Cult News

Before the release of his blockbuster album Thriller Michael Jackson used to walk the blocks going door-to-door as one of “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He has since separated himself from his family religion and it seems most recently decided to embrace Islam.

Jackson is now hanging his hat and glove in Bahrain, courtesy of the ruler’s son, and the star reportedly plans to build a mosque to honor his newfound faith reports Web India.com.

The planned 98-foot edifice would be built on land adjoining the royal compound.

But could this be a mere stunt to please his generous hosts?

“Michael is looking to give something back to the country that has welcomed him so openly,” Jackson’s spokeswoman said. The singer has been in Bahrain since June, moving there shortly after he was acquitted of child molestation charges in California.  

Michael Jackson’s spiritual journey has included his childhood Witness faith, a stint exploring Scientology with ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley and then a turn with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in the midst of his criminal prosecution as an alleged pedophile.

Arguably, religion for Jackson seems to spring forth more as a pragmatic response to his circumstances rather than through any personal revelation. 

Once the “King of Pop” Jackson is now the beggar of kings according to Roger Friedman of Fox News who says he is “Bahrain’s most famous celeb freeloader.”

“Neverland may no longer be insured, the zoo animals are looking for a new home and staff remains unpaid” reports Friedman. And Jackson’s ex-wife Deborah Rowe has been waging a legal battle against the singer along with a growing line of litigants trying to get at whatever is left of the star’s assets.

Even his lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. dumped Jackson amidst rumors that he is behind on his legal bills.

So it appears it’s a good time to get religion, which might buy the “Gloved One” more time as a special guest in Bahrain.

But the former “Peter Pan” of Neverland better be careful in the Arab emirate. Islamic law is harsh when it comes to pedophiles. And homosexual acts are a crime “punished by 10 years of imprisonment maximum. When the victim is under 14 years of age…punishable even with the consent of the victim” cites Sodomy Laws.org.  The same Web site reports that in 2002 Bahrain deported 2,000 gays.

Jackson has been spotted dressed in Arab drag shopping; one salesman thought he was a “wealthy Saudi woman” reports Associated Press. “I looked at the person’s shoes and found they were men’s shoes. That’s when I guessed it was Michael Jackson,” he said.

The former superstar may find things increasingly difficult in his newfound homeland.

“He should keep his concerts and his effeminate manners away from us,” said Bahrain lawmaker Adel al-Maawda, one of the country’s most conservative clerics.

So regardless of whatever religious epiphany Jackson claims to have experienced lately, he better watch his step.

San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom is dating actress Sofia Milos star of the TV series CSI Miami, there’s just one problem, she’s a Scientologist.

And per what seems to be something of a religious rite within the controversial church, if an outsider becomes romantically involved with one of its stars Scientology is along for the ride.

The beautiful Ms. Milos is quite a nice package, but dating her is a package deal, and partaking in romance with Scientology stars means going to church.

Just ask Katie Holmes who reportedly spends hours at a Scientology center every day.

The CSI star hasn’t even known the mayor a month and she has already gotten him to attend a Scientology-linked function.

With Mayor Newsom in tow Milos showed up at the annual dinner bash of the “Citizens Commission for Human Rights” in Los Angeles, a group co-founded by Scientology that essentially spends its time bashing psychiatrists and any drug they might prescribe.

Ms. Milos has “spoken out in support of legislation to stop the psychiatric drugging of children” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

More troubling than any anti-Ritalin crusade though might be Scientology’s founder’s beliefs concerning homosexuality. After all San Francisco is pretty gay city.

Maybe the mayor should pick up a copy of this months Rolling Stone, which is at times can be quite revealing in an article titled “Inside Scientology.”

According to the magazine L. Ron Hubbard thought homosexuality “was a form of sexual ‘deviance'” and it allegedly “ranks low on Scientology’s ‘tone scale.'” a supposed register of human behavior.

Hubbard also wanted his followers to know that homosexuals “should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible . . . for here is the level of the contagion of immortality and the destruction of ethics.” He said, “No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst.”

Doesn’t sound like Scientology’s savior would have enjoyed a stroll through the gay Castro district of San Francisco, nor is it likely that the “Citizens Commission for Human Rights” will be lobbying any time soon for the right of gays to marry as the mayor did.

This may eventually quash the whole dating thing between Sophia Milos and Gavin Newsom, and it’s probably those little Hubbardisms that are giving what the Chronicle calls “political heartburn” to the mayor’s advisors.

One thing is for sure. If the mayor’s heart is really yearning or burning for Sophia Milos he better do two things quick.

First, make sure his divorce is final from Court TV commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Second, get a copy of L. Ron Hubbard’s book Dianetics and start studying up.

Note: The mayor also might want to study up on why San Francisco schools dropped a Scientolog-linked program called Narconon.

CultNews has reported before about the outrageous claims and bizarre behavior of Ronald Lloyd Spencer, who calls himself “Buddha Maitreya” and runs the self-proclaimed “Tibetan Foundation.”

In fact, Spencer is a former truck driver and has often been called a “cult” leader rather than a “Buddha.” He has also been repeatedly denounced by Buddhist leaders, such as an official representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet. 

Spencer’s rampant megalomania has now reached new heights. It seems that the truculent ex-trucker has taken to bullying Buddhist monks.

Apparently not satisfied with past self-anointed titles and grandiose claims, such as his radio announcement that he would one day be “sitting on [a] throne” next to the Dalai Lama, Spencer now wants to be recognized as the reincarnation of “Buddha” and “Jesus.”

Does this mean he thinks that Christians and Buddhists should bow down to him?

So much for Rev. Moon’s messianic pretensions, he has been topped by the man who claims to be both messiah and Buddha too.

Apparently some Buddhist monks refused to bow down to Spencer and the supposedly fully enlightened sage got nasty.

Spencer had sponsored seven Tibetan Buddhist monks on a visit to the United States, but when they refused to recognize him as the reincarnation of “Buddha” and “Jesus,” they were “abandoned without money in Arizona” reported the New York Times.

Eventually the monks managed to make it to Omaha, Nebraska where they were arrested by immigration officers in riot gear.

Sounds like this lucky seven will no doubt return to their native land with glowing accounts of American hospitality.

Who informed the authorities?

Could it have been our very own American “Buddha”?

If so, the one-time trucker isn’t exactly a benign Buddha now is he?

But this type of behavior fits well within the profile of Ronald Lloyd Spencer, the man some former friends seem to see as a grifter, who has been accused of theft, sexual abuse, fraud and brainwashing.

One former associate said that he is little more than a “con man.”

Sadly, it looks like Spencer for a time successfully conned the monks into believing he would be a good sponsor and kind host for their journey.

However, in the end not only does Spencer come up short as someone who has achieved full enlightenment or the role of supposed savior, he doesn’t even measure up as a decent human being.

Don’t worry about Iran getting the bomb or the spread of global terrorism. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM) has a “peace plan” to save the world, but like many of his plans it’s expensive.

His “perfect and supreme defense system for every nation of the world” is called “Vedic Defense” according to a recent press release.

“Governments…will be wise to adopt Vedic Defense,” says  the 89-year-old guru who was once spiritual mentor to the Beatles in the 1960s.

“Vedic Defense means defense on the grounds of Veda, the Constitution of the Universe,” says the man many have called a “cult leader.”

What is this defense plan?

It’s based upon the “Sounds of the Veda,” which means chanting.

Supposedly these “sounds” somehow “prevent a dangerous confrontation between two nations.”

However, these sounds require more than a mouth to make them, they also require a place to be mouthed, and that means cash.

Maharishi wants everyone to pay for so-called “peace palaces” where his devotees will do all this chanting. This is what he calls the “secret of creating an effect from a distance,” which supposedly culminates in a “Transcendental field.”

As usual Maharishi wants people to “put their money where the mouth is,” or that is pay for chanting.

Some might say that’s ridiculous and that no matter how much the guru’s followers chant a mantra it won’t make the world any more peaceful.

However,  buying up pricey properties  for all those proposed palaces could certainly expand the guru’s global financial empire.

Maybe he can’t create a “Transcendental field,” but Maharishi has proven to be quite adept at scooping up good real estate and at times flipping those properties for profit rather than peace.

Maharishi Global Financing, a Dutch foundation affiliated with the Indian guru is also now marketing as much as $10 trillion of “World Peace Bonds” reported Bloomberg Financial News. 

All of his financial deals and shrewd investments over the years has made the guru perhaps the richest purported “cult leader” in the world.

The TM global portfolio of assets has reportedly been estimated at between $5 to $9 billion dollars. Making Maharishi probably richer than Rev. Moon, the billionaire leader of the Unification Church.

How about that?

Maybe Maharishi hasn’t brought the world peace, but he certainly controls quite a piece of the world.

As rumors persist that Madonna’s five-year marriage to film director Guy Ritchie is winding down the Kabbalah Centre keeps coming up as one possible cause of their marital problems.

The pop diva recently felt it was important to deny reports that she has forced Ritchie to study with the controversial group reported the Daily Record.

“I didn’t meet him and say, ‘You have to believe in the same things I believe in.'” she said.

However, her husband certainly didn’t come to the Kabbalah all on his own, but instead only after he became “Hung Up” on the pop queen.

Madonna is to the Kabbalah Centre what Tom Cruise is to Scientology, its number one booster and cash contributor.

Cruise didn’t waste time getting Katie Holmes hooked up with Scientology and Madonna apparently did the same with Ritchie. It is unlikely that either group would be very happy if their top stars did anything else.

CultNews has received repeated complaints of marital and romantic breakups supposedly due to the influence of the Kabbalah Centre.

The scenario goes something like this; if a current or would-be significant other does not demonstrate an interest in the group and its teachings committed students have been warned that this may mean that they are not “spiritually right” or a “good match” for them.

A frequent analogy used by the Kabbalah Centre is that its students are in and/or receiving “the light.” Therefore those that are disinterested or worse persistently critical, may actually be in “spiritual darkness.” Such people subsequently represent a potentially negative influence, which might pull those who are enlightened back into the dark.

Is Guy Ritchie in the dark?

Madonna says, “I would say he studies (Kabbalah), but probably not as enthusiastically as I do. He does it in his own way. He’s into more of the intellectual side of it than I am.”

More and more Madonna is appearing in the media spotlight alone. She visited the US recently without Ritchie.

Attempting to laugh it all off the star told Ellen DeGeneres, “Really? We split up? OK. Well, he’s still calling me every five minutes.”

However, Guy Ritchie did not accompany his wife to the Grammys and he will not be with her for the Brit Awards coming up next week reports Entertainment Wise.

“There is a real power struggle going on…” a source told the Daily Mirror.

But who is struggling? Is it just between Madonna and her man, or is the Kabbalah Centre also pulling in this tug-of-war?

“Brits are kind of allergic to the idea (of God),” Madonna told Ratethemusic to explain Ritchie’s less than enthusiastic embrace of her beliefs.

Maybe the explanation is far simpler and much more specific, Guy Ritchie’s is sick of the Kabbalah Centre. 

This month a 60-page criminal indictment came down on Hollywood PI Anthony Pellicano. The alleged wiretapper “was trying to gain a tactical advantage for his clients by uncovering embarrassing information on their courtroom opponents” reports the Los Angeles Times.

More interesting is that LA lawyer Bert Fields, well known for his hardball legal maneuvers, is apparently implicated.

“The names cited in an indictment of private eye Anthony Pellicano read like a road map leading to Bertram Fields and his famous clients” reported the Times.

Among the famous that Fields has represented are stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta. He also took up the cause of Madonna’s Kabbalah Centre, when the controversial group was exposed through a Radar Magazine series.

Digging up dirt to embarrass its enemies is a long-standing strategy of the Church of Scientology, which includes amongst its list of long-time true believers Cruise and Travolta. The church, which has often been called a “cult,” frequently dumps its collected dirt about critics into what it calls “dead agent” files.

It looks like Fields and Pellicano may have followed in Scientology’s footsteps, reportedly practicing the same tactics to win battles or an advantage for their “cult” connected clients.

What might prove potentially devastating if this indictment eventually unwinds Pellicano’s wiretapping tapes, is the substance of what the PI has recorded.

This might include telling and candid conversations of someone such as Nicole Kidman, once embroiled in a contentious divorce with her ex Cruise, or say a revelation or two about the private life of John Travolta.

Both Cruise and Travolta were recently lampooned by the comedy show South Park as being “Trapped in the Closet.”

Does Pellicano have tapes regarding what goes on behind closed closet doors?

There must be a few Hollywood stars sweating out this one.

Meanwhile Bert Fields has put on his best face. “I try to keep practicing law and not pay a lot of attention to it,” he said.

Scientology’s top star Tom Cruise is jetting “down under” with his pregnant fiancée Katie Homes to attend the memorial service in Sydney of Australian tycoon Kerry Packer reports The Australian.

During filming of The Last Samurai in New Zealand Cruise “struck up a friendship” with James Packer, heir to the Packer fortune, estimated at more than $4 billion dollars.

Scientology’s “Top Gun” managed to get Packer involved in the controversial church, often called a “cult.”

James Packer reportedly became involved with Scientology courses and/or training.

However, since taking over his father’s financial empire Packer has distanced himself from Scientology and specifically said he is not a member.

Is Tom Cruise simply showing respect for the father of his “friend,” or swooping in on his jet hoping to make another pitch for Scientology?

But this is no doubt a difficult time for James Packer, which may make him somewhat more vulnerable to the suggestions of a “friend” offering to help him.

Does the “world’s biggest movie star” think this is a good time to suggest some more Scientology?

This might prove to be a “mission impossible” for the man many regard as a missionary for the controversial church.

Cruise is likely to end up just another famous face at the Sydney Opera House memorial service that will include a eulogy by Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe.

Perhaps James Packer should look up and consult with another Oscar-winning Aussie and Sydney resident Nicole Kidman and ask her about Scientology if he has any lingering questions.

Ms. Kidman doesn’t appear to be attending the memorial service, but she was quite involved with Scientology courses while married to Tom Cruise.

If Mr. Packer still has any doubts he might ask Kidman why she dumped her ex-husband’s church so quickly after their divorce.

Hot cross buns have become a hot topic at an elementary school in England.

The traditional Easter bun that bears a cross is apparently too much for Jehovah’s Witnesses to bear.

“Hot cross buns are a pagan symbol of fertility no different [then] bunnies, eggs and Easter…The bible states we should not worship things of a pagan origin,” a local spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses told the Evening Star.

The headteacher of Oaks Primary School in Ipswich has asked suppliers to get the cross off its buns.

Interestingly, the Witnesses insist that they are “Christians,” but actually reject the trinity and see Jesus as an angel rather than the Son of God.

Doesn’t seem very “Christian” does it?

No Christian denomination has historically ever accepted Jehovah’s Witnesses as Christian.

It seems Witness children at the Ipswich school who are already forbidden to participate in its holiday programs such as Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day and are also routinely barred from celebrating birthdays, must now forswear hot cross buns too.

A seemingly startled local told the newspaper, “I have never heard of anything so ridiculous.” 

However, hot cross buns appear to be serious business for the Witnesses.

Dutiful son Mel Gibson wants his dad to be happy. And it seems that happiness includes having his very own church.

Hutton Gibson, the 87-year-old father of the famous actor-director, raised his family as so-called “traditional Catholics,” which is kind of an oxymoron, considering the Gibsons don’t belong to the traditional Roman Catholic Church.

Rather than follow the recognized authority of the Vatican as truly traditional Catholics do, these self-proclaimed “traditionalists” denounce its 1960s reforms implemented through the Second Vatican Council.

Instead, they typically say that the last “true pope” was Pope Pius the 10th.

So septuagenarian Dad Gibson and his very rich Hollywood son, have made up their very own churches that they can run any way they want.

Hey, what’s more traditional Catholic than that?

The new church Mel bought for his dad will be called “St. Michael the Archangel Chapel” reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

It’s not clear who besides the Gibsons will attend this house of worship, which actually is a house currently being remodeled.

A California foundation called “World Faith Foundation” apparently largely if not exclusively funded and run by Mel Gibson paid $315,000 for the site, which is not much considering the hundreds of millions the director/producer made from his movie The Passion of the Christ.

The former Mad Max spent millions funding the creation of another chapel near Malibu in California that he attends. It seems there is somehow a shortage in the “Sunshine State” of traditional Catholic churches too. 

This 9,300 square foot California Mission-style edifice that the star built is surrounded by 16 acres and is quite a bit grander than Dad Gibson’s projected place of worship.

A group called “Holy Family,” once estimated to only include about 70 regular members, attends services at Mel’s church. 

“Holy Family” has been compared to groups called “cults” promoted by other Hollywood stars, such as Scientology and the Kabbalah Centre.

There are about 600 traditionalist chapels, but Mel Gibson’s may be the best endowed.

Other such traditionalist groups include the somewhat more Vatican-friendly “Society of Saint Pius the Tenth,” the strident “Society of Saint Pius V,” the allegedly abusive “Apostles of Infinite Love” and the bizarre “Tridentine Latin Rite Church.” 

Many of these groups can be seen as rather idiosyncratic, mutually exclusive and possessing they’re own particular theology. Some are also often defined and/or led by charismatic personalities, such as the Tridentine Latin Rite Church founded by Francis Schukhardt who says the “Virgin Mary” made him a “bishop.”

Will the former Braveheart star become the shepherd of his own flock? Probably not, but his two churches do appear to have their own interesting idiosyncrasies.

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.