Back from the dead: 5 of God's mysterious ways (orig. 08/23/07)

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SAINT DENIS DE LA REUNION, France: Police on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion have arrested a suspected cult member accused of kidnapping a 12-year-old boy. Twelve-year-old Alexandre Thelahire was seized at his home in the capital Saint Denis on Friday by four suspected members of a local Catholic cult, whose guru Juliano Verbard claims to receive regular visitations from the Virgin Mary. Verbard, 25, has been on the run from justice since 2006, when he was convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy.

One of the suspected kidnap gang members was detained on Saturday at the home of a cult follower. Three other people were held for questioning, including a woman who rented the car used by the kidnappers. Police said the suspect admitted his role in the abduction and directed them to the spot where the boy was being held, but that the place was empty by the time police arrived. Road blocks have been set up across the island to try to recover the boy and steps taken to ensure he cannot be taken out of the country.

According to Alexandre’s mother Catherine – who is related to a member of the cult – four masked men broke into her home on Friday, bound and gagged her and bundled her son into a waiting car. She says cult members believe Alexandre is destined to take over from Verbard as their guru, and that they took him from his home once before, on July 9, leading him to a nighttime mass before returning him the following morning.

Verbard created the cult, “The Painful and Immaculate Heart of Mary”, in 2001 after seeing an “apparition” of the Virgin Mary. He is thought to have around 40 followers. Sued by cult members who accused him of molesting their teenaged children, Verbard jumped bail ahead of his conviction last year to 15 years in jail, and has been a fugitive ever since. – AFP
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James Randazzo, 64, once the jaunty, self-assured leader of the Spiral of Friends Church who fought fire with a barrage of legal threats against government investigators, quietly told state parole board members he was remorseful for his actions and guilty of even more than he was charged.

Questioned as to why none of the charges against him were for violations against children while he was in a position of trust, the heavyset Randazzo, sporting a ponytail of white hair reaching down to the middle of his back, said children who were exploited by him indeed had been entrusted to his care. He was known for his insouciance, hopping out of limousines in tailored, three-piece suits to attend hearings and his trial.

"I was the top dog" of the Spiral of Friends Church, he said in a barely audible voice. "I know I was in a position of trust." In one instance of abuse, Randazzo acted as director of a 104-minute video of his wife, Colleen, having sex with a 16-year-old boy. The Randazzos said they had hoped the experience would prevent the youth from committing suicide. The youth and his mother later testified the youth had suffered no harm from the experience.

Randazzo had sought to defend himself against charges related to that incident using a "choice-of-evils" defense, saying that to do otherwise might have contributed to a suicide attempt, but that legal maneuver was rebuffed by the judge. At the time he was sexually assaulting children, Randazzo said, he believed he was doing good. "I thought it was educational for them," he said. "I was dysfunctional."

The Spiral of Friends Church has survived Randazzo's incarceration and its current head, the Rev. Cathryn Ivie, told the parole board she and her husband were prepared to be responsible for him at the church, which now is based in Phoenix. Children no longer are part of the church, Randazzo told the board members.
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Paul Schaefer was a medic in Hitler's army during World War II. After the war, he set up an evangelical ministry and a youth home, purportedly to care for war orphans. But he was charged with sexually abusing two boys - and in 1961 he fled to Chile, reportedly accompanied by some 70 followers. There, in a lush valley in the Andean foothills, he set up Colonia Dignidad. The colony near the city of Parral, some 350km (220 miles) south of Santiago, grew to about 300 members - mostly German immigrants, or their descendants, but including some Chilean followers.

The 137-sq-km (53-sq-mile) Colonia Dignidad boasted a school, a hospital, two airstrips, a restaurant, and a power station, and reportedly made millions of dollars through a diversified range of businesses, including agriculture, mining and real estate. It won over local people by offering jobs and free schooling and hospital care. Details of life in the colony are hard to verify. Some visitors have described a scene from 1930s Germany, with women wearing aprons, with their hair in pigtails, and men in lederhosen.

"Defectors" from the camp paint a sinister picture. His accusers say Colonia Dignidad was Mr Schaefer's fiefdom, where he was worshipped as a god. They say residents, who are never allowed beyond the gates of the camp, are kept strictly segregated into genders - so much so that the birth rate of the camp is extremely low. Residents are taught to shun sexual desires - with electric shocks administered to the genitals of young boys, former residents say. And they accuse Mr Schaefer of the almost daily sexual abuse of young boys. Horror stories have emerged of the young sons of poor local families "disappearing" within the barriers of the compound.

But Mr Schaefer's story is not confined to the perimeter fence of the colony - topped with barbed wire, studded with searchlights, and overlooked by a watchtower. It goes right to the heart of the Chilean state during the iron rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s - a period with which Chileans are still struggling to come to terms today. The son of Manuel Contreras - the head of Dina, Chile's now-disbanded notorious secret police - has told the Los Angeles Times his father first visited Colonia Dignidad with Gen Pinochet in 1974. He has spoken of the warm relationship that grew between his father and Mr Schaefer.

Former political prisoners of Gen Pinochet have testified to a warren of stone-walled tunnels under the colony where, after being selected from among their fellow prisoners by members of Coloniaq Dignidad for their youth and physical attractiveness, they were taken to be tortured with electric shocks to the strains of Wagner and Mozart. And despite decades of allegations concerning the sexual abuse of boys within the compound, charges were not filed against Schaefer until 1996 - six years after Chile began its return to democracy.
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The Family International was founded by claimed prophetic leader David Berg in 1968 in Huntington Beach, California, USA. It sprang from the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s, with many of its early converts drawn from the hippie movement. Due to its unusual emphasis on total commitment, it triggered the first organized anticult group (FREECOG), and the unconventional sexual practices which soon followed within the Children of God solidified its place among the movements prompting the cult controversy of the 1970s and 1980s in the United States and Europe.

As The Family grew and expanded around the world, so did its message—salvation, apocalypticism, spiritual "revolution" against the outside world they called "the System"—and resultant controversy. During the early to mid 1970s, the group initiated several radical methods of evangelism, including Flirty Fishing—using sex to show God's love and win converts and support.

Today, The Family's leadership is headed by Berg's widow Karen Zerby, under whom the group has both bowed to several reforms and initiated additional unconventional doctrines, including the "Loving Jesus revelation" which encourages members from the age of 14 to engage in a sexual relationship with Jesus. (cont.)



Cult Killer: The Rick Rodriguez Story










There exists rather unique organization in St. Petersburg. Its members claim suicide prevention to be their main occupation. Nevertheless, many consider the organization to be nothing but a mere sect.

The organization was founded by celibate priest Grigori (Vadim Lurie). The 42-year-old Lurie is a professional chemist; he attempted to become a monk but did not stay in the monastery for long. He began studying the Bible and later was at the head of the congregation. His reputation within the church circle isn"t good at all. Some consider him a snob. As for the Russian Orthodox Church, many religious members consider that Orthodox principles do not go together with the suicidal ideas and principles of Nietzsche advocated by the celibate priest. As for Lurie himself, he calls his teaching punk-Orthodoxy.

According to Russian newspaper "MK", many factors in the work of Mr. Lurie appear strange and even evil. The newspaper also states that the suicide rate in the so-called "Death lovers club" equals six deaths per 6 months.

The newspaper has followed a life of one of the boys who was connected to the organization of father Grigori. In Fall 2002 Kiril Cherkov has left for Kharkov State University to continue his studies. He then phoned his mother and explained to her that father Grigori had asked him to work for him on an Internet.

The celibate priest has really made Kiril a work offer through the Internet. The initial agreement was such that the young man was supposed to construct an internet site focusing on helping teens to cope with suicidal problems.

In January 2004 Kiril Cherkov has disappeared without a trace. It wasn"t until June of this year that two bodies were discovered nearby Roschino village of Leningrad"s region. One of the bodies was that of Kiril's and the other of a 19-year-old suicide cult member Dima Romkin. Both corpses were located not far away from father Georgi's country residence. Investigation determined that both had been poisoned by psychotropic substances and brutally sodomized before and after death. Grigori was requested to be tested for DNA for comparison with the DNA found in the young men's bodies but his religious affiliation freed him of this requirement.  No criminal charges had been filed.

"MK" writes that suicidal teenagers used to gather at Kiril's apartment. Most of the time, up to 15 young people inhabited the flat. The priest paid all the expenses. At the first, the idea seemed to be quite noble. Female psychologist by the name of Alice, who was also hired by Grigori, had to assist the teenagers in coping with their personal problems.

The following is a short description of a typical day in the apartment, as told by Alice. "Typical day of a suicidal teenager: sleeping till 2-3 pm. Afterwards, just sitting, walking around, smoking non-stop in the kitchen. Alcohol consumption is more than welcome in unlimited quantities. Sex is encouraged by Grigori including forcible sodomy of the male teenagers. Lack of any occupation; hatred. What Lurie does to children is horrible.". In the course of his entire stay with Lurie, Kiril used to send daily e-mails. Nowadays, these e-mails serve as the only evidence in still non-existent criminal case against "Death lovers club", reports "MK". The letters clearly indicate the way Kiril's mental health has been deteriorating.

Kiril's mother considers father Grigori responsible for her son's death. "I am willing to sacrifice my own life just to see this man held responsible for what he had done to my son. It is he who is responsible for the death of my son, because he is the founder of the god damned club," says she.

According to father Grigori, his is a non-profit organization which exists on donations only.
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p.s. Hey. I'm not physically here today. I'm elsewhere. Today's old post is tagged 'back from the dead' rather than 'rerun' because it dates from the days when, for reasons that I do not remember and which seem bizarre to me now, I used to divide the daily posts into a stack of individual pieces/mini-posts. No big problem in the moment, but it made them impossible to find and see in their totality in the future via google search and so on. So, I'm going to start piecing the best of those posts back together into whole entities and launching them here once in a while whenever I go away on one these blog vacations. Enjoy, obviously, hopefully.