Church elder charged with child abuse in exorcism death of autistic boy

By (AFP, August 27, 2003)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/3523/?&place=united-states&section=other-groups

Prosecutors charged a church elder with physical abuse of a child, following the death of an eight-year-old autistic boy during an exorcism ceremony.

Ray Hemphill, who is in police custody, faces a maximum 10 years in prison and a 25,000 dollar fine if convicted on the felony count, according to the Milwaukee county district attorney's office.

The 45-year-old janitor and pastor allegedly suffocated the developmentally disabled boy during a prayer ceremony to rid him of his "demons" at a church on the northwest side of Milwaukee Friday.

According to investigators, Pat Cooper took her son to the airless church on a rundown strip mall late Friday as she had several times before over the previous three weeks.

The boy lay on the floor and Cooper and several other women present held down his arms and legs while Hemphill crouched on the floor next to Cottrell telling the "demons" to leave him.

At one point, the 157-pound (71-kilo) janitor kneeled on Terrance Cottrell's chest, Cooper told police. As the session went on the janitor laid on top of the boy to subdue him.

Cottrell struggled the entire time, and Hemphill physically laid on top of him for about an hour, according to Hemphill's account.

But it wasn't until a sweaty, exhausted Hemphill got up that the group of four adults realised the boy wasn't breathing.

At that point, Cottrell was blue in the face and had urinated on himself, Cooper told police.

The Medical Examiner's concluded that the pressure placed on the young boy's chest prevented him from breathing and that he was denied oxygen. An autopsy gave his cause of death as "mechanical asphyxia due to external chest compression."

Cottrell was diagnosed as autistic at the age of two, according to his mother, who described her son as "disruptive," and said he was being cared for by a local children's development center.

Ray Hemphill, who was ordained as a minister by his brother in the Apostolic Faith Church but had not received any institutional religious training, had apparently dedicated himself to working on Cottrell, according to Tamara Tolefree, one of the women who helped restrain the young black boy.

Hemphill had decided to devote his entire vacation from his job as a janitor to "getting that spirit out of Junior," she said. "(Friday) was to be our last and final time trying that kind of prayer," Tolefree said.

Rastafarians Struggle With Discrimination

By Stevenson Jacobs (AP, July 15, 2003)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/5335/?&section=rastafarians

Their dreadlocked image and marijuana-laced mysticism are used to promote Jamaica as a tranquil tourist destination yet Rastafarians say they're treated as second-class citizens at home.

The religion isn't officially recognized in Jamaica, which means marriages can't be legally performed and places of worship aren't tax exempt. Rastas also say their traditional appearance and ritual use of marijuana has kept them from getting decent jobs.

"They put a wire fence around us so that when we reach for opportunities we get scraped," said Pato Solo, a 33-year-old attending the International Rastafari Conference, which begins Wednesday and is drawing followers from the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.

Fueled by anger over the colonial oppression of blacks, descendants of African slaves started the religion in Jamaica during the 1930s.

Its message of peaceful coexistence, marijuana use and African repatriation was popularized in the 1970s through reggae artists such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. An estimated 700,000 people practice the faith worldwide but the government of Jamaica can't say with certainty how many of its 2.6 million people are Rastas.

"We can't walk free, we can't talk free ... We're still under bondage," said Radcliffe Boyd, 33, who claims he had his wrist broken by police three years ago after being caught with marijuana.

He paid a small fine, as do most Rastas arrested for marijuana use. Penalties range from fines of less than $2 to six months in jail.

Rastafarians say they're blamed for crime in Jamaica and looked down upon for their use of marijuana, which followers believe brings them closer to God. Some sects believe their god is deceased Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

Few Rastas are employed in the formal sector in Jamaica. Officials say they don't discriminate, but admit they would rather hire someone who is clean-cut and sober.

Lansford Haughton, 51, said he was refused work at a post office: "They said, 'you have to groom yourself,'" he said. "I told them, 'This is my faith.'" One of the religion's tenets is staying close to nature, which can mean not combing or cutting one's hair.

Police spokeswoman Ionie Ramsay-Nelson raised another question: "It's a safety issue. Sometimes we have to use firearms and if somebody takes a smoke they might just do whatever their mind tells them to and start shooting. It's a concern."

Rastas say using the drug doesn't affect their performance.

"Ganja makes me focus more, said Robert Gardner, 32, saying marijuana users are not "like crack addicts or alcoholics."

The treatment of Rastas isn't much better elsewhere in the Caribbean.

The British Virgin Islands in 1980 banned Rastas from setting foot in the territory. Several groups are trying to repeal the law. It's still on the books, though Rasta visitors are not turned away but complain of harassment at the airport.

In Grenada last year, prison officials told four Rastafarian inmates they would have to cut their dreadlocks to prevent disease and the smuggling of contraband. A court challenge is pending.

Discrimination hasn't stopped some from cashing in on the faith, whose colors of red, green and gold earn millions in sales of T-shirts, shoes and the crocheted tams into which they tuck their hair.

Television ads woo tourists with white-sand beaches and friendly Rastas to the rhythm of the famous Marley anthem "One Love."

"It's a mockery. They use us like a style, a fashion," said Solo, who plans to bring up his concerns at the conference.

One invited guest who won't be attending is Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson. He declined because of a scheduling conflict, said his spokesman Huntley Medley.

Howard Hamilton, Jamaica's public defender, said it's time for the country to fully recognize it's homegrown religion, including the use of marijuana as a sacrament.

"They have paid their dues," said Hamilton.

Politicians have promised to explore decriminalizing marijuana. Rastas aren't holding their breath, so to speak.

"America, England, Japan, that's where we get respect, not Jamaica," said Boyd, grinding bits of the lime-green herb. "Jamaicans don't want to know about their culture."

Archaeologists Dig Up Goldmine of Pagan Antiquities from Bronze Age

By Arieh O’Sullivan ("The Media Line," June 28, 2010)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/33726/?&section=occult

Tel Qashish, Israel - Descending into a natural hollow in the bedrock, archaeologist Edwin van den Brink discovered a “bottomless” pit holding hundreds of intact ritual vessels hidden there by pagan priests over 3,500 years ago.

“We were expecting a pre-historic site and we came upon a collapsed cave. We took apart the roof of the cave and inside the cave there turned out to be about 200 vessels,” Brink told The Media Line.

Archaeologists in northern Israel were called in to do a routine salvage excavation before a gas pipeline was laid. But in this cradle of civilization such routines are often subsumed by unexpected findings. Speaking at the Israel Antiquities Authority storerooms in Jerusalem, Brink said every time they thought they reached the bottom of the cavity, a new and fascinating layer of complete vessels was discovered beneath.

The cave was about a hundred meters from the ancient Canaanite town of Tel Qashish, not far from Megiddo, also known as Armageddon.

Archaeologists have dated the cache to the 14th century B.C. At that time, Pharaoh Thutmose III, the Napoleon of ancient Egypt and his army were laying waste to the Levant.

The preservation of the vessels shows that they were all very carefully placed there by humans, perhaps because they were no longer used in the temple, but more likely because someone wanted to protect them from the impending Egyptian invasion.

The Canaanite priests in the village either had a premonition, or were savvy enough to see danger on the horizon.

“The priests in this temple were afraid that their temple would be ransacked so they took their furniture and put it in a place not even within the temple but far away outside the temple area,” said Brink.

Archaeological evidence shows that the Late Bronze age town was destroyed in a great conflagration as the Egyptians vanquished the region. Brink said that they have yet to locate the temple in the region.

At this time, monotheism had yet to take root in the world and pagan worship was widespread.

Showing just how cosmopolitan these pagans were, the finds included a number of perfectly preserved pots, sculpted on wheels in ancient Greece across the Mediterranean. The recovered goblets, bowls and other ceramic vessels shed light on pagan worship and ancient trade.

“We do have a group of vessels which are not locally made but imported from Mycenaean, mainland Greece. Actually it is this kind of vessel which gives us the exact date for the whole assemblage,” Brink said.

“One indication that these ceramics or vessels are connected to some kind of cult are these huge, quite tall stands, fenestrated with holes, on top of which would be placed a bowl and in the bowl there would be either fruit or incense which would be burned as an offering to the gods worshiped in this specific temple,” Brink said.

Holding one of the goblets, Brink said they probably contained wine or alcohol which was used to libate the gods. Pointing out a collection of well preserved juglets, he said some were made in Cyprus and others were locally made copies.

“What is clear, especially with the imported vessels, [is that] they were all small containers so whatever must have been in [them] should have been precious oils or ointments, because it is not [a] large quantity. It is in small quantities and the openings, the orifices are very small so only droplets would come out,” Brink said.

Scientists have taken samples from inside the jugs to try to decipher exactly which precious liquids they held.

One particularly notable find was a sculpted face, possibly part of a cup. Preserved for 35 centuries, the detail is still clearly intact.

“This human head, which looks at first sight to me at least a little bit Egyptian, but it is more a tradition of human shaped vessels from the area. It is not smiling so maybe it is a death mask of somebody?” Brink pondered.

Brink said that the discovery is an exceptional discovery because it is older than similar vessels previously unearthed and it is well preserved.

“It is rare. It is not a daily find. It is even more rare in the sense that we do have these caches of cultic vessels in a spot but the ones I know of, the majority are from the Iron Age some 400 to 500 years later, so this is one of the earlier context of these kinds of vessels in one place,” he said.

Brink added that a railroad is to be laid in the area and hopes that the salvage dig for that work will reveal other finds and perhaps the pagan temple.

Dangerous trends in religious freedom

By Michael De Groote ("Deseret News," April 19, 2011)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/35410/

Provo, USA - People across the world are suffering from persecution. "And why are they suffering?" John Graz said. "Are they dangerous for their country? Are they bad people? No, most of the time they are good people. But they are suffering, they are discriminated against, they are excluded only because of their religion."

Graz is the public affairs and religious liberty director for the Seventh-day Adventist world church and is secretary general for the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA). He carries the message of religious freedom across the world — speaking in conferences and with politicians, religious leaders and scholars. He spoke recently at BYU at the 22nd annual conference of the LDS International Society about the global challenges and trends affecting religious freedom.

Religious intolerance does not spare any group — Muslims, Christians and other religious groups, Graz said. Even people who belong to majority religions in their countries experience problems.

A 2009 study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, found that 70 percent of the world's population live in countries where they have no religious freedom or a lot of restrictions. The same study found that religious freedom is protected in a majority of countries. "This is good news," Graz said. "But we can lose it. We need to send a strong message that we love religious freedom. We want to keep it."

But religious freedom is being more frequently challenged across the world. "This is not good news," Graz said.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes freedom of religion as a basic human right. In Article 18 it says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance."

But even though such a statement puts advocates of religious freedom in a strong moral position, Graz is seeing a shift. "It would be impossible today at the United Nations to have such an article accepted by the majority."

Why?

The "freedom to change his religion" would not be allowed. "You would have, at once, 55 to 60 countries say, 'No! We cannot accept that,'" Graz said.

There are three trends that challenge religious freedom, according to Graz.

1. Governments want to control religion more.

This is the direct approach. Governments are passing more laws that discriminate. For example, Graz referred to the Pakistan blasphemy laws. On the face of them, laws like this are promoted to protect religion, but they end up, Graz said, being used most often by strong and secure religious majorities to persecute religious minorities.

2. Governments are partnering with religion against minority religions.

The outward goal looks like governments and religion working in unity to build up the nation — but the quid pro quo for the religion is a little help from the government to stop religious dissenters and pesky competition from religious minorities. And if minority religions are left out of the partnership, they are seen as with more suspicion.

3. Religions see proselytism as an attack.

Proselytism is seen as dangerous for religious peace. Graz said Christian leaders see religious freedom as a cover for proselytism. But those very same churches will also proselytize. "They want to marginalize part of Christianity because they feel threatened," Graz said.

There is an increased sensitivity about what people are saying about their religions. The different religions all feel like they are being attacked. Islam feels it is under attack, Graz said, so it proposed a U.N. resolution on defamation of religion. Western Christianity feels under attack, so, for example, the Swiss vote to ban Muslim minarets.

Graz told the gathering of religious liberty experts at BYU there were things that can be done to reverse the trends. "Be responsible in our writing and speaking," Graz said: Think before we do something. Ask what will be the outcome.

He recommended entering interreligious dialog. "You need to meet people from other religions, including Muslims, Jews and Hindus. We need to be proactive. We can't promote religious freedom if we have no contact with religious leaders."

Around the world he said religious people should get involved in the community — particularly if they are members of a minority religion. "The way they will look at you will be different than if you are isolated in your corner," Graz said.

"People are afraid about religion. When they see people who are dedicated to their religion, they are afraid they may become fanatics which will lead to religious war again," Graz said.

But history shows that religious freedom is the antidote to these conflicts, not the cause. "It took centuries of misunderstanding, tensions and war to have religious freedom," Graz said.

"From time to time, courageous people — heroes of freedom — stood for religious freedom and sometime they gave their life," Graz said. "And we should never, never forget them."

Why the Christian Right Becomes More Extreme As America Grows More Tolerant

By Richard L. Fricker ("Consortium News," July 25, 2011)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/35829/

USA - The rigidity of Christian Right politics has been a complicating factor in governing the United States for the past several decades, stripping away flexibility needed to negotiate on issues as diverse as policies in the Middle East, abortion, health care and the federal budget.

Gone is the more practical approach of assessing government actions based on what might help the country the most – and compromising with those who have differing opinions. Everything, it seems, gets measured by some Christian fundamentalist yardstick of what’s right and wrong.

Adding to this religious style of politics has been a deep sense of victimhood among right-wing Evangelicals, as if Christians were some persecuted minority in the United States, threatened by all-powerful Muslims imposing Sharia law or secular humanists banning Christmas.

Repeated endlessly on right-wing talk radio, these paranoid messages have become real to millions of these religiously inspired voters. So, political adversaries must not only be bested, but crushed. After all, they represent strategies of the anti-Christ.

What happens next with this religious/political phenomenon could dramatically influence the future direction of the United States, a nation founded on principles of religious tolerance and respect for free debate and political diversity.

Martin Palmer, Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), sees hope in the shifting of some American Evangelicals away from hard-right anger in favor of life-affirming environmentalism. In an interview, Palmer notes that Evangelical environmentalists are the fasting growing part of American’s “green” movement.

However, Palmer accepts that American Evangelicals have been a key factor in creating today’s political acrimony. He describes the political movement as “revenge”-based, rather than rooted in any particular Christian philosophy.

Palmer, whose group interacts with religious leaders of all faiths on a global basis to develop environmental programs, is also a theologian and regular commentator on the BBC on ethics, religion and the environment.

The American Evangelical-political leaders, according to Palmer, are upset at not retaining the White House consistently after the presidency of Ronald Reagan. They see evil and the devil as the forces preventing them from creating a faith-based government.

At this point, the Evangelical Right wants the entire administrative structure of the secular state torn down in order to create a “New Jerusalem” and to hasten the Apocalypse.

To understand how this Christian Right movement evolved, Palmer said, one must look back at catastrophes that struck Christian Europe some eight centuries ago.

The Plague created disillusionment with the Church’s ability to protect the faithful. To counter those doubts, a school of thought emerged insisting that some other forces must be at work, with the devil and his agents doing battle with the Church, with goodness and with God.

This fear of the devil gave rise to witch trials and images of a cloven-hooved demons selecting victims and recruiting co-conspirators. It became common for populations to blame “evil” for virtually any failure of an endeavor, bad crops or disease. To eliminate these Satanic forces, the devil’s suspected agents were burned at the stake as witches.

After Europe lost its taste for witch burnings in favor of more scientific explanations, Evangelicals turned their religious passions toward converting heathens in distant lands, like China, India and Africa. The missionary movement came into full flower in the late 1800s.

But Evangelicals never entirely lost their obsession with the devil. In effect, Palmer explained, they found new devils among populations about whom they knew precious little.

“One of the reasons for the re-appearance of the devil or evil in those early missionary days came about through disappointment,” Palmer said. “The missionaries, when they went to China — China had more missionaries than the whole rest of the world put together — they found people really weren’t interested” in the Christian message.

“The dilemma facing the missionaries, primarily Protestants, … was that they were not terribly literate people. They were very much people who came out of working-class backgrounds who had had a dramatic conversion experience.

“That experience had given them an intense sense of the love of God and they felt ‘called’ to go to the mission field. Often they had never traveled more that thirty-five miles outside their home town, and now found themselves on a boat to China or to India. These were people who felt God had called them to leave everything and go to these strange countries.”

The missions were slow getting off the ground and the number of converts tiny. That was deeply contrary to the expectations of the missionaries who thought that the inhabitants of these dark lands would be profoundly grateful to receive the light of the gospel.

“And, that didn’t happen,” Palmer said. “It so didn’t happen on such a monumental scale that this raised huge questions. The missionaries were left with only three possible answers: that no one was interested,” which was unthinkable.

“The second one was that somehow they had failed,” Palmer said. “They were not able to communicate the gospel, and were failing Jesus. Quite a few of them had monumental nervous breakdowns. … The average life of a missionary in inland China in the second half of the Nineteenth Century was just two years.

“Many of them just fell apart and had to be shipped home and were basically wrecks thereafter, because they felt they personally had failed their commission.”

Or the missionaries could see the challenge in a way less disparaging of the Christian message or their own abilities.

“The third option was … the devil,” Palmer said. “They were not dealing with ordinary human beings who were not accepting the gospel. They were dealing with the devil. And, the devil in the form of anything you wanted, in the form of statues of other gods, Taoist, Hindu shrines or holy men who wandered the countryside, it didn’t really matter.

“These forces of evil were actually blocking the poor people who all wanted to convert but the devil was in the way.”

In Palmer’s analysis, a similar phenomenon has been occurring in America. With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Christian Right foresaw a national conversion, with Americans accepting the Bible in the way fundamentalist Christians interpreted its teachings. With America providing that light onto other nations, Christianity would be on a triumphant march.

However, that failed to happen. Despite right-wing gains in terms of tax policy and other benefits for the rich, the nation has continued its gradual evolution toward a more tolerant and a more secular society. For instance, polls show growing acceptance of homosexuality and gay marriage, two hot-button issues for Christian fundamentalists.

The American Evangelicals felt that after Reagan, they were entitled to power, Palmer said. That is why, they couldn’t understand the election of Bill Clinton. In the Evangelical mind, Clinton was an interloper to “their” White House.

The election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, came as a particular shock to many white Evangelicals, especially because of his Muslim father and his Muslim name. This resistance to accepting Obama as a “legitimate” president was part of what fueled the hysteria over his supposedly forged birth certificate.

“Obama,” Palmer said, “left them bewildered,” thus the non-negotiating position taken by the right-wing Evangelicals on almost all of the administration efforts.

“I think what you are now witnessing, and it’s not among the majority, is a group of people that thought they were within grasp of taking power and making America once again a holy country, a holy city, the new Jerusalem,” Palmer said.

Their failure would be a rejection of God and must not be tolerated. However, Palmer said, in reality, “this was not the rejection of Christianity, but rather the rejection of this rather narrow kind of Christianity. I think it has driven them to ask why.”

So, the search for the devil continues, with Obama filling the bill and his allies – liberals and Democrats – serving the role that witches once did. There can be no thought of negotiating with these forces of “evil,” as far as the Christian Right is concerned.

“Any manifestation of contemporary society that they feel does not fit their vision of how the world should be is the work of the devil,” Palmer said.

Yet, Palmer believes the Christian Right does not see all obstacles as equally evil:

“I think you need to distinguish those who are active agents of the devil, such as Islam, over those whose misguided compassion is exploited by the devil. For example homosexuality itself is wrong, but homosexuals do not necessarily have to be wrong: they can be saved.”

Put in simple terms, Palmer said Evangelicals see, “A cosmic struggle for the world. The apocalypse is always next. History is irrelevant. … Time is temporal. All you need is the Bible. There is always a conspiracy against God and a weakening of the white family.”

Given the evil perceived by the extreme Evangelical Right, the only solution for the U.S. is to “strip the government to the bone and start over,” Palmer said.

However, Palmer thinks the hard-core Evangelical movement will eventually “burn itself out” because of its unwillingness to search for compromise solutions.

Palmer believes, the movement will “go to sand” as more and more Evangelicals focus their efforts on environmental issues. According to Palmer, “Quite a lot of people in that movement have disavowed themselves from the socio-evangelical political goals … and gone off and become active in the environmental movement.”

Palmer and fellow religious environmentalists will be meeting at the White House in December to discuss the religious approach to preserving the environment.

Palmer is a regular contributor to several BBC programs on ethics and religion, most specifically “In Our Time” hosted by Melvyn Bragg. He explained the evolution of the devil, evil and the missionary movement in a segment, “The Devil.”

Religion finds fallow fields in Japan today

By Julia Duin ("The Washington Times," December 27, 2002)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/12213/

While former nightclub musician Marre Ishii, 37, whaled away at the piano, a backup six-piece band belted out ear-splitting tunes and about 50 Japanese young people dressed in a variety of punk-style costumes lifted their hands and clapped.

They were at Committed Japan, a youth-oriented church that uses rock music, evangelizes through a nearby cafe and sells its conferences, CDs and books using standard marketing methods.

Unhappy with traditional Japanese churches that average only 35 worshippers per Sunday, Mr. Ishii began his own church in September 1995 with four persons in an apartment. Now Committed Japan oversees a network of small churches and Bible-study groups numbering 170 persons.

"Japanese people are seeking hope," said Mr. Ishii, lounging in the church-owned Kick Back Cafe in a western Tokyo suburb. Those who fail to attain it, he added, may wind up throwing themselves in the path of a commuter train.

His church has an ingredient that is rare in Japan today: religious conviction. Although Japanese marry with native Shinto ceremonies, mourn their dead in Buddhist rites, and some worship as Christians, Muslims or other religions, public discourse is hardly influenced by theocentric concerns.

Mark Mullins, who teaches comparative religion at Sophia University in downtown Tokyo, says most Japanese avoid religion.

"Since the Aum incident, there's been a huge fallout," he said, referring to the March 1995 sarin-gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by adherents of Aum Shinrikyo — an apocalyptic group of Shiva worshippers founded by "Venerated Master Shoko Asahara" (born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955) — that killed 12 persons and sickened more than 5,000.

"Now religion is connected with violence and considered dangerous. Before the Aum incident, you'd see religious groups handing out materials at the train stations. That has disappeared. There's not a lot of interest in religion, period."

Nobutaka Inoue, a professor of Japanese culture at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, also faults the Aum incident for dampening interest.

"For the younger generation, religion is a little bit dangerous," he said. "They may believe in God or spiritual beings, but belonging to an actual group is another matter. Young people see religious people as overly concerned with money or involved with scandal."

This is not to say that the Japanese aren't spiritual: Memorials to aborted fetuses at Buddhist temples such as Hase-Kannon temple in Kamakura, dedicated to the goddess of mercy, and Zojo-ji in Tokyo testify that this is a people who believe strongly in the soul and some form of life after death.

"People will drop by the Meiji Shrine on New Year's," said Mr. Mullins, referring to the country's best-known Shinto sanctuary, "but they don't go anywhere where people will know them. You have a growth of anonymous religious behavior in Japan. Japan has always had an eccentric religious environment."

Shinto ("the way of the gods"), the Japan's indigenous religion, dates to prehistoric times and has no founder or scripture. It concerns harvest and fertility, emperor worship and birth ceremonies. State Shinto, a mixture of religion and patriotism, was the force that propelled many to sacrifice their lives for the emperor during World War II.

Confucianism, the next-oldest religion, has been in Japan since 404 A.D. Most followers of this religion took up Buddhism, which came via Korea sometime around 600 A.D.

Christianity was brought to Japan in 1549 by Francis Xavier, founder of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Rivalry with other Catholic missionary groups, and later with Dutch Protestants, for Japanese converts and influence led to restrictions on Christianity in 1612 and a nationwide ban two years later. Japanese Christians were persecuted under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns and went underground until 1873, when religious sanctions were withdrawn under the Meiji imperial government.

Some 75 percent of Japanese have Buddhist or Shinto altars in their homes and almost 90 percent pay visits to ancestral graves on religious festivals. Two percent or fewer of Japan's 127 million people consider themselves to be Christians.

However, Japanese like to sample Western Christian customs, such as church weddings and black gospel music. According to a 1999 study published by Kokugakuin University, Japanese associate Christmas with the following in descending order: Santa Claus, Christmas trees, presents, cake, parties, Jesus Christ, church ceremonies and Christmas cards.

But Japanese Christian churches are competing head-to-head with Shinto shrines as a place for wedding ceremonies as more people select Western-style weddings.

"This is a big debate in the Christian community," said Mr. Mullins. "Some say the bride and groom should be Christian. Others say this is the first time the Japanese have asked [Christians] for anything. Usually, we have to go out to them."

So do some of the Buddhist variants, such as Soka Gokkai, Mr. Inoue said. "They preach aggressively to strangers," he said. "The proselytizing attitude is quite problematic to the Japanese. They're even more aggressive than the Mormons."

Islam, which is growing in many other countries, Mr. Inoue added, has no more than 2,000 adherents in Japan, where all religions are trying to maintain a connection to the past while adapting to the future.

"Nothing is growing in Japan," he said. Church membership and attendance are "lessening here, but the interest in spirituality is growing."

"People are looking for something for mental healing, to ease the stress here."

If anything, he added, Japanese are more interested in phenomena such as space aliens, UFOs, exorcism and psychic phenomena. "Uri Geller," he said of the self-described psychic, "is popular here."

The Japanese have been vastly affected by globalization, in which "the religious culture has gotten mixed up," the scholar explained. "Japanese culture is changing because of so many foreign elements in it. People are still asking: 'Who am I?'

"Less and less people eat rice in the morning. More drink coffee and eat bread. Our culture is changing, and so is our religious culture. No religion here has a proper attitude toward this situation."

Michael Wenger, dean of Buddhist studies at the San Francisco Zen Center, said religion has to engage the culture to be effective. Buddhism is growing in the United States, he suggested, because of its allure among Americans as a sophisticated religion that encompasses faith and doubt.

"But in Japan, a lot of people think of Buddhism as 'old hat,'" he said. "They think of it as ancestor worship."

Masamaro Ohazaki, spokesman for Tsukiji Hongwanji, a venerable Tokyo temple belonging to the 10 million-member Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, said attendance there is decreasing.

"People today tend to be attracted by prosperity and commercial benefits," he said. "New religions or cults offer that. Buddhism doesn't offer such profits. It focuses more on life after death."

Youth are more attracted to the "new religions," he went on — everything from Scientology and the Jehovah's Witnesses to several hundred variants on Shinto and Buddhism that sprang up in Japan starting in the 19th century.

"Because the new religions have no baggage or history, they can do whatever they want," he said. "Buddhism with its dark, old image has a hard time adopting new measures."

The Japanese brand of Buddhism is almost Hindu-like in its acceptance of multiple gods, said Shoshin Ichishima, a Buddhist professor at Taisho University in Tokyo.

"Even Christianity's God we'll accept," he said. "But the Japanese like the oriental way of thinking. We are more into nature worship. In Japanese, the word 'kami,' for God, means an impersonal force."

That is a major problem faced by Christians, for whom God is addressed as Father. Christian missionaries say that one would never use in prayer among Japanese the casual terms that Westerners use.

"In this culture, you'd never address God on familiar terms, because that is presupposing you are on equal terms with that person," said Marty Shaw, who works in Tokyo for Conservative Baptist International (CBI).

Moreover, historically in Japan, the mother is seen as nurturing, he said, while the father is stern and unapproachable — an image that only began to fade after World War II.

"Even Japanese believers have a difficult time worshipping [the Christian] God, because the expressions are not their own," said Ken Taylor, a missionary with CBI. "Everything in a typical Japanese church — from the music to the architecture — is imported.

"There are high percentages of Japanese converting to Christianity outside the country, but when they come back, they can't find a church like the one they left."

"A lot of Japanese churches are set in a Confucian system, where the elders rule," said Gary Fujino, a Southern Baptist missionary in Tokyo. "These churches are not going to change. Some say the Japanese church is too indigenized."

Observed Mr. Shaw of CBI: "When you enter a traditional church in Japan, it's a time warp. You are walking into a 1940s, 1950s kind of place. The church is irrelevant.

"Christianity attracts here through its weddings and black gospel music, but that is all surface. Missions organizations are quite discouraged. But when the Holy Spirit decides to move, He'll move."

Iran says new Gospel to cause Christianity collapse

By ("RT," May 25, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/37351/

Tehran, Iran - Tehran says a religious text containing verses attributed to Jesus Christ, proves Islam is the righteous religion and will cause the downfall of Christianity. The Christian world denies the existence of such a gospel and calls it a fake.

The book thought by some to date from the fifth or sixth century was confiscated in Turkey in 2000. It was seized during a crackdown on a gang charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives, the Daily Mail reports.

Turkish authorities believe it could be an authentic version of the Gospel by Jesus's disciple Barnabas, known for his travels with the apostle Paul.

It took Turkey 12 years to present the find to the world.

Iran has called the text written on animal hide in golden letters a Barnabas Gospel. Tehran insists the text proves Jesus was never crucified, was not the Son of God and in fact predicted the coming of the Prophet Mohammed and the religion of Islam, Iran’s Basij Press says.

According to Basij Press, the text even predicts the coming of the last Islamic messiah – a passage that highly inspires the report’s authors.

“The discovery of the original Barnabas Bible will now undermine the Christian Church and its authority and will revolutionize the religion in the world,” the Basij report says.

No media outlet has published a facsimile of the verses. The released photo of the front cover shows only inscriptions in Aramaic and a drawing of a cross.

Turkey plans to put the book on public display, which is likely to spark fierce debate as many scientists believe the text is a fake.

The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) says the inscription on the photo can easily be read by an ordinary Assyrian. The Assyrians have traditionally lived all over what is now Iraq, northeast Syria, northwest Iran, and southeastern Turkey.

The translation of the bottom inscription, which is the most clearly visible says: “In the name of our Lord, this book is written on the hands of the monks of the high monastery in Nineveh, in the 1,500th year of our Lord.”

Nineveh is the ancient Assyrian capital, located in present-day northern Iraq.

The agency says the text contains spelling errors and moreover, the writing is in Modern Assyrian, which was standardized in the 1840s.

It says both the data from the inscription and the language prove the text couldn’t have been written in the 5th century, as Iran claims.

The authenticity of the book has yet to be proved.

Some experts say Iran is highlighting the book because it sees Christianity as a threat.

Erick Stakelbeck, a TV host and a close observer of Iranian affairs, told WND.com: “In promoting the so-called Barnabas Bible – which was likely written sometime in the 16th century and is not accepted by any mainstream Christian denomination – the regime is once again attempting to discredit the Christian faith.”

Many experts say mullahs see Christianity as a growing threat to their authority, as record numbers of young Iranians are leaving Islam and embracing Christ.

Last year, Iranian authorities confiscated and burned some 6,500 Bibles under the order of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The mullah said the Bible is not a holy book, and its burning is morally acceptable.

As Iran sees tough times following trade and financial sanctions imposed by the West, its religious leaders seem to be bracing for a confrontation with Christianity.

The media, popular opinion and religious freedom

By Magda Hornemann ("Forum 18 News Service," May 21, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/37343/

Beijing, China - In analysing why freedom of religion or belief is violated in China, attention has rightly mainly focused on the state's institutions, policies, and practices. One state institution that deserves more scrutiny is the media, because in Communist countries like China it has been an integral component of the state apparatus to promote atheism, among other state-supported ideas. Such sustained indoctrination has historically encouraged a lack of popular interest in - or even hostility towards - religion, religious groups and religious adherents. The state's intended result has been public support for state polices and practices hostile to religious freedom.

The connection between popular opinion on religion and religious freedom violations has not been systematically studied in relation to China. The absence of hard data makes it difficult to demonstrate a causal linkage. But evidence suggests that popular attitudes towards religion have facilitated the state's repression of religious freedom, and the Chinese media have facilitated those attitudes by maintaining its traditional function as an instrument of the state.

Popular opinion

There is little doubt that the number of religious adherents in China has risen over the past two decades. Signs of religious revival are visible across the country. This rising religiosity has accompanied greater societal modernisation, even though the Chinese state has demonstrated hostility toward religion.

Some research has shown that the state's attitudes towards religion have not been accompanied by declining religiosity. In 2007, the China Daily published the results of a two-year survey by two researchers at Shanghai's East China Normal University (ECNU). That survey suggested that there were about 300 million self-described religious people in China. This number contradicted the long-held official line that only 100 million religious believers lived in China. Other survey results have suggested that the majority of the Chinese people are quite "religious". For example, 60 per cent of the Chinese respondents to the Pew Forum's 2005 survey indicated that they believed in supernatural phenomena, supernatural beings and religious figures.

These results suggest that religion has made an important come-back in China after decades of enforced atheism. But despite the rising number of religious believers and increasing signs of religiosity, the great majority of ordinary people - as Forum 18 has noted in China - consistently express little interest in religion. Along with this, they also may profess open hostility toward religion.

Indeed, there are reasons to believe that the surveys have not captured the full picture of the religious attitudes of ordinary people. An obstacle to capturing religious attitudes is that "religiousness" has not always been defined clearly and consistently in the existing research. For example, we are not sure how the ECNU researchers defined religiousness. The Pew Forum, however, has indicated clearly that its project defined religious beliefs as beliefs in "supernatural phenomena", "religious figures" and "supernatural beings".

Another challenge is that even if rising religiosity has become an important trend, it has not led to formal religious affiliation. Even though the ECNU survey results suggested that nearly one-third of China's population are religious believers, the percentage of respondents who have indicated clear religious affiliation has remained around 15 per cent over the past decade, as the Pew Forum noted. In other words, the relationship between the "religious beliefs" of the ordinary Chinese and their sense of religious "belonging" is at best uncertain. This apparent contradiction challenges researchers to gain a fuller understanding of the religious attitudes of ordinary Chinese.

One way to get a better sense of such attitudes is to gauge the importance of religion in their life, especially in relation to other socio-political institutions. In this respect, the World Values Survey indicates that, for most ordinary Chinese, religion has not become very important. This is the case despite people's greater willingness to indicate a belief in the supernatural.

In the 2007 sample of the World Values Survey, Chinese respondents were asked about the relative importance of several social and political groupings in their lives. In the sample of nearly 1,500 respondents, over 98 per cent had identified the family as either "very important" or "rather important" in their lives, with nearly 80 per cent of the respondents indicating that family was "very important". Approximately 83 per cent of respondents identified friends as either "very important" or "rather important". Over 55 per cent of the respondents identified politics as either "very important" or "rather important". By contrast, just fewer than 22 per cent of respondents indicated that religion was either "very important" or "rather important", while nearly 50 per cent indicated that religion was "not at all important".

This is matched by the Chinese person's relatively low level of confidence in religious institutions. In the sample, over 60 per cent of respondents indicated that they had either no confidence or "not very much" confidence in "churches". In contrast, approximately 80 per cent of respondents expressed either "a great deal of" confidence or "quite a lot of" confidence in the police and another 74 per cent held similar views about trade unions, which have been heavily criticised within China for their failure to represent the interests of ordinary workers.

The survey is problematic in that it used the word "churches" as the sole name for religious institutions. Nonetheless, Christian churches are in China a common form of religious institution that has seen a dramatic rise over the last two decades. Yet the churches have not acquired greater legitimacy than two heavily criticised state institutions, suggesting that Chinese religious institutions maintain only a low level of public legitimacy.

This is puzzling, as religion is gaining popularity in contemporary China, and the state has become more flexible in its management of religion. Part of the answer to this puzzle can be found in the fact that the Chinese media has not always presented a comprehensive and unbiased picture of either religion in China or state institutions. This is not least because the state controls the media, including the internet. It also means that the Chinese media has not promoted religious freedom.

Media self-censorship

China is now in the era of post-communism, characterised by greater social pluralism, more individual choices and unprecedented consumerism. Chinese media outlets have been described as both commercialised and more pluralistic, and the media has indeed reported on a wide range of controversial subjects. Yet they have generally avoided religion-related subjects, as editors and reporters see religion as sensitive and controversial. When non-internet Chinese media do report on religion and religious freedom, reports tend to be negative.

Mainstream media outlets have also continued to serve as vehicles to propagate state policies and practices. Specialist religious publications are few, with a circulation mainly restricted to religious groups and government officials, and generally inaccessible to ordinary people. As a result, the media has fostered popular religious attitudes that are not conducive to the protection of religious freedom.

The Chinese media's self-censorship reflects the cautious attitude displayed in state documents and by state officials. 31 March this year marked the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of Document 19 of the Communist Party of China, entitled: "Basic Viewpoints and Basic Policy on Religious Issues in Our Country during the Socialist Period". Toward the end of the document, the authors wrote that writers "must adopt a cautious attitude when writing essays involving religious issues for publication in newspapers and other publications. [They] must not violate existing religious policies and harm the religious feelings of the masses who profess religious beliefs".

On 25 January, the state-sponsored Religion in China magazine published a speech by Liu Jinguang, who is the deputy principal of the Politics and Law Bureau in the State Administration for Religious Affairs. The speech was entitled "The Practice of the Chinese Mass Media in Promoting and Protecting Religious Harmony".

Liu listed four "principles" that the Chinese media should abide by when publishing religious contents:

1) published contents cannot violate state policies and laws, including those concerning religion;

2) published contents must adhere to the relevant doctrines of the various religions;

3) published contents must be beneficial for the unity of all religions;

and 4) published contents must not harm the religious feelings of ethnic minorities.

These four principles track very closely what was written in Document 19.

According to Li Xianping, a professor of religion at ECNU who is well-known in China, the desire to avoid offending the Communist Party's religious sensibilities has resulted in the media adopting a practice of avoiding religious matters. When the media has reported about religion, most have supported and repeated state policies, acting in its traditional role as the state's mouthpiece.

The reporting of Liu Jinguang's speech in Religion in China was an example of this. Similar types of media coverage include reports about senior state leaders' meetings with senior Chinese and foreign religious officials, the proceedings of state-sponsored religious conferences, and the Chinese government's responses to foreign criticisms of its religious policies, such as from the US Department of State and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Other than this form of reporting, most Chinese media coverage of religion has tended to be critical without seeking to establish whether the criticism is valid. In his blog posted on 23 November 2010, Professor Li cited reporting about a recent controversy involving a former leader of the state-sponsored Daoist association, known in China as the "Li Yi phenomenon". The Daoist Li had claimed supernatural powers, including the ability to cure cancer, and the details of the controversy are (as is usual with influential figures in China) difficult to establish with a high degree of certainty. Professor Li cited the controversy as an example of how ideological pluralism can be promoted when the media become involved in religious reporting.

But the same reporting can also illustrate problems in the media. It may well be that the Daoist Li's activities and claims merit severe criticism. But even if the former Daoist leader carried out all the illicit activities he is accused of, the media in the main did not seek to establish whether or not this was the case.

As Professor Li noted, media reporting followed a line unlikely to incur the Communist Party's displeasure by promoting "scientism" and denying the value of religion, "returning to the so-called materialism and thus denying all religious beliefs" and analysing the truth in terms the Party would approve of. Indeed, much of the writing on this and similar cases has tended to be sensational in nature and involved an a priori assumption that religious figures are untrustworthy.

Through self-censorship, exercising its traditional function as the state's mouthpiece, negative reporting, and limited circulation of specialist publications, the non-internet Chinese media has promoted negative popular views about religion and religious freedom in contemporary China.

The internet

The state has adopted explicit measures to crack down on the promotion of religion and religious freedom on the Internet. In urban areas and among people under the age of 40, the internet has enjoyed rising popularity. Chinese internet users have been very active exchanging information. But the state continues to maintain a tight control over the publication of information relating to sensitive issues, including religion and religious freedom. This has long been the state's policy.

This has made it very difficult for people in China to obtain any information about religious people, groups and ideas that the state deems inappropriate. These include information relating to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, large-scale harassment of Shouwang Protestant Church in the capital Beijing (including arrests of leaders), and Chen Guangcheng, the blind activist-lawyer who has provided assistance to house churches and whose escape from house arrest, brief stay in the US Embassy in Beijing, and exit to the United States aroused worldwide attention. The mainstream media outside China has frequently reported on these cases - but the Chinese media, including internet media, has not.

Even when the Chinese social media has reported on these matters, readers have to go to great length to obtain the necessary information to form independent opinions. This is because of the state's Internet control mechanisms, which make it costly in terms of time and energy for readers to obtain information independent of the state media. Hence, only specific segments of the Chinese population have become aware of specific human rights and religious freedom cases. For example, Forum 18 has learned that college students have displayed strong interest in the recent case involving the blind activist Chen Guangcheng, while the majority of the population has remained unaware of the situation.

In short, the internet in China has not yet lived up to its potential as a vehicle to promote and protect religious freedom.

Media reform necessary for religious freedom improvements

Chinese communist leaders, especially Mao Zedong, have always emphasised the importance of controlling the media. In the past, the communist regime employed it as an explicit instrument of indoctrination to promote popular support for atheism. The media still performs this role, though more passively. This is seen in the absence of genuinely critical religious reporting seeking to verify all aspects of a topic, and limitations on the number of specialist religious publications and their accessibility.

Reform of the media is a requirement for real and lasting improvements in Chinese religious freedom to take place. This will be a challenge, even though some journalists and media organisations have become more willing to criticise state policies and practices and promote the rights and interests of ordinary people. Even so, an important element of the challenge is the lack of knowledge of religious matters among journalists, which reflects the historic secular tendency among Chinese intellectuals.

Another reason is that many Chinese journalists have lacked opportunities to form and publish independent assessments about all aspects of religious communities without state pressures. Consequently, even when journalists may be aware of religious aspects of a story, they have not reported them fully and accurately either due to self-censorship or as a consequence of explicit pressures from state officials.

For example, despite widespread reporting outside China about the strong Christian commitment of Chinese-American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin, the Chinese media has not reported this. Similarly, even though many Christian groups have been involved in humanitarian relief following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese media also has not reported this. The absence of reporting by the Chinese media of such religious aspects conveys a clear message to Chinese audiences.

Forum 18 is not aware of any concrete evidence that individual Chinese journalists have witnessed state religious freedom violations but not reported them. But as the state has a direct interest in preventing such reporting, it is safe to suggest that this has happened. In a similar case where the state has a direct interest in media coverage, Forum 18 learned that the leaders of the main Chinese TV channel China Central Television (CCTV) had halted an investigation by a CCTV news programme into flawed and dangerous buildings in Sichuan that were built before the 2008 earthquake.

In the last 30 years, the Chinese media has come a long way in its ability to act in the interests of society vis-a-vis the state. It is to be hoped that in future media coverage will facilitate the freedom of religion or belief in Chinese society.

Blacks, Gays And The Church: A Complex Relationship

By Corey Dade ("NPR," May 22, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/37340/

USA - Fairly or not, African-Americans have become the public face of resistance to same-sex marriage, owing to their religious beliefs and the outspoken opposition of many black pastors.

Yet the presence of gays and lesbians in black churches is common. And the fact that they often hold leadership positions in their congregations is the worst kept secret in black America.

While many black pastors condemn gays and lesbians from the pulpit, the choir lofts behind them often are filled with gay singers and musicians. Some male pastors themselves have been entangled in scandals involving alleged affairs with men.

"Persons who are in the closet serve on the deacon boards, serve in the ministry, serve in every capacity in the church," the Rev. Dennis W. Wiley, pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Maryland, says of black churches. Wiley is a prominent advocate of gay marriage. "I do believe a certain hypocrisy is there."

President Obama's recent announcement that he supports same-sex marriage turned the spotlight on reservations many blacks harbor about gay rights. Most polls show African-Americans evenly divided about gay marriage, but the vocal opposition, led by preachers, has gained more attention.

"This particular decision I find appalling, and I could not disagree with the president more on it," the Rev. Patrick Wooden, senior pastor of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in North Carolina, said on NPR's All Things Considered. Wooden helped lead the recent campaign that outlawed gay marriage in his state.

Last week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage as a civil right to be protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Churches Reap Benefits

Some say pastors' hostility cuts hard against the history of how countless black churches have flourished. The virtuosity of gay singers, musicians and composers has been the driving force in developing popular gospel choirs — even chart-topping, Grammy-winning acts — that make money for a church, help expand congregations and raise the profiles of pastors.

It all happens under an unspoken "don't ask, don't tell" custom that allows gay people to be active in the church, though closeted, and churches to reap the benefits of their membership.

Some say the arrangement is not only hypocritical, but exploitative.

"On the one hand, you're nurtured in the choir but you also have to sit through some of those fire and brimstone sermons about homosexuality being an abomination," says E. Patrick Johnson, an openly gay gospel singer and author of Sweet Tea: An Oral History of Black Gay Men of the South.

"But a lot of these choirs or choir directors, or ministers of music, will not be open about their sexuality for fear of repercussion from their pastors and church members, but they allow the church to exploit their talent," says Johnson, also a Northwestern University professor whose expertise includes black studies and sexuality.

Johnson and others believe that modern gospel music itself is largely defined by the artistry of black gay men.

Bishop Yvette Flunder of Oakland, Calif., is openly gay and the founder of The Fellowship, an organization of black pastors and churches openly welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members. Flunder once said during a 2010 interview that gospel choirs "always" have been havens for LGBT people: "In our indigenous expression, that wasn't a problem. It was Christianity that demonized gay people."

As Johnson puts it, "You can't throw a shoe back through history without hitting gay and lesbian women and even transgender singers."

Johnson describes church choirs as a welcoming community within a community "where you meet other gay people, so it becomes a form of socializing."

Commentator Keith Boykin, who is African-American and gay, calls it a paradox: "The church might be the most homophobic and most homotolerant of any institution in the black community."

Wooden, the pastor in North Carolina, agrees that the presence of gays and lesbians in choirs or other church ministries reveals the "duplicity and, frankly, the hypocrisy of the black church. ... The thing that troubles me is these people are almost taken advantage of. As long as they can sing, people look the other way."

However, Wooden insists "we are not all homophobic." He says he welcomes members of the LGBT community to worship at his church. He says his church also has continued to support gay members who have contracted HIV/AIDS, unlike some other churches that ostracize them — a practice many people on both sides of the issue say has been common.

But that's where Wooden's self-described sense of fairness ends. He forbids LGBT people from participating in the choir or any other church ministries.

"If you love them — truly love them — you will tell them the truth on the front side," Wooden says. "We believe homosexuality is a sin. Those who serve, you want their lifestyles to uphold the standards of the church. This is not limited to homosexuals or lesbians. If I know an individual is committing adultery or living with a member of the opposite sex who they're not married to, they can't serve either."

Consequences, Whether Closeted Or Out

A small but growing number of churches, such as the Rev. Wiley's and Flunder's City of Refuge United Church of Christ, publicly welcome LGBT members, and their ranks are swelling with people leaving intolerant churches.

But many others say they are torn between their allegiance to their churches, which form the cultural and institutional backbone of black communities, and their desire to live free of homophobia. They often chose the former, convinced that their sexuality is a sin.

"They would rather suppress their identity than denounce their church," says Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, an LGBT advocacy group. "I've seen people refuse to divorce themselves from their church in spite of the ignorance that spews from the pulpit. ... It's their way of repenting. They victimize themselves through self-oppression."

Gospel music superstar and megachurch pastor Donnie McClurkin shocked the non-gospel world years ago by revealing in a 2001 book that God "delivered" him from a gay "lifestyle" that he said was a result of being sexually abused as a boy.

McClurkin, who has said being gay is a choice, was criticized by the gay community for setting back the LGBT goal of gaining acceptance.

When gospel music star Tonex (Anthony Charles Williams II) came out in 2009, the gospel music world turned on him, and his record sales plummeted. He left his family church, where he'd been a pastor, and reinvented himself as B. Slade, now a favorite in the LGBT music scene.

Rise Of Black Homophobia: Morality Turns Political

For decades, black ministers addressed LGBT people in their sermons only occasionally. This was true even as HIV/AIDS began claiming the lives of numerous African-American men in black churches, especially gospel singers in the early 1990s.

By 2004, a number of high-profile black ministers emerged as outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage as part of their alignment with the conservative Christian movement, which helped re-elect President George W. Bush that year. Black ministers and black lawmakers helped pass gay marriage bans in several states. In exchange, ministers received federal funds for their community programs through Bush's faith-based initiative.

In 2006, the National Black Justice Coalition held its first Black Church Summit in Atlanta, at which the Rev. Al Sharpton became the highest-profile pastor to denounced homophobia and call for greater inclusion of LGBT people.

Pastors No Strangers To Gay Sex Scandals

The sexual behavior of some male pastors, many of them also gospel singers, also has stoked rumors or led to scandal.

Bishop Eddie Long, the leader of one of the nation's largest black churches, in suburban Atlanta, was sued in 2010 by three young men who claimed Long coerced them into sexual relationships. Long denied the accusations and the cases were settled out of court.

The controversy was all the more notable because Long was a prominent supporter of Georgia's gay marriage ban, passed in 2004, and a proposed U.S. constitutional ban. He rankled many civil rights veterans when he and the Rev. Bernice King, a daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King (who supported gay marriage), led a march to protest same-sex marriage that started at the King family crypt.

"Some of my colleagues protest too greatly," Wiley says.

Prior to the accusations against Long, most controversies rarely escaped mention inside black communities and gospel music circles.

The Bay Area in the 1970s had arguably the most visible presence of LGBT members in black churches, just as the broader gay rights movement had gained momentum in the region. The Love Center Church in Oakland, Calif., founded by the late Bishop Walter Hawkins, one of gospel music's biggest stars in the 1970s and 1980s, made waves for welcoming black gays and lesbians.

Following the 1991 death of the Rev. James Cleveland, the gospel music legend still regarded as the "king" of the genre, a male member of Cleveland's choir sued his estate claiming that he contracted HIV due to his five-year sexual relationship with the singing icon. The lawsuit was settled out of court.

After decade in storage, Washington letter on religious freedom will go public

By Alex Zuckerman ("CNN," May 23, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/37338/

Washington, USA – After sitting in storage for nearly a decade, George Washington’s signature statement on religious liberty will go on display this summer in the city where freedom of religion was enshrined in the Constitution: Philadelphia.

America’s first president wrote the letter to a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1790, assuring American Jews that their freedom of religion would be protected. The document will go on display this summer for the first time since 2002 in an exhibition at Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History.

For nine years, the letter has been kept out of public view, in storage at a sterile Maryland office park a few hundred feet from FedEx Field, where the Washington Redskins play. CNN took an inside look at the document in September.

But the Morris Morgenstern Foundation, which owns the letter, has agreed to put the historic document on public display, officials at the National Museum of American Jewish History said.

“Our institution as well as others have been trying to have access to (this) for a long time,” said museum director and CEO Ivy Barsky. “We feel fortunate that the Morgenstern Foundation thought us worthy.”

The loan agreement between the museum and the foundation is unusual. The museum will have the letter for three years but will be allowed to show it for just three months per year. The letter will be kept in a dark storage area for preservation for the other nine months.

The document will be accompanied by an exhibit called “To Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington and Religious Freedom,” which will run June 29 to September 30. Barsky said the exhibit came together only after the museum was certain it could showcase Washington’s letter.

Before going into storage in 2002, the letter was on display at the Klutznick Museum at B’nai B’rith International Headquarters in Washington. It was on display there for 45 years before the organization downsized, closing its museum. The letter went into storage.

After that, many people did not realize where the letter had gone, according to Jane Eisner, editor of Forward, a Jewish newspaper. Eisner dedicated a series of editorials over the last year to lobbying for public display of the letter. She also sent a reporter, Paul Berger, to research the history of the letter.

“This is one of those rare moments as a journalist where you can see the fruits of your labor,” Eisner said. “All we had was all Washington had, which was words. We just have our words and arguments that we try to put out in the public sphere as best we could.”

The letter is considered to be Washington’s key public statement on religious freedom. Eisner and Barsky say that the document signaled a welcoming of all people to America in pursuit of freedom.

“May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths,” the letter reads, “and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.”

The letter addressed the congregation’s fears that Jews could face discrimination in the new nation. “The letter starts off to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, Rhode Island,” said Mordechai Eskovitz, rabbi of the Touro Synagogue in Newport. “It was meant for the congregation. It is addressed to the congregation.”

The Library of Congress had asked to display the letter during a 2004 exhibit on the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America. When the loan was not completed, many historians speculated that no one would be able to meet the standards of the Morgenstern Foundation for exhibiting the letter.

“Usually people would die just to be invited to display their property,” said Jonathan Sarna, professor at Brandeis University and a pre-eminent scholar on Jewish-American history. “If the Library of Congress wanted something of mine, they would have it the next day with insured mail.”

Berger, the Forward reporter, says the letter’s placement at another Jewish museum could mean the Morgenstern family would like to see the letter stay in a Jewish facility. “Nobody knows why the family chose the museum in Philadelphia over the Library of Congress,” he said.

The Morgenstern Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.

It is unclear where the document will go after its three-year loan at the Museum of American Jewish History.

Muslims to gather to combat anti-Shariah movement

By Omar Sacirbey ("The Washington Post," May 23, 2012)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/37336/

USA - Some 15,000 Muslims are expected at this weekend’s 37th annual convention of the Islamic Circle of North America in Hartford, where the theme of “Defending Religious Freedom: Understanding Shariah” reflects the worry that anti-Muslim activists are fanning fear of Islamic law to marginalize U.S. Muslims.

The May 26-28 gathering, which is also sponsored by the Muslim American Society, is the second-largest Muslim convention in the U.S., behind only the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, which draws between 30,000 and 40,000 people.

Earlier this month, the Kansas House and Senate joined Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Dakota, and Tennessee in approving legislation to prohibit state judges from considering foreign laws, including Shariah, in their decisions. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, has not yet signed the bill.

“It’s a deep-down hatred of Muslims that motivates” the anti-Shariah movement, said Naeem Baig, ICNA’s vice president of public affairs. “They don’t want to see Muslims in America.”

Many of the convention programs focus on educating Muslims about Shariah, such as myths about Shariah used to demonize Muslims, as well as its role in their day-to-day lives.

“Muslims need to be educated about Shariah. There’s a need for the community to better understand what Shariah means to us, and how to apply Shariah in a society where most people are not of the same faith,” Baig said.

The convention is open to non-Muslims. About 100 or 150 non-Muslims have come in recent years.

Some of the best-known Muslims in America will be speaking, including Rep. Andre Carson, a Democratic Muslim from Indiana; Islamic Society of North America President Imam Mohamed Magid; and Imam Siraj Wahaj of Brooklyn, who in 1991 became the first Muslim to give an Islamic invocation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Killer sects: Eternal life and promised land in return of money and soul

By ("Pravda," July 8, 2008)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/29013/?&section=branch-davidians

Notorious Russian “healer” Grigori Grabovoi, has been found guilty on 11 counts of fraud. Grabovoi set up a sect known as The Teaching of Grigori Grabovoi. He positioned himself as a healer and promised people to resurrect their deceased loved ones. Russia’s law-enforcement agencies paid attention to Grabovoi in 2004, after he publicly claimed to be able to resurrect the children killed in the Beslan school siege. The “healer” charged about 40,000 rubles (about $1600) for his services per person.

The self-proclaimed “healer” has been sentenced to eleven years in jail.

It is worthy of note that specialists have not found a common definition to the word sect. Some determine it as a religious group, which does not have the recognition of the general public. Others say that a sect is an ideological group of people who follow their charismatic leader. Both of these definitions say that a sect leader has a very strong influence in his supporters. Below you can find the list of the most dangerous sects in the world.

5. Seventh-Day Adventists. The Church of Seventh-Day Adventists appeared in the United States during the middle part of the 19th century and was formally established in 1863. Among its founders was Ellen G. White, whose extensive writings are still held in high regard by the church today.

Much of the theology of the Seventh-day Adventist church corresponds to evangelical teachings such as the Trinity and the infallibility of Scripture. Distinctive teachings include the unconscious state of the dead and the doctrine of an investigative judgment. The church is also known for its emphasis on diet and health, for its promotion of religious liberty, and for its culturally conservative principles.

A tragedy happened in the USA in the 1990s, when about a hundred of Adventists were killed. David Koresh, the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect, which spun off from the Seventh-day Adventist church, prophesied about the coming end of the world for too long. The fake messiah did not want to leave the world alone. About a hundred of his insane supported, including Koresh himself, died in the fire during the siege of their building in Waco.

4. The Manson Family. Charles Manson was a mentally unstable individual, a maniac who considered himself a prophet. He declared war between the black and the white races. He said that he had foreseen that war that would clear the planet. At the time the Family began to form, Manson was an unemployed ex-convict, who had spent half his life in correctional institutions for a variety of offenses. In the period before the murders, he was a distant fringe member of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly via a chance association with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. After Manson was charged with the crimes, recordings of songs written and performed by him were released commercially; artists including Guns 'N' Roses and Marilyn Manson have covered his songs in the decades since.

Manson's death sentence was automatically reduced to life imprisonment when a decision by the Supreme Court of California temporarily eliminated the state's death penalty. California's eventual reestablishment of capital punishment did not affect Manson, who is an inmate at Corcoran State Prison.

3. Heaven’s Gate. Heaven's Gate was the name of an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California and led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. The group's end coincided with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Applewhite convinced thirty-eight followers to commit suicide, which he claimed would allow their souls to board a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet.

Further, Heaven's Gate believed that the planet Earth was about to be recycled (wiped clean, refurbished and rejuvenated), and that the only chance to survive was to leave it immediately. While the group was formally against suicide, they defined "suicide" in their own context to mean "to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered", and believed that their "human" bodies were only vessels meant to help them on their journey.

2. Aum Shinrikyo. Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, is a Japanese new religious movement organization. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways.

The movement was founded by Shoko Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo's Shibuya ward in 1984, starting off as a Yoga and meditation class known as Aum-no-kai ("Aum club") and steadily grew in the following years. It gained the official status as a religious organization in 1989. It attracted such a considerable number of young graduates from Japan's elite universities that it was dubbed a "religion for the elite".

On December 11, 2002, The Canadian government added Aum to its list of banned terrorist groups. The EU has designated Aum Shinrikyo as a terrorist organization. The United States also maintains Aum on its list of foreign terrorist groups.

1. People’s Temple. It is the most horrendous sect in the world. Peoples Temple was an organization founded in 1955 by Reverend James Warren Jones (Jim Jones) that, by the mid-1970s, possessed over a dozen locations in California. Peoples Temple is best known for the death of over 900 of its members that occurred in Guyana at the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (informally called "Jonestown"), a nearby airstrip at Port Kaituma and Georgetown, on November 18, 1978.

The Peoples Temple purported to practice what it called "apostolic socialism." In doing so, the Temple openly preached to established members that "religion is an opiate to the people." Accordingly, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment - socialism." In that regard, Jones also openly stated that he "took the church and used the church to bring people to atheism." Jones often mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in this church, this socialist revolution, you're not born in sin. If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."

On November 17, 1978, the group was visited at Jonestown by Leo Ryan, a United States Congressman from the San Francisco area, who was investigating claims of abuse within the Peoples Temple. During this visit, a number of Temple members expressed a desire to leave with the Congressman, and on the afternoon of November 18, these members accompanied Ryan to the local airstrip at Port Kaituma. There they were intercepted by Temple security guards who opened fire on the group, killing Congressman Ryan, three journalists, and one of the Temple defectors. A few seconds of gunfire from the incident were captured on video by Bob Brown, one of the journalists killed in the attack. On the evening of November 18, in Jonestown, Jones ordered his congregation to drink cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. It was later determined that Jones died from a gunshot, with a contact wound in a location and angle consistent with being self-inflicted. His body was also found to contain high doses of drugs. In all, 918 people died, including over 270 children. This includes four that died at the Temple headquarters in Georgetown that night.