Guru Denies Raping Six Women From His 'Hot Yoga' Classes

 

The New Indian Express

By Daily Telegraph

03rd April 2015

The guru behind the popular Bikram school of hot yoga has denied rape allegations against him, claiming sometimes women "commit suicide because I will not have sex with them".

Bikram Choudhury, who emigrated to the United States in the Seventies, created a global business empire and won over many celebrity devotees with his yoga method, where practitioners hold demanding poses in studios heated to 105F (41C).

But the 69-year-old's image as a spiritual leader has been tarnished by civil lawsuits from at least six women, several of whom claim he raped them at yoga training camps.

He "used his status as a guru to identify and victimise the most vulnerable women from among his flock, grooming them, breaking down barriers, and ultimately assaulting them when they were at their most physically, emotionally, or financially vulnerable," according to court papers.

In his first interview since the rape allegations were made in 2013, Mr Choudhury told CNN: "I never assaulted them." He appeared to imply that he did not need to assault women because he had so many offers of sex. "Women like me. Women love me," he said. "So if I really wanted to involve the women, I don't have to assault the women."

Mr Choudhury insisted that he had not assaulted any of the six women nor had consensual sex with them. He said he believed they had been told to make up the allegations by someone else.

But when asked by the US network if he had ever had sex with other students he answered "yes and no".

"I have no intention to have sex with any of my students or any women," he said. "Sometimes students, they commit suicide. Lots of students of mine, they commit suicide because I will not have sex with them."

While Mr Choudhury's accusers are pursuing him in the civil courts in California, he has never been charged with a crime by prosecutors.

Court documents claim that Mr Choudhury would allegedly insist that the women on his $13,000 (pounds 7,950), nine-week training courses wear "tight, skimpy clothing" and prohibited them from wearing green clothes because he hated the colour.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Guru-Denies-Raping-Six-Women-From-His-Hot-Yoga-Classes/2015/04/03/article2745192.ece

 

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050

Church of Scientology's statement in response to "Going Clear" documentaryf

Church of Scientology's statement in response to "Going Clear" documentary

Apr 02, 2015

Written by Sean McAllister

LAS VEGAS (FOX5)

This week, the new documentary Going Clear brought big ratings to HBO. The network said that the film was watched by more than 1.7 million people, becoming HBO's highest rated documentary in nearly a decade.

In response to allegations made by filmmaker Alex Gibney, the Church of Scientology released the following statement to MORE:

Mr. Gibney refused to answer over a dozen letters from the Church asking for an opportunity to address any allegations; he never even sent one fact to check and he shunned 25 people who traveled to New York to meet with him with relevant answers to every single allegation that is in the film. These individuals included the children, former spouses, superiors and colleagues who worked for years alongside his sources.

Because Mr. Gibney has remained anything but objective, the Church has compiled the unvarnished truth in the form of video footage, court documents, publicly available records and testimonials by pertinent individuals and parishioners worldwide who do represent Scientology, and were intentionally ignored by Mr. Gibney and HBO.

The Church says evidence to debunk claims made in Going Clear can be found on a website its set up called freedommag.org.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/28710156/church-of-scientologys-statement-in-response-to-going-clear-documentary

 

Daughter: Robert Schuller, televangelist and founder of Crystal Cathedral megachurch, has died

April 2, 2015

By Amy Taxin And Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press, The Canadian Press

ARTESIA, Calif. - The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the Southern California televangelist and author who beamed his upbeat messages on faith and redemption to millions from his landmark Crystal Cathedral only to see his empire crumble in his waning years, has died. He was 88.

Schuller died early Thursday at a care facility in Artesia, daughter Carol Schuller Milner said. He was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer in 2013.

Once a well-known televangelist, Schuller faded from view in recent years after watching his church collapse amid a disastrous leadership transition and sharp declines in viewership and donations that ultimately forced the ministry to file for bankruptcy.

The soaring, glass-paned Crystal Cathedral — the touchstone of Schuller's career — was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2011, and Schuller lost a legal battle the following year to collect more than $5 million from his former ministry for claims of copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Schuller, who preached in a flowing purple robe and outsized aviator glasses, led an evangelical Protestant ministry that was a product of modern technology. He and his late wife, Arvella, started a ministry in 1955 with $500 when he began preaching from the roof of a concession stand at a drive-in movie theatre southeast of Los Angeles.

The church's motto — "Come as you are in the family car" — tapped into the burgeoning Southern California auto culture and the suburban boom of post-World War II America.

By 1961, the church had a brick-and-mortar home and Schuller began broadcasting the "Hour of Power" in 1970.

In 1980, he built the glass-and-steel Crystal Cathedral to house his booming TV ministry, which was broadcast live each week from the 2,800-seat sanctuary. At its peak in the 1990s, the program had 20 million viewers in about 180 countries.

Schuller's message — that "Possibility Thinking" and love of God overcome hardships — was a uniquely American blend of Bible and psychology.

Unlike other televangelists, Schuller's message lacked fire-and-brimstone condemnations or conservative political baggage. Fundamentalists attacked him for statements they believed denied the need for personal repentance of sin.

Schuller had admirers that ranged from fellow evangelist Billy Graham to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. His friendship with President Bill Clinton raised some eyebrows among the conservative Republicans.

In the start of a carefully choreographed leadership transition, Schuller's only son, 51-year-old Robert A. Schuller, was installed as senior pastor in 2006.

The younger Schuller left amid a bitter family feud in 2008. His father had removed him from the "Hour of Power" broadcasts, and he quit as senior pastor a few weeks later.

The tumult worsened a pre-existing decline in viewership and donations, and in 2010, Crystal Cathedral ministries filed for bankruptcy, citing debt of more than $43 million.

Bankruptcy filings indicated the ministry was paying significant tax-exempt housing allowances to Schuller family members and insiders. The allowances were legal but raised concerns among vendors and other creditors who had gone unpaid for months.

Robert Harold Schuller was born in Alton, Iowa, in 1926, and ordained in 1950. He was pastor of Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Chicago from 1950 to 1955 before moving to California.

Besides his son, Schuller and his wife had four daughters: Sheila, Jeanne, Carol and Gretchen. Wife Arvella Schuller died Feb. 11, 2014, after a brief illness.

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/daughter-robert-schuller-televangelist-founder-crystal-cathedral-megachurch-142935987.html

 

Scientology Attacks!

 

Going to war with L. Ron Hubbard's disciples

BY THE WALRUS

FROM THE APRIL 2015 MAGAZINE

 

In January, director Alex Gibney premiered Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Based on Lawrence Wright's acclaimed 2013 book of a similar name, the documentary presents a history of Scientology and a profile of its controversial founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The film also examines some of the many claims of abuse alleged by former followers.

The Church of Scientology has a long history of responding to its detractors with litigation and scathingly worded paid advertisements. In anticipation of such attacks, HBO Documentary Films reportedly hired 160 lawyers to examine the content of Going Clear.

The church responded to the film's release with a full-page ad in the New York Times, which directed readers to Scientology's online magazine:

Free speech is not a free pass to broadcast or publish false information. More than two years after Alex Gibney, Lawrence Wright and HBO started secretly working on their film glorifying bitter, vengeful apostates expelled as long as three decades ago from the Church, the one-sided result is as dishonest as Gibney's sources. The Church has documented evidence that those featured in Gibney's film regurgitating their stale, discredited allegations are admitted perjurers, admitted liars and professional anti-Scientologists whose living depends on the filing of false claims . . . That Gibney, co-producer Lawrence Wright and HBO have intentionally covered up relevant facts discrediting their sources speaks volumes about their bigoted agendas and the bias they hold toward people of any faith that doesn't carry their stamp of approval.

The church also has contacted film critics who reviewed Alex Gibney's documentary, with an email reading, "Your article reflects the film which is filled with bald faced lies."

Sixteen years ago, the Church of Scientology launched a similar campaign against University of Alberta sociology professor Stephen Kent. This excerpt has been adapted from a letter he wrote on September 17, 1998, detailing the harassment.

IAM A sociologist of religion, specializing in the area of alternative religions. Scientology is among the groups that I have studied. One of my articles on Scientology has appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, and I refer often to the organization in other articles that I publish on related "sociology of religion" topics. In 1997, I made invited presentations about Scientology before the German parliament's commission to study "sects and psychological groups," and later presented an academic paper on Scientology's forced labour and re-indoctrination program—the Rehabilitation Project Force—at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference in San Diego, California.

In September, 1997, what I consider to be an active "fair game" campaign began. ["Fair Game" is the term that Hubbard began using, in the 1950s, to describe his strategy of aggressively counterattacking people and groups he perceived to be enemies of the church.] First, local Scientologists picketed the area where thousands of U of A students were registering for classes. Within days, Scientologists picketed again on campus at the Students' Union Building. Reports from numerous students indicated that the Scientologists carried placards that accused me of religious intolerance.

I believe that the campus protests, apparent media announcements, and provincial radio appearance were attempts to ruin my reputation in the communities in which I work and live.

In early June 1998, 3,000 home-delivered copies of the Edmonton Examiner contained a sixteen-page insert. The insert was printed on fairly high quality newsprint, and was entitled Freedom. This same insert also appeared in Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, on June 12, 1998, in some delivered copies of the newspaper. Previously, the Globe and Mail had circulated the insert in newspapers distributed in Toronto.

On pages 8–9 of the issue (identified as Volume 2, Issue 1) was an article (without an author) entitled "Sowing the Seeds of Intolerance," with smaller letters stating that "the intolerant and unorthodox views of University of Alberta sociologist Stephen Kent take on their full odour when viewed in context." (The previous article in Freedom, entitled "Mass Suicide or Mass Media Deception," also mentions Stephen Kent.) In my opinion, numerous statements in the Freedom insert are libellous.

The insert compared me to the neo-Nazi hate-monger Ernst Zundel, as did the first leaflet that Scientologists distributed against me on campus. The insert also says that my "support of discrimination and intolerance which has led to human rights violations and even violence—in Germany as well as in Canada—should disqualify Kent totally from government funding and support."

[On October 16, 1998, the Globe and Mail apologized "for any embarrassment caused" and published a correction stating that the newspaper was "not aware of any factual foundation for the printed allegations made against Dr. Kent in those articles."]

When they fail to silence me with each level of attack, they escalate. So, at first a Scientologist was writing against me to my department chair. Then the attacks against me elevated to include the campus community, my city, and my province. Then it escalated to include the most influential city in English-speaking Canada.

As an academic who works on controversial material involving allegations of abuse in reputedly religious contexts, I expect intense debate about some of my findings. The character assassinations, the harassment, the libel, and the attempts to ruin my professional reputation for speaking truthfully about Scientology's abuses, however, reinforce my conclusion about the organization posing threats to democracy.

Among the reasons that I continue to research, write, and speak about Scientology is because I fear it, and I also fear its implications for civil society and for the lives of many of its members.

 

http://thewalrus.ca/scientology-attacks/

 

USF ministry is affiliate of church under scrutiny as cult

USF ministry is affiliate of church under scrutiny as cult

 

Tampa Tribune, April 1, 2015

By Jerome R. Stockfisch

 

TAMPA — A theater in the Marshall Student Center at the University of South Florida is the local worship center for an evangelical ministry whose affiliate in Arizona was booted this week from a campus religious council amid allegations it operates as a cult.

The Cornerstone Christian Church at USF has no record of complaints or violations, a USF spokesman said, and is an active student organization.

But a former church official who helped found the Tampa offshoot and left in 2007 said the behavior is systemwide.

"The same abuses that are reported happening in Tucson are happening in Florida," said Jeff Phillips, now a pastor with another church in the Phoenix area and an adjunct professor at Arizona Christian University. "I was there."

The Arizona Daily Star of Tucson reported in March that the University of Arizona is investigating Faith Christian Church, which has operated on campus for 25 years. This week, the school's Religious Council revoked the membership of the church.

Reporters for the newspaper interviewed former employees, church members and members' parents who accused Faith Christian of punishing infants, financial coercion, public shaming and shunning of those who leave the church or question its leaders. Some told the newspaper they spent years in therapy for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the church.

Cornerstone Christian Church leaders did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment.

A current member of the church, Scott Ryan, said the tactics reported in Arizona are not part of the culture here.

Ryan joined as an undergraduate and now serves as a USF library operations manager and advisor for Cornerstone Student Fellowship. He said his experience with the church has been "nothing but positive."

❖ ❖ ❖

Phillips, the man who with his wife and children cut ties to the church, joined Faith Christian in Tucson as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. He was part of the church's leadership team from 1995 to 2003, when he went to New Zealand to help open an offshoot of the church there. He then came to Tampa, where he helped launch Cornerstone in 2005.

"My entire religious experience was with Faith Christian," Phillips said. "They were all that I knew about how to be a Christian, about how to be a minister, so I was always very fearful about questioning authority. One of the insidious things about these churches is that they teach that church authority is God's authority, and if you question church authority, you're questioning God's authority. Very quickly you learn to step in line. You don't dare get in trouble with God."

Phillips said he never stood up to or confronted church leaders. But during his stay in New Zealand, he and his wife began to question things.

It was the church's position on child-rearing that ultimately led to his departure. Phillips said members are taught to use corporal punishment to control children — he said he heard of a couple spanking an infant as young as 5 weeks old — and "with our first child, we decided we were not going to do that. But we didn't dare tell anybody ... That was sort of the first thing we began to question. That opened the door to me to start to question other things."

Phillips said in Tampa, he began to suspect that his two sons, ages 2 and 3, might be autistic. Church leaders insisted the children were being rebellious and needed discipline, while he realized they were displaying symptoms of autism, he said.

"That was the linchpin that woke me up," Phillips said. "I was willing to take the abuse, but I wasn't going to let it touch my kids."

He said he also questioned church officials' examination of members' personal finances and interfering in personal relationships. Phillips tells his story in a post on the Facebook page, "Former Members of Cornerstone Christian Church Tampa." Former members of Faith Christian in Tucson also maintain a Facebook page as well as a website.

❖ ❖ ❖

Cornerstone church senior pastor Bill Cooper and associate pastor Will Abraham did not respond to phone messages and emails. The Tribune also attempted to contact the 17 campus pastors on Cornerstone's website, but none responded to emails.

Ryan, USF's Cornerstone advisor, met his wife in the Tampa church and attributes his success in life to relationships he built at there.

"It helped me connect," he said. "Just like any other college student, I came to college with no relationships. I got to know people who had the same faith, the same ideals, the same goals in life. I was able to develop some very strong relationships there."

He said he was never coerced for tithing or discouraged from family contact. In fact, he said church officials encouraged him to talk to his parents and others he knew and trusted when he was deciding what to do after graduation.

He called church officials "great examples of upstanding men and women," adding, "I look to them as examples, and they're very positive examples in my life."

Cornerstone Christian holds services on Sundays at 11:15 a.m. in the Oval Theater in the Marshall Center. The center's website indicates fees for the room range from no cost for student organizations holding one event per semester to $525 for university-sponsored events. There are also fees for support personnel and furnishings.

The theater typically hosts events such as workshops and lecture series and USF President Judy Genshaft's annual Fall Address.

❖ ❖ ❖

While there have been no official complaints or ethics violations in Tampa, a professor recalls fielding a complaint about Cornerstone in 2012. Barbara Loeding, a professor in the Department of Special Education at USF, posted an item to the Facebook page "Former Members of Cornerstone Christian Church," stating that anyone who had issues with the church should contact the dean of students.

"Nothing ever came of it to my knowledge," Loeding said Wednesday. "We need to at least give the students some way to open up and share if something's going on."

On Monday, the University Religious Council at the University of Arizona revoked the Tucson church's membership along with the membership of its affiliated clubs, Wildcats for Christ, Native Nations in Christ and Providence Club.

"The number, seriousness, and pattern of red flags raised compel URC members to no longer believe that Faith Christian Church and its affiliates operate at the highest level of integrity, transparency, safety for students, and respect for students, standards required for URC membership," the council said in its ruling, which it provided to The Tampa Tribune.

Michelle Blumenberg, spokeswoman for the University of Arizona council, said it was the first time the panel had taken such action.

Meanwhile, officials at Massey University in New Zealand have banned from its campus the leaders of a ministry there that is affiliated with the Tucson church. The school issued "trespass orders" to keep individuals with the church off campus property.

In addition to USF, the University of Arizona, and Massey, the Cornerstone website lists Faith Christian affiliates in the college towns of Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

jstockfisch@tampatrib.com

http://tbo.com/news/education/usf-ministry-is-affiliate-of-church-under-scrutiny-as-cult-20150401/

 

Rome university runs exorcism course

01 Apr 2015

The Local.it

A Rome university will this month run an exorcism course, teaching religious and secular students how to rid people of their demons.

The “Exorcism and prayer of liberation” course will run at the European University of Rome from April 13th to 18th, Rai News reported.

The programme will be run by the Sacerdos Institute, along with a research group from the Bologna church (Gris) and support from the Congregation for the Clergy.

But the course is not restricted to priests and churchgoers; doctors, psychologists and others are all welcome.

The course aims to explore the technical and scientific aspects of exorcism, while also helping participants avoid dangers such as cults and satanism.

Pedro Barrajon, director of the Sacerdos Institute, warned a lack of religious sentiment presented a significant risk.

“Living in a very secularized society in which, more than in the past, there’s the tendency to open the doors to occultism and esoterism,” he was quoted in Rai News as saying, while also warning against fortune tellers.

A distinction will also be made between cases in which people are possessed by demons and those where people are suffering from psychiatric problems.

A theologian, a psychologist and a priest are among those teaching the course, which ends with a roundtable of exorcists.

The practice of exorcism is recognized under canon law, after the Vatican last year gave its backing to the International Association of Exorcists. The group built on an Italian association set up in 1991 by Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist.

But despite the Holy See’s praise, the practice is not short of controversy. Last month a priest in Spain was arrested after performing exorcisms on a girl suffering from anorexia.

The priest defended his actions, which involved the girl being tied up, after relatives filed a complaint following her suicide attempt.

http://www.thelocal.it/20150401/rome-university-runs-exorcism-course

 

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New Allegations Against FLDS Church: Former Police Chief Says He Feared Church Leaders

New Allegations Against FLDS Church: Former Police Chief Says He Feared Church Leaders

 

ABC News, March 31, 2015

By Dan Harris, Aristides Pinedo-Burns and Lauren Effron

 

A former police chief who served the twin towns that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints dominates is coming forward for the first time, claiming he lived in fear that Warren Jeffs and other church leaders would take his family away if he didn’t do their bidding.

“This community has always been a theocracy,” Helaman Barlow told ABC News' “Nightline” in an exclusive interview.

For years, Barlow said he was the head of the marshals that patrol the twin towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah -- because the community straddles state lines they have town marshals. Barlow is now divulging what he says are church secrets to federal investigators, who are suing the local town governments, accusing them of being wholly controlled by the church. It’s a charge local officials in both towns deny.

“To be a police officer in this community and to be hired by the marshal’s office is a calling from the church,” Barlow said. “You had to get permission to go to the police academy from the church.”

Even though Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS Church, is serving a life sentence in prison for marrying and raping two 12-year-old girls, Barlow alleged that Jeffs still controls every aspect of life for most of the roughly 10,000 people who live in the community, from what they believe, to what they own, to who they marry, even what they eat.

But now there is a small but growing movement to wrestle control away from Jeffs, and Barlow is one of the key players in doing that. Since leaving the church, Barlow has grown out his hair and grew a mustache, and now rides a motorcycle, all of which he said is to show he is in defiance of church rules.

“It’s more of statement to show that I’m not with the church, I’m not with the Jeffs. I’m obviously out,” Barlow said. “For me, it was an outright overt act to show everyone I’m done with it. I’m done.”

As the chief marshal, Barlow said his job was to “protect the church.” He joined the force 20 years ago and said he quickly learned that the marshals work hand-in-glove with FLDS Church security, known as “The God Squad,” who keep a close eye on outsiders.

“They have a huge network of cameras in this community,” Barlow said. “They can watch every street.”

Serving under Jeffs, the former chief said he was asked to do things he now regrets, but he isn't willing to publicly admit all of those things yet because he is still working on an immunity deal with federal investigators.

In a deposition with the U.S. Department of Justice, Barlow stated that the marshals knew of widespread underage marriages in the community and didn’t do anything to stop it. Barlow also said he was asked by a city official to alter police reports.

In addition, when Jeffs was on the run and listed as one of FBI’s “Most Wanted,” Barlow said he personally audio-taped conversations with law enforcement officials and then made them available to Jeffs.

“I knew it was wrong, but it was a way for me to keep my value up,” Barlow said.

Barlow said he lived in constant fear that the Jeffs could take his wife and kids away from him if he didn’t do what the prophet asked.

“With one phone call, he could call me and say, ‘yeah, you’re out,’ and I would say, ‘I’m not going,’ but then he could call [my wife] and say, ‘he had no priesthood, he has to go, you have to leave him,’” Barlow said.

He and his wife explained that it was the belief of the church that if the prophet told a wife to leave her husband and she refuses, then she has “spiritually murdered” her children.

Barlow said he witnessed the church’s power firsthand in one particular case of a family being “out” -- Ron and Ginjer Cooke, two non-church members who moved to the community. They say that for six years they were subject to a relentless campaign of spying, vandalism and the refusal of local governments to give them basic utilities, such as power, water or sewage.

“It’s like being terrorized,” Ginjer Cooke said. “You’re always on edge, ‘What’s going to happen next? What are they going to do?’ ... They are really good at driving people away. A lot of people leave.”

But the Cookes didn’t leave, Ginjer said, because they wanted to stand up and fight for their right to live there.

“I can’t let someone abuse my family like that,” she said. “You can’t teach [your kids] that it’s OK to let someone do something like that and get away with it.”

The Cookes recently won a $5.6 million lawsuit against the local government, and they now have water and power. The local government denied the harassment, but now that Barlow is out of the church, he told a different story.

“The Cookes were coming in against the wishes of the church, so if there was an opportunity to do something to either force them to leave or inconvenience them or discourage them, maybe they will go away,” he said. “They would do it, I would do it, at that time in the church, and any church member today would do it.”

Barlow insists he did sometimes use his position to try and prevent persecution against non-members, specifically in the case of Willie Jessop, the former bodyguard and spokesman for Warren Jeffs, who very publicly quit after Jeffs confessed to marrying underage girls.

“Mine was a terrible crisis of faith,” Jessop told “Nightline.” “I was very passionately defending Mr. Jeffs and the community ... but what I never saw coming, the shot that I got hit in the back with, was what he was doing in secrecy.”

Leaving made Jessop a deeply unpopular man within the church. In his deposition with the Department of Justice, Barlow said he prevented his officers from charging Jessop with crimes he didn’t commit.

It wasn’t only the things that he said he felt forced to do as chief, Barlow said, but it was also the increasingly arbitrary and strange rules being imposed by Warren Jeffs that made him and his wife question the church. Rules that included eating only beans for protein, then beans were suddenly forbidden, or only being allowed to turn on the bathroom faucet with the right hand, the “clean hand,” because the left was “dirty.”

The community, the Barlows said, is forbidden from reading newspapers or watching TV. They are only given information over the pulpit, they said.

Finally, after years of doing Jeffs' bidding, Barlow decided to leave the church.

“I stopped and realized that the religion that I was trying to go to, the church I was trying to attend, was nothing like the church that I was raised in, that I was born into, that I was married in,” Barlow said. “It was entirely different ... then I stopped and went, ‘why am I trying to go to a different church than I believe in? I’m done with that.’”

The Barlows and their friends have been out now for about two years, and all agree their lives are much better than they were before when they were under the church’s eye.

There are signs of hope emerging in the community, they say. A new public school, something Jeffs had once banned, has opened and now hundreds of children of former church members are getting a proper education. A new Subway restaurant opened. Property once controlled by the church is now being auctioned off. Willie Jessop purchased one of Jeff’s compounds and turned it into the “America’s Most Wanted” bed and breakfast.

But many allege that the church still maintains control of the local governments, which town officials continue to deny. "Nightline" went to a town council meeting to confront the council and ask if it was controlled by the church. There, Hildale City Council Member Carlos Jessop said, "I personally deny that. I would hope you would give us the respect of allowing each person in this room their personal beliefs. ... We are here to serve the public."

In a statement, the attorney for the local governments a denied that town officials are controlled by the church, and with regards to the former chief, Helaman Barlow, the attorney said, "We question his credibility, since he repeatedly lied under oath."

Barlow admits he has perjured himself while defending the church in the past, but insists what he is saying now is true.

Even though the community is changing, it is still very tense and very much divided. Barlow said he swings between being optimistic that the community will slowly join mainstream America and being darkly pessimistic about worst case scenarios, either through violence erupting from a church unwilling to relinquish control or from followers who feel betrayed.

“When people do wake up like we did, when people realize, ‘hey this is broke and we got tricked, this isn’t real, yet this person or these people caused me to do this much hard to my own family,’ I think you cannot underestimate the kinds of emotions and anger and violence that is possible,” he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/allegations-flds-church-police-chief-feared-church-leaders/story?id=30017182

‘Love-bombing’ group at University of Arizona called cult, thrown out of religious council

Washington Post

By Susan Svrluga April 1 Follow @SusanSvrluga

 

Too much love, apparently. A religious council at the University of Arizona, after looking into reports that a longtime on-campus ministry known for what one student called “love-bombing” recruitment efforts, was, in fact, a cult, has revoked the church’s membership on the council.

Earlier this month, the Arizona Daily Star reported that 21 former members told them the church, which has operated on campus for 25 years, was operating as a cult, controlling members’ lives and enforcing disturbing rules such as disciplining infants who lift their heads by smacking them with a cardboard tube. The student who said they were known for “love-bombing” added that they lured in freshmen with repeated friendly gestures.

After numerous complaints about student safety, the University Religious Council of the University of Arizona revoked the membership of Faith Christian Church and affiliated campus ministries.

Church officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Michelle Blumenberg, of the executive committee of the religious council, sent the following statement:

“Effective immediately, the University Religious Council (URC) at the University of Arizona revokes from membership the organization known as Faith Christian Church and its affiliates Wildcats for Christ, Native Nations in Christ, and Providence Club.

“Reason: The number, seriousness, and pattern of red flags raised compel URC members to no longer believe that Faith Christian Church and its affiliates operate at the highest level of integrity, transparency, safety for students, and respect for students, standards required for URC membership.

“This has come to light via numerous letters and testimonies recently sent to URC members which have brought to a head historic and current concerns related to the campus activities of Faith Christian Church and its affiliates.”

University officials are looking into more than 30 complaints, but because many of them involve internal actions of the church or allegations about alumni and non-students, they are limited in what they can investigate, said Chris Sigurdson, a spokesman.

“The Dean of Students staff are continuing to follow up on the reports we’ve received, checking in with the student organizations and ascertaining our students’ well-being,” he said.

“I believe the University Religious Council wanted to be fair and take into account the numerous complaints from fellow students about the church,” said Warren Throckmorton, a professor at the university. “Given the allegations, it seems understandable that they would take action.”

Susan Svrluga is a reporter for the Washington Post, covering higher education for the Grade Point blog.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/04/01/love-bombing-group-at-university-of-arizona-called-cult-thrown-out-of-religious-council/

 

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the town Scientology built - where Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley rule with vast estates while Sea Org members live six-to-a-room and pay $100k to learn super powers

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the town Scientology built - where Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley rule with vast estates while Sea Org members live six-to-a-room and pay $100k to learn super powers

 

• The beautiful resort town of Clearwater has millions of tourists every single year - but few ever set foot in the downtown area
• Exclusive photos show the extent of Scientology's grip on the city 
• The church owns 67 buildings over ten square miles, including motels, training centers, offices for 'Special Affairs' and 'religious retreats' worth more than half a billion dollars
• Sea Org members earn $50 a week and work seven days starting at 7am and ending at midnight
• They pay for the right to run around a pole in circles for hours until they realize the error of their ways, says one former member
• 'You never get to see your family. That's how it was for me. I was there from 1973 to 2007,' former executive director tells Daily Mail Online

 

Daily Mail

By CHRIS WHITE IN CLEARWATER, FLORIDA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

31 March 2015

The anti-Scientology documentary Going Clear is shocking the world with its devastating insight into the inner workings of this most secret of religions.

The lives of Scientologists, especially hardcore Sea Org members - the top of the Scientology food chain - seems like another strange universe.

But for one area of Florida, Scientology's impact has been devastating. It's where it has built its headquarters and rules the place with an iron fist. The beautiful resort of Clearwater has millions of tourists every single year - but few ever set foot in the downtown area.

Even residents steer clear and avoid annoying the city's real power brokers. Welcome to Scientologyville. It's taken over the city in the last forty years and now owns dozens of buildings worth well in excess of half a billion dollars.

Key to the Kingdom: The Church of Scientology has completely taken over the city of Clearwater, owning half a billion's worth of real estate. It is the biggest concentration of Scientologists in the world

1. The Oak Cove Scientology Center. Lower level services including 'auditing' and 'case cracking'. Real estate value: $4,483,100

2. The Fort Harrison Housing for visiting Scientology members  with 220 rooms and suites, the Crystal Ballroom, Flag Auditorium and            Convention Center. Real estate value: $13,137,700

3. The Sandcastle Home of the Flag Advanced Org. Real estate value: $5,896,600

4. The Osceola Inn Accommodation for visiting Scientologists with 76 rooms and suites. Real estate value: $6,000,000

5. The Coachman Five stories of Standard Tech course rooms and the largest Scientology library in the world. Real estate value: $3,700,000

6. Super Powers Building Scientology HQ and the home of advanced Church courses. Real estate value: Over $30,000,000

7. Former Clearwater Bank Building New Church administration offices and staff dining. Real estate value: $2,038,400

8. Station Square Exclusive 146-unit condominium with pool. Real estate value: $20,000,000

9. Parking area Three-level parking and bus garage for Scientology coaches. Real estate value: $3,500,000

10. Clearwater Academy Exclusive school for Sea Org members' children. Real estate value: $5,000,000

11. Further Church Real Estate One of more than 50 buildings own by the Scientology Church in Clearwater. Real estate value: $50,000,000 plus

City officials and the Church have their clashes, the most recent one over the town's desire to build an aquarium in the town center. 

City Commissioner Karen Seel told the Tampa Bay Times 'I kept asking: "Why are you so against the aquarium?" I never got what I considered to be a good answer. After the meeting I thought and thought, and it's because they want the rest of downtown for expansion. I think that's their purpose.'

Founder L. Ron Hubbard arrived in the town in 1975 to begin 'Project Normandy', the code name for a top secret Church of Scientology operation to take over the city. 

Local politicians, police and residents have long given up fighting Scientology.

Now the central city is mostly deserted apart from thousands of uniformed Sea Org members - the ultra devoted members of Scientology who have signed one-billion year contracts that bind themselves to to the Church.

Daily Mail Online's  extraordinary on-the-ground and aerial images show the influence Scientology has in the town.

According to local newspaper the St Petersburg Times, the Church owns 67 buildings over ten square miles, which includes motels, training centers, offices for 'Special Affairs' and 'religious retreats' for visiting Scientologists, who often pay upwards of $100,000 each for its services.

 

The church has denied that there are fixed fees, adding that 'Donations requested for 'courses' at Church of Scientology begin at $50 and could never possibly reach the amount suggested.'

The Scientologists even own a working mill, which makes all the furniture and equipment used in their offices.

But the grandest of all the buildings is the multi-million dollar Super Powers building - or Flag as its known to followers - which opened in 2013 withTom Cruise, John Travolta and Kelly Preston front and center at the dedication ceremony. 

Church followers are charged thousands of dollars for special courses, held in the Super Powers building, which will give them super human powers, they are told.

Cruise has spent months at a time at Clearwater - and was spotted twice there last year. Scientology celebrities have even had homes built close to HQ, including Kirsty Alley and John Travolta.

In an exclusive Daily Mail Online interview, ex-Scientologist Mike Rinder details what really goes on in town. He served on its Board of Directors and was executive director of  its office of special affairs, overseeing the corporate, legal and public relations matters of the Church at the international level.

Rinder defected in 2007 and is now considered a 'Suppressive Person'. He left his mother, father, wife and two kids to flee from the Church and is an outspoken critic. 

'Clearwater is extremely important,' he says. 'It has always been Scientology-ville since Hubbard first descended on it. It's the spiritual HQ of Scientology and the biggest money-making source internationally for them. 

'It represents Scientology to the rest of the world.

'Clearwater should have a prosperous, flourishing downtown, but instead it's the dead zone. People steer clear of it because it's Zombie Land. The generally impression of Scientology to them is sinister and secretive and they don't want to go anywhere near it. 

'So they just stay away. Most of them are too afraid to say anything critical as they fear repercussions. So Scientology can do what it wants in Clearwater.

'Hundreds of millions of dollars go through Clearwater each year,' claims Rinder, 'at least $2 million a week. Every Scientologist around the world has to go to Clearwater to do courses. Some of the members come here for years and pay up to $1.5 million each.

'The Church collectively has cash and assets well in excess of $2 billion. People would be astonished what real estate they own. It's become more like a real estate investment organization.'

Sea Org members, who number in the thousands, are housed in special compounds, which are surrounded by high trees and massive security gates. They are ferried in and out of their compounds in 'Flag Buses'.

They often work over a hundred hours a week for less than $50 a month. The Church has even set up a school for Sea Org children called Clearwater Academy, which uses educational beliefs set up by founder Hubbard.

'The Sea Org in Clearwater live in a controlled environment. They live for the Church full-time. Many live in a compound called Hacienda Gardens,' says Rinder.

'It looks okay from the outside, but then you see it's a fortress. There may be a basketball court and swimming pool on campus but it'll be the most underused in Florida, as everyone is working. If you are allowed a car, you'll only be allowed to travel from the campus to another Scientology building. If you get stuck in traffic, they'll be on the lookout for you.

'The roles of Sea Org members vary in Clearwater such as auditors, supervisors, executives, cooks, trainers, housemaids, drivers, gardeners, and lots of money collectors,' explains Rinder.

If you're married, then you'll be sharing a two-bedroom apartment with two other couples, one will be in the living room. If you're single, then there's six people in each room in bunk beds, including the living room.

'They're earning $50 a week, seven days a week where the day starts at seven in the morning and ends at midnight. You never get to see your family. That's how it was for me. I was there from 1973 to 2007, on and off in Clearwater. 

'I very rarely saw my kids and wife for many, many years out of that time. My wife and I were often in separate locations.

'It's an exclusive and elite group of people who rise above that level. Even David Miscavige, the Church's leader, stays at the Hacienda, but there is a section of those apartments devoted to him. 

'He has two whole two-bedroom apartments just for his bedroom. Below that he has his staff quarters and workout room.'

It's the Super Powers building that holds the most fascination to outsiders due to the activities that go on there. It's one of the reasons why famous Scientology celebrities have built homes there, according to Rinder.

'The celebrities have to come here, that's why some of them have houses. Lisa Marie Presley had one, Kirsty Alley has one and John Travolta isn't too far away.'

Emmy-award winning film director Mark Bunker, a Scientology critic for the last fifteen years, explains more about Scientology and Super Powers building.

He says: 'The Super Powers building is this center for people who do the Super Power Rundowns, these are a series of routines which are meant to give you super human powers. 

'There are things like the wall of smells, which has 47 different smells, where you can open up a scent jar and perceive one scent from another. 

'There's a thing called the oiliness table.

'They also have some sort of gyroscope device that you get spun around everywhere and still be able to orientate yourself. They have an entire floor made up of a running track with a pole in the middle of it, where you pay for the right to run in a circle for hours until you have a certain cognition or realization of what you've done wrong. 

'It's astonishing the things they do, which people have to pay for.'

Bunker knows more than most the levels Scientology will go to defend itself. 

He purposely based himself in Clearwater to protest against the Church. He first came into town in 1999 with multi-millionaire business Bob Minton to set up the Lisa McPherson Trust, which was to help Scientologists in danger, after she died while in the care of Scientology for 17 days.

Mark adds: 'I had read about how Scientology had come to town. They had all these plans to take over.

'I was still quite surprised how afraid people were to speak about Scientology. They came to me in hushed tones and said: 'I'm glad you're here', but were too afraid to protest themselves.'

Hubbard's plot to takeover the town in 'Operation Normandy' began in the early 70s. The mayor at the time, Gabe Cazares, called it 'the occupation of Clearwater.'

The organization used a front group called the United Churches of Florida to purchase the Fort Harrison Hotel, which it made it then made its headquarters. Two years later, an FBI raid found documents which stated the group's aim  'to penetrate and handle in order to establish area control.' The document goes on to say its 'Major Target' is 'To fully investigate the Clearwater city and county area so we can distinguish our friends from our enemies and handle as needed.'

Bunker explains:: 'They came into town and paid cash for two buildings - the old Clearwater Bank Building and Fort Harrison Hotel. At first people were excited that some religious order was coming in and sprucing up the area and hotel. 

'Then there was something suspicious about it, as suddenly there were armed men with machine guns on top of the Fort Harrison Hotel. People were asking: 'What sort of Church is this?' When the FBI raided their offices, they found plans to take over the city.

'Scientologists were meant to get themselves in every job and function in the city - from the police to newspapers to council - and leverage power. It eventually led to the arrest and conviction of the top ten people in Scientology including Hubbard's wife Mary. Hubbard himself escaped arrest and went into hiding for the last ten years of his life in the desert.

Bunker and the Church have been clashing for years and it even got an injunction against him in 1999, which stated that he and any Scientologist had to be more than ten feet away from each other. Mark claims that he's been followed by Scientology for years and they even distributed flyers around his neighborhood.

'The people of Clearwater don't want to come downtown, it's the furthest thing from warm and welcoming. If you walk down there and have a camera, they will follow you everywhere. If they're suspicious of you, then they're going to follow you home to find out why you dared to take a picture of their building,' says 

'On my cell phone, I have the camera ready in case Scientology are following me, I've heard from people that they have private investigators parked down my street. I try not to worry about them. All the fear I had stopped the moment I spoke up the first time. Having a camera is the most important part of my protection.

'Back in 1999, they came to picket my house, then gave flyers to my neighbors. I had a call from one asking if I was Mark Bunker and she said: 'I'm supposed to fear you.' I just started laughing. She had got this flyer with my phone number on it, saying neighbors beware Mark Bunker is not who you think he is. 

'It says I'm a religious bigot, but thankfully it said at the end of the note that it came from the Church of Scientology. They don't usually do that. Instead of instilling fear, we had a good laugh about it.

Now Bunker's is determined that Scientology's power in the town is challenged and says he will even run for Council to make sure that they don't always get what they want.

He adds: 'I feel it's important for somebody to speak out. I feel this is a good time to stick my nose in and stand up at city council meetings to say how Scientology is affecting people around the world and all the actions are being directed from Clearwater. People should be outraged by it and not make it easier for them to do this. Potentially down the road, I'll run for political office myself.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3015144/Inside-town-Scientology-built-Clearwater-Florida-Tom-Cruise-John-Travolta-Kirstie-Alley-rule-palatial-estates-Sea-Org-members-live-six-room-pay-100-000-learn-super-human-powers.html