Bartholomew's Notes

Wednesday saw the Christian Concern/World Congress of Families conference on marriage in London; after bookings at the Law Society and the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre were rescinded, the event eventually took place at a nearby Thistle hotel.

Pre-publicity for the event gave billing to various mainline commentators, such as Cristina Odone and Phillip Blond. However, a late addition to the line-up was Don Feder, who serves as the WCF’s Director of Communications; given the WCF’s co-organising role at this event, one wonders why his attendance was confirmed only at the last minute. As ever, it seems that Feder’s presentation consisted of boilerplate 1950s-style red-baiting. According to a Tweet from Christian Concern during the conference:

Don Feder explaining enduring influence of A Gramsci – move for ss ?#marrage? = attack on targets of Marxism: Church & family

This is par for the course. Feder is an all-purpose right-winger; according to his own profile from a few years ago:

I’m to the right of Sharon on Zionism, to the right of Pat Buchanan on immigration and Americanism, to the right of Mother Angelica on abortion, to the right of Chuck Heston on Second-Amendment rights, and generally make the legendary Atilla look like a limousine liberal.

Back in early 2010, he was defending Uganda’s planned anti-gay legislation:

Point of information: The legislation under consideration does not impose the death penalty, but life in prison for certain offenses. Punishable “behavior” includes rape, pedophilia and knowingly spreading AIDS, all of which are crimes in the United States, even in the era of Kevin Jennings. 

First, the Bill does in indeed include the death penalty. Second, note Feder’s use of the word “includes” – this glosses over the fact that “punishable behavior” also encompasses other things besides the crimes against persons listed above. As has been demonstrated, the most severe penalty would be applied to a “serial offender” against any of the provisions in the Bill, which makes it illegal for adults to engage in any homosexual activity, for anyone to facilitate such activity, or for anyone “in authority” (vaguely defined) not to report such activity to the police.

Christian Concern may also have encountered Feder last year; he is also project coordinator for the “Shariah Awareness Action Network”, which was the original organiser of an anti-Islam conference held in Tennessee in November. Christian Concern’s Paul Diamond spoke at this event, and Diamond reportedly used his visit to make links with the Tennessee Freedom Coalition.

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Last month’s Foreign Policy has an interesting article by J.M Berger on PATCON, an FBI investigation from the early 90s:

Starting in April 1991, three FBI agents posed as members of an invented racist militia group called the Veterans Aryan Movement. According to their cover story, VAM members robbed armored cars, using the proceeds to buy weapons and support racist extremism… Code-named PATCON, for “Patriot-conspiracy,” the investigation would last more than two years, crossing state and organizational lines in search of intelligence on the so-called Patriot movement, the label applied to a wildly diverse collection of racist, ultra-libertarian, right-wing and/or pro-gun activists and extremists who, over the years, have found common cause in their suspicion and fear of the federal government.

Berger discovered PATCON as the result of a Freedom of Information request in 2007; he has also published a fuller account through the New America Foundation. Despite PATCON investigators making links with a number of individuals, Timothy McVeigh “apparently flew under the radar”, and no arrests ever resulted from PATCON’s activity.

Specifically, Berger discusses how in the 1980s the FBI had became interested in “The Order”, a right-wing and racist group inspired by a fictitious organisation of the same name in the Turner Diaries. In 1992, the investigation included a focus on John L. Grady, “a doctor and an outspoken opponent of abortion” based in Benton, Tennessee:

Grady was head of a dues-paying organization called the American Pistol and Rifle Association (APRA), based at his Benton compound, which included a church, a firing range, and a handful of additional buildings, including a residence.

From the same location, Grady led the “Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” or simply the Order of St. John, a fraternal organization with a “prophetic mission” that claimed to trace its roots to a Roman Catholic religious order from the Middle Ages…

It should be noted that the “Sovereign Order” is distinct both from the group called “The Order” and from other organisations using the “St John of Jerusalem” name (see below).

…An informant reported that Grady claimed “to have been a founding member of The Order”… In turn, several members of The Order had been members of APRA. (In a 2012 interview, Grady denied being a member of The Order).

…In meetings between Grady and  [Civilian Materiel Assistance] members earlier in  1992, discussions were held about creating six-man terrorist cells that would carry out “acts of violence” including attacks on “microwave, radio, telephone, electric and TV towers and then nuclear power plants,” FBI reports said. Assassinations would be carried out against “Congressional leaders, Jewish leaders and neighborhood leaders of black gangs.”

…Excerpts from several FBI documents containing these allegations were e-mailed to Grady, who responded in a telephone interview. “Every statement that you’ve shown me is false,” Grady said. He disputed the contention in FBI documents that the Order of St. John and the APRA were linked except by virtue of his role in each and denied that the groups were white supremacist in nature and that they were aligned with CMA.

Berger’s account includes details of an APRA convention in the wake of Ruby Ridge at Grady’s compound in 1992, where several speeches were videotaped:

On the third day of the conference, Grady took the stage to introduce Bo Gritz, pausing to praise [Thomas] Posey for his efforts with Civilian Materiel Assistance in support of the Nicaraguan Contras.

On the final night of the conference, Grady rose to speak,  immediately following a speech laden with racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic themes by John Rakus of the National Justice Foundation, whom Grady introduced as an APRA member and a member of the group’s national advisory board. In steady tones, Grady described the coming “chastisement” of America by God, while carefully invoking the shadow of violence without explicitly calling for action. He told the rapt crowd that they should hope for the opportunity to “die as martyrs” and urged them to prepare for death.

…Whether misremembered or misconstrued, the FBI report portrayed Grady’s speech as a clear call to violence when in reality it was carefully worded to avoid incriminating language.

Berger is concerned that “aggressive infiltrations can even reinforce extremist narratives that claim the government targets communities because of their fundamental identities rather than in pursuit of illegal activities”, and that “the ripple effects of perceived overreach can also make it more difficult for otherwise friendly community partners to encourage cooperation with law enforcement.” He notes that this is today applicable to the infiltration of Muslim groups – a subject which I discussed (with reference to the USA and other countries) here.

Excursus: Background to Grady’s OSJ

There are a number of groups that use the name of the “Order of St John”, the best-known and largest of which is the mainstream Roman Catholic group called the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM). The order’s history was disrupted 1798 when Napoleon invaded Malta and the Russian Tsar became the organisation’s Grand Master; Catholic control of SMOM was reasserted a few years later, but competing groups began to appear elsewhere, including eventually in the USA. One such group was incorporated by a certain Charles Pichel in 1956, which he linked to a dormant US group from 1908. His order was based in Shickshinny, PA, and is often referenced as the “Shickshinny Knights of Malta”.

A purported historical overview on a website run by Grady’s group (he’s now the “Emeritus Grand Master”) discusses Pichel’s political associations from the 1930s – take a deep breath:

….Paul Winter, OSJ, long time associate of Grand Chancellor Pichel and former KKK leader from New York and Philadelphia, was involved with the American Nationalists. In 1933, Pichel contacted Germany through Hitlers’s friend Putzi Hanfstaengel in an effort to become the German Chancellor’s personal representative in the United States.

This account goes on to claim that in the 1960s the order’s anti-communism brought it establishment support:

The SOSJ membership roles during this time included Generals Lemuel Shepherd, Pedro Del Valle, George Stratemeyer, Charles Willoughby, Ralph Smith, Terry Morrison, Bonner Fellers, Admirals Charles Cooke, RL Porter, Herbert Howard, Richard Black, Francis Spellman and Prince Michel Sturdza of Romania, Congressman Larry MacDonald and Senator John Ashcroft. Well known leaders of the American intelligence community accepted various positions in the SOSJ.

In 1986, the Covert Action Information Bulletin (1) speculated that these intelligence links might be connected to the order’s decision to recognise “controversial defector Michael Goleniewski to be Aleksei Romanoff, heir to the Russian Imperial House of Romanoff.”

According to information on the St John of Jerusalem Research Web Site, Pichel’s group received the endorsement of a Tridentine Catholic priest, Fr James F Wathen:

Fr. Wathen had gained a very keen layman who supported the tridentine Catholic cause – John Grady. In 1982, following the loss of Pichel and other Leaders in the Shickshinny Order, who had been close to Fr. Wathen and John Grady, Grady sought to create what would have been essentially an autonomous branch of the Shickshinny Order, by way of a license to use the Corporation’s trademark… Although this was refused, Grady continued independently and in 1991 the breach was complete by Grady being elected the “75th Grand Master” and starting yet another self-styled Order.

A trademark dispute followed. According to a 1997 Opinion by the United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit:

The defendant, John L. Grady, joined the Order in 1979 after having started the “American Christian Church and Order,” which he hoped would become a legal affiliate of the Order. In 1982 Grady proposed to Salvatore T. Messineo, the President of the Corporation and Lieutenant Grand Master of the Order, that the Corporation issue a license for Grady’s organization to use its trademark. Messineo denied the request because of Dr. Grady’s alleged participation in para-military and white supremacist groups, and the Corporation’s board of directors expelled Grady from the Order in 1983. Despite his expulsion, the defendant continued to use the trademark, name, and other symbols of the Corporation and Order on, among other things, his letterhead and a newsletter that he published. He also claims to have represented the Order in such activities as signing a “Treaty of Amity” with a person alleged to be the exiled president of Poland…

This “exiled president of Poland” is not named, but was perhaps Count Juliusz Nowina Sokolnicki, who died in Colchester, UK, in 2009 (as I blogged here).

Michael Cuneo’s book The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism (1999) includes information, supplied by Grady, that “currently based in Benton, Tennessee, the organization operates about fifty chapels (or traditionalist Mass centrers) and three elementary schools across the country” (p. 196). According to Grady’s site, there are also links with Joseph Mar Thomas, Bishop of Bathery in the Syro Malankara Catholic Church.

Another group, which I have discussed on this blog a number of times, is the “Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Ecumenical Order”; this organisation is of interest to me because some influential US Christian Right figures (in particular, Rick Joyner and Jerry Boykin) are involved. This group lists the following Grand Masters:

Grand Duke Alexander of Russia Grand Master Russian 1913-1933
Crolian Edelen de Burgh Grand Master American 1960-1973
Prince Roberto Paterno Grand Master Italian 1974-1993

These names also appear on the Grady OSJ site, and Edelen de Burgh and Paterno were both associated with Pichel.   However, Grady’s OSJ states that Paterno stepped down in 1983, not 1993, and the period from 1934 to 1966 (mostly missing in the above) is filled by some other names. According to the Research Website, Paterno also split from the Pichel order. The Ecumenical Order and Grady’s group thus have shared origins, although different characters; the Ecumenical Order does not have the kind of “Patriot” links which Grady has fostered, and it appears to operate on a larger scale.

(Hat tip to a reader)

(1) ‘Knights of Darkness: The sovereign Military Order of Malta’, in Covert Action Information Bulletin, 25, Winter 1986, pp. 27-38.

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As has been widely noted, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which lobbies for lower taxes in the UK, has produced a 400-page report entitled The Single Income Tax. Somewhat unexpectedly, there are two sub-sections on religion, as part of a larger section entitled “Under a range of philosophical perspectives, taxes become unethical beyond a certain level”. Graeme Leach, Chief Economist and Director of Policy at the Institute of Directors and the author of a foreword to the whole report, gives us his interpretation of the Biblical view:

…Scripture clearly teaches God’s heart for the poor, but it does not teach a large redistributionist welfare state…

In the Biblical model the welfare state is internalised to the family, extended family and church. Also, the architecture of the economic system (ownership structure and property rights), most notably in the restoration of land under Jubilee, included an in-built resistance to extreme poverty or wealth.

In the Biblical model welfare policy is handled through individual responsibility – an individual responsibility for the poor to work and an individual responsibility for the wealthy to give. A wide range of poverty alleviation mechanisms existed (interest free loans, bonded service, debt cancellation, gleaning laws and the role of kinsman redeemer) and they all required personal effort (the grain must be gleaned, the loan repaid etc.)

…The concept of the tithe is also equitable in that it is proportional, requiring the same percentage contribution regardless of rich or poor. From a Biblical perspective progressive taxation is not equitable.

This being the UK, the presence of such material in a report about tax reform has occasioned some bemused derision.

In the USA, there is a whole school of thought which links Biblical law to economic libertarianism, represented by organisations such as the Chalcedon Foundation and the Acton Institute. Some of these groups are socially authoritarian, although this does not appear to apply in Leach’s case:

The idealised Biblical model faces significant challenges. The 21st Century UK is not an Old Testament theocracy. Moreover there are significant transitional issues that arise even if one did attempt to apply Biblical principles to current fiscal policy. The most obvious being the risk that in a secular society, after a century of state provided welfare, any withdrawal of government provision might not trigger an expansion of philanthropy and personal giving.

Leach’s religious views have been noted by the media previously; in May 2001 the Telegraph reported:

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A banner headline on WND:

Obama: Slaughter of Christians a Misunderstanding

Those unfamiliar with WND‘s yellow journalism practices might be led to infer from this that Obama had made a statement in which he claimed that the slaughter of Christians was a misunderstanding – obviously suggestive of a dismissive attitude towards terrorism and its victims. However, WND hack Steve Peacock delivers rather less:

The violence in northern Nigeria is mistakenly viewed as a religious conflict rather than simply a tribal dispute over land, according to the Obama administration.

Despite the ongoing Muslim destruction of churches and the slaughter of Christians – including many murdered during worship services – the U.S. Agency for International Development claims that the misunderstandings make it difficult to administer aid programs.

USAID, therefore, has launched a program titled Project PEACE – an acronym for Programming Effectively Against Conflict and Extremism.

PEACE says it will hire contractors to help the agency analyze the “true” causes of conflict and consequently provide more effective humanitarian and conflict-resolution assistance, according to planning documents that WND located via database research.

…Nigerian media have reported that the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram has pledged to “eradicate Christianity.”

The USAID documents, however, contend that Boko Haram simply shares with other groups anger “over the nation’s poor governance.”

Efforts to “improve state service capacities and working to enhance the service delivery capacity of local governments” would help reduce such anger and resultant conflicts, the agency says.

…Attempts to focus on the theological nature of the fighting have failed to halt the ongoing clash, since those parties purportedly ignore the underlying motivation for feuding, according to USAID: “Those who perceive the conflict as a religious war have been unable to gain traction in resolving the conflict because, at its root, it is more about the governance of contested resources.”

The implication is that USAID is denying the role of Islamic extremism in Nigeria, as a matter of policy at the behest of Obama. Inevitably, reader comments below the article rail against “Hussein… the militant muzzie” and such. Careful readers will note that headline, as well as being factually misleading, is not even consistent with the text that follows: the headline has Obama claiming that Christians have been killed as the result of a misunderstanding, while the text claims that USAID believes that the reason why Christians have been killed has been misunderstood.

The exact document quoted above is a pdf titled the USAID Conflict Assessment Framework, revised version 2.0. It carries the notice “Draft for circulation as of February 21, 2012”, and a statement that it “does not represent final guidance from USAID”. The document is 55 pages long and somewhat technical; the passages discussed above are as follows (emphases added):

…in Jos, Nigeria, Christian and Muslim communities frequently clash in episodes of violence. Yet, although the symptom of conflict is intercommunal violence along sectarian lines, the source of the conflict will not be found in theology. Rather, the conflict‘s source competition for land between a group that perceives itself as indigenous to the area and another seen as more recent settlers. Those who perceive the conflict as a religious war have been unable to gain traction in resolving the conflict because, at its root, it is more about the governance of contested resource.

…In Nigeria, for example, the conflicts around Jos are frequently characterized as being between largely Muslim settlers and Christian ?indigenes, but, in fact, there are important distinctions among the Berom, Afizere, Anaguta, and other Christian groups. Similarly, the conflict in the Niger Delta hosts a bewildering array of armed groups and, although the conflict is ostensibly against the Nigerian state, in reality it is a complex system of inter-connected conflicts over the distribution of resources, political power, and even simply turf. Whether the salient identity is religious, tribal, regional, or politically-based depends on the context, as well as on how the various armed groups are framing the issue. There is nothing inherently conflictual about particular identities, but, under certain conditions, identity can turn from a relatively neutral organizing principle into a powerful tool for mobilizing mass violence.

…For example, the overwhelming source of vulnerability to conflict in Nigeria remains the poor performance of the Nigerian government itself at all levels, and its corrupt neo-patrimonial overlords. Pro-violence groups from Boko Haram to militias in the Niger Delta all share a common narrative of anger over the nation’s poor governance. Thus, a natural response would be to infuse USAID’s overall country strategy for Nigeria with adherence to principles for good engagement in fragile states. Two illustrative goals include continuing and expanding the USAID state-focused strategy to improve state service capacities and working to enhance the service delivery capacity of local governments in lead states. However, a technical approach may also be complicated by political factors that might resist and prevent positive change (i.e., a ‘negative resiliency’). A systems approach would help assess any negative resiliencies that may hinder the effectiveness of a USAID program and set appropriate expectations for change.

Nowhere in the document is violence against Christians dismissed as “a misunderstanding”.

In any case, it’s unclear why WND is attempting to discern Obama’s attitude to conflict in Nigeria from phrases extracted from an obscure USAID draft document for potential contractors. Most likely, it’s a strained attempt to jump on a bandwagon with some new material; in April, Front Page complained of “Christian blood on Obama’s hands“, and attacked Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson for claiming (drawing on an AFP report) that “despite Boko Haram’s repeated statements about its goals and its very name… this conflict was not driven by religion, but by social inequities”.

It seems sensible to take account both of fundamentalist ideology in itself and socio-political factors; Carson and USAID would certainly both do well to pay more attention to the former. However, the claim of “blood on Obama’s hands” is excessive, given that the US is providing practical assistance to Nigeria; Carson recently explained to African journalists that the country had been offered

a wide variety of training to help them to improve their investigation skills, their ability to collect information on the Boko Haram threat, on forensics, to be able to do investigations on post-blast situations.  We have also offered them advice on how they can better defend against car bombs and IEDs, and we have worked with their security services, the police, and the military.

In April, Daniel Benjamin at the State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism stated that:

In Nigeria, elements of the group known as Boko Haram (BH) have launched attacks in northern and central parts of the country, including one in August against the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, signaling their ambition and capability to attack non-Nigerian targets… Boko Haram is not a formal AQ affiliate, but is rather a loosely organized collection of criminals, and militants, and terrorists. BH has historically focused on local Nigerian issues and exploits long-standing political and socio-economic grievances in the north. We remain concerned by reported communications, training, and weapons links between AQIM, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, which may have strengthened Boko Haram’s capacity to conduct terrorist attacks. Through border security and other assistance efforts, we are working to disrupt the ability of these groups to share information and training.

Long-standing and still neglected political and socio-economic grievances are some of the drivers feeding the violence in the North. Eliminating this threat requires us to address these issues. U.S. counterterrorism strategy is closely linked to the broader strategy of support for the Nigerian government’s reform efforts, and increased respect for human rights. Through high-level engagement, including through the established U.S.- Nigeria Bi-national Commission, we are working to strengthen the Nigerian government’s resolve and capacity to address the broader issues and to press for a change to its heavy-handed approach to the security threats in the north. We are also providing limited law enforcement training assistance to the Nigerian government under the auspices of the Trans Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership… The goal of this training is to increase the professionalization, enhance interagency communication and expand the capacity of the police to more effectively prevent and respond to terrorist attacks.

In the light of this, it is perhaps strange that the State Department has not yet added Boko Haram to the official list of “foreign terrorist organizations”, despite coming under pressure to do so. According to Reuters:

A senior State Department official said the department was “very concerned about violence in Nigeria” and added that it was “looking at this very carefully.”

The official insisted the department was “not stalling or dragging our feet.” But he noted that adding a group to the sanctions list is a “rigorous process which has to stand up in a court of law.”

This is certainly frustrating, and one could make reasonable criticisms – but it does not amount to a dismissive attitude towards Boko Haram.

For other examples of WND‘s distorted journalism see here and here, plus on-going work from Terry Krepel at ConWebWatch.

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At TPM, Nick Martin has some fun with Jim Bakker:

The disgraced televangelist is now hawking survivalist gear and books about the apocalypse on his website… For just $500, you can get “Jim’s All American 4 Star Vegetable” buckets. A cool two grand will get you the “Jerry Jones Special,” which promises “over 3,300 servings of food and enough fuel to cook 480 meals.”

…”Pastor Jim,” as he calls himself now, published a book in 1998 called Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse, which he sells on his site for $20 and proclaims: “This is not just a book of prophecy, it is a book of survival.”

I’m surprised to see that Prosperity is still available; like the late Grant Jeffrey’s Millennium Meltdown (see yesterday), the book was  part of the Y2K bandwagon (Y2K being “a highly plausible explanation for what the Bible refers to as the black horse of famine and economic chaos”, according to Bakker). However, Bakker’s blog has plenty of new material which plays on more contemporary fears. Here’s a typical extract, from 29 February:

It is an amazing time to be living as the Bible’s Last Days events are taking place on a daily basis. Earthquakes have increased and even tornados have quadrupled!  This should not scare us but reassure us that the Bible is true!

…Lori and I are not only storing more food at Morningside and doing more to help our friends and faith partners get ready, we are adding to our personal storage for our family! The Bible even says that a person is a fool who sees trouble coming and does not prepare!

…I will give you just a few reasons why I am storing more food right NOW!  The number one reason is that I have spent the last two decades studying the Bible and focusing on the book of Revelation, researching in the Greek each word of this amazing book one word at a time and I am totally convinced we are living in Revelation Days NOW!

…Read Rabbi Cahn’s book, “The Harbinger” if you do not know of this important warning from God to America!  2012 is not the end of the world like many are saying, but as Rick Joyner has said, it may be the end of the world as we know it!

The third reason is that Jesus says in Matthew 24, that a sign of His return is there will be “no food to eat,” and there will be earthquakes all over the place!  In case of earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes or lack of food or riots or power failures, do you have a plan where you will go and where will your family meet if all phone lines and phone towers are down?  Iran plans to explode an Electric Magnetic bomb over America shutting down all transportation that has motors and our electric grid system…

It’s time to prepare food and water, for this is key to sustaining life!   Look over our food offers and get ready NOW!  One day it will be too late!

I noted Bakker’s doom-mongering a year ago. In the wake of the Fukushima earthquake – which he claims to have predicted – he warned that “more earthquakes and major events are coming to Japan very soon. California and the area from Illinois and Missouri to Arkansas will have major events in the future.  Keep you eyes on the Ring of Fire.” Cahn’s Harbinger, meanwhile, is being heavily promoted by both WND and Charisma magazine – I discussed the book here. Cahn has appeared on Bakker’s show, and Bakker is offering a set of CDs entitled “Further Harbinger Mysteries Revealed”.

Bakker’s association with Rick Joyner is long-standing; Joyner’s Morningstar Ministries also runs Heritage International Ministries, which controls the Heritage Grand Hotel at the site of Bakker’s ruined Heritage USA project. The hotel was the location for an investiture ceremony of a strange “chivalric order” of which Joyner is a member, along with William “Jerry” Boykin. Joyner has also promised to turn a deserted tower on the site into a retirement community; as of December, though, that building was under threat of compulsory demolition.

Bakker claims not to be selling his survivalist products – rather (as Martin notes), they are “love gifts”, which one may receive after clicking a “give” button for a certain amount of money. Although most of the food items come without any obvious branding, they have been sourced from a company called Food for Health International; the labels can be seen here. The 2kg of Dehydrated Tomato Flakes which Bakker will give you for a $100 gift can be bought from Food for Health for $53.95; 2kg of freeze-dried corn from Bakker at $100 costs $52.95 from Food for Health. Bakker’s bulk offers, though, appear to be better value. However, don’t forget to purchase the Food Bucket Opener for $10; one is reminded of a famous Gary Larson cartoon about the lack of a tin-opener in a nuclear bunker.

Bakker is also offering a solar panel “fuel-less generator” for £1,700. Unfortunately, though, it will not be available until 15 August – do we have that long?

UPDATE: At the Atlantic, Elspeth Reeve points out that a number of survival products available from Bakker can acquired more cheaply elsewhere.

(Hat tip: Cult News Network)

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Jim Fletcher reports at WND:

Grant Jeffrey, the Canadian teacher who took the marketing of Bible prophecy to new and unprecedented heights, has passed away. He was 63.

Jeffrey entered full-time ministry in 1988, with his wife, Kaye. Jeffrey’s communication skills quickly gained the attention of the public, and he launched Frontier Research Publications, a publishing arm that allowed him independence in distributing his message. He also worked with several mainstream publishers, including WaterBrook, HarperCollins, Zondervan, Word, and Tyndale House.

A thorough researcher, Jeffrey would go on to write 27 books, which have sold seven million copies, and have been printed in 24 languages.

In fact, Jeffrey never marketed “Bible prophecy”; instead, he used Bible prophecy to market a farrago of fear-mongering conspiracy theories, subjecting Biblical texts to the most egregious eisegesis. His books include The Signature of God: Astonishing Bible Codes Reveal September 11 Terror Attacks (“Remarkable new computer discoveries from the Bible Codes reveal astonishing details about the September 11 Islamic terrorist attack on America that were encoded in Hebrew text thousands of years ago”); The Next World War: What Prophecy Reveals about Extreme Islam and the West (“How Russia and extreme Islam will launch World War III”); and Millennium Meltdown: Spiritual and Practical Strategies to Survive Y2K (“explores the potential of the disastrous Year 2000 computer meltdown that will set the stage for the rise of the world government of the Antichrist” – Jeffrey attempted to justify his scaremongering in January 2000). Last year, he brought out The Global-Warming Deception (“How a secret elite plans to bankrupt America and steal your freedom”).

In 2009, Jeffrey bizarrely shared top billing at a rally with Karl Rove. Fletcher’s article includes statements of appreciation from his peers: Hal Lindsey (whose books, we should remember, include The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon), William T. “Terry” James of Rapture Ready, and Bob Ulrich of Prophecy in the News. According to Ulrich:

“If Hal Lindsey’s ‘Late Great Planet Earth’ defined the prophetic landscape for the 80s and this generation, Grant Jeffrey took things to a whole new level. Heralding the pre-millennial revival, Grant perfected the art of the prophecy book in a way no one ever did before. Spectacular new discoveries; cutting edge research; timely subjects that were on the minds of the public – there was no end to the excitement he created…”

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Last week I noted that the death of Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika in April had occurred just days after he had laughed off a prophecy by Nigerian mega-pastor TB Joshua that an African president would shortly die. Joshua reportedly followed up on this a few weeks later; Bulawayo 24 reports:

Another old African president will fall critically ill, hospitalised but will be saved from death, popular Nigerian prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua (TB Joshua), left, has reportedly said.

In his most recent prophecy this week, the popular prophet reportedly said the Africa president, whom he did not name, would miss death by a whisker.

Once again, no name is given, but SW Radio Africa now reports that:

These prophecies are not going down well with ZANU PF given Mugabe’s health and surrounding speculation.

Joshua has reportedly been invited to Zimbabwe by Morgan Tsvangirai to speak at the National Day of Prayer, although event organisers have denied this. Either way, the prospect of Joshua showing up has provoked something of a backlash:

The campaign took an unusual turn on Wednesday when senior police officers were shown a video that allegedly exposes TB Joshua as a womaniser and sorcerer…

Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner-General responsible for crime, Josephine Shambare and Senior Assistant Commissioner Nonkosi Ncube, were some of the senior officers that attended the screening of the video titled “TB Joshua’s evil doings finally revealed.”

The screening was done at the Police General Headquarters in Harare and Ncube told journalists the video was screened because “people must be aware of false prophets.”

As the police were watching the video, ex-communicated Anglican bishop and fierce Zanu (PF) supporter Nolbert Kunonga was launching an unprovoked attack on the Nigerian at his offices in Harare. He said TB Joshua’s prophecies were driven by Satanism and were “diabolic.”

I’ve blogged on Kunonga previously; in return for describing the dictator as “more merciful than God” in the run-up to the 2002 election, he was rewarded with two farms that had been appropriated by Mugabe’s militia, and which were susequently reportedly being mismanaged). Kunonga also boasts of baptising children “in the Zanu-PF way”.

The anti-Joshua video appeared in 2009; TB Joshua’s evil doings finally revealed is the YouTube title, but the documentary is actually called Deception of the Age.  Online Nigeria has some background:

…produced by Nollywood star,Paul Adams with fiery Pastor Ladi Thompson as the executive director… [it] offers chilling accounts of human right abuses, manipulations, deceptions and sexual escapades perpetrated by the prophet, which were based on the confessions of his former devotees…

With vivid accounts of the prophet’s atrocities as supplied by Bisola Johnson, a former studio worker who was a close disciple of Joshua for 14 years and Paul Agomoh, the first indigenously ordained prophet in the church, who also left after 10 years, the documentary is best described as a highly-damaging piece.

Joshua’s church (the Synagogue Church of All Nations) responded with a counter-video in which individuals who had attacked Joshua confessed to dishonesty; one case was that of “Mukaila Bello, a man who confessed he lied that he buried an eight-month old pregnant woman in the church and produced hundreds of cassettes of such fabrications which he sold to make tons of money”.

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Political Scrapbook reports:

Bibles commissioned by Michael Gove and distributed to every state school in the country have a direct reference to him on the spine, Political Scrapbook can exclusively reveal. In an act of breathtaking hubris, the tomes bear the prominent wording “Presented by the Secretary of State for Education”.

The Bibles are copies of the King James Bible, printed by the Oxford University Press and distributed to commemorate 400 years since the first edition of 1611. The books come with a letter from Gove; according to an extract quoted in the Guardian:

“I believe it is important that all pupils – of all faiths or none – should appreciate this icon and its impact on our language and democracy,” it says. He adds that the gift has been funded through the generosity of private sponsors “who share my view that this book has a unique place in our nation’s history and culture”.

It’s not clear from this whether Gove has used the letter merely to puff his own “view”, or whether he cites scholarly assessments, which would be more to the point. The Department of Education website has a list of relevant “Quotes by secular commentators” (scroll down; “Quotes from religious leaders” gets top billing), appropriately beginning with David Crystal, author of Begat: the King James Bible and the English Language. The site also announces that

Our intention is to create a lasting legacy of the anniversary and to stimulate discussion and learning across the curriculum.

We hope teachers and pupils will be inspired to explore how this book has influenced our nation’s history, language and culture over the past four centuries.

However, the project has come under criticism as being superfluous to the needs of schools, and it seems to me that there is something overly ideological about a religious text being distributed to schools with a stamp of official political approval. As one teacher at a church school writes on the TES Forum (also quoted by the Guardian):

 I feel the inscription on the side is more to do with this project than the actual ‘gift’.

I find myself less impressed, though, by complaints that the KJV is too difficult for pupils to engage with (inevitably, “inner-city” children are cited here). Of course parts of the book are difficult and obscure (indeed, Ronald Knox enjoyed pointing out that the KJV translation of Amos 4:2-3 is gibberish), but it’s not the case that the KJV is generally inaccessible or unteachable. Much of the text is actually an easier read than Shakespeare.

Also, Political Scrapbook‘s mockery is somewhat overegged; there is no indication that Gove’s name is printed in the book, and Gove appears to have dropped a plan, reported last year, to add “a two-line introduction” or foreword (shades of “with additional dialogue by Sam Taylor”).

The Guardian notes some of the project’s donors:

They include Lord Stanley Fink, the former co-treasurer of the Conservative party who was once chief executive of the listed hedge fund Man Group… Lord Robert Edmiston, a motor trade entrepreneur … Ramez Sousou of the private equity firm TowerBrook… Michael Farmer, the Conservative party co-treasurer and City financier… Lord Harris,… the chairman of Carpetright.

The Liberal Democrat donor Paul Marshall… and his wife have also donated funds for the scheme, as has Sir Peter Lampl, the founder of a private equity firm.

I previously wrote about Farmer here.

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A number of Nigerian news-sites are reporting that three brothers of “Lady Apostle” Helen Ukpabio were killed by police in Akwa Ibom on 25 March, and that a younger sister died from shock shortly afterwards. The reports include photos of dead bodies. The source of the story and of the pictures appears to be a blog titled Three Brothers Murdered by the Police and State Security Service of Akwa Ibom State, which posted an article by Helen Ukpabio’s surviving brother Henry Akpabio (sic for spelling) on 17 April. The article has been re-posted and adapted on a number of other sites:

It sounds like a fairy tale yet it is true. The Nigerian Police and SSS have been indulging in secret killings of supposed enemies to politicians at a fee. This they do and frame the people they killed either as kidnappers or as robbers. The victims are never given any chance to defend themselves.

According to the story, the brothers were killed following a meeting with “three white men… concerning the Dam that is to be constructed in their land”:

A little while into the meeting, the white men said they had to hold a brief discussion outside. As they left, the generating plant went off, Joseph [Akpabio]‘s wife rushed out to check if it was petrol problem. There she met over twenty police men wearing black T-shirts. They ordered her to stand still or else they would kill her; there the white men shook hands with the leaders of the squad… then left from there.

The police rushed into Joseph wife’s house rounded them up and asked them to lie down flat on their faces, handcuffed them behind, and forced them into their trucks… The police shot all the boys (about six of them) on their knees and crippled them.

The three brothers, along with others, were reportedly soon afterwards killed. Witness accounts have been posted to YouTube here.

Meanwhile, Henry Akpabio, who resides in the UK, claims to have received threatening messages from the leader of the squad, stating that “that they are commissioned to eliminate him and the entire family of Chief Esessien Akpabio”, including Helen Ukpabio.

Helen Ukpabio, as I’ve blogged a number of times, is internationally notorious as a proponent of the belief  – not found anywhere in the Bible – that personal misfortune can be caused by child witches, and that children identified as witches require “deliverance”. While Ukpabio asserts that she cures children afflicted in this way through a harmless ceremony, the doctrine has caused great harm to children and families. Ukpabio has not responded well to critical scrutiny, which she claims to believe is due to an “atheist conspiracy” that includes this blog, and she has endorsed an abusive website aimed against critics.

Needless to say, despite the controversy around Ukpabio and “child witches”, it should be recognised that a terrible tragedy has occurred here, and that the deaths raise serious questions about law and order in Nigeria. The Nigerian authorities need to undertake a thorough investigation of this incident, as a matter of urgency. I write this despite having been myself seriously defamed and abused by close followers of the “Lady Apostle”, and despite the fact that these same followers expressed vicious glee after the Nigerian humanist Leo Igwe’s father was seriously injured by corrupt police in 2010.

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Sugar also threatened to sue Rebekah Brooks personally

In 2011, Macmillan published a book by Alan Sugar, entitled The Way I See It: Rants, Revelations And Rules For Life. Chapter 19 is on the subject of the press, and has some details about the “Terror Target Sugar” fiasco. This occurred in January 2009, when the Sun ran a front-page story stating that Muslim terrorists were plotting on-line to attack him, as a prominent British Jew, in revenge for Israeli actions in Gaza. The Sun‘s source was a self-described terror expert named Glen Jenvey, who was soon after found out by Tim Ireland to have planted the very evidence which he went on to “expose”.

Sugar explains that he was contacted by police on 7 January 2009, and that they told him that the “special terror division of the police” had looked into it:

They were pleased to tell me, from the intelligence they had, that there seemed to be no truth in it whatsoever… I put my lawyers on the case, and I also took the step of not just suing the newspaper, but suing Rebekah Wade [now Rebekah Brooks] personally. (271)

I noted the legal threat at the time. The incident occurred several months after Sugar had fallen out with the Sun on another matter, and Sugar speculates that the story may have been revenge for that. He also states that the Sun’s deputy editor, Dominic Mohan, had tried to justify the story on the grounds that it was based on Jenvey’s “expert testimony”:

They are nasty, nasty people at the Sun… They ended up paying £25,000 damages and £125,623 in legal costs. (272)

Sugar also notes that Jenvey was arrested in December 2009, although “I believe that police dropped the whole incident”.

Sugar, by his own account, was told by the police that there was no real threat on the same day that the story was published; and the evidence against Jenvey uncovered by Tim could be confirmed independently by anyone. Yet when a complaint was made to the Press Complaints Commission a week later, the Sun‘s managing editor Graham Dudman decided to press on with defending the indefensible. The Sun did not publicly apologise until the autumn, by which time Jenvey had confessed all following a summer of erratic behaviour that included anonymous libellous attacks on Tim and a short-lived conversion to extremist Islam. The Sun‘s climb-down included an article which painted Jenvey as a sinister figure, which was doubtless more congenial than reflecting on the failures which led to the original publication.

Sugar’s book describes Jenvey as “the Sun‘s terror expert”; this is not quite accurate, as he was never employed by the paper. Instead, he was the source of stories that appeared in a number of newspapers, some of which were mediated through the office of Patrick Mercer MP, formerly Shadow Minister for Homeland Security.

Jenvey has now re-emerged, with a diatribe for a Sri Lanka-focused website called the Asian Tribune:

Why is it that the national press can’t bring itself to use the words Pakistani or Afghan sex gangs in their reporting of these cases or more to the point Muslim sex gangs!

…The offenders in Rochdale and previous Muslim criminal gangs were acting from a religiously inspired cultural perspective that is incompatible with British society and is not shared by the Asian community. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Christianity all have an older religious and cultural tradition in Asia than Islam with a moral code that is compatible with British law and values. It’s disgraceful that the media should use such racial terms to link the sexual abuse crimes committed by these Muslims with all Asians.

…The people in my community are all more than tired of the problems associated with Muslim drug gangs, Muslim sex gangs and Muslim supporters of terrorist groups. The funds raised by Muslims for Islamic terrorists are used to finance attacks on Indian as well as British innocents; in Mumbai and in London.

One wonders about the motive for this, given that the author previously wrote postings under a Muslim name urging Muslims to attack British Jews.

(Footnote: The Asian Tribune is run by a certain KT Rajasingham, and has a controversial reputation. A libel action recently brought against it in Sweden included the claim that the site “is closely associated with the Sri Lankan government, its undercover agents and Sri Lankan Military Intelligence Services”. The site also carries a number of pieces attacking Channel 4 for its documentaries on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka)

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