Australian Christ of interest to neuroscientist

A sudden boost in hits on an earlier blogpost about Alan John Miller, a man in Australia claiming to be Jesus, got me wondering what led up to it. Apparently he was recently featured on television and a neuroscientist by the name of Dr. Louise Faber has been studying some of his followers to see how their experience of “divine love” affects their brains. She happens to be a follower as well but hopes her work will pass peer review.

As part of the research she performed an EEG on believers to test electrical activity in their brain as they experienced Miller’s “divine love”.

Dr Faber said the results were similar to brain activity seen in monks during meditation. “We’ve found the divine love causes quite a lot of changes to the brain,” she said.

She added: “It’s the first study that’s ever been done of this kind so it’s very exploratory.”

Brain reactions to the belief that divine love is being experienced is probably what she’s actually measuring but whatever. At least she’s curious about why this guy elicits such a mental response. What is it about a charismatic personality that can change people to such an extent?

So, Christ’s second coming happened in Australia…

At least, a guy who seriously thinks he’s Jesus happens to live there. What’s more, he’s joined with a woman who prefers to go by the name Mary Magdalene. Unsurprisingly, some people have a problem with this.

The pair, real names Alan John Miller, who once lived in Loxton in South Australia’s Riverland, and Mary Suzanne Luck, operate from rural Wilkesdale near Kingaroy, where they have been joined by an increasing band of followers.

“My name is Jesus, and I’m serious,” Miller said in a video recording from one workshop.

Cult watchers and the Anglican and Catholic churches are alarmed the pair, who ask followers to make donations to sustain them, could draw in the vulnerable.

And as this whole Harold Camping/May 21st Rapture thing is proving, there are a lot of vulnerable people in the world willing to believe their faith has been rewarded with a truth fools (aka someone “who says in their heart, There is no god” – Psalm 53:1) have long denied.

This couple and their followers have been good for one thing: a real estate boom. Their purchase of a chunk of land has led to their followers wanting to buy up the property around them, too. They claim that the crucifix shape of their cleared land is completely coincidental.

Some residents complain they are being driven out of the quiet hamlet by the group, which resembles Debra Geileskey’s Magnificat Meal Movement that drew scores of followers to Helidon near Toowoomba.

Queensland has a tradition of fostering fringe religious movements. Fugitive killer Luke Andrew Hunter was recaptured in February after 15 years on the run in which he hid out with the separate Jesus Group in the state’s far north.

Concerned relatives and friends have been contacting the Cult Awareness and Information Centre to warn of Divine Truth followers selling family homes to move to Wilkesdale.

I wrote about Hunter when that happened but I hadn’t heard of the other group. It was before my blogtime; the last article Religion News lists about Magnificat comes from June 2008 regarding community grants people connected with the cult were somehow eligible for and leader Debra Geileskey’s overall wealth. There was heavy criticism over how much funding should have been earmarked for real and helpful community groups instead of given to Geileskey and company. There were also a call for an audit.

Centre spokeswoman Helen Pomery said: “The moment someone becomes God or God’s voice on Earth it gives them another level of authority to enforce submission to them.”

Anglican Archbishop Dr Phillip Aspinall and the Catholic church, unaware of the group until contacted by the Sunday Mail, urged people to be cautious when exploring new movements.

Right, because only established churches should be allowed to tell people they are really God’s voice on Earth and have the true authority…

The article also claims he’s tailoring his appearance to make sure people can tell at a glance that he’s really the savior.

Didn’t know Christ had a penchant for floral button-downs. Somehow that verse never made the final gospel cut.

In all seriousness, it’s truly troubling that there are people who can’t just look a guy like this, hear what he says, and think, “What a loon” and walk away. Why are so many people willing to believe him? Is the craving to believe in something (no matter how ridiculous) so overpowering that people will simply lock up the rational part of their brain and fill their heads with this nonsense instead? What is it about the societies we create for why they all result in people yearning for these kinds of kooky answers to life’s hardships?

Jesus People! Australian cult of traditionalists caught harbouring killer

Luke Andrew Hunter, 42, was convicted of murder in 1990 but escaped from prison in 1996. His new identity was uncovered recently. He’d changed his name Ashban Cadmiel and infiltrated the Jesus People, a cult of orthodox Aramaic speakers who hold very traditional (read: archaic) views of Christianity, including polygamy and approved abuse of women and children. Nobody in the cult is claiming to have known who Hunter was but police are investigating anyway, of course.

Like other cult members, Hunter took a biblical name and he worked as a groundskeeper at the Herberton hospital in far north Queensland from 1997 to this year. His arrest shed light on the reclusive group, with several former members coming forward to describe the culture of fear they say exists, , especially for women, who say they are “sub-citizens”.

Mr Landy-Ariel, 59, who admits taking two wives, has long shunned media attention. But in an affidavit, obtained exclusively by The Weekend Australian, the man known as “Reshan” (or “the head”) last year gave an official history of his sect, its practices, and defended himself against allegations levelled against him.

Comparing his cult to other cultures and abuse statistics around the world, he thinks his weird little group is “very good,” according to the same affidavit. Like that’s supposed to justify it? Sorry. He’s also of the mindset that he’s the only one who should have their money and all their possessions, insists on homeschooling and forbids contraceptives.

“Any number of people ejected from or rejecting the community could use us as their pincushion,” Mr Landy-Ariel said.

“Many who are asked to leave are bitter because they can’t return or because they realise that they know they may be committing some sin . . . (the) ratio of people who have left and those asked to leave is probably 50-50.”

And 100% of them should be better off without him and all his daft ideas.

The Palmdale prophecy that failed

Somehow I missed this story when it first broke last week:

Officers had been searching a wide swath of southern California since Saturday after family members found letters saying the group was awaiting an apocalyptic event and would soon see Jesus and their dead relatives in heaven.

The group of Salvadoran immigrants, described as “cult-like” by sheriff’s officials, was led by Reyna Marisol Chicas, a 32-year-old woman from Palmdale in northeast Los Angeles county, sheriff’s captain Mike Parker said.

Members left behind mobile phones, identification documents, deeds to property, and letters indicating they were awaiting the ‘Rapture’.

“Essentially, the letters say they are all going to heaven to meet Jesus and their deceased relatives,” Mr Whitmore said. “Some of the letters were saying goodbye.”

Did she brainwash them? Presumably. They were all found safe and sound in a park, though, so that’s good at least.

Ms Chicas apparently had formed her own religious group. About 12 to 15 people would gather at her home in Palmdale, a high-desert city of 139,000, and one night about a week ago, they didn’t leave until 2am, said neighbour Cheri Kofahl.

Others who knew Ms Chicas said she was devout but hardly fanatic in her religious beliefs.

Former neighbour Ricardo Giron said that Ms Chicas became increasingly religious after she separated from her husband four years ago, but added, “everywhere she was going, she was taking her kids with her. You felt like you could trust her”.

I seem to recall people thought Jeffrey Dahmer was mostly okay, too. Everyone assumes their neighbours are, until they aren’t.

Anyway, the Kansas City Star has an article about Chicas and her end times schtick, something so many people have tried and failed with before, sometimes the same person has failed more than once and believers just keep on believing. From the Star:

Richard Flory, a University of Southern California sociologist who studies religion in America, said the idea of the rapture can be a persuasive tool for conversion.

“It brings a subliminal fear,” he said. “It says you better be ready because this thing can happen at any time.”

Those who expect the end of the world also often believe that there will be signs that it’s coming, the scholars said. Natural disasters, such as major earthquakes and fires, often bring spikes of apocalyptic forecasts.

They mention raptureready.com and its list of sources for proof the end truly is nigh. Then they quote Tim LaHaye of “Left Behind” fame who takes a theological approach, but still makes a good point:

“They’re disobeying the Scripture, which says no man knows the day or the hour. Anytime anyone sets a date, they’re wrong because no one knows that date,” LaHaye said. “It’s just unguided enthusiasm. Every day you read the newspaper, and ask, ‘Is there any hope for the world?’ It’s just getting worse and worse, and people think there’s got to be something better.”

Sadly, what they often think is better is the earth destroyed by Jesus so they can all ascend to heaven while the devil tortures those who never got saved. They’ll sit around waiting and praying for proof that day is around the corner instead of doing something useful to help the world while they wait. That would defeat the purpose, after all.

The article also makes the point that these kinds of beliefs hold the most sway in impoverished, uneducated populations, where improved situations are even less likely than the apocalypse is.

The idea can be a comfort to the disenfranchised, a guarantee that justice will be served and scores settled, said theology scholar Cecil Robeck Jr. In a time of joblessness and economic frustration, Robeck said, that pledge can be particularly appealing.

“People are desperate. When someone says, ‘You’re in a terrible situation now, but if you’ll follow me, I’ll make it OK,’ people are hungry, they need hope, they’ll follow,” said Robeck, a Pentecostal minister and professor of church history at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

There aren’t any easy solutions, obviously. People are going to be fleeced by anyone who offers them relief, even through something as perplexing and impossible as rapture. Everyone needs something to believe in, I guess. It’s just unfortunate that this is what they get.

In my defense, I forget people like to copy people

Although in the music industry, it’s called a cover and so long as the original artist (or their heirs/company) gets credit for it, it’s all to the good.

A song I’ve adored for years is called “Clothes of Sand.” I first heard it on a Solas album entitled The Edge of Silence and have listened to it a lot. It’s a beautiful rendition. Here are the lyrics:

Who has dressed you in strange clothes of sand
Who has taken you far from my land
Who has said that my sayings were wrong
And who will say that I stayed much too long?

Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning but taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me.

When I listen to this one, I’m drawn into thinking that the singer is mourning the loss of a loved one to a cult. Looking through the lyrics, I see it as a valid interpretation.

Does it now seem worth all the colour of skies
To see the earth through painted eyes
To look through panes of shaded glass
See the stains of winter’s grass.

Can you now return to from where you came
Try to burn your changing name
Or with silver spoons and coloured light
Will you worship moons in winter’s night.

Cults frequently require that people bugger off to far off places, their leaders requiring all members and every new member to change so much about themselves from their clothes to their ideas to their names even, all in the effort of domination and control. They often require their followers to give away all possessions and give the cult all their money and the reward for those sacrifices is a life of propaganda and strange dreams that will never in this world come true.

Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning but taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me.

And some will never be rescued from this fate and their loved ones will mourn the loss of them forever.

Okay, that’s my thinking when I listen to this song. Now, look who wrote it: Nick Drake, one of the artists I’d never heard of until the Man passed along one of his albums. According to Wikipedia, it was written in 1966 and Drake probably had hallucinogens on the mind at the time. He was possibly on them; not that it matters.

Here he is singing it. Clearly I have to be taking a far bigger interest in the music I enjoy because I miss so much by not giving enough of a damn. Now I’m wondering what else I like by my favourite artists that started off as someone else’s original work. Who else might I enjoy hearing?

Writer becomes unwilling messiah, can’t unconvince believers

Not me, if you’re wondering. No, it’s some fellow who has written books about the need to change how we deal with world issues like poverty and famine.

Portions of Raj Patel’s life appear to mirror the predictions made by Scottish mystic Benjamin Creme and his believers have bombarded Patel to let him know they think he’s the ultimate world changer. He’s been denying it, but

his denial merely fanned the flames for some believers. In a twist ripped straight from the script of the comedy classic, they said that this disavowal, too, had been prophesied. It seemed like there was nothing to convince them.

“It’s the kind of paradox that’s inescapable,” he said, with a grim humour. “There’s very little chance or point trying to dig out of it.”

Benjamin Creme isn’t coming forward to insist Patel is this messiah, either.

He suggests that it is not up to him to rule either way, instead blaming media coverage, rather than his own mystical predictions, for making people “hysterical”.

“It is not my place,” Creme told the writer Scott James, a friend of Patel, recently. “People are looking to Mr Patel because they are looking for the fulfilment of a story which I’ve been making around the world for the last 35 years.”

And the last time he tried to claim the messiah was around the corner, journalists were around to record the event — and therefore were around to record the non-event. Nobody turned up in 1985 to prove Creme right.

In the end, the promised saviour failed to materialise. (One candidate, “a man in old robes and a faraway look in his eye”, turned out to be a tramp begging for cigarettes, our correspondent wrote at the time).

These people aren’t just looking for fulfillment, they’re looking for hope. They’re looking for a better world and they think Raj Patel has the means to create one.

I can’t see them losing interest in him anytime soon.

With a name like Jesus One Touch, is incest really that far from the mind?

That’s apparently what Jesus Blood Ministry founder Nana Kofi Yirenkyi’s name translates into and he’s in court in Ghana for getting it on with his own ten-year-old daughter. The prosecutor

said the mother of the victim and the accused person, who are both natives of Dawu in the Akuapim area in the Eastern Region, were lovers, thus the little girl was born out of wedlock.

According to him, the victim was living with her mother in the Eastern Region but her father later brought her to live with him in 2005.

The prosecutor stated that between 2005 and 2009, Jesus One Touch started having an affair with his daughter, adding that the victim revealed that after sleeping with her the accused would wipe his sperms from her private parts with a white handkerchief.

The police officer said the girl made the revelation once her mother questioned her on who might have fingered or had carnal knowledge of her after she noticed some changes in the girl.

Prophet Nana has quite a story about how some bearded man appeared to him and changed his life. He’s also like a father to a lot of homeless kids and orphans (leading me to obvious musings) and his followers claim he’s performed many miraculous healings and two magical car tricks.

There’s no testimony from anyone they claim he healed, though. I wonder why. But no doubt he can take comfort in his own inspirational words because this God can totally erase the fact that he thought with his penis.

Your miracles might not come this morning because God knows the times of today, he knows it must come in the afternoon or evening. All because he knows the right and appropriate time for you and that man is our Lord and Master Jesus Christ . He is really by your side and cares for you.

Cares enough to make sure the guy gets prison time, I hope. And if Jesus can’t even manage that, what will people likely say? Not that God doesn’t exist, but that Jesus One Touch performed yet another miracle.

Yes, religion helps keep people stupid.

Apparently Raelians want Tiger Woods

Want him to have a better outlook on sexuality, at any rate. I find out about this via a Facebook friend who had the link to Raelian News:

Rael has sent an open letter to Tiger Woods urging him to stop making his life a model of guilt, sadness and conformism to antiquated Judeo-Christian values. Such a model is a poor example to set for the younger generation, Rael advised the world-renowned golfer.

[...]

You pretend to be returning to ‘normality’ thanks to therapy and spirituality. What kind of normality is that? Which is normal: the happy, radiant and successful Tiger Woods, or the self-flagellating, publicly guilty and desperate new Tiger Woods? And what kind of spirituality is helping you? Is it the old Judeo-Christian version that makes sex sinful and calls such pleasures ‘a path to hell?’

Rael will be in Las Vegas at the Alexis Park Hotel from March 27 to April 3, 2010 to help host a Happiness Academy seminar. I wonder how many people will actually go. Somehow I doubt Tiger Woods will, but hey. According to their beliefs, humans were made to have nothing but pleasure and that’s a lifestyle I can get behind.

Summum call the press! Sect wants erection!

Couldn’t resist. Sorry. The Summum Christian Gnostic sect is in the news again in Utah regarding their continued quest to erect their Seven Aphorisms monument in the same park where the ten commandments are proudly displayed. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Geoffrey Surtees, a lawyer for Pleasant Grove, argued that the Ten Commandments display in the city’s Pioneer Park conveys a secular historical message, which the U.S. Supreme Court has said is permissible.

But Summun’s attorney, Brian Barnard, contended that the monument advances religion and that Pleasant Grove must give other religious messages equal consideration.

“They are a mandate from God, the Judeo-Christian God,” Barnard said of the Ten Commandments.

Kimball said he will issue a ruling later in the dispute, which has garnered national attention.

Try international attention. Atheists the world over love stories like this, I’m sure. That’s why I’m writing about these guys again. They’re sure keen, aren’t they?

The group sued Pleasant Grove in 2005 over its refusal to let it put up its monument.

After a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson blocked Summum from erecting a monument while the case was pending, the lawsuit went to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Denver-based court ruled that the city had to permit Summum’s display to further free speech

The city said, “Fuck that shit!” and appealed the ruling, with the Supreme court caving in like a startled souffle.

in a 2009 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Summum’s free expression rights had not been violated. The court said municipalities have a right to select monuments that reflect the local aesthetics, history or culture.

The Utah Federal court still needs to determine whether or not Pleasant Hill is in violation of the Establishment Clause, that part of the First Amendment concerned with prohibiting federal governments from “declaring and financially supporting a national religion” etc. I’m thinking the courts will still go their way. Heaven forbid anyone actively encourage another way to think, even if it might predate whatever version of Christianity or other cult is currently the state favourite.

Quotable Bishop

I think this one is going to do the circuit, and I’m going to do my part to pass it along. I found it via ZackBradfordBlogs who learned of it from Walking with Integrity. Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a manifesto for another publication admitting to everyone who’ll read it that he’s fed up with the way his church treats homosexuality and he’s making a stand against it. (I’ll do like Zack and break it up for readability.)

The world has moved on, leaving these elements of the Christian Church that cannot adjust to new knowledge or a new consciousness lost in a sea of their own irrelevance. They no longer talk to anyone but themselves. I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness by pretending that there is some middle ground between prejudice and oppression. There isn’t.

Justice postponed is justice denied. That can be a resting place no longer for anyone. An old civil rights song proclaimed that the only choice awaiting those who cannot adjust to a new understanding was to “Roll on over or we’ll roll on over you!” Time waits for no one.

I will particularly ignore those members of my own Episcopal Church who seek to break away from this body to form a “new church,” claiming that this new and bigoted instrument alone now represents the Anglican Communion.

Such a new ecclesiastical body is designed to allow these pathetic human beings, who are so deeply locked into a world that no longer exists, to form a community in which they can continue to hate gay people, distort gay people with their hopeless rhetoric and to be part of a religious fellowship in which they can continue to feel justified in their homophobic prejudices for the rest of their tortured lives.

Church unity can never be a virtue that is preserved by allowing injustice, oppression and psychological tyranny to go unchallenged.

I just tossed a comment to a blogger elsewhere tonight regarding the ignoring of bad church behaviour. I don’t think he should. I don’t think his church should ignore these break-aways. Ignoring them will not make them go away. We want that horrible behaviour, those sick and twisted hurtful attitudes crushed, not left alone to grow into even more cruel and detestable shapes.

Quibble aside, I’m proud of him. He’s admitting past behaviour has been wrong, and has committed himself to changing it. I’m very proud of him. I hope his decision inspires others to do the same.