=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo
1. Honohana leaders questioned about millions in kickbacks
2. Ho-no-Hana probed over donations
3. Foot-cult head spent big on meeting Pope
4. Cult scam: 'pope-blessed' rings

=== Aum Shinrikyo
5. Aum pledges 4 billion yen
6. AUM agrees to pay out 4 bil. yen to victims

=== Waco / Branch Davidians
7. Reno questioned by Danforth for six hours;
Davidians lawyer attacks Vector report
8. Special Counsel Questioned Reno Over 1993 Waco Raid

=== Falun Gong
9. Falun Gong Members Celebrate
10. China detains dozens of Falun Gong protesters

=== Battlefield Earth / Scientology

* Note: Rather than include dozens of essentially repetitive
items, I am including only a small selection of reviews. I
consider them representative, but if someone can find a
positive review, feel free to send it to me: news@apologeticsindex.org

11. Battlefield Earth 1/2 * (PG-13)
12. Futuristic 'Battlefield Earth' doesn't even work as a spoof
13. Hubbard's 'Battlefield' opens
14. The Launch of a Star Vehicle That Explodes in Laughter
15. Battlefield Earth (Sci-fi drama, color, PG-13, 1:57)
16. 'Battlefield' dearth
17. This Weekend at the Movies: Scorched Battlefield
18. Battlefield Earth (PG-13)
19. 'Battlefield Earth' falls flat and hard
20. Hollywood's New Religion

=== Mormonism
21. Methodists Say LDS Doctrine Not Christian

=== Islam
22. Egypt Clears Book of Blasphemy

=== Attleboro Cult
23. Sect Members Jailed in Boys' Case
24. More members of Attleboro religious sect jailed

=== Other News
25. Cult accusations go to Palmer jury (Wasilla Ministries)
26. Japanese Tourist Killed in Guatemala
27. Court case for 'prophet' adjourned
28. Turkish Court Sentences Leader
29. Fatima Secret Foretold Pope Shooting, Vatican Says
30. Children who saw a vision
31. Turn from religious extremes, says Carey
32. No targets for Southern Baptists
33. ACLU won't fight Buddha's birthday


=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo

1. Honohana leaders questioned about millions in kickbacks
Japan Times (Japan), May 12, 2000
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/nn05-2000/nn20000512a6.htm
Senior members of the cult Honohana Sanpogyo received millions of yen in
kickbacks around 1996 from several companies engaged in the construction of a
cult facility in Tokyo, sources within the group said Thursday.

The sources said cult founder Hogen Fukunaga, 55, and other senior Honohana
members received the money after demanding 40 million yen from the firms
involved. The construction of the facility in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward was completed
last year at a cost of 4 billion yen.

Fukunaga, whose real first name is Teruyoshi, and 11 senior members of Honohana
were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of defrauding followers. Fukunaga stepped
down as leader of the group in January.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Ho-no-Hana probed over donations
Daily Yomiuri (Japan), May 12, 2000
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0512cr06.htm
Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo, a religious organization under police investigation on
suspicion of fraud, may have offered another 15 million yen or so to a former
influential member of the municipal assembly of Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, in
addition to the 5 million yen the group is already believed to have given him,
police said Thursday.

The donations that the 63-year-old former assembly member allegedly received
from the religious organization totaled about 20 million yen, police said.

Police are now investigating to determine Ho-no-Hana's intent in making the
donations and believe that the money may have been offered in a bid to establish
the organization's headquarters in the city.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Foot-cult head spent big on meeting Pope
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), May 11, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news05.html
Hgen Fukunaga, the founder of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo cult who is under arrest
for fraud charges, apparently spent billions of yen in commissions in order to
set up meetings with world luminaries such as Pope John Paul II, opportunities
which he commercially exploited, sources said.

When Fukunaga, 55, met the luminaries, members of the cult took photos of them,
and used those pictures as lures to talk people into joining the cult, sources
close to the organization, best known for its ''foot-reading'' method, said.

The amount Fukunaga spent arranging the meetings was huge - up to 100 million
yen for one appointment.

The celebrities Fukunaga met include former British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Reports on the meetings were featured in the cult's bulletin.

''For a leader of an unknown religious organization with no particular
achievements, it was only with money that they were able to buy the celebrities'
time,'' a source familiar with the Ho-no-Hana cult said.

But subsequent reports carried in the bulletin were sometimes fraudulent -
dressing up mere chats between Fukunaga and the celebrities to look like
in-depth discussions.

According to investigators, however, Fukunaga was determined to get healthy
returns from these extravagant expenditures.

Fukunaga had a ring which the pontiff allegedly blessed during the
self-proclaimed oracle's visit to Vatican. The cult made imitations of the ring
and sold them to followers for between 100,000 yen and 300,000 yen each.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Cult scam: 'pope-blessed' rings
Japan Times (Japan), May 11, 2000
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news
/nn05-2000/nn20000511a5.htm
The cult Honohana Sanpogyo has fabricated rings it claims to have been given by
Pope John Paul II to its guru, Hogen Fukunaga, and sold them to followers for
between 100,000 yen and 300,000 yen apiece, it was learned Wednesday.

Fukunaga, who ostensibly relinquished his official position as leader of the
foot-reading cult in January after being told to do so by a ''voice from heaven,''
was arrested Tuesday on charges of defrauding the cult's followers.

He and 11 other senior cultists apprehended the same day were turned over to
prosecutors Wednesday. Papers on Fukunaga's 79-year-old mother were also sent to
prosecutors on the same allegations. She is believed to be deeply involved in
the cult's finances, according to police.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which has been probing a barrage of
fraud charges filed against the cult and Fukunaga, has opened a new
investigation into the ring affair, MPD sources said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Aum Shinrikyo

5. Aum pledges 4 billion yen
Japan Times (Japan), May 12, 2000
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/
nn05-2000/nn20000512a6.htm
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Aum Shinrikyo plans to pay some 4.1 billion yen in compensation
to victims of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other
crimes committed by the cult, the cult's bankruptcy administrator said Thursday.

Saburo Abe said senior members of the cult, which has changed its name to Aleph,
informed him of the plan when he visited Aum's Yokohama branch in the city's
Naka Ward. The members included Fumihiro Joyu, the sect's former spokesman.
(...)

But the members rejected Abe's proposal that the group change its name from
Aleph, which is said to have been chosen by Aum founder Shoko Asahara.

''It is not correct that the group's name be decided in such a way. We have a
belief in the name as a religious group,'' a senior Aleph member was quoted as
telling Abe.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. AUM agrees to pay out 4 bil. yen to victims
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), May 12, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news08.html
Doomsday cult AUM Shinrikyo agreed Thursday to pay 4 billion yen to victims of
its crimes, its receiver, Saburo Abe, said.

But only some 863 million yen has been forwarded to victims of the cult's 1995
lethal gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other crimes, well short of the
38.2 billion yen compensation that had been sought.

AUM, which now calls itself Aleph, will deposit about 200 million yen with Abe
some time in the next six months, and will pay out about 1 billion yen over the
next five years while it's still in receivership.

A timetable for payments of the remaining 30 billion yen will be drawn up four
years later, possibly because cult bigwigs balked at the price demanded.
[...entire item...]


=== Waco / Branch Davidians

7. Reno questioned by Danforth for six hours;
Davidians lawyer attacks Vector report
CNN. May 11, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/05/11/waco/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Janet Reno disclosed Thursday she had been
questioned extensively behind closed doors last week by Waco Special Counsel
John Danforth whom she appointed last year to investigate the government's
conduct in the 51-day siege and its aftermath.

An aide to Reno said the questioning of Reno by Danforth and three others from
the Special Counsel's office had last six hours. Reno was accompanied by a
single Justice Department aide for note-taking. ''Her interview was not conducted
under oath, and no court reporter was present,'' an official said.

Justice lawyers would not comment on the substance of the questioning which took
place in Reno's Justice Department office. Danforth was selected by Reno to
examine allegations FBI agents may have caused the deaths on the final day of
the siege, and engaged in a cover-up.
(...)

A crucial piece of the investigation was made public Wednesday when a report by
technical experts hired by Danforth and approved by a federal judge concluded
infrared videotape on the day of the fire showed no evidence of FBI gunfire.

The analysis by Vector Data Systems, a British firm that conducted the March
simulation of the FBI infrared taping, concluded the flashes on the FBI tape
resulted from solar reflections.

The FBI hailed the results and said the report ''vindicates those FBI people long
accused of shooting into the compound''.

The lead attorney for the Branch Davidians' surviving family members suing the
government in a wrongful-death civil case attacked the report.

''I cannot concede our points based on these findings,'' attorney Michael Caddell
of Houston told CNN. Caddell said he finds the report ''disappointing'' and
questions the firm's independence.

''There are so many inconsistencies between their data and their conclusions you
have to question either their competence or their integrity,'' Caddell said.

''Clearly Vector is a company with many ties to the U.S. government,'' Caddell
charged. It has hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the U.S.
government. ... This is hardly an outside, disinterested third party,'' he
insisted.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. Special Counsel Questioned Reno Over 1993 Waco Raid
AOL/Reuters, May 11. 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=01&id=0005111153233216
(...) At her weekly news briefing, Reno, who gave the go-ahead for the raid,
declined to discuss the substance of what she was asked or whether she would be
interviewed further.
(...)

When she appointed Danforth, Reno said she would be a witness in the
investigation. Danforth at the time said he would have the authority to question
Reno.
(...)

Reno has maintained that the members of the religious sect set the fires that
engulfed the compound on April 19, 1993, the final day of a 51-day siege.
(...)

At the end of March Reno was questioned for about two hours at the Justice
Department by lawyers representing the family members of the Branch Davidians in
the civil lawsuit. The trial has been scheduled to start on June 19.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

9. Falun Gong Members Celebrate
AOL/AP, May 13, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=01&id=0005121149166873
BEIJING (AP) - Members of the banned Falun Gong sect defiantly celebrated their
spiritual movement's eighth birthday today in Tiananmen Square as police beat
followers, knocking them and their yellow banners and flowers to the ground.

Police punched and kicked five women who tried to unfurl a banner. The beating
continued even after they were forced into a police van. Plainclothes security
officers pushed down another woman standing amid 10 followers raising banners.
One read ''Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance,'' Falun Gong's motto.

A half-dozen followers raised yellow chrysanthemums. Police hustled them away,
leaving the flowers scattered on the square's gray paving stones. A street
sweeping truck was sent in to clean away the protest's remains.

At least 50 people were taken away by police after staging scattered acts of
civil disobedience across the vast square in central Beijing. Chinese and
foreign tourists, who come to the square by the thousands every day, gawked at
the outbursts and the frenzied police response.

The protest was the third recent demonstration marking important sect
anniversaries.
(...)

Newspapers today reported that a leading U.S.-based religious broadcaster
supported the crackdown. On Friday, Paul Crouch, president of the Trinity
Broadcasting Network, defended China's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual
movement , saying it was only protecting its citizens from a false and dangerous
cult.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Paul Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is often referred to by
discerning Christians as The Blasphemy Network. It desseminates a near
constant stream of aberrant to heretical teachings. Those who criticize the
cultic teachings of TBN are subjected to angry outbursts by Mr. Crouch and
his guests.


10. China detains dozens of Falun Gong protesters
AOL/Reuters, May 13. 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=01&id=0005130933199972
(...) The spectacle of police moving against demonstrators who seek official
acceptance of Falun Gong has become a daily occurrence in Beijing since the
group was declared illegal last July.

But the number of protests was higher than usual on Saturday -- a day many
adherents have designated ''World Falun Dafa Day'' to celebrate the movement,
which combines meditation with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Daoist
teachings.

Falun Dafa, which means the Great Law of the Dharma Wheel, is another name for
the group.

In Hong Kong, more than 20 men, women and children from the Falun Gong
meditation group went through their slow-paced exercises and then sat quietly
meditating in a central square.
(...)

Thursday's protests in Tiananmen Square marked the 48th birthday of Li Hongzhi,
a Chinese former granary clerk who founded the movement and now lives in exile
in New York.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Battlefield Earth / Scientology

* Note: Rather than include dozens of essentially repetitive
items, I am including only a small selection of reviews. I
consider them representative, but if someone can find a
positive review, feel free to send it to me: news@apologeticsindex.org

11. Battlefield Earth 1/2 * (PG-13)
Chicago Sun-Times, May 12, 2000 (Roger Ebert)
http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/earth12f.html
''Battlefield Earth'' is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath
for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way. The
visuals are grubby and drab. The characters are unkempt and have rotten teeth.
Breathing tubes hang from their noses like ropes of snot. The soundtrack sounds
like the boom mike is being slammed against the inside of a 55-gallon drum. The
plot. . . .

But let me catch my breath. This movie is awful in so many different ways.
(...)

''Battlefield Earth'' was written in 1980 by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of
Scientology. The film contains no evidence of Scientology or any other system of
thought; it is shapeless and senseless, without a compelling plot or characters
we care for in the slightest.
(...)

Some movies run off the rails. This one is like the train crash in ''The
Fugitive.'' I watched it in mounting gloom, realizing I was witnessing something
historic, a film that for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about
bad movies. There is a moment here when the Psychlos' entire planet (home office
and all) is blown to smithereens, without the slightest impact on any member of
the audience (or, for that matter, the cast). If the film had been destroyed in
a similar cataclysm, there might have been a standing ovation.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Futuristic 'Battlefield Earth' doesn't even work as a spoof
Kansas City Star, May 12, 2000 (Roger W. Butler)
http://justgo.zip2.com/southflorida/scripts/staticpage.dll?
reviewid=151620&only=y&spage=AE/movies/movies_details.htm
&id=24963&ver=e2.7&userid=195550324&userpw=.
&uv=7646&uh=195550324,0
You can stop worrying about ''Battlefield Earth'' being some kind of stealth
indoctrination tool for Scientology.

Yeah, it's based on a sci-fi novel written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of
that oft-maligned belief system, and, yeah, it was produced by and stars John
Travolta, who next to Tom Cruise is Hollywood's most visible Scientologist.

But surely if proselytization was on the agenda Travolta and company could have
come up with something better than this -- two cliche-riddled hours of
lackluster melodrama unlikely to keep the attention even of an undemanding
10-year-old.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Hubbard's 'Battlefield' opens
The Press-Enterprise/Inland Empire Online, May 12, 2000
http://www.inlandempireonline.com/entertainment
/stories/051200/battle.shtml
(...) Some anticult groups have posted warnings about the film on their Web
sites. A Scientology watchdog group in Clearwater, Fla., where the church has
its spiritual headquarters, calls it a meager attempt to remove the stigma
associated with Hubbard's name.

''What the church was hoping to do was introduce the name of L. Ron Hubbard to a
new generation,'' said Mark Bunker, of the Lisa McPherson Trust, founded in
memory of a woman who died under the care of Scientologists. ''Unfortunately,
they are introducing this generation to a hack writer.''

Colorado-based FACTNet says Scientologists secretly financed the film and took
part in its production, script approval and security during filming.

Scientologists and makers of the film maintain it's not tied to Hubbard's
church. Scientology's Golden Era Productions, which makes training and
educational films at a large compound near San Jacinto, played no role,
officials said.

''People come to Scientology to read Hubbard's most serious works,'' said Mike
Rinder, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology International. ''The church has
nothing to do with the fiction works.''

Author Services Inc. in Hollywood, which handles Hubbard's works, sold the movie
rights to the book in 1998 after a longtime search for the right script. Its
profits from the film will benefit Hubbard's secular programs -- like those for
recovering drug addicts, officials said.

''There's no connection whatsoever to Golden Era,'' said Hugh Wilhere, spokesman
for Author Services. ''This is a Hollywood production.''
(...)

Hubbard's role in Scientology has often overshadowed his talent as a writer,
some science-fiction fans contend.

''Too few people have pursued what this man has done,'' said Steve Whaley, a
professor at Cal Poly Pomona. ''I don't care what his other philosophy is, he's
just a damn good storyteller.''

Whaley taught the 1,050-page ''Battlefield Earth'' in his science-fiction writing
class, but now prefers the shorter ''Final Blackout.'' He considers Hubbard a
major science-fiction writer who deserves more credit than he receives.

''I know nothing about Scientology. I am an Episcopalian,'' he said. ''But I
really, really like his fiction.'' Hubbard wrote 250 novels and short stories,
including several national best-sellers. In February, the American Book Readers
Association named ''Battlefield Earth'' the best science-fiction book of all time.

''It is absolutely one of the classics,'' said Dan Sherman, a Hubbard biographer.

''Battlefield Earth'' renewed some science-fiction fans' faith in Hubbard as a
writer, said Gary Westfahl, coordinator of the annual science fiction and
fantasy writing conference at UCR. Hubbard was well-respected in the 1940s, but
drifted away from fiction writing when he got involved in ''Dianetics'' and
Scientology, he said.

When Hubbard returned to science fiction in the early '80s, his following had
shifted to include Scientology supporters.

''I think he did recover his reputation, but there was still that suspicion that
he was more a religious leader than a science-fiction writer,'' Westfahl said.

Science-fiction lovers who saw ''Dianetics'' as a breakthrough in science, later
opposed Hubbard turning it into a religion.

''Science-fiction fans want a story. They want science,'' said George Slusser,
curator of UCR's 100,000-volume Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and
Fantasy Literature. ''They don't want some kind of pseudo-religion.''

Without Scientology, some argue, Hubbard's fame as a fiction writer would have
fizzled. Hubbard's books are bound to top charts because Scientologists will
publish and buy them.

Others claim Hubbard's literary skills stand alone.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. The Launch of a Star Vehicle That Explodes in Laughter
Washington Post, May 12, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi
/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=wpni/print
&articleid=A52809-2000May11
LOS ANGELES –– Generally, Hollywood executives are relieved when their movies
are screened for the first time and hilarious laughter erupts from the audience.
But not when the movie isn't a comedy.

''Battlefield Earth,'' John Travolta's epic, expensive and bizarre science fiction
film based on a book by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was greeted with
guffaws and hoots from an audience of entertainment journalists, critics and
others at a packed theater in Century City this week.

The film--which reportedly cost at least $90 million to launch--got a similar
response during a screening in Washington, where some critics walked out, and
others tittered at such lines as ''Have you blown a head gasket?'' And at a
screening in Dundalk, a blue-collar suburb of Baltimore where folks tend to like
their movies full of really big explosions, there was derisive laughter.

Despite a $20 million marketing campaign by Warner Bros., television appearances
by Travolta and a star-studded premiere in Hollywood on Wednesday night,
tracking research is predicting that the movie will take in a paltry $10 million
to $12 million this weekend when it opens. And industry experts who've seen the
movie expect it will die a speedy death after that.

It wouldn't be the first time an expensive movie has bombed. But even by
Hollywood's titanic standards, ''Battlefield Earth'' stands out as an example of
blind hubris and folly. In a competitive industry where, in theory, production
costs are carefully weighed against projected revenues, how could such a movie
happen?

The answer is that ''Battlefield Earth'' is not a normal movie, not in its
conception, not in its production and not in its financing.

Travolta, a high-ranking Scientologist and acolyte of Hubbard, had been trying
to persuade studios to make a movie of his hero's novel for years. Studios have
been declining to do so since the 1980s--when Travolta wanted to play the hero,
Jonnie Goodboy Tyler--citing a lousy script and overblown budget.
(...)

Last fall the alternative magazine Mean sent a copy of the ''Battlefield'' script
under a different title to script readers at Hollywood agencies, and published
their remarks. One reader at Artists Management Group in Beverly Hills wrote: ''A
thoroughly silly plotline is made all the more ludicrous by its hamfisted
dialogue and ridiculously shallow characterizations.'' The other script reader
called it ''about as entertaining as watching a fly breathe.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Battlefield Earth (Sci-fi drama, color, PG-13, 1:57)
AOL/Reuters/Variety, May 12, 2000
http://my.aol.com/entertainment/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=03&id=0005120202266724
Pretty much the ''Showgirls'' of sci-fi shoot-'em-ups, the new John Travolta
starrer proves that even members of the $20 million-per club can push audience
goodwill to the breaking point -- and that point may soon be synonymous with
''Battlefield Earth.''
(...)

Pic could reap OK coin, given its heavy marketing push and turbo-action nature,
but there may not be enough undiscriminating young male viewers in the world to
recoup costs. There's also another hurdle: contrary to prior evidence, it is
possible to make a popcorn pic too dumb for the peanut gallery.

The film is all too faithful to its source material, an 819-page doorstop that
reputedly sold 5 million copies.
(...)

For the record, ''Battlefield'' does not constitute Dianetics guru Hubbard's
first screen credit: Long before he founded the Church of Scientology, the
then-struggling pulp writer had a hand in penning several late-1930s Poverty Row
serials (''The Secret of Treasure Island,'' ''The Spider Returns''). If only
Hollywood knew then what we know now.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. 'Battlefield' dearth
The Charlotte Observer, May 12, 2000 (Lawrence Toppman)
http://justgo.zip2.com/southflorida/scripts/staticpage.dll
?reviewid=151592&only=y&spage=AE/movies/movies_details.htm
&id=24963&ver=e2.7&userid=195550324&userpw=.
&uv=7646&uh=195550324,0
Greater devotion hath no man than to make a fool of himself on behalf of his
faith.

John Travolta, the Scientologist with the most public profile in Hollywood,
believes the writings of L. Ron Hubbard contain the philosophic keys to wisdom,
contentment and self-mastery. He pushed hard to get ''Battlefield Earth,''
Hubbard's novel about aliens dominating the nearly extinct race of humans, onto
the screen with an A-picture budget.
(...)

If this movie were Camp City, he'd be its mayor. But it's not funny enough,
intentionally or otherwise, to pass for camp. It's bombastic, chaotic, plodding,
visually dreary and patchily written by first-timer Corey Mandell and JD
Shapiro, who's too unimportant to rate mention in the press kit. (I'd guess he's
a pseudonym for Travolta, who was also one of three producers for the project.)

Now, I have nothing against Scientology, so I don't want its supporters to drop
live snakes into my mailbox. I once tried to read ''Dianetics,'' Hubbard's
statement of the Scientology credo, but found it too thick in many senses of the
word. (Its fans would probably say I was the thick one.)

I don't think it's an insidious religion meant to undermine Christianity, and I
don't believe - as one e-mailing group has contended - that the picture is full
of subliminal messages meant to seep into my consciousness. The only message I
received was an overt one: Warn readers not to give Travolta any of their
disposable income.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. This Weekend at the Movies: Scorched Battlefield
AOL/Reuters, May 11, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=0106&id=0005110747177925
LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) - Movie producers like to say they want fresh or
cutting-edge stories, so it's hard to understand why films with neither element
get made, such as two opening Friday, sci-fi flick ''Battlefield Earth'' and
dance drama ''Center Stage.''
(...)

The reason to produce ''Earth,'' about a revolt of human slaves against Earth's
alien conquerors in the year 3000, is obvious. It is the pet project of major
star Travolta, and matching him to an action-packed space adventure would seem
like a sure-fire winner at the box office.

But ''Earth'' comes loaded with baggage. It is based on a novel by Scientology
founder L. Ron Hubbard, and Travolta is unabashed in his support of the
religious group. So moviegoers might think ''Earth'' is loaded with messages of
Scientology.

Travolta and the Los Angeles-based group both deny the movie has anything to do
with the religion.

''There is no connection,'' Travolta said in a statement. ''L. Ron Hubbard wrote
numerous science-fiction epics ... other than being created by the same person
(novel and film), the two have virtually nothing to do with one another.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Battlefield Earth (PG-13)
Arizona Star Net, May 11, 2000
http://reeltime.azstarnet.com/reviews/
battlefi_review.htm
Some movies just beg the question: ''What were they thinking?''
John Travolta's new science-fiction flick ''Battlefield Earth'' is one of them.

An adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's 1982 sci-fi novel of the same name,
''Battlefield Earth'' is a ridiculous attempt at creating a moving-picture comic
book.

A really bad comic book.

''Battlefield Earth'' is so laughably bad that it makes the Kevin Costner
boondoggles ''Waterworld'' and ''The Postman'' look sophisticated in comparison.
(...)

Jonnie wants to stir his fellow human beings to overthrow the rule of the
Psychlos.
(...)

They break into crumbling Fort Knox for more gold (glittering decoy gift to
Terl, natch), learn how to fly American fighter jets, operate M16 rifles and get
a nuclear warhead up and running.

It should be mentioned that all the above hardware is about 1,000 years old.
Which is why it takes a whole six days for the humans to get organized.

Don't scoff. God made all that exists in six days, right?

Oh, by the way, ''Battlefield Earth'' author Hubbard also founded the religion
Scientology, of which Travolta is one of the most vocal and public members.

But Travolta, who also served as one of the film's producers, and all the studio
suits claim ''Battlefield Earth'' has nothing to do with the Church of
Scientology.

It's easy to see why. Who would want to take credit for this mess?
(...)

There's much more about ''Battlefield Earth'' about which we could waste time
complaining.

But perhaps the most unfortunate thing about it is that it can't be ridiculed on
the now-canceled ''Mystery Science Theater 3000.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. 'Battlefield Earth' falls flat and hard
Miami Herald, May 12, 2000 ( Rene Rodriguez)
http://justgo.zip2.com/southflorida/scripts/staticpage.dll?
only=y&spage=AE/movies/movies_details.htm&
id=24963&reviewid=&ver=e2.7
The summer movie season has barely begun and already it has its first
10-ton turkey. Battlefield Earth is a sluggish, soporific dud, the dreariest
big-budget science-fiction adventure since Dune. The film strives for the cheeky
spirit of a high-toned B-flick: It's crammed with slick-but-chintzy special
effects and a campy sense of humor. But practically every scene falls miserably,
painfully flat. About the only thing that works is a running gag about rats.
It's an intergalactic drag.

It didn't have to be that way. Battlefield Earth is based on L. Ron Hubbard's
1,000-page novel about mankind's revolt against the Psychlos, a race of
nine-foot dreadlocked aliens that has enslaved Earth in the year 3000. With its
broad, simple characters (the hero is named Jonnie ''Goodboy'' Tyler) and pulpy,
Buck Rogers brand of action, the book is the kind of sci-fi adventure yarn best
enjoyed by undemanding ninth graders: 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's not. (Neither
is it a recruitment vehicle for Hubbard's Church of Scientology, as some had
initially suspected).

But as mundane as it was, the novel still offered a framework pliable enough for
an imaginative filmmaker to turn it into a rousing comic book of a movie, the
way Ridley Scott pumped up the thinly written Gladiator. Unfortunately,
Battlefield Earth was directed by Roger Christian, whose previous efforts
(Underworld, Masterminds) didn't exactly hint at a great imagination.
(...)

It was at that point that a recent preview audience gave up altogether
and started laughing openly at the movie. It's a telling sign that
none of the advance newspaper ads for Battlefield Earth have carried
the ubiquitous ''It rocks!'' blurbs from easily-rocked critics. Instead,
the ads invite you to buy a ticket to the film, then use your stub to
enter a $100,000 sweepstakes. Canny marketing or sheer desperation?
Either way, Travolta claims a sequel is already in the planning
stages. In Hollywood, folly is never in short supply.

Rating: * of ****
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Hollywood's New Religion
Hollywood.com, May 10, 2000
http://www.hollywood.com/news/features/scientology/index.html
SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 10, 2000 -- On its surface, ''Battlefield Earth''
(opening Friday) looks like typical big-budget Hollywood sci-fi fare, but is it?

It's based on a novel by ''Dianetics'' guru L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the
Church of Scientology, and its star and co-producer, John Travolta, is a devout
Scientologist. Not only that, but the movie's plot mirrors elements of Hubbard's
religious teachings, which Scientologists accept as the gospel truth. Travolta
and Warner Bros. contend that the film is just a straight entertainment flick;
others argue that it's a not-so-subtle attempt to introduce a fringe religion to
mainstream America. Either way, ''Battlefield Earth'' is the biggest example yet
of the juice generated by Hollywood's growing cadre of Scientologists.

The Hollywood establishment was built 100 years ago by Jewish immigrants, but
today it's being reshaped in part by Hubbard's famous devotees, whose
controversial beliefs are tolerated if not shared by all its residents. So,
what's Scientology? What's ''Battlefield Earth'' got to do with it? And where does
Tom Cruise fit into all this?
(...)

Since its early days, the Church of Scientology has made celebrities a key
element of its strategy to reach the public. Back in 1955, Hubbard instructed
church members to recruit stars into the flock, and he later established
''celebrity centres'' where star members go for quiet worship or for ''auditing,'' a
church term for attaining higher degrees of understanding (the Celebrity Centre
International in Hollywood, opened in 1973, is a plush seven-story mansion that
often accommodates Travolta and other celeb members passing through town).

But what do the stars get out of Scientology? Some say it helps them avoid drugs
or maintain order in the unstable world of Hollywood. And although it's been 45
years since Hubbard first sought celebrity converts, Hollywood Scientologists
are a new breed, having come out of the woodwork within the past decade or so.
Their numbers are still relatively small, but their power and influence are not.
(...)

Travolta's Scientology studies lapsed during the 1980s, when the church was
embroiled in controversies and he became disillusioned, but the erstwhile Vinnie
Barbarino rededicated himself to the cause in 1990. When he won a Golden Globe
for ''Pulp Fiction,'' Travolta named L. Ron Hubbard in his thank-you speech.

In 1994, he was named Hubbard's personal public-relations officer, and he went
on to speak with President Clinton about getting Scientology taught in schools.
(Creepy factoid: Even though Hubbard's been dead since 1986, Scientologists
continue to publish books with his byline and refer to their leader in the
present tense.)

Travolta's always been willing to discuss his beliefs with the media (while
other stars remain tight-lipped), but lately he's getting tired of reporters
asking stupid questions.

''I'd love for once, just for one journalist to read a pamphlet, and come back
and say, 'I read this pamphlet. What does it mean there? Could you discuss
that?''' he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1999. ''But it's almost like,
maybe if they read it, they would like it and be too interested.''
(...)

Scientology is hardly the only out-of-mainstream religion enjoying a Hollywood
following these days. Madonna, Roseanne, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand,
Sandra Bernhard, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Donna Karan and Isaac Mizrahi are
all into the Kabbalah, a hip spiritual movement also called ''Jewish Mysticism,''
and Richard Gere is a practicing Buddhist.

''Creative people are always looking for something new and something different,''
says David Halle, a UCLA professor of sociology. ''So I don't think it's
surprising that L.A. is the place where new ideas and fringe stuff flourish.''

No harm, no foul. But, are the Scientologists stepping over the line when they
start making movies based on their master's writings, even if it's one of his
''speculative fiction'' works rather than religious mumbo-jumbo?

Asked why he made ''Battlefield Earth,'' Travolta told the New York Daily News,
''It's the pinnacle of using my power for something. ... I told my manager, 'If
we can't do the things now that we want to do, what good is the power? It's a
waste, basically. Let's test it and try to get the things done that we believe
in.'''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* About Scientology
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04.html

=== Mormonism

21. Methodists Say LDS Doctrine Not Christian
Salt Lake Tribune, May 11, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/2000/may/05112000/utah/48298.htm
Delegates to the United Methodists' national convention meeting in Cleveland on
Wednesday said the LDS Church ''does not fit within the bounds of the historic,
apostolic tradition of Christian faith,'' and that Mormons who convert to
Methodism need to be re-baptized.

The convention approved a study document written by two Salt Lake City
ministers, the Rev. Brian Hare-Diggs of First United Methodist Church and the
Rev. Jennifer Hare-Diggs of Centenary United Methodist Church.

The nine-page paper, passed by the Methodist General Conference without floor
discussion, spells out theological differences between The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints and the United Methodist Church.

It says Mormonism has ''some radically differing doctrine on such matters of
belief as the nature and being of God; the nature, origin, and purpose of Jesus
Christ; and the nature and way of salvation.''

The Methodists said Mormonism incorporates a ''gendered, married and procreating
god'' with ''a body of flesh and bones,'' and has a theology that ''more closely
resembles a tri-theistic or possibly a polytheistic faith'' than monotheism --
worship of the one God.

The Methodists also objected that ''the Jesus of Mormonism is not co-eternal with
the Father and of one substance with the Father'' and that Mormons add other
scriptures to the Bible.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) and Southern Baptist Convention have issued
similar assessments of Mormon doctrine.

The United Methodist Church is the nation's third largest religious body, with
8.4 million members, while the Mormon church ranks seventh, with 5 million
members in the United States.

In a prepared official response, the Mormon church stated, ''Latter-day Saints
embrace both ancient and modern revelations that proclaim Jesus Christ as the
living, divine Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Any assertion
otherwise demonstrates a lack of knowledge of Latter-day Saint doctrine and
teachings.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Mormons are not Christians. A Christian is someone who follows Jesus
Christ as revealed in the Bible. The Mormon Jesus is one of their own
making. Just like slapping the Rolex brand name on a counterfeit watch does
not make it a genuine Rolex, using the name of Jesus does not make Mormonism
Christian. Any assertion otherwise demonstrates a lack of knowledge of
orthodox Christian doctrine and teachings.


=== Islam

22. Egypt Clears Book of Blasphemy
Yahoo/AP, May 11. 2000
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/
20000511/wl/egypt_book_banning_1.html
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A book that triggered two days of rioting has been cleared
of blasphemy by a committee appointed by the Culture Ministry, pro-government
newspapers reported Thursday.

Even so, prosecutors questioned Culture Ministry officials linked to the
government's republication of ''A Banquet for Seaweed'' by Haidar Haidar, police
officials said Thursday.

Islamic fundamentalist opinion-makers have called on the government to punish
the officials responsible for the book's reprint and also to prosecute Haidar, a
Syrian, for apostasy. On Wednesday, a senior member of the ruling party and the
head of the parliamentary committee on religion, Ahmed Omar Hashem, demanded
that the government confiscate all copies of the book and burn them.
(...)

The Culture Ministry reprinted the book, first published in 1983, as part of a
series of great works of Arabic literature.

But an article in the Islamic-oriented newspaper Al-Shaab condemned the novel,
saying it called God ''a failed artist,'' referred to the Muslim prophet
Mohammed as ''a man of many marriages'' and said the Koran was excrement.

A committee of literary experts, appointed by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni in
response to the outcry, found that such quotes had been taken out of context.
(...)

The plot of ''A Banquet for Seaweed'' centers on two leftist Iraqi intellectuals
in exile who blame political oppression in the Arab world on dictatorships and
political conservatives.

Many books have been banned in Egypt in recent years after complaints that they
contained anti-Islamic material.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Attleboro Cult

23. Sect Members Jailed in Boys' Case
AOL/AP, May 13, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=01&id=0005120522122265
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) - Two more members of a religious sect have been jailed
for refusing to testify in an investigation into the whereabouts of two boys.

Authorities believe the boys may have been buried in a Maine park last year.

Roger Daneau, 64, and his son, Mark Daneau, 21, were ordered jailed Thursday.
The men are members of a strict religious sect that rejects conventional
medicine and schools, authorities said.

Three other members of the sect - Roland Robidoux, Tim Daneau and Michael
Robidoux Mingo - were jailed last week for not cooperating with the grand jury.

Another man, Jacques Robidoux, has been in jail since November for refusing to
give investigators the whereabouts of his 10-month-old son, Samuel.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. More members of Attleboro religious sect jailed
MSNBC, May 11, 2000
http://www.msnbc.com/local/WJAR/304419.asp
(...) Bristol county prosecutors had given Mark Daneau and his father Roger more
than six months to cooperate and disclose the location of the missing children,
a deadline that expired this week.

The two men joined four other members of the group who refused to cooperate with
the grand jury.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

25. Cult accusations go to Palmer jury
Anchorage Daily News, May 12, 2000
http://www.adn.com/stories/T00051212.html
PALMER - Did members of Wasilla Ministries brainwash a teenage girl into
believing her parents were possessed by demons in a concerted effort to recruit
her to the church? Or were the people who attended the small Pentecostal church
simply trying to help a youth they thought was in trouble?

That's the question jurors are seeking to answer after a 10-week civil trial
wrapped up here Thursday.

The trial included more than 50 witnesses, dozens of exhibits and a religious
focus that at times made the case seem more like a theological debate than
courtroom fact finding. Several witnesses were quizzed on whether they believe
in demons and speaking in tongues - two common tenets of the Pentecostal faith.
One of the attorneys was accused of being possessed.
(...)

Her parents claim the church is a cult that used a program of ''persuasive
coercion'' to brainwash their daughter, who now goes by her married name, Jodi
Logan, into leaving her parents.
(...)

She spent time at two treatment centers before reconciling with her parents.
(...)

In closing statements, the Hejl family's attorney, Ben Whipple, asked jurors to
send a message by awarding the family the maximum amount of $500,000 per person
for each of the four claims of negligence filed against the church and to add
punitive damages.

''This is not a unique problem,'' he said. ''There are other abusive groups out
there, ... others that need to be educated.''

Whipple spent most of his two hours rehashing the details of the case, reminding
jurors of efforts that church members made to help Logan run away. They loaned
her a car and bought her a plane ticket to escape a treatment clinic in
California.
(...)

The real story was about teenage love and bad blood between members of Wasilla
Ministries and members of the Hejl's church. Logan ran away from home because
she was in love with her boyfriend at the time, Marion Sands' son Will, he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Japanese Tourist Killed in Guatemala
Northern Light/AP, May 12, 2000
http://library.northernlight.com/EA20000512270000037.html?
cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc
TODOS SANTOS, Guatemala (AP) -- Satan worshippers -- a cult from abroad that
planned to sacrifice children in the local soccer field -- were coming. Almost
everyone in this little mountain town was sure of it.

So when a sleek bus with tinted windows arrived filled with Japanese tourists --
pale-skilled people in dark clothing, their faces covered to protect against the
sun -- villagers thought their nightmare had come true.

One Japanese tourist and a bus driver died in the mayhem that followed, victims
of a hysteria fueled by rumors and fears of outsiders.
(...)

Some officials used newspaper and radio announcements to implore villagers to
stay calm. They denied any satanic cults had asked to use the soccer field.
Religious leaders tried to calm their agitated congregations.

But most of the people in Todos Santos can't read newspapers, and the denials
themselves sparked suspicion.
(...)

Some of the fear stems from Guatemala's 1960-96 civil war, when government
forces saw Todos Santos and the surrounding areas as a haven for leftist
guerrillas and obliterated scores of villages in military raids.
(...)

''I think the people here are now very friendly with tourists, but unlearning a
fear of invaders from the outside is very difficult,'' said Margarito Calmo, a
59-year-old teacher.

Such rumors are so strong in the region that the U.S. Embassy in neighboring
Honduras warned this week they could lead to other attacks similar to the one in
Todos Santos.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Court case for 'prophet' adjourned
Calgary Sun (Canada), May 11, 2000
http://www.canoe.ca/CalgaryNews/cs.cs-05-11-0035.html
A self-proclaimed prophet charged with unlawfully disposing of the his dead
wife's remains will have to wait for his day in court.

Jason (Jacob) Lee -- who calls himself Jacob after the Biblical character -- had
his court case in Canmore adjourned until May 31, his lawyer said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Turkish Court Sentences Leader
AOL/AP, May 9, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=01&id=0005090537191671
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A court on Tuesday sentenced an Islamic sect leader to two
years in prison for claiming that last August's earthquake was God's revenge
against Turkey for its secularist policies.

Mehmet Kutlular, the leader of the Nur Cemaati sect, was convicted of inciting
religious hatred.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. Fatima Secret Foretold Pope Shooting, Vatican Says
AOL/Reuters, May 13, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=0106&id=0005131105200547
FATIMA, Portugal (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Saturday the ''Third Secret of
Fatima'' included prophecies of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul and
persecution of Christians in the 20th century by communist regimes.

The Pope's top aide, addressing a huge crowd in Portugal on the 19th anniversary
of the shooting in Rome, also said the Vatican would publish the entire text of
the secret after ''appropriate'' preparation for the faithful.

The secret has intrigued the world for more than 80 years.

Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano announced the decision to hundreds of
thousands of people at a mass where the Pope beatified two of the three shepherd
children said to have seen Madonna at Fatima in 1917 and received her message.

Over the years, the Vatican's refusal to make it public has inspired books,
doomsday cults convinced that it predicted the end of the world and even a
hijacking by a man who demanded that the Vatican reveal it.

Sodano said the ''vision of Fatima'' concerned events in the 20th century,
including the ''war waged by atheist systems against the Church'' and the
''immense suffering'' of Christians and the Popes in the last century of the
second millennium.

Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot and nearly killed the Pope in St Peter's
Square in 1981, a time when events in the Pope's Polish homeland were starting
the domino effect that would lead to the collapse of communism in Eastern
Europe.

Sodano said the third part of the secret -- the first two are already well known
-- involved a vision of martyrdom and suffering, including a ''bishop clothed in
white'' who ''makes his way with great effort toward the Cross amid the corpses
of those who were martyred. He too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a
burst of gunfire.''
(...)

In order for the faithful to better receive the message of the Madonna, the Pope
had ordered the Vatican doctrinal department, the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, to ''(make) public the third part of the secret, after the
preparation of an appropriate commentary.''
(...)

There was no indication when the text and the commentary would be published.
(...)

The first part of the Madonna's message was a vision of hell shown to the
children.

In the second part, Mary predicted the outbreak of World War Two some 22 years
before it started, asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart and asked that
Russia, which was about to undergo the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, be
consecrated to her.

Otherwise, the Madonna is said to have told the children, to whom she appeared
each month from May to October 1917, that Russia, about to become the Soviet
Union, would ''spread her errors'' in the world and the Pope would suffer much.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Children who saw a vision
BBC, May 12, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/world/
europe/newsid_745000/745971.stm
The cult of Our Lady of Fatima started in 1917 when three children, tending
sheep in a field at Cova da Iria near Fatima in central Portugal, saw a shining
figure in an oak tree.

Ten-year-old Lucia dos Santos and her younger cousins Francisco and Jacinta
Marta said the vision told them she had come from heaven and they must return at
the same time on the 13th day of the month for the next five months.

On the last day, 13 October, tens of thousands of pilgrims were in attendance
and many claimed that long illnesses were cured and the blind were restored to
sight.

The Virgin is said to have imparted to the children a message or secret in
three-parts, including a horrifying vision of hell and prophecies foretelling
World War II and the fall of Communism in Russia.
(...)

The Church was uneasy at first with the rapidly growing cult and authorised it
only in 1929.
(...)

The eyes of millions of Catholics will be on Fatima on Saturday when Pope John
Paul II beatifies Francisco and Jacinta Marta who both died in childhood from
influenza.

Lucia is still alive, aged 93, and is a Carmelite nun, living in a monastery
near Coimbra in central Portugal since 1948.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Turn from religious extremes, says Carey
The Times (England), May 13, 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/05/13/x-timnwsnws01021.html
The Archbishop of Canterbury pleaded yesterday for a return to ''sanity'' in
religion and for the extremes of literalism and liberalism to be rejected.

Dr George Carey, in the second of four lectures he is delivering in Wichita,
Texas, singled out Jerry Falwell, the Baptist minister from Virginia who founded
America's Moral Majority movement, for particular criticism. Mr Falwell had made
the Bible ''the actual voice of God'', Dr Carey said.

He then chastised one of the Anglican Church's own bishops, Jack Spong, the
liberal and gay rights campaigner who recently retired as Bishop of Newark. Dr
Carey accused Bishop Spong of treating the Bible as no better than Aesop's
Fables. ''For Spong the Bible is merely a witness to the past. It points back,
but it has little to say to us today.''

Dr Carey said: ''There must, of course, be a middle way. We cannot abandon
scriptures to the dogmatic voices of either the fundamentalist literalist or the
fundamentalist radical. Sanity must prevail.''
[...entire item...]


32. No targets for Southern Baptists
Daily Southtown/AP, May 11, 2000
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/113nd1.htm
CHICAGO (AP) — An ecumenical group of church leaders who feared violence could
result from thousands of Southern Baptists coming to Chicago this summer says it
has assurances the group will not target specific, non-Christian denominations.

The Southern Baptist Convention insists there never was a plan to single out any
group, but local Baptist leaders have met with the Council of Religious Leaders
of Metropolitan Chicago to allay their fears. The group also has revised its
expected attendance, down to 5,000 from 100,000, after realizing initial
estimates were too optimistic.

''There was a misunderstanding. We've never strategized on how to isolate people
by their language or skin color and then target them,'' said the Rev. Phil
Miglioratti, who is coordinating the July 8 ''Day of Hope'' for the 16
million-member denomination.

The convention drew harsh criticism last year when it announced plans to bring
thousands of members to Chicago for a day of ministry. Even the Rev. Billy
Graham, one of the world's most prominent Southern Baptists, attacked the plan,
which is part of the Nashville-based denomination's initiative to expand its
reach beyond the South.

The Council of Religious Leaders wrote a letter to SBC President Paige
Patterson, saying it feared the plan could lead to violence against Jews, Hindus
and Muslims. It cited acts of vandalism at a mosque in suburban Villa Park and
the case of six Orthodox Jews shot and wounded last July outside their synagogue
on Chicago's North Side.

After the letter was sent, council members met with local Southern Baptist
officials and an agreement was reached that there would not be evangelizing in
areas heavily populated with non-Christians.

''I think there's been a considerable amount of dialogue and I think it would be
fair to say that the concerns of everyone have been put forward and the fears of
everyone have been allayed,'' said Roman Catholic Bishop Timothy Lyne, president
of the council.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


33. ACLU won't fight Buddha's birthday
Arizona Republic, May 11, 2000
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/
articles/0511buddha11.html
The Arizona Civil Liberties Union, which waged legal war over ''Bible Week''
proclamations two years ago, is backing off on Buddha's birthday.

ACLU Director Eleanor Eisenberg decided Wednesday not to challenge this month's
Buddha proclamations by Arizona's governor and Gilbert's mayor because they were
much different from the ones issued for Bible Week.

For example, Buddha is considered a religious teacher rather than a deity, and
the recent birthday proclamations had broader language endorsing the practice of
any religion or no religion.

''Although we may think the proclamations are inappropriate, they may not
violate the Constitution,'' Eisenberg said.
(...)

But Bible Week was different from the Buddha proclamation, Noyes said. ''It
encouraged people to read the Bible . . . and the governor decided she would no
longer issue proclamations that favored one religion over another.''

Hull's Buddha proclamation ''is a very broad document promoting the ideas of
tolerance and individual freedom in religion,'' Noyes said.

In 1998, the ACLU sued Hull and Dunham for their Bible Week proclamations.

Hull agreed to stop proclaiming Bible Week. Dunham, backed by lawyers from Pat
Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, is fighting for hers.
[...more...]