Cult News

It looks like another naïve celebrity has become a pawn, helping get attention for a Scientology-linked project. This time it’s Angelina Jolie appearing in an award show to be televised in several cities sponsored by Pepsi according to a recent press release.The TV special “Pepsi Everyday Freedom Heroes” features prominently amongst its honorees Scientologist Mary Shuttleworth and her son Taron Lexton. Shuttleworth is the founder and director of “Youth for Human Rights International” that has close ties to the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International, which has often been called a “cult.”

Shuttleworth’s teenage son Taron is now working on a project sponsored by Scientology making “30 short Public Service Announcements.”

Maybe Jolie should have known that there was some sort of Scientology connection when she found out that its long-time booster Isaac Hayes was also lending his face and voice to the awards show?

CultNews previously reported how another unsuspecting star Kathleen Turner got involved with a Scientology-linked project called “Answering the Call.”

Turner was taken in through her commitment to New York rescue workers, now it seems Jolie has been had over her devotion to human rights.

Maybe Angelina Jolie should have consulted the father of her next child Brad Pitt, who rumor has it dumped his old girlfriend Juliette Lewis over concerns about her devotion to Scientology.

Meanwhile Mary Shuttleworth, who runs the “Shuttleworth Academy” an “Applied Scholastics” school, must be happy.

After all the stated mission of her academy is “the intention to get L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology, as well as other materials of his humanitarian philosophy, fully in use and exported into the community.”

What a breakthrough for Mary to get Pepsi and Ms. Jolie to pitch in and help out.

Scientology frequently uses its “human rights” platform to protest perceived persecution within countries such as Germany that take a dim view of its business practices.

Ironically, it is Scientology that arguably needs to do its own housecleaning concerning human rights.

Scientology’s treatment of its full-time staffers within what is called “Sea Org” and its regular members has frequently been called into question.

One member Lisa McPhearson died while under the care of the church and her family later filed a wrongful death suit, eventually collecting a large settlement just before a trial was scheduled to begin.

And then there is Scientology’s so-called “Rehabilitation Project Force” (RPF), a program its critics say features “brainwashing,” “hard physical labor,” “forced confessions” and “provides Scientology with a labor force that receives almost no salaries.”

Scientology also reportedly routinely expects members to sign away some of their human rights through release forms giving the church extraordinary powers over such things as medical decisions and personal records. These same releases also provide various legal immunities regarding the church’s “religious services,” which were linked to the death of Lisa McPhearson.

Don’t expect Pepsi to give out any awards for these activities.

Last month CultNews reported about a fugitive sex offender wanted in the US that runs a religious “counter-cult” Web site from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.That webmaster Anton Hein was convicted for a “lewd act upon a child,” his 13-year-old niece and served jail time in California before being placed on probation, which he subsequently violated.

Hein a self-proclaimed “expert” and “minister” who received his religious training through an assortment of unaccredited places now presides over a Web site called “Apologetics Index” where he determines what is or is not “orthodox Christianity.”

However, though Hein touts his “spiritual discernment” he apparently is unable to discern and/or recognize the facts regarding both his past and present situation.

Perhaps concerned about gifts and payments from advertisers that support his so-called “ministry” flowing from the United States, he is now willing to offer some apologies.Hein wants visitors to his site to know that he “made foolish decisions¦and [has] only [himself] to blame.” And that this included “some very bad judgment calls.” The apologist also says that he “would not make such mistakes and errors of judgment again” and that he has “learned much from [his] experiences.”

But what specifically has he really “learned”?

At his “publicly posted” page about his criminal record Hein still insists he was “not guilty” of any crime and that he only tried to “help” his niece by committing the “lewd act” he plead “guilty” to according to court records.Hein also slams the American judicial system claiming it was its inequities that essentially forced him to sign off on a guilty plea despite his supposed innocence.

So it seems that according to Hein his “foolish decisions” and “bad judgments calls” consisted of trying to “help” his niece, which was somehow misjudged as a “lewd act” and agreeing to a guilty plea despite his supposed innocence.

Not much to encourage anyone that Anton Hein has “learned much from [his] experiences.”

Even the title of the page that contains Hein’s public explanation of what he prefers to describe as “a legal problem,” and “an incident that occurred in the context of a tragic family situation” is telling. That page within Hein’s Web site is titled “About the ad hominem attacks,” as if the real significance of this discourse is that others are attacking and/or somehow persecuting him.This sounds more like some “cult” exercising spin control, refusing to admit its mistakes and instead attempting to shift the blame and/or draw attention to others. Ironically, such a response could correctly be called an “ad hominem attack.”

The only reassuring comments Mr. Hein makes in his most recent response concerning his sex offender status is that he does not “at all work with children” and makes it “a point never to be alone with children.”

However, it would be more comforting to know that he was being formally supervised by probation authorities familiar with sex offenders and their pattern of behavior rather than only through “relationships of mutual accountability with other [unidentified] Christians” as Hein claims.

CultNews does not pretend to be expert on Christian theology. But isn’t it elemental that Christians sincerely interested in dealing with their personal sins first admit them?

The historical formula within the bible appears to include some simple steps such as first confess your sin, repent, restore whatever you can and then go on and sin no more.

It seems that Anton Hein, despite his self-declared “spiritual discernment,” has yet to discern this first step.

Note: Anton Hein often changes published statements after they are commented about. CultNews has preserved his original statements as they first appeared.

Jehovah’s Witnesses successfully shut down a Canadian Web site that featured often-embarrassing quotes from their previously published materials, but now a new English Web site has popped up with even more.The Witnesses claimed that Toronto resident Peter Mosier, a long-standing, but unhappy member had unlawfully misappropriated and disclosed confidential information and damaged their copyright.

Interestingly, similar claims have been made by groups called “cults” such as Scientology and NXIVM that have seemingly used copyright and trade secret claims in an apparent effort to control information and stifle criticism.

Regarding Mosier the Witnesses claimed that the Canadian “defendant’s main purpose [was] not fair use but rather to try to embarrass [them]¦[and is] likely to cause confusion.”

Mosier responded that his “Web site [had] clear quotes that enable people to study.” And that the “Watchtower wants people to learn¦only on their own terms.”

But the Canadian eventually surrendered the legal battle rather than endure the onerous expense of probable protracted litigation.

Now comes a new Web site “Watchtower Quotes” recently launched from the United Kingdom, which features a collection of quotes from literature published by the “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society,” otherwise known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

The site’s main page announces that it is a resource “for people who wish to study the changing doctrines of the Watchtower Society.”

For example, Charles Taze Russell the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses beleived that the Great Pyramid of Egypt contained “…an outline of the plan of God, past, present and future…”

Another portion of the Web site archive contains quotes regarding the teachings in Witness literature about aluminum published during the 1930s, which warned that “salts of aluminum¦[were] killing the whole country.”

Later there would be so-called “new light” supposedly from Jehovah channeled by the Watchtower leadership, which would allow Witnesses to wrap up leftovers with some handy aluminum foil.

“As there are so many doctrinal flip flops and silly quackery, all I can say is, they must have a very bad line with the Almighty,” the man who runs the new British Web site told CultNews.

During the 1960s many Witnesses died rather than accept organ transplants.

“Jehovah God did not grant permission for humans to try to perpetuate their lives by cannibalistically taking into their bodies human flesh, whether chewed or in the form of whole organs or body parts taken from others¦” concluded the Witness publication Awake in 1968.

This is another quote that can be found on the new English Web site, which has been carefully, organized through various topical categories.

“Richard Lloyd-Henderson,” the pen name used by the man that launched this new repository of historical Witness wisdom, says, “Jehovah’s Witnesses have paid the ultimate price with their lives after adhering to previously banned practices, such as vaccinations and blood fractions that are now perfectly acceptable.”

He concludes, “The Watchtower is blood guilty and their members need to know¦many Witnesses, who would probably still be alive today if the new light’ had arrived just a little bit sooner.”

“Lloyd-Henderson” is known to many on Internet discussion boards as “xjwRichard” and he is thankful for the pioneering efforts of Mosier.

“My thanks go to Peter Mosier for all his hard work in collating the quotes for the original site,” xjwRichard told CultNews.

So it seems that Jehovah’s Witnesses may have won one legal battle, but lost the war and actually only achieved focusing more attention upon their failed teachings.

Yesterday five more children were pulled away by court order from a church called a “cult” in Jefferson, Ohio led by Charles Keyes, a man many see as an “evil” influence over his followers.

The horrific abuse reported about this small Ohio congregation has led to more than 20 children being removed, by fleeing parents, child protective services and now five more have been rescued by a judge in Virginia reported the Virginian-Pilot.

Katie Lane, a caseworker for the Ashtabula County Children Services Board specifically assigned to handle cases concerning the Keyes church told the court this week, “I don’t believe any children should be there.”

After hearing sworn testimony about the gross abuses within the group the Judge was shocked.

“Evil is the only word that comes to my mind,” he told an open courtroom from the bench.

Keyes essentially inherited the church called the “Apostolic Faith Church” from his father Oree Keyes, a man who held the title of Bishop amongst a small denomination of Pentecostal black churches in several states. But since taking over his father’s church Charles Keyes has been thrown out of that denomination and banned from its meetings.

Scientology has become very adept over the years at dodging questions about how a belief regarding alien beings from outer space interlocks with its doctrines.

Witness what happened when a seemingly naïve and apparently uninformed university student reporter supposedly “Infiltrat[ed] Scientology.”

The article that reads more like a guided tour than an “infiltration” appeared in a campus newspaper The Strand in Toronto.

The student journalist reports “As for aliens, [the Scientology designated spokesperson] said he had no idea. There is, he said, no group consensus amongst Scientologists as to the existence or non-existence of aliens¦that there was no clear answer. It’s up to each member.”

Pretty clever.

It’s not until a Scientologist reaches “Operating Thetan Level 3” or “OT3” that he or she learns about Xenu the outer space ruler who sent billions of beings to earth millions of years ago to resolve an overpopulation problem.

If you are a Scientologist you typically must pay your way up to OT3 before this secret is revealed.

Many Scientologists may never learn about Xenu and the spiritual residue of aliens still around that continue to haunt the earth attaching to humans as “body thetans” or what Scientologists frequently call “BTs.” And one way Scientology can effectively dodge this pesky issue is to set reporters up with staffers who have not yet reached OT3.

In this way if the question of Sci-fi theology comes up, the staffer can honestly plead ignorance. This is a form of spin control often called “plausible denial.”

But if a Scientologist manages to reach OT3 it’s not “up to each member” whether Xenu ever existed or whether what is called “the incident” actually occurred and there is a very “clear answer.”

After all, Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote this “sacred text” and when was the last time you heard Tom Cruise or John Travolta say he was wrong?

OT3 is therefore what is called an “article of faith” and an important fundamental feature of Scientology and its theology.

Perhaps when journalists do an interview with a Scientologist they should first do some homework.

Scientology sued quiet a few people in an effort to keep OT3 and other teachings it considers “trade secrets” unavailable to the general public.

However, European Web sites beat Scientology in court making Hubbard’s teachings easy to learn for free.

Operation Clambake has the text of all eight of Hubbard’s OT levels up and accessible to anyone interested with Internet access.

So what could a serious journalist do when asking Scientologists questions about their beliefs?

First, establish the OT level of the Scientologist they are talking to.

Ask, “Have you reached an OT level yet?”

Once it is established that the Scientologist is at least an OT3 ask about it, but word the question carefully and precisely.

For example a reporter might ask, “Since you have reached OT3 you are aware that Scientology teaches the human condition can in part be explained by an event that began in outer space and took place millions of years ago?”

Next question, “Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard specifically wrote about aliens from what he considered a historical perspective and how such visitors from outer space have affected the earth and humanity, didn’t he? And you were taught this when you reached ‘Operating Thetan Level 3,’ isn’t that correct?”

If the Scientologist doesn’t respond or somehow becomes evasive the reporter can ask meaningful follow-up questions.

For example, “So you deny then that Mr. Hubbard ever wrote about such a historical incident taking place, which involved alien beings coming to earth in spaceships and that no such teaching has ever existed nor has it been taught within Scientology?”

Cruise and Travolta have both reportedly reached “OT7,” so they know all about Xenu, the spaceships and BTs.

Will anyone in the mainstream media ever ask these Hollywood stars such questions, or will most reporters just keep throwing softballs and/or accept any answer without meaningful follow-up?

So far Comedy Central’s South Park show lampooning Tom Cruise and Scientology has been the most recent and perhaps boldest effort to bring “out of the closet” Scientology’s carefully guarded secrets. But why is a comedy show seemingly the only mainstream media venue that explores these basic questions concerning the controversial church that has been called a “cult.”

What ever happened to serious journalism and serious journalists asking serious questions?

After all if Tom Cruise and other Hollywood Scientologists want to use their celebrity and media access to promote their religion, its related programs and projects and preach their beliefs, isn’t it fair to ask them a few meaningful questions about the substance of those beliefs?

Mel Gibson doesn’t have a problem discussing the crucifixion of Jesus so why should John Travolta have a problem talking about Xenu? When Gibson promoted his film “The Passion” he spoke quite frankly and openly about his faith and its beliefs.

Should the public then conclude that the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard within the Scientology OT levels is something Tom Cruise and his fellow Scientologists are somehow either ashamed and/or embarrassed about?

An alleged bigot convicted of disorderly conduct and accused of using racial slurs was sentenced to attend church instead of jail in Ohio reported The Enquirer of Cincinnati.

The man sentenced Brett Haines told the presiding judge Tuesday that he had attended services at a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall.

The judge seemed pleased and apparently hopes that a religious experience will somehow broaden the man’s narrow mindedness, but how is this possible given the church he chose? 

Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of the most intolerant, narrow-minded and ethnocentric religious organizations in the world today, not some ecumenical group of do-gooders.

Witnesses don’t celebrate Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter because they are labeled “pagan.”

They also eschew any involvement in other officially organized groups such as Boy Scouts and even exclude their children from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at school, because this would somehow demonstrate divided loyalties. Is this the example of inclusiveness and tolerance the judge had in mind?

According to Witnesses only their organization known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and its so-called “Governing Body” is used by Jehovah to communicate with the world today.

Therefore in contrast, any other church or organization is essentially suspected of serving “Satan” and/or under some sort of “Satanic” influence. Maybe the judge should reconsider his sentence given his hope of reforming and rehabilitating Mr. Haines?

Jenna Elfman may have a new television show, but the former sitcom star of Dharma and Greg is still doing her same old routine promoting the Church of Scientology.

Elfman put in an appearance at a prayer breakfast in Inglewood Saturday and the invocation was done by her fearless leader, Scientology’s apparent President for life Heber Jentzch.

Jentzch seems to have some juice with Los Angeles Country Sheriff Lee Baca who it appears appointed him to a slot on his “Executive Clergy Advisory Council.”

Mr. Jentzch knows something about jails. He was once jailed by Spanish authorities, but later released along with other Scientologists on $1 million dollars bail.

Some years later Jentzch was cleared by a Spanish court. Perhaps this was when Scientology’s peripatetic president learned about the power of prayer?

The “6th Annual Multi-Faith Prayer Breakfast” Saturday was emceed by former Lakers player John Salley and attended by local politicians including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa according to a Scientology press release.

Elfman used her speaking time to pitch a program called “Criminon,” which she claims assists prisoners.

Ms. Elfman has been shilling for this Scientology project for years in California seemingly trading on her celebrity status to garner support and funding for Criminon.

However, Criminon literature was banned in Britain where its efforts caused “alarm.”

The program also was called “an experimental, gimmicky program that has absolutely no scientific validation for it” by Nevada Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley.

It seems Elfman and her handlers at Scientology now hope that events like the recent “prayer breakfast” offer another venue for their continued efforts to gain political support and/or funding for programs like Criminon.

It looks like Scientology put pressure on an Internet site after a fundamentalist Christian preacher linked its founder, practices and programs with the works of “Satan.”

Pastor J. Grant Swank Jr. stated at the Post Chronicle Web site: “Satan takes all praise and glory from Redeemer Christ for all honor and esteem granted [Scientology founder L. Ron] Hubbard and his wild spheres of inner ascendancy.”

And that Scientology celebrity Tom “Cruise, like many other famous individuals, particularly actors, furthers the cult of Scientology as Satan uses this means by which to direct eternal souls away from Christ to Hubbard.”

Pretty harsh words that some might observe are bold too, considering Scientology’s penchant for suing people.

But what a difference a week or so can make when it comes to “The Truth.”

Now the same Web site that featured the article denouncing Cruise and Scientology is featuring another one by a Scientology minister offering up “The Truth.”

Could it be that this unlikely cooperation affording Scientology space for a theology lesson at the Web site is actually part of some sort of a deal to keep the Post Chronicle out of a lawsuit with the litigious church often called a “cult”?