Mind Control -- Junk Science
There is a Cain and Abel division over the topic of "mind control" or "brainwashing" in regard to new religious movements. Hassan, Singer and Lifton are the Cain side speaking for Satan. Bierman does a very good job critiquing them by quoting distinguished scholars who refute the paranoid, hysterical and irresponsible junk from "anti-cultists." In fact, the garbage Hassan and company write is called "Junk Science."
The result of the Singer and Ross's denunciation of non-conformist small religious organizations is to spread needless fear to the average person. They are evil leaders who cause more harm than good. We are supposed to live by the rule of law. We need good laws and good justice. If any person or group violates a good law, then they should be taken to court, expose their illegal activities and jailed. Criminals and evil organizations like the Mafia should be punished for forcing people to pay them for "protection." If Hassan and crowd can find something illegal about any person or organization, then they should take that person or organization to court. In the case of Sun Myung Moon, they riled up the government to take him to court and they influenced the media to bias people to hate him so the jury and judge sent an innocent man to jail.
Carlton Sherwood's book clearly shows the travesty of the legal persecution in that case. Will Hassan acknowledge this? No. They are so filled with hate and prejudice they cannot see the obvious truth that Moon and his church are law-abiding, patriotic and moral people. Hassan and company have go on national tv and whip up people to become emotional over non-conformists. They can't find anything illegal, so they cross a line and harass people who should have the freedom to worship anything from trees or some guy who says he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Hassan and crowd are evil busybodies who hurt people. Maybe there wouldn't have been a Jonestown if people like Congressman Ryan had left them alone. People get scared when the government shows up at their door. It is intellectually sloppy and morally wrong to then condemn practically every small religion there is because one nut case like Jim Jones and his stupid followers flip out.
There are people like Hassan who deeply feel America is "dangerous" and "evil" because it dropped the atomic bomb, interned Japanese-Americans in World War II, and mistreated black people for centuries. The problem with Anti-Americans and Anti-Small Religions is that these crusaders see things as half empty when they are half full. Castro, the Ayotallah, and Mafia Godfathers are evil and should be taken to court and punished. Moon and other leaders of small religous organizations should not.
Attacking small religions has got to be the stupidest thing anyone can do. History is filled with persecution. Every major religion was once a minor religion and every one of them had to deal with people like Hassan and Lifton who went ballistic because they got scared when they saw people act like many religious do -- become dedicated, sacrificial, non-conformist, aggressive witnessers for their vision that was "extreme" in the eyes of the majority. Hassan and his sick friends have forgotten the lessons of history. Those that were thrilled when Jesus, John the Baptist, William Penn, Martin Luther King and Sun Myung Moon went to jail are no different than Hassan, Singer and Lifton. Persecuters feel they are freedom fighters. They are on a great crusade to rid society of predators, when it is tragically they who are the true predators.
It is hard to not get angry at persecutors. But Jesus, John the Baptist, William Penn, Martin Luther King and Sun Myung Moon teach that we should love the sinner and hate the sin. They do not hate people like Hassan. The authors of this book do not hate him. We feel very sorry for him. He is a sad, ignorant, lost soul who is brainwashed by Satan and evil spirit world to attack the precious strivings of people to find God. They are totally ignorant of what religion is and how priceless our Bill of Rights are. They are everything Jefferson and the other genius Founding Fathers fought against.
We are not going to go into all the arguments for and against the ridiculous concept of "coercive persuasion." We came across a very good article on the web written against the likes of Hassan and Singer. The authors are Christians who have written against the Unification Church in the book, Kingdom of the Cults. They totally disagree with the theology of Moon, but they don't cross the line like Hassan does and invent the nonesense notion that Moon and all the thousands of leaders and followers in NRM's are experts at mass hypnotism and diabolical. If you would like to read their article we have put it in the appendix. Click here to go there.
Waco
One of saddest events in all of American history is the government killing the innocent men, women and children of the small religious group in Waco, Texas. Rick Ross and his diabolical crowd have created an atmosphere of fear and hate in America for small religious groups. Hassan and company hated the Branch Divinians. The result of their bigotry was the fiery flames in Waco. Two of the most famous movie critics in the world are Siskel and Ebert. They agreed with many other newspapers who review the film Waco that the truth is the opposite of what Hassan teaches. This church was certainly weird, but it had the right to be strange and believe as they did. The true danger in America is Rick Ross, not the Branch Dividians.
The film is produced by two people who are politically liberal and had the intelligence to see the truth about Waco. Here are some quotes from Siskel and Ebert:
Waco: The Rules of Engagement
An enclopedia describes the famous incident at Waco, Texas this way: "In 1993 a deadly shootout near Waco between federal officers and a religious cult headed by David Koresh led to a 51-day siege that ended in a blaze that killed 83 people." This is an example of the superficial treatment religion gets by the media. The real truth is that the media often are not religious people and simply cannot understand religion when they see it. There are evil people in some religious communities, just as there are evil people in every type organization. Anti-Moon writers and activists like to point out the few horror stories and then lump all small religious groups into the category of dangerous and abusive. People are abused in every organization. No group is perfect. Most religious groups are not "dangerous." One of the most dramatic events surrounding a small religious commune was what happened in Waco. Because of the media presentation who constantly interview the anti-Moon writers, even I felt that this group was dangerous. The truth seems to be very different.
A couple made a documentary film that was nominated for the Oscars that one person described as: "An explosive documentary film. Waco: The Rules of Engagement is the first full length work to present the complete picture of the tragic events outside of Waco, Texas that resulted in the killing of four federal agents and the gassing and fiery deaths of 76 men, women and children of the Branch Davidian religious sect."
The movie reviewers Siskel and Ebert praised the film saying: "GENE SISKEL: The Unites States Congress investigates the debacle that four years ago killed 76 men, women, and children who belonged to the Branch Davidian religious sect based in Waco, Texas in a new documentary called "Waco," which clearly attempts to establish that the agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms lied to Congress and the American people, and needlessly harassed and ultimately murdered religious worshippers."
"ROGER EBERT: Thumbs way up for me, too. And you know, although it does have a particular point of view, it tries to be fair."
"And what it amounts to here is that the American people were sold a bill of goods about the Branch Davidians that wasn't necessarily true, that these people were demonized..."
"ROGER: But of course, at the time there was no information available about the other side! And now, when you see this film, what's interesting is if you're looking for people who are unbalanced zealots..."
"GENE: Right."
"ROGER: ...you don't find them among the Branch Davidians, you find them among the FBI and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; those are the people in this movie who deserve to be feared, I think."
"GENE: Well, but what I'm saying is that when we do these religious cult stories, when the media does these stories, then they better do a little bit harder reporting. I think that's one of the things you take out."
"ROGER: Yeah, well, they should stay away from the trigger words like "cult" and "compound." How about calling it a "religious group and their church?" That would have changed the entire perception of what went on."
"GENE: Because to me the stunner is who was in that compound. Weren't those..."
"ROGER: Sensible..."
"GENE: Seemed like it."
"ROGER: ...sincere people who were not under the hypnotic leadership..."
"GENE: This is not Jim Jones, and the film makes the Guyana story, repeatedly makes that comment."
"GENE: Two thumbs up for the shocking documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement," a special motion picture."
"In brief, the Davidians are a branch (offshoot sect) of the Seventh Day Adventist church. The Davidians first broke away in the mid-1930s, and they eventually formed a religious commune in east Texas."
Roger Ebert wrote in his newspaper review:
"Like many news-drenched Americans, I paid only casual attention to the standoff at Waco, Texas, between the Branch Davidians and two agencies of the federal government. I came away with the vague impression that the ``cult,'' as it was always styled, was a group of gun-toting crackpots, that they killed several U.S. agents, refused to negotiate and finally shot themselves and burned down their ``compound'' after the feds tried to end the siege peacefully with tear gas."
"Watching William Gazecki's remarkable documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement,'' I am more inclined to use the words "religion'' than "cult,'' and "church center'' than "compound.'' Yes, the Branch Davidians had some strange beliefs, but no weirder than those held by many other religions. And it is pretty clear, on the basis of this film, that the original raid was staged as a publicity stunt, and the final raid was a government riot--a tragedy caused by uniformed boys with toys."
"If the film is to be believed, the Branch Davidians were a harmless if controversial group of religious zealots, their beliefs stretching back many decades, who were singled out for attention by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for offenses, real or contrived, involving the possession of firearms--which is far from illegal in Texas."
"Whatever happened at Waco, these facts remain: It is not against the law to hold irregular religious beliefs. It is not illegal to hold and trade firearms. It is legal to defend your own home against armed assault, if that assault is illegal. It is impossible to see this film without reflecting that the federal government, from the top down, treated the Branch Davidians as if those rights did not apply."
I remember watching some of the tv coverage of this event. They would interview so-called anti-cult experts like Rick Ross. These people only fuel the flame of hysteria and are partly responsible for the over reaction people have to what is non-conformist. They are the true rabble rousers.
According to their definition of "mind control" President Clinton is a master of abuse to women. He has damaged the lives of so many women who were caught up in his charisma and later hate him and even sue him. He was even impeached because he lied under oath about his deviant lifestyle. This is a fallen world. The problem we have is to discern what is truly evil and prosecute it, and leave the rest alone. President Clinton should have gone to jail for his behavior and Rev. Moon should not have gone to jail. Rev. Moon is a force for good. President Clinton is a force for evil. Anti-Moon people cannot discern what is the baby and what is the bathwater. They are on the side of Satan. They are the ones who break up families. They are ones who psychologically hurt people. God's way is to give his truth through minorities. God's way is to give maximum freedom for what anti-Moon people look upon as nut cases. They do not respect people. They are the truly arrogant people who have nothing better to do than bother people. They create an atmosphere of book burnings. As crazy as anti-Moon and anti-religious people think the lunatic fringe should be actively given "exit couseling," it is from those kinds of people that the greatest truths have always come. They should be acting the opposite and be respectful for the preciousness of freedom. They should get on tv and say the opposite. They should educate people that Jesus was seen as the most dangerous radical in history. Even today, he is outlawed in many parts of the world. His teachings in the Bible are banned in many countries. Mankind should have an attitude of tolerance. Anti-Moon people are bigots in love with their narrow status quo view of life. They are not freedom fighters. They incite people to kidnap and make laws against non conformists who don't fit in to the norm.
Anti-Moon people are experts at being stupid. They are not just wasting their time; they are hurting people far more than helping them. They are teaching people to look at how God works in this world in the wrong way. Mankind should honor the Thoreau's who go off to Walden Pond and write about hearing a "different drummer." Perhaps those who died at Waco would be alive today if the media had done their homework and if sick people like Rick Ross and Steve Hassan had not helped to incite those who have tanks with their "expert" advice.
They should take some responsiblity for the death of those at Waco. And they will understand someday the damage to lives they have caused because they kept people away from the most precious ideology this world will ever hear, the Divine Principle. They take the life saving words of Rev. Moon, the very truth that will set this world free of evil, and twist them like communists do with words to turn people away from the truth that will give them happiness. Anti-Moon writers are the epitome of those in 1984 who rewrite history. Words are powerful. Satan uses people like Rick Ross, Steve Hassan and famous tv journalists like Tom Brokaw of NBC news to give mankind the big lie. They are on the side of evil that always takes words and mangles them so badly and confuses people so much that the result is that the greatest man who has ever lived is put in jail in Danbury, Ct. Martin Luther King would have been a dangerous radical to Steve Hassan if he had been an adult back then. Listening to them talk about the meaningless phrase "coercive persuasion" is like listening to a socialist/feminist talk about "equality." The result is that anti-Moon people end us with a society where there uses tremendous coercion just like socialist/feminists create a society that has less equality than those societies they write against have.
But anti-Moon people and socialists/feminists are on a roll. They are on their crusade for freedom. There will always be a Cain and Abel split in mankind until everyone accepts the Divine Principle. Until that day we have a fight on our hands. St. Paul wrote about how we are to fight the likes of Steve Hassan, Margaret Singer, and the Underwood family. We have to write books to match their diabolical books. We are joining in the conversation by writing this book. If you learn from this book that the anti-Moon writers are the bad guys and the Moon people are the good guys, please help. Please do something. Even if you just put my book in the library, that will mean a lot. Let's have my book and other true books next to the sick books of the anti-religious crowd. They argue they are the good guys. They are not. They have the right to print their books. We are for freedom of speech. But they must not dominate the debate. The truth must be heard. Please join with us on a crusade to match their crusade. They distort the teachings and lifestyle of the Unification Church and many other groups. Let's expose them.