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Please View this page with Firefox! Pedophilia in the Catholic Church Glenn
Taylor and Justin Helzer and Dawn Godman The History of Modern Religion
Members of a Nashville Tennessee church, Jackson Street Missionary Baptist Church, present at the July 28, 2007 scene on that became violent have filed complaints with the court claiming Rev. N. Curtis Bryant mortgaged the church without permission, stole money and refuses to step down. PDF: Read the lawsuit filed against pastor Curtis Bryant The Scientology Story is a 6 part series from the Los Angeles Times. The Scandal of Scientology is a network of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of franchises, "Orgs," "Churches," etc., in various parts of the world based on theories and policies of the L. Ron Hubbard a science-fiction writer. Steven Fishman -- Scientology in Germany is an alert about how Scientology is a dangerous cult run like a big business. Scientology touts training to deal with relationship challenges.
Since the late 1970s there have been reports of children of former members of the Children of God, The Family, and The Family International being abducted and moved to other countries to keep them from parents, law enforcement and child welfare from finding them. Sexual Abuse of children in Jehovah Witnesses Churches. Branch
Davidians, a.k.a. Students of the Seven Seals Heaven's Gate Cult Mass Suicide -- 21 women and 18 men between 26 - 72 lived communally in a rented San Diego County, California mansion, to use as their “monastery” and carry out a group suicide of 39 members on March 23, 1997 lasting three days.
They believed 2000 years earlier, their leader left his body, to travel by space-ship to Earth where he was incarnated as Jesus Christ. More extra-terrestrials came to earth but were separated. The members lead androgynous celibate lives which included castration for the eight males. Shoko Asahara was born as Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955. Partially blind from birth, he went to a school for the blind. He became an acupuncturist, owned a folk medicine shop, and yoga school. He organized the Aum Shinri Kyo in 1987. Asahara is Christ to his 20,000 followers. He relies on the Book of Revelations from the Bible, and Nostradamus. He claims to be able to teach supernatural powers. Asahara called for a final world revolution and established chemical factories to prepare for Armageddon. Cult members sprayed microbes and germ toxins. The attacks failed because the germs lacked sufficient virulence. An exorcism that killed Terrance Cottrell Jr,. an autistic 8-year-old boy, brought a felony conviction July 9, 2004 for Ray A. Hemphill, a school maintenance worker who spent nights and weekends preaching at his brother's strip-mall church. The relationship between Jim Jones ...The Jonestown cult and the culture out of which it grew.
In 2002 he was on the FBI's list of "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives." The meek appearing former school teacher and accountant was charged with sexual misconduct; conspiracy to commit rape; accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor and unlawful flight to avoid federal prosecution. *Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) has no affiliation with the mainstream Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints. Warren Jeffs And One Woman's Story Of How She Escaped The Persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot to death by an armed mob in Carthage, Illinois. Mobs attacked Latter-day Saint settlements in the region, burning crops, destroying homes, and threatening settlers with extermination. Utah's killing fields -- Mountain Meadows Massacre A remote in 1857 massacre killed 120 Arkansas immigrants. Both Mormons and Native Americans were blamed for the attack. John Dougherty, New Times staff writer, spent months researching a culture of sexual and psychological abuse, and the unlawful expenditure of millions of public dollars on secretive, isolated polygamist Mormon communities at the Arizona-Utah border. Cleansing Sacrifice and Blood Atonement - Ohio -- Jeffrey Don Lundgren, leader of The Family, an RLDS offshoot, murdered the Avery family members, including a 7-year-old girl, believing the cult would be cleansed by the sacrifice. Brigham Young, taught Blood Atonement. Lundgren is on death row in Ohio. His cult went to prison. Kirtland cult slayings. Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings Held Captive: The Kidnapping and Rescue of Elizabeth Smart -- by Maggie Haberman, Jeane MacIntosh-- On a June night in 2002, Salt Lake City teenager Elizabeth Smart was abducted at knife point from her own bedroom. For months a massive manhunt was undertaken. March of the following year, Elizabeth was discovered alive a few miles from her home, the prisoner of a self proclaimed Messiah and his wife. What happened to Elizabeth during 9 months in captivity is shocking. Startling information about the controversial investigation. Utah polygamist, Tom Green, was convicted of child rape for impregnating Linda Kunz, a 13-year-old who later became his wife.
American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 11, 1857 by Sally Denton -- In September 1857, a gold wagon train passing through Utah was attacked. 140 people were slaughtered; 17 children under 8 were spared. This incident in Mountain Meadows is the focus of passionate debate: were Mormon dignitaries responsible for the massacre? By 1857, they ruled Utah, with their own government and army. The church blamed a discredited Mormon, John D. Lee, and Native Americans. Mormon leader, Brigham Young, responsible for the church's financial crises, faced condemnation by the federal government. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer -- 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen. The crimes were noteworthy for their brutality and the brothers' claim that they were acting on direct orders from God. Krakauer explores the world of Mormon fundamentalism from which they emerged. When their beliefs are challenged or their patriarchal, cult-like order defied, these groups are capable of fighting with tremendous violence. Krakauer's research is extensive, the real power comes from jailhouse interviews with Dan Lafferty. He is coherent, insisting his motive was to obey God's command. Krakauer's accounts of the murders makes the brothers' claim of divine instruction all the more horrifying. America's fastest growing church, with an estimated membership of nearly 12 million believers, is galled that the writer has focused on Mormon fundamentalists, excommunicated believers who include murderers Dan and Ron Lafferty. The church thinks Krakauer is smearing it with the excesses of these renegade factions. Mass. v. Robidoux: Cult dad starves baby -- The infant son in an obscure cult died after being denied solid food for almost 2 months. Jacques Robidoux starved his son to fulfill a religious vision that his sister had regarding the baby's diet. The Indictment Manuela and Daniel Ruda killed Frank Hackerts, 33, a close friend, with a hammer and 66 stab wounds. His decomposing body of was found in their apartment. They admitted to stabbing their friend at their Bochum, Germany trial, but pleaded not guilty because they were following orders from the devil. They show no remorse and they grinned at the victim's mother . They received 13 and 15 year sentences at a secure psychiatric ward to receive therapy. Patrons of 10 restaurants in The Dalles, Ore., became ill in Sept. 1984, after being poisoned by members of the fringe religious cult who sprayed lab-cultured salmonella bacteria onto salad bars over a two-week period. Born in central India on December 11, 1931, and originally known as Chandra Mohan Jain, Osho and Achary, Rajneesh the Indian spiritual guru of Eastern mysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom, took the name Bhagwan, Hindi for God and amassed great wealth. By the early 1970s his spiritual freedom and sexual experimentation attracted 200,000 followers worldwide. In 1981 his cult bought a ranch in Oregon, Rajneesh puram, a community for thousands of orange-robed disciples. Rajneesh intimidated locals with his security force and wealth. By 1985 the movement, was under investigation for arson, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in nearby, Antelope, OR. After Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration fraud he was deported and refused entry by 21 countries before returning to his ashram in Pune, with 15,000 members. In later years he took the Osho, a Buddhist title and changed his views on unrestricted sexual activity because of AIDS. He died Jan. 19, 1990, Pune, India. Encyclopædia Britannica . 2004. March 22, 1997, a small cottage in the French Canadian village of St. Casimir exploded into flames. Inside were 5 people, Disciples of the Order of the Solar Temple. Since 1994, 74 members have died in Canada, Switzerland and France. In St. Casimir the dead were Didier Queze, 39, a baker, his wife Chantale Goupillot, 41, her mother and 2 others members. The 3 Queze teenagers; Tom, Fanie and Julien hid. Police later found them. Forced prenatal care - Rebecca Corneau may be a religious extremist whose gross negligence allowed her last baby to die but experts contend she has the right to do what she pleases with her fetus. Corneau and her husband are members of a sect that calls itself a "sovereign nation" about a dozen adults from 3 interrelated families reject governmental authority, adhering to what they interpret as tenets of the Old Testament. Former followers of The Way International claim it demands blind obedience, pulling families apart. Adherents of The Way say it is simply an alternative religion. Explore a world of "devil spirits," "love bombing" and a "possessed" fetus. In Montana, in the hills of a 960-acre wheat farm and sheep ranch, at least 21 people called themselves Freemen. They refused to leave the ranch, which they claimed as sovereign territory. The Freemen reject the validity of the US, state and county governments, refusing to register their cars. They called the ranch "Justus Township." God's Crime Bill - Every Sunday for over 9 years, members of the Landisville PA Mennonite Church pray for a son of their congregation, they send him money, and visit him in prison. 14-year-old Keith Weaver killed his parents, Clair and Anna May, and his sister, Kimberly. ChristianityToday.com Rev. Henry Lyons, leader of the National Baptist Convention NBC, saw his troubles begin in July 1997 with arson at a home he owns with a woman other than his wife. Lyons was charged with racketeering and grand theft. A reporter has some questions for Mr. Bush, including, "Can you explain, in your own words, the concept of separation of church and state?" Kari & Associates Copyright Kari Sable Burns 1994-2006 |
ABC News Nightline: The Heaven's Gate Cult
The Serpent and the Spirit: Glenn Summerford's Story by Thomas Burton A story of Holiness snake-handling preacher Glenn Summerford, who is serving ninety-nine years for attempting to murder his wife, Darlene, by forcing her to be bitten by a rattlesnake. City Confidential - Faith And Foul Play In Salt Lake City -- Salt Lake City, Utah, October 15, 1985, two explosions sparked an investigation that would shake Salt Lake to its core. The next day, a third bomb went off in the car of Mark Hofmann, a respected dealer in rare documents whose specialty was uncovering missing pieces of Mormon history and forgery. When his schemes to sell valuable fake unraveled, he tried to eliminate some creditors. One of Mark's customers was the president of the church, whose primary interest was keeping unflattering documents out of enemy hands, and the trial centered more on the forgeries than the murders. Great
Psychological Crime (1928) by J. E. Richardson Scottsboro: Foul Play In The Bible Belt-City Confidential -- In 1991, Mrs. Glen Summerford lay dying on the floor of her home, poison coursing through her veins and a suicide note next to her. But it wasn't suicide, and she didn't die. And the investigation that followed turned the tiny town of Scottsboro, Alabama, deep in the heart of the Bible belt, upside down. Mrs. Summerford's husband was the head preacher at the Church of Jesus with Signs Following, but he was unable to cast out his own demons. A heavy drinker, he was prone to fits of passion over his wife's infidelities, real and imagined. He was also a snake handler. And on the fateful night, he went to his wife in a drunken stupor and demanded that she tell him the truth. When her answers did not satisfy him, he forced her at gunpoint to thrust her hand into a rattlesnake cage! This acclaimed documentary exposes the ideology underlying extreme religious groups. Gary and Michael were devoutly religious with conservative fundamental Christian beliefs incompatible with their own gay lifestyles. They each gave up their homosexual practices and beliefs. Passionate about how they changed their lives they founded Exodus, a ministry devoted to curing homosexuality. As they promoted the beauty of the heterosexual life until they fell in love with each other.
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