CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/10/2020

Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, JonXArmy, Conspiracy Theories, Male Domestic Violence, Research, Yoga, Greek Orthodox

The Guardian: Australia's drug regulator launches court action against church touting bleach as Covid-19 cure

"Group's US arm wrote to Trump peddling 'wonderful detox' to 'rid the body' of coronavirusAustralia's drug regulator has started court proceedings against a "healing church" that promoted a solution containing industrial bleach as a cure for coronavirus, after the church failed to remove advertisements promoting the product from its website.
In May the Therapeutic Goods Administration fined the Australian chapter of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing more than $150,000 for selling and promoting the solution containing sodium chlorite, a chemical used as a textile bleaching agent and disinfectant. The product is named Miracle Mineral Supplement and Miracle Mineral Solution on the church's MMS Australia website, which claimed it could prevent and treat a range of diseases including Covid-19. The TGA said the company had breached multiple advertising laws.
At the time, the TGA also informed MMS Australia that it must also immediately remove all advertisements in breach of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, and warned that court action might be started if the advertisements were not removed within two days. But MMS Australia did not remove the ads. Instead, it updated the website to say those seeking miracle cures should also 'pray to The Lord for healing and guidance'."

SFIST: Conspiracy Theorists Now Promoting Rumor That George Floyd Didn't Die On YouTube and Twitter

"It's been a week since a Minneapolis police officer was seen on video pressing his knee into the neck of an unarmed black man who subsequently died. And it didn't even take that long, as the nation's cities were plunged into chaos in the last several days amid vociferous protests, for the conspiracy theories to take hold on social media.
Jon Miller of the JonXArmy channel on YouTube posted a 22-minute video on Friday suggesting that George Floyd's death was faked. As the New York Times reports, that video was subsequently shared around 100 times, mostly in QAnon lunatic groups, reaching some 1.3 million people.
Also, the phrase "George Floyd is not dead" was spreading on Twitter over the weekend and reportedly peaked on Monday morning, with 15 separate mentions in a 10-minute span.
Zignal Labs, which tracks online activity and has done so during other times of protest around the globe, finds that the protests stemming from George Floyd's death have already far surpassed the online-mention activity than did the Yellow Vest movement in France or the Hong Kong protests last year, with 8.8 million mentions as of Friday."

University of Central Lancashire: If you are a male victim of partner abuse or domestic violence you are encouraged to respond to this survey.

The Office of National Statistics shows that one in three victims of domestic abuse is male.  There is also a growing body of evidence that shows that women perpetrate partner violence at similar rates to men.  Despite this, there are relatively few studies examining the experiences of male victims.  This survey aims to evaluate the experiences of partner violence for male victims.

What will I be asked to do?

Your participation is important as you have been in a relationship where there has been the presence of partner abuse/coercive control. If you wish to proceed, you will be asked to complete an online survey that will take approximately 30 - 45 mins.  The survey includes questions regarding you and your experience within the abusive relationship.  It also includes psychological scales to measure; the behaviour within the abusive relationship, post-traumatic stress symptoms, types of coping and post-traumatic growth.

BBC: Greek Orthodox Church rules yoga is 'incompatible' with Christianity

"Downward dog, sun salutations and all other yoga practices are "absolutely incompatible" with the Christian faith, the powerful Greek Orthodox Church has said.

Yoga has no place "in the life of Christians," the governing body of the Church has ruled.

It said it intervened after Greek media recommended yoga as a way to combat stress during coronavirus quarantine.

Other religions have also advised against the practice in the past.

The Orthodox Church is an influential organisation in Greece, and 90% of Greeks identify as Orthodox, according to a 2017 Pew Research Centre report.

"[Yoga] is a fundamental chapter in Hindu religion... it is not a 'kind of physical exercise'," the Holy Synod said in its statement on Wednesday.

Although it is not unheard of for religious authorities to criticise yoga, correspondents say it is unusual for the Orthodox Holy Synod to issue a public statement on the matter.

Appearing on a Greek TV network on Thursday, an Orthodox priest defended the Synod's statement.

The church's opposition is based on the "experience of those who practised yoga", Father Michael Konstantinidis said, explaining that "if yoga offered what man wanted, we would be happy".

The ancient spiritual practice has connections to Hinduism and Buddhism. It is referenced in Indian texts from 2,500 years ago and has evolved over time, according to Dr Mark Singleton, who has researched the history of yoga."

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Greek Orthodox Church rules yoga is 'incompatible' with Christianity

June 5, 2020
BBC News

Downward dog, sun salutations and all other yoga practices are "absolutely incompatible" with the Christian faith, the powerful Greek Orthodox Church has said.

Yoga has no place "in the life of Christians," the governing body of the Church has ruled.

It said it intervened after Greek media recommended yoga as a way to combat stress during coronavirus quarantine.

Other religions have also advised against the practice in the past.

The Orthodox Church is an influential organisation in Greece, and 90% of Greeks identify as Orthodox, according to a 2017 Pew Research Centre report.

"[Yoga] is a fundamental chapter in Hindu religion... it is not a 'kind of physical exercise'," the Holy Synod said in its statement on Wednesday.

Although it is not unheard of for religious authorities to criticise yoga, correspondents say it is unusual for the Orthodox Holy Synod to issue a public statement on the matter.

Appearing on a Greek TV network on Thursday, an Orthodox priest defended the Synod's statement.

The church's opposition is based on the "experience of those who practised yoga", Father Michael Konstantinidis said, explaining that "if yoga offered what man wanted, we would be happy".

The ancient spiritual practice has connections to Hinduism and Buddhism. It is referenced in Indian texts from 2,500 years ago and has evolved over time, according to Dr Mark Singleton, who has researched the history of yoga.

In recent decades it has become popular globally and is now a huge industry, often advertised as beneficial for stress-relief, mental wellbeing or physical strength.

Yoga has been recommended in countries around the world as a way to keep fit and combat stress during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Greece avoided the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe by introducing a lockdown early in March. It has registered fewer than 3,000 cases and only 180 deaths in a population of 11 million.

The Orthodox Church was criticised for suggesting that the ritual of sharing a cup amongst a congregation for Holy Communion would not spread the virus.
What do other religions say?

The Greek Orthodox Church isn't the only faith to have frowned upon yoga.

Last year a church hall in Devon, England, barred a yoga class. "Some will say at its root it is an eastern spirituality which they would not feel sits well with Christian spirituality," said the Venerable Mark Butchers, Archdeacon of Barnstaple.

In 2010 a pastor in Seattle, US, called the practice "demonic".

And in 2008 Malaysia's leading Islamic council said yoga could corrupt Muslims but backed down from issuing a fatwa after a backlash.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52935478

Kinky Orthodox priest brought down by ‘cake porn’ sex tape

Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein
NY Post
October 4, 2015

Father George Passias and Edith Bouzalas leaving
 St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in 2013.

A high-ranking Greek Orthodox priest starred in kinky sex tapes with his much-younger parish-school principal and was forced to resign after the affair — which he’d denied for years — was confirmed by church elders.

Father George Passias, the married, 67-year-old pastor of St. Spyridon Church in Washington Heights, even impregnated his married lover, 45-year-old Ethel Bouzalas, according to sources.

Passias was once the chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, in charge of all of the religion’s US priests.

An adherent to a fundamentalist faction of Greek Orthodoxy led by a controversial cleric in Arizona, he took the helm of St. Spyridon nine years ago — and immediately ordered female worshippers to cover their heads during confession.

But there was no such nod to modesty in the shocking sex videos viewed by The Post.

Cake-crush porn

In one scene, the bearded cleric, wearing only a white T-shirt, watches his long-haired brunette lover plant her thong-clad bottom on a piece of banana bread wrapped in cellophane.

In another video clip, the pretty Peruvian rubs her feet on the priest’s face as they lie under a mirrored ceiling and she records his ecstasy at the encounter. In another tape, the priest performs oral sex on his lover while she is still clad in sheer pantyhose.

The videos and photos of the pair were provided anonymously to The Post last week with a letter saying they were downloaded off a computer in Passias’ church office. The sender wrote that a private investigator had been hired to tail the couple to their rendezvous in motels in New Jersey and upstate Cold Spring.

The scandal blew up in early September when Tom Bouzalas, Ethel Bouzalas’ husband, emailed Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, the chancellor of the Greek Orthodox church in the United States, and disclosed the affair, the bishop told The Post.

The bishop, known in the church by his first name, said that both Passias and Ethel Bouzalas then came to see him and that Passias was suspended on Sept. 16 “as per the sexual-misconduct policy of the archdiocese.”

Andonios said he had not seen the sex tapes but “learned of their existence during our meetings with both parties.”

After a weeks-long absence from the pulpit, Passias told his St. Spyridon flock in an email last week that he was leaving for “personal and health reasons,” and confessed to “multitudinous sins and shortcomings.”

“I will now fade out of this world for a considerable time according to God’s will,” he wrote. “He has chosen for me . . . that I should retire and follow the way of silence, prayer, fasting, and ­utter devotion to our Lord.

“Please do not ask where I am going and where I will be. Then it would not be possible for me to fulfill what is my lot.”

But Passias, who lives in Flushing, Queens, is not in an isolated monastery self-flagellating. Instead, he went to his daughter’s home in Chicago, a church official said. Messages left there were not returned.

He asked his parishioners to pray for him and his wife. He has four grown children. Bouzalas, who lives in Brooklyn, has three kids.

The Post in 2013 broke the story about the unorthodox relationship between Passias and Bouzalas and alleged fiscal wrongdoing at the church, which has nearly 200 families and was established in 1931 when the neighborhood was a Greek stronghold.

When Passias took the helm of the Wadsworth Avenue church in 2006, Bouzalas came with him as his assistant. He called her his “spiritual goddaughter,” and they arrived and left together every day. A church handyman said he once saw her sitting on the priest’s lap.

Baptized in a bikini

Bouzalas told parishioners that she converted to the Greek Orthodox faith and that Passias baptized her while she wore a bikini. The conversion apparently came before she was to marry her husband, a follower of the faith.

Greek Orthodoxy has 24 million followers worldwide. The seat of the Christian church is in Istanbul, Turkey, presided over by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Priests can only be men but are allowed to marry.

With his flowing black robes and oversized cross around his neck, Passias cut an imposing and authoritative figure. Bouzalas, meanwhile, favored short skirts and high heels.

Bouzalas, who had no education credentials, was soon promoted to be the volunteer principal of the St. Spyridon Parochial School, which serves kindergarten to eighth grade and has a taxpayer-funded pre-kindergarten program. She also became church treasurer and a signatory on bank accounts.

In addition to imposing the conservative rules, Passias ruffled longtime congregants who said he removed controls over church spending and questioned why money was being poured into repairs at the school.

Management of four church-owned apartment buildings was given over to a company tied to Alma Bank, which also provided cash and mortgage refinancing. Renovations of the buildings was then done by two firms tied to principals at Alma Bank.

In 2013, Passias told The Post the allegations were cooked up by a group of “evil-minded people” — parishioners who wanted him gone.

“They have been saying I’m having a private affair with her,” he said. “She is a goddaughter to me. That’s it.”

Steve Papadatos, the Parish Council president, at the time called the allegations against Passias “lies,” then blasted The Post for publishing a story that he said was “replete with slander” and innuendo. He called the church “eternally grateful” to the priest and Bouzalas, according to The National Herald, a newspaper that covers the Greek community.

Papadatos last week said that he wouldn’t comment on the scandal, but that he stood by Passias and Bouzalas and wanted people to pray for them.

The bishop said that the misconduct was brought before a “Spiritual Court of the First Degree” last week and that a council of church leaders — including the head of Greek Orthodoxy in the United States — will review the findings. Any punishment, including possible defrocking, will be decided in Istanbul.

Re-examination

Asked why the church had ignored the longtime allegations of the affair, the bishop said, “Lacking any concrete evidence of an affair, there was no responsible way the church could take any further action.”

He said an audit a few years ago found no misuse of funds, but another investigation would take place “to assure that ­between that time and now, nothing has changed.”

Bouzalas packed up her school office last week. A moving van carted off a desk, filing cabinet, table and shopping bags with her belongings. A new principal has been assigned to the school.

Her husband refused to comment on the affair or the pregnancy but said the couple was still together. He confirmed he knew of the sex tapes.

Passias, in his farewell note to parishioners, said he was following the direction of “my spiritual father Geronda Ephraim.” Ephraim presides over St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox monastery in Florence, Ariz. The family of a young man who lived there and committed suicide in 2012 contends the death was the result of “six years of physical and psychological abuse” at the monastery.

http://nypost.com/2015/10/04/kinky-orthodox-priest-brought-down-by-cake-porn-sex-tape/