China, Religious Freedom, Spiritualists, DezNats, LDS, Recovery Workshop
" ... China tends to treat religions perceived as potentially threatening to the established order harshly, especially if suspected of foreign ties or secessionist tendencies. For instance, for decades China has strictly regulated Buddhism in Tibet, as it has pursued policies aimed at suppressing the cultural and national identities of the Tibetans. That contrasts with more relaxed attitudes towards the form of Buddhism practiced by the Han majority.
The party has explained its recent, ruthless campaign to repress the Uighurs, a Muslim minority in Xinjiang – a nominally autonomous region in Northwest China – as intended to counteract terrorism and separatism. According to leaked documents, since 2014 up to a million Uighurs have been interned in "re-education camps." It's part of a hardline policy of secularization and "Sinicization," which implies assimilating the Uighurs into the majority Han culture, at a loss of their religious and ethnic identities."
JSTOR Daily: The Dressy Ghosts of Victorian Literature
" ... Victorian ghosts dressed better than their ancestors. Gone were the traditional white linen, the funeral shrouds, the clanking fetters. In the nineteenth century, according to those purportedly in the know—spiritualists, spirit photographers (yes, they claimed they could photograph ghosts), and, above all, writers of spooky stories—ghosts manifested themselves in the latest fashions.
Scholar Aviva Briefel argues that the Victorian fascination with the immaterial was also very much an obsession with the material commodities that defined the living. It all showed up in the conventions of literary realism, which depended on thick descriptions of the stuff of the material world.
"The complex interactions between intangible spectres [sic] and concrete clothing became a rich site of inquiry in the nineteenth-century ghost story, a genre that was deeply informed by realist conventions despite its supernatural subject matter," writes Briefel.
For Victorian writers, clothes made the ghost. As in the detective story, what a spirit was wearing was a clue to its identity: ghosts were recognized by their wardrobe. After all, in the words of a fictional character of 1866, a ghost is "hollow, and has no teeth, no bones, no hair… a sort of nothing without innards."
In H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man (1897), the protagonist, essentially a ghost, can only manifest himself through costume. He needs, writes Briefel, "things to conceal his vacuity." Or, as a character in the novel says, "Why! …that's not a man at all. It's just empty clothes."
In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), Jacob Marley's translucent ghost is only given substance by his "waistcoat, tights, and boots." When this apparition starts to unwrap the bandages on his head, his jaw simply falls away. He's literally held together by fabric.
Victorians left very few bits of the body exposed, so it should not surprise that they enjoyed ghost stories in which the "spectre goes after clothes to protect its decency." A naked ghost could disrupt morals and the conventions of literary realism.
Skeptics and parodists had fun with all this, wondering if clothing itself was ghostly and made by ghost tailors and ghost cobblers. In Henry James's "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" (1868), a ghost returns to kill her own sister to protect her wardrobe."
"A new group of religious extremists in the United States is seeking to promote and defend an ultra-conservative vision of Mormon belief and harass perceived opponents of those beliefs, which are often racist and bigoted or promote violence.
The conduct of so-called "Deseret nationalists" or "DezNats" has raised questions about how the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is responding to the movement, whose members direct harassment at other Mormons, including those working in church-sponsored institutions such as Brigham Young University (BYU).
Some who identify as DezNats take extreme right positions on gender, sexuality and race. Others describing themselves as Deseret nationalists have advocated for a Mormon-ruled, separatist white ethnostate, located in the Great Basin area briefly claimed by the LDS church in the mid-19th century.
The Guardian's recent exposure of an assistant attorney general in Alaska – who had posted racist and violent tweets on a DezNat Twitter account – led to that official stepping down from his job. But it also prompted concern about how many DezNat supporters occupy positions of authority across the US.
Last weekend, an anonymous antifascist collective called "DezNat Exposed" published a blogpost alleging that a prominent DezNat account, @extradeadjcb, an associated Substack newsletter and a previous, suspended account, @jcbonthedl, was under the control of Kevin Dolan.
Dolan, who claims on his LinkedIn profile to have US government security clearance, was employed since January by consultancy firm Booz Allen Hamilton as a enior data scientist. The company has extensive contracts with US military and intelligence agencies and has been labeled "the world's most profitable spy organization".
The blogpost identifying Dolan details not only racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic posts made from the Twitter accounts, but the links between him and the accounts, which include archived posts from previous incarnations of his blogs and Twitter accounts, which point to his personal Facebook and Twitter pages.
Workshop: Take Back Your Life Recovery
The Take Back Your Life Recovery learning series is hosted and led by none other than Janja Lalich, Beth Matenaer and Sally Martin, LCSW.
A psychoeducational learning series that gives you knowledge and practical tools for your recovery from cults, high-control groups, and coercive relationships.
This a 5-week interview style program will meet weekly for 2 hours each session to provide participants with:
- Information about these situations and what draws us to them
- Practical guidelines on how to "take back your life" in your own recovery
- A small group setting that allows for personalized Q&A opportunity in each meeting
The dates for each session are: Aug 21st & 28th, Sept 11th, 18th, & 25th
Cost to attend will be $250 (all five sessions)
To learn more or sign up please email: takebackyourliferecovery@gmail.com
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