Cult News

Cult apology is a trade for some, but it may be a “politically correct” calling for others.

This week National Public Radio (NPR) “All Things Considered” apparently was on a mission, the program featured well-known “cult apologists” in a broadcast about “New Religions.”

The two-part series hosted by Barbara Bradley Hagerty discussed the history of so-called “new religious movements (NRMs),” which is a politically correct euphemism for groups commonly called “cults.”

Feigning academic objectivity was J. Gordon Melton and James Lewis.

Both men have long been closely associated with well-known “cults,” such as the notorious “Cult of Greed” (Time Magazine May 1991) Scientology, which has recommended the two as “religious resources.”

Melton frequently hires himself out to “cults.”

Melton, the founder of the “Institute for the Study of American Religion,” has worked for the likes of J.Z. Knight, a woman who claims to channel a 35,000-year-old spirit named “Ramtha.”

“Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati” a former Brooklyn housewife and the leader of the Kashi Ashram in Florida also has retained Melton.

Melton’s professional “research,” which frequently flatters “cult leaders,” seems to provide them with academic cover, but for a price.

The peripatetic apologists Lewis and Melton were once flown to Japan all expenses paid by the notorious cult Aum, just after its leader and many members were arrested for gassing Tokyo’s subways.

Lewis claimed at a press conference after conducting an “investigation” based upon photos and documents provided by the cult, that Aum could not have produced the poison gas used to murder 12 Japanese and send thousands to hospitals.

Not to be left out Melton chimed in that the Japanese authorities “were threatening the group’s religious freedom.”

For those that don’t already know, Aum’s leader Shoko Asahara and his key subordinates were found guilty and sentenced to death through a court process that included overwhelming evidence.

Apparently Lewis and Melton overlooked and/or ignored such factual information.

Another “scholar” featured on the NPR program was Catherine Wessinger.

This academic once described the suicide cult “Heaven’s Gate” led by lunatic Marshall Applewhite as “definitely Gnostic…very similar to Hinduism (and also Buddhism).” She concluded, “The outcome with Heaven’s Gate certainly calls into question traditional Hindu beliefs and practices.”

Huh?

What about the more obvious explanation that Applewhite was crazy? After all, the cult leader did once sign himself into a mental hospital, wasn’t his psychological instability a factor?

Wessinger says, “I’m not trained in psychology so I don’t articulate those opinions…”

Wessinger also engages in something like revisionist history regarding Jonestown led by another madman Jim Jones. This cult tragedy claimed the lives of more than 900 Americans in 1978. According to Wessinger “they would still be here. But due to the attacks and investigations they endured…”

Melton, Lewis and Wessinger might be the cult version of the “Three Stooges,” or maybe more like the proverbial monkeys that “hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil” when it comes to cults.

Whatever they are NPR appears to be just plain dumb, for either not doing its own research, or simply ignoring the facts in favor of some sort of “political correctness.”

Here are some glaring examples:

NPR discussed Krishna without even mentioning that the “cult” is currently embroiled in a $400 million dollar class action lawsuit filed by its childhood victims.

The Waco Davidians were labeled as a “new religious movement (NRM),” even though they are commonly called a “cult.” No mention was made about David Koresh’s bizarre claim that he was “The Lamb of God” or how the cult leader exploited and abused his followers, including the rape of a 10-year-old.

Another “NRM” mentioned was the Raelians, but again nothing about the sordid history of leader Claude Vorilhon (“Rael”) or the context of the group’s clone claim, within an endless series of self-serving publicity stunts.

Instead, all these groups were essentially whitewashed under the politically correct rubric of “new religious movements.”

And the word “cult” was never even used once throughout the entire program.

After all, according to the NPR “scholars” any meaningful discussion of “cult” bad behavior may be characterized as “persecution” and/or an “attack” upon “religious freedom.”

Note: In its second installment yesterday NPR featured yet another “cult apologist” Lorne L. Dawson. This program discussed the “Toronto Blessing,” an aberration on the fringes of the Charismatic Movement. However, in what can easily be seen as misleading, the report focused on the bizarre aspects of this Canadian group as if it offered listeners a pivotal understanding of Pentecostal Christianity.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church created a media conglomerate to serve the would-be “Messiah” and propaganda purposes.

But it looks like the “cult” leader’s New World Communications is unraveling a bit; it has shed three of its publications recently.

Noticias del Mundo, a Spanish-language newspaper in New York City was dumped late last month reported the New York Post.

Insiders at Noticias said their superiors explained that the newspaper was “in bad shape.” And it appears that there was no meaningful effort to find a buyer.

Also on the chopping block was the Moon magazine known as “The World and I,” its staff of 31 got the ax.

“Insight” magazine, another Moon loser, was cut to “a five person skeleton crew” reported The Hill.

So far Rev. Moon’s media crown jewels the Washington Times and UPI news service have been spared, but perhaps staffers there should keep their resumes ready.

All these recent cutbacks are what a Moon spokesman called a “restructuring effort.” He claimed that the shutdowns would save the self-proclaimed “messiah” “millions of dollars” and help to “reposition” his other media assets reported the Washington Post.

Washington Times Editor in Chief Wesley Pruden put on a good face. “Our budget for next year is bigger than it’s ever been,” he said.

However, a bigger budget at the Times may be more bad news for Rev. Moon, since that newspaper has been a financial loser for some time.

In fact Moon’s media holdings seem to be a money pit.

Insight Magazine, which was launched in 1995, received an “annual subsidy” of $40 million dollars.

And Moon has reportedly “invested” more than $1 billion in the Washington Times.

This is not chump change, even for a rich “cult leader” with a religious empire once valued at more than $3 billion dollars, which includes a fishing fleet, canneries and valuable Manhattan real estate like the New Yorker Hotel.

Moon’s media has largely served as a conduit for the South Korean’s views and to indulge his considerable vanity. Moon has used the Washington Times Foundation as a vehicle to give him awards at upscale banquets attended by DC politicians and notables.

But now Rev. Moon is an octogenarian and he may soon fade away to some rest home for aged “cult” leaders.

It won’t be long before Moon’s financial residue is mulled over by his family, who will likely care more about the bottom line than his supposed “divine principles.”

Expect to see more dumping in the future at Moon Inc.

And that will likely lead to getting rid of everything that is not profitable, despite its prior usefulness as a vehicle for propaganda and self-aggrandizement.

Such a purge for profitability may mean eventually giving the ax to Pruden and his crew over at the Washington Times.

Things haven’t been very peaceful in Maharishi, Iowa lately.

One devoted follower attending Maharishi University (MU), named for the 1960s guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, apparently stabbed to death a fellow student reported the Iowa Channel.com.

And it appears that simultaneously elsewhere on campus a MU employee was busy growing marijuana reports Golden Triangle News Service.

Days after the police moved pot-growing equipment from a frat room on campus MU student and accused murderer Shuvender Sem pleaded “not guilty” in court reported the Fairfield Daily Ledger.

Perhaps it was just a bad week for Maharishi, the 92-year-old guru who once taught the Beatles TM (Transcendental Meditation).

So much for the ballyhoo about “yogic flyers” that supposedly can reduce stress and crime by bringing greater peace through meditation.

Maybe they were grounded in Iowa?

Or should the indoor marijuana grower have supplied them with leafy fuel for yogic flight?

Whatever, it’s unlikely that these recent setbacks will stop the aged guru from further fund raising for his so-called “Peace Palaces.”

A murder and marijuana bust will likely just become a minor media glitch for the tireless self-promoter and certainly won’t stop his ever-growing Maharishi/TM multi-billion dollar spiritual empire.

Scientology offers its very own unique Mother’s Day greeting by quoting none other than its dead founder L. Ron Hubbard posthumously at PR Newswire.

“‘In the charge of woman is the care of the children,’ wrote philosopher and author L. Ron Hubbard,” the press release states

Is that why Hubbard reportedly “kidnapped” his baby daughter Alexis from her mother? Why didn’t he want this woman to take “care of the children”?

And here’s another interesting Hubbardism. “It is a remarkable fact, a scientific fact, that the healthiest children come from the happiest mothers,” wrote the “philosopher.”

However, according to press reports Hubbard once told his child’s mother that she would never see her baby again, and that “if she ready loved him, she would kill herself and thus save him further bother with her.”

Is this the stuff of happiness?

Hubbard also wrote, “Woman, you have a right and a reason to demand good treatment.”

But the Scientology founder reportedly once “subdued” his wife with a “hammerlock, causing strangulation.”

Is this the “good treatment” a woman has the “right” to expect?

Sarah Northrup Hubbard eventually sued her husband for divorce “on cruelty grounds” and called him “hopelessly insane and crazy.”

It doesn’t appear that the former Mrs. L. Ron Hubbard was one of those “happiest mothers” her estranged husband talked about.

Interestingly, Scientology says that “Hubbard’s research uncovered how unpleasant, painful and upsetting experiences influence us in the future and cause stress, anxiety, and unhappiness.” And also that “these occurrences subtly weave their way from incident to incident, causing our lives to follow patterns.”

This might explain why one Hubbard child Quentin may have committed suicide and another, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., has been described as a “survivor.”

Of course Scientology doesn’t bother to offer such Hubbard family footnotes in its Mother’s Day message.

Instead it concludes, “‘Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health’ may be the best present you could give your wife or mother this Mother’s Day.”

It appears that Dianetics didn’t work out that well for the Hubbard family, but Scientologists want everyone to believe that nevertheless it will somehow work out for you.

Joan Holmes, President of “The Hunger Project” (THP), a nonprofit organization headquartered in New York City, was appointed last month to the “UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force.”

Ms. Holmes and THP have an interesting historical background that includes connections to a purported “cult-like” group that allegedly “brainwashes” participants.

And recently THP has sought to purge that history from the Internet, perhaps in an effort to prepare the way for Holmes UN appointment.

A 1970s pop guru named Werner Erhard (once known as “Jack” Rosenberg) hatched The Hunger Project as a spin-off of Erhard Seminars Training (EST), which is now known as Landmark Education.

THP was actually launched at an EST board meeting.

Professor and scholar David Hoekema writing for the Christian Century Magazine in 1979 said THP was little more than “empty talk” essentially based upon Erhard’s much criticized teachings

Holmes who now claims UN status was once a devoted Erhard follower that eventually joined his EST staff.

“EST training altered everything for me,” Holmes gushed in 1975.

Erhard historically explained THP this way. “The Hunger Project is not about solutions. It’s not about fixing up the problem…[it’s] about creating a context…then we will know how to make the world work.”

Holmes appeared to echo her mentor’s mantra later saying, “The Hunger Project is about locating in the fabric of self the end of hunger and starvation…It is our sense that when that is done to any appreciable degree, that we can have an end of hunger.”

Werner Erhard left THP’s Board in 1990. However, the former encyclopedia and used car salesman who possessed no college degree left behind a legacy of “principles and abstractions” and perhaps most notably a “Source Document” for the organization.

Erhard’s ardent disciple Holmes soldiered on and arguably became part of the seminar guru’s legacy. And she is now able to further his philosophy through the UN.

Interestingly, the same task force that seated Holmes is co-chaired by her friend Professor M.S. Swaminathan, who is also “chairman emeritus of The Hunger Project’s Global Board of Directors.”

How convenient, could this mean that the professor was the impetus behind Ms. Holmes selection?

In a letter from the UN Task Force quoted by THP at its website Holmes is lauded for her “outstanding expertise and contribution to the field.”

But what substance is there behind this effusive praise?

According to its website THP’s goals are to identify “the conditions that give rise to the persistence of hunger.”

And the organization has “strategies to…transform these conditions,” which supposedly “restore and unleash the human spirit.”

But doesn’t this still sound like what Hoekema once called “empty talk”?

THP doesn’t mention the most obvious means of stopping hunger, which is providing food to the hungry.

The organization took in more than $6 million dollars during 2002 and reported spending “76.1%” on “programs,” “16.8%” on “administration” and “7.1%” on “fund-raising.”

“Where’s the beef?” Or for that matter any other item listed from a recognizable food group?

THP says, “The bottom line is simple – we invest in and empower people.”

But isn’t the “bottom line” on hunger feeding people? And wouldn’t an investment in some food actually help to “empower” the world’s starving population?

Again, THP sounds like a faddish flashback to 1970s EST inspired group thinking.

Searching through the organization’s website you won’t find a peer reviewed published scientific study cited offering proof of THP’s theories, theses or paradigm, just more lofty rhetoric.

But unless the UN counts rhetoric and vintage 1970s pop philosophy as a cure for world hunger, they may come up short based upon any contribution offered by Ms. Holmes and THP.

However, conversely THP certainly sees the contribution that the UN has made by conferring status and a title upon its president.

It “represents an important new opportunity for The Hunger Project to play a greater leadership role in the international development community,” boasts its website.

THP already has announced that the UN “Task Force visited one of [its] epicenters in Malawi last year, and has included Hunger Project field program leaders from India, Bangladesh and Uganda in their regional consultations.”

No doubt THP will also find the imprimatur of the UN handy for fund-raising.

Werner Erhard the grand creator behind THP is now reportedly comfortably retired and spending his time languishing luxuriously and well fed with his longtime girlfriend “Hanukkah” on the beaches of the Cayman Islands.

Don’t worry about Werner going hungry.

Now known as Werner Spits, Erhard has joined an eating club called Chaîne des Rotisseurs, which holds formal themed dinners several times a year. One eleven-course feast (roasted squab, peaches in chartreuse jelly) re-created the last dinner on the Titanic.

And old gurus need not fade away, they can live on through their devoted disciples, just ask Joan Holmes and the UN.

Note: CultNews phoned THP headquarters in Manhattan for comment. But its PR person had “nothing to say” and hung up.

NXIVM (pronounced Nexium, like “the purple pill“) lost again in court this week in its legal effort to remove critical reports about its programs from the Ross Institute (RI) database.

The group alleges “copyright” violations and sought an injunction to delete from the Internet the critical analyses written by noted mental health professionals Dr. Paul Martin and John Hochman, MD.

NXIVM sells “Executive Success Programs” concocted by Keith Raniere its self-proclaimed “Vanguard.”

NXIVM, which has been called a “cult,” claims that the doctor’s reports violate its copyright because they quoted the group’s manual.

However, a district court in Albany rejected Raniere’s request for a preliminary injunction so his lawyers appealed.

This week The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City handed down their decision (NXIVM Corp v. The Ross Institute — Docket No. 03-7952).

“We agree with the district court that the website’s use of quotation from the manual to support their critical analyses of the seminars…[was used] for the purpose of ‘criticism, comment scholarship, or research,'” wrote the court.

The Second Circuit also noted that NXIVM’s claim that the doctors had unlawfully copied “the heart of their ‘services” within the reports was meaningless, because “such services…are not copyrightable expression.”

The appellate court decision also agreed with the lower court that “in order to do the research and analysis necessary to support their critical commentary, it was reasonably necessary for defendants to quote liberally from NXIVM’s manual.”

This decision further defines copyright law and goes some distance in precluding spurious copyright claims made by “cults” as a means of silencing their critics.

The court said that use of a group’s material “might well harm, or even destroy, the market for the original,” but that this “is of no concern to us so long as the harm stems from the force of the criticism offered.”

Regarding NXIVM’s trademark claim, the court stated that it is “without merit.”

The Second Circuit also offered this withering assessment of NXIVM’s lawsuit; “Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed.”

Judge Dennis Jacobs summed up the situation succinctly, “Ross and his co-defendants quoted from NXIVM’s manual to show that it is the pretentious nonsense of a cult…Certainly, no critic should need an author’s permission to make such criticism…”

A motion to dismiss the lawsuit entirely is currently pending before an Albany Federal Judge.

After reading so many articles about the alleged “anti-Semitic” content within Mel Gibson’s “Passion” I decided to go see the film and judge it for myself.

My interest to date regarding the controversial movie has been the cultural phenomenon it has created and the fringe schismatic so-called “Traditional Catholic” group Gibson comes from.

After Easter the theater was almost empty.

Sitting through “Passion” isn’t easy; it’s a bit slow and the action is somewhat redundant. Unlike previous religious movies such as The Ten Commandments or The Robe this is “a film so narrowly focused as to be inaccessible for all but the devout,” as a LA Times critic wrote.

And “the devout” seems to be essentially evangelical Christians largely from Baptist, Pentecostal and non-denominational fundamentalist churches, who have defended Gibson’s movie.

But back to the issue of anti-Semitism.

There is no getting around the way Jews are portrayed in this movie, and it’s not pretty. Negative stereotypes abound and as the old adage says, “if it quacks like a duck and it walks like a duck, it just might be a duck.”

Gibson’s movie looks and sounds anti-Semitic based on key scenes and dialog, but somehow the director and his boosters want everyone to believe it’s not.

However, as many have observed outside the religious fervor the film has generated, you cannot escape the artistic license Gibson took regarding both his screenplay and direction. The dialog and scenes portray Jewish leaders in an evil conspiracy out to get Jesus and the Jewish mob thirsty for his blood.

Meanwhile Pontius Pilate and his spouse are given more than enough wiggle room to get off the hook.

Mrs. Pilate even tearfully brings Mary towels as an apparent act of contrition, even though according to Mel’s script she tried to save Jesus’ life.

Of course none of this dialog exists in the New Testament, which removes the basis for the frequently offered apology that somehow Mel’s just following scripture.

And given Gibson’s background of being raised by an anti-Semitic father amidst Jewish conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial, it seems reasonable to suspect that environment influenced him.

Mel Gibson has never directly and explicitly repudiated his father’s teachings, no matter how repugnant.

The director’s supporters want us to think he is just a loyal son, but watching the movie you can’t help but think that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

“Passion” certainly earns every bit of its R rating through its constant and brutal bloodshed. Mary even has a scene mopping up her son’s blood. James Caviezel who plays Jesus spends most of his time being beaten, bleeding, falling down and writhing in agony.

All the while the Jews are overwhelmingly either happily watching Jesus suffer, pelting him with rocks or egging the Romans on. There is an occasional benevolent Hebrew, but this device only serves to punctuate the ongoing polemic.

The constant focus on Mary is interesting. That emphasis in Catholicism has often upset Protestants, especially evangelicals. But this time they seem willing to suffer through Gibson’s fascination with the mother of Jesus as long as it serves their agenda.

According to a recent poll one third of the Americans who have seen “Passion” believe the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus reported Religion News Service.

“Generally, there is a correlation between seeing the movie, and expressing an intention to see it, with holding the view that Jews were responsible for Christ’s death,” pollsters said. And that “people who are drawn to this movie may be predisposed to this opinion more than others.”

This comes as no surprise to many Jews who have often been troubled by evangelical Christian sentiments. It is this religious community that spends millions of dollars annually funding groups like “Jews for Jesus” that target Jews for conversion.

Not surprisingly “Jews for Jesus,” which was founded by a Baptist minister, strongly endorsed “Passion” reported Agape Press.

More moderate “mainline” Protestants and Roman Catholics don’t agree with such missionary efforts and instead prefer building bridges to the Jewish community through mutual acceptance and ecumenical dialog.

This is probably why Mel Gibson sought out evangelicals in his marketing strategy, sensing correctly that they would not object to his portrayal of Jews.

“Passion” seems to resonate with those who harbor certain sentiments about Jews and thus it’s not a shock that the film has done well in Muslim countries reported Salon.

Mel’s message about Jews has made angry Arabs happy that believe in Jewish conspiracies.

Note: Rick Ross is a former member of the National Committee for Interreligious Affairs of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, a large denomination of Judaism.

Mel Gibson has certainly pulled off a phenomenon with his film “The Passion of The Christ.”

From a purely business standpoint the actor’s investment of about $30 million dollars has more than paid off and it should add at least $100 million to his personal fortune. A synergistically driven merchandising campaign of souvenirs, books and CDs will perhaps net Mel a few million more.

“Passion” now ranks eighth on the top ten list of domestic blockbusters with more than a $350 million gross. It took in $17 million just on Easter weekend reported Coming Soon.net.

But besides its now established status as a box office bonanza, the controversial film released to coincide with Lent and Easter, has become both a media and cultural event.

Gibson made this all possible, first by his fame and name recognition and second through the scrutiny his project received as a work that allegedly contains an “anti-Semitic” message.

However, the savvy star hired a Manhattan PR firm for spin control and got out in front of his critics by mounting something of a crusade amongst evangelical Christians.

It was ultimately those religious connections and not Hollywood that put his film over.

This community of conservative Protestants, despite their historic animus towards Catholics, embraced Mel Gibson like one of their own.

They heaped effusive praise on their “Braveheart” seemingly seeing his movie as somehow a part of God’s plan for redemption.

The actor himself appears to agree. “The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film,” he has said. And Many of those connected to the project appear to think their work fulfilled some divine purpose.

But buying a ticket to Mel’s “Passion” only allows admission to the theater; the film’s director seems to think his Protestant supporters are going to Hell.

In an interview with the Herald Sun in Australia when asked specifically if Protestants are denied eternal salvation the star said, “There is no salvation for those outside the Church.”

He then elaborated, “Put it this way. My wife is a…Episcopalian…She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff…she’s better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair” reported MSNBC.

And what that “chair” pronounces, for this Oscar winning director, means what God says as defined by the so-called “Traditional Catholic movement,” which Gibson was raised within and still steadfastly supports.

“The Passion is nothing short of a party political broadcast for this movement,” reported The Scotsman.

Roman Catholics are not immune from Mel’s stern judgement.

“I go to an all-pre-Vatican II Latin Mass,” he told USA Today. “There was a lot of talk, particularly in the Sixties, of ‘wow, we’ve got to change with the times’. But the Creator instituted something very specific, and we can’t just go change it.”

Despite the kind words the Pope had for Gibson’s movie the director/producer may not think that His Holiness is Catholic enough to get into heaven either.

In fact, the only people that may be doing “something very specific” enough to get into heaven are the small flock of less than 100 believers that attend a church Mel built in Malibu. Though some 50,000 or so “Traditional Catholics” might have a shot too.

Is the whole phenomenon of “Passion” then simply an exercise in mutually cynical exploitation?

Gibson selling his movement’s message, not to mention tickets and evangelical Christians using his film as a vehicle to fire up the faithful and make some sort of social statement?

If the director were driven only by faith would he have pursued such a savvy marketing strategy, manipulating both the Jewish and Protestant communities conversely to promote his project?

And what about the fervent Protestant pastors that bought blocks of tickets, what were they thinking? Was it really just Jesus that motivated them or a self-serving media blitz?

It looks like they saw Gibson’s film as a means of demonstrating their clout, in something that can be seen as a social statement measured by ticket sales.

Hallelujah?

According to the New Testament Jesus once said that many would come in his name, but he would not know them.

He also said that it would be “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

This may mean that Mel might have been better off in the hereafter, if he hadn’t made so much money off his Jesus movie.

Postscript: A year ago I wrote, “It seems destined for a very small audience. It certainly won’t be another ‘Braveheart.'” What a difference a year makes, given a slick marketing strategy and the resulting religious fervor at the box office, but don’t expect another Oscar Mel.

The Artist once again known as Prince is making something of a comeback. The singing sensation of the 1980s is in the midst of a 38-city tour bouncing off the buzz created by his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a recent performance at the Grammys.

But fans will find that Prince has changed, and it’s not only his music.

Joining a growing group of middle-aged stars seeking more “spirituality,” the 45-year-old former funk phenomenon has found religion.

However, unlike his contemporary Madonna who hooked up with a rather trendy rabbi/guru that sells “Kaballah water,” this 1980s pop icon has chosen Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Despite his past reputation as an innovator and trendsetter Prince has picked something old.

For more than a hundred years Jehovah’s Witnesses has thrived through its dark prophecies about an ever-imminent “final judgement.” The controversial religion is also known for its rejection of “worldly” things, from blood transfusions to birthdays.

Four years ago the funkster converted reportedly to satisfy his mother’s dying wish, but since then Prince has gone so far as to add religious lyrics to his theme song “Purple Rain.”

The new line in the song goes, “Say you can’t make up your mind? I think you better close it and open up the Bible.”

Close your mind?

Isn’t that like being “brainwashed“?

Prince may have even recast his old battles with record companies into something religious.

“I can tell you who made the System,” he told Newsweek cryptically (April 12, 2004). The “System,” according to Prince apparently includes the music recording business that he says once “enslaved” him.

But the word “System” has a darker connotation than slavery amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses. It encompasses everything “worldly” outside of the organization, which includes all world governments, businesses and any other religious organizations.

And “who made the System” and essentially controls it today?

According to the Witnesses its creator and guiding light is Satan.

This is why Witnesses shun such things as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, military service and political parties, because it’s all part of the “System” and therefore linked to “Satan.”

The “System” by definition also would certainly embrace such worldly things as the Grammys and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So why did Prince perform at these gatherings and become the willing “slave” of “worldly” Columbia Records?

Apparently there may be some other rulebook for famous Witnesses, who might easily make hefty gifts to “Jehovah’s Kingdom.”

This seemed to be the case for the “Gloved One” Michael Jackson during the 1980s, who was raised a Witness, but left the group after his hit album Thriller.

Following in the footsteps of the former “King of Pop,” Prince now proselytizes door- to-door.

Though when this five foot two androgynous performer promotes Jehovah’s Witnesses in Minneapolis he wears his trademark mascara and is “dressed in a tailor-made suit…stack heels” and driven to doorsteps in a “limo…surrounded by four bodyguards” says the London Mirror.

Well, Prince may still be “revolutionary” amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Tom Cruise was out fund-raising this month yet again for his favorite cause, which seems to be almost anything linked to Scientology or as Time Magazine once named the group the “Cult of Greed.”

The former “Top Gun” and “Last Samurai” was shilling this month for a group he co-founded called the “New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project.”

The so-called “detoxification” promoted by the project is really just the latest incarnation of a Scientology-related religious ritual commonly known amongst the faithful as the “purification rundown.”

The “rundown” is a process that includes sweating out toxins in a sauna and consuming large doses of niacin.

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard came up with this idea.

Cruise raked in $1.2 million for his pet project through Hollywood connections, cronies and “friends” said the Hollywood Reporter.

And one of Tom’s special “friends” is New York City Council member Margarita Lopez.

Lopez actually chaired a hearing about “the recoveries being achieved through detoxification.”

She says, “Detoxification has helped over 200 men and women regain their health.” The councilwoman is beginning to sound more like a Hubbard groupie than an elected official concerned about her constituents.

Lopez apparently has chosen to ignore feedback from the deputy chief medical officer for the NY Fire Department who called the same detoxification “risky” and concluded, “there’s no proven evidence it works.”

A toxicology expert quoted by the NY Times stating flatly that the program is an “unproven, scientifically bereft notion.”

After all L. Ron Hubbard was a Sci-fi writer and purported “cult leader,” not a doctor or scientist.

But it appears that some elected officials find movie stars intoxicating and perhaps potentially useful for their own fund-raisers.

Maybe that’s why Lopez has jumped on the Cruise “detox” bandwagon, along with US Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Maloney, as previously reported by CutlNews.

Cruise crowed, “Knowing that…heroes from New York’s bravest…are back on the job — that brings me immeasurable joy and pride.”

But the price tag to bring Tom more of that “joy and pride,” for anyone other than the NY firemen he often uses like promotional props, is around $5,000 a head.