RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, BROUGHT TO YOU BY ANIMAL SACRIFICE AND PEYOTE

BECAUSE OF TINY RELIGIOUS GROUPS TAKING A STAND, ALL AMERICANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO PRACTICE THEIR FAITH (OR NOT)

JANE COASTON
MTV.com

May 9, 2017

The term "religious freedom" has been the hobby horse of mainstream Christian Americans since long before Donald Trump signed an executive order last week focused on the rights of "people of faith." In cases involving florists who refuse to work with same-sex couples planning a wedding, or Catholic hospitals that will not perform abortions for religious reasons, it is Christians — 70.6 percent of the American population — taking up the spoken mantle of our First Amendment right to freely practice the religion of our choosing. But very often, conservative Christians touting the right to practice their religious beliefs — the very same Christians who don't think Trump's religious freedom executive order goes far enough in protecting them — are talking about the freedom to believe in Jesus Christ and not, say, a monument to Satan.

Which is too bad, because mainstream Christians have the protections they enjoy — including the freedom to, in Trump's words, avoid being "targeted, bullied or silenced" for their faith — in large part thanks to the legislative efforts of religions shared by people they've likely never met, and might not be able to stand if they had. The religious freedom protections that ensure there will never be a literal "War on Christmas" were established on two occasions by religious groups that mainstream believers found abhorrent — and in one instance, when the Supreme Court made the wrong call, evangelical Christians even joined forces with the ACLU to ensure that all Americans would have the right to practice their faith.

There are about 2.5 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States, and roughly 8 million worldwide. Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate any holidays (including birthdays), and, unlike most Christians, they believe that Jesus Christ died on a pole (not a cross), that only 144,000 Christians will go to heaven, and that the End Times began when Satan was cast down from heaven on October 1, 1914. Armageddon, they hold, will come when the United Nations (the "scarlet beast" depicted in the biblical Book of Revelation) destroys all of Earth's governments and all other religions. Believing literally in a Biblical verse in which God commands His followers to not worship any entity besides Himself, Jehovah's Witnesses do not serve in the military and do not salute flags of any country, refusing to pledge allegiance to any authority other than God.

In 1935, a 12-year-old Jehovah's Witness, Lillian Gobitas, and her younger brother William were expelled from their school for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Their refusal to say the Pledge was, according to the school board of the town of Minersville, Pennsylvania, "insubordination." Because of their refusal to salute the flag, Lillian and William were pelted with rocks by townspeople, and local churches boycotted their family's grocery store. Their father, Walter Gobitas, filed a lawsuit to defend his children, who had been forced to attend a private school after their expulsion. In 1940 the case went before the Supreme Court, where in an 8-1 decision the Court ruled that you could, in fact, force someone to salute the flag of the United States. "National unity is the basis of national security," the Court ruled, writing that individual liberties were less important than patriotism.

The impact on Jehovah's Witnesses was immediate. Members of the religious group in more than 40 states experienced incredible violence — Witnesses were expelled from schools, attacked by mobs, thrown out of their homes, jailed en masse, and, in one case, castrated. One Southern sheriff, when asked why Witnesses were being expelled from his town, said, "They're traitors; the Supreme Court says so. Ain't you heard?" But Jehovah's Witnesses across the country refused to disobey their religious tenets and continued to resist saluting the flag. In Charleston, West Virginia, two grade-schoolers, Marie and Gathie Barnett, refused to salute the flag and were expelled from school. The Barnetts' case went before the Supreme Court in 1943, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (the misspelling a result of a court clerk's error). And, in the midst of the Second World War, the Court reversed itself and ruled once and for all that individual liberties matter. Recalling efforts throughout history to exterminate religious minorities, Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote in the majority opinion, "Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters." Because of four kids and a comparatively tiny religious group, Americans are free to salute the flag — or not — and can't be punished either way.

Fifty years later, another religious group stood up for its right to practice its faith before the Supreme Court. But this time, the issue wasn't the American flag — it was animal sacrifice. The Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye was a tiny group in Florida dedicated to Santeria (meaning "the way of the saints"), an Afro-Caribbean faith that combines some elements of Catholicism with ancient Yoruba practices that slaves brought with them from West Africa to Cuba during the 17th and 18th centuries. Santeria holds that spirits called orishas — which often take the form of Catholic saints — can help Santeria believers fulfill their destiny, but require regular tokens of devotion in order to do so, including animal sacrifices.

When the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye announced that it would be moving to Hialeah, Florida, in 1987, the city council of Hialeah scrambled to stop it, with one councilmember saying that the religion was "in violation of everything this country stands for." The city council's solution? Ban "all religious practices which are inconsistent with public morals, peace, or safety," and specifically, prohibit the ownership of animals intended for sacrifices unless approved by the state. But the Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision in 1993 that towns and cities can't target specific religious groups and suppress their activities because they don't like what those groups believe. As Justice Anthony Kennedy said in the decision, “religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection.”

But in Employment Division v. Smith, the Supreme Court ruled against religious freedom — and religious people of many faiths came together to fix the problem. In 1989, two Native American men went before the Supreme Court after losing their jobs because of their faith. They were members of the Native American Church — like mainstream Christians, they believe in one God; unlike mainstream Christians, they use the hallucinogenic drug peyote in religious ceremonies. After drug tests required by their employer, both men tested positive for peyote and were subsequently fired from their jobs. The Supreme Court ruled in 1990 against the two men, saying that they were trying to use religion as an excuse to disobey the law, similar to someone attempting to avoid paying their taxes because taxation violated their religious beliefs. The reaction to the ruling was immediate, and negative. Christians, Jews, and the ACLU worked together and pushed the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) through Congress in 1993, when it was signed into law by Bill Clinton.

Those same federal protections are what keep Nativity scenes of the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus in our public squares and a Christmas tree on public property in our nation's capital — while also ensuring that Donald Trump can't favor one religion over another. Christians are secure in their rights to believe and practice as they wish because of religions that believe the United Nations will launch the Apocalypse, animal sacrifices are necessary in order to find true happiness, and the best way to find enlightenment is through hallucinogenic drugs. It's funny how life works sometimes.

http://www.mtv.com/news/3011233/religious-freedom-brought-to-you-by-animal-sacrifice-and-peyote/

When Truth is Complex - On Telling the Story of My Upbringing in the Unification Church

Cara E. Jones
Huffington Post
May 4, 2017

I tell other people’s stories for a living. Maybe, in part, because I’ve been avoiding telling my own. I’ve been holding onto this for too long now.

So that’s me. Almost twenty two years ago. In the front row. In the Seoul Olympic Stadium with 10-thousand other couples. In an arranged marriage. And in what feels like another lifetime. I grew up in a unique religious organization called the Unification Church whose members have been called “Moonies” and cult followers. My first marriage was arranged by the controversial founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, using 8x10 photographs. My then husband and I met a month before we traveled to Korea to be married.

When the marriage stopped working, I didn’t know how to leave. So I denied my feelings, learned to drink and eventually cheated on my husband. My subsequent divorce felt, at the same time, like a divorce from my parents and the community I was raised in.

It took collecting 100 hours of film, writing thirty-seven versions of a short essay, then three drafts of a memoir, and five years to figure out what I wanted to say about this story. Then, another year to get the courage share any of it.

As a former journalist, I began telling this like any other cult story, highlighting all the sensational elements that painted the church, its founder and even my parents as villains, and me as the victim. I wrote this story through tears and pillow bashing, and regularly bothered friends to validate it.

“Send it,” some would say. But I wouldn’t. Some part of me knew that the anger with which I was telling the story was keeping me locked inside it.

So I began asking more questions and trying to understand my past, meanwhile working on the judgment, anger and fear that would unconsciously weave their way into my words. Slowly, a more nuanced and complex story began to emerge.

I discovered that my parents, who were early leaders in the church, had been drawn to it for reasons I never truly understood. Their work in the church helped them heal childhood wounds and they credit their faith for the success of their marriage, now nearly 47 years strong. It is definitely true that some of the church’s beliefs and practices caused me a lot of pain. But it is also true that many of its values have positively influenced my life and allowed my family, now of 18 people, to stay together through battles that would have broken many others apart.

I have only been able to see and acknowledge these more complex truths in working on this story.

So many of our wounds from the past are stitched together with tape and string waiting to be undone with the slightest touch. For me, revisiting this part of my past, while painful, has been a path for deeper understanding and healing.

The author Paulo Coehlo says there are two types of people: builders and gardeners. Our world is created by both. In the realm of story, the builders among us are called to reconstruct new lives with solid walls and boundaries, keeping the past at bay. For some, this is the only way forward. The gardeners are called to look at the entire landscape of their lives, to weed out what hasn’t worked and to keep what has growing.

For so many years I tried to be a builder. I struggled to find love and move on with my life in judgment and denial of this story of my past. That approach, while valid for others, didn’t work for me. Re-telling my story through the upcoming documentary Second Coming has allowed me, after five years of tilling, to embrace my past as part of a more vast life landscape. There, I have started to grow a family of my own.

It’s in this garden that I hope our now five month old little girl will also thrive. And someday contribute to that rich landscape with sprouts of her own truth.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-truth-is-complex-on-telling-the-story-of-my_us_5908073ae4b084f59b49fc57

Falun Gong practitioners plan vigil outside Chinese consulate over arrest of Canadian woman

Charlie Smith
Straight.com
May 8, 2017

While many British Columbians will be practising their constitutional right to vote on Tuesday (May 9), others will be exercising their rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression outside the Chinese consulate in the 3300 block of Granville Street.

Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters will be there from 1 to 1:30 p.m. to protest what they're alling the "illegal arrest" of Qian Sun, a 51-year-old Canadian citizen and vice president of Beijing Leadman Biochemistry Co.

In a news release, they claim that she was taken away by Chinese police on February 19 when more than two dozen officers "broke in and arbitrarily arrested her".

The news release also states that Sun's Falun Gong books, cellphone, computer, and other possessions were seized and that she remains in jail.

"Falun Gong practitioners and supporters condemn this illegal arrest and will call on the Canadian government to protect its citizens in China by demanding the unconditional release of Ms. Sun and also protect the dignity of Canadian values from being eroded by this repressive regime," it says.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual practise that involves meditation and includes moral teachings of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.

In June 2016, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution demanding that the Chinese government end a 17-year campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners and halt the practise of harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience.

Falun Gong advocates maintain that their spiritual practice is legal under China's constitution.

The Chinese government, on the other hand, has insisted that Falun Gong is an "evil cult" and that its ban conforms to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

China has also branded the leader, Master Li Hongzhi, as a criminal.

In a 2001 profile the BBC reported that Li "believes aliens walk the Earth and he has reportedly said he can walk through walls and make himself invisible".

"Mr Li says that he is a being from from a higher level who has come to help humankind from the destruction it could face as the result of rampant evil," the article noted.
Text of the U.S. Congressional resolution:

Whereas when performed in accordance with ethical standards, the medical discipline of organ transplantation is one of the great achievements of modern medicine;

Whereas voluntary and informed consent is the precondition for ethical organ donation and international medical organizations state that prisoners, deprived of their freedom, are not in the position to give free consent and that the practice of sourcing organs from prisoners is a violation of ethical guidelines in medicine;

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China and Communist Party of China continue to deny reports that many organs are taken without the consent of prisoners yet at the same time prevents independent verification of its transplant system;

Whereas the organ transplantation system in China does not comply with the World Health Organization’s requirement of transparency and traceability in organ procurement pathways;

Whereas the United States Department of State Country Report on Human Rights for China for 2014 stated, “Advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting from prisoners”;

Whereas Huang Jiefu, director of the China Organ Donation Committee, announced in December 2014 that China would end the practice of organ harvesting from executed prisoners by January 1, 2015, did not directly address organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience;

Whereas Falun Gong, a spiritual practice involving meditative “qigong” exercises and centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, became immensely popular in the 1990s;

Whereas in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched an intensive, nationwide persecution designed to eradicate the spiritual practice of Falun Gong, reflecting the party’s long-standing intolerance of large independent civil society groups;

Whereas since 1999, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained extra-legally in reeducation-through-labor camps, detention centers, and prisons, where torture and abuse are routine;

Whereas in many detention facilities and labor camps, Falun Gong prisoners of conscience comprise the majority of the population, and have been said to receive the longest sentences and the worst treatment;

Whereas Freedom House reported in 2015 that Falun Gong practitioners comprise the largest portion of prisoners of conscience in China, and face an elevated risk of dying or being killed in custody;

Whereas in 2006, Canadian researchers David Matas, human rights attorney, and David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, conducted an independent investigation into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners in China, and concluded that Falun Gong practitioners being killed for their organs was highly probable;

Whereas Matas and Kilgour have implicated state and party entities in illicit organ harvesting, including domestic security services and military hospitals;

Whereas researcher and journalist Ethan Gutmann published findings that Chinese security agencies began harvesting organs from members of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority group in the 1990s, including from Uyghur political prisoners;

Whereas the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Special Rapporteur on Torture have expressed concern over the allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners, and have called on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to increase accountability and transparency in the organ transplant system and punish those responsible for abuses; and

Whereas the killing of religious or political prisoners for the purpose of selling their organs for transplant is an egregious and intolerable violation of the fundamental right to life: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) condemns the practice of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting in the People’s Republic of China;

(2) calls on the Government of the People’s Republic of China and Communist Party of China to immediately end the practice of organ harvesting from all prisoners of conscience;

(3) demands an immediate end to the 17-year persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice by the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party of China, and the immediate release of all Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience;

(4) encourages the United States medical community to help raise awareness of unethical organ transplant practices in China;

(5) calls on the People’s Republic of China to allow a credible, transparent, and independent investigation into organ transplant abuses; and

(6) calls on the United States Department of State to conduct a more detailed analysis on state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the annual Human Rights Report, and report annually to Congress on the implementation of section 232 of the Department of State Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (8 U.S.C. 1182f), barring provision of visas to Chinese and other nationals engaged in coerced organ or bodily tissue transplantation.

http://www.straight.com/news/906706/falun-gong-protesters-plan-vigil-outside-chinese-consulate-protest-arrest-canadian-woman

Civil Society Against Extremism – Training

RAN CoE

The Civil Society Empowerment Programme has an offer for you: 28 training sessions around Europe on the fundamentals of online campaigning: key messages, target audiences, online platforms and more.

Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups

Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.

Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.

Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a cult scale or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool.

• ‪The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
• Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
• Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
• The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
• The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
• ‪ The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
• The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
• The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
•  The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
• Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
• The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.The group is preoccupied with making money.
• Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
• Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
• The most loyal members (the true believers) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.

 

Search continues for vanished Australian doomsday cult members, inquest set to begin

McDougall and her daughter Leela.

New Zealand Herald
May 8, 2017

A doomsday cult leader and his family who mysteriously disappeared in 2007 could be in New Zealand or Brazil, or dead, police say.

Assuming the stolen identity of Gary Feltham, cult leader Simon Kadwell controlled a devoted worldwide following of around 40 people from a rundown home in Nannup, Western Australia.

An inquest has been announced into the mysterious disappearance and "suspected deaths" of Kadwell, along with his girlfriend Chantelle McDougall, their six-year-old daughter Leela and friend, Tony Popic, 42.

Kadwell interacted with his following, "Truth Fellowship", through a chat room called "The Gateway" and taught from a book Servers of the Divine Plan which he had written himself.

Neighbour Bruce Blackburn said Kadwell was "off the planet" and "paranoid".

"He was always ranting and raving about them, to the point where he was breaking out in hives and his face looked as if it was about to burst, it was so red.

"He began burying a heap of magnets around the place because he believed they diverted these rays away from him."

McDougall's parents believe their daughter is alive and "hidden away".

"I think he's probably got them hiding somewhere while he is up to his usual tricks of getting money off people by scamming them over the internet with this cult stuff," Jim McDougall has previously said.

Local media reported Kadwell and McDougall often spoke of Rio, and left a note on their front door that read "Gone to Brazil" when they disappeared in 2007.

Police initially suspected the foursome headed to New Zealand and may have gone on to South America.

Four days after the disappearence there were reports Popic visited a backpackers in Perth but police were unable to confirm his identity.

"It's such a bizarre story and we have as little an idea of their whereabouts today as we did in 2007 when they disappeared," Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Balfour said.

"There's no evidence to suggest they are dead, just as there's no evidence to suggest they are alive.

"Remember, he successfully isolated Chantelle and Leela from their families so it's perfectly possible they are alive, living off the grid somewhere in Australia or overseas."

The inquest into the disappearance of Kadwell, Ms McDougall, Leela McDougall and Mr Popic will begin in December.

- NZ Herald



http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11851478

The small Minnesota town about to get the world's first public Satanic Temple monument

The organisation claims that it does not worship the devil. Rather, it is a “nontheistic religious organization” devoted to art, free speech and individuality

Sandhya Somashekhar

The Independent

May 7, 2017

Veterans Memorial Park in tiny Belle Plaine, Minnesota, is packed with remembrances for the town’s men and women in uniform. Soon, it will get one more: A solemn black cube holding an upturned helmet, its sides adorned with upside-down pentagrams.

The Satanic Temple announced on Friday that it had received approval to install the monument, which is in production. Within a couple of months, it is expected to take its place alongside a flag-lined walkway, a marble plaque and a retired UH-1H Iroquois “Huey” helicopter positioned as if it is hovering above the ground.

The approval of the monument brings a new twist to a long-running battle that began last summer, when someone put up a metal silhouette of an infantryman kneeling before a cross. A resident objected, calling it a religious symbol that violates the principle of the separation of church and state.

After months of acrimony, the city decided to make part of the park a “public forum,” open to virtually any group that wants to honour the town’s veterans. The Satanic Temple took them up on it.

It is not the first such effort from the Satanic Temple, a provocative organisation that often pushes the boundaries on free speech and religious liberties to prove a point about religion in public spaces; last year, it started its “After School Satan” clubs as a way of challenging Christian evangelical groups that sponsor after-school religious programming. But this is the first time the group has succeeded in having a monument placed on public land, according to Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the organisation, which is based in Salem, Massachusetts.

Belle Plaine officials “didn't offer any resistance, to their credit,” said Greaves, who also goes by the name Doug Mesner. “We genuinely want something that will honour the veterans. It’s not about being shocking or upsetting the locals, though it’s an inevitable byproduct.”

City officials considered that the new policy could invite provocateurs, but approved it anyway.

“It was discussed during our city council meeting when we authored the policy that groups that were unpopular or otherwise would put monuments in the park,” said Michael Votca, the city administrator.

The flare-up in this town, about 45 miles southwest of Minneapolis, comes as the US is mired in a heated battle over religious freedom and the rights of people of faith, particularly conservative Christians, to opt out of activities that support same-sex marriage, abortion or contraception.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding religious protections that, among other things, soften enforcement of the Johnson Amendment, which bars tax-exempt houses of worship from engaging in political speech.

But as the Satanic Temple has tried to demonstrate, expanding religious liberties can have unintended consequences. Because the Constitution bars the establishment of a national religion, it requires that the same protections be extended to people of all faiths, including ones with disturbing connotations such as satanism and those who profess no faith.

Greaves said that his organisation is now considering applying for the same tax-exempt status that churches and synagogues enjoy. It previously avoided doing so to freely engage in politics. But with Trump’s executive order, he said, “there’s absolutely no advantage to not be tax-exempt. A lot more organisations should apply and put it to the test.”

He said that his organisation does not worship the devil. Rather, he said, it is a “nontheistic religious organisation” devoted to art, free speech and individuality, whose values “are no less deeply held” than those professing a belief in God.

In its application to the city, the organisation described the monument as a “black steel cube with embossed inverted pentagrams with inlaid gold on four sides. An inverted helmet rests on the top of the cube. A plaque on one side of the cube reads: ‘In honor of Belle Plaine veterans who fought to defend the United States and its Constitution’.”

Belle Plaine has been grappling with its park policy since last summer, when the two-foot statue of the kneeling soldier appeared. Katie Novotny, a Belle Plaine resident and veterans advocate, said it was created by a local vet who died shortly after it was put up. It is affectionately dubbed “Joe”.

Novotny contends that it is not a religious display. Joe, she said, is simply kneeling at a headstone fashioned into the shape of a cross, which is a common way for gravestones to be depicted.

“I don’t think 90 per cent of people see it as a religious symbol when it’s in that context,” she said.

Nevertheless, fearing a lawsuit, the city ordered the cross removed in January. Someone from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars group was tasked with sawing it off the statue, she said. The person given that job “said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do,” she said.

The decision immediately prompted protests. People fashioned their own crosses and defiantly installed them next to the statue. Around the town, Novotny said, citizens who supported the original display put replicas in their windows – including the cross.

The city eventually hit upon a compromise. It established a “limited public forum” within the park in which groups could erect, with city permission, a monument honouring the town’s veterans. The permits last for a year, and no more than 10 monuments may be displayed at a time.

The cross was welded back onto the statue. Joe and his cross returned to the park last month.

Novotny said she does not object to the Satanic Temple’s plans. “If they want to come here from Massachusetts and put something up to honour our veterans in Belle Plaine, go for it,” she said. “They deserve to be honored.”

Some other places have opted to ban all religious displays when faced with this type of conflict. In 2015, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a monument of the Ten Commandments had to be removed from its grounds for violating a state prohibition against use of public property to promote one religion.

Another group planning to apply for a spot at the Belle Plaine park is the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which objected to the cross display. It is planning to commission a stone tribute to “atheists in foxholes” – a take on an old saying suggesting that everyone finds God when faced with death.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, predicted that city officials will come to regret opening the park to all displays.

“They’re going to run out of space,” she said. “It will just be littered... One day, they will look at everything and decide, was it really worth it?”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/satanic-monument-statue-public-park-minnesota-religious-freedom-a7722766.html

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI’S RECORDING AND ADHIATMIC COMMENTARY

By Alex Hankey PhD

ABSTRACT

In the course of over 50years teaching and research on the Vedic sciences and their different applications, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became the 20th century’s greatest commentator on the Rig Veda, of which he made the first complete video recording in the early 1970’s with the help of Brahmarishi Devarata from Karnataka, reputedly the greatest Rig Veda pundit of his generation. This paper starts by tracing the events leading up to the recording: Maharishi’s intellectual roots in the Vedic tradition; the roles of his Master, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, and of Kashmiri Shaivism from his deep and long-time friendship with Laxmanju, the head of that order in the mid-20th century. Following the recording of Rig Veda suktas, Brahmarishi Devarat and Maharishi commented on various richas that had been recorded. Their commentary, which remains on videotape in the library of Maharishi Vedic University is unique. The most famous previous commentary, that of Sayana, had dealt with relative and mundane aspects of the richas, for the purpose of explaining their meaning on that level to pundits of his time. In contrast, Brahmarisihi Devarata and Maharishi’s commentary is the first authoritative one from a purely adhiatmic, spiritual perspective. It elucidates the Rig Veda’s deep inner structures and spiritual meaning, as is here shown from various different perspectives.

INTRODUCTION

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had an essentially unique training at the hands of his spiritual master. Swami Brahmananda Saraswati had become the Shankaracharya of the northern monastery of the Shankara order, Jyotir Math (literally, the ‘Monastery of the Spiritual Light’) at the ripe age of 72, after being begged to take up the position for almost quarter of a century. Those who experienced his presence reported that he carried a quality of spiritual atmosphere which was unparalleled at the time. He had long been regarded as the greatest authority of his age on Hindu spirituality and its Vedic antecedents. Having left home at age nine with his mother’s blessings to become a renunciate, his manifest devotion led him to be compared with Prahlad and others of India’s renowned child saints. Five years later, at age fourteen, he finally found a master meeting the supreme standards he had set – a realized soul who was both a life-long celibate and an authority on Vedic philosophy – in Uttar Kashi on the upper Ganges in the Himalayas. In the hands of Swami Krishnananda Saraswati, he was soon sent to practice secret techniques of realization alone in a cave some way from the ashram, and attained realization shortly thereafter. After two decades spent in his Master’s company, he was finally initiated as a full, renunciant Dandi Sannyasi at the Kumbha Mela in Prayag at age 36. His Master then directed him to perform Tapas for the next 12 years, for which he repaired to the upper reaches of the river Narmada, living in the village traditionally said to harbor the place where all the life force of the planet retires during the mahapralaya – a place said to be like a bridge between worlds.  Returning for similar 12 year periods twice more, he finally became Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math shortly before the young Mahesh joined him.

Read More......

http://ancientindianwisdom.com/health-and-wellness/yoga/maharishi-mahesh-yogis-recording-and-adhiatmic-commentary

Eerie Audio Recordings of the Jonestown Massacre Show Jim Jones' Descent into Murderous Madness

STEVE HELLING
PEOPLE
MAY 6, 2017

AUDIO

Looking back on the Jonestown massacre today, the horror is almost unfathomable.

On Nov. 18, 1978, Jim Jones orchestrated the mass suicide of 918 members of his cult in a remote commune in Guyana, South America. The men, women and children — members of The People’s Temple — killed themselves by drinking a cyanide solution laced with Flavor Aid, an inexpensive knock-off of Kool-Aid.

It was the single greatest loss of American life in a non-natural disaster until 9/11.

Nearly 40 years later, many people have forgotten the horror — but many people who were close to the cult are speaking out on the Reelz Channel’s docuseries, Murder Made Me Famous.

Cult member Jordan Vilchez managed to escape death because she happened to be in the People’s Temple office, 150 miles away. She says on the show that she probably would have committed suicide had she been in Jonestown that day. “I would’ve been in such shock about seeing babies and children dying that I would’ve probably done it, not even knowing what I was doing, just from the sheer shock of it,” she says.

While she might have gone along with the idea, Vilchez doesn’t believe she would have been excited about the suicide. “I wouldn’t have been like, ‘Oh yeah, give it to me. I wanna die.’ I don’t think anybody wanted to die. I mean, who wants to die? Right?”

The FBI eventually retrieved chilling audio recordings of the mass suicide. The gut-wrenching audio, known within the FBI as the “death tape,” gives a rare insight into the way that cult leaders manipulate their followers.

While Murder Made Me Famous has always used recreations to depict famous crimes, the Jim Jones episode will mark a first: producers play large sections of the authentic FBI audio recordings of the fateful mass suicide. It provides an eerie soundtrack to the reenactment. (An exclusive 30-second clip of the episode is above.)

“I was in shock,” cult survivor Vilchez says on the show, and stresses that most of the cult members’ motives were pure. “There were intentions of doing a lot of good on the part of people,” she says. “I think people sort of thought, ‘Well, I don’t agree with this, and I don’t believe this. But what we’re standing for is really wonderful.’ ”

Could Jonestown Happen Today?

In the 39 years since the Jonestown Massacre, the case has been studied by countless criminologists and historians. The question is always raised: in the world of social media and 24-hour news, could a similar event happen in 2017?

“Do I think there’ll be another one as massive as that? I certainly hope not,” says Patrick O’Reilly Ph.D., a clinical psychologist who specializes in cults and has authored several books and articles about the Jonestown Massacre. “But where there’re power hungry people, there’re also vulnerable people, and people looking for a purpose in life, uh, looking for structure, looking for a religion, a spirituality.”

Biographer Jeff Guinn agrees — and says that social media would have helped Jim Jones. “If Jones is alive today, he’s going to master social media,” Guinn told PEOPLE last month. “He’s going to use Facebook and Twitter to get his message across unfiltered.”

Murder Made Me Famous combines reenactments, exclusive interviews and never-before-seen photos and video to tell the story of infamous murderers. The show is hosted by PEOPLE Senior Writer Steve Helling.

The Jim Jones episode airs Saturday (9 p.m. ET) on the Reelz Channel.

http://people.com/crime/jonestown-massacre-audio-recordings-murder-made-famous/

When is a Religion 'Extremist'?

Tim Rymel, M.Ed.
Huffington Post
May 6, 2017

In April, Russia’s Supreme Court labeled Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist religious group. “It effectively means that holding their beliefs and manifesting them is tantamount to a criminal act in Russia. They risk new levels of persecution by the Russian authorities,” said international legal counsel, Lorcan Price.

In America, most of us think of Jehovah’s Witnesses as that occasional Saturday nuisance. They interrupt our morning breakfast or afternoon chores to tell us their version of the Christian faith. They cheerfully drag their families along for quiet strolls through the neighborhoods, and pass out Watchtower Magazines for us to throw away later.

Annoying? Yes. Disruptive? Usually. But extremist? That depends.

Growing up in the Pentecostal faith, I was taught that Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Catholics were not Christians. Anyone who converted to those, or other non-mainstream Christian sects, was deceived by the devil. Though we didn’t use the word “extremist” to define those religions, we certainly saw them as a threat to the true people of God who were susceptible to “false teachings.”

Religion, to paraphrase Merriam-Webster, is generally a belief in the supernatural with a commitment to keep up the attitudes and practices surrounding that belief. In other words, religion is more than just a belief it is an action. For some, that means attending church on Sundays. For others, it means killing people for believing the wrong things, or believing in the wrong way.

The BBC noted that Al Qaeda’s purpose is to avenge “wrongs committed by Christians against Muslims.” The organization wants to implement a “single Islamic political leadership,” and drive away non-Muslims from areas it deems belong to the nation of Islam.

ISIS, on the other hand, is a group of Scriptural fundamentalists who believe all other Muslims are apostates. William McCants, director of the Project on US Relations With the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, says that ISIS wants “to restore the early Islamic empire called the caliphate and eventually take over the whole world.”

Most of us can agree that Al Qaeda and ISIS are extremist groups. After all, they plan and implement terrorist attacks. They kill people, sometimes brutally. But is violence the only indicator of religious extremism?

It could certainly be argued that when a religion becomes violent it becomes extremist. But even Christianity, in it’s many definitions, has a sorted history, which is seldom talked about and often dismissed. From the Spanish inquisition to the convert-or-die tactics used on Native American Indians, Christianity has been used to commit horrific acts of violence throughout the centuries. Judaism, from which Christianity arose, recorded shocking details in the Torah of the slaughter of entire populations, including women, children, and animals.

Any religion, which purports to, alone, have all truth, and to, alone, have a direct line of communication to God, has a propensity toward extremist ideology. As University of Notre Dame Professor, Gary Gutting, points out:

The potential for intolerance lies in the logic of religions like Christianity and Islam that say their teaching derive from a divine revelation. For them, the truth that God has revealed is the most important truth there is; therefore, denying or doubting this truth is extremely dangerous, both for nonbelievers, who lack this essential truth, and for believers, who may well be misled by the denials and doubts of nonbelievers.

Any religion that denies the value and humanity of others is an extremist religion. Whether those actions lead to direct harm, or simply reduce protections through legislation, extremist ideology seeks to create one class that is believed to be more valued than another.

The grandstanding that fundamentalist Christians have done since marriage equality passed in 2015 has created a growing, and disturbing trend toward extremist Christianity.

The Oath Keepers, a vigilante Christian group, vowed to protect Kentucky County Clerk, Kim Davis, when she refused issuing a marriage license to a gay couple. They stated the judge in Davis’ case “needs to be put on notice that his behavior is not going to be accepted and we’ll be there to stop it and intercede ourselves if we have to.” And then, in an ironic twist to the story, the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, of “God hates fags” fame, picketed Kim Davis because of her multiple divorces and remarriages.

Since then, dozens of “religious freedom” bills have been introduced across the country with the sole purpose of reducing or eliminating protections for the LGBT community in housing, employment, benefits, and even where they can go to the bathroom.

The problem, of course, is that “religious freedom” is based on nothing more than a belief. Governments who support “religious freedom” over the equal human rights and dignity of others condone, and even endorse discrimination. In any such environment religious extremism is the outcome, threatening the very existence of democracy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-is-a-religion-extremist_us_590de8e3e4b046ea176aeb98

Polygamy case a wrap

The Canadian Press
May 4, 2017

The prosecution in the trial of two B.C. men accused of having multiple wives has wrapped up its case.

Winston Blackmore is the head of a religious group in Bountiful, a community in southeastern B.C. where residents follow the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, a faith that condones plural marriage.

Blackmore is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Cranbrook alongside James Oler, and each is charged with one count of polygamy.

Blackmore allegedly has 24 wives, while Oler is accused of marrying four women.

Crown attorney Peter Wilson summarized his evidence against the pair on Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of marriage records seized by law enforcement from a ranch in Texas that is owned by the FLDS church.

He said the records are important because testimony from experts on Mormon doctrine and church history shows that practitioners of the faith believe that what is sealed on Earth is sealed in Heaven and the afterlife.

"The evidence supports that record-keeping was of significant spiritual importance to the FLDS church," Wilson said.

The trial has also heard from Blackmore's first legal wife, Jane Blackmore, who said she sometimes attended ceremonies where Winston Blackmore married other women.

Jane Blackmore is also James Oler's sister and testified that he had three wives, at least one of whom she had provided prenatal care for in her job as a midwife.

Other key pieces of evidence for the Crown include a video-recorded interview between an RCMP officer and Blackmore, and statements Oler made to the police.

The trial heard that both men told police officers they had multiple wives.

https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/196224/Polygamy-case-a-wrap

Dr. Steven Greer: recording of Puja ceremony April 2015

Watch "Dr. Steven Greer: recording of Transcendental Meditation Puja ceremony April 2015" on YouTube

TM Advance Techniques (TM and Psychophysiological and Bliss Techniques)

1986, Instructor: Deepak Chopra
Bliss technique: I was instructed to put my attention briefly on the heart region before beginning regular TM, and then to allow the mantra to resonate there as I meditated. He suggested that I would feel warm flows of "soma" emanating there. During rest afterwards, I was supposed to hold awareness of the entire body -- especially the circulating soma -- in my awareness.
Night time Technique: I was taught a "sleep technique" by Chopra in 1985 or 86. It consisted of placing my awareness on my heart area briefly, holding awareness of my entire body in my consciousness, and when I began the mantra allowing it to resonate in my heart area. I was supposed to do this for 5 to 10 minutes just before sleep then during the two minutes of silence continue to feel the body (particularly "soma flows") and allow myself to drift into sleep feeling the body.

I found that it did in fact promote what I used to think of as "witnessing" -- and now am pretty sure was a form of sleep disturbance.

I'm pretty sure that Chopra at least was teaching this technique to some as part of his Maharishi-approved teachings until the end.

He also encouraged me to meditate thus for 5 or 10 minutes whenever I experienced a stressful situation -- or felt I lost my feeling of "bliss." Was instructed in the Old Pacific Palisades facility.

*1989, Instructor: Deepak Chopra
Hi everyone. I know the primordial sound meditation, at least one of them. It cost me 700 bucks. Here we go.
The primordial sound was taught to me only after the "psychophysiological technique" otherwise known as the "bliss" technique. This also cost me 700 bucks, by the way, circa 1989. I understand that these techniques were taught to non-TMers but I was a TMer with the following instructions.

Practice TM for 10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes bliss technique, followed by 10 minutes eyes closed rest. The bliss technique is the word "amritam." Think it easily, then forget it, as if practicing sanyama (sidhis technique). Repeat every 15 seconds.

The primordial sound is the same technique with the word "devatup." Practice this for 10 minutes after the 10 minutes with the bliss technique. Do this 40 minute thing around the middle of the day or at any time - it doesn't matter if you have eaten. But in my experience it matters if you want to get anything done afterwards.

When I got these from Deepak, I told him that I don't have time for it. He suggested 5 minutes of each thing rather than 10. I got the point and didn't worry if it was 2 minutes of each thing sometimes. By the way, amritam means something like immortality. I don't know what devatup means except that I got ripped off one more time. Jai Guru Dev - wow, heavy man.

*1995, Instructor: Deepak Chopra
Chopra's meditation technique: I was shown an intricate mandala thingie [yantra -- also promoted by the Maharishi's teacher, Guru Dev] and was told to stare at it for 5 or 10 minutes. Then the [Quantum Healing] instructor told me to repeat the mantra "shri hrlange namah" easily and effortlessly for 20 minutes.

http://www.breathing.com/articles/secret-teachings.htm

RUSSIA'S JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BAN IS FAR FROM THE ONLY OPPRESSION THE GROUP FACES AROUND THE WORLD

JASON LE MIERE
Newsweek
May 5, 2017

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia are still reeling from a decision by the country’s Supreme Court last month to ban all activity of the Christian denomination under an anti-extremism law. But, while that decision has garnered much attention and condemnation around the world, Russia is far from the only country guilty of oppressing the U.S.-founded religion.

Jehovah's Witnesses began in Pennsylvania toward the end of the 19th century and now count 8.3 million members around the globe. The group headquartered in upstate New York is perhaps best known for going door-to-door to spread their message. as well as refusing military service and blood transfusions. Their stance on blood transfusions was cited by Russia's justice ministry as evidence that they constituted an extremist organization. However. their position has also been credited with encouraging doctors to come up with less risky alternatives to using blood.

Still, their beliefs remain controversial in many parts of the world. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released its annual report last month detailing various abuses committed against almost all religions all over the globe. Numerous abuses involve Jehovah’s Witnesses:

Eritrea
The plight of Jehovah’s Witnesses is particularly serious in Eritrea. The African country officially recognizes just four religious groups—the Coptic Orthodox Church of Eritrea, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church of Eritrea—all other groups must register. Many minority faith groups are persecuted, including Jehovah’s Witnesses. A decree from the then- and current-President Isaias Afwerki in 1994 revoked Jehovah’s Witnesses’ citizenship due to their refusal to take part in national service or participate politically. Three Jehovah’s Witnesses remain imprisoned for that time, as part of a total of 54 Jehovah’s Witnesses currently imprisoned without trial.

Tajikistan
A decade before Russia’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Central Asian country of Tajikistan did the same thing. With, at the time, a congregation of just 600 in the country of around 8.5 million, Tajikistan’s Culture Ministry in 2007 decreed the group’s activity “illegal” and, again largely citing their refusal to partake in military service, issued a nationwide ban.

Turkmenistan
Also deemed a “Country of Particular Concern” by USCIRF, Turkmenistan, has what Human Rights Watch has called an “atrocious” record when it comes to human rights. Jehovah’s Witnesses have been singled out for some of the worst treatment. Members of the group have been fired from their jobs and even evicted from their homes, according to human rights organization Forum 18. Jehovah’s Witnesses have also reported being imprisoned without charge and tortured.

Kyrgyzstan
In unquestionably the most bizarre form of oppression carried out against Jehovah’s Witnesses, a mother and daughter spent 31 months under house arrest, until their release in October 2015, for alleged witchcraft. Their precise crime was said to be conjuring snakes from eggs and stealing a woman’s life savings, according to Forum 18. Jehovah’s Witnesses allege that the punishment was retribution for their failed applications to register their faith with the state.

Uzbekistan
Central Asia’s most populous country regularly disrupts Jehovah’s Witnesses meetings and, as with those of other religious groups in the country, particularly Muslims, often punishes those in attendance for possessing religious literature.

Azerbaijan
in Azerbaijan, where all religious groups must register with the government, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been subject to raids, arrests, fines and having religious texts confiscated. In 2015, two Jehovah’s Witnesses were jailed for almost a year for sharing the Bible’s message with their neighbors. Jehovah’s Witnesses have also been jailed for refusing to perform military service.

Kazakhstan
Neighboring Russia, constitutionally secular Kazakhstan has repeatedly fined Jehovah’s Witnesses for sharing their faith with others, either verbally or through religious texts, and even inviting people to meetings. Just this week, a Jehovah's Witness was sentenced to five years in prison, accused of propagating ideas that "disrupt interreligious and interethnic concord."

Belarus
Jehovah’s Witnesses in the former Soviet country have been threatened with liquidation for holding religious meetings without permission and distributing religious texts. Last year, a Jehovah’s Witness was fined for refusing to perform military service, even though he offered to perform civilian service.

Egypt
Despite there being an estimated 1,500 in the country, Jehovah’s Witnesses, along with the Baha’I faith, has been banned in Egypt since 1960. Members of the religious group remain prohibited from having places of worship, even if in recent years they have been permitted to meet with fewer than 30 people in private homes, according to the USCIRF report.

http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-oppression-594839

Anti-vaccine activists spark a state’s worst measles outbreak in decades

Lena H. Sun

Washington Post
May 5, 2017

MINNEAPOLIS — The young mother started getting advice early on from friends in the close-knit Somali immigrant community here. Don't let your children get the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella — it causes autism, they said.

Suaado Salah listened. And this spring, her 3-year-old boy and 18-month-old girl contracted measles in Minnesota's largest outbreak of the highly infectious and potentially deadly disease in nearly three decades. Her daughter, who had a rash, high fever and a cough, was hospitalized for four nights and needed intravenous fluids and oxygen.

"I thought: 'I'm in America. I thought I'm in a safe place and my kids will never get sick in that disease,' " said Salah, 26, who has lived in Minnesota for more than a decade. Growing up in Somalia, she'd had measles as a child. A sister died of the disease at age 3.

Salah no longer believes that the MMR vaccine triggers autism, a discredited theory that spread rapidly through the local Somali community, fanned by meetings organized by anti-vaccine groups. The advocates repeatedly invited Andrew Wakefield, the founder of the modern anti-vaccine movement, to talk to worried parents.

Immunization rates plummeted and, last month, the first cases of measles appeared. Soon, there was a full-blown outbreak, one of the starkest consequences of an intensifying anti-vaccine movement in the United States and around the world that has gained traction in part by targeting specific communities.

"It's remarkable to come in and talk to a population that's vulnerable and marginalized and who doesn't necessarily have the capacity for advocacy for themselves, and to take advantage of that," said Siman Nuurali, a Somali American clinician who coordinates the care of medically complex patients at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. "It's abhorrent."

Although extensive research has disproved any relationship between vaccines and autism, the fear has become entrenched in the community. "I don't know if we will be able to dig out on our own," Nuurali said.

Anti-vaccine advocates defend their position and their role, saying they merely provided information to parents.

"The Somalis had decided themselves that they were particularly concerned," Wakefield said last week. "I was responding to that."

He maintained that he bears no fault for what is now happening within the community: "I don't feel responsible at all."

MMR vaccination rates among U.S.-born children of Somali descent used to be higher than among other children in Minnesota. But the rates plummeted from 92 percent in 2004 to 42 percent in 2014, state health department data shows, well below the 92-94 percent threshold needed to protect a community against measles.

Wakefield, a British activist who now lives in Texas, visited Minneapolis at least three times in 2010 and 2011 to meet privately with Somali parents of autistic children, according to local anti-vaccine advocates. Wakefield's prominence stems from a 1998 study he authored, which claimed to show a link between the vaccine and autism. The study was later identified as fraudulent and was retracted by the medical journal that published it, and his medical license was revoked.

The current outbreak was identified in early April. As of Thursday, there were 41 cases, all but two occurring in people who were not vaccinated, and all but one in children 10 and younger. Nearly all have been from the Somali American community in Hennepin County. A fourth of the patients have been hospitalized. Because of the dangerously low vaccination rates and the disease's extreme infectiousness, more cases are expected in the weeks ahead.







Measles, which remains endemic in many parts of the world, was eliminated in the United States at the start of this century. It reappearedseveral years ago as more people — many wealthier, more educated and white — began refusing to vaccinate their children or delaying those shots.



The ramifications already have been significant. A 2014-2015 measles outbreak infected 147 people in seven states and spread to Mexico and Canada. In California, high school students were sent home because of infected classmates. One patient who was unknowingly infectious visited a hospital and exposed dozens of pregnant women and babies, including those in the neonatal intensive care unit. Another adult patient was hospitalized and on a breathing machine for three weeks.

Federal guidelines typically recommend that children get the first vaccine dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second when they are 4 to 6 years old. The combination is 97 percent effective in preventing the viral disease, which can cause pneumonia, brain swelling, deafness and, in rare instances, death.

Minnesota's Somali community is the largest in the country. The roots of the outbreak there date to 2008, when parents raised concerns that their children were disproportionately affected by autism spectrum disorder. A limited survey by the state health department the following year found an unexpectedly high number of Somali children in a preschool autism program. But a University of Minnesota study found that Somali children were about as likely as white children to be identified with autism, although they were more likely to have intellectual disabilities.

Around that time, health-care providers began receiving reports of parents refusing the MMR vaccine.

As parents sought to learn more about the disorder, they came across websites of anti-vaccine groups. And activists from those groups started showing up at community health meetings and distributing pamphlets, recalled Lynn Bahta, a longtime state health department nurse who has worked with Somali nurses to counter MMR vaccine resistance within the community.

At one 2011 gathering featuring Wakefield, Bahta recalled, an armed guard barred her, other public health officials and reporters from attending.

Fear of autism runs so deep in the Somali community that parents whose children have recently come down with measles insist that measles preferable to risking autism. One father, who did not want his family identified to protect their privacy, sat helplessly by his daughter's bed at Children's Minnesota hospital last week as she struggled to breathe during coughing fits.

The 23-month-old was on an IV for fluids and had repeatedly pulled out the oxygen tube in her nose. Her older brother, almost 4, endured a milder bout. Neither had received the MMR vaccine.

The children now have antibodies to protect against measles, but they still need the vaccine to prevent mumps and rubella. Their father, who is 33 and studying mechanical engineering while working as a mechanic, wants to wait. His worry: autism. A colleague has a son "who is mute."

"I would hold off until she's 3 . . . or until she fluently starts talking," he explained.

His wife no longer harbors doubts, however. As soon as both children are well, she said, "they are going to get the shot."

The pervasive mistrust was evident Sunday night during a meeting, sponsored by several anti-vaccine groups, that drew a mostly Somali crowd of 90 to a Somali-owned restaurant here. Patti Carroll, a member of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, described its goal as giving parents more information, including their right to refuse to vaccinate. People have been "bullied big time" by doctors and public health officials, she said.

The presentation by anti-vaccine activist Mark Blaxill drew cheers and applause. Blaxill, a Boston businessman whose adult daughter has autism, played down the threat of measles and played up local autism rates.

"When you hear people from the state public health department saying there is no risk, that [vaccines] are safe, this is the sort of thing that should cause you to be skeptical," Blaxill said.

Two pediatricians in the audience stepped up to a microphone to denounce the claims.

"I am very concerned, especially in the midst of a measles outbreak, to have folks come into a community impacted by this disease and start talking about links between MMR and autism," said Andrew Kiragu, interim chief of pediatrics at Hennepin Medical Center in Minneapolis. "This is a travesty."

He and the other doctors were interrupted by boos and yelling.

"For God's sake, I want to know if vaccines are safe," Sahra Osman shouted. She has a nearly adult son who received an autism diagnosis when he was 3. "My people are suffering! We're not ignorant. I read a lot. I know a lot. I educate myself. . . . You don't know what you are talking about."

While scores of studies from around the world have shown conclusively that vaccines do not cause autism, that is often not a satisfactory answer for Somali American parents. They say that if science can explain that vaccines don't cause autism, science should be able to say what does.

But researchers don't really know. A growing body of evidence suggests that brain differences associated with autism may be found early in infancy — well before children receive most vaccines. Other studies have found that alterations in brain-cell development related to autism may occur before birth. There are some genetic risk factors for autism, and advanced parental age has been associated with the condition.

Meanwhile, the ongoing spread of the anti-vaccine message is making it harder to control the burgeoning number of measles cases.

The groups continue advising parents, "in the middle of their crisis," on how to opt out of vaccines, said pediatric nurse practitioner Patsy Stinchfield, an infection-control expert leading the outbreak response at Children's Minnesota. That message is "exactly the opposite of what clinicians and public health officials are urging, which is to get vaccinated as soon as possible."

Staffers at her hospital have been working around the clock to vaccinate hundreds of people who may have been exposed; an MMR dose given within 72 hours of exposure can prevent measles.

When their two sick children are well, Suaado Salah and her husband, Tahlil Wehlie, plan to talk to friends and acquaintances to spread the word that the anti-vaccine groups are wrong and that all youngsters should get immunized.

"Because when the kids get sick, it's going to affect everybody. It's not going to affect only the family who have the sick kid," she said. "They make sick for everybody. That's when you wake up and say, 'Okay, what happened?' "

But she understands the apprehension that fed the outbreak. With a parent whose child has autism, she said, "It's something that you're looking for an answer for how it happened and what happened to your kid."

Alice Crites in Washington and Emily Sohn in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/anti-vaccine-activists-spark-a-states-worst-measles-outbreak-in-decades/2017/05/04/a1fac952-2f39-11e7-9dec-764dc781686f_story.html

Gay-Bashing Evangelist and Cult Leader

Tony Alamo

Bill Morlin
Southern Poverty Law Center
May 05, 2017

Evangelist Tony Alamo, whose anti-Catholic, gay-bashing rants attracted hundreds of followers and made him a millionaire, died this week in prison where he was serving a 175-year term for raping young girls he called his child brides. He was 82.

His passing on May 2 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina — only seven years into his life prison term — brought relief to some of his victims, including one woman who called him pure evil. But she and many others likely will be scarred for life by their encounters with the religious guru who headed Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.

It’s cultish, hate-group activities and propaganda recruiting efforts live on in Los Angeles, New York and on the Internet, despite his criminal conviction in 2009 and multi-million dollar civil judgments and insurance settlements against Alamo and his empire.

His once-lavish, 13,064-square foot mansion — built in the 1970s with a heart-shaped swimming pool, basement recording studio and dinner seating for more than 100 — sits abandoned and vandalized on 122-acre compound near Dyer, Arkansas, 16 miles northeast of Fort Smith.

Its new owner is having trouble finding a buyer for the eerie estate — a landmark where Alamo sexually abused young girls and beat boys until the bled, where he once kept his dead wife’s body on display for months and where he and his followers designed and made sequined denim jackets for Hollywood stars, including Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

Susan Groulx, who was an Alamo follower from age 18 until she was 43, told Hatewatch Thursday she was relieved to hear of his death. “I hope it brings about the dissolution of this destructive ministry,” she said.

“I knew Alamo to be a delusional, narcissistic, unmerciful and evil man,” Groulx said. “Even behind prison bars, Alamo persisted in writing tracts, pastoring the church in his warped way, and controlling follower's lives.”

Like other religious cults, she said, Alamo required his followers to “disconnect from those that left.”

“He has caused so much damage to so many lives and has caused relationships to be fractured,” Groulx said, explaining that some adult children who left have not been able to speak to siblings or parents for years.

“It’s a heartbreaking situation, and I’m hoping his death will bring reconciliation to families,” she said.

“I no longer believe in Hell,” Groulx said, “but I’ve never met anyone more deserving than Alamo of going there.”

Another ex-follower, then known as Jael Sprinkle, was abused by Alamo whom she likened to Hannibal Lector, the cannibalistic serial killer of movie legend.

“He is someone's father and husband,” Sprinkle said, “and if his death brings closure to some people that's fine.”

But, she added, “There are thousands of us for whom our Hannibal Lector posed an unsolvable question: How does a human become so shattered and why couldn't we find that one missing piece that would put them back together in time to make them feel some sort of regret for what they have done?”

“He's gone and that opportunity is no longer a possibility,” Sprinkle said. “I don't think I'll ever see closure. People I loved are dead because of him. There is no closure for that.”

Alamo’s empire began crumbling after SPLC’s quarterly magazine, Intelligence Report, published a lengthy expose in 2007 detailing allegations of child rape, physical abuse of children and polygamy inside Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.

“Alamo blames the Catholic Church for every evil imaginable, including communism, Nazism, the two world wars and even the Jonestown Massacre,” the piece said, quoting from Alamo’s own tract which claimed “narcotics, prostitution, pornography, booze and black market — every filthy thing — can be traced right back to the Vatican.”

More simply put, he said “that old serpent called the Devil” was behind the Vatican, the one-world government conspiracy theory and homosexuality.

The SPLC investigative report also detailed Alamo’s unorthodox belief in polygamy, which he claimed was permitted by the Holy Scriptures. He practiced what he preached, taking at least five wives, including girls as young as 9 and 10, the article detailed.

A year after the published report, FBI agents and Arkansas state police raided Alamo’s compound, searching for evidence of child abuse and child pornography. Authorities didn’t disclose if they seized stores of candy and Barbie dolls Alamo kept as enticements in his bedroom where he sexually abused young girls for a period of 14 years.

Seven women who were victims of physical and sexual abuse brought a civil suits, resulting in a $525 million judgment, the largest in Arkansas history.

“It was very substantial,” attorney David Carter, who represented the women, told Hatewatch.

“We were able to sell off about 35 properties in Arkansas, including church buildings, gyms, businesses and homes,” Carter said. “There are still a few properties in California, Kentucky and Florida we intend to sell to partially satisfy the civil judgments.”

“We were also able to reach settlements with a number of insurance companies who insured Alamo-controlled businesses and properties,” the victims’ attorney said, adding that the settlement amounts are confidential.

“They all have the financial resources they need to help deal with the chaos and damage Alamo heaped on them.”

Born Bernie LaZar Hoffman to Jewish parents, Alamo changed his name to sound more like an Italian crooner and claimed to have worked as a rock 'n' roll promoter in the 1960s. It was about that time he apparently decided there was more money to be made in street ministries in California.

His so-called Christian ministry offered free meals and a heaping dose of the stern Bible talk, attracting hippies and young people estranged from their families. The band of self-described “Jesus Freaks” preached about the wrath of God, modern-day miracles and a denunciation of Catholicism and homosexuality.

Alamo, in a 2008 interview with The Associated Press, claimed he was a unique Christian preacher because he was born a Jew and had a “supernatural experience” through which he became a born-again Christian.

In 1966, Alamo married washed-up actress Edith Opal Horn, who reinvented herself as an evangelist and became Susan Alamo. The couple started the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation, later renamed Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. They preached to their thousands of followers that anyone who left the church would burn in hell.

The growing ministry expanded in 1975 and Alamo moved from California to Arkansas where church followers were assigned armed guard duty. Just seven years later, Susan Alamo died of cancer, causing what several followers described as a significant change in Tony Alamo’s personality.

He kept her embalmed body in the dining room of their Arkansas mansion for several months, regularly ordering fresh flowers from a local florist and predicting that she would rise from the dead, Hatewatch reported in 2009. Her casket eventually was interred in a heart-shaped mausoleum, only to be spirited away and apparently hidden in a barn before a raid by federal agents. After a legal fight, her remains finally were entombed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1998.

Alamo was arrested on a felony child abuse charge in 1989, but it was dismissed six years later. The case involved an 11-year-old boy who was given 140 blows at Alamo’s directions for minor academic infractions. His family late filed suit and won a $1.4 million judgment against Alamo and his Christian Ministries.

Alamo was arrested in 1994, living in Florida under an assumed name. He subsequently was convicted of violating federal tax laws — not paying taxes on more than $9 million his church with its non-profit status had raked it solely for his benefit.

Released from federal prison in 1998 on the tax evasion conviction, Alamo returned his Arkansas-based ministry, preaching for the next decade that girls should marry once they start menstruating. "God impregnated Mary when she was about 11 years old. So the government idiots, the people that don't know the Bible, what you're going to have to do is get a hold of God now, you're going to have to get up there and cuff him and send him to prison for statutory rape."

At his sentencing in 2009 in Texarkana, three of Alamo’s so-called child-brides testified.

“What kind of man of God does what you have done?” asked one of the women who had been statutorily raped by Alamo when she was 8.

Sentencing Judge Harry F. Barnes told Alamo that the day was nearing when he would face a higher judge. “May God have mercy on your soul.”

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/05/05/gay-bashing-evangelist-and-cult-leader-tony-alamo-dies-prison

Defence challenges reliability of church records in B.C. polygamy trial

TREVOR CRAWLEY, CRANBROOK TOWNSMAN
Vancouver Sun
May 4, 2017


CRANBROOK — The reliability of religious records and the wording in the indictment were questioned Thursday by lawyers during closing arguments in the trial of two Mormon fundamentalists charged with polygamy.

Winston Blackmore and James Oler, who are associated with a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community known as Bountiful, were charged three years ago with one count each of polygamy.

Justice Sheri Donegan is presiding over the B.C. Supreme Court trial.

The Crown’s case relied heavily on marriage and personal records seized by law enforcement from an FLDS compound in Texas in 2008. However, Blackmore’s lawyer, Blair Suffredine, attacked the credibility of the records, noting some of the appeared to be photocopies and not originals, while also charging that the Crown hadn’t proved the elements in the indictment.

Suffredine argued that prosecutors needed to prove both a continual form of practising polygamy as well as a form of conjugal union.

While the prosecutor produced the marriage records, Suffredine said that they’re only a snapshot of moment in time and not proof of a continuous relationship.

“There’s no evidence of who they lived with or how they lived,” he said.

The records are handwritten or typed, documenting so-called celestial marriages over a period from 1990 to 2014. But because some have a fax header from 2002, Suffredine contended that they’re not original. He also noted that when they were found inside a secure vault in the Texas compound, they were unorganized and were gathered from separate boxes and locations.

“How can you conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that that is reliable?” he asked.

The Crown also failed to prove that going through a marriage ceremony proves a conjugal union, Suffredine argued, noting that there was no evidence on how Blackmore lived with his wives, what home life was like, what economic supports were or attitudes toward child care.

‘There might be lots of evidence out there. You just don’t have any of it,” Suffredine said.

Oler is self-represented and made no closing argument. However, there is a court appointed amicus curiae — a “friend” of the court — whose job is to ensure a fair trial and act as a counter-balance to the prosecution. Doyle made similar submissions to Suffredine, arguing the unreliability of the FLDS records and charging that the Crown failed to prove that Oler continuously practised a form of polygamy between 1993 and 2009.

Doyle pointed to Oler’s own record seized in the Texas raid, noting there were important events missing, such as his elevation to presiding elder in June 2004.

The Crown called two experts in church history and doctrine who testified to the importance of record-keeping within the Mormon tradition. They explained that what both mainstream and fundamentalist Mormons believe is that any marriages “sealed” on Earth in religious ceremonies are also “sealed” in heaven.

Prosecutor Peter Wilson will make his rebuttal to the closing arguments Friday.

The 12-day trial was taken up mainly with evidence called by the prosecution including the FLDS records, testimony from Jane Blackmore (Blackmore’s first and only legal wife) as well as RCMP officers who have been involved in various investigations into Bountiful dating back to 2005.

Suffredine opted not to bring a defence case or witnesses forward. However, he has also filed notice of a charter challenge alleging abuse of process. The federal attorney general has been advised and may seek to intervene. The constitutional question won’t be addressed until after the trial has ended.

http://vancouversun.com/news/crime/defence-challenges-reliability-of-church-records-in-b-c-polygamy-trial

Reveal event aims to pry loose documents in Jehovah's Witnesses cover-up

Trey Bundy
Reveal
May 3, 2017

There’s no question whether Jehovah’s Witnesses policies direct elders to keep child abuse secret from police. They do.

And there’s no question whether the religion’s headquarters maintains a database of alleged child sexual abusers going back decades. Or that Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders have violated court orders to hand it over.

It’s been three years since we began investigating the global child sexual abuse cover-up inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, and even though we’ve learned many key details, questions still remain.

How many child abusers are still active around the world because the Jehovah’s Witnesses did not report them? Which congregations do they attend? And why, even in the face of lawsuits and multimillion-dollar court judgments, do leaders refuse to change their policies in any significant way?

We’ve demonstrated our findings in text, television, radio and virtual reality stories. But we felt there was more to do because of the strong public interest that would be served by answering those questions.

We decided to go back to our sources, people around the world who had fueled our coverage, and try to gather them in one place for a day. As an independent, nonpartisan journalism organization, we would broker a day of speakers, panels and candid discussions about ways to address the Jehovah’s Witnesses child abuse crisis.

We chose London because the Jehovah’s Witnesses are fighting multiple lawsuits and investigations related to their child abuse policies there. The law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp – which has the largest abuse litigation department in England – currently has civil lawsuits against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and brought child abuse experts and survivors from around the U.K.

In all, more than 60 experts and stakeholders showed up. They were lawyers, law enforcement officials, child abuse investigators, academics, journalists, former Jehovah’s Witnesses elders, and survivors of child sexual abuse. They traveled on their own dimes from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Belgium, Spain, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

We invited representatives from the Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters to join us, but they did not accept.

At the gathering last Wednesday, a panel of abuse survivors talked about the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ failure to protect them when they were children. A panel of former elders described their struggles to break the silence of the organization.

Journalists from Spain and Canada reported on the crisis in their countries. Attorneys from the U.S., U.K., and Australia discussed legal strategies and challenges to getting the Jehovah’s Witnesses to turn over their child abuse database. Some British law enforcement officials were learning about the cover-up for the first time.

The day closed with a conversation with Mike Rezendes, the Boston Globe reporter who was part of the Spotlight team that blew open the child abuse cover-up in the Catholic Church. Rezendes said the Jehovah’s Witnesses story had many of the hallmarks of the Catholic Church scandal – particularly the organization’s secrecy and the power abusers have over victims.

The gathering sparked renewed interest in the cover-up from the British media. Journalists from the BBC and other media outlets showed up to interview some of those in attendance and have already begun broadcasting new stories.

The Times of London followed that coverage with a story emphasizing calls for a formal investigation into the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ child abuse files by the U.K.’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

“The Inquiry has got the powers to require the production of those documents,” said Laura Hoyano, an associate professor of law at Oxford University who specializes in child abuse issues and attended the London summit. “And I understand they have already taken some steps to ensure the documents are retained and not destroyed.”

There’s no question. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are protecting the identities of alleged child abusers, and shielding them from prosecution. The courts want that information and so do we. The fight to get it is playing out around the world.

Trey Bundy can be reached at tbundy@revealnews.org. Follow him on Twitter: @treybundy.

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/reveal-event-aims-to-pry-lose-documents-in-jehovahs-witness-cover-up/

Charter notice delayed till end of polygamy trial

Prosecution closes case, wraps up closing arguments in polygamy trial.

TREVOR CRAWLEY
Cranbrook Townsman
May 3, 2017

A judge has banished a notice of application that would launch a charter challenge in the trial of two fundamentalist Mormon leaders charged with polygamy until the end of the proceedings in Cranbrook Supreme Court.

Justice Sheri Donegan ruled that a charter challenge alleging abuse of process in the prosecution of Winston Blackmore for polygamy needs to be reframed by his lawyer and addressed at the end of the trial proceedings once a verdict has been reached.

“The notice lacks clarity and is deficient in many respects,” Donegan said.

Donegan added that the application by Blair Suffredine — Blackmore’s lawyer — needs to address what sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms were infringed and provide precise factual, evidentiary and legal basis for what type of relief he is seeking.

Filing a notice for a charter challenge also requires a response from the federal Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General, who have 14 days to decide whether to intervene.

Jim Oler, Blackmore’s co-accused, has expressed interest in filing a similar charter challenge notice, however, he is self-represented and needs to consult with legal counsel. Though Oler doesn’t have a lawyer, he has the services of an amicus — a court-appointed lawyer who attends the proceedings to ensure a fair trial.

Donegan also ruled in favour of the Crown’s application to amend Oler’s indictment to add a fifth woman to the polygamy charge based on evidence that emerged during the trial.

Following Donegan’s rulings, special prosecutor Peter Wilson closed the crown’s case, summing up all the evidence called against Blackmore and Oler over the last 11 days.

A video-recorded interview between an RCMP officer and Blackmore in 2009 and statements that Oler made to police in 2006 are key pieces of evidence for the Crown.

Blackmore admitted to having multiple wives to Sgt. Terry Jacklin after his arrest on a polygamy charge in 2009.

Blackmore was married to his first legal wife, Jane Blackmore, in 1975 but is accused of taking 24 additional wives through religious ‘celestial’ marriages between 1990 and 2014.

Wilson relied on marriage records seized by Texas law enforcement during a raid on the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch in April 2008. The ranch, a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints compound, contained marriage and personal records for members sealed in a bank vault structure.

The records are important, says Wilson, because of testimony from experts on Mormon doctrine and church history, who said that record-keeping is so important to the faith because they believe what is sealed on Earth is sealed in Heaven and the afterlife.

“The evidence supports that record-keeping was of significant spiritual importance to the FLDS church,” Wilson said.

He also highlighted the significance of Jane Blackmore’s testimony, noting that as his first legal wife, she sometimes attended the ceremonies of her husband’s marriages to other celestial wives.

In the case against Oler, who is accused of practicing polygamy with four wives between 1990 to 2009, Wilson pointed to similar marriage and personal records seized during the same raid at the YFZ ranch

He also noted Oler made admissions to police in 2005 and 2006 during an investigation into sexual exploitation at Bountiful.

During that investigation, Oler told police he had three wives and helped set up interviews with all three. Though the wives did not cooperate with police, the admission of having three wives is significant for the current polygamy trial, Wilson argued.

Wilson again pointed to Jane Blackmore, Oler’s sister, who knew he had three wives and provided prenatal care in her job as a midwife for at least one.

The trial adjourned Wednesday afternoon, with Suffredine planning on delivering his closing submissions on Thursday.

http://www.cranbrooktownsman.com/news/charter-notice-delayed-till-end-of-polygamy-trial/

Cannon Scientology facilities CLOSED

MIKE WEST
Courier Editor
Cannon Courier
May 3, 2017


A series of Scientology Church operated facilities have been permanently closed in Cannon County and three suspects charged in the case.

"The Cannon County Sheriff's Department would like to make the general public of this county aware that the Scientology facilities are closed and not operating in Cannon County," a statement from the Sheriff's office said.

The 16th Judicial District of the state of Tennessee, Cannon County, has charged three suspects in the case. Two of the three, Dennis Flamond and Hans Snyder Lytle, entered guilty pleas in General Sessions Court on two counts of false imprisonment.

The third suspect, Marc Vallieres, was charged with two felony charges of facilitation to kidnapping in Circuit Court. Vallieres pleaded "by information" in Circuit Court.

Circuit Judge David Bragg ruled in this final disposition of the cases that "all facilities in Cannon County are closed and will not operate any resident facilities in Cannon County, TN."

Faculties were discovered on Sunshine Lane and on Sycamore Creek Road.

A 911 emergency phone call provided the Sheriff's Office with the opportunity to go inside the facility which they described as a double-wide trailer with several tiny cabins located behind it.

"We proceeded up the hill through a gated, makeshift paddock that is secured externally with a steel latch." The officers reported the individual who called them was looking out through a Plexiglas window.

"He is locked inside the cabin with no way to remove himself from the building. The caretaker unlocks the door and lets us enter the cabin.

"The cabin is bare there is a small pile of sheets in the corner, there are no obvious amenity for life, " the officers reported.

The man being held there tells the officers he is being held against his will and is given unknown medications. He explains that he is there to have rehab and get cleansed though Scientology.

"He states that he has been there for nine months and is being mistreated and falsely imprisoned and all he wants is to go home." the officers said.

The man then shows his room to officers.

"It is a small room with a single bed in it, the bed is bare except for a one sheet that he covers up with, his bathroom is the only room with a light."

When the officers stepped out of the little cabin, the door is locked back and they return to the double-wide trailer where the caretaker (identified as Dennis Flamond} gives them a history of the person. He also tells them the manager of the facility is currently in Los Angeles undergoing courses. He refuses to give them his contact information.

Cannon County Emergency Medical Service is called and officers to get to speak to the manager who is identified is Hans Snyder Lytle.

"I explained to him that no one on this facility is a licensed healthcare provider and no one here has power of attorney over him so if he feels that he needs to go to the hospital, then he will have to be transported," Investigator Brandon Gullett said.

After transporting him to the Emergency Room, Gullett and Deputy Turney return to the Cannon County Sheriff's Department to begin their investigation. Initially, the officers contact the subject's mother, who lives in Beverly Hills, CA.

"We relay to her the events and she is in disbelief, she has never actually seen the facility and is only aware of the conditions from what is available on the Internet, which is presented in an entirely different manner than actual living conditions. After about approximately 15-20 minutes of explaining what is going on there she believes us, and at the time of our last conversation she was getting a plane ticket the next morning for Tennessee," Gullett said.

At this point, the officers began to contact all of the appropriate agencies including Adult Protective Services, Sheriff Darrell Young and the District Attorney General. A search warrant is obtained and the hospital is notified about other potential patients.

When officers returned to the address on Sycamore Creek with a search warrant for all of the premises, they discovered that the personnel was in the process of packing up and moving out. The locking mechanism was removed from the front gate.

During the search of the facility, a female patient was discovered. She was transported to Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital and parents notified.

Deputies found the building at 3343 Sycamore Creek road heavily fortified. The officers used a ram to force the door open and several boxes of evidence were discovered, cataloged, photographed and confiscated by Inspector Gullett.

Later in the day, officers discovered Hans Lytle following a search at an address on Cedar Crest Lane. He was taken into custody on multiple charges

http://www.cannoncourier.com/cannon-scientology-facilities-closed-cms-16478