CultNEWS101: Articles 1/18/2017 ​

White Supremacist, ​Catholic Church, Abuse-child, Boko Haram, Shakers, FLDS, Scientology, Buddhism, ​Bikram Yoga, Polygamy, legal, Cameroon, Cambodia

​UK Complex: ​

A Complete Dictionary Of 

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White Supremacist Slang And Symbols

While everyone is familiar with the swastika's significance to white supremacists and their organization, not every sign is as obvious. Not every neo-Nazi is a skinhead (and not every skinhead is a neo-Nazi). And as evidenced by various fascist-normalizing profiles on the "alt right," the majority of white supremacists look like normal people and can blend easily into crowds.

http://uk.complex.com/life/2017/01/dictionary-of-white-supermacist-slang-symbols/

Palm Beach Post: Priest sues diocese, claiming it punished him for reporting sex abuse

A former priest at Holy Name of Jesus 

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Catholic Church on Wednesday sued the Diocese of Palm Beach, claiming it punished him for exposing a pedophile priest rather than covering it up as they wanted.

The lawsuit, filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, accuses the diocese and Bishop Gerald Barbarito of defaming the Rev. John Gallagher. The 49-year-old priest pointed to a statement posted last year on the diocesan website that said Gallagher was “blatantly lying” and “in need of professional assistance” for claiming church leaders urged him not to tell police a visiting priest in January 2015 had shown pornographic pictures to a 14-year-old youth at the suburban West Palm Beach church.

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http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/crime--law/priest-sues-diocese-claiming-punished-him-for-reporting-sex-abuse/eB6segzLBqLrAwrdpgOxTN/

PRI: Cameroon has been using witchcraft to fight Boko Haram

After Biya’s call to employ witchcraft against Boko Haram in January 2016, hundreds of militia fighters rushed to sorcerers, commonly called “marabouts,” to obtain lucky charms and talismans to protect them in battle.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2017-01-11/cameroon-has-been-using-witchcraft-fight-boko-haram

The Economist: The dying out of the sect’s last members may not mean the end for the Shakers

At their height in the mid-19th century, Shakers numbered about 6,000, with 19 settlements, mainly in New England, New York and Kentucky. An offshoot of Quakers, the Shakers began in England in the 1740s. Seeking religious freedom, they left for the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. Their rise coincided with a religious fervour sweeping the frontier. Decades before emancipation and 150 years before women had the vote, Shakers practised social, gender and racial equality for all members.

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21714343-frances-carr-last-person-be-raised-shaker-died-january-2nd-dying-out

Salt Lake Tribune: What was it like being married to Warren Jeffs? One wife has some stories.

Texas records indicated that Jeffs, the church president who is serving a prison sentence in that state, married 81 times to women and girls. One of the few to speak is Brielle Decker.

Decker has given interviews in recent years. The latest is with the podcast "Year of Polygamy."

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4811097-155/what-was-it-like-being-married

Tampa Bay Times: A Scientology battle like no other: Miscavige versus Miscavige

When a friend told Ron Miscavige about Holiday Magic, a multi-level cosmetics marketing scheme, he didn't think much of it at first. But in 1968, the promise of $100,000 in extra income for top distributors proved too enticing for a cookware salesman with four kids at home. A good talker with an entrepreneurial bent, he put in $5,000 to became a "master distributor."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/a-scientology-battle-like-no-other-miscavige-versus-miscavige/2309340

The Cambodia Daily: Religion Minister Questioned Over Efforts to Promote Buddhism

The Minister of Cults and Religion was questioned by a National Assembly commission on Tuesday over efforts to promote Buddhism in the country and an assortment of other concerns affecting the religion, according to the opposition lawmaker who summoned him.

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/religion-minister-questioned-over-efforts-to-promote-buddhism-123249/

Yoga Journal: Bikram Choudhury Ordered to Turn Over Business Proceeds, Car Collection

Things just keep getting worse for 

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Bikram Choudhury. A judge has ordered the Bikram Yoga founder to turn over the proceeds from his business to go toward a $6.8 million judgment his former legal adviser won against him last year in a sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit, the former employee’s lawyer said last week, according to the Associated Press.

http://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/types-of-yoga/hot-yoga/bikram/

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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.

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

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Patrick Ryan (pryan19147@gmail.com)​​​

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Cameroon has been using witchcraft to fight Boko Haram

Global PostChristian Locka
January 11, 2017

In the war on terror, guns and bombs just haven’t been enough. So Cameroon is trying spells and curses too.

About a year ago, Cameroonian President Paul Biya urged citizens to use witchcraft against Boko Haram, the Islamic State-affiliated militants who have terrorized West Africa for years.

“We expect every village to have brilliant actions in this direction,” said Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region of the country, echoing the president. “We want to hear that this or that village has wiped out or limited the sect's damage through witchcraft. Fight for your country.”

Many viewed the move as a sign of Biya’s desperation as the jihadists continue their rampage of suicide attacks, pillaging and kidnapping throughout Cameroon, as well as in Chad and Nigeria. The three countries have made headway against the group — some commercial routes between Cameroon and Nigeria that had been closed due to the violence have reopened, and some of the people displaced from villages near the Nigerian border have been able to return home. But there is much more left to do.

And locals in Mora, a remote mountainous district in the Far North province near Nigeria, said they would try anything to end the Islamic State’s reign of terror.

After Biya’s call to employ witchcraft against Boko Haram in January 2016, hundreds of militia fighters rushed to sorcerers, commonly called “marabouts,” to obtain lucky charms and talismans to protect them in battle.

"Since I have this gris-gris, I have no problem,” said Mohamad Ahmed, a gym teacher and member of a local militia in Mora, referring to a small cloth bag typically worn around the neck or wrist.

Filled with supposedly magic objects and paper inscribed with verses from the Koran, Bible or other holy scriptures, gris-gris originated in Africa but are common among voodoo practitioners in the Caribbean as well. Women often don them for contraception.

“It is so powerful,” said Ahmed. “I put it on at the moment I go into the field of fighting. The fetish protects its wearer. If someone shoots at you, the bullets have no effect. They fall on the ground like small pebbles.”

Ahmed noted that he has not been shot to test the charm, however.

In the past two years, more than 1,500 Cameroonians have died in the war against Boko Haram, while the violence has displaced 155,000 people, according to the government.

"One morning the terrorists entered our house,” said a 32-year-old woman who fled Kérawa, a village on the Nigerian border, with her 9-month-old baby.

The woman, now in Mora, was a farmer in Kérawa. She declined to provide her name out of fear of retribution from Boko Haram militants. “They murdered my husband before our eyes,” she said. “Then they raped my neighbor before setting fire to the whole village. Soldiers on patrol saved us."

Ironically, witchcraft is illegal in Cameroon due to its perceived pernicious effects in tribal communities, where believers frequently cast spells in hopes of hurting their enemies. The law imposes fines and prison sentences of as long as 10 years on those convicted of black magic.

However, "it is well known that occult ceremonies are practiced in the political circles of Cameroon at a very high level,” said Henriette Ekwe, a Cameroonian political analyst and good government advocate.

She maintains that the call for occult help isn’t a good sign.

“When one comes to advocate the practice of witchcraft, it is because one is not sure of one's army,” she said. “It is not up to a head of state to advocate practices of black magic in a theater of operations where it is the weapons that must inflict defeat on Boko Haram, not magicians or sorcerers. This is very serious for the morale of the troops."

“What is surprising,” she went on, “is that the head of state advocates the practice of witchcraft prohibited in Cameroon. How many times have we thrown old people into cells on the grounds that they are accused of practicing black magic in the villages?”

Baba Boukar, a marabout, claimed that he had studied witchcraft for years and could invoke curses and cure the sick. Against Boko Haram, he said his disciples could choose between magic trinkets like Ahmed’s, or vampirism.

To locals, there are two types of witchcraft: fetishism, which employs charms to harm or do good, and vampirism, in which incantations replace the physical objects.

"Some members of the vigilance committees now have the ability to mystically eat the hearts of enemies or make them slaves by pronouncing incantations," said Boukar. These would be spiritual, not literal, accomplishments.

Another militia fighter, a 30-year-old who gave his name only as Delli, said he possessed an amulet that allowed him to turn invisible and sneak up on Boko Haram terrorists in Kérawa.

"I was recently alerted that two women were in possession of a bomb. I wanted to surprise them,” he explained. "I pronounced the magic phrases and I appeared before them. The bomb was defused."

Still, officials don’t know if the wizardry has been working or not.

"We pass the information of the higher-ups to the populations concerned,” said Toudje Goumo, a deputy prefect of the Mayo-Sava area in Cameroon’s Far North region. “Regarding witchcraft, we don’t have the resources to assess the level of its impact on the ground.”

But locals believe. In fact, faith in the supernatural is so strong among Cameroonians that some said they feared militia members might use magic to commit crimes or exact revenge for grievances against their neighbors.

“I am concerned about the consequences,” said Ngue Bong Simon Pierre, a lawyer in Douala. “Isn't it possible that those responsible for performing these rites might also abuse them?"

Christian Locka reported from Yaounde, Cameroon.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2017-01-11/cameroon-has-been-using-witchcraft-fight-boko-haram?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=c60a7ab2eb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-c60a7ab2eb-400018169