CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/29 -3/1/2020

Jehovah's Witnesses, Netherlands, Sexual Abuse, Religious Freedom, China, Scientology, Russia, Nithyananda, Troubled Teen Industry, Straight Inc., Polygamy, Art, Joseph Szimhart, Elizabeth Loftus, Memory, Conspiracy, Events

Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC): Sexual Abuse and Willingness to Report Sexual Abuse Within the Jehovah's Witness Community

"This study focuses on the influence that patterns, rules, customs and structures within the Jehovah's Witness community in the Netherlands have on the manner in which sexual abuse or alleged sexual abuse are dealt with as well as the willingness to report sexual abuse or alleged sexual abuse. One important conclusion of the study is that the manner in which the abuse is handled within the Jehovah's Witness community leaves victims or alleged victims of sexual abuse feeling insufficiently recognised and supported."

Daily Beast: These Chinese Christians Were Branded A Criminal 'Cult.' Now They Have to Flee.

"Caught in political limbo as rejected asylum-seekers, about 1,000 Chinese exist furtively in South Korea dreading torture and imprisonment if they are forced to return to China.

They're all members of the Church of Almighty God, a uniquely Chinese off-shoot of Christianity denounced as an "illegal cult" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees its success winning adherents as a dangerous challenge to a regime that represses all forms of worship, whether Christian, Muslim or Buddhist."

Radio Free Europe: Russian Court Accepts Case To Try Scientologists In St. Petersburg

"A court in the Russian city of St. Petersburg has accepted a case to try a group of people who follow the Church of Scientology on charges of illegal entrepreneurship, extremism, money laundering, and incitement of hatred."

Videos

TRT World: Scandal Guru starting a new country?

"Nithyananda, India's 'scandal-guru,' has fled overseas to avoid arrest. He claims to have established his own island nation for 'dispossessed Hindus'. What and where is Kailaasa?"

Surviving Straight Inc.: Troubled Teen Industry Survivors Expose Institutional Child Abuse & Red Flags

"Liz, Jodi, Cyndy and Lynn bring to light questionable practices and child abuse at some institutions designed to "help" troubled teens. Is there any scientific backing that tough love programs work in changing teens' behaviors?

Lynn shares her experience sending her teen son that lacked confidence to a wilderness camp designed for troubled kids. Six days in, she received a call no mother should get.

There are more than 17,000 residential treatment centers across the country. How do you find a reputable center? Liz shares what to look for when selecting a program for a troubled teen that might need help outside the home."

 Straight, inc - The Truth About Straight from a Survivor

"Some truth about Straight, Inc. - 2221 Austell Road, Marietta, GA, from a survivor of the notorious cult-like mind control program."

Sound Choices Coalition: Angela Kelley Senate Testimony against Utah Senate Bill: 102

BCTV: Painter Joe Szimhart discusses and showcases his art with host Ron Schira.

Podcasts

Tales From The Rabbit Hole: Professor Elizabeth Loftus – Memory and Conspiracy

"Elizabeth Loftus is an expert on memory. A Distinguished Professor in several fields*, her work focusses on false memories, how they can be accidentally created and how they can be deliberately manipulated. We discuss many aspects of memory and how it sometimes relates to the world of conspiracy theories.  We touch on UFOs, Chemtrails, 9/11, Jeffery Epstein, and the moral panics of the 1980s."

Events

ICSA Event: Surviving and Moving On After a High-Demand Group Experience: A Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups or Relationships

Straight, inc - The Truth About Straight from a Survivor

"Some truth about Straight, Inc. -  2221 Austell Road, Marietta, GA, from a survivor of the notorious cult-like mind control program."

Sound Choices Coalition: Angela Kelley Senate Testimony against Utah Senate Bill: 102

BCTV: Painter Joe Szimhart discusses and showcases his art with host Ron Schira.

Podcasts

Tales From The Rabbit Hole: Professor Elizabeth Loftus – Memory and Conspiracy

"Elizabeth Loftus is an expert on memory. A Distinguished Professor in several fields*, her work focusses on false memories, how they can be accidentally created and how they can be deliberately manipulated. We discuss many aspects of memory and how it sometimes relates to the world of conspiracy theories.  We touch on UFOs, Chemtrails, 9/11, Jeffery Epstein, and the moral panics of the 1980s."

Events

ICSA Event: Surviving and Moving On After a High-Demand Group Experience: A Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups or Relationships

When: Friday 4:00 pm April 24, 2020 to Sunday 2:00 pm April 26, 2020 (Check-in time is 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm.)

Where: Guest House Retreat & Conference Center, 318 West Main Street, Chester, CT 06412 (860–322–5770).

As increasing numbers of people born or raised in cultic groups or relationships have reached adulthood, the International Cultic Studies Association has developed a program that addresses their special needs.

People born or raised in cultic environments cannot look back to a "pre-cult" identity. Raised in fringe subcultures, they often have educational and other skill deficits that interfere with adjustment to mainstream culture. Having grown up under the influence of irrational belief systems, they struggle with issues of dependency, self-esteem, and social conflict, and often have to deal with the trauma of physical and/or sexual abuse. They have difficulty getting help because they tend to lack finances and be wary of other people, including helpers.

Event: Cults and Coercive Control ~ Raising Awareness, Seeking Justice

You are invited by The Family Survival Trust to attend a panel presentation.A panel of speakers will be followed by Questions & Answers. The speakers will each present on their lived experiences of coercively controlling groups in modern Britain as well as their activities and concerns in raising awareness and seeking justice.There will be opportunity for networking among attendees and to meet the speakers.The University Women's Club, 2 South Audley Street, London, W1K 1HFMarch 10, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM GMT
Doors open at 6.00 PM for refreshments and networking. Talk starts at 7:00 PM.

Event: Spiritual and Religious Abuse: Preventing, Recognizing and Healing

April 4, 2020. 8:30 - 4:30

SMU Perkins School of Theology, Simmons School of Education & Human Development

Harold Simmons Hall, Room 101A

SMU, Dallas, TX

Breakout Session 1:

• Ashlen Hilliard: Fundamentals and Recovery from Controlling Theology
• Dr. Kathryn Keller: Boundaries and Triggers and Trust, Oh My!
• Mark WIngfield: Creating a Welcoming Church for all

Breakout Session 2:

• Julienna Viegas: Finding Spirituality and Healing After Coming out of a Spiritually Abusive Religion (Gender and Ethnicity)
• Dr. Cyndi Matthews & Stevie Powers: Lived Experiences of LGBTQ+ Individuals Coming out of High Demand Religious Organizations - Healing from the Shame and Pain
• Wendy and Doug Duncan: Creating Safe Haven Churches

Breakout Session 3

• Dr. Colleen Logan: Repairing the Damage From Reparative Therapy
• Natalie Anderson: Power and Control Dynamics in Spiritual Abuse: Noticing the Red Flags
• Dr. Susanne Scholz and Dr. Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner: Recognizing how Individuals use the Old and New Testament to Spiritually Abuse Others

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

Jean Vanier and the cult of the founder

Jean Vanier and the cult of the founder

Fr Raymond de Souza
Catholic Herald
February 27, 2020

The results of L’Arche’s investigation into their founder, Jean Vanier, were devastating on three levels.

The news that the man praised the world over as a “living saint” had a series of sexually coercive and abusive relationships with at least six women over decades stunned the Catholic world.

And not only the Catholic world; in Canada, where Jean Vanier was a national hero from Canada’s most prominent and admired Catholic family, the devastating news was on the front pages. Schools are named after him; the curriculum celebrates him. He was that rare religious figure who was celebrated also by a secular culture for his pioneering work with those having intellectual disabilities.

At first, the Vanier revelations may appear to be just another wearying case of sexual misconduct; though this time with adults not minors. Yet it is arguable that Vanier is the highest-ranking Catholic ever to be guilty of sexual misconduct.

Not according to clerical rank, but according to reputation for holiness and encouragement of same – which is the Church’s principal mission. While Theodore McCarrick had a high ecclesial rank as a cardinal, he was not known the world over as a holy man. That a man such as Vanier could be guilty of such great sins is a stark latter-day confirmation of the biblical truth – Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Peter – that the Lord’s anointed can do wicked things.

The second level on which the Vanier revelations resonate is the astonishing incongruity of it all. Vanier was known particularly for his work with the vulnerable and weak, bringing affection and love to those who were often excluded or overlooked. While his abuse of power was not with the “core” members of L’Arche – those with intellectual disabilities – it is hard to fathom how one with such generosity towards the vulnerable could also manipulate and exploit those who came to him for spiritual guidance.

The third level of the Vanier revelations relates to the new movements. The usual telling of the Catholic sexual abuse crisis is that of ossified clerical bureaucracies protecting their own. Yet recent developments have indicated that the new movements – so often hailed as a purifying breath of the Spirit – have also been something of a hunting ground for predatory behaviour.

The most famous case of course is that of the Legionaries of Christ, whose founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel, may indeed be the greatest fraudster in the long history of the Church. Just last month the Legionaries published the results of an internal investigation which showed that Maciel had shaped the very culture of the Legion to facilitate his predation and to protect him afterwards. But the Legionaries are only the most famous case.

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) – Sodality of Christian Life – was founded in Peru by Luis Fernando Figari n 1971 and quickly spread to many different countries on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2017, the Vatican ordered Figari to have no contact with any SCV people or activities, having found him guilty of abuse of power and sexual abuse, as well as financial corruption.

Last week the Washington Post reported how McCarrick was a generous supporter of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE). He donated some $1 million and used his influence to spread their apostolate. The IVE was founded in 1984 in Argentina by Fr Carlos Miguel Buela. In 2016 the Vatican found him guilty of sexual misconduct with seminarians. He too has been forced to cut off all contact with his movement, and confined to a life of penance and prayer.

Just earlier this month, Pope Francis dismissed from the clerical state Argentine priest Roberto Juan Yannuzzi, founder and superior of the Miles Christi (Soldier of Christ) Institute, because of sexual sins with adults and a sacrilegious use of the sacrament of confession.

In several cases, similar to that of L’Arche, the initial complaints against the founder came from within the movement, and the movement itself did the initial investigation before involving the Vatican. That’s a sign that founders are not tyrants who have total control.

Yet the rash of cases with high profile founders invites a consideration of whether new movements might be particularly susceptible to such corruption, both sexual and financial.

Founders are essential in the life of the Church; they are ones who raise up new life when older forms of communal life have grown complacent or corrupt. Their newness though means that there are not institutional forms of accountability. It is not unusual for a certain cult to grow up around the founder, so that even his most banal pronouncements or practices are treated with adulatory reverence; conversely, any untoward behaviour can be ignored, or even willfully covered up.

The Vanier revelations confirm that sexual misconduct is not a priestly problem alone, that it can exist alongside great and manifest good works, and that even the sources of renewal in the Church – the new movements – are not exempt from this most sinful scourge.

Fr Raymond J de Souza is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario, and editor-in-chief of convivium.ca



https://catholicherald.co.uk/jean-vanier-and-the-cult-of-the-founder/

Shincheonji Wuhan church emerges as possible link to Korea virus spread

Kim Bo-gyung

Korea Herald

February 26, 2020

Members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus reportedly held meetings in the Chinese city of Wuhan until late last year, raising the possibility that the group’s South Korean members could have contracted COVID-19 virus there and brought it back to Korea.

Korea now has the greatest number of COVID-19 infections outside China with over 1,000 confirmed cases. The majority are tied either to the religious sect’s church in Daegu or to the Cheongdo Daenam Hospital in the nearby county of Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province.

Korea’s health officials have yet to identify exactly how the virus first spread to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted a member of the group, who claimed to have attended a gathering in Wuhan in December, as saying, “Rumors about a virus began to circulate in November but no one took them seriously.”

The Shincheonji Church of Jesus has some 200 members in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global outbreak, and gatherings were reportedly suspended in December after the group learned about the deadly virus.

As of Wednesday morning, Korea had reported 169 additional confirmed cases for a total to date of 1,146 patients and 12 fatalities, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Daegu, Korea’s fourth-largest city, and adjacent North Gyeongsang Province have emerged as a hotbed of the virus, accounting for roughly 82 percent of the infections here.

Of all confirmed cases in Korea, 944 were reported in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, where local authorities have tightened measures to contain the spread of the virus. 

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)

http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200226000600#cb

World Mission Society Church Of God Former Member - "Don't Be Angry At God"

Great Light Studios
February 26, 2020

"This is a clip from the recent interview with Nathan, a former WMSCOG member. Jordan and Nathan talk about the need to persevere in faith after you leave the WMSCOG and freedom you can find if you do. Nathan encourages members not to blame God or to be angry at him for the years you may have lost being inside this cult group. God is sovereign over all of it, and will ultimately use it for your good if you will stick with him."

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/26/2020

Twelve Tribes, Legion of Christ, La Luz Del Mundo, Polygamy, Hasidic, Home  Schooling, Religious Freedom, YouTube, Jehovah's Witnesses

9Now: Cult Twelve Tribes Sydney headquarters raided by police

"The headquarters of the Sydney-based arm of the Twelve Tribes cult was raided [February 18th] by detectives as a part of Strike Force Nanegai.

A Current Affair can reveal that police have been investigating the cult known for its strict disciplining of children and lack of medical care since 2018.

Detectives from Springwood Police searched the cult's Peppercorn Creek Farm property in Picton for six hours earlier today, collecting documents and diary entries as evidence.

Numerous investigations into the Twelve Tribes have taken place overseas within the last decade, including a US investigation into allegations of the group forcing their young members to work on farms and factory assembly lines, and a German police investigation into the repeated physical punishment of children.

A Current Affair has heard numerous accounts of Australian children of the Twelve Tribes being beaten with rods from a very young age."

AP: Disgraced religious order tried to get abuse victim to lie

"The cardinal's response was not what Yolanda Martínez had expected — or could abide.

Her son had been sexually abused by a priest of the Legion of Christ, a disgraced religious order. And now she was calling Cardinal Valasio De Paolis -- the Vatican official appointed by the pope to lead the Legion and to clean it up -- to report the settlement the group was offering, and to express her outrage.

The terms: Martínez's family would receive 15,000 euros ($16,300) from the order. But in return, her son would have to recant the testimony he gave to Milan prosecutors that the priest had repeatedly assaulted him when he was a 12-year-old student at the order's youth seminary in northern Italy. He would have to lie.

The cardinal did not seem shocked. He did not share her indignation."

RNS:  La Luz del Mundo minister says abuse allegations are false

"A minister for La Luz Del Mundo, a Mexico-based Pentecostal movement that claims 5 million members, said new allegations of abuse against more than a dozen of its leaders are false and meant to disrespect their sacred celebration this week.
"We find these accusations to be absolutely untrue and ridiculous," said Jack Freeman, a spokesman and minister for La Luz Del Mundo. "There is no possible way that those could have taken place."
At a news conference Friday (Feb. 14), church leaders gathered at the Fairplex in Pomona to address the allegations made in a recently filed lawsuit against the church and its leaders. The media briefing took place as church members flocked to the fairgrounds for the third and final day of the Holy Supper, a sacred rite that church members say memorializes the death and salvation of Jesus Christ."  

Salt Lake Tribune: Lindsay Hansen Park: It helps no one to equate polygamy with slavery

"In the late 19th century, thousands of human hands were systematically amputated from enslaved Africans who failed to meet quotas for extracting rubber in the Congo. Nearly three decades after the United States abolished the practice of slavery, rubber was bought and sold to feed a growing demand in the international tire market created by Dunlop and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

This is just one small glimpse into the brutal history of the transatlantic slave trade that robbed the personhood and freedom of millions. Millions more were tortured for centuries while black and brown bodies were systematically purchased, exploited, raped and brutalized in state-sanctioned violence. The consequences of this system still deeply impact our world today.

This is likely why comments by anti-polygamy activist Angela Kelly raised concerns at a caucus lunch this week as she advocated to vote against Senate Bill 102, which reduces bigamy among consenting adults to an infraction.

Kelly, a white woman and director of Sound Choices Coalition (a group that seeks to criminalize polygamy), used her invitation to speak with the Utah Legislature's House Minority Caucus to draw comparisons between Mormon polygamy and slavery. Taking her comparison a step further, she singled out Rep. Sandra Hollins, the only black legislator in Utah, by handing her a name tag that read "Slave" and verbally referenced Hollins' black skin.

The act drew public outrage for good reason. Not only are Kelly's words racist and aggressive, they are concerning coming from someone claiming to advocate for the marginalized.

Polygamy is not slavery. Polygamy is its own system with its own unique challenges and we needn't plunder the traumas of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to highlight those issues.There are plenty that stand on their own.

To effect change and disrupt power structures, we need a working knowledge of how those structures interact. Kelly's remarks reflect a privilege that lacks important historical distinctions. This context is critical to helping victims and survivors from these communities get the justice they deserve.

My work allows me unique and exclusive access to some of the most isolated fundamentalist polygamous groups in the American West. As a born-and-raised LDS monogamist, feminist activist and researcher on the history of polygamy, I have struggled to accept some of the nuances that challenged my preconceived notions about these communities.

Polygamy is hard. I still don't like it. It systematically discriminates based on gender. It commodifies women. I've seen true horrors as the result of this doctrine."

CBC News: Hasidic schools aim to strike a balance between faith and provincial curriculum, court hears

"Quebec's Hasidic community is trying to strike a balance between preserving its own religious faith and satisfying the educational requirements of the provincial government, the president of Quebec's Jewish Association for Homeschooling told a Montreal courtroom [February 17, 2020].

Abraham Ekstein was the final witness in the civil case brought before the Quebec Superior Court by Yohanan and Shifra Lowen, two former Hasidic Jews who say the province and their home community of Tash should have done more to provide them with a secular education.

"We strive to maintain our culture, to transmit our culture to our children, to survive as a people," said Ekstein, a Hasidic Jew and father of seven who lives in Montreal's Outremont borough.

"This whole case is so sad for us, in the sense that there are no winners."

The Lowens are seeking a declaratory judgment from Justice Martin Castonguay, to compel the province to do more to ensure children in Tash are taught subjects like math, English and French.

Castonguay will also need to consider whether new rules for home-schooling put in place by the previous Liberal government and strengthened under the Coalition Avenir Québec have helped achieve that goal."

" ... As president of the home-schooling association, however, Ekstein said he met multiple times with Tash leaders in recent years and that they are aware of the need to work with the province.

He acknowledged there had been resistance in Tash, which was founded in 1962, over fears the province was trying to "impose assimilation."

However, he said, "I'm convinced that we are going in the right direction and that children will succeed much better."

Children in Tash were the subject of an investigation by Quebec's youth protection agency beginning in 2014, the court heard last week.

The agency found that boys were taught "little to nothing" from the provincial curriculum, while the girls received a balance between a religious and a secular education — learning math, social sciences and English."

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News, links and resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Goatlike Personality: Watchtower lost in the Netherlands.

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

Facebook

Flipboard

Twitter

Instagram

Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.