Over 500 representatives of youth organizations assembled near the European Union representation in Moscow on Saturday to pray for Georgia to stop aggression against South Ossetia…According to the organizers, Orthodox youth in Moscow will continue praying for peace in the Caucasus in front of the European Union representation office for the next days.
One of the “youth organisations” mentioned is Nashi, which has been described as the “Putin Youth” for its nationalist indoctrination camps. Usually when its members are hanging around a foreign building in Moscow the purpose is intimidation rather than pious supplication to God; back in December 2006 the Telegraphnoted:
Even the British ambassador in Moscow is not exempt from the fear and intimidation that are a constant part of attempting to do business in the country. Yesterday, the Foreign Office was forced to make an official complaint to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the treatment of the ambassador, Tony Brenton. For four months he has been the target of intimidation by Nashi, a Right-wing youth movement linked to the Kremlin. The group has trailed and heckled the envoy, picketing the embassy and triggering a violent incident outside his residence in September. So serious has been the harassment that there are now fears for the ambassador’s safety.
I blogged on Nashi here; just last month it was reported that the movement had “run out of steam” and was “listless”.
Dozens of black cats are vanishing across Italy every day to be used in Satanic rituals, an animal welfare group claimed yesterday.
…The Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment estimates 60,000 were killed last year, to ward off bad luck, to be sold to cosmetics laboratories – where black fur gives the best results – and for use in Satanic rites.
Association president Lorezno Croce said…’we have strong suspicions that these cats are being used in Satanic rituals. We want to halt this massacre, educate people and restore dignity to black cats.’
As much as I couldn’t resist the headline, it should be noted that Croce provides absolutely zero evidence for his claim of Satanist involvement. The story seems to be an August staple; almost exactly the same tale appeared last year, although then the emphasis was more on the role of the Catholic church:
A leading animal rights group has estimated that 60,000 black cats are killed every year by Italians who believe that they bring bad luck.
The Italian Association for the Protection of Animals and the Environment claims that some are also killed as part of black magic rituals.
…Across large parts of Europe, black cats have been associated with witchcraft since the Middle Ages and were said to be the favourite companions for witches.
Lorenzo Croce, the association’s president, blamed the Church for spreading myths about the animals.
“The Catholic Church has perpetuated this idea for centuries and it is now deeply implanted in people’s minds,” he said.
Sara Lipton gives some historical background to the Catholic hatred of black cats:
[According to an accusation cited by Alan of Lille in the 12th Century] “Cathars are called after the cat, because they kiss the posterior of a cat in whose shape, it is said, Lucifer appears to them.” The same practice was mentioned by Gregory IX in a bull of 1233…Stephen of Bourbon referred to underground rites in which heretics conjured Lucifer in the shape of a cat and related that St Dominic expelled the devil in the form of a black cat from female heretics in Fanjeaux. (1)
Gregory’s Bull (entitled “Vox in Rama”) also mentions “a certain man…from the loins upwards gleaming more brightly than the sun…whose lower part is shaggy like a cat” (2). Some websites mentioning the Bull deal with the story rather loosely, as if Gregory had simply launched a denunciation of black cats.
I have blogged on fears about Satanism in Italy several times in the past, such as here and here. The most famous story of a cat being killed for occult purposes in Italy occured in Sicily in the early 1920s, when certain Raoul Loveday was persuaded by Aleister Crowley to drink the blood of a sacrifical feline. Loveday expired soon after; his widow blamed Crowley and the cat’s blood, but probably either drugs or the local water supply was the cause.
Croce has also complained about the current Pope’s wearing of fur garments.
*****
(1) Sara Lipton, Images of Intolerance (California University Press, 1990) p. 89.
(2) Available in Alan Kors and Edward Peters (eds), Witchcraft in Europe, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001) pp. 18-19.
Under the predictable headline “South Ossetian bishop calls on people to rebuff Georgian aggression”, the Moscow based Interfax Religion presents the rallying cry of Bishop George, head of the Alania diocese in South Ossetia:
“We have once again experienced ‘care’ of Georgia – never-ending humiliation, insults, slander, terrorist acts and gunfire at civilians. Georgia has shown such ‘love and care’ for our people for the past 18 years”…
The report adds:
The bishop urged South Ossetians “to give full backing to those who protect their homes, children, wives, parents and friends and to serve the people and the fatherland with any possible talents and capabilities.”
Meanwhile, in Moscow, an Alanian/Ossetian cleric is calling on a saint to intervene:
“The [Alanian] representation’s rector hegumen Georgy (Bestayev) prayed all night through and in the morning he set off to the Holy Trinity- St. Sergius Laura to pray before the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh about peace and stability in South Ossetia,” churchwarden Oleg Khubetsov told an Interfax-Religion correspondent on Friday. He noted that Ossetian community of Moscow “together with all law-abiding Russian citizens is outraged with bold aggression initiated by “the little Hitler” against people of South Ossetia.”
One might think that when you’re defending the right of a large country to invade a smaller neighbour on the grounds of solidarity with an ethnic enclave across the border you might be better off avoiding Hitler analogies…
However, to be fair, Interfaxalso gives us the take of Georgia Catholicos Illia II:
…Georgian authorities stand for peaceful settlement of the conflict and are ready to carry out the policy of peace. I hope the Ossetian party will not exacerbate the situation. Centuries-old friendship and family relations bond Georgian and Ossetian people and what is most important we united with Christian faith and must live peacefully without blood.
Moscow Patriarch Alexei II has also called for a cease-fire, pointing out that “Orthodox peoples called by the Lord to live in fraternity and love confront each other.”
Bishop George, by the way, is a member of a traditionalist Orthodox church called the “Orthodox Church of Greece Holy Synod in Resistance”.
With interesting timing, the Tbilisi Messanger reports that just a few days ago Patriarch of Alexandria Theodore II arrived in Georgia with “the remains of Saint Matthew the Mediator which were exhibited at Sameba church in Tbilisi and Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta.”
The Freeman Center For Strategic Studies is a pro-Israel outfit somewhat to the right of AIPAC, which it denounces for failing to oppose Israeli leaders it considers to be too liberal. Possibly its best-known member is Yossef Bodansky, an academic and one-time director of the “Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare”. Hineni Ministries, meanwhile, calls itself a “Judeo-Christian” organization, and its director, Frank Lanza, is also part of the Freeman Center. As well as Shoebat, Hineni’s upcoming events include a talk by Gershon Salomon, an Israeli extremist who campaigns for a new Jewish temple on the site of the Dome of Rock and who has been popular among American Christian Zionists for a long time.
Shoebat’s views have featured on this blog several times in the past few weeks. Having milked his alleged “I was a Palestinian terrorist” past, Shoebat is now roaming American churches with the preposterous claim that Book of Revelation contains the Arabic phrase “In the Name of Allah”, but that this was misinterpreted as “666” (I deconstructed all that here). Joel Richardson, who is Shoebat’s collaborator, crows that
Walid and I have put together a comprehensive Scriptural presentation as to why there is presently a revolution taking place within the world of Biblical prophecy. The revolution is away from the Roman End-Time Paradigm and towards the Islamic End Time Paradigm.
Rather than heading the revived Roman Empire based on the EU, apparently the Anti-Christ is now going to take control of the Muslim world. This is presented as some sort of advance in the understanding of Biblical prophecy, when in fact it is evidence that the whole approach is a farrago of nonsense: just like Hal Lindsey and all their other predecessors, the method employed is simply to approach the Bible without any real understanding of literary or historical context, and then to match prophecies to whichever nation or group is currently in conflict with USA.
Follows methods developed by Korean “Grandmasters” jailed for fraud in 2000
The video above shows members of the London Metropolitian Police extolling the virtues of “Ki Health”, a particular branding of Qi Gong available in London and other cities around the world.
A report in the Irish Timesgives a bit of background:
‘ENERGY MONKS’ are growing in popularity in Ireland. These complementary healthcare practitioners work for the London-based charity Ki Health International.
…During a typical ki energy treatment, the practitioner makes quite a lot of hissing, blowing and burping sounds. The treatment itself lasts for between 10 and 15 minutes, during which time the practitioner will have aimed to open up all the body’s energy channels.
“The length of the treatment is useful because in London, we treat doctors and nurses, fire fighters and other people who work for the London emergency services. Many people tell us that they feel an immediate benefit from the treatment,” says Master Jin. There is no charge for the treatment, although donations are accepted.
…And, if all of this sounds a bit like a cult in the making, the ki masters are keen to dispel any suspicions that they are converting people to a new religion. “People of all religions and cultures do the training. Basically, the principles of Taoism follow the laws of nature and our aim is simply to create a mind/body harmony and balance which will bring health,” explains Master Jin.
The Ki Health International website itself is not particularly informative as regards the organisation’s background, mentioning only unnamed “Ki Masters”, although the site itself is registered to a certain Renate Damhuis, a Microsoft employee who has enthusiastically endorsed the practice on related sites (some of which are now defunct), such as that of Jungshim Ki Energy New York.
According to documents submitted to the Charity Commission, Ki Health International used to be known as Chun Do Sun Bup, about which there is a bit more detail at this website:
Chun Do Sun Bup (CDSP), which literally means “the heavenly way to recover body, mind, and spirit” is a 6000-year-old Taoist form of South Korean martial arts training. For thousands of years, this discipline was secretly passed down from generation to generation until Dr. Haeng-Yong Mo and his wife Gui-Dai Park began to explore “The Way of the Taoist Immortals” and were called upon to revitalize this tradition for the modern era.
The Grandmasters were to endure 30 years of arduous and often life-threatening ascetic training in the mountains of Korea, until ultimately they were capable of transmitting the perfect balance of yin/yang energy or Ki.
As they wrote in The Book of Heaven, when Grandmasters Mo and Park perfected the “heavenly way” of the Taoist Immortals, they received extraordinary healing abilities. They traveled in Japan, and South America performing miracles and treating thousands of people relieving their illness and suffering. Yet, as they traversed the world, they realized that they would never be able to reach everyone who needed their help. Finally their prayer to “serve humanity” was answered in the Chun Do Sun Bup Ki Energy Training.
KI ENERGY TRAINING Today there are more than 200 nonprofit International Chun Do Sun Bup Ki Energy Centers operated by Korean and Western Masters who teach this ancient art in South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and England. Ki Masters dedicate their lives to cultivation of their healing abilities to serve humanity. Introduced to North American in 1994, Ki Energy Centers are now located in Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Vancouver.
A defunct CDSP site from Australia (many CDSP-related sites are blocked from caches and Wayback) has pictures of “Dae-Ra-Chun, the headquarters of CDSB in South Korea”, and of a fountain, with the caption “The Water of Life at the headquarters has incredible purity and healing properties”.
So why doesn’t the website of Ki Health International mention Mo and Park? An AP report from 2000 gives us a clue:
A South Korean court sentenced two leaders of a doomsday cult to 10 years in prison each Tuesday on charges of swindling followers out of millions of dollars. Mo Haeng-ryong, 66, founder and head of the indigenous Chunjonhoe, or Heaven’s Gathering, and his wife, Park Kui-dal, 52, were found guilty of fraud in Seoul District Criminal Court.
…The cult, which incorporates Confucianism elements, urged followers to donate all their money, saying the world would end on Feb. 19 when it lost all its spiritual energy, prosecutors said. With doomsday approaching, the cult leaders were preparing to flee the country with much of the money, prosecutors said.
…The cult was established in 1985 by Mo and his wife, who claimed they were given an order from heaven to build a holy shrine, called Daerachun, or big spiritual heaven, at Hongchun.
(Hat tip: Cult News Network, as well as posters at Cult Exit and JSM Cult )
American Buddhist blogger Precious Metal has received an unwelcome missive by email from UK libel specialist law-firm Carter-Ruck:
We act for the Buddhist monks William Van Gordon and Edo Shonin and write in connection with an article entitled “A Mother’s grief: ‘The cult guru who turned my son into a zombie'” that was published by the Daily Mail on 25 May 2007 and which is also published by you…
The article contains a number of false and highly defamatory allegations of both our clients and has caused considerable damage to their reputation. We write to give you formal notice that we have issued High Court proceedings for defamation on behalf of our clients against the publishers of the Daily Mail and ask you to remove the article from your website as a matter of real urgency. The article has been removed from the Daily Mail’s own website.
Articles critical of Edo Shonin (or “Edo Shonnin”, born Edward Penney) have also appeared on The Buddhist Channel.
Edo and Van Gordon run the “Tranquil Abiding Buddhist Retreat” in rural Wales, formerly known as the “Pine Forest Sangha”; according to a profile on its website
Br. Edo, originally from Scotland has dedicated the best part of his adult life towards spiritual development. He has received many transmissions and has been formally ordained in both the Hinay?na and Mahayana Buddhist schools. Br. Edo has followed the example set by his first teachers who in addition to being Buddhist monks also practiced the less familiar ways of the Yogi and have preferred as much as possible to remain unknown and unimportant…In a visit to Thailand earlier this year both of the Brothers received transmissions and further formal ordinations as Yogis under Master Draythep Chantawanno in Northern Thailand…The Brothers believe that whilst lineage and tradition are very important and special, sometimes people risk falling into the trap of following a particular group just because it can make impressive claims or has teachers with impressive titles for example.
Questions had been raised about Edo Shonin’s lineage in the past; an older website for the Pine Forest Sangha dealt with this in a rather less modest way:
At Pine Forest Sangha, we remember that the Buddha, Christ, Guru Nanak and Mohammad did not have any so called lineage or impressive title. They awoke to a universal realisation and they attempted to communicate to everyone that each and every sentient being is born with the capability of this realisation regardless of lineage or school of thought.
This older website also had more details in its profile of Edo Shonin:
Edo Shonin has been a monk in the Nygma and Shingon traditions for 43 years. Born to a devoted Buddhist family, his monastic education began at 5 years of age. From the beginning he has been devoted to the traditional Shingon ways as well as the Lam Rim and Zog Chen teachings of the Nygma. He has dedicated all of his life to learning and teaching Buddhism in various Asian countries…Having been Abbot of various monasteries in the East, he has now been invited to Great Britain.
Van Gordon, meanwhile, is his disciple, and it is his mother who made the allegations that were reported in the Mail. There is no other mention of “Master Draythep Chantawanno” that I could find on-line, although of course there may be Thai sources and alternative transliterations of his name.
Precious Metal has been given seven days to comply with Carter-Ruck’s demands or face “an injunction, damages and legal costs”. However, the blog is based in the USA and the owner has declined to comply; a couple of American court decisions support his position. Wired noted one in 2003:
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can’t be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.
Online free speech advocates praised the decision as a victory. The ruling effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online communication such as moderated e-mail lists…The court based its decision on a section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, or the CDA. That section states, “… no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
The court, in a unanimous decision, said those claiming defamation can only sue the original source of the allegedly offending comments, not publishers or distributors, even if the distributor is an individual. Internet users are protected by the same 1996 Communications Decency Act that grants immunity against defamation claims to publishers in most circumstances, the court said, overturning a San Francisco appeals court.
Unity at Ministry of Truth has an absolutely masterful post on the British SPCK bookshops saga (I blogged this here), covering a number of questions about the American owners’ business practices, their legal threats against various bloggers (most recently a vicar in Essex), and – very usefully – providing a lot of information about libel law in the USA.
J Mark Brewer, who runs the organisation that owns the bookshops (and who is now seeking bankruptcy proceedings in Houston), believes he and his company should be immune from criticism because both are private: in fact, as Unity points out, Brewer is a subject of public controversy and so in US eyes is a “limited purpose public figure”. This is just one feature of US libel law that we could do with in the UK, where people who choose to involve themselves in public affairs can all too often suppress critical discussion and discourage investigation by waving lawyers around (and if you have a lawyer as a friend or ideological comrade, you don’t need to be rich to do it).
Meanwhile, the Chester Chronicle reports on some upcoming industrial tribunals:
SHOPWORKERS’ union Usdaw is taking four cases to an employment tribunal after staff were fired by e-mail from a Christian bookshop in Chester.
…Chester is just one of several branches affected after the trading arm of Christian charity St Stephen the Great (SSG) was “placed into reorganisation” in the United States Bankruptcy Court.
A new company, ENC Management Company, has been set up to run the bookshops run by Mark and Phil Brewer, the same two Texan brothers who head SSG.
…John Hannett, Usdaw general secretary, said: “It is clear that staff, many of whom have been long standing loyal workers, have been mistreated and many are understandably very upset and concerned.
“We are very concerned at a new company (ENC Management Company) being set up in these circumstances, while our members are losing their jobs.”
One website that Brewer objects to is a page on the UK Christian Bookshops Directory asking the public to make donations and offer assistance to affected booksellers.
A bad week for Hamas, the Islamist movement which has proven disastrous both for Palestinian civil society and for those advocating Palestinian rights under Israeli occupation. A couple of days ago the Palestinian human rights organisation al-Haq issued a report accusing Hamas and Fatah of the artibrary detention and torture of Palestinian prisoners (and if this is how they treat their own people, the conditions endured by Hamas’ Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit are difficult to imagine); now the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, who is Hamas’ leader in the West Bank, has announced his conversion to Christianity and given an interview to Haaretz. Masab Yousef, who is now based in California, has quite an indictment of Hamas:
“These people have no morals, they have no integrity. But they aren’t as stupid as Fatah, which steals in broad daylight in front of everyone and is immediately suspected of corruption. [Hamas people] receive money in dishonest ways, invest it in secret places, and outwardly maintain a simple lifestyle. Sooner or later they will use this money and screw the people.
“Nobody knows them and how they operate as well as I do…”
Yousef, or “Joseph” as he now prefers to be known as, also takes credit for his father’s relative moderation:
“He’s a nice, friendly man. But I discovered how evil his colleagues are…When I was with my father, I in effect pushed a moderate Hamas leader into making logical decisions, such as stopping the attacks and establishing two states alongside one another. I felt responsible. It was better for me to be there rather than a gang of fools who would poison his mind…”
Joseph explains that he became a Christian a while ago while still living in Ramallah, but that he kept quiet about it. He doesn’t explain to what kind of Christianity he has converted, and he gives few clues; although he has harsh words about Islam (“In the view of Hamas, peace with Israel contradicts sharia and the Koran”) and Palestinian society (“An entire society sanctifies death”), and says that he “respects” Israel, he doesn’t appear to have followed the path of Palestinian convert Walid Shoebat, whose entire religious identity is now grounded in a fundamentalist anti-Muslim and apocalyptic Christian Zionism.
The report has been received with predicable glee by pro-Israel websites; Joseph’s relatives meanwhile are denying that the story is true.
Following on from yesterday, Israel Insider (described by Conwebwatch as “the Israeli World Net Daily“) has a lengthy conspiracy-rumination around Barack Obama’s (or “Barack H. Obama”, as the Insider reminds us) recent visit to the Western Wall and the subsequent publication of the prayer he left there. After more or less admitting that the Maariv “permission to publish” claim was rather dubious, the Insider presses on nevertheless:
…the suspicion that Barack Obama intended for his “private prayer” to become public knowledge is gaining currency here and abroad. James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal’s influential “Best of the Web” column [says]: “Obama’s so-called prayer was at best an open letter to God–a sentiment intended for public, not divine, consumption.”
He also cities the witty column of Israel’s leading Hebrew-to-English translator Hillel Halkin, who writesin the New York Sun that the content of Obama’s note strikes a false note. “Frankly,” Halkin quips, “I’d feel a bit better about Mr. Obama if his prayer had simply said, “Lord, help me to be president.” It’s perhaps churlish of me, but the suspicion lurks that that’s what he would have written had he felt sure it would not have ended up in the newspapers.”
It’s always refreshing to see the religious poses of a presidential candidate being taken with a bit of scepticism, but what exactly were these people expecting? Obviously Obama was going to have a photo-op at the Wall, and obviously he was going to leave a prayer. And if you’re one of the most-scrutinized people on the planet obviously you’re going to be mindful about what you write on a bit of paper you’re going to leave at a public place. Of course he didn’t “feel sure” the note would never become public – why would he?
…The WSJ pundit adds: “If Obama is insincere about his religious faith, that does not speak well of his character. Then again, it is reassuring in a way, given that wacko church he belonged to for 20 years.”
Whereas McCain was totally sincere when he called Rod Parsley a “spiritual guide”…
The Insider then sets out on its own, drawing attention to the footage on Youtube I noted yesterday:
[David] Cohen’s testimony provides new evidence that suggests that the alleged pilferer, dressed in the garb of a seminary student, may in fact have been a member of Obama’s entourage. If so, there would not need to have been an official authorization by the campaign to publish the note. The actual “pilferer” may have been working for Obama.
Or maybe not:
It important to emphasize that the alleged pilferer has not been publicly identified, and any connection between him and the Obama campaign, or with Maariv, has not been proven…at this muddled stage who can really say?
That’s a bit deflating, given that the article was originally headlined “Video shows prayer note snatched by man IDed as ‘member of Obama entourage'” – changed to “Video source claims prayer note snatched by man in Obama’s ‘entourage'”, although misleading either way; Cohen’s “testimony” merely says that
seconds after Obama left the stones, some of his entourage stepped up to the wall (seen dressed in suits) while young men began gathering notes in their hands in what appeared to be the search for Obama’s freshly placed personal note. He is joined by others who unwrap notes and read them.
The Insider then directs us to an interpretation of the incident from Helen Cadogan, who tells us that this was a ploy by Obama to appeal to Muslim anti-Semitism:
Having gone to the Western Wall, and not to Al Aqsa mosque, having offered a Christian-type “prayer,” he has to regain some credibility in Muslim eyes, without seeming to do that. To distract his Muslim American audience from his genuflection at the Western Wall of the Jews, Obama made his fall guy a yeshiva student…So, Obama called a play straight out of the Farrakhan playbook. The note is stolen and the Jew did it! The Jews, they are always to be blamed for everything.
This is the rather desperate evidence provided by the Insider as to how “the ancient Western Wall was used by Obama as a prop for a public relations exercise that appears to have spun way out of control.”
