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Thursday November 19, 2009

Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’

Dangerous dismissal of psychiatry and mental health problems must be part of a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, a Melbourne cult-counsellor said yesterday

Cult Counselling Australia director Raphael Aron said Scientologists put vulnerable people at risk by taking them off psychiatric drugs and treatment, instead treating them with vitamins and E-meter readings.
» Full Story

Monday November 9, 2009

Elior Chen:

Indictment against rabbi Elior Chen: Shook, beat, fed children feces

The Jerusalem District Prosecution issued an indictment against Elior Chen, known as “the abusive rabbi,” for a series of grave abuse charges he allegedly committed against children in his care.

Chen was not charged with attempted murder, but the indictment claims that he abused and assaulted minors in eight separate cases. In addition, he allegedly encouraged members of the group he led to make “corrections” in their children by shaking, beating, binding, and burning them. He also instructed his followers to withhold food and drink from their children and to feed them excrement.
» Full Story

Wednesday October 28, 2009

Lord Our Righteousness Church • Michael Travesser • Strong City • Wayne Bent:

New Mexico Supreme Court denies cult leader Wayne Bent’s bond petition

New Mexico’s highest court has denied sect leader Wayne Bent’s petition to be released on bond from prison while he appeals his convictions for sexual misconduct with teenage female followers, AP reports.

The Supreme Court denied the petition without explanation, as had the Court of Appeals.

AP also says Bent is being force-fed. A judge cleared the way for that after the cult leader tried to starve himself by means of an extended fast in protest of his imprisonment.
» Full Story

Monday October 19, 2009

Christianity • Nigeria • Witchcraft:

Churches denounce African children as “witches”

African Children (C) Robin Hammond, SteppingStonesNigeria.org

An increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

“It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity,” said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria. [video]
» Full Story

Saturday October 17, 2009

Elior Chen:

‘Abusive rabbi’ Elior Chen to be extradited to Israel

Chen is wanted in Israel for his involvement in a sadistic cult thought to have committed numerous counts of child abuse.

Chen, a self-styled rabbi, allegedly influenced members of his flock to abuse their children in order to “correct their corrupt souls.”

According to an indictment, the rabbi instructed one mother to conduct “tikkunim” on her children – “meaning, jolting, beating, tying, burning organs, feeding them with faeces, and more.
» Full Story

Wednesday October 14, 2009

Islam:

Florida judge to order runaway convert Rifqa Bary to return home

A Florida judge says he plans to order the teenager who ran away from Ohio to Florida because she feared physical harm for converting from Islam to Christianity sent back to Ohio.

The judge says Rifqa’s family must product legal documentation of their U.S. citizenship and proof she can continue her education in Ohio. [video]
» Full Story

Thursday September 24, 2009

Lord Our Righteousness Church • Michael Travesser • Strong City • Wayne Bent:

Judge OKs force feeding cult leader Wayne Bent

Imprisoned cult leader Wayne Bent, who is on a hunger strike, won’t be getting home-cooked meals from his followers and instead may be force fed through a tube, a District Court judge decided Wednesday.

A doctor testified that if the fast continues, Bent’s vital organs will shut down and he would die in a matter of days. [video]
» Full Story

Wednesday September 23, 2009

Lord Our Righteousness Church • Michael Travesser • Strong City • Wayne Bent:

Court could intervene on cult leader’s fast

Cult leader Wayne Bent is scheduled to be in court on Wednesday as a judge decides whether the state should force feed him.

Bent wrote letters to his cult in Union County letting them know that he will begin fasting on Sept. 1.

His fourth week of fasting is fast approaching, he will not have any food or water. Now the state is rushing a decision to intervene and force feed him with IVs and tubes.

Medical experts said that within seven days of no water, his organs will begin to break down.

Jeff Bent, Wayne Bent’s son, said the state needs to accept his father’s wishes and religious practices and not force him to eat.
» Full Story

Wednesday September 9, 2009

Religion News Blog:

Religion News Blog tweaks format

In an effort to better serve its readers Religion News Blog has introduced a new format.

The site’s front page now is a ‘news stream’ with links to religion-related articles not just inside Religion News Blog, but also at other websites.

The new format was adopted in large part due to positive reader feedback to the RNB Roundup posts — which included collections of links to a wide variety of religion-related news items and research resources.
» Full Story

Monday September 7, 2009

Lord Our Righteousness Church • Michael Travesser • Strong City • Wayne Bent:

Cult leader Wayne Bent starving himself again

Convicted church leader Wayne Bent has said he no longer wants to eat, and the self-proclaimed messiah could die in prison if he carries out his plan.

In an online statement posted on his church’s Web site, Bent outlined his plan to starve himself. [video]
» Full Story

Friday September 4, 2009

XXXchurch.com:

Pastor/Authors of ‘Jesus Loves You’ Start Movement on Twitter

Two pastors have launched a movement to renew the meaning of the phrase, ‘Jesus Loves You.’ They have already hit the road in a book tour to show that Jesus loves Gays, Porn Stars and Crooks.

Pastors Craig Gross and Jason Harper aim to refresh the phrase “Jesus loves you,” which to many has become an overstated Christian cliche, in their new book ‘Jesus Loves You … This I Know.’
» Full Story

Thursday September 3, 2009

Hinduism • Religious Persecution:

Christians Arrested for Operating Boys’ Hostel in India

Karnataka (India) police accompanied by 10 Hindu extremists on Friday arrested a Christian operator of a boys’ hostel after the extremists accused him and another Christian of offering food, shelter, education and future job prospects as an “allurement” to convert to Christianity.

After falsely accusing the two Christians of fraudulently converting students to Christianity by luring them with food, shelter and education, the extremists slapped evangelist Rama Naik repeatedly.
» Full Story

Wednesday August 5, 2009

FLDS • Polygamy:

Jailed FLDS cult leader being force-fed

For the second time in five days, Mohave County Jail officials are force-feeding polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs because of a self-imposed fast.

Jeffs’ bouts of fasting are often tied to significant court hearings involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
» Full Story

Wednesday July 22, 2009

RNB Roundup:

RNB’s Religion News Roundup: Tony Alamo, Alan Bushey, Allen Steed, Johnny McGowan and more…

In today’s RNB Religion News Roundup: lawyers hope Tony Alamo won’t speak; cult leader Alan Bushey faces sentencing; No deal on rape charge for man whose marriage to underage sect member led to conviction of FLDS cult leader Warren Jeffs.

Also: While providing marriage counseling, two associate pastors concealed that a third pastor was having an affair with a man’s wife. Then: A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed a charge against an avowed white supremacist accused of threatening a juror.
» Full Story

Monday May 18, 2009

RNB Roundup:

RNB’s Religion News Roundup: faith healing; Buddhists and money; Rumsfeld and the Bible…

In today’s RNB Religion News Roundup we’ve got items about religious radio/tv programming, the Grand Prix Priest does Britain’s Got Talent, and human rights abuser Donald Rumsfeld quoting the Bible.

Imagine playing John Lennon’s anti-religious Imagine at church…

And then there’s a Catholic spokesman whose quotes newspapers have to —- out.
» Full Story

Catholic Church:

Hundreds of Irish Catholic priests ‘to be implicated in child abuse report’

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has spent nine years looking into allegations from thousands of former pupils of state schools and orphanages, some which date back more than 60 years.

It is due to report on Wednesday while a second report looking into how sex abuse complaints were handled by the Catholic Church will be published by the commission in the summer.

It is thought some 500 priests have been implicated in the abuse allegations.
» Full Story

Tuesday April 28, 2009

3HO:

Religion News Blog via Email

Religion News Blog via Email? What it is: Each day you receive an email that list the latest stories posted to Religion News Blog. Click on the headline of your choice to read the article at this website — or at another website, as the case may be. (Our Religion News Stream includes links to stories [...]
» Full Story

Wednesday April 1, 2009

1 Mind Ministries • Ria Reshma-Ramkissoon:

Legal experts: Cult member not criminally insane, despite odd plea

A former religious cult member who helped starve her son to death believes he will be resurrected, but legal experts say her extreme faith doesn’t make her criminally insane.

The boy died more than two years ago when cult members stopped feeding him because he refused to say “Amen” after a meal, according to a statement of facts.
» Full Story

Monday March 30, 2009

1 Mind Ministries:

1 Mind Ministries: cult members charged in death of boy

Members of One Mind Ministries drew little notice in the working-class Baltimore neighborhood where they lived in a nondescript brick rowhouse.

But inside, prosecutors say, horrors were unfolding: Answering to a leader called Queen Antoinette, they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say “Amen” at mealtimes. After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs. They left it in a shed in Philadelphia, where it remained for a year before detectives found it last spring.
» Full Story

Monday March 16, 2009

Ethics • Human Rights Violations • USA:

Red Cross: America practiced torture

The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration’s treatment of al-Qaeda captives “constituted torture,” a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document.

The report, an account alleging physical and psychological brutality inside CIA “black site” prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Such maltreatment of detainees is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
» Full Story

Monday March 2, 2009

Islam:

Religion News Roundup — Islam: Music, Chess, and Sin

A roundup of Islam-related news items, including • Music, Chess and Sin: Muslim extremists encourage children to despise British society. • The government is under fire from the political centre-right for being too soft on radical or reactionary Muslim groups who stop just short of endorsing violence. • A look at the integration of Muslims in Europe, • and a poll that finds U.S. Muslims thriving but not content.

Also: • Geert Wilders’ political party leads the polls. • plus, the Malaysian government can’t make up its mind over a Catholic publication’s use of the word ‘Allah.’
» Full Story

Thursday February 12, 2009

R.C. Samanta Roy:

Police quiet about SIST sect’s threats; secretive group facing financial problems

More than three months after police announced they had a person of interest in custody for making threats against 60 Shawano-area residents, investigators have offered little about their efforts to solve the case.

Meanwhile the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology is facing growing financial problems. [video]
» Full Story

Monday January 26, 2009

RNB Roundup:

RNB Roundup: a compendium of religion news stories

A roundup of religion news stories, including: • Town kicks out Scientology front group • Turns out Harry Potter is a ‘Zionist plot’ • ‘Prosperity Gospel’ feels runs into financial turbulence • Some Church of England schools cater almost exclusively to Muslim pupils • Sufi Muslims considered valuable allies in the fight against extremism • Angels call for witches’ pardons • Gay students at BYU still struggle for acceptance • Vatican rehabilitates Holocaust denier • Outrage at busty Virgin Mary fashion models — and more…
» Full Story

Tuesday January 6, 2009

Quackery • Scientology:

Death certificate: Jett Travolate killed by seizure

Police will question Travolta, 54, and Preston, 46 about their son’s medication as part of routine inquiries into his death, the Daily Star reported.

Jett had been diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome, a vascular illness that leads to inflamed blood vessels, and his parents had always denied that he suffered from autism, despite the concerns of Travolta’s brother Joey, an autism campaigner.

Scientology-watchers have openly wondered whether the cult’s quackery may have contributed to Jett’s death.
» Full Story

Tuesday December 30, 2008

Lord Our Righteousness Church • Michael Travesser • Strong City • Wayne Bent:

Cult leader Wayne Bent sencented to 10 years

The leader of a New Mexico cult has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The judge sentenced 67-year-old Wayne Bent to the maximum of 18 years on Tuesday, then suspended eight years.

Bent was convicted of 1 count of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor earlier this month. [video]
» 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).

The information is provided for research and educational purposes.

RNB's non-profit news clipping service is used by - among others - Christian apologists, countercult professionals, anticult organizations, cult experts, teachers, religion professionals, reporters and other researchers.

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Samples of the hundreds of religious news subjects covered in Religion News Blog include (click links for respective news trackers): the Alpha Course, Alternative Healing, Catholic Church, Christianity, Cults, Falun Gong, Hate Groups, Interfaith issues, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism / Mormon Church, Polygamy, Religion Trends, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Unification Church, Wicca / Witchcraft, and many more.
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