Another day - another cult. Another day - another TV expose. I just noticed that last night’s “Four Corners” dealt with a follow-up to a programme they did last year about a guy who “claims to be the son of God”. This week’s episode is described as “a gripping follow-up as filmmaker Ben Anthony documents the story of Wayne Bent’s prosecution on charges of underage sex. The charges are serious and could see him jailed for over thirty years.”
Inside a Cult: Messiah on Trial
Reporter: National Geographic and Channel 4 Broadcast: 18/05/2009
Last year the program told the story of Michael Travesser, formerly Wayne Bent, who claims to be the son of God. This week a gripping follow-up as filmmaker Ben Anthony documents the story of Wayne Bent’s prosecution on charges of underage sex. The charges are serious and could see him jailed for over thirty years.
Ben Anthony is there for every moment of the trial, talking to Wayne Bent, his followers and the people who once revered “their messiah” only to later denounce him. His followers simply call him “Michael”. His real name is Wayne Bent. He says he is “divine” and he led a group of people into an isolated part of New Mexico, in the United States, to prepare them for the end of the world.
Two years ago this new age messiah allowed filmmaker Ben Anthony access to his compound called “Strong City”, and to speak to his followers. What Anthony documented shocked many viewers. Here was a man who wielded unfettered power over the people around him. Most of them had signed over their possessions to him. All offered utter obedience. But his demands were many. Using psychological manipulation Wayne Bent convinced the women in the group that they should sleep with him. Those men that objected were sent packing.
Intent on extending his influence, he then began a campaign to encourage the young girls in the group to come before him naked so they might fully know God. His actions began to concern some of the families involved. They also drew the attention of the local law enforcement agencies.
Last year Wayne Bent was tried for committing sex crimes against two of those girls. Once again filmaker Ben Anthony was there to record the proceedings and the results of his work are, “Inside a Cult: Messiah on Trial” - made with the assistance of the National Geographic Channel and Channel 4.
It will be replayed on the 19th May at 11.35pm ( TONIGHT ). link
Article from: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Paris May 25, 2009 11:00pm
THE Church of Scientology and seven of its French leaders went on trial on Monday on charges of organised fraud that could lead to an outright ban on the organisation in France.
Known for its Hollywood celebrity followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, the Church is in the dock in Paris for the second time in six years, although French courts have prosecuted several individual Scientologists since 1978.
The Paris court was hearing the complaint of a woman who alleges she was manipulated into handing over 20,000 euros $A28,000 for costly Scientology products, such as an “electrometer’’ to measure mental energy.
The woman said she was approached in a Paris street by a Scientologist in late 1998 who offered a free personality test, at a time when she was feeling psychologically fragile.
After being told that her test results were poor, the woman was sold a series of “life-improvement courses’‘, vitamins and other costly products that landed her into debt.
A second complaint before the court came from a woman who alleged that she was forced by her Scientologist employer to undergo testing and enrol in courses. In the end, she was fired.
French defence lawyers argue that Scientology resorts to harassment and pressure to rein in victims who all show signs of vulnerability.
The Scientology Celebrity Centre in Paris, its director Alain Rosenberg and six other top officials are accused of preying on vulnerable would-be followers “with the goal of seizing their fortune by exerting a psychological hold,’’ they said.
What is up with Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott’s parties ? It is incredulous that a senate enquiry will not occur. Nick Xenophon says that he will continue to raise the topic every week in Parliament.
INDEPENDENT senator Nick Xenophon’s bid to have an inquiry into the tax-free status of religious and charitable groups, including the Church of Scientology, has failed.
Senator Xenophon today moved a motion in the Senate calling for an inquiry into whether the organisations should be subjected to a public benefit test, like that in the UK.
He was prompted by complaints from former Church of Scientology members, and said he had received “hundreds” more allegations since first raising the issue.
Claims of forced abortions, imprisonment in boot camps and separation of families were also aired this week on the ABC’s Four Corners program, he said.
“This organisation operates in a way that seems an anathema to the basic standards of decency,” Senator Xenophon told parliament.
The Australian Greens supported the bid, with leader Bob Brown labelling Scientology a “dangerous cult”.
“It’s about entrapment of people by sects who take over people’s lives, their livelihoods, their families,” he said.
But both Labor and the Coalition voted against the motion.
Labor frontbencher Joe Ludwig said a Senate inquiry was unwarranted, as there were already two other inquiries looking into taxation matters, including the tax-free status of religious groups.
Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the inquiry would turn the Senate into a “de-facto criminal investigations bureau” and worried it would allow disaffected people from all types of groups to air their grievances.
On reports that the Church of Scientology stops its followers from accessing mental health treatment, Senator Abetz said he believed it was a “dangerous” practice, but it was a person’s right to refuse medical treatment.
“In our free society, we actually allow people to hold silly, bizarre and even dangerous views,” he said.
“In our free society, we actually allow people to hold silly, bizarre and even dangerous views”—I don’t think people are accusing them (just) of holding bizarre views, they’re making specific allegations of abuse!
Maybe they’re concerned about the potential breadth of an inquiry into “religious and charitable groups” rather than Scientology, per se?
If the complaints are against the church of scientology, the inquiry should be into the church of scientology. Why drag other religious and charitable groups into it?
I think they should definitely be worried about the broader repercussions of this. Copying the UK (as suggested, see below) would quite possibly lead to the kinds of shenanigans I outlined in the old, closed ‘Christians in the UK’ thread.
INDEPENDENT senator Nick Xenophon’s bid to have an inquiry into the tax-free status of religious and charitable groups, including the Church of Scientology, has failed.
Senator Xenophon today moved a motion in the Senate calling for an inquiry into whether the organisations should be subjected to a public benefit test, like that in the UK.
He was prompted by complaints from former Church of Scientology members, and said he had received “hundreds” more allegations since first raising the issue.
TWO days after the Senate blocked his proposed inquiry into Scientology, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon will address a conference in Brisbane to help people who have left cults.
Senator Xenophon yesterday failed to win sufficient support for an inquiry into the tax-free status of religious groups and whether they should be subjected to a public benefit test, like in the UK.
His move was prompted by complaints from former members of the Church of Scientology, and “hundreds” more allegations since first raising the issue.
Claims of forced abortions, imprisonment in boot camps and separation of families were also aired this week on the ABC’s Four Corners program.
The Cult Information and Family Support Group Queensland’s two-day conference at Parliament House kicks off today, with Senator Xenophon to speak at 8.30am (AEST) tomorrow.
The conference will discuss the best way to treat victims of coercive persuasion and mind control.
A spokesman for Senator Xenophon said he was invited to the conference because of his stance on Scientology. “It has become even more relevant now,” he said.
“He’ll be talking about the impact of cults on families and how families are often the forgotten victims in all of this.” The conference will also hear from American experts. [/quote
Police raid Agape Ministries of God ‘doomsday cult’ properties
By staff writers From:The Advertiser May 20, 2010 2:22PM
POLICE have seized an arsenal of weapons, high-powered ammunition and explosives from South Australian properties linked to a doomsday cult.
About 90 police have been involved in searches over the past two days of 12 properties owned by a religious sect known as the Agape Ministries of God, which allegedly believes the world is approaching the end.
Detectives today raided a property which was formerly part of the Hillcrest psychiatric hospital at Oakden, where they removed numerous boxes from three shipping containers, the Adelaide Advertiser said.
They also were at Mt Magnificent, where they were searching a dam.
Major Fraud detectives said they had arrested four men and charged them with firearms offences.
The searches have uncovered five unsecured firearms at four properties and ammunition, as well as detonators and explosive fuses.
“A substantial amount of high-powered ammunition was located secreted in the metal frames of bed heads located at one of the premises,” police said.
An Upper Sturt man, 46, a Mt Compass man, 49, an Oakden man, 38, and an Aberfoyle Park man, 48, will all face court on firearms offences.
The properties are owned by a religious sect known as Agape Ministries of God, members of which reportedly believe the world is coming to an end.
The sect and its Adelaide leader, “Pastor” Rocco Leo, have featured recently in a Today Tonight investigation.
For local updates on this story, visit the Adelaide Advertiser.
There are quite a few churches that use the name Agape - so I guess they’ll be busy doing PR to dis-associate themselves from these ‘nutters’.
Anonymous member Brian Mettenbrink jailed over Church of Scientology cyber attack
From correspondents in Nebraska From : AFP May 25, 2010 10:19AM
A MAN who took part in a cyber attack against Church of Scientology websites two years ago has been sentenced to one year in prison by a judge in Los Angeles.
Brian Mettenbrink from Nebraska was also ordered to serve one year of supervised release after his jail sentence ends after pleading guilty to what Judge Gary Feess described as a “sense of hate crime.”
Mettenbrink had admitted a misdemeanor charge of unauthorised access of a protected computer.
According to court documents, Mettenbrink was part of the shadowy anti-Scientology group “Anonymous,” which has conducted several protests against the church in recent years.
In January 2008 the group announced a cyber offensive which disabled access to Scientology’s websites, prosecutors said.
Couple who claim to be Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene set up base in Queensland
From:NewsCore May 15, 2011 11:58AM
A COUPLE who claim they are Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene have set up base in Queensland and are drawing in disciples from across the country.
The pair, whose real names are Alan John Miller and Mary Suzanne Luck, operate from a rural property near the little town of Kingaroy - about 220kms northwest of Brisbane - where they claim to have been joined by 30 to 40 followers, The Sunday Mail reported.
“My name is Jesus and I’m serious,” Miller says in a video recording from a workshop.
Cult watchers and the Anglican and Catholic churches are concerned the pair, who ask followers to donate to sustain them, could draw in the vulnerable.
Miller bought a 40-acre (16ha) property in 2007 and his Divine Truth followers have since been buying nearby blocks to be close to the charismatic leader, 47, and Luck, 32.
Anglican Archbishop Phillip Aspinall and the Catholic church urged people to be cautious when exploring new movements.
“This is especially true for people who are seeking meaning in their lives and as a result may be vulnerable,” Aspinall said.
Is Aspinall serious ? Just urging people “to be cautious”. Why not just DENOUNCE them as frauds ?
Welcome to the Divine Truth website! My name is Alan John Miller, and many of my friends call me AJ. The beautiful woman you see with me is Mary Suzanne Luck.
Just a little over 2000 years ago, we arrived on the earth for the first time. My name then was Yeshua ben Yosef, or the Jesus of the Bible, the son of Joseph and Mary. Mary’s name then was Mary of Magdala, the woman identified in the Bible as Mary Magdalene. Mary was my wife then, and the first person I appeared to after I was crucified. Because of my personal desire and passion for God, as I grew, I recognized not only that I was the Messiah that was foretold by ancient prophets, but also that I was in a process designed by God that all humans could follow, if they so desired.
I called this process becoming “Born Again”. It is the process of the human soul being transformed into the Divine, the process of becoming At-One with God. Many persons who were connected with me in the 1st century came to know and follow this path while on earth, the most notable person being Mary Magdalene, who is my soulmate, and who was actually married to me in the 1st century, and was pregnant with our daughter when I died.
Shortly after the time of my crucifiction, most of the Divine Truths that I taught my followers were distorted so much so as to not retain much of the Divine Truth. By the time of the 3rd century, large amounts of error had been introduced into my teachings from all forms of religious studies that occurred over the time period, with power being the main object for the distortions…............
WARNING : If you read more you may want to vomit !
Doesn’t Queensland have a fraud squad or Fair Trading laws do deal with these tricksters ?
How many gullible folk are out there with “itching ears” in these latter days ?
Remember well 2 Timothy 4 : 3-4 : “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
WARNING : If you read more you may want to vomit !
What is nauseating to us as Christians seems to smell good to others, and vice versa.
2 Corinthians 2
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?
It seems many people want spiritual food, but their fallen senses (including their itchy ears) mislead them.
From correspondents in Alameda From:AP May 24, 2011 11:43AM
CALIFORNIA preacher Howard Camping says his prophecy that the world would end was off by five months because Judgment Day actually will come on October 21.
The independent Christian radio host said today the apocalypse or the so-called global “Rapture” will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted.
Mr Camping says he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true on Saturday that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. Mr Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer, appeared publically today.
Rather than give his normal daily broadcast, Mr Camping made a special statement before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire that has broadcast his message.
Last week he had predicted the global “Rapture” would begin with powerful earthquakes at 6pm local time in each of the world’s regions, after which the good would be taken into Heaven.
[null]London 2012 Olympics: 'Snow bird' Skelton finds fabulous form in FloridaTelegraph.co.uk (blog)[{}]... owns most of the top rides of 2004 Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa); Tom Tisbo, CEO of Suncast, one of America's largest producer of domestic durables; and Kimberley Boyer, grand-daughter of the billionaire evangelical financier Robert Van Kampen.
[null]Mitt's Muffled SoulNew York Times[{}]Christ or Christianity came up repeatedly. Four years later, he still avoids the word, trumpeting his faithfulness without specifying the faith. What's surprising is that no one around him — not reporters, not rivals — talks about it all that much, ...
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