Bartholomew's Notes

Roy Stemman’s Paranormal Review has a report on British ex-psychic and ex-medium James Byrne:

James Byrne’s style of mediumship ensured “sold out” notices outside all the large venues at which he regularly demonstrated for almost 30 years. He even filled the London Palladium – following in the psychic footsteps of the late Doris Stokes…Incredibly, Byrne has not only turned his back on Spiritualism, claiming that he has been deluding himself and others, but intends exposing other psychics and their “tricks”.

A few weeks ago, Byrne was due to speak at London’s “Skeptics in the Pub“. A JREF discussion forum thread has preserved the details:

James Byrne (ex-Psychic) presents ‘Why I’m so against Psychics’

“I became a spiritualist back in the late 1970s through a chance meeting with a lady medium. She told me some details that, at that time, I thought were amazing. Now I could explain them away easily.

I pursued a career as a medium. The highlights of that career were my own show at the London Palladium and the publication in 1993 of my book “The Psychic World of James Byrne”, which sold well in the UK and New Zealand. I’ve hosted my own psychic phone in shows for two radio stations.

I now know for years I was deluding myself. I now work as a freelance writer and I am the UK’s number one critic of all psychics.

My talk is based on the fact that so many charlatans exist and the psychic industry has become a multi million pound industry and it is based on a complete sham which is not regulated.

I will explain how I, having worked as a psychic for thirty years at the highest level, now believe it is not only morally wrong but what psychics do you can train anyone to do in a matter of days and earn at least £400 per week with ease.

I will explain the tricks that most psychics successfully use. I will go into TV studios and speak against the subject in the future. I will also speak about what happened to make me realise I was deluding myself.”

However, Byrne cried off at the last minute – and is now maintaining that his rejection of mediumship was actually due to an encounter with a “bad spirit” rather than a turn towards rationalism. Back to Stemman (link added):

…it was a voice on a tape recording made during one of his readings for a regular sitter which apparently prompted the astonishing about-face. He told his local newspaper, The Chorley Citizen (Lancashire), that when the woman played the tape back they were both stunned to hear what came out:

“There was this most disgusting, foul-mouthed abusive voice on the tape. It sounded like, if you have a record slightly slowed down. It was such a horrendous voice, it was threatening and I just thought this was enough and I have never ever done a reading since. My personal belief is that it was a bad spirit.”

Byrne’s website is here, although sadly there’s no mention of the demonic tape there, or any other hint about Byrne’s former career. Instead, Byrne is now highlighting his supposed abilities as a Christian faith-healer:

James Byrne started his Ministry of Healing during the late 1970’s.

Due to word of mouth, people began to come from every corner of the UK, many reported that they had been healed, some reported considerable improvement in their physical conditions and others reported no healing at all.

The Ministry of Healing attributes all healing to God.

Byrne also names Canon Roy Lawrence as his inspiration.

However, Stemmen thinks that Byrne still needs to come clean about some of his past activities, and he has a couple of questions for him:

1. Thousands of recipients of your spirit messages over the years will want to know if they were real or faked. What is your answer?

2. In November 1995 at a public meeting you confirmed that you intended using your mediumistic powers to try to locate the body of Keith Bennett, one of the victims of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Keith was 12 years old when they killed and buried him on Saddleworth Moor and his body has never been found. His grieving mother was in the audience when you made your offer and she said she was pinning her hopes on your psychic help. Did you genuinely believe you could help her or was it just a publicity stunt?

Interestingly, Byrne was targeted by the church back in 1997:

Councillors at Hyndburn leisure services committee meeting last night rejected a plea to stop performances by Mr Byrne and other psychics in council halls.

The clergymen included the Rev Richard Priestley, of the Oswaldtwistle Christian Institute, the Rev Michael Ratcliffe of St Paul’s, Oswaldtwistle, and the Rev Kevin Logan of Christ Church, Accrington.

…They said shows such as his were spiritually and emotionally damaging to vulnerable people, and said they had had to counsel people who had been to mediums.

UPDATE: Top UK Psychic Recants Recantation. See here.

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…is my latest post at Talk to Action. And another commentator there has more background to Elijah House, the organisation that featured in yesterday’s post.

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Made to believe “satanic ritual abuse…widespread in society”

The Canadian Courthouse News Service reports:

VANCOUVER, B.C. – A woman who sought Christian marriage counseling from Elijah House has sued the society, claiming its conspiratorial theories caused her to lose custody of her seven children and fall into depression. Donna Marie Krahn claims the society taught her that “repression of memories, dissociative identity disorder and satanic ritual abuse are widespread in society.” She says the defendants encouraged her to develop false memories that she was physically, sexually and satanically abused by her husband, his family, her family, and others. She claims defendants induced her and her children to believe that “satanic cults and witchcraft had penetrated all levels of society,” that she had “500 alternate personalities,” and that “demons posed a present danger” to her and her children. The judge in divorce court found “the children are extremely well cared for physically and, but for the exposure to Elijah House philosophy, would be well cared for mentally as well.” Elijah House states on its Web site that its mission is to “share the love of Jesus to restore broken relationships and bring healing to hurt and wounded hearts.”

Here are the defendants: Brian and Della Headley – Elijah “counselors” in Mission, B.C.; Elijah House Canada Society; Elijah House Inc.; and Stephen E. Oglevie, a “consultant” of Burley, Idaho. Krahn is represented by Steven Mansfield in Vancouver Supreme Court.

The Canadian Province (subscription only) adds that Elijah House was founded in Idaho in 1974 by John and Paula Sandford, and that its current executive director is Gene Niederkleine. The Canadian branch is no longer active, although Brian Headley and Della now act as the pastoral staff for the Listening Prayer Community. Krahn herself is from Abbotsfield, and the legal details of her 2001 custody battle can be seen here. The judge in that case found that

Mrs. Krahn put every conceivable roadblock she could muster into the litigation. She lied in affidavits, lied to her counsel and lied at every occasion when she was asked to explain her failure to provide counseling records regarding two of the children. Notwithstanding court orders, she was determined to thwart any meaningful investigation of her role in the bizarre “counseling” supplied by Stephen Ogelvie, Mr. and Mrs. Headley, and Elijah House.

…It was only when pressed by her counsel that she finally admitted, during the course of her testimony in this trial, that she had destroyed these records. She blamed the complicity of the Headleys but I make no conclusions in that regard. I am advised that Mr. Krahn has an unresolved action against the Headleys that might determine that issue. The Headleys testified under subpoena at this trial but were not represented by counsel.

A court judgement from a few months prior, however, was more forthright in its assessment of the Headleys:

I found their credibility lacking and I also concluded that they conspired with Mrs. Krahn in the destruction of court ordered records.

The later judgement includes the detail that

Two expert witnesses provided extensive written reports that appeared quite complete, but Mrs. Krahn insisted they be called for the purpose of cross-examination. Neither Dr. Elizabeth Loftus nor Dr. Roy O’Shaughnessy resiled in any way from their reports under cross-examination. I found their reports to be most helpful to my conclusions respecting custody and while it was interesting to hear them respond viva voce, it was entirely unnecessary. Dr. Loftus was obliged to journey from New York, for the sole purpose of testifying at the trial in Chilliwack.

Extracts from Dr O’Shaughnessy’s report can be found in the earlier judgement. Loftus, of course, is internationally-known for her work on false memory syndrome.

Oglevie, meanwhile, was profiled in the Los Angeles Times Magazine back in 1992 in a piece entitled “Idaho Gothic”. Luckily, the article has found its way online

…Stephen Oglevie is an affable 41-year-old with a spreading waistline, a wife, two children and a basement full of articles, books and tapes about satanism…Oglevie thought he was finally settling in a clean town when he moved to Rupert in 1986. Cleaner, certainly, than places he’d been before It was in the state of Washington, in 1977, that he’d first brushed up against what he understood to be satanic ritualism. A 19-year-old woman arrived one day at the Church of the Nazarene in Wenatchee. I’m married to a warlock, she said. I’ve been up to the altar. I’ve suffered physical and sexual abuse. I can’t get away.

The lady’s eyes appeared demonic and possessed, and she sometimes spoke in a deep man’s voice, but what most unsettled Oglevie were the precise details in her stories about prostitution. Earning $4,000 a night at $10 per man why, that was 400 men. Oglevie laughs nervously as he recollects. “I had a great trouble dealing with that,” he says. “She liked to be graphic about her drugs and promiscuity. . . . I was kind of glad when that segment of my life was over.”

Oglevie’s move to Idaho came because “the Lord wanted me here,” a wish revealed by means of a job offer to replace a departing pastor. “I thought this was a clean place, if any place was,” he says. “I thought I was getting away from all that junk. I really thought that chapter of my life was over with.”

Oglevie maintains that he held to this belief even after he attended a five-day seminar in Boise offered by the Cult Crime Impact Network, a privately funded clearinghouse on satanic crimes. He took copious notes at the 1988 seminar, and upon his return to Rupert began sharing his insights with others, but still, “I was not convinced it was happening here. Because this region is so religious.”

Larry Jones’ “Cult Crime Impact Network” has been examined here. The grim discovery of a dismembered baby by a trapper near the town (a mainly Mormon area) was quickly seized on as evidence for Satanism. CESNUR has the background:

In early November 1989 in Minidoka County, Idaho, the dismembered and burned remains of a 4-to-8-weeks-old female Hispanic infant were discovered in a garbage dump. Forensic experts ascertained that “Baby X” — whose identity was never discovered — had been disembowelled and mutilated before she was burned. Rumors of a Satanic sacrifice started almost immediately. In March 1990 a 10-year old boy, “Timothy”…entered therapy for disturbing dreams of sexual abuse and torture…”Timothy” told therapists and later police detectives that his experiences had taken place in Rupert, a Southern Idaho town close to where Baby X’s remains had been found. Shortly thereafter, “Timothy” claimed that during a Satanic ritual he had witnessed the sacrifice of an infant who may well have been “Baby X”. “Timothy’s” recollections were later published in the South Idaho Press and included a graphic description of a Satanic ritual…”Timothy’s” family — described by authorities as “severely dysfunctional” — was associated for a short period of time with Jehovah’s Witnesses and “Timothy” was reportedly impressed by Witnesses’ literature graphically depicting the Devil and witchcraft.

…On November 8, 1991, with national TV networks in attendance, 300 to 500 persons attended a candlelight vigil for victims of Satanic ritual abuse, including Baby X, in Rupert. Apparently, “several busloads” of “survivors” and advocates from Salt Lake City came to Rupert for the vigil.

…The prevailing theory was that poor Baby X died of pneumonia and her illegal alien parents try to dispose of the body through amateur cremation, with animal predators later attacking the infant’s remains. The Attorney General’s report also noted that no member of “Timothy”‘s family was in the Rupert area “anywhere near the time of the infant’s death and disposal”.

…An interesting part of the Baby X case is the candlelight vigil held on November 8, 1991 in Rupert. This episode proved that a network of moral crusaders promoting the Satanism scare existed in Mormon Country, and that “survivors” from Salt Lake had already formed a small lobby trying to persuade the public that their stories and those of the children like “Timothy” were basically the same, equally deserving public belief.

Some information about Oglevie’s teaching is provided by this website:

Stephen Oglevie, a retired law enforcement chaplain has gathered extensive knowledge in the removal of mind control programming through his 15-year journey and in-depth work with over 350 mind control victims. In Mind Control; An Introduction, he lists the following indicators that may aid in the recognition and proper assessment of an adult client who may harbor mind control programming…

The “indicators” include the following:

Client constantly wears black, red, orange or purple clothing.

Client assigns numbers to names, dates, months, and years that are between 1 and 9. Client reports number series run through their minds repeatedly that seemly have no correlation to anything in their lives.

…Client is fascinated with the German Third Reich, the swastika symbol, and concentration camps, or conversely is very fearful of these things. The combinations of red and black clothing may also serve as indicators.

…Client repeatedly makes the following statements during the therapy sessions or by the telephone following a therapy session: “It’s all just a bad dream.” “I made it all up.” “I’m lying to you.” “I must be crazy.” “I’m a bad girl / boy to be telling you this.” “I must be a very bad girl/boy to be here.” “I deserve to be punished.” “I am really in trouble now.” These are typical programmed denial/punishment phrases.

Alas, Oglevie neglected to include “I’m going to sue you” to the list of “denial/punishment phrases”. Of course, this interest in “mind control” is very ironic given the legal action he is now facing. Oglevie also runs seminars on the subject, as advertised here; the site belongs to Dr Ellen Lacter, a psychotherapist who teaches at the University of California and who considers Oglevie to be her “mentor”.

(Hat tip: Cult News Network)

UPDATE: A commentator at Talk to Action has found more background on Elijah House and Listening Prayer, and their links to “Theophostic Prayer”.

Name variation: Steve Oglevie

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Interfax reports on a bishop’s campaign against independence for Kosovo:

An independent Kosovo would lead to an irreparable tragedy for all of Europe, Bishop Artemije of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija has said.

The bishop clearly knows which buttons to press:

Since the moment the KFOR contingent arrived in Kosovo, over 150 Orthodox churches and monasteries there have been destroyed. In the same period, over 400 mosques have been built in that territory with financial support from Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries, he said.

Artemije was speaking in Moscow following his latest tour of the USA (he has been a frequent visitor for several years), where he had delivered a speech along similar lines at a conference organized by the American Council for Kosovo, Christian Solidarity International, and Religious Freedom Coalition:

America’s leadership must ask itself if it really wants a new rogue “state” led by jihad terrorists and criminals. Kosovo’s current so-called “prime minister” [Agim Ceku] is a man who bears command responsibility for the murders by KLA terrorists of 669 Serbs and 18 members of other ethnic groups…The jihad in Kosovo was launched in 1995 at a meeting in Tirana, Albania between Osama Bin Laden and two leaders of the KLA.

…This Islamic movement within Kosovo is responsible for an intifada against Christians, which has resulted in 220,000 Serbs and non-Albanians being forced to leave Kosovo since 1999…

The clever use of the word “intifada” no would no doubt help to bring the anti-Palestinian right on board. Artemjie received strong backing from Rick Santorum, who sent a letter of greeting:

I commend you for your mission to Washington with a much-needed reminder that the defense of freedom, like the global terror movement itself, is indivisible. In Kosovo, no less than in the United States or the Middle East, the reality of Islamic fascist violence must be called by its proper name and opposed in every way possible.

He also met with Pat Roberson and Jerry Falwell, as was reported a few days ago in the Financial Times:

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, outspoken and influential televangelists in the US, are joining forces with Serbia’s Christian Orthodox church to campaign against independence for the mainly Muslim province of Kosovo, according to the spiritual leader of the Serb minority there.

Bishop Artemije, the most senior Orthodox cleric in Kosovo, said the two Christian broadcasters had promised to alert their followers and exert their influence.

“They point out that they have friends at the highest level of government and will urge them to help us so that Kosovo remains in the borders of Serbia,” he said.

A fuller account of the meeting with Robertson is included on Artemjie’s diocesan website; it looks as though the two tried to outdo each other with inflammatory rhetoric:

In a very precise analysis of the situation, Bishop Artemije drew the attention of Pat Robertson to the fact that a growing number of representatives of American administration and public at large agree with this conclusion. The one remaining unassailable bastion is the State Department which is, at the same time, the chief architect of the US policy concerning Kosovo and Metohija. The Statement Department has retained Clinton’s approach to resolving the problem of Kosovo and Metohija, as well as Clinton’s neo-liberal personnel structure.

After hearing detailed descriptions of the destruction of Christian civilization and ethnic cleansing of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, concluding that that “Islam is a terrible curse, a scourge which has afflicted this world”, Pat Robertson exclaimed: “We unleashed this curse upon the world!”. He add that it was “absolutely scandalous that we should permit the establishment of an Islamic state in Kosovo and Metohija by robbing a sovereign state of part of its territory, with the aid of American money to boot.”

Artemije’s political background is discussed in a report from the International Crisis Group:

At the beginning of 1998…Bishop Artemije, who had succeeded [Patriarch] Pavle as the leading Orthodox religious figure in Kosovo and had previously been viewed as a hard-liner in the hierarchy, along with Amfilohije and Atanasije, assumed a more moderate posture. The background for this was growing anxiety that Milosevic’s adventurism would produce a disaster for the Serbs in Kosovo and for the Serb Orthodox Church’s stewardship over the monasteries and churches that constitute the physical representation of Serb collective memory.

After the end of the war, Artemije and Sava assumed the leadership of those Serbs who were willing to work with the international community in Kosovo… Artemije and Sava thus became prominently identified as proponents of reconciliation with the Kosovo Albanian population, above all to preserve a Serb civil presence in Kosovo.

…Artemije’s and Sava’s criticism of the actions of the Milosevic regime in Kosovo – even if belatedly and carefully hedged – has helped restore moral credibility to the Church. Their willingness to co-operate with the international community in Kosovo has opened a path for Serbs to continue to maintain a presence in Kosovo, should they choose to follow that example.

A 1997 article on Serb nationalism in Le Monde Diplomatique gives further details of Artemije’s opposition to Milosevic:

Mgr Artemije’s see of Prizren and Raska is a prestigious one. Prizren is in Kosovo, one of the original heartlands of Serbian nationhood. It also has an Albanian Catholic bishop, Mgr Mark Sopi, who has never had the slightest contact with his Orthodox opposite number.

…Mgr Artemije condemns “fifty years’ genocide of the Serbian people perpetrated by the Albanians and Muslims with the connivance of the Communists.” He expects nothing from the international community, which he considers “systematically anti-Serb”, or from Slobodan Milosevic’s regime. Only the Church can save his people.

…In January of this year the Pan-Serbian National Church Convention adopted the Saint Sava Declaration, addressed to President Clinton, President Chirac and other world leaders, in which it claimed that the Serbian people of “Kosovo and Metohija”, described as “sacred Serb territory”, had for centuries been exposed to “systematic, aggressive, racist Albanisation that has shaken Serbian national existence to the root and threatens to destroy it for ever.” It castigated Mr Milosevic as the representative of an anti-democratic regime who had “forfeited the right to negotiate with anyone or take any decision whatever with regard to Kosovo and Metohija.”

…The discourse of these Serbian “Afrikaners” oscillates between denial of Belgrade’s right to interfere and the conviction that they themselves have a historic mission to defend the frontline of Serbian ethnicity. For them, the Dayton agreements were the logical conclusion of Mr Milosevic’s policy of betrayal…

However, there is no quote provided to prove that Artemije’s opposition to Milosevic was based on “Dayton”. In 2000, this opposition led to the bishop being targeted by Serb extremists:

Bishop Artemije is living in a state of siege after enraged Serbian radicals gathered at his monastery in Gracanica to demand his expulsion from the province.

…Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbian Socialist Party and the Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj have long campaigned against Bishop Artemije. The ruling coalition in Belgrade perceives Artemije as an opposition political leader rather than a priest. Seselj has branded Artemije “the NATO bishop”.

But despite his meeting with Pat Robertson, he remains theologically a hardliner, as a 2004 speech shows:

The realization that not one local Orthodox Church has remained unblemished and unsullied by the ecumenical pestilence is a painful fact.

…More recently, nonetheless, the main champion of opposition and resistance toward ecumenism in the Serbian Orthodox Church has been and remains Sveti Knez Lazar [Holy Prince Lazarus], a magazine published by the Diocese of Raska and Prizren for the past 12 years.

…the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church was, is and will forever remain the Orthodox Church, and that outside it, there is no Church, and that without the Church and unity with the Church, there is no salvation.

In the 1997 article, he sneered particularly at Catholic ecumenism:

“Like John Paul II, you end up dancing the tango with the Dalai Lama”

On the other hand, in 2000 Artemije signed a declaration supporting human rights alongside the Kosovan Catholic and Muslim leaders.

Name vaiations: Metropolite Artemios, Artemije Radosavljevic.

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With ethnic and religious tensions in Northern Nigeria on the increase (for example, see my blog entry here), the Islamist state governor of Kano has apparently used Ramadan as an excuse to pour a bit of petrol on the flames:

Former Military Governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Umar, (rtd), has accused Kano State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, of attempting to inflame religious sensibilities and called on Nigerians to remain focused on the task of building a united Nigeria.

In a statement yesterday, Umar referred to an advertorial published in a national daily by the Kano State Government wherein a Ramadan message allegedly quoted a portion of the Holy Quran “in which God was said to have admonished believers not to take Jews and Christians for friends, etc.”

…He said the said Ramadan message by the governor was in bad faith, especially in the light of the recent religious disturbances in Jigawa State. “In the prevailing circumstances, people of goodwill expect the Kano State government to take measures that will help avert similar misunderstanding and strife among its hetherto-religious population,” he said.

Umar also slammed Shekarau over his opposition to the polio vaccine:

The decision of the Kano State to oppose inoculation of children against polio on the pretext that the vaccines could prevent Muslim women from bearing children, for example, was as misguided as it was tragic.

This is a subject which I covered in the very early days of this blog, and which I have come back to periodically since then. Polio had been on course for eradication by the end of 2004, but Shekarau’s bizarre opposition to the vaccine dashed those hopes and helped the disease travel across the developing world. This has to be one of the worst Islamist excesses on record, although mammon may also have had a part in the tragedy – Nigerian president Obasanjo claims that one of those who campaigned against the vaccine had recently failed to win a government contract importing them. Sheakarau enjoyed one ally in Hussain Abdulkareem of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, but it should be noted that a committee of Nigerian Muslim scientists had comprehensively declared the vaccine to be safe. Shekarau rejected the committee’s findings on the grounds that it did not include input from Christian scientists.

Eventually – and far too late – Shekarau arranged for the vaccine to be imported from Indonesia, on the grounds that a Muslim-sourced vaccine would be safer. And just last month, Shekarau opined on the subject once again:

Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau has restated determination to immunisation saying it is illogical for any government to politicise it.

…Shekarau, who said his administration is putting a lot of premium on immunization in view of its importance to human survival and development pointed out that the health sector is an utmost priority of his administration.

The hypocrisy could be amusing if it weren’t for the thought of hundreds of needlessly crippled children, in Nigeria and many other countries.

Meanwhile, the governor is considering re-election in 2007; the Nigerian Daily Sun recently ran an article full of fulsome (in the correct meaning of the word) praise:

…There is no doubt that the second coming of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, an ordained apostle of morality and purity, is better felt in the quarters of good men of God and women of virtues. Religious leaders such as the Council of Ulamas, a majority of the respected Sheikhs in the state as well as most of the good Muslims are routing for him to come back and continue his highly impressive efforts to rid the state of rooted ills and anti Islamic conducts, the sort that was entrenched as the trend in the recent past…

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From the AP, yesterday:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert met Tuesday with an evangelist who hoped to persuade the Illinois Republican to step down because of the congressional page sex scandal.

Hastert had no comment after the meeting at his home with Christian evangelist K.A. Paul, founder of the Global Peace Initiative.

…Hastert spokesman Brad Hahn would not comment on how or why the meeting with Paul was arranged. Hahn said, “The speaker had a cordial discussion (with Paul), but disagrees with his point of view.”

Paul said he believes Hastert met with him because of Paul’s connections with prominent Republicans and donors to the evangelical movement.

One can only imagine Hastert’s dismay as a PR opportunity with an evangelist turned into more headlines containing his name alongside the word “resignation”, and the House Speaker has since been quick to put as much distance between himself and Paul as possible. The Chicago Sun-Times reports today:

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, with his job on the line because of the spiraling Mark Foley cyberspace page sex scandal, was duped Tuesday into letting a stranger into his Plano home — a serious security breach.

Hastert literally let his guard down and allowed in his house a hustling, self-promoting evangelist little known in this country, the Houston-based K.A. Paul, who at 7:30 a.m. arrived at the speaker’s home with a camera-wielding associate.

Hastert was led to believe he was meeting with a supporter. He was surprised to find out otherwise, the Sun-Times has learned. Paul said he asked Hastert to resign. He also said he prayed with the speaker and “laid hands” on him after a 40-minute meeting.

…[Paul’s aide Dennis] Ryan said he arranged the meeting with Hastert in what seems a massive coincidence. Ryan told of driving to tiny Plano Monday night from South Bend, Ind., where Paul had been touring following a spiritual call. Ryan said he was eating at a restaurant in Plano when Hastert happened to walk in with his security guards. He introduced himself and got Paul on the phone.

Hastert talked to Paul and apparently decided to make the Tuesday date with him without consulting his advisors. Paul arrived at the Hastert home with an Associated Press reporter, who did not go inside.

But perhaps Kilari Anand Paul is going to regret his bid to interject himself into a story of national significance, as a devastating profile that appeared in the Houston Press in June also gets extra exposure:

The investigation revealed a story much different from the one spun by Anand Kilari [Paul] and his supporters. It’s the story of an egomaniac with a doctored past and an obsession with an airplane that receives more money than starving orphans in India, a man whose hubris and deceptions have burned nearly every bridge that was supposed to lead him to his true, unspoken goal: to show the world that where there once was Mother Teresa, Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., there is now Dr. K.A. Paul.

The paper accuses the would-be “Billy Graham of India” of a number of dishonest activities, such as pretending that an Indian leper colony was being run by his ministry, when in fact it belonged to an unconnected organisation. Paul, however, is not shy at lashing out against those who have thwarted his plans for self-aggrandisement, including – somewhat unexpectedly – the Israeli government, the Southern Baptist Convention, and both Condoleezza Rice and Olusegun Obasanjo:

Kilari is incensed that Condoleezza Rice and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo took credit for inducing [Charles] Taylor’s surrender. Three years ago, he says, they also stole credit for Taylor’s resignation. Kilari wants them both impeached.

In 2003, on the day Nigerian authorities took Taylor aboard a plane bound for his new home in Nigeria, television footage showed Kilari trying to board the plane as well, only to get shoved away like a nerd attempting to sit at the cool kids’ table. They treated him like he was a nobody, and to Kilari, that is the greatest injustice of all.

This particular “injustice” was also remarked upon by Taylor himself. The New Yorker reported in 2003:

Charles Taylor, having laid waste to Liberia, has been trying to set the record straight about who persuaded him to surrender his Presidency and go into exile in Nigeria. “I will say that 99% of [the credit] goes to Dr. K.A. Paul alone,” he wrote on August 16th, in a letter to the Times. Since Taylor was on the verge of losing a civil war, and three African heads of state went to Liberia to usher him out of the country—and since President Bush made his exit a precondition of American peacekeeping help—this is no small nod to Dr. K.A. Paul.

However, the Times declined to print Taylor’s letter, and so Paul arranged for a PR firm to circulate it:

“The man is risking his very life,” Dr. Paul cried. He meant that Taylor’s letter could perturb his host, Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who believes that he deserves much of the credit for getting Taylor out of Liberia, and who is under some international pressure to hand Taylor over to Sierra Leone, where he has been indicted for war crimes. What’s more, President Obasanjo apparently dislikes Dr. Paul because, according to Dr. Paul, he is jealous of the great crowds and the great press that Dr. Paul gets in Nigeria for his evangelical crusades.

…To increase his clout in Washington, Dr. Paul recently hired a dozen defeated American political candidates, including four former congressmen, as lobbyists and consultants. They should be helpful, he has said, with fund-raising—and so, presumably, should Nelson Bunker Hunt…

Paul’s dispute the Israeli government, meanwhile, concerned its unwillingness to give him a multi-entry visa that would have allowed him to use his plane to drop off and pick up an American Jewish group while he toured the middle east. The group concerned, Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, had paid Paul $850,000 for the transport, and they are currently suing him for its return. Paul subsequently accused Israel of “arrogance” for not treating him in a manner that befits his status.

The Southern Baptist Convention earned his wrath after it passed a vote of “no confidence” in his ministry:

Kilari denied the claims, calling them lies “from the pit of hell.” He told The Dallas Morning News, “There’s a jealousy involved…among people trying to take credit for my work.”

There was even worse news last year, when Paul was expelled from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. The Houston Press also notes his origins as an aide to Indian evangelist P.J. Titus, and makes allegation of unethical conduct:

Kilari has always denied working for Titus, but Titus’s autobiography includes a photo of Kilari at Titus’s desk, assisting him “in the business side of ministry,” circa 1983…Kilari had access to Titus’s mailing list, so he wrote letters to Titus’s flock, discrediting Titus and encouraging them to donate to Anand Kilari, a true Christian.

But what of Paul’s “connections with prominent Republicans and donors to the evangelical movement”? According to sources cited in the same report, Paul arranged for himself to be assaulted at a Gospel Crusade meeting with CNN present:

This news report came over the international wire service, and it was aired here in the States. As a result, K.A. Paul was able to wriggle his way into the hearts of the unsuspecting here. He was a guest on TBN [a far-reaching evangelical TV network], which gave him credibility, and then as a result he was received by many unsuspecting ministries as their guest.

An endorsement from the founder of the Promise Keepers followed:

[Bill] McCartney joined Kilari’s board of directors and wrote the foreword to Kilari’s autobiography, Left for Dead.

“I am so drawn to the fire of God I see in this man,” McCartney wrote. “I don’t know of anyone in the world who is more used by God today than Dr. K.A. Paul.”

Further letters of support appear on the website of Paul’s Global Peace Initiative:

April 25, 2002

…In February of 2002, I traveled to India as the guest of Global Peace Initiative to witness first hand the powerful and effective impact upon thousands of homeless and widowed women in the “Little Teresas” movement, as well as visiting orphanages and schools operated by Global Peace.

Dr. Paul is well known and respected in his native land of India, and it is my pleasure to commend him and his work.

Sincerely yours

Mike Huckabee

Nelson Bunker Hunt, who has served on his board of directors, adds:

March 21, 2003

…I have never known a more dynamic and committed man than K. A. Paul. I have watched him literally invest his life in 10’s of thousands of widows, orphans, the poor and needy. He seems to have the heart of a Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandy…His humble lifestyle is testament to the fact that his concern is for others. Beyond earning the respect of businessmen like myself, he has won surprising political favor around the world…I strongly endorse GPI…

There are also endorsements from Indian politicians, such as K. Yerannaidu of the Indian Telugu Desam Party – who manages to endorse Paul while indulging in a bit of self-promotion at the same time:

I am honored to be the youngest politician to become a cabinet minister and the Party parliamentary leader, since the first Honorable Prime Minister of India, Nehru. In my political career, I have been a sincere follower of both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr K. A. Paul…even though I have been privileged to be the leader of a strategic political party of India, I have been able to maintain a good relationship with all political parties.

Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda is also an enthusiast.

A more flattering profile of Paul appeared in the New Republic back in 2004:

…All of Paul’s supporters mention the minister’s strange, undefinable charisma. The word “anointed” popped up repeatedly, and at least one adviser compared Paul to the “ravenous bird from the east” that the book of Isaiah prophecies will come in latter days to work God’s will. “He’s just overwhelmed with faith,” says Representative [Bob] Clement. “He makes things happen that others think, ‘There is no way that can happen.'”

Paul and his followers are happy to recall his many amazing encounters with remarkable (if often reprehensible) people. There was the time he lectured Yasir Arafat on the evils of sending children to commit suicide, “even if you believe you are doing justice.” Then there was the time, during the Elián González mess, that Paul traveled to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro, only to back out at the last minute–“Literally, I was in his office,” says Paul–because the Cuban leader would not let Paul use his own translator. In 1999, Paul met with Milosevic during the U.S. aerial assault. And, in 2002, he had phone conversations with Saddam and met personally with Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan in an attempt to avert war with the United States.

Even this report, however, had to concede that Paul “is so desperate to convince you of his influence that he can come across as either a liar or a crank”.

According to a discussion thread here, Paul’s biggest donor in the past was controversial businessman John Gregory (link added):

John Gregory, founder of King Pharmaceuticals (recently sold) was the biggest donor behind K.A. but for ‘Gospel to the Unreached Millions‘ (GUM), and not for Global Peace Initiative, (GPI). John literally gave millions per year in cash for many years, and many millions more in ‘in kind’ gifts through King Benevolent Fund and others. John supported 53,000 widows per month for K.A.’s widow training program.

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports on Paul’s latest target:

Voters should oust congressional Republican leaders because U.S. foreign policy is delaying the second coming of Jesus Christ, according to a evangelical preacher trying to influence closely contested political races.

K.A. Paul railed against the war in Iraq on Sunday before a crowd of 1,000 at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, his first stop on what he hopes is a 30-city campaign.

The Houston-based preacher said he believes that the Bush administration has delayed the second coming because U.S. foreign policy has blocked Christian missionaries from working in Iraq, Iran and Syria.

…Paul, who claimed to support conservative political leaders in the past, is launching “a crusade to save America from the wrath of God and Republicans abusing their power,” according to his press materials.

…”God is mad at this country,” Paul told the congregation. He described the war in Iraq as “unnecessary genocide.”

In this context, it looks like Paul’s meeting with Hastert may even have been a deliberate shafting.

UPDATE: Mother Jones has an interview with Paul, in which he claims that Hastert had agreed to resign.

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Group opposes Japanese nationalism

Claim of link with Rev Moon inaccurate

Asia News reports on the religious background of Ban Ki-moon, who is most likely to be the next Secretary General of the UN:

Ban Ki-moon was born in 1944 to a rural family in South Korea. He is married with three children. A Christian, he is member of a “group without Church”, a serious organisation that emerged in Japan at the beginning of last century. Its members, mostly intellectuals, make the Gospel a source of inspiration for their private and public life.

This “group without Church” label has led to some sensationalist reporting, such as was recently seen from the Wayne Madsen Report

The Unification Church, the global enterprise of South Korean Rev. Sun Myung Moon (born Yong Myung Moon), may be attempting to take control of the United Nations through the all-but-certain election of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as UN Secretary General.

…Some informed UN sources are concerned that Moon lists his religious affiliation as “non-denominational Christian,” a code word often used by the “Moonies” for the Unification Church.

Asia News, however, is almost certainly referring to the Mukyokai (“Non-church”) Movement. An article by Carlo Caldarola gives some background:

The Mukyokai, or non-Church Christians, constitute one of the best known Christian movements in Japan…Founded by Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930) in reaction to Western denominationalism, this small (about 35,000 adherents) movement is considered to be the most genuine form of Japanese Christianity. The Mukyokai reject all formal Christian institutions, having no sacraments, liturgy, professional clergy, church buildings, national headquarters, or membership rolls. Instead, this non-churchism is based on independent Bible study groups centered on the traditional teacher-disciple (sensei-deshi) relationship. The teachers have no formal training in the Bible, setting up group when inspired to do so; the group thus disintegrates when its teacher dies or retires. Most of these teachers are regularly employed in outside occupations, often as high school teachers or university professors. The Mukyokai movement has attracted members from all social strata in Japan, but it is particularly appealing to the Japanese intelligentsia –scholars, university professors, graduate students, and professionals.

…Non-Church Christians are known in Japan particularly for their uncompromising stand against social evils…Politically, they consistently opposed Shinto nationalism and Japanese imperialism, often to their great personal cost.

…Non-Church Christians consistently oppose any policies that could retard the realization of peace in Japan and abroad. Consequently, they oppose the present governmental goals of revising the Constitution and rearming Japan for defensive purposes. They also criticize any celebration of past military exploits –e.g., the Yasukuni Bill to establish a national shrine for war dead of what the Mukyokai consider a “sinful” war.

Despite Uchimura’s background as a samurai, the Mukyokai have a strong pacifist component to their beliefs. The Handbook for Spirituality in North America adds:

Today there are thousands of Mukyokai Christians in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Since they have no central organization, it is impossible to know how many there truly are. A rough estimate is that in Japan alone they number twenty to fifty thousand. They gather in homes and in public places of assembly. When there are larger gatherings, admission may be charged to cover the expenses. There are teachers and preachers, none of whom are ordained or paid professional church workers. Their influence is far above their numbers, for they are widely admired in Japanese society.

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Archaeologist: “Injustice” of accusation against Christian Inuits

A month after I covered damage to the Qajartalik petroglyphs in Northern Canada, the archaeologist at the centre of the controversy has written to the Nunatsiaq News. Daniel Gendron was described in the paper in August as suspecting that the vandalism “was a religiously motivated attack by devout Christians from a nearby Inuit community”, and as believing that it

follows the pattern of previous attacks by members of what he called “a very strong movement” of conservative Christians in Kangiqsujuaq and several other Inuit communities in northern Quebec.

Now, however, Gendron is adamant that he said no such thing when he was interviewed by reporter Randy Boswell, as he explains in a letter to the Nunatsiaq News:

…we had no clue as to the extent of the damage and who were responsible for it, and we still don’t know. I then told him of the history surrounding the discoveries of the site in the 1960s, and the description the Catholic missionary of the time gave of the petroglyphs as reminiscent of “devil” faces.

Other events in the mid-1990s were also documented and published. One of these events, was a message in syllabics and defacing of some of the petroglyphs alerting to the “evilness” of the place. I also mentioned that some individuals were reluctant to set foot on the island because they were told that the place was “evil.”

There was also more mundane damage, such as some graffiti left by teenagers who actually signed their initials on one of the soapstone panels. Soapstone quality testing (where one individual will take away small pieces to verify the quality of the rock) was until recently the most frequent and recurring damage to the site.

So, there was one religiously-motivated attack of unknown origin in the mid 1990s, rather than a “pattern of previous attacks” by members of the latest religious revival, as alleged in Boswell’s article. Gendron adds:

…rumours prove nothing, and should remain unpublished until proof is brought forth I do find regrettable that this has come out in this way.

…My intent has never been to blame innocent people, and I do apologize to the entire Nunavik population for this, and especially to the Kangirsujuammiut.

I hope that this note will correct some of the injustice that might have come out of the initial publication of the news, and that these recent discussions on the uncertain future of this site will help in having it officially recognized and protected.

When news of the damage broke, I wrote two pieces that investigated the nature of the religious revival in the area, which can be seen here and here. This led to bitter complaints from Mike Somerville and Roger Armbruster, two missionaries who work in the area, that I was “kind of racist” and that I had maligned a whole community through “insinuation” simply because I had repeated and discussed the published accusation which appeared to have come from an authoritative source, and which I did not claim was more than a suspicion that community leaders had rejected. The full exchange can be seen in the comments.

Naturally, had I had reason to believe that Gendron had been misrepresented I would have worded things differently, and I would have considered Pentecostal involvement in the damage to be less likely than I originally indicated. I believe that I provided as fair and as accurate an account by an outsider blogger as could be expected, but it is always regrettable to find that one has been a conduit for inaccurate information. Therefore, in so far as I drew inferences based on Randy Boswell’s dubious reporting, I apologise.

(One of the two missionaries, Roger Ambruster, brought the letter to my attention)

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Interfax-Religion has a dramatic headline:

Russian scientists certain of the existence of God

The existence of God has been proved by scientific methods, Academician Anatoly Akimov, director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics, has stated.

‘There is God, and we can see the manifestations of His will. This is the opinion of many scientists; they not only believe in the Creator but rely on certain knowledge’, he said in an interview published by the Moskovsky komsomolets daily on Friday.

…’if man had appeared on the Earth as a result of evolution, then, considering the frequency of mutations and the speed of biochemical processes, more time would have been required to develop man from elementary cells then the age of the Universe itself’.

Besides, he continued, calculations have been made to show that the number of quantum elements in the observed Universe cannot be fewer than 10155 and it cannot but possess a superintellect.

…Academician Akimov was baptized at the age of 55.

Funnily, however, Interfax prefers not to dwell on Akimov’s dubious background as the purveyor of bizarre “torsion field” pseudo-science. This website has the allegations (dead link removed):

According to the Commission [Against Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research, established by the Russian Academy of Sciences], in late 1980’s, a group of charlatans posing as serious physicists organized a large-scale “torsion fields” fraud and spent millions of roubles from the state budget; and now the swindlers are attempting to repeat the fraud in other countries. The main figure in the Soviet fraud was a Anatoly Akimov, who claimed to have discovered a so-called torsion field and claimed to have invented what he called “torsion technologies”. Under the pretense of developing his “torsion technologies”, Akimov’s “Center for Nontraditional Technologies” contrived to spend about 500 million roubles of state money until, in 1991, this fraudulent activity became known to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and a scandal broke out. The USSR Academy of Sciences conducted an in-depth investigation; it was established that millions of roubles had been spent for “torsion fields research” without any scientific examination. Akimov’s Center was closed, Akimov was fired. But very soon A.E. Akimov organized a small private enterprise with a sonorous name “The International Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics” and this “Institute” published quite a number of pseudoscientific papers about nonexistent “torsion technologies” largely based on a so-called “Theory of the Physical Vacuum” created by a Gennady Shipov.

Further allegations are preserved by Skeptik:

Leading Russian physicists, including experts in torsion, have repeatedly emphasized that the so-called “Theory of the physical vacuum” (AKA the Theory of Torsion Fields developed by G.I.Shipov, a colleague of A.E.Akimov’s) contradicts known experiments, contains errors in calculations, and many of its equations are totally incorrect. Those errors make the entire “theory” just a heap of useless erroneous formulae.

Despite the fact that G.I.Shipov had been repeatedly told about the errors in his equations, A.E.Akimov and G.I.Shipov continue to advertise his book “The Theory of Physical Vacuum”…and continue to deceive foreign businessmen which do not understand the mathematics in that book and therefore cannot see the absurdity of Shipov’s claims.

…The scientific degrees used in Russia differ very much from those used in Europe and America. Roughly speaking (to simplify the complex system of Russian scientific degrees), there are two main scientific degrees in Russia: kandidat nauk and doktor nauk, the latter being higher than the former. A.E.Akimov and G.I.Shipov do not have any of these degrees.

Another website quotes Akimov on the theoretical basis for his claims:

Dr. A. Akimov, former director of the Soviet Centre for Non-Traditional Technologies, disclosed that Russian research had discovered a new class of physical fields and particles. They had also elucidated the effects these fields and particles exerted on living and non-living organisms and inanimate objects. New names such as ‘spinor’, ‘torsionnic’ and ‘microleptonnic’ were used to define these new classes of physical fields. Scientists in the West, who have little appreciation of the remarkable advances made by the Soviets, called them ‘scalar’ fields.

This discovery could supposedly be used as a mind control weapon; further background can be culled from other obscure and poorly-written websites, such as this one:

On September 27 [1991] appeared in Komsomolskaya Pravda another article where parts of the government project for the development of those weapons were published:

“remote medicobiological influence on troops and population by means of torsional radiation, remote psychophysical influence on troops and population by torsional radiation”…For the realization of those projects the center Vent was established by the State Council for Science and Technology. The center was financed by the Ministry of Defense and according to its director A. Akimov the funding, coming also from Military-Industrial Commission at the Ministerial Cabinet of the USSR and KGB, amounted to half a billion of the Soviet rubles.

…On November 11, 1992 another Russian daily, Pravda, printed an article on this subject where the director of the Center Vent, A. Akimov, told that “as a result of experimental work there is at the hands everything necessary to produce the factory samples” and that “torsional fields… are capable to relay information with no barriers to stop them”.

I suppose we ought to be grateful to Akimov for doing his bit to waste the resources of the Soviet Union. However, with the Communist regime gone and the Orthodox Church in the ascendant, Akimov clearly has his eye on finding new sources of support – and Intelligent Design might be just the ticket.

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“Miracles” Claim

The BBC reports on a Christian revival in North West India:

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the north-eastern Indian states of Meghalaya and Mizoram – sandwiched between Muslim Bangladesh and Buddhist Burma – say there have been miracles occurring.

A church at Malki, in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, has been receiving a steady stream of devotees ever since word spread that a cross here has been glowing and radiating the image of Lord Jesus.

This, combined with recent reports of several school students “convulsing, behaving abnormally and even fainting”, has prompted the talk of a revival.

Further details were given in the Pioneer; since the report now exists only in a cached form, I’ll quote at length:

…The “revival stories” in Meghalaya continued for several days. Similar experiences were reported from various schools in the city and the rural areas of the Khasi and Jaintia hills in the past two weeks. “A little boy came in, broke the news and disappeared,” said Simon, a young volunteer, narrating how the yearning for revival began at the Malki Presbyterian Church last week. Simon said he did not see the boy, but heard of him from others. Surprisingly, nobody saw the boy before, who entered the church and said he saw ‘the face of Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit moving towards the alter behind which a huge illuminated Cross is hung on the wall.

A “huge illuminated cross”? That puts a somewhat different spin on the BBC’s photo of the supposedly supernaturally-glowing cross (a claim also being made in other media reports), but it’s interesting to see how a legend can evolve so quickly. The mysterious boy had a dramatic effect:

It was September 3 Sunday. Young boys and girls had gathered inside the chapel where a week-long youth programme was drawing to a close. A skit was being played and, in the middle of the prayers and songs, the boy’s message came and got circulated. The prayer and songs intensified and some of the boys and girls began to cry, some went into a trance, as if they were possessed by some invisible spirit. Their bodies were trembling, some of them were wailing, while praying fervently, closing their eyes with their hands stretched out. And, by then, the “unknown little boy” disappeared from the scene.

The appearance and disappearance of the ‘little boy’ remains a mystery. “He may have been the messenger of God,” Mona, who herself claimed to have experienced blissful moments for the first time in her life, said…

The report also quotes the church’s minister, Reverend T Mukhim:

“But let me put the situation in perspective,” Rev Mukhim offered an explanation. First of all, he could not vouch for the veracity of the story surrounding the ‘unknown little boy’, because he was not present there. Secondly, that was not the official version of the Church. All these happenings and ‘vital signs of revival’ were extensively reported in the media, quoting people’s own experiences with the Holy Spirit, which, of course, the church didn’t wish to contradict.

“You must understand, when a lot of people, especially the believers, pray together, sing together invoking the Holy Spirit, something is bound to happen,” the pastor said. They are affected by deep emotions, which manifest in various ways both at the individual and collective level that may seem to be viewed as abnormal or unnatural. So during the youth week, which is an annual program of the church, some of the young people experienced ‘intense emotional outpouring’ when, it has been observed, they exhibited unusual physical and mental behaviour. It is natural and often happens to individuals during the prayer. But in the present context, it happened in a large scale, creating ‘a very delicate situation’, Rev. Mukhim admitted.

It looks as though Mukhim is trying to have it both ways: welcoming the effects of the revival, but sensibly cautious over linking this to miraculous events that might later on be debunked. Notably, there is no mention of the minister in any of the other reports on the revival and the supposed miracles.

Local enthusiasts believe these events are a sign from God one hundred years after a previous revival in the region, that came on the heels of the 1904 Welsh revival. Back to the BBC:

…All the seven north-eastern states have a significant population of Christians and at least three states in the region – Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland – are Christian majority.

…”The revival in 1906 gave a fillip to the evangelical works of Welsh missionaries in both Meghalaya and Mizoram,” says Rev Vanlalchhuanawma, an expert in the history of Christian revivals.

The Presbyterian Church in India has since returned the favour, and recently sent two priests to missionize back in Wales.

What the BBC here overlooks, however, is that the predominately Christian region is also an area of religious competition, with Hinduism and, somewhat more surprisingly, Judaism also making inroads. The Organiser, a conservative source, reported on the latter trend in 2004:

Most Mizos were converted to Christianity in the decades preceding Independence. Sometime in the 1970s, however, some members of the tribes noticed that their indigenous customs and rituals closely matched those of the Jews. Both Mizos and Kukis, for instance, practice the eighth-day circumcision, levirate marriages, altar sacrifices and Sabbath, all of which are very Jewish traditions. Their suspicion that they might be of Jewish origin was substantiated by Israel’s Rabbi Eliahu Avichail, who runs the Jerusalem-based Amishav, an organisation devoted to tracing and helping descendants of Israel’s Ten Lost Tribes to return to the ‘Holy Land’, a right guaranteed to every Jew under the Israeli Constitution.

Of course, whether the Mizo really are genetically connected to ancient Israelites or Jews is really neither here nor there – Israel has also welcomed Peruvian Indian converts to Judaism. With worries over demography, and large numbers of Israelis unwilling to live in the Occupied Territories, such influxes help to keep Israel “a non-Arab state” (to use Ian Lustick’s term). But back to the Organiser:

…Christian leaders are perturbed over the exodus from Christianity to Judaism, claiming this will “destroy the social fabric of both the tribes.” Though missionaries have consistently showed contempt for similar concerns of Hindu organisations, Dr P.C. Biaksiama of the Christian Research Centre in Aizawl, Rev. Chuauthuama of the Aizawl Theological College and Rev. Colney of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod now demand a social movement against conversions.

…Dr Biaksiama warns that “mass conversion by foreign priests will pose a threat not only to the region’s social stability, but also to national security.”…Last month, 300 pastors discussed the threat and lambasted conversion to Judaism as the work of Satan.

Meanwhile, this slightly poorly translated article discusses a perceived Hindu challenge:

A monthly vernacular magazine that caters to the Mizo youth has published a report in its latest issue that the Hindu religion is starting to take root in Mizoram in which Mizoram Governor A.R. Kohli took the brunt of the accusations as a propagandist of the Hindu religion.

…The magazine also quoted an article written by Rev. Chuauthuama, a registrar at the Aizawl Theological College where he had also accused the governor of having a “mission” or else he was a bit cracked. In his article, Rev. Chuauthuama had also said he believed that orthodox Hindus (RSS, VHP) are making greater efforts in the state after Kohli came as governor. “He could be slowly poisoning us,” Chuauthuama had written in his article.

…The magazine has quoted Mizo Zirlai Pawl president P.C. Laltlansanga who said VHP activists, who know the instability of Mizo Christians, are using money to make converts.

“We were surprised to find that VHP activists have dug deep roots in our land. What seems to be their motive is to convert Mizo youth to Hinduism through monetary rewards taking full advantage of the instability of Mizo youth in the Christian religion and the unemployment woes they face,” he was quoted.

Amolak Rattan Kohli was the Hindu governor of Mizoram from May 2001 until last July.

One person not impressed by the revival is Prabir Ghosh of the Science and Rationalists’ Association of India. However, he seems a bit vague on the differences between Presbyterians and Catholics – back again to the BBC:

The claims of miracles in Meghalaya have gone largely unchallenged.

But Bengal-based rationalist Prabir Ghosh dismisses the phenomenon as a “bogus attempt” by the Church to draw converts.

…”The Pope has said this will be the century of Christianity, so churches all over are seeking large-scale conversions and the miracles are part of the exercise,” says Mr Ghosh.

UPDATE (6 Oct): How’s this for timing? WND reports:

Hundreds of Jews from a group of thousands in India that believes it is one of the 10 “lost tribes” of Israel has been granted permission to immigrate here next month, fulfilling for many of them a life-long dream of returning to what they consider their homeland…

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