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stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

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SPIRITUAL CHOICES 409<br />

The Way International [and] Church of Scientology” (Ross,<br />

2003).<br />

Regarding <strong>the</strong> Moonies, <strong>the</strong>n:<br />

Last month [i.e., in July of 2002] Moon announced himself as<br />

“Savior, Messiah and King of Kings of all humanity.” He actually<br />

splashed this across newspapers throughout America<br />

in full-page ads (Ross, 2002a).<br />

As Moon himself elaborated, in his Unification News (for August<br />

24, 2002):<br />

In early July I spoke in five cities around Korea at rallies<br />

held by <strong>the</strong> Women’s Federation for World Peace. There, I<br />

declared that my wife ... and I are <strong>the</strong> True Parents of all<br />

humanity. I declared that we are <strong>the</strong> Savior, <strong>the</strong> Lord of <strong>the</strong><br />

Second Advent, <strong>the</strong> Messiah.<br />

Enough said—except to add that Moon owns <strong>the</strong> Washington<br />

Times newspaper. (The Moonies also apparently own <strong>the</strong> University<br />

of Bridgeport, Connecticut [Hassan, 2000].) He has also been<br />

reported to be a friend of (and up to $10 million donor to) <strong>the</strong><br />

George Bush family (Kuncl, 2001), and has had close contact with<br />

Mormon U.S. politician Orrin Hatch.<br />

Regarding The Way International: Details as to <strong>the</strong> allegations<br />

of sexual misconduct against leaders at TWI exist online at<br />

EmpireNet (2003). And for those who wish to leave that nontraditional<br />

Bible group, <strong>the</strong> following allegations have been made:<br />

Sharon Bell says Way members told her “it might be necessary<br />

to kill anyone who tried to leave <strong>the</strong> group.” Timothy<br />

Goodwin was told <strong>the</strong> devil would kill him if he left (Rudin<br />

and Rudin, 1980).<br />

Such organizations as <strong>the</strong>se, <strong>the</strong>n, constitute some of Dick Anthony’s<br />

reported clients, which he would surely, one assumes, not<br />

hesitate to suggest are “not as bad as” <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r, genuinely “problematic”<br />

groups in <strong>the</strong> world. Just because <strong>the</strong>y are “nontraditional<br />

religions,” after all, is no reason to discriminate against <strong>the</strong>m.<br />

Also reportedly on Anthony’s list of nontraditional religions,<br />

however,

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