There has been a growth in popularity of religious groups like The Children of God and Divine Light Mission (DLM) who are meeting the needs of some young people looking to find meaning in their lives.
"When it comes to punk and hardcore, a nearly palpable disdain for high-handed theology has long been the party line of the scene.
More than music, these bands are traditionally known to espouse a full-throated rejection of the dogma that many had force-fed to them during their formative years. Even those who weren't raised with religion and therefore dodged the personal indoctrination bullet can't turn a blind eye to Bible-thumpers influencing policies that clamp down on reproductive rights, gut social services, and fan the flames of international conflicts.
Of course, there's been a Christian hardcore scene smashing it out since the late '80s, parading their faith around right in the heart of a community that's built on giving the proverbial middle finger to tradition. And then there's hardline zealots like Vegan Reich, who somehow married the teachings of fundamentalist Islam with hardline fury. These groups have always lingered on the fringes, tolerated rather than embraced.
In the early '90s, a different kind of religious fervor began to snake its way into the scene, gaining a level of acceptance that was without parallel or precedent.
Invoking the serenity and communal ethos of the peace and love flower children of the 1960s, the Hare Krishnas represented a significant cultural and spiritual extension of the hippie movement. Disillusioned by the Western religious traditions they were raised in, these seekers pivoted towards the East in their quest for a form of enlightenment that promised a more profound connection with the divine and an escape from the materialistic trappings of modern society.
Easily identifiable by their distinctive shaved heads and saffron robes, Krishna devotees became a familiar sight in cities across the U.S. and Europe in decades past. They were often seen selling flowers, stickers, and spiritual literature or engaging passersby with their melodic chanting. Although walking a fine line between being labeled a cult and embraced as a legitimate religion, their peaceful, rhythmic voices and acts of kindness echoed the flower-power ethos, appealing to those seeking spirituality beyond the confines of the conventional.
In the 1980s, a unique convergence occurred as groups of straightedge hardcore kids from New York City and surrounding areas began to show an interest in the path towards enlightenment espoused by the movement. This road emphasized self-realization over sensory gratification—a principle that resonated deeply with the willful abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and casual sex that many were already practicing.
Disillusioned by the hedonism and nihilism that often surrounded people in the hardcore scene, the discipline and purpose offered by the Hare Krishna faith provided a means of personal improvement and greater meaning in life.
The origins of the Krishnacore can be traced back to New York hardcore bands like Antidote and Cause For Alarm, whose members were known to frequent Temples and openly utilized Krishna imagery in their visual art. The movement saw its ideas propelled into the wider punk consciousness with the release of Cro-Mags' debut, The Age Of Quarrel. This seminal album drew its title from Vedic scriptures, referencing a time of widespread conflict and sin referred to as the Kali Yuga."
"A businessman pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring with the leader of an offshoot polygamous sect near the Arizona-Utah border to transport underage girls across state lines, making him the first man to be convicted in what authorities say was a scheme to orchestrate sexual acts involving children.
Moroni Johnson, who faces 10 years to life in prison, acknowledged that he participated in a scheme to transport four girls under the age of 18 for sexual activity. Authorities say the conspiracy between the 53-year-old Johnson and the sect's leader, self-proclaimed prophet Samuel Bateman, occurred over a three-year period ending in September 2022.
Authorities say Bateman had created a sprawling network spanning at least four states as he tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which historically has been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. He and his followers practice polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. Bateman and his followers believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven."
"Former Ohio priest Michael Zacharias, who is serving life in prison for sexual abuse, has been dismissed from the Catholic Church by the Pope.
According to the Diocese, his case was transmitted to the Holy See, which is the governing body overseeing Vatican City.
The case was sent with the request that the Pope dismiss Zacharias from the clerical state. acharias was sentenced to life in prison last year for sex trafficking minors and adults. He served in multiple parishes, including in Toledo, Fremont, and Findlay."
Japan on Wednesday marked the 29th anniversary of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 14 people and injured more than 6,000.
At Tokyo Metro Co.'s Kasumigaseki Station, 16 station staff members offered a silent prayer around 8 a.m., close to the time of the attack. Shizue Takahashi, 77, a bereaved family member, visited the station to lay flowers around 10 a.m. "We are not in a situation where we can say the incident is over," she said, calling for efforts to keep the attack from being forgotten.
The attack occurred during the morning rush hour of March 20, 1995. Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin in trains on the three lines of Tokyo Metro's predecessor running through the station, close to the Kasumigaseki district where central government offices are concentrated.
At the station, two senior subway officials died, namely Takahashi's husband, Kazumasa, then 50, and Tsuneo Hishinuma, then 51.
Over the sarin attack and other crimes by Aum Shinrikyo, 13 people were executed in July 2018, including former leader Chizuo Matsumoto, then 63, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara."
News, Education, Intervention, Recovery
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.
Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.
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 cultintervention@gmail.com.
Nori Muster
Sunday, June 26, 2022
11:00 AM-11:50 AM
It's human nature to make up stories, and we all make up our own story. We piece it together with the events we feel shaped our lives. Once we have a fixed story, we learn to play the role of the protagonist. Thus, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves shapes our behavior, the decisions we make, and the life we create for ourselves. As ex-members, we may feel like failures for joining a cult, and our story may reflect our rationalizations to justify our mistakes. Stories based on guilt and grief hold us back. We may think, "that's just the way it is," and believe we can't change it. However, changing our stories can change our lives.
Nori Muster was in the Hare Krishna organization, ISKCON, for ten years, 1978 to 1988. For thirty years after leaving the group, she clung to the negative story about how the cult ruined her life. She believed joining the group was an unforgivable mistake, and she attributed her failures to her parents' divorce in 1970 that traumatized her as a fourteen-year old. This story was embedded in her consciousness for decades and seemed impossible to change. However, in the last three years, through intensive writing and studying her dream journals, Nori created a new, positive life story. Reading over the journal helped because she found the dreams non-judgmental and forgiving of her daytime self. Instead of feeling permanently broken, she has written a new life story of meaningful experiences and love, and she cherishes her younger self. Along with her discussion of story, she will briefly describe the dream journal project she started in 2016. After the presentation, she will take questions and listen to others' stories.
Arts Editor ICSA Today
Nori Muster, MS, is the author of Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life Behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement (University of Illinois Press, 1997), Cult Survivors Handbook: Seven Paths to an Authentic Life (2010), and Child of the Cult (2012). She was an ISKCON member from 1978-1988, then earned her Master of Science degree at Western Oregon University in 1991 doing art therapy with juvenile sex offenders. She is currently a freelance writer and adjunct professor, based in Arizona. Her website for cultic studies information is norimuster.com/writing/culticstudies.html
"Former Pope Benedict XVI denied that he was given information about child abuse in the Legionaries of Christ religious order when he was a top Vatican official, in a case that has tarnished the reputation of his predecessor, John Paul II.
Founded by Mexican cleric Marcial Maciel in 1941, the Legionaries of Christ order was heavily favored during the conservative papacy of John Paul II, who praised Maciel's work in reaching out to and evangelizing young people.
Maciel turned out to be one of the Catholic Church's most notorious pedophiles, even abusing children he had fathered secretly with at least two women while living a double life and being feted by the Vatican and Church conservatives.
The former pope's denial was made to Germany's Die Zeit newspaper in response to allegations it had published from filmmaker Christoph Roehl, who said he had found evidence that two Chilean priests had presented the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with a dossier listing abuse victims in the order.
At the time, Ratzinger was head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and John Paul II's right-hand man, the Polish pope's ideological and doctrinal enforcer."
"Jon Sawyer was raised in two homes influenced by both high-demand religion and secular worldviews. Prior to his parent's divorce at the age of four, his family was involved with both Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Christian Science. Shortly after his parent's divorce, his mother took a secular route, while his father converted to Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity. While Jon's father sprinkled elements of TM and Christian Science into his childhood, his dad's newfound evangelical Christian faith fixated on the end of the world, divine healing, speaking in tongues, and the "prosperity gospel." When Jon was fifteen, he converted to Mormonism. From the age of fifteen to thirty-five, Jon was involved with various high-demand religious groups that were associated with both charismatic Christianity and Mormonism. As a teen who was deeply conflicted about his attraction to the same sex, Jon attended the now-defunct Spirit Life Bible College (SLBC)-associated with Roberts Liardon Ministries-in Orange County, CA. While at SLBC, Jon experienced multiple sessions of exorcism and conversion therapies that were aimed at "healing" his sexual identity. When Jon was twenty-six, he became involved with Sovereign Grace Churches: a group that began during the charismatic Jesus Movement of the 1970s and eventually adopted a neo-Calvinist theology that emphasized strict gender roles and courtship practices. Jon separated from organized religion six years ago, at the age of 35. Since that time, Jon has benefited from somatic therapy, completed both a BA and MA in education, and is currently a doctoral student and researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. Partly due to the influence of his experiences with high-demand religious groups, Jon now studies the intersection of education policy and anti-discrimination law.
"It sure is good to see Mark Vicente back in the saddle again. In Part 2, he shares what happened during his last conversation with Keith Raniere, how he's defragged his brain since he helped burn ol' Dead Eyes' playhouse down, and what the bleep he's working on next. Oh, and there is bountiful ass-chapping."
"In this episode we have our first interview with someone who has experienced The International Society for Krishna Consciousness with Michael giving us a deep look into many types of Religion and Spirituality and a particularly problematic place to partake in the Hare Krishna Group called "The Mantra Lounge"."
News, Education, Intervention, Recovery
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.
Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.
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 cultintervention@gmail.com.
"Emmanuel Onokpise is the father of the baby who was allegedly rescued by officials of the Lagos State Government and the Office of the Public Defender and given blood transfusion for jaundice, after he declined the medical procedure in line with his faith as a Jehovah's Witness."
"Leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses have been told to pay £62,000 in damages to a former member who was raped after door-to-door visits.The woman was attacked 30 years ago by Mark Sewell after evangelising for the religious group near Cardiff.A "judicial committee" of the group's elders found the allegations against Sewell "not proven" in an internal inquiry in 1991.But High Court judge Mr Justice Chamberlain ruled in the her favour.Sewell was jailed for 14 years after a trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in 2014 convicted him of raping the woman and indecently assaulting two other people."
"A federal lawsuit in New York accuses Nxivm founder Keith Raniere and 14 associates of conducting illegal psychological experiments on members of the self-help company and systematically abusing them physically, emotionally and financially.The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday by more than 80 alleged victims seeking financial relief and a jury trial. Nxivm and its entities are also listed in the lawsuit."" ... The defendants allegedly committed "sex trafficking, peonage, forced labour and human trafficking offences" while enticing members to join a company that "functioned as both a Ponzi scheme and a coercive community," according to the lawsuit.Nxivm touted itself as a coaching and educational business for corporations and individuals, but prosecutors say in the lawsuit that the company actually acted as a multilevel marketing pyramid scheme with a secret society involved in things like sex trafficking and "master-slave relationships."
"A California church leader was arrested by the FBI on immigration fraud charges because of a decadeslong scheme to trick followers into becoming fundraisers and arrange sham marriages to keep them in the U.S., according to reports.The local leader of the Philippines-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ church in Los Angeles was arrested in the early morning bust along with a worker who confiscated passports of the victims of the scheme, the U.S. attorney's office said.Fundraisers who managed to escape from the church told the FBI that they had been sent across the U.S. to solicit donations for the church's charity, The Children's Joy Foundation, and were beaten if they didn't make daily quotas, according to affidavit filed in support of the charges.Some described having to live in cars at truck stops.An FBI agent investigating the case documented 82 sham marriages over a 20-year period and tracked $20 million raised between 2014 and the middle of last year that was sent back to the church in the Philippines."
"Eleven Naked Emperors is quite masterful, and extremely important. The story is a long and complicated one, but Doktorski has done an outstanding job putting the entire drama into a very well documented and highly readable account. His tone is remarkably non-partisan, non-polemical and he has tried sincerely to be fair and impartial. I might add, for those who feel that dirty laundry should not be displayed in public, that there is nothing in Doktorski's work that seeks to undermine the faith of the devotees in Krishna or, for that matter, in the institution of ISKCON. Those assuming the role of gurus, most especially, should read this book carefully. And this is also a book for the tens of thousands of devotees driven away from ISKCON with their spiritual ideals in tatters; this is their story too. The author has risen to the dharma of the historian in documenting a defining period in the history of the Hare Krishna movement.Edwin BryantProfessor of Hindu Philosophy and Religion Rutgers University DURING A DISPUTATIOUS DECADE, after they had buried the saintly Founder of the institution, the Governing Body Commission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)—more commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement—appointed eleven men as successors to the Founder in what one disciple called "a bloodless coup." Each of the eleven ruled their own geographic regions (zones), where they were erroneously regarded as pure and perfect beings (acharyas). They were considered beyond criticism and worshiped "as good as God." The eleven, however, pretended to be something they were not (like the main character in Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes), and within a few short years insurmountable problems afflicted some of the ISKCON "gurus," such as falling down into prohibited activities, like illicit sex and intoxication. Unfortunately, the astute and dedicated disciples who criticized the zonal "acharyas" were shunned, expelled, beaten, or (in one extreme case) assassinated. Hundreds, if not thousands of formerly-loyal members defected, were blacklisted, or (in two cases) committed suicide. This book chronicles the era of the ISKCON zonal "acharyas" from their first appearance in 1978, through their meteoric rise to power, their ten-year reign, their fall in 1987, and beyond.For fifteen years the author served as a faithful disciple of one of the zonal "acharyas," and lived through many of the events described in this book. Recently, he has interviewed major players in this drama, who have contributed important inside information so we can more fully understand this controversial and little-documented chapter in the history of ISKCON."
"On November 26, 2019, Bitter Winter reported about the Catholic church in Ji'an city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, where the painting of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child was removed on orders from local officials and was replaced with the portrait of President Xi Jinping. After the news circulated widely abroad, local government officials went to the church at night and removed the portrait and propaganda slogans next to it. A wooden signboard, "Minors are forbidden to participate in religious activities," displayed at the church entrance, was also removed.The portrait of Xi Jinping and propaganda slogans were displayed on a wall in a Catholic church in Ji'an city.A local government employee confirmed to Bitter Winter that the portrait and slogans were removed because the incident had been reported overseas, which has "smeared the CCP's image."After our report about the Zhongyuan Yidianhong Temple in Henan Province's Ruzhou city, dedicated to the worshiping of China's leaders, has been widely shared abroad, the government hurriedly destroyed the temple the same month."What does the totalitarian regime do when news about its mistreatment of citizens get out? It lies, hides or destroys evidence, adopts harsher suppression measures.