FACTnet

David Pike — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:20:50 +0000

In “Scientology: The Religion of the Stars” author Ian Halperin goes undercover to reveal never-before-told secrets of the strange, science-fiction inspired church of the stars.

Halperin infiltrates the Church of Scientology posing as a gay actor attracted by the church’s claim that it can cure homosexuality. Rebuffed until he claims that his uncle is a rich millionaire thinking of joining the church, he is given unprecedented access and allowed to video his entire experience. The results are explosive.

The book is slated for publication on Aug. 16, 2010, but can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com

Halperin wrote and produced a DVD two years ago on the same subject. Here is the trailer for that DVD…

His Highness Hollywood is a rollicking, irreverent and controversial look behind the scenes of Hollywood. Posing undercover as a gay actor who is a member of the so called “Israeli Royal Family”, filmmaker Ian Halperin infiltrates the world of head-shots, auditions, fame and ruin …but in true Hollywood form, something unexpected happens. He infiltrates the Church of Scientology who promise him a cure for his alleged homosexuality. And in the process of exposing the secrets of the world’s most coveted trade, he meets up with numerous A-listers, including Brad Pitt, Jay Leno, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Paxton, Ron Jeremy and Sigourney Weaver, who are most eager to give him the inside track on what life is really like in Tinseltown. Ian Halperin is a NY Times bestselling author/filmmaker Ian Halperin who specializes in undercover investigations. He is the author of seven bestselling books and has directed three films, including the highly acclaimed documentary The Cobain Case.

Here Ian interviews a former scientologist that says Scientology wanted him to give up being gay…

Here Ian speaks to Glosslip Radio about his book that came out 2 years ago, which led to the writing of the book, “Hollywood Undercover” and his film compendium for the book, “His Highness Hollywood live from the premiere of the film at the prestigious National Arts Club in New York. Ian’s film goes undercover to expose the seedy side of Hollywood, including a scary trip inside the “hallowed” halls of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center in Hollywood.

IMHO
FACTNet

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Parents found guilty in Oregon City faith-healing trial…

David Pike — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:05:09 +0000

By Steven Mayes, The Oregonian, February 02, 2010, 9:02PM

OREGON CITY — A Clackamas County jury sent a clear signal Tuesday that parents who rely solely on faith healing to treat their children face prison if a child dies.

Parents found guilty in Oregon City faith-healing trial

Jeffrey and Marci Beagley were found guilty Tuesday of criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year-old son, Neil Beagley. The boy died in June 2008 of complications from an undiagnosed congenital urinary blockage after his parents attempted to heal him with prayer, anointing with oil and laying on of hands.

They are the first members of Oregon City’s Followers of Christ Church convicted of homicide in the congregation’s long history of children dying from from treatable medical conditions.

“This is a signal to the religious community that they should be on notice that their activities will be scrutinized,” said Steven K. Green, director of Willamette University’s Center for Religion and Democracy. Other prosecutors may be emboldened to take similar cases to court, the law professor said.

Prosecutor Greg Horner asked that the Beagleys immediately be taken in to custody. Clackamas County Presiding Judge Steven L. Maurer denied the request, saying the Beagleys were not a flight risk or threat to the community.

Friends and family reacted to the 10-2 verdicts with stunned silence. Marci Beagley hugged her mother in the courthouse lobby as both women wept. Other family members quietly stood by.

The Beagleys will be sentenced Feb. 18. The maximum penalty for criminally negligent homicide is 10 years, but the Beagleys likely will receive no more than 18 months in prison and could be sentenced to probation.

Steve Lindsey, who represented Marci Beagley, said he would recommend a “non-jail sentence” that would include probation and possibly other conditions, such as counseling, supervised medical care for the Beagleys’ 16-year-old daughter, Kathryn, and cooperating with state child-welfare investigators. Lindsey said such a sentence could educate the Followers about their legal responsibilities as parents.

As the verdict was read and the jury was polled on Tuesday, Marci Beagley and a few of the jurors cried. The strain of the nine-day trial was apparent. Jurors, with one exception, declined to speak with reporters.

The Beagleys are considering their options and may file a appeal, said attorney Wayne Mackeson, who represented Jeffrey Beagley.

“If conviction and a prison sentence meant they would get their son back, they would do that in a heartbeat,” he told reporters gathered on the courthouse steps.

“I know the parents are broken-hearted. But love and good intentions are not all it takes to be a good parent,” said Swan, who previously lobbied Oregon legislators to limit legal protection for parents involved in faith-healing deaths.

The trial attracted national attention and was filmed gavel to gavel by TruTV for later release as a multi-part documentary on cable television.

Prosecutors focused on the Beagleys’ lifelong rejection of medical care and on a family dynamic that placed immense pressure on Neil Beagley to conform to his church’s reliance on faith healing.

They noted that Neil had limited contact with people outside his church who might have noticed health problems. He was home-schooled, and his social life did not extend beyond other church members.

Defense attorneys presented jurors with a picture of a typical hard-working suburban family whose lives blended daily with the secular world. They showed the jury family pictures and videos of Neil growing up and depicted the Beagleys as part of the mainstream and anything but isolated and clannish.

Three doctors testified for the defense, generally saying that Neil Beagley’s symptoms wouldn’t necessarily have appeared life-threatening.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Greg Horner noted that the Beagleys would not take their son to a physician but relied on medical experts to defend their actions.

It is “a rich irony,” Horner said.

Jurors were asked to consider whether the Beagleys’ actions were “a gross deviation” from what a reasonable person would have done in a similar situation.

The state did not have to prove that the Beagleys intended to cause Neil’s death or that they knew he was going to die.

Defense attorneys downplayed the religious aspects of the case while prosecutors said the law, faith and parental duties were inseparably bound.

Neil Beagley “grew up in a world where medicine is weakness, faith is strength,” prosecutor Steven Mygrant told jurors.

Neil embraced the church’s belief that seeking medical care shows a lack of faith. None of his relatives used doctors. And Neil was unable to make an informed health-care decision because he didn’t know he was on the verge of death, prosecutors said.

“For me, this case was not about faith healing and it was not a referendum on the church,” Mackeson said. “It was about two parents who loved their son and did not know how sick he was.”

The jury agreed with Mackeson — up to a point.

The Beagleys are decent people who made a fatal mistake, said juror Robert Zegar. The couple should have known their son needed more than prayer, but they ignored warnings, including the death of another family member, Zegar said.

Last summer, another jury found church members Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington not guilty of manslaughter in the death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava Worthington. Raylene Worthington is the Beagley’s daughter and Neil Beagley’s sister. Carl Worthington was convicted on a lesser charge.

Prosecutors successfully argued that they should be allowed to discuss the Worthington case because the Beagleys were present when Ava died. That pre-trial victory helped pave a path to Tuesday’s guilty verdict.

Maurer’s decision to allow references to the Worthington case “was a very big difference,” said attorney Mark Cogan, who represented Carl Worthington. “That was the biggest difference between the two trials.”

The Beagleys were at the Worthington home for 24 hours before Ava died. No one called for an ambulance or tried to revive the Ava when she stopped breathing.

Neil Beagley died three and a half months later in similar circumstances.

He became ill in March 2008 with a cold that developed into something Marci Beagley and other relatives believed could be life-threatening. The Beagleys treated him with faith healing but did not take him to a doctor.

Neil recovered but got sick again in early June 2008. After a week or so, he became too weak to walk. Jeffrey Beagley had to carry him to the bathroom. Marci Beagley fed him in small meals, but Neil couldn’t keep his food down.

When he died, as with Ava Worthington, no one called 9-1-1.

What’s next
Sentencing: Scheduled for Feb. 18. Criminally negligent homicide is a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Normal sentencing range for defendants with no criminal history is 16 to 18 months.

Religious exemption: Under an exemption from Oregon’s mandatory sentencing laws, parents who offer a religious defense in the death of a child may be eligible for probation rather than prison.

Rick Bella, Nicole Dungca, Dana Tims and Yuxing Zheng contributed to this report.

Special thanks to the crew at the ReligionNewsBlog.com

IMHO
FACTNet

William Rex Fowler, Scientologist and Adams Co. business owner, thought to be victim now charged with murder…

David Pike — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:33:33 +0000

By Jeremy P. Meyer, 01/22/2010, The Denver Post

William Rex Fowler, 58, at first to believed to be the victim in a Dec. 30 shooting at his Adams County office, has been arrested and charged with the murder of his former business partner.

Investigators say Fowler shot Tommy Ciancio, 42, three times in the head with a 9mm Glock handgun when Ciancio came to Fowler Software Design to collect $9,900 in severance.

Ciancio, who was Fowler Software’s chief operating officer, resigned Nov. 23, 2009 in a dispute over the way the company was being managed.

On Dec. 29, 2009, he agreed to a settlement and to sign a waiver of release in exchange for the payment, company CEO Laura Zaspel told investigators.

Employees of the software company, which reportedly had suffered financial difficulties since 2008, related in part to the transfer of as much as $200,000 to a church or charity by Fowler, told investigators that Ciancio arrived around 10 a.m. Dec. 30 to collect his check.

After greeting former colleagues and asking them about their New Year’s Eve plans, he asked to speak to Ubaldo Ciminieri, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, who had stepped away from his desk. Ciancio then went downstairs to Fowler’s office.

According to the arrest affidavit, the employees told investigators the next thing they heard was gunshots.

Police were called by another tenant in the Elati Building near West 84th Avenue and Elati Street in unincorporated Adams County.

When officers arrived at the building, they saw Fowler coming out through the door, bleeding from the face. Investigators said he took one step past the threshold, then walked back in. Police rushed into the building, and escorted Fowler back out.

When Fowler attempted to speak to police, blood rushed out of his mouth. They asked if Ciancio was still in the building and he shook his head up and down to say “yes.” They asked if Ciancio shot him and Fowler did not respond, investigators said.

Fowler was loaded into an ambulance and transported to Denver Health Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery. During the surgery, police said, Fowler’s hands were bagged to protect evidence of gunshot residue, which was later collected by investigators.

Inside Fowler’s office, police found Ciancio’s body. They said he appeared to have been sitting at a table when he was shot. They also found the murder weapon and four 9mm Luger shell casings. They found a handgun magazine on the table, and another in a closet in the office.

Investigators say the gun was registered to Andrew Hyung Fowler, 26, who lived at 1413 L. Ron Hubbard Way in Los Angeles, when it was purchased. In interviews with police, Andrew Fowler said he gave the gun to his father for Christmas in 2007.

Police also found a briefcase and a typed note, dated Dec. 30 and signed by Fowler, that advised there was nothing confidential in the satchel and that it should be given to his wife, Janet.

When Janet Fowler was interviewed by detectives, she told them she wanted the briefcase returned immediately.

“It is important to me and my church. It is religious material and I want it now,” she said to investigators. “Even if you looked at it, and read it, you would not understand anything in it. Because it is way above a normal person and you would not know what it meant. I want it back right now.”

Janet Fowler also reportedly told investigators that her husband “is a Scientologist and would not have gone without a fight. He would have grabbed a gun in a struggle and would not have let someone shoot him.”

She also told investigators that Ciancio had sent e-mails to Rex Fowler, threatening to hire an attorney and sue over money he said was owed him.

Adams County officials said Fowler is in custody, but would not say where he is being held. He was last at Denver Health Medical Center, but his name no longer appears on patient rosters.

IMHO
FACTNet

Robert S. Minton, a former Scientology critic and true warrior, dies of heart ailment…

David Pike — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:24:51 +0000

By Thomas C. Tobin and Joe Childs, Times Staff Writers Saturday, January 30, 2010

Robert S. Minton, a retired investment banker who poured millions into efforts to fight the Church of Scientology in the 1990s, has died. He was 63.

Minton burst on the local scene in late 1997 when he began financing a lawsuit against the church by the family of Lisa McPherson, the 36-year-old Scientologist who died in 1995 while in the care of church staffers in Clearwater.

All told, Minton gave about $2 million to the family’s legal effort and an additional $8 million to other anti-Scientology causes. He set up an office next to church facilities in downtown Clearwater and staged frequent pickets.

He once said in an interview that he became an anti-Scientology crusader after learning about the church’s efforts to keep its materials from being publicized on the Internet. The more he read, he said, the more he became concerned about Scientology practices that, to him, seemed to violate its members’ civil and human rights.

Church leaders soon focused on their No. 1 one critic, often sending Scientology staffers to keep an eye on him, staging counter-pickets and hiring a private investigator to probe his financial dealings.

Two top Scientology leaders, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, have since defected from the church and recently recounted the methods used to subdue Minton. In two meetings, they said, they used a briefcase with a hidden camera to secretly record him.

His efforts unraveled in 2002. As the McPherson lawsuit dragged on in court and the judge pressed for a settlement, Minton faced allegations that he lied under oath about the depth of his involvement in the case.

In a shocking turnabout, Minton soon found himself testifying for the church and against the plaintiff’s attorney. He told the judge: “I just want some peace.” According to paid obituaries this week in the New York Times and Nashville Tennessean, Minton died unexpectedly on Jan. 20 in Ireland. Mark Bunker, a Scientology critic, said Minton’s companion Stacy Brooks told him Minton was diagnosed with a heart problem the day he died.

See his work here…

IMHO
FACTNet

Russia may restrict destructive cults…

David Pike — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:16:59 +0000

RT.com (Russia Today) 27 January, 2010,

A recent draft law in Russia’s State Duma would ban “cults” from operating within the Russian Federation. RT spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan about what makes a cult, what crosses the line between a religion and a cult, and where freedom of religion comes in.

Russia is considering changing laws that would restrict missionary activity. Officials say the measure is to protect people from damaging cults, but there are serious fears over how it will impact on religious freedom.

With the number of followers estimated at well over ten thousand, a man named Vissarion in Eastern Siberia claims to be the Messiah.

And just two years ago, 29 devoted members of a group locked themselves in a bunker in the Penza region, convinced that the end of days was near.

These are just a couple of the examples of what the Duma says is cult activity in modern Russia.

“There are about 80 or 90 cults which are well known and active in at least several provinces of Russia. But if we are talking about local cults that act within one town, or one province or one area of a town, then those can be counted in the thousands,” says cult expert Aleksandr Dvorkin.

In an effort to better protect the people from predatory cults, the State Duma is considering a draft proposed by the Ministry of Justice that limits the ways that religious sects can communicate with people.

“This draft defines what correct missionary activities are. For example it forbids missionary activity on the territory of some other faith or other religious organization, and it forbids recruiting from places where people would be more susceptible – for example in hospitals, mental institutions or the army, for example,” Aleksandr Dvorkin adds.

Ilya Arkhipov, a journalist from Russian Newsweek, expects misinterpretations with the new law.

“There is a danger of misinterpretation and misuse of this legislation as there is no legal definition of a dangerous cult or sect in Russian law,” Arkhipov says.

Watch Arkhipov’s interview in this article.

Opponents of the draft say that it is nothing more than religious persecution.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses faith is banned in three regions in Russia already. They, like other groups such as the Mormons, the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology say there’s no need for a law change.

“Such amendments are aimed at tightening religion-related legislation which is already strict enough. They will only lead to more persecution,” says Yaroslav Sivilsky from the Jehovah’s Witnesses church. “Now, if those amendments are passed, one can be held accountable just for preaching on the streets, or for sharing their beliefs among co-workers.”

Supporters of the draft amendment say this is what people want and through this proposal they are making regional laws on the subject legitimate.

“The most dangerous thing that can happen from this law is that it would outlaw many religious activities and then some local bureaucrats will be deciding that ‘these missionary activities we like and we’ll overlook them but others we’ll persecute,” says Andrey Zolotov, editor in chief of Russia Profile magazine.

Watch Zolotov’s interview in this article.

At this point there has been no action on the draft, but those who stand much to lose say they are prepared to fight.

“They corner themselves when they talk about banning missionary activities. It is absurd to call a speaking person with a book in his hand a criminal, as well as requiring him to have special papers in order to preach. This road takes us straight to the Strasbourg Court,” says human rights expert Lev Levinson.

Will Jehovah’s Witnesses be banned in Russia?
RT.com 26 January, 2010

Jehovah’s Witnesses, known for their doomsday prophecies, are seen as an extremist cult by the Russian authorities. Banned in many countries, their activities could soon become illegal in Russia as well.

Since appearing in Russia in the early 1990s, Jehovah’s Witnesses have rapidly gained popularity. The organization says they have 200,000 members in the country, but they could soon be classed as criminals.

A high-profile case five years ago branded Jehovah’s Witnesses “an extremist organization” that incites religious hatred and breaks up families.

They were stripped of their Moscow registration, yet even though Jehovah’s Witnesses were able to re-register, authorities have issued over forty official warnings to them in the last three years.

Their faith doesn’t allow them to receive blood transfusions, and several have been tried for denying them to their children. Most notably last year, doctors in Russia’s far eastern city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky had to appeal to court to get permission for a blood transfusion for a six-year-old girl after she suffered serious head trauma. The court ruled in their favor and the doctors managed to save the child.

Some of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been imprisoned for refusing to do their compulsory military service.

Critics of the group warn that the people they recruit into their community end up being brainwashed.

Oleg Zakharenkov’s wife changed completely after becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.

“She became isolated. She began to disappear for days and give them all my money,” says Oleg.

Jehovah’s Witnesses were founded in the US in the late 19th century. There are over seven million regular followers worldwide.

They say their unusual beliefs – such as refusing to vote or serve on juries – don’t make them a dangerous cult:

“Our poor image comes from those in the media and the authorities who have no knowledge about us. When people meet us, they realize what good we do for society,” said Aleksandr Valevich.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned in China, parts of Africa and some former Soviet republics. As for Russia, some say it will be difficult to prove their guilt.

“Personally, I think Jehovah’s witnesses combine the worst features of an international corporation that exploits its own members, and a totalitarian state. But it’s hard to prove what current law they are breaking,” theologist Father Mikhail Plotnikov told RT.

IMHO
FACTNet

The Value of Your Opinions and the Disinfecting Value of Open Dialog in our and Every Organization

David Pike — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:55:11 +0000

Why does FactNet Protect the Rights of individuals to speak out?

“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” -John Stuart Mill

….The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error…We have now recognized the necessity to the mental well-being of mankind (on which all their other well-being depends) of freedom of opinion, and freedom of the expression of opinion, on four distinct grounds; which we will now briefly recapitulate.

First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.

Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.

And not only this, but fourthly, the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but encumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience.

From “On Liberty”
by John Stewart Mill (excerpt from Chapter 2)

Please go to our discussion forums and express your opinions. We have had an estimated 3 million postings to them over the last 15 years. Particularly check out the new Complaints I.M.H.O. discussion forum.

Click here to go to our discussion forums and express your opinions.

IMHO
FACTNet

Travolta leads Scientology “Ambulance Chasing Recruiters” to the target rich environment of Haiti…

David Pike — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:14:45 +0000

John Travolta to Airlift Desperately Needed E-Meters to People of Haiti
Gawker.com Jan 26th, 2010

Scientologists have mobilized to seize on the promotional and recruitment opportunities presented by the horror going on in Haiti, and John Travolta has personally arranged to fly “volunteer ministers” to Haiti to inflict his junk science on victims there.

Anywhere people are suffering, Scientology’s yellow-shirted “volunteer ministers” can be found lurking near news cameras and claiming to help people with their bullshit technology. They performed “purification rundowns” on recovery workers sifting through the ruins of the World Trade Center after 9/11, administered “touch assists” to victims of the tsunami, distributed literature after the Virginia Tech shooting, and are on the ground in Haiti right now warning the starving, dehydrated populace about the dangers of psychiatry.

John Travolta is using his air miles to help the Haiti relief effort by planning a mercy mission to the earthquake ravaged nation.

The movie star and celebrity member of the Church of Scientology has become the latest big name to dig deep to help the victims of Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude tremor.

He says, “I have arranged for a plane to take down some volunteer ministers and some supplies and some medics.

“I hope that inspires others as well. It’s needed.”

So precisely what does this desperately needed help consist of? To be fair, Scientology claims to have airlifted some actual medical professionals to Porte-au-Prince, a move that is hard to argue with even if the doctors are cultists and are accompanied by a retinue of recruiters and glorified masseuses who are there not to help but to carry on their “crusade to build a better world,” as the web site for the cult’s volunteer ministers program puts it, through the application of L. Ron Hubbard’s paranoid and power-mad fantasies.

Here’s how they do it:

* The “Purification Rundown”: After 9/11, Scientology set up a clinic in downtown Manhattan where firefighters sat in saunas, worked out, and took niacin and other vitamins, a regime that toxicologists have derided as “quackery.”
* “Touch Assists”: Scientologists descended on India in the wake of the Tsunami to save lives with “touch assists,” which, according to this Washington Post story, consisted of a mechanic from Michigan touching people and saying “feel my finger” over and over and over again.

* “Locational Assists”: After traumas, people sometime’s forget where they are maybe? To remind earthquake victims that they are still stuck in Haiti, volunteer ministers will be performing this vital medical procedure, quoted here verbatim from the Scientology Handbook:

5. Continue giving the command, directing the person’s attention to different objects in the environment. Be sure to acknowledge the person each time after he has complied.

For instance, you say, “Look at that tree.” “Thank you.” “Look at that building.” “Good.” “Look at that street.” “All right.” “Look at that lawn.” “Very good.” You point each time to the object.

6. Keep this up until the person has good indicators and a cognition. You can end the assist at this point. Tell the person, “End of assist.”

* “Nerve Assists”: This is basically a back massage, which if performed properly will dislodge the “standing wave” of trauma that is preventing horribly wounded and completely bereft Haitian earthquake victims from leading normal, satisfactory, psych-free lives.

Here is a News Flash about the recruiters…I mean Disaster Aid that Scientogy is sending to the distraught and impressionable victims of Haiti…

Cedar Rapids Disaster Specialist Teahen Heads to Haiti, with Actor John Travolta
By Rick Smith and Becky Ogann

Jan 25, 2010 at 5:11 PM CST
CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids’ Peter Teahen — disaster specialist, funeral director and recent candidate for the U.S. Congress — is flying into disaster-hit Haiti this evening with actor John Travolta and a medical contingent in Travolta’s jet.

The disaster-relief effort is being sponsored by the Church of Scientology, of which Travolta is a member, Teahen said from a cab Monday afternoon on his way to the Clearwater, Fla., airport.

Teahen, who is not a Scientologist, said the church has come to play a bigger and bigger role in disaster relief both internationally and in the United States. Teahen said he first met Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Teahen said his role in Haiti will be to help establish medical clinics across the country as residents of the capital, Port-au-Prince, leave that city, which was heavily hit by the recent earthquake.

Teahen was asked if he’d be willing initially to sleep at the airport outside of Port-au-Prince in a tent and sleeping bag. He is willing.

He won’t know if he will be staying at the airport or if he will be moving into the countryside, he said.

He said he expects to be in Haiti at least a couple of weeks.

In the past, Teahen has helped out in disasters in the Darfur region of Sudan and in Sri Lanka after it was struck by a tsunami. He also has worked at disaster scenes in the United States as a disaster specialist with the American Red Cross.

“Here he comes to save the day!”

FACTNEt editors note: The “Church” will return to the USA as soon as they find out these folks live saving’s are a few bus token’s and a sick goat…

Have you ever picked up a case of MRE’s? They musta gave Johnny boy the boxes full of “touch assists” to off load… :)

IMHO
FACTNet

Larry Anderson, star of Scientology’s ‘Orientation’ film, wants his money back

David Pike — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:50:46 +0000

St. Petersburg Times By Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin, Times Staff Writers, Sunday, January 24, 2010

If you watched TV in the past three decades, you probably saw Larry Anderson. He appeared on more than 30 shows, including Charlie’s Angels, Mork and Mindy, Desperate Housewives and Mad Men. He hosted three game shows and had bit parts in eight movies.

He got lots of parts but isn’t well known. Except to Scientologists.

Anderson starred in the Church of Scientology’s 1996 film Orientation, a 40-minute promotion central to church recruiting efforts. Translated into 15 languages, it has been shown at church facilities worldwide not only to potential recruits but also to parishioners and staffers, to get them more involved in Scientology.

At the film’s dramatic climax, Anderson is a portrait of rectitude as the background music swells and the camera zooms in:

“If you leave this room after seeing this film and walk out and never mention Scientology again, you are perfectly free to do so. It would be stupid. But you can do it. You can also dive off a bridge or blow your brains out. That is your choice.

“But, if you don’t walk out that way, if you continue with Scientology, we will be very happy with you. And you will be very happy with you.'’

Now, after 33 years as a Scientologist, the past 13 as the voice extolling the virtues of Scientology and the perils of walking away, Anderson is walking away. He says the church failed to deliver the spiritual gains it promised.

He also wants his money back, nearly $120,000 he says he prepaid for services never taken. A church policy says parishioners can get repayments, but if they do, they cannot come back.

Eleven months ago, Anderson met with Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis to discuss his request for repayment. Anderson, 58, put a tape recorder on the table between them.

The 90-minute tape affords a rare look at how the church dealt with a high-profile defector and his demand for his money.

Davis pressed Anderson for assurance he would not broadcast his decision to leave Scientology or join the ranks of its critics. Anderson refused, saying he was entitled to his money without conditions.

Anderson said the church was just holding it on account. “I want that money back.'’

In a written response to the St. Petersburg Times, Davis repeated what he told Anderson: The payments were charitable donations.

“The church is under no obligation to return any donations received,'’ he said. “And any refund of donations lies within the sole discretion of the church.'’

It’s “offensive and reprehensible,'’ Davis wrote, that Anderson “apparently feels he must punctuate his departure with a public attack.'’ Anderson himself is to blame for not getting back his money, Davis said. “None of Mr. Anderson’s donations have been returned solely because he declined to follow the prescribed policy and procedures.'’

That’s “unbelievable,'’ Anderson said. The church calls prepayments for services “donations'’ because “it serves their purposes down the line, should you ask for a repayment.'’

He did follow procedure, he said. It was Davis who insisted they meet to discuss his accounts and request for repayment. Davis gave no further instructions, except to wait for a reply, Anderson said. “It’s just evasive techniques to try to make it look like I’m the one who didn’t follow procedure.'’

BAND ON THE RUN

Anderson’s story begins June 24, 1976, at a Beverly Hills party said to have cost $75,000, serious money back then for a night of fun.

The night before, Paul McCartney’s band Wings had played the Los Angeles Forum, the final concert of their U.S. tour. He and his wife, Linda, threw a “wrap party'’ at the rented estate of silent film star Harold Lloyd. The guest list was a who’s who of music and film stars.

And there was entertainment. The lineup included a 24-year-old magician, Larry Anderson, whose agent got him on the playbill. He shared a dressing room with Chuck Norris and watched John Belushi do a hilarious impersonation of Joe Cocker.

Anderson bounded on stage and performed three illusions. He tore a newspaper into tiny pieces and, with a wave of the arms, restored it whole. He levitated a young woman on the tips of three swords. For his finale, he locked her in a wooden crate, climbed atop it and raised a curtain to conceal himself from the audience. He counted to three, dropped the curtain, and, behold: He and the woman had traded places, he inside the crate, she standing on top.

Milling about afterward, he struck up a conversation with a woman who asked him his professional goals. He liked magic, he told her, but he really wanted to be an actor. She gave him an address on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. Go, she said, this place teaches aspiring actors the skills to be stars.

The address turned out to be the Church of Scientology’s Celebrity Centre. Entertainers, artists and leaders in any field can study Scientology there and receive counseling called “auditing,'’ in which emotional reactions are monitored on an electronic device called an ‘’e-meter.'’

That first visit Anderson paid $30 for a communications course. He liked it, signed up for another course and soon became a Scientologist.

Three years later, in 1979, he got his break in Hollywood, playing fraternity president Harlan Ramsey in the NBC sitcom Brothers and Sisters. He was featured on the cover of Celebrity, the church magazine that focuses on notable Scientologists. Five nights a week he reported to church facilities in Hollywood for study sessions, he said, and other than extended breaks for acting jobs, he maintained his study pace “every bit of 10 years.'’

In 1986, he got a regular role on another TV series, playing Lucille Ball’s son-in-law in Life with Lucy. He was on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for eight minutes — long enough to catch the eye of TV producer Ralph Edwards, who was watching from home. He hired Anderson to host Truth or Consequences.

Anderson also auditioned for parts in Scientology films. Casting directors from the church’s Golden Era Productions film studios east of Los Angeles held auditions at the Celebrity Centre. They chose finalists and sent clips for final selection to David Miscavige, Scientology’s leader.

Anderson said the church cast him in about 10 training films. His first starring role was in an auditing tutorial, E-meter drills, No. 5: How to set up a session.

In 1995, the church sent out a casting call, through customary Hollywood channels, for the lead role in Orientation.

Anderson auditioned against dozens of actors, many of them non-Scientologists. Several church executives also read for the part. When cast, Anderson negotiated his pay: $750 for a full day of shooting, lesser amounts for part-day shoots. Over two years of filming and production, he said the role paid him about $35,000.

The film exudes a message of pride, promise and opportunity. It’s a mix of testimonials and an Anderson-narrated introduction to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard — his philosophies, writings and lectures — and to auditing, which a church official in the film says can raise a person’s IQ.

Miscavige sent Anderson a note congratulating him on his “brilliant'’ performance in which “you WERE the part …

“There isn’t another person on Earth who could have performed it as you did. I know you did justice to what LRH envisioned. As a result, millions have you to thank for putting them on the path that leads up!'’

Orientation premiered in 1996, Anderson’s 20th year in Scientology.

“I believed every word, and I had to believe it'’ to be convincing, he says now. “But the operative word is ‘believe.’ For me, this was faith.'’

That’s because Anderson’s own counseling experiences had not gone well. “I had a lot of what you would call disappointing auditing,'’ he said.

After 20 years and hundreds of hours of courses and auditing sessions, Anderson was dissatisfied with his lack of progress up Scientology’s Bridge to Total Freedom. Hubbard’s grade chart outlines the sequential steps one must take to advance through the Bridge’s “Operating Thetan'’ levels to total spiritual awareness.

Church supervisors helped Anderson past his discouragement. He said he told himself: “Well, the level that is going to crack your case is always the next one you are going to do. …

“For me it was like, ‘Wait until you get to the OT levels.’ This carrot was always dangled.'’ He said he had faith that “a panoply of wonders'’ was ahead, in the higher spiritual levels.

To be believable pitching spiritual rewards he had not experienced, Anderson says now, he drew on faith alone. “It was a little bit weird without having a personal, subjective reality that I know the words I’m saying are true. …

“But everybody who watches me is going to believe that I do know what I’m saying is true. So, therefore, to some degree, I’m a charlatan.'’

PAID IN ADVANCE

As was his custom for administrative matters, Hubbard wrote a “policy letter'’ to set down Scientology’s rules for “Refunds and Repayments.'’

“A refund is a return of money after service,'’ it says. A parishioner dissatisfied with a service has 90 days to apply for a refund.

A repayment is different. For someone who prepays, it is “a return of money without the service being taken.'’ There is no time limit to seek a repayment.

The policy was among many the Internal Revenue Service reviewed before it granted the church tax exempt status in 1993. The church told the IRS its policy was “exceedingly fair'’ and said a dissatisfied parishioner “simply has to make a proper request for his donations back, agree to forgo further services and his donations will be returned.'’

The policy pays off for Scientology as well, the church told the IRS. It allows “parishioners who are very happy with Scientology to carry on without the unhappy few in their midst.'’

For each of the eight years after the IRS granted Scientology tax-exempt status, Anderson put thousands of dollars into church accounts, prepaying for services he anticipated taking. Anderson claimed annual tax deductions for money spent on services, as the IRS allows Scientologists to do. Church members are not allowed to deduct money spent on tangible items, including books, e-meters and DVDs.

He put more than $100,000 on account at the Celebrity Centre and the Advanced Org, or church, in Hollywood, where he did all his auditing and course work. He spent about one-third of that money.

He said he put an additional $36,947 into an account at the church’s international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, paying in advance for services he would take there after working his way up the Bridge to OT VI and OT VII. He never tapped into any of that. He came to church facilities in Clearwater only once — to perform, not to take services.

Anderson also put $11,440 on account at the church’s cruise ship, the Freewinds, he said, expecting he eventually would ascend to OT VIII, the highest spiritual level. That training is available only aboard the ship.

It was a heady time for Anderson. After Orientation was released, he made the cover of Celebrity again, with the headline “Interview with Actor and Class IV Auditor Larry Anderson.'’

Spending the money was a “great feeling,'’ he said recently. He viewed it as contributing to his salvation while helping advance the church’s broader mission. Acknowledging a bit of an ego boost, he recalled, “You go around saying, ‘I got to pay for my Bridge today.’ And everybody is patting you on the back.'’

In his 33 years in Scientology, Anderson estimates he spent nearly $150,000 on services, apart from the $119,711 that he says remains unused in his accounts.

HIS LEAVING

By late 2008, Anderson was frustrated with more than his auditing.

He brought five recruits to the church but all of them left, weary of pushy supervisors. Some told Anderson they were urged to join the church staff, and others were pressed to work fewer hours at their secular jobs to leave more time for Scientology study.

Anderson also objected to church leaders urging parishioners to repurchase the updated 18-volume set of Hubbard’s basic teachings, for $3,000. The church blamed stenographer and editing errors that had to be cleaned up.

“These books were published 20 years before LRH died. How is it we’re just discovering that stenographers made mistakes or rearranged pages?'’

Through the years, Anderson said, he bought re-released books multiple times. “Each time they said, ‘We got it perfect now.’ ‘’

He was among thousands of Scientologists gathered in Los Angeles to hear Miscavige’s filmed announcement that the re-edited basic volumes were being released. “I looked around and everybody’s in a standing ovation, getting their checkbooks out. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, we are sheeple.’ Not me. I’m out.'’

Davis, the church spokesman, rejects Anderson’s reaction as “absurd.'’ Hubbard himself launched the re-edit in 1984, two years before he died, Davis said. As part of the project, the church recovered and restored several lectures Hubbard gave in the 1950s that existed only on deteriorated tapes. Translated now into 15 languages, Hubbard’s 18 volumes, plus 280 lectures, are available to more people than ever, Davis said. The materials also are available at no charge in church reading rooms.

Anderson told a high-level church executive his concerns about the costs of the re-released books and his frustration with his years “grinding and grinding'’ in auditing sessions. He also asked about anti-Scientology material he read on the Internet.

The church responded with one-on-one meetings, question-and-answer sessions and free auditing, he said. At times, he sat in church conference rooms, “tears running down my face,'’ confronting what he would lose by leaving the church.

“That’s 30 years of my life. It’s such a stable part of my life. … My social activities, my spiritual growth, my involvement in the community and the betterment activities that the church would be involved in, the camaraderie, the parties — the church integrates itself into all aspects of your life.'’

By the end of 2008, he was ready to give it all up.

On Feb. 3, 2009, Anderson was at the historic production lot on Melrose Avenue, known now as Raleigh Studios, preparing to audition for an episode of ABC’s Castle. He bumped into old friend Jason Beghe, who was auditioning for a role on the same show. Beghe, a Scientologist from 1994 to 2007, had become an outspoken church critic.

Anderson told Beghe he was leaving the church. Beghe hugged him, Anderson said.

About two weeks later, the two met in Burbank at the home of Marc Headley, a former member of Scientology’s work force, the Sea Org. Headley, another vehement critic, sued the church in 2009, alleging that he was paid unfair wages and that working conditions at the church’s 500-acre campus east of Los Angeles violated labor laws. The church denied the allegations, and the case has not been resolved.

At Headley’s home, the three speculated on the potential impact of the star of Orientation leaving Scientology. In a “spur-of-the-moment thing,'’ Anderson recalled, Beghe phoned Davis.

“Tommy, I’m sitting here with Larry Anderson. …Larry has decided to leave the church and wants all his money he has on account.'’

‘DUE CONSIDERATION’

Davis requested a meeting, Anderson said, and named the place: the Amarano Hotel in Burbank. Davis brought his colleague, Jessica Feshbach.

Anderson brought a tape recorder. He said he no longer trusted church leaders.

It was Feb. 27, 2009. Anderson spoke first, saying he wanted to leave the church, “amicably as can be done. I’m not looking to make waves. But I’ve been in the church 33 years. It’s not delivering what I expected it to do and be for me.

“I’ve decided I no longer want to be a Scientologist. And since I put a lot of money on account, I want that money back. And I’ll go my merry way.'’

They discussed the church’s policy; Anderson said he understood he would be expelled once the church returned his money.

“We’re under no obligation to do that (return money),'’ Davis said. “If you gave donations to any other church and went back and said, ‘I went to confession, confession didn’t work for me and I’m not happy so I want all my donations back,’ they would laugh at you.'’

Anderson countered: “There is a set payment for each service. I put that money on account. Those services were not received. They were not donations to the church.'’

Davis said he wasn’t trying to make the session contentious. “What we are faced with right now is a scenario whereby you are asking for your money back, and you want to leave the church. That’s frankly a relatively simple request and one that is fulfilled when it is asked. It happens, albeit rarely, but it does happen.'’

Good, Anderson said, “we’re on the same page.'’

But Davis said he was troubled that Anderson’s “opening salvo'’ came in the phone call from Beghe, whom Davis had described as “somebody who has made it currently his life’s work to not only attack my religion and my church but attack me personally.'’

Davis said Beghe had called him with “what was essentially an extortionist type of communication,'’ demanding concessions from the church, and also saying, “Larry wants his money.'’

Davis added: “So when you have somebody like that as your ambassador and he specifically chooses to call me to communicate it, it reeks of a different agenda.

“I would go so far as to wonder,'’ Davis said, “that if, in fact, the agenda is that once you receive your money, you have some other intention or some intention to take your grievances public.'’

Anderson: “Why concern ourselves with things that are all speculation?'’

Minutes later, Feshbach said, “If you’re connected to people who are dedicated to the destruction of the Church of Scientology International, which Marc Headley is, and Jason Beghe is … we just need you to be straight with us so we understand exactly where you’re coming from so we can inform you'’ of their tactics. “That’s where we’re coming from.'’

Anderson: “I’ll tell you where I’m coming from. I’m a guy who’s dissatisfied with Scientology, and I want my money back.'’

“Of course,'’ Feshbach said.

Anderson: “Aside from that or beyond that, my life is my life. And who I associate with is my choice.'’

Minutes later, Davis zeroed in on Anderson’s prominence within Scientology, what he called “the main crux of the conversation.'’

“You’re the guy who is Orientation. You’re the one who’s saying ‘we’ in it.'’ He added: “You have to realize that communicating that, stating you are no longer a Scientologist, to either other Scientologists or to the public at large, has the potential of creating quite an effect.'’

It would be “very upsetting,'’ Davis said, “to people who are your friends.'’ He added: “I think that there has to be some due consideration made to the church and to those Scientologists by you in how you go about this.'’

“Such as?'’ Anderson asked. “How I go about this?'’

“I don’t think that’s too much to ask,'’ Davis said.

“How do I go about it?'’

“Well, you mentioned wanting to get your money and disappear,'’ Davis said. “Certainly keeping it to yourself and not talking about it would certainly be appropriate and us working out some agreements on that basis.'’

Anderson: “Why? Why am I supposed to clam up about how I feel about life? Excuse me: I should disappear and not talk to anybody? Did you just say that?'’

Davis: “You just said you wanted to get your money and disappear … ‘’

Anderson: “You will not see me around the church anymore.'’

Davis: “I understand that, Larry.'’

Anderson: “But don’t talk to anybody? I mean, that’s what you just said.'’

Davis: “I didn’t say, ‘Don’t talk to anybody.’ ‘’

Anderson: “This is not an extortion. Or is it?'’

Davis: “No.'’

Anderson: “So what does that mean? You’re looking for me to just get my money and disappear and don’t talk to anybody. That’s bulls—. There’s a First Amendment in this country.'’

As they talked, Davis kept saying he was concerned Anderson was providing no assurance he wouldn’t stir up trouble for the church.

He told Anderson: “There is no effort on your part to say, ‘Look, I just want my money back. I have no intention to attack. I won’t be doing a YouTube video. I won’t be feeding data to Jason and Marc to speak on my behalf. I have no intention to do media.’ You are not saying any of those things.'’

Feshbach told Anderson: “We’re willing to give you your money back, to a degree. But we also don’t have to give you your money back, and I think you’ve forgotten that. So we’re just trying to work through some of these issues so we can help you get what you want and get what we want.'’

Anderson said the church couldn’t condition the release of money on who he chooses as friends or what he says in public. “You’re just worried that I’m somebody’s puppet, and I understand that because that’s your job.

“But there is no way for me to tell you what my actions are going to be beyond when I walk out the front door, and I know I’m going to get in my car and I’m going to drive to the gym.'’

As the meeting was ending, Davis hinted at resolution. “Obviously there’s a few things just to work out in terms of drawing up the paperwork and putting together all the pieces … to bring this to a close.'’

Anderson left thinking the church would get back to him after comparing its records with documents he gave Davis — copies of his own spreadsheets for 1994 through 2000 that detail amounts he put in various accounts and amounts debited when he took services.

But 11 months later, he says he has heard nothing.

Anderson’s “donations'’ have not been returned, church attorney Anthony Michael Glassman said, because he has not followed clearly spelled-out procedures. Glassman said Anderson is trying to “sidestep and avoid'’ church policy by talking to the media.

Anderson said he followed the procedure he was given. “Because of my high profile, Tommy mandated that I meet with him to go through the ramifications of what I am doing and review various references pertaining to repayment. He also instructed me to bring summaries of my church accounts.

“I did precisely what was asked of me and was given no further actions to carry out. … That was 11 months ago. It’s convenient for them to now assert that I refused to follow ’standard church procedure’ when, in fact, Tommy decreed that I proceed otherwise.'’

It’s misleading for the church to call money placed on account a “donation,'’ he said, because his prepayments were for specific services.

“Should you ever commit the sin of requesting a refund of unused monies, the church now asserts that your money was donated, without reservations, to be used for important humanitarian programs. It’s a blatant corruption of the word ‘donation.’ ‘’

He acknowledges he has not sent the church so much as a followup e-mail. He said he drafted demand letters but hasn’t mailed them.

In their February meeting, Davis told Anderson, “It’s going to cost us a couple million dollars'’ to re-do the church films he was in.

In April, the church’s film studio, Golden Era Productions, sent out casting notices announcing auditions for a series of in-house education and training films.

Among the roles: an on-screen narrator with a “leading man look.'’

Joe Childs can be reached at childs@sptimes.com.

Thomas C. Tobin can be reached at tobin@sptimes.com.

IMHO
FACTNet

FLDS: 7 years handed down in plea deal

David Pike — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:27:44 +0000

Man accused of sex assault of child may appeal…

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Michael Emack, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, pleaded no contest to the accusation of sexual assault of a child Friday, was found guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Judge Barbara Walther of the 51st District Court asked Emack if he understood what the plea allowed him to do.

“I believe it helps me maintain my dignity,” Emack said.

He also said he understood that it allowed him to appeal. The court recognized that Emack reserves the right to appeal only in certain cases.

One case regards the lawfulness of search warrants that law enforcement personnel used to raid the Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado in April 2008 on the basis of what later turned out to be a hoax call of a girl claiming she was abused inside the community.

“It doesn’t matter the number of children they took or mothers that got on the bus,” FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said about the raid after the hearing. “What Texas did was wrong.”

Emack also keeps the right to appeal based on the motion to quash the grand jury indictments alleging that the grand jury system in Schleicher County underrepresented Hispanics.

“You are giving up your right to a trial by jury,” Walther said. “Do you understand that?”

“Yes ma’am,” Emack said. The trial had been scheduled for Monday.

Emack said he also understood he was giving up his right to confront witnesses and his right to remain silent.

The state, led by prosecutor Eric Nicols, presented documents during the hearing meant to show that Emack, 59, sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl and fathered a child by her in October 2004, and that he had one legal wife and three spiritual wives including the minor.

Walther had Emack agree to a “waiver of stipulation of the evidence,” saying that the evidence was accurate and could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

With that evidence admitted, Walther found Emack guilty.

Emack’s defense attorney Randy Wilson, of Abilene, said he had mixed emotions about the outcome of the trial, saying that it was his client who wanted to plead no contest.

After the hearing and sentencing, Wilson spoke with a quivering lower lip.

“These are not bad people. They are wonderful people,” he said. “They’re good people, and I love them.”

Wilson hugged a slightly smiling Emack after the hearing, and the bailiff had Emack sign and fingerprint documents.

Emack has a pending bigamy case against him, and he said he intends to plead no contest to that as well. His attorneys and prosecutors have agreed to a seven-year sentence, which would be served concurrently with his sexual assault sentence. A judge would have to approve the plea agreement.

Wilson will reserve the right to appeal that bigamy case, stating that Emack intends to be a part of a joint motion of FLDS members who will challenge the constitutionality of Texas’ bigamy statutes.

Nichols said the state was pleased with the sentence.

“The state doesn’t enter into a plea of this nature unless it’s satisfied with the conditions,” he said.

Emack is the third of 10 FLDS members indicted, with trials scheduled to go on through December.

The first, Raymond Merril Jessop, received a 10-year sentence and an $8,000 fine after being convicted of a second-degree felony. Allan Eugene Keate, meanwhile, faced a first-degree felony for sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Jessop and Emack were tried under second-degree felonies because their offense happened before an enhancement was added to the law. Jessop and Keate were tried in Eldorado. Emack’s case was moved to San Angelo after his lawyer agreed to a change of venue.

FLDS member Merril Leroy Jessop is scheduled to go to trial March 8 in Eldorado. He is charged with sexual assault, a first-degree felony.

-By Matthew Waller, San Angelo Standard/Times.com January 22, 2010

IMHO
FACTNet

Twelve Tribes groups in Southern California insists it’s not a cult…yeah right…

David Pike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:01:05 +0000

FACTNet Editors note: And just because it fits every model of a cult doesn’t mean it’s a cult…. If one expert calls you a horse, you can shrug it off…If two experts call you a horse you might want to think about it…If three experts call you a horse…GET A FREAKIN SADDLE!

North County group disputes ‘cult’ depiction

By Tanya Mannes, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Monday, January 18, 2010 at 12:27 a.m.

Twelve Tribes FACTS:

• Founded in the early 1970s in Tennessee by former high school guidance counselor Gene Spriggs. Now called Yoneq, he remains the group’s leader.

• The group consists of 2,000 to 3,000 members in 12 regions, including four geographical areas in the United States.

• Teachings are based on Scripture and group members strive to live as early Christians did.

• Disobedient children are spanked with a “reed-like rod” with a goal of causing a brief stinging pain, not injury.

• Children are home-schooled, and in their teens the boys typically enter apprenticeships for a trade. They do not attend college.

• New members work in the group’s businesses and receive clothing, food and shelter.

• The community earns income through businesses such as construction companies, bakeries, cafes and farms.

• It pays taxes under a special IRS provision for monastic groups; profits are taxed as income to the group as a whole.

Vista residents have watched curiously as newcomers, dressed in what some describe as “prairie clothes,” spent the past year building a deli in downtown Vista.

The men with their beards, sometimes accompanied by women in shapeless dresses, arrived each day to hammer nails and install fixtures in the two-story building that resembles a funky treehouse, with its hand-carved wood detailing and a 1970s-style logo for their Yellow Deli.

The workers are part of the local community of a worldwide group called the Twelve Tribes, whose members attempt to live like the early Christians as described in the Book of Acts.

Twelve Tribes members share their income and eschew self-interest in favor of a communal lifestyle, and the group is guided by a reclusive leader known as Yoneq.

Some have called the group a cult, although its members cringe at that word. In Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee and Vermont, critics have drawn attention to the group’s recruitment practices, its strict rules and the lack of wages paid to members.

Others dismiss those concerns, saying members are adults who made the choice to become part of an alternative world.

The Twelve Tribes has a 66-acre farm with avocado groves in Valley Center and a house in Vista. It plans to open the deli on East Broadway in Vista on Feb. 14.

The deli will be staffed by unpaid group members who will brew coffee and its signature yerba mate tea. They will fix salads with chard and avocados from their farm — and they hope people will want to chat about God or learn about the Twelve Tribes.

“We endeavor to make a place where any person feels totally comfortable regardless of where they come from. We’re not here to proselytize people or force our beliefs on people,” said Wade Skinner, a community elder. “For us, it’s more a way to meet people and interact.”

On the wall of the deli is the slogan: “We serve the fruit of the spirit — Why not ask?”

Matthew Woodruff, 41, a San Diego community member, was in his late teens when he dropped out of what was then Point Loma Nazarene College to join the group after seeing the “love and unity” at a community in Vermont. Now married with six children, Woodruff is an elder who helps make decisions at the farm.

“It seemed like a real, sustainable life like I read about in the Bible,” Woodruff said.

The Twelve Tribes originated in the early 1970s in Tennessee, where Gene Spriggs — now known as Yoneq — and his wife ran a ministry through a coffee shop out of their home. Eventually, the group began living communally and opened a deli, the first of several restaurants and coffee shops. The group’s other ventures include farms and BOJ Construction in Massachusetts.

The group has developed traditions, such as Israeli folk dancing during the Friday night Sabbath ceremony. Members avoid TV and politics, spending their free time praying and singing.

In 2001, the group set up a community in the Los Angeles area. With crews traveling to San Diego for construction work, the group decided to buy the house in Vista.

In 2003, it established the Valley Center farm. Surrounded by hills, wooden buildings house several dozen members who work in the fields and groves.

The farm, known as the Morning Star Ranch, appeared in news accounts in June 2009 when the community unknowingly sheltered a fugitive couple and a 4-year-old girl involved in a custody dispute. A community member alerted authorities after seeing an Amber Alert.

Keturah Carlin, 25, was born into one of the group’s New England communities and lives at the farm with her husband and two children. Carlin’s days are spent cooking, sewing and teaching at the communal preschool. She also helps make the “green drink” — made with grapefruit and greens from the farm — that members sell at farmers’ markets.

As a child, she longed for makeup and designer clothes, but Carlin said she grew to accept the faith.

“My parents were able to communicate why they chose that simpler life,” she said.

Rebecca Moore, professor and chairwoman of the religious studies department at San Diego State University, classifies the group as “millenarian” because of its emphasis on the “endtimes,” referring to the return of Jesus and God’s judgment on the world.

Moore doesn’t consider the Twelve Tribes a cult.

“They have deliberately established an alternative world and way of life and expectation of Jesus’ return,” she said.

David Pike, 53, who was a member for seven years, said he believes the group is deeply flawed. Pike, who joined soon after leaving a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation program, said the structured life prevented him from drinking, but he became concerned over the use of a rod to discipline children and the “slave labor” lifestyle.

“A major factor was finding out there were similar groups that claimed to be the only ones and the only way,” Pike said. “I was seeing the possibility of it being a cult.”

Some complaints have attracted authorities, especially in the 1980s, when several members were taken by cult deprogrammers. In 1984, authorities in Vermont raided a community on child-abuse allegations, but a judge found the search and seizure unlawful, so the children weren’t examined.

Since then, communities have been accused of racism, sexism and homophobia. Members also have been embroiled in child-custody battles that sometimes involve abuse allegations.

In 2001, the New York attorney general cracked down on the group for child-labor violations, fining two businesses $2,000.

Rick Ross, who runs a religious watchdog institute in New Jersey, said the group exploits its members.

“People are basically working for room and board. … If you can staff a cafe, a restaurant or a business and have virtually no payroll cost and no benefits, you have basically no overhead, and it is very easy to make a profit,” Ross said.

He and others believe that Spriggs is building an empire. The Boston Herald reported in 2001 that Spriggs leads a lavish lifestyle, “bedding down in palatial homes in southern France, Brazil and Cape Cod while his followers lead humble lives of hard work in his many businesses.”

Cult awareness activist Steven Hassan of Somerville, Mass., said the group used to set up first-aid tents at Grateful Dead concerts to lure drugged-out youths.

“I think any group that says its leader is the sole prophet of God on Earth and he understands the Bible better than anyone else … is a problem,” Hassan said.

“They want total commitment. They want you to turn over your money and your property and your free will.”

Twelve Tribes spokeswoman Jean Wiseman said allegations that the group is a cult are “untrue and pure gossip.”

“We own what we own and share it with our friends voluntarily,” Wiseman said. “Yoneq makes no salary either. Our needs are met according to the most pressing need, as commanded by Scripture.”

Tanya Mannes: (760) 476-8243; tanya.mannes@uniontrib.com

Union-Tribune researchers Merrie Monteagudo and Michelle Gilchrist contributed to this report.

More articles on The Twelve Tribes provided by ReligiousNewsBlog.com…

Outside links on The Twelve Tribes “Cult”:

http://iottc.blogspot.com/

http://yattt.blogspot.com/

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/480-twelve-tribes-teachings

http://www.twelvetribes-ex.com/

IMHO
FACTNet