CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/19/2024 (UK, Legal, Radicalisation,, Immortal Consciousness, Antivax, Johannes Kelpius, Cult Intervention, Mahāyāna Buddhism)

UK, Legal, Radicalisation,, Immortal Consciousness, Antivax, Johannes Kelpius, Cult Intervention, Mahāyāna Buddhism

The Week: Shamima Begum: no way home

The embattled former Londoner has been in Syria since February 2015.

"Shamima Begum's hopes of returning to the UK from her detention camp in northeast Syria have been dashed again, said Haroon Siddique in The Guardian.

Last week, three Court of Appeal judges ruled unanimously that Sajid Javid, as home secretary in 2019, had acted lawfully when he revoked her citizenship on grounds of national security.

The court left it to others to judge whether it had been a harsh way of treating someone who may have been "influenced and manipulated" to run off to Syria as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to join Islamic State, merely ruling that the decision had been procedurally fair. It was sufficient that Javid had considered such factors, even if he had ultimately rejected them. Begum's lawyers have promised to fight on, but it's hard to see the Supreme Court overturning this definitive ruling.

'Not entirely culpable'

A good thing too, said Niall Gooch on UnHerd. We can recognise that Begum, now 24, is in a wretched situation, and that she is "not entirely culpable, without concluding that the only right response is for her to return to Britain". There are other factors to consider, such as "the British state's ability to defend itself and assert its authority in the face of monstrous enemies".

Besides, it could be argued that the Government, by depriving Begum of citizenship, is simply recognising the reality that she has 'no allegiance to or affection for Britain, beyond a transactional desire to benefit from the services and quality of life available here'."

FOX 10 Phoenix: Immortal Consciousness & Dr. Duran: Arizona woman leaves cult to find happiness, advocacy

"No matter what expert you ask, they'll say there are still thousands of cults in the United States.

A Gilbert, Arizona woman says many of them are all around us in Arizona – and she would know.

She says she experienced a cult firsthand and wants to help others avoid what she fell for.

Flipping through childhood photos, everything seems normal.

But, Brooke Walker sees it differently now.

"We celebrated Halloween, we celebrated Easter," she said.

She says she was raised in a cult. "100%. Unfortunately."

As an 8-year-old girl, her parents moved her family to a Mesa neighborhood to live with another family and join the church of Immortal Consciousness.

"Looking for faith, but also something different than what they had," she said. "You know, the mainstream stuff."

What they found was a church leader and medium who said she could speak with and summon a 14th-century Englishman named Dr. Duran.

"You could be heavily corrected by the spirit for what you're doing," Walker explained.

She played for us her recording of what they called "a trance." Eventually, the church leader would speak as Duran.

"I had a lot of mixed emotions about it. Mostly, I'm surprised about the amount of power it used to hold over me," Walker said. "This is what the teaching is telling me. This is what the spirit is telling me. All these things are, if something is wrong, it's me. I'm the problem. So you create this belief set that if anything goes sideways, must be your fault."

The church headed north. About 150 members lived in Tonto Village."

The Sunday Times: My MP husband Andrew Bridgen was captured by antivax 'cult'

"Andrew Bridgen was in Sweden speaking at an event hosted by Robert F Kennedy Jr's antivax group while his young son was at home facing a medical crisis.

The former Conservative MP, who has become a leading voice in the global campaign against vaccinations, ignored frantic calls from his wife, Nevena, as their five-year-old's health deteriorated, she claims.

Nevena, whose family hail from Serbia, was alone in London with her sick child, going backwards and forwards to the hospital, while she says her husband was on the streets of Sweden "acting as an antivax revolutionary and neglecting his son during a health emergency".

It was the moment Nevena, 43, finally concluded that her husband had been captured by what she considers a"cult".

Today, she reveals how her marriage and life have been torn apart by a "sect" she claims has "taken over" her husband.

She said: "The first alarming sign of radicalisation was when it was obvious that he was turning on us, when our child got terribly ill … There was no way of pleading with him. The human cost of radicalisation and the devastating impact it can have on individuals and their families, and in this case, our family, was spelled out for me for the first time in bold colours."

Nevena, a classically-trained opera singer, who filed for divorce this month, claims she and her son have been left homeless after her marriage to Bridgen, 59, broke down and he 'abandoned them'."

Friends of the Wissahickon: KELPIUS & HERMIT'S CAVE

Nestled in a serene primordial forest glen, the Hermit's Cave is one of Philadelphia's most intriguing historical landmarks, yet most visitors come upon it by surprise or pass by it unknowingly.

Who was the Hermit?

"Johannes Kelpius, a brilliant Transylvanian scholar, led his followers to the Wissahickon wilderness in 1694 to await the end of the world. In the centuries that followed, lore and legend have surrounded this mysterious Hermit of the Wissahickon.  His historic and symbolic significance has inspired many romantic gothic stories popularized by Philadelphia authors like Edgar Allen Poe and George Lippard, but what do we really know of Kelpius and the first doomsday cult in America?

Young Kelpius was part of a radical German Pietist sect led by Johann Zimmerman called the Chapter of Perfection. Zimmerman studied the Great Comet of 1680 and believed the wonders of the sky were a sign of the end times which he determined would occur in 1694. When Zimmerman died unexpectedly, just as the sect was preparing to set sail for the New World, he bequeathed all his writings, astrolabes, telescopes, and almanacs to twenty-six-year-old Kelpius who became the de facto leader of the group.

These 40 celibate monks (all of whom were men), called themselves "The Society of the Woman of the Wilderness." Their inspiration was based on an elaborate interpretation of the biblical passage from the Book of Revelations 12:16 in which a woman waited at the edge of the wilderness in prayer and meditation to prepare for the End of Days. They interpreted this verse to mean they should find a location at the edge of the wilderness to await the apocalypse."

Intervention101: From Deprogramming to the Intervention 101 Approach: The Evolution of Cult Intervention (Rachel Bernstein, Joe Kelly, Patrick Ryan)

"As the knowledge base of cults, manipulation, and control has expanded, so too has the awareness that intervention is often more complex than at first it might appear. Many cult interventionists have become aware that, in addition to the manipulative and coercive tactics utilized by high control groups, there is often a mental health component that needs to be understood and addressed in order for the intervention to succeed. Our approach begins with an in-depth assessment of the family system to evaluate whether intervention is appropriate at a particular time, what part of family dynamics might be contributing to the situation, and who in the family could be helpful during intervention. For all of these reasons we have found it valuable to collaborate with a mental health professional for a more comprehensive understanding of the overall picture. This talk will explore the development of our family-centered, non-confrontational, respectful approach to understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement. Vignettes from our cases will be presented to illustrate how this collaboration has enhanced our effectiveness as cult interventionists."

RNS: What is Mahāyāna Buddhism? A scholar of Buddhism explains

The Mahāyāna branch of Buddhism likely emerged around the first centuries A.D. and was most readily carried through the Silk Road and maritime trade routes.

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My MP husband Andrew Bridgen was captured by antivax 'cult'

The opera singer Nevena Bridgen lived a glamorous life attending high-profile events and rubbing shoulders with prime ministers. But then, she says, her husband became ‘radicalised’

Caroline Wheeler, Political Editor
The Sunday Times
March 02 2024


Andrew Bridgen was in Sweden speaking at an event hosted by Robert F Kennedy Jr’s antivax group while his young son was at home facing a medical crisis.

The former Conservative MP, who has become a leading voice in the global campaign against vaccinations, ignored frantic calls from his wife, Nevena, as their five-year-old’s health deteriorated, she claims.

Nevena, whose family hail from Serbia, was alone in London with her sick child, going backwards and forwards to the hospital, while she says her husband was on the streets of Sweden “acting as an antivax revolutionary and neglecting his son during a health emergency”.

It was the moment Nevena, 43, finally concluded that her husband had been captured by what she considers a“cult”.

Today, she reveals how her marriage and life have been torn apart by a “sect” she claims has “taken over” her husband.

She said: “The first alarming sign of radicalisation was when it was obvious that he was turning on us, when our child got terribly ill … There was no way of pleading with him. The human cost of radicalisation and the devastating impact it can have on individuals and their families, and in this case, our family, was spelled out for me for the first time in bold colours.”

Nevena, a classically-trained opera singer, who filed for divorce this month, claims she and her son have been left homeless after her marriage to Bridgen, 59, broke down and he “abandoned them”.

She also criticises the Conservative Party and the parliamentary authorities for failing to protect him from “radicalisation”.

In January last year he was suspended from the party after sharing a post on Twitter/X comparing Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust. A few months later he was permanently expelled and now serves as an independent MP for North West Leicestershire.

Her interview paints a picture of the paranoia and misinformation that fuels the antivax movement. She alleges her husband was told by his new friends to cut her adrift because she was an MI6 spy.

Speaking in a hotel by the Palace of Westminster, where she once rubbed shoulders with prime ministers and senior members of the government, Nevena said: “The antivax conspiracy theorist movement destroyed my life when Andrew became their foot soldier.”

She claims that he is willing to put indoctrination and the extremist ideology of the movement above his wife and an innocent child. She believes he needed to “get rid of her” as she did not “fully align with his extremist beliefs”.

“I watched my life shatter into pieces as I lost access to the household bank account … and kicked out on the street with a child just in time for Christmas,” she said.

Bridgen is building “Andrew’s Army” to mobilise support for him and his antivax views before the general election. He launched a website last week urging people to become his “foot soldiers” to help him “overturn the old political order”.

“Being a phone soldier in Andrew’s Army will require courage,” he writes. “It will not be for the faint-hearted. But if you share my convictions about the issues I raise and you want to ensure I can get through to my constituents despite the ever intensifying attempts to cancel me, become a phone soldier in Andrew’s Army today.”

Bridgen appears to have become radicalised to the antivax cause over several years. He has tweeted about the Covid-19 jab more than 100 times since 2022, when he first began to warn of alleged vaccine harms. After previously encouraging his social media followers to get vaccinated, he advocated for a “common sense” approach — opposing booster jabs for anyone over the age of 12.

By July 2022, his position had begun to harden. He warned on Twitter/X that “no one outside a vulnerable group should be boosted. No healthy children should be vaccinated.” In December that year, Bridgen called for the vaccine to be suspended.

A few months into 2023, Bridgen began to slip into conspiracy theories. Posting on Twitter/X in September, he claimed that Pfizer had “switched” the medically approved vaccine for an untested variant. Later, he alleged the vaccines were “defective”.

Last February, he hosted a dinner at the exclusive Carlton Club, from where he is allegedly now banned, for “vaccine sceptics”. They included John Mappin, a hotelier in Cornwall who said that mask-wearing and the jabs rollout were a “holocaust of the mind” and claimed the Duke of Edinburgh died as a result of being vaccinated. Robert Malone, a vaccine-sceptic doctor, was invited to give “evidence of the harms that the injections have done to innocent civilians”.

Bridgen has since shared a platform with Meryl Nass, who had her licence as a doctor in the US state of Maine suspended during the pandemic over the sharing of misinformation, and Philipp Kruse, a Swiss lawyer associated with an anti-vaccine group.

He has brought his views to Westminster. In an outburst in the Commons last week, Bridgen asked for a debate on “crimes against humanity and the appropriate punishment for those who perpetrate, collude in and cover up atrocities and crimes so severe that the ultimate punishment may be required”.

In response, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, cautioned him to “reflect on his own behaviour and what he does on social media, and on the security measures that have had to be stepped up for MPs in the wake of some of his social media tweets and questions”. She added: “I am going to call out, on every occasion, when he does things that I think are a danger to our democracy.”

Nevena claims Bridgen is a different man to the one she met more than seven years ago when she was at the height of her success as an international opera singer.

Her first steps towards a singing career began in 1999 when she was 18 years old in the bomb shelters of Belgrade. Her talent was spotted by a professor at the Belgrade music academy, who offered to give the promising young soprano some lessons if they managed to leave the shelter alive. She eventually completed her formal training in Serbia before studying for a master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She lived in the British capital, where her sister, Ksenija, was a student at the London School of Economics, for a further six years before returning to the national opera in Belgrade in 2014.

Two years later, during a brief trip to London, she was introduced to Bridgen by a mutual acquaintance. She was in rehearsals for a new production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, in which she was playing a leading role. Back in Belgrade, Nevena struck up an increasingly close friendship with Bridgen over long telephone calls and he offered to come to Belgrade in late 2016 to see her perform.

Nevena recalled: “It was a great surprise to me because he has never been to Belgrade, he’d never been to Serbia, and I thought it was very brave to sit on the plane and just come. But we clicked and we became very close over a very short period of time and it really felt like there was a connection; we both wanted the same things out of life in terms of wanting to have a family, wanting to have a relationship and something meaningful.”

In April 2017, Bridgen proposed in the heart of Belgrade’s old town. They married in the Serbian capital later that month and Nevena moved to England in the summer. Their son was born on September 8, 2018, but the cracks had begun to appear. It was the height of the fallout from Brexit and the stress appeared to take its toll on Bridgen.

Nevena claims that during her lengthy labour he told her she was “not a spring chicken” and, the moment they arrived home from hospital, he rushed off to meet Theresa May.

With Bridgen often away at work, Nevena said she felt like a “single parent who was married”. Prevented from working here and unable to drive his car, she grew to feel completely dependent on her husband, who gave her a limited monthly allowance for her and her baby to live on. She also relied on a small salary from her work as an opera singer in Belgrade, which she was forced to give up when her son began school.

While being married to Bridgen meant she was invited to high-profile events and was introduced to several prime ministers, Nevena still felt isolated. She decided to set up her own support group and lifestyle blog, the Wives of Westminster, intended to be a vehicle for female empowerment.

The couple were also mired in a legal battle with Bridgen’s younger brother, Paul. The dispute was over the Bridgen family business, AB Produce, which supplies potatoes and other vegetables to catering companies. In 2022, the MP and his family were ordered to vacate his £1.5 million constituency home with a swimming pool and stables, set in 5.5 acres in the Leicestershire village of Coleorton.

Bridgen was eventually forced to borrow at least £3.9 million from a former Tory donor to help fund the legal battle. “We were always under pressure,” said Nevena. “It was really tough but there was always this promise of a normal life and that there would be a silver lining.”

Instead, Bridgen began to descend into antivax conspiracies. An early lockdown sceptic, he then turned to so-called vaccine “damages”. The Independent reported that he badgered government ministers for months over the issue. He also frequently retweeted claims by Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and anti-vaccine campaigner who has been accused of promoting misleading information about the safety of Covid vaccines, after the pair met at the launch of the all-party parliamentary group on Covid-19 vaccine damage in July 2022.

In a Commons adjournment debate before Christmas 2022, Bridgen reiterated his call for vaccinations to end: “Three months ago, one of the most eminent and trusted cardiologists, a man with an international reputation, Dr Aseem Malhotra, published peer-reviewed research that concluded that there should be a complete cessation of the administration of the Covid mRNA vaccines for everyone because of clear and robust data of significant harms and little ongoing benefit.”

Bridgen said that a senior British Heart Foundation figure was involved in “covering up clear data that reveals that the mRNA vaccine increases inflammation of the heart arteries” — something the charity “categorically” denied.

Bridgen, who is understood to deny belonging to or being associated with any “sect” or “cult”, says that this work is aimed at safeguarding the health and safety of the constituents who voted for him.

The first “red flag” for Nevena came when she heard him speaking to a group on a Zoom call while at her sister’s flat in Washington DC during the Christmas holidays in 2022. She said it was the first sign she saw he was being influenced.

“It was crazy, they were talking about crimes against humanity and someone saying that this was all done to eradicate the population,” she said. “They went on to say something along the lines of ‘You have to do your job now and call out the mainstream media and tell people the truth. This is your mission.’ The person spoke of a global military alliance. They were basically encouraging insurrection and saying the military should take this into their own hands.”

After he finished the call, she says she demanded that he stop. She asked him how he could put himself in a position like this, because they could have been recording him to use as blackmail. “I was trying to offer him advice but he didn’t take it.”

Days after parliament returned in January 2023, Bridgen was suspended from the Conservative Party after tweeting a vaccine efficacy chart with the caption: “As one consultant said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”

In April, he was permanently expelled, joining Laurence Fox’s right-wing Reclaim Party a month later but leaving in December.



Nevena claims being ousted from the Tories sealed her family’s fate. “The Conservative Party didn’t deal with this properly,” she alleges. “They didn’t pick up the early signs of indoctrination and radicalisation. The way they dealt with him was to cancel him — and that was the moment it opened the doors for all these people to come in.

“Suddenly there were all these people coming into our lives and taking over. There is this parallel reality that is very present out there. And I’m in the middle of it all trying desperately to keep our family together.”

Nevena believes Bridgen is unlikely to be the last MP to be targeted by conspiracy theorist groups. “There is no system to protect MPs from these kinds of things,” she said. “They [the Conservative Party] just accelerated his radicalisation and pushed him further down the road. Once he was out of the Conservative Party, he was a free agent, a target of the ‘antivax cult’. And now he’s not just an MP any more, he’s also the international leader of these groups.”

Nevena claims Bridgen would frequently meet antivax “whistleblowers” in the middle of the night. “There was no longer time for me or his child,” she said. “He just spent time with these people and then he would come home and dump all this paralysing fear on me, telling me that we were all going to die in five years’ time. If I refused to listen he would get aggravated. I became a person he no longer trusted.”

Nevena claims the “scales [finally] fell” from her eyes last autumn when he attended the conference, arranged by Robert F Kennedy Jr’s antivax group Children’s Health Defense, in Sweden. During his absence the couple’s son became unwell and his health quickly deteriorated. She claims that despite repeated attempts to ask Bridgen to return home, he did not — even as his son lay gravely ill in hospital.

Facebook posts show Bridgen speaking at events and enjoying dinners in Sweden. “That was the moment where I felt he was putting the ideology before the health and wellbeing of his child and showed the full neglect of his parental responsibilities,” Nevena said.

When Bridgen returned home after more than a week’s absence, Nevena confronted him about his behaviour. His response shocked her. She claims he told her that the whole of “humanity was at stake” and if he succeeded he would be saving the world — something he hoped his son would one day be proud of. Nevena said: “I felt like I was in that Matrix film and that he was telling me he was the chosen one. Except this is not a blockbuster movie, this is my life.”

Not long afterwards, she claims Bridgen convinced her to give up the tenancy on their Westminster taxpayer-funded flat to look for a new home. The couple signed the lease on a new flat not long before Nevena flew back to Belgrade for her aunt’s funeral. She claims that on the day of the funeral, Bridgen texted Nevena to say he had cancelled the lease on the new flat — effectively leaving her and her son homeless. He also blocked her number, leaving her no way to contact him.

She claims the only money she had was £1,200 he had transferred into her personal account, although Bridgen claims she has always had access to her own funds.

“I was slowly rolling into homelessness because on December 21 our tenancy would run out on the existing Westminster flat and we had nowhere else to go,” she said. Bridgen disputes this account of events last year.

Nevena believes Bridgen wanted to force her and her son, who is British and in full-time education here, to return to Belgrade. “He knows I can’t rent because I don’t have the money to put down a deposit.”

Nevena began talking to charities about finding a homeless shelter and signing up for universal credit.Bridgen insists he has never stopped any payments for his son.“The last three prime ministers and half of the government were sending cards and congratulations to celebrate the birth of our child,” Nevena said. “I was supposed to be part of a political circle and a community who knew me and my child since the day he was born and yet I found myself about to be put out on the street with absolutely no support.”

Nevena’s sister came to her rescue. She cashed in her life savings and put down a year’s rent on a flat for Nevena and her son so they could remain in London. They only have a few pieces of furniture.

Nevena is now looking for a job and claiming benefits, while Bridgen pays her a monthly sum towards the upkeep of their child. He does not pay towards Nevena’s living costs and claims she still has access to her small salary as an opera singer — something she disputes.

In contrast, Bridgen still lives with all the trappings of an MP’s lifestyle. In mid-December, he won his case against his brother and claims he will soon be the 100 per cent shareholder of the multimillion-pound business.

Of the conspiracy theories that Nevena believes drove a wedge between her and Bridgen, she says: “Parliament doesn’t have the systems in place to deal with things like that and to guard MPs against it. They didn’t recognise it and they let him slide into this. I was fighting the cult and now me and my child are the collateral.”

The Conservative Party was contacted for a response but declined comment. However, a source questioned what action the party could have taken.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/248c1402-a3cb-47c8-bcc6-34ecd1002874?shareToken=fe0c8a194d76cb26fb58712ae83300e2&fbclid=IwAR0ul-RewkVFc2HayG_LdocxQqDJar8Ke_gBfF3yi6VIHfN59K1o7wkmKgA

Religion shapes vaccine views - but how exactly? Our analysis looks at ideas about God and beliefs about the Bible

The Conversation
July 17, 2023

Authors

1. Christopher P. Scheitle (Assistant Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University)

2. Bernard DiGregorio (Ph.D. Student in Sociology, West Virginia University)

3. Katie Corcoran (Associate Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University)

Disclosure statement

Christopher P. Scheitle has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. The research discussed in this article was funded by a grant from the Science and Religion: Identity and Belief Formation grant initiative spearheaded by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the University of California-San Diego and provided by the Templeton Religion Trust via The Issachar Fund.

The research discussed in this article was funded by a grant from the Science and Religion: Identity and Belief Formation grant initiative spearheaded by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the University of California-San Diego and provided by the Templeton Religion Trust via The Issachar Fund.

Katie E. Corcoran has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the International Research Network for the Study of Belief and Science, the West Virginia University Humanities Center, the Lake Institute, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The research discussed in this article was funded by a grant from the Science and Religion: Identity and Belief Formation grant initiative spearheaded by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the University of California-San Diego and provided by the Templeton Religion Trust via The Issachar Fund.

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West Virginia University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.



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Many scientists and public health officials were surprised that large swaths of the public were hesitant or outright hostile toward COVID-19 vaccines. “I never saw that coming,” Francis Collins, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, commented in 2022. Even today, three years after the start of the pandemic, about 1 in 5 Americans have not received a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.

What could be the reason for such widespread vaccine hesitancy? When it comes to skepticism toward vaccines, religion is often cited as an important factor. As sociologists researching the role of religion in vaccine attitudes and behaviors, we have found that the religion-vaccine connection is significant, but much more nuanced than simple stereotypes assume.

Both religious life and vaccine views are complex. A person’s religion cannot be boiled down to just one thing. It includes an identity, a place of worship and a variety of beliefs and practices. Each of these components can have its own distinct effect on vaccine attitudes and behaviors.

Attitudes toward vaccines are complicated, as well. Someone’s feelings about vaccines in general might differ from their feelings about one specific type of vaccine, for instance.

To help make sense of this complexity, we surveyed a representative sample of 2,000 U.S. adults in May 2021 about their religious identities, beliefs, behaviors and their attitudes toward a number of scientific issues, including vaccines. This sample included individuals across many religious traditions, as well as people who do not affiliate with any religion. However, Christians represented the bulk of the sample, given their larger share of the American population, and so our research focuses heavily on on their views.

Bible beliefs

One part of religious life that social scientists are often interested in is people’s views of the Bible. For example, does someone think of the Bible as the literal word of God; inspired by God, but not literally true; or as an ancient book of legends, history and moral codes that has no divine source?

We found that respondents who see the Bible as either the “inspired” or “the actual word of God” were less likely to see vaccines in general – not the COVID-19 vaccine in particular – as safe and effective, compared with those who see the Bible as just a book of history and morality created by humans. All else being equal, those who said that the Bible is the literal word of God, for instance, scored 18% higher on our measure of general vaccine skepticism than those who see the Bible as having no divine source or inspiration.

Although such literalist views might be found at higher rates in particular religious traditions, such as evangelical Protestantism, we found that an individual’s religious tradition itself did not make much of a difference. An evangelical Protestant and a Catholic, for instance, would be predicted to have similar attitudes toward vaccines if they share the same view of the Bible.

In contrast, when we asked similar questions specifically about COVID-19 vaccines, we found that an individual’s religious tradition is what matters the most. Protestants – both those who identify as evangelical and those who do not – express more skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccines than respondents from other religious traditions and nonreligious respondents.

God and country

In additional studies, we have attempted to identify the reasons for these patterns. That is, why does one’s view of the Bible or one’s religious tradition matter when it comes to vaccine attitudes and behaviors?

One factor could be Christian nationalism, which has been increasingly visible in the public sphere since Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency. Christian nationalism is described by sociologists of religion Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry as an ideology that advocates for the fusion of Christianity with American politics and public life.

For example, Americans who hold a Christian nationalist ideology tend to agree when surveys ask them whether the federal government “should declare the United States a Christian nation.” In our own survey, we found that individuals’ responses to that statement are strongly correlated with their willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

We asked for respondents’ level of agreement or disagreement with that statement on a 5-point scale. A 1-point increase in agreement meant someone was 17% less likely to have received or plan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Although not exclusive to Protestants, adherence to Christian nationalist ideology is more prominent among this group – especially among its more conservative or evangelical traditions.

False claims can have real consequences.

Another of our studies focused on how people view God. Our data showed that simply believing there is a God, or a higher power that supervises the world, does not make an individual less likely to have received the COVID-19 vaccine. On the other hand, believing that God can and will actively intervene in the world does make a difference. According to our analysis, with all else being equal, we would expect those with the lowest belief in an intervening higher power to be vaccinated, or intend to get vaccinated, 88% of the time. In contrast, we would expect those with the highest belief in an intervening higher power to be vaccinated, or intend to be, 73% of the time.

In addition, our data shows that belief in parareligious phenomena – including New Ageism, occultism, psychism and spiritualism – is also significantly associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. We used a 5-point parareligoius belief scale, with a 1-point increase in an individual’s belief in parareligious phenomena being associated with a 40% decrease in the likelihood of having received a COVID-19 vaccine.

Once we accounted for higher rates of conspiratorial belief and distrust in science among respondents who believe in parareligious phenomena, however, this vaccine gap was reduced. This suggests that those underlying factors help explain why more people who believe in parareligious phenomena are skeptical toward vaccines.

All of these studies demonstrate that he link between religion and vaccine attitudes is neither simple nor uniform. Public health campaigns that target faith communities would do well to keep this in mind.

https://theconversation.com/religion-shapes-vaccine-views-but-how-exactly-our-analysis-looks-at-ideas-about-god-and-beliefs-about-the-bible-204178

Ontario judge was wrong to rely on anti-vaccine misinformation: Court of Appeal

Instead of evaluating the evidence, a Hamilton judge “embarked on a lengthy discussion about whose materials were more thought-provoking, which has no bearing at all on whether the respondent’s materials were admissible.”

Jacques Gallant Courts and Justice Reporter
Toronto Star
February 6, 2023


In granting a mother decision-making authority regarding her children getting vaccinated against COVID-19, a Hamilton judge erred in relying heavily on the anti-vaccine posts the woman submitted to the court — “nothing but something someone wrote and published on the internet,” Ontario’s top court ruled Friday.

The Court of Appeal overturned the decision made last year by Superior Court Justice Alex Pazaratz, and instead granted authority to the father.

The parents in the case are separated and are split on the issue of vaccination for the two youngest children, who live with their mother.

The father, identified only as C.G., argued in court last year that there’s no medical reason not to vaccinate the children. The mother, identified as J.N., argued there was sufficient doubt about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness. The children said they did not want to be vaccinated.

The Court of Appeal’s decision is not an order that the children — who were 10 and 12 at the time of Pazaratz’s ruling — be vaccinated. It simply means that it is now solely the father’s responsibility to address the topic of COVID-19 vaccines with them.

“There is no reason to doubt the appellant’s motivation and stated desire to approach this very sensitive issue in a measured way and with a view to the children’s best interests,” wrote Justice Jonathon George for a unanimous three-judge appeal panel.

J.N. represented herself before the Court of Appeal.

“We are very pleased with the outcome,” said C.G.’s appeal lawyers, Erin Pleet and Jonathan Richardson. “The father would appreciate privacy at this time.”

The top court found that Pazaratz placed far more weight on the mother’s submissions than on the father’s, who had presented information from Health Canada and the Canadian Paediatric Society showing that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, including for children.

The mother, meanwhile, mostly submitted online posts “primarily from those who cast doubt on the importance and safety of the vaccine,” George wrote.

“The information relied upon by the respondent was nothing but something someone wrote and published on the internet, without any independent indicia of reliability or expertise.”

In his initial ruling, Pazaratz described the father as “dogmatic, intolerant and paternalistic,” while saying that the mother’s sources were “qualified and reputable.”

The judge also refused to take “judicial notice” that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, saying information about them was a “moving target.” (Judicial notice means something is so widely known and accepted that a judge doesn’t need expert evidence to accept that it’s true.)

Pazaratz pointed to the forced sterilization of Inuit women, residential schools, and the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II to argue that courts should be hesitant to “take judicial notice that the government is always right.”

The top court described those comparisons as “inapt.”

“In my view, the motion judge fell into error by not assessing whether each document presented by the respondent (mother) was reliable, independent, unbiased and authorized by someone with expertise in the area,” wrote George in the appeal decision.

“Instead of engaging in an analysis of the evidence presented, he embarked on a lengthy discussion about whose materials were more thought-provoking, which has no bearing at all on whether the respondent’s materials were admissible and should be given any weight.”

Some of the doctors cited by the mother have been accused of spreading misinformation about the vaccines, yet they were relied upon as experts by Pazaratz despite there being “no apparent or verifiable expertise,” George wrote.

Pazaratz’s description of some of the authors as “leaders in their fields … seems to be based on nothing more than their ability to either create a website or be quoted in one.”

The judge also “seemed to find justification for the respondent’s position that the children should not be vaccinated” by relying on a Pfizer fact sheet submitted by the mother that outlined potential side effects of the vaccine.

George pointed out that the company is required by law to disclose potential side effects.

“The motion judge treated the respondent as an expert in assessing pharmaceutical disclosure, while essentially dismissing those who are best positioned to interpret this information — public health authorities — who know how to factor the possibility of side effects into the approval process,” George wrote.

The appeal court said there’s no question that there is a COVID-19 pandemic, that the disease kills people, and that the vaccines have received approval from Health Canada.

“It is simply unrealistic to expect parties to relitigate the science of vaccination, and legitimacy of public health recommendations, every time there is a disagreement over vaccination,” George wrote.

Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering courts, justice and legal affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant



https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/02/06/ontario-judge-was-wrong-to-rely-on-anti-vaccine-misinformation-court-of-appeal.html

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/22/2022 (Twin Flames, Podcast, Discrimination, Video, Anti-Vax, Paraguay, Bosnia, Montenegro, Lev Tahor, Legal)

Twin Flames, Podcast, Discrimination, Video, Anti-Vax, Paraguay, Bosnia, Montenegro, Lev Tahor, Legal

A Little Bit Culty: Keely Griffin on Twin Flames & Other Dumpster Fires (SEASON 3 EPISODE 5)

Speaking of soul-crushing scams that exploit the basic human need for love and belonging, we've got a doozy of a Valentine's Day episode for you. We're not labeling the organization at the heart of this episode a cult, but we are asking our guest Keely Griffin if loving and leaving Twin Flames Universe was the bad trip that reports published by Vanity Fair,  Vice, and Daily Mail make it sound like. Once a devotee of TFU, Keely shares what made the YouTubey, Facebooky spiritual community sound promising at first, just how quickly it went to the Upside Down, and how she's coming back from the whole shitshow now that she's out of its grips.

Oh and just FYI, the list of what TFU officially disputes about its bad press practically writes our show notes for us: They dispute that they promote harassment and stalking. They dispute that they engage in exploitative and cult-like practices. They dispute that they coerce members into changing their gender. A Little Bit Culty, on the other hand, does not dispute that the whole TFU vibe makes us want to throw up in our mouths a little bit. Happy Freakin' Valentine's Day. 

PBS Frontline: A Class Divided

"The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. This is the story of that lesson, its lasting impact on the children, and its enduring power 30 years later."

Insider: Anti-vaxxers head to a new life in a remote colony in Paraguay founded by 'conservative free thinkers' who want to escape the 'matrix,' say reports

"People take part in a demonstration against COVID-19 vaccines in front of the Health Ministry in Asuncion, on January 11, 2022. 

• A colony in Paraguay has seen an influx of arrivals due to COVID-19 skepticism
• The community claims it is free from "5G, chemtrails, fluoridated water, mandatory vaccinations, and healthcare mandates."
• They have said that the pandemic which has killed 5.6 million people is "non-existent."
  

Immigrants have settled in Paraguay's poorest region of Caazapá, creating a colony designed as a refuge from "socialist trends of current economic and political situations worldwide" – as well as "5G, chemtrails, fluoridated water, mandatory vaccinations, and healthcare mandates," according to its website.

The colony, named El Paraíso Verde, or Green Paradise, was founded in 2016 by  Sylvia and Erwin Annau, a composer and tax advisor born in Vienna, Austria, in 1954.

El Paraiso Verde was started in 2016 with the dream of a better life and future outside of the "matrix"  and is a refuge for "'conservative free thinkers,'" states its website.

It is mainly populated by German, Austrian and Swiss natives, many of whom are escaping COVID-19 restrictions, The Guardian reported. On the El Paraíso Verde website, Annau says he is eager to attract more settlers from the US."

VINnews: After Deportation From Bosnia And Montenegro, Lev Tahor Find Refuge In North Macedonia

"After wandering through a number of East European countries and being deported from many of them, members of the Lev Tahor cult have now moved to North Macedonia, where they are currently being treated as a curiosity by locals.

A group of members of the cult continues to migrate between European countries. After being deported from Bosnia about two weeks ago in light of complaints from residents expressing concern, members of the sect turned to Montenegro, but even there they did not hold out and continued to nearby Albania, from where they continued to North Macedonia and are currently camped in the city of Kumanovo."

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Raelians Join the Truckers in Anti-Vax Demonstrations on Ottawa's Parliament Hill

Susan J. Palmer

CESNUR
February 7, 2022

To my surprise, I received a photo of the Raelians demonstrating alongside the truckers and anti-vaxxers in front of Ottawa’s Parliament Hill. It accompanied this baffling email message from an old Raelian friend I used to invite to my “Cults” class at Concordia University: “My consciousness, nowadays, is with the truckers … in Ottawa … for a siege until the end of this sanitary madness, as well as with all the awakened in Canada and around the world.”

What’s going on? I wondered. Since the end of January, thousands of antivax protesters and hundreds of transport trucks have clogged the streets of downtown Ottawa, shutting down businesses and restaurants. The “freedom convoy’ from British Columbia as well as truckers from across Canada have been heading to Parliament Hill to protest a mid-January mandate, which requires drivers returning from the United States who are not fully vaccinated to quarantine. Just today, the Mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency over the trucker convoy protest.

And what does Rael, prophet-founder of the world’s largest “flying saucer cult” (to quote Carl G. Jung) have to say about Covid 19? As the author of Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion, I assumed Rael's advice would be to follow scientifically approved measures. After all, Raelians worship the Elohim; super-scientists from another planet who created humanity “in Their Own Image” from their own alien DNA. The Raelian slogan is: “La Science est notre Religion/Notre Religion est la Science.”

But I was wrong. I had forgotten how Rael tends to be unpredictable. During the AIDS epidemic Rael, unlike most religious leaders, did not blame homosexuals. I had quoted him in my 2000 book, AIDS as an Apocalyptic Metaphor, recommending “Utilisez cette petite merveille de la Science – le condom!”

But today, from his residence in Okinawa, Japan, Rael’s advice is, “No mask. No vaccine.” And as for social distancing, maskless Raelians around the globe are offering “Free Hugs” to passers-by.

I contacted Nicole Bertrand, a top female Bishop in the Raelian Movement who had facilitated my research in the past. In her charming, organized way she noted, “Rael has been sending us memos since the pandemie began, advising us not to comply with government regulations, but to trust in our immune system, which was designed by the Elohim to be very strong.”

(As a Religious Studies professor, I should briefly explain here that, for Raelians, DNA is sacred. DNA is the key to physical immortality. Their dietary laws—no coffee, alcohol or recreational drugs—are meant to safeguard their DNA so they will be eligible for cloning by the godlike extraterrestrials—and the Chosen Ones will be those mortals with pure, godlike DNA.)

And what about wearing masks?

“Rael says the mask interferes with our breathing,” Nicole said, “The Elohim designed us to breathe in and then breathe out, to get rid of toxins.”

Nicole spoke of how she rides le metro regularly and never wears a mask. “Nobody tells me anything. I smile my freedom and I hope they ask themselves some questions. Freedom is our right, and it is our right not to answer questions about our personal health, about Covid-like symptoms.”

Nicole then referred me to her Beloved Prophet’s June 2021 speech in Okinawa where he claimed, “those new, so-called vaccines—which are not real vaccines—contain RNA. After injecting millions of people, researchers discovered that RNA was affecting humanity's DNA.”

So, Rael has advised his yet unvaccinated flock, “Don’t do it. We don’t have the right to modify our DNA with that kind of gene therapy.”

I watched Rael’s video: “How to Build Your Immune System” (Rael Academy, August 2, 2021). Wearing white embroidered robes and cap, Rael, now addressed as “Maitreya,” is looking brown and lean at 75. In his playful manner, with echoes of a Japanese lady interpreter in the background, he instructs his adoring disciples in his strong French accent:

“Your DNA is perfect because it was made by the Elohim. You don’t have the right to modify it. There is no pandemic. There were pandemics in the Middle Ages with streets full of dead people. Do you see that today in Tokyo? No.” (Raelians laughing).

“Give me your microbes and your virus. I love them! They make my body stronger. I am 75. Never had any vaccine. I am very healthy!” (Raelians cheering)

“Stress destroys your immune system. Relax! There is no pandemic. Only the pandemic of fear. The governments are doing some modifications. They want to change human beings and make you sheep. Bahhh! Bahhh!” (Raelians clapping).

Nicole concluded our zoom interview saying, “So, we are totally consistent with our religious belief and understanding of life and health. We follow the Science of the Elohim through the Last Prophet, Rael!”

So, what are the Raelians doing now on Parliament Hill, mingling sans masques with anarchist truckers, Neo-Nazis, the Soldiers of Odin—and whoever defaced the statue of Terry Fox or parked and peed on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

“We support every group that is trying to regain their freedom,” replied Nicole. “We don’t tell people what to do, we just want our freedom. If people want to comply, that’s up to them. We are not ‘anti-mask; or ‘anti-vax’—or anti anything. We are pro-Freedom!”

https://www.cesnur.org/2022/raelians-join-truckers-anti-vax-in-ottawa.htm

CultNEWS101 Articles: 10/5/2021 (NXIVM, Clonaid, Canada, Catholic Residential Schools, Child Abuse, Anti-Vax, Unification Church)

NXIVM, Clonaid, Canada, Catholic Residential Schools, Child Abuse, Anti-Vax, Unification Church

News10: NXIVM branding doctor loses medical license

"The doctor responsible for branding women in the Capital Region sex cult, NXIVM, has to turn over her medical license to the New York State Department of Health.

One of the most well-known, stomach-turning details of the NXIVM saga is undoubtedly the branding ceremonies performed on members of DOS, the cult's inner circle. By putting up collateral and bearing the initials of leader Keith Raniere on their skin, these women secretly took a vow of obedience to their master.

Now, the woman responsible for using electric current to make the infamous mark has lost her medical license."

Yahoo News: Cloning, aliens and topless women: The bizarre cult run by a pop star

" ... Some cults are just a bit kooky, trying to appeal to nerds, and every now and then pretending they can clone humans. Like the Raelians.

In late 2002, a group called Clonaid, founded by an ex-automotive journalist and minor French pop star called Claude Vorilhon, claimed to have successfully cloned the first human.

This strange group is at the centre of the seventh episode of Yahoo News Australia's Cults Unpacked series."

RNS: Canadian Catholic bishops apologize for residential schools

"OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Catholic bishops in Canada apologized Friday "unequivocally" to Indigenous peoples for the suffering endured in residential schools, just as Pope Francis prepares to meet with Indigenous leaders at the Vatican later this fall.

The institutions held children taken from families across the nation. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their Native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

The Catholic bishops in Canada are promising to provide documents that may help "memorialize" students buried in unmarked graves, work on getting the Pope to visit Canada, and raise money to help fund  initiatives recommended by local Indigenous partners."

CNN: Anti-vaxxers are using the same tactics as cults do to attract followers on social media

"In 1974, I was recruited into a cult. Known as the Unification Church, but often referred to as the Moonies, the group was — and still is — a far-right cult founded by the Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon. The Moonies believe that Moon was greater than Jesus and is God's "Messiah." His teachings, followers have said, supersede conscience, the Bible, laws and universal human rights."

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

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