PROGRAM/MEETING

Tuesday, April 15,  at Christ United Methodist Church. Regular Meeting begins at 7:30pm.  Board Meeting at 6:30pm.   Our program will be two videos, “The Children of Waco” and a video on the history of CIA Mind Control Experiments. 

Dues for 2008

Our Dues for the year 2008 are now due.  Cost is $20 for an individual, $30 for families.  Please bring to the meeting or send to the address above.  Please make checks payable to CISNEO. 
 

EX-AIDE TO LEO J. RYAN WINS HOUSE SEAT IN CALIFORNIA
New York Times, April 9, 2008

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Jackie Speier, who as a Congressional aide nearly 30 years ago was shot and left for dead on a Guyana airstrip, won a special election Tuesday for the House seat once held by her former boss.  A former California state lawmaker, Ms. Speier had nearly 78 percent of the vote with 71 percent of the precincts reporting in a five-way race.  The district had been represented for the last 27 years by Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat who died in February.  Ms. Speier’s former boss, Representative Leo J. Ryan, was killed in on Nov. 18, 1978, on a fact-finding trip looking into the cult led by Jim Jones. Ms. Speier was seriously wounded. More than 900 cult members committed suicide or were slain.  She lost a special election to succeed Mr. Ryan but has represented much of the area as a San Mateo County supervisor, assemblywoman and state senator.  

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE WORKERS TRAINED BY ‘CULT’
ABC News (Australia), April 2, 2008

The Defence Department has admitted some of its personnel have undertaken professional development courses run by an organization that had been listed as a possible cult.  At least $12,000 has been spent by the Department on courses run by Landmark Education - though none since 2004.

In the mid 1990s Landmark Education was listed among 200 groups in France that had cult-like features and it has been accused in the past of brainwashing.  But the group's spokeswoman, Deborah Beroset, says the organisation has been unfairly tarnished.  "What happened in France is that a commission established by the French Parliament issued a report that listed almost 200 organizations as being either a possible cult or potentially having cult-like aspects," she said.  "We were never contacted and were inappropriately included in that list."
                       

“ANONYMOUS” CONTINUES BATTLE AGAINST SCIENTOLOGY

The Internet-based group “Anonymous” continues to organize protests against the practices of the Church of Scientology both on the Internet and in demonstrations outside COS centers worldwide.  On March 15 the group organized demonstrations at locations in the US, Europe and Australia.  The group also continues to publish video accounts of the demonstrations online at www.youtube.com as well as videos that serve as position statements for the group.  Anyone interested in more information regarding “Anonymous’” campaign can visit the youtube website and search “Scientology Anonymous” for relevant videos.

The group Anonymous’ activity on the web has coincided with the appearance of the web site:  www.ex-scientologykids.com.  The website’s slogan is “I was born.  I grew up.  I escaped.”  The site is run by three young ex-scientologists, Kendra Wiseman, Jenna Miscaviage Hill, and Astra Woodcraft.  All three women were raised in the COS and Hill is the niece of COS leader David Miscaviage.  The website features gripping personal stories of each woman’s childhood in the Church of Scientology.
 

LATE-NIGHT CALL REVEALED SECRET WORLD 
Washington Post, April 9, 2008, Page A02  By Sylvia Moreno and Adam Kilgore, Staff Writers

Sect Had Moved to Compound After Fleeing Utah, Colorado

SAN ANGELO, Tex., April 8 -- The cry for help came late at night -- at 11:32 p.m. -- and it came in a whisper.  Speaking in a low voice to avoid being overheard, the 16-year-old girl -- mother of an 8-month-old baby and pregnant with a second child -- sketched out chilling tales. She spoke of teenage girls, some as young as 13, being forced to have sex with older men for the purpose of bearing their children. She said she was the seventh "spiritual" wife of a 49-year-old man. She described beatings by him as so vicious that one time several of her ribs had been broken.   The March 29 phone call, and one the next day from the compound run by an insular and secretive splinter sect of the Mormon Church, prompted raids by authorities; they took 416 children into protective custody, the largest child removal in Texas history. The children, mostly girls, ranged in age from infants to 17. Several have babies or are pregnant.   The girl's harrowing tale and the subsequent investigation provided for the first time a glimpse of life inside the compound. It was an existence so removed from mainstream society that many female inhabitants did not know how to spell their last name and many children could not state their birth date.

The ranch was built outside of tiny West Texas town of Eldorado in 2004. It was just a few years after allegations against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as the sect is known, of child abuse, forced marriage and fraud in Utah and Arizona.  The sect broke away from the mainstream Mormon Church when it banned polygamy in 1890. It practices plural marriage, a spiritual ritual that is arranged by the group's prophet through what the church teaches are revelations from God. Members believe that having multiple wives gives them access to the highest level in heaven, the Celestial Kingdom.

In 2004, the sect claimed a membership of 10,000 to 12,000, most living in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. In an interview that year with The Washington Post, Rodney Parker, the lawyer who spoke for FLDS, and the sect's self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs, said the group was looking for an "outpost and retreat" in Texas for 500 church members. They said the sect's members wanted "to concentrate and focus on their religious mission without the interferences and pressures they've been subjected to" in Arizona and Utah.   Now the compound, known as the Yearning for Zion Ranch and strictly off-limits to outsiders, is the focus of a major investigation and intense attention in Texas, too.

"We have now interviewed all the children, and that information shows us that we have more victims [than the 16-year-old complainant] who were abused or at risk of being abused," said Marleigh Meisner, a regional spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.  The teenager's calls went to a local family violence shelter, and workers there called a child abuse hotline run by Family and Protective Services. From that tip, investigators began looking into the case last week, and first sought entry into the compound on Thursday, said Darrell Azar, the state spokesman for Family and Protective Services. The first 18 children were removed Friday and the last 15 on Monday night. They have all been taken to Fort Concho in San Angelo, where authorities are determining what to do with them.

"The information we have received from law enforcement indicates that all of the children have been safely removed from the ranch," Meisner said. An additional 139 women voluntarily accompanied the children, although they are free to go back to the compound, Azar said.   Law enforcement officials, including FBI agents, continued to search the 1,700-acre compound Tuesday evening.

Authorities say the girl who made the original calls has still not been accounted for.   According to an affidavit released Tuesday, the girl's "spiritual husband" beat her whenever he got angry. Sometimes the beatings included, "hitting her on the chest and choking her" while another woman in the compound held her infant child. The teenage mother received her last beating on Easter Sunday, then six days later made her first call to the shelter.   She said she wanted to leave the ranch, but had been told that life would be hard in the outside world. She told authorities that her parents did not live at the ranch, and she said she had no one to "explain that she does not want to continue to be on the ranch," the affidavit said.

After the first raid, Eldorado's First Baptist Church provided meals and its Fellowship Hall as a shelter for about 80 women and children. The women wore loose dresses in muted colors that covered their bodies. They huddled together, hardly speaking except to ask when they could "go home." One woman, interviewed by an agent from the state Child Protective Services, was asked how to spell her last name. "I don't know," she responded.   They asked for the same all-natural diet they ate on the compound -- raw milk, yogurt, cheese, steamed vegetables, steamed oatmeal, honey, berries, nuts. The churches tried to accommodate them, offering grilled chicken, steamed vegetables and fruit.  By Saturday, the women and children had relaxed somewhat. Children began playing with toys that were brought to the church-turned-shelter.   "The sounds of glee, the shouts, the joy," said Helen Pfluger, a leader at the First Baptist Church. "From all the aerial photographs [of the compound] I've seen, I've never seen anything that would suggest playing for children. They were having an awesome time." Kilgore reported from Eldorado.

 
COPELAND, DOLLAR FAIL TO MEET DEADLINE
Baptist Press, April 1, 2008  By Tom Strode, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (BP)--Two television ministries still are refusing to comply fully with a U.S. Senate committee's probe into their financial records.  Televangelists Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar failed to provide the requested information by the March 31 deadline, according to a written release from Sen. Charles Grassley, R.-Iowa, the minority leader on the Finance Committee. Sen. Max Baucus, D.-Mont., the committee's chairman, and Grassley had asked Copeland and Dollar, plus fellow televangelist Eddie Long, to submit the documentation they are seeking by the end of March.  Long and three other televangelists have either complied, have begun doing so or have committed to fulfill the request, the written release from Grassley said. According to the release:

• Long will provide information April 15, his ministry reported.

• Randy and Paula White have shipped their initial set of answers, a lawyer said March 28.

• Benny Hinn submitted a second collection of documents March 28.

• Joyce Meyer has fulfilled the request.

	Grassley said he would continue his dialogue with the ministries of Copeland and Dollar.   Copeland said his ministry provided 23 pages of answers to questions and 291 pages of supporting material in response to Grassley's initial request in November, but Baucus and Grassley said March 12 the information was "incomplete." Dollar has not produced any of the material requested by the senators. "It's good to see the majority of the ministries offering information," Grassley said in the March 31 release. "They receive generous tax breaks as non-profit organizations. In general, the federal Treasury forgoes billions of tax dollars a year to tax-exempt groups. The ministries' sharing of material with the Senate committee in charge of tax policy shows an interest in accountability for their special tax status."
	All the televangelists targeted by the committee are identified with the "word of faith" movement, Copeland said on his ministry's website, adding that the inquiry "raises significant concerns" as to whether religious beliefs are being targeted. "Word of faith" teaching often consists of a so-called "prosperity gospel" that promises physical and financial blessings for believers in Christ. Accusations of contributions being used to support lavish lifestyles have been leveled against at least some of the televangelists.
	Grassley initially requested information from the six ministries in a Nov. 5 letter. He asked them to provide their personal and ministry related financial records, including credit card statements, expenses for secondary residences used by the televangelists, gifts given by the ministries and lists of private automobiles. Grassley's questions were based on accounts from watchdog organizations and whistleblowers, as well as investigative news reports, the senator said. Baucus and Grassley sent a joint letter to Copeland, Dollar and Long -– the three who had yet to say they would comply -- March 11, long after Grassley's original Dec. 6 deadline had passed. Baucus and Grassley expressed hope at that time the committee would receive the documents "without resorting to compulsory process," an apparent reference to the possibility of subpoenas.
	The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) welcomed the increased cooperation by the televangelists.   "Financial transparency is the cornerstone of financial integrity for nonprofits," ECFA President Ken Behr said in a written statement. While he appreciates the religious freedom concerns expressed by some, Behr said he believes ministries that comply with current regulations "actually improve donor confidence in our religious charities."  None of the six ministries is a member of the ECFA. In early December the National Religious Broadcasters expressed concern about Grassley's investigation, even though none of the ministries belongs to NRB. NRB President Frank Wright said in a letter to Grassley he was worried about the "broader implications," saying the senator's letter "goes far beyond a mere request for financial records necessary to scrutinize the charitable nature of [an] organization's operations." The names of the televangelists and their ministries, plus the locations of their headquarters, are: Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Newark Texas; Creflo Dollar, World Changers Church International, College Park, Ga.; Eddie Long, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Lithonia, Ga.; Joyce Meyer, Joyce Meyer Ministries, Fenton, Mo.; Benny Hinn, Benny Hinn Ministries, Grapevine, Texas, and Randy and Paula White, Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries, Tampa, Fla.  The Whites announced in August they are divorcing.