Cult News

What a difference a week makes. Last week it seemed as if Scientology had beaten South Park when Viacom apparently pulled the plug on the repeat of “Trapped in the Closet,” the stinging satire about the controversial church and its two leading celebrity faithful Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

“So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will not stop us…You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid…will fail!” South Park announced last week.

That warning proved to be prophetic when South Park took its revenge this week.

Isaac Hayes’ character “chef” met with a violent end on South Park’s premiere 10th season episode titled “”Return of the Chef.” The Comedy Central show’s co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to use Isaac Hayes’ voice again, but this time it was spliced together to create a very different dialog.

In the rich baritone that made Hayes famous Chef tells the children of South Park, “How about I meet you guys after work and we make love . . . come on children, you’re my sexual fantasy, let’s all make sweet love.” 

From the “Shaft” super-stud that sang “Chocolate Salty Balls” to pedophile? 

But Chef was “brainwashed” by a cult-like group called “Super Adventure Club,” “thought to be a veiled reference to Scientology” reports BBC News.  

The South Park kids call the group “that fruity little club for scrambling…brains.”

After a failed deprogramming attempt Chef falls off a bridge and then is burned, stabbed and mauled by a lion and a grizzly bear.

At his funeral one child offers a fitting eulogy as follows:

“A lot of us don’t agree with the choices the Chef has made in the last few days. Some of us feel hurt and confused that he seemed to turn his back on us. But we can’t let the events of the past few weeks take away the memories of how Chef made us smile.”

Sounds more like a parting words to Isaac Hayes, who quit South Park protesting their Scientology show “Trapped in the Closet,” going so far as to accuse the co-creators of religious “intolerance” and “bigotry.”

It seemed as if Hayes had re-imagined South Park as some sort of warm, fuzzy, friendly, politically correct show instead of the stinging satire it has always been.

However, as CultNews has reported South Park is not 7th Heaven.

Payback can be hard and Stone and Parker got the last word. And Scientology and Hayes should have known that a weekly show like South Park always gets the last word.

Though according to Roger Friedman of Fox News there may be a sad twist. Isaac Hayes, who had a stroke, may not have actually acted on his own. Scientology may have staged the star’s resignation using him like a pawn to upstage the once planned rerun of “Trapped in the closet.”

However, in the end Scientology seems overmatched in this “slap down.” 

There is an old axiom: “Never mud-wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, but the pig has fun.”

Matt Stone and Trey Parker may not be pigs, but they appear to have had quit a run with the press and a lot of fun wrestling with Scientology. And arguably at the controversial church’s expense, which seems to have walked away with mud on its face.

“Return of Chef” even exceeded the ratings triumph of “Trapped in the Closet” drawing the largest audience of any South Park show run in the past two years.

Adam Finley writing for TV Squad observed “Parker and Stone’s humor has always been drawn from anger…The guiding ethos of South Park has always been a deep-seeded anger towards people and institutions that take themselves too seriously.”

And Scientology seems to take itself very seriously.

Who really killed off Chef?

The most telling scene in “Return of Chef” is when Stan screams “You killed Chef!” shaking his fists at the cult-like “Super Adventure Club” and adds “You bastards!”  

Tom Cruise has taken up a somewhat strange venue. Instead of another installment of couch jumping on the talk show circuit, he’s seemingly taken up speaking in cafeterias.

That’s right, the “World’s Greatest Movie Star” accepted a speaking engagement at the lunch room of Yahoo, the second best search engine on the Internet reports NBC 11.com.

Does “Number Two” Yahoo think that “Number One” Cruise can help it to overtake its rival Google?

The media was not allowed in, but some Yahoo employees managed to get a few photos out through their cell phones.

Isn’t the Internet wonderful?

Well, Scientology doesn’t always seem to think so. 

Groups called “cults” most often like what they control and don’t like what they don’t control, and Scientology has a love/hate relationship with the Internet and search engines like Yahoo.

Scientology, dubbed the “Cult of Greed” by Time magazine, loves to promote itself, its projects and programs through the ubiquitous Internet, but seems to hate the fact that the “Information Highway” is a “two-way street.”

Is the controversial church using its “Top Gun” to groom Yahoo’s CEO Terry Semmel for some favor later on?

Cruise could potentially be a surrogate for Scientology and call up Semmel, and say request that Yahoo drop a critical Web site off its search results. After all, rumor has it that he persuaded Viacom to drop a South Park episode last week that he and Scientology didn’t like.

Scientology attempted to get Google to drop certain Web pages, though the preeminent Internet search engine said, “the company had only removed certain pages from the site because of a copyright dispute.”

Well, if that’s the way Scientology handles number one, how would it treat number two?

And isn’t that what Scientology’s crusading stars are really for, either to recruit powerful people or to play them?

It’s much more likely that the Tom Cruise appearance at Yahoo’s campus cafeteria was about garnering influence for his church rather than encouraging fans to support Mission Impossible III.

An ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Israel is concerned that gays are responsible for bringing the bird flu to his country.

Rabbi David Batzri, head of the Magen David Yeshiva in Jerusalem, seems worried about not only the plight of chickens affecting the food chain, but also the specter of further plagues to be visited upon the land if those in power ignore his edicts.

Batzri thinks God has a system for such maladies, first its animals and then it’s people. And the people plague may be coming soon.

“The bible says that God punishes depravity first through plagues against animals and then in people,” said the rabbi.

Is this consistent with the pattern of Passover plagues visited upon Egypt when Pharaoh didn’t let the Israelites go?

The rabbi seems to think so, but he didn’t comment about how an earlier swine flu epidemic might have fit in.

Maybe that’s because as an Orthodox rabbi he keeps kosher and isn’t particularly worried about the plight of pigs.

But with Passover coming up Batzri may be concerned there won’t be enough untainted chicken soup to go around, and what’s matzo balls without a little chicken soup?

Seriously though, Rabbi Batzri, following in the footsteps of another fundamentalist Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), consistently sees God punishing people that disagree with him. Specifically, those that oppose his religious vision for Israel, which he insists, must not include same sex marriage.

Batzri lambasted Israeli politicians that support gay marriage for “strengthening and encouraging homosexuality,” that he described as “not a disease or a deviation, but a straight-out abomination” reports 365 gay.com.

Much in the same manner Batzri invokes the Almighty, Robertson claimed that God smote Prime Minister Aerial Sharon with a stroke because he engineered the pullout from Gaza.

Robertson, like the rabbi, quoted the bible to support his religious rant, though after some bad press the preacher recanted his remarks.

Batzri also has had harsh things to say about Arabs and is a segregationist.

“The Arabs are donkeys and beasts. They want to take our girls. They are endowed with true filthiness. There is pure and there is impure and they are impure” he said. Adding, “It is forbidden to blend darkness and light. The nation of Israel is pure and the Arabs are a nation of donkeys. They are an evil disaster, an evil devil, and a nasty affliction.”

What would the rabbi think of Moses’ wife Zipporah, couldn’t she be considered Arab?

Statements like these have gotten the rabbi into trouble.

This week the state prosecutor ordered police in Israel to open a criminal investigation of the so-called “sage” whose religious edicts apparently fit within the legal description of “racist incitement” rather than the realm of biblical words of wisdom reports Haaretz.

Meanwhile Good as you.org pondered the link between the Almighty and “animal ailments.” What about “Mad Cow disease”? The Web site even suggested that there might somehow be a “phonetic link between rabbis and rabies,” well at least maybe this rabbi and his rabid racist remarks.

Which brings up an interesting conundrum, should Rabbi Batzri be quarantined?

The Israeli authorities are investigating.

Did Isaac Hayes actually quit South Park, or did the star that does voiceover for the character “chef” have someone at Scientology doing voiceover for him.

“Isaac Hayes did not quit ‘South Park.’ My sources say that someone quit it for him, says Roger Friedman of Fox News. According to Friedman “Hayes is in no position to have quit anything. Contrary to news reports, the great writer, singer and musician suffered a stroke on Jan. 17.”

The voice of “chef” has not been heard from live in some time and his resignation from South Park was done through a prepared statement.

But who prepared it?

In his last interview on the subject of South Park’s send up of Scientology and Tom Cruise titled “Trapped in the Closet” Hayes indicated no intention of leaving the show and said that he understood what the co-creators of the hit Comedy Central show were doing and laughed about it.

Somehow since, even though the show represents a significant income, Hayes has supposedly changed his mind.

The 63-year-old Isaac Hayes, is no longer the sensational singer and songwriter that won an Oscar for the movie theme “Shaft,” so can he really afford this?

Or did his beloved Church of Scientology become the star’s surrogate to make this business decision for him?

Scientology has certainly been sparring with South Park and seemingly and Hayes resignation statement offered another punch. The controversial church, which has been called a “cult,” apparently used its star power to put pressure on Comedy Central and its owner Viacom.

However, it looks like all the church accomplished was a media bonanza for Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Friedman reports “The Comedy Central Web site has four clips from the 21-minute show. And it also says that ‘Trapped in the Closet’ will air this Wednesday at 10 p.m.”

This may be one of the most humiliating public defeats of Scientology on record. After all the effort seemingly spent to end up only delaying the repeat of their ridicule by one week.

Perhaps the biggest loser is Isaac Hayes who has lost his gig at South Park just as he is expecting a child with his new wife.

It appears Hayes may have gotten the “shaft” from Scientology.

Ad space has been bought to protest the “advice on mental health” doled out by Tom Cruise and Scientology (see the ad copy here). This seems timely given Scientology’s nationwide battle against the mental-health industry.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which is closely tied to Scientology, has been the force behind more than two dozen bills in Arizona in recent years, including measures to restrict prescriptions of Ritalin.

Arizona legislators met John Travolta and other Scientology celebs in an effort to influence thier votes. Scientology ran a similar campaign in Florida that ultimately failed.

Of course the highest profile celeb in Scientology is Tom Cruise. And the star and his church routinely recommend that everyone should refuse and/or abstain from any drugs prescribed by psychiatrists. And also reject any suggested care or counseling offered by mental health professionals.

This belief apparently led to tragedy when a Scientologist’s 28-year-old son stabbed his mother to death. The young man Jeremy Perkins is deeply disturbed and now is being held within the Rochester Psychiatric Center. He was found not responsible for the murder of his mother due to mental defect.

Perkins was the schizophrenic son of Elli Perkins a senior auditor (counselor) at the Buffalo Scientology branch in New York.

Consistent with his mother’s beliefs Jeremy Perkins never received treatment from mental health professionals, but instead was cared for according to Scientology’s guidelines and practices. He received vitamins.

Scientology’s solution for mental health failed Jeremy Perkins and the young man’s family, deeply involved in the church, has reportedly cut him off since his incarceration.

Without a psychiatric diagnosis of mental defect Perkins might now be on death row.

This seemingly needless death of a 54-year-old mother of two has prompted Scientology critics to run protests in newspapers regarding the church’s ongoing war against psychiatry and/or any mental health professionals and the treatment and/or counseling they can provide.

The protests are being run in The Buffalo Beast (a weekly paper in Buffalo, NY, where Elli lived), the Spectrum (student newspaper of SUNY Buffalo (Scientology has an office on its campus in a non-university-owned building), and the Jackson Hole Daily, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The text of the protest cites actor Tom Cruise by name, due to his hi-profile support and continuing promotion of Scientology. And specifically because of his repeated opposition to mental health professionals and related medications that they can provide.

Cruise once told Today Show host Matt Lauer, “I know that psychiatry is a pseudo-science.”

Later the American Psychiatric Association (APA) called the star’s comments “irresponsible” pointing out that “rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works.”

But it’s too late for Elli Perkins, who appears to be a Scientology causality.

A Web site “Perkins Tragedy.org” details the case includes an archive of related articles and court files.

Most Americans continue to believe in the supernatural such as ghosts and spirits, now a BBC show makes fun of this preoccupation and the gullibility of “true believers.”

The BBC series called “High Spirits” brings a new “spirit medium” to the medium of television just for laughs.

“‘Shirley Ghostman’ is a blast of fresh air and hilarity in an arena that is ripe for satire,” says the Hollywood Reporter.

For example, in one segment of “High Spirits” Ghostman played in drag by Marc Woottonn sends her “special paranormal investigator,” to check out claims made by an apparent competitor that by looking at someone’s ass the future can be predicted.

The British are far more likely to make such paranormal claims the butt of jokes than Americans.

A Harris Poll found that half of all adults in the United States believe in ghosts.

Witness John Edward and James Van Praagh, two “mediums” who have made big bucks supposedly talking to the dead and popular TV shows like “Medium” and “Ghost Whisperer,” spook shows that have successfully sold their sponsors commercial slots.

Critics of the spirit medium business say that all this supposed paranormal communication most often boils down to what is commonly called the “cold reading.” This is a technique through which the alleged psychic or medium may depend more upon the response given to probing questions by believers rather than any messages from “beyond.”

James Randi, a long-time debunker of supernatural claims has offered $1 million dollars for years as a reward “to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power.”

But Americans apparently want to believe despite the lack of evidence and the ghost business has become big business in the US.

No doubt that as preposterous as Wootton’s character might seem, Shirley Ghostman could earn quite a good living doling out her insights for a fee in America.

Scientology may have won a battle with South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, but they appear likely to loose the war.

The episode “Trapped in the Closet,” which ridiculed Scientology and Tom Cruise, apparently was pulled Wednesday on orders from Viacom executives. Rumor has it that Tom Cruise exercised his star power to kill the re-run.

Scientology’s “Top Gun” may have scored a hit, but it looks like Cruise and his church have picked up two diehard enemies with a “cult following” of their own.

Even though Parker and Stone were apparently told to keep quiet the two have broken their silence to send a message to Scientology.

“So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!…Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies,” reports the BBC.

This is a rather rude “South Park style” allusion to the preposterous story concocted by L. Ron Hubbard the founder of Scientology, that claims humanity’s problems are largely linked to an event that occurred 75 million years ago involving space aliens.

So where does this past week of harsh exchanges before the press, squeeze plays and spin leave South Park, Tom Cruise, Viacom, Scientology and Isaac Hayes?

Well, Matt Stone and Trey Parker come off pretty good. They did their best, but in the end apparently had no choice, other than to go along with the media bosses over at Viacom who control Comedy Central. 

Viacom comes across as rather gutless and willing to do almost anything to please one of its stars.

Tom Cruise has further hurt his already suffering public image and arguably alienated the younger audience he hopes to sell Mission Impossible III tickets to that watch South Park.

Scientology comes off somewhat nasty and possibly punitive without any sense of humor.

Scientology also unintentionally makes Mormons look good. After all, they didn’t go after South Park like it was some “War of the Worlds” when it was their church getting lampooned.

So it seems “Latter Day Saints” can take a joke better than Scientologists.

Isaac Hayes is unemployed.

Those expecting to see the South Park episode “Trapped in the Closet” that ridiculed Scientology and Tom Cruise Wednesday night were disappointed.Scientology’s “Top Gun” Tom Cruise succeeded after his fellow Hubbardite Isaac Hayes had failed to persuade anyone, especially South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, to pull the show.

Unlike Hayes Cruise went to the top at Viacom, which owns Comedy Central the cable network that carries South Park, warning that if he didn’t get his way he would reportedly “boycott the promotion for Mission Impossible III.

Viacom it seems caved to Cruise and the star got his way.

Interestingly, Sources at Wenner Media, which publishes Rolling Stone, may also have been pressured by Mr. Cruise over their “Inside Scientology” feature article. He was to appear on the cover of Men’s Journal another Wenner Media publication. According to insiders Cruise wanted the Rolling Stone story killed and when the publisher said no, “Cruise bailed on Men’s Journal’s May cover” reports New York Magazine. 

Meanwhile Matt Stone and Trey Parker may wish they were owned by Wenner instead of Viacom. They have reportedly been told not to discuss the matter reports the New York Post. It seems this is not the first time a Scientologist celebrity has gone to Viacom with threats over a “cult” show.

Dahn Hak, once a relatively obscure but growing presence in the United States is garnering increased attention. The most recent news reports were published by the Albuquerque Tribune one is titled “Dahn Yoga stretches into controversy.”

Another article published yesterday by the same newspaper offers the history of the company and its founder Seung Heun Lee, who claims that enlightenment he received on a mountain led him to establish his global “yoga empire.”

Dahn has steadily expanded in the United States and now has 147 centers across the country and claims 50,000 American members. An official spokesperson also said the business has about 400 branches and 150,000 more members in other nations.

The Dahn organization, which is set up through various corporations began in South Korea and has been called a “cult.” And various aspects of its structure, dynamics and practices seem to reflect a religious/philosophical movement rather than a for-profit company.

The Ross Institute (sponsor of CultNews) first began to archive information about Seung Heun Lee and his Dahn Hak studios during 1998 after a man in Mesa, Arizona complained about how the group had recruited his wife to become one of its “little masters.” These devotees are often celibate and serve as a low-cost labor force for Lee, whose followers frequently call “Grand Master Lee.”

Many complaints have come to the attention of the Ross Institute regarding Dahn Hak from across the United States and internationally; these complaints can essentially be broken down into two categories.

First, paying clients complaining that Dahn Hak has charged excessive fees for classes, uniforms and retreats and uses high pressure tactics to persuade people to sign long term contracts for its services.

Second, even more serious complaints about the methods used by Dahn Hak to influence and recruit new full time workers or “little masters” to serve the “Grand Master Lee.” And closely related family complaints about how those workers often become increasingly isolated and difficult to contact.

Personal stories, such as the one featured within Now Magazine of Toronto about Dahn’s so-called “brain respiration,” make the group’s practices sound more like “brainwashing” than physical exercise.

The Journal News of Westchester, New York also reported about interventions or “deprogrmming” undertaken by families to get people out of Dahn Hak.

All of this conjures up images of another South Korean led group the Unification Church, commonly called the “Moonies,” which has also been criticized for the tactics it used to recruit and retain members. A man who also claimed to have received “enlightenment” from a higher power, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, led that organization.

The media has been taking a harder look lately at Dahn Hak since the tragic and untimely death of 41-year-old Dr. Julia M. Siverls. Dr. Siverls was a respected professor within the Department of Social Sciences at Queens Community College of the City University of New York. She died under strange circumstances while attending a Dahn Hak retreat in Sedona, Arizona.

CultNews first reported about Dr. Siverls death during August of 2003 and since then her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dahn Hak and Seung Heun Lee.

The recent report from New Mexico and an earlier articles published by the Journal News of Westchester and the New York Post further detailed about this tragedy.

CBS News affiliates in several cities including both Boston and Phoenix also have recently run investigative reports about Dahn Hak.

More legal woes have entangled Lee, who is also facing court action for patent infringement concerning “colour breathing,” a technique apparently first developed by Allison Bourne of Energy Press in England and allegedly later copied by Lee.

Was that somehow part of the “enlightenment” the “Grand Master” downloaded from a higher power on a mountaintop?

What is Dahn Hak?

Is it a chain of exercise studios featuring “yoga,” “martial arts” and other forms of eastern exercise?

Or is it a new religious movement with a latter-day messiah following in the footsteps of Rev. Moon?

Perhaps the grieving family of Julia Siverls will find out through the discovery process in their ongoing lawsuit.

Meanwhile the mainstream press and media seem to be increasingly interested in Seung Heun Lee and his “yoga empire”

It’s very likely that whatever wedding and baby plans Tom Cruise is making he is thinking Scientology venues with minimum exposure and maximum control.

This is likely to mean either “Gold Base,” a tightly controlled 500-acre Scientology compound near the town of Hemet, California or the “Freewinds,” Scientology’s 440-foot cruise ship based in Curacao in the Caribbean.

Cruise has already taken Holmes to the ship once to celebrate his 43rd birthday, where it is rumored he may have actually married her there already reports the New York Daily News.

Having a baby at sea might seem odd, but Scientology’s “Top Gun” known for his “Cruise control” could keep an airtight grip on the expectant mother’s environment, shutting out the media and paparazzi. And an intrusive fly-over by prying eyes would be quite difficult.

Gold Base is a former resort bought by Scientology when Hubbard was alive. It includes a mansion known as “The Castle” with a carriage house for VIPs. It is relatively isolated, heavily secured with surveillance cameras and regular patrols.

Both Gold and the Freewinds are virtually totally inhabited by loyal Sea Org members, described in a 1998 Italian government report as “a community with both monastic and military characteristics,” which makes up Scientology’s permanent, full-time hardcore staff.

Whether at sea or embedded within the church’s compound out in the California desert, Katie may have her baby not only silently, but insulated and isolated from her family, old friends and anyone else outside of Scientology.