Jun 4, 2015
How a corporate cult captures and destroys our best graduates
George Monbiot
The Guardian
June 3, 2015
To seek enlightenment, intellectual or spiritual; to do good; to love and be loved; to create and to teach: these are the highest purposes of humankind. If there is meaning in life, it lies here.
Those who graduate from the leading universities have more opportunity than most to find such purpose. So why do so many end up in pointless and destructive jobs? Finance, management consultancy, advertising, public relations, lobbying: these and other useless occupations consume thousands of the brightest students. To take such jobs at graduation, as many will in the next few weeks, is to amputate life close to its base.
I watched it happen to my peers. People who had spent the preceding years laying out exultant visions of a better world, of the grand creative projects they planned, of adventure and discovery, were suddenly sucked into the mouths of corporations dangling money like angler fish.
At first they said they would do it for a year or two, “until I pay off my debts”. Soon afterwards they added: “and my mortgage”. Then it became, “I just want to make enough not to worry any more”. A few years later, “I’m doing it for my family”. Now, in middle age, they reply, “What, that? That was just a student fantasy.”
Why should 'bright, critical thinkers' be dispatched on this kamikaze mission?
Why did they not escape, when they perceived that they were being dragged away from their dreams? I have come to see the obscene hours some new recruits must work – sometimes 15 or 16 a day – as a form of reorientation, of brainwashing. You are deprived of the time, sleep and energy you need to see past the place into which you have been plunged. You lose your bearings, your attachments to the world you inhabited before, and become immersed in the culture that surrounds you. Two years of this and many are lost for life.
Employment by the City has declined since the financial crash. Among the universities I surveyed with the excellent researcher John Sheil, the proportion of graduates taking jobs in finance and management consultancy ranges from 5% at Edinburgh to 13% at Oxford, 16% at Cambridge, 28% at the London School of Economics and 60% at the London Business School. But to judge by the number of applications and the rigour of the selection process, these businesses still harvest many of the smartest graduates.
Recruitment begins with lovebombing of the kind that cults use. They sponsor sports teams and debating societies, throw parties, offer meals and drinks, send handwritten letters, use student ambassadors to offer friendship and support. They persuade undergraduates that even if they don’t see themselves as consultants or bankers (few do), these jobs are stepping stones to the careers they really want. They make the initial application easy, and respond immediately and enthusiastically to signs of interest. They offer security and recognition when people are most uncertain and fearful about their future. And there’s the flash of the king’s shilling: the paid internships, the golden hellos, the promise of stupendous salaries within a couple of years. Entrapment is a refined science.
We have but one life. However much money we make, we cannot buy it back. As far as self-direction, autonomy and social utility are concerned, many of those who enter these industries and never re-emerge might as well have locked themselves in a cell at graduation. They lost it all with one false step, taken at a unique moment of freedom.
Graduates throw their mortarboards in the air Facebook Twitter Pinterest
We have but one life. However much money we make, we cannot buy it back.
John Sheil and I sent questions to eight of the universities with the highest average graduate salaries: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, the LSE, the London Business School, Warwick, Sheffield and Edinburgh. We asked whether they seek to counter these lavish recruitment drives and defend students from the love blitz. With one remarkable exception, their responses ranged from feeble to dismal. Most offered no evidence of any prior interest in these questions. Where we expected deep deliberation to have taken place, we found instead an intellectual vacuum.
They cited their duty of impartiality, which, they believe, prevents them from seeking to influence students’ choices, and explained that there were plenty of other careers on offer. But they appear to have confused impartiality with passivity. Passivity in the face of unequal forces is anything but impartial. Impartiality demands an active attempt to create balance, to resist power, to tell the dark side of the celestial tale being pummelled into the minds of undergraduates by the richest City cults.
Students! Follow your dreams, however hard it may be, however uncertain success might seem
Oxford University asked us, “isn’t it preferable that [the City] recruits bright, critical thinkers and socially engaged graduates who are smart enough to hold their employers to account when possible?”. Oh blimey. This is a version of the most desperate excuse my college friends attempted: “I’ll reform them from within.” This magical thinking betrays a profound misconception about the nature and purpose of such employers.
They respond to profit, the regulatory environment, the demands of shareholders, not to the consciences of their staff. We all know how they treat whistleblowers. Why should “bright, critical thinkers and socially engaged graduates” be dispatched on this kamikaze mission? I believe these universities are failing in their duty of care.
The hero of this story is Gordon Chesterman, head of the careers service at Cambridge, and the only person we spoke to who appears to have given some thought to these questions. He told me his service tries to counter the influence of the richest employers.
It sends out regular emails telling students “if you don’t want to become a banker, you’re not a failure”, and runs an event called “But I don’t want to work in the City”. It imposes a fee on rich recruiters and uses the money to pay the train fares of nonprofits. He expressed anger about being forced by the government to provide data on graduate starting salaries.
Brain drain to the corporates comes as no surprise
Letters: If the graduate loan system is here to stay, maybe it should be reconfigured so the interest payable is based on the earnings of the graduate and the social utility of their job
“I think it’s a very blunt and inappropriate means [of comparison], that rings alarm bells in my mind.”
Elsewhere, at this vulnerable, mutable, pivotal moment, undergraduates must rely on their own wavering resolve to resist peer pressure, the herd instinct, the allure of money, flattery, prestige and security.
Students, rebel against these soul-suckers! Follow your dreams, however hard it may be, however uncertain success might seem.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/city-corporates-destroy-best-minds
The Guardian
June 3, 2015
Those who graduate from the leading universities have more opportunity than most to find such purpose. So why do so many end up in pointless and destructive jobs? Finance, management consultancy, advertising, public relations, lobbying: these and other useless occupations consume thousands of the brightest students. To take such jobs at graduation, as many will in the next few weeks, is to amputate life close to its base.
I watched it happen to my peers. People who had spent the preceding years laying out exultant visions of a better world, of the grand creative projects they planned, of adventure and discovery, were suddenly sucked into the mouths of corporations dangling money like angler fish.
At first they said they would do it for a year or two, “until I pay off my debts”. Soon afterwards they added: “and my mortgage”. Then it became, “I just want to make enough not to worry any more”. A few years later, “I’m doing it for my family”. Now, in middle age, they reply, “What, that? That was just a student fantasy.”
Why should 'bright, critical thinkers' be dispatched on this kamikaze mission?
Why did they not escape, when they perceived that they were being dragged away from their dreams? I have come to see the obscene hours some new recruits must work – sometimes 15 or 16 a day – as a form of reorientation, of brainwashing. You are deprived of the time, sleep and energy you need to see past the place into which you have been plunged. You lose your bearings, your attachments to the world you inhabited before, and become immersed in the culture that surrounds you. Two years of this and many are lost for life.
Employment by the City has declined since the financial crash. Among the universities I surveyed with the excellent researcher John Sheil, the proportion of graduates taking jobs in finance and management consultancy ranges from 5% at Edinburgh to 13% at Oxford, 16% at Cambridge, 28% at the London School of Economics and 60% at the London Business School. But to judge by the number of applications and the rigour of the selection process, these businesses still harvest many of the smartest graduates.
Recruitment begins with lovebombing of the kind that cults use. They sponsor sports teams and debating societies, throw parties, offer meals and drinks, send handwritten letters, use student ambassadors to offer friendship and support. They persuade undergraduates that even if they don’t see themselves as consultants or bankers (few do), these jobs are stepping stones to the careers they really want. They make the initial application easy, and respond immediately and enthusiastically to signs of interest. They offer security and recognition when people are most uncertain and fearful about their future. And there’s the flash of the king’s shilling: the paid internships, the golden hellos, the promise of stupendous salaries within a couple of years. Entrapment is a refined science.
We have but one life. However much money we make, we cannot buy it back. As far as self-direction, autonomy and social utility are concerned, many of those who enter these industries and never re-emerge might as well have locked themselves in a cell at graduation. They lost it all with one false step, taken at a unique moment of freedom.
Graduates throw their mortarboards in the air Facebook Twitter Pinterest
We have but one life. However much money we make, we cannot buy it back.
John Sheil and I sent questions to eight of the universities with the highest average graduate salaries: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, the LSE, the London Business School, Warwick, Sheffield and Edinburgh. We asked whether they seek to counter these lavish recruitment drives and defend students from the love blitz. With one remarkable exception, their responses ranged from feeble to dismal. Most offered no evidence of any prior interest in these questions. Where we expected deep deliberation to have taken place, we found instead an intellectual vacuum.
They cited their duty of impartiality, which, they believe, prevents them from seeking to influence students’ choices, and explained that there were plenty of other careers on offer. But they appear to have confused impartiality with passivity. Passivity in the face of unequal forces is anything but impartial. Impartiality demands an active attempt to create balance, to resist power, to tell the dark side of the celestial tale being pummelled into the minds of undergraduates by the richest City cults.
Students! Follow your dreams, however hard it may be, however uncertain success might seem
Oxford University asked us, “isn’t it preferable that [the City] recruits bright, critical thinkers and socially engaged graduates who are smart enough to hold their employers to account when possible?”. Oh blimey. This is a version of the most desperate excuse my college friends attempted: “I’ll reform them from within.” This magical thinking betrays a profound misconception about the nature and purpose of such employers.
They respond to profit, the regulatory environment, the demands of shareholders, not to the consciences of their staff. We all know how they treat whistleblowers. Why should “bright, critical thinkers and socially engaged graduates” be dispatched on this kamikaze mission? I believe these universities are failing in their duty of care.
The hero of this story is Gordon Chesterman, head of the careers service at Cambridge, and the only person we spoke to who appears to have given some thought to these questions. He told me his service tries to counter the influence of the richest employers.
It sends out regular emails telling students “if you don’t want to become a banker, you’re not a failure”, and runs an event called “But I don’t want to work in the City”. It imposes a fee on rich recruiters and uses the money to pay the train fares of nonprofits. He expressed anger about being forced by the government to provide data on graduate starting salaries.
Brain drain to the corporates comes as no surprise
Letters: If the graduate loan system is here to stay, maybe it should be reconfigured so the interest payable is based on the earnings of the graduate and the social utility of their job
“I think it’s a very blunt and inappropriate means [of comparison], that rings alarm bells in my mind.”
Elsewhere, at this vulnerable, mutable, pivotal moment, undergraduates must rely on their own wavering resolve to resist peer pressure, the herd instinct, the allure of money, flattery, prestige and security.
Students, rebel against these soul-suckers! Follow your dreams, however hard it may be, however uncertain success might seem.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/city-corporates-destroy-best-minds
Breaching the secretive sects of Shin-Buddhism
Stephen Mansfield
Special to The Japan Times
May 30, 2015
The tendency to perceive covert groups as reticent conspirators rather than curators of hidden knowledge is universal.
In Japan, secret oral transmissions, chants, rituals and services have long been identified with esoteric schools of Buddhist faith such as Shingon and Tendai. Defenders of secrecy have drawn attention to several examples of the discretionary sharing of teachings among other well-established religious groups to prove that they are hardly unique in their commitment to confidentiality.
Among others who prefer to keep their most profound learnings under wraps are the Nichiren Buddhist sect with their many secret teachings, Zen Buddhists with their practice of direct transmission.
Are the Shin-Buddhist groups that researcher Clark Chilson writes about truly “covert” — with all the dark and grainy implications that come with that word — or are they simply esoteric?
Covert groups, as the writer soon discovers, are not primarily interested in disseminating doctrine and, thereby, expanding their congregations, although they may seek to maintain a regular number of adherents. The creation of a mystique through the sharing of secret practices among a select group, is in itself empowering.
Yet secrecy has its limits. By the Edo Period (1603-1868), the much-coveted “secret teachings” associated with gardening manuals were being openly published, prompted by the growing popularity of gardening — no longer the exclusive preserve of stone-setting priests and professionals. On a recent trip to Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, a monk at Jodoji Temple began speaking to me in hushed tones of ahibutsu (a hidden Buddha image or sculpture), concealed in a dank chamber — only to break the spell by finally showing me a photograph he had taken of the figure. There are cases with certain religious objects where excessive conjecture has almost refined them out of existence. There are those who believe that the tiny statue of the deity Kannon — found by two sibling fishermen in Tokyo’s Sumida River in 628 AD and now purportedly housed in the recesses of nearby Sensoji Temple — is a figment maintained by a religious establishment content to enjoy prestige by association.
Historically, covert groups and sects have gone into hiding to avoid persecution — their very secrecy defining them as heretical or injurious organizations outside the legitimizing realm of Buddhist scholasticism, threatening the existing social order. Confucianism, with its innate distrust of secrecy, helped to cast further aspersions on covert groups during the Edo Period. Heeding this climate of suspicion and fear, Chilson’s text is enlivened with anecdotes about religious espionage and undercover infiltrations, arrests and the grisly extraction of confessions.
Religion in Japan is often presented as a harmonious entity, despite historical records to the contrary. Those who know of the murderous rampages of monks on Mount Hiei, or the support lent by Zen Buddhists to the military in World War II, will not be surprised to learn of internal schisms and shifts of ideology and allegiance among the groups Chilson highlights. The author uses the existence of such groups as a vehicle for exploring ideas of concealment associated with Tantric traditions and hidden Christians in Japan, and also the practices of Crypto-Jews and those who practice Gnosticism or follow the Kabbalah.
Confraternities of covert Shin-Buddhists have been grouped into three categories by Chilson, which is a standard division: those found in the northeast of the country (referred to as kakushi nenbutsu), groups deemed heretical, and secret practitioners in parts of Kyushu. Though never privy to the ultimate teachings of these groups, Chilson, gaining the trust of various Shin-Buddhist fraternities, including one known as Urahomon, was admitted to their discussions, prayer sessions and sermons, and was even allowed to witness the rarely performed rites of one group who follow, and claim to protect, the teachings of the 12th-century holy man Shinran.
Chilson was able to explore a number of practices preserved by certain arcane congregations and affiliations, such as the liturgical texts used in services by Kirishimako members from southern Kyushu, who, at least traditionally, enforce a dietary ban on the consumption of chicken. The author was even asked if he would like to undergo the first of a number of initiation rites, an honor he declined in order to keep his integrity as a researcher intact. The acquisition of profound knowledge would have placed the writer in the predicament of having to decide whether to respect oaths of secrecy, or betray them.
Ultimately, the carefully managed balance between revealed and concealed practices helps to maintain the very special identity of these groups. “Secrecy,” as Chilson puts it, “in effect becomes an organizing principle,” for fraternities that are marginal, but essentially self-engrossed rather than socially seditious.
A work of staggering scholarship, ‘Secrecy’s Power’ — an undertaking requiring a mind-bending grasp of Japanese religious terminology and nomenclature — represents a milestone in the study of covert Buddhist groups, not so much for what it tells us, but for what it pointedly omits.
It will be interesting to see how such groups cope in Japan’s new government-driven surveillance society, whose doctrine is full disclosure in the service of the state.
Secrecy’s Power, by Clark Chilson
235 pages.
University of Hawaii Press, Nonfiction.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/05/30/books/book-reviews/breaching-secretive-sects-shin-buddhism/#.VWsO59JVhHx
Special to The Japan Times
May 30, 2015
The tendency to perceive covert groups as reticent conspirators rather than curators of hidden knowledge is universal.
In Japan, secret oral transmissions, chants, rituals and services have long been identified with esoteric schools of Buddhist faith such as Shingon and Tendai. Defenders of secrecy have drawn attention to several examples of the discretionary sharing of teachings among other well-established religious groups to prove that they are hardly unique in their commitment to confidentiality.
Among others who prefer to keep their most profound learnings under wraps are the Nichiren Buddhist sect with their many secret teachings, Zen Buddhists with their practice of direct transmission.
Are the Shin-Buddhist groups that researcher Clark Chilson writes about truly “covert” — with all the dark and grainy implications that come with that word — or are they simply esoteric?
Covert groups, as the writer soon discovers, are not primarily interested in disseminating doctrine and, thereby, expanding their congregations, although they may seek to maintain a regular number of adherents. The creation of a mystique through the sharing of secret practices among a select group, is in itself empowering.
Yet secrecy has its limits. By the Edo Period (1603-1868), the much-coveted “secret teachings” associated with gardening manuals were being openly published, prompted by the growing popularity of gardening — no longer the exclusive preserve of stone-setting priests and professionals. On a recent trip to Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, a monk at Jodoji Temple began speaking to me in hushed tones of ahibutsu (a hidden Buddha image or sculpture), concealed in a dank chamber — only to break the spell by finally showing me a photograph he had taken of the figure. There are cases with certain religious objects where excessive conjecture has almost refined them out of existence. There are those who believe that the tiny statue of the deity Kannon — found by two sibling fishermen in Tokyo’s Sumida River in 628 AD and now purportedly housed in the recesses of nearby Sensoji Temple — is a figment maintained by a religious establishment content to enjoy prestige by association.
Historically, covert groups and sects have gone into hiding to avoid persecution — their very secrecy defining them as heretical or injurious organizations outside the legitimizing realm of Buddhist scholasticism, threatening the existing social order. Confucianism, with its innate distrust of secrecy, helped to cast further aspersions on covert groups during the Edo Period. Heeding this climate of suspicion and fear, Chilson’s text is enlivened with anecdotes about religious espionage and undercover infiltrations, arrests and the grisly extraction of confessions.
Religion in Japan is often presented as a harmonious entity, despite historical records to the contrary. Those who know of the murderous rampages of monks on Mount Hiei, or the support lent by Zen Buddhists to the military in World War II, will not be surprised to learn of internal schisms and shifts of ideology and allegiance among the groups Chilson highlights. The author uses the existence of such groups as a vehicle for exploring ideas of concealment associated with Tantric traditions and hidden Christians in Japan, and also the practices of Crypto-Jews and those who practice Gnosticism or follow the Kabbalah.
Confraternities of covert Shin-Buddhists have been grouped into three categories by Chilson, which is a standard division: those found in the northeast of the country (referred to as kakushi nenbutsu), groups deemed heretical, and secret practitioners in parts of Kyushu. Though never privy to the ultimate teachings of these groups, Chilson, gaining the trust of various Shin-Buddhist fraternities, including one known as Urahomon, was admitted to their discussions, prayer sessions and sermons, and was even allowed to witness the rarely performed rites of one group who follow, and claim to protect, the teachings of the 12th-century holy man Shinran.
Chilson was able to explore a number of practices preserved by certain arcane congregations and affiliations, such as the liturgical texts used in services by Kirishimako members from southern Kyushu, who, at least traditionally, enforce a dietary ban on the consumption of chicken. The author was even asked if he would like to undergo the first of a number of initiation rites, an honor he declined in order to keep his integrity as a researcher intact. The acquisition of profound knowledge would have placed the writer in the predicament of having to decide whether to respect oaths of secrecy, or betray them.
Ultimately, the carefully managed balance between revealed and concealed practices helps to maintain the very special identity of these groups. “Secrecy,” as Chilson puts it, “in effect becomes an organizing principle,” for fraternities that are marginal, but essentially self-engrossed rather than socially seditious.
A work of staggering scholarship, ‘Secrecy’s Power’ — an undertaking requiring a mind-bending grasp of Japanese religious terminology and nomenclature — represents a milestone in the study of covert Buddhist groups, not so much for what it tells us, but for what it pointedly omits.
It will be interesting to see how such groups cope in Japan’s new government-driven surveillance society, whose doctrine is full disclosure in the service of the state.
Secrecy’s Power, by Clark Chilson
235 pages.
University of Hawaii Press, Nonfiction.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/05/30/books/book-reviews/breaching-secretive-sects-shin-buddhism/#.VWsO59JVhHx
Maryland: Vote Is a Setback for Scientology-Linked Rehab Center
New York Times
ANDREW SIDDONS
June 2, 2015
The Frederick County Council on Tuesday voted 6 to 1 against placing a fishing retreat on a local register of historic places, making it very unlikely that a drug rehabilitation program with ties to the Church of Scientology will be opened. The retreat, near Camp David, has been visited by several presidents. The vote against adding the property, known as Trout Run, to the historic list will deny the retreat the zoning it would need for a Narconon facility. The Council was urged by its lawyer to consider only Trout Run’s historic character and not the practices of Narconon. Narconon is likely to appeal.
A version of this brief appears in print on June 3, 2015, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Maryland: Vote Is a Setback for Scientology-Linked Rehab Center
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/us/maryland-vote-is-a-setback-for-scientology-linked-rehab-center.html?_r=0
Are We Mormons a Cult?
Mette Ivie Harrison
Huffington Post
June 2, 2015
When I was at graduate school in Princeton from 1990-1995, I worked summers as a temporary secretary at various big local businesses. In one of those situations, I talked to a coworker about my religion. She was a Baptist, and had some pretty strong opinions about Mormons. To be specific, she called Mormonism a cult and when I tried to talk her out of it, she dug in and insisted. I asked her for the reasons she thought Mormonism was a cult and tried to suggest that lots of religions she thought of as real religions rather than cults had similar traits. For instance, her argument that Mormons didn't believe in grace over works seemed similar to me to Catholicism.
I was pretty prickly about Mormons being called a cult at the time, but 25 later, I have begun to wonder if it might not be useful for Mormons to understand more clearly why so many people think of Mormonism as a cult. Are these reasons that are true and are things we embrace? Are they true and things we might want to change? Are they simply not true and things we need to correct people about?
Signs of a Cult:
- A Charismatic Leader support
- Denial of Essential Christian Teachings (Trinity, Christ's Reality, the Second Coming)
- Brainwashing/Systematic Programs of Indoctrinization
- Psychological Abuse/Intimidation
- Mass Suicide/Doomsday Expectations
- Authoritarian Mind Control
- Communal and Totalistic Organization
- Aggressive Proselytizing
- Social Humiliation and Punishment
- Limitation of Information to Membership or Outright Deception
Joseph Smith was indeed a charismatic leader. The fact that Mormonism as a religion survived Smith's assassination in 1844 and has since continued to grow seems to indicate that it was not merely his personality that is Mormonism. However, when I was a child, we talked a lot more about Joseph Smith than we did about Jesus Christ. I think this is something that has changed dramatically in the church since then, and for good reason. It might be useful for us to think about the way in which we talk about current leaders, as well. Do we see them as men with flaws? Do we tend to elevate them to a status above mortal? Do we refuse to see Joseph Smith as a mortal with flaws? Would changing just a few words make it more clear that we worship Christ as the son of God and not our own prophets?
When Mitt Romney was a candidate for president, Mike Huckabee made a big fuss over a few Mormon beliefs that went outside the lines as far as most fundamental Christians were concerned, including the idea that Christ and Satan were brothers and that Mormons don't believe in the trinity. There are a number of Mormon beliefs that are variations on typical Christian beliefs, including universal resurrection, an emphasis on work rather than grace alone, and the belief that men can become gods. On the one hand, Mormonism is clearly a Christian religion, since we believe Christ was the literal son of God and we use the Bible as a scripture (though we believe the Book of Mormon is a more pure translation of Christ's word). Mormons do have some rather different views on Christianity than the mainstream. Some eras emphasize these views more than others in the history of our church. Do these different beliefs make us a cult? Does the Book of Mormon make us a cult? I don't think so, but I can see why other Christians do see us that way. I'm not interested in giving up the Book of Mormon, but I think we can work at making it clear how much we value the Bible and that we still believe in the trinity and almost every other Christian belief, but that we see it slightly differently. As for Christ and Satan being brothers, we believe everyone is a child of God, even Satan and his followers. Don't other Christians believe the same?
OK, onto brainwashing and indoctrination. I personally cringe when I hear about certain kinds of "youth camps" that some stakes in the Mormon church promote or even sponsor. Our Mormon "trek" re-enactments can sometimes have some of this flavor. So can EFY experiences. Anytime that food is denied someone in order to promote a spiritual experience, I personally twinge a bit. Fasting is something that Mormons believe is an important way to understand poverty and to come closer to God. However, combining that with a multi-day experience that includes hard labor and the pressure to bear testimony at the end to me begins to become akin to brainwashing. People telling me that "it works" when I object don't help, either. I know that Mormons who are parents want to keep their children in the church and they see the influence of the world as being bad. They feel these camp experiences are the way to counteract the time teens spend at school and with friends. But think carefully about the methods we use. We want authentic experiences in spirituality, not ones that are being manufactured or manipulated. And ones that seem forced are definitely out.
Is psychological abuse or intimidation ever used in Mormonism? It's easy to say that this simply never happens, at least not on an institutional level. The church doesn't send people around to the homes of others to get them to "fall in line." We don't threaten other members to get them to pay their tithing. We certainly don't demand that they vote in a certain way. We don't shout or yell at them in church meetings in order to get them to give up their cigarettes or alcohol. But . . .
I've heard people talk about using positive peer pressure to get the youth to make the "right" choices in terms of following the Word of Wisdom and remaining chaste before marriage. Is this intimidation? When the youth go behind closed doors to have interviews with the bishop on a regular basis, is this a loving moment to discuss spirituality or could it be seen as something else? I'm sure everyone intends to be loving, but we should be aware of how certain practices could be perceived and how much pressure we are putting on others. We want people to choose good freely, not because it was easier to do what they were told than to give thought to what they actually wanted. Our belief in Satan's plan as being the alternative to Christ's gift of free will to us, so that we can make mistakes and repent rather than being forced to do what was right so we all ended up in heaven, is clear. Let us make sure that we follow Christ's plan in everything we do.
Mass suicide or doomsday expectations may seem like something that we can dismiss out of hand as not part of Mormonism. I certainly did, until a non-Mormon friend of mine mentioned how uncomfortable he was with my gung-ho attitude toward food storage accumulation. He felt that the only reason to accumulate that much food was because I was expecting some kind of doomsday event in the future. Now, the Mormon church has gone to great lengths to assure people this isn't the only or even the most common use for food storage. Food storage is used for stocking up when things are cheap and for planning food, both of which can help stretch budgets. Food storage can also be a kind of savings plan for when unexpected life events happen, like a lost job. And emergency preparedness goes beyond food storage to 72 hour kits in case of flood, fire, or any kind of emergency, including terrorist attacks. It also means being aware of who to call and what to do, having a plan of where to meet, and so on. These are good things, things the government knows that Mormons do well. But take them too far, as some of us do, and we start to sound like we're planning for the apocalypse. Armageddon is part of our scripture, but I think we shouldn't be gleeful or casual in talking about how we're going to beat it.
Mormons have a semi-annual General conference in which the twelve apostles and the first presidency speak to the worldwide membership, as well as other authoritarian figures in the church heirarchy. Many Mormons enjoy conference weekend. All other church meetings are canceled and most of us now get to stay at home (in our pajamas) to listen to church leaders give us advice and counsel and sometimes simply offer comfort. But to those outside the church, it can seem as if we are being "programmed" and told what to do, instead of being encouraged to use our own minds to think things through. I fear that when we perpetuate the idea that the prophet would never tell us to do the wrong thing or say that even if he does, God will bless us for being obedient, we lean too far to the side of obedience and looking like Mormons are robots rather than free-thinkers. Just consider this when you talk about the church.
One of the things I love most about Mormonism is the community that we create. I love home teachers and visiting teachers. I love that the Elders Quorum and High Priests Group help people move in and out of the ward. I love that the Relief Society brings meals in to women who've had a baby and to families in need for any reason. But these services we provide to other members of our ward can seem cult-like to those not in the ward, and perhaps not for reasons we understand. Creating a community that thrives independent of the civic community can seem strange to those who are not part of it. It can feel like they are being excluded and that we do not pay attention to neighbors who are not Mormons. It can make us seem very isolated from the rest of the world. I think it is one thing to separate ourselves from behavior we do not approve of, and another thing to live so much in our communities that non-Mormons feel like we are aliens.
Aggressive Proselytizing? I am pretty sure we don't threaten people with physical violence if they don't join our church, but the way we talk about missionary work can sometimes be a little over the top. Young Mormon men are expected to serve a two year mission and while we don't ostracize those who don't, there are stigmas attached to not serving or coming home early. I think sometimes we imagine that these stigmas are a good thing because they encourage young men to serve who might not have otherwise, but I don't think it's true. And "every member a missionary" means that our proselytizing efforts aren't confined to missionaries alone. It is one thing to offer to explain Mormon things to the curious, but it's another to make every contact with a non-member about joining the church. And counting baptisms to prove anything? In my book, that's always wrong.
When I was a teenager, I heard of the way the Amish "shun" those who leave the flock and thought it was horrible. We Mormons never do anything like that, of course. Except that we do. It's not formal, but it happens. When people try to leave the Mormon church, we often make it difficult. In what we think is an expression of love, we continue to send visiting and home teachers. But this can feel like a way of keeping tabs on people who do not want to associate with us anymore. It can feel like we are refusing to let people go. Like a cult.
And when members are denied temple recommends for not toeing the line on Word of Wisdom issues or because of dissent against church leaders, it can feel to them like we are using temple recommends as a way to force people to do what leaders say. We don't hold people's homes or other financial means hostage, but we do tell them they can't go to their childrens' wedding if they don't comply. And the rash of excommunications that have happened in the last two years is another way of making people who might be inclined to disagree shut up instead. Is this what we want or mean to do? Of course, a church has a right to decide who is among its members, but I think we can be more careful in the way we make it clear that excommunication isn't meant to be publicly humiliating. We can work harder to show love to those who leave the church, without stalking them into returning.
As for controlling information that members receive, I think there is more to be done on this front, as well. The church has done a good job in recent years of publishing essays on Joseph Smith and polygamy, on blacks and the priesthood, on the church's stance on homosexuality, and on other troubling topics. But I think the organization of the church needs to do a better job of making it clear that these essays are official and disseminating the information to the local leadership, where it still seems a bit hit or miss. We should be open about the facts of our history. That doesn't mean we have to agree with the worst interpretation of those facts, but hiding facts because we think members aren't "ready" for them smacks of manipulation and frankly, cultism.
I don't think Mormonism is a cult. Even in my firmly atheist days, I continued to send my kids to church because I believed that Mormonism taught a lot of good ethics and was a great community to be involved in. But as someone who is moving back to full faith in God and in Mormonism, I would like to be able to talk about my church to my many non-member friends in a way that is devoid of cultist vocabulary. I want to able to deny absolutely that Mormonism has any hint of cultism in its practices or beliefs. And I think we as a group can do better in that effort. Here's my pledge that I will do my part.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-ivie-harrison/are-we-mormons-a-cult_b_7485784.html
LaRouche Movement: The far right cult alleged to be behind UK student Jeremiah Duggan's death
International Business Times UK
Tom Porter
June 2, 2015
The last time Erica Duggan spoke to her son Jeremiah was after midnight on 27 March 2003.
"He rang me in the early hours of the morning and he laid it straight out who the people were and that he was frightened, that he was in danger, and that he wanted to escape from them."
Later that day, Duggan was found dead by a motorway near Wiesbaden, Germany. Following a police investigation, German authorities ruled the 23-year-old had committed suicide "by automobile". In 2010, The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rejected the Duggan family's request for a judicial review of the case.
For more than a decade, Erica has fought for the verdict to be overruled and for a proper investigation to be launched into the circumstances of her son's death. In May, partial vindication came when a UK coroner ruled Duggan did not kill himself.
Erica has all along had "no doubt" the shadowy LaRouche Movement, whose German affiliate the Schiller Institute organised the conference he attended before his death, had played a role in Jeremiah's death.
"He was at a meeting of the group the morning of his death attended by several senior members and was considered to be a spy and a traitor," she said.
Coroner Andrew Walker said Duggan's identity as a British Jew may have led the group described as a far-right cult by the Metropolitan Police to target him.
"The fact that he attended a conference run by this far right-wing organisation… together with Mr Duggan expressing that he was a Jew, British and questioning the material put before him, may have had a bearing on Mr Duggan's death in the sense that it may have put him at risk from members of the organisation and caused him to become distressed and seek to leave," Walker said.
Though he accepted Duggan had died after being hit by cars, he said "unexplained injuries" suggested there may have been an altercation at some stage before his death.
Tom Porter
June 2, 2015
The last time Erica Duggan spoke to her son Jeremiah was after midnight on 27 March 2003.
"He rang me in the early hours of the morning and he laid it straight out who the people were and that he was frightened, that he was in danger, and that he wanted to escape from them."
Later that day, Duggan was found dead by a motorway near Wiesbaden, Germany. Following a police investigation, German authorities ruled the 23-year-old had committed suicide "by automobile". In 2010, The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rejected the Duggan family's request for a judicial review of the case.
For more than a decade, Erica has fought for the verdict to be overruled and for a proper investigation to be launched into the circumstances of her son's death. In May, partial vindication came when a UK coroner ruled Duggan did not kill himself.
Erica has all along had "no doubt" the shadowy LaRouche Movement, whose German affiliate the Schiller Institute organised the conference he attended before his death, had played a role in Jeremiah's death.
"He was at a meeting of the group the morning of his death attended by several senior members and was considered to be a spy and a traitor," she said.
Coroner Andrew Walker said Duggan's identity as a British Jew may have led the group described as a far-right cult by the Metropolitan Police to target him.
"The fact that he attended a conference run by this far right-wing organisation… together with Mr Duggan expressing that he was a Jew, British and questioning the material put before him, may have had a bearing on Mr Duggan's death in the sense that it may have put him at risk from members of the organisation and caused him to become distressed and seek to leave," Walker said.
Though he accepted Duggan had died after being hit by cars, he said "unexplained injuries" suggested there may have been an altercation at some stage before his death.
What is the LaRouche Movement?
Formed in the US by renegade economist and perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche in the 1970s, the movement that bears his name has branches in countries including Germany, France, Brazil, Australia and the Philippines, and thousands of estimated followers.The movement claims to promote a revival of classical art and culture, reform of the financial system and the development of global economic infrastructure projects.
However, critics allege LaRouche is in fact a dangerous far-right cult that brainwashes followers and is one of the world's chief disseminators of anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Duggan became involved with the LaRouche group while a student in the Sorbonne, France, during the build-up to the war in Iraq.
"He told me he had met a man older than him who was teaching him about politics, and he gave the name Solidarité et Progrès, which I learnt is a French front group for LaRouche," said Erica.
"What they do is they have a very apocalyptic approach so they said: 'If we don't stop this war in Iraq, we will have a nuclear Holocaust and a Third World War and it is the most important thing to stop it. We have a way of stopping it. Come to this conference and see what you can do.'"
Jeremiah travelled to Wiesbaden, Germany, to the conference organised by the Schiller Institute, the German branch of the movement, which is run by Lyndon's LaRouche's wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
"Jeremiah said to me he was thinking of becoming more politically active. So he was only going to find out about it really, he didn't know about it," she said.
Coded anti-Semitism
Matthew Feldman is an expert on far-right ideology and professor in contemporary history at Teeside University.He said the group's anti-Semitism is coded, allowing it to "hide in plain sight" under the radar of authorities.
"Few groups are willing to be public with their anti-Semitism, so what we find is a code, and the use of such terms as 'international financiers', 'Zionists' or even more vague terms, such as 'special interests,'" Feldman said.
He said LaRouche openly expressed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories earlier in his political career.
"You need to go back to LaRouche in the 1970s when he is much more overt about these things, much more overt about Holocaust revisionism, about various forms of anti-Semitism and his connections with the far right were at that point well-established," said Feldman.
Former members of the group have testified it used brainwashing "ego stripping" techniques and intimidated those who wanted to leave.
The group is also alleged to have waged intimidation campaigns against political opponents and journalists in the US.
Erica, who has been in contact with several former members of the group, described it as a "form of modern-day slavery in a way". She said: "They destroy your powers of critical thinking. Undermine your belief in your self, and make you believe that you are surrounded by people lying to you and that the world is the enemy."
She believes Duggan's open, questioning nature may have led him to challenge the group's teachings.
For Feldman, these are hallmarks of far-right cults. He said: "It is important that far-right politics are a subculture, they a totalising thing. You don't stop being a far-right activist when you go to sleep or go home. You embrace it."
He said the group uses classical culture, economics and pseudo-science to form "a whole conspiracy they have set up which explains their counter-vision of the world".
Calls for an independent investigation
She called for an independent investigation into her son's death. Erica said: "I want a proper political enquiry when they look into what really happened and for the first time conduct a proper investigation."
Feldman said although the German government had a strong record on tackling religious cults, and pointed to a recent law banning the Church of Scientology in the country, questions needed to be asked about why it did not take the danger posed by LaRouche more seriously.
"If Jeremiah's death wasn't suicide, then what the hell was it? It is still an open question," he said. "It is something fishy and something in need of serious investigation. It is time for the Germans to take this seriously as well."
The US Anti-Defamation League and the Australian Anti-Defamation Commission have both described the organisation as anti-Semitic, and he asked why authorities allowed it to disseminate its message of hate with impunity.
He said Germany had not shirked the duty of facing its Nazi past and "it should be small step from owning that to saying we are going to lead the fight against far right groups that preach hatred and violence everywhere".
He added: "I think many of us would like to see more of that from the German state and prosecutors."
In a statement, the Schiller Institute described allegations of involvement in Duggan's death as "utterly preposterous", and disputed the recent coroner's verdict.
"At no time has anyone connected with the Duggan family ever presented any evidence or facts that refute the findings of the German authorities concerning the suicide of her son," said spokesman Bruce Director.
"Instead, over the last 12 years she and her representatives and collaborators have propounded wild conspiracies theories promulgated by the political enemies of Mr LaRouche in and around the British Monarchy and the circles of the now discredited former prime minister Tony Blair."
The Hessen Public Prosecutor's Office has also been asked to comment.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/jeremiah-duggan-larouche-movement-far-right-cult-alleged-be-behind-death-uk-jewish-student-1503875
Integrative oncology is but a smokescreen for quacks
Published Monday 01 June 2015
The principal aim of this survey was to map centres across Europe that provide public health services and operating within the national health system in integrative oncology.
Information was received from 123 (52.1 %) of the 236 centres contacted. Forty-seven out of 99 responding centres meeting inclusion criteria (47.5 %) provided integrative oncology treatments, 24 from Italy and 23 from other European countries. The number of patients seen per year was on average 301.2 ± 337. Among the centres providing these kinds of therapies, 33 (70.2 %) use fixed protocols and 35 (74.5 %) use systems for the evaluation of results. Thirty-two centres (68.1 %) were research-active.
The alternative therapies most frequently provided were acupuncture 26 (55.3 %), homeopathy 19 (40.4 %), herbal medicine 18 (38.3 %) and traditional Chinese medicine 17 (36.2 %); anthroposophic medicine 10 (21.3 %); homotoxicology 6 (12.8 %); and other therapies 30 (63.8 %).
Treatments were mainly directed to reduce adverse reactions to chemo-radiotherapy (23.9 %), in particular nausea and vomiting (13.4 %) and leucopenia (5 %). The alternative treatments were also used to reduce pain and fatigue (10.9 %), to reduce side effects of iatrogenic menopause (8.8 %) and to improve anxiety and depression (5.9 %), gastrointestinal disorders (5 %), sleep disturbances and neuropathy (3.8 %).
The authors concluded that mapping of the centres across Europe is an essential step in the process of creating a European network of centres, experts and professionals constantly engaged in the field of integrative oncology, in order to increase, share and disseminate the knowledge in this field and provide evidence-based practice.
DISSEMINATE KNOWLEDGE?
EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
WHAT KNOWLEDGE?
WHAT EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
Where is the evidence that homeopathy or homotoxicology or Chinese medicine are effective for any of the conditions listed above? The answer, of course, is that it does not exist.
I fear the results of this survey show foremost one thing: ‘integrative oncology’ is little else but a smokescreen behind which quacks submit desperate patients to bogus treatments.
http://edzardernst.com/2015/06/integrative-oncology-is-but-a-smokescreen-for-quacks/
The principal aim of this survey was to map centres across Europe that provide public health services and operating within the national health system in integrative oncology.
Information was received from 123 (52.1 %) of the 236 centres contacted. Forty-seven out of 99 responding centres meeting inclusion criteria (47.5 %) provided integrative oncology treatments, 24 from Italy and 23 from other European countries. The number of patients seen per year was on average 301.2 ± 337. Among the centres providing these kinds of therapies, 33 (70.2 %) use fixed protocols and 35 (74.5 %) use systems for the evaluation of results. Thirty-two centres (68.1 %) were research-active.
The alternative therapies most frequently provided were acupuncture 26 (55.3 %), homeopathy 19 (40.4 %), herbal medicine 18 (38.3 %) and traditional Chinese medicine 17 (36.2 %); anthroposophic medicine 10 (21.3 %); homotoxicology 6 (12.8 %); and other therapies 30 (63.8 %).
Treatments were mainly directed to reduce adverse reactions to chemo-radiotherapy (23.9 %), in particular nausea and vomiting (13.4 %) and leucopenia (5 %). The alternative treatments were also used to reduce pain and fatigue (10.9 %), to reduce side effects of iatrogenic menopause (8.8 %) and to improve anxiety and depression (5.9 %), gastrointestinal disorders (5 %), sleep disturbances and neuropathy (3.8 %).
The authors concluded that mapping of the centres across Europe is an essential step in the process of creating a European network of centres, experts and professionals constantly engaged in the field of integrative oncology, in order to increase, share and disseminate the knowledge in this field and provide evidence-based practice.
DISSEMINATE KNOWLEDGE?
EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
WHAT KNOWLEDGE?
WHAT EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
Where is the evidence that homeopathy or homotoxicology or Chinese medicine are effective for any of the conditions listed above? The answer, of course, is that it does not exist.
I fear the results of this survey show foremost one thing: ‘integrative oncology’ is little else but a smokescreen behind which quacks submit desperate patients to bogus treatments.
http://edzardernst.com/2015/06/integrative-oncology-is-but-a-smokescreen-for-quacks/
Scientology’s Number One Spy [Exclusive Interview]
Guardian Liberty Voice
Douglas Cobb
June 2, 2015
Former Church of Scientology member, Merrell Vannier, was with the Church for 30 years, serving as their number one spy for them during many of those years. Then, the Church of Scientology ultimately turned its back on him, and went to the steps of the other Church of Scientology member shuning him, calling him a "suppressive person,' despite his years of loyal service to the Church. He has not seen his adult daughter, who is a member of the Church of Scientology to this day, in over three years, nor has he had any contact with her.
Merrell Vannier wrote about his experiences in the highly thoughtful and informative book, Arrows in the Dark. He kindly consented to do the following fascinating exclusive interview with Guardian Liberty Voice.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Hi, Merrell. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview and telling the readers of Guardian Liberty Voice about what led to your joining the Church of Scientology, and also working for them as a spy.
What was it about Scientology that you initially found appealing enough to want to join the Church of Scientology?
Merrell Vannier: First, I want to thank you for your interest in my book and inviting me to the interview.
My interest in Scientology began with my reading the book, Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health, a copy of which I saw at a friend's house and borrowed after reading a few pages after my first year of law school. I was fascinated by it. In the book, author L. Ron Hubbard presented his findings that the so-called "unconscious" mind was responsible for any and all non-optimum problems and psychosomatic ills.
As background, I took a course in psychology in college at the suggestion of a buddy of mine in the Navy. He said it was about the mind. I perked up, thinking, "Yeah, I'd like to learn about the mind." But I was greatly disappointed with the course. It talked about the brain being the mind. As a student in electrical engineering, I didn't buy it. There weren't enough brain cells to store the vast amount of information in a mind. Plus, mental conditions were assigned labels for which there were no standard techniques to resolve the conditions, just drugs and talking it out with a therapist. The idea of chemical imbalances in the brain as an underlying explanation for abnormal behavior didn't resonant with me. I saw the entire subject as junk science, and discarded it.
Dianetics, on the other hand, rang true to me. The mind was not the brain. Plus, there was a standard technique that could resolve unwanted conditions and psychosomatic illnesses. Not only that, but an ordinary person could learn the techniques and apply them to others.
Former Church of Scientology member, Merrell Vannier, was with the Church for 30 years, serving as their number one spy for them during many of those years. Then, the Church of Scientology ultimately turned its back on him, and went to the steps of the other Church of Scientology member shuning him, calling him a "suppressive person,' despite his years of loyal service to the Church. He has not seen his adult daughter, who is a member of the Church of Scientology to this day, in over three years, nor has he had any contact with her.
Merrell Vannier wrote about his experiences in the highly thoughtful and informative book, Arrows in the Dark. He kindly consented to do the following fascinating exclusive interview with Guardian Liberty Voice.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Hi, Merrell. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview and telling the readers of Guardian Liberty Voice about what led to your joining the Church of Scientology, and also working for them as a spy.
What was it about Scientology that you initially found appealing enough to want to join the Church of Scientology?
Merrell Vannier: First, I want to thank you for your interest in my book and inviting me to the interview.
My interest in Scientology began with my reading the book, Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health, a copy of which I saw at a friend's house and borrowed after reading a few pages after my first year of law school. I was fascinated by it. In the book, author L. Ron Hubbard presented his findings that the so-called "unconscious" mind was responsible for any and all non-optimum problems and psychosomatic ills.
As background, I took a course in psychology in college at the suggestion of a buddy of mine in the Navy. He said it was about the mind. I perked up, thinking, "Yeah, I'd like to learn about the mind." But I was greatly disappointed with the course. It talked about the brain being the mind. As a student in electrical engineering, I didn't buy it. There weren't enough brain cells to store the vast amount of information in a mind. Plus, mental conditions were assigned labels for which there were no standard techniques to resolve the conditions, just drugs and talking it out with a therapist. The idea of chemical imbalances in the brain as an underlying explanation for abnormal behavior didn't resonant with me. I saw the entire subject as junk science, and discarded it.
Dianetics, on the other hand, rang true to me. The mind was not the brain. Plus, there was a standard technique that could resolve unwanted conditions and psychosomatic illnesses. Not only that, but an ordinary person could learn the techniques and apply them to others.
I was really stoked, and purchased other books by Hubbard. One of my favorites, Fundamentals of Thought, really had an impact on me. It talked about the spiritual nature of man and its relationship to the universe, a philosophy that clarified many questions I had about life and contained principles that I could – and did – apply to improve my relations with others and improve conditions in life.
I also took a philosophy course in college, hoping to find answers to these kind of questions, and found the subject highly significant (i.e., lacking practical application) and confusing. The teacher gave extra credit for having an in-person interview with him at the end of the semester. I remember asking him, "But what can you do with this knowledge?" I didn't have to ask that question about Scientology. I saw the potential, and saw the results when I applied the principles.
After reading these books I wanted to see if the techniques worked. I took a break in law school and went to St. Louis to study how to audit (counsel). I loved it, both receiving auditing and performing it. I had one experience very early on after I received an auditing session. I walked home that evening out of my body, exterior as it is referred to in Scientology. Just like Hubbard said in Fundamentals of Thought I was a spirit, not my body, and as proof I oversaw about 10-city wide blocks of St. Louis, practically a hundred feet over my body. That's when I knew: Scientology is for real!
Guardian Liberty Voice: What is the Guardian's Office branch of the Church of Scientology, Merrell, and why did you decide to also join it?
Merrell Vannier: The Guardian's Office was an autonomous network established by Hubbard in 1966 to handle internal security and external affairs. By then spies and plants posing as students in the church were a continual problem and the church was not equipped to deal with it.
But it was not until 1974 that I was recruited and volunteered for the Guardian's Office as an undercover agent, or spy. I did this after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a series of articles critical of the church. The series was filled with falsehoods. Yet many of the general public I ran into took them as fact and even treated me rudely for no other reason than my being a Scientologist. It was unsettling and offensive. I knew history well enough to know how the flames of prejudice against minorities can be fanned – and what can happen as a result.
Truth is, prior to the series running, the Guardian's Office had publicized documents given to it by a whistleblower employee from the Missouri Institute of Psychiatry ("MIP"). The documents proved an illegal program of drug experimentation on unwitting patients. This and other evidence made it very obvious that the Post-Dispatch series was nothing more than a hit piece in retaliation for the Guadian's Office exposé of MIP. I wanted to do something about that injustice.
Later, in 1980, after my volunteer "spy" days ended, and after executives of the Guardian's Office had been indicted for infiltration of government offices in Washington, D.C., I gave up my lucrative law practice in St. Louis and agreed to join the United States Guardian's Office in Los Angeles in an effort to help them with their legal problems.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Why did the U.S. government want to infiltrate the Church of Scientology?
Merrell Vannier: Why would the FBI tap the phone of, and plant false rumors in the media about, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.? Why did they have John Lennon under surveillance? Historically, governments are terrified of grass roots movements over which they have no control and could upset the status quo or power structure.
In Scientology's case, it goes back to the 1950 book, Dianetics, which took the nation by storm. Dianetics auditing groups sprang up overnight. The AMA-FDA-Big Pharma industrial complex was shaken. Dianetics promised to alleviate all psychosomatic ills without the need for drugs, doctors or psychiatrists/psychologists. Also Hubbard ripped into the often barbaric psychiatric practices of electric shock and prefrontal lobotomies. Who was this Hubbard guy, anyway? A science fiction writer. He didn't have one of their degrees or licenses. How dare he not get their permission and work within their system?
Add to this the ability of Dianetics to uncover the dirty mind control experiments of the CIA, who worked in conjunction with top psychiatrists and psychiatric hospitals. These guys thought their secret deeds were buried deep within the unconscious minds of their subjects. The fact that Hubbard uncovered these diabolical incidents freaked them out.
In a perfect world, the CIA would have pinned a medal on Hubbard. In a nefarious one, the intelligence community decided to assassinate his character – and send in spies to learn all it could about his research, and to destroy the movement.
It's a great story, an untold story. My book covers a small, but important part of that story.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Would you please give a couple of examples to our readers, Merrell, of the acts of espionage you committed and wrote about in Arrows in the Dark?
Merrell Vannier: Back in 1974, I took on the job as a night-time janitor of the law office representing the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the newspaper that did the hatchet job on Scientology after the Guardian's Office exposed the Missouri Institute of Psychiatry's illegal drug experimentation on their patients. I gained access to the law office for my handler who took files off premises, copied them and returned them.
In Clearwater, Florida, by pretending to be an enemy of the church, I was given access to files on Scientology at the regional Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS). As background, the INS had ordered deportation of all non-U.S. citizens at the church's newly established headquarters in Clearwater. Because many of the staff members were from all over the world the church faced losing a large number of its administrative personnel. I spent the day memorizing key intelligence in the INS files and turned it over to my handler. Based on that information, Guardian's Office personnel were able to obtain a voluntary dismissal from INS officials.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Who chose your code name, "Ritz," and why?
Merrell Vannier: My handler, Don Alverzo. He didn't told me why he chose the name, nor did I ask. But interestingly, one of my editors pointed out to me that I had described an incident in Chapter Two in which Alverzo had a box of Ritz crackers beside him the first time I visited him in his "safe house." I thought, "Hmm… could be."
Guardian Liberty Voice: In Arrows in the Dark, you mentioned something called "black Scientology." What is that, and when and why was it used on you?
Merrell Vannier: The term "black Dianetics" or "black "Scientology" simply means the reverse use of Scientology technology – to harm or control someone rather than to help or make them more self-determined, the latter of which is the purpose of Scientology.
Hubbard warns of the practice, stating: "A person on whom Black Dianetics has been employed seldom retains the sanity or will to make a complaint, or does not know he has been victimized."
It was used on me in February 1982 as I describe in detail in the book. To put the incident in context, the Guardian's Office was taken over in July-August 1981. At the time I didn't know by whom but later discovered it was 21-year old David Miscavige. A Bob Dylan lyric comes to mind: "The executioner's face is always well-hidden." But the change in management style from a free and easy one to a dominating, controlling one was disconcerting to me – and very contrary to Scientology principles. I set about finding the source. I committed my thoughts and suspicions to paper and stowed them in my desk drawer, thinking my locked office was secure. I returned one day from lunch to discover the lock had been changed and a sign on my door ordered me to report to "Ethics."
I was removed from post and assigned to manual labor, renovating offices. I was then given a "plant check" to determine if I was a spy sent in on the church. This was pretty rich since I was the one who had accumulated evidence that pointed toward plants at the highest levels of church management, possibly even including Miscavige himself.
After I was excommunicated and had begun to write Arrows in the Dark, the person who performed the reverse plant check on me emailed me out of the blue. I replied and told him that his plant check really screwed me up for almost nine months. He wrote back and said that was intentional. He added that he was ordered to do it by Miscavige.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Why did you call your book about your experiences with the Church of Scientology Arrows in the Dark?
Merrell Vannier: While writing the book I ran across the anonymous quotation, "It is easy to dodge a spear in the daylight, but it is difficult to avoid an arrow in the dark," and thought it would work as a heading to one of my chapters in which I was getting orders and being shot at from inside the church, seemingly from every direction. As my story took shape, however, I realized that not only were arrows in the dark being shot at me from inside the church but they were also being fired at the church by the intelligence community and media and at me from various sources outside the church.
Guardian Liberty Voice: What caused you to eventually become disillusioned with the Church of Scientology?
Merrell Vannier: After the takeover by David Miscavige in 1981 the church became very controlling and status-oriented. People are told what to think, who they can associate with, and how they should behave, not only in the church but even in their personal lives. I didn't sign on for that. In fact, I am opposed with all my being to overly controlling organizations, particularly religious ones. The history on this planet is not too good in that regard. The Spanish Inquisition is a prime example.
Even when I discovered the source of all the madness, I tried to reform it internally. The technology of Dianetics and Scientology, when used correctly to benefit people, not to control them, works. In my estimation it is worth saving.
Guardian Liberty Voice: When the Church of Scientology labelled you a "suppressive person" and excommunicated you, how did that affect your relationship with your daughter, who is still in the Church? Have you heard from her since you published Arrows in the Dark?
Merrell Vannier: Miscavige implemented the policy of "disconnection" after he took control of the church way back in 1981. The policy requires members to cut all ties with anyone who is labeled a suppressive person. Those who do not are subject to being labeled suppressive persons themselves.
My daughter is a member of Scientology's elite Sea Organization, whose members devote their entire lives to Scientology. I knew she would comply with the policy. She was married to a Sea Org member, so not disconnecting from me would be the end of her marriage as well as her career in the church and loss of her Scientology friends. What I did not expect, however, is that she would not even call me or her mother (my wife) or her brother (my son) to let us know that she would be disconnecting from all of us from here on out.
No, I haven't heard from her in the three-plus years since. Nor have my wife and son. A check we sent her for Christmas went uncashed.
Guardian Liberty Voice: What are a few differences you have seen in the Church of Scientology since David Miscavige took it over?
Merrell Vannier: Today's church is all but almost unrecognizable by Scientologists who were involved with it in the late 60's through the early to mid-80s. When I first took Scientology courses in St. Louis in 1973, for example, the course room was packed, and electric, just a fun place to be. I was never told not to read newspapers or books critical of Scientology. I never felt pressured or controlled in any way. People on staff were friendly and respectful.
Miscavige has turned Scientology into a nonstop, heavy-handed demand for donations to build grand, ornate buildings with beautiful furnishings but virtually no people. Members have been declared suppressive persons and excommunicated for the "crime" of going on the Internet one time to read an article critical of Miscavige or Scientology. People are more serious, afraid to make mistakes or earn the disfavor of Miscavige. Not surprisingly, membership is plummeting.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Did you ever dig up any information about any of the famous celebs who are Church of Scientology members, like Tom Cruise and John Travolta?
Merrell Vannier: I only had dealings with Cruise's family, and they were all positive. My family, for example, vacationed with Tom's sister, Lee Ann. Our sons were best friends. Additionally, my daughter, Angie, was a highly trained auditor at Celebrity Centre, and audited members of Tom's family. I never met either Cruise or Travolta.
Guardian Liberty Voice: What other books have you written?
Merrell Vannier: I wrote the novel, Masters of War, under my screen name, Conrad John. It is a spy story involving intelligence secrets of WW II that have only come to light over the many years since the war. Information about it can be found at www.mastersofwarbook.com. I have also written eleven screenplays and made independent films out of three of them. One feature-length film was distributed in DVD. I also wrote the legal self-help book, Lemon Law: A Manual for Consumers. For more information, readers can check out my personal website at www.merrellvannier.com.
Guardian Liberty Voice: Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by the Guardian Liberty Voice, Merrell! Arrows in the Dark is a fascinating look at Scientology and how you became a spy working for the Church of Scientology. Arrows in the Dark is available online at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at brick and mortar bookstores.
May 30, 2015
Sect leader Lia Eden warns a major earthquake will hit Jakarta before the end of the month
http://jakarta.coconuts.co/2015/05/28/sect-leader-lia-eden-warns-major-earthquake-will-hit-jakarta-end-month
By Coconuts
Jakarta
May 28, 2015
Jakarta’s going to be hit with a major earthquake before the end of this month, or so says the leader of the Salamullah (God's Kingdom of Eden) religious sect, Lia Aminudin AKA Lia Eden.
Lia wrote an open letter addressed to several leaders including President Joko Widodo, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, and even US President Barack Obama about her warning. Though we’re puzzled as to why Obama was included.
“There will be a great earthquake in Jakarta because God has withheld His heaven from Jakarta,” Lia wrote, as picked up by Okezone yesterday.
She has two days from today to prove that she’s not just a nutty cult leader. If she’s right, then boy will we all be sorry.
Lia Eden leads a sect in which she claims to be the reincarnation of Mother Mary. She claims her son, Ahmad Mukti, is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
The best smartphone apps for making life in Jakarta easier and awesomer!
The Real Life 'Kimmy Schmidt': Twin Sisters, Former Children of God Members, Describe Life Inside Controversial Religious Sect
ABC News Nightline, May 30, 2015 Most childhoods are filled with bike riding, eating pizza or going to the movies, but twins Flor and Tamar Edwards, both 34, have been discovering many of these things for the first time as adults. That’s because for the first 13 years of their lives, these twins lived in what some ex-members call an apocalyptic cult. “I didn’t know what a movie theater was,” Flor said. “We saw a drinking fountain for the first time, and we all just kind of like saw it, and we, like, huddled around it like it was some ...“ “... novelty,” Tamar said, finishing her sister's sentence. Flor and Tamar were raised in a controversial religious sect called “The Children of God,” which formed in Huntington Beach, California, in the late 1960s out of the “free love” hippie era. The twins said the group lived as nomads and were shut out from mainstream society, believing that they were among God's chosen people who would be saved when the apocalypse came. The Tragic Legacy of the Children of God Joaquin Phoenix Discusses Growing Up in the Children of God Religious Sect As children, Flor and Tamar said they were taught they were “going to be God’s Martyrs” when they were 12 years old -- because they said members believed the apocalypse was coming in 1993 -- and the twins lived in constant fear of that approaching year. “I was terrified because of the this ‘end time’ that was coming up so I had to deal with a lot of, as a child, very real fear,” Flor said. “I thought a lot about my death that was supposedly coming when I was going to be 12 years old.” Flor said she has watched “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” a popular Netflix show about a group of young women who are freed after years of being held captive by a cult leader in an underground bunker. It’s a storyline she said she can relate to. In the first episode, the character Kimmy Schmidt “sees water in the bathroom for the first time,” Flor said, a moment that really resonated with her. Within The Children of God, the twins said they and other families lived in tight quarters. They said they were prevented from going to school, and they said they didn’t learn to read until age 9. “Everything was evil. You know, education,” Flor said. “Politics was evil,” Tamar added. “Music,” Flor continued. “Anything. Anything outside of the group was evil.” They missed the 1980s entirely, they said, and are still catching up on a those lost years of pop culture references. “If I watched all the movies from the '80s and got a whole collection of music from the '80s, I just -- there's no context there,” Flor said. “We knew that there was someone out there named Madonna and Michael Jackson. That's about it.” All of this, they said, was determined by one man, David Berg, known to them as “Father David.” “Father David taught us that churches were evil,” Flor said. “And money was evil,” Tamar added. Flor said Berg actually came from a “long ancestral line of evangelists,” and that he was “very familiar” with the established Christian church, but rejected it. “He wanted to break away from that and he came out to California,” Flor said. “He had some sexual experiences when he was very young and he was living in a constant conflict between his desire and his commitment to God.” The Edwards family was living in Los Angeles when they joined The Children of God, and then, in 1985, when the twins were 5 years old, Flor and Tamar said Berg decided his followers should leave the United States. So the family packed up and left for Thailand, where the twins said they lived until they were 12 years old, when Berg decided it was safe for his followers to come back to the states. The group moved to Chicago in 1994, where the twins said they were confided to a house with dozens of other families. “Once you're inside the house, it was kind of like our own little community,” Flor said. “You know, we did what we did inside the walls.” Some called The Children of God a sex-charged cult. At its peak, the group claimed to have tens of thousands of members around the world, and that 13,000 children had been born into the sect. Among those children raised in the group were actress Rose McGowan and a young Joaquin Phoenix, both of whose families eventually left. Ex-followers say they were taught to believe that love for God was expressed through having sex or exposing others to sex, including children. “Sex was the thing that drove people,” Tamar said. “They didn’t do any drugs, no alcohol. ... So sex was the way to freedom, they saw sex as God’s creation of love and beauty, which was one of the teachings but also within that there was abuse that happened. ... Children were having experiences that surely [they] didn’t want to have.” The twins said it was common for adults in the house to have sex in front of children. “We've talked to some of the adults. ... They believed in what [Berg] said,” Tamar said. “So they don't have regret over it. They don't say, like, ‘Oh no, that was bad.’ They still believe that Father David had something, like, that's how charismatic he was.” The Children of God has since reorganized and is now known as The Family International. In the 1980s, the group formally prohibited sexual contact between adults and minors and renounced its previous endorsement of sharing sexual partners and polygamy. "TFI reorganized four years ago (May 2010) and currently exists mainly as a small virtual community, so there is little relation of controversies and allegations from the distant past to the current membership, or alignment to its history of the past 10 years," a spokesperson for the organization told ABC News via email in November. "TFI has expressed its apologies on a number of occasions to any members who feel that they were hurt in any way during their membership, which are also posted online. For all intents and purposes, TFI no longer exists as a structured entity or communal movement." Flor and Tamar said they were never sexually abused, but they said they were physically abused as children. “[Children] would be getting spanked really young,” Flor said. “My little sister she was like 6 months old which, you know, you don’t get spanked at that age.” Some former members of The Children of God have committed suicide. One member named Ricky Rodriguez, who was deemed a prophet inside the sect, made headlines in 2005 when he murdered his alleged abuser, who had also been a former Children of God member, and then committed suicide at age 29. Tamar said she wanted to take her own life when she was just 7 years old. “I wanted to take my life and it really came from a place of first of all... there wasn’t room for play and fun and that’s what every kid wants,” Tamar Edwards said. “I wanted to escape what was going on and second of all, I really didn't want to go through the apocalypse.” “The apocalypse seemed really scary,” she continued. “The whole Earth burning in the lake of fire, they had a whole agenda of what was going to happen like a lot of religions do, so it was terrifying.” The group disbanded after David Berg died in 1994, and suddenly the twins said they were forced into a life they had never lived before. “We wake up in the morning, and I just remember looking outside, and looking on the lawn, and everyone was outside with their things packed up,” Flor recalled. “We walked around the house, like, the house was empty.” Days after the group disbanded, Flor and Tamar said the Rev. Pongsak Limthongviratn, a Thai pastor, came to their family’s aid, counseled them and helped them navigate life outside of the religious sect. Flor and Tamar said they still struggle to live normal lives as adults today. They both live in California now. Flor is a freelance writer and office coordinator. Tamar teaches yoga in San Francisco. “It’s hard to go out and have a drink at the bar like normal social things that people do,” Flor said. “Meeting someone at a party when they ask where you’re from I almost want to go run away and hide.” The hardest part, she said, is not being prepared for the real world and not being taught how to live outside the walls that had long surrounded them. “It’s the hardest thing to have lived a life where you weren’t prepared for what was on the other side and then be on the other side,” Flor said. “That’s definitely been the hardest part for most of the kids. I don’t even think the upbringing was that difficult as much as being told a lie your whole life.” Both Flor and Tamar admit that although they still have questions about their past, they want to move forward. “Who are we supposed to be mad at?” Flor asked. “Father David's dead. I already said I'm not blaming my parents because of what we've been through together. I can't blame all the other adults. ... Should I blame God? Should I blame religion? I don't even know who to direct my anger at. And already that becomes very exhausting for me. So instead, I just do what I can with what I have.” http://abcnews.go.com/US/real-life-kimmy-schmidt-twin-sisters-children-god/story?id=31404110
Mystery surrounds visit to UAE of alleged religious cult
May 29, 2015
Nick Webster
The National
Nick Webster
The National
DUBAI // Just what the leader of an alleged South Korean cult was doing in the UAE this week remains a mystery, after self-proclaimed peace activist Lee Man-hee made a brief appearance as part of a Middle East tour.
Mr Lee is the leader of Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ), which is part of the Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light, known as HPWL. It has been reported the church’s followers believe he is immortal.
A delegation from the group, which bills itself as an international peace organisation, also toured Ethiopia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Bahrain.
Mr Lee takes every opportunity to be photographed with political leaders and figureheads. His critics say it is little more than a propaganda exercise to increase the church’s popularity in his native South Korea.
Zackary Downey, a Canadian, is a former English teacher in South Korea who blogs about the church’s operations.
“Their message is that world peace will be achieved by uniting cultures,” he said.
“The purpose of the rallies is to show the church is reaching out to all of these different cultures around the world.
“There is pushing and shoving at some rallies, with family members trying to reach their daughters and sons who are involved with the church.”
Mr Downey said he had had run-ins with various volunteers, but no direct dealings with the church itself, or its chairman.
“Church leaders are saying they can’t see their family, or even talk to them. They are cut off from any contact.”
The group recruits foreigners by attracting young people into sports or photography clubs, but many become disillusioned when they realise SCJ’s role.
As with Scientology, Mr Downey said, the SCJ likes to go after people who post negative comments about it online.
He said: “Peace events in Korea are a regular occurrence, but they stage similar propaganda events all over the world, recently in the Philippines.
“They are just PR stunts to be seen alongside world leaders, with no actual peace agreements signed.”
The HPWL held a “Dialogue of Scriptures” in the Gurunanak Darbar Sikh temple in Jebel Ali Gardens, in Dubai, last Sunday.
Gloria Kim, a spokeswoman for the HPWL, said: “The World Alliance of Religions’ Peace Office (Warp) is where different religious leaders gather and make an effort to find the answers for peace through the Holy Scriptures they have.
“The first Warp was held in Dubai at the Sikh temple, with about 30 participants from different religions. They were all encouraged and motivated to continue on this global movement. The visit was very successful and it is expected to prosper as time goes.”
On claims the church was a cult, Ms Kim said: “Please look at those youth doing the peace work together with Mr Lee – are they the faces of people who are captured and separated from their families by force?
“Unfortunately, facts do not stop the lies online. People on the internet feel free to say anything when hiding their faces and names.”
The HWPL campaign began in 2013 with a small peace walk. Since then its following has increased to include an international peace youth group with 384 branches in 86 countries, and a women’s group with 100 branches in 16 countries.
In January last year, Mr Lee claimed a victory in the signing of a unity of religions agreement between Catholic and Muslim leaders to bring an end to a 40-year conflict in Mindanao, in the Philippines.
Dr Pamela Chrabieh, assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies at American University Dubai, has a doctorate in theology-sciences of religions. She said the SCJ should be carefully studied. “For its members, the leader Lee Man-hee is believed to be the returned Jesus.
“For its sympathisers, Man-hee is seen as a renowned Korean peace activist. For the anti-Shincheonji individuals and groups, he is a mad, self-proclaimed immortal.
“For some scholars, SCJ is a Christian denomination that offers free Bible courses and is just like any other denomination.
“In recent years, the South Korean press, families of Shincheonji members and confused expatriates have been trying to piece together what SCJ is, but the controversy appears to be far from resolved.”
May 28, 2015
Man Gets Prison For Inventing His Own Church, And It's Not Scientology
Forbes
May 28, 2015
Robert W. Wood
May 28, 2015
Robert W. Wood
A Utah man has been sentenced to two years in prison over a church the feds say was a tax avoidance scheme. Paul Ben Zaccardi plead guilty to one count of tax evasion, and five counts of filing false claims for income tax refunds. He transferred his house to a church he formed, and even tried to pay his tax bill with fictitious U.S. Treasury bonds. He isn’t the first taxpayer to figure out that church status is pretty good.
Churches don’t pay tax, and donations to churches are tax deductible. But what qualifies as a church can be debated. The stakes are high, as a Mississippi physician found out when he was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison. Prosecutors, the judge, and jury agreed that his church was a scam. Dr. Timothy Dale Jackson from Pass Christian, Mississippi was found guilty of four counts of felony tax evasion and one of obstruction of due administration of the internal revenue laws.
The orthopedic physician funneled his practice income through the “Church of Compassionate Service.” Dr. Jackson took a vow of poverty, claiming that as a minister, he was tax exempt. He had a successful practice but hadn’t filed tax returns or paid taxes since 2003.
Compassionate Service Church members “donate” to the church, renouncing all worldly possessions. They also hand over their assets to a Church trust. Ministers even sign over their paychecks to the Church. In return, the Church provides debit cards for living expenses. The Church even made mortgage payments on the homes it received where ‘minister’ were housed.
In reality, 90 percent of Dr. Jackson’s income was returned to him. On $1.8 million of income just between 2006 and 2009, the doc owed the IRS $650,000. When he was sentenced, the 50-year-old Dr. Jackson received 75 months of incarceration, and was ordered to pay taxes and interest of $806,983, plus a $12,500 fine.
The interaction of taxes and religion is strange. Take the so-called parsonage allowance, a tax break allowed by Section 107 of the tax code, dating to the 1920s. That was the era of my favorite fictitious minister, Elmer Gantry, a shallow, philandering hypocrite portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie. The parsonage allowance says an ordained member of the clergy can live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization.
Alternatively, the clergy member can receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home. The parsonage allowance makes being in the clergy sound pretty good, as does this list of top ten clergy tax deductions. Yet religion doesn’t necessarily protect you from criminal tax charges. Also consider Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpet player. He, too, went to prison for tax evasion.
Later, because of the parsonage allowance, the Tax Court ruled he didn’t owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry. The IRS appealed and the Eleventh Circuit reversed. Mr. Driscoll asked the Supreme Court to review it, but the Supreme Court refused to hear it.
The Church of Compassionate Service that got Dr. Jackson into such trouble is discussed in U.S. v. Hartshorn. There, the IRS got an injunction to silence Head Minister Kevin Hartshorn. Mr. Hartshorn had 50 ministers under his wing, telling them not to pay the IRS. When the IRS had enough it went to court to enjoin the Head Minister from preaching his no-tax mantra.
Mr. Hartshorn lost, appealed, and lost again when the appeals court ruled for the IRS. Thus, Mr. Harshorn failed to shake the injunction. Mr. Hartshorn’s claims about free speech didn’t help him either. Even if the church was legit, the court said, Hartshorn’s plan wasn’t. What’s more, Hartshorn’s knew his “you-don’t-have-to-pay-taxes” mantra was false. Even if he didn’t, he should have known.
There are many tax advantages of church status and an IRS determination letter. Even compared to other tax-exempt organizations, church status is the crème de la crème. For years, the IRS denied that Scientology was a church until lawsuits caused the IRS to rule that Scientology was a church. The New York Times claimed that the IRS reversed 30 years of precedent to grant Scientology its Section 501(c)(3) status.
Since then, some say the IRS should reconsider Scientology’s tax-exempt status, suggesting that the IRS had the wool pulled over its eyes when it granted church status in 1993. The film Going Clear, from HBO and director Alex Gibney is fueling those comments, as did a St. Petersburg Times series a few years ago.
If the IRS decides to take on Scientology for round two, the bout could be noisy. Churches reap a vast array of tax advantages. They even include special rules limiting IRS authority to audit a church. A “church” is not specifically defined in the tax code, but the IRS lays out buzzwords in its tax guide for churches and religious organizations, including these characteristics:
Churches don’t pay tax, and donations to churches are tax deductible. But what qualifies as a church can be debated. The stakes are high, as a Mississippi physician found out when he was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison. Prosecutors, the judge, and jury agreed that his church was a scam. Dr. Timothy Dale Jackson from Pass Christian, Mississippi was found guilty of four counts of felony tax evasion and one of obstruction of due administration of the internal revenue laws.
The orthopedic physician funneled his practice income through the “Church of Compassionate Service.” Dr. Jackson took a vow of poverty, claiming that as a minister, he was tax exempt. He had a successful practice but hadn’t filed tax returns or paid taxes since 2003.
Compassionate Service Church members “donate” to the church, renouncing all worldly possessions. They also hand over their assets to a Church trust. Ministers even sign over their paychecks to the Church. In return, the Church provides debit cards for living expenses. The Church even made mortgage payments on the homes it received where ‘minister’ were housed.
In reality, 90 percent of Dr. Jackson’s income was returned to him. On $1.8 million of income just between 2006 and 2009, the doc owed the IRS $650,000. When he was sentenced, the 50-year-old Dr. Jackson received 75 months of incarceration, and was ordered to pay taxes and interest of $806,983, plus a $12,500 fine.
The interaction of taxes and religion is strange. Take the so-called parsonage allowance, a tax break allowed by Section 107 of the tax code, dating to the 1920s. That was the era of my favorite fictitious minister, Elmer Gantry, a shallow, philandering hypocrite portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie. The parsonage allowance says an ordained member of the clergy can live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization.
Alternatively, the clergy member can receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home. The parsonage allowance makes being in the clergy sound pretty good, as does this list of top ten clergy tax deductions. Yet religion doesn’t necessarily protect you from criminal tax charges. Also consider Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpet player. He, too, went to prison for tax evasion.
Later, because of the parsonage allowance, the Tax Court ruled he didn’t owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry. The IRS appealed and the Eleventh Circuit reversed. Mr. Driscoll asked the Supreme Court to review it, but the Supreme Court refused to hear it.
The Church of Compassionate Service that got Dr. Jackson into such trouble is discussed in U.S. v. Hartshorn. There, the IRS got an injunction to silence Head Minister Kevin Hartshorn. Mr. Hartshorn had 50 ministers under his wing, telling them not to pay the IRS. When the IRS had enough it went to court to enjoin the Head Minister from preaching his no-tax mantra.
Mr. Hartshorn lost, appealed, and lost again when the appeals court ruled for the IRS. Thus, Mr. Harshorn failed to shake the injunction. Mr. Hartshorn’s claims about free speech didn’t help him either. Even if the church was legit, the court said, Hartshorn’s plan wasn’t. What’s more, Hartshorn’s knew his “you-don’t-have-to-pay-taxes” mantra was false. Even if he didn’t, he should have known.
There are many tax advantages of church status and an IRS determination letter. Even compared to other tax-exempt organizations, church status is the crème de la crème. For years, the IRS denied that Scientology was a church until lawsuits caused the IRS to rule that Scientology was a church. The New York Times claimed that the IRS reversed 30 years of precedent to grant Scientology its Section 501(c)(3) status.
Since then, some say the IRS should reconsider Scientology’s tax-exempt status, suggesting that the IRS had the wool pulled over its eyes when it granted church status in 1993. The film Going Clear, from HBO and director Alex Gibney is fueling those comments, as did a St. Petersburg Times series a few years ago.
If the IRS decides to take on Scientology for round two, the bout could be noisy. Churches reap a vast array of tax advantages. They even include special rules limiting IRS authority to audit a church. A “church” is not specifically defined in the tax code, but the IRS lays out buzzwords in its tax guide for churches and religious organizations, including these characteristics:
- legal existence;
- Recognized creed and form of worship;
- Definite and distinct ecclesiastical government;
- Formal code of doctrine and discipline;
- Distinct religious history;
- Membership not associated with any other church or denomination;
- Organization of ordained ministers;
- Ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed study;
- Literature of its own;
- Established places of worship;
- Regular congregations;
- Regular religious services;
- Sunday schools for religious instruction of the young; and
- Schools for preparing its members.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/05/28/man-gets-prison-for-inventing-his-own-church-and-its-not-scientology/
Creator of hit Scientology film tells Haaretz why he's no longer afraid
Haaretz Ruta
May 28, 2015
May 28, 2015
For years the Church of Scientology was wrapped in a thick cloak of secrecy. Even members were only told years after joining the church about the secret story of its creation — and that was also after they’d handed over almost all their assets to it. But anyone who sees Alex Gibney’s new documentary, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” has to wait less than an hour before learning the biblical-like story behind this “faith.”
It seems that 75 million years ago a powerful alien named Xenu arrived on the planet Earth. The world was then exactly like the United States was in the 1950s, with people, houses and cars. According to the late founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard — who also completely by chance was a science-fiction writer — Xenu brought billions of his fellow aliens to Earth in a spacecraft that looked like an airplane, planted them around volcanoes, and destroyed them with hydrogen bombs.
The dead aliens’ “immortal spirits” become attached to living human beings, damage them and have yet to let go of them. Long-time Scientology members are still busy today trying to get rid of these spirits in various ways.
Gibney presents this whole fantasy in an entertaining visual montage, including commentary by himself and by screenwriter Paul Haggis, who was once a member of the church and is also interviewed in the film.
“Going Clear” is without a doubt the most talked-about documentary of the year. It paints a complex and expansive picture of the Church of Scientology which has relatively few members — about 50,000 people all over the world, including some in Israel — but has attracted a long list of celebrities, amassed a large amount of real estate, and accumulated enormous amounts of cash. Indeed, the film also exposes the inability of the U.S. tax system to deal with that situation.
But it is not just the movie itself which is fascinating. No less interesting is the fact that this extremely well researched and comprehensive documentary (two hours long) is actually just one of Gibney’s many projects in recent years. He has made documentaries about Wikileaks, Lance Armstrong, James Brown, Steve Jobs, Enron and Frank Sinatra, as well as working on a new Internet series at present.
Gibney, 61, was born in New York and was expected to follow in the footsteps of his journalist-father, Frank Gibney, who died in 2006 and was also an editor, author and vice chairman of Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board.
Alex Gibney’s parents divorced when he was 3 years old, and he grew up with his mother Harriet and his stepfather, the human rights activist Rev. William Sloane Coffin. After an undergraduate degree from Yale and then studies at the UCLA Film School, Gibney edited film promos and wrote for various publications, including The Atlantic.
In a way, Gibney found a way to combine the activities of his two fathers — by making documentaries. His 2007 political film “Taxi to the Dark Side” exposed the apparently accepted methods of torture used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, and won him an Academy Award for best documentary feature.
Gibney’s production company, Jigsaw Productions, makes independent films, documentaries about musicians and music, and television mini-series.
Modern Greek tragedies
Many of Gibney’s movies, which involve an enormous amount of work and serious research, seem to be modern versions of Greek tragedies, with the subjects falling victim to their own hubris. As with many documentaries today, they are also entertaining thrillers with a plot, and the motives of the subjects are analyzed deeply. But Gibney is unique as a director in this genre in his ambivalent attitude toward his subjects and his quest for the truth.
By means of his interviewees in “Going Clear” — members who left the Church of Scientology after many years — Gibney exposes the way it works, the physical and psychological manipulations it wields, and its small size relative to its enormous financial assets. HBO, which recently broadcast the film, has prepared itself with an army of 160 lawyers to deal with the expected lawsuits from the church — but for now, it’s paid off with HBO’s highest rating in the past decade.
After the movie aired, the church responded quickly and, as in similar cases, sought to attack it and Gibney in every way possible.
“Look, I’ve been vilified,” he told Haaretz in a telephone interview. “But that kind of comes with the territory. Luckily for me, I’d already gone through the process of being vilified,” he added.
“I was ready for that ... a lot of legal letters coming across. But I think they [officials of the church] save the worst of their behavior for the people that are in the cult. And they came down on them [the interviewees] pretty hard … They hired members from the church to threaten them, sometimes physically… I noticed, in particular, they seemed to focus their ire on the women. There are three women in the film, but two in particular ... They went after them.
“[The officials] seem to focus their rage not just on the critics but on ex-members … The Church of Scientology is not just a prison of belief but in some ways it’s a real prison, because they try to prevent people from leaving. Even the Catholic Church doesn’t do that: If you decide one day you’re not going to go to Mass anymore, they don’t show up on your doorstep with a bunch of people with beards and masks over their faces.
“When I started the Scientology film, the most important thing was ... to understand why it was that smart, discerning people came to believe so intensely in this religion that seems, from the outside, to be the wackiest idea — that beings were dropped in volcanoes … And fragmenting spirits attached themselves to people’s bodies… A lot of it sounds pretty nutty.
“But to understand how people got into it was important to me because I never really got them [before]. And that ended up giving me an insight not only into Scientology but into all beliefs ... So, yeah, I think you want to immerse yourself in these worlds, if you can, to get a better understanding of what’s going on.”
What he found so amazing while making the film, he says, was how much time it took people to disassociate themselves from the church: “One of the things that was most interesting to me was how hard it was and how long it took for people — and I’m using this [phrase] in a perfectly ironic way — to disconnect their minds from the force of Scientology. The prison door was open; they refuse to leave. They don’t want to leave. And even those who decide to leave the religion — it took years and years and years to really reckon with the fact that they believed something that was just nutty, and crazy, and that they had trespassed their own boundaries.”
A lot of this behavior, added Gibney, is related to a sort “of psychology that I think is universal: that we have a hard time seeing or recognizing our own mistakes. .. You’re in the church for 15-something years, and you wake up one day and you’re like: Oh my god, what have I been doing? ... It was fascinating for me, how hard it was to walk out of the prison cell of belief.”
Celeb attraction
Tom Cruise, a high-profile Scientologist, receives quite a lot of coverage in “Going Clear.” The reason for this, the filmmaker explained, is simply because the actor is the “poster boy for the religion/cult.” Cruise alone has apparently attracted thousands of followers to the church, and must know about its deceptive means of operating, and the way it employs people for a pittance although it has enormous sums at its disposal.
“He doesn’t need Scientology’s money,” Gibney said of Cruise. “I don’t think that’s the nature of what he gets from them ... He’s a very powerful and wealthy movie star ... But I think there’s a sense of loving that privilege and the honor of being a great Scientologist. So, I think again, it’s not so much the money, it’s the psychology, and his tendency to look the other way in the face of … documents that are really appalling.”
I don’t think it’s by chance that a lot of actor have found themselves in Scientology. There’s something very glamorous about it, and I think there’s a lot of resemblance between Hollywood and Scientology. Is that true?
“I think there are a couple of things. First of all, Hubbard, I think, was brilliant in terms of putting the headquarters of Scientology in Hollywood, because he understood that the real religion, in America, the one thing that everybody believes in, is the corporate [world] of celebrity … When you ask people about Scientology, they say, the Tom Cruise religion? He’s a recognizable movie star, all over the world ...
“Actors, I think, are vulnerable people; they have to be vulnerable to have a role… and to be in Scientology is … kind of an acting class ... You have an acting school that is very well regarded ... It’s brilliant. And the beauty of Scientology, like Hollywood, is that there’s the belief that you can do what we do at anytime. And that’s pretty much the American [ideal], too: that you can be a janitor for most of your life and win the lottery.”
Gibney is directing a new Internet series for The New Yorker and Amazon, the giant online shopping enterprise that also produces shows now. He calls this project an attempt to bring the spirit of the New Yorker to cyberspace.
In the past you have said that the best documentaries are made for the long term, that they say something important. Which of your films have done that?
“Well, I hope many of them do. I mean, you look at a film like ‘Taxi To The Dark Side,’ it will hold up pretty well. It still has a lot to say about the power and the lies that politicians tell us, and also how we take advantage of our soldiers on the ground. A lot of my films deal with power and the abuse of power and the psychology of that. I always believed that you can’t really stop crime unless you understand the criminal.”
As to Gibney’s preference to make documentaries instead of regular feature films, he said he started in the latter realm and his production company has a few such projects, but he loves documentary work more.
“I think one of the things that’s important to me in making a documentary,” he said, “is that I get paid to learn.”
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