BIG LOVE SPARKS CONTROVERSY OVER MORMON ENDOWMENT RITUAL

The HBO TV SERIES BIG LOVE has sparked some controversy over the MORMON ENDOWMENT CEREMONY. For those interested, here is a little information I dug up on what exactly the MORMON ENDOWMENT CEREMONY CONSISTS OF.

WHAT IS THE MORMON TEMPLE ENDOWMENT CEREMONY?
Apostle James E. Talmage explains, "The temple endowment, as administered in modern Mormon temples, comprises instruction relating to the significance and sequence of past dispensations, and the importance of the present as the greatest and grandest era in human history. This course of instruction includes a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period, the condition of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, their disobedience and consequent expulsion from that blissful abode, their condition in the lone and dreary world when doomed to live by labor and sweat, the plan of redemption by which the great transgression may be atoned, the period of the great apostasy, the restoration of the gospel with all its ancient powers and privileges, the absolute and indispensable conditions of personal purity and devotion to the right in present life, and a strict compliance with gospel requirements..." (The House of the Lord, 1912 ed., p. 99).

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Among other things, the temple endowment answers the "terrible questions," i.e., Where did I come from? Why am I here? And Where will I go when this life is over? These questions are answered by a meaningful, richly symbolic drama, which is presented as a filmed presentation. The setting of the drama begins with the creation of earth by the Gods Elohim (God the Father), Jehovah (Jesus Christ in his pre-mortal form), and Michael (the Archangel, whose spirit is put into a body when he becomes the first man, Adam). By following the Mormon version of the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and their subsequent expulsion, temple patrons discover the "plan of salvation" which may enable them to return to live with God. During the endowment participants are encouraged to view Adam and Eve as representatives of the human race. Thus, their fidelity becomes a model for the faithful Mormon's lifestyle.

Although the endowment is currently presented on film, it was previously acted out in dramatic form, not dissimilar to fraternity rituals. But the ceremony is much more than a modern "morality play," because faithful Mormons believe it has eternal consequences. During the ritual, participants (called "patrons") enjoy brief participation, as they are required to don special robes, and stand up in front of their seats, while assuming certain obligations and receiving the Mormon priesthood secrets (the tokens and signs of the Holy Priesthood).

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Initiatory Ordinances.
Prior to receiving the endowment one must be baptized, ordained a member of the LDS Church, receive the Melchizedek Priesthood (if male), and the "Initiatory Ordinances" of the temple. The latter consist of a series of symbolic washings and anointings, the reception of the Garment of the Holy Priesthood and also a new name.

The washings and anointings include a series of ceremonial blessings spoken over various members of the body, and prepare the initiate for the life hereafter.

Following this, the initiate is clothed in the Garment of the Holy Priesthood, which is said to be "a shield and a protection" to the wearer throughout life. Mormons sometimes claim escape from bodily harm on account of wearing this Garment.

With the Garment, the initiate receives a "new name" which serves as a "key word" to be used later on in the Mormon Endowment Ceremony. This new name may be almost any Biblical or Book of Mormon name, such as Moses, David, Nephi, etc. If the patron's given name is similar to the new name used that day in the temple, the substitute name of "Adam" is given.

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HBO - BIG LOVE STIRS THE MORMON POT

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Mr. Oppal said some legal experts have believed that the POLYGAMY charge wouldn't withstand a Charter of Rights challenge over the issue of freedom of religion. “I've always disagreed with that,” he said. "Our belief is that it is a valid section [of the Criminal Code]. Hopefully it won't be a long trial," Mr. Oppal added, saying it was premature to say when a trial may take place.

The two Bountiful leaders are expected to be released from custody today on conditions that include they not perform marriages. RCMP Sgt. Tim Shields said he's not aware any of the wives were under 18.

WINSTON BLACKMORE was considered the bishop in Canada of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1984 until 2002, when he was replaced by JIM OLER WINSTON BLACKMORE is reported to have more than 20 wives and dozens of children. In an exchange of e-mails with The Globe and Mail earlier this year, WINSTON BLACKMORE said he had no legal wives but lots of family members. WINSTON BLACKMORE also said he acts in his capacity as a religious minister when called upon by others but he was neither a member of a FLDS congregation nor a leader of any religious community. WINSTON BLACKMORE has previously said he was part of a sect called the United Order Effort, which he has described as the true Mormon church. JIM OLER, who has been more reluctant to speak with the media than WINSTON BLACKMORE, is reported to have fewer wives.

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Mr. Oppal had previously indicated he would like to see charges of polygamy laid against members of the community despite concerns raised by two government advisers about the difficulty of obtaining a conviction of POLYGAMY in the face of protections for religious freedom guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedom. Vancouver lawyers Richard Peck and Len Doust in separate opinions advised the government to seek a court ruling on whether the law on POLYGAMY conflicts with the Canadian Charter before charging anyone.

Undeterred, Mr. Oppal sought advice a third time. The opinion of the adviser, Vancouver lawyer Terry Robertson, has not yet been released although his review was to be completed last fall. Last summer, Mr. Robertson told The Globe and Mail he intended to ask the RCMP to reopen its investigation into the POLYGAMOUS community to find out whether men in authority fathered children with underage girls.

POLYGAMY is an indictable offence in the Criminal Code. "Is the spirit of the law being violated and we think it is. If some court decides otherwise, we will obviously have to live with that," Mr. Oppal said when asked about the risk of losing court.

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BOUNTIFUL is a community of more than 1,000 people in a rural area outside Creston, B.C., in southeastern B.C. a few kilometres north of the Canada/U.S. border.

The news conference comes two weeks after the release of a report on the unprecedented raid on April 3 on the central compound and headquarters for the religion, the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas. Welfare authorities concluded that 12 of 439 children who were seized during the raid were underaged child brides. Seven of the girls, who were between the ages of 12 and 15, had one or more children. An additional 262 children were considered to be neglected because parents did not remove them from situations that exposed them to sexual abuse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

A Texas grand jury has indicted 12 men on charges including sexual assault of a child, aggravated sexual assault, bigamy and conducting an illegal marriage, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The raid led to the largest child welfare apprehension in U.S. history.

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- POLYGAMY and the LAW
- BOUNTIFUL POLYGAMISTS POLICE RAID
- TEXAS COURT OF APPEAL RULES AGAINST AUTHORITIES IN POLYGAMIST RAID
- EVIDENCE OF INCEST FOUND IN TEXAS POLYGAMIST CHILDREN
- AUTHORITIES RAID TEXAS POLYGAMIST RANCH

Mexican Version of Playboy Magazine features Nude Virgin Mary Cover

Just days before an important religious festival celebrating the Virgin Mary, Playboy Magazine has decided to honour the Virgin Mary by featuring her in all her glory on the cover of the Mexican Version of Playboy Magazine.

The picture features the Virgin Mary nude and covered only by a thin sheet leaving not much to the imagination of readers. The Catholic Church has yet to comment on this recent event, however I am sure they will be none to pleased.

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For more on this topic

Nude Virgin Mary on the Cover of Playboy

Mel Gibson Divorce, fact or revenge fiction?

So the news today seems to be a rumour brought on by the National enquirer. Apparently, this bastion of knowledge and truth has decided to go after Mel Gibson and his wife spreading rumours about them getting a divorce. Good Trends shows Mel Gibson Divorce as one of the top search terms.

The thing one needs to keep in mind is, The National Enquirer is now owned by the investment group, Evercore Capital Partners L.L.C., headed by former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger C. Altman. Mel Gibson recently went on the attack with regard to the Jews. Is this simply a method of revenge, will the national Enquirer now be a tool to smite those who do not agree with the beliefs of the owner.

Not that I am expecting anything remotely sincere from a rag such as the Enquirer, but slamming someone because of their religious beliefs???

Armenian and Greek Orthodox Monks start a Church Brawl in Isreal

Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb.

The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

The brawling began during a procession of Armenian clergymen commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus.

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The Greeks objected to the march without one of their monks present, fearing that otherwise, the procession would subvert their own claim to the Edicule — the ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus — and give the Armenians a claim to the site.

The Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox monks blocked their way, sparking the brawl.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were forced to intervene after fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side, he said.

A bearded Armenian monk in a red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody gash on his forehead were both taken away in handcuffs after scuffling with dozens of riot police.

Six Christian sects divide control of the ancient church. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene.

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"We were keeping resistance so that the procession could not pass through ... and establish a right that they don't have," said a young Greek Orthodox monk with a cut next to his left eye.

The monk, who gave his name as Serafim, said he sustained the wound when an Armenian punched him from behind and broke his glasses.

Father Pakrat of the Armenian Patriarchate said the Greek demand was "against the status quo arrangement and against the internal arrangement of the Holy Sepulcher." He said the Greeks attacked first.

Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate, denied his monks initiated the violence.

After the brawl, the church was crowded with Israeli riot police holding assault rifles, standing beside Golgotha, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, and the long smooth stone marking the place where tradition holds his body was laid out.

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The feud is only one of a bewildering array of rivalries among churchmen in the Holy Sepulcher.

The Israeli government has long wanted to build a fire exit in the church, which regularly fills with thousands of pilgrims and has only one main door, but the sects cannot agree where the exit will be built.

A ladder placed on a ledge over the entrance sometime in the 19th century has remained there ever since because of a dispute over who has the authority to take it down.

More recently, a spat between Ethiopian and Coptic Christians is delaying badly needed renovations to a rooftop monastery that engineers say could collapse.

Padre Antonio Rungi to start Nun Beauty Contest - Miss Sister 2008

An Italian priest says he is organising the world's first beauty pageant for nuns to erase a stereotype of them as being old and dour.

Antonio Rungi says The Miss Sister Italy online contest will start on his blog in September.

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"Nuns are above all women and beauty is a gift from God," he told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

He is asking nuns to send their photos to him, saying that internet users will then choose the winner.

Father Rungi stressed that nuns were not being invited to parade in bathing suits, saying it will be up to them whether they pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

"This contest will be a way to show there isn't just the beauty we see on television but also a more discreet charm," the priest, who lives near the southern city of Naples, told the Corriere della Sera.

"You really think all nuns are old, stunted and sad? This isn't the case anymore," he said, pointing out that many young nuns had arrived to Italy from around the world.

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He added that the idea of staging such a contest had been suggested by nuns themselves.

Miss Sister 2008
Antonio Rungi Blog

Shooting in Knoxville Tennessee - Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Results in 2 Dead

Authorities on Monday were investigating why an apparent stranger entered a Unitarian church and opened fire during a children's performance based on the musical "Annie," killing two, including a burly usher hailed as a hero for shielding others from gunfire. No children were hurt, but seven adults were wounded as frightened congregants dove under pews and ran from Sunday's shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, authorities said. Witnesses said some of the men present tackled a man who pulled a shotgun from a guitar case before at least three loud blasts rang out.

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Jim D. Adkisson, 58, has been charged with first-degree murder and was being held on $1 million bail, according to city spokesman Randy Kenner. Church members praised Greg McKendry, 60, who died as he attempted to block the gunfire. Church member Barbara Kemper said that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us." "Greg McKendry was a very large gentleman, one of those people you might describe as a refrigerator with a head," said church member Schera Chadwick. "He looked like a football player. He did obviously stand up and put himself in between the shooter and the congregation."

A second victim was identified as Linda Kraeger, 61. She died at a hospital hours later, Kenner said. Five others remained hospitalized Monday in critical and serious condition. Two others were treated and released Sunday. The gunman's motive was not known, but Kemper said the gunman shouted before he opened fire. "It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things," she said, refusing to elaborate.

The FBI was assisting in case the shooting turned out be a hate crime, Police Chief Sterling Owen said. Police said they would hold a news conference Monday morning. The church promotes progressive social work, including advocacy of women and gay rights. The Knoxville congregation also has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its Web site.

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Karen Massey, a neighbor to Adkisson, told the Knoxville News Sentinel about a lengthy conversation she had with Adkisson a few years back in which she told him her daughter had just graduated from a bible college. She said she was surprised by his reaction when she told him she was a Christian. "He almost turned angry," she told the newspaper. "He seemed to get angry at that. He said that everything in the Bible contradicts itself if you read it." She also said Adkisson spoke frequently about his parents, who "made him go to church all his life. ... He acted like he was forced to do that."

Authorities searched Adkisson's duplex in a Knoxville suburb Sunday night and collected statements from witnesses and video from those using cameras to record the performance. The shooting started as about 200 people watched a show put on by 25 children. Church member Mark Harmon said he was in the first row when he heard "an incredibly loud bang." He said he thought the noise was part of the play, then he heard another loud bang and saw a woman bleeding behind him as he dove for cover.

"It seems so unreal," Harmon said. His wife told him she saw the gunman pulling the shotgun out of a guitar case. Witnesses reported hearing about three blasts from the .12-gauge shotgun and said they didn't recognize the gunman. Church members said one of the people who tackled the gunman was John Bohstedt, who played "Daddy Warbucks" in the performance. The church's minister rushed back from a vacation in North Carolina to be with his congregation. "We've been touched by a horrible act of violence," the Rev. Chris Buice said in a statement. "We are in a process of healing and we ask everyone for your prayers."

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Other Unitarian congregations in the area held tearful services after the tragedy. At a packed Westside Unitarian Universalist Church in suburban Farragut, congregants prayed, sang songs and consoled each other. The shooting follows a December 2007 spree in which a man shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver, Colo., killing two, after being told he couldn't spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles away in Colorado Springs, police say the 24-year-old man fatally shot a parishioner at a megachurch and wounded four others before killing himself.

People in Netherlands prepare for the end of the world in 2012 as predicted by the end of the Mayan Calendar

Thousands of Dutch people are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. They are anticipating a 2012 Apocalypse.

The end of the world is a bad thing, right? Not necessarily. At least according to some of the people in the Netherlands they are tired of the country anyway. Some say there are just so many immigrants who are building so many houses that the Netherlands is getting too heavy and sinking into the ocean. But that’s not all of it.

Thousands of Dutch are preparing for the end of the world by stockpiling emergency goods and survival gear. I find that interesting. If the world is ending, then what good is a battery operated flashlight? Maybe I’m wrong, it just seems like quitting your job and seeing the great wonders of the world would be a more effective use of the time we have left. Especially if you feel your country is sinking into the ocean.

I admit this whole 2012 Apocalypse thing freaks me out a little. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012 and many have said that’s because that is the date the world will end. While the Mayans had an unbelievably advanced culture and were scientifically advanced in a way that is hard to fathom, they failed to predict the end of their own culture. That oversight on their part would make me a little skeptical about their prediction of the end of the world, were it not for the fact that other ancient cultures predicted 2012 would be the end of the world as well, completely independently of the Mayans. THAT is a little freaky.


But there’s more to the Dutch story than the Mayan calendar. The Netherlands has become a country unexpectedly a focal point in the war between the West and Islamic terrorists. The murder of Theo Van Gogh in the streets of Amsterdam in many ways was a turning point in our recognition of the battle that had long ago been waged against the West. The note stabbed into Van Gogh’s chest called his friend and confidant, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an infidel and threatened her life for leaving islam and daring to speak openly of the repression of women in islamic society. She has lived under a fatwa since that day. There have continued to be conflicts between jihadists and the northern European region that at one time prided themselves on their liberalism and neutrality in the conflicts of the world. The immigrants, which is politically correct speak for islamic extremist, who have migrated to that area, demand that the Dutch conform to islamic law. The Dutch seem to have tired of attempting to appease and aren’t inclined to change their culture at the will of the newcomers.


A slowly growing combustible friction has simmered just under the surface between the two diametrically opposed factions. It continues to grow.

And so, while I find prophecies and apocalyptic visions interesting from a sociological standpoint, I don’t generally give them much credence. I started writing this article thinking of the Dutch preparing for the end of the world as darkly humorous. But then I remembered Theo Van Gogh, the Mohammad Cartoon riots and the many other incidents of jihadist violence towards the West. One can’t help but notice that the tribes of the world have been gathering and tyrants around the world are crying havoc and are rattling their swords. Perhaps the analogy of the Netherlands sinking into the ocean under the weight of the islamists is not as far off as it sounds on the surface.

Than again, maybe its just another cult preparing for the 2012 Apocalypse predicted in the ancient codes of long vanquished civilizations. I suppose, if we live long enough, we’ll find out in 2012.

Until then here is a video

BOUNTIFUL POLYGAMIST's being investigated

B.C.'s attorney general has appointed a third special prosecutor to investigate whether charges should be laid against members of the polygamist community of Bountiful, in the province's southeastern Interior.

Wally Oppal instructed the province's Criminal Justice Branch to hire another special prosecutor, Terrence Robertson, to review the results of the latest police investigation and consider charges.

Robertson will look at results of the RCMP investigation, consider charges, offer advice to the police, write a report, and if he believes charges are warranted, conduct the prosecution.

Oppal said he disagrees with the recommendations of two previous special prosecutors, Richard Peck and Leonard Doust, whom he appointed, and who both recommended the Criminal Justice Branch not proceed with charges.

"I think this is something we, as a society, need to be concerned with. The whole idea of men with senior ages, 50-year-old men, having relationships with younger women between the ages of 14 and 16 and 17 … I think Canadians would find abhorrent," said Oppal.

In April, Doust, a prominent Vancouver lawyer, recommended the government ask the courts to clarify whether the law prohibiting polygamy is constitutional before considering pressing charges.

Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada explicitly bans polygamy and threatens offenders with a five-year prison term.

But Doust declined Oppal's request that he prosecute on the polygamy allegation when the two met in May, saying he felt it would be unfair.

On Monday in a written statement, Oppal said upholding the law is not unfair, and that's why he has asked the criminal justice branch to appoint Robertson as the third special prosecutor to handle the investigation.

"It is my opinion that the Criminal Justice Branch is mistaken in its belief that section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada is unconstitutional. Both Mr. Doust and Mr. Peck believe section 293 to be constitutionally valid legislation. A valid criminal law is and should be enforced. To do so is appropriate and is not unfair," Oppal said in written statement.

The polygamist community of Bountiful is home to a community of several hundred polygamists with links to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the U.S.

A woman who used to live in Bountiful said she hopes the latest special prosecutor will recommend charges be laid.

Debbie Palmer, who left Bountiful 20 years ago with her eight children, told CBC News on Monday she wishes the provincial government would approach the issue more directly.

"I thought that he [Oppal] would have the power to go ahead and designate that they should go ahead and prosecute charges of polygamy and child sexual assault without asking for yet another opinion," Palmer said.

Texas ruling allows children, parents to reunite
In Texas on Monday, a judge ordered the return of more than 400 children taken by state authorities from a ranch run by the polygamist group.

According to the ruling, parents are allowed to pick up their children but can't leave Texas without court permission and must participate in parenting classes.

They have also been ordered not to interfere with any ongoing child abuse investigation and to allow the children to have psychiatric or medical exams if required.

The order comes days after the Texas Supreme Court said child welfare officials had no right to seize hundreds of children from the west Texas ranch.

Child welfare officials removed more than 400 children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, about 300 kilometres northwest of San Antonio.

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In a related Story: Bountiful opens its' Doors

By Meghan Wood

AFTER YEARS of keeping a low profile in B.C.'s lush Creston Valley, the community of Bountiful opened its doors to the public April 21 -- media and protestors alike -- to set some records straight.

A group from the community, calling itself the Women of Bountiful, hosted a press conference at a community centre 10 km away in Creston. Their aim was to show Canada that they are fully aware of their lifestyle choice, they enjoy sharing husbands even though they admit polygamy is illegal in Canada, and they will use Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms to argue that plural marriage is covered by their freedom of religion.

"We the women of our community will be silent no more," said Zelpha Chatwin to the 300 people in attendance. "I love the fact that my girls and I only have to cook and clean once a week. [Polygamists are] a team of players who care for each other."

The women also said plural marriages come with various benefits, such as pooling resources and talent, and higher household incomes, reported the National Post.

"The Bountiful Women's Society is an organization of the women in the community and [The Women of Bountiful] includes most but not all of them," said Winston Blackmore, Bountiful's former bishop and a powerful businessman.

"It was organized many years ago, but because of the division in our community has been inactive for sometime. It has been recently revived and is now active with some 100 members. They decided to hold this conference because of the continued claims by ex-members that they spoke for the women of Bountiful. These women speak for themselves."

The women of this fundamentalist Mormon group said reports of child abuse and kidnappings were "false allegations" and "common misconceptions fostered by irresponsible journalists." They also announced that girls under 18 will no longer enter into plural marriages.

"There is definitely an interest among the parents that their children at least reach the age of 18 before they should think about becoming someone's wife," Blackmore explained. "In our province, any 16-year-old that has the consent of their parents can get a marriage license and marry the person of their choice no matter what the age. In our communities for many years, no one was married before they graduated from high school."

Only two girls younger than 16 have ever entered into what the Women called "plural marriages."

Blackmore said it is the wife's choice, never the husband's, about whether they will participate in plural marriages.

The men of Bountiful who live the polygamous lifestyle marry one woman legally and then take more wives in "celestial unions," which are recognized solely by their church, part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect of Mormonism. According to Apologetics Index, the sect separated from the Mormon church when the Church renounced plural marriage in 1890.

"They believe polygamy and large families will gain them access to the highest tier of heaven," states the web site. "Women reportedly bear an average of 10 children each. Fundamentalists believe monogamy is limiting for both men and women, that plural marriage allows a man and his 'ladies' greater opportunity to provide bodies for waiting heavenly spirits and increases their ability to populate this and future worlds."

The women taken as celestial wives refer to one another as "sister wives." Jane Blackmore, Winston's first legal wife, recently divorced the minister and left the commune. She is a nurse who served as the community's midwife and told MacLeans last year that she has aided in births to mothers as young as 15 and has even delivered many of her ex-husband's estimated 80 children by other wives.

The division Blackmore mentioned was caused by a split in the community where some of the members of Bountiful chose to follow Warren Jeffs, 49, a self-proclaimed prophet who lives by the mandate: "One vision. One Plan. One Man." Insiders say Jeffs used his father's weakened state to position himself as leader by removing his potential rival, Blackmore. Jeffs lives in Hildale, Utah but runs Bountiful's provincially funded school and encourages women to marry young before the world ends.

"Warren Jeffs is interested in the end of the world," said Blackmore. "I am not, for that will come soon enough for all of us. He made himself into the leader. I did not want to follow his views for they were not in keeping with our fundamental sacred values."

Court of Appeal in Texas rules against Authorities in Removal of Children from Polygamist ranch

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin has ruled that the state did not have the right to remove more than 400 children from a west Texas polygamist ranch and place them in shelters across the state. One of those shelters is the Ark Assessment Center on Leopard.

The children were brought to the Ark about four weeks ago and are still there. The Ark's director told 6 News they will wait until they are told the next move to make by the Attorney General's office, and that is what Child Protective Services is doing as well.

The Third District Texas Court of Appeals found that, "the department (CPS) did not present any evidence of danger to the physical health or safety of any male children or any female children who had not reached puberty," and, "there was no evidence that the department made reasonable efforts to eliminate or prevent the removal of any children."

CPS issued a response Thursday afternoon, saying "the department removed children from the ranch after finding a pervasive pattern of sexual abuse," and, "will work with the office of the Attorney General to determine the state's next steps in this case."

6 News has also learned all custody hearings have been put on hold as a result of Thursday's ruling.

What happens to the children in state custody now is not very clear at the moment, although in issuing its ruling, the appeals court gave a lower court ten days to release the children to their parents' custody.

However, the state could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court to try and block the order.

A few things on a couple of Doomsday Cults

Authorities in New Mexico have taken four children from a doomsday cult after being told about alleged inappropriate contact with the cult's leader.

A spokeswoman for the state says authorities are investigating alleged misconduct by cult leader Wayne C. Bent who is known to his followers as Michael Travesser, The Albuquerque Journal reported Wednesday.

Bent and members of The Lord Our Righteousness Church are featured in an episode of the show "Inside" to be broadcast May 7 on the National Geographic Channel. In a clip of the show, two young females tell of lying naked with Bent, who has denied having sex with minors.

Two of the children removed from the cult remain in state custody. A third child volunteered to be placed in foster care and the fourth has been released to her parents.

Romaine Serna, a spokesman for the Department of Children, Youth and Families, tell the Journal the agency is assessing whether parents of the children have neglected or abandoned them.

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Emergency crews in Russia’s Penza region have repaired the entrance to the cave where members of a doomsday cult are hiding. Some of the walls had collapsed, but officials say the repairs mean the remaining nine people in the bunker are now able to leave if they wish.

For now though, they remain underground. They are waiting for the end of the world, which they say will come at the end of May.

Officials say their lives are not at risk after walls at the entrance partially gave way during the spring thaw.

The nine people still holed up are the last of the 35 believers who barricaded themselves in a cave last autumn to wait for the Apocalypse.

They threatened to blow themselves up if force was used to get them out.

However, in March the spring waters started to wash away the cave, prompting some of them to come to the surface.

The remaining group are continuing to refuse assistance and intended to stay in their hideaway until the end of May.

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The leader of a Russian doomsday cult tried to kill himself after most of his followers abandoned a bunker where they had been awaiting the end of the world for five months, an official said on Friday.

An ambulance rushed Pyotr Kuznetsov to hospital on Wednesday with serious head wounds but there was no immediate explanation for his injuries.

"The main theory being studied by investigators is an attempted suicide," a spokeswoman for the regional governor said.

Over the past six days, 24 members of the cult who had hidden in the bunker in the rural region of Penza since October abandoned their hide-out because melting snow and rain had weakened the mud structure, causing walls to collapse.

The 11 cult members still in the bunker are refusing to talk to officials trying to coax them out, the spokeswoman said.

"They have taken a vow of silence," she said. "They are all adults and have been warned about the threat to their lives from the collapsing walls."

Kuznetsov had declined to join his followers inside the bunker, stating that God had other work for him to do. He had been undergoing court-ordered psychiatric treatment.

Evidence of Inbreeding and Fumarase Deficiency found in Texas Polygamists

Texas social workers will begin conducting DNA tests today to identify the 416 children taken into custody from the fundamentalist Mormon ranch near Eldorado since April 3. A district court judge granted the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS) permission to test the children last Friday, as the agency's custody workers continued to struggle with the serious, complicated task of determining which children belong to whom — a task further clouded by the fact that children and mothers gave evasive, shifting answers during interviews.

Genetic testing could be completed in as little as a few days, according to Howard Coleman, CEO of Genelex, a Seattle-based commercial genetics lab, which is not involved with the Texas case. It could take several weeks longer, however, to construct a family tree from the results. Once they are traced, however, the children's origins may offer a fascinating look at the family structure of the secretive polygamist sect, as well as insight into the emergence of a tragic birth defect that has plagued the community.

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At the heart of the identity problem are the group's commitment to "celestial marriage" — polygamy — and its custom of allowing first cousins to marry. "Your family tree shouldn't be a wreath," says Randy Mankin, editor of the El Dorado Success newspaper, which unearthed the sect's Utah roots four years ago, when its first members, posing as businessmen, arrived in Eldorado under the pretense of building a hunting and game preserve. But the legal notices published in Mankin's paper listing the custody suits brought by the state against the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ (FLDS) illustrate just how circular relationships are. Four surnames dominate the list: Jeffs (relatives of Warren Jeffs, the sect's imprisoned leader and "prophet"), Jessop, Barlow and Steed.

In the 1930s, two families, the Jessops and the Barlows, settled the area around Hildale, Utah, along the border with Arizona, where they founded the FDLS — and began handing down to their descendants a recessive gene for a severe form of mental retardation called Fumarase Deficiency. The birth defect has become increasingly prevalent within the FLDS community since 1990 when it was first identified by Dr. Theodore Tarby, an Arizona pediatric neurologist, now retired but formerly with the Children's Rehabilitative Services in Phoenix. He saw his first case when an FLDS mother brought her severely retarded son to see him. Tarby asked the mother whether any of her other children had problems, and she mentioned a daughter with cerebral palsy — testing proved that she, too, had Fumarase Deficiency syndrome.

The birth defect — an enzyme deficiency — causes severe mental retardation, epilepsy and disfigurement of features. "The retardation is in the severe range — an IQ around 25," Dr. Tarby says. Afflicted children are missing portions of their brain, often cannot sit or stand, and suffer grand mal seizures and encephalitis. Language skills are nonexistent or minimal. "I remember one little girl has a fascination with coins and the only word she could say was 'money,'" the doctor said. Families whose children are affected often avail themselves of state-funded medical care, consistent with the FLDS philosophy of seeking government aid — despite their suspicion of government — which they call "bleeding the Beast."

Until 1990 Tarby says he knew of only 13 cases of Fumarase Deficiency worldwide. Since, it has taken hold in the FLDS community because of intermarriage. "If you have two parents with the gene," Tarby says, "you are going to have a one-in-four chance of having a child afflicted with it." Depending on the severity of the disorder, children may die in childhood or may survive into early adulthood; if a person who has developed the disorder goes on to have a child, his or her chances of passing it on are one in two. But diagnosing the condition is difficult and requires extremely careful testing, the doctor says. His research, published in 2006, identified 20 cases within the Hildale-Colorado City enclave. "I would expect there are going to be Fumarase Deficiency cases there in Texas," he said.

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State officials will not release any medical information about the 416 children in their custody, but one mother, giving her name simply as Sally on CNN's Larry King Live, described her son as "handicapped" and needing hourly care. "One of the mothers raised concerns about her child who had Down Syndrome," TDFPS spokesman Greg Cunningham told TIME in an e-mail. "That child has had a medical evaluation and has had one-on-one care." Cunningham says that the children in custody at the Pavilion, part of the city's civic center complex, have one caregiver for every three children. A small number of older boys have been moved to the Cal Farley Boy's Ranch in Amarillo, a privately funded home for needy children.

The FLDS community, by and large, rejects the idea that Fumarase Deficiency is caused by genes, according to Tarby. "They have their mythology about the condition. They think it's something in the water, or something in the air," he says. Before Tarby retired in 2007, FLDS leaders invited him to address the community about the disorder and how to prevent it. He told them that prevention would involve barring marriages between people with the recessive gene, or asking those couples to forgo children. He suggested that families discontinue having children once the disorder presents itself, or test for the gene during pregnancy and selectively abort pregnancies with the deficiency. All were approaches rejected by the FLDS. "It's not something they are willing to do," Tarby says.

For More news on the Texas Polygamist Ranch

Oprah Starting a Cult with new book of teachings

Oprah Winfrey may have gone too far in exploiting and distributing the teachings of a questionable New Age writer.

On Monday night, Winfrey conducted her weekly Web "event" seminar with New Age writer Eckhart Tolle. His message: "Life is the dancer and you are the dance."

Got that?

The seminar was No. 7 in a series of 10. On the first 90-minute Webcast with Tolle, Oprah extolled the author’s virtues, calling his best-selling "New Earth" book "one of the most important books of our time," the seminars one of "the most exciting things I’ve ever done."

Imagine that Winfrey considers her conversations with Tolle, a man with a shady and un-checkable background, more important than her schools in Africa and Mississippi for underprivileged children, more important than her Angel Charity network or her zillion-dollar syndicated TV show. Tolle must be something else!

But it’s not like Winfrey is endorsing Maya Angelou or Toni Morrison, serious, educated artists with portfolios. Tolle is more like Kilgore Trout, Kurt Vonnegut’s science-fiction crackpot alter-ego.

And what’s different about the Tolle connection for Winfrey is that for the first time in her much-applauded Book Club’s history, she’s gone into business with the author. And the author is not one of a novel, memoir or cookbook; he’s the mysterious creator of a philosophy that Winfrey endorses and suggests her readers live their lives by.

But is Eckhart Tolle an appropriate spiritual leader? He told an interviewer that he stopped going to school at age 13 and didn’t resume any education for at least a decade. In the same interview he says he graduated "with the highest mark at the London University."

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The press rep at the University of London says there’s simply no way to verify that. "You might as well say you graduated from here," joked the person I spoke to. Clever.

He says in interviews that he had a personal epiphany in 1977 at age 29 after a life of suffering from suicidal depression. For the next 15 years, no one knows much about what happened to him, and he’s not saying. He says he spent time wandering and sitting in London’s parks, with "no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity," but a sense of "intense joy."

In seminar 1, Oprah’s new guru tells her: "I was living in England, and I had this strong impulse one morning … I had to move to the West Coast of North America without knowing why … So I moved to Vancouver and then I took a Greyhound bus to California, knew only one or two people, and I said, 'Why am I here?'"

"Three weeks passed, somebody put me up in a room near San Francisco, and suddenly this came. I bought a notepad and suddenly the strong stream came through and I wrote, 'What Is Enlightenment?' The beginning of 'The Power of Now.' The moment I wrote that, I knew this is the book that wants to be born. So rather than me wanting to write a book, there was a book that wanted to be written."

And so on.

Oprah’s response to this: "It’s like Michelangelo says the angel’s in the marble and he just cuts away the marble."

Well, not quite.

His books, "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," are the same gobbledygook as most New Age stuff. They’re all about self-empowering and how to find out who we are. "Awakening" is Tolle’s key word. Tolle is very busy enforcing moments of silence and showing his readers how to find their "pain-body."

Nothing new there. And nothing new for Oprah, who’s now so wildly wealthy that she’s exceeded literally any famous person she might interview. Parade magazine puts her 2007 income at $260 million, the most of any celebrity and $150 million more than Steven Spielberg, the most successful filmmaker of all time. So what can she do besides anoint presidential candidates or start a religion?

Indeed, Winfrey already has flirted with several cult-like New Age deals. She’s enthusiastically embraced the Scientology celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. She’s even gone into business with Kirstie Alley, whom she’s planning to give a forum in her own talk show.

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She’s also promoted televangelist Marianne Williamson’s kooky "Course of Miracles" and a book of New Age clichés by Australian Rhonda Byrne called "The Secret." (There’s a good piece on the latter at salon.com.)

Winfrey is nothing if not gifted at recognizing what’s already popular in the culture and exploiting it. But her association with Tolle is way over the top. It involves sponsorships with General Motors (Chevy), 3M Corp. (Post-Its) and Skype Internet phone service. In one broad stroke, she’s managed to accomplish what Scientology never has achieved: bringing corporate America’s implicit approval into religion.

What’s interesting is not so much Tolle, with his German accent and blank stare, proselytizing his nonsense. He talks a lot, literally, about looking at flowers and trees in a new way, much like Chauncey Gardner in "Being There."

It’s more about Oprah herself, free associating, selling out her own world as she gushes over those flowers and trees. For example, in seminar 1, she socks it to Hollywood, the source of 50 percent of her guests. This is the same Oprah who does a live special the day after the Oscars and often plugs the worst films just to get ratings.

In that segment, Oprah seems to forget who she is to score points with Tolle, or rationalize why she’s involved in this beyond the corporate money being reaped:

"Everyone complains about the media and the movies. I mean, if you just look at the Academy Awards this year, and the kinds of movies that were made this year, and it’s all a reflection of who we are. You say in the book," Winfrey says to Tolle, "that we’re the species that will go and watch people be maimed and killed and murdered for our entertainment."

We can assume she wasn’t talking about "Juno," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "The Savages," "Enchanted," "Atonement," "La Vie En Rose," "Michael Clayton," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "Into the Wild," "Away from Her" or "Charlie Wilson’s War" — all films that had nominations. Just three films featured overt violence this year — "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood" and "Sweeney Todd."

But it’s the zealous excitement in Winfrey’s eyes when she says it that makes the difference. Those three films are now the whole Academy Awards, and therefore "the media." You can already feel hearts pounding! She’s right! Hollywood had better look at flowers and trees in a new way.

What makes Oprah’s seminars even more creepy are the "study groups" she has lined up for Tolle at bookstores and other locations around the world. They’re all hooked up to the seminars through Skype, and the members can ask questions. They all have that same glazed-over look as people giving testimonials on late-night infomercials.

"I consider this to be a sacred moment when we can all come together … and share in this work," Winfrey says at the start of seminar 6. And why not? You’ll notice that she, not Tolle, has the sole copyright on the broadcasts. Ka ching!

But don’t worry about Eckhart Tolle. His "power of now" is all about his store. All roads lead to his merchandise, which is prominently featured on his Web site and accessed from Oprah’s.

His is a costly philosophy. Books, tapes, DVDs — all of it becomes quite expensive when added up, making Tolle no different than Scientology, Kabbalah or any other shiny new religion. Tolle even sells teaching tools "for professionals" — "A Guide for the Spiritual Teacher and Health Practitioner" — even though it’s unclear what is the basis of his own educational background.

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Are we supposed to take this seriously? As Tolle, himself, says to Oprah, "It’s better to laugh at madness."

Polygamist Ranch in Texas Shut Down - 52 Girls removed

After sealing off the retreat of the polygamist sect led by Warren Jeffs yesterday, the Child Protective Services (CPS) inspectors have removed 52 girls from the 1,900-acre ranch about 260km (160 miles) north-west of the Texan town of San Antonio.

Eighteen of the girls removed from the 400-member ranch community are aged between 6 months and 17 and were put in a state of custody because it appeared they "had been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse." The rest of the young girls are being found foster homes.

Authorities said none of the 52 girls would be returning to the retreat build about four years ago by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). About half of them were interviewed by welfare officials after being removed from the YFZ Ranch, as the members of the polygamist community called it.

"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," said Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services.

The investigation into the safety of the children living at the ranch was initiated after Child Protective Services were notified by someone that a 16-year-old girl had suffered physical abuse.

Investigators were searching for a 16-year-old girl who allegedly gave birth to a child after marrying to a 50-year-old man, The San Antonio Times said. The girl hasn’t been found yet and authorities are currently searching for her 50-year-old husband Dale Barlow.

Authorities said the ranch's residents were very cooperative and assisted the investigators in their search. No one was arrested.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) bought approximately 1,900 acres near Eldorado about four years ago. There they build the ranch and called it the YFZ Ranch. About 400 members of the church were relocated from their Arizona and Utah compounds to the YFZ Ranch.

Since 2002, when his father died, the community has been led by Warren Jeffs. It’s one of the several religious groups which spread from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the Mormon Church renounced polygamy in 1890.

Jeffs, the 52-year-old leader and "prophet" of the 10,000-member church, was later convicted for involvement in the rape of a 14-year-old girl in 2001, the year when she wed her cousin in an arranged marriage. In Utah, he was sentenced for to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison.

In Arizona, Jeffs also faces charges as an accomplice of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages similar to that above mentioned. He is now behind bars the Mohave County Jail in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.

Vatican has declared new Sins

14 is the new 7 - there are now 14 deadly sins

OK, as if the poor catholics didn't have enough to worry about with 7, some religious guy with nothing better to do has come up with more reasons for the average Catholic to feel guilty. Of course, committing a sin is "OK" as long as you say you are sorry. After all, what would all those child diddling catholic preachers do if they actually had to feel guilty for the things they did.

Added to the list is Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.

"(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he said.

The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning.

Girotti, in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin," also listed "ecological" offences as modern evils.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively "green."

It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.

Girotti, who is number two in the Vatican "Apostolic Penitentiary," which deals with matter of conscience, also listed drug trafficking and social and economic injustices as modern sins.

But Girotti also bemoaned that fewer and fewer Catholics go to confession at all.

He pointed to a study by Milan's Catholic University that showed that up to 60 percent of Catholic faithful in Italy stopped going to confession.

In the sacrament of Penance, Catholics confess their sins to a priest who absolves them in God's name.

But the same study by the Catholic University showed that 30 percent of Italian Catholics believed that there was no need for a priest to be God's intermediary and 20 percent felt uncomfortable talking about their sins to another person.

After a week-long seminar, the Papal authorities have drawn up a additional modern list of seven deadly sins.

Becoming obscenely wealthy is one of them. Causing people to suffer poverty is another. And now, polluting the environment is also a grave offence against God.

The Vatican argues that globalization, while inherently beneficial, has fuelled an upsurge in selfishness and hedonism. Also on the new list: drug abuse, social injustice and genetic manipulation.

Muslims worldwide upset over Danish publishing of sacreligious cartoon images of their prophet Mohammed

At least 17 Danish newspapers printed a controversial cartoon of Prophet Mohammed Wednesday, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after police foiled a murder plot against the cartoonist.

Three of the country's biggest dailies were among those that published the cartoon, which featured the prophet's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse.

The caricature was one of 12 cartoons published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten daily which sparked violent protests in a number of Muslim countries in January and February 2006.

On Tuesday, Danish police said they had arrested three people, a Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisian nationals, suspected of plotting to kill the cartoonist of the turban cartoon, Kurt Westergaard.

The newspapers that printed the cartoon on Wednesday said they did so to take a stand against self-censorship.

"Freedom of expression gives you the right to think, to speak and to draw what you like... no matter how many terrorist plots there are," conservative broadsheet Berlingske Tidende wrote in an editorial.



The newspaper -- which had not previously printed the caricature despite the massive controversy that engulfed Denmark for months in 2006 -- urged "the Danish media to stand united against fanaticism".

Tabloid Ekstra Bladet meanwhile published all 12 of the original cartoons.

The Danish press has unanimously condemned the alleged murder plot against Westergaard, who has lived in hiding for the past three months.

Even the centre-left newspaper of reference, Politiken, which was most critical of Jyllands-Posten's decision in 2005 to publish the cartoons, joined in the cries of condemnation.

The alleged murder plot was "deeply shocking and worrying" and "shows that there are fanatic Islamists who are ready to make good on their threats and there are people in this country who neither respect freedom of expression nor the law," an editorial read.

It said the media should stand behind Jyllands-Posten "when it is threatened with terrorism".

Members of Denmark's Muslim community have distanced themselves from the alleged murder plot, but opposed the publication of the cartoon on Wednesday.

Imam Walid Abdul Pedersen, a Protestant who converted to Islam, said: "It's not a good idea to reproduce it and the newspapers could have defended the cartoonist differently, without resorting to provocation."

"It's good to have a dialogue on freedom of expression, but you shouldn't seek out a confrontation from the start," he said.

He said it was possible the reprinting could prompt "negative reactions abroad."

The Danish foreign ministry said meanwhile it was following the situation closely across the world.

During the 2006 controversy, demonstrators burned Danish flags and threatened the Scandinavian country.

The protests culminated in February with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and the death of dozens of people in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.

The cartoonist at the heart of the controversy, Westergaard, told tabloid BT on Wednesday that he never expected to end up the target of a death threat.

"With this drawing I wanted to show how fanatical Islamists or terrorists use religion as a kind of spiritual weapon. But naturally I never imagined these kinds of reactions," he said.



He said he considered himself an atheist, adding: "I feel that I am fighting a righteous fight to defend freedom of expression, which is under threat."