CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/21/2016

Jehovah’s Witnesses, ​Bruderhof, ​City Harvest Church, Scientology, ​Opus Dei, CorePower Yoga, FLDS, ​Raelism, Psychic, Critical Thinking, Aum Shinrikyo, Unification Church, Palmarian Church, Nuwaubian Nation, The Brethren, John Frum, Nation of Yahweh, The Branch Davidians, Heavens Gate

Grunge: Famous cults you had no idea were still active

​ (​Aum Shinrikyo, Unification Church, Palmarian Church, Nuwaubian Nation, The Brethren, John Frum, Nation of Yahweh, The Branch Davidians, Heavens Gate)

http://www.grunge.com/34353/famous-cults-idea-still-active/

Fair Observer: Jehovah’s Witnesses Holds Women Back

An open letter to Serena Williams about

​​

 Jehovah’s Witnesses’ treatment of women.

http://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/jehovahs-witnesses-women-religion-serena-williams-news-81664/

Guardian: Experience: I was abandoned by my cult

"All I remember of the day I was left on a roadside in Pennsylvania, in 1963, was a hand pulling $20 from his pocket, and my small suitcase. I can’t remember who drove me away from the 

​​

Bruderhof church community I had been shut in since I was a five-year-old girl; now, aged 24, I had been excluded. I was abandoned, but I could breathe again."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/experience-i-was-abandoned-by-my-cult.html

Mothership.

​ ​

SG: Kong Hee humbled he gets police escort on his way to church in Indonesia

"

​​

City Harvest Church founder pastor Kong Hee has posted a video on Facebook showing the police escort treatment he received in Jakarta, Indonesia, arranged for him by the organiser of his trip.

He wrote in his post that he was “humbled” by the way they honour his presence in Indonesia whenever he goes there to preach."

http://mothership.sg/2016/12/kong-hee-humbled-he-gets-police-escort-on-his-way-to-church-in-indonesia/

Chris Shelton

​ Critical Thinker At Large: ​

5 Reasons Why “Scientology and the Aftermath” is More Important Than You Think

​"​

As a former Scientologist turned advocate, Leah is on a roll to bring the fight to Scientology’s doorstep against its long-running history of human rights abuses, criminal activities and emotional blackmail and she’s doing a fantastic job. Many people who have not been involved with Scientology in the past or have not been keeping tabs on its activities are tuning in and finding out for the first time just how awful this whole thing is. While that can certainly be viewed as sensational or “headline grabbing media” there are actually some more important reasons why this show is having the success it is and why it needs to be seen even more far and wide. If you have been following the first three episodes, I’m sure you understand what I mean and I heavily encourage you to share links to the show by whatever means with all of your friends, family and social contacts. Only someone with a heart of stone, or a Scientologist, would think there is nothing worth seeing in Scientology and the Aftermath.

​"​

http://mncriticalthinking.com/2016/12/15/5-reasons-scientology-aftermath-important-think/

NPR: Powerful Roman Catholic Group Opus Dei Faces Transition After Leader's Death

"

​​

Opus Dei, the powerful but somewhat controversial Roman Catholic organization, faces a transition to new leadership following the death of its prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría."

"For much of the group's history, however, Opus Dei has been the subject of controversy."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/powerful-roman-catholic-group-opus-dei.html

Crimefeed: COREPOWER YOGA GURU FOUND DEAD UNDER “SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES” AT HIS CALIFORNIA HOME

The charismatic founder of the CorePower Yoga studio chain was found dead Monday in his San Diego home under what police have labeled “suspicious circumstances.”

http://crimefeed.com/2016/12/27388/?sf47080416=1

Fox13: Feds to use Warren Jeffs recording to keep followers in jail

​

"Federal prosecutors plan to use a prison recording of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs in an effort to keep two of his followers in jail pending trial on food stamp fraud and money laundering charges. (FLDS)

http://fox13now.com/2016/12/16/feds-to-use-warren-jeffs-recording-to-keep-followers-in-jail/

Observer-Dispatch: Irwin sentenced two years for Word of Life role

Daniel Irwin received two years in county jail on Friday for his role in Word of Life Christian Church deadly beating.

http://www.uticaod.com/news/20161216/irwin-sentenced-two-years-for-word-of-life-role

The Cambodia Daily: UFO Cult Struggles to Recruit New Followers

After witnessing the UFO circling Kandal province firsthand, Mr. Vichet said, it was the moment that he decided to become Cambodia’s first officially baptized member of the 

​​

Raelism movement.

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/ufo-cult-struggles-to-recruit-new.html

NBC12: On Your Side: Woman says she was swindled by psychic in Henrico

"She said that this person hadn't done anything to me that he actually loved me a lot. He was just confused about a situation and that she could do a love candle for $190,” Toth said.  "She told me that I needed a gold tabernacle for $2,000 and she said that I had a dark spirit about me. So she really got me convinced and very paranoid and she got me to stop taking my medication she said you just need to rely on God."

http://m.nbc12.com/nbc12/db_345462/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ryR60q42

News, Intervention, Recovery

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

Google+

Flipboard

Twitter

Cults101 Bookstore (500 books/videos)

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.

Please forward articles that you think we should add to CultNEWS101.com.

Thanks,

Joe Kelly

​ (​

joekelly411@gmail.com​​

​)​

Patrick Ryan (pryan19147@gmail.com)​

Experience: I was abandoned by my cult

There are parts of that day I was left on the roadside that I cannot recall

Christine Mathis with her husband Jörg: ‘We pieced together how the brotherhood had prevented us from marrying.’

Christine Mathis

Guardian
December 16, 2016

All I remember of the day I was left on a roadside in Pennsylvania, in 1963, was a hand pulling $20 from his pocket, and my small suitcase. I can’t remember who drove me away from the Bruderhof church community I had been shut in since I was a five-year-old girl; now, aged 24, I had been excluded. I was abandoned, but I could breathe again.

My Methodist parents had packed up our Gloucestershire home in 1943 and moved us to a two-room cottage, without hot water or a toilet, in Shropshire. Daddy used to deliver grain from his mill to the Cotswolds Bruderhof – a Christian movement originating in Germany. He was a pacifist and liked this international community of Christians all living together in wartime; eventually he persuaded my mother to join them.

I watched, confused, as two men with beards (“the brothers”) put my mattress on the back of a truck, packed up my beautiful dolls’ house to give away and took us to the closed religious commune. Its men and women, in their matching dress, felt like giants and witches to me. I became extremely insecure.

The church was dogmatic and fanatical. Its members did not use birth control and our family grew from three children to 12. I felt our parents had been brainwashed. They still loved us, but they withdrew; it was as if we children had become the property of the brotherhood.

When I was 14, we were sent to a commune in the jungle in Paraguay, where we lived, alongside other families, in a simple home with a straw roof and clay floor. When I turned 15, I worked all day in the kindergarten and was schooled in the evening. The heat and way of life were oppressive. I suffered panic attacks.

There was one happiness, though: a young man called Jörg who worked as a night watchman. I would wait at my window to see him on horseback. I didn’t know, then, that this was being attracted to someone.

The rules did not allow us to hold hands or kiss, and feelings could be communicated only via a minister. We knew we wanted to marry but when Jörg asked the ministers’ permission, he was refused. They said my spirit was bad. No one ever told me this and I was left to assume he no longer cared for me.

In 1961, I watched my family return to England on the back of a dusty lorry; they would later be moved back and forth between communes in the US and UK, but it had been decided by the brotherhood that, at 22, I was old enough to stay on my own. My heart was in my mouth as I tried to catch Mummy’s attention to wave goodbye. I saw them only a few more times, at the Bruderhof’s behest.

After my family left I was sent to Pennsylvania. I was alone and my spirit was crushed. Two years later, without explanation, I was excluded.

When you experience shock, your mind blanks things out and there are parts of that day I was left on the roadside that I cannot recall. I remember the little house where I rented a room, and the hospital where I asked for a job. And I know that the minute I was left alone, it was as if all my aches and pains left me. I was so relieved to start living. I made friends, but never married.

I heard Jörg’s name again 16 years later, living in London, through a couple who had also been excluded. They said he’d been forced to leave the commune and was living in America. I wrote to him at once.

When his reply arrived, it was as if I had shed a dead skin. I had longed so much for a husband and children, and now, at 40, all my seeking was over. We pieced together how the brotherhood had prevented us from marrying and what had happened to us since. He moved to England and we married six weeks later; soon after, we adopted three children.

I am 78 now and we live four miles from where I was born. I still have private spiritual belief but institutional Christianity isn’t for me.

I always loved my parents, and only when I trained as a counsellor did I feel anger towards them for their complicity in what happened. Part of me is brought to tears when I share my story, but the stronger feeling is one of fulfilment and victory at how life turned out.

• As told to Deborah Linton

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/16/i-was-abandoned-by-my-cult-experience