CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/6/2023 (Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth, Faith Healing, OneTaste, Children of God)

Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth, Faith Healing, OneTaste, Children of God

Courthouse News Service: Psychedelic church asks panel to let it seek religious exemption for drug use

"An attorney for an Orlando church asked an 11th Circuit panel on Wednesday to overturn a Florida federal judge's dismissal of its challenge to a Drug Enforcement Administration decision prohibiting the church from using psychedelic ayahuasca tea in its religious retreats.

Billing itself as a "spiritual learning and healing center," Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth offers three-day retreats at its facility where participants can imbibe ayahuasca, a tea that contains the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, in search of a religious awakening. For a $999 donation, Soul Quest Church extends participants the chance to join in on weekend retreat ceremonies to experience the "healing" attributes of the tea.

There's just one problem: federal drug enforcers say the church is not entitled to a religious-based exemption to the Controlled Substances Act, the federal law designating DMT as a Schedule I substance with no currently accepted medical use.

Regardless of the DEA's decision and a wrongful death lawsuit arising from one of its retreats, the ceremonies have continued unabated for the last seven years.

An attorney representing Soul Quest Church and its leader, Christopher Young, told a panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court that a Florida federal judge unfairly dismissed his clients' lawsuit against the DEA last March.

The church sued the agency under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, claiming in legal filings that its refusal to issue a religious exemption for the sacramental use of ayahuasca violates the First Amendment's free exercise clause. Soul Quest Church had previously sued to block the DEA from enforcing the Controlled Substances Act against its use of the tea."

The Spokesman-Review: Shawn Vestal: Another year, another chance to fix Idaho's fatal faith-healing protections

"More than seven years ago, Boise attorney Kirt Naylor signed off on a rallying cry to defend Idaho's children.

In a letter to then-Gov. Butch Otter, Naylor and the rest of the 17 members of the Governor's Task Force on Children at Risk, outlined a child mortality rate in a Canyon County faith-healing community that was 10 times greater than the state average.

The committee, including doctors, judges and citizens from across the state, urged Otter to revise the state's religious exemption to child abuse and neglect laws, which protect parents from civil or criminal repercussions if their children suffer or die as a result of their religious beliefs.

"Our First Amendment right to religious freedom does not include the right to abuse or neglect children," the letter read.

"In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 'The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or child to communicable disease, or the latter to ill health or death. ... Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow that they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children ... "And yet year after year, more martyred children of the Followers of Christ Church are buried from treatable or preventable causes — from sepsis, pneumonia, diabetes and other conditions that most children survive — and year after year, attempts to stand up for them in the Statehouse come to naught."

Variety: 'Sexual Wellness' Company Founder Loses Libel Bid Against BBC Over Podcast

"The founder of "sexual wellness" company OneTaste has failed in her bid to sue the BBC for libel over a podcast.

Last March, Nicole Daedone, the co-founder and former CEO of "orgasmic meditation" company OneTaste, applied to be party to an existing libel action against the BBC over a podcast called "The Orgasm Cult" that ran in November and December 2020. She was joined in her application by OneTaste itself and Rachel Cherwitz, an "orgasmic meditation" practitioner.

The original libel action, which continues, was filed by the Institute of OM LLC and OM IP Co – understood to be a rebranded version of OneTaste – in November 2021.

However, the BBC argued that Daedone, Cherwitz and OneTaste's libel claims were time-barred, falling outside the 12-month limitation period.

In a judgement handed down on Thursday, Mr Justice Pepperall, who heard the application, said that he would not permit Daedone and OneTaste to be added as parties to the libel claim because the time limit had expired and would be "prejudicial" to the BBC. However, he said that Cherwitz's libel claim could proceed because she was "not aware of the original claim and did not make a deliberate decision in November 2021 not to join in proceedings."

"While the High Court has decided not to hear my defamation claim, this does not in any way alleviate the BBC's responsibility to correct its errors and ensure the facts are put on record," said Daedone in a statement. "I have said I find bringing defamation proceedings distasteful. Yet despite having in its possession the true facts that unravel the false thread that holds together its podcast, the BBC has been unwilling to do its duty to ensure the public is accurately informed."

Daedone had claimed the BBC's podcast had defamed her by suggesting that she – along with OneTaste and Cherwitz – had "controlled a destructive sex cult which, under the false pretence of being a wellness organisation promoting empowerment for modern women, deliberately manipulated and exploited vulnerable women causing them lifelong trauma for the purpose of making themselves wealthy," according to the judgment."

Abnormal Normal: My Life in the Children of God - Kindle edition by Mahoney, Mary.

"A rational look into a very irrational group mentality.

The early 1970's was a turbulent time in the US. Anti-war protesters took to the streets, countless students dropped out and became hippies, and drug use spread among the young. As if to offer the youth a way out of this societal storm, there arose a rebirth of Christianity, the Jesus People. The Children of God was at the cutting edge of this movement. It is behind the curtains of this enigmatic group that our story unfolds."

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Bageshwar Dham Sarkar: The Indian guru making headlines over 'miracle' cures

Geeta Pandey

BBC News, Delhi

February 6, 2023

India is home to thousands of religious gurus, but a controversial new "godman" has been making headlines for the past fortnight.

Supporters of Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, popularly known as Bageshwar Dham Sarkar, claim that he has divine powers and that he can heal the sick, cure people possessed by ghosts and help people tide over business and financial problems.

The 26-year-old chief priest of the Bageshwar Dham temple, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, dresses in colourful clothes, sports hats similar to those worn by 18th-Century Peshwa rulers of Maharashtra, and counts powerful government ministers and politicians among his followers. He has become a TV and social media sensation.

In recent weeks, India's Hindi-language news channels have devoted hundreds of hours to the guru and his professed powers. And his utterances on controversial topics such as religious conversions and inter-faith marriages are now being reported as "breaking news".

His social media following has risen rapidly to reach 7.5 million - with 3.4 million followers on Facebook, 3.9 million YouTube subscribers, 300,000 followers on Instagram and 72,000 on Twitter. Some of his most popular videos have been watched between three and 10 million times.

Mr Shastri burst into the national limelight in January, after a well-known rationalist questioned his claims that he had healing powers and could read people's minds.

Shyam Manav, who runs an anti-superstition movement through his organisation Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, offered to pay 3m rupees ($36,500; £30,000) if Mr Shastri correctly read the minds of 10 people chosen by him.

The challenge was made when Mr Shastri was holding a camp in the city of Nagpur in Maharashtra - the state where Mr Manav is based.

When Mr Shastri left the city without taking the challenge, some said he'd run away.

Since then, he's given a number of TV interviews where he's denied running away and said that he was willing to take the challenge, but not in Maharashtra. Instead, he proposed the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, a "neutral" venue.

But Mr Manav says that since he made the claims about his superpowers in Maharashtra, he must prove them there.

Since the controversy began, reports say Mr Manav has received death threats and police have tightened his security. A few days ago, Mr Shastri also filed a complaint with the police saying that he too had received a death threat over the phone.

The controversy and the breathless media coverage - with one mainstream reporter kneeling at his feet and promoting his claims of healing the sick and ability to read people's minds - have only added to his popularity.

In YouTube videos put out by the Bageshwar Dham temple, he is seen addressing large gatherings attended by thousands of people. At one rally he claims that "there are 400,000 people in attendance".

On stage and the TV screen he is often very animated - punctuating his sentences with claps, he giggles as if laughing at some private joke. At times he bobs up and down on his seat, points a finger at the camera, mutters to himself and speaks in different voices.

At one gathering, he summons "a man called Mukesh, who is dressed in a vest and is not wearing a shirt" from the crowd.

Magician and mentalist Suhani Shah has questioned Mr Shastri's methods

When such a man appears on the stage, he writes down on a sheet of paper what ails Mukesh and his family without talking to him. Mukesh readily agrees when he hears his troubles read out from this sheet.

At another event, he writes down some mantras for a mother whose child suffers from seizures. "Recite them daily, these will help your son and also take care of your financial hardship," he tells her.

Such performances have helped Mr Shastri gain a reputation as a "miracle worker", with his supporters claiming that "he has a third eye, and can peep inside your heart, mind and soul".

But critics accuse him of practising witchcraft and spreading superstition and doing cheap tricks to impress the gullible masses.

Magicians and mentalists (mind-readers) have come forwards in the past few days to demonstrate that they can pull off similar feats too, saying that it's just an art and not some divine gift.

"What he's doing is mentalism. You cannot call it a miracle. It's an art form, a skill that's learnt. If anyone tells you that it's a miracle, then he's spreading superstition, he's spreading lies," Suhani Shah, a mentalist, told a news channel.

Mr Shastri has said he is "being falsely accused of promoting superstition" and that he hasn't claimed he can solve "every problem".

Even some prominent Hindu religious leaders have questioned his prowess - one of them said that if Mr Shastri is really able to perform miracles, then he must repair the houses which have developed cracks in the sinking Himalayan town of Joshimath.

Mr Shastri often appears on Hindi-language news channels

Mr Shastri has also been embroiled in political controversies over what appear to be anti-minority statements and calling for India to be made a Hindu rashtra (nation).

He was also accused of practising untouchability last year, after a video went viral that showed him telling a man "don't touch me... you're untouchable".

But he has significant support among many right-wing Hindu leaders, who say he is being picked on for opposing religious conversion of Hindus.

"If anyone speaks against religious conversion… [they] will be falsely accused and attacked. This is the reason behind the attacks against Bageshwar Maharaj. That's why we're with him," Kapil Mishra, a leader of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, tweeted recently.

Mr Shastri often describes himself as a "country bumpkin" and "an illiterate man" and, according to the temple's official website, he was interested in religion from early childhood and often bunked off school to visit it.

Born in 1996 in a poor Brahmin family in Chhatarpur district's Gada village, he dropped out after a few years of education to work to supplement the family income.

One of his schoolmates told BBC Hindi that a few years ago, Mr Shastri disappeared for a year. It was after his return that politicians and other influential people started visiting the temple to meet him.

"Until five years ago, he used to travel on motorbikes," he said.

Today, he travels in a convoy of a dozen cars and flies around, sometimes by private jets, in India and abroad.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64480726

Shawn Vestal: Another year, another chance to fix Idaho's fatal faith-healing protections

Shawn Vestal, 
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
January 24, 2023
 
Jan. 24—More than seven years ago, Boise attorney Kirt Naylor signed off on a rallying cry to defend Idaho's children.

In a letter to then-Gov. Butch Otter, Naylor and the rest of the 17 members of the Governor's Task Force on Children at Risk, outlined a child mortality rate in a Canyon County faith-healing community that was 10 times greater than the state average.

The committee, including doctors, judges and citizens from across the state, urged Otter to revise the state's religious exemption to child abuse and neglect laws, which protect parents from civil or criminal repercussions if their children suffer or die as a result of their religious beliefs.

"Our First Amendment right to religious freedom does not include the right to abuse or neglect children," the letter read.

"In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 'The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or child to communicable disease, or the latter to ill health or death. ... Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow that they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children ... "

And yet year after year, more martyred children of the Followers of Christ Church are buried from treatable or preventable causes — from sepsis, pneumonia, diabetes and other conditions that most children survive — and year after year, attempts to stand up for them in the Statehouse come to naught.

"It's disappointing something more hasn't been done," said Naylor, a former prosecutor in Ada County and longtime volunteer in the state's Court-Appointed Guardian Ad Litem program for abused children. He served on the task force from 2000 to 2016.

"I believe there can be some form of agreement where religious freedoms are protected but vulnerable children are also protected from severe illness and death."

That agreement has been elusive. And as the new legislative session gets rolling, the early signs are that it will remain so.

In the task force's letter, written in July 2015, they noted the grossly high proportion of children's graves in the Peaceful Valley Cemetery, near the small town of Marsing. The cemetery serves the Followers of Christ Church, who do not believe in using modern medicine.

Between 2002 and 2011, the letter says, state records show that 3.37% of all deaths in Idaho occurred among children. During the same period, 130 people were buried at the cemetery; 40 of those deaths, or 31%, were children or stillbirths.

Since then, other efforts have been made to try and make an accurate counting of the deaths of children among the church members. The Idaho Statesman found 19 instances of child deaths since 2015, in an investigative story in 2020 and an update this month. Other journalists have covered the story, as well, and a documentary about the Followers of Christ, "No Greater Law," was released in 2018.

The Idaho Legislature has spent the last couple of sessions puffing itself up as the most "pro-life" of them all. This year is off to a nutty start on that front with the culture-war exertions of its newest counter-balance to intelligent lawmaking, Sagle's Scott Herndon.

Herndon proposed a measure that would force children to take advantage of the "opportunity" to bear their rapists' babies, by eliminating the exceptions for rape and incest built into the state's new, draconian anti-abortion laws. The measure was DOA, but it got a committee discussion.

Here is how Herndon responded when asked about decency of forcing a teenage girl to bear a child if she were raped by a father or an uncle: "Some people could describe the situation that you're talking about as the opportunity to have the child under those terrible circumstances, if the rape actually occurred."
The silver lining, if you will. The idea that this got even a brief airing in the Capitol chambers, while no one is rising up to put a stop to the ongoing deaths of children at the Followers of Christ Church, tells you a lot about the current state of "pro-life" politics in Idaho.

Over and over again, Idaho lawmakers have simply supported the rights of parents to religiously neglect their children to death. Legislative proposals to change that usually don't even make it to a full vote.

"I personally believe in prayer and medical intervention but I cannot interfere with a parent's right to worship as their faith and morals direct them," Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, who represented the district where the church is located and was a staunch opponent of removing the faith-healing exemption, said in 2018.
Even those Republican lawmakers who might have qualms seem scared to even bring it up, and in a Senate that has veered even harder to the far right — where the pandemic has driven the commitment to medical quackery to new heights — we probably shouldn't hold our breath for progress.
The new chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee, where such legislation has tended to die in past years, described the issue to the Statesman recently as "a very complicated, touchy issue."

In what universe is this very complicated?

In what world touchy?

Many states offer some protection for faith healing, but only six grant full immunity to parents for the death and serious injury of a child. (Washington has a peculiarly narrow exemption for Christian Science faith-healing.)

Good, decent Idahoans have been crying out for change for a long time now. Naylor and many others want lawmakers to protect children here, and many of those calling for change are not at all opposed to faith healing, per se.
"I believe in faith as a means of healing," said Naylor, who is LDS. "I believe in medical healing, too. But if a child is likely to die imminently or to be severely injured imminently, something has to be done to protect the rights of the child.
"In these cases, the child doesn't have a voice."
Idaho lawmakers have had a long time to change that.
And they have another chance right now.
 
 
https://news.yahoo.com/shawn-vestal-another-another-chance-045900005.html

CultNEWS101 Articles: 10/21/2020

QAnon, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), NXIVM, Faith Healing

Washington Post: QAnon is tearing families apart

"Q.

There was a time not long ago when the letter held no special meaning for Jacob, a 24-year-old in Croatia. The 17th letter of the alphabet, usually followed by "u" in English words. What else was there to know? He certainly never expected it to end the tight knit relationship he shared with his mother.

But Jacob, who grew up in the United States, told The Washington Post that he has cut all contact with his mother now that she's become an ardent believer of the QAnon conspiracy theories.

Though they long held different political beliefs, they had "a really, really strong relationship," he said. "We were inseparable." He had no reason to think anything had changed. But during the holidays in 2019, "our relationship just completely tanked."

QAnon can be traced back to a series of 2017 posts on 4chan, the online message board known for its mixture of trolls and alt-right followers. The poster was someone named "Q," who claimed to be a government insider with Q security clearance, the highest level in the Department of Energy. QAnon's origin matters less than what it's become, an umbrella term for a loose set of conspiracy theories ranging from the false claim that vaccines cause illness and are a method of controlling the masses to the bogus assertion that many pop stars and Democratic leaders are pedophiles."

The New Republic: How a Demon-Slaying Pentecostal Billionaire Is Ushering in a Post-Catholic Brazil

"The headquarters of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God does not resemble your typical megachurch. Its eighteen stories dwarf the big-boxes of the Texas and Missouri exurbs. Behind pillared walls of imported granite and marble, a 10,000-seat sanctuary features neither crosses nor organs, but a menorah motif running from entrance to pulpit. Men in shawls and skullcaps that look a lot like Jewish tallits and yalmukahs conduct ceremonies next to Hebrew-inscribed Tablets of Stone and a gilded Ark of the Covenant. The building is meant to be a supersized reproduction of the biblical Temple of Solomon, but by way of Caesar's Palace.

This is São Paulo, not Vegas or Jerusalem, and the men onstage are Pentecostal pastors, not rabbis. To be more precise, they are Neo-Pentecostal pastors, practicing a syncretic stew of the prosperity gospel, millenarianism, miracle healing, demon invocation, and exorcism, while boasting a level of Judeophilia weird even by the generous standards of Christian Zionism. Once a spiritual outlier, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) stands at the forefront of Brazil's rapid transformation into a Catholic-minority country. Its seven million members constitute Brazil's second-largest Protestant denomination, after the Assemblies of God coalition.

In the UCKG, the Holy Spirit does more than purge demons. It sets believers up for the acquisition of great wealth. The living proof is 74-year-old Edir Macedo, a former street preacher and lottery worker who over the course of four decades has built the UCKG into a billion-dollar church-media juggernaut. This past autumn, he used the levers of this power to help elect Brazil's first Evangelical president. With the ascension of the far-right ex-Army captain Jair Bolsonaro, Macedo cemented his status as a pivotal figure in the future of post-Catholic Brazil."

Deadline: 'Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult': Trailer & Premiere Date For Four-Part Starz Docuseries

"It was the kind of story Hollywood might dream up — but not only was it real, it had some ties to the industry. Starz has set Sunday for the premiere of Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, a four-part documentary series that takes a first-person look at the sex cult that was broken open in April 2018. It premieres at 9 p.m. this Sunday, October 16. Watch the trailer above and see the key art below.

Hailing from the filmmaking team of Cecilia Peck and Inbal B. Lessner (Brave Miss World), Seduced follows the harrowing journey of India Oxenberg, the daughter of former Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg and a descendant of European royalty — who was seduced into the modern-day sex-slave cult NXIVM. More than 17,000 people, including India, enrolled in its "Executive Success Programs," a front for the cult and a hunting ground for its leader, master predator Keith Raniere — who was convicted on seven counts in July 2019. Women in DOS, a secret master-slave society within NXIVM, were sex-trafficked and branded with a cauterizing iron. Both about a mother trying to save her daughter and recovery from trauma, the series follows India's seduction, indoctrination, enslavement, escape and role as "co-conspirator" in assisting the U.S. government with bringing down Raniere and his criminal enterprise."

The Sacramento Bee: COVID-19 outbreak at faith-healing school alarms conservative Northern California town

"They come to Redding from all over the world for instruction in faith healing and raising the dead. They often approach strangers in local parking lots, businesses and hospitals offering prayers.

Now, state and church officials are asking the student body of more than 1,600 people at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Shasta County to lock down at their homes and apartments after 137 students and staff members tested positive for COVID-19. The cases represent 10 percent of Shasta County's total infections so far.

Bethel Church and local health officials say the Redding megachurch is taking steps to limit the outbreak from spreading. But health officials worry the dozens of new cases could set off a wave of infections in this conservative community where a group of activists has angrily pushed back against COVID-19 restrictions and the local health officer has received threats for enforcing state mask mandates and business closures.

In a statement on its website last week, Bethel Church said it had asked students to arrive early before classes started in early September to quarantine for 14 days, and students were required to have a negative COVID-19 test result prior to attending school.

But that didn't stop an outbreak from spreading."

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/16/2019

EnlightenNext,  Andrew Cohen, Faith Healing, Sri Lanka, Bikram Yoga, Sexual Abuse, Legal,  Baba Ramdev, Ayurveda   

Patheos: Strange and Curious Sects: EnlightenNext

"One of EnlightenNext’s members was Luna Torlo, Cohen’s mother. At first, she was enthused about her son’s mystical awakening – but their relationship soured as he grew dictatorial, and ultimately she fled the cult and broke off contact with him:

She recalls him lashing out at his disciples—supposedly in an attempt to strip away the ego. Torlo says he told her to give way to him or their relationship would end; he once ordered a regimen where she would cook one meal a day, meditate for two hours, and remain in silence except for talking to him, saying that “since I was so full of opinions and nothing but opinions, I was absolutely forbidden to express an opinion on anything.”

Her son, formerly the “sweetest, sensitive kid, had changed into an unrecognizable tyrant.” (source)

However, unlike many cults, EnlightenNext didn’t preach rejection of modernity, and its members weren’t cut off from the outside world. This proved to be their downfall.

In 2013, a group of disaffected ex-members began to expose Cohen’s abuse and brainwashing tactics on internet forums. Word spread, and within the space of a few weeks, it was as if a spell was broken. More and more people were quitting, and the movement began to disintegrate. And then, surprisingly, Cohen himself admitted that the critics were right. He announced that he was stepping down, ceasing all public teaching and going on a soul-searching pilgrimage.

He later wrote in an public apology:

I gradually lost sight of people’s humanity, including my own, and only saw all of us as the living Self Aware consciousness that, in an evolutionary context, was going somewhere. And that was all that I believed was important or really mattered… As I was losing touch with my own simple humanity and everyone else’s, I also was simultaneously not paying attention to the gradual growing of my spiritual ambition, of my spiritual ego. I believe that my intense longing for the evolution of consciousness in my students was real, but I have begun to see more and more clearly how over time my pride and my desire for fame and recognition slowly but surely began to blur and corrupt my vision."

CNA: Two die, 13 critical after Sri Lanka faith healing

"Two people died from heat exhaustion after attending a mass open air faith healing session in northeast Sri Lanka which left 13 others fighting for their lives, police said Sunday (Sep 8).

About 10,000 people, some of whom were seriously ill, had gathered at a school to listen to a man who claimed he could use "powers of the gods and the Buddha" to cure the sick.

Police in the town of Horowupotana, 260 kilometres north-east of Colombo said 18 people were taken to hospital, with 13 in a critical condition."

IndieWire: ‘Bikram’ Review: Netflix Doc Is Latest Proof That the Yoga Rapist Has Eluded Justice.

"Over the past two years, the #MeToo movement has exposed countless terrible men guilty of sexual harassment and assault, but Bikram Choudhury has yet to face his comeuppance. A searing new documentary from Netflix on the “hot yoga” founder lays it all out in a blunt title: “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator.” It doesn’t bring much new information to the table, but it’s an infuriating look at the way Choudhury seduced thousands of followers with his yoga franchise, while raping and assaulting innumerable women, and how he managed — so far — to get away with it. Choudry belongs in jail, and this frustrating overview provides the latest opportunity to keep that conversation in the public eye."

Bloomberg: Yoga Guru Firm Gets India Court Nod to Buy Out Cooking-Oil Maker

"India’s company court approved a bid by a group of firms controlled by yoga guru Baba Ramdev to take over cooking oil and soya-products maker Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. for 43.5 billion rupees ($606 million).

Patanjali Consortium Adhigrahan Pvt. -- a venture by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. and three other companies -- will merge with Ruchi Soya, according to a stock exchange filing late Saturday. Shareholders of Patanjali Consortium will get one share of Ruchi Soya for each that they hold in the former."

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Faith-healing follower sentenced for not reporting sex abuse

National Post
The Associated Press
February 14, 2019

NAMPA, Idaho — An Idaho woman who refused to report her husband’s yearslong sexual abuse of young relatives and instead prayed for “the demon” to leave him was ordered Thursday to spend a year in a prison treatment program.

Judge Christopher Nye said that if Sarah Kester, 51, fails to successfully complete the program, she will serve at least four and up to 10 years in prison, the Idaho Press reported.

Prosecutors say her husband, Lester Kester Jr., molested five children over two decades. He pleaded guilty in October to five felony charges of lewd conduct with a minor in exchange for prosecutors not pursuing charges of possession of child pornography.

The couple is affiliated with the Followers of Christ Church, whose members eschew medical care for themselves and their children in favour of “faith healing” because they believe that prayer and rituals can sufficiently treat even catastrophic illnesses.

The church has a prominent following in parts of southwestern Idaho and Oregon, and the congregation has been accused of allowing dozens of children to die from a lack of basic medical care. Idaho’s child injury law, however, includes a religious exemption that has long allowed church members to act without state intervention.

After Sarah Kester’s July 11 arrest, she said she had known of the abuse for the past 17 years, according to the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office.

“Sarah Kester told detectives that she didn’t report the abuse because it was against her belief system to involve agencies such as law enforcement, child protection services, or counselling services into personal matters,” the agency said in a press release. “Instead, she said she attempted to protect … children through praying for ‘the demon’ to leave Lester and attempting to keep him busy with other tasks.”

Sarah Kester’s defence attorney said at sentencing that her client grew up in an isolated community and experienced her own trauma.

“She did everything that she knew to do to take care of them,” attorney Bethany Harder Haase said.

Sarah Kester cried as she addressed the court.

“I should’ve paid attention to all the rumours going around,” she said. “I feel so devastated. I should’ve got out of marriage right there and then.”

Three of the victims, now in their teens and 20s, also gave statements, saying Sarah Kester called them offensive names and blamed them for her husband’s actions.

The Associated Press isn’t identifying the victims or their relationship to the Kesters.

Sarah Kester entered in October a modified guilty plea, in which she maintained her innocence but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict her. Lester Kester is set to be sentenced Feb. 26.

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/faith-healing-follower-sentenced-for-not-reporting-sex-abuse

60-year-old faith healer nabbed for rape in Valenzuela

Cathrine Gonzales
INQUIRER.NET
August 10, 2018

A sexagenarian who claims to be a faith healer allegedly raped a 28-year old woman while performing a “ritual” in Valenzuela City on Friday.

Nestor Astoviza Altesola, 60, was allegedly doing a “healing” session on the victim when he suddenly pulled her inside a room and raped her, a police report read.

After the alleged rape, the victim reported the incident to local authorities in Barangay Bignay who then called the police who made the arrest.

Police said Altesola remained silent during the investigation. He is now detained at the Valenzuela City Police Station as charges are being prepared for filing.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1019869/60-year-old-faith-healer-nabbed-for-rape-in-valenzuela/amp

Faith-healing parents plead guilty in death of newborn twin

Sarah Elaine Mitchell, 25, and Travis Lee Mitchell, 22,
the parents of a twin girl who died hours after her
home birth last year with dozens of people attending
from the faith-healing Followers of Christ Church
 pleaded guilty Monday to negligent homicide and
 criminal mistreatment. July 9, 2018. Beth Nakamura/Staff

Maxine Bernstein (mbernstein@oregonian.com)
The Oregonian/OregonLive

July 9, 2018

The parents of a twin girl who died hours after a home birth attended by dozens of people from the faith-healing Followers of Christ Church pleaded guilty Monday to negligent homicide and criminal mistreatment.

It marked the fifth criminal case in Clackamas County after a child's death in the church community over the last nine years but the first to end in a plea deal. The mother, Sarah Elaine Mitchell, 25, and father, Travis Lee Mitchell, 22, each were sentenced to prison for six years and eight months.

In an unusual development, the Mitchells not only acknowledged their failure to provide necessary medical care for their newborn but also said in a statement read aloud by one of their lawyers that "everyone in the church should always seek adequate medical care for our children.''

Sarah and Travis Mitchell are members of the Followers of Christ, which traces its origin to the Pentecostal movement of the late 19thcentury. Sarah Mitchell is a granddaughter of the church founder, Walter White. Her father is also named Walter White.

Sarah Mitchell's father signed the statement, which will be prominently posted inside the church for all to read, under the terms of the plea agreement.

The couple's newborn, Ginnifer, died March 5, 2017, from complications of premature birth. Her lungs appeared to be "airless'' and she suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome, the state medical examiner found.

The guilty pleas came in a Clackamas County courtroom before more than 50 church supporters and Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric J. Bergstrom, who who helped the parties reach a settlement.

Travis and Sarah Mitchell, dressed in black-and white-striped jail jumpsuits, sat beside each other, between their defense lawyers. They chose not to address the court when given an opportunity during the sentencing.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Bryan Brock called the outcome of the case, with the couple accepting responsibility and issuing a public statement, a "landmark resolution.''

"These are senseless and avoidable deaths, and we keep asking ourselves what will it take'' to convince others in the church to get the right medical care for their children, Brock said.

He said he hoped the message will be for church followers to "seek medical attention and prayer. They're not mutually exclusive.''

Sarah Mitchell's lawyer Stephen Houze called the couple "utterly sincere, decent, caring human beings,'' who have suffered with the loss of one of their children while separated in custody.

They have had in-jail visits with their surviving daughter, who is now 16 months old and bonding with each parent, Houze said. She remains in foster care.

The parents are accepting responsibility for their actions "knowing a price must be paid,'' Houze said.

The Mitchells' baby died in the master bedroom at the Oregon City home of Sarah Mitchell's parents. It was the same place where Sarah Mitchell's older sister Shannon Hickman delivered a premature baby boy who died eight hours after birth in September 2009.

The Mitchells each initially were charged in June 2017 with murder by neglect and two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, accused of withholding medical attention from both daughters.

"This was not a murder case,'' Houze said.

According to prosecutors, Sarah Mitchell learned she was pregnant on Aug. 24, 2016, through a home pregnancy test. She estimated her delivery date to be April 23, 2017.

Seven weeks before her expected delivery, her water broke about 2 a.m. on March 5 and she went into premature labor. She and her husband drove to her parents' home to deliver what they believed would be a single baby. Having never had a prenatal ultrasound, Sarah Mitchell was unaware she was pregnant with twins.

Had she had an ultrasound, it would have revealed that one of the babies hadn't turned in utero, according to prosecutors.

The first of the twins, Evylen, was born in a breech position -- bottom first, a significant potential complication -- at 2:30 p.m., weighing only 3 pounds, 8 ounces, nearly two months premature. Twenty-three minutes later, Ginnifer was born at 2:53 p.m., weighing only 3 pounds, 6 ounces.

Breathing problems persisted for both newborns but no one called 911 or took the girls to a hospital.

At 4:36 p.m., a relative texted others, asking, "R u guys hearing that the second baby is dark and they r wanting prayers?'' according to investigators.

Over four hours, Ginnifer fought for her life, trying to take oxygen into her underdeveloped lungs. At 6:05 pm., Travis Mitchell "laid on hands'' and the family took turns praying for healing as the baby continued labored breathing and changed colors.

Ginnifer died at 7 p.m. that day. "I knew she was dead when she didn't cry out anymore,'' her father said, according to court documents.

Both Sarah and Travis Mitchell admitted in interviews that their daughter's death was just like the Hickman case, Brock wrote in court papers.

A jury convicted Hickman and her husband of second-degree manslaughter and they were sentenced to six years and three months in prison for not seeking medical treatment for their son born at 32 weeks.

"The Mitchells were more knowledgeable of the risks and consequences to their newborns from having experienced the Hickman case,'' Brock wrote in court documents.

Also present at the birth were Sarah Mitchell's in-laws, three mid-wife birthing assistants and other family, including Sarah Mitchell's eldest sister, Stephanie Edwards, and her husband, Brian, as well as church members.

During seven months of pregnancy, Sarah Mitchell received no prenatal care and took no supplements, though the couple have medical insurance with Kaiser Permanente through Travis Mitchell's job. The sole extent of her preparation was reading the best-selling pregnancy primer "What to Expect When You Are Expecting.''

In contrast, the couple sought regular veterinary care, including wellness checks, medications and vaccinations, for their dog and cat, prosecutors wrote in court papers.

"We hope that this office is never again forced to prosecute parents in the Followers of Christ Church for neglecting the medical care of their children,'' the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. "However, we continue to stand ready to do so if the members of that congregation do not heed the call of this family.''

The couple showed no emotion in court. As each stood to be handcuffed by sheriff's deputies before they were led out of the courtroom, Travis Mitchell, a 2014 graduate of Oregon City High School, mouthed "I love you'' to his parents.

The Mitchells will get credit for the 13 months they've already been in custody and credit for good time served. They'll face three years of post-prison supervision.

https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2018/07/faith-healing_parents_plead_to.html

Trial set for Berks couple in death of 2-year-old daughter

The girl died after they didn't seek medical attention for her pneumonia, prosecutors say.

STEPHANIE WEAVER
Reading Eagle
March 17, 2018

The trial for an Upper Tulpehocken Township couple who didn't seek medical attention for their 2-year-old daughter before she died of a treatable form of pneumonia in November 2016 is set to begin next week in Berks County Court.

Jonathan D. Foster, 35, and Grace Anne Foster, 33, are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of Ella Grace Foster.

The couple did not seek any medical care for their ailing daughter because of their religious beliefs. The Fosters belong to Faith Tabernacle Church, a religious sect that does not believe in any type of medical intervention, only faith healing.

Jury selection is expected to begin Monday morning before Judge. M. Theresa Johnson.

During a hearing last week preparing for trial, Assistant District Attorney Katie Lehman asked the judge to not allow the defense to raise the couple's religious beliefs as a defense to the charges.

Lehman said the Fosters' beliefs will certainly come up in the trial and expects an argument that it influenced their decision, but noted that Pennsylvania law does not allow religious beliefs to be presented as a justification for the crime.

Defense attorney R. Davis Younts of Harrisburg agreed that it's not a defense and that a jury shouldn't find them not guilty simply because of their faith.

Johnson granted Lehman's request.

According to authorities:

The toddler died about 1 p.m. Nov. 8, 2016, in the family's home in the first block of Talbert Road.

State police went to the home that afternoon after being summoned by a funeral home that the couple contacted to remove their daughter's body.

Jonathan and Grace Anne gave troopers the same account when interviewed. Their daughter started showing signs of a cold a few days prior and wasn't as energetic as normal.

She had a sore, raspy throat and struggled to sleep the night before she died. That evening the couple asked their pastor, Rowland Foster, who is also the girl's grandfather, to come to the home to pray and anoint her with oils.

On Nov. 8, Grace Anne Foster called her husband home from work after Ella Grace's breathing became labored. When he got home, he held his daughter in his arms as her breathing became rapid. He held her for roughly an hour until she stopped breathing.

Dr. Neil A. Hoffman, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, testified at a previous hearing that Ella Grace would have been fighting to breathe and coughing uncontrollably due to pneumonia. He said it would have been obvious to any reasonable person that she needed medical intervention.

The defense has previously argued that the girl's illness had a rapid onset and her parents made a judgment call.

Lehman also requested last week that Johnson not allow any singing or humming in the presence of the jury. The prosecutor said she expects a large group of supporters for the Fosters and noted there had been humming during prior hearings.

Johnson said she would instruct everyone in the courtroom that there would be no talking or noise from the galley while the trial is in session.

The couple previously gave up custody of their other six children, ages 1 to 12 years. The decision was made when prosecutors attempted to add conditions to the couple's bail that would have ensured they were getting proper medical care for the other children.

Authorities said at the time that the children would be kept together and placed in the care of a family that will make sure they receive proper medical care.

Prosecutors had also sought charges against Rowland Foster, the pastor, for failing to report child abuse, but Johnson dismissed the case in December after finding there was insufficient evidence.

Contact Stephanie Weaver: 610-371-5042 or sweaver@readingeagle.com.

http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/trial-set-for-berks-couple-in-death-of-2-year-old-daughter