CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/20/2020

Multi-Level and Network Marketing, Mind Control, Conspiracy Theories, Televangelist Jim Bakker, Eliezer Berland, ultra-Orthodox, Shuvu Bonim

Komo News: FTC warning to Multi-Level and Network Marketing companies: Cool it on the claims

" ... The FTC is going after multi-level marketers that use the coronavirus pandemic in their pitches to sell products or recruit new people.

"Two concerns that you have to be aware of when you're a MLM participant," said FTC Regional Director Chuck Harwood. First, you want to make sure that you're passing on reliable information."

Recent warning letters to 10 MLM companies point to unsubstantiated health claims related to COVID, that have no scientific verification and violate the FTC Act, which prohibits misleading and deceptive practices.

"There's simply no substantiation that the kinds of products that are being marketed and sold through these MLM schemes will prevent someone from contracting COVID-19 or help you recover from COVID-19 any faster than you would otherwise," Harwood said

Another big problem is inflated claims about the money you can make with a network marketing business.

"You have to be very careful if you're investing in one, be sure that the promises of how much money you're going to make, are actually truthful. a lot of times they're inflated," Harwood said. "A lot of times, what we find is that people who get into these kind of schemes- whether it's related to COVID-19 or anything else- find that they lose far more money than they ever make." 

The FTC website dedicates an entire section to multi-level marketing businesses and pyramid schemes and how to tell the difference. You can also learn what to look for and how to research a company before you get involved."

South China Morning Post: Coronavirus conspiracy theories about mind control chips, Bill Gates and face masks fuel lockdown protests in Germany

"A celebrity cook who called the coronavirus a government trick to plant mind control chips into Germans under the guise of vaccinations was hauled away by police from an unlawful demonstration in front of the parliament building. A pop star attacked face mask requirements and demanded evidence that Covid-19 really exists, while a leading Roman Catholic Cardinal in Germany added his name to a letter claiming the pandemic was a pretext to create a global government.

Prominent supporters of conspiracy theories are focusing on the Covid-19 shutdown that has crippled economies around the world, with angry protests against government-imposed limits on freedoms erupting across the country in the past week, despite rules banning such gatherings.

Police and journalists have also been injured in spasms of violent outbursts at the at-times unruly demonstrations. There are growing fears that the eclectic groups could exacerbate doubts about democracy in Germany by capitalising on the turmoil of the coronavirus."

CNN: Televangelist Jim Bakker is recovering from a stroke, his wife says

"Famed televangelist Jim Bakker recently had a stroke, his wife said. His eponymous TV show will continue to film without him while he recovers.Lori Bakker announced her 80-year-old husband would take a sabbatical from "The Jim Bakker Show," the Christian TV program the couple cohosts.Working nonstop took a "huge toll" on her husband's health, she said. Bakker was recently sued by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt for claiming a silver product could kill coronavirus."We are thankful that Jim is okay, and that he is now at home with our family," she wrote in a Facebook post from the show's page. "Jim will be back!"For decades, Bakker and his then-wife, the late Tammy Faye Messner, ran the evangelistic empire "Praise the Lord," or PTL, from their own theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina, near Charlotte, North Carolina. The two hosted "The PTL Club," one of the best-known Christian programs of its time, throughout the 1970s and '80s.He stepped down from the ministry in 1987 amid financial and sex scandals. The Charlotte Observer reported then that he'd paid off a church secretary with whom he'd had sex. He briefly handed over the reins to fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr.Two years later, he was charged with fraud and sentenced to 45 years in prison, though he served just under five.He returned to TV in the 2000s with "The Jim Bakker Show," this time filmed from Missouri with his second wife, Lori, as cohost.But on a February episode of the show, Bakker and a guest discussed a product, called "Silver Solution," that they claimed could eliminate the coronavirus from the body within hours. There's currently no cure for the novel coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Times of Israel: Sex offender rabbi to be indicted for fraud, money laundering, pending a hearing

"The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office announced Monday that a sex offender rabbi who has been accused of defrauding his sick and elderly followers out of millions of shekels will be indicted, pending a hearing, for a number of alleged fraud and tax offenses.
Eliezer Berland will be charged with tax evasion, violations of money laundering laws and other offenses for failing to report and even concealing income generated through his activities at his ultra-Orthodox Shuvu Bonim sect.
Berland allegedly carried out counseling, fundraising and teaching and also offered what were called life-saving benedictions — all for a fee that wasn't declared to the authorities.
In addition, he is expected to be charged for paying employees millions of shekels without salary slips or paying tax as required.
The expected charges are in addition to a parallel case in which he was arrested for fraud after hundreds of people filed a police complaint against him for selling prayers and "wonder drugs" to desperate members of his community, and for promising families of individuals with disabilities that their loved ones would be able to walk and families of convicted felons that their loved ones would be freed from prison."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

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

Flipboard

Twitter

Instagram

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.

Televangelist Jim Bakker is recovering from a stroke, his wife says

Scottie Andrew

CNN
May 8, 2020

(CNN)Famed televangelist Jim Bakker recently had a stroke, his wife said. His eponymous TV show will continue to film without him while he recovers.

Lori Bakker announced her 80-year-old husband would take a sabbatical from "The Jim Bakker Show," the Christian TV program the couple cohosts.

Working nonstop took a "huge toll" on her husband's health, she said. Bakker was recently sued by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt for claiming a silver product could kill coronavirus.

"We are thankful that Jim is okay, and that he is now at home with our family," she wrote in a Facebook post from the show's page. "Jim will be back!"

For decades, Bakker and his then-wife, the late Tammy Faye Messner, ran the evangelistic empire "Praise the Lord," or PTL, from their own theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina, near Charlotte, North Carolina. The two hosted "The PTL Club," one of the best-known Christian programs of its time, throughout the 1970s and '80s.

He stepped down from the ministry in 1987 amid financial and sex scandals. The Charlotte Observer reported then that he'd paid off a church secretary with whom he'd had sex. He briefly handed over the reins to fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr.

Two years later, he was charged with fraud and sentenced to 45 years in prison, though he served just under five.

He returned to TV in the 2000s with "The Jim Bakker Show," this time filmed from Missouri with his second wife, Lori, as cohost.

But on a February episode of the show, Bakker and a guest discussed a product, called "Silver Solution," that they claimed could eliminate the coronavirus from the body within hours. There's currently no cure for the novel coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In March, Schmitt, the Missouri Attorney General, sued Bakker and "The Jim Bakker Show" production company for misrepresenting "Silver Solution" as a coronavirus cure.

"Anyone who has bought 'Silver Solution' from 'The Jim Bakker Show' should know that it cannot cure or treat coronavirus," the Missouri Attorney General office announced in a statement.



https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/us/jim-bakker-stroke-trnd/index.html

CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/15/2020

Conspiracy Video, Covid-19, Genesis II, Clergy Confidentiality, Amish, Jim Bakker

Washington Post: Facebook and other companies remove viral 'Plandemic' conspiracy video

"Social media companies including YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook are removing a viral conspiracy theory video because of its claims regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

The roughly 26-minute video was presented as an extremely long "trailer" for a full-length film titled "Plandemic," and features an extended interview with Judy Mikovits, a well-known figure in the anti-vaccine movement, who has made various discredited claims about the effects of vaccines.

A YouTube spokesperson said the company removes "content that includes medically unsubstantiated diagnostic advice for covid-19," which includes the "Plandemic" video.A rep for Facebook said, "Suggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm, so we're removing the video."

A Vimeo spokesperson said the company 'stands firm in keeping our platform safe from content that spreads harmful and misleading health information. The video in question has been removed by our Trust & Safety team for violating these very policies.'"

Bradenton Herald: Federal court bans Bradenton 'church' from selling bleach as miracle COVID-19 cure

"A Bradenton organization that peddles drinking industrial-grade bleach as a cure for 95 percent of the world's known illnesses, including HIV/AIDS, autism, Alzheimer's, leukemia, and most recently, COVID-19, was openly defiant after a federal court issued a temporary restraining order on the sale of its products.

"We are doing good, so we have no fear of you AND you still have NO authority in our Church or its practices," wrote Mark Grenon, leader of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, in an email addressed to U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams on April 24.

Grenon, who said he has written President Donald Trump about his product, also told the judge to cancel all orders against the organization.

Now the federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction that extends a ban on the organization from distributing its MMS product, also known as "Master" or "Miracle Mineral Solution."

"The Court finds that the United States has shown a cognizable danger that Defendants will continue to violate the FDCA in the future unless a preliminary injunction is issued," Judge Williams stated in her May 1 order.

The court filings name Genesis II and its leader Mark Grenon, as well as Joseph Grenon, Jordan Grenon and Jonathan Grenon as defendants. All four individuals have been identified as "bishops" of Genesis II on the organization's website, with Mark Grenon sometimes referred to as "archbishop."

Mark Grenon claims to have founded Genesis II in 2010 with Jim Humble, a former Scientologist who began promoting the supposed health benefits of MMS as early as 2006 in self-published works. A website operated in Humble's name says that he discovered the uses of the active ingredient in MMS "while on a gold mining expedition in South America."

Another post on the site claims that Humble "retired" from Genesis II in 2017 and left the organization "in the hands of Mark Grenon."

"It is important to note that MMS does not cure disease," the website also says."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Clergy confidentiality at issue in Amish bishop's case

"The criminal complaint against the Amish bishop is clear about how he learned of a church member's alleged sexual assault on three young teenage girls:

"John G. Beiler confessed the sexual assault incidents to Bishop Levi S. Esh Sr.," says the complaint, pending in Lancaster County and filed by Pequea police in April.

"Confessed." Whether the case moves forward could hinge on that word.

In April, Pequea police charged Mr. Esh, 63, with felony and misdemeanor charges of failing to report suspected child abuse to authorities after Mr. Beiler allegedly confessed to the sexual assaults.

The case is believed to be the first in Lancaster County — hub of the nation's largest population of Amish — in which one of their spiritual leaders is charged with violating a Pennsylvania law that includes clergy among those mandated to report suspected child abuse.

But Pennsylvania law allows a privilege, or exemption, for clergy who learn about suspected abuse in "confidential communications" while in the course of their "duties."

Mr. Esh's attorney plans to challenge the charges on that and other grounds.

The charges come amid growing scrutiny in various states about the clergy-confidentiality privilege.

The case also involves the latest in a series of allegations of sexual abuse and coverup among Amish and closely related Mennonites, both part of the Plain church tradition. In 2017, a Dauphin County Amish bishop pleaded guilty to failing to report abuse, and in 2019, a Huntingdon County Mennonite pastor pleaded no-contest to a similar charge. Both received probation."

Daily Beast: Jim Bakker's Prepper Village Is Having the Worst Apocalypse Ever

" ... Morningside is the name of Bakker's Christian broadcasting empire, as well as the Missouri residential community from which he broadcasts. But it's mostly made news in recent weeks because of its founder's legal woes: various government agencies have accused Bakker of promoting a fake COVID-19 miracle cure. 

So what does the coronavirus pandemic look like in this temple of survival? According to interviews with people who have recently lived, worked, and spent time there, pretty much the same waking nightmare as everywhere else: mixed efforts at social distancing, layoffs, and reported shortages of everyday supplies as COVID-19 ravages the country.

A former Morningside employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she hoped to return to her job as the pandemic eased said she was among a wave of layoffs as the community entered lockdown in late March.

"They were running out of supplies they had stocked up on when I was leaving there," said the former employee, who argued Bakker was being vilified in the media. 

Neither Morningside nor a Bakker representative returned requests for comment for this story.

The story of Morningside's development involves two failed historical theme parks and two dozen criminal charges. Bakker, now 80, was a star of the 1980s televangelist scene and even expanded into a biblical theme park until feds convicted him of an elaborate scheme to illegally skim millions off the amusement park. A former church secretary also accused him of sexually assaulting her and buying her silence, although he claimed to have only had consensual extramarital sex with her, and was never charged. 

Twenty-four convictions on fraud and conspiracy charges in the amusement park scandal and four years in prison later, Bakker was released from lockup in 1994. By 2003, he'd returned to broadcast ministry, this time with an eye on the end-times. He preached the apocalypse and used a loophole in non-profit law to hawk survivalist gear like supposed health supplements and giant buckets of shelf-stable food. 

"Imagine," one of Bakker's emergency food ads said, "the world is dying and you're having a breakfast for kings." (Because his ministry is technically a nonprofit, Bakker does not "sell" his goods; he offers them as "love gifts" to people who make specific donations, like $4,500 for a "Peace of Mind Final Countdown" bundle that contained 31,000 servings of food in a variety of buckets.) 

In 2008, he opened Morningside, a church complex/Christian broadcast studio/evangelical utopia on the former site of a follower's Renaissance faire-themed amusement park. It was the ultimate survivalist sales pitch: Bakker claimed it could withstand an imminent apocalypse, and offered a variety of dwellings onsite. Higher-end homes included condos overlooking a shopping mall-like central meeting area, which also featured a chapel, a General Store, a cafe, and a 15-foot statue of Jesus."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

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

Flipboard

Twitter

Instagram

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.

CultNEWS101 Articles: 1/16/2018

Scientology, Spiritual Abuse, Ram Rahim, India, Legal, Jim and Tammy Bakker, Ponzi Sceme, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sexual Abuse, Legal

Hollywood Reporter: Kirstie Alley Criticizes Journalist's "Bigoted" Views of Scientology

"Kirstie Alley took to Twitter on Saturday to critique journalist Yashar Ali after he charged that she had treated two Hollywood professionals accused of sexual misconduct — one a current Scientologist and the other a lapsed Scientologist — differently due to their faith."

Church Times: Two-thirds of Christians in new survey say they have been spiritually abused

"The study also acknowledges that definitions of spiritual abuse are not clear cut, and suggests this lack of clarity may be a significant barrier to responding appropriately to its victims within the Church."

“'Existing work around this experience (which is characterised by a systematic pattern of controlling and coercive behaviour in a religious context) is still in its infancy, to the extent that there is not currently universal agreement about this as a term,' it says."

Outlook: Ram Rahim's Close Aide And Doctor Arrested, Was Involved In Castration Of 300 Followers

"Months after the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Special Investigation Team(SIT) has arrested a doctor who was allegedly involved in the castration of 300 followers."

"Dr Mahinder Pal Singh alias Mahender Insan in Sirsa, a surgeon who has been associated with sect from 1995, is said to have involved in the castration of 300 people ordered by Ram Rahim."

Post-Gazette: How Jim and Tammy Bakker's religious Ponzi scheme collapsed

"The late 1980s offered many great scandals, but for sheer carnivalesque spectacle, nothing beat the televangelists: Oral Roberts (that name!) citing divine extortion, demanded $7 million from his followers so God wouldn’t “call [him] home.” Jimmy Swaggart (Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin) cruised rural Louisiana for prostitutes."

"But Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker are certainly the most indelible of these holy hypocrites."

San Diego Reader: Jehovah's Witnesses to settle sex-abuse case

"A lawsuit is now settled between a former victim of sexual abuse and Jehovah's Witnesses. According to the court's website, the case is under a "conditional settlement." The terms and conditions of the settlement are not public."

"José Lopez filed the lawsuit back in 2012, nearly 20 years after church elder Gonzalo Campos molested him and several other young children who were members of the Linda Vista congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses."

"As reported by the Reader, Campos, who fled to Mexico to escape criminal charges, admitted to committing the acts to Lopez’s and another victim's attorney, Devin Storey, while giving testimony in one of the cases."