explained, "It doesn't change that I was born because of the church's teachings. I was ashamed of it and hated it, which led to self-loathing. I believe this is a problem unique to those born into believer families as 'blessed second-generation' children."

Due to his feelings of guilt and shame about his family, Nonami couldn't fit in with those around him. He dropped out of high school just a few months after enrolling. He admitted that at one point, he thought the quickest way to reject the church's teachings was to erase himself, leading him to engage in self-harm.

Nonami said he was finally able to speak publicly about his experience because, in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the issue of "second-generation religious followers" has been gaining attention, allowing him to open up about his upbringing and struggles.

The Sept. 21 event where Nonami spoke was organized by the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, which advocates for victims of the church. The network released a statement calling for a review of Japan's law against malicious donation solicitation, which was enacted in 2022 to prevent excessive donation-related harm.

The group also called for schools to establish support systems and consultation desks for second-generation religious followers, as well as for legal support when seeking compensation from the church.

(Japanese original by Shota Harumashi, Tokyo City News Department)


https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240924/p2a/00m/0na/022000c?fbclid=IwY2xjawFh1LxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTiLiuu4RCC7aN_0jzNyveY6qds1R57MHQxX7IMV7lIu9gCoZ9Na9ZsdkQ_aem_c1A6ffzZunnH_AxZupoOSg