CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/3/2021 (Brazil, Indigenous, Lev Tahor, Guatemala, Satanic Organization, Religious Freedom, Witchcraft)

Brazil, Indigenous, Lev Tahor, Guatemala, Satanic Organization, Religious Freedom, Witchcraft

Mongabay: Brazil court upholds ban on missionaries trying to contact isolated Indigenous

Brazil's highest court has upheld a ban on missionaries entering reserves that are home to isolated and recently contacted Indigenous people during the pandemic.

The decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Indigenous organizations against a law passed in July 2020 that allowed missionaries to remain inside these reserves despite the pandemic, in violation of Brazil's official policy in place since 1987.

According to Indigenous organizations, it's crucial to reaffirm the non-contact policy under the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro that has pushed to "integrate" Indigenous people into society, and has been cozy with the evangelical movement.

Besides the risk of disease spread, the presence of missionaries in these reserves undermines traditional cultures and social cohesion, and compels these nomadic communities to settle down, making the land more vulnerable to invasions by illegal ranchers and loggers, activists say.

Jerusalem Post: Extradition of senior Lev Tahor leaders to US from Guatemala approved

"A court in Guatemala has approved the extradition to the US of two senior leaders of the Lev Tahor ultra-Orthodox cult – brothers Yaakov Weingarten and Shmuel "Shmiel" Weingarten – where they face child exploitation offenses.

The Third Criminal Sentencing Court in Guatemala authorized the extradition of the two men on Thursday and Friday, after they were charged in April this year by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York for the kidnap of a 14-year old girl and for smuggling her across the US-Mexico border to reunite her with her adult husband.

According to media in Guatemala where the Lev Tahor cult is currently located, the court has verified that there are currently no legal proceedings against the Weingarten brothers and that the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry is therefore authorized to begin extradition proceedings.

It was reported the brothers intend to appeal the decision, with an attorney for the two describing the legal process against them as "persecution."

There have, however, been numerous charges and allegations against members of the cult for kidnapping, forced underage marriage, and various forms of child abuse.

Yaakov Weingarten was arrested in March this year during a police raid on the Lev Tahor compound, while Yoel and Shmuel Weingarten were arrested in a separate raid in April, all due to the charges against them in the Southern District of New York.

The extradition case against Yoel Weingarten has yet to be brought to court since the US authorities have reportedly not yet sent the relevant documents to their Guatemalan counterparts.

The cult has recently tried to move to Iran on several occasions to avoid its legal problems tied up in its child abuse and other criminal activities, but have been unsuccessful so far.

Relatives in Israel of children in the group have lobbied Israeli authorities to help prevent the group reaching Iran, where it would be harder to extract children from the cult."

WPVI: SATANISTS CONVINCE DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL DISTRICT TO ALTER DRESS CODE

"A local Satanic organization has convinced a school district in Delaware County that its dress code was discriminatory against Satanists.

Joseph Rose, the founder of a local organization called Satanic Delco, says fellow Satanists with children attending schools within the Rose Tree Media School District made him aware of the verbiage in the dress code banning any clothing or gear that are "satanic in nature."

"The idea that a public school would allow religious expression in school, but choose to single out and prohibit the expression of one specific religion obviously seemed like a problem for us," Rose said."

USA Today: 'We're in the middle of a witch moment': Hip witchcraft is on the rise in the US

"On Halloween night, Charlene Dzielak will light candles and incense in front of an altar and invite her departed loved ones to join her in a "dumb supper," a feast eaten in silence out of reverence for the dead who can't speak.  

After a yearlong hiatus because of COVID-19, Dzielak is reuniting with her coven — or congregation of witches — in Old Bridge, New Jersey, to celebrate Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. Pronounced "sow-in," Samhain, which is believed to have been the precursor to Halloween, literally means "summer's end" in Gaelic."

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FIRE at Pathways Church

YardHype

November 1, 2021

Law enforcers are currently investigating how the fire started at a section in the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries Church in Montego Bay, hours ago. According to sources, the fire started at the altar at 10:10 p.m Sunday night.

Drapes, an air conditioning unit and several documents were reportedly destroyed in the blaze while some items remains untouched.

The fire was put out by the St. James Fire Department. After the inferno, members of the church were seen looking at the property in astonishment at what took place.

https://yardhype.com/fire-at-pathways-church-video/

2 more arrested in cold-case murders from '80s, '90s linked to Hasidic cult

Jerusalem men bring to 10 the number of suspects detained in connection with murder of man and suspected murder of missing teen

TOI Staff
Times of Israel
October 31, 2021

Two people were arrested Sunday in connection with decades-old homicide cases linked to an extremist ultra-Orthodox sect, the Israel Police said.

The two men, residents of Jerusalem, are in their 60s and 70s, police said in a statement.

The developments raised to 10 the number of people detained recently over the suspected murder of a teenage boy and the unsolved murder of a man in the 1980s and 1990s.Stay

“Their arrests add to the other arrests made in the past two weeks within the framework of those cases,” police said.

Most details of the investigation are under a gag order that is in place until the end of the year.

The investigation into the disappearance and suspected murder of 17-year-old Nissim Shitrit and the murder of 41-year-old Avi Edri is tied to the Shuvu Bonim sect.

One of those arrested earlier this month was the husband of a woman who has told police she was forced by sect members to lure one of the victims to a specific location.

An attorney for the woman has said that her client was a victim of the extremist sect, and is cooperating with police in order to see justice done.

Police have previously said that some of those arrested were questioned over allegations of kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Kan public broadcaster has reported that law enforcement are probing whether convicted sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland, head of the Shuvu Bonim sect, was personally involved in the cases.

Shitrit was allegedly beaten by the sect’s “religious police” four months before he was last seen in January 1986.

In a documentary released by Kan in 2020, one of Berland’s former disciples said that the religious police murdered the boy, dismembered him and buried his body in Eshtaol Forest near Beit Shemesh. His remains were never found and the case was never solved.

Kan reported earlier this month that police have not made any progress in locating Shitrit’s body.

Edri was found beaten to death in Ramot Forest in the north of Jerusalem in 1990.

Kan reported that Edri’s murder was linked to Shuvu Bonim by former members. It too has remained unsolved for over 30 years.

The cult-like Shuvu Bonim offshoot of the Bratslav Hasidic sect has had repeated run-ins with the law, including attacking witnesses.

Berland, its leader, fled Israel in 2013 amid allegations that he had sexually assaulted several female followers. After evading arrest for three years and slipping through various countries, Berland returned to Israel and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in November 2016, on two counts of indecent acts and one case of assault, as part of a plea deal that included seven months of time served. He was freed just five months later, in part due to his ill health.

Berland was arrested for fraud in February 2020, after hundreds of people filed police complaints saying that he had sold prayers and pills to desperate members of his community, promised families of individuals with disabilities that their loved ones would be able to walk, and told families of convicted felons that their relatives would be freed from prison.

On Thursday Berland entered prison after he was convicted of fraud in June, in a plea deal that saw him sentenced to 18 months. The sentence will include time already served as he spent a year in jail before being released to house arrest in February of this year.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-more-arrested-in-cold-case-murders-from-80s-90s-linked-to-hasidic-cult/

Watch out, group tells funeral home storing Smith's body

ROMARDO LYONS

Jamaica Observer

October 31, 2021

The Jamaica Association of Certified Embalmers and Funeral Directors wants the home that is storing deceased cult leader Kevin Smith's body to watch out.

The move by the organisation comes after word began circulating days ago that loyal and unswerving followers of Smith were planning to find, and snatch his body.

“When it comes to the rumour about these so-called followers and disciples of this man, who want to identify the funeral home where his body is being stored to do whatever, I can only say that we don't believe in what they believe in. And I will say that any member who is storing the remains of Kevin O Smith, 'Just protect your property from physical harm,' ” Calvin Lyn, president of the organisation told the Jamaica Observer in an interview days ago.

Lyn was adamant that Smith's obsequious flock who played church at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries would be disappointed by unsuccessful attempts if they try to retrieve his body using unorthodox practices that they may believe in.

“We don't believe in voodooism, so anything that they want to try won't affect us because we are protected by God Almighty who has been seeing us through rough times and smooth times. So, anything demonic won't affect us. There is a saying: 'Belief kills and belief cures.' We don't believe in demons, so if that is being planned by these insane people, it is not going to affect any one of us who is storing the remains of this cult leader,” he stated categorically.

Meanwhile, Valerie Neita-Robertson, the attorney-at-law representing Smith, had said that his family has not been told where his body is being kept.

On Monday, Smith, who was at the centre of controversy and public outrage for over a week, died in a motor vehicle crash while in transit from Montego Bay to Kingston to face charges connected to suspected ritual killings. The crash also claimed the life of police officer Constable Orlando Irons and left two other lawmen injured.

Smith was under investigation in connection with the slaughter, two Sundays ago, of two of his followers in a bizarre night that some have said involved human sacrifice.

A day later, the self-proclaimed 'His Excellency' was charged posthumously with two counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, wounding with intent and shooting with intent.

Two ex-congregants of Pathways International told the Sunday Observer that they believe there are current members who are so brainwashed that they would still do anything for Smith.

“Mi wouldn't put it past them fi do anything in the name of that man… some a dem a diehard fans. Not matter what happened, yuh just can't turn them mind from him. If yuh shame the man, yuh shame them. If yuh hurt him, yuh hurt dem,” one woman said.

Another man said: “They worship the man. Dem still love him. Many of them even believed that he was going to resurrect on Thursday… three days after him dead. Them think highly of him so they will do anything. People a call dem idiot but it bigger. Dis reach mind control.”

A victim of the ritual said he was advised by investigators to no longer speak to the media.

Further, Lyn suggested to the Sunday Observer that those people who are still unfaltering in their support of Smith need help.

“As it is, I would call those followers of this man lunatics. How could one in their sober mind and in charge of their faculties follow somebody of that calibre?”, Lyn questioned.

To his knowledge, he said, no one has ever broken into a funeral home. He, however, shared one instance years ago when the organisation collaborated with the police to prevent such an incident.

“Over 15 years ago we had an experience where a notorious gangster was shot and killed by the police after he fled to another parish, and we were asked to quietly and privately store the remains until the time of autopsy. They took the remains out of the parish to have it protected in a private capacity to avoid the excitement,” Lyn recalled.

Lyn also assured that no certified embalmer or funeral director should be fazed by any unconventional or spiritual activity that could happen while storing Smith's body.

“There shouldn't be any concern. When a human being is dead and pronounced dead by the physician, the body is lifeless and there is no fear in us because we believe that deceased body has no power. The members of the Jamaica Association of Certified Embalmers and Funeral Directors have no fear. We are Christian people, we believe in the Bible. We know that death is inevitable, and whenever someone loses his or her life it is our opinion that the time has come for that person to die, regrettably.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.jamaicaobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3fAID=/20211031/ARTICLE/310319963

CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/2/2021 (Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, Jamaica, Legal, Abuse, Taipan)

Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, Jamaica, Legal, Abuse, Taipan

Jamaican Observer: American group offers to help Pathways International members

"American entity that specializes in helping people adversely affected by or interested in cultic and other high-control groups, is offering assistance to Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries congregants who are still reeling from the deadly events at the church on October 17 and the death of their leader Kevin Smith.

According to the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), its Cult Recovery 101 team has "a network of experts, therapists, and other helping professionals who have studied the cult phenomenon and have responded to crises similar to the recent events in Jamaica".

"We would like to offer our services to those who have been affected by this unfortunate event. We understand the need for a trauma-informed approach and seek to provide a safe space for victims in need of support. There is hope and healing for survivors affected by destructive groups," the ICSA said in an e-mail sent to the Jamaica Observer late Tuesday night.

Reacting to the macabre series of events which began unfolding two Sundays ago after the police stormed the church where alleged human sacrifices were under way, the ICSA said the experiences highlighted in the media of those who escaped the violence demonstrate that many of the members whose need for belonging was "sinisterly turned against them as a means of control" are living in fear and need support.

Yesterday, Ashlen Hilliard, assistant to ICSA's director, told the Jamaica Observer that the entity, which has more than 40 years' experience in the field, was eager, despite the constraints of the novel coronavirus pandemic, to work with the survivors to help create a "safe space" in which they could unpack the trauma of their entire experience.

She said, while the ICSA does not have any partners on the ground in Jamaica at this time, it is not averse to striking up local partnerships with interest groups here to facilitate an interface with the victims.

Hilliard, who noted that it was unlikely that the remaining church members would be open to receiving aid from the religious community at this time, said the ICSA has no religious affiliation.

"We are a non-profit organization. We are not affiliated with any religious groups; that is not what they would need right now, they wouldn't be receptive," she said.

Hilliard said both virtual and in-person interactions are anticipated."

Jamaica Observer: Cult victim tells all

$100,000 fee to stay in Smith's 'ark', where congregants slept on the floor and were fed dumpling and mackerel gravy.

"For an entire month in March of last year, 70 congregants of Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, who were told to pay $100,000 each for entry into Kevin Smith's 'ark', slept on concrete floors and barely had enough to eat. That first boarding of the 'ark' ended badly, but without the loss of life seen during this week's bloody second attempt.

Yesterday, a victim of Sunday's ritual who had boarded the ark on both occasions, painted a picture of an organization heavily focused on feathering the nest of its leader, and followers who often blindly complied with the shepherd's wishes."

ABC: 'Cult' leader James Salerno found guilty, after retrial, of repeated sexual abuse of teenage girl

"A man who led a group committed to creating what he described as the "ideal human environment" has been convicted of sexually abusing a teenage girl at an Adelaide Hills mansion.

Key points:

• James Salerno pleaded not guilty to eight counts of unlawful sexual intercourse

• A jury found him guilty of six counts and not guilty of two

• The trial heard Salerno was the "revered leader" of a cult based in the Adelaide Hills

James Gino Salerno, 74, pleaded not guilty to eight counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, after last year being granted a retrial, which occurred in the District Court.

The jury took four hours to find him guilty on six counts, and not guilty of two.

During the trial, prosecutor Patrick Hill told the jury that Salerno — who was the "revered leader" of the group — sexually abused the girl hundreds of times over a five-year period.

"Throughout the entire period [the alleged victim] and the accused lived together as part of a communal living arrangement with a number of other people," Mr. Hill told the court.

"[The group] appears to have been about pooling resources and pursuing business ventures … in pursuit of financial gains.

"One of [the] main aims has been the attainment of something he called the 'ideal human environment' – or the IHE – which purports to be something to do with people living together harmoniously and free of conflict.

"It is from his position, as leader of this group, that we say the accused was able to commence and maintain this lengthy course of sexual abuse."

Salerno, who was known as "Taipan" to his followers, denied ever being the leader of the group — repeatedly referred to as a "cult" during the original trial — and denied all of the sexual offending."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultEducationEvents.com

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

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

​Cult pastor predicted his death - Freeport Police Station felt like inside a morgue – cop

Adrian Frater
Jamaican Star
October 26, 2021

It would appear that, amid his ramblings and outlandish religious claims during an interview with the police in St James on Saturday, controversial pastor Kevin O. Smith, who died in a car accident in St Catherine yesterday, may have predicted his death.

According to a source familiar with the interview he did, Smith said that he would be taken away from those who were seeking to persecute him "sooner, rather than later".

The controversial clergyman was being transported to Kingston, more than 100 miles away from the Freeport Police Station in Montego Bay, St James, where he had been locked up since two persons were murdered in his church, allegedly at his instructions.

"The man said those who are seeking to persecute him will fail because he will be gone in the twinkling of an eye," the source said, admitting that the clergyman said a lot of things that one would not take seriously.

In the video leaked to social media, Smith described himself as, "I am that I am", which was a phrase used by Jesus as he identified Himself as God.

"Pharaoh tried to bring me down but I am that I am. All you people of the world, I came to you and you received me not," Smith said. "I am the fountain of life ...I have fulfilled all things," added the self-styled prophet.

The 39-year-old Smith, who lived lavishly in St James, summoned his congregation to his church on October 17. He ordered them to wear white and leave their phones at home -- wrapped in foil. His flock were told that they would be boarding the Ark. However, in a bizarre series of events, two members were murdered, apparently as part of a human sacrifice. A third was shot and killed in a shoot-out by cops who stormed the church to halt the blood-letting.

THE STAR understands that cops at the Freeport Police Station felt that their working environment suddenly became "heavy" after Smith was brought there.

"It is like this man bring a curse on the station ... prisoner disappear and no sight of a break-out, the place feels heavy like inside a morgue, and now a colleague come dead in a crash," one cop said.

http://jamaica-star.com/article/news/20211026/cult-pastor-predicted-his-death-freeport-police-station-felt-inside-morgue-%E2%80%93

LuLaRich Girl: Roberta Blevins on Life After MLM

 

A Little Bit Culty Season 2 Episode 3

About the Episode:
Roberta Blevins was a Trainer with LuLaRoe, had a team of 75 women under her, and made over $65,000 in bonuses alone. But when she came to the conclusion that it was a rigged, losing game she didn’t just leave the business: she testified in the Washington State vs. LuLaRoe Pyramid Scheme lawsuit as a witness for the state. The fan favorite from the buzzed-about LuLaRich docuseries sits down for an A Little Bit Culty chat with Sarah and Nippy about what it’s like when MLM gold turns to mold, the similarities between LuLaRoe and NXIVM, and the truth about those buttery soft leggings.


Since leaving MLM, Roberta has educated herself on the systemic structure of the business model, the psychological manipulation, the seedy underbelly and governmental ties, the cult indoctrination, and the history of Multi Level Marketing. She educates daily on TikTok, and podcasts in her "free time" on her own podcast, Life After MLM, which explores the dangers of Multi Level Marketing through the eyes of the victims and survivors. Her work has been featured on Amazon Prime Video, Vice Media, Bloomberg News, Split, and Business Insider among others. Learn more on her website or find her on Instagram @therealrobertablevins.

https://www.alittlebitculty.com/

Smith told followers Selassie is God

Jamaica Observer

November 01, 2021

The now-deceased Kevin Smith, leader of Pathways International,

Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Montego Bay, St James.

In a sharp departure from traditional Christian belief, Kevin Smith, the now- deceased leader of Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, told his followers that Haile Selassie is God.

According to a former congregant, Smith made the declaration two weeks before the bloody October 17, 2021 ritual at Pathways in which two members of the religious organisation were murdered, their throats slashed, and a third shot dead by the police when he allegedly attacked them as they entered the building in Albion, St James..

“He started to tell us that God is Jesus Christus, which is Rastafari, which is Selassie, who was God in the flesh and he started to give us all manner of Bible verses that would confirm that Selassie is God,” the former Pathways member, who said he was shot in the back by Smith, stabbed and an attempt made to cut his throat, told the Jamaica Observer.

“We had doubts but we still believed, and he read a Bible verse that said 'he who does not confess that God has come in the flesh is not of God, but he who confess that God came in the flesh, born of a virgin', he said that they confess that Jesus Christ is God and he said Jesus Christus Rastafari is the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, HIM, His Imperial Majesty,” added the former congregant who asked not to be identified because he was ashamed that he had placed his trust in Smith.

Haile Selassie I was emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.

Rastafarians, it is said, believe in his deity because Marcus Garvey's prophecy — “Look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be the redeemer” — was swiftly followed by Selassie's ascension to the throne.

Smith, the controversial Pathways leader died as a result of injuries sustained during a three-vehicle car crash on the Linstead bypass in St Catherine on October 25 as he was being transported by the police from Montego Bay to Kingston. He was on the verge of being charged with two counts of murder, two counts of wounding with intent, and illegal possession of firearm in relation to the vicious killings of 39-year-old Taneka Gardner and 38-year-old Michael Scottsdale Brown, both of St James, during what was believed to have been a human sacrifice ritual.

Smith's co-accused, Andre Ruddock, is scheduled to return to court on November 3 to answer to one count each of murder and wounding with intent.

Smith's actions have been condemned by local and international religious organisations and in the immediate aftermath of the killings the International Council of Pentecostal Bishops severed all ties with him.

The former congregant, in his interview with the Observer just under two weeks ago, also said that Smith had once given his followers a different version of the traditional story of Adam and Eve.

“He started to tell us that when God created Adam, Adam had a first wife by the name of Lilith and after Lilith strayed from Adam because of some form of power struggle — Lilith wanted to stay on top and have sex with Adam and did want to submit and all of this — because of that reason, Lilith wandered away and Lilith and the serpent were having sex. Then God realised that Adam was lonely and He put Adam in a deep sleep then created Eve out of Adam,” the former congregant claimed.

“We believed what he was saying so our whole concept of the Bible started to change,” the man told the Observer.

He also said that Smith was successful in driving a wedge between his followers and their families, and which he had experienced with the mother of his child.

“He pulled us away from our families by putting fear in us that our families are bad and they are working witchcraft on us. So when he tells us stuff like this, automatically if you hear say your family a work Obeah you go wah pull weh from dem because you go claim say your family a wicked. When we pulled away from our families then we start trust and believe inna him. All of us were distant from most of our extended families because he told us that somebody in our family a work witchcraft pon we,” the former Pathways member said.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.jamaicaobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3fAID=/20211101/ARTICLE/311019962&Show=0

Extradition of senior Lev Tahor leaders to US from Guatemala approved

The cult has recently tried to move to Iran on several occasions to avoid its legal problems tied up in its child abuse and other criminal activities, but have been unsuccessful so far.


JEREMY SHARON
Jerusalem Post
OCTOBER 31, 2021

A court in Guatemala has approved the extradition to the US of two senior leaders of the Lev Tahor ultra-Orthodox cult – brothers Yaakov Weingarten and Shmuel “Shmiel” Weingarten – where they face child exploitation offenses.

The Third Criminal Sentencing Court in Guatemala authorized the extradition of the two men on Thursday and Friday, after they were charged in April this year by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York for the kidnap of a 14-year old girl and for smuggling her across the US-Mexico border to reunite her with her adult husband.

According to media in Guatemala where the Lev Tahor cult is currently located, the court has verified that there are currently no legal proceedings against the Weingarten brothers and that the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry is therefore authorized to begin extradition proceedings.

It was reported the brothers intend to appeal the decision, with an attorney for the two describing the legal process against them as “persecution.”

There have, however, been numerous charges and allegations against members of the cult for kidnapping, forced underage marriage, and various forms of child abuse.

Yaakov Weingarten was arrested in March this year during a police raid on the Lev Tahor compound, while Yoel and Shmuel Weingarten were arrested in a separate raid in April, all due to the charges against them in the Southern District of New York.

The extradition case against Yoel Weingarten has yet to be brought to court since the US authorities have reportedly not yet sent the relevant documents to their Guatemalan counterparts.

The cult has recently tried to move to Iran on several occasions to avoid its legal problems tied up in its child abuse and other criminal activities, but have been unsuccessful so far.

Relatives in Israel of children in the group have lobbied Israeli authorities to help prevent the group reaching Iran, where it would be harder to extract children from the cult.

The group numbers some 250 people, around 100 are adults and 150 are children, many of whom are Israeli citizens.

Last week, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli State Attorney’s Office is yet to request an Interpol arrest warrant for Elazar Rumpler who was indicted in Israel for child abuse and put on trial, but who managed to flee the country and return to Guatemala.

Rumpler was indicted for the severe physical and mental abuse of children under his care as a principal in a school in Canada where the cult resided for several years before moving to Guatemala in 2014 to avoid legal problems.



https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/extradition-of-senior-lev-tahor-leaders-to-us-from-guatemala-approved-683635

CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/1/2021 (ISKCON, Medieval Beliefs, Jehovah's Witnesses, Legal)

ISKCON, Medieval Beliefs, Jehovah's Witnesses, Legal

ISKCON: Setting a Standard for Ethical Behavior in ISKCON

"After two years of research, writing, and debate, the GBC recently ratified and voted into ISKCON law a Code of Ethical Behavior. We spoke with the Code's author, Yogesvara dasa, about the background to the Code and what changes he hopes to see in Srila Prabhupada's movement thanks to its passage. The full official Code can be found through the GBC website."

 

Heritage Daily: Publication of 500-year-old manuscript exposes medieval beliefs and religious cults

." ... Turner's analysis suggests a prosperous pilgrim was possibly the owner of the Bromholm prayer roll – made from two pieces of vellum stitched together, and bought by a private collector in the 1970s.

"The roll reflects a time when the laity (non-clergy) had a real belief in both visible and invisible enemies," says Turner, who has worked at Tate Britain, the Arts Council, and as a consultant for Christie's and at the Courtauld.

"For their owners, prayer rolls…were prized as very personal inspirations to prayer, although during the Reformation and after they were commonly undervalued and dismissed.

"The survival of such a magnificent roll for over 500 years is therefore remarkable."

Attaching animal skin pieces end to end in a continuous strip to make a 'roll' was once the standard method of presenting text. Few medieval prayer rolls survive today because they lacked covers yet were made to be handled. This one is 13cm wide, by a metre long.

Worshippers regularly touched or kissed images of Jesus on the cross in an attempt, says Turner, "to experience Christ's Passion more directly and powerfully". Indeed, the historian reveals abrasion marks are visible on the Bromholm roll where the owner has engaged in such a 'devotional act identified in other similar rolls'."

The Chronicle: Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Filed Against Pierce County Jehovah's Witnesses Congregation

"A survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a member of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Pierce County recently sued the organization.

Moriah Hughes, 24, filed her lawsuit last month in Pierce County Superior Court against the Milton Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.

It says her abuser was a "baptized publisher," that he used his position to perpetrate the abuse, and that the church had information about similar allegations made against him by another congregation. He was later charged and sentenced in King County Superior Court for abusing Hughes and another girl.

"... the Milton Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses knew or should have known that he posed a threat of foreseeable harm to Moriah Hughes, but it failed to take reasonable steps to protect Moriah Hughes from that harm," the lawsuit said.

It also names other organizations as part of the church's hierarchy: the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses."

Elko Daily: Museum's upcoming exhibit is an experiential enterprise

"A new exhibit has opened at Northeastern Nevada Museum, one that combines physical art forms with a live presentation from "Rev. Jacob Ernest Deewt," around whom the story and the artwork revolve.

"I've been working on a trilogy of art exhibitions since 2015," said Reno artist Eric Brooks.

Brooks said these works are about his rebirth into society after 28 years of being a Jehovah's Witness, including working at the world headquarters and eight years of missionary life."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultEducationEvents.com

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Brazil court upholds ban on missionaries trying to contact isolated Indigenous

Fernanda Wenzel
Mongabay
October 6, 2021

• Brazil’s highest court has upheld a ban on missionaries entering reserves that are home to isolated and recently contacted Indigenous people during the pandemic.
• The decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Indigenous organizations against a law passed in July 2020 that allowed missionaries to remain inside these reserves despite the pandemic, in violation of Brazil’s official policy in place since 1987.
• According to Indigenous organizations, it’s crucial to reaffirm the non-contact policy under the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro that has pushed to “integrate” Indigenous people into society, and has been cozy with the evangelical movement.
• Besides the risk of disease spread, the presence of missionaries in these reserves undermines traditional cultures and social cohesion, and compels these nomadic communities to settle down, making the land more vulnerable to invasions by illegal ranchers and loggers, activists say.

Brazil’s highest court has upheld a ban on missionary activity inside reserves that are home to isolated or recently contacted Indigenous people, in a bid to protect the communities against COVID-19.

Although the country’s official indigenist policy toward these groups since 1987 has been to not engage in any contact, regardless of whether there’s a pandemic, a federal law passed in July 2020 allows religious missionaries to remain inside these reserves. This triggered a lawsuit by Indigenous and political organizations, which the Supreme Federal Court (STF) has now ruled in favor of.

The 2020 law attempted to “legitimize something that is already forbidden,” said Carolina Ribeiro Santana, a lawyer for the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (OPI), one of the co-authors of the lawsuit. “As we are under an anti-Indigenous government, it is important to have a decision which reassures the Indigenous policy.”

OPI authored the lawsuit along with the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) — the country’s largest Indigenous organization — and the Workers Party (PT). Justice Luís Roberto Barroso issued the court’s ruling on Sept. 24.

Last year, the court had already forbidden the entry of outsiders into these areas while hearing another case where Indigenous organizations urged the federal government to implement measures, including imposing sanitary barriers, to protect the Indigenous population from COVID-19. “In the current situation, where there is an ongoing pandemic, the peoples in isolation and recent contact are the most exposed to the risk of contagion and extinction,” Barroso said in that earlier ruling.

But threats against uncontacted Indigenous groups have escalated under the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called for Indigenous people to be “integrated into society.” Bolsonaro’s hostility toward Indigenous people is no secret; last year, in his weekly live transmission on social media, he declared that, “more and more, the Indigenous is a human being just like us.”

At the same time, Bolsonaro is hugely popular with Brazil’s evangelicals, who are credited with helping him win the 2018 election. (His middle name translates to “Messiah.”) Once in office, he appointed evangelical leaders to key posts in his administration, including Ricardo Lopes Dias, who, until November 2020, headed the department responsible for protecting isolated and recently contacted communities at Funai, the Indigenous affairs agency. Dias was a pastor with the New Tribes Mission, an evangelical group notorious for reportedly spreading disease among the Zo’é people living in northern Pará state. More than a third of the Zo’é population subsequently died. Another top official, Damares Alves, the minister for women, family and human rights, is also reportedly linked to missionary groups, according to BBC News Brasil.

“These people choose isolation,” anthropologist Aparecida Vilaça, from the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told Mongabay in a phone interview. “What the state has to do is to not let anyone get in.”

One of the reasons for this isolation, according to Indigenous organizations, is precisely the trauma of almost being exterminated by the diseases brought by non-Indigenous people, like influenza, measles and malaria; Indigenous people, especially isolated ones, don’t have immunity to many of these pathogens.

But the threat of disease isn’t the only one introduced by missionaries, even to non-isolated groups. According to lawyer Eliésio Marubo, from Vale do Javari reserve in northern Amazonas state, missionaries undermine the social cohesion of the community by favoring the leaders who support them.

“The culture of our people is also weakened because certain practices are forbidden [by the missionaries], like traditional medicine,” Eliésio Marubo said. “The relationship with the territory also changes. Before, we used to move around a lot, but the missionaries want us to stay in one place only.”

Vale do Javari is home to the largest number of isolated Indigenous people in the world: 10 out of the 28 confirmed groups of isolated people in Brazil. The reserve is also home to non-isolated Indigenous groups, like the Marubo.

“It is a cultural destruction,” anthropologist Aparecida Vilaça said of the missions’ presence in Indigenous reserves. Vilaça witnessed the effects of missionary groups on an Indigenous community in Rondônia, also in the Amazon region. “They do a very deep process of humiliation of the traditional practices, by saying their dances and beliefs are things of the devil,” she said.

According to Vilaça, these changes in the traditional way of life make the Indigenous people more vulnerable to several economic interests. “The missionaries lead to the settling of all the community in the same place, releasing land to farmers and loggers. We can’t forget that these lands are very coveted,” she said.

Vilaça said the desire to convert Indigenous groups started with the colonization of Brazil, by the Catholic Church, and is now led by evangelical groups, some of which have deep pockets.

Rejection of “consentement” thesis

As the lawyer for Univaja, the Union of Indigenous People of Vale do Javari, Eliésio Marubo went to court last year against Andrew Tonkin, a U.S. evangelical Baptist missionary who was planning to travel to the reserve amid the pandemic to contact isolated Indigenous groups.

“Missionaries have been harassing us for 60 years,” he said. “They have helicopters, airplanes and they fly from here to the United States.”

Besides granting Univaja’s request to ban Tonkin’s entry, a federal court also ordered the expulsion of missionaries still inside the territory. Despite the victory, the missionaries are still lurking, Eliésio Marubo said. “They remain on the borders of the reserve, trying to co-opt people,” he told Mongabay over the phone.

In a setback for the Indigenous groups, Justice Barroso denied their request to remove the missionaries already inside the reserves. Besides creating a risk of contagion, Barroso said — since evicting them could “require third parties to enter such areas” — it was not clear that isolated groups had not consented to their presence.

“How can you give consent for something that you have no idea what it is? To people who don’t even speak their language?” Vilaça said. She added that missionaries use several strategies to win over the isolated people. “They offer axes, knives, and other benefits to those who join them.”

In their argument to the STF, the Indigenous groups noted that the way isolated communities express their will is different from the rest of society. “Our society gives prevalence to speech, to writing, and these people are talking to us in a different way. When they run away or attack an approaching person, it is a way of saying no,” Santana said.

Barroso’s ruling is a precautionary measure, meaning the case will be subject to trial in the STF plenary. In a statement, the office of Brazil’s attorney general said it had been notified of the decision but will only manifest in the court. Funai didn’t reply to requests for comment.

Related listening from Mongabay’s podcast: A discussion of the key role Indigenous peoples play in biodiversity conservation, listen here:

 

 

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/brazil-court-emphasizes-ban-on-missionaries-trying-to-contact-isolated-indigenous/