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Monday March 15, 2010

Elior Chen:

Imprisoned cult leader Elior Chen refusing to grant wife divorce

The leader of a Jerusalem cult facing charges of child abuse, Elior Chen, told a rabbinical court yesterday that he is refusing to grant a get, or Jewish divorce, to the mother of his alleged victims.

Chen and several of his followers allegedly used knives, hammers and other instruments to abuse children as young as 3 and 4 years old in the ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement of Betar Ilit in February and March 2008.
» Full Story

Christianity • Internet:

‘Theology After Google’ conference takes look at religion in Web era

The premise of the conference had been laid out earlier in the evening by Philip Clayton, a professor at Claremont School of Theology who talked about the role of Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15th century. By making the Bible more widely available, he said, it democratized religion and led directly to the Protestant Reformation.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Clayton said, “we are talking today about a transition equally as great.”
» Full Story

Saturday March 13, 2010

Scientology:

Scientology insider’s nightmare childhood

A former Scientologist who says she was a “child slave” and alleges she saw a six-year-old boy chained up in a ship’s hold is disappointed the Senate has blocked a full inquiry into the religious organisation.

Keryn’s decision to speak openly about her experiences comes after ABC1’s Four Corners program, The Ex-Files, in which former members told of forced abortions, pressure to work extreme hours and being forced to hand over large sums of money.
» Full Story

Brisbane Christian Fellowship • Cults • Scientology:

Senator Xenophon vows to pursue ‘cults’

Addressing a conference of cult survivors in Brisbane today, Senator Nick Xenophon said a new motion for a new parliamentary inquiry might include a push for police to take criminal action against cults.

He was also attracted to using the Trade Practices Act to prosecute groups for false and misleading conduct if they wrongly claimed to provide therapeutic benefits to their devotees.

The conference has heard a number of heart-rending stories from different religion-based and therapeutic cults.
» Full Story

Friday March 12, 2010

Cults • Ex-Cult Counseling • Ex-Cult Support • Scientology:

Senator to speak at Brisbane anti-cult conference

Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon will address a conference in Brisbane which claims to be the first specifically organised to help people who have left cults.

Senator Xenophon has been campaigning for an inquiry into the Church of Scientology and its tax exempt status.
» Full Story

Scientology:

Scientologists try to block ‘intolerant’ German feature film

Germany’s state broadcaster is locked in a row with the Church of Scientology which wants to block an upcoming feature film that depicts the controversial organisation as totalitarian and unethical.

According to the makers of Until Nothing Remains, the €2.5m (£2.3 m) drama, which is due to air in a prime-time slot at the end of March, is based on the true story of Heiner von Rönns, who left Scientology and suffered the subsequent break-up of his family.
» Full Story

Thursday March 11, 2010

Catholic Church:

Chief exorcist says Devil is in Vatican

He added that the assault on Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas Eve by a mentally unstable woman and the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the Anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See.
» Full Story

Aum Shinrikyo:

Aum Shinrikyo victim count rises

The number of victims of the 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway by the AUM Shinrikyo cult is almost 6,300 in a nationwide police survey — far more than the earlier estimate of over 5,000.

Meanwhile one more fatality has been identified.
» Full Story

Scientology:

Australia: Scientology inquiry defeated in Senate; New call for inquiry to be introduced

Labor and the Coalition have been accused of choosing to look away from claims of abuse in the Church of Scientology, by blocking a Senate investigation into the tax-free status of religious groups.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon will next week introduce another motion for an inquiry into specific allegations against Scientology.
» Full Story

Wednesday March 10, 2010

Hate Groups • Islam:

Feds: ‘JihadJane’ Female American convert to Islam led death plot

A Department of Justice spokesman wouldn’t confirm that the case was related to a group of people arrested in Ireland earlier yesterday on suspicion of plotting against a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

But a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said LaRose had targeted the Swedish cartoonist and had online discussions about her plans with at least one of the suspects in Ireland.
» Full Story

Quackery • Scientology:

Scientology putting lives at risk, says mental health expert Pat McGorry

Scientology’s quackery is highlighted once again, this time by renowned mental health expert Pat McGorry who has joined psychiatry boss Louise Newman and the Brain and Mind Institute’s Ian Hickie in urging senators to vote for an inquiry.

“They are the deniers of the realities of mental illness, which I find incredibly irresponsible and dangerous,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
» Full Story

Free Speech • Islam:

After murder plot: Swedish papers publish cartoon depicting Muhammad as a dog

At least three Swedish newspapers published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after an alleged plot to murder the artist who created it was uncovered in Ireland.

Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial that “Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes.”
» Full Story

Hate Groups • Islam:

Seven Muslims held over plot to murder cartoonist

Seven Muslims arrested in Ireland are being questioned over an alleged plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

They were allegedly involved in an international plot to murder Lars Vilks whose controversial depictions of the Muslim prophet were printed in a newspaper in 2007.
» Full Story

Islam • Religious Persecution:

Iranian Pastor Tortured, Threatened for ‘Converting Muslims’

An Assyrian pastor the Iranian government accused of “converting Muslims” is being tortured in prison and threatened with execution, sources close to the case said.

According to Farsi Christian News Network, Rev. Wilson Issavi’s wife, Medline Nazanin, recently visited her husband in prison, where she saw that he had obvious signs of torture and was in poor condition. Iranian intelligence officials told Nazanin that her husband might be executed for his alleged activities.
» Full Story

Tuesday March 9, 2010

Satanism:

Satan worshipers possible suspects in Kimberly Simon slaying

The last hours of Kimberly Simon’s life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to investigators who have been probing her homicide for the past 16 months.

By disclosing the new information, investigators hope to stir public interest in watching the “America’s Most Wanted” episode scheduled to feature Simon’s case.
» Full Story

Hate Groups • Islam:

Islamic Assailants Kill Hundreds of Christians near Jos, Nigeria

An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria today following the killing of hundreds of Christians early yesterday morning in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims, according to Compass Direct News.

The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned, according to Compass.
» Full Story

Media:

Social Science Research Council Releases Report on the Religion Blogosphere

“The New Landscape of the Religion Blogosphere,” a newly released report by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), offers an extensive overview and analysis of the increasingly prominent role played by blogs in shaping the contemporary dynamics of religion, academia, and public life.

Drawing on a review of the work of nearly 100 blogs, as well as detailed survey responses, “The New Landscape of the Religion Blogosphere” provides both empirical data and reflection on the impact of blogging at the intersection of religion, academia, and public life.
» Full Story

Hate Groups:

U.S. Supreme Court to rule on free speech by Westboro ‘Baptist Church’ hategroup

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether vitriolic anti-gay protestors who picket the funerals of US soldiers are protected by free speech laws.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a hate group that masquerades as a Christian church and uses free speech as an excuses for despicable behavior.
» Full Story

Faith Healing • Followers of Christ (Oregon) • Neil Jeffrey Beagley:

Jeffrey and Marci Beagley sentenced to 16 months of prison for their son’s faith-healing death

Judge Steven Maurer sentenced Jeffrey and Marci Beagley to 16 months in prison this afternoon, calling the couple’s decision to not seek medical care for their 16-year-old son, Neil Beagley, a “crime that was a product of an unwillingness to respect the boundaries of freedom of religious expression.”

The Beagleys and Worthingtons are members of the Followers of Christ Church. Members of the Oregon City church have a lengthy history of child deaths from lack of medical care that influenced a 1999 law eliminating the religious freedom defense in cases involving the welfare of a child.
» Full Story

Aum Shinrikyo:

Aum victim keeps memory alive via film

In March 1995 members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult carried out its infamous nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

The widow of a man killed in the attack has made a documentary film in which she interviews other people victimized in the sarin attack.
» Full Story

Monday March 8, 2010

Scientology:

Australia: More Scientology accusations exposed

In Australia the Scientology cult has been hit by a fresh wave of allegations, likely to give added weight to calls for a Senate inquiry into the church.

Several Australians have spoken out for the first time about their experiences with the church, accusing it of forced abortions, holding slave labour camps and exploiting child workers.
» Full Story

Friday March 5, 2010

Destiny Church:

Destiny Church ‘bishop’ Brian Tamaki defends high life

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki says his $1 million-plus home and $75,000 car are “not much” of a reward for decades of clean and righteous living and taking his message to the masses.

But a former high-ranking Destiny member told the New Zealand Herald he and others left because people were hearing less about Jesus Christ and hearing more about the church’s leader.
» Full Story

Destiny Church:

Pastor Brian Tamaki: God doesn’t want me to be poor

Destiny Church’s self-proclaimed Bishop, Brian Tamaki, said he feels uncomfortable with members of his parish giving him gifts but the rules were written by the church’s elders.

He said he had been ready to take a vow of poverty but that was not what God wanted.
» Full Story

Thursday March 4, 2010

Destiny Church:

Destiny Church pastors replaced after walk-out

New pastors have been appointed to run Brisbane’s Destiny Church after their predecessor and more than half the congregation walked out of last Sunday’s service.

Brian Tamaki dismissed reports of a split within Destiny as “grossly exaggerated” and accused the media of being “funny and weird”.
» Full Story

Destiny Church:

Destiny churches split triggers exodus

Destiny Church ministers and leaders are heading to its Brisbane branch after more than half the congregation – including its pastor – walked out.

“You might think I’m stupid for going into the church in the first place. But I [only] found out it was a cult after I went in,” one former member says.
» Full Story

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Religion News Blog (RNB), published by Apologetics Index, highlights news items and other resources on world religions, cults, religious sects, new religious movements, alternative religions, abusive churches and - to a lesser extent - related issues (e.g. ethics, human rights).

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