Eighteen years ago today, the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult released Sarin, a deadly nerve gas, on five subway trains during Tokyo’s early-morning rush hour.
A handful of misguided sociologists of religion traveled from America in defense of the cult.
In today’s brief edition of Religion News Briefs: the death of cult leader and self-proclaimed ‘Messiah’ Sun Myung Moon brings out cult defenders.
An Amish bishop testifies against the cult-like group that attacked him. Plus, an Australian doctor — a member of the extremist Exclusive Brethren sect — has been banned from practicing medicine after prescribing a ‘gay cure.’
Today’s issue focuses on news stories that expose the Church of Scientology to daylight.
The avalanche of stories in the wake of the Tom Cruise / Katie Holmes divorce shows that the news media are no longer afraid to the litigious cult.
We also highlight a story in which two notorious cult defenders are quoted regarding their opinions of Scientology.
The Aum Supreme Truth cult could have toppled the government and taken power, even only for a short period, by committing mass murder in Tokyo with 70 tons of deadly sarin gas and 1,000 automatic rifles, a former Supreme Court justice said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Meanwhile, New Religious Movements scholars — paid for by Aum Shinrikyo itself — defended the cult.