CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/13/2019

Falun Gong,  Word of Life Church, Meditation app Headspace,  Hope for Wholeness, Conversion Therapy, LGBT  

Business Insider: Inside Dragon Springs, the high-security compound in upstate New York that's home to a 'cult' tyrannized by China

"About 100 people are said to be living in a 400-acre property in upstate New York, in the shadow of the Shawangunk Mountains. It's meant to be a mecca for the estimated tens of millions of Falun Gong followers, members of a religious and political group persecuted in China, which calls the group a "cult."

Inside Dragon Springs, according to sources who spoke to NBC News, internet access is restricted, medicine is barely used, and relationships are often arranged. David Ownby, a history professor at the University of Montreal who studied Falun Gong, also calls it a cult and says it exists because of China's efforts to keep traditional religions weak.

For years, nearby towns like Deer Park have been trying to rein in the compound. But Falun Gong leaders want to expand it even more. It wants to build a 920-seat music hall, a new parking garage, a wastewater treatment plant, and turn a meditation hall into a residence hall. If allowed, the compound would go from housing 100 people to 500."

WHAM: Cult member convicted of beating half brother to death appeals 25-year sentence

"The grainy emergency room surveillance video shows an unconscious and bleeding Lucas Leonard being wheeled on a stretcher while EMS workers tried to keep him alive.

Some hours earlier on October 11, 2015, he and his brother, Christopher, were confronted by three family members and six other parishioners in the sanctuary of Word of Life Church in Oneida County. Their so-called "counseling session" grew more violent and deadly over the course of 14 hours.

The boy's half-sister, Sarah Ferguson, was convicted of second-degree murder for her role in the attack. In New York's appellate court in Rochester on Wednesday, she argued her conviction and 25-year sentence are too harsh.

"As soon as she saw the blood, she stopped the whipping, so I would argue the whipping was a reckless act (not intentional)," said her attorney, Peter DiGiorgio.

The case exposed the cult-like activities of the church. Ferguson was the only defendant to go to trial. Eight others, including the parents of the boys, pleaded guilty.

During the counseling session, the brothers were first beaten around their stomachs with an electrical cord. After their father dealt them blows, he handed the cord to Ferguson.

The location and intensity of the blows changed.

"Sarah Ferguson was aiming repeated blows - maybe 50 blows - at his groin," said Susan Ashline."

BBC: The former monk who runs a $100m meditation firm

" ... In 2005 Andy [Puddicombe] returned to the UK to set up a meditation business, but it still wasn't a widely-appreciated practice in his home country at the time.

"Some people were put off by the language behind meditation, or saw it as a bit of a hippy thing to do," he says. "It was quite inaccessible. People didn't have time for it, or know how to do it."

Setting up his own small private practice in London, Andy taught burnt out professionals how to use meditation to help them in their daily lives.

Today he and his co-founder Richard Pierson, 38, run popular meditation app Headspace, which has been downloaded more than 54 million times around the world, and has annual revenues said to be more than $100m (£82m)."

New York Post : Conversion therapy leader McKrae Game comes out as gay.

"The founder of one of the nation's largest conversion therapy programs has announced that he's gay — and disavowed the "harmful" practice.

McKrae Game, who led the faith-based conversion therapy group Hope for Wholeness in South Carolina for nearly two decades, came out of the closet this summer at 51, The Post and Courier reported Saturday.

"Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it's very harmful," Game told paper. "Because it's false advertising."

The revelation came two years after Game was abruptly fired from Hope for Wholeness.

In the interview, the former crusader called for the dissolution of conversion therapy groups.

The widely discredited practice, which is intended to suppress or change a person's sexuality through counseling or religion, is currently banned in 18 states, including New York."

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Inside the Church Cult That Eventually Drove Parents to Join a 12-Hour Beating of Their Sons

CHRIS HARRIS
PEOPLE
June 14, 2018

VIDEO

Residents of rural Chadwicks, New York, had long thought there might be something wrong with the Word of Life Christian Church. Those suspicions were confirmed on the night of Oct. 11, 2015, when two teenage brothers were savagely beaten for a dozen hours inside the church’s sanctuary room after trying to defect.

The vicious attack — at times carried out by the boys’ parents — left 19-year-old Lucas Leonard dead and his then-17-year-old brother, Christopher, severely injured.

Soon pulled under the harsh scrutiny of a police investigation, the little-known religious sect was revealed as a dangerous cult.

Nearly three years later and Word of Life is no more. Christopher continues to recover from his injuries and relatives tell PEOPLE he recently graduated from high school.

All told, nine people were sent to prison for their involvement in Lucas’ death — among them, the church’s pastor, Tiffanie Irwin, who inherited the group from her father before bending it even further to her will.

Many who’ve followed the case still wonder how Bruce and Deborah Leonard could have been compelled to kick, punch, strike and whip their two sons over 12 torturous hours. The case and the church itself will be featured on Monday night’s episode of People Magazine Investigates: Cults, on Investigation Discovery.

As Bruce later said in court, the attack began following a Sunday service when Irwin called his family together and confronted the teenage brothers with allegations of child abuse and witchcraft.

Bruce told a judge the beatings started with a punch and a slap and quickly progressed to electrical cord whippings. The point he said, was so his sons “would understand the hurt that they caused” and to discipline and punish them.

Though the question of alleged child sex abuse came up in court, investigators have always insisted there was no evidence to indicate Christopher and Lucas Leonard ever harmed any children.

For more on the Word of Life Christian Church and the death of Lucas Leonard, watch Monday’s People Magazine Investigates: Cults at 9 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery.

https://people.com/crime/inside-word-of-life-christian-church-cult-murder-new-york/

"What Faith Allows?" Classroom in a Cult

Angie Pavlovsky 
CNY
November 8, 2017

VIDEO


New York - Eyewitness News investigates the Word of Life Christian Church in our week long series. "What Faith Allows?"

The Word of Life Christian Church had many elements inside the walls of its Chadwicks location, including the congregation itself, a dog breeding business and even a classroom. The Agape Christian Academy was a school inside of a cult.

"Like Jerry, like me, we didn't want our kids to go through public school," former member Gregory Ames said. "In light of that, he found a way that we could start a school and have his kids educated through that, so he wouldn't have to send them to public school. The school was started for Jerry and his kids. He used us because we were members and brought us in on it."

Nathan Ames and his brothers attended the academy every Monday through Thursday, returning Sunday for church service. While Jerry Irwin preached from the pulpit, his daughter's role was sculpting young minds.

"When I was in fifth grade, Tiffanie Irwin was my teacher," Nathan Ames said. "She was only two years older than me. I don't know what grade she was. I think she had moved up two or three grades more than she should have been, because she stayed home and did a bunch of homework. It was all self-taught, so it was home schooling, but done at a private school building.

"We sat in these desks, and what we would have to do is look forward at the wall, and we would just have to do our homework and raise our flags," Ames continued. "When they came to answer the flag, either you were doing a check-up on the pace or you were getting ready for a test or you had questions."

However, requests for help weren't always answered.

"Tiffanie, she was very controlling. She would look down at everyone like she was better than everybody. She wouldn't answer any questions," Nathan Ames added. "I remember one time, just sitting there waiting, and I looked up onto my computer screen, and there was a body standing behind me. It was Tiffanie with a note pad, looking at me with my flag up, and she's just writing stuff down about me. I was just waiting on her to answer my flag, and this happened a lot."

Pastor Jerry Irwin held students to strict standards. Those with a grade mark below 90 were considered failing.

"Jerry would tell us our kids are doing this wrong; our kids are doing that wrong," Gregory Ames said. "Years later, we find out those stories weren't true. We believed Jerry more than we believed our kids. I'm believing everything he is saying because I believe that his word is the word."

http://www.cnyhomepage.com/news/what-faith-allows-classroom-in-a-cult/853892024

Word of Life videos offer glimpse into church services

The congregation of Word of Life Christian Church is gathered for a church service.

Observer Dispatch
By Micaela Parker
February 6, 2017


The congregation of Word of Life Christian Church is gathered for a church service.

Pastor Tiffanie Irwin, usually seen seated behind a table with her laptop in front of her, delivers her sermon. Members of the congregation, seated in long rows of chairs, bend their heads and studiously take notes.

It's a rare look inside the church, courtesy of videos obtained from the Oneida County District Attorney's Office via a Freedom of Information Act request. It's video that could lend support to a former member's claims that church officials controlled the congregation through a variety of means.

The scenery — a narrow room with rows of seats facing Irwin and band equipment on either side of her — remains the same, but the topics covered in Irwin's sermons vary: scripture, rebellion, demons and spirits, witchcraft, sexual molestation and visions brought to her by God.

Seated separately at the end a row of chairs like two bookends are Christopher Leonard, always seated on the left next to his father, Bruce Leonard, and Lucas Leonard, who remains seated on the far right. The most recent video obtained by the O-D is dated Sept. 27, 2015, according to information provided by the District Attorney's Office. Less than a month later, 19-year-old Lucas would die as a result of injuries sustained during a beating inside the building. His younger brother, now 18, would be severely injured in the attack.

Nine people — including Irwin and the teens' parents — were charged for their involvement in the Oct. 11-12, 2015, "counseling session" where both teens were struck by their parents and sister with a folded electrical cord. The session focused on allegations levied against the teens ranging from the sexual molestation of children to witchcraft.

The teens' older sister Kristel Leonard Lindsey has spoken at the sentencing of seven defendants so far. As she prepares for the Monday sentencing of her parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, for their role in the incident, the Observer-Dispatch spoke to Lindsey in a wide-ranging email interview about the 25 years she was a member of the church.

Communicating with God

From the time she was 10 years old, Lindsey said, she was taught to believe that the pastors of Word of Life — first Jerry Irwin until his death in 2012, then his daughter and current Pastor Tiffanie Irwin — could communicate with God. Describing herself as a "survivor of this high-demand authoritarian group," she said the church practiced "undue influence" and "practiced unethical destructive mind control."

"The basic belief in their exclusive ability to communicate with God was founded in scriptural teaching on that subject," she wrote. "The problem is that the Irwins controlled the interpretation of the scripture and adamantly criticized other bible teachers who had varying interpretations. The illustration of a frog in boiling water well represents the experience there for those who attended long-term. There are plenty of bible verses that can be interpreted to say that followers are to submit to and obey their leaders; to honor and respect the teachers of the faith, and there are plenty of verses that address direct communication with God as well. The Irwins knew how to use the scripture to support their doctrine and their ambition for control."

The "frog in boiling water" anecdote is one where if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will hop out, but if the frog is placed in cold water, which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and be cooked to death.

Discrepancies between prophecy and reality was attributed to a person not obeying God, causing the prophecy to be unfulfilled, Lindsey said. Hearing "once or twice weekly" for years that God speaks through former pastor Jerry Irwin meant there was never any consideration he was wrong. Additionally, she said another aspect of control was the use of "labeling" people with personal sins. Due to those sins, they were told they could not hear from God and therefore had to rely on the Irwin family to relay God's messages.

In one video obtained by the Observer-Dispatch, current pastor Tiffanie Irwin tells her congregation during a Sept. 6 service that she will not allow the sexual molestation of children in her church, and if she sees it she will put an end to it.

She also describes a "vision" indicating "great change" for the church that depicted God standing nearby. After describing the vision, she adds that she had been communicating with God regarding plans for a garage sale; she believed he indicated that they should not have a craft table.

Other topics at church services include:

* Questioning Deborah Leonard in front of the congregation on her relationships outside the church and their opinions regarding church teachings. Christopher is questioned on whether he feels "victimized by the church." She also questions him on her decision that he have a partner on the grounds at all times due to concerns that he "could not be trusted" and to help him avoid "temptation." She urges him to have an "about-face" and respect his father. She alludes to an incident where he got "bashed in the face" but does not explain the circumstances.

* She discusses rebellion as the sin of witchcraft and questions the congregation where demons go once they leave a person's body. She claims some church members, without naming them, have demons.

Mind control

Steven Hassan, director of the Massachusetts-based Freedom of Mind Resource Center and a licensed mental health counselor who has written books on the subject of mind control, said he spoke to people associated with the church and believes the group adheres to a specific model of mind control.

Hassan was never asked to be an expert witness in the case nor has he done "in-depth research" regarding the group aside from "reading all the public domain articles," he said, but he was identified in an expert witness disclosure filed by the District Attorney's Office as someone who could have once been called to testify. And, he said he intends to submit a statement to the court regarding how important it is that people know more about "cult mind control."

"Essentially, people in mind control cults are given a new identity and belief system that is dependent and obedient on the group leader and ideology," he said. "The conscious is side-stepped, critical thinking is side-stepped and in reality made into black and white, us versus them, simplistic world view with dependence and obedience as the high quality and where if you are thinking you want to leave then you must be possessed by Satan because everyone knows this group is with God."

Tiffanie Irwin's attorney, Kurt Schultz, declined to comment on the facts of the case while he's in the process of appealing the court's decision to deny her efforts to withdraw her Alford plea to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault. She alleged at the time of her sentencing that her case was improperly handled and that she was denied "a fair trial and impartial jury, and a fair and impartial judge."

"I am going to stand by my self-imposed gag order to not comment on the facts of the case because I fully anticipate when the appellate division reviews what transpired in my client's case that my client will have her day in court," he said. "All the speculation about mind control and hypnosis is nothing more than that — speculation. There has been no evidence at any allocution of anyone that my client was either an accessory to a crime, participated in a crime or my client had a legal duty to do anything."

About this report

The Observer-Dispatch obtained videos of Word of Life Christian Church services from the Oneida County District Attorney's Office via a Freedom of Information Act request. Reporter Micaela Parker pored through hours of video to help construct this report.

Monday in court

Parents Bruce and Deborah Leonard will appear in Oneida County Court for their sentencing. Deborah was the first of the nine defendants in the case to plead guilty in December 2015 to charges of first-degree assault for the role she had in the beating of her sons. She'll be sentenced to no more than five years in state prison.

Bruce Leonard took a plea offer the day before he was scheduled to go to trial with his stepdaughter Sarah Ferguson in June. He faces a maximum of 16 years in state prison for first-degree assault and second-degree assault.

Follow @OD_Parker on Twitter or call her at 315-792-5063.

http://www.uticaod.com/news/20170206/word-of-life-videos-offer-glimpse-into-church-services

CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/25/2016

KKK, Faith Healing, Word of Life Christian Church, Rick Ross, The Temple of the Jedi Order, Psychic, ISIS, Jihad, Polygamy, FLDS, Heaven's Gate, legal, UK

​New York Times: ​

Inside the Ku Klux Klan, With an A&E Documentary Series

New York Times: Generation KKK,” an eight-part documentary series, beginning Jan. 10 on A&E, that burrows in with high-ranking Klan members and their families.

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/inside-ku-klux-klan-with-a-documentary.html

GMA: AFTER 20 REPORTED DEATHS Local exec orders Cotabato faith healer to stop healing practice

"Citing reports, the vice mayor said that at least 20 patients who had undergone healing from Tungcua had died due to wrong medications."

“I instructed the families of those [who] perished to file charges against the faith healer. But they are hesitant. I don’t know what their reasons are,” he said.

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/after-20-reported-deaths-local-exec.html

Observer-Dispatch: Pastor, brother sentenced in Word of Life case

Are allegations by Irwin justified?

As part of Tiffanie Irwin's efforts to withdraw her guilty plea Monday, she described a number reasons why she believed she should be able to take her case to trial.

Her accusations include: that she was denied a fair trial and a fair judge, that her plea was coerced as a result of the requirements of her plea offer, that the case's top prosecutor violated a gag order and that a grand jury witness's testimony was "so prejudicial" it should have caused the case to be thrown out.

The grand jury witness was not identified in court, but motions previously filed by Irwin's attorney, Kurt Schultz, indicate that Cult Education Institute founder and Executive Director Rick Ross is the expert in question. Irwin alleged that Ross is a "convicted felon" and alleged that he was called to testify to show the Word of Life Christian Church is a cult.

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/pastor-brother-sentenced-in-word-of.html

The Guardian: Jedi order fails in attempt to register as religious group

The Temple of the Jedi Order, members of which follow the tenets of the faith central to the Star Wars films, sought charitable status this year, but the Charity Commission has ruled that it does not meet the criteria for a religion under UK charity law.

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/jedi-order-fails-in-attempt-to-register.html

Palm Beach Post: Magistrate rejects new trial for psychic Rose Marks on fraud charges

"After a nearly month-long trial in 2013, a jury convicted Marks of 14 counts of fraud for taking millions from heart-broken customers. They testified they believed Marks’ claims that she had connections to the after-life that would help them overcome their personal tragedies."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/magistrate-rejects-new-trial-for.html

Indian Express: IS 'brainwashing' children to attack Europe

"The Islamic State group is providing children apps to access violent jihadi websites and offering rewards, if young recruits say they were willing to attack monuments in Europe."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/is-brainwashing-children-to-attack.html

Salt Lake City Tribune: Polygamist defendants in food stamp fraud promise to obey judge to stay out of jail

"Defense attorneys on Tuesday told a federal court judge that their clients, in order to stay out of jail, will be willing to check with the judge before following any questionable orders from Warren Jeffs, president of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint."

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4731175-155/polygamists-in-food-stamp-case-go

FANZINE: CURIOUS: AN INTERVIEW WITH LIVING REPRESENTATIVES OF HEAVEN'S GATE

"Heaven’s Gate, a Christian/sci-fi amalgam founded in the 1970’s by Bonnie Nettles (Ti) and Marshall Applewhite (Do) claimed, and still claim, via their website, that what happened was not suicide, just a process that had to be undertaken to catch a ride on a UFO that was trailing behind the comet Hale-Bopp."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/curious-interview-with-living.html

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Pastor, brother sentenced in Word of Life case

The pastor of a Chadwicks church accused of calling a counseling session that led to the death of one teen and injury of another tried to evade her sentencing Monday, claiming that her case was improperly handled.

December 19, 2016
By Observer-Dispatch

UTICA - The pastor of a Chadwicks church accused of calling a counseling session that led to the death of one teen and injury of another tried to evade her sentencing Monday, claiming that her case was handled improperly.

Word of Life Christian Church Pastor Tiffanie Irwin, 30, who has not admitted to any criminal wrongdoing in court, attempted to withdraw her previous Alford plea to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault in the October 2015 death of Lucas Leonard, 19, and severe injury of Christopher Leonard, now 18.

In doing so, she claimed she was denied a fair trial and judge, that her plea was coerced, that the case's top prosecutor violated a gag order and that a grand jury witness's testimony was "so prejudicial" it should have caused the case to be thrown out.

Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara meanwhile, said Tiffanie Irwin's actions illustrated "how manipulative she is."

Irwin started her sentencing by saying she was "deeply sorry" about what happened to Lucas and Christopher Leonard. She argued that the beating was a spontaneous event and that she was "incapable of reacting" to what she saw.

"I have been denied my rights to a fair trial, to a fair and impartial jury, and a fair and impartial judge," Irwin said. "I was forced to plea so that my friends Linda and David Morey and my brother Joseph Irwin could enter their pleas. When our offers were changed so they could not accept their offers unless I pled guilty, I was forced to give an Alford plea. I wish to withdraw my plea which was coerced."

Irwin has been accused of leading the counseling session and the "authoritarian" church with a combination of mind control and belief that she could communicate with God. She said she wanted to withdraw her plea and take her case to trial so she could "set the record straight."

Dwyer, after a period of back-and-forth with Irwin, told her that she had not established any legal reason for her to be able to withdraw her plea.

"I think you've demonstrated to everybody that your statement of remorse is just that: a statement," Dwyer said. "There's no feeling attached to it. That's my opinion."

She was sentenced to a total of 12 years in state prison. Her brother Joseph Irwin also was sentenced Monday to a total eight years in state prison on charges of first-degree gang assault and second-degree assault.

Kristel Leonard Lindsey - the victims' oldest sister - addressed the court prior to sentencing.

"The only solace I have is I am not God," Lindsey said. "I do not get to choose who will go and who will stay, who will be martyred and who will continue to fight here. Luke's frank, courageous heart and buoyant spirit triumphed. Without a doubt, Tiffanie had absolute authority over the disorderly rage that ended with Luke's death. I spent several years under her personal control. What she did between Oct. 11 and 12, 2015, has given new meaning to the expression, 'Even the devil comes as an angel of light.' I am disgusted that I ever accepted Tiffanie to be my pastor, my spiritual leader."

Lindsey also addressed Joseph Irwin, describing him as the church's "enforcer" and requested that he be prohibited from ever seeing her or her family again.

Joseph Irwin spoke directly to Lindsey during plea proceedings; he said he would have changed everything if he could have.

"I'm sorry that I didn't stop it that day and I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life," he said.

McNamara said the Irwin siblings - the two "most culpable" people in the church - are going to serve less time than co-defendant Bruce Leonard, father of the victims, who admitted to whipping the teens with an electrical cord and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. Tiffanie Irwin led the counseling session while Joseph Irwin punched the teens and admitted to knowing that Lucas Leonard was "bleeding profusely" prior to his death, McNamara said.

"(Tiffanie) dropped the bomb," McNamara said. "She caused the explosion and as with any group leader, they can get people to do stuff without giving the exact order. We've seen movies to that. We've seen real-life examples of that. She called the code red. It was understood if Bruce Leonard wanted to go to heaven, he had to get his children under control. That's what he needed to do. So I feel bad for him, I feel bad for the Leonard family. They are all victims of the Irwins."

Defense attorney Kurt Schultz, meanwhile, said he was now under a "self-imposed gag order" as he works on appealing Dwyer's decision in order to take his client's case to trial. He said he expected to file the appeal sometime this week.

Are allegations by Irwin justified?

As part of Tiffanie Irwin's efforts to withdraw her guilty plea Monday, she described a number reasons why she believed she should be able to take her case to trial.

Her accusations include: that she was denied a fair trial and a fair judge, that her plea was coerced as a result of the requirements of her plea offer, that the case's top prosecutor violated a gag order and that a grand jury witness's testimony was "so prejudicial" it should have caused the case to be thrown out.

The grand jury witness was not identified in court, but motions previously filed by Irwin's attorney, Kurt Schultz, indicate that Cult Education Institute founder and Executive Director Rick Ross is the expert in question. Irwin alleged that Ross is a "convicted felon" and alleged that he was called to testify to show the Word of Life Christian Church is a cult.

Oneida County Scott McNamara said that the witness - who he did not name - didn't give his opinion on whether the church was a cult, but instead explained how authoritarian groups could control people.

"We've seen that historically with people like Charles Manson and Jim Jones, hence the saying: 'Getting someone to drink the Kool-aid,'" McNamara said. "Most people don't understand that concept without it being explained by someone who would have some superior knowledge. That's why that person was called, regardless of whether he's a convicted felon or not. The question I would say back to Tiffany is this: In the future, should she be denied the ability to testify because she is a convicted felon?"

As to the alleged violation of the case's gag order, McNamara said the case's gag order initially started out as a code of ethics for all attorneys to follow that prohibited them from discussing the facts of the case. He called her accusations that he didn't abide by it a "total fabrication" and noted he got permission from the judge before talking to the media.

Irwin's attorney, Kurt Schultz, meanwhile, maintains otherwise. He is working on appealing the judge's decision.

"I am firmly convinced and told by the judge that there was a gag order in place since the inception of the case," Schultz said. "Her whole point today was that she was coerced into a plea so her remaining co-defendants could enter the plea, they would not accept it unless she fell on her sword first."
http://www.uticaod.com/news/20161219/pastor-brother-sentenced-in-word-of-life-case

CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/20/2016 Word of Life Christian Church, ​Christian Brothers, Mormon Church,Shoko Asahara, Aum Shinrikyo, ​Legionaries of Christ, ​Radhe Maa, ​Patanjali Ayurved, ​China Buddhist Association, Alternative Medicine

​Word of Life Christian Church, ​Christian Brothers, Mormon Church, Shoko Asahara, Aum Shinrikyo, ​Legionaries of Christ, ​Radhe Maa, ​Patanjali Ayurved, ​China Buddhist Association, Alternative Medicine​

Observer-Dispatch:

​ ​

Was grand jury witness a 'cult specialist' in Chadwicks Church case

"An October motion filed by the attorney of the church's Pastor Tiffanie Irwin - who is scheduled to be sentenced today - sought to exclude the testimony of Rick Ross at trial. But because Irwin pleaded guilty, it has rendered the discussion moot for now."

"The opinion of a self-proclaimed 'cult expert,' who appears to have only a high school diploma, has never been accepted in a New York court and is by its nature novel," Schultz wrote in his motion. He added that there is "no official discipline of cultic studies" and alleges that the witness is a "convicted felon and has a history of psychiatric treatment."

​

The Herald:

Brother Desmond "Neil" Richards thought he'd got away with crimes, but his victims fought back

"The Christian Brothers hid his abuse and kept moving him from school to school. His abuse of young boys continued so they sent him to Rome (in 2009) to hide him from the police and former victims,” the former East Gosford student said."

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4360344/convicted-of-child-sexual-abuse-and-sent-to-rome/?cs=305

The Huffington Post: Should The Mormon Church Pay Taxes?

The Mormon Church was prosecuted, investigated for 18 months and found guilty on 13 counts of election fraud. The Mormon Church pleaded guilty to all charges and paid a hefty fine. The result, hundreds of subpoenaed documents that showed just how the Mormon Church operates in politics, including having 75 Salt Lake City based Church employees working on the campaign.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/13656738

South China Morning Post: Doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara was ‘criminal’ says member on death row

"Tomomasa Nakagawa, convicted for his role in producing sarin used in the deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995, said in the six-page article in the November edition of Japanese magazine Chemistry Today that Asahara transformed what was otherwise a religious group into one that produced chemical weapons and perpetrated murder."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/doomsday-cult-leader-shoko-asahara-was.html

The Herald Malaysia: Pope greets newly ordained Legionaries of Christ at General Audience 

​​

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, ordained 36 legionaries of Christ to the priesthood in the Basilica of St. John Lateran last Saturday.  Fr Eduardo Robles-Gil LC, General Director of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement, presented the candidates for priestly ordination.

http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/news/pope-greets-newly-ordained-legionaries-of-christ-at-general-audience/33720/1

​Odisha Sun Times: 

Man dressed as Radhe Maa loots hotelier in Odisha capital, arrested

​​

"He was dressed as an eunuch. He was dressed in salwar. Initially he told that he had come from Kamakshya Temple and his name was Diana Mishra. He further asked me to search details about him on internet. I didn’t find anything on internet and fell to his evil design,”

https://odishasuntimes.com/2016/12/12/man-dressed-as-radhe-maa-loots-hotelier-in-odisha-capital-arrested/

Quartz: Patanjali’s incurable habit of using misleading and inaccurate ads is beginning to hurt it

Despite the roaring success of the past few years, the high-flying ayurvedic and herbal products brand has fallen foul of many of the country’s regulatory agencies.

On Dec. 15, a court in Uttarakhand slapped 

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Patanjali Ayurved with a fine of Rs11 lakh for “misbranding and putting up misleading advertisements.”

http://qz.com/863871/baba-ramdevs-patanjali-the-ayurvedic-brands-incurable-habit-of-using-misleading-and-inaccurate-ads-is-beginning-to-hurt-it/

Washington Post: Excommunication, Buddhists, and temple control: An interesting new Supreme Court petition

The court allowed one of two presiding monks of the 

​​

China Buddhist Association (“CBA”), supported by a faction of at most 110 adherents, to unilaterally “excommunicate” 517 members, including the other presiding monk and a resident nun, and move to shutter the Manhattan Temple by vote of the rump faction. This procedure was unauthorized by the CBA bylaws or any other governing document.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/12/15/excommunication-buddhists-and-temple-control-an-interesting-new-supreme-court-petition/

Irish Independent: Irish cancer patients are turning to 'cult-like diets' without asking their doctors

"Unscientific diets for fighting cancer may be well-intentioned, say real medical experts, but their unproven claims do more harm to already vulnerable patients."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/12/irish-cancer-patients-are-turning-to.html

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