PROGRAM/MEETING

Tuesday, November 13,  at Christ United Methodist Church. Regular Meeting begins at 7:30pm.  Board Meeting at 6:30pm.   Our program will be a new video on cults from the A & E network.
              

'Anonymous' stalks Church of Scientology
UPI, February 5, 2008 

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The Church of Scientology, the U.S. religion known for its movie star adherents, reportedly is being harassed by a group calling itself "Anonymous."  The attacks began after the church demanded the removal of clips from a 2004 interview with Tom Cruise from YouTube and other Web sites, the Los Angeles Times reports. A computer-generated video posted online by "Anonymous" called for anti-Scientology protests Feb. 10 and threatened the church.  Since then, hackers have taken aim at Scientology Web sites, closing down the main one for a day in January and making access to others difficult.

 On Friday, 23 Scientology facilities in Southern California were evacuated after receiving envelopes of white powder. The powder was actually a harmless mix of cornstarch and wheat germ, according to preliminary test results.

Cruise has been the church's best-known and most controversial member since he publicly criticized actress Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants to treat post-partum depression. The church said the 2004 interview was intended only for internal use and that posting it on the Web was copyright infringement.
 

Beatles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies
Washington Post, February 6, 2008  By Mike Corder, AP

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old.   "He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due to "natural causes, his age."

Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control known as transcendental meditation gradually gained medical respectability.   He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles attended one of his lectures in 1967.   Maharishi retreated last month into silence at his home on the grounds of a former Franciscan monastery, saying he wanted to dedicate his remaining days to studying the ancient Indian texts that underpin his movement.   "He had been saying he had done what he set out to do," Roth said late Tuesday.

With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi  a Hindi-language title for Great Seer  parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multi-million-dollar global empire. His roster of famous meditators ran from Mike Love of the Beach Boys to Clint Eastwood and Deepak Chopra, a new age preacher.  After 50 years of teaching, Maharishi turned to larger themes, with grand designs to harness the power of group meditation to create world peace and to mobilize his devotees to banish poverty from the earth.

His rise to fame came with his association with the Beatles, who first attended one of his lectures in August 1967 in Wales as they looked for a way of attaining higher consciousness in the aftermath of that year's Summer of Love.   The Beatles were so charmed by the self-effacing guru that they agreed to stay with at his India compound, starting in February 1968, an astonishing choice for what was then the world's most celebrated music group.   But once there, Maharishi had a falling out with the rock stars after rumors emerged that he was making inappropriate advances on attendee Mia Farrow. John Lennon was so angry he wrote a bitter satire, "Sexy Sadie," in which he vowed that Maharishi would "get yours yet."   Maharishi insisted he had done nothing wrong and years later McCartney agreed with him. Deepak Chopra, a disciple of Maharishi's and a friend of George Harrison's, has disputed the Farrow story, saying instead that Maharishi had become unhappy with the Beatles because they were using drugs.

Director David Lynch, creator of dark and violent films, lectured at college campuses about the "ocean of tranquility" he found in more than 30 years of practicing TM.   In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Lynch said it has aided him "in every aspect of life."   He said he believed Maharishi has laid the groundwork for world peace, even if that was not immediately apparent from world affairs.

"The world appears in bad shape on the surface, but I compare it to a tree: there are yellow sickly leaves dropping off but Maharishi has brought nourishment to the roots. Hang on for a little while longer, it's coming."

His followers say that some 5 million people devoted 20 minutes every morning and evening reciting a simple sound, or mantra, and delving into their consciousness.

"Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear," Maharishi said in a 2006 interview, repeating one of his own mantras.   Donations and the $2,500 fee to learn TM financed the construction of Peace Palaces, or meditation centers, in dozens of cities around the world. It paid for hundreds of new schools in India.   In 1974, Maharishi founded a university in Fairfield, Iowa, that taught meditation alongside the arts and sciences to 700 students and served organic vegetarian food in its cafeterias.   In 2001, his followers founded Maharishi Vedic City, a town of about 200 people a few miles north of Fairfield. The city requires the construction of buildings according to design principles set by Maharishi for harmony with nature.

Ed Malloy, a TM practitioner and mayor of Fairfield, said Maharishi's followers in Iowa were spending Tuesday evening meditating and holding a "celebration of gratitude for everything he's given."   Supporters pointed to hundreds of scientific studies showing that meditation reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves concentration and raises results for students and businessmen.  Skeptics ridiculed his plan to raise $10 trillion to end poverty by sponsoring organic farming in the world's poorest countries. They scoffed at his notion that meditation groups, acting like psychic shock troops, can end conflict.  "To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish approach," he said.

In 1986, two groups founded by his organization were sued in the U.S. by former disciples who accused it of fraud, negligence and intentionally inflicting emotional damage. A jury, however, refused to award punitive damages.   Over the years, Maharishi also was accused of fraud by former pupils who claim he failed to teach them to fly. "Yogic flying," showcased as the ultimate level of transcendence, was never witnessed as anything more than TM followers sitting in the cross-legged lotus position and bouncing across spongy mats.

Maharishi was born Mahesh Srivastava in central India, reportedly on Jan. 12, 1917  though he refused to confirm the date or discuss his early life.

He studied physics at Allahabad University before becoming secretary to a well known Hindu holy man. After the death of his teacher, Maharishi brought his message to the West in a language that mixed the occult and science that became the buzz of college campuses. Maharishi's trademark flowing beard and long, graying hair appeared on the cover of the leading news magazines of the day. But aides say Maharishi became disillusioned that TM had become identified with the counterculture.   In 1990 he moved onto the wooded grounds of a monastery in Vlodrop, about 125 miles southeast of Amsterdam.   Concerned about his fragile health, he secluded himself in two rooms of the wooden pavilion he built on the compound, speaking only by video to aides around the world and even to his closest advisers in the same building.  

John Hagelin, a theoretical physicist who ran for the U.S. presidency three times on the Maharishi-backed Natural Law Party, said that from the Dutch location Maharishi had daylong access to followers in India, Europe and the Americas.   "He runs several shifts of us into the ground," said Hagelin, Maharishi's closest aid, speaking in Vlodrop about his then-89-year-old mentor. "He is a fountainhead of innovation and new ideas  far too many than you can ever follow up." 
 

Senator pushes for financial info from Hinn, Copeland ministries
Dallas Morning News, February 2, 2008  By Sam Hodges

ATLANTA -- Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Friday that he would again be pressing some high-profile Christian ministries for financial information, including those led by Benny Hinn of Grapevine and Kenneth Copeland of the Fort Worth area.   Sen. Grassley, speaking at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta, said he continues to have questions about whether the ministries have followed tax laws that apply to nonprofits.   He wrote six ministries late last year, asking for information and setting a December deadline for response. Only one of those ministries - led by Joyce Meyer of Missouri - has answered sufficiently to not require a follow-up letter, Sen. Grassley said.   Sen. Grassley didn't rule out asking the Senate to subpoena officials of the ministries, but predicted that wouldn't be necessary. "I think people will see the light of day," he said.

Some Christian groups have criticized Sen. Grassley, saying his probe may be a violation of church-state separation as protected by the Constitution. Sen. Grassley insisted he had no interest in prying into the theology of any group. "It's about obeying the tax laws," he said, adding that he's also concerned with protecting financial donors to ministries.
 

CounterCultSearch. com
Religion News Blog, Amsterdam, Netherlands January 31, 2008

As a service for those who are looking for information about (religious) cults, Apologetics Index — publisher of Religion News Blog — has set up CounterCultSearch.com.  This dedicated search engine allows you to search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, — as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims — across 200+ websites and blogs dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.  More websites and blogs will be added.  The CounterCultSearch.com search engine — which also searches Religion News Blog’s news archive — returns results primarily from websites and blogs that address cults from a sociological perspective. Researchers who are looking for information on religious cults from a mainstream Christian theological perspective, can ApologeticsSearch.com instead.
 

Niece of Scientology's leader backs Cruise biography
 AFP, January 28, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — The author of a controversial new biography on celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise has found an unexpected new ally: the niece of Scientology's current leader, David Miscavige. In an open letter to a senior Scientology official that has been widely posted on the Internet, Jenna Miscavige Hill described how her own family was broken apart by the movement's policies.  Hill's father is Ron Miscavige, the older brother of David Miscavige, the current leader of the Church of Scientology.   "Hell, if Scientology can't keep his family together -- then why on earth should anyone believe the church helps brings families together!" she wrote.

Hill, 23, wrote the letter after Scientology attacked writer Andrew Morton's recently published book "Tom Cruise: an Unauthorised Biography". The actor is a vocal advocate for the movement and the book gives it extensive coverage.  In a 15-page statement issued on January 14, Karin Pouw, the movement's public affairs director, denounced the book as a "bigoted defamatory assault replete with lies".  But in her reply to Pouw, Hill retorted: "I am absolutely shocked at how vehemently you insist upon not only denying the truths that have been stated about the church in that biography, but then take it a step further and tell outright lies."

In particular she challenges Scientology's denial that it puts pressure on members to break all contact with relatives who do not support the movement -- a practice known as disconnection.  Hill said it was this policy that broke up her own family.  "As you well know, my parents officially left the church when I was 16 in 2000," she wrote. Having been separated from them since the age of 12, she decided not to go with them.

But she added: "Not only was I not allowed to speak to them, I was not allowed to answer a phone for well over a year, in case it was them calling me."   Hill goes on to detail how Scientology officials intercepted letters from her parents and her friends.   She was only allowed to visit her parents once a year for a maximum of four days, she wrote -- and then only after her parents threatened legal action to get access.  When she returned from these visits, she was questioned to see if her parents had said anything bad about the movement.

Asked about the Hill's statement, Pouw told AFP: "The church stands by its statement of 14 January. The church does not respond to newsgroup postings."  Contacted by AFP, Hill said she had circulated the letter to draw attention to the practice of disconnection.  "My intention is to put it on a public forum so they are pressured into changing their ways -- even if it is just to cover for themselves." 

Founded in the United States in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology was officially recognised as a religion there nearly 20 years later.  But it is often accused in Germany and other European countries, including Belgium, France and Greece, of exploiting its members financially. 

Morton's book is currently at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for hardback non-fiction after its first week on sale.