CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/22/2023 (O9A, neo-Nazi, International Churches of Christ (ICOC), Legal, Sexual Abuse, Jung Myung-seok, Korea)

O9A, neo-Nazi, International Churches of Christ (ICOC), Legal, Sexual Abuse, Jung Myung-seok, Korea

Courthouse News Service:Army soldier who plotted unit ambush with satanic neo-Nazi cult sentenced to 45 years

 The former U.S. Army private who plotted with a satanic neo-Nazi cult to ambush his unit in a mass-casualty attack was sentenced Friday to 45 years in federal prison.

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York had charged Ethan Melzer in June 2020 on criminal counts of supporting terrorism and conspiring to murder U.S. service members after Melzer had sent an encrypted message to a neo-Nazi, Satanist organization — just as his Army unit planned to deploy to Turkey — with sensitive information about his unit's size, weaponry, anticipated travel routes and defensive capabilities.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods on Friday referred to the group that Melzer had messaged, the Order of the Nine Angles, "repugnant." Finding no reason to deviate from the maximum possible sentence, Woods ordered the 24-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, to three consecutive sentences of 20 years, 15 years and 10 years on the three counts to which he had pleaded guilty last June, totaling 45 years in prison, followed by nine years of supervised release.

"This was not a lark," the Obama-appointed Woods continued after announcing the imposition of the maximum prison sentence of 45 years. "His crimes were committed to destroy civilization."

"I do not trust him," the judge said, stating clearly his concerns that Melzer has not actually moved on from the group's hateful ideology or would not commit another crime.

"I frankly do not believe him," Judge Woods said, noting that Melzer had concealed his violent, pro-jihadist beliefs from the Army and effectively deceived the three dozen comrades in his platoon.

"He could have logged off at any time," the judge remarked, noting that Melzer memorialized his commitment to the white nationalist, neo-Nazi group with a tattoo of the so-called chaos symbol affiliated with the cult's accelerationist worldview.

The black, cross-shaped tattoo of a star with pointed arrows was visible on Melzer's left forearm at the sentencing hearing, not covered up by the short sleeves of his tan prison jumpsuit.

According to prosecutors' sentencing brief, Melzer got the tattoo — "symbolizing 'chaos' a concept consistent with O9A's mission of destroying existing Western civilization to give way to Satanic forces and unrestrained violence" — between the time he enlistmed and reported for duty.

"The defendant sought to end American lives and America itself," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Hellman said at the sentencing hearing.

LA Times: Church leaders concealed sexual abuse of young children, lawsuits allege

"Two churches with congregations scattered across Southern California covered up sexual abuse of children as young as 3 years old and financially exploited church members, according to multiple federal lawsuits filed since December.

Sixteen plaintiffs allege that leaders within the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and the International Christian Church (ICC) knew that their members had sexually abused adults and children, but instead of alerting the authorities they often "actively concealed" the abuse to "avert discovery by child protective services and the police."

Kids Kingdom, the ICOC's children's ministry, "served as a demented playground for sexual abuse," the suits charges. The allegations span 25 years, from 1987 to 2012, and some of the alleged abusers remain active church leaders, according to the suits and church websites.

Of the 16 plaintiffs who have sued claiming sexual abuse, 10 said at least some of their alleged abuse happened in Los Angeles.

The ICOC, a global network of non-denominational Protestant churches co-founded in 1979 by evangelist Kip McKean, has about 5,000 members in the Los Angeles area, according to the church website.

In 2006, after resigning from the ICOC, McKean started the ICC, which has congregations in Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Both churches are decentralized networks of nondenominational Christian congregations, and in the Los Angeles area, most congregations don't own their own church buildings, five former Los Angeles-area ICOC and ICC members said. Instead, congregations often meet for services in hotel conference rooms or similar venues.

The lawsuits accuse McKean of urging members to keep quiet about the alleged crimes, telling them, "We cannot report these abuses, because it would hurt our church, God's Modern-Day Movement."

One person whom ICOC leaders allegedly allowed to keep preying on children, David Saracino, is a now-convicted pedophile. In the 1990s, Saracino was an ICOC member in Los Angeles and worked in the Kids Kingdom.

In the lawsuits, four women allege that Saracino sexually assaulted them when they were between the ages of 3 and 9."

Ready Steady Cut: In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal Review – a disturbing look into four Korean cult leaders

"This Netflix docuseries examines the chilling true-crime stories of four Korean leaders who claimed to be prophets and exposes the dark side of unquestioning belief. The episodes shed light on the Christian Gospel Mission (JMS named after one man Jung Myung-seok), where the members would call themselves 'God's brides,' a deep look into the Odaeyang Mass Suicide where thirty-two members of a religious sect who believed in doomsday were found dead, a pseudo-religion that left the country speechless, and one man who claimed to be a God of all people. "

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultEducationEvents.com

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.

Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

Fall River gave 'official proclamation' to Indian scammer guru who invented a fake country

Dan Medeiros
The Herald News

March 17, 2023

FALL RIVER — The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, recently admitted that his city was scammed into becoming sister cities with a fictional country by an accused rapist and cult leader from India — and Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan was one of many city leaders who have signed souvenir proclamations honoring that same man.

However, Fall River avoided falling for the sister cities scam, city officials said.

Nithyananda Paramashivam, a self-proclaimed guru and “supreme pontiff of Hinduism,” claims to be the leader of a nation he invented, sometimes called Kailasa, Kailaasa, Shrikailasa, or the United States of Kailasa. He fled India in 2019, facing multiple rape and child abduction charges.

A post on the “government” of Kailasa’s website features a proclamation allegedly signed by Coogan naming Jan. 3, 2022, “Kailasa’s SPH Nithyananda Day.”

“I convey my best wishes to The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism (‘SPH’) Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam (‘JGM’), His Divine Holiness (‘HDH’) Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam, the Sovereign of the Sovereign State of SHRIKALASA, recognized as the 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva as per Sanatana Hindu Dharma (‘Hinduism’) and by His predecessors of enlightened masters and adepts,” reads the opening of the lengthy, jargon-filled document.

“I thank and congratulate KAILASA having enriched and enreached [sic] more than one billion individuals over the past 27 years and as such also has had a significant impact over Fall River, Massachusetts."

The document features Coogan's signature at the bottom.



Proclamations don't really mean anything

According to Coogan's special projects and media coordinator Elaina Pevide, the document is real. It's also not actually important, since it holds no legal or financial significance.

"We get requests like these all the time," Pevide said. "Because they're not a binding document at all, we usually accommodate them."

Like in many cities, Fall River’s website allows people to request “official proclamations” from the mayor — they are not genuine documents, but symbolic tokens offered as a "courtesy" to honor or celebrate milestones and other achievements. Fall River's application is a simple form that allows applicants to insert their own information.

“These public service documents are not legally binding, nor do they constitute an endorsement by the Mayor," reads the application form.

Pevide said the original email they'd received from the representatives of Kailasa noted that about 50 other communities and public officials — including Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — had offered similar congratulations and greetings.

Because the documents are essentially like souvenirs, Coogan's office provided the the proclamation.

"It's like when you adopt a star," Pevide said. "You're not really getting anything. Or a patch of land in Scotland. It's a piece of paper that you print out, but it's not really anything important."

But the government of Kailasa wanted more.

"We did actually get two subsequent requests last year. We got a request in the summer ... trying to push for sister city status," Pevide said. "It was a very odd request."

This was immediately denied, since the request triggered red flags and it became clear Kailasa was "not a real entity." The phony government requested a second proclamation at the end of 2022, which was also denied.

The form notes that if someone intends to publicize their mayoral proclamation — like posting it on Kailasa's website — they must contact the mayor’s office to get prior approval.

"We definitely did not give them permission to publicize or post on their website," Pevide said.

Who else has 'recognized' this fictional country?

In January, Newark went a step further and invited dignitaries from the fake country, evidently followers of Nithyananda, for a cultural exchange and a ceremony to become sister cities. A few days afterward, when it was discovered that the country does not exist, the agreement was nullified. Nithyananda's website nevertheless claims that this ceremony resulted in a "bilateral agreement" between the United States and his imaginary country.

Fall River and Newark are far from the only cities that Nithyananda has misused to claim legitimacy.

The website features proclamations from Issaquah, Washington; Texarkana, Texas; Buena Park, California; and many others. A Twitter account for Nithyananda claims that his country has entered into "bilateral relations" with several countries, and posts photos of representatives of his government "meeting" with officials from Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia and Lebanon.

Among Nithyananda’s other claims, he alleges that Kailasa has its own currency, flag, passports and banking system. Some reports claim he purchased an island off the coast of Ecuador, but that nation deniesthis claim. Last month, representatives from his fictional country appeared before United Nations committee meetings, though their remarks were ignored.

Nithyananda has also said he has magical powers, claiming he has made cows speak and once commanded the sun to delay sunrise for 40 minutes.

Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

https://www.heraldnews.com/story/news/local/2023/03/17/fall-river-recognized-fake-country-invented-by-indian-guru-scam-nithyananda/70018023007/

Ukraine's Hare Krishnas survive war by Zoom and serving neighbors

Many of the estimated 15,000 Hare Krishnas who call Ukraine home have continued their daily practice and serve their neighbors, even as several temples have been damaged or destroyed and their communities scattered.

Tori Luecking

Religion News Service
March 20, 2023


(RNS) — With no time even to wash her clothes as the Russians approached Mariupol a year ago, in southern Ukraine, Kalakeli Devi Dasi fled her native city with only a small suitcase filled with her dirty laundry. She also took with her a letter she was unable to deliver to her mother before Kalakeli and her friends joined a large convoy of cars heading southwest to the city of Berdyansk.

“It was very scary and we did not know what to expect,” said Kalakeli of the escape. “We saw much destruction. I saw burnt and torn bodies. It was a terrible and frightening sight. … We kept chanting the holy names of the Lord the whole way.”

Kalakeli is one of an estimated 15,000 Hare Krishnas who call Ukraine home, many of whom have continued their daily practice and serve their neighbors, even as several of their roughly 30 ISKCON temples have been damaged or destroyed and their communities scattered.

The Hare Krishna movement, whose formal name is the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, has been active in Eastern Europe since 1971, when ISKCON’s founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, traveled to the Soviet Union in the company of Shyamsundar Das, a close friend of Beatle George Harrison.

Prabhupada arrived in New York in 1965 from Calcutta to spread in the West faith in the Hindu deity Lord Krishna. Related to the nearly 500-year-old Krishna consciousness movement in India, ISKCON is a monotheistic tradition within Hinduism whose main spiritual text is the Bhagavad Gita. Its adherents practice vegetarianism and meditation, Bhakti yoga and public chanting of Krishna’s names, and in the U.S. it is best known for its groups of saffron-clad devotees chanting mantras in public spaces or passing out literature on the street.

Having planted the seeds of ISKCON in the U.S., Prabhupada went to the Soviet Union in 1971 to teach the faith. From there, the theology spread underground by word of mouth, despite the Communist Party’s anti-religious agenda, eventually finding its way to Ukraine.

Other Hare Krishnas from abroad followed Prabhupada to continue to nurture the movement in the former Soviet Union. One of them, Niranjana Swami, a convert to ISKCON from Massachusetts, entered the U.S.S.R. under the guise of a tourist in the late 1980s but broke away from his tour at night to lecture in small, packed apartments, teaching as many as 100 people on an evening.

“I felt these people were so sincerely looking for God, because it had been suppressed in their lives for so long by the regime, that I felt the regime actually did much to expand God consciousness,” said Niranjana Swami. “Anything beyond the party line was, to them, seen as a potential message from the divine.”

He was in Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed. “I happened to be in Moscow when Yeltsin was standing on the tanks around the parliament building.”

Now 70 and a governing body commissioner for ISKCON, Niranjana Swami oversees communities in Moldova, Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine, traveling widely and visiting Ukraine when he can.

When the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, local devotees turned to Niranjana Swami for support and guidance, and he began lecturing via Zoom. His collection of lectures about the war were recently compiled and published in a book titled, “Krishna Protects His Devotees.”

Niranjana Swami also helped mobilize the worldwide ISKCON community to raise thousands of dollars for those suffering from the effects of the war. Share Your Care, based in Kyiv, aims to help Hare Krishnas and their families relocate from conflict zones, supplement their loss of income and distribute food. Since the war began, an estimated 2 million plates of food have been distributed by ISKCON to Ukrainians in need.

The war has claimed the lives of at least five Hare Krishna devotees, and devastation in Kramatorsk and Bakhmut has cost the local communities its temples. In the face of this violence, deities have been relocated while larger temple rooms have been closed and their basements converted into bomb shelters.

Temple services and programs have resumed in cities in safer locales, while on the streets of Kyiv and other cities west of there, public chanting and book distribution have also resumed.

Much of this activity is overseen by Acyuta Priya, ISKCON’s zonal supervisor for Ukraine. Born to a staunchly Communist family when Ukraine was still a Soviet state, he joined the underground movement in 1980. “Of course I hated the Communist regime, because it wasn’t allowing me to dedicate my life to God,” he said.

The war has ended his normally itinerant existence; he is currently staying in a contact’s basement sauna in Chernivtsi, though he travels to various cities when possible. According to Acyuta Priya, 71 of the nearly 100 Hare Krishna community groups are still operating, serving Hare Krishnas and their neighbors. He said they continue to see new people joining the movement.

“People just come, they want to help and they have this volunteer spirit,” said Acyuta Priya. “I will tell you honestly, I am native Ukrainian, here from my birth, and I have never seen people be so united. It was unexpected for me.”

He attributes the Hare Krishnas’ resilience to their faith. “You have to understand that the Lord controls everything, and we need to see this war as an opportunity to raise up and to grow, and to grow mostly by giving and not just be in survival mode… There is a need to dedicate yourself to a higher cause, and it should be practical, not just theoretical,” said Acyuta Priya.

But some, like Kalakeli, have found homes outside the country. She moved frequently during the early weeks of the invasion, moving from Berdyansk to Zaporizhia, then to Dnipro, before finally leaving Ukraine and finding shelter with a community of fellow devotees in Denmark.

For nearly two months, Kalakeli was unable to contact or locate her mother, sister and nephews back in Mariupo

“My life became just an existence. Only ‘kirtan’ (devotional singing) dulled my pain for a while,” said Kalakeli. “Totally desperate, I began to have thoughts of going back and looking for my family.”

In April of last year, she was finally able to connect with her family via phone. They had all managed to stay safe back in Mariupol, but their home was destroyed in the war. They recently joined Kalakeli in Copenhagen.

“The war taught us a lot,” said Kalakeli. “The main thing I have learned is that no one can take God away from me. In such difficult situations, there was nothing else we could do but trust in Krishna. Love for God will end all wars. We offer it to everyone and want nothing in return.”



https://religionnews.com/2023/03/20/ukraines-hare-krishnas-survive-war-by-zoom-and-serving-neighbors/

Netflix Revisits America’s Ghastliest Cult Catastrophe

Nick Schager

Daily Beast

March 20, 2023

David Koresh was the leader of a doomsday cult whose members believed he was the messiah and that they were destined to perish in a conflict with the U.S. government. And on April 19, 1993, following a 51-day standoff with the FBI, that prophecy came true. Setting his Mount Carmel ranch compound on fire, thereby killing dozens of his own disciples (including children), Koresh committed the unthinkable. Thus, when someone refers to this incident in Waco: American Apocalypse as a “tragedy,” it’s difficult not to view it as one explicitly brought about by the madman, who for good, ugly measure was also a pedophile, polygamist, domestic abuser, and armed insurrectionist.

Tiller Russell’s three-part Netflix docuseries Waco: American Apocalypse (March 22) is an even-handed examination of Koresh, his Branch Davidian outfit, and the fight they instigated with law enforcement. It features interviews with figures on both sides of the story’s divide, from negotiators, tactical agents, snipers, and journalists, to surviving cultists, who even today profess their innocence and victimhood at the hands of a tyrannical government. Providing a 360-degree view of those fateful months in 1993, it addresses many of the arguments that have raged over the past 30 years regarding Koresh’s villainy and culpability, his adherents’ crucial roles in stoking the conflagration, and the law enforcement mistakes that may have thwarted a peaceful outcome.

What it ultimately presents, however, is a portrait of a catastrophe that its chief player always sought, and worked tirelessly—and successfully—to make a reality.

As recounted in Waco: American Apocalypse, Koresh grew up in a broken home and eventually made his way to Mount Carmel in the mid-1980s, where he seduced the cult’s elderly leader and got into a firefight with her son in order to seize control of the group. Once he had it, he set about changing its Christian doctrine to his liking—namely, by proclaiming himself the Lord’s divine prophet (if not God incarnate) and dissolving his followers’ marriages so that he could steal everyone’s wife for himself. The fact that anyone went along with such a demand is nuts, but then, Koresh had already gotten tacit permission from his supporters to marry a 14-year-old. He habitually practiced pedophilia and it was tolerated because, as adherent Kathy Schroeder states in a new interview, Branch Davidians believed that girls “come of age” when they’re 12.

The Branch Davidians were like many other cults in that participants accepted anything Koresh said because they were under the delusion that he was divine. In such a deranged environment, it made sense to take him at his word when he said that governmental enemies were fated to arrive on their doorstep, and that they should prepare by stockpiling weapons. So they did, amassing semi-automatic rifles that they illegally converted to automatic, producing homemade grenades, purchasing armor-piercing .50-caliber rifles, and accumulating 1.6 million rounds of ammunition. Such gestures were clearly a preface for war. Consequently, when the ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) showed up in force looking to inquire about this cache—which they’d learned about via a broken package in the mail that contained a grenade—the Branch Davidians attacked.

Whether the ATF or the Branch Davidians fired first remains a subject of much speculation, and if Waco: American Apocalypse doesn’t draw a definitive conclusion, its ATF interview subjects (like Jim Cavanaugh and Bill Buford, the latter of whom barely made it out alive) come across as far more credible than its Branch Davidian talking heads (such as David Thibodeau and Schroeder). Four ATF agents died in the shootout, and in the wake of the agency’s failure to secure the cult’s armaments, the FBI was called in to negotiate a surrender. Russell’s docuseries uses archival material (some of it never seen before) and firsthand testimonials to bring that prolonged process to vivid life, be it Hostage Rescue Team sharpshooter Chris Whitcomb discussing his unexpected chance to assassinate Koresh and not taking it (a decision he doesn’t regret), Heather Jones recalling leaving the compound and never again seeing her father (who chose to remain and die by Koresh’s side), or negotiator Gary Noesner detailing his efforts to convince Koresh over the phone to end things without additional casualties.

Waco: American Apocalypse benefits from audio recordings of those chats, as well as news broadcast footage and clips from the movies Koresh made inside the compound during the standoff. Better still, it captures the way in which frictions between the negotiation and tactical teams undermined their joint goal to conclude this powder-keg dispute without fireworks. The sheer length of the ordeal, and the news media’s voracious coverage, only made things tenser, as did Koresh’s delay tactics, peaking with his announcement—at the moment he was supposed to surrender—that he needed more time to write his new version of the Book of Revelation. Though he’d allow 21 children and two adult women to leave the compound, federal authorities determined that he was never going to go quietly.

They were ultimately right, to a shocking degree. The feds’ April 19, 1993, plan to fire tear gas into the compound (after announcing their intentions to Koresh beforehand) was meant to compel them to capitulate. Instead, Koresh and his minions set their home ablaze and, minus a few individuals, such as Thibodeau (who still denies Koresh’s responsibility for the inferno), chose to stay inside. It was mass suicide for a national television audience, and while Thibodeau contends that the Branch Davidians were innocent “martyrs” who “died for God”—and Koresh’s lawyer implies that this was all the byproduct of an unreasonable search and seizure order, which rings laughably false—the overriding impression left by Waco: American Apocalypse is of a calamity orchestrated and instigated from the start by an unhinged fanatic committed to his dreams of manipulation, exploitation, and bloodshed.

Russell lets his Branch Davidian subjects make their sympathy-courting case but—even in light of the government’s imperfect handling of the situation—they come across as zealots still in thrall to a lunatic who fed them lies and cost them everything. Timothy McVeigh honored Koresh and struck back at the system he viewed as their joint enemy by bombing the Oklahoma City federal building on the Waco siege’s two-year anniversary. In doing so, he further underscored that, in the end, this catastrophe’s lasting legacy is highlighting the threat posed to us all by the virulent and violent right-wing, anti-establishment religious extremism that thrives within our own borders.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/waco-american-apocalypse-netflix-doc-revisits-david-koresh-cult-tragedy

I Can't Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult

Wendy J. Duncan

I Can't Hear God Anymore is an inspiring and instructive example of how normal people caught in the skillful manipulations of an abusive cult can find their way back to spiritual and psychological health. This fascinating book is the first book written about the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation. The author was a former member of Ole Anthony's group and writes about her experience with the group and describes the cultic nature of the group and its charismatic leader. Duncan's personal struggle to return to psychological wholeness, as well as insights from Dr. Margaret Singer and other researchers who have explored the cult phenomenon, are included in this important new book.

I Can’t Hear God Anymore unpacks the skillful manipulations of cunning leaders – and tells how people seeking God are often susceptible to being taken in and abused. It also offers insights that Wendy, a licensed social worker, has cultivated in more than 20 years in the mental health field.  

Whether you’re seeking insight into how cultic groups operate, or you’re on the road to recovering from one, I think you’ll find Wendy’s book eye-opening. 

https://amzn.to/42uWORl

 

Did the so-called Sarah Lawrence 'sex cult' members have a choice?

Opinion

A new Hulu documentary raises important questions about coercion — and culpability.

MSNBC
March 14, 2023

By Janja Lalich, professor emerita of sociology at the California State University, Chico

On Feb. 22, a federal judge in New York issued what is likely to be the final decision in the case of the so-called Sarah Lawrence cult. The sickening details of this case have garnered much attention over the past few years, spawning a viral long-form investigation in New York magazine and a subsequent documentary on Hulu that premiered last month. The reporting and eventual criminal proceedings were shocking and a little prurient (the Hulu doc referred to a “sex cult”). But they also raise important questions about coercion and culpability.

The reporting and the eventual criminal trials were shocking and a little prurient.

Earlier this year, Larry Ray, the man who manipulated, abused and controlled a group of young men and women for close to 10 years, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for crimes including extortion and sex trafficking. In February, a young woman named Isabella Pollok was accused of being Ray’s “lieutenant” by prosecutors who said she aided and abetted his physically and sexually abusive behavior toward her friends. (Pollock ultimately pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.)

According to both of her defense lawyers and reporters, Pollok was a vulnerable college freshman when she met Ray, and within a year was drawn into a sexual relationship with him, a man decades her senior. Despite expressing remorse, shame and regret, the judge declared that Pollok had choices. But did she?

In the past few years, an onslaught of documentaries — some better than others — and a slew of podcasts have come out about cults and cult leaders. These have been accompanied by (a few) trials, resulting in accountability for at least some of these exploitative criminals.

Who are these people, who some might say are monsters among us? Yes, each cult is different and should be evaluated as such. Yet after 35 years of research and observation, including listening to and learning from survivors’ experiences, I’ve learned how to recognize classic patterns of social-psychological influence and coercive control. It seems not to matter whether the overriding and binding ideology is religious, political, wellness, world-saving, self-improvement, therapeutic or martial arts. In my book “Take Back Your Life: Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships,” with tongue in cheek, I noted these cult leaders think of themselves as unique when they all act as if they attended the same “Messiah School.”

Conversely, if the common denominator among cult members is idealism, narcissism seems to define most cult leaders. Self-serving and destructive, these types of malevolent personalities can cause great harm. Indeed, it is their modus operandi.

And yet, we wonder: How do these malignant forces get good people, smart people, to become co-conspirators in their vile behavior? It might seem unfathomable. But in my opinion, it’s quite simple. They begin by setting up a self-sealing system — that is, one with an end-justifies-the-means philosophy. Once you accept this system, anything goes. Here, the leader becomes a god-like, all-knowing authoritarian who offers you “the answer” but in turn demands unwavering loyalty. Through a plethora of influence and control tactics, members are indoctrinated to believe and to follow orders without question.

How do these malignant forces get good people, smart people, to be co-conspirators in their vile behavior? It might seem unfathomable.

The moral code that cult members enter with is altered to accept the immorality of the leader. And that comes with a big price — I call it “bounded choice.” The true believer now has no option but to obey, because not to obey means death, literal or figurative. To disobey means risking the loss of your sense of self, your identity, perhaps your family or children, your community and your chance at “salvation,” whatever that has been defined to mean. A “brainwashed” follower is left with an illusion of choice. But it’s not a real choice at all.

That mindset, that enveloping closed or bounded reality, is something that law enforcement, judges and the legal system are not set up to understand. (Nor is it easily understood by anyone who has not experienced it.)

Which brings us back to Isabella Pollok, whose actions and choices — or lack thereof — factor very heavily in the Hulu documentary. Pollok also seems to share a lot of similarities with Clare Bronfman, who was sentenced to 81 months in prison for providing financial support to the NXIVM sex cult, and who was also the subject of much intrigue (and documentary filmmaking). “I believed and supported someone who controlled me in ways I cannot understand. I will live with the guilt forever,” Pollok tearfully told the courtroom in February. “I badly hurt my friends, and I am ashamed and deeply regret it. I am truly sorry.”

It is awful that these women could carry out heinous and abusive acts toward fellow members of their “family.” And don’t get me wrong, what prosecutors said they did was awful. Nevertheless, they were also victims of a disturbed, dare I say sociopathic, master manipulator who used well-known tactics of coercive influence and control like fear, shame, humiliation, peer pressure, threats, sexual abuse and sleep or food deprivation.

Pollok, Bronfman and so many others who have endured such experiences lost their own critical thinking skills and their own sense of judgment. They became closed-minded pawns of evil masters. This is not to excuse their behavior, but it is a warning for America’s legions of true crime fans. These documentaries and podcasts may spark a plethora of emotions — horror, pity and even a misplaced (and frankly dangerously arrogant) superiority. Given what we know about the insidious power of cult leaders, what these stories really should inspire is compassion.

Janja Lalich

Janja Lalich, Ph.D., is a professor emerita of sociology at the California State University, Chico. She is also the founder and president of the Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/hulus-sex-cult-trial-movie-gets-larry-rays-head-rcna74279

Russia far-right sect tries to get foothold in Europe

France 24
March 15, 2023

Heiligenbrunn (Austria) (AFP) – Ines and Norman Kosin left everything behind to follow the teachings of Anastasia, a far-right Russian sect that preaches a return to the land.

They used to work on Sylt, a trendy holiday island in the Baltic off northern Germany.

"Our life was very secure, but our heart was not happy," said Ines, a pastry chef and chocolate maker.

"Something was missing," she said.

So three years ago they set out to found a New Age Anastasian community on an isolated farm in the bucolic Burgenland of eastern Austria.

Interest in the movement -- whose teachings reject much of modern medicine, contain anti-Semitic tropes and qualify democracy as "demonocracy" -- surged during the pandemic.

The neo-pagan sect began in Russia in 1996 inspired by a series of bestselling books called the "Ringing Cedars" by Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Megre.

Mysterious prophet

He claims the teachings come directly from Anastasia, a mysterious hermit with supernatural powers he met in the Siberian taiga. The beautiful blonde preached against the "enslavement" of modern industrial society and the "dark forces" leading humanity to disaster.

As her prophet, Megre passed on her call for people to return to living in harmony with nature in "kinship" groups on small, self-sufficient permaculture farms.

The group claims some 400 Anastasian settlements have since sprung up across Russia.

Norman Kosin dreamed of welcoming 100 families to an Anastasian "space of love" in Austria.

"Imagine a doctor, midwives, lumberjacks and artisans all settling down with each one plying their trade, doing what fulfils them as humans," said Kosin, who hopes to do the same, touching his cedar wood medallion for "positive energy".

But so far Kosin has not been able to persuade anyone to join them permanently in Austria.

In another blow, officials have asked them to leave the country because they failed to show sufficient income to stay.

Kosin, who is sometimes known online as Felix Kramer, or Felix von Elysion ("from Elysium", the name of his hoped-for community), has also campaigned against Covid vaccines and restrictions.

The couple took two of their three daughters, aged 10 and 14, out of school in protest at Covid testing and "indoctrination" at school. Their four-year-old still goes to kindergarten.

"Children's souls are so innocent," he said, drawing parallels with what he called anti-Russian "propaganda" since the war in Ukraine, which he said was "marking people for life".

Kosin regularly denounces media "lies" in online conspiracy theory channels that have several hundred thousand followers, and is convinced that the "system" -- which he claimed "degenerated" people -- will collapse.

'Anti-Semitic elements'

He said the Anastasia movement has between 3,000 and 4,000 followers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with members scattered across the rest of Europe from Portugal to Bulgaria.

A recent Austrian government report said the "pandemic has given Anastasia a considerable boost in German-speaking countries," highlighting links with the anti-vax movement.

Ulrike Schiesser from Austria's Federal Office for Sectarian Affairs, which monitors sects, said the movement has attracted official scrutiny because of its "anti-democratic" stance.

While the movement "contains all sorts of harmless ideas for better living," she told AFP, "it poses a problem... because it positions itself against democracy, the state and science."

Schiesser said "the anti-Semitic elements clearly present" in the sect's books were "generally ignored, denied or played down" by members, who refuse to "criticise the guru's writings".

Kosin defended the books, saying "because of two or three chapters, everyone who reads the works is placed in the national socialist (Nazi) category."

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230315-russia-far-right-sect-tries-to-get-foothold-in-europe

US Christian group accused of covering up sexual abuse of minors

Lawsuits claim International Churches of Christ leaders failed to report as well as plotted to conceal abuse of women and children

Natalia Borecka in Los Angeles
The Guardian
March 19, 2023

Michele “Chele” Roland was looking for salvation when she joined the International Churches of Christ. She never imagined that, three decades later, she would lead a legal battle accusing the controversial Christian religious organization of enabling and covering up the sexual molestation of children in its congregation, among other alleged abuses, but that’s exactly what she’s doing.

“They have covered the spectrum of abuse,” Roland said. “This is abuse of power – spiritually, physically, psychologically, financially and sexually.”

Roland and her attorney, Bobby Samini, have filed a series of lawsuits against the International Churches of Christ – abbreviated as ICOC – which allege that its leaders failed to report as well as plotted to conceal the sexual and emotional abuse of women and children who worshipped alongside them.

One of the lawsuits is from Roland herself. She accuses the church and its leaders of fostering an exploitative environment that resulted in her sexual assault by an ICOC recruit. Collectively, her complaint and the others accuse the ICOC of being a dangerous cult – the Los Angeles-based organization with about 118,000 congregants vehemently denies that characterization while saying it is on a fact-finding mission about the abuse allegations.

The lawsuits, which seek damages, describe disturbing instances of molestation against minors. And they accuse the ICOC, its founder, Thomas “Kip” McKean, and associated organizations of creating “a widespread culture of acceptance of the abuse of children”.

“What happened to your girls isn’t that big of a deal,” a church elder allegedly told a mother of two young girls who were sexually assaulted on church grounds, according to a February filing. “Most girls have been molested by the time they reach 18.”

Five women filed a complaint in December that said the ICOC failed to stop convicted pedophile and church member David Saracino from sexually assaulting them when they were between the ages of four and 17. According to the legal documents, Saracino received a 40-year prison sentence for raping a four-year-old in 2004.

Another February filing asserts that Anthony M Stowers, a transgender man, was molested from the age of three while in an ICOC preschool’s care. The legal documents allege that Stowers’s abuse occurred as ICOC members and leaders who were not employees of his school were given unfettered access to students.

Stowers, in the filing, recalls “many instances” in which he was pulled out of classes and brought to another ICOC property where he was molested as well as filmed and photographed while nude.

Like many of the other plaintiffs who attach their names to the allegations in the lawsuits, Stowers’s abuse purportedly continued into his teenage years, when he says he attempted to alert church leaders several times. His complaint asserts that ICOC staffers who were legally obliged to immediately notify authorities of his reports of abuse, including counselors, doctors, and psychologists, “actively concealed [them] and took no remedial action”.

That legal obligation existed whether or not they believed Stowers had evidence to back up his accusations, according to his complaint.

“They’re so brazen because they’ve gotten away with it,” Roland said of the lawsuits. Adding that other instances of abuse drove victims to suicide, Roland added: “They didn’t think they were going to get caught because of the statute of limitations. They’re like, ‘It’s been ten years! We’re all safe, right?’ No, dumbasses. You’re not.”

For years accusers were held back from seeking legal action against the ICOC because of statutes of limitation that generally prohibit suing for long ago harm. But two newly enacted California laws helped set the stage for the cases against the ICOC.

The Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act as well as the California Child Victims Act extended time limits that victims of sexual abuse have to initiate legal proceedings, effectively giving those who were minors when they were molested a second chance to seek justice.

As the bills were signed into law, Roland – who hosts a podcast for cult survivors called Whatheflok – says she started getting inundated with messages from former ICOC members who wanted to share their stories of abuse. Roland said that was an eye-opening moment for her.

Using a legal pseudonym that is often invoked in court cases involving sexual violence, she said: “I am Jane Doe 1, so I knew there was abuse. But I thought I was an enigma. I didn’t think it happened to many other people.”

It’s very hard, day after day after day, to hear people tell you that they were sexually abused by people in their church that they trusted

Bobby Samini, attorney

These first-hand accounts galvanized Samini to take on the case.

“I did not expect to be so personally affected by the stories from our survivors,” said Samini, whose past clients include rapper T-Pain and DJ Paul of the Oscar-winning group Three 6 Mafia. “It’s very hard, day after day after day, to hear people tell you that they were sexually abused by people in their church that they trusted.”

Roland and Samini say they are working with at least 100 more alleged victims. “At this point, it’s a bottomless pit,” said Roland, saying she and Samini have gotten a thousand calls from people with similar claims. “We are getting more calls every day.”

Social activist and former ICOC member Justine Lieberman said she had been working with victims of spiritual and sexual abuse in the church organization for the last decade. Lieberman described a noticeable shift in recent months. “I have been fielding calls and connecting with victims and survivors daily since November – so many that I lost my voice at one point,” she said. “We have been non-stop taking calls at all hours.”

Similarly, former ICOC member Chris Lee, the executive director of Reveal, an online resource for former cult members, said he has also been fielding calls from fellow ex-members.

“I’m a man in my 50s, so I’m not likely to be the first person that women turn to when they’re telling us their stories of rape or sexual harassment,” said Lee. “And yet, over the last year, I heard from at least three people.”

California State University sociology professor emerita Janja Lalich, who leads the Knowledge Center on Cults and Coercion, said she believes the ICOC has at least some of the “hallmarks of a cult”. One aspect that she specifically mentioned was the lawsuits’ description of a religious culture that was permissive of molestation and never reported it to authorities ostensibly to avoid scandal.

“Anything can be done in the name of the belief system – that’s where the abuse comes in,” Lalich said.

ICOC officials have publicly denied that their organization, which they described as decentralized, is a cult. But otherwise they haven’t addressed the lawsuits.

Founder Kip McKean’s attorney, Anthony J Fernandez, would not comment beyond saying his client is “continuing to gather information about the allegations” in the lawsuits against ICOC.

“There are serious allegations and we are working to investigate the bases of the claims and determine the proper legal response,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/19/international-churches-of-christ-lawsuits-alleged-sexual-abuse

CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/20/2023 Advanced Training Institute, Martial Arts, Legal, Religious Freedom, Unification Church)

Advanced Training Institute, Martial Arts, Legal, Religious Freedom, Unification Church

SALTWIRE: How a Newfoundland woman found herself trapped in a cult by her ex-husband: Christine Faour sharing story of her life with the Advanced Training Institute

"Looking back at her life as a follower of the Advanced Training Institute, Christine Faour believes she was "ripe for the picking" to be swept into a life in what she now recognizes as a cult.

Born and raised in Corner Brook, the daughter of Danny and Freida Faour, she now lives in Coldbrook in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.

In June 2022, she released her memoir "Behind the Dress," sharing the story of her life in a religious cult.

"I didn't have much confidence in myself," Faour told the SaltWire Network as she reflected on how she was so easily brought into the cult by her ex-husband.

She had been raised Catholic and attended university at St. Francis Xaiver University in Antigonish, N.S., then went out west teaching.

Every time she'd visit home, she'd hear of friends who were either getting married or having children and Faour felt like she was being left on the shelf.

She was 29 when she met her ex on a plane and remembers him asking her if she was a Christian. She said yes.

"But he was talking about being a born-again Christian," and Faour said she was interested in that.

He told her about an Institute in Basic Life Principles seminar that he had attended.

"And that was the beginning of the cult," she said.

The beginning

The Institute in Basic Life Principles was founded in the United States by Bill Gothard. In seminars. Gothard taught people how to lead successful lives according to his interpretation of Biblical principles.

His followers have included the Duggar family, led by parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and has been featured on TV in shows like "14 Children and Pregnant Again" and "19 Kids and Counting."

Gothard stepped down from the organization in 2014 after being accused of sexual harassment."

Toronto Life: The Guru of Mount Nemo

"On a quiet country road outside Toronto, a charismatic martial arts teacher built a megamansion for his entourage of disciples. For 15 years, he preached peace and love. Then, one morning, the police stormed in and secrets came spilling out.

Christian Dombkowski grew up riding horses on his family's farm in the ­German countryside. He had a happy childhood, but then his idyllic life began to unravel. In 1984, when he was 12, his mom and dad separated. Four months later, his older brother died in a car crash. His parents decided to give it another try and start a new life in Canada, but after they arrived, they split again: mother and son in a townhouse in Milton, father in Alberta. Young Christian learned English and made friends hanging around Trevi Pizza, a strip-mall shop that was popular with students thanks to $1.25 slices and a wall of arcade games. He spent so much time there that, when he turned 16, the shop hired him as a delivery driver.

Christian loved Bruce Lee movies, so he was intrigued when he noticed a martial arts dummy in the back room of the shop. He asked around and discovered that it belonged to one of the owners, Mohan Ahlowalia, whom everyone called Jarry. He was in his mid-20s, and like Christian, he'd come to Ontario as a boy. He taught Wing Chun, a form of close-quarters kung fu popularized by Bruce Lee, in a small studio in the basement of his modest bungalow. Christian asked for a lesson, but Jarry declined. When he kept asking, Jarry eventually relented.

As agreed, Christian arrived at Jarry's house at 7 one evening, but Jarry wasn't home. His wife, Priti, told the young man that he was welcome to take a seat in the living room. He waited as the clock ticked on—20 minutes, an hour, then two. He was sure that Jarry was doing what martial arts masters always did in the movies: testing their students' resolve. When Jarry finally arrived, around midnight, he acted like he'd never scheduled a lesson. But Christian seemed committed, so Jarry gave him a brief history of Wing Chun and demonstrated its first stance, a pigeon-toed position called Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma. If Christian wanted to learn the art's swift and deceptively powerful movements, he'd have to come back.

He returned for a second class, then a third. They were gruelling. Jarry demanded that Christian repeat movements until he was on the verge of passing out. When he made mistakes, Jarry directed him to do push-ups. It wasn't punishment, he'd say; it was part of the training. Jarry extended his instruction to the pizza shop, showing Christian how Wing Chun footwork could help him move around the kitchen more nimbly."

Tablet: Religious Liberty Behind Bars

"Two court cases involving Rastafarian inmates attract the attention of legal advocates of other faiths."

"Last year, two separate cases were filed with the Fifth and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, respectively, by Rastafarians seeking damages. Both litigants, Thomas Walker and Damon Landor, said that their dreadlocks were forcibly shaven while they were inmates, violating their religious liberty. At the center of both cases, which have attracted the attention of other religious groups who have filed amicus briefs in support of both Walker and Landor, are different interpretations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). The 2000 legislation says that prisoners may "obtain appropriate relief" for violations of their religious liberty. But just what constitutes appropriate relief—or Rastafarianism, for that matter—is still up for debate.

According to the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic, which filed an amicus brief for Walker in the Seventh Circuit, together with groups representing Anabaptists, Muslims, and Sikhs:

Walker began growing dreadlocks in 2013 after taking the Nazarite vow of separation, thus committing himself to never drink alcohol, never eat meat or dairy, and never cut his hair. In 2018 he was incarcerated at Stateville Northern Reception Center, where he was permitted to keep his dreadlocks. In early April 2018 he was transferred to Dixon and registered in the prison system's online database as a practicing Rastafarian. He kept his dreadlocks for the first six weeks with no incident.

On May 25, 2018, a corrections officer informed Walker that his dreadlocks had to be removed for 'security' reasons. Despite telling the officer that cutting his hair would violate his religious beliefs by 'sever[ing] [his] physical connection to Jah [(God)],' Walker ultimately had to relent and allow the prison barber to sever his dreadlocks or else face severe disciplinary action and the forcible removal of his dreadlocks."

SBS News: 'I married a stranger at a mass wedding': Life inside the Unification Church

"The Unification Church is under investigation for its role in Japanese politics following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Some call it a cult, while others say the church's aim is world peace.

When Jinae first met her husband, she could hardly communicate with him. He was from Japan and she was brought up in the US, but according to Jinae this "was kind of normal in the church".

She was born into a religious movement called The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, more commonly known as the Unification Church.

Founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1954, those who are faithful to the Unification Church are often nicknamed 'Moonies', after their leader Sun Myung Moon. Jinae says she was taught to believe that Reverend Moon was the "Messiah" and the "True Father".

Moon was staunchly anti-communist and his church spread internationally during the cold war. Today, the church operates in 120 countries and has around 600,000 members. It gained notoriety for its so-called "mass weddings", blessing ceremonies of thousands of couples, often held in indoor arenas or outdoor sports stadiums.

Jinae's parents matched her with her future husband, and they were married in a mass wedding ceremony in Korea. Jinae says this ceremony signifies the change of blood lineage from Satan's lineage to God's lineage.

As a "Blessed Child", second-generation member of the Church, she had known her whole life this was her fate. On her wedding day she says she was miserable.

"I couldn't disappoint my parents and I couldn't lose my community."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultEducationEvents.com

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.

Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

The Scientology Wars - Jolly West

The Scientology Wars - Jolly West

"1992 - Louis Jolyon ("Jolly") West was an American psychiatrist, human rights activist and expert on brainwashing, mind control, torture, substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder and violence."

https://youtu.be/7PUfSlYvKLA

Nithyananda's 'Kailasa' duped 30 US cities with ‘sister city’ scam: Report

Over 30 American cities signed agreements with Kailasa - the fictional country invented by self-proclaimed godman Nithyananda.


MONEYCONTROL NEWS 

MARCH 18, 2023


Nithyananda's 'country' Kailasa duped over 30 American cities into signing a “cultural partnership” with it, a Fox News report has revealed. The report came days after Newark in the state of New Jersey admitted it was conned into becoming a "Sister City" with the fake nation of Kailasa.

The sister-city agreement between Newark and the fake ‘United States of Kailasa’ was inked on January 12 this year. “Newark thought Kailasa was a Hindu nation just off the coast of Ecuador. No one in the entire Newark government thought to themselves, ‘There's a Hindu island off the coast of South America?’” Fox News host Jesse Watters said while reacting to the scam.

Besides Newark, cities like Richmond, Dayton and Buena Park have all signed agreements with Kailasa. Fox News said that it reached out to some of the cities in the US for a reaction on signing an agreement with the fake nation. Most of the cities confirmed the proclamations were true.

Jacksonville in North Carolina, for example, told Fox News: "Our proclamations with Kailasa are not an endorsement. They are a response to a request and we do not verify the information that is requested."

Nithyananda is the main accused in several cases in India, including rape, torture, kidnapping and wrongful confinement of children, under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He is also being reportedly investigated by French authorities for an alleged fraud of $400,000.


https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/nithyanandas-kailasa-duped-30-us-cities-with-sister-city-scam-report-10269591.html

German police: 8 dead in Jehovah's Witnesses hall shooting

There was no word on a possible motive for Thursday night's attack, which stunned Germany’s second-biggest city.

Pietro De Cristofaro And Geir Moulson The Associated Press
Toronto Star
March 10, 2023

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — A former member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses shot dead seven people, including an unborn child, at a hall belonging to the congregation in the German city of Hamburg before killing himself after police arrived, authorities said Friday.

Eight people were wounded, four of them seriously.

There was no immediate indication of a possible motive for Thursday night’s attack, which stunned Germany’s second-biggest city, but prosecutors said there was no evidence for a terrorist link. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, described it as “a brutal act of violence.”

Hamburg’s top security official said officers who arrived just minutes after receiving the first emergency call at 9:04 p.m. A special operations unit that was nearby reached the site at 9:09 and was able to separate the gunman from the congregation, Hamburg’s state Interior Minister Andy Grote said.

“We can assume that they saved many people’s lives this way,” he told reporters during a news conference. Grote called the shooting “the worst crime that our city has experience recently.”

Officials said the gunman was a 35-year-old German national identified only as Philipp F., in line with German privacy rules. He fired more than 100 rounds during the attack.

Hamburg police chief Ralf Martin Meyer said the man had a weapons license and legally owned a semi-automatic pistol. He said the suspected shooter was previously investigated after authorities received a tip that he might not be suitable to bear firearms, but was found not to have broken rules.

Police did not use their own firearms, a police spokesman said.

The head of Germany’s GdP police union in Hamburg, Horst Niens, said he was convinced that the swift arrival of a special operations unit “distracted the perpetrator and may have prevented further victims.”

Germany’s gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States, but permissive compared with some European neighbors, and shootings are not unheard of.

Last year, an 18-year-old man opened fire in a packed lecture at Heidelberg University, killing one person and wounding three others before killing himself. In January 2020, a man shot dead six people including his parents and wounded two others in southwestern Germany, while a month later, a shooter who posted a racist rant online killed nine people near Frankfurt.

In the most recent shooting involving a site of worship, a far-right extremist attempted to force his way into a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, in October 2019. After failing to gain entry, he shot two people to death nearby.

The German government announced plans last year to crack down on gun ownership by suspected extremists and to tighten background checks. Currently, anyone wanting to acquire a firearm must show that they are suited to do so, including by proving that they require a gun. Reasons can include being part of a sports shooting club or being a hunter.

Asked about a possible political response to the shooting, a spokesperson for Germany’s Interior Ministry, Maximilian Kall, said it was necessary to wait for the results of the investigations before drawing conclusions.

On Friday morning, forensic investigators in protective white suits could be seen outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Hall, a boxy, three-story building next to an auto repair shop, a few kilometers (miles) from downtown Hamburg. As a light snow fell, officers placed yellow cones on the ground and windowsills to mark evidence.

David Semonian, a U.S.-based spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in an emailed statement early Friday that members “worldwide grieve for the victims of this traumatic event.”

“The congregation elders in the local area are providing pastoral care for those affected by the event,” he wrote.

Police spokesman Holger Vehren said police were alerted to the shooting Thursday night and were at the scene quickly.

He said that the officers found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, and then heard a shot from an upper floor, where they found a fatally wounded person who may have been a shooter. They did not fire their weapons.

Student Laura Bauch, who lives nearby, said there were around four periods of shooting, German news agency dpa reported. “There were always several shots in these periods,” she said.

Bauch said she looked out her window and saw a person running from the ground floor to the second floor of the Jehovah’s Witnesses hall.

Gregor Miebach, who lives within sight of the building, heard shots and filmed a figure entering the building through a window. In his footage, shots can then be heard from inside. The figure later apparently emerges from the hall, is seen in the courtyard and then fires more shots through a first floor window before the lights in the room go out.

Miebach told German television news agency NonstopNews that he heard at least 25 shots. After police arrived, one last shot followed, he said.

His mother, Dorte Miebach, said she was shocked by the shooting. “It’s really 50 meters (yards) from our house and many people died,” she said. “This is still incomprehensible. We still haven’t quite come to terms with it.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are part of an international church, founded in the United States in the 19th century and headquartered in Warwick, New York. It claims a worldwide membership of about 8.7 million, with about 170,000 in Germany.

Members are known for their evangelistic efforts that include knocking on doors and distributing literature in public squares. The denomination’s practices include a refusal to bear arms, receive blood transfusions, salute a national flag or participate in secular government.

___

This story has been updated to correct the last name of a witness. It is Miebach, not Miesbach.

___ Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalist David Rising in Bangkok and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/europe/2023/03/10/german-police-8-dead-in-jehovahs-witnesses-hall-shooting.html