DANCE, The.  The human dance evolved originally as a form of sympathetic magic with repetitive movements, designed, like some of the cave art, to induce the supposed mystical powers of the universe to bestow a boon.  Primitive dancers were almost invariably naked except for masks and drawings of dancers often emphasize the phallus, which seems to imply the dance was a sexual stimulant as well. It was a ritualistic approach to life, involving the group rather than the individual. Thracian orgiasts danced, then copulated on the hillside with their companions, purging the emotions and assuring the fertility of the crops through sympathetic magic. 

Dance forms part of some modern WITCHCRAFT ceremonies and also of some modern Christian activities. However, many evangelical and fundamentalist Christians will have nothing to do with dancing and there have been many instances in past times when condemnation of the evils of dancing have thundered forth from pulpits. The preachers have expressed alarm at the strong sexual elements evident in many forms of dance. Meanwhile those of more liberal religious outlook do embrace this art form in their worship and in their general lives. And groups as the SHAKERS, of fundamentalist hue, happily perform dance ceremonies.

DARBY, John Nelson.  See under: BRETHREN, The.

DARWIN, Charles.  For most of Western Christendom there has always been but one Book - The Bible. Until, that is, the year 1859, when there was published a work which, one might hope, will prove to have as massive an impact, long-term, on the human race as the Bible itself, and with far greater justification. And this book was written by a man who had trained for the ministry of the Church of England, a man from the Establishment, one of 'God's Englishmen'. But by the time The Origin of Species had been written, Charles Darwin had lost all orthodox belief. One who had penetrated the secrets of the world order as Darwin had must needs lose most of the old certainties. 

This quiet, thoughtful, English naturalist never intended to be a revolutionary. He set out on his journey of discovery without the slightest hint that his work was to unleash almost single-handedly the destruction of the old order of things. True, he was not alone in working this revolution but it was Darwin's name and writings that proved to be strong catalysts for the flood of unbelief that has poured from the liberated minds and pens of thoughtful people ever since.

Dr Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, commented that Darwin had provided the world with an 'elegant and brilliant solution' explaining how the extraordinary variety of living things came into existence.  There is no need to defend Darwin, he said, 'because there is no conceivable doubt that the fact of evolution is true.  Species turn into other species . . . The Darwinian view of life is so important, so exciting, it is a tragedy is anyone dies without knowing why they existed.'  Creationists, he added, were humans 'who utter things which I wouldn't dignify with the word argument.'

Following a major destructive episode when a fierce storm, given the name Cyclone Tracy, hit the Australian northern city of Darwin in the early 1970s, Mr Arthur Fletcher, described as 'a leading Christadelphian,' placed the following advertisement in the Northern Territory News: 'People of Darwin - save your city. The name Darwin is a memorial to Charles Robert Darwin, author of The Origin of Species, promoting the theory of evolution. Darwin was thus the enemy of the Bible. God has shown his wrath. Repent. Change your city's name lest a worse fate befall you.'

DAVIDIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH.  In the early 1930s a Bulgarian refugee and Seventh-Day Adventist, Victor Houteff, founded a breakaway group in Texas, known then as the Davidian SDA Church. Houtoff had upset mainstream SDA members with a book he wrote claiming the church was corrupt. Houteff set up headquarters in Waco and for a time attracted members. However, prior to his death in 1955 the sect had began to decline. 

After his death his wife Florence led the group. In 1959 she told her followers that the kingdom of God would be ushered in on Easter Day. As with many similar movements in the past (and surely there will be more) the faithful moved to Waco, selling up all their possessions, and awaited the big event. As we now know the date passed and nothing happened. Many unhappy disciples returned from whence they had come, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives again. A small core remained, however, and these formed the nucleus of what later became known as the BRANCH DAVIDIANS.  See also: SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM.

DAYTON MONKEY TRIAL. In March 1924, the State of Tennessee, in the face of science and rationality, passed a law making it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in the schools. The text ran:

It is unlawful for any teacher in any of the universities, normals and all other public schools of the state, to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.

In May, 1924 John Thomas Scopes, a biology teacher, fell foul of the religious bigots by teaching the possibility of evolution. He was arrested and in July put on trial. From New York Scopes received support from the American Civil Liberties Union, whose director, Roger N. Baldwin, had gone to the Tennessee press and promised the defence of anyone who deliberately broke the new law. Scopes had acted deliberately on that promise. He was defended by Clarence Darrow and prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan, a Fundamentalist Christian. The two men were among the greatest lawyers the USA has ever produced. Darrow was assisted, curiously, by a Catholic, Dudley Field Malone, a liberal, and a specialist in civil liberties law, Arthur Garfield Hays.

The world read in their newspapers the reams of rhetoric poured forth from these eloquent men throughout an 11-day trial. Towards the end Darrow cross-examined Bryan on his doctrinal position and grilled him so severely that Bryan was near collapse. However, the real point at issue was whether Scopes had broken the Tennessee law and he lost his case. He was fined $100. Five days later Bryan dropped dead. 

DEAN, James.  American film star James Dean was, according to a book published in 1994, a homosexual. Paul Alexander in Boulevarde of Broken Dreams (New York, Little Brown) asserted this.  No criticism of Dean's sexual orientation is implied here; what is of real interest is the suggested origins of Dean's interest. As a teenager Dean was, according to Alexander, introduced to gay sex through a Wesleyan preacher, James DeWeerd in Fairmont, Indiana. They had an affair that lasted for several years.   

DEATH, fear of.  It is surprising how many religious people fear death when religion asserts a felicitous situation in the supposed afterlife. We have all heard the children's prayer: 'If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.' Best prepare the kiddies for the possibility that they might not see the night out! Then there is the curious insistence that Christians and others have that the dead body is recovered. Bodies are carted halfway around the world for a 'decent burial'.  Great expense is incurred in these operations. One would think that the disposal of the physical body is unimportant if the soul lives on!

DEATH OF A PRINCESS.  A BBC film, produced in 1980,  based on the execution of a Saudi princess and her lover under Islamic law for moral offence.  Strong pressure was exerted on governments around the world to ban the film and it was [as at mid-1980] only shown in Britain, USA, Holland and Australia.  The Australian Government, especially Mr Doug Anthony, leader of the then Country Party (now known as the National Party), to his everlasting discredit, sought to dissuade local television from showing the film but Channel 7 went ahead and ignored Anthony.  

DEATH SENTENCES.  While Islamic clerics are well known for their habit of pronouncing death sentences (fatwas) on anyone who upsets them they are not the only ones. In June 1994 a Jewish rabbi did likewise. Rabbi Shlomo Goren issued a 'formal rabbinic ruling' declaring: 'There is no doubt that Yasser Arafat [the PLO leader] deserves death according to Israeli and international law. It is, therefore, commanded to kill Arafat, and there is no need to wait to bring him to trial. Every [Jew] is commanded to kill Arafat.' The rabbi later told reporters that anyone who carried out the order would receive a blessing.
 
Islamics and Jews sentence-givers were joined by some Christians a few years back. A fundamentalist preacher in Los Angeles, leading his congregation in prayer, asked God to take the life of Supreme Court Justice William Brennan for upholding a woman's right to abortion. The church then hired a plane to carry a banner through the sky reading: 'Pray for death of baby-killer Brennan' over a law-school graduation ceremony where Brennan was speaker. Other Christians in the USA have executed judgment by shooting down workers in abortion clinics (see further under: ABORTION CLINIC ATTACKS). It is curious limitation of divine power that none of the deities seem able to execute their enemies; they apparently require aid from humans acting as judge and jury to carry out their dirty work.

DE CHARDIN, Pierre Teilhard. De Chardin was a Jesuit palaeontologist and philosopher known widely for his writings. Sir Peter Medowar, scientist and Nobel prize-winner, reviewing de Chardin's notable work, The Phenomenon of Man, commented: 'His book stands square in the tradition of Naturphilosophie, a philosophical indoor pastime of German origin which does not seem even by accident (although there is a great deal of it) to have contributed anything of permanent value to the storehouse of human thought.'  Medowar said that de Chardin practised an unexacting kind of science, but had 'no grasp of what makes a logical argument or what makes for proof.'  His 'all but unintelligible style' is 'construed as prima facie evidence of profundity.' 

DECLINE OF RELIGION. 

At 8.30 am Mass at Sacred Heart church, Cabramatta (Sydney, Australia), on Sunday a priest had just elevated the Host and said: 'This is my body. This is my blood' when a cellular phone rang in the pocket of a male worshipper.  The man took the phone out, answered it, then gave it to his wife, who continued the conversation.  Seeing the service was being disturbed, he then took his wife to the vestry, to finish the conversation. After good-byes, they returned to the Mass. [Sydney Morning Herald, June 18, 1991]

Alarm bells are sounding in many of the mainstream churches. An article by Linda Morris, Religious Affairs Writer in The Sydney Morning Herald [12 October 2007] reported that the Uniting Church in NSW is one-third the size it was 15 years earlier and it appeared the congregations would decline further in coming years.
 
Surveys quoted in 1991 showed that an increasing number of Christians are shunning restrictions on artificial birth control methods and extramarital sex.  In 1991 the US Presbyterian Church published, prior to the church's annual meeting, a report, Keeping Body and Soul Together. In this period more than 30,000 copies were sold.  The report from a church taskforce urged the church to endorse sex outside marriage and between homosexual partners.
 
The United Methodists discussed in 1992 a move to delete from their Book of Discipline a clause describing homosexuality as 'incompatible with Christian teaching'.  Reformed Jews in the USA now accept homosexual rabbis in some synagogues.  During the last 30 years there has been a steady decline in membership of all the mainstream US churches.  

DEE, Dr John.  Born 1527, died 1608.  Dee was an English mathematician, geographer and astrologer. He was born in London and became one of the original Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1555 Dee was brought before the Star Chamber, accused of practising sorcery against Queen Mary by working magic to cause her death. He was acquitted and later became one of the favourites of Queen Elizabeth although he eventually died in poverty.
 
Dee was particularly interested in the search for the fabled north-west passage to the Far East and also published numerous learned works in the fields of logic, astrology, mathematics, geography and navigation. However his life is of special interest to students of the occult sciences for his work in alchemy and other magical activities. He claimed to have found in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey the Elixir and also that he possessed a magic crystal used to determine the future.  Dee was later involved in curious episodes in Poland and Bohemia, where he was accused of conspiring with another English alchemist, Edward Kelley, in allegedly fraudulent crystal gazing and magical practices. Kelley at one point convinced Dee that there should be a community of wives (i.e. shared wives).   

DENOMINATIONS. See especially notes under: HIDDEN BELIEVERS.

DERRY, Bishop of.  See under: HERVEY, Frederick Augustus.

DERVISHES, The. A group of Islamic sects, of mystical nature. Included are the Turning Dervishes and the Howling Dervishes. The former group are more open in admitting foreigners to view their ceremonies, the latter more secretive. The Howling Dervishes especially forbid Christians to enter their places of worship.

A visitor to Turkey in the early part of the 19th century, a Miss Pardoe, did manage to persuade someone to let her watch the Whirling Dervishes at Broussa. She wrote an account of what she saw in The City of the Sultan and Domestic Manners of the Turks (London, in 2 volumes, 1837):

The throng which pressed into the chapel was immense, and the heat most oppressive . . . At length a low chanting commenced in the court, and a train of Dervishes, headed by a High Priest, slowly ascended to the chapel . . . As he stepped upon the rug, with the palms of his hands turned upwards, and the attendant Dervishes cast themselves upon the earth, and laid their foreheads in the dust, I felt a thrill of pity for the ill-judged zeal and blind delusion which was rapidly wearing him to the grave . . .  [A description of lengthy prayers follows.]

The ceremony was at this point, when the Chief of the Turning Dervishes, accompanied by his two principal Priests, arrived to assist at the service of his fellow-Dervish . . . The chanting was then resumed, and after a time increased in quickness; which at intervals,as the name of Allah was pronounced, some solitary individual uttered a howl, which I can compare to nothing but the cry of the wild beast.

Things had progressed thus far, when suddenly a strong voice shouted, 'Allah Il Allah!' and a powerful man sprang from the floor, as though he had been struck in the heart, fell forward upon his head, and by a violent spasm rolled over, and lay flat on his back, with his arms crossed on his breast, and his whole frame rigid as though he had stiffened into death.  His turban had fallen off, and the one long lock of hair pendent from the centre of his head was scattered over the floor - his mouth was slightly open, and his eyes fixed - in short, the convulsion was a terrific one; and it was not before the lapse of several minutes that two of the fraternity, who hastened to his assistance, succeeded in unclasping his hands, and changing his position.

Having ultimately raised him from the floor, still in a state of insensibility, they carried him to the crimson rug, and laid him at the feet of the High Priest, who stroked down his beard, and laid his right hand upon his breast; they then continued to use all their efforts to produce re-animation; and having ultimately succeeded, they seated him once more in his place, and left him to recover himself as he might.

The howling still continued at intervals, and as the chanting and the motion increased in violence, these miserable fanatics appeared to become maddened by their exertions; when, at a certain point of the ceremony, four of the fraternity, who had green scarfs flung over their left shoulders, advanced, one by one, to the seat of the High Priest, and there slowly, and with much parade, transferred them first to their necks, and afterwards to their waists, and ultimately took their stand, two on each side of the mihrab, or recess . . .  [More prayers followed, and turbans and other items of clothing were removed.]

To this prayer succeeded another low sustained wail . . . The Dervishes, springing to their feet, stood in a circle about their chief; and then commenced the painful portion of their service.  The measure of the chant was regulated by the High Priest, who clapped his hands from time to time to increase the speed: himself and his four green-girdled assistants uttering the words of the prayer, while the fraternity, rocking themselves to and fro, kept up their continual groan, rising and falling with the voice of the choir.  Howl succeeded to howl, as the exhaustion consequent on this violent bodily exertion began to produce its effect; until at length strong men fell on the earth on all sides like children, shrieking and groaning in their agony - some struggling to free themselves from the grasp of those who endeavoured to restrain them, and others trembling in all their limbs, and sobbing out their anguish like infants.

I never witnessed such a scene; nor should I have conceived it possible for human beings to have gratuitously subjected themselves to the agony which these misguided wretches visibly endured . . . In short, the scene resembled rather the orgies of a band of demons than an offering of worship to a God of peace and love!
 
At this period of the ceremony, the muffled flutes used by the Turning Dervishes were heard, accompanied by the low sound of the small Arabian drums; and a majestic-looking man, clad entirely in white, with a black girdle, rose, at a signal from his chief, and commenced his evolutions . . . [More musical instruments joined in, played by youths.]  Groans, howls, and yells, such as may haunt the ear of midnight traveller in the wilderness, filled up the diapason; while the struggles of the convulsion-smitten, and their wild shrieks , completed the horror of the scene.  It was impossible to bear it longer; and we hurried from the latticed apartment just as three more tottering wretches were falling on the earth, howling out the sacred name of Allah, in tones better suited to a Satanic invocation!

DESTRUCTIVE ACTS.  In CE 387 the Christians of Rome burnt down a Jewish synagogue. Maximus the Usurper ordered the Christians to rebuild it. The Christian Bishop of Milan, Ambrose, denounced the ruler for this action and had the decree revoked by Theodosius. In 395 CE the Christians at Osrhoene, a city of Mesopotamia, also burned down the Jewish synagogue. Theodosius ordered the Christians to rebuild it. Again Ambrose interfered and persuaded the Emperor, with a fierce letter of denunciation, to revoke his edict, which he did.
 
To compel Christians to build a Jewish synagogue, thundered Ambrose, 'the home of perfidy, the dwelling-place of impiety,' was monstrous. He conveniently overlooked the monstrous act of the Christians in burning a Jewish building down! In 423 CE the Christians of Antioch burned down and plundered the local synagogue. Again Theodosius ordered them to rebuild it and again a saint of the Church interfered, this time the completely insane SIMEON STYLITES, who from his high parrot-perch, persuaded the Emperor to again withdraw his order.
   
Mind you, the Jews themselves at times harried the Christians, but with a little less ferocity. It is said that at the feast of Purim in particular, the ceremonies involved, among other activities, erecting a gibbet in the street, to which was fastened a mock-figure of Haman.  At each mention of his name the worshippers would hurl abuse at the hanging figure. It is reported, but with no great degree of certainty, that once in the the city of Inmestar, of Chalcis, near Antioch, in 412 CE, on the occasion of such a feast, the Jews fashioned their gibbet in the shape of a cross and seizing a young Christian boy from his own home, fastened him to the cross in a mock crucifixion. As he hung there they whipped him so severely that he died under the lashing. A furious fight broke out with the Christians as a result of this event.

Whether this actually happened or not is uncertain but the story or a similar one has been perpetuated ever since and has kept reappearing in various eras like some urban legend. It was firmly believed through the centuries by a great many Christians that Jews often kidnapped young Christian boys and crucified them.  At the very least this provided a convenient excuse to persecute the Jews.
 
In Egypt, around the year 415 CE, Bishop Cyril of Alexandria wielded a wide influence. One of the Christians, an Alexandrian schoolmaster, Hierax, was publicly scourged for some misdemeanour, having been delivered up to the Prefect of the City by the Jews. Cyril was furious and soon open warfare broke out between the Christians and the Jews.  There was slaughter all around, as good Jews and good Christians killed one another, even the Prefect being wounded. The worst deed was the killing of Hypatia, a young lady of the city, a heathen and a great beauty, who was torn from her chariot by the Christian mob and hacked to pieces with oyster shells! The Christians hoped thereby to please Cyril.

Chilperic, youngest son of Clotaire 1, forcibly compelled Jews in his dominion to convert to Christianity on pain of instant death. Most continued to worship as Jews in secret. Justinian enacted all kinds of repressive measures against the Jews. In the early 6th century an impostor, Meir by name, arose among the Jews of Persia, probably asserting he was the Messiah. He claimed to work miracles, among them that a fiery column always accompanied his marches. He was hanged by the Persians. In 602 CE the Emperor Mauritius was murdered by Phocas. Chosroes declared war and marched on Constantinople, joined by the Jews, who had risen against Phocas. These people now found the way open to revenge themselves on the Christians. They overran Galilee and Peraea and assaulted Jerusalem, slaughtering the whole Christian population of 90,000. Eventually the Jews in turn were put back in their place by the Romans.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, The.  The early Jewish rabbis indulged in flights of fancy such as have become more than familiar in the annals of the later Catholic saints. Around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the rabbis wrote of streams of blood issuing from the city in such torrents as to carry heavy stones the whole way from the city to the sea. The ground for up to 30 km around was said to be completely covered with corpses. There was, indeed, great slaughter in the land but not quite to this extent. Dion Cassius, a more sober historian, estimated half a million perished under the fury of the Roman onslaught.

Rabbi Akiba appears to have been in command when Jerusalem was captured and was treated with the utmost severity by Rufus. He was kept starved and thirsty in a dungeon before being executed. Some writers say he was flayed alive, then slain, others that he was torn to pieces with iron combs.
 
The Emperor Julian in the 4th century gave permission for the Jews to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah. It was an almost universal belief among Christians that the Temple would never be rebuilt (founded on Daniel 9: 26-27?).  Funds now poured in and building commenced. Thousands, rich and poor, volunteered their labour. Even ladies joined in the work. The building advanced rapidly until, according to historians, it was suddenly interrupted by flames bursting from the ground, accompanied by earthquakes. So say Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. But Cyril made no mention of such miracles. To all this were added fiery crosses appearing in the air, which also appeared on the clothing of fugitives fleeing the construction site!
 
It does appear that some kind of explosion occurred, which had the effect of driving off the workers. Another historian, Milman, said to crave impartiality in his works, thought there was merit in a belief, first suggested by German historians, that a vault below the Temple, long closed and filled with foul air (methane?), exploded, the air catching fire as it came in contact with flames used by workmen. Others dispute this.  We will never know the truth. Something, however, did cause work to cease on the Temple. But we are reading history recorded in the 4th century CE - the very period when the New Testament with all its miracles and wonders - was being codified. The people in those days were certainly incredulous - even historians.

DEVIL, The. The Devil is also known as Satan. Freud thought that the Devil 'is nothing else than the personification of the repressed instinctual life.' He also commented on another occasion that the Devil was a father-substitute for those who were unlucky, or lacked sufficient ability or effectiveness to make a living. The Devil-Made-Me-Do-It Syndrome, one might say.

Much nonsense gets peddled about the Devil. Scotus Erigena, Irish theologian of the 9th century, believed Satan himself must ultimately be redeemed, since otherwise GOD could not in the end conquer and destroy sin. He cited ORIGEN in support. To many believers the Devil was but the chief of a host of evil creatures known as devils or, by the Muslims, as JINNS. Johann Wier (1515-88), physician to Duke of Cleves, worked out that there were exactly 7,409,127 devils, and they were led by 79 princes.

DIANA. The virgin moon goddess, also known as Hecate. Dr Margaret Murray connected the witch cult with the worship of Diana and believed there had always been covens consisting of 12 members plus a leader. In one era in the Middle Ages it was recorded that the Bishop of Exeter found monks from Frithelstock Priory worshipping a maiden, described as being in a state of the 'unchaste Diana' in the woods. 

DIASPORA.  See under: LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL, The.

DIETING WITH JESUS. A book published by an Evangelical Christian is entitled, The Jesus System for Weight Control. This work, one of a number on the topic, promises it is 'God's answer to fat' - a system in which you 'pray your weight away'.  Perhaps we could say: 'Praise the Lord, and pass the fat away.'

DIGWEED, Ernest. Digweed was an earnest English Christian businessman, something of a recluse, who lived in Portsmouth, Hampshire. In 1976 he died and his will specified that his entire estate, then valued at £26,107, was to go to Jesus Christ, when the latter returned.  Mr Digweed left instructions in his will to place the capital in government bonds at 12.5%.  According to Mr Digweed, Jesus would return in 1999 and would then have a nice little nest-egg to help him in his work, about $700,000 in all.

The money was deposited in the Portsmouth branch of the Trustees Savings Bank and for years after Mr Digweed's death various claimants sought to prove they were the rightful heirs! None was able to perform a miracle or otherwise prove they had a right to take possession of the money.  Eventually, in 1994, after a long legal battle, a distant cousin of Mr Digweed's managed to persuade a court that he should receive the funds, even although he did not bear the name of Jesus Christ. The Public Trustees Office for its part took the precaution of buying an insurance policy with Lloyd's to cover any loss in the event of the real Jesus Christ turning up and claiming his inheritance. 

DIONYSIUS.  In Sicily, early in the 20th century, torch-races were still being run by naked kouretes in connection with the festa of a saint. These were probably not approved by the religious authorities, who have always taken the fun out of human activities and who generally can't stand nakedness.  The races were a survival of the ancient cult of Dionysius.

DISASTERS.  Earthquakes and many similar disasters are usually described as 'Acts of GOD', which doesn't say much for the deity (or deities)! In 1556 an earthquake collapsed thousands of cave dwellings in China's Shensi province, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In 1755 a series of tremors destroyed Lisbon, killing more than 50,000, inspiring Voltaire to write his Poem on Lisbon Earthquake. Since 1900 there have been 35 or more earthquakes resulting in serious loss of life.  In India in 1905, 20,000 died. The San Francisco earthquake in 1906 killed 700. In Sicily in 1908, 75,000 died. In Italy in 1915, 30,000 died. In 1920 in Kansu, China, 180,000 died. In 1923 in Tokyo and Yokohama, 143,000 died. In Chile in 1939, 30,000 died. In the same year in Turkey, 23,000 died. In India in 1935, 60,000 died. In 1960 in Morocco, 12,000 died. In 1968 in Iran, 12,000 died. In Peru in 1970, 50,000.
 
Obviously the semi-primitive minds that put together the Christian Bible were mightily impressed, like all primitive people, by such powerful phenomena of nature as earthquakes. Thus when Mary Magdalene and 'the other Mary' visited the tomb where the body of Jesus was supposedly laid, 'behold,' writes Matthew, 'there was a great earthquake; for an angel of Yahweh [trans. 'the Lord'] descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow:  for fear of him the watchers did quake and become as dead men....'  (Matthew 28:2-4).
    
So says Matthew; but not one word do the other three Gospel writers breathe of this phenomenon! Are we seriously to believe that this staggering event, this encounter with the Other World, a 'great earthquake,' and involving that very same Mary Magdalene who appears in every  one of the four Gospel accounts, fails to gain the tiniest hint of a mention in the other three Gospels? How could a great earthquake pass unnoticed by the three writers? Clearly this is fable pure and simple, written to impress the readers with the staggering nature of the supposed 'resurrection' of the dead body of their deluded prophet.
    
Earthquakes also figure in the Bible's prophesies concerning the End Time. 'There shall be famines and earthquakes in diverse places,' writes Matthew again (Matthew 24: 7), who is himself mightily impressed with these eruptions of nature. At least this prophesy is repeated in Mark and Luke, although John misses the boat. But as earthquakes have occurred throughout recorded history (and no doubt beyond) there is no way of knowing which series of earthquakes point to the End! The Biblical prophets were on pretty safe ground when they promised earthquakes!
 
Finally we have the phenomena of earthquakes that destroy churches and kill worshippers.  There are many such instances, two of the most recent being an earthquake that destroyed a church in Ica, Peru in August 2007. People celebrating evening mass were killed. And in February 2008 in Kigali, Rwanda, many people died when a church there collapsed in an earthquake. Clearly 'acts of GOD' are undiscriminating!

Two historic earthquakes that struck down churches. Left: The Jesuits' Church, Arequipa, Peru, in 1868. Right: The Cathedral of Tito, Italy, in 1857:

Other disasters to strike believers include fire. From a newspaper report in September 1989: 'Twenty-seven school girls were burned to death as they slept in a fire that swept through a dormitory of a Malaysian private religious school. They were aged between 13 and 16 and were boarders at the Madrasah Private School in Alor Setar. They had been caught with 33 other girls in a dormitory with only one stairway to the ground floor.

Religious pilgrimages often prove dangerous to life and limb. From a radio news broadcast, 19 August 1991: 'A Lebanese tourist bus plunged into a ravine in Eastern Turkey yesterday, killing 53 people.  Most of the dead were Sh'ite Muslim pilgrims on their way to shrines in Iraq. The coach, carrying 54 passengers, fell 20 metres after failing to round a bend.' See also under: HAJ PILGRIMAGES.
 
In March 1995 at least 37 Buddhist pilgrims drowned when their overloaded boat capsized in the province of Jiangxi (China). The boat had twice as many passengers on it as it should have  been carrying.

DISCIPLINE, The.  The Discipline was the name given to a small whip, usually made of wire, used by nuns to stir up their libido, normally very depressed by convent life  See further under: MORTIFICATION.

DISEASE AND THE GODS. Some unexplained curiosities may be noted in relation to the divine beneficence. For example, a disease called ichthyosis turns the skin scaly like a fish.  Wyoming has fewer than 1000 cases of cancer per year, while New York has more than 70,000 (1976 figures). Is Wyoming more god-fearing perhaps? The Kuru tribe of New Guinea are the only people on earth stricken with 'laughing sickness' in which victims literally laugh themselves to death. We might well laugh ourselves to death at the absurdities of the belief that GOD is the source of all bounty!

DISPUTES.  Disputes between religious bodies abound. A recent dispute is between Buddhists and Hindus in India, where the Mahabodhi Temple was built during the reign of the Emperor Asoka about 2,500 years ago. The temple is located at Gaya in Bihar State and stands next to the tree believed to be the one under which Gautama Buddha sat when he received 'enlightenment'.  Since the start of the 20th century the site has been controlled by five Hindus and four Buddhists. However in recent times Buddhists have demanded full control and Buddhists around the world began agitating for this to occur.

DIVINE, Father.  See under: FATHER DIVINE.

DIVINE LIGHT MISSION.  Headed by Guru Maharaj Ji. The believers think their guru is a prophet or messiah like Jesus of Nazareth or Muhammad. The religion is an odd mixture of doctrines lifted from the major established faiths, east and west. Some have described the sect as a poor-man's TM. Adherents strongly believe in the existence of the Third Eye, the mystical source of inner illumination. They are taught that when they press their fingers on their closed eyes and experience a sensation of light this signifies the inner illumination. When they put their tongues on the back of their throats they feel not mucus but nectar. And when they put their hands on their wallets they feel like giving money - to the guru.

DIVORCE.  In 1992 figures quoted by a Catholic priest indicated that 40 percent of American Catholics were divorced and remarried without the blessing of their Church.  The Church of Rome, however, has some convenient mechanisms to allow the rich and the famous to divorce and re-marry and some cases in this area are notorious for their cynicism.
 
Divorce is banned to Christians by their own Bible, except under very exceptional circumstances, but this does not stop them divorcing, as always taking and using just those parts of the Bible that are convenient to them. Even fundamentalist Christians who cling to the literal truth of the Word on occasions get divorced and then re-marry. Even ministers of religion can apparently overlook the demands made upon them by the New Testament.

DOBSON, Dr James.  Dr James Dobson, Christian fundamentalist and anti-pornography crusader, wrote the book Dare to Discipline (Tyndale) which as at May 1989 had sold more than two million copies. The book advocates corporal punishment for children. 'Pain is a marvellous purifier,' he writes, 'when children age ten or under attempt "stiff-necked rebellion.". '

'The spanking,' he says, 'should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.' He gives as an example, 'switching' a 15-months-old [sic] on her 'little legs' for going out in the rain barefoot when her mother told her not to. A woman member of a fundamentalist church in Massachusetts where this teaching was adopted was, early in 1989, convicted of beating her two children so severely they were ordered to be removed from her control by a court .
 
The mother said her pastor gave her a paddle to use on her children. Her husband was so incensed at the punishment he sued for divorce.  The woman herself testified she had spanked her two-year-old daughter, who had tried to get out of her car seat, until she was severely bruised. A friend told the court she had seen the woman paddle her 3-year-old girl until there were welts on her thighs. The court gave custody of the children to their father. Dr Dobson also gained extensive publicity for a taped interview with Ted Bundy, the mass murderer.

DODD, Reverend Dr William. An 18th century preacher and writer who won immense popularity. He was born on March 29, 1729. Dr Dodd became known as the Macaroni Parson (Macaroni being a rather absurd 18th century term for a dandy; i.e. one who affected 'Continental' manners). The Reverend Doctor moved in the highest circles of society but mounting debts led to a charge, laid in 1777, of forgery, and Dodd was condemned to death. Dr Johnson, who disliked Dodd personally, went to his defence and petitions carrying 100,000 signatures were raised to save the preacher. A great public debate on the subject of capital punishment followed.
 
Five years previously a Gipsy woman with whom Dodd had an argument had prophesied, 'Well, for all you're so proud, you'll come to be hanged at last!'  Dodd was a campaigner against capital punishment at this time (doubtless he had good reason!) and told friends what the Gipsy had said and also published it in a tract, all long before he was in trouble with the law. Newspapers took up the story as well. In spite of all efforts to save him, he was eventually hanged, at Tyburn, on June 27, 1777.  Doubtless the Gipsy did much business after that. 

DONNE, John.  Noted preacher and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, London in the 17th century. He began life as a Catholic but converted to the Anglican Church. He is famous, among many reasons, for his sermon in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) ending with the oft-quoted words: 'No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.  And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.'
 
Certainly wonderful poetry but the preacher, famous for his eloquence, also wrote fine erotic verse, such as Love's Progress, To His Mistress Going to Bed, and The Extasie,. In Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn Donne entreats the woman: 'Thy two-leaved gates, fair temple, unfold, And these two in thy sacred bosom hold, Till mystically join'd but one they be.'  In To His Mistress Going to Bed,  the poet orders:

Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glittering,
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breast-plate, which you wear,
That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopp'd there . . .
[and on through various outer garments until the woman is fully naked]
. . . Off with thy hose and shoes; then softly tread
In this love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes heaven's angels used to be
Revealed to men; thou, angel  . . .
    License my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below . . . 

Until he cries:

Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee;
As souls embodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys . . .

The preacher and wordsmith obviously enjoyed pleasures other than the purely sacred.

DOOMSDAY CULTS. There has been a rash of doomsday cults in recent years.  These groups believe in the imminent end of the world, possibly inspired by the nearness of the new century and millennium, as were many with the approach of the year 1,000 CE.
 
Most of these cults are linked theologically to fundamentalist Christianity but other influences have also been at work, including Islam. In September 1995 Malaysia's Islamic Government cracked down on a cult centred in the State of Sabah in the country's north. Some 200 or so plantation workers, mostly from Timor, were participating in ceremonies as they awaited the coming end - prophesied by their leader, self-described as Nabi Petrus ('Peter the Prophet'). Nabi Petrus had told his followers he had spoken to GOD and that the world would end in October. They were instructed to give up their possessions and await the end. Reportedly the doctrines taught by this prophet were a mixture of Christian and Islamic notions.

In 1994 the Malaysian Government banned another sect, one that believed an Islamic 'messiah' was due to appear soon and that doomsday was approaching.  See further under: AL ARQAM. The Japanese had their cult, too.  See further under: AUM SHINRI. And every so often the Koreans throw up another doomsday group, in fact they probably account for the greatest number of such, including the MOONIES.

DOWSERS.  The dowser or water-diviner claims to use non-physical means to locate water underground, generally attributing his powers to ESP. In practice he usually employs a forked stick cut from a living tree or branch, hazel being the favoured wood.  When the dowser is over water the stick is said to bend downwards. In a fascinating book, Water: Miracle of Nature (New York, Macmillan 1953) Thomson King relates how his grandfather was once persuaded to employ a dowser to dig a well.
The dowser told his grandfather the only place water would be found was on the south side of the house. He should dig a well there. His grandfather, however, wanted the well on the north side and so, ignoring the dower's advice, he dug there. He had a very good well. In Australia, a continent where water is very scarce, an analysis by scientists of a series of wells showed that more were successfully dug without the aid of dowsers than with! 

In both England and Australia tests have been carried out on groups of dowsers. In Australia a substantial monetary prize was offered by Mr Dick Smith, a successful businessman and adventurer, to any successful dowser. In both countries the tests demonstrated clearly that the dowsers' results not only conflicted with one another but in the English tests, where actual buried wells were sought, there was no agreement with the water-bearing areas.
 
If dowsers have any success at all it comes from a simple fact. Underground water tends to lie in broad belts or strata. In such situations wells sunk just about anywhere produce water. As I compile these notes I happen to be living on an area built over sand flats and people here can easily sink a bore hole and gain a good supply of water for their gardens. It works without fail! A great place for a dowser to display his talents!

DREAMS AND VISIONS.  Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, in 312 CE had a vision before the battle for Milvan Bridge. According to Eusebius, who, however, was a somewhat unreliable biographer/historian, Constantine saw the vision of a cross in the sky, bearing the inscription, 'Hoc signo vinces' ('By this sign conquer'). Chinese Emperor Ming-ti had a similar vision when, in 61 CE, through a dream, he was encouraged to introduce Buddhism into China. (See also: Moore, History of Religions, 1914, p.79)

DRURY, Nevill. English-born, Drury has spent the greater part of his life in Australia. He is a noted author in the fields of magic, witchcraft and occult mythology, his works having been published in a number of countries. Among his books is a comprehensive Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult. In addition to contributing both articles and books to the literature in this field he worked in 1984 with Frank Heimans on a 2-hour international TV documentary, The Occult Experience.

ECO-FEMINISTS.  Appears to be another description for WHITE WITCHES. 

ECUADORIAN MASSACRE, The. In September 1955 a group of hot gospeller Protestant missionaries, working with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship of the USA, began seeking to make contact with some fierce Indians deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, the Aucas. These warriors were even feared by the Jivaro, well known for their habit of shrinking the heads of dead enemies. The Aucas wielded deadly spears and killed all strangers. The Ecuadorian Government had long since given up trying to make contact with them; they had lost too many government officers in the process.

After a long and carefully worked-out plan, involving the dropping of gifts over Auca settlements, and other well thought-out moves, on Friday, January 6, 1956, five missionaries landed their plane on the Curaray River, among the Auca tribespeople.  They were Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian, the latter a former paratrooper.

They were met by three virtually naked Aucas - an older man and woman and a girl aged about 16. From what the missionaries could make out it seemed the nubile young woman was being offered to them in an apparently friendly gesture. Some language contact could be made as the missionaries had worked with a neighbouring tribe, the Quechuas. Gifts were given and many photographs taken. The two women looked through copies of Time magazine. Finally the Auca man made it clear he wanted to be taken for a flight in the plane and this was done.

They flew over a nearby Auca settlement, so that the villagers could see their man in the plane. Their mouths fell open at the sight! After they returned to the river some hours were spent passing out gifts and trying to get the man to take them to the village by land, but he seemed reluctant. Eventually the day ended and the fliers returned to base with their exciting news.
The next day they went back to their beach site but nobody appeared. They flew over the village and were puzzled to see women and children run as if in terror. Only two men appeared and they seemed frightened. But by the time a third flight had been made and gifts dropped, however, the fears seemed to have evaporated. The five men landed at the beach again on Sunday but when nothing happened by midday they flew over the village; only women and children appeared.

On the return flight to the beach they noted that ten warriors were on their way towards the spot where they had camped by the river. At 12.35 pm they radioed back to base that the men were coming to meet them - at last.  'Pray for us. This is the day!' they told their waiting wives. It WAS indeed but their prayers weren't to be answered! They said they would contact their base again at 4.35 pm.  But 4.35 came and went and there was silence. On the beach lay the bodies of five young Americans, speared and very dead. The plane had been speared, too.
 
On Monday a detachment of Ecuadorian soldiers, missionaries and Quechua Indians was sent to the location. Only four bodies were found; the fifth never located, apparently washed down the river. The wives received the news with Christian calm.  Now missionary efforts were stepped up massively as the Christians of Ecuador and the USA sought to bring the fierce Aucas within the fold of the Gospel.
 
The martyr-complex that afflicts the religious was strongly at work once again. It was estimated at this time that more than 1,000 students from colleges in the USA volunteered for missionary service as a direct result of the tragedy. A news commentator noted: 'For years I have watched them [missionaries] and this I know: the Aucas are marked men - marked not for extinction but for conversion. As such, they haven't a chance. Missionaries, especially those touched by martyrdom, are hard to stop. The blood of the martyrs seems still to be the seed of the Church!'
 
And the Aucas did not have a chance. Like so many other native peoples around the world they, too, were to be infected with the Christian parasite and have their distinctive lifestyle destroyed. They paid a heavy price for the deaths of the five missionaries, but, then, had they received them with friendliness they would have paid the same price!

EARTHQUAKES.  See under: DISASTERS.

EASTER. Easter is celebrated by Western Christians on the dates of the Jewish Passover, which is in turn linked to vestiges of lunar worship clearly evident in the Christian Bible. This is revealed by the manner in which the dates of Easter are determined: Easter Day is on 'the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.'
 
Easter is a curious celebration; even the word comes from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring (Eostre) but in religion, as an old verse says, 'any god will do'. According to Bishop Charles Leadbeater of the Liberal Catholic Church, in his book The Hidden Side of Christian Festivals (1920), the name Eostre is in turn just another form of Ishtar, Astaroth, or Astarte, the Queen of Heaven.
 
And Easter, that all-important Christian festival, is celebrated on a date that varies from year to year, sometimes in March and sometimes in April. Christians have, in fact, come to celebrate the death of their prophet Jesus on a varying date! As an acquaintance once remarked, 'Christ is the god who dies from month to month.' And once again we find that primitive religious rites, in the form of worship of lunar deities, have profoundly influenced the development of a 'higher' religion. Moon-worship is clearly evident beneath the surface of the Jewish Old Testament and this has in turn affected the New.

In 1997 it was reported that an effort was being made by Christians on a worldwide basis to unify the date upon which Easter is celebrated.  It was being proposed that a precise astronomical calculation, using Jerusalem as the basis, would be used and that the new system would begin with the Easter of April 15, 2001. There is no word as to what happened to this idea.

EDICT OF NANTES, Revocation of the.  Henry 4th of France issued a tolerating Edict, allowing his Protestant citizens equal rights with Catholics. When Louis 14th ascended the throne he solemnly swore to maintain this edict. However, on October 18, 1685, Louis signed a Revocation order. It was published four days later. His action was heartily approved by the Catholic Church and the greater body of French people.  Behind the scenes the king was influenced by his Catholic mistress, Madame de Maintenon, and his Jesuit confessor, Père la Chaise.  The result of this move was the unleashing of a massive slaughter of the Protestants or Huguenots of France. See further under: HUGUENOTS.

EDWARDS, Jonathan. American evangelical preacher. See further under: REVIVALS. 

ELECTRIFYING CHURCH OF THE NEW LIGHT. In 1992 Pastor Ezra Barnaby was electrifying his congregations in a US middle-west farming community - literally.  Instead of water baptism the church was inducting members with electric shocks - via jumper leads connected to a car battery. The church at that time had 137 members, including 21 children. Anyone between the ages of 3 and 70 would experience the Holy Ghost entering their body via the electric jolt. The pastor himself had been through the ritual, as had his teenage daughters.
 
Four times each year a special service is held. Candidates for electric baptism kneel before the preacher, the cables are touched together to produce sparks, then applied to the kneeling person. The converts tense momentarily as the Spirit enters then everybody bows in prayer. Proclaimed one convert: 'My life hasn't been the same since that wonderful day. I have been truly saved.' 

There appears to be a music album bearing the same name as this church. Any connection is unknown.

ELECTION, Doctrine of. Through several centuries controversy raged between opposing Protestant groups over the questions of freewill and 'election'. The Calvinists (e.g. the Presbyterians and members of the various Reformed Churches) believe in election, put crudely, that the deity chooses to save some and not others. Many others, particularly most (but not all) Methodists and Congregations, believe otherwise, leaving men and women a free choice as to whether they accept or reject salvation. It was as a result of this debate that the following famous statement was made.

'Observing the doctrine of Particular Election . . . and those who preach it to make the Bible clash and contradict itself, by preaching somewhat like this: "You can and you can't - You shall and you shan't - You will and you won't - And you'll be damned if you do - And you'll be damned if you don't.". . .'  (Lorenzo Dow, 1777-1834: Reflections on the Love of GOD - 6 (1836), 30.)

ELFREDA. The story of Elfreda may be apocryphal or may have at least some elements of truth. The story goes that as a child of 4 years Elfreda was put into a convent, her parents hoping she would become a nun when she grew up.  As she developed it was seen that she was a striking beauty and because of this the nuns treated her cruelly, loading her with penances, punishments and abuse. In time she fell in love with a monk in a nearby monastery and she became pregnant.
 
The nuns considered whether she would be burnt at the stake, flayed alive or torn with red-hot pincers. In the end they stripped her naked, beat her with rods, loaded her with chains, and threw her into a dungeon. In the end she had her baby and was rescued 'miraculously' from her predicament. Well, that's how the story goes.

ELIZABETH, Saint. A Hungarian Catholic saint who was happily married.  Like so many of the saints Elizabeth was much given to MORTIFICATION of the flesh and when her husband went off to the Crusades (which, to be fair to the lady, she deeply regretted) she used his absence to exercise to the full her desire for mortification. It was said of her that she whipped herself with particular severity on the evening prior to joining her husband again in bed, doubtless enjoying the sexual encounter all the more as a result! 

ELMER GANTRY.  A work of fiction by Sinclair Lewis. It is aimed at the Bible Belt Fundamentalists, attacking by proxy charlatan leaders of Protestant churches. It was also made into a popular movie with Burt Lancaster as the preacher and Jean Simmons as the leading lady.

ELOHIM CITY. A white supremacist colony located in Oklahoma, USA. Linked to a group known as Christian Identity, a racialist body.

EL SAADAWI, Nawal. Born in 1930, an Egyptian female doctor and writer. In 1972 she was sacked from her position in the Egyptian Ministry of Health as a result of her outspoken comments regarding the position of women in Arab society. Her books include Women and Sex (1972) and The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1979). Another of her books, the fictional Woman at Point Zero (1978), was banned in Egypt. In 1981 as a direct result of her writings she was imprisoned for some months in the notorious Qanatir Prison.

END TIME DELAYED. Late in 1988 it was reported that fundamentalists in Gary, Indiana, USA, had been waiting in their church for several months for a tornado to strike. Their preacher's wife prophesied in December that the tornado would hit the area in January, smashing everything except the church. Several new dates were set when January passed.

EPISCOPALIAN EMBEZZLER.  In April 1995 the former Treasurer of the American Episcopal Church (the American Anglicans), Ms Ellen F. Cooke, was accused of embezzling $US2.2 million in church funds. Through her lawyers Mrs Cooke issued a statement blaming job stress and 'gender bias' for her predicament and reported that a psychiatrist had in February evaluated her and said she had been subjected to enormous pressures. (One is continually told that the Christian faith harmonizes life and brings peace, et al; apparently not so in the case of Ms Cooke!)

An auditor's report found that money had been diverted into buying a house for the lady in New Jersey and a farm in Virginia. Her children's schooling had been paid for from church funds and jewellery and travel also. The money had, according to the report, been diverted into the Treasurer's personal bank account by ignoring the need for multiple signatures of church cheques. In July 1995 Mrs Cooke was sentenced to five years in prison.

ESP FRAUD. A case of ESP fraud was perpetrated by Dr Walter J. Levy, 26, number one research director at J. B. Rhine's Institute of Parapsychology, North Carolina. Levy set up automated experiments involving rats and mice to overcome a 50-year problem in ESP research - lack of repeatability. Great excitement was generated in parapsychology research circles by the positive results from Levy's experiments. Dr Christopher Scott, statistician, once extremely interested in ESP, later became convinced that fraud and carelessness have always played a large part in parapsychology research. Dr Scott claimed that there was still a lot of the Levy case covered up although Dr Rhine had reportedly acted with alacrity, dismissing Levy when the fraud was uncovered.

Ray Hayman, friend of Randi, the famous magician and debunker, pointed out that 'Forty years ago [1975] parapsychologists claimed bats had ESP and those against them said they were crazy. Now we know the bats have a sophisticated sonar-system.'

EVANGELISTIC MEETINGS. The lights are dimmed and the organ is playing.  A robed choir sways to and fro on the platform as they intone the hymns. Assistant preachers warm up the crowd with short addresses that lack any depth of intellectual content but are heavy in the emotional department. The music is rhythmical, insistent, insinuating. Eventually the evangelist arrives on the platform with a flourish and the choir bursts forth in exultant song. The stage is now set for the preaching of the word.

At every possible point during his address the evangelist involves the audience. They stand, they sit, they shout, they repeat texts. They are told to wave their arms above their heads. As the address reaches its climax the music starts up again, providing an additional boost of emotionalism as the demand goes forth, to repent, be saved, trust in Jesus . . .  There is now no place for thought, no place for weighing up the pros and cons of the message, a response, an emotional response is demanded of the listener. There is, after all, no logic whatever, in the message of the Gospel.  See fuller account under: REVIVALS.

EVIL SPIRITS.  Most religions believe in both good and bad spirits and the term 'evil spirits' has come to be associated with invisible beings given over to perpetrating evil actions among humans. Many primitive religions, e.g. those of the Chinese and Australian Aboriginals, hold a belief in such spirits. The Muslims describe such spirits as jinns (a singular evil spirit = jinnee), although in this case they are not necessarily evil. From early Christian times a substantial body of people believed in the existence of such malevolent creatures and even today among many Catholics and fundamentalist Christians such a belief persists. See further under: EXORCISM.   

EVOLUTION.  Professor Stephen Jay Gould has said that human beings, rather than being the ultimate goal of evolution are, like every other species alive today, simply here through chance. Professor Gould is an eminent palaeontologist from Harvard University. He told a meeting at the Australian Museum: 'If you could rewind the tape of life and let it play again, you would get a different set of survivors every time. The chance of getting humanity again is close to nil. We are very lucky to be here.'

The Professor's view stems from the fairly recent discovery that, 530 million years ago, the world was teeming with a myriad sea creatures. A plethora of life forms is preserved as fossils in a Canadian rock formation known as the Burgess Shale. Professor Gould said these represented 25 different basic biological designs or body-plans. Only four designs survived; the others died out for no known reason. All creatures on the earth are derived from those four body-plans.  These creatures were known as: Wiwaxia (crawled on its belly); Hallucigenia (seven sets of spines on its back); Opabinia (five eyes and a nozzle like vacuum cleaner inlet); Pikaia (rod on back that evolved into spinal chord). It was this wormlike latter creature from which humans ultimately evolved. And a footnote: The human foetus is said to pass through a stage endowed with a tail and gill-slits.

EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN.  See under: BRETHREN, The.

EXORCISM.
Exorcism is a ritual whereby it is supposed EVIL SPIRITS are driven from a person or object by a variety of means. Notwithstanding the insights into human behaviour provided by psychiatric studies today there are still substantial numbers of people who believe in the existence of such spirits and/or the necessity of driving them out of the person by one means or another. However, exorcism rituals are often deadly. Some accounts follow:

* Four people - three males and one female - were sent to trial in Melbourne for beating an 18-year-old girl, Carol Baglin, to death 'to rid her body of evil.' The magistrate commented that he thought they had acted 'with the highest motives,' as 'there is no evidence of malice, no evidence of intent to do the girl injury.' Miss Balgin was an unemployed model and public servant. She died on February 24, 1973. [Outcome of case unknown.]

* A 24-year old girl was whipped to death by two Voodoo priests trying to 'drive out the devils possessing her soul' in the Dominican Republic, according to an October 1974 report. The priests were known as exorcists to the local populace. The girl's father called the priests to the village in the northern area of the country. They first forced the girl to swallow potions, shrieking mystical incantations over her. They next cut her with razor blades, struck her and finally flogged her to death.  Police arrested one priest, who possessed potions, a book of magical spells and a box of feathers. They were seeking the other. 

* Demiko Norris, aged just 3 months, died in an exorcism ritual in Damascus, Maryland (USA) in December 1976. His mother Melissa reportedly pummelled her little boy while chanting the slogan: 'Satan, the Lord rebukes you,' in an attempt to drive out the devils she believed inhabited the child.

* Catherine Council, 21, died in a car during an exorcism ritual in New York in January 1977. An occult practitioner known as a 'root doctor' treated the young woman. She was first bound and then a towel was placed about her face, after which she was force-fed with a potion including turpentine and ammonia. The cause of death was listed as asphyxiation and suffocation. The woman's mother was later charged with manslaughter.

* Annelise Michael, a 23-year-old German woman, died in 1978 after a course of exorcism stretching over ten months. Two priests, Father Wilhelm Renz, 67, and Father Ernst Alt, 40, were charged with manslaughter, along with the woman's parents, Josef (60) and Ann (57) Michael. The exorcists tried to drive out demons, one named Hitler and the other named Nero, from her body. Included in their treatment was beating and ritual starvation, resulting in malnutrition, from which the girl died.  She was told she was 'doing penance' for others. She weighed but 32 kg when she gave up the fight for life. All four were found guilty but given suspended sentences of six months. It was revealed during the trial that Annelise suffered from epilepsy.
   
* On or about September 7, 1992, an American court was hearing a case against the parents of Lisa Maree Moralis.  The child had died, aged 5, in 1977, but recent evidence had brought to light allegations that she died as a result of exorcism rituals carried out by her parents. These had been carried out over a period of time. Testifying against the couple was Lisa's older sister, Beatrice Contaro, now aged 22.  She said she was present in the house during the final phase which resulted in the death of her little sister. The child, kept naked all the time, was taken into the bathroom and forced into water in the bath. She heard screaming, crying and moaning as he sister was drowned. The little girl's body was, she claimed, wrapped in a plastic bag and taken by car and dumped. The body has never been found. On October 19 it was announced that the trial had ended and the couple had been found guilty.  [Sentences unknown.]

* In June 1994 it was reported that an Islamic exorcism had brought about the death of a 19-year-old teenager in France. Louisa Lardjourne was suffering psychological problems and her brother, convinced she was possessed by the Devil, called in an imam. It was claimed after the young woman died that she had been tortured.  Police charged three people, including the holy man, over the woman's death. [No further details.]

* In April 1997 in Malibu, USA, two Korean Christian missionaries were found not guilty on murder charges but guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with an exorcism ritual. Jae-Whoa Chung, 50, and Sung Soo Choi, 47, had stomped to death Chung's wife, Kyung-Ja Chung, 53, in a ritual known as ansukido, designed to rid her of demons, an amalgam of Korean and Christian superstition. The men claimed that the woman had desired exorcism because the demons within her made her arrogant and disobedient to her husband.  The court found that the woman had been subjected to repeated crushing of her abdomen and chest with the men's hands and feet. Some legal commentators have been disturbed by the appeal to religious belief being accepted by a court.

Commented a defence attorney: 'These are men of God. They were doing the work of God. They were doing what they honestly believed was necessary to drive the demon out.' Sung Soo Choi, the exorcist, advised the husband that to cure his wife they would have to subject her to suffering 'comparable to journeying through hell'. The result: 16 broken ribs, internal organs displaced and crushed and a vein leading to her heart torn. The men claimed the Devil himself had warned them he would not leave the woman without killing her!

(See also the story of Eliana Barbosa under the heading: CRUCIFIXION.)

EXPECTATION SYNDROME. The pattern of human behaviour whereby expectations on the part of an individual influence the outcome, is otherwise termed self-fulfilling prophecy. For a typical example see under SCHIZOPHRENIA. Freud, writing to Jung, referred to 'an enormously intensified alertness on the part of the unconscious, so that one is led like Faust to see a Helen in every woman.' Another aspect is the 'co-operation of chance' which plays a vital part in the formation of delusions and linguistic co-operation in spinning puns. 

FAITH.  'The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.'  (H.L. Mencken)

FAITH HEALING. 
So-called 'faith' or spiritual healing is a common activity in the Christian Church. Activities range from simple prayer services in the more conservative churches through to emotion-charged 'miracle' extravaganzas in many fundamentalist sects.
 
'Jesus: alive and well and healing at the Hordern (a well-known Sydney public hall)' ran one Australian newspaper headline. French Canadian Catholic priest Emilien Tardif was back again two years after a previous visit, peddling his simplistic nostrums.  And why not? The American televangelists shouldn't have the stage all to themselves!  Doubtless some of them do some good, so I cannot knock them altogether. But I do challenge any claim they make that their powers come from some supposed divine source! Nonsense! The faulty logic of such a position should be evident to anyone with a modicum of intelligence.

But belief is a powerful force and when it takes hold logic flies out the window.  Too often the strength of the believer's faith is such as to blind him or her to dangers inherent in the situation. Typical is the case of a 7-year-old girl who died in New Zealand. In November 1990, a mother and father, members of a Christian sect, were acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of 'endangering life' when their little girl died after they stopped giving her insulin. They believed GOD had cured her. They were described as being members of a 'Christian fellowship.'  Sad stories like this have been repeated far too many times over the years.

Let me tell my readers a little story. Bear with me, it has great relevance to my subject. We will go back in time about eighty or so years.  We are in the ancient French city of Nancy. The year is 1920. We are in a building located on an avenue called, very appropriately, rue Jeanne d'Arc, a supposed miracle worker.

In Nancy we are about to behold an interesting series of events. And it would not be at all difficult to imagine oneself watching a procession of unwell people in the tent of an evangelist-healer. Miracles are being worked in Nancy on this day! A healer is at work. Ulcers are cured, stammerers are made to speak normally, neuralgia is disposed of, the lame are made to walk, headaches are banished, nervous people regain their composure.
 

NATURAL CURES

The man working these miracles, although a citizen of Catholic France, is not, however, calling upon the name of the Lord. He is no religious healer but is a chemist; today we would call him a pharmacist. Emile Coué understood the awesome power of the human imagination. He perceived that the human mind could bring on illness and that the same human mind could banish it. Many might laugh today at Coué's simple ways and his famous formula, 'Day by day in every respect I am getting better and better,' but Coué was among the pioneers of what we now call psychosomatic medicine.
 
There were some failures, but innumerable people were cured, positively and permanently. Coué, and those who followed in a similar path, were every bit as successful as the religious faith healers but with this important difference: they did not have the amazing effrontery to attribute their powers to divine intervention.

About twenty years ago an American researcher conducted an exhaustive study of many of the so-called religious faith healers of the day, including that notorious charlatan Oral Roberts, who once visited Australia. The 'cures' were divided into two groups - those, such as were effected by Coué, which worked in the mind and would have worked anyway, regardless of religious faith, and those that were outright frauds. Many people were studied both before they entered the meetings and after they left.
 
For example, a person would be observed before the start of the meeting walking about normally outside a tent or meeting place but would later be seen being wheeled into the hall in a wheelchair! At the appropriate 'command of faith' or whatever mumbo-jumbo was uttered, he would leap from his wheelchair and everyone would applaud. Jim Jones, that evil preacher who led nearly a thousand people to their death in Jonestown, employed similar techniques to convince his naïve disciples.

Follow-up studied were made of many 'healed' people, only to find that they had soon relapsed. Three out of five checked by a Sydney reporter after Roberts's last visit had relapsed. Apparently the excitement and emotional impact of the moment had been sufficient for them to overcome, temporarily, whatever it was that held them back.
 

LOURDES

What about Lourdes, that famous - or, perhaps, infamous - place?  Only some,  very few in fact, who visit the famous shrine of Lourdes go away cured. The deity is selective as to whom he will extend aid. But cures aplenty are claimed and paraded forth as proof of divine assistance. Now there are cures, perhaps quite a few, but they are such as one might expect when dealing with illnesses that have their genesis deep within the human psyche.
 
Above and behind the altar in the Lourdes grotto hang crutches and abdominal belts, discarded by the healed ones, placed there as trophies to the power of GOD. But George Bernard Shaw, in his usual insightful way, remarked once that he considered Lourdes to be a blasphemous place, for they kept there all the crutches and wheelchairs of those who walked away cured, but among these trophies was not to be found one wooden leg, one glass eye, nor one hairpiece. After all, only some diseases and disabilities have their genesis in the mind. Cures there may be, for which we can be thankful, but cures from GOD? I think not!
 
It never has and never will require the co-operation of a deity to work supposed miracles.  Whether we are dealing with lame people made to walk, or statues made to weep, or turning water into wine, human agencies alone, given the will and determination, produce such wonders. The powerful operation of the imagination of man is alone responsible for all that passes for the miraculous in our world.  View of the Lourdes church-grotto where the crutches can be seen hanging on the wall:

 

FAITH MISPLACED.  It is a common trait of religious believers to engage in the activity known as rationalizing. The believing mindset is such that any deviation from an expected outcome is accommodated, no matter how outlandish. We this see this operating in times of disaster, e.g. a mine cave-in. The faithful gather and pray for the trapped miners. Some are saved but some die. GOD obviously saved those rescued. And what of the others? The awkward fact that prayers were not fully answered is now explained away with suggestions such as 'it was their time to go the Lord' or some other specious explanation.

It is hard to find a more stunning example of the blindness of faith than in this quote from the autobiography of a missionary working in China during the Boxer Rebellion: 'The rebels laid siege to Yüh-shan where nine lady missionaries were staying  . . . The Yüh-shan officials said that the prayers of the foreigners had saved the city. The siege was raised. But thirteen missionaries and children were murdered in the neighbouring stations of Ch'ang-shan and Kiu-chao.'  The writer emphasized the statement about prayer by using italics. And then calmly recounted the deaths of those whom prayer had not saved! No italics for that line! (Taken from Pearls of the Pacific by Florence S. H. Young. London, Marshall Bros Ltd, nd, circa 1925.)

The absurdity of religious sentiment was nowhere more evident than at a music concert staged in Italy in September 1995 to raise funds for the suffering children of Bosnia.  While the deity looked down upon his Muslim and Christian followers as they slaughtered, maimed and terrorized thousands of small children, the audience listened to the words and music of Ave Maria.  And American singer Meatloaf commented: 'If one child gets helped, God's looking down on us and God will smile.' How blind can one get?

FALSE DOCUMENTS. From the earliest days of the Christian Church many documents of dubious origin appeared, supporting now one, now another position.  Between the 4th and 8th centuries numerous 'lives' of saints and martyrs were concocted, pure fiction, but soon to become accepted as historic truth. Thus two classic Catholic texts, Acts of the Martyrs, and Lives of the Saints, from which many later histories are taken, are probably two parts dross and one part fact, if they are even that accurate! The process of writing 'history' was still going on as late as the 16th and 17th centuries when St Francis Xavier's biographers rolled up their sleeves and produced a miraculous edifice about the saint's life. See full account under: XAVIER, St Francis.
  
But then forgery would not bother those who wrote into the records the amazing history of Christ! It was common throughout the period of early Church history to produce convenient documents to prove this or that doctrine or support this or that view.  In the 5th century the Greek Church was involved in debate with Rome over the primacy of the latter.  Church authorities at Rome forged a copy of a Greek document to make it appear the Greeks described Pope Leo 1st as 'head of the universal Church.'

Among the most notable are The Acts of St Silvester (forged about 430 CE) and The Constitution of St Silvester (dating from about 500 CE), which purported to show that the Bishop of Rome had received his office as head of the universal Church direct from Constantine. This demonstrates how desperate were the Romans to prove their case. In a much later era forgery continued. In the 9th century the notorious Decretals of Isidore were circulating. This particular collection was fabricated in France in the 9th century and comprised some genuine early papal decisions mixed in with a huge number of forged documents.  The purpose of this forgery was to support Catholic clergy in France and elsewhere in their appeals to Rome, following action being taken against them by local authorities. They were later used, together with other forged documents, at the behest of Gregory 7th (1073-1085) to wrest the investiture of the Pope from the Emperor's hands and to establish the supremacy of the Church over the State.

FALWELL, Reverend Jerry. US televangelist, militantly fundamentalist, his group once being dubbed the Moral Majority, something of a misnomer as it represented but a relatively small proportion of the country's population. In 1987 Falwell became involved in the attempt to clean up the mess left by the fall from grace of another televangelist, Jim BAKKER. Bakker passed over control of his PTL ministry to Falwell, however eventually the two fell out. Not surprising since Bakker is a Pentecostalist and Falwell a Baptist. Falwell cited 'documented evidence' that Bakker had been involved in 'homosexual misconduct' and claimed Bakker was consumed with greed.  Jerry Falwell died in May 2007.

FAMILY OF LOVE.  Fanatical sect arising in the Low Countries in the middle of the 16th century.  Its chief leader was David Joris or George, of Delft, who claimed he was a second David, 'in whom, as the Messiah, born after the Spirit, ancient prophecy would reach its true accomplishment.' He preached a new dispensation of perfect righteousness and perfect love. Another leader, Henry Niclas or Nicholas of Amsterdam, claimed he was greater than either Moses or Christ. Man was, he said, independent of dogma and religion consisted of love.
 
The teaching was, in effect, that of sinless perfectionism, even things forbidden to ordinary mortals being allowed to the pure. This teaching resulted in the group's behaviour eventually degenerating into 'coarse licentiousness.' Around 1522 the sect appeared in Kent, England, and caused considerable problems for church and state authorities; Elizabeth enacted severe laws against the people.
  
In recent times the Family of Love has been used as the name of the group formerly known as the CHILDREN OF GOD. It appears to be a reincarnation of the name THE LOVE FAMILY, a forerunner group with links to the later CHILDREN OF GOD.  Former members of the COG sect apparently wish to distance themselves from the controversies surrounding the latter. 

FAMILY, The.  A secretive sect headed by Ann Hamilton-Byrne, who is believed to have come originally from the USA, centred on Ferny Creek, in the Dandenong Mountains, Victoria (Australia).  It was operating for over ten years during the 1970s and 1980s. It was featured on television current affairs programs, with allegations being made by ex-members of the use of the drug LSD and other drugs and that large sums of money were taken from members. The sect then owned at least two houses in Victoria, a large one at Ferny Creek, and another at Eildon, 130 km north-east of Melbourne.
 
The sect was at the time also accused of physical and mental child abuse, and these accusations led to an official raid on the property at Lake Eildon on August 14, 1987.  The 'family members', aged between 12 and 22, were found to be ignorant of the simplest matters, for example, what a 'milk bar' was, and where Eildon was located.  The children were placed in alternative care; some had already left or been taken away.
     
Ms Hamilton-Byrne claimed she was conducting some sort of 'scientific experiment' in raising children - under conditions of severe discipline and conformity to certain patterns. There was a religious dimension of vague nature, with belief in a traumatic End Time, for which the children were being prepared. They were even dressed alike when they went out into the world. For a long list of infractions of rules they were physically beaten, with various implements, including canes, one in particular being of a three-corned design and said to be particularly cruel, and whips. The beatings often took place in front of the other children.
 
In a program on Channel Nine's Current Affair, a re-enaction of a punishment was shown, in which a child had his or her head held down in a bucket of water. The bucket of water would be placed on a bench, the child made to kneel and one or two of the helpers would hold their hands tightly behind their back while the head was forced into the water. This was punishment for stealing as well as other offences. Children were also allegedly locked up in darkness in a cellar-type room and had their hair dyed. It was also alleged also that various tranquillizer drugs were administered to the children, mainly via their food intake.

Other punishments included being forced to miss meals and being made to take cold showers (Eildon has a cold mountain climate). There were accusations made that children were obtained for the sect by falsifying birth certificates. Eventually, in 1989 Mrs Byrne moved to the United Kingdom and still seemed to be operating the sect there for a time (and was seen on subsequent TV programs). In October 1990 Dr Christabel Mary Wallace, 75, was fined in Melbourne's County Court for falsifying birth records of three children in 1980 and 1984, so that they appeared to be children of Hamilton-Byrne.

Hamilton-Byrne eventually appeared in the USA from where in 1993 Anne and William Hamilton-Byrne were extradited to Australia to face charges relating to 'financial scams and mis-treatment of children.' Mrs Byrne in her few public utterances showed what can only be described as a paranoid idea of having some divine mission or other. It was even claimed she thought she was a reincarnation of the god Jesus Christ.
 
When the Hamilton-Byrnes faced an Australian court they only had to answer a charge over the false birth registration of three children in Australia. The children had been brought up as their own. The couple pleaded guilty and were fined. No charges were laid in connection with allegations of child abuse. The decision by authorities not to proceed with such charges was later bitterly criticized by former sect children.  The charges were dropped, officials claimed, because of concern over alleged offences committed in New Zealand. In May 1995 one of the survivors, 25-year-old Sarah Hamilton-Byrne, now a medical practitioner, wrote a book about her experiences, Unseen, Unheard, Unknown (Penguin).

FANTASY-PRONE INDIVIDUALS.  In June 1991 two Adelaide researchers reported on their findings concerning 'fantasy-prone' individuals who thought they conversed with or had been abducted by aliens. Dr Robert Bartholemew and Mr Keith Basterfield had worked on a theory originally suggested by American psychologists Sheryl Wilson and Theodore Barber in 1981.  It is believed that about 4 percent of the population had a 'fantasy-prone' personality. Such people really believed that what they reported experiencing had in fact occurred. It is suggested that such people generally spent a large amount of time as children in a make-believe world. The same group of people commonly reported out-of-the-body experiences. 

FATHER DIVINE. Father Divine was the name by which George Baker was best known. Born in 1882, Baker, with a Baptist background, established his own religious denomination centred on New York State and claimed to be GOD. The majority of his followers were blacks who pledged money to the organization. A network of 'Heavens' was established on earth by the Father, each staffed by 'angels'. Father Divine also developed a wide range of business and other activities.
 
From time to time the authorities prosecuted Divine, usually without great success.  On one occasion, however, in 1931 a judge handed down a judgment against him and days later dropped dead, although apparently in good health. This event received wide publicity and helped boost the Father's following. Baker/Father Divine made many outrageous claims throughout his lifetime and was ever newsworthy, as he enjoyed a flamboyant lifestyle and sported a whole fleet of limousines purchased, naturally, with the believers' money. However in 1965 he clearly demonstrated that he was not, after all, GOD - putting it simply, he died.       

FEMALES. Most religions treat females as inferior beings. Male Jews even had a prayer in which the deity was thanked for not making the supplicant a female. And the Christian Fathers generally thought woman to be a low form of life.
 
'The whole World was made for man, but the twelfth part of man for woman: Man is the whole World, and the Breath of God; Woman the rib and crooked piece of man.'  (Sir Thomas Browne,1605-82: Religio Medici ).

But who would want to be a woman and live in benighted Iran? Or Saudi Arabia? Or Pakistan? Western Governments for years condemned the regimes of South Africa and other countries but have been strangely silent over the terrible human rights abuses in such countries, especially in relation to women.  In Iran in 1992, for example, police and volunteers (eager males) rounded up women who had been running boutiques and contravening the silly strict dress code that condemns women to go about in sacks. If women voluntarily wore such hideous garments that would be o.k. but many do not wish to do so yet are forced to adopt these symbols of oppression by the males who run society. Shops were closed down and hundreds of women intimidated. Former businesswomen were virtually thrown on the streets, or forced to depend on males for support! This suits Islamic men well, no doubt!

FENG SHUI. An Oriental belief system involving the orientation of buildings and even furniture in a particular direction to ensure harmony and success. In recent times this mystical system has penetrated the West and in my own country practitioners of the art are hired to examine the feng shui of new buildings being constructed. Other practitioners ply their trade among the housewives and yuppies setting up homes. One course promises to give students 'an understanding of the energy dynamics within their houses.'  But long before such beliefs became popular in the West (in the 1960s) an Englishman wrote a book, Bring Out the Magic in Your Mind, in which he urged anyone seeking success to align their beds in a particular direction - I forget which - to achieve their desires.   

FETISHES. A great number of primitive native religions have fetish objects, that is objects that are thought to have some inherent magical powers and are therefore worshipped. These same primitive beliefs are found in Christendom. The Catholic Church has many similar objects, such as the relics found in so many churches, the innumerable saints' parts that are objects of veneration. The Shroud of Turin is a similar fetish object (in recent times found to be a fraud).
 
The Armenian Apostolic Church has, in the village of Echmiadzin, headquarters of the Catholicos (leader of the Church), a square piece of wood, said to be part of Noah's Ark, brought down from Mt Ararat by monks in 4th century CE. It is kept in a glass case. They also claim to have the spear which pierced side of Christ, supposedly brought to Armenia by Saint Bartholemew.
The term 'fetish' is also used in connection with the attachment to certain objects by human beings in a sexual context.

FIELD, John Morton.  An American lay preacher who lived in Kansas in the early part of the 20th century. Field was a pillar of the church at Mustoch and whenever an ordained minister was not available to fill the pulpit, Field stepped in. In 1915 Field fell for a member of the church choir, Gertie Day, and soon discovered to his horror that she was pregnant. In desperation he planned her death, buying some dynamite and setting it under the church. He managed to persuade Gertie to meet him late one night inside the building, where he had lit a fuse that would take 10 minutes to reach the explosive material.
 
While Gertie waited the dynamite exploded and she was killed; Field being by then back in his home. He had been very careful and had even wiped each stick of dynamite lest a fragment remaining showed one of his fingerprints. But he had carelessly used a piece of notepaper with his own handwriting, part of a sermon, to wrap the dynamite and enough of this survived to convict him. It was reported that the text for that sermon was: 'Sinners shall suffer the wrath of God.'  

FIJIAN FIGHTERS.  In March 1995 a battle erupted between rival church groups in the Pacific nation of Fiji. In dispute: who was to be allowed to preach in a particular village church. Villagers on the island of Yaqeta burnt down the home of the Assemblies of God pastor. Seven were arrested and charged with arson.

FILM CENSORSHIP. In response to pressure from Christians, who demand freedom for themselves but not for others, The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorcese) was banned in Queensland (Australia) by the state Censorship Board as it was in several other parts of the world. 

FINANCES.  From columnist Woodrow Wyatt in Illustrated, 3rd November,1956:  'The other day the Archbishop of Canterbury discussed the finances of the Church Commissioners, the men responsible for paying the salaries of clergymen out of their investments . . . What improvement there had been [in payments to clergy] is mainly the result of skilful reinvestment operations by the Church Commissioners. For instance when the Trinidad Oil Company was taken over by an American company, the Church made a profit of £160,000.
 
'The Church is obliged to be a financier in a big way in order to help its clergymen to live.  For the twelve months ended 31 March this year, the income on investments and rents was £11,238,000 - and increase of nearly £750,000 over the previous year.  Today the Church Commissioners' income from all sources is just over half as much again as it was in 1948. But these increases are being achieved without much help from congregations . . . Why is it that the C of E cannot draw, as it did in the past, on the lavish gifts of loyal supporters . . . It is because, whether we admit it or not, the C of E has ceased to be a vital pulsating part in the everyday life of England. Most of its churches are nearly empty on Sunday.  In the main its clergymen seem remote figures detached from reality.'

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s there were continual reports of a serious crisis in the finances of the Anglican Church in Britain. Property investments made in the 1980s had gone sour and a loss of £800 million was recorded on assets of £3 billion.  The clergy received a considerable degree of support from these investments and the losses meant serious cuts in the funds available. The church had been forced to make a play in 'coupon trading', using the dividends to pay clergy. This effectively meant a loss in capital.   

FISH EMBLEM.  The sign of the fish is venerated by many Christians, who believe it was a secret symbol employed by the early worshippers of Jesus. This same sign is engraved on stonework as emblem of the monks of the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, the beautiful church attached to the castle of Gilles de Rais. De Rais, monstrous mass child torturer and murderer, lavished huge sums of money on the beautification of the church.

FLAGELLANTS, The. A religious cult, or perhaps more correctly, a group of cults, that flourished in Europe in the Middle Ages. Members practised self-flagellation and mutual flagellation. In the 13th century plague was stalking the land and Raniero Fasani, known as the Hermit of Umbria, began preaching the doctrine of atonement through self-sacrifice and self-punishment, particularly in the form of self-flagellation. There had prior to this been other small movements centred around flagellation and like these, after a year or two Fasani's movement died out. But others were to follow and from the latter part of the 13th century processions of flagellants began attracting ever-increasing numbers to their ranks. They travelled about the countryside whipping each other on the naked back, ostensibly as an act of penitence.  Men outnumbered women but there were many of the latter and sometimes children in the processions.
 
The penitents generally had their bodies bared to the waist, including the women.  They went barefoot and beat themselves and one another with whips, rods and any other implement that was handy, often drawing blood from the heavy stripes they inflicted. Some, it would seem, went entirely naked. St Justin of Padua, described what he saw:

When all Italy was sullied with crimes of every kind, a certain sudden superstition, hitherto unknown to the world, first seized the inhabitants of Perusa, afterwards the Romans, and then almost all the nations of Italy.  To such a degree were they affected with the fear of God, that noble as well as ignoble persons, young and old, even children five years of age, would go naked about the streets without any sense of shame, walking in public, two and two, in the manner of a solemn procession. Every one of them held in his hand a scourge, made of leather thongs, and with tears and groans they lashed themselves on their backs till the blood ran: all the while weeping and giving tokens of the same bitter affliction, as if they had really been spectators of the passion of our Saviour, imploring the forgiveness of God and his Mother . . .

And not only in the day time, but likewise during the nights, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands of these penitents ran, notwithstanding the rigour of winter, about the streets, and in churches, with lighted wax candles in their hands, and preceded by priests, who carried crosses and banners along with them, and with humility prostrated themselves before the altars.

The activities of the Flagellants were never officially sanctioned; indeed, there was much official opposition to the cult. There had been no papal permission given. The movement was spontaneous, the people being spurred on in their painful devotions by figures such as St Anthony. Beginning in Italy the movement soon spread across the Alps into Germany and France and into Bohemia and Poland. Governments generally disapproved but nothing could stop the pilgrims. As the plague raged so did the processions multiply.
 
A sort of collective frenzy took hold and, not content with whipping one another and themselves with leather scourges, the penitents began using even more severe implements. The cords were knotted and some even had pointed iron barbs bound into their tips. Here and there groups halted and preachers exhorted the onlookers to repentance. As the Flagellants entered different areas they stirred up opposition, so much so that it was said that in one place two Church parties excommunicated one another! Eventually Pope Clement 6th issued a bull against them. The sect continued to flourish for some years but enthusiasm gradually waned.
 
By 1414, when the movement had all but expired, a man named Conrad claimed a divine revelation had directed him to revive the practices of the Flagellants. There was, he claimed, no salvation but by a new baptism, not of water but of blood, drawn from the backs of the penitents by the whips. So devoted to this doctrine were Conrad's followers that it is reported one mother wanted to scourge her infant children as soon as they had been baptised and had to be restrained by her husband from whipping the babies. This new activity prompted the INQUISITION into action and as a result 91 members of Conrad's sect were burned at the stake at Sangerhusen and many more in other centres.

There was another revival of flagellant groups in France in the 16th century, with various companies known as the White, Black and Grey Penitents going about in whipping parties. In time there was a certain festive air about some of these activities and even jollity. The women who took part were variously dressed at different times and places.  Sometimes they wore masks to hide their identities but were fully clothed, at other times wore only a shift. Sometimes they were near naked. Mostly they were barefoot as a mark of humility. In 1601 the Parlement of Paris proceeded against all whipping brotherhoods and the movement eventually petered out again.

In the years since there have been localized revivals of flagellant processions, some, especially in more recent times, more of a symbolic nature than otherwise.  They have been reported in Italy, Spain, Portugal and later in Mexico and the USA.    

FLOOD, The.  See under: NOAH'S ARK.

FOCUS ON FAMILY.  A right-wing fundamentalist Christian front group in the USA.  Founded in 1977 by Dr James Dobson, well-known for his view that children should be beaten with a rod as specified in the Bible. The organization's headquarters is in Denver, Colorado. Membership as at September 1995 was said to be about 2 million people. Turnover was reported to be about $US50 million in 1995. Programs prepared by Focus were at that time reportedly being broadcast over 4,000 radio stations, 2,500 of them in foreign countries. It has branches in a number of countries, including Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

Focus on Family opposes gay rights and women's reproduction rights and supports the teaching of the creationist superstition in public schools. It even opposes abortion in the case of rape victims or incest and opposes voluntary euthanasia. It has stridently conservative views on teenage sexuality, gender and family. It is very active in the political arena, forever attempting to have it particular moral views imposed on the rest of the community. Other bodies with similar views include the NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR WOMANHOOD and CONCERNED WOMEN OF AMERICA.

FOOD.  Most religions have rules about what foods may or may not be eaten by the faithful. Jews are permitted to eat some meats - those from cloven-footed and cud-chewing animals - but forbidden to indulge in the flesh of pigs, camels, and hares - animals having but one of these distinguishing features. This is surely a curious rule imposed by a deity! There are some primitive religions, however, in the Pacific region, where pig meat is readily consumed. The Muslims, too, are forbidden pig meat but in addition may not consume blood or the meat of any animal that is felled by a blow or strangled. Muslims are also forbidden alcohol; although curiously they are promised (at least male Muslims are) that they will consume wine in Paradise!

The Seventh-Day Adventists are strict vegetarians and do not even eat fish. The Jews may eat animals found in water but only if they have fins and scales. They may also consume some birds but not others, nor may they eat bats. Truly Yahweh imposes some strange rules upon his people. In compensation they are allowed to eat locusts, beetles and grasshoppers! They might do very well as contestants in the TV show Fear Factor! Frazer (The Golden Bough) says that at the time of Isaiah some Jews used to meet in secret to eat the flesh of pigs - and mice!

FORGERIES.  See under: FALSE DOCUMENTS.

FORT, Charles.  See under: FORTEAN SOCIETY.

FORTEAN SOCIETY, The.  Founded by an eccentric American, Charles Fort (born 1872). Fort's hobby was collecting reports of unusual, bizarre and possibly supernatural events. He read newspaper and journals avidly, searched through libraries and diligently accumulated a wealth of such reports. He also wrote four books - Book of the Damned, Wild Talents, Lo!, and New Lands. In these he reproduced the items he had uncovered, often juxtaposed with other items that seemed (in his mind, at least) to be linked with the report. The society that he formed is still in existence today.  Fort died in 1932.

FORTUNE. Dion. Dion Fortune was a psychologist in the Jungian tradition. He was a member, along with Aleister CROWLEY, of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,  The Order was founded by a group of Freemasons in London in 1888. Dion Fortune was also at one time a member of the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.  Eventually he founded his own group, known as the Society of Inner Light.  He was author of several books, both non-fiction and fiction.

FOUNDATION FOR HUMANITY'S ADULTHOOD. Yet another modern cult, with its own peculiar slant on traditional Christianity, yet to hear its self-appointed leader, Jeremy Griffith, speak is to learn nothing new. It is the same old message that centres around the mythical Adam and Eve, their fall, and the redemption of man. But there is one difference with this particular preacher. Never, ever, has the writer heard a religious speaker use as swearwords 'bloody' and 'fucking'. Fuck is a perfectly good English word to describe the sex act (and is given in the Oxford Dictionary) but not very nice as a swearword!

But then such matters rarely trouble the faithful who follow on behind. Like thousands of other prophets who come and go, Mr Griffith managed to persuade a small number of youthful stargazers that he alone has the truth that can set them free. He is clever, too. Has made big use of Mt Everest climber Tim Macartney-Snape (awarded the Order of Australia) as a front man. It appears the mountaineer lost his balance a little when he returned to the lower reaches of earth to live among ordinary mortals and became one of Mr Griffith's first disciples.
 
Using his catch Mr Griffith manages to worm his way into Australia's high schools and universities, there to assault the minds of the impressionable young hearers, all with the help of willing headmasters and officials! But then most of the evangelical groups try hard to get their message into these areas, again often with official assistance.

The Reverend David Millikan has done good service revealing the activities of this and other cults. In an ABC-TV Four Corners program aired on 24 April, 1995, we were shown actual scenes in the Snowy Mountains camp of the believers. Not that one could get very excited about it all. Hard to understand why all those bright young people could follow such a boring man, with his simplistic sermons and his swearwords. The Pentecostalist preachers put on a far better show.

The message? Well, if you can sort it out, it seems that Mr Griffith teaches that man's basic nature was corrupted in the evolutionary stage between intuitive animals and rational humans. He's put all this in a book in 1992, Beyond the Human Condition, free copies of which were sent to hundreds of scientists around the world. Mr Griffith hoped they would endorse his attempts to meld biology and theology. In the event they didn't. Must have peeved the new prophet as he believes he has not only been sent (like John Baptist) by Jesus for these Last Days but he is in fact the only true 'innocent' and enlightened prophet the world has ever seen!
 
Takes one's breath away reading that! Muhammad would not approve. But there's more. Mr Griffith is no slouch when it comes to claims made of himself. He even says he is greater than Jesus! He says that Jesus was good at describing humanity's problems but did not come up with the answers. There go millions of Christians. They could not agree with that claim.

Jeremy Griffith also peddles the traditional Christian view of woman, that she must be subject to the man, clearly enunciated in both the Old and New Testament (yes, in spite of what Christian feminists say). This is very handy when members of the group go walkabout, which they do periodically, to absorb themselves in nature. The woman prepare the meals, cook them, serve them and then clean up. Very convenient for the male layabouts. But Prophet Jeremy probably has a point when he claims that sex has been the most potent means whereby men have 'attacked the native innocence' of women.

The ideal, he says, is seen in the Virgin Mary; all other women are corrupted. A sweeping claim, doubtless disputed by very many women. In any event Mary was no paragon of virtue; rather obviously she was a young lady who had a child out of wedlock. See further under: MARY THE GODDESS.
 
Where did Jeremy Griffith come from? Information is scarce. He seems to have burst upon the Australian religious scene only around the year 1990. As a teenager he studied at the expensive Geelong Grammar School, south of Melbourne (Victoria) but failed to matriculate. He later passed the necessary examinations via a correspondence course and entered New England (NSW) University, studying science.  He failed first-year science there but eventually managed to graduate with a pass degree from Sydney University. Professor Charles Birch, a well-known academic and one of his teachers, was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying Mr Griffith was intellectually 'scatty'.
 
Jeremy Griffith displays his poor science when he asserts that man evolved as a rational being two million years ago. Man evolved long before this and the 'rationality' (as we call it) he developed evolved also. It is an essential part of man's emerging mind, setting him by long stages above his fellow animals.

The Foundation is registered trust and seems, like all the cults, to have no trouble attracting money from misguided supporters. A new prophet, sent by Jesus of Nazareth? No, another to join Sun Myung Moon, and Joseph Smith and ten thousand others who one day will be remembered only as curious entries in reference works like this one. 

FOUNTAIN OF THE WORLD. This Californian religious group was distinguished by the fact that male members wore long hair and beards and members, both male and female, dressed in long flowing robes. The sect's leader was one Krishna Venta. Venta was born in 1911 although he had another name then, being known as Frank Jessen.  Through the years he adopted two more names - Ben Covic and F.H. Pencovic - for the simple reason that he had a criminal career, seeing the inside of prisons on eight occasions.

Venta established his cult, paying the $15 fee the state demanded for such a right, and set up an outpost at Box Canyon, in San Fernando Valley. There peace and free love reigned supreme under the tutelage of the man believers thought to be the reincarnation of Adam. Venta had many female sex partners, mostly other men's wives, out at his headquarters, where he instructed followers in both religion and sex.  In time he also taught his devoted harem that they should sever their relationships with their existing husbands. This proved to be a fatal error in the prophet's teaching.

In December 1958, the group hit the headlines in an unexpected way. Two disgruntled ex-members stopped the prophet outside the main building. One carried a package. The two men, Venta himself and seven other members were blown to pieces by the suicide bombers. The building itself was badly damaged and the resultant fire spread into the surrounding forests.
 
Following the explosion surviving sect members calmly went about the business of cleaning up, claiming that 'Venta will return - he prophesied that he would be cremated in 1958 - it remains only to await his materialization.' All that investigators could find of the departed prophet were his false teeth. We are all still awaiting his return to claim them. 

FOUR-LEGGED BOY.  See: MISTAKES OF DEITY.

FOX, Margaret and Catharine.  The two youngest children of Mrs and Mrs Fox, who became famous for their participation in Spiritualist activities in the 1850s.  Margaret was born in 1833. When the manifestations began the youngest girl was aged about 12. In one of several public investigations of their performances, a committee of ladies was selected who searched thoroughly the girls' clothing, shoes, stockings and even underwear. The young ladies had to strip for this examination and it was reported that 'the poor girls wept bitterly during this ordeal; still they submitted to it, though shame and indignation wrought up their feelings to so severe a pitch that their sobs and lamentations were heard by some of their friends who had been purposely excluded form the room.'

An interruption in the proceedings occurred when one of their friends, a Quaker lady, burst into the room. There followed, reportedly, a shower of rappings as the girls variously stood barefoot on pillows, glass and other substances 'supposed to be non-conductors of electricity'. Their dresses had been tightly tied to their ankles to prevent deception. They often performed with their hands and legs tied so as to exclude the possibility of movement. However in the end one of the sisters - many years later - confessed that the whole episode had been fraudulent and that the girls had deceived the believers. Some folk, however, still continued to believe, even after these revelations. 

FRANCIS, Saint (Xavier). See under: XAVIER, St Francis.

FREEDOM UNIVERSITY.  Based in Florida, USA and associated with the Gospel Light Baptist Church. Issues doctorates in Christian education via a correspondence course.  The University has been described as a 'degree mill'. In 1997 this institution became the subject of legal debate in Australia when Dr Allen Roberts, a fundamentalist Christian ark-searcher admitted his doctorate had been issued by the university after he completed a 22-months correspondence course. An inquirer telephoning the University at that time reported the following conversation (quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April, 1997): 

Inquirer: 'Is this Freedom University?'

Voice: 'Well, no, Freedom University really isn't here. This is the Gospel Light Baptist Church and I am Pastor John Ward. Dewey Painter used to run Freedom University from a trailer round the back. He just used our address as a mail box but it didn't work out.' The inquirer was referred to another person, Joe Ryan, who said he no longer ran the university, which he described as 'kinda external'. 

FREEMAN, Reverend Anthony. In 1993 English Anglican clergyman, Anthony Freeman, of St Mark's, Staplefield, West Sussex, wrote a book, God With Us, in which he said: 'There is nothing out there - or if there is, we can have no knowledge of it.'  Following publication of this enlightening work the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend Dr Eric Kemp, gave the priest a year to consider his position and in July 1994 Mr Freeman was forced to step down from the priesthood. The move prompted a protest letter from 65 priests demanding that the minister should retain his post.     

FUNDAMENTALISM. See under: CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM, and: ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM.

GABRIEL, Archangel. The chief messenger revealing heavenly secrets to Muhammad was Jibral (Gabriel), who sometimes, so the story goes, merely spoke to the Prophet, at other times appeared in visible form. It was this same Gabriel who came in visions to Daniel, as recorded in the Jewish Old Testament, and who appeared to Mary to announce Jesus' birth in the New (Luke 1:26-36). As there is, to say the least, some conflict between these religions, it is puzzling to find the same angel acting as messenger to all three.
 
Gabriel certainly seems to have captured the imagination of religious people, for in 1951 Pope Pius 12th officially promoted this angel to the rank of Supreme Supervisor of the world's telephones, telephonists and television sets. (You know now who to blame when your telephone or television doesn't work!) Presumably Gabriel's ministrations now embrace the Internet as well. Gabriel bobbed up in the news again during 1981, when a series of reports were recorded from Bavaria (Germany), people claiming to have had encounters with the Archangel Gabriel.
 
Then in 1982 a 30-year-old woman gave a detailed account of having picked up on the road to Salzburg a young hitchhiker who introduced himself as the Archangel Gabriel. He informed the lady that the world would end in the year 1984 and then promptly disappeared from the vehicle. The car was speeding at the time, she claimed. 'One moment he was there and the next there was just an empty seatbelt.' Police were impressed by her credibility. However, the Catholic Church later issued a statement asserting that the hitchhiker could not possibly be Gabriel as it was 'inconceivable that an angel would ever appear in the form of a hitchhiker and it is not in the interests of God to issue such a message of doom.'

GAILLOT, Bishop Jacques. In January 1995 a rare event took place in the modern Catholic Church when Pope John Paul 2nd sacked one of his bishops, Jacques Gaillot, a popular French Church leader. The Bishop of Evreux had incurred the wrath of Rome over a long period because of his support for various social causes. He backed the homeless and the homosexual and even urged the ordination of married men into the priesthood. This was the rule in the early centuries of the Church; celibacy having been imposed at a late date, and even then only imperfectly, with priests having concubines and sexual activities taking place behind closed doors. (See further under: CELIBACY.) French Catholics expressed outrage at the sacking but most will probably cling to their dying Church.

GANEESH.  Or: Ganesha. In September 1995 there were widespread reports from India that statues of the Hindu god Ganeesh, the deity of prosperity, were thirsty and were being fed with spoonfuls of milk by devotees. Thousands of Hindus flocked to various temples and, using teaspoons, offered milk to the deity. So great was the consumption of milk that a shortage developed as people presented their offering to the trunks of the elephant-headed god images. A news reporter said she offered a spoonful to an idol and it did disappear but she found it hard to tell whether by this was a miracle or was due to the pushing and shoving of the crowd all around her. Some observers thought that the milk simply trickled down the statue from the spoons; others thought it was mass hysteria at work.

The Science Editor of the London Express, Roger Highfield, suggested that apart from religious hysteria, a well-known phenomenon, capillary action would explain what happened. This involves unbalanced molecular attraction at the boundary between the liquid and the tiny pores in the surface. If the liquid molecules near the boundary are more strongly attracted to molecules in the statue than to other nearby liquid molecules, the liquid will be drawn into the pores and tiny cracks. The same action explains other 'miracles' involving statues - e.g. weeping and bleeding figures. Perhaps the final word comes from an old lady in Bangkok who commented: 'If you have faith, you can see it.'

GANGSTERS FOR GOD. A Japanese organization of former members of the Yakuza. It was being led in 1995 by a Japanese-American, Arthur Hollands, then 44.  The group has adopted fundamentalist Christian views and goes about preaching - and singing, to the accompaniment of tambourines - in the open-air.  Mr Hollands began his crusade in 1993 when he went through the streets of Tokyo carrying a 40 kg wooden cross over his shoulder. Mr Hollands points out the fact that Barabbas, who, according to the traditional view, died alongside Jesus of Nazareth, was a criminal. 

GARDNER, Gerald Brousseau. Said to be the founder of the modern witchcraft movement, Gardner, who was born on June 13, 1884, has undoubtedly had an enormous influence on the growth and development of the craft in recent times. His book, High Magic's Aid was published under a pseudonym, Scire, in 1949. This was treated as purely fictional by many observers. However in 1954 Gardner published Witchcraft Today, which was taken more seriously. Gardner had a curious family background, coming from what might be termed a house full of eccentrics. One uncle was a rich man who was also something a religious maniac. Gardner's father, William, also wealthy, had a number of curious habits. One of them was, at the slightest hint of rain, to take off all his clothing, fold them into a neat pile, and sit naked upon them until the rain passed!

Gerald Gardner spent most of his early life, from the age of 7, travelling about in the company of an Irish maidservant, who beat him frequently.  When the maid married and settled with a tea planter in Ceylon, Gerald, now aged 16, went with the couple.  Thereafter he pursued many activities, including in the early period planting rubber in Malaya. He made a small fortune in this field and became, as a result, financially independent.

Upon retiring from business prior to World War 2 he settled in the New Forest area in Hampshire, England. In time he came into contact with some occultists, of the Rosicrucian persuasion, known as the Fellowship of Crotona. Through them he was brought into contact with a smaller group of people, in fact a coven. He was - he later announced - initiated into witchcraft in 1939 by Dorothy Clutterbuck, who also came from a prosperous family.

Dorothy was an elderly lady, daughter of Thomas St Quintin Clutterbuck, a captain of the 14th Sikhs. From then on Gardner began developing rituals, claiming that he had rediscovered a hereditary witchcraft cult in Britain. It so happened that Gardner was a nudist (perhaps inspired by his father's eccentricities) so it was natural for him to suggest rituals involving members performing magic in the nude. Also included was a form of ritual sexual intercourse between the High Priest and the High Priestess of the coven, dropped by some followers, and ritual scourging with whips. Some Gardnerian covens have a stronger emphasis than others on sadomasochistic practices and sexual activities. There was also the Fivefold Kiss, which involves kissing the initiate on the feet, genitals, breasts and mouth.

In those covens where S-M is a strong influence new recruits are told they must suffer in order to learn. In the case of such covens often quite cruel practices prevail. Stripped naked and bound so tightly that blood circulation may even be impeded, the initiate is thoroughly whipped on the back, buttocks and even across the breasts. The whole coven takes part, priest and members all participating in the assault on the newcomer, who is in some cases left bleeding and bruised. These covens also make use of large dildoes in some rituals.

It should be noted here that practising witchcraft in Britain was actually still illegal until the year 1951, when the Witchcraft Act was repealed! (The Christian mumbo-jumbo was allowed.) Gardner's first book had been published in the face of the fact that it was officially illegal to publish books advocating witchcraft practices and rituals. In 1959 Gardner published a third work, The Meaning of Witchcraft. Interestingly Rosaleen Norton had written to Gardner while being tried on charges of 'obscenity' and he apparently organized prayers and dances by witches throughout Britain on her behalf. She was acquitted.
 
Gardner died on February 12, 1964, but his influence has continued strongly, especially in the USA, so that today one important strand of witchcraft practice is known as the Gardnerian tradition. Since his death there has been a continuing controversy over the importance of Gardner. There were suggestions that he falsely claimed to hold doctorates in philosophy and literature and there was at least one definite instance of plagiarism recorded against him.  

GAY PRIESTS.  See under: HOMOSEXUALITY.  See also: SEXUALITY AND RELIGION. 

GELLER, Uri. Uri Geller hardly needs an introduction. He is famous for his spoon bending exploits, among other paranormal activities. One book about Geller claimed he got his instructions from an orbiting computer called Spectra, from the planet Hoova. Geller's reputation was seemingly dealt a serious blow when he was unable to perform his miracles before a TV audience on the Johnnie Carson show. Special efforts had been made by the TV people to keep the objects involved out of reach of Geller or his staff! But the disastrous performance, or lack of it, did not seem to stop his bandwagon rolling ever onwards. 

GENEALOGIES OF JESUS. Matthew and Luke, the two Gospel writers most intent on proving Jesus' Messianic office, dreamed up an amazing scheme to 'prove' their case. They each produced a genealogy to show how Jesus was descended directly from King David, the famous Jewish leader. Very convenient, very impressive; that is, unless we wish to deal with real history. The two genealogies don't even agree with one another! 

The very artificiality of the construction by Matthew is seen in 1:17 where the biographer, with naïvety, states: 'So all the generations from Abraham unto David are fourteen generations; from David unto the carrying away to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon unto Christ fourteen generations.'  Very neat, very convenient, but entirely wrong! If we examine Matthew's previous statements (verses 1-16), let alone actual history (insofar as Israel's history could be termed 'actual') we find he is contradicting all he said before!

Luke is equally unreliable, producing a different genealogy to Matthew and mistakenly quoting one of his names from the Septuagint version that does not occur in the Hebrew Old Testament! Finally, complete conflict reigns when we see that Luke enumerates fifty-six generations from Jesus back to Abraham, while Matthew lists forty, or forty-two, depending on which of his accounts you follow. So much for historic accuracy in the 'inerrant' Bible. 

GENESIS. 'I am halfway through Genesis, and quite appalled by the disgraceful behaviour of all the characters involved, including God.' (British writer, J. R. Ackerley, writing to a friend). See further under: CREATION. 

GHOST COPYRIGHT. Early in 1995 a case went to court in Austria, involving the ownership of the spectral body known as Ramtha. Supposed to be an ancient Egyptian Ramtha was apparently communicating with folk in the modern world. However, a 46-year-old American psychic, Judy Knight, claimed Ramtha was her guiding spirit. Alas another psychic in Germany, Julie Ravel, 53, asserted that Ramtha belonged to her alone. The case was decided in favour of the American lady, who the court agreed is the true contact with 35,000-year-old Ramtha. It is not recorded what Ramtha himself (or herself?) thought of it all.

GHOSTS. In May 1991 it was reported that a group of unemployed people in New Zealand was paid $NZ90,000 to investigate ghosts and poltergeists. A government work scheme paid over the money. It was stated that the main thrust of the work was to track down and identify ghosts, photograph their auras and arrange seminars to report on the results. [No further details.]

GLOSSOLALIA.  See under: SPEAKING IN TONGUES.

GEOMANCY. A form of divination in which messages are said to be detected coming from the earth. This pseudo-science is related to another pseudo-science, FENG SHUI. Believers in geomancy claim that 'negative earth energies' lower the capacity of the human immune system, leaving us susceptible to disease. All manner of disasters have been attributed to such negative energies, including cot deaths, MS and numerous other illnesses. Practitioners are said to employ a combination of intuition, Feng Shui mumbo-jumbo and dowsing (long since disproved) to 'balance the energies' in a house or other building. The negative energies are neutralized and positive energies highlighted. So it is claimed! In fact, nobody can change the polarity of the electro-magnetic forces that surround us by such techniques. 

GNOSTIC CATHOLIC CHURCH. Around 1900 a Frenchman, Julius Hussay, launched this church. Hussay claimed to have been episcopally ordained but this body has a strong emphasis on non-Christian occult practices. It has had a curious history since that time, apparently attempting to straddle both spiritual worlds. Its chief service was at one time the celebration of Aleister CROWLEY'S Gnostic Mass.  

GODS (General).  Of the making of gods there is no end. And among them are some very odd gods. Robigus was the Roman god of mildew. On 25 April each year a procession went to his sacred grove where a red puppy was sacrificed to appease the mildew god's hunger for their crops. The Greeks had a sea-god Glaucus, with long hair and long beard, his body ending in a scaly tail, battered by the waves and overgrown with seaweed and shells. Some gods and/or devils: Herakles, Pan, Dionysus, Artemis, Lucifer, Isis, Belial, Beelzebub (Baal), Apollo, Yahweh. There were numerous redeemers: Prometheus, Bran, Asclepios, Attis, Osiris, Wotan, Dis. Men worshipped: Trees, bears, bulls, cats, wolves, monkeys, fish, fire.
 
'Christmas tree, the teddy bear, the bullfight, the witch's black cat, the werewolf, fish on Fridays are records of our unconscious memories that these were once gods.'  In Europe a figure called the bogey was believed to creep into houses at night to drink the blood of children. The Slavonic word bog means god.

Some views about gods:

Caesar said that the Gods could look after themselves. Lucretius (BCE 57) said: 'Do you not see even stones yield to the power of time, lofty towers fall to decay, and rocks moulder away? Temples and statues of the gods go to ruin, nor can the gods themselves prolong their date or get reprieve from fate.'

'The gods are on the side of the strongest' (Tacitus, Hist 4,17)

'God is on the side of the heaviest battalions' (De Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, 1677)  This was quoted again by Voltaire in 1770.

Interest is the key to life,
Interest is the clue,
Interest is the drum and fife
And any god will do.  (The Keener's Manual)

'There is a secret belief among some men that GOD is displeased with man's happiness; and in consequence they slink about creation, ashamed and afraid to enjoy anything.' (Sir A. Helps)

'Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a conqueror. Kill all and you are a god.' (Jean Rostand)

'GOD is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable.  They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters.' (H.L. Mencken)

'I cannot believe in a GOD who wants to be praised all the time.' (Nietzsche)

'The only excuse for GOD is that he doesn't exist.' (Stendhal)

'For me the single word 'GOD' suggests everything that is slippery, shady. squalid, foul and grotesque.' (André Breton)

'Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.'  (H.L. Mencken)

'God is a hypothesis I do not need.' (Laplace)

Finally we behold the very act of creating a god . . .

'A sect in Gwalier have petitioned the Indian government to allow them to convert an image into a real god, they being without a god since their deity was destroyed by some Brahmin zealots.  Without such a god, it is declared, the marriage ceremony cannot be performed, and their daughters are growing up unmarried.' (Newspaper report, January, 1891).

GODS, Cruelty of.  See under: MISTAKES OF DEITY. 

GOLDEN RULE, The.  Christians are fond of quoting the so-called Golden Rule as an important teaching by their prophet Jesus. However, there is nothing distinctive about this Rule. It was obviously 'lifted' by the Christians from other sources. Note these words: 'Do to another what you would have him do to you, and do not do to another what you would not have him do to you. Thou needest this law alone. It is the foundation of all the rest.' The words of Jesus, in yet another translation? No, the words of Confucius, recorded around BCE 500. Probably even Confucius himself derived the basic thought from still earlier wise sayings. See also: LORD'S PRAYER, The.

GOSPEL OF UNREACHED MILLIONS.  A latter-day missionary organization, based in Texas (USA), of Baptist hue (broadly so; there are many shades of the Baptist hue), determined to reach the lost souls of far parts, especially India. Like the missionaries who entered the great South Seas and despoiled the culture these spiritual hob-nailers began work among the tribes people of Orissa.
 
Those naughty Indians tended to go about a little light on clothing, which is a bit of a shock to sensitive American missionaries with all their hangups. Americans generally are very leery of human nudity. But that was not all. The Baptist charismatic group believed in faith healing and wanted to stage a big tent show in the town of Badapada on 29 March, 1995. The local powers-that-be refused permission. Many Indians do not like foreign missionaries coming into the country and bringing with them strange new sects and teachings. India has enough already! But tribes people gathered near the Baptists anyway, with police trying to move them on. A battle erupted with 23 Baptists, including 10 of the foreigners, arrested.  Soldiers of Christ doing battle?

An alarming footnote:  The Independent newspaper reported in April 1995 that in 1973 there were 420 groups in India sponsored by US missionaries. In 1995 the figure had jumped to over 3,000.

GRACE CHURCH, The. An independent fundamentalist church founded in Melbourne (Australia) during the late 1980s by Neil THOMAS, assisted by his sons Peter and Trevor. The church was the subject of controversy, particularly over finances, and featured on the Hinch TV program. Former members accused Thomas of obtaining from them large sums of money for various projects which had not, they alleged, eventuated. One female member alleged she and her husband had signed a substantial guarantee with a bank for a loan made to Thomas and this had not been repaid; the bank was now demanding payment from them.

Thomas, according to Derryn Hinch, has claimed to have cured a man of AIDS, to cure homosexuality, and to have brought a man back from the dead. In the Victorian Parliament an MP described Thomas as 'an ugly fraud, a parasite.' MP Kelvin Thomas said that when it became known he was investigating the church, which he had been doing for two years, he was visited by two of its representatives who warned him to desist or face the consequences.
 
The Grace Church claimed to be linked to the Wesleyan Methodists but a spokesman for that denomination dissociated his church from the rebel group. Thomas was, the Wesleyan man claimed, 'self-ordained'. The church has also been accused of dividing families and on at least one occasion, it is claimed, two pastors of the church beat a 14-year-old boy to drive the Devil out of him.    

GRAIL, Holy.  See under HOLY GRAIL.

GRAVES. People show a superstitious regard for graves such that they appear to believe that somehow the dead person is actually present there, watching them! I had an aunt who used to visit my grandfather's grave on what would have been his birthday each year; she wouldn't miss the visit, come bad weather or ill health, as she wanted him to know she remembered him! 
In July 1994 it was reported that the descendants of Australian pioneer James Ruse, moved the one-tonne headstone marking the site of their ancestor's burial at Campbelltown and had it placed indoors, in a museum. The reason was an entirely sensible one - vandals had been destroying large numbers of graves in the cemetery.  However a disgruntled former Deputy Mayor of the city, John Hennessey, complained: 'It's bizarre. I'm outraged that James Ruse is now lying in an unmarked grave.' Wrong Mr Hennessey; James Ruse long ago ceased to exist! All that lies in the ground are a few bones, and even these have probably largely rotted away by now as Mr Ruse was buried in 1837.

GREAT TOE OF ST COSMO, The.  In the city of Isernia, Abruzzio Province (Italy) in a church dedicated to St Cosmo there used to be displayed the saint's Great Toe.  For centuries celebrations were held in this place, in the Kingdom of Naples, centred around the Great Toe. In actual fact the so-called Great Toe was thought to be the mummified penis of the saint! It was probably a carry-over of the ancient worship of priapus in the region. Eventually the associations became too much for the guardians of the faith and the Great Toe was removed from public view.

GREENE, Graham. The highly-rated English author was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1926. He maintained his allegiance to Rome thereafter and his Catholicism was evident in some of his writings yet this did not prevent him from engaging in adultery and womanizing.  Not only did the author have many affairs while remaining married but Greene maintained not one but two mistresses, Dorothy Glover in London, and later Catherine Walston; what is more, Graham was responsible for Catherine Walston becoming a Catholic! And in between times he often used the services of prostitutes. These relationships went on for many years. Greene died in 1991.

GUIDANCE. From the book The Restraining Hand by R.A. Booshardt (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1936), a missionary's account of travelling through China in the 1930s: 'Again there must be a choice of roads. Should it be the old road which is farther, or the small one? We both felt that the choice lay in our Lord's hands. The cook was keen to take the small one; moreover soldiers were reported to be on this road which would mean protection. So that was the one we travelled. As we were about one third of a mile from the small village where we hoped to lodge for the night, just making the ascent of a small hill, men rushed out from some bushes and pounced upon us as their prey.'
 
Their prayer-answering 'Lord' had led them into captivity in the hands of the Communists! Indeed the missionary himself reports a conversation with one of the leaders of their captors. When the missionary spoke of 'God' the man replied: 'Who is your God to let you fall in our hands?' This is but one of innumerable instances of failed 'guidance' that could be gathered were one to take the time and trouble. 

HADRIEN, Cornelius. Cornelius Hadrien, or Adriansen, was a priest who was distinguished by having his particular mode of whipping named after him, so that a Cornelian discipline meant a flagellation supra dorsum nudum (across the bared back).  In actual fact the whip often moved down lower, to the region of the buttocks! But there was much more to Brother Hadrien's discipline than this. Indeed, there developed a scandal of major proportions from the priest's propensity to whip the bared backs of the fair young ladies who were his devoted disciples.

Cornelius Hadrien was born in Dortrecht, in the southern region of the Netherlands, around the year 1520. He joined the Franciscan Order and by about 1548 was a professor of theology at a convent in Bruges. Like not a few of his fellows his preaching drew crowds of admiring worshippers, especially female worshippers, who also went to confess their sins to the priest. In time he decided to form a special order for repentant members of his flock. Not surprisingly, most of those invited to join were young and attractive. The older ladies were given the standard penances. But the younger were told that to join the order they must be cleansed by being chastised physically, 'with an outward punishment and penance'.
 
Thereafter once each month Brother Hadrien arranged for the penitents to attend at a place of his choosing. The postulants were sworn to secrecy and also to obedience. They were instructed that they must keep secret the penances they underwent as it to reveal such things to those outside would surely bring disgrace and contempt upon the order. The young ladies met the priest in a house adjoining the convent, whose owner, a lady, was happy to accommodate the priest.

On the first occasion when they gathered the penitents were each presented with a rod by the lady of the house, who suggested that they supply their own on future occasions. Then the priest appeared before them and solemnly advised them that they must remove their upper garments. After this, one by one the penitents presented her rod to the priest who administered the discipline upon her bared back. Amazingly this procedure was followed for ten years before any trouble arose.

One day a 16-year-old girl, Caleken Peters, attended confession and after doing so for some weeks, an interesting encounter occurred. Until now none as young as Caleken had joined the group and her youth and, presumably, beauty, must have stirred within the priest notions that were bolder than heretofore. On one occasion, while hearing her confession, he suggested that the young lady should undergo penance such as the other women did but she was reluctant, her modesty not permitting her to undress before the priest. She went away but on her next visit the Hadrien was more insistent. This time, however, he went further. He insisted that she must undress completely and thus overcome her modesty, otherwise it would be impossible to be a true penitent.

The young lady eventually, if reluctantly, complied, but immediately upon finding herself fully naked, fainted. Smelling salts restored her, after which she was told to dress again and to come back next time when some other ladies would be there. On the next visit she and two other disciples stripped fully and were whipped. Soon Caleken was being whipped regularly along with the others. However, on one occasion a party was held to celebrate the founding of the order and the priest behaved in a somewhat un-priestly fashion. By now Caleken, a pious young lady, was having serious doubts about him and also about the necessity for the secret whippings. One day she explained these doubts to him. They fell to arguing on and off over several visits, the priest even accusing Caleken of heresy. On one visit Caleken refused to submit to the discipline, whereupon she was sent away angrily by Brother Hadrien and told not to return for three weeks.

At the expiry of that period Caleken arrived at the convent to find Brother Hadrien absent. She then asked to speak with the Governor. At first he refused as Cornelius was her confessor but upon her insistence he finally agreed. As a result of their conversation Caleken decided she would no longer submit to the brother's whippings and after one final big row the two parted. Caleken married later and said nothing more. In 1563 another woman, Betken Maes, complained to the authorities about the priest's activities and Caleken appeared as a witness in the subsequent trial. After this a whole string of women were brought before the magistrates to tell what they had experienced. Among them were many highborn people and the city was scandalized.  Cornelius was banished to a distant convent but allowed to continue preaching. He died in 1581. An old engraving showing a priest-whipper waiting for his female victim to disrobe:

HADRIEN 6th, Pope.  Born in the Netherlands. At the Diet of Nürnberg, summoned to put down the Lutheran heresy, Pope Hadrien admitted through a spokesman, the Bishop of Fabriane, that 'these disorders had sprung from the sins of men, more especially from the sins of priests and prelates.' Hadrien reigned but twenty months and when he died on September 13, 1523, he arrived at the conviction, preserved in his epitaph, that the greatest misfortune of his life was to have reigned as Pope.      

HAIL MARY. Film by Jean-Luc Godard that created strong controversy and belligerent opposition when released in 1985. It is essentially a modern-day re-telling of the story of the Virgin Mary, with Mary portrayed as a student who plays basketball. Full-frontal female nudity was one feature that upset the religious populace. The Pope himself condemned the movie and in Australia screenings were bitterly opposed by the Maronite Christians.

HAIRSHIRTS. Garment, or perhaps more correctly undergarments, made from haircloth, i.e. rough stuff. The coarse material was usually woven from horsehair, hence the name. Such shirts are worn by many ascetics and penitents next to the skin to supply an ongoing and ever-present source of irritation. Through the centuries Catholic saints, nuns and priests wore such garments beneath their outer clothing as one of the many means of MORTIFICATION of the flesh. Subtle masochism is clearly evident in such practices. In 1951 an Argentinian couple, Mario Tordo and his wife Adella went on a pilgrimage on foot of over 300 km to Buenos Aires, carrying their baby with them, in order to show their loyalty to Evita Perón.  Mario wore a HAIRSHIRT for the entire journey. Which just goes to show that Jesus of Nazareth is not the only one to inspire people to suffer wearing hairshirts! 

HAJ PILGRIMAGES.  An estimated 2 million or more Muslims journey from all over the world to Saudi Arabia each year for the annual pilgrimage, known as the haj, to the holy cities of Makkah (Mecca) and al-Medinah, both located in Saudi Arabia. To make the pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime is a 'canonical obligation' upon Muslims. Some go more than once but because of the huge numbers Saudi Arabia imposes limits on the numbers coming from each country, approximately one per year per 1,000 Muslims in the population.
 
At the 1994 Haj some 1.5 or 2.5 million people attended (the figures vary from one report to another). So vast is such a crowd that it registers on satellite cameras above the earth. Those attending process around the Ka'aba, the huge black sacred stone in the courtyard of the Grand Mosque at Makkah. In some years there have been incidents during the festival. In 1987, for example, followers of Ayatollah Khomeini became so violent in their protests against the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia itself that Saudi police opened fire on crowds of them and over 400 pilgrims, mostly Iranians, died. In 1994 there were minor outbreaks of trouble between some groups.
 
There have also been deaths from stampedes. At the annual pilgrimage to Makkah in July 1990 pilgrims passing through a tunnel were crushed when a stampede occurred. The Saudi Arabian government had constructed the tunnel to help handle the vast crowds flocking in each year. Speaking about the disaster, with 1,426 (or 1,800 in some reports!) dead, the Saudis said the people would have died anyway, at that exact minute, elsewhere, as this was fated! Which is a very convenient way of absolving oneself from any blame! After the disaster Iran accused the Saudis of carelessness but also blamed the USA and Israel. There is rivalry between the two nation as the Iranians are predominantly Sh'ite Muslims and the Saudis are Sunni.

Yet again, in 1994, another stampede occurred at Makkah when 270 pilgrims died.  An official statement said that the incident occurred as hundreds of thousands of people were crowded in an enclosure at Mina, about 15 km from Makkah. The pillars are in a cavern and can only be reached by narrow pathways. Here pilgrims by tradition hurl stones at three pillars or piles of rocks symbolizing the Devil or demons. In spite of police warnings the crowd went wild with enthusiasm and the deaths resulted. In a later press release Saudi authorities admitted that a total of 829 people had died during the 1994 celebrations.

For a long period anti-slavery and human rights organisations have claimed that many children who accompany parents on these pilgrimages ride on one-way tickets. They are left behind, sold into slavery to rich Arabs. See further under: PILGRIMS ENSLAVED.    

HAKIM (al-HAKIM), Caliph.  Born 985 CE, died 1021 CE. Fatimid caliph who ruled over Jerusalem and Egypt. Known as The Mad Caliph, Hakim succeeded Harun al-Rashid and set to work to reverse his predecessor's tolerant form of government. He ordered the destruction of the Christian's Holy Sepulchre, which had been rebuilt after successive destructions by both Persians and Arabs and then began persecuting Jews and Christians alike. He was noted for his atrocities but also for his deviations from orthodox Islam. He tried to made Shiism the orthodox religion of Egypt and eventually announced he was an incarnation of Deity; as such he became head of the sect of the Druses.

William of Tyre, a 12th century historian, reported on the taking of Jerusalem by the Caliph's forces. He described Hakim as 'a false and cruel man,' who desired to surpass all before him in exercising malice and cruelty. The Christians had heavy taxes laid upon them and were employed in forced labour. At Easter time their Islamic masters took special care to force even harder exertions upon them. 'Even within their houses,' wrote the historian, 'they knew neither peace nor security, for big stones were thrown at them, and dung, mud and all manner of filth thrown through the windows.'

Christians who were accused of speaking against Muslim neighbours were dragged off to prison and there a foot or a hand was cut off.  In some cases they were hanged and all their goods confiscated by the Caliph. The Christian pilgrims were still permitted to come to Jerusalem but many ended their days kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured and then, perhaps, if they were fortunate, ransomed.

HAMILTON-BYRNE, Anne.  See under: FAMILY, The.

HARE KRISHNA. Full name: International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON. Founded by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in New York in 1965.  Prabhupada, an elderly Indian guru, arrived in New York from India penniless but by the time he died, in 1977, the movement had established over 200 temples around the world and was a multi-million dollar enterprise. Prabhupada had abandoned his wife and children in his homeland India to take on the role of preacher and founder of a religious movement.

Its major US property, New Vrindaban, is located in 80 hectares of farmland at Moundsville, West Virginia. Located there is a lavish worship building, Prabhupada Palace, built with the labour of cult members. The palace has a dome covered in 22-carat gold leaf and marble from forty countries. New Vrindaban became notorious because it housed a large stockpile of weapons, believed by many to be the largest stockpile put together by any religious group in the USA. The sect claims these are for defensive purposes. 
      
The Hare Krishna sect is male-dominated, all female members, young or old, being expected to assume a subservient role. It is reportedly even customary for the women when speaking to a man to avoid looking him in the eye but rather to gaze at his feet. 
The Hare Krishna beliefs centre around the Hindu deity Krishna, a youthful cheerful god with blue skin. To the Hare Krishnas he is not just another member of the Hindu pantheon nor an incarnation of GOD but is the supreme lord of the universe. Krishna is to them GOD.

Prabhupada soon gathered around him a small group of disciples and the movement issued his various books in large numbers, including the ubiquitous Easy Journeys to Other Planets and his translation of the Bhagavad-Gita.

Although Prabhupada himself appears to have been in many respects sincere and honest, one has to wonder when the subsequent history of the movement was unfolded. Certainly some of his followers acted in a criminal fashion. Behind the talk of peace and love and Krishna Consciousness there was an undercurrent of real crime. This is understandable in that the movement tended to draw into itself many with shady backgrounds. Large numbers of followers had 'done' drugs, other had been involved in petty crime and a few had been involved in major crime, such as armed robbery.
 
The collections taken up at street meetings, for example, were not only greatly increased following the introduction of the practice of blowing a conch shell but many times, summoning people to 'give more' but the majority of the collections were made under false pretences. The disciples might pretend they were collecting for Catholic charities or for Vietnam Veterans or starving children or some other worthy cause.  The collections were usually made by female members of the cult, who were sent out on the streets for long periods, sometimes working up to 14 or 15 hours a day.  In at least one reported instance a pregnant disciple had to make collections until the day she went into labour. All manner of scams were employed to extract money from the public, one of the most successful involving giving two or three record albums free to a prospect, then asking for a donation for their work among starving children, or whatever. The records had been obtained for a few cents each - throw-aways from manufacturers. Inevitably the amount of gift was far beyond the value of the records.

But members of the sect did not stop at extracting money from unsuspecting donors. They often resorted to outright theft and fraud. Stolen credit cards were frequently used to buy goods and shoplifting was another way to obtain needed supplies.  The cult also engaged in the large-scale production of counterfeit goods, e.g. t-shirts, which they sold to the public.

But these were the least of the criminal activities. There were many instances of wife abuse and even of murder. The single woman who joined was usually married off quickly to a male member, not always of their choice, and was expected to be an obedient and subservient wife, as in the Hindu tradition. She was expected to ask her husband's permission to do anything and everything, even if she wanted to buy new underwear or to go for a walk. If she stepped out of line she was liable to be beaten and such abuse of women was widespread throughout the cult's settlements.

The 'pure' Hare Krishnas who followed the teachings of Prabhupada were only supposed to use sex for procreation but in practice the rule was soon forgotten and many of the gurus made good use of their positions to seduce young females; indeed with some it was expected that the women would service the guru's sexual demands whenever he ordered it. Sex was also put to work when the girls went out to beg. They were told to wear blouses partly undone at the neck to act as a lure to the male victims.
Relatively early in the reign of Prabhupada there was a major split in the ranks and over the years there were many instances of violence, beatings and even murder.  Among several breakaway groups was one known as the Peace Krishnas. Drugs were widely used and in the end some members of the cult became actively involved in drug-running and trading. LSD was widely used, along with marijuana. At one point a laboratory was set up in a cult building to produce amphetamines.
 
The members lived in communes and were expected to give up all their worldy goods to the movement they embraced. Upon entering the commune they went through a sort of purification ceremony after which they were said to be born again. They were not allowed to eat meat nor even drink tea and coffee. Members were expected to rise and take a cold shower prior to the 4.30 am morning service. Any children born in a commune were taken from their parents at the age of five and put into a separate communal training compound and at the age of eight were sent to India for further training.

Many of the children's compounds were dirty and reeked of urine and faeces.  Generally the children, with some exceptions, suffered neglect. In at least one of the communal compounds, known as New Vrindaban, a showpiece centre, many of the boys were sexually abused over a lengthy period by the males charged with caring for them.  In a subsequent investigation by police it was found that boys would be ordered to come to the front of the class and sit on Sri Galima's lap. They were then anally raped, before the other boys. Other boys were kept after class; their hands were then taped down on their desks, holding them in place while they were anally raped.
 
The egos of many of the gurus appointed by Prabhupada were enormous and this resulted in clashes and rivalry. There were constant battles over who was to do what.  In the end such clashes were to lead to outright murder. The sect for a time faltered and lost many members but then revived somewhat. Under one of the gurus, Kirtanananda, New Vrindaban saw changes to accommodate changing times. Among these was the singing of a hymn, 'Onward Krishna Soldiers'. In July 1991 Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, 53, was convicted of authorising kidnapping, beating and murder to cover up illegal activities of the group. A US Federal jury in March 1992 found him guilty in a trial at Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was later sentenced to 30 years' jail.
(Reference: Monkey On a Stick by John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson.  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, NY, 1988. The authors are investigative journalists.) 

HEALING, Divine.  See under: FAITH HEALING.

HEAVEN. 'Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people had described a day at the seaside.' (George Bernard Shaw). Lisa Wilkinson, onetime editor of Australia's Dolly magazine, asked by the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine to comment on heaven, replied: 'Pity the poor fool who attempts to describe Paradise. After all, it's a place that the religions tell us is beyond the scope of our imagination; a secret club for which the various denominations prescribe certain rules of entry. Once you're in, you dwell forever in a semi-concussed state of bliss, confident that your membership card won't be taken away from you.'

The Islamic Paradise excels all others, at least for male believers.  We are told that the faithful men will recline on silk and gold couches, eating delicious fruit and drinking from rivers of milk and wine (this drink, banned on earth, apparently being allowed in Paradise). But better still, these faithful male followers are to be given beautiful virgin females (particular stress being laid on the virginity), with complexions like rubies and pearls, fine black eyes and 'swelling breasts' for their pleasure. Presumably for the faithful Muslim woman Paradise comes in the form of serving the men! At least this is a better fate than being cast into hellfire (a notion believed in by the Christians, too) but perhaps some women don't think so. Islamic hell is said to be peopled mainly by women! Maybe these ladies preferred whatever hell might bring rather than being made the playthings of Islamic warriors and layabouts.    

HEBREW PUNISHMENTS.  The Hebrew Bible or Old Testament prescribes several forms of punishment for wrongdoing. The notion of punishment was a fundamental tenet of the Hebrew religion: 'My father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.' (I Kings 12:11). Outright torture was not knowingly used by the ancient Hebrews and indeed this was probably the only ancient nation not employing torture. However, many harsh laws applied and these usually had cruel punishments prescribed for those who broke them, such as stoning and whipping.  And capital punishment was prescribed for various crimes, if not by stoning, then by hanging.

Death by stoning was prescribed for any found guilty of being false prophets. Heretics, i.e. those who did not conform to the Hebrew religion, were to be stoned to death also. 'Then thou shalt bring forth that man or that woman [the heretics] . . . and thou shalt stone them with stones, that they die (Deuteronomy 17: 5).  Transgressions of the restrictive sexual codes of the Hebrews were also punished with death by stoning. If a man discovered that his new wife was not a virgin and this was proved she would be stoned to death by the men of the tribe. Stoning of both the male and the female was prescribed for adultery. Even 'rebellious sons' might be put to death by stoning, with their parent's concurrence.

Slavery, which is known and accepted as an institution by the Hebrews may even involved one's own family. The Twelfth Commandment (there are more than the Ten) prescribes conditions to be observed when a daughter has been sold into slavery by her father (Exodus 21:7). The law specified that the girl may become wife or concubine of the slave-owner or be given to his son. If she doesn't please the owner or the said son she is to go free. But, and it is a big 'but', the onus is on the slave-holder as to when she is released, if ever!
 
The 11th Commandment deals (approvingly) with the institution of slavery. This law is found in Exodus 21:2-6. Slaves are to go free after six years' service. Thus runs the laws, but there's a nasty catch, a sting in the tail. If the slave came to his master already wived she, too, could go free with her husband. But if the wife had been given to the slave by his master then, when he goes free, the wife and children are to remain behind.
  
Placed in a terrible dilemma (well, maybe not all the husbands; some might have been glad to leave behind wife and children) what is the poor man to do? Yahweh the god has provided for just such a contingency. The slave may elect to retain his slave-status so as to remain with his family. He then agrees to serve his master 'forever' and in token of such servitude the master is instructed to 'bore his ear through with an awl' (verse 6). Charming!

In another enactment (21:20) the master is apparently free to punish his slaves by beating them with rods, provided only that they don't actually die! Beating was one of the regular punishment handed out by the law courts. A maximum of 40 stripes only was to be given (Deuteronomy 25: 3) and in later times Jews were careful to give only 39 stripes, lest by mistake they exceeded the divinely ordained number. See also: JEWISH DISCIPLINE, and: SLAVERY AND RELIGION.

HECATE.  The the virgin moon goddess, otherwise known as DIANA. 

HEEL. In mythology the heel is considered the area of vulnerability or attack (from evil forces). Either the heel stamps on the serpent, etc, or is attacked by it. Thus the heel is referred to in connection with the Serpent in Genesis, and in other legends involving Achilles, Sigurd and Krishna.  

HELL. Hell (and the accompanying damnation) is an obsession of many Christians, one might say in some cases a morbid obsession:
 
There is a dreadful Hell
And everlasting pains
There sinners must with devils dwell
In darkness, fire and chains.
(Isaac Watts: Divine Songs for Children - yes, for children!)

The Greeks thought of their Hades as a distant island to which people were banished. The Jews' Sheol was the dwelling-place of 'shades', a dark region in the lower earth peopled by good and evil. Later the idea of Gehenna developed, and the hell (from northern European 'hel') of the Christians derived from this and is linked also with Zoroastrian ideas.

Catholic Queen Mary said: 'As the souls of heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in Hell there could be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the Divine vengeance by burning them on earth.' 

The Buddhists have a number of different hells into which are cast evildoers, according to the species of sin indulged in.  The Islamics also have a hell which is, so says the Koran, peopled mainly by women!

Hellfire was all the rage with the older Christian preachers, none more so than the American raver, Jonathan Edwards, who preached in the early part of the 19th century:

Imagine yourselves to be cast into a fiery oven, or a great furnace, where your pain would be much greater than that occasioned by accidentally touching a coal of fire as the heat is greater. Imagine also that your body were to lie there for a quarter of an hour, full of fire and all the while full of quick sense. What horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace. How long would that quarter of an hour seem to you? [The preacher continues to extend the period, building to the climax] . . . Oh! then how would your heart sink if you knew that you must bear it for ever and ever - that there would be no end, that for millions and millions of ages, your torments would be no nearer to an end and that you never, never would be delivered.
 
The wrath of GOD burns against them [sinners]; their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow . . . The GOD that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire . . .

Not only his adult hearers but even their little ones would be cast into the fires of hell, according to this preacher whose latent sadism is evident in all his words.

HERVEY, Frederick Augustus.  Better known as the eccentric Bishop of Derry.  Born in 1730, his brother was a lord of the Admiralty. In 1768 he became Bishop of Derry and as such showed an unusual tolerance of Catholics and nonconformists. The Bishop was a true eccentric. He rarely wore conventional clergyman's attire but went about in gaudy military-style uniforms, travelling far and wide on horseback.
 
The Bishop was notorious for his foul language and his blasphemies. He was said to drink a whole bottle of Madiera at one sitting and he had a penchant for chasing after females. In the latter part of his life he carried the picture of his mistress about his neck in place of a cross.
  
The Bishop undertook numerous construction projects of a queer nature, including church spires, various houses of strange design, bridges and many 'follies' as they were later described. From time to time he conducted foot races between Anglican and nonconformist clergyman along a nearby beach. He died while visiting Italy in 1803. 

HIDDEN BELIEVERS. Within the Christian Church the fundamentalists, or the evangelicals, call them what you will, the names change through the centuries, claim that the history of the formal, visible body of Christendom is not the history of the True Church. The true church, they say, is that invisible body of Born Again Believers hidden within the borders of the visible institution.  The position is likened to that of Israel of old. It was said that, from the days of Moses, 'their blot was that they were not his children.' The theme is found again in the New Testament where we are told, 'For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel' (Romans 9: 6).

There are three weaknesses inherent in such claims.  Firstly, the doctrines believed in by this invisible church are generally the doctrines officially believed in by the outward and visible body of which they are members in particular. Secondly, each small group of believing inner-Christians differs from the other groups of inner-Christians in their doctrinal emphases. This naturally leads to a very curious situation. From time to time the hidden Christians 'come out' from the main body and form a new group - carefully stating that this is by no means to be construed as a new denomination, just a simple 'body of believers.' Of course, having distinctive beliefs, in time this body of believers assumes the nature of a denomination, thus the Baptists of various shades and hues, the Seventh-Day This and That, thus the Plymouth and other Brethren, thus the Disciples of Christ, and thus the innumerable Pentecostalist outcroppings.
 
And then another curious thing happens. There emerges sooner of later from the splinter group another group of inner-Christians, claiming that the original group is not maintaining the faith, so they must 'come out' from it, a simple body of believers, of course, not a denomination. Presumably any body of Christians thus has within its ranks an inner-body of 'true believers' who may in time 'come out' from among them.  And so it goes on - and on.

Take the Baptists. Back around the 17th century some people called Baptists arose, dissenters from the mainstream of Christendom. These were known then as just plain ordinary Baptists. They differed from Anglicans and Lutherans and Calvinists and Presbyterians and Methodists and everybody else. But it wasn't long before they divided among themselves. Some, the General or Armenian Baptists, believed, as the Methodists did, that salvation was available to all, while the Particular Baptists believed, as did the Presbyterians, that Christ died for the elect only. But it did not end there. One group of Armenian Baptists in the USA called themselves the Six Principle Baptists, adhering to certain doctrines drawn from the book of Hebrews.
 
Meanwhile there were the Congregationalists, another dissenting group, and a similar body called the Separatists. Now the Congregationalists in time divided into two parties - the Old Light and the New Light, and some of these New Light people became Separates. More years went by and some of these Separates adopted Baptist views, which produced yet another church body, the Separate Baptists, while the Separate Congregationalists still persisted. Meanwhile, again, there were those Christians who believed in keeping the Jewish sabbath, the Seventh-Day party, and those of this persuasion with Baptist tendencies formed yet another Baptist Church - the Seventh-Day Baptists.
 
In time the Calvinist or Particular Baptists called themselves the Regular Baptists, presumably opposed to irregular ones, still called Separate Baptists. Yet another group, the Free-Will Baptists, emerged in New England and some Congregationalists became Unitarians. German Baptists, known as the Baptist Brethren, split into several groups, one becoming known as the Church of the Brethren. Out of all these dissenting groups grew more dissenting groups and some of the major quasi-Christian sects, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons (and they later split among themselves).

Meanwhile, across in mother England, there were brewing other circles of dissension. The Wesleyans, followers of an Anglican clergyman, John Wesley, eventually came to be known as Methodists. In time one of their number, Alexander Kilham, got himself expelled from the Methodist ministry and set up a body known as the Kilhamites, or the Methodist New Connexion. The year was 1797. A few years later, in 1811, two local preachers, Hugh Bourne and William Clowes, formed the Primitive Methodists, while just four years further on William O'Bryan established yet another breakaway, The Bible Christian Society. And this is not to mention the Methodist Free Churches, formed of members expelled at various times, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and over in the USA, the Methodist Episcopal Church, divided into three large branches, North, South and Coloured [sic].

What all these zealous Christians do not understand is that one of the dearest delights of many humans is to be numbered within the ranks of some Inner Circle - Christian or otherwise. As far back as the 3rd century the Manichees, a Christian sect, embraced the idea of an inner group, known as the elect, these being Manichees, of course. The Freemasons have long fostered such notions, as do other lodges, guilds, political parties and all manner of groups.
 
In our own day the amoeba-like divisions continue. We see it chiefly in the Pentecostalist bodies, which far outstrip all those earlier Baptists, Congregationalists and other dissenters, in the profusion of their number. It is almost impossible to gain a clear understanding of the fractions and factions making up this broad group. Back in the days when I was a youngster, there was a fashionable view abroad that the Anglo-Saxon nations (Britain, America and northern European countries) were the Lost Tribes of Israel. It seems absurd now but many thousands of people believed it all then.
 
In the early part of this century, many Pentecostalist bodies arose. These put their emphasis on the 'Baptism of the Holy Spirit' with signs following, as they fondly say.  The signs, based on texts in the New Testament, some of which at least are notably spurious, include speaking on the gibberish called Tongues, healing by laying on of hands and certain physical manifestations of the spirit - rolling around on the floor and suchlike. One large body was known as the Four-Square Church. The famous Aimée Semple McPHERSON was of this group.

Somehow some of these Christians managed to bring together, in their fevered imagination, these two disparate streams of thought, British Israelism and Pentecostalism, and there were formed a number of bodies, differing one from another on particulars, as always, espousing such views. There was, for example, the Commonwealth Revival Crusade and there was a rival group known as the National Revival Crusade. In time, with the troubles of the postwar years, the dream of British greatness faded, and so, too, did the Pentecostalist-British Israel groups. But the stage was not long empty. Other groups were active, notably an American evangelist, Oral Roberts, who built a massive empire on miraculous healings, being one of the first electronic evangelists. And the Pentecostalists continued to split into innumerable sub-groups and so it goes on - and on - and on!

HIGHER CRITICISM.  See under CRITICISM, Textual.

HILDEGARD, Saint.  Abbess of Rupertsberg, near Bingen (Germany), born in 1098, died in 1179. She was known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, a lady who said she received visions. Indeed, she was apparently subject to supernatural experiences from childhood. Around the year 1116 she joined the Order of the Benedictines (see further under: BENEDICT, Rule of Saint) and in 1136 became Abbess. From 1141 she began dictating a work known as Scivas, which contained details of 26 visions she had from on high.  Included were denunciations of worldly ways and prophecies of coming disaster - all somewhat obscure though. In recent times some music from the monastery, as sung in the 12th century, has been recorded. In connection with this the seer is usually referred to as 'Hildegard of Bingen'. 

HINDUISM.  Hinduism emerged from the early Aryan system that had entered India from the north. During the period to around the 8th century CE the older Vedic gods, linked to the Persian religions, receded into the background and in their place there were found Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, a Triad or Trimurti. Thus, as in a manner similar to, if different in content, to the Christian Trinity, the godhead was manifested in a threefold aspect - as creator, preserver and destroyer. In time Brahma tended to fade from the scene and Hinduism today is largely centred around the worship of Vishnu and Siva.

Vishnu is benevolent and represents what might be described as the warmer side of religion, the god who aids his worshippers and is in touch with their humanity. Vishnu answers to the god Jesus Christ. Siva, on the other hand, is a fierce deity, god of destruction, terrible to behold.  Siva answers to the terrible Yahweh of the Jews.

The Hindu religion in written form is enshrined in the Puranas, eighteen long Sanskrit poems, which include accounts of the creation of the world and even of the gods! The Puranas have far more to say about Vishnu than Siva and Vishnu is the popular deity among the Indian masses. As in Buddhism there is a concept of Avatars or Incarnations and Vishnu has ten incarnations.  A serpent figures in Hindu mythology as in the Jewish-Christian, The World Serpent or Ananta, sometimes Shesha.  Vishnu is often represented as sleeping upon the serpent. There are also evil forces opposed to the good as in other religions.

The chief Avatar under which Vishnu is worshipped in recent times is Krishna.  Krishna is the utterer of the poem the Bhagavad Gita, or Song of the Adorable.  Krishna preaches Karma Yoga, the means by which one attains union with the World Soul. The Hindus embraced the earlier caste system that evolved among the Aryans and found religious explanations for it, just as Christians found religious reasons for slavery and the differences in the races. Each caste has a divinely-ordained duty, or dharma.
 
Scholars believe Krishna is probably a non-Aryan god and in the literature and history of the Hindu religion there is evident conflict between Krishna and the earlier Vedic deity Indra, once a great favourite of the masses. There are some very interesting legends associated with Krishna which reflect probable Christian influences.  Krishna escaped from a massacre of innocents, as the baby Jesus was said to have done but, unlike Jesus of Nazareth, Krishna has stories told about him in which he engages in youthful amours with Gopis or milkmaids, and in particular Radha. In Tamil literature many hymns devoted to Krishna are of an erotic nature.

Siva, also known as Mahadeva, apart from his fierce aspects, is also god of fertility and procreation and is worshipped under the symbol of the Lingam (the phallus). He is also known as the Lord of the Dance and has as consort Parvati or Uma, a stunningly beautiful creature. But Parvati has another side to her nature of evident sweetness and light. She is also the terrifying Kali (or Durga), a personage to be worshipped with bloody sacrifices and 'obscene' rites. There is a temple to Kali at Calcutta where goats are sacrificed to her and it is Kali who inspired the Thugs of old India in the murderous rampages. In representations of the gods Siva is depicted bearing a necklace of skulls, gripping his victim, while Kali holds forth a bowl to catch his blood.

In modern times Hinduism has become a very complex phenomenon, with greater and lesser gods and a variety of ceremonies. The Brahmins form the priesthood, ascetics, mediators, and there are even present animistic elements; with sacred stones and animal sacrifices providing elements from the remote past. There have even been, at least until relatively recent times, human sacrifices among the primitive Khonds, a fertility offering. Finally the cow is a sacred animal, in Vedic times sacrificed, now held in honour and preserved.
 
The vast majority of Hindus today worship Vishnu or one of his avatars - Rama or Krishna. The cult is strongest in Northern and Central India, whereas Shiva's supporters tend to be in the South. Siva is also a god of the mountains, lord of the yogis, mystics and wanderers. He is portrayed carrying a trident and a damaru, an hourglass-shaped rattle drum, traditionally the instrument of the shaman. Siva's predecessor was the Aryan god, Rudra. See also: TANTRA.

HOLI FESTIVAL.  A Hindu festival held in spring. It is an exuberant time, with devotees smoking marijuana cocktails and dancing. A shadow was cast over the 1994 festival, however, when at a temple in western India a stampede occurred and five worshippers were trampled to death. Another nine were injured. The Hindus tend to get a little over-excited in their religious observances!

HOLINESS CHURCH OF GOD IN JESUS' NAME. A small sect of snake-handlers in Tennessee. In July 1973 Mr Murl Bass, 35, was rushed to Chattanooga hospital after being bitten by a rattlesnake at the church. Snake bites are quite common among such sects and many painful injuries and deaths have been recorded. Nevertheless members continue to handle the reptiles as a 'test of faith.'  Usually sect members do not seek medical assistance, however Mr Bass's condition was such that aid was sought.

In April of the same year two members of the sect died but not from snakebite.  At their Saturday night revival service they drank strychnine as a test of faith. Apparently their faith was weak; they dropped dead.  

HOLOCAUST, The. In May 1994 the Vatican acknowledged officially that the Catholic Church had through the centuries been involved in persecuting the Jews and this included the Holocaust period. A document admitted that 'the Church as a whole offered no effective resistance to the Nazi program of persecution and extermination.'

HOLY ALAMO CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The Holy Alamo Christian Church was established in Arkansas around the year 1973, but more recently operated from a location near Los Angeles, California. Run by Pastor Tony Alamo, the church developed several business enterprises, including a hog farm and an upmarket clothing store.  Like so many sects the Holy Alamo Church was organised so that many members contributed their labour either without pay or for slave-labour wages while Mr Alamo himself lived high. At least that was the view expressed by Federal Prosecutor Christopher Belcher when the US Government took the pastor to court on charges of income tax evasion.

In June 1994 Alamo was found guilty of understating his income in 1985 and failing to supply tax returns between 1986 and 1988. He was fined $210,000 and sentenced to a maximum prison term of six years. Alamo protested his innocence, claiming he had been helping drug abusers and the homeless and that he received no salary.  However Government figures indicated that in the previous four years the Church's turnover had been about $US9 million. When the case ended Alamo cried 'conspiracy' and asserted he was fighting for 'freedom of religion'. The US Government, he charged, was trying to destroy all churches.

In court before being sentenced Alamo made the startling claim that the Government might also want to 'prosecute God for impregnating Mary, when she was 12 years old.' Sex was obviously on the preacher's mind, as during the trial the prosecution accused him of sexually preying on teenage girls who belonged to his church. The court was also told that the preacher faced child abuse charge in California, over the beating of an 11-year-old boy, son of a church member. He had directed the punishment which had evidently been so severe that it had come to the attention of child welfare authorities. Alamo was appealing his sentence on the tax charges.  

HOLY GRAIL, The.  Many peculiar stories have surrounded the so-called Holy Grail, or cup (some say plate) supposedly used by Jesus at the 'Last Supper'. It was believed by the pious (and superstitious), but not by religious officialdom, that the cup received some of the blood of Jesus while he hung on the cross, caught therein by Joseph of Arimathea. Through the centuries many have pursued the Grail or have even professed to have found it.

In 1891 a French Catholic priest, Abbé Berenger Sauniere, reputedly uncovered some coded documents hidden in the church of St Mary Magdalene at Rennes-le-Chateau. The contents of the documents were never revealed but one thing is certain.  Soon after this time the good Abbé became fabulously wealthy. It was believed by many that the documents had led him to a hoard of gold and possibly the fabled Grail.  It was claimed by others that the documents revealed that the French royal family was  directly descended from Jesus of Nazareth! It was even explained that the title 'Holy Grail' could be a corruption of the French words 'Sang Real', meaning the royal blood.

These same people believe that the descendants of Jesus paid the priest handsomely to keep quiet about his discoveries. Thus the source of his sudden wealth, which nobody doubts. Abbé Sauniere renovated the village church, collected rare china and built a magnificent house for himself - and his housekeeper. The reason to keep the secret? If Jesus had direct descendants, then he must have been involved, either married or otherwise, in sexual relations with a woman, a shocking notion for the Church to accept. Further, the supporters of this theory believe he did not die on the cross and in fact survived to marry Mary Magdalene. To end this amazing tale - just one of many attached to the Grail - there was a final mystery. On his death bed Sauniere reportedly told a priest something that was so 'terrible' that he was denied absolution.  And that is all we know of this strange episode in history. 

HOLY JUMPERS. A religious sect that flourished in Florida, USA, in the 1920s. The congregation cried out: 'Jump for the glory of the Lord, brother [or sister, as the case may be].'

HOLYOAKE, George.  Was jailed in 1842 for six months for the 'crime' of atheism.

HOLY ROLLERS. Another fanatical sect, members of which rolled about the floor crying out that 'Jesus saves'. Whether he saves those who do not so roll about is not clear.

HOMOSEXUALITY. Death was prescribed by the Hebrew tribal deity Yahweh for homosexual behaviour:  'If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.' (Leviticus 20: 13). The destruction of the city of Sodom and other nearby places has always been linked with the notion that homosexuality was widely practised there, however, this appears to be only one aspect of Sodom's 'evil'; the worship of other gods was probably the chief cause of Yahweh's wrath.
 
The denunciation of homosexual practices continued through the centuries, St Paul taking up the theme (Romans 1: 26 and other passages).  But then we must remember that St Paul, founder of Christianity as it has come down to us, was an ascetic with entirely distorted views of human sexuality.

The Catholic Church's Penitentials, which originated in the bosom of the Celtic Church of Ireland and Wales in the Middle Ages, laid down differing penalties for a variety of homosexual activities. But we should note, in passing, the origin of these decrees; even today the Church in Ireland struggles against progressive and humanitarian views on sexuality! Thus fasting for a period was the penalty for kissing.  For more 'serious offences', e.g. embracing, mutual masturbation and direct body contact the period of fasting might be extended to months or even years. Anal intercourse incurred a penalty of 14 years fasting! Nuns were mentioned, indicating that lesbian practices were known among them and there is at least one reference to the use of a dildo.
 
In 1979 in a vote, 34 out of a total of 133 bishops of the Episcopal Church of America supported the right of homosexuals to be ordained to the ministry. Following a report about an Anglican clergyman in Western Australia leaving his post because he was gay, news was given of a very interesting survey conducted in Britain. It was claimed that between 10 percent and 20 percent of Catholic seminary students in Britain and Ireland were gay! A book, Chosen, by Elizabeth Short, quoted one student as stating that one in five of his classmates was gay. In the same book another young priest complained about older priests making sexual advances to him!

Between the heterosexual priests who seduce female church members and/or besmirch little children and the gay priests we are now hearing about here, there are great holes being punched in the much-vaunted celibacy rule, to say the least! The Holy Father may rant and rave about clerical purity and morality but look at the reality: it is a joke. Homosexuality is also very common among Catholic priests in the USA. The lowest estimate, coming from a sympathetic source, is that 25 percent of priests engage in homosexual activities of one kind or another. However, Jason Berry, a Catholic who was abused by a priest, says that up to 50 percent may have homosexual inclinations, although not necessarily engaging in homosexual activities. Proof of the truth of this assertion comes from the fact that most Catholic seminaries require the young men applying to undergo an HIV-AIDS test before being accepted!

Although not in any way accusing gay priest of being molesters, Malachi Martin, a noted Catholic author, claims there is a self-protecting network of gay priests working together and hindering action against child molesters in the Catholic priesthood.  Sexual desire is such a powerful force it will never really be held in check for very long.  Not that it should!  At least, that is, it should be released - through proper channels, of course, which may include sexual relationship with someone of the same sex if that turns one on. But not with children!

I suspect that there are relationships between nuns, too, and certainly there have been some scandals in girls' schools over the years. In the 1970s there was quite a scandal involving just such a relationship. Françoise Matringe, 40, from Paris, was sentenced to 15 years' jail for the murder of Sister Marie Therese Lefebvre, 46, of Waterloo. The court was told that the two women had a lesbian relationship for many years but that Matringe had become upset when Sister Marie broke off their friendship. In August 1973 she shot the nun dead. She claimed at her trial that she had never wanted to kill her friend, who was 'the only person she had ever loved.'
 
In November 1994 a Catholic priest died while in a gay sauna in Dublin, Ireland. He was reportedly watching pornographic movies when he had a heart attack. Two other priests who were also in the sauna administered the last rites! See also: SEXUALITY AND RELIGION.

HUBBARD, Lafayette Ronald. Founder of Scientology and popular science fiction writer. Hubbard was born at Tilden, Nebraska (USA) in 1911, son of a US naval officer.  From an early age he was taken on trips around the world and by the age of 19 had travelled more than 400,000 km. During this period he kept notebooks which he filled with story ideas, plots and observed facts. Hubbard's early life before he emerged as a successful writer is somewhat obscure. He appears to have done some engineering studies and was a capable mariner. He also served in the US Navy during World War 2.

By 1938 Hubbard was having his stories published in a variety of genres but especially science fiction. His final major series, of ten stories under the title Mission Earth, ran to 1.2 million words spread through ten volumes.  But Hubbard will chiefly be remembered for the invention in 1938 of the quasi-science of Dianetics and the development of the religious cult connected with this system of self-improvement.  See further under: SCIENTOLOGY. Hubbard died in 1986.

HUGUENOTS, The. The Huguenots were the Protestants of France, of Calvinist persuasion. During the era of the Reformation, Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre, sister of Francis 1st, supported the Protestant cause, as did many of the nobles and the middle classes. However, Francis 1st was bitterly opposed to the reform movement and with the accession of Francis 2nd to the throne, persecution, execution and banishment became the order of the day. Under Louis 1st the Protestants, headed by Admiral Coligny, took up arms against their persecutors but the revolt petered out. The Edict of Romorantin (1560) placed the persecution of the Protestants in the hands of the Catholic bishops.
 
Catherine de'Medici was at first sympathetic to the Protestants and in July 1561 an edict was proclaimed which freed the Protestants from the penalty of death. In 1562 an edict gave noblemen the right to free exercise of religion on their own estates.  Throughout this period the powerful family of the Guises maintained adherence to the Catholic faith and actively persecuted the Huguenots.
 
Strife continued between the opposing parties and the Guises provoked a massacre of Huguenots at Vassy in 1562. In February 1563 the Duke of Guise was assassinated.  A peace was concluded and the Huguenots were allowed the freedom of worship except for certain designated areas. But the Queen also worked with the Spaniards to extirpate heresy and more strife followed and warfare erupted. A further peace was concluded in March 1568 but Catherine was responsible even after this for the deaths of an estimated 3,000 Huguenots.

A third outbreak of war followed, with the Protestants receiving aid from both England and Germany. A third peace was concluded and the Protestants assured through a treaty, concluded in August 1570, of the free exercise of their religion in all of France except Paris. Two years later Catherine broke the treaty and unleashed the terrible MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLEMEW. Even after this period of slaughter and when peace had come to the land again, yet the troubles of the Huguenots had not ended.
 
Henry, king of Navarre and heir to the French throne after 1584, emerged as Huguenot leader but after a series of assassinations and other troubles Henry brought the conflict to an end by abjuring Huguenot doctrines for himself while at the same time issuing the Edict of Nantes on April 13, 1598, giving Protestants liberty of conscience and other concessions. The Edict brought peace once again to France.  Yet this was still not the end of strife and more wars followed until, on October 23, 1685, Louis 14th, a fierce opponent of the Huguenots, signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Thereafter Protestants were persecuted with the utmost rigour. Their marriages were declared null and void, and their children deprived of the right of inheritance, seized from their parents, and shut up in convents. Under threat of renewed persecution some 200,000 Huguenots, mostly merchants, skilled craftsmen and soldiers, emigrated to England, America, Holland, Switzerland, Brandenburg and South Africa. One group persisted in the faith, the Camisards, who held out in the mountains of the Cévennes for some years until eventually crushed with great cruelty by the Catholic forces in 1706.

The following years saw the fortunes of the Huguenots wax and wane. Louis 15th, urged on by the Jesuits, instituted a new wave of persecution against them in 1724.  But a turning-point was at hand: the French population at large was becoming restive as they saw what was happening again, their fellow-countrymen being driven from the shores of France. But it was not until the formulation of the Code Napoleon that Protestants were given equal freedom with Catholics in the land.

HUMANAE VITAE.  An encyclical issued by Pope Paul 6th in 1968 which outlawed the use of artificial methods of birth control for Catholics. However, large numbers of sensible Catholics have ignored the Pope's pronouncement ever since and continue to use the Pill and other 'artificial' means of controlling fertility.  

HUMANISM.  A term used in a broad sense of Renaissance times, from the 14th to the 16th centuries, to refer to the study of the Greek and Roman languages, literature and philosophy and of Christian doctrine. In modern times, from the 18th century, it refers to the study of human beings in relation to the cosmic order.  Humanists are not necessarily rationalists but tend to be so. 

HUNG HSIU-CH'UAN.  Hung was born in 1813 to a distinguished Chinese family. As a young man he was undistinguished but in 1844 he began studying tracts produced by Christians. Soon after this he declared he had seen visions based upon the Christian Bible. In one vision, he asserted, Jesus Christ, under the form of a Chinese wise man, appeared to him as his Guide and Elder Brother. The Christ exhorted Hung to ascend the throne of China and purge the Empire of evil. He preached that he was the 'Heavenly King' and in the southern provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi he managed to gain a considerable following.  He had, he claimed, been sent to drive out the decadent Manchu dynasty and establish the rule of righteousness.

Soon his followers were breaking into temples destroying idols and even into some Catholic churches, destroying the images. The Government decided it must act against the upstart prophet and sent in troops. However, when soldiers tried to arrest Hung his supporters overwhelmed them and soon the small town of Taitsun, in the province of Kewichow, was seized and fortified as the group's headquarters.
 
From this beginning a revolt spread northwards and within a year Nanking was overrun and Hung proclaimed Emperor of China. He took as his dynastic title the name T'ai p'ing ('Great Peace') and this name was given to the rebellion his followers had started. In time Hung withdrew himself from leadership and others took over the running of the movement, spreading fear and slaughter wherever they went.

HURKOS, Peter.  Clairvoyant, born Pieter Cornelis van der Hurk in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, on May 21, 1911. Hurkos was known as a Dutch 'psychic detective', so-called. In 1969 he went to the USA from the Netherlands to help police solve a particularly nasty series of murders of young women in the Yspilanti area of Michigan.  He failed.

Hurkos was also involved in the Boston Strangler episode. He gave this description of the murderer to police in 1964: 'He is not too big, maybe five feet seven, eight . . . high hair line, with a mark or spot on his left arm, something wrong with his thumb. He has an accent . . . a French accent  . . . he has to do with a hospital . . . he is a homosexual and a woman-hater. He is taking blood and washing his hands in blood . . . he does not do normal work, he is not normal himself.' As a result of his description police arrested the wrong man! The real killer turned out to be Albert DeSalvo. 

Yet years later when Hurkos collaborated with a reporter, Norma Lee Browning, who wrote a book on the seer, he had not admitted his gross error. There, right in the front of the book, is the amazing statement: 'The man Peter Hurkos described is not Albert DeSalvo, the accused Strangler. He is the man Hurkos still claims is the real killer.' See also: CLAIRVOYANTS.

HUTCHINSON, John.  Eighteenth century mystic who believed that all the secrets of the Universe, past, present and future, were hidden in the 'holy' Hebrew language. Hutchinson believed that careful research into the alphabet and syntax of Hebrew would reveal these secrets. There are still a few Hutchinsonians with us today. 

HYPOCRISY. Hypocrisy is undoubtedly one of those human characteristics  despised by many, especially when manifested by religiously-inclined individuals and self-appointed moralists. For example, hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748) wrote in Divine Songs for Children:

    'How many children in the street
    Half naked I behold;
    While I am clothed from head to feet
    And covered from the cold.'

How many of those who sung this hymn in their churches did so without feeling the slightest real concern for the children in the streets beyond?
 
The Victorian era in England was one of outward respectability and religiosity yet behind the façade of Victorian respectability the magistrate might be a devotee of physical chastisement, the parliamentarian might keep a mistress, the rich and influential man, whatever his sexual tastes, could find satisfaction. Be he transvestite, homosexual, a despoiler of virgin children, whatever his strange tastes, he could indulge himself, provided he did so discreetly - and paid well. It was those a little lower down the social scale who got themselves into trouble.

A traveller once observed that some Buddhist nuns he encountered in Korea before World War 2 raised pigs. In their piety they would not eat pig flesh but they happily sold the pigs to the sinners beyond the nunnery walls! In Britain in November 1994 the Methodist Church publicly condemned a new National Lottery because it lured 'poor people with the bait of quick rewards'. Yet the Church decided to keep its £2 million shares in the companies in the lotteries consortium Camelot because this would enable it 'to limit the harm' caused by the Lottery!

The Americans have their own coterie of hypocrites, many of whom have been revealed over the years. In 1988 it became public knowledge that US presidential candidate and Christian preacher, Pat Robinson, who had condemned sex before marriage in his sermons, married his wife when she was five months pregnant. And there have been numerous Christian preachers caught out in 'immoral' behaviour of various kinds. And who can forget the masses of young victims assaulted by Catholic priests even as they preached morality from their pulpits?
  
One defendant in a case of child sexual assault in Ireland in 1995 was described in court as 'leaving Mass early' so he could go home and assault his children without having the mother around.' See also: MORALITY, Christian.

IMAGES.  There are estimated to be more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses on the temples of Madura, South India. For miraculous images see under: VISIONS AND IMAGES. 

INDEX OF PROHIBITED BOOKS, The.  (Index Librorum Prohibitorum) Introduced into the Church of Rome in the 16th century. Some of the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau were added to the Index in the 18th century. The French edition of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding went onto the list. It had already been banned in its English edition at Oxford University. Indeed, the list of banned works includes some of the world's greatest literature, e.g. works by Gibbon, Bruno, Defoe, Balzac - the list goes on and on, running into thousands of volumes. Clearly the Catholic mind prefers the fables of religion to the ruminations of wise men.
 
INDIAN VIRGIN. In 1995 a leading female Indian politician, Jayalalitha, who rules over 50 million Tamils, was portraying herself to be the Virgin Mary. She was being accused of 'excesses' but the nature of such excesses is not known.                

INDIANS, American. The Jesuit historian Charlevoix commented: 'Religion is the chief bond by which the savages [the Indians] are attached to us.' The Jesuits in North America worked mightily to maintain this bond. But the convert remained a savage at heart; his religion was all on the surface. He killed, mutilated, tortured and scalped as before. He repeated his catechism parrot-fashion and practised the rites of the white fathers yet he did not understand what it all meant. One superstition had been replaced by another. In his eyes the crucifix was a fetish object, and the holy mass a form of occult medicine.  See further under: RALE, Sebastien.

INDULGENCES. See under: PARDONS.

INFALLIBILITY. A business article in Australian Business magazine pointed out that any theory that includes as an integral part, its own negatives and failures, must of logical necessity, always be right!  How true this is of religious theory.

INQUISITION, The Holy.
The Inquisition, or Holy Office, was active in several countries, especially Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Apologists for the Church of Rome claim that it was not really the instrument of vengeance. It was the secular power, chiefly in Spain, that carried out the actual punishments. This is an entirely spurious contention.  The Inquisition was given a formal structure (it was already operating) by Pope Innocent 3rd in 1248 as a tribunal of the Church 'for the discovery, repression and punishment' of heresy and unbelief. It was placed under the control of the recently-established Dominican Order and thereafter the Dominican friars were rightly associated in people's minds with the horror unleashed upon them. Old engraving depicting the Inquisitors going about their pernicious work:

 
A wealth of material may be brought forward to substantiate the view that the Church itself was the very instrument of the terror. This is what the notable Lord Acton, a Roman Catholic, historian and man of letters, had to say in Letters to Mary Gladstone:

The Inquisition is peculiarly the weapon and peculiarly the work of the Popes. It stands out from all those things in which they co-operated, followed or assented as the distinctive feature of papal Rome. It was set up, renewed and perfected by a long series of acts emanating from the supreme authority in the Church. No other institution, no doctrine, no ceremony is so distinctly the individual creation of the Papacy, except the dispensing power. It is the principle thing with which the Papacy is identified, and by which it must be judged. The principle of the Inquisition is the Pope's sovereign power over life and death. Whosoever disobeys him should be tried and tortured and burnt. If that cannot be done, formalities may be dispensed with, and the culprit may be killed like an outlaw. That is to say, the principle of the Inquisition is murderous, and a man's opinion of the Papacy is regulated and determined by his opinion of religious assassination.

Dominique was the first Inquisitor-General and the first office was established at Toulouse, France, in 1233, followed by a second at Aragon five years later. Soon this noisome pestilence had spread its tentacles over Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and the Netherlands. It never gained a foothold in Britain and indeed, fear of the Inquisition played a part in strengthening the resolve of Englishmen to resist the Armada. The English knew full well that behind the ships of war came the ships bearing the holy friars with their instruments of torment. By the year 1252, the Pope had issued a Bull authorizing the use of torture.

TORQUEMADA

Again, it should be noted that the most notorious of these infamous men was a cleric, Frey Tomás de Torquemada, appointed Grand Inquisitor of Spain in 1483. Even today that name has a sinister ring to it. As for the number of victims of this garbed monster, the totals given in the histories vary. Some record 'up to 9,000' human beings condemned to the flames during his sixteen years' holy work. The highest figure given is 10,220. And it is estimated that another 100,000 men, women and children suffered varying torments under his hand. Of these, tens of thousands went to a living death as galley-slaves. In fact, one figure given for those condemned to this living hell is 97,371. If this is correct, the total of 100,000 is too low. And Torquemada was but one of the Inquisitors. There were many other centres of persecution.

A contemporary historian, Llorente, collected evidence from the records kept by the council of the Inquisition itself in Spain, which indicated that over one period of less than forty years (1481-1517), some 13,000 people were burnt at the stake. Other figures indicate that between 1481 and 1808, the number burnt at the stake or tortured reached a total of 341,000.

Even the Nazis and Fascists of the modern world could hardly better the apparatus of terror at the disposal of the Inquisition. A GOD-fearing citizen going about his business, harmless, law-abiding, could be arrested on the flimsiest of evidence and thrown into a noisome dungeon. There were hundreds of such cells employed by the religious zealots. While so confined he or she may be fettered hand and foot and half-starved. Some of the prison cells were the worst rat-infested, water-logged hellholes imaginable. Rarely did the poor citizen know what the charges were until dragged before the hooded tribunal.

No specified period was set down for trial. It was held when it suited the judges.  Prisoners were rarely able to get a lawyer to defend them, even if they had money.  Lawyers rarely appeared for to do so might land the defender in trouble also. By the time the prisoner actually faced the judges he might be nearly deranged by his treatment.

PSYCHOLOGY EMPLOYED

A great deal of subtlety went into the operations of the tribunal. The psychology at work was of a quite an advanced nature, worthy of the Nazis at their most subtle or the North Koreans in modern times. Arrested people, already mentally weakened by being incarcerated incommunicado, starved and chained, would find themselves ushered not into an ordinary room but a veritable torture chamber, specially prepared for the macabre events to follow.  It was sound-proofed with heavy hangings.
 
In all, by some counts, about fourteen main tortures were used by the Inquisitors.  It is easy for the average church member to be ignorant of what has transpired in past history. The Reverend J. Donnelly, a former Roman Catholic priest, wrote in 1896 of his horror when he was shown, and actually laid his own hands on, instruments of the Inquisition. 'When I saw the tortures of walling up, the burning pile, the red-hot ovens, the deadly pulley, the iron virgin, the cold water-pressure on the brain; when I obtained sufficient evidence that priests, bishops and monks who claimed to be the representatives of the meek and lowly Jesus, helped to apply the torch to the limbs of their fellow men, I shed tears, and prayed God to show me the way out from such a system that strangled, burned and murdered.'

Not only would the victims lose their life but their estate would be confiscated by the Church and their families thus left destitute. The Inquisitors often also sought the names of others - friends, family, loved ones, implicated in the alleged heresy.  Naturally men and women suffered to try to save their own from a similar fate. In any event, if they did not confess they would undergo further torture, no matter that they were usually quite innocent of any real wrongdoing. One could be a staunch member of the Church, never deviating from its teachings, and still find oneself racked and broken.

With everyone, Jew, Gentile or Muslim, it was a case of damned if you did confess, and damned if you didn't. Being taken into custody was a virtual death sentence in itself - either actual death in the flames of the auto-da-fé (Portuguese for 'act of faith' - a cynical appellation) or a living-death in one form or another. Those who admitted to heresy and adopted the right attitude of repentance were made to wear special penitential garb in a public display of their repentant state. Many were given prison sentences, accompanied by weekly whippings. Those children not consigned to the flames with their parents were locked away in the convents, to be brought up as good obedient Catholics.

The descriptions that have been preserved of the colourful processions of death wending their way to an auto-da-fé  remove any lingering doubts there might be about the involvement of the clergy in the Inquisition horrors. Here is one such description. The doomed prisoners were brought from their dungeons just before six (on a summer morning). Mainly they were men and women but not a few teenagers and sometimes even children would be found among their number. Barefoot, each prisoner wore a bright yellow sanbenito, a hideous garment of shame which took one of three forms, depending on the nature of the crime alleged against its wearer.

GROTESQUE PAINTINGS

The impenitent heretic had upon his garment tongues of flame and crude grotesque paintings of devils. Upon the heads of convicted heretics were worn tall cardboard mitres, covered in yellow sackcloth, known as coroza. Around the prisoner's neck was a rope and his hands were bound in front of him with the other end. In these bound hands we was compelled to carry an unlit candle of green wax, later to be ceremonially lit.

At the head of this amazing procession marched a posse of familiars (or lay brothers) of the Confraternity of St Peter the Martyr, a black-draped cross at their head. Behind these men, described as 'soldiers of the faith,' came a celebrant priest, borne upon a scarlet-and-gold litter by four acolytes. His purpose was to read the Mass and he bore with him the Sacred Host, before which the superstitious crowd fell on their knees, beating their breasts. More familiars followed, then the prisoners, each accompanied by two Dominican brothers in white cassocks and black cloaks, exhorting a last-minute repentance. Further down the procession came the holy Inquisitors themselves, attended by mounted gentlemen.
 
The Churchmen were all present - the familiars, the priests, the Dominicans, the Inquisitors themselves, all actively participating in the shameful human tragedy, this act of mass murder of innocents. The rest of the activities of that day have also been recorded, in great detail. The procession comes to a halt and Mass is celebrated. Then there is a sermon and the reading out, at great length, of the alleged crimes of each prisoner. Finally, in an act of utter cynicism, the Church authorities hand over the prisoners to the secular arm so as not to be involved directly in bloodshed!  The poor terrified wretches are bound to stakes and the fire does the rest. Each dies cruelly and slowly but one last mercy is available - repentance might bring the release of being strangled before the flames take hold. It will not, however, save the life.
 
Before each prisoner is bound to the stake the sanbenito is removed and taken away. It will be displayed as a memento, hung in the church of the parish in which he or she once lived, loved, and even prayed, mute testimony of man's boundless inhumanity to man.  And a reminder of the fearful end awaiting any who dare defy holy Church.

With the transformation of the European situation by the French Revolution there was a period of turmoil, after which the Congress of Vienna was convened and by the second decade of the 19th century many of the old laws were re-established. In Italy this meant the return, for a period, of the Holy Inquisition, along with public executions, police espionage and firm discipline. When in 1849 the government of the Roman Republic opened some of the dungeons formerly used by the Inquisition in Rome, among the objects found were a small hat, belonging to a young girl of perhaps 10 or 11, children's playthings and some infants' clothing.

INSTITUTE FOR HOLISTIC INTEGRATION. See under: SANYASSIN.

INSTITUTE FOR POSTURAL INTEGRATION, The. Now known as: SANYASSIN.

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX (IGI). Covers births, marriages, christenings. It is being progressively compiled by a diligent army of workers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons) and is made available through particular churches of that denomination and in various libraries throughout the world. The English section, the largest, is subdivided into counties. The reason why the Mormons are so keen to uncover this information is that they fervently believe that all who have gone before, if they died unbaptized, are doomed to spend eternity in


 The entire family is intended to be a unit in Paradise. Now this Obsession drives them to frantic activity, researching far and wide their family trees.
 
Vast storehouses of information have been built up on computers to enable a member to track down his or her ancestors and undertake those vicarious baptisms on their behalf.  At the heart of Mormondom in Salt Lake City is to be found the world's largest repository of genealogical information. One figure given was the 'equivalent of over 4 million 300-page books.' Over twenty branch libraries around the USA also provide data and every day Mormon members are to be seen busily scanning records from the past so as to ferret out the names of all those unbaptized sinners. A curious activity, indeed, and one quite unique, so far as I can tell, to the Mormons. See also: MORMONS, The.

INTOLERANCE.  Intolerance is one of the hallmarks of many, although by no means all, religious people. The fundamentalists in particular (and not only Christian fundamentalists) are intolerant of rival systems of belief. Curiously many of this intolerant class demand freedom to worship for themselves but wish to deny like freedoms to others! A descendant of the Puritans well said: 'The Puritans came to the New World to practise their religion freely and to prevent others doing the same.' (Michael Korda) 

IRRATIONAL WORLD.  In January 1989 it was reported that a special toll number played what it claimed was the taped voice of Elvis Presley speaking from 'beyond' - years after his death. It was receiving 25,000 calls per day.  According to the tape Presley spoke with a friend some time after his death, advising that he was moving about the country still. Each caller was being charged $2 per call and an extra 50 cents to vote on whether he/she thought Presley was alive or dead. See also: NEW AGE.

ISLAM. Islam is a religion that has throughout its history taken up the sword to impose its will. At the end of 1932 over 30,000 Chinese were slain in a Muslim revolt in Northwestern Kansu province. They were massacred by roving bands of Mohammedans attempting to start a revolution against the Nationalist Government. The Indian subcontinent has suffered numerous religious clashes, especially between Hindus and Muslims although it must be stated that the Muslims have not always been responsible for the violence.
 
In August 1990 a prominent Saudi Arabian businessman brought some art books into his country from the USA. He was stopped by the customs men when they examined one book and found it had two pages with naked ladies on them. They were works by the famous painter Rubens. 'It's art,' explained the businessman. It took two weeks and several phone calls to the royal family to get the book released. Because the Koran bans all representations of the human form there are no theatres, or movies.  TV has been given special dispensation because it shows 'the human figure in motion' (but not movies, which do the same!). Life must be exceedingly boring in Saudi Arabia: there are no clubs or bars or discotheques.

According to the strict tenets of Muslim faith interest may not be charged when money is loaned to people. But banks and other bodies with hypocrisy get around this restriction in a variety of ways. When a new Islamic bank, Bank Muammalat Islam, was being launched in Indonesia in October 1991, it was stated that although interest would not be charged on loans the bank would receive a 'share of profits from borrowing companies.'

Rough justice was meted out in Afghanistan recently when a 36-year-old teacher, suspected of being a thief, was seized by a mob. His arms were bound behind his back in the favoured local manner, pulled tightly back at the elbows, and he was paraded through the streets. No trial was held. After passing through the jeering mob his bonds were released and his right hand was amputated, without benefit of any anaesthetic.
 
In September 1995 Permadi Wiwoho, an Indonesian lawyer and fortune teller, was jailed for seven months after being found guilty of 'denigrating Islam by describing the Prophet Muhammad as a dictator.' Protesters at the hearing claimed that an Indonesian Government Minister, Mr Harmoko, had been guilty of a similar offence but had not been prosecuted.

In January 1995, in response to questions from the world's press, Dr Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, said that according to the Koran, killing a person was permitted under three conditions: 'A person who willingly kills an innocent person should be executed, an infidel who was a Muslim but renounced his faith should be killed, and a man or woman who commits adultery should be killed,' he said. The latter had to be confirmed by the testimony of four witnesses. Dr Zahar is a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Islamic University in Gaza City.

ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS. Around the world from the 1980s onwards a wave of Islamic fundamentalism has swept hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths, with Islamics subscribing to such a viewpoint not hesitating to use the sword to execute their ideas of justice and religion. The Salman Rushdie affair was but the most notorious incident in a long line of attacks on writers, artists and others who failed to toe the line laid down by these warriors for Allah.
 
In September 1994 two popular male singers were kidnapped by Islamics in Algeria, accused of being 'vulgar'. One, Cheb Hasni, 28, a leading star, was shot dead by his captors in the city of Oran. Hasni's music combined a traditional western Algerian melodic line with modern rhythms.  The lyrics often dealt with teenage romance and contemporary problems. The second singer, Lounes Matoub, 38, was seized from a cafe and has not been heard of since. The same Algerian fundamentalists have been demanding that schools compel schoolgirls to wear veils, to segregate the sexes and to forbid girls taking part in gymnastics.
 
In the same month that the fundamentalists struck against the entertainers it was estimated that to date more than 10,000 people, including foreign tourists, had died as a result of the outbreak of fundamentalist rage in Algeria. The Islamics had been denied government after an election victory in January 1992. The problem facing the military was that once in government the fundamentalists would deny democratic rights to everyone else as has happened in countries like Iran!
 
In October 1994 Iranian police arrested the director of a pen-pal agency. As contacts between unmarried men and women are forbidden under Islamic law, the authorities claimed that passing names and addresses back and forth between the sexes was a form of contact!  In the same month an Egyptian author, Naguib Mahfouz, 82, winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature, was stabbed, apparently by a fundamentalist. He survived the attack.

When Pakistan's then Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, took part in the women's conference of Non-Government Organizations in China in September 1995, Islamic fundamentalists objected, holding protest rallies in Pakistan. Ms Bhutto commented that a handful of people were seeking to give women second-class status. In recent times they have managed to get rid of Ms Bhutto in the way Islamic fundamentalists know best - murder.

Meanwhile an outspoken critic of the fundamentalists, who had to hide her identity behind a mask, commented: 'Only the Iranian women and the Afghans understand the horror we are fighting - fundamentalism.' This delegate, an Algerian, had fled her country because of the persecution of women by Islamic extremists.  She continued: 'The first babies are now being born to the hundreds of women and girls kidnapped and kept as sex-slaves by the armed fundamentalist groups.' Such women were, she claimed, tortured in various ways. They were cut with knives and burnt with cigarettes and many who fall pregnant are simply sent back to their families, who do not want them back.            

ISLAMIC MIRACLES.  From newspaper reports, March 1990: A miraculous eggplant has become an object of veneration in Britain. Thousands of Muslims are travelling to a terrace house in Leicester where Mrs Farida Kassim shows them an unusual seed pattern forming the Arabic inscription Yah-Allah, Allah is everywhere. One visitor was quoted as saying: 'People see for themselves. Allah is showing he is creator of the world. I don't know why he chose an eggplant, but we cannot question Allah.'
 
Two other Muslim families in the area then found similar patterns in their eggplants.  One showed the Arabic characters for Allah, repeated three times; the other appeared to contain a verse from the Koran, but this was not immediately deciphered. The owner of these eggplant-missives said: 'It's quite clear it is a message to tell all the Muslims, and all other faiths, that this is the true faith.'
A news report in July 1992 told of hundreds of Japanese car tyres being withdrawn from the market in Brunei after Muslims there complained that the tread pattern resembled a verse in the Koran. Islamic authorities ordered the removal of the tyres, deemed offensive to Muslims. 

ISLAMIC PILGRIMAGES.  See under: HAJ PILGRIMAGES. 

ISLAMIC SECTS.  The chief divisions of Islam are the Sunni sect and the Sh'ite.  There are, however, other groups. More liberal even than the Sunnis are the Alevis. There are also various mystical sects. Recently such a sect surfaced in Malaysia.  Known as Al Arqam, it upset the Malaysian authorities. See further under: AL ARQAM. 

ISLAMICS PERSECUTING CHRISTIANS. From Saudi Arabia comes the story of two Christian missionaries from the Philippines who faced execution for daring to preach the Christian religion in the kingdom. It appears that the Filipinos thought the benighted Saudi people needed to hear about their particular deity. Oswaldo Magdangal and Renato Posedio were typical of those Christian enthusiasts who rush into foreign parts with their 'inspired' messages. The two Filipino zealots were arrested two carrying Bibles and prophecies warning of hard times ahead for the Islamic world.

They were sentenced to be beheaded on - ironically - Christmas Day. Late news had it that Amnesty International, the Philippines president, Fidel Ramos and many others had pleaded with Saudi authorities to spare the 'criminals' [sic]. In Australia the Saudi Embassy denied executions were to take place. In one two years period the Saudi authorities, according to Amnesty International, cracked down on Christians, arresting over 300 believers, including even children, for the 'peaceful expression of their religious beliefs.' This is the Islamic version of religious tolerance!

JAPANESE PERSECUTIONS.
Under Hideyoshi, who first enters history as a ruler in 1558, persecution of the Christians began. However it was not because of religion and it was mild compared to what was to follow. Hideyoshi persecuted only for political reasons and Buddhists, too, often suffered as did Christians. But the bickering between the Jesuit fathers and their converts on the one hand and the bitter rivalry between the orders, Jesuits, Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans, seemed to him to threaten the country's safety, especially as the Christians showed loyalty to the foreign priests and the Pope more than to their rulers.
 
In 1581 it was estimated there were between 150,000 and 200,000 Christians in Japan. In 1587 Hideyoshi ordered the banishment of all the foreigners, in particular the Jesuit missionaries, and forbade any more Japanese to accept the faith. The Jesuits responded by hurling calumnies on the ruler's head. Further, Hideyoshi had reason to suspect the foreigners of having hidden motives. In the previous year a Spanish galleon, the San Felice, was stranded on the coast and the pilot showed his helpers a map which indicated the extensive domains of the King of Spain. The pilot made a foolish boast that the king controlled so much of the earth's surface because he first sent out missionaries to convert the people and then sent his armies.

RIVAL CHRISTIANS

What with these unfavourable remarks and further disputes between the rival Christian groups, Hideyoshi acted decisively in 1597, when he ordered the CRUCIFIXION of six Franciscan priests and up to twenty Japanese Christians on a famous 'Hill of Martyrs' at Nagasaki. He also ordered the deportation of all missionaries, although many evaded this order.
 
After the death of Hideyoshi attitudes to the Christians waxed and waned. The increasingly suspicious view of the Catholic Christians was strengthened through the friendly contact of his successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), with a trusted Englishman, Will Adams. Adams, a survivor from a shipwreck, informed Ieyasu of the fact that many Europeans considered the Spanish and Portuguese Catholics to be dangerous subversives. Thus the increasing hostility towards all foreign contacts led Ieyasu, in 1612 and again in 1614, to issue edicts ordering the banishment of all foreign priests to Nagasaki, the demolition of all churches and the renunciation of their faith by all Japanese converts. A special bureau was set up to carry out this latter task. The reasons given included the significant statement that the priests were seeking 'to change the government of the country and obtain possession of the land.' By now the Christians were said to number about 1.8 million.
 
Under Ieyasu all Japanese law was strictly enforced and beheading was commonplace. A force of secret police operated. Young samurai-in-training practised their swordsmanship by executing criminals, sometimes despatching a number of prisoners one after the other. In this era the samurai and lordly classes were dominant, subject only to the shogun.

An assault was mounted against Osaka castle, where there were many Christians among the warriors and also Catholic priests in residence. The castle was taken and many executions followed but in 1616 Ieyasu died. It remained for his son and successor Hidetaka to launch the next and most far-reaching wave of persecution.  The Japanese were  now convinced that the Christians were wholly subversive and had to be rooted out. The chroniclers of the time say 'tortures of unheard-of fiendishness' were used to force Christians to recant. Crucifixion was one common mode of execution. On one occasion 27 Christians were confined in a cell overnight awaiting death the next day. Another man, a non-Christian debtor, was thrown in with them. By morning's light they had 'converted' the newcomer and all 28 died on crosses.
 

HIDEOUS TORTURES

In 1622, under Hidetada, 132 Christians, children as well as adults, were put to death under hideous tortures. On one day alone, September 10, in Nagasaki, nine foreign priests and fifty-six converts were put to death. The years 1626 to 1633 saw a continuation of the reign of terror, many thousands of Christians being slaughtered after suffering what was described as excruciating methods of torture.  One means of execution involved slow death by suffocation in hot sulfurous fumes. The prisoner would be bound and lowered on a rope into one of the largest cavities of Mount Unzen, a place known as The Mouth of Hell,  with its seething mass of boiling sulfur.  Young and old, male and female, were lowered and then raised again quickly so as to prolong death. Many died quickly but others lingered, their bodies splashed with boiling sulphur and eventually becoming one festering mass of dying flesh.
 
A clever device employed by the torturers was to proclaim that if a prisoner under torture showed the slightest movement of his or her body it would be taken as indicating apostasy. This created a horrible dilemma for Christians not wanting to apostasize and thereby to perhaps face exclusion from their heaven. Because of this cruel proclamation many of the Christians endured all manner of torments while trying to avoid the slightest movement which might have given them some temporary relief.
     
The persecutions continued altogether for about thirty years and the only priests remaining were those who had managed to escape and hide in remote places. In all an estimated 280,000 Christians died during this period.
  
In 1637 an edict was issued, proscribing Christianity entirely, and this resulted in a great uprising of Christians in the Shimabara peninsula, east of Nagasaki. One group of insurgents held out for three months in the castle of Hara, Christian banners floating above the battlements, but were finally annihilated, the castle being overrun in April 1638. Mass slaughter followed - 30,000 men, women and children were killed. By 1638, when Japan under its new shogun Iemitsu finally cut herself off from the outside world, over a quarter of a million Japanese Christians had been killed, imprisoned or forced to apostasize.
 
Over the next two hundred years the Christians continued to work clandestinely, always in danger of being discovered.  On July 14, 1867, there was a new outbreak of persecution, which was to last for the next six years. Hundreds of Christians were confined in noisome prisons and tortured and starved. Families were broken up and women and children imprisoned along with the men. Thousands were sent off for years to remote prisons where a large proportion eventually died from their privations.  Others were sent to work in the mines. The ban on the faith and the threat of the death penalty continued until it was removed in 1873 after the Government was pressured by foreign nations from which loans were sought.

FOOTNOTE: Japan in 1995 was quoted as having over 180,000 religious groups, at least officially registered as such. Registration confers tax-exempt status on the religion, as in the USA. However, total membership of all religions adds up at 220 million - i.e. twice the actual population, which indicates that Japanese often belong to more than one religious body.   

JEANNE d'ARC, Saint.  Jeanne d'Arc (commonly known as Joan of Arc) burst forth into history - and into legend - from the French countryside. The Maid of Orleans occupies a place in history that few of such humble background have ever attained, and the whole amazing tale occupied a space of just six years. Between the age of 13, when she first heard her 'voices', to her death at the stake at the age of 19, her life was an amazing one indeed. And certainly around about its actual facts there grew up an intricate web of pseudo-history and fantasy.
 
Jeanne was undoubtedly impelled by powerful forces. But things are not always as they seem, especially when dealing with religious miracle. She was, like Saint BERNADETTE (aged 14 when she had her first glimpse of Mary), an unhealthily religious child, decking church statuary with flowers, praying frequently, and preferring to attend church services rather than go dancing with the other village girls. It is surely significant that her voices began to affect her when the child reached the age of 13. Frequently at the centre of supposedly psychic activity, e.g., poltergeist manifestations, is a child, more often but not always female rather than male, at about this critical age of transition, i.e., at or near the age of puberty.  Statistically speaking, young girls reaching or passing through the age of puberty are more likely to have mystical religious experiences of one kind or another than any other group in the community.

Someone described Jeanne as 'a country girl from Lorraine, imbued like many of her neighbours with a pagan faith, with an animistic sense of nature and with powers of clairvoyance [if such exist! - ed.] . . .'  The fictions surrounding the story of the Maid are innumerable. I recount one notable and oft-repeated tale, hailed at the time as sure evidence of the miraculous and seal of the divine approval for her cause. (The records of her trial, carefully written down at the time, still exist in their original form and contain many useful details of her life and work and the stories surrounding her person.)
 
Upon Jeanne's first visit to the Dauphin (Charles 7th) the young man tried to deceive her, as a sort of test, by disguising himself, hiding among his courtiers.  Jeanne entered the room and, according to the story, went straight up to the Dauphin, speaking directly to him.  Jeanne was in fact using the trickery commonly employed by stage magicians and mind-readers to achieve their seemingly impressive feats. Such an action was thought to be miraculous and explained only by Jeanne's contact with the Unseen Powers through her voices.  It created a sensation among the onlookers, so we are told, and this, in turn, bolstered her image as the one sent by the deity to assist their cause.
 
Miraculous explanations are hungrily consumed when simpler ones might prove to be the real truth. Jeanne didn't simply, as one sometimes pictures the situation, march in on the Dauphin's court. She had been kept waiting before she gained an audience with the Dauphin. Not only were the two days prior to her audience spent close at hand, where there would be ample opportunity to gain information as to his appearance, stature and other features, from the townspeople, but Jeanne had spent altogether some eleven days in the company of three men who knew just about anything there was to know about the royal personage. To gain information ahead of time is one of the commonest tricks of the conjurer, as old as street magic itself.

But chiefly, and forever, Jeanne will be remembered for her voices, the messengers from the Other World, by which her every action came to be directed. At least this is what she told us; those around her at the time heard no voices! It was these heavenly messages that impelled the teenager on her risky and relentless course towards ultimate destruction. Indeed, she had success, Orleans was saved. Testimony to the rightness of the Maid's cause, and the reality of her voices? Maybe, maybe not.  Testimony to the forcefulness of the Maid's personality and leadership? Who knows? But doubtless there were pious believers ranged on either side in this war, as in every other.
 
There is a clue, though. Jeanne may well have been on the wrong side if there was a wrong side, for her voices failed her at the end. She fell into the hands of her enemies.  Now maybe this event could be accommodated within the compass of the divine will and purpose, and undoubtedly many believers will think this way. But what happened afterwards could not. Jeanne consulted again with her heavenly visitants, and the voices eventually told her to escape. She obeyed and jumped from her prison tower, only to be injured in the fall and soon recaptured. So much for the miraculous messages from the heavens. The voices had failed her twice. And on the second occasion there can be no excuse that it was the 'divine will' she fall and be recaptured, unless perhaps her deity had set his face against her!
   
While some praised Jeanne d'Arc, others thought she was a witch. Her judges and those who bound her to the stake certainly were convinced of it.  She was described as a 'menteresse, pernicieuse, divinesse, superstitieuse, blasphemeresse de Dieux, ydolatre, invocateresse de déables, apostate, scismatique et heretique.', that is, a sorceress, diviner, false prophetess, summoner of evil spirits, practiser of magic, and more. Indeed, invective heaped upon invective. Her personal revelations were denounced by the Church as false and as having come from the Devil himself.  According to Margaret Murray, in The God of the Witches (1952) never once did Jeanne, known as La pucelle, refer to 'our Lord' or 'Christ' or 'our Saviour'.  Professor Murray's view is that Jeanne was an adherent of la vecchia religione, in other words, witchcraft.
    
How easy it was to believe in witchcraft and demon possession in the superstitious atmosphere encouraged by the Church itself. Magic and miracle were accepted as part of the divine order of things, inextricably mixed up with orthodox Christian teachings.  Not so strange, this, though, as many of the Christian doctrines had themselves strong links with the magical world of man's first religious impulse. Religion is, after all, only one step removed from magic, as Sir James Frazer has wisely pointed out. 
Only when Pope Calixtus 3rd appointed a commission to reopen the case of Jeanne d'Arc twenty-five years later was a witness found who would swear he heard Jeanne call on Jesus at the stake. It was desirable to rehabilitate her so that her family could lay their hands on the fortune amassed in her name. Some modern psychiatrists diagnose Jeanne as a victim of repressed sexuality and a schizophrenic suffering hallucinations.  Jeanne d'Arc as represented in an old painting:

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES. The originator of the Jehovah's Witnesses was an American, Charles Taze Russell. Born in 1852 in Pittsburgh, Russell was once a Congregationalist pastor. In time he separated from that church to form his own independent body, eventually known as the Witnesses of Jehovah. They've been a pestiferous presence on people's doorsteps ever since. Like so many religious people in the 19th century, Russell was caught up in the fever over supposed imminence of Christ's Second Coming so he did a bit of calculating. The date he arrived at was 1874.

Now I know it will not surprise you to discover - as are all still here today (sinners and saints alike) - that Christ did not return in 1874.  Well, not quite, or perhaps he did after all! You see, Russell had a streak of rat-cunning. He wasn't about to shed the mantle of prophet. He came up with a brilliant idea, a new one - the Return of Christ had been invisible! Thereafter Christ had ushered in his reign but the actual end of the present world order would occur in 1914.

So Russell was still putting his credibility on the line by setting another date, albeit well into the future! Just forty years into the future in fact. It is with some satisfaction that I report that Pastor Russell lived just long enough to see - yes, the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. Surely this was the prophesied END? I guess Russell was still a trifle puzzled when he died in 1916. Certainly it was a huge war; it must have seemed like the end to many people. Tragically it was indeed the End for several million humans. But this, too, passed and the End was still nigh - somewhere nigh. Now Russell's successor, Judge Rutherford, took over the Witnesses and, believe it or not, in 1925 he was confidently telling people that 'millions now living will never die.' Sixty-five or more years later millions of those people are well and truly dead. Of course, the Witnesses still claim the End is coming, even today!

A report in September 1991 in The Sydney Morning Herald [9/9/91], told of the rapid construction of a Kingdom Hall for Witnesses by a specially recruited team of 150 volunteers. The site was Enmore Road, Marrickville.  A spokesman for the religion stated that a new Kingdom Hall was being built at the rate of one every 11 days in Australia currently. In NSW alone, some 43 halls had been completed in the previous four years.
 
This neo-Christian sect has drawn a considerable degree of opposition in many societies. The Jehovah's Witnesses are aggressive and persistent sellers of their faith, arriving unannounced on the doorsteps of citizens and debating religious issues.  This arouses antagonism but more serious are other aspects. The Jehovah's Witnesses, like many cults, have a reputation for dividing households and much bitterness has resulted from such divisions. Further, the sect teaches, among other doctrines, the notion that as 'the life of the flesh is in the blood' members should not accept blood transfusions. This prohibition extends to their children and because of this it has also been the source of considerable friction within many communities.

Another aspect of Jehovah's Witness doctrine forbids members participating in war activities of any kind. Thus members of the sect refuse military service and will not answer calls for conscripts. As some countries have compulsory conscription of young men this doctrine is another source of conflict.

As a result of these antagonisms Jehovah's Witnesses have often suffered greatly.  During World War 2 a special category was set aside for JW prisoners of the Nazis confined to concentration camps. Most such members were there for refusing military service. In more recent times the African nation of Malawi instituted active official persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses, considering the group to be 'subversive'. In 1972 thousands of these people were driven from the country and persecution continued sporadically in the following years. By the late 1970s thousands more had been detained and even brought back forcibly from neighbouring Zambia or ejected back into Malawi by Mozambique.
 
In 1972 the State of Singapore banned the sect altogether, describing it as a 'threat to public order'. In the period between 1973 and 1995 about one hundred male Jehovah's Witnesses in Singapore have been court-martialled and jailed for refusing military service. As in other countries the prohibition has not halted the sect's activities and in 1995 it was estimated there were 2,000 members in Singapore. In February of that year police began a crackdown on the sect, breaking up 'illegal' meetings in private homes. In one raid about 70 people were taken in for questioning.  In Western nations there have been instances where courts have ordered blood transfusions to be given to children, ignoring the objections of their JW parents.

JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER. Jephthah's daughter is one certain case of human sacrifice being carried out by the ancient Hebrews. In Judges 11: 29-31 and 34-40 we have the story of Jephthah the Hebrew warrior and judge, with whom Yahweh made a compact as a result of which Jephthah's innocent daughter, an only child at that, was offered as a burnt offering to Yahweh. Jephthah, under the influence of 'the spirit of the Lord [Yahweh]' vowed a vow. If he successfully won the pending battle against the Ammonites he promised, 'whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be the Lord's [Yahweh's], and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.'

Jephthah won the battle and returned to be greeted by his daughter, 'his only child' coming out of his house. Jephthah was devastated but kept his vow and offered his daughter as a burnt offering. There can be no doubt that this passage clearly indicates that Jephthah, unlike Abraham, whose son was spared, could not escape the deity's demand and that his virgin daughter was offered up on a sacrificial fire (verse 39).  But this sacrificial demand should not surprise us. In the law as set down in Exodus 22: 29 provision was made for 'the firstborn of thy sons' to be given to Yahweh.' And this is not merely a symbolic 'giving', for the very next verse refers to the firstborn of sheep and oxen to be likewise 'given'; and it wasn't symbolic for the sheep and oxen, it was the real thing! Their blood was shed.

JERICHO. Jericho, like many ancient cities, was destroyed more than once and in particular at a time around that described in the Bible, when all evidence suggests that the walls did 'fall down.' However, evidence points to this particular destruction having taken place at various point between BCE 1400 and BCE 1500, according to the range of expert opinion. British archeologist Kathleen Kenyon put forward evidence in the 1950s suggested a date nearer BCE 1550; this has since been disputed.
 
It is generally believed that the destruction of the walls occurred because of an earthquake and as a result of this 'quake a temporary damming of the Jordan occurred, accounting for this feature in the Biblical story. In any event, as in other Biblical stories, it is apparent that the Israelites merely attached to natural events the supposed activity of their tribal god, Yahweh. Finally, few scholars believe Joshua and the Israelites entered the country even around BCE 1400; rather, as wandering immigrants almost 200 years later. If this is the case there would be no possibility of linking the downfalling walls of Jericho with Joshua! 

JEROME, Saint. One of the great Fathers of the Church and a hermit, Saint Jerome, recorded his experience of ghostly bed-companions, come to tempt his flesh.  According to the holy man troops of beautiful naked females danced about him at night as he attempted to sleep, while he tried hard to keep his thoughts pure. He reluctantly allowed Christians to marry because it produced virgins, he said. These were the natural 'brides of Christ.'

JERUSALEM SYNDROME. Delusions of a religious kind are commonplace, but they occur with particular frequency in Jerusalem, that meeting-place and hotbed of three great world religions, during the period of the Jewish Passover, also celebrated as the Christian Easter.
 
Sometimes the two festivals come together, as they did in 1995, increasing the output of delusional cases. It appears that religious fervour takes hold each year at this time and Messiahs, Saviours, John Baptists, Virgin Marys and King Davids spring forth in some abundance. Record kept by psychiatric hospitals in Jerusalem indicate that, on average, at least 40 or so such cases appear each year. It would have been interesting, for example, to say the least, to view a 35-year-old Manchester (England) lady who thought she was Mary reincarnated. During the April 1995 festivities she appeared upon Temple Mount, where she stripped naked and demanded that someone impregnate her! She thought she might produce a second baby Jesus.

For long Jerusalem has been thought of as some sort of Holy City; it is often called by that name. Of course it isn't. It is just another city, made famous by Hebrew pseudo-history, upon which has been piled Christian pseudo-history and even some Islamic pseudo-history. In such an atmosphere of piety, prayers, hymns, bells, incense, and remembrance of fabled religious events, one should not be surprised at the rise of new prophets and seers. Some claim voices direct them; that they are special messengers from the deity, whichever deity they happen to believe in.

On occasions someone claims even to be Jesus of Nazareth himself. In an earlier era such a one might have been put to death for this claim. None seems to claim to be Allah or Muhammad; perhaps such claims would be too dangerous by halves. A female English school-teacher, 36, burst into a Jerusalem hospital one day, claiming she was pregnant with the baby Jesus and was about to have a miscarriage. John the Baptist tried to convert some regular psychiatric patients and Samson smashed through the wall of a security unit into which he had been locked.

It has been calculated that during the period since records of the syndrome have been maintained, no less than 500 cases have been noted. Doubtless there are many more sufferers who never made it to the psychiatric wards. The Israeli authorities expected a massive increase in prophets and seers with the approach of the year 2,000, a sort of millennium date. There were similar outbursts of religious frenzy when the year 1,000 approached.

JESUIT EDUCATION.  From educational book published in 1902: 'The Jesuit system [especially referring to France] deliberately set itself to provide a new, definite, and recognisable individuality for each pupil. He was seized and carefully shielded from the haphazard influences of life, he was constantly subjected to a powerful but unseen moral and intellectual pressure; the constituents of the atmosphere he breathed were gradually altered, the oxygen was replaced by carbonic acid until the necessary comatose state was reached, and he was returned to life no longer a man but a machine, an automaton prepared to go anywhere and do anything at the superior's orders.'

JESUS FELLOWSHIP. A British charismatic group that grew out of a Baptist church near Northampton. As at mid-1994 it had around 2,000 members who lived communally and shared finances. The Fellowship had an outreach work known as the Jesus Army and operated a number of Goodness Food Stores. Like many evangelistic groups they cannot help themselves and insist on bothering people by 'preaching the Gospel' at public functions  such as the Glastonbury Festival.
 
The Fellowship became more widely known in 1994 when one of their number, Julie Clayton, an Australian woman aged 27, was murdered. There was, however, no connection between the murder and the Fellowship; Julie had, in fact, gone off alone at the time and had allegedly met up with her murderer while away from the group. Her naked body was found on July 6, 1994 near Coleby, Lincolnshire. She had been brutally beaten and kicked but an autopsy revealed she had only died some hours after the attack, from pneumonia. In August 1994 a man was charged with her murder.

JESUS OF NAZARETH. A historian, studying the life of the 14th century ruler of Padua, Francesco da Carrara, said he despaired of discovering the real truth of his career, his trial, or his execution, as the accounts varied in such bewildering ways that one could be certain of nothing! If this was true of such events at this distance of time from our day, what of events 2,000 years back?

JESUS REVOLUTION. The phrase 'Jesus Revolution' refers to an outburst of freeform fundamentalist and evangelistic activity that more-or-less coincided with the wave of the new in society generally, especially in the USA, in the 1960s.  This movement spawned such way-out groups as the CHILDREN OF GOD.   

JEW-BADGES. The Catholic Church had a law passed in 1215 which required all Jews to wear a coloured patch sewn onto their clothing. Any Jew appearing without this badge could be summarily executed. The badge was intended as a mark of shame and it had the effect in practice of marking out the Jew for torment by the populace, being stoned and abused by ruffians.  The Church thus contributed massively to reducing the Jew to a figure of scorn and derision. Even his clothes became grubby and worn for what purpose was it to dress well when rotten food and excrement was thrown over one all the time? Thus the Church prefigured the era in Nazi Germany and its satellites when the Jews were required to wear distinctive badges. In the Nazi concentration camps not only Jews but others, e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses and known homosexuals, were required to wear distinctive patches.

JEWISH CHRISTIANS. Variously known as Christian Israelites or Messianic Jews or other names, in recent times there have been a number of groups who retain their links to Judaism and who observe the Jewish laws but who acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed, as Christians claim, the Messiah. They reject the notion that the Messiah has not yet come and because of this are often persecuted and reviled by more orthodox Jews.

Typical of these groups is Tiferet Israel, a congregation in San Francisco (USA). They give themselves the full title of A Messianic Congregation of Jewish and Gentile Believers in Y'Shua (Jesus) The Messiah.

The rise of Jewish Christian groups has resulted in the growth of two competing evangelistic groups. On the one side bodies such as Jews for Jesus seek to convince their fellows that Jesus is the true Messiah. On the other side traditionalists among the Jews have establish a sort of counter-reformation activity, sending missionaries among their compatriots to convince them to remain loyal to the fundamentals of the faith.

JEWISH DISCIPLINE. The Jews in their synagogues in former times practised flagellation for religious reasons. After the compilation of the Talmud or unwritten law of the Jews, about 500 years after Christ (so named in distinction to the law of Moses or written law), containing their traditions, it appears that a kind of voluntary discipline was practised among them,  In the third chapter of Malkos  we are informed that the Jews, after they had finished their prayers and confessed their sins used to lash one another with scourges.

Buxtorf, who is considered a good authority thus describes the practice in his Judaic Synagogue, published in 1661:

That there are constantly two men in every Jewish School, who withdraw from the rest of the company and retire into a particular place in the room, where they are met; that one lays himself flat on the ground with his head turned to the north and his feet to the south (or his head to the south and his feet to the north); and that the other, who remains standing, gives him thirty-nine blows upon his back with a strap or thong of ox leather.
 
In the meanwhile, the man who is lashed recites three times over the thirty-eighth verse of the 78th Psalm. This verse in the Hebrew language contains just thirteen words; at every word the patient recites, he receives a lash from the other man, which, when he has recited the whole verse three times over, makes up the prescribed number thirty-nine; and at every time he says the last word, he strikes his own breast with his fist.

This operation being concluded, the operator in his turn becomes the patient, and places himself in the same situation as the other had done, who then uses him in the same brotherly manner in which the former had used him, and they thus mutually chastise each other for their sins, and rub one another as the learned author observes, like asses. 

The Jews were very particular about the number of stripes they inflicted, the total of 39 being chosen for these voluntary scourgings as well as for judicial whippings. In the ancient texts they were instructed not to use more than 40 stripes on a person.  Thus, by inflicting only 39 they ensured they did not transgress holy writ by perhaps mis-counting. This practice of whipping among the Hebrews is said to be recorded in a novel called Count Teleki; a Story of Modern Jewish Life and Customs.  See also: HEBREW PUNISHMENTS.  Depiction of Hebrews whipping their fellow-members in an old engraving:

JEWISH MESSIAHS.
Just as the Christians have false messiahs arising from time to time (the Koreans were at one time said to have no less than 200 of them waiting to 'spring forth and be revealed to the world'!) so have the Jews. The Middle Ages saw quite a rash of such figures. Apparently spurred on by the mystical teachings enshrined in the Kabbala, a spurious book, the Zohar, was foisted on the world by a Spanish Jew, Moses de Leon, late in the 13th century. De Leon claimed it had been written by a miracle-working rabbi eleven hundred years earlier.
 
The Zohar was in effect a commentary on the Torah, the Jewish body of sacred writings, with a mystical bent. It introduced devils and guardian angels, imps and incantations, mystic seals, amulets, lucky stones and all manner of superstitions (over and above those common to all religions!). The Jews were infected with this esoteric 'knowledge' for some five hundred years and in modern history it has resurfaced in our very own occult movement.
 
One outcome of the Kabbalistic influence was the rise of numerous false Messiahs.  It was not hard to understand the welcome given such men, holding forth hope and promise. The Jews, downtrodden and persecuted, would cherish the long-held racial dream of the Coming One, he who would scatter their enemies and set all wrongs right.  So a procession of messiahs came and went. Some blazed but briefly, gathering a few followers along the way, only to be struck down by the civil authorities as troublemakers or forcibly converted to either Christianity or Islam.
  
Others had longer reigns. And sometimes amazing ones! Among their number no doubt many were quite crazy. One went so far as to request beheading so he could resurrect and prove himself! Another went to daring lengths. David Reubeni, a Portuguese adventurer, managed to convince not only the King of Portugal of the justice of his claims but even the Pope himself. So convinced were most people of the truth of his messiahship that many Jews who had converted to Christianity in previous times to save their skins now openly reverted to their Jewish heritage. 

CIRCUMCISED

One such Jew was a youth named Diogo Pires, who was a royal secretary. He threw away all honours and titles, had himself circumcised and took upon himself the Hebrew name Solomon Molko. Solomon now set forth to proclaim to the world the coming of the Messiah, that is, David Reubeni. First he gathered about him a group of disciples in Syria, then made for Rome itself, where he was befriended by highborn people of all kinds, including cardinals. All manner of adventures befell him. He was alternately condemned to die and saved from death but eventually died at the stake.
 
The most famous of the False Messiahs was a man born of Jewish parents in Turkey, Sabbatai Zevi. As a young man Sabbatai partook of extreme Kabbalistic practices which included fasting and bathing in the icy water of the sea even in midwinter. Starving and near-death with cold these Kabbalists would experience ecstatic union with the deity, or so they said! As Sabbatai was growing into manhood the world was approaching one of those 'significant' dates when men and women believed the End was nigh. (There have been many of them!) The year was 1666, an auspicious date indeed for it seemed for once both Christians and Jews believed their Messiah was to appear more-or-less on the same date!
 
In Turkey and in Syria Sabbatai was received with joy when he proclaimed himself Messiah. (It is interesting that Syria so often figures in religious history; it was from Syrian Christianity that Muhammad drew so much inspiration for his 'revelations'.)  Then the Jews of Germany, France, Britain and Poland all began accepting his claims.  Everywhere the name of Sabbatai was being hailed with great acclaim and from far and wide Jews travelled to be at his side, bringing with them rich gifts from the faithful. 
While the elders of the Hebrew nation pondered and puzzled, Sabbatai cemented his position by engaging in such down-to-earth tactics as distributing confectionery to children, singing mystical songs and publicly whipping himself. He also had accounts written down of his visions and sent messengers far and wide proclaiming his messiahship.
 
The Turks eventually became alarmed and imprisoned the Messiah but the movement continued, being directed from his prison cell, with the assistance of bribed guards, while in synagogues throughout Europe his initials were inscribed, prayers offered in the impostor's name, and lucky charms distributed. Followers in some villages even took the roof coverings off their houses so as to be ready for the new Exodus. These activities were to be paralleled in later times when 19th century Christians, especially in the USA, prepared for the coming of their Messiah by climbing up poles and chimneys.

CHRISTIAN FOLLOWERS

So great was the support for the new Messiah that some Christians even became followers. In Scotland a group of Christians got so carried away they thought they sighted mysterious vessels bearing aloft silken sails inscribed with Hebrew letters.  And on the Continent drawings circulated showing the holy Sabbatai seated upon a lion, which had a seven-headed dragon in its jaws, a familiar image in both Jewish and Christian prophetic writings.

But at length disaster struck the Messiah. It came in the shape of a rival claimant to the throne of messiahship! A Polish Jew stepped forth and proclaimed that he was the one true Messiah. What was worse was that he denounced Sabbatai to the Sultan of Turkey.  The latter had Sabbatai dragged from his prison cell and taken to Adrianople to be judged by the ruler. It was at this point in the story that a wholly unexpected turn of events occurred, which dismayed the faithful. Facing certain death Sabbatai fell down before the Sultan, cast off his Jewish head-dress and donned the covering of a Muslim!  He had converted to the Sultan's faith!
  
When the news spread it caused enormous consternation. Everywhere the Jews were mocked by the people and the scholars and rabbis who had fallen under Sabbatai's spell were speechless with dismay. They now realized they had been duped. Sabbatai himself, however, spared the ultimate penalty for his follies, did not desist altogether.  Those followers who continued faithful were told that GOD had commanded him in a vision to change his religion outwardly!  Many believed this new absurdity and convinced themselves that it was all part of the Messianic program. They even quoted from the Jewish scriptures to prove the claim and themselves converted to Islam!
 
For some time Sabbatai continued to play his game of duplicity, trying to please both Jew and Turk alike, until eventually he was exiled to a lonely village in Albania, where he died in poverty. He was not, however, entirely forgotten. As late as one hundred years after his death learned Jewish scholars in Germany and Poland were still debating his claims. And those followers who converted to Islam, known as Donmeh (or apostates) by the Turks, for long after and into our own times have kept up a strange dual faith, outwardly attending Muslim services and obeying Muslim laws but secretly still worshipping as Jews, although keeping apart from the rest of Jewry. Curiously many of them follow the same trade - that of the barber. Like the Christians these particular Jews still await the coming of their Messiah, the second coming!

NEW MESSIAHS

The spirit of Sabbatai lived on for a long time. Over the years rumour swept through the Jewish communities, especially in southern Europe, labouring under the burden of persecution and abuse. Then in 1755 a new Messiah arose, by name of Jacob Frank. Soon he was giving out that he was a reborn Sabbatai Zevi and followers rallied around him. The rabbis this time did not fall for the deceit. He was denounced violently by them, although followers continued to join the ranks of the believers. Then a final blow fell on the movement. The Church was this time responsible, and four years after the movement arose it was dead again, most of the messianists having been forcibly converted to Christianity. No further False Messiahs arose after this time.
 
But even today, a small band of faithful zealous Jews believe Messiah is still to come. Like the Christians they maintain their faith in the face of all indications to the contrary. And so we have the absurd situation of Jewish believers awaiting the first coming of Messiah and Christian believers awaiting his second coming! And along the way the Zoroastrians (Parsees) expect their Messiah in due course. But religious belief happily manages to accommodate all absurdities!
 
Dr Alberto di Pirajno, an Italian doctor working in North Africa before World War 2 (in A Cure for Serpents, London 1955) related the tale of a conversation he had with a bishop concerning a certain rabbi. The rabbi was notable for his 'permanently desolate' expression. The doctor remarked that he looked as if he had just left the Wailing Wall.  He asked the bishop why the rabbi had such an unhappy air about him. The bishop said that nothing could be done to aid him. 'This man,' he said, 'who knows the Talmud as very few know it, has every reason to look like that. I wonder how many times you have pulled a long face waiting for a train which was half an hour late? Well - you can hardly expect light-heartedness and jollity from someone who has been waiting thousands of years for the Messiah.'

And in our own time we had the interesting episode where zealous New York Jews (and adherents around the world), members of the Lubavitcher faction, believed their leader, Grand Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, was the Messiah. To be fair, the Rabbi himself did not claim such an exalted status, just his keen followers. Eventually the might-be Messiah died of old age, much to the dismay and despair of the faithful. (For an account of an unfulfilled prophesy made by Rabbi Schneerson see under: PROPHECIES.)   

JEWS, Persecution of.  Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, a 16th century Catholic humanist, claimed that God desired the extermination of the Jews 'because of their crimes and idolatries.'

This is just one typical story of the Church's persecution of the Jews. There are hundreds more scattered throughout history. This terrible episode involved a good Christian duke:  René 1st, Duke of Lorraine and King of Naples, ordered a Jew to be punished in the most terrible manner, for having uttered a blasphemy against the Holy Virgin. Well, after all she is a goddess if you take the Catholic view to its logical end, i.e. she is the mother of GOD, so 'blasphemy' would appear to be the correct category of crime.

The poor man was condemned to be skinned alive, a very unpleasant end indeed. And, of course, after that he would face the fires of hell.

Some of the condemned man's family offered a princely sum to save their kinsman - no less than 20,000 florins, but the duke, good Catholic that he was, would have none of it.  'How would you have me forget the injuries done to the mother of God, and allow the punishment to be redeemed for a handful of gold!' No, the punishment would proceed, but some other good Catholic gentlemen cunningly contrived to relieve the poor Jews of their silver and gold while still seeing the punishment carried through.  The duke's ministers threatened the family that if they did not pay over to them the 20,000 florins they would be compelled to skin alive their own flesh and blood! So the Jews lost their family member and their florins.       

JINNS. The Muslim concept of the jinn and his consort the jinniyah embraces both fear and worship. Muslims believe these entities were the first inhabitants of the world, long before man appeared. Mankind is still under their occult influence. The whole universe is full of them and live especially in lonely places. They are thought to be responsible for all phenomena that cannot otherwise be explained by natural causes. 

JOHN 11th, Pope.  Illegitimate son of Pope Sergius 3rd, noted for riotous living.

JOHN 12th, Pope. Debauchery was the order of the day while John ruled, with the papal quarters at times being overrun with prostitutes. He reportedly died of a stroke while in an act of adultery. 

JOHN 23rd, Pope.  Hailed as a progressive liberalizing Pope, he was still at heart a conservative. However, Vatican 2, the major assembly he convened, did unleash some changes within the Church that had far-reaching and unforeseen consequences, including changing the makeup of the priesthood.

JOHN PAUL 1st, Pope. Elected Pope in 1978, he died 34 days later. The Lord apparently had better things for him to do. And what of the guidance the Cardinals sought when they elected him? They had called upon the Holy Spirit to aid them in their choice bu the spirit must have been distracted at that time he led them to choose John Paul. Author David Yallop wrote a book In God's Name in which he asserted that the Pope was murdered. The reason? He planned to sell off the Vatican's treasure hoard. Fanciful perhaps, but then murder was not unknown in the upper realms of the Catholic Church through the centuries.  

JOHN PAUL 2nd, Pope. This conservative, backward-looking Polish Pope outstripped all previous occupants of his office in creating hoards of 'saints'. It might be noted, in passing, that in the New Testament saints were not special people, all Christians were known as saints.

JONES, Jim. Jim Jones, sick head of a bizarre quasi-Christian cult associated with the Peoples Temple, San Francisco, hardly needs an introduction. The terrible story of the mass suicide and murder spree in Guyana has been told many times. There is another, less well known story about this 'man of GOD' - sadistic beatings administered to members - children, teenagers and adults alike. These beatings were in public and members reported that sometimes a child would be beaten into a state of unconsciousness.
 
One teenager, Diane Mills, 18, whose parents joined the Temple in 1969 and stayed for six years, told investigators of beatings she had witnessed around the year 1972. Typical punishment befell her own sister Linda who had been observed hugging another young female in the parking lot and for this 'lesbian activity' Jim Jones decreed physical punishment - in public, before the congregation. An improvised paddle - a piece of board he called the 'board of education' - was used and she was struck 75 times on her bared buttocks. Her backside was black from the assault and she was unable to sit for a week-and-a-half. And as she was being beaten a microphone was held to her mouth so her screams could be heard by everyone.
 
Another punishment, carried out in secret on young children, involved electric shocks, using either an electric cattle prod or a heart defibrillator. These punishments were conducted behind closed doors, all that could be heard being the screams of the children. After being punished the child would be required to thank the pastor profusely for the discipline.     

JUDAH.  Judah, praised and worshipped by his brethren (Genesis 49: 8) slept with a harlot, or prostitute (Genesis 38: 18) and made no secret of this fact.

JUDGMENT DAY. A report from Beijing on 11 August, 1992, told of Chinese authorities stopping a planned mass suicide by more than 100 Christians who had been told by a missionary to prepare for Judgment Day. The villagers had gathered for a dinner and planned to jump off a cliff but police learnt about it and dissuaded them.  Similar movements have occurred at other times and in other places, notably Korea.

JULIAN CALENDAR. A solar calendar established by Julius Caesar circa BCE 45.  It reformed the existing dating system and each year began on January 1.  In the 16th century Pope Gregory 13th had the Julian calendar simplified and the Gregorian calendar was produced, the one in use today in most of the world. Eastern Orthodox Christians still use the Gregorian calendar to calculate their holy days, which occur about eleven days later than the Western dates.  

JULIUS 2nd, Pope. Guiliano della Rovere, a bitter opponent of the Borgia family, was elected as Pope Julius 2nd not long after the death of the second Borgia Pope, Alexander 6th. He had been aided in achieving office by forming a corrupt bargain with, of all people, Cesare Borgia, who was later to suffer under Julius, the bargain conveniently forgotten. There had been a brief interregnum when Pius 3rd reigned for just 27 days before dying. The Roman barons and others who had suffered under the Borgias rejoiced at the appointment of the new Pope but their rejoicing was to be turned into mourning in time! Julius was hardly any better than Alexander.

Julius is one of the Popes considered to be great by Catholics. His chief positive contribution to the office was in the furtherance of artistic endeavours. But like so many others his morality was questionable. He had three known illegitimate children and one, Felicia, he openly married at Rome while holding office as Pope. He was accused of all manner of vice by his contemporaries, including indulging in sodomy, and was notorious for his foul tongue. Like the Borgias, he handed out appointments to members of his own family and was described by a Venetian historian, Bembi, as 'a master of every type of cruelty.' In short, he was an altogether disreputable character.  

KADDISH.  Jewish prayer for the dead.

KAGAWA, Toyohiko. 
Japanese Christian leader, born in 1888. A man of many parts, Kagawa was once described as his country's most prolific author. He founded its co-operative movement, organized and headed trade unions, worked towards farm reform, and even lectured Emperor Hirohito in the finer points of democracy - and preached the Gospel to him.
 
Kagawa was born out of wedlock, legally adopted by his father at the age of 5 and then consigned to the care of his grandmother and mother. He grew up in a home where the two women took turns beating him, day in day out. He eventually went to a school at Tokushima, where he came into contact with Christians. Coming from such a terribly unhappy background and looking for affection, the young boy was ripe for plucking by the Christians, an easy convert. When he accepted baptism and announced his conversion to Christianity his family disinherited him.

Kagawa studied to enter the Presbyterian ministry but was struck down by tuberculosis in his second year at college. Although suffering acutely from the ravages of the illness during many months he managed to enrol in the Kobe Theological College.  However, he became disillusioned with the endless debates on the niceties of theology and left the college to do practical Christian work. On Christmas Eve, 1909, Kagawa trundled his few possessions into a tiny 2-metre square hut in the middle of the Shinkawa slums in Kobe. It was the only vacant space in the whole area, in which lived 11,000 people, and it was only empty because it was said to be haunted!

Here Kagawa lived and worked for the next 15 years, labouring to earn enough money to support himself and to help others. Unlike most who profess the Christian faith, Kagawa believed he should live as Jesus of Nazareth taught, at least as set forth in the Bible. When a beggar asked for his shirt he gave it to him. Then he was asked for his trousers and coat; he gave them too, without hesitation. For that is what his Bible taught him to do. A reformed prostitute came to his aid, providing him with a spare kimono, bright red in colour, which he wore about the streets for days thereafter.
 

ATTACKED BY THUGS

Gamblers and thugs demanded money from him; he gave it to them. When he ran out of money they beat him up, smashed the windows of his hut, and one even knocked out four of his teeth. But Kagawa never hit back. For that is what his Bible taught him too. Instead, he preached to the people and and sought to help those among whom he lived in many practical ways. Then a curious event occurred. Kagawa had aspirations to write stories and had, indeed, over a period of time scribbled away at a fictional tale, penning his thoughts on scraps of paper. It was entitled Across the Death Line. He had begun writing it when he thought he was dying of tuberculosis.

One day in Kagawa was away from his hut when a visitor arrived. He was a publisher, who had heard something of what had been going on and thought there might be a good story to tell the Japanese people. Poking about the hut he came across the manuscript of Kagawa's book. When Kagawa returned he found the manuscript had gone but he had been left a cheque - for advance royalties. The story was published in serial form in a magazine and later issued as a book, which became a best-seller.

Kagawa now had some money to work with so he attached a second room to his tiny hut, to serve as a dispensary and hospital. Kagawa found it hard to believe people liked his writings. Now, as well as carrying on his strenuous daytime activities helping the sick and poor, Kagawa would sit for hours each night writing, telling the Japanese people about life in the slums and urging reform. He wrote about the exploitation of low-paid workers and how any effort to organize unions resulted in the organizers being jailed. He also wrote an autobiographical novel, Before the Dawn, published in 1920.

Book after book poured from his pen and in 1924 the Japanese Government began acting on the question of slum clearance; Kagawa was credited with being one of the chief reasons. But already, in 1921, Kagawa had become - albeit reluctantly - famous, or infamous, depending on your viewpoint. In that year thousands of dockyard workers at Kobe went on strike. Kagawa had opposed the walkout but the strikers demanded he lead them and thus was born Japan's first full-fledged union. The police seized Kagawa, beating him and throwing him into prison, where he was to remain for the next 13 days.

COMMUNIST STRIFE

While Kagawa languished in his cell the Communists, who hated him because of his peaceful approach to worker problems, stirred up strife. A march was organized by the Reds, the workers armed with bricks and crowbars, intent on destroying the shipyards.  When the day arrived the armed men approached a narrow bridge leading to their objective. There on the bridge stood a lone figure - Toyohiko Kagawa. The men turned back. In 1925 the law banning unions was repealed, largely because of Kagawa's work. Later Kagawa turned the spotlight of his writings on the condition of the farmers, another area where the Communists were agitating. He later started a magazine, The Soil and Freedom. Co-operatives were established, helping ensure prosperity for the farmers.

In 1928 Kagawa, concerned about the growing warlike posture of Japan's leadership, formed the National Anti-War League and began campaigning against the 'war lords' as he called them. When the Japanese attacked the Chinese people Kagawa flew to China and, standing in the ruins of a Shanghai church, apologized for what had happened, tears streaming down his face. Such an action outraged the war party and as soon as he returned to Japan he was arrested and thrown into prison. Thereafter, as he preached peace, he was found himself repeatedly incarcerated in prison.
 
It was with great dismay that Kagawa learnt of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour.  Now so much of what he had worked for began crumbling. The Japanese war effort ensured this would happen. The co-ops were nationalized and members regimented into producing supplies for war. The labour unions were abolished at the stroke of a pen.  The rural rehabilitation projects abandoned. Orphanages, homes, chapels were destroyed in bombing raids.
 
The Militarist party persuaded Kagawa 'in humanity's name' to broadcast appeals against America's policy of heavy bombing of Japanese cities. But they added a twist, inserting additional propaganda to the broadcast messages. The broadcast led to Kagawa being, naturally, attacked in the USA press. He had until then many admirers of his work in the USA. A particularly nasty episode involved an article in the Pacific Edition of Stars and Stripes, the American service journal.  Based on an interview given shortly after the war, the story was headlined: 'Under Christian Guise This Jap Fostered War.'

LAST DAYS

This attack did great damage to Kagawa's reputation in the USA but some weeks after its publication both the story-writer and the magazine's editor were dismissed from their posts. It was alleged they were Communist sympathizers.  Perhaps at last the Communists had managed to deal yet another blow to their avowed enemy. Following the war Kagawa set himself to the task of trying to rebuild as much as he could of the shattered remains of his life's works.

Eventually Kagawa contracted trachoma and became blind. This infection had begun back in the days when he worked among the slum people of Kobe. His books again began selling again in large numbers and his personal income soared, but as always Kagawa, a Christian true to the reported ideals of the founder of his faith, used the money to help others. Co-operatives, factories and schools were established or re-established. Kagawa also worked towards woman's suffrage.
 
Kagawa died 1960. His life stands as a beacon of true Christianity, if one sees in this faith anything at all. Unlike those loud-mouthed evangelists, time-servers and supposed expounders principles of the Nazarene, Kagawa truly lived out the life his Master taught. The 'Bible-believers' read in their holy texts that they should give to him that asks their coat, even if it leaves them naked and cold, but do they? They  read in their holy texts that the first Christians were together and had all things in common. But they lord it over their brethren and drive about in their Mercedes and their Chevvies.
 
And rather than share their last bread they demand upon their television shows and radio networks that the widow send in her mite and the poor follower sacrifice yet again to keep the machinery of the great enterprise going. With tears they plead and implore for support and drag from their followers the dollars that keep their vast enterprises going. And  those same Christians include among their number such as would have criticized Kagawa for his actions and speeches as a man who peddled the 'social gospel' as they like to call it.
 
So we behold, set on one side of the Pacific, the pseudo-Christian, the mouther of words, the man who claims he believes the Bible whole but who lives out a lie. On the other side of the Pacific we behold a man who did believe the Bible and who lived according to its precepts. Which, pray tell me, is the true Christian?
 
KARMA. The Buddhist doctrine of Karma, associated with the concept of REINCARNATION, is, like some Christian views of race and slavery, a means of explaining and defending the difference between free men and slaves. If one believes that to be reduced to slavery was because of punishment for sins in a past life, then one just has to accept such a fate as decreed by the deity. Very convenient!

KENJA. An Australian group, described as a cult, and subjected to the glare of television current affairs programs in the early 1990s. Kenja was said to be a 'personal development' group, formed by Ken Dyers and his wife, Jan Hamilton (from where the name 'Ken-ja' was taken) in 1982. Reports (sometimes uncomfirmed) of its activities included bizarre confession sessions, held in the nude, and the use of cold showers for disciples. The leader, Ken Dyers, was subject to complaints in the NSW Parliament. There were accusations of illicit sexual activities, beatings, and even of someone suiciding as a result of membership in the group.

Later former female members alleged that Mr Dyers had subjected four young girls - three of them sisters - to sexual abuse, including having them perform oral sex on him. They were aged between 8 and 15 at the time. A sensational trial early in 1996 saw Mr Dyers, then aged 73, acquitted of all eleven charges that had been laid.
 
Mr Dyers maintained all along that those who accused him did so as a payback. One of the mothers involved had been, he said, expelled from the group after attacking another member physically. The other mother was asked to leave after two briefcases containing cash were lost. Throughout the trial a large group of supporters attended.
 
However, in 2007 further charges were laid and eventually Dyers committed suicide. Many of his followers have continued to assert his innocence since his death.  

KHONDS. A primitive tribe in India. Until quite recent times the Khonds, who worshipped according to a form of Hinduism, sacrificed humans, the victim being known as the meriah, offered up to the gods as a means of securing the fertility of the tribal lands.

KIMPA VITA.  See under: ANTONIANS, The.

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. Over the centuries since the TEMPLARS were disbanded a large number of bodies have styled themselves with this or related titles, especially in Europe. These cults all claimed to have rediscovered the the lost 'secrets' of the original Templars. Aleister CROWLEY had contact with one such body in Germany in the early part of his career. One of the more recent groups is the Renewed Order of the Temple, centred in south-west France. It was from this group that Luc Jouret separated, forming his ORDER OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE.   

KOHOUTEK. A comet first seen near the orbit of Jupiter and rushing towards earth in 1973 was believed by many Christian fundamentalist groups to be the harbinger of the return of Jesus of Nazareth to earth, in other words, the long-awaited, long-delayed Second Coming. Some thought the comet was linked to the star of Bethlehem, which supposedly heralded the birth of Jesus. The founder of the CHILDREN OF GOD, David Moses Berg, warned that the comet would crash into the earth and destroy the United States. He urged all Christians to leave the country by January 31, 1974 or face the consequences. To date Kohoutek has not, apparently, hit the United States. 

KORAN, The.  We are told that the Koran, the sacred book compiled as a result of revelations given to Muhammad, was not actually compiled in the seventh century! It was, we are assured, like Allah himself, uncreated, eternal, written in heaven. Its first transcript was up there somewhere, from the beginning, inscribed in rays of light on a gigantic tablet resting by the throne of the Almighty. Waiting, presumably, through all those thousands of years, for Muhammad's birth.
 
Upon this tablet are also found the divine decrees relating to things past and future. A copy of the heavenly missive, in the form of a book bound in white silk, jewels and gold, was brought down from the upper heavens (there are seven, according to Koran 67:3) to the lowest by the angel Jibral, from whence it was conveyed in stages to the Prophet over the next twenty-three years.

Now Muhammad may well have thought of himself as the Sacred Vessel through whom the pages of the heavenly book were being conveyed to earth but at least some portion of this interesting work must have been revealed to other people in earlier times. Not a little, in fact.  Careful study of the Koran's texts shows the book to be heavily dependant upon the Jewish Old Testament but more especially, upon Syriac Christian doctrines.
 
Great stress is laid by the faithful upon the Koran's heavenly inspiration, as Christians and Jews do with their sacred books. But, as we shall see, like the holy writings of Israel and the Church, the Koran too is flawed in many respects. I take but one instance. The Prophet's name occurs in the histories in several forms. In the Koran itself, the editors (it was  edited) failed to correct a variant version of Muhammad's name, Ahmad, in Koran 61:6. Now Muslims claim to be so certain of their holy book's divine inspiration that they count every single word (all 77,639 of them), indeed, every single letter (all 323,015 of them). So something is amiss here. This is perhaps a relatively minor matter but there are others of greater importance.

The first message was that of Koran 96:1-5: 'Read, in the name of the Lord ["rabbi"], who created all things; who created man of congealed blood . . .'  Leaving aside medical criticisms of this statement, we note that this first utterance to the Prophet occurred not, where one would expect, at the beginning  of the book but right near the end! The Koran was compiled some time after the Prophet's death (which occurred around CE 632). Some of the inspired utterances had been written down in his lifetime by followers, others were committed to memory. The original fragments of messages were at one stage thrown into a box and some were lost altogether - no way to treat copies of pages from an eternal heavenly book! About a year after Muhammad died the scattered portions were collected 'from date-leaves and tablets of white stone, bones, and parchment-leaves, and the breast of men [i.e. from memory],' and faithfully copied.

No attempt was made at first by Muhammad's followers to mould or shape the fragments, and the text included all the variants, gaps and repetitions that had occurred.  Some years later, under Khalif Uthman, an authoritative text was compiled.  Decisions were made on variant readings and all discarded matter destroyed so that henceforth only one received text would be used. This text, in spite of the way it had been originally discarded and re-collected and then edited extensively, was henceforth given out as being exactly as appeared in that great book in the sky!
  
This heavenly book was apparently organized according to a somewhat strange but nevertheless neat and tidy plan. To work in chronological order was apparently altogether too earthy a mode of arrangement. Instead, the longest sura (chapter), of 286 verses, was placed at the start of the book, then following this were subsequent suras, of decreasing length, with the shortest being placed right at the end.  Incidentally, the third-last sura, number 112, comprising but twenty-two words, is held in particular veneration by Muslims, declared by tradition to be equal in value to a third part of the whole Koran, which surely makes inspiration a bit thin on the ground for the rest! This neat arrangement of the Koran had the effect of mixing the suras of the Makkan period with those uttered at al-Madinah, and these two groups were very different in character to one another.
 
FOOTNOTE: In June 1994 it was reported that Turkish Government authorities were calling for a reinterpretration of the Islamic holy book to bring it into the 20th century. Fifty universities had been sent materials to use in researching the project.  It was said at the time that the Koran had been reinterpreted before. A theologian was quoted as saying the lack of a modern interpretation was causing chaos in Islamic countries. Turkish fundamentalists expressed opposition to any such move.

KORESHAN UNITY.  A small communal sect established in Chicago around the year 1890 by Cyrus Reed Teed, who used the name Koresh, the Hebrew equivalent of Cyrus. Teed was born in 1839 into a Baptist family. He studied a form of medicine involving herbalism and graduated from the New York Eclectic Medical College. From an early period Teed was attracted to outlandish theories and even established his own laboratory to carry out alchemic experiments. One midnight in 1869 he had a vision while in his laboratory. A 'beautiful woman' revealed herself to him and informed him he was a new messiah. She also gave him instruction in the secrets of the universe. All this he set down in a pamphlet he later published.

As a result of this heavenly encounter Teed developed an amazing theory, known since as the cosmic egg model of the universe. We are actually on the inside of the earth! The theory postulates various 'layers' and reflected suns and all manner of absurdities. Teed eventually produced a book, The Cellular Cosmogony, expounding these views and even supporting them with details of 'experiments' conducted by 'scientists' to prove his theses. Thereafter Teed effectively asserted that his view of the universe was the true religion and those who opposed him were the Antichrist.

By the mid-1880s Teed was travelling about proclaiming his message and then setting up headquarters in Chicago. He established a periodical, The Guiding Light, later to become The Flaming Sword. In 1894 he was said to have about 4,000 followers.  He seemed to have a particular attraction for ladies, these comprising about three-quarters of his membership. Koresh also established a town, known as Estero, south of Fort Meyers, Florida, which he called The New Jerusalem. He thought it would hold eight million believers who would flock there from all over the world. About two hundred came.
 
The death of the prophet was as strange an episode as were his beliefs. One of his books, The Immortal Manhood, promised that after he died he would rise again and take all his followers with him to heaven. On December 22, 1908 Teed was assaulted by the Marshal of Fort Meyers (about which assault I have no fuller information) and he died as a result. For some days the members of the colony prayed over his body, expecting his resurrection. Eventually health authorities ordered them to bury the body, which they did, on Estero Island, off the coast. In 1921 a tropical hurricane saw giant waves pounding the island. The tomb disappeared and Teed's body was never found. The remnant of Koreshan Unity continued in dwindling numbers until about 1949 or 1950, keeping the magazine going all those years. Some of Teed's notions resurfaced later in Germany. 

KRISHNA.  Incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna's consort was Radha. The Indian ruler Vallabha Acharya did much to spread the influence of Krishna among the people.  Krishna followers were sometimes given to ecstatic religious frenzy. Bengal especially responded to the influence of Krishna and still today he is widely popular there. The erotic and the sensuous elements seemed to have some deep appeal to the Bengali people.

KRISHNAMURTI, Jiddu. See under: THEOSOPHY.

LAMPETER BRETHREN, The. See further under: AGAPEMONE, Church of the.

LA SALETTE. In the mid-19th century some peasant children claimed Mary had appeared to them at La Salette, France. Many, including the Pope, were persuaded of the truth of the visions. A shrine was built. The French journal, Le Siècle, later published an exposure of what turned out to be a fraud. A Catholic priest, Abbé Déléon, revealed how he had discovered that one Mademoiselle Lamerlière, with the aid of a milliner, appeared as the Virgin. Interestingly, when the Virgin first appeared to the children she spoke to them in cultured French; they could not understand her and she then spoke to them in their own patois.
 
Following this revelation, Mme. Lamerlière brought an action at law before the tribunal at Grenoble against the Abbé for false accusation. She lost the action and costs were awarded against her. Under episcopal authority in 1851 the following pronouncement was made: 'The waters of La Salette cure all the evils of the body, and convert the most wicked sinners, even if the smallest drop (against their will) can be got down their throats.' It is, however, said that sinners find it rather hard to swallow the waters. 

LaVEY, Anton Szandor.  Founder of the CHURCH OF SATAN.

LE BER, Jeanne. In the early part of the 18th century the richest merchant in Montreal had an only daughter, Jeanne Le Ber. The girl grew up enjoying every material advantage. However, from childhood, beneath the friendly warm-hearted exterior, there was an underlying strain of asceticism. While at boarding school, for example, she received boxes of sweets from her parents but promptly gave them away. And underneath the beautiful clothing her father bought for her she wore a haircloth shirt next to her skin (for further details see under: HAIRSHIRT).

By the age of 17 her father had fixed a large dowry upon the girl and a suitable partner was sought for her. Many young men came and went but Jeanne refused them all, begging instead to be allowed to enter a convent.  Even the priests begged her not to take the vows but Jeanne persisted. At length an arrangement was entered into whereby the girl would effectively go into retreat in her own home! She took a vow of chastity for five years, during which she long period of time was to speak not one word to members of her own family. Her parents willingly entered into this contract, hoping thereby that their daughter might emerge from the self-imposed retreat to leave a more normal life.

But this was not to be. At the end of the period Jeanne took a further vow, for ten years, and at the end of this period, she left home, taking her dowry and building a chapel with the money. Behind the altar was a specially-constructed 3-story cell. On the bottom level Jeanne sat unseen during mass. Food was passed to her through a grille. On the second level was a narrow bed on which Jeanne slept covered only by one blanket, even in midwinter. On the third level was a small workroom where Jeanne worked at embroidery, making church vestments and altar-cloths, and where she knitted stockings for the poor.

Mademoiselle le Ber, upon hearing in August 1711 that the English fleet was about to attack Quebec, made a flag embroidered with a prayer to the Holy Virgin, to be borne against the bands of heretics assailing the Catholic city. Except for a brief excursion each midnight for prayers in the chapel, Jeanne never left the tower for the rest of her days. Commenting on this case, psychiatrist Dr Karl Menninger said: 'The elements [in this case] of joy-in-pain, of love gratified by suffering, of self-denial, if not punishment, and of aggression against the parents and lover are clear enough.'  There is a shrine still today to Jeanne Le Ber, while in the street nearby stalls sells trinkets and other memorabilia commemorating this pious deviate. 

LEGION MARIA OF AFRICAN CHURCH MISSIONS.  An African Catholic breakaway group, founded around the year 1965. It was still functioning in 1995. [No further details.]

LELAND, Charles Godfrey.  Charles Leland, who was born in Philadelphia in 1824, devoted a lifetime of study to Gipsy life and occult lore. He became fluent in the Gipsy language, Romany, and discovered a 'secret language' of the tinkers, known as Shelta. Leland was fortunate in inheriting money from his parents and travelled widely, living at various times in England, the USA and Europe, and amassing a fine collection of artefacts.

In 1886 in Florence, Italy, he met a witch he called Maddalena, who, he claimed, was descended from a long line of witches. From Maddalena Leland elicited much secret information about the practice of WITCHCRAFT in Italy and as a result produced several books detailing what he had learnt.
 
In 1899 (or 1889?) Leland published his book, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches of Italy. This book included spells, incantations and ceremonies and was to have a profound influence on the modern resurgence of witchcraft. Leland designed and drew the title page himself. An earlier book was his, Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune-Telling, published in 1891. In more recent times Leland's Aradia has been attacked and denounced by some as spurious, although others defend his integrity.

LEVI, Eliphas. A French occultist, his name being a pseudonym, his real name being Alphonse Louis Constant. Levi was born in Paris in 1810 and as a young man trained as a Catholic priest. His radical political views and his liking for female company saw him thrown out of the Church, after which he pursued an interest in magic that he had shown as a young boy. In middle age he adopted the name Magus Eliphas Levi and began earning a living from lecturing and writing on occult themes.

In London Levi claimed to engage in necromancy, calling up spirits from Beyond. But chiefly his influence comes from a number of books he wrote, the most important being The Dogma and Ritual of High Magic, first published in 1861. Other similar works followed and through these Levi had an enormous influence on the development in modern times of interest in the occult. His system of magic was adopted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and through this group influenced Aleister CROWLEY, who claimed he was the reincarnation of Eliphas Levi.

LIBYAN CALENDAR. In February 1994, along with the introduction of Islamic shari'a law, Libya announced it was adopting an Islamic solar calendar which dated years from 571 CE, the year when Muhammad was said to be born. Thus 1994 became the year 1423. Libya is the only Islamic country to follow this system. Others use a lunar calendar based on the Hegira, or flight of Muhammad from Makkah to al-Madinah in 622 CE. 1994 was 1372 in other Muslim countries. See also: CALENDAR, The.

LIONS.  From time to time misguided Christian zealots think that they can enter a den of lions and survive. Encouraged by the myth of Daniel in the Lions' Den and possibly, in some cases, by the fanciful stories of the early Christian martyrs having lions lie down and lick their feet, these fools sally forth, a danger to themselves and a nuisance to all.
 
A late example is Tony Samuri, 24, a young man who armed himself with a Bible and then clambered over a high security fence at London Zoo in September 1994, dropping in for a meal - by the lions. The beasts appeared to ignore the Bible and three of them attacked the religious fool. He was carted off to hospital in a serious condition.
 
In 1992 another zealot, 28-year-old Ben Silcock, also tried the same trick but failed. Twenty-four hours after Mr Samuri was taken into a psychiatric hospital for treatment he was released again. Soon after he turned up at the zoo again, still armed with his Bible, and was apprehended by officials. He told them he wished to apologize to the lion for the trouble he caused in his effort to prove he was the 'Son of God'! 

LOBSANG RAMPA, T. Launching himself upon the unsuspecting public in the 1950s with his best-selling book, The Third Eye, T. Lobsang Rampa followed up his great success with a string of works, including Doctor from Lhasa, The Rampa Story and The Cave of the Ancients, among others. Rampa cashed in on that fascination with Tibet and its 'mysteries' that was then one of the chief features of the New Age movement.  (Some of the glister has faded under the heavy hand of Communist rule!). Claiming to have visited the great Lamaseries of Tibet and even to have spent his boyhood at the Lamasery of Potala, Lobsang Rampa's reading public ran into millions, spread across many nations. In the notes prefacing one of his books, the author thanked a lady for having typing his manuscript, of 'unfaltering fractured English and graceless grammar.'  But he was a Tibetan monk, after all, wasn't he?

No, T. Lobsang Rampa perpetrated one of the greatest literary frauds of all time.  He was no Tibetan monk but was one Cyril Hoskins, a humble clerk in an English correspondence school. He never even visited Tibet for so much as one week. He died in 1981 but his books live on, proof once again of the boundless capacity of human beings to believe.

LOGOS FOUNDATION, The. An Australian Christian fundamentalist pressure group with right-wing political leanings. It was virtually a one-man show, established by Howard Carter, who came originally from New Zealand. Carter was in early life a Baptist pastor and he set up the Logos Foundation in New Zealand in 1966, moving to Australia later. In 1969 Carter abandoned the Baptist Church and became a member of a Pentecostalist group in Sydney. In 1971 he broke away from this and formed his own denomination, which he called the Covenant Evangelical Church. This was linked to the Logos Foundation.

In 1975 Logos was located in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, where the Mountain Christian Academy was built on a 16-hectare block. Obviously the organisation's finances were healthy as the land alone was reported at the time to have cost $250,000. Meanwhile Pastor Carter was being well provided for by his faithful flock, with a large house, cars and artworks to adorn the walls of his home.  Eventually, in 1988, the headquarters of the Logos Foundation was moved to the provincial city of Toowoomba, Queensland. Presumably Queensland was chosen as providing a more congenial atmosphere for the fundamentalists; that State is somewhat overrun by them!

From the Toowoomba headquarters, located in two adjoining motels they purchased, Carter sought to influence Australia's political processes, much as his fundamentalist buddies in the USA do. Backed by the faithful flock, who were encouraged to TITHE, funds flowed in freely, supporting not only Mr Carter's lavish lifestyle but his political posturings. Members of Carter's church were kept in thrall by a system known as 'shepherding', whereby younger Christians put themselves under the control of older ones. They had to consult with their 'shepherds' before taking any major step in their lives.

Carter's brand of fundamentalism was the same as the worst of the American religious Right's outpourings. All manner of 'sin' was denounced. Homosexuals were castigated, as were adulterers and fornicators. Sodomy was denounced, abortion opposed, and punishment demanded for all evildoers. The Logos Foundation even went so far as to advocate STONING for some 'sins' and the punishment of seriously delinquent teenagers by a similar sentence of death.

But all the while, behind the scenes, like many of his American counterparts, Howard Carter had a secret. He was yet another religious hypocrite. Somewhere around the middle of 1989, as Carter thundered forth against the evil world, he had been dating a married woman. And he too was married. For twelve months or more they saw each other, by the end of which time the lady was consumed with passion for her lover. Then word leaked out. Carter had a nasty confrontation with his church elders. He tried to bluff his way out of trouble for a while but in the end was forced to resign, after which he took off for Canada. There, according to reports, his health collapsed and he died in August 1991.
 
Howard Carter left behind him one legacy. In 1983 the Foundation invited a self-appointed US investment adviser, presumably also a fundamentalist Christian, to Australia. Abraham Boldt told the eager Christians that, with his help, they could gain a return of 36 percent by investing in US Treasury bonds. Many handed over thousands of dollars to Mr Boldt and the Church itself invested a reputed $100,000. The money has never been seen again, although Mr Carter once reported a vision he'd had to the congregation. In it he saw Jesus opening a safe in which were large sums of money. Perhaps the loot is in a safe somewhere!     
        
LORD, Michael.  Michael Lord was an American child prodigy evangelist. At the age of 8 (1975) he was preaching revivalist messages, singing Gospel songs and acting as a faith healer. Michael began his ministry at the age of 4 when he wrote a hymn. He once told an audience how at the age of two, he was spoken to by GOD, with a human voice which said: 'Little Michael, I want you to be a preacher.' Michael was credited with miracle cures as he worked the crowds from the stage, dressed like a miniature version of the routine stage evangelist. Does anyone know where Michael is today?  

LORD OF MISRULE.  See under: ABBOT OF MISRULE.

LORD'S PRAYER, The.  The Duke of Wellington cited The Lord's Prayer as 'proof' of the divine origin of Christianity. The Duke was a great military man but as a theologian was an utter failure! The so-called Lord's Prayer was not a distinct utterance of Jesus the Nazarene prophet at all, although made out to be by the New Testament, but was purloined by the Christians from much earlier Jewish sources.  Here is the original, known as the Kadesh:

Our Father which art in heaven, be gracious to us, O Lord, our God; hallowed by thy name, and let the remembrance of thee be glorified in heaven above and in the earth below. Let thy kingdom reign over us now and for ever. The holy men of old said, Remit and forgive unto all men whatsoever they have done against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil thing. For thine is the kingdom, and thou shalt reign in glory for ever and for evermore.

Interestingly, when the New Testament documents quoted this prayer as if it came from the Nazarene, the writers couldn't get it correct. Thus the version in the Gospel of Matthew is longer than the versions in Luke. But, strangest fact of all - this supposedly important utterance of the Leader does not appear at all in the other two Gospels! Incidentally, there are many more alleged utterances of Jesus that are mere repetitions of original Jewish texts. So much for the 'divine origin' of Christianity. See also: GOLDEN RULE, The.

LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY. In April 1995 rebels belonging to the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, slaughtered 82 civilians in northern Uganda.  Included were about 20 wives of soldiers. The LRA is a militant Christian group set up some years previously to demand the application of, and try to enforce, the use of the Ten Commandments of the Bible in Ugandan society.

In the early years the LRA fighters had a mystical belief in the protective power of nut oil smeared over their bodies before battle, believing this would deflect bullets or turn them into water. Similar beliefs are known elsewhere in Africa. When the protective effects proved not to exist this belief was discarded.

The radical group has grown somewhat in strength in recent years and has become a thorn in the aside of the Ugandan government. Not only have they abducted and killed many people but they steal, burn and loot, all rather strange activities for Christians to engage in!    

LOS HERMANOS PENITENTES. See under: PENITENTES, The.

LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL. The Lost Tribes of Israel is a term applied to the Diaspora - the scattering of the original Hebrew people far and wide that occurred in the past. An old Puritan, Samuel Sewall, argued against going into battle against the Kennebec Indians in the early 1700s because he fervently believed they were the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel. There has long been a search for the supposed Lost Tribes of Israel. All manner of theories have been put forward as to where the tribes ended up. One of the most extreme was the view that the Lost Tribes were in fact the British and northern European peoples, later extended by some to the white people of the USA.
 
In 1995 an Israeli group, headed by Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, known as Amishav ('My People Return') was working to assist 'lost' Jews to enter Israel. During 1994 a group of 57 people from north-east India, claiming descent from the tribe of Manasseh, arrived in Israel where the Law of Return makes such entry possible. This raised a storm of protest as many Israelis fear their country will be overloaded with migrants from Third World countries who claim such links.

Never mind, says Rabbi Avichail, when the Messiah eventually returns he will somehow manage to squeeze into the restricted space the 30 million descendants of the House of Israel now scattered far and wide. (Israel's population as at 1995 was 5 million.)
Meanwhile other folk claim to be some of the Lost Tribe, notably from Ethiopia and China - yes China. A small group of Chinese Jews traces their lineage back to about 1,000 CE. They have kept Jewish customs through the centuries, including eschewing the eating of pork and observing the Sabbath. Until the mid-1800s the ruins of a synagogue stood in Kaifeng, said to have been erected in 1163. Unfortunately Yahweh was not apparently well disposed towards his Chinese followers as a massive flood saw the Yellow River rise in the 1860s and engulf much of the city. The Jews were reduced to penury as a result. The community has never properly recovered.

LOURDES. See under: BERNADETTE, Saint. 

LOVE FAMILY, The. Name of a group in the USA, also known as Love Israel and the Church of Armageddon. During the so-called JESUS REVOLUTION in the 1960s, various groups emerged, each claiming they were following faithfully in the steps of the Nazarene prophet. One such was centred on Seattle, and headed by Paul Erdman, who adopted the names Love Israel and Love Family. A surprisingly large number of Christian evangelists and preachers were salespersons once, among them Billy Graham. Paul Erdman was another; he had been a real estate salesman and went from selling homes and apartments to selling religion to gullible young people. Erdman reportedly insisted members read no other book than a particular edition of the Bible in which his own name had been inserted wherever the name 'God' appeared!

Like many cults the first approach would be innocent enough. One means of contact was through houses offering free accommodation to young travellers. Someone would stay for a few days, witness the happy people surrounding her and soon would be trapped. Once caught up in the cult the happy smiles tended to fade. New members abandoned their own names and adopted names signifying virtue (e.g. Charity) or those of Biblical characters. Discipline was severe and the female members were completely subservient to the older males.

Many strange stories emerged from this intense and devoted group, which will not surprise anyone if they realize that from it and others like it emerged the later and very radical CHILDREN OF GOD cult. How many were true is hard to judge. It does seem certain that members used drugs. New converts went through a ceremonial dying and rising ritual. Converts also reportedly signed over all their worldly goods to the leadership and, ominously, also signed a document insisting that in the event of death their bodies should not be subjected to an autopsy.
  
Perhaps the most peculiar ceremony involved electricity. A group of members would seat themselves in a circle and hold hands. One of the members would be connected to the power mains, the whole arranged in such a fashion that although the current could be felt it could still be tolerated by all in the circle. One by one they would leave so that the voltage was distributed across fewer and fewer persons, and thus would become increasingly unpleasant. Those who stayed the longest period proved they had the greatest faith.
  
The name 'Love Family' has resurfaced in recent times in the form FAMILY OF LOVE, adopted by former members of the Children of God sect, apparently to distance themselves from the controversies surrounding the latter group.

LOVE ISRAEL. See under: LOVE FAMILY. 

LOVELACE, Linda. Star of 'porn' movies, especially the (in)famous Deep Throat, involving fellatio, etc. made in 1972, which was banned in many places. In later life Ms Lovelace claimed she had been forced to act in the movies by her lover, who treated her cruelly. She became a 'Born Again' Christian and went about speaking against 'pornography'.
  
In about 1975 a case was prosecuted in Memphis against anyone associated with the making of the film, even extras and stage hands, based on the contention that the film violated local community standards and involved a conspiracy on the part of all involved. The case of one man, Harry Reems, who had been hired for just one day's work at $100 in January 1972, was later taken up by Penthouse magazine as a horrendous violation of the First Amendment. Reems was dragged to Memphis by the FBI and eventually convicted in Memphis Federal Court. At this time it was revealed that Ms Lovelace had been granted immunity in exchange for becoming a state's witness!
  
One of the convicted people was fined $10,000 and jailed for three years, another fined $10,000 and jailed for 2-1/2 years. The trial consumed Reems' life savings but the conviction was appealed with the help of various interested parties. It was reported at the time that at least $4 million of public money was being spent by the prosecution.

Around the year 1985 Catherine MacKinnon, acting on behalf of Linda Lovelace (aka Linda Marchiano) tried to have the film suppressed in Indianapolis. The film, she claimed, 'subordinates women by using women . . . as eager servicing receptacles for male genitalia and ejaculate . . . in postures of sexual submission and/or servility.' The City of Indianapolis agreed, citing the woman's demeanour, 'ever eager for oral penetration' and 'often on her hands and knees.'

The Australian fundamentalist group, Festival of Light, reportedly brought Ms Marchiano to Australia in October 1990 to 'blitz' naughty Kings Cross. Head of the FOL, the Reverend Fred Nile, told reporters he had never seen Deep Throat, which does not surprise us.   

MACKILLOP, Mother Mary. An Australian Catholic candidate for sainthood, Mother Mary McKillop, who went to South Australia in 1826 and started a ragged school, was one of those hardy nuns who whipped herself and wore a spiked chain-link MORTIFICATION belt next to her flesh. Her personal whip and the chain were still on display at the North Sydney convent of her religious Order (St Joseph's) until about 1993 when, as the time of her beautification approached, they both mysteriously disappeared from the display devoted to the nun. Her supporters must have been embarrassed by these symbols her zeal.

MAGDALEN OF THE CROSS.  A 16th century member of the Catholic Order of the Poor Clares who was the centre of a great scandal. Magdalen rose to head the Order at Cordova, Spain for thirty years, during which time she developed a reputation for clairvoyance and supernatural knowledge. She became a sort of oracle to the Spanish convents and kings, princes and bishops consulted her on the affairs of their kingdoms and dioceses. She reputedly revealed the most hidden of secrets and was able to describe events occurring at some distance from her.
 
Among her revelations was the fact that Francis 1st was taken prisoner at Pavia and that Rome had been sacked by the Imperialists. Her predictions and pronouncements were said to be accompanied by wonders. On the Church's great feast days Magdalen went into a state of ecstasy and was often, so it was said, lifted to a height of a metre off the ground. The common people revered her and her fame was widespread. Then one day in 1546 she suddenly threw herself at the feet of the Visitor to her Order and confessed that she had used trickery to work her miracles.  Naturally the Devil came in for some blame, as he usually does! She was stripped of her position and was sent to spend the remainder of her days in a far convent, there to repent of her misdeeds.   

MAGNUS, Saint. Saint Magnus was reported to have dipped his genitals in icy water to assuage his sexual appetite. I wonder, had they known of it, if this treatment might have been of help to the hundreds of priests who abused children in the last hundred years. 

MAKKAH-al.  = Mecca.  Located in Saudi Arabia.  See further under: HAJ.

MALE CHAUVINISM. At the Greek monastery of Mount Athos male chauvinism reigns supreme; nothing female is allowed. Not only are women forbidden but also even hens, mares, cows, or any other female creatures. The border is patrolled by armed guards to ensure nothing female enters. This has been the way for 700 years.

MAN NOBODY KNOWS, The. The title of a life of Jesus of Nazareth written by American advertising guru Bruce Barton and published in 1925. With its message that Jesus was the 'founder of modern business' it was inevitable it would be a best-seller in the USA. 

MANSFIELD, Katherine. The famous author was a follower of the Russian mystic, George Gurdjieff, who taught a system of dances that enabled the disciple to achieve power. In October 1922 Katherine Mansfield, stricken with TB, tried to cure the disease by taking deep breaths over cow manure at Fontainebleau. She died. From the TB, the deep breathing, or from ammonia gas, I know not!  

MANSON, Reverend Marilyn. The assumed name of the leader of an American band known as Marilyn Manson. The 'reverend' says the name is a synthesis of the extreme positive (Marilyn Monroe) and the extreme negative (Charles Manson). One of the group's albums, issued in 1996, was titled Antichrist Superstar. Manson has been known to burn Bibles on stage and to do a strip during a performance, for which he was arrested.

MARCELLINE PAUPER. A nun who was a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, France. In March 1702 sacrilege was committed, allegedly by worshippers of Satan, who forced open the tabernacle in a church, took the sacred elements out and made off with some, the remainder being dashed to the ground. A nun who had taken the name Marcelline Pauper felt herself to be divinely called to offer herself up as a VICTIM of REPARATION. The nun 'made ceaseless reparation' and on April 26 stigmata appeared in her hands, feet and side. Bleeding also occurred from her head, as from the Crown of Thorns. After a few years of 'expiation' the nun died at Tulle, on 25 June, 1708. 

MARCINKUS, Archbishop Paul. It was claimed in November 1994 by a Mafia member in Italy, Vincenzo Calcara, that the Archbishop had laundered Mafia money.  Archbishop Marcinkus, an American, was formerly head of the Vatican Bank ('Institute for the Works of Religion'), a post he held until 1989. It was reported that a Rome magistrate was investigating the claims. 

MARGARET OF CORTONA, Saint. St Margaret was reportedly a prostitute before taking up the religious life.

MARRIAGE, Catholic.  On 1 July, 1992 the Vatican announced it had granted a marriage annulment to Princess Caroline of Monaco. The ruling meant her 1978 marriage to Frenchman Mr Philippe Junot was never valid in the eyes of the Church. It is common for important people to secure divorce consent from the Catholic Church, whereas more lowly folk usually miss out and are condemned to lives of misery in unhappy marriages; they could of course leave their church but so often they prefer to remain enslaved. Footnote: In 1993 it was reported that in parts of Dublin one in three children was born out of wedlock.

MARSDEN, Reverend Samuel. (1764-1838) An Anglican clergyman who was an important figure in the early colonial days of Australia in the colony of New South Wales. He was official chaplain from 1795 to 1826. In 1795 he was appointed magistrate at Parramatta, west of Sydney, where he soon established a reputation for the cruel sentences he handed down. He ordered many brutal floggings and following his harsh judgment on some Irish convicts in 1800 he became known as the Flogging Parson. He had ordered the use of the whip to elicit confessions, thus employing flogging as a form of torture rather than punishment, a notion long outlawed in the British justice system. The colony's convicts hated him and even Governor Macquarie avoided his company. In 1818 Macquarie dismissed him from the magistracy.

MARTYRDOM. 'Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.' (George Bernard Shaw)

MARTYRS. A book has been set up in St Paul's Cathedral recording modern Anglican martyrs. Included are: John Coley Patteson, first Bishop of Melanesia, killed in 1871 when mistaken for a slave trader who had been misusing his name; James Hannington, first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, murdered in Uganda in 1885 while trying to open a new route to Lake Victoria Nyanza; Kikuyu victims of Mau Mau violence in Kenya in 1953 (several pages long), and, Manche Masemola, a Northern Transvaal girl beaten to death by her family in 1928 when she sought baptismal instruction.

MARY OF EGYPT, Saint. Mary of Egypt was reportedly a prostitute prior to taking up the religious life.

MARY the goddess.  Usually known to the faithful as 'The Virgin Mary' the lady is, in fact, something more than merely a young virginal woman. Indeed, she is often described as the Mother of God, which surely makes her a goddess. From The Glories of Mary, by Liguori, sanctioned officially by the Roman Catholic Church comes this statement: 'Often we shall be heard more quickly and be thus preserved, if we have recourse to Mary, and call upon her name, than we should be if we called upon the name of Jesus. Many things are asked from God and are not granted; they are asked from Mary and are obtained . . . Mary so loved the world that she gave her only begotten Son . . .'  See also: APHRODITE.

MARY Appearances of. In 1981 Mary reportedly appeared to six children in the village of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia. Between then and the end of 1990 some 17 million people visited the village. In January 1991 Leon Le Grand, a property developer and author, from Australia, told audiences of his visit to the village and the religious conversion he experienced as a result.

MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLEMEW.  The Queen of France, Catherine de' Medici, over a number of years seemed to side sometimes with the HUGUENOTS, the French Protestants, but at other times with their enemies. From 1561 a degree of freedom of worship was afforded the Protestants yet the Queen worked with the Spaniards to extirpate heresy and more strife followed and warfare erupted. Peace followed in March 1568, then more warfare, then peace again, the Protestants being assured through a treaty, concluded in August 1570, of the free exercise of their religion in all of France except Paris.
 
Two years later, on the religious feast day of St Bartholemew, Sunday, 24 August, 1572, a mob was let loose on Protestants in Paris. The massacre was clearly unleashed at the instigation of Catherine. Admiral Coligny, a leading Huguenot, had been attempting to persuade King Charles 9th into a war with Spain. Catherine was displeased and tried to have the Admiral assassinated but when the attempt failed she met with some of the Catholic leaders and plotted revenge. These included the Duke of Anjou, Henry of Guise and the Duke of Nevers. They eventually persuaded the king to allow the massacre for 'public safety' - his reluctant approval being obtained only on the Saturday, 23 August.

A bell in the tower of Saint Germain L'Auxerrois began tolling at 1.30 am on the Sunday morning. At daybreak messengers were sent, inciting the Parisian mobs to rise against their 'enemies'. Rumours were put about that the king was dead, killed by the Protestants. Terrible scenes followed, known Protestant families being dragged from their homes and slaughtered. Women and children were not spared. Typical of the horrible scenes was the spectacle of a little naked girl being dipped in the blood of her dead father and mother. Baskets filled with babies were emptied into the waters of the Seine. And Catholic children joined their parents in perpetrating cruelties upon the Protestant enemy.
 
Soon the terror had spread to the provinces. It only abated in Paris some three weeks or so later. A number of provincial governors refused to order the massacre to proceed but the slaughter and the cruelties continued in the majority of provinces until many thousands of citizens lay dead. How many died nobody knows with any degree of accuracy. It was probably at least 10,000 but may have been 50,000.
 
The French reported abroad that an attack on the king had been repulsed with massive losses to the Huguenots; Queen Elizabeth actually sent her congratulations.  The massacre was greeted with even greater enthusiasm by the European Catholic powers and by Pope Gregory 13th, who commanded bonfires to be lighted and a medal struck to mark the occasion. A year of jubilee was proclaimed and Catherine basked in the glory of the moment.
 
To apportion blame is not altogether easy. Undoubtedly the period between 1560 and 1572 was one that saw great strife in the nation and many were the appalling cruelties perpetrated by both sides. That those French people who had remained faithful to the Catholic Church nursed many grievances against their Protestant neighbours is an undoubted fact. When the official nod of approval for the slaughter was given it is not surprising that the mob, like those mobs that witnessed the American lynchings, allowed free reign to be given to every cruel impulse. On the other hand, Catherine was a person of unbounded ambitions, crafty in her actions and glorying in the cruelties she unleashed. France had many years of similar strife still ahead.

In 1994 a film, La Reine Margot (The Queen Margot), graphically depicting the events of the Massacre, was released. It is based on a fictionalized account by Alexandre Dumas but accurately reflects the horror of the incident.    

MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. One of the legends of the New Testament.  According to this story when King Herod heard of the birth of Jesus, claimed by his followers to be King of the Jews, he sent his soldiers to kill all the baby boys born in Bethlehem and nearby aged two years or under. Herod's object was to ensure that no possible rival remained alive.

MASSADA.  When the Romans besieged the Jewish stronghold of Massada in the year 73 CE the Jewish defenders decided to die rather than surrender. Ten executioners were chosen from among their number and all families, including the women and children, were executed with the sword by their own people. The executioners then fell upon one another.  

MATHERS, S. Liddell MacGregor. Around the turn of the century Mathers headed the influential magical group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He is noted for his painstaking translation, working from seven different texts held by the British Museum, of The Key of Solomon. 

McDONALDS UPSETS MUSLIMS. Hamburger kings McDonalds inadvertently upset Muslims in England in May 1994. As a Soccer World Cup promotion they printed special bags carrying the pictures of the flags of the 24 nations competing. One of the flags was that of Saudi Arabia, which included the central proclamation of Islam: There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.' Muslim leaders were upset with the idea that the bags would be crumpled up and thrown away. It would be a 'desecration' they claimed. McDonalds had produced two millions of the bags. The hamburger chain said it was taking steps to correct the error of judgment. 

McPHERSON, Aimée Semple.  Founder and preacher of the Four Square Gospel Alliance, a Pentecostalist sect, who went about preaching in the 1920s and 1930s with a band of Angels. Evelyn Waugh is said to have based the character of Mrs Ape in his Vile Bodies on Mrs McPherson. Sister Aimée was three times married and twice divorced. She had begun her religious career as a missionary in China. In Los Angeles she preached in her own house of entertainment known as the Angelus Temple. It had imitation stained-glass windows decorated with masses of angels and held 3,000 worshippers.
 
The McPherson shows were grand productions, Aimée often dressing up in costumes such as that of an angel, presumably guessing just what an angel looks like as nobody has seen one. A Wurlitzer organ churned out beefed-up religious music and Aimée banged away at her tambourine, calling upon sinners to repent. Mass adult baptisms were held on stage, as many as 150 on some occasions, with the disciples being fully immersed. McPherson was a great publicist and barely more than a few days passed at a time without her movement being featured on the front pages of the Los Angeles press.
 
There were rumours of misappropriated funds at the Temple but nothing was ever proved. Aimée's own mother was one of the complainants. There was also a strange episode where Ms McPherson went missing, supposedly kidnapped, but was found again!  When Aimée died she stipulated that a live telephone should be buried in the coffin with her, so that she could communicate with the faithful from beyond the grave. However, to the best of my knowledge, no messages ever came through. See also: PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT.

MECCA.  See under: MAKKAH.

MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS.  See under: CHURCH ATTENDANCES. 

MERMAIDS. One of the commonest legends of the sea is that of the mermaid.  Sailors through the centuries have sworn many time over that they have sighted such alluring creatures. For example, there is a 15th century Dutch tale of a sea maiden being washed ashore by the tide at Edam. The maiden set herself up as a seamstress.  The origins of such a myth probably go back a long way. Nereus, the wise Greek god of the sea, had fifty beautiful daughters, known as the Nereids. They were said to ride about on dolphins and tritons and legend had it that if a man could manage to catch one of them she could be forced to foretell coming events as the price of being allowed back into her sea-home.
 
In the first century BCE Alexander, a Greek writer, told what was possibly the world's first tale involving a mermaid, a lovely female creature with a human face but with scales up to the middle of her body. Cast up on the shore one day she was the object of much interest to the crowds that gathered but the attention upset her and she burst into tears, whereupon King Gaza ordered the people to leave her alone.  After this the mermaid dived back into the sea, then came to the surface and shouted out some words which nobody understood, after which she disappeared forever.
 
Not many stories feature mermen for the obvious reason that sailors find much more interest in mermaids! However an early tale, told by the Roman historian Pliny, reported on a merman who lured ships to their destruction with a song. According to Pliny everybody who saw the merman immediately vanished so nobody could give a description of him! The notion of the mermaid singing a siren song luring ships to destruction, probably drawn from this ancient tale, has persisted down through history.

A Norwegian bishop, Pontoppidan by name, described a mermaid caught in a net at Hordaland, in Bergen Fjord. According to the Bishop, she was taken before King Hiorleif, and asked to sing but her tones were not pleasing. She was put overnight into a bathtub for safe keeping but by morning had dissolved into water! The water was then thrown out.

Early in the 18th century there were a series of reports claiming Negroes in Angola (Africa) were catching mermaids and eating them. Some learned Europeans who got to hear of this activity conducted a serious debate as to whether or not this activity constituted cannibalism, to be punished accordingly. After all, it depended on how one categorized a mermaid: was she more human than animal or more animal than human?  No conclusion was reached.
 
In 1723 the Danes, who had some experience of mermaids and mermen, set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the subject more fully. Reports to be considered included one involving a merman who was netted by some Danish noblemen, who then discovered their catch spoke perfect Danish. The merman threatened to sink the ship unless he was released into the sea; this was done at once. Another report told of a merman being found floating like a log off the Faroe Islands.
 
When some of the members of the aforementioned commission approached closer to him, he turned and stared at them, then emitted a deep roar and dived below the surface. The Commission had already decided that neither mermen nor mermaids existed and even went so far as to issue an order forbidding anyone to speak of them further. However, after this encounter, the latter provision was withdrawn.

In October 1993 some fisherman working out of Hong Kong thought they had seen a mermaid on a boat. They claimed she had been captured by another fisherman.  Hundreds of people waited for the boat to arrive in the port but, alas, the watchers were told that the skipper had eventually released his captive!  

MESSAGE FROM THE GODS.  It was recorded of Peter the Hermit, who led the First Crusade, which ended in failure, that while on an earlier pilgrimage to Jerusalem, then under the heel of the infidel, he had received a special message from Jesus the Nazarene, who appeared bodily before him and said: 'Peter, make haste and rise and go with no fear the place you have in mind, for I will be with you; for the time has come for my holy City to be cleansed and my people to receive succour.' The message impelled Peter to head the Crusade but he never reached Jerusalem. It remained for later Crusaders to achieve that aim. Either Peter had lied or the vision had lied!
 
MESSIAHS.  See: JEWISH MESSIAHS.

MESSIANIC JEWS.  See under:  CHRISTIAN JEWS.

MINISTRY OF THE CHILDREN.  The Ministry for the Children, a group described as New Agers, was reportedly digging into a Virginia church's graveyard. They were looking for a secret vault believed to contain writings that could save the world! (The Catholics think they are going to do likewise with a message they are awaiting from Our Lady.) This vault, which they believed to be in the grounds of Bruton Parish Church, contains, so they claimed, the original ms of the King James translation of the Bible, and writings which finally prove that Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays! Somehow this will save the world; what is more, if the writings were not located by the year 2,000, the whole world order would collapse. The Reverend Marsha Middleton, heading the group, went to court seeking orders allowing them to dig but the court refused.  The Santa Fe, New Mexico, group also believes in clairvoyance and reincarnation - not exactly Christian beliefs. Clearly, we have passed the year 2,000 and fortunately the world order hasn't collapsed.

MIRACLES.  'A miracle is an event described by those to whom it was told, by men who did not see it.' (Elbert Hubbard) The miracles described in the literature of the Christian Church through the centuries number in the thousands. It has been claimed that St Nicholas put together again two little boys who had been chopped up and pickled in a barrel of salt.  It was claimed that when a Jewish pseudo-convert brought a baby to a font to be baptized the water miraculously receded.

In Crete in CE 432 a Jewish impostor, Moses by name, preached to the Jews, claiming he could open a way for them through the waters of the Mediterranean to the Holy Land. The delusion spread among the faithful and large numbers of Jews abandoned their homes and any personal possessions they could not carry with them and followed this Moses to high rocks overlooking the sea. The impostor apparently disappeared; some think to collect the possessions left behind. Socrates the historian believed he was a demon in disguise. Great numbers of the Jews were said to have drowned but others were rescued by Christians and forthwith were converted to the latter faith. 

MISCELLANEOUS & RIDICULOUS.  Hugnes was Archbishop of Reims in the 10th century at the tender age of 5. In the 11th century Benedict 9th was Pope at the age eleven.

MISSIONARIES.  'Missionaries, my dear! Don't you realize that missionaries are the divinely provided food for destitute and underfed cannibals? Whenever they are on the brink of starvation, Heaven in its infinite mercy send them a nice plump missionary.' (Oscar Wilde) 

In August 1991 the Anglican Church of Papua-New Guinea celebrated its centenary.  One hundred years of the White Man's Moral Burden was marked with ceremonies not wholly unfamiliar to pagan worshippers. In fact, as with the Papal religion of old, when the Anglicans who invaded New Guinea with their strange message, built their lofty cathedrals on pagan groves, they wisely constructed many a house of worship upon the very sites of tribal holy places. The god is dead, long live the god! And any god will do!

Anglican missionary endeavour was very much caught up with English colonial enterprise. In fact it is hard to distinguish between them in many places. In Australia Samuel MARSDEN, the notorious Flogging Parson, employed convict labourers to build his churches. The buildings were later sanctified, so as to remove any taint from such a source.
 
The first missionaries to New Guinea were an odd couple. Two single men, the Reverend Copland King, 28, Evangelical, and the Reverend Albert MacLaren, 38, an Anglo-Catholic. Chalk and cheese, but never mind any confusion in the natives' minds; they were there to convert the pagans to the Christ deity. They bravely landed from a boat in eastern Papua, at Kaieta, where they set about their holy work, not without some threat to their lives. The local natives took them to their village; fortunately not to the cooking pot. Curious, no doubt, if nothing else.

The divine hand was none too evident in the venture. McLaren had nearly drowned en route to the new work, having carelessly fallen overboard! He was spared to serve the Lord but soon was in trouble again. Falling ill of a fever, along with other helpers, he was packed off to Cooktown for treatment, only to die along the way.  It was barely four months since he had set foot on New Guinea's coast. The ways of Providence are truly amazing at times. 

The English people are noted for nurturing eccentrics.  English missionaries included many among their number.  The Reverend Wilfred Abbot has a scholarly man with an MA from Oxford University. He maintained the trappings of his lifestyle under the tropical sun.  He arrived in New Guinea complete with straw boater, gaiters, evening dress and a bicycle.  He even wore his Oxford gown and mortarboard around the village of Wedau where he laboured to improve the natives.
 
Mind you, he was deficient in one respect - temperance. He was known to run up some large bills at the local Burns Philp store - for imported liquor. He brought with him English notions of discipline, too. Native wives who offended their husbands were whipped at the orders of the good reverend, who must have revelled at the sight of a bare-breasted female bound to a tree while receiving the lash upon her back. The local natives might well have taught Mr Abbot better moral behaviour, rather than the other way around; they thought him quite mad and demanded he be returned to the country from whence he had come.

There were worse scandals. Single priests could fall prey to the delights of the flesh, especially with so many half-clad native lovelies around. And, dare I say it, little boys, for homosexuality was not uncommon among the single male servants of Christ.  We do not get to hear much, though; any transgression was soon swept under the carpet. Even the home supporters rarely knew any of the unsavoury details. After all, they might have flagged in their financial support had their Victorian sensibilities been stirred by anything sordid coming to light! But many men and women among the missionaries had to be 'invalided' home for one reason or another - through physical, psychological or sexual breakdown.
 
The missionaries often arrived in the strange land with romantic notions, fostered by reading travel and adventure books or fired up by the speeches of mission leaders back home. The work was rarely romantic or glamorous. There were physical dangers, especially in the early days working among people accustomed to eating one another, or engaging in spirited physical battles. Health was probably the most serious problem.  Strange climes brought strange diseases and afflictions and many a missionary never saw his or her homeland again.

And still in our own age missionary endeavour continues. On 15 August,1989, self-appointed Australian missionary, Jackie Hamill (a lady), 36, was killed when soldiers stormed a Philippines prison, ending a two-day siege. Hamill, originally from Tasmania, went as an independent missionary to the Philippines. She was a member of Christian City's Girraween (NSW) church.
 
Pastor Gary Dench said groups of 30 or 40 from his church had been going to the Philippines god-bothering [my addition] for the past three years. Hamill had gone without official church financial support. She had been teaching prisoners at Davao Metrodiscom Detention Centre, about 1,000 km south-east of Manilla, when taken hostage, with others, by prisoners, lead by a convicted murderer, and was gang-raped and murdered. Christian City is a charismatic Pentecostalist church established nine years previously by Pastor Phil Pringle, of Christchurch, New Zealand.
 
In March 1988, Australian Pentecostalist missionary Ian Grey, 28, was jailed for ten years by the Mozambique government for having contacts with a resistance group. In August 1989 Grey was released under an amnesty and returned to his home in Queensland. In Saudi Arabia two Christian missionaries from the Philippines faced execution for daring to preach the Christian religion in that 13th century society where women aren't even allowed to drive cars. It appears that the Filipinos thought the benighted Saudi people needed to hear about their particular deity.
 
Oswaldo Magdangal and Renato Posedio were typical of those Christian enthusiasts who rush into foreign parts with their 'inspired' messages. While Australians  rush to convert Filipinos and Filipinas Christians in the Philippines rush to other countries to convert people. Funny world! Anyway, the two Filipino zealots were arrested carrying Bibles and 'prophecies warning of hard times ahead for the Islamic world'. They were sentenced to be beheaded on - ironically - Christmas Day, 1992. A nice touch by the Islamics who, curiously, always claim that Jesus, while not being divine, is a prophet like Muhammad!

Late news had it that Amnesty International, the Philippines president, Fidel Ramos and many others had pleaded with Saudi authorities to spare the 'criminals'. In Australia the Saudi Embassy denied executions were to take place. In the period from 1990 onwards the Saudi authorities, according to Amnesty, cracked down on Christians, arresting over 300 believers, including even children, for the 'peaceful expression of their religious beliefs'.

MISSION FOR THE COMING DAYS. A church centred in Korea, but with branches in other countries, known as the Mission for the Coming Days (and sometimes as the Tami Missionary Church) expected the return of Messiah, i.e. the Christian one - Jesus of Nazareth - in October 1992. In fact one branch got so excited that they made a tiny mistake and thought the Man was arriving in downtown Seoul on October 10. The wise authorities, used to Korea's fractious masses, had a squad of 200 riot police standing by as 500 followers gathered to await the great Event. Unsurprisingly nothing happened.
 
A month before the Big Event one of the sect leaders, Lee Jang-Lim, was arrested by Korean police. Not for religious reasons! He was charged with purloining a half a million dollars or so of his followers' money. It seems the preacher had been warning his followers of the Great Tribulation. The bonds he had invested in were due to mature in 1995, three years into this period when, he had assured the faithful, money would be worthless. He was found guilty and sent to prison.

There was a branch of the church in Australia, located in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville, and they were disappointed also. The waiting media shared their disappointment when the members failed to rise through the ceiling of their meeting-place to be 'caught up in the air' by the Nazarene prophet. It certainly would have provided some great prime-time TV news footage. 

MISTAKES OF DEITY. The Reverend Alan Walker, onetime superintendent of the Central Methodist Mission, Sydney (Australia), wrote in A.M. magazine (1 February,1955):  'One of the really staggering facts about the universe is its design. Take, for example, the detailed planning that seems to surround the birth of a child. A man's body and a woman's body are a miracle of complementary planning. All that is involved in the conception, birth and nurture of a baby is utterly astonishing in its co-ordinated efficiency . . . '

Mr Walker's comments are a perfect example of the blinkered approach of Christians to the realities of life - the mistakes of deity, we might call them. Many of the worst cases of such tragic mistakes are hidden away from public view, with good reason! There are thousands more like these. Evolution can explain these terrible errors but religion cannot! Here is a small selection:

* Blue babies suffer from what is known as Fallot's Tetralogy, a birth defect in which there is a narrowing of the pulmonary artery between heart  & lungs so that the lungs do not get enough oxygen. Humans so afflicted are not expected to live through childhood. The strain of pumping blood through the constriction places too much strain on the heart.
 
* François Trovillon was normal when born but at the age of 7 a small lump appeared on his forehead. Over the years it grew into an imposing horn curling back from his forehead. He was exhibited in Paris as a freak in 1598.
 
* Thomas Hills Everett was born on February 7, 1779, at Enfield Marsh, England. At first he appeared to be a normal baby but after about six weeks he began to grow at an alarming rate.  At 9 months and 2 weeks he was, according to a surgeon, the size of a 7-year-old child but retaining the chubby baby features. He was exhibited in London in 1780. He was then 3'3" in height, measured 14" around the leg, 9" around the wrist and 37" around the loins. He weighed over 9 stone. He was still being breast-fed! Eventually he died, before he reached 18 months.
 
* Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria syndrome is a rare disease that usually kills its victims by adolescence. Progeria stunts growth, causes baldness, bulging eyes, crooked teeth and produces premature ageing. The bones and muscles disintegrate and the whole body becomes misshapen. Progeria effectively adds ten years to the body's physical age for every calendar year lived. It is very uncommon but one sufferer in Australia who received a great deal of publicity was Becky Coss, of Bingara, NSW, who in 1990 was actually aged 12 but who bore the body of an old lady of 120.
   
*  Anencephaly:  A medical authority says that a 'child would not live more than two days after birth' with this affliction.
 
*  In 1992 a 6-months-old baby girl, Sophie Byrom, lay in a British hospital cot. Her pain-wracked body tossed and turned but the little one was prevented from screaming out in her agony! The horrible port-wine stain that was first noticed upon her forehead when she was born had spread down her face, little by little, marring and disfiguring and bringing with it the awful pain. Now it had reached the area of her throat, thus affecting her ability to scream out and express the agony she undoubtedly felt. The horrid birthmark covered much of her chest as well. Remember, I am writing about a 6-months-old child! Doctors in England, where little Sophie lay suffering, tried to help the babe. If they could somehow halt the spread of the abnormal blood-cell clusters causing the suffering, they could then 'rebuild her face' with plastic surgery.
 
* In 1977 a four-legged boy was born at a Lincolnshire (England) hospital. He was later moved to Sheffield hospital where doctors removed two of the four legs successfully.
 
* In Britain early in July 1992 a 6-year-old girl underwent a second operation on her eyes. She was having her right eye removed. Previously her left eye had been removed.  The girl is now completely eyeless - blind. It was the only way to save the child from the ravages of cancer!

* Among P.T. Barnum's sideshow freaks listed in 1898 were: a 'gorilla girl' - billed as the 'ugliest woman in the world', an ossified man, whose flesh had completely hardened and crystallized before he died, a woman with scaly skin like an alligator, and a misshapen congenital idiot. The latter's looks were such that many believed him to be an unknown species of monkey.

* An 18th century German, Matthew Birchinger, learnt to be a musician, conjuror and calligrapher, in spite of being born without hands, legs or thighs. He was less than a metre tall.
 
* In June 1991 two boys from Mexico, aged 7 and 14, were being exhibited as freaks in Blackpool, United Kingdom. They were suffering from a rare disease and had hair growing all over their body. There was, quite rightly, a public outcry over the exhibition of the boys.

* Hairlip or cleft-palate afflicts, in one form or another, about one in every 750 newborn children, or 5,000 per year in the USA alone. This condition develops early in fetal life but the cause is not known. As the fetal tissues grow to form the lips, mouth and palate, something  (maybe as a result of maternal malnutrition, infection, drugs or a combination of these) inhibits normal development. The result: twisted, at times grotesque distortions of the nose, with a gaping cleft in the upper lift and sometimes palate. A pioneer surgeon working on problem, David Millard, Jr (USA) wrote a book in which he traces records of cleft lips on figurines almost 2,000 years old and surgical attempts to correct them almost as far back.

* Siamese Twins are one of the commonest mistakes of deity. Instances of two persons joined together but with distinct organs: Two sisters in Bohemia, Rosalie and Josepha; two sisters in South Carolina, Millie and Christina (known as the 'two-headed nightingale') and two Hungarian sisters, Helene and Judith.
 
* In July 1765 a calf was born in Abergelly which had two heads, four eyes, four ears, two mouths, two tongues and two necks.

Psalm 139: 14 says: 'I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.'  Unfortunately only some human beings can attest to this. Does deity look down with pleasure upon such of his creatures as we have noted here? Perhaps he a cruel god who enjoys the pain of his creation? If there is deity it surely must be an evil entity.             

MITHRAISM. 'In the gloom of underground basilicas loomed the image of the bull slain by Mithras at the creation of the world, in front of which knelt the naked initiate, it might be blindfold and with his hands tied behind his back, undergoing trial of his endurance in the presence of the sword' (P.L. Couchoud, in The Book of Revelation,  p.10).
 
One of the most interesting of the dying and rising deities is Mithra, the Persian god. His common title in inscriptions is Sol Invictus Mithras and his birthday was celebrated, significantly, on December 25, the 'birthday of the sun' as it was termed, the end of the period celebrating the solar equinox. Mithraism was one of the strong rivals of Christianity, seeking to win the hearts and minds of the Roman populace. It had a special attraction to the Roman soldiery. It may well have been the predominant worship of Western civilization today had not Paul been such a powerful personality.
 
Now Mithraism closely paralleled Christianity in some regards, in that it had a baptism in water to remove sins, and like the Zoroastrians, had a form of communion feast, of bread (baked with a cross emblem) and (probably) wine, and its initiates were sealed on the forehead as Christian initiates were. When the Christians gained the upper hand in Rome they set to work to exterminate Mithraism; it was altogether too close to their own faith. Having the secular power on its side, the Church prevailed.  Thus Christianity was as much a political movement as a religious one. In some respects it still is!

MODERN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Hulon Mitchell, Jr, experienced conversion to several religions during his lifetime. He was raised in a Pentecostalist household in Oklahoma, his father being a preacher in that church. After serving with the US Air Force in Korea, Mitchell studied psychology at the Phillips University of Oklahoma and joined the Rosicrucians. Later he left that esoteric body and joined the Black Muslims, a group then headed by Elijah Muhammad. The Black Muslims believed that all white people are devils.

After the assassination of Malcolm X, Mitchell left the Muslims, changed his name to Brother Mitchell (sometimes given as Michel), and founded his own religion, the Modern Christian Church. In the late 1970s he set up the church's headquarters in Miami, Florida, and took another new name, Yahweh Ben Yahweh (Lord, the Son of Lord).  Travelling about in a chauffeur-driven limousine, Mitchell preached a gospel of hatred, echoing the Black Muslims' message that whites are evil, liars and murderers. In numerous books issued in his name he taught that the American blacks were one of the lost twelve tribes of Israel. Meanwhile Mitchell gained a great deal of kudos by preaching self-help to the black people living in Miami's ghetto.

However, behind the scenes in the church, which boasted at its peak some 12,000 members in twenty cities, there was another story. In 1988 Robert Rozier, a former football player and member of the cult, pleaded guilty to murdering two men. In exchange for testifying against Yahweh Ben Yahweh and his henchmen Rozier was given a 22-year sentence. It was alleged that the preacher and some sixteen disciples, known as Death Angels, had been involved in murder, fire-bombing and extortion.  Federal officers claimed that Yahweh Ben Yahweh ordered the inner-circle members to behead 'white devils' as a form of initiation. They were to bring ears from the victims as proof of their obedience to his commands. Yahweh ben Yahweh died, aged 71, in May 2007.

MOONIES, The.  Popular name for the Unification Church, founded by Korean-born Dr Sun Myung Moon, who claims to be chosen by GOD to change the course of history by uniting all churches. He calls himself the Lord of the Second Advent and he and his wife as the Perfect Couple. They produce Perfect Children, including those who are the offspring of the innumerable arranged marriages blessed by Moon. 'I will conquer and subjugate the world,' claims Dr Moon. The holy book of the movement is The Divine Principle, written by Moon.

MONGOLS, The.  In 1245 at the Council of Lyons, Pope Innocent 4th announced a pet project that had been festering in his mind - to send missionaries to the Mongols.  It was not, however, with the good of these wild men's souls upon his mind that he announced his plans; rather, for the crass reason that he hoped the fearsome warriors could be brought on side with the Christians in their struggle against the Infidel in the Holy Land.

In April 1245 the Franciscan brother, John of Pian del Carpine set out, accompanied by two friars minor, Stephen of Hungary and Benoit of Poland. They could not restrain themselves along the way but also took letters to the bishops of Russia, in which the Pope urged them to return to the fold of the One True Church!. In February 1246 they reached Kanev, on the Dnieper, the nearest town to the Tartars.

As they approached their intended converts they were being spied on. An armed band now attacked the three men and some proffered gifts failed to move their captors. They were taken to the residence of a man under whom were 60,000 soldiers.  Eventually, little by little, they were passed through the Mongol ranks until at length, much later, they found themselves before the Great Khan himself. At this time Guyuk, grandson of Ghenghis Khan, had just been elected Great Khan. The missionaries were treated well and given gifts but their zeal for the Gospel was in vain.

They were advised that Guyuk had already decided to make war on the West. The missionaries' exhortations fell on deaf ears and soon the trio were on their way back to Europe. A second mission was sent by the Pope, this time led by a Dominican, Ascelin of Lombardy. He was away for three years and seven months but again the attempt proved fruitless. Other attempts were made.
 
One ray of light (from the Catholic viewpoint) came when Sartaq, son of Batu, was converted to Nestorian Christianity, although such a version of the Gospel was anathema to the Catholics.  Sartaq's Christianity appeared to be of the shallow sort, in any event. Hopes rose and fell over the years but in the end nothing came of all these efforts and the Christians were to see the Holy Land eventually wrested entirely from their grasp by the Muslims. 

MORALITY, Christian.
The followers of Jesus Christ claim that he stated, 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' Who knows what Jesus did say or did not say? Nobody! But we'll take this text as 'gospel truth' as Christians claim it to be. As we contemplate the Christian Church in all its manifestations and permutations we might well use this yardstick to judge its value to humanity - if any! The result of a close examination of the Church's members through the centuries must surely leave anyone convinced that as an agent for the improvement of humanity is is an abject failure!

Readers may object to looking at the lives of individual members. Where else do we look? At church buildings? The church comprises its members, nothing more, nothing less.  And, sad to say, for the very few good souls and true who have laboured humbly and, as they see it, in the way of their Master, there are many others who have done anything but. In fact, I believe that the Christian Church has nothing to offer the human race. The stories recounted could, of course, be multiplied a thousandfold. Here is a small selection  . . .

MURDEROUS PASTOR

Jerry Wilson, 48, pastor of an evangelical Bible Tabernacle in Indiana, in early 1992 stood trial for the attempted murder of a man. The pastor, with his wife Patricia, worked among the good Christians of his church, exhorting them to follow their Lord.  A typical hellfire preacher, Pastor Wilson ranted and raved up and down in front of his congregation of good Christians, week in week out. The only way to gain converts, it seems, as most people are too sensible to be taken in when they consider things calmly and rationally.

It so happened that, like so many of his fellows, during the course of his ministry he was brought into contact with a female church member, Kim McKay, 29, whose marriage to husband Bill was in trouble. In fact the situation was later described as one of 'irretrievable breakdown.' The pastor and Mrs McKay felt an attraction towards one another and soon were involved in a relationship.
 
Eventually divorce petitions were filed by Kim against her husband and by Jerry against his wife. Curiously these good Christians were able to act thus when it is clear from their own Bible that divorce is a no-no for believers. Even going to law against a fellow-believer is forbidden in the New Testament (See, for example, Matthew 5: 38-40, and 1 Corinthians 6: 1-8.) For some reason or other Kim dropped her divorce suit; perhaps conscience was getting to her. In any event the good pastor now decided to speed matters up; or so it is alleged. Not once but twice he attempted to blow up cars which were being driven by Kim's husband; a very strange activity indeed for a Christian pastor. But then, he had previously operated a construction business and knew about explosives.
 
The second attempt could have resulted in a horrifying massacre. A car, loaned by the pastor to Mr McKay, was parked right outside a skating rink in which some thirty youngsters were enjoying themselves. McKay himself had with him a 15-year-old girl.  While inside the building pastor Jerry had crawled under the vehicle to attach his bomb.  He had been seen there by a witness. Fortunately the bomb was discovered before it went off. Police said it had been sufficiently powerful to wreak havoc on the whole building, not only the car!  Pastor Wilson was awaiting trial in mid-1992.

A significant comment came from one police department official: 'Even if the good Christians actually saw the pastor place the bomb themselves they would still follow him.'  Sadly - all too true!

SEX-ADDICTS

In 1976 Time magazine claimed that five young disciples, four of them men, had  'confessed' to having had sexual relations with Bill James Hargis, rabid right-wing TV evangelist. Hargis denied the claim. In 1986, televangelist Jerry FALWELL cancelled use of his satellite network by Hargis, who had been running a show on it. Falwell claimed the show was too 'corny.'

At the international gathering of the World Council of Churches in Canberra in February 1991 Federal Police were allegedly asked to investigate a complaint that a male delegate had demanded that a woman delegate perform oral sex on him!  When she refused, according to the Canberra Times, the man allegedly struck her over the head until she complied.  A spokesman for the WCC later labelled the report 'irresponsible' but conceded a complaint had gone to police.  At the same gathering an American delegate, the Reverend Mary-Gene Boteler reportedly claimed: 'There have been incidents of sexual harassment by men at this conference' and that a women's tent at the ANU had become a sanctuary from sexual violence for a number of delegates!

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on March 26, 1991:  'Melbourne: Radio station 3AW has removed a talkback clergyman, the Rev. Alex Kenworthy, from his job as a radio counsellor following claims he seduced women who sought his help.  Announcing the decision last night, 3AW's general manager, Mr Tony Bell, said a counsellor in Dr Kenworthy's position had to be seen to be "beyond reproach.".'
 
When boxer Mike Tyson, 25, was on trial for the rape of Miss Black America, Desiree Washington, early in 1991 a group of Baptists expressed their support for the boxer. President of the US  National Baptist Convention, the Rev. T.J. Jemison, not only lobbied publicly on Tyson's behalf but led a 13-day prayer vigil for the boxer during the trial. The prayers failed; Tyson was found guilty and jailed for 10 years, with a non-parole period of 6. On some public occasions during the trial Tyson wore a religious badge.

CHRISTIAN VANDALS

In 1990 a group of Christians from Medowie, north of Newcastle (Australia), headed by Mr David McKay, and including his son, Kevin, made lightning visits to Sydney and damaged large areas of public property with graffiti. On September 15 they used paint, said to be worth $1,000, to splash slogans on walls along railway lines. Five were arrested, charged and convicted. In October the same group attacked historic Bondi Beach, splashing large and unattractive slogans along the walls of the famous location.  It was later estimated it would cost $100,000 to clean up the mess. Christian morality at work!

BANK ROBBERY

In March 1991 the Rev. Roy Yanke, 37, pastor of the Covenant Alliance Church, Detroit, USA, pleaded guilty to robbing 14 banks of $A.60,000.  He was arrested in the church offices when a car he rented was identified as having been used in one of the robberies.  These had begun in 1989 and the minister told investigators he had used the money to pay for prostitutes.  He is, of course, not alone, in such dalliances; there have been a whole string of evangelists and preachers in the USA and Australia and elsewhere who cannot restrain their sexual desires according to the teachings of that very Book they preach from!

Finally, there are some curious cases that occur from time to time, two of which are quoted by Robert H. Thouless in his book An Introduction to the Psychology of Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 1924). These involve men who are drunkards and ne'er-do-wells who are converted.  After conversion they become active and diligent workers in religious organisations but neglect their own families, keeping them in penury and in other ways ignoring them. In one case the man eventually lapsed from his religious faith and thereafter resumed his role as a loving father in his household.

CHRISTIAN FASCISM

It is noteworthy that a number of antihuman dictatorships, especially that of the Nazis, Fascists and the Communists, have had the same moral attitudes on many subjects as do fundamentalist Christians and Catholics. For example, when the Nazis came to power in the early 1930s in Germany they instituted a vigorous campaign against birth control devices, homosexuality, prostitution and abortion! Sounds terribly familiar! Very early in the Nazi era advertising for contraceptives was banned.  Interrupting the pregnancy of a German woman was considered a serious crime. Under the Weimar Republic the maximum penalty for an abortion was a fine of forty marks; under the Nazis doctors involved in aiding in an abortion were sentenced to from six to fifteen years' imprisonment, usually in a concentration camp. Sometimes the sentences were even more severe.
 
In 1933 in Germany an official campaign against homosexuality was launched. The campaign reached its height in November 1941 when Himmler issued a decree stipulating the death penalty for any member of the SS or police engaging in a homosexual relationship with another male. Himmler's own nephew, SS Obersturmführer Hans Himmler, was 'liquidated' at Dachau for homosexual offences.  Many present-day fundamentalist Christians and Catholics must look back with fondness to those days.
 
And dictators were still at it in more recent times. When the Romanian dictator Ceausescu controlled the country he made it a criminal offence to have an abortion and banned all methods of contraception. Childbearing was the patriotic duty of all women, he declared, and set up the County Demographic Command. This body subjected all women to a gynaecological examination every month; if found pregnant they were monitored to ensure they did not abort the fetus. 'Nothing in society can fail to be of concern to the party,' ran an official statement. 

MORMONS.  Around 1855 it was reported the Mormons had invented a new alphabet and were using it to to produce a newspaper set in type only Mormons could read. Probably Reformed Egyptian, the language Joseph Smith claimed was used on his magic plates! The Mormons (otherwise known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), like so many others, had many splits; some were called: the Strangites, the Bickerstonites, the Church of Temple Lot, and the Cutlerite Church of Christ. The largest split came with the formation of the Reorganised Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. See also: INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX.

MORTIFICATION.
Mortification (of the flesh) is the process whereby the religious brings under control the human body so that it becomes more centred on spiritual verities. From the time of the early Church the saints and fathers developed the notion of the mortification of the flesh. The practice eventually became widespread and through the centuries, especially during the Middle Ages but even into our own times, thousands of nuns, monks and devoted Christians inflicted many kinds of discipline upon themselves.

Depiction of Saint Aloysius with a whip handy. Note also the skull:

 
In the many lives of the saints that have been published one will often find, when the biographer is inclined to write of the more intimate matters, accounts of such mortification. And they often began at an early age. We are told that Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal in the 14th century, began demonstrating her piety at an early age.  When she was 8 years of age she was practising mortification by whipping herself, as well as fasting and keeping vigils. Also of tender years, probably around 6 years of age, Saint Mary of Providence, a French nun, was obsessed with 'an extraordinary devotion to Purgatory' and the sufferings experienced by the dead. It was said of her at that time that when her governess was doing her hair and she noticed it was hurting her and offered to stop, the child told her to continue, she would would offer her suffering as 'an oblation . . . for the Holy Souls.' And she often prayed for lengthy periods 'on her bare knees' on the ground.

Believing that the pain and deprivation experienced by the mortal flesh would greatly facilitate the salvation of the soul, many went to great lengths in their self-imposed suffering. It is said that Saint Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, so deprived himself of sustenance that his hair dropped out and his beard withered.  He spent so much time on his knees in prayer that they were reportedly as hard as the soles of his feet. The notable Saint Bernard fasted so often that he was eventually quite unable to determine any flavour in what he ate; it is said that water was the only liquid he could taste.

Some forms of mortification were extreme. Saints stood on one leg for long periods or lived with worm-infested wounds all over their bodies. Some slept in the open in all weathers. One, Lady Ethelfrleda, third Abbess of Romney, mortified her flesh by leaving the abbey at night and standing naked in a stream of icy water while she recited the Psalms. A great many wore the HAIRSHIRT underneath their outer garments, to add mightily to their discomfort. Saint Douceline of Digne wore a hard shirt made from pigskin next to her skin. Eventually, as it was never taken off, the flesh grew over it and when it was finally removed by force the skin was torn away with it.

BELT OF THORNS

In the film The Devil is a Woman (1975) the nun, played by Glenda Jackson, is shown strapping a belt of thorns tightly about her bare waist. There is nothing fictional in this particular activity. This, or some similar adornment, was quite likely to be the habitual mode of dress of many religious in the Christian church through the centuries. Almost universal in some eras was the wearing of cords and chains tightly bound about the body beneath the garments. Saint Douceline not only wore a girdle of knotted cord but an iron hoop about her body as well. As was the case with many of the saints, the cord cut deeply into her flesh and it was said that worms bred in the deep grooves.
 
Whipping as a form of self-discipline is frequently recorded. Whipping was, of course, often imposed as a PENANCE, when it was inflicted by another, or by oneself.  Within the nunneries the small whip known as The DISCIPLINE was employed by the nuns on their own bodies. One nun delighted in being made to stand in front of her fellows, her hands tied, while she was whipped. A portrait of Saint ALOYSIUS shows him standing by a table upon which is a crucifix, a skull and a whip. An Australian Catholic candidate for sainthood, Mother Mary McKillop, who went to South Australia in 1826 and started a ragged school, was one of those hardy nuns who whipped herself.  Her personal whip was still on display at the North Sydney convent of her religious Order, at least until recent times when it mysteriously disappeared.
 
The stories abound through history. Saint Catherine of Sienna wore a chain. After her death it was found wound tightly about her waist, embedded in her flesh. A quite modern example of the Catholic temper is readily seen in the life of an Irishman, the Venerable Matt Talbot (1856 to 1925). A Catholic writer, Joseph A Glynn, wrote The Life of Matt Talbot (1934 rev. ed.) after carefully investigating the man and especially his fasts and mortifications.
 
This candidate for beatification fasted regularly from an early age, and usually in secret. Sometimes he had no more than a cup of tea and some dry bread. Rarely did he eat meat or anything very substantial. His obsession was so great that on one occasion, when given some buttered bread, he carefully scraped off the butter and ate the bread, without comment. Talbot slept on a plank bed, with a wooden pillow.  Summer and winter he was covered with one half-blanket, to which he added, in extreme weather, some old sacks. 'The effect of the wooden pillow,' wrote his biographer, 'was that in later years his face became numbed and his hearing impaired.'

CHAINS EMBEDDED

But the chief torment Talbot inflicted upon himself was the common one among the saints - the wearing of chains.  It is believed he did this for some fourteen years prior to his death, keeping them on day and night, even when sleeping on his plank bed.  Talbot did not advertise this fact and it was known only to close friends, although he often recommended the practice to inquirers. Some took up the suggestion. His own addiction began after reading the book of the Blessed Grignon de Montfort.

It is fortunate that a particular document has been preserved which describes in some detail the body of Talbot after his death. I use the term 'fortunate' for, although it certainly makes for unpleasant reading, nevertheless it serves the purpose of demonstrating the lengths to which this form of self-torture drove people. It is an official hospital document, signed by two men, presumably doctors: 

On Sunday, June 7th, 1925, a dead body was brought in the Corporation Ambulance to Jervis Street Hospital. On the body being identified, it proved to be Mr Matt Talbot and when we undersigned undressed the remains we found chains, ropes and beads on the said body. Around the middle of his waist were two chains and a knotted rope.  One chain we took to be an ordinary chain used as a horse trace, and the other a little thinner. Both were entwined by a knotted rope and medals were attached to the chain by cords. Both were deeply imbedded in the flesh and rusted.
 
Also on the left arm was found a light chain wound tightly above the elbow, and on the right arm above the elbow a knotted cord. On the left leg a chain was bound around with a cord below the knee, and on the right leg, in the same position, was some heavy knotted cord. Around his neck was very big beads and attached to same were a great many religious medals. Some of the medals were as big as half-crown and others were ordinary sodality medals.
(Signed) - Charles Manners, Laurence Thornton.

Talbot also gave a great deal of time to prayer, being known for spending as long as seven hours kneeling, quite erect, on bare knees. They had been made bare by the simple expedient of his providing a slit in his trousers-legs. It was also stated that his eyesight had been affected by his habit of passing through the streets with eyes fixed on the ground, neither looking at nor reading anything around him. Thus lived one of the saintly men of the modern Church.

RENUNCIATION

In the daily life of nuns and monks mortification was practised in a hundred tiny ways. Restrictions on food, renunciation of simple pleasures, the very act of confessing to the priest. A wide variety of activities may be observed in the various orders. For example, in one convent it was the practice on occasions for a nun to move about the tables on her knees with a 'begging bowl' into which the other nuns would spoon soup from their own dishes, out of which they had already eaten. When the bowl was filled the nun would be expected to eat every last drop of the contents.
   
In the remains of the Convent of Santa Monica in Puebla, Mexico, now transformed into a museum, there are on view some implements of mortification once used by the nuns who lived there. Hanging on the walls of what was the Mother Superior's cell are heavy chains with which the nuns whipped themselves. There are also leather straps employed on other occasions to subdue the flesh. A waxworks-type figure of a nun depicts the day on which she took the veil. She is naked beneath a black hairshirt covering her body. She kneels before a crucifix upon which hangs the figure of Christ, his agony clearly depicted.

The nuns who once entered this convent were never allowed out again (this was the case once in many other convents) and when they died were buried in the cellar. The convent was suppressed by the Mexican Revolution in 1857 but continued a secret existence, entered by a carefully hidden door, for almost eighty years before being discovered, during which time novices continued to join and nuns subject themselves to the rigourous mortifications of the institution.
 
As late as in the 1950s a description of life in a Carmelite nunnery indicated that the nuns slept on beds comprising a sack of straw over hard boards, and had no linen sheets. They sat upon hard straight-backed chairs. They arose at 5.30 in winter and 4.30 in summer and worked until 11 pm. Probably the worst postural position was that of kneeling in prayer, a lengthy procedure, the nun having to kneel without any support at all while holding an office book before her eyes. Still at this time physical discipline was being employed, the order falling back on a literal interpretation of the admonition of St Paul: 'I chastise ['bruise' or 'buffet' in some translations] my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.' (I Corinthians 9:27).
 
The nuns employed a small whip made of knotted cords, known as The DISCIPLINE, which they applied in a communal whipping session in the choir at night, and accompanied by the chanting of the Miserere.  An interesting aspect of this penitential whipping is that it is considered not only a means of subduing the flesh but also as a means of aiding the souls still struggling in Purgatory. St John of the Cross was a fierce self-whipper. On one occasion he was exhausted from fatigue and illness and asked permission of the Prior, Padre Antonio, to take his evening meal a little earlier than normal. But after he had eaten he felt he had done wrong in giving in to the weakness of his flesh, so went to the Prior and and asked permission to accuse himself of a fault in the presence of the whole company of the Community. When the friars had gathered for their meal John entered the refectory with bared shoulders and carrying the whip. He then knelt down, and scourged himself vigorously as he confessed his faults.
 
What are we to make of these manifold activities? Deep devotion? Maybe rather they betray an uncertainty about the salvation so loudly proclaimed by the Church. And they also clearly indicate a morbid pathology at work in masochistic personalities, conveniently matched by the sadism evident in some of those who administered the various disciplines. See also: RELIGIOUS FLAGELLATION.

MOSES.  The person known as Moses, such an important figure in Hebrew mythology/history is a very doubtful quantity. The great lawgiver and founder of Israel first enters history as the baby found in the ark in the bulrushes by the daughter of Pharaoh. Many scholars believe, with good reason, that names such as Cain, Abel, Seth, Ham, Japeth, Noah and Moses are, in reality, derived from localities where deities (originally leaders) were worshipped under such names or similar ones. In other words, they are the very familiar hero-gods of early religious history, at least familiar to those whose religious knowledge is not restricted to a blind adherence to one source of knowledge.

In the case of Moses we are in all probability dealing with an Egyptian rebel leader, Osarsiph, a priest of Heliopolis. This renegade priest abandoned the gods of Egypt for one of the gods of Midian, or Canaan. With him were other renegade priests who formed the core of the levitical priesthood of Israel. That some aspects of the Jewish religion are derived from Egypt is plainly evident in the dress of the priests and especially in the Urim and Thummim, worn on the priests' breasts. These were symbols of the Egyptian gods, Horus and Anubis. There is, indeed, nothing unique in Israel's worship; it is all derived from earlier sources.
 
It should be noted that the stories surrounding Moses have not come to us in a direct line but at least 800 years separates the supposed events involving this figure from the first time they were put down in written form. Studies of the transmission of oral history indicate that over such a lengthy period such communication is entirely unreliable! The very story of the ark in the bulrushes is an ancient one and occurs in the legends of the Middle East long before Moses' time. It is one of those common folk tales that circulate through the centuries, like urban myths. See also: AARON'S ROD.

MOTHER SHIPTON. The first mention of Mother Shipton occurs in a tract published in 1641. The subject of this work, with the maiden name of Ursula Southill [or Southiel?] was said to have been born around 1487 in Yorkshire, England, and to have married a builder, Tony Shipton, at the age of 24. She lived to be over seventy years of age and was credited with making a series of amazing prophecies. She was also said to be a witch.

The facts of Mother Shipton's life are, however, of doubtful provenance. In 1677 Richard Head produced a biography of Mother Shipton which enlarged greatly upon the details in the original tract. Historians can find no evidence for the additional facts produced by this writer and indeed think the tract itself may have been a purely fictional invention. From Head's time on a long series of purported biographies appeared, including one issued by a bookseller Charles Hindley in 1862. Hindley claimed to be publishing a 1448 account, thus placing his heroine in an even earlier era!

The prophecies said to have been made by this remarkable lady included the death of Cardinal Wolsey, the great Fire of London in 1666, the invention of the steam engine and the telegraph and the end of the world in 1881. So far as I am aware this latter prophecy was not fulfilled.    

MOTHERS' UNION SUPPORTS BROTHELS. The Mothers' Union, the English women's group linked to the Anglican Church, stirred up a storm among moralizers some years back by making the sensible suggestion that brothels should be legalized.  The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Reverend David Shepherd, agreed with the suggestion.  He said that if brothels were licensed the spread of AIDS could be reduced significantly and church workers would have greater contact with prostitutes. Some might even be weaned from their lucrative work, he thought.

MEDJUGORJE.  A town in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, where some children saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. In 1981 Mary reportedly appeared to six children in the village of Medjugorje. Between then and the end of 1990 some 17 million people visited the village. In January 1991 Leon Le Grand, a property developer and author, from Australia, told audiences of his visit to the village and the religious conversion he experienced as a result.

MURDER.  Sir Alistair Hardy, the founder Spiritual Experience Research Unit, Oxford, told the ABC (Australia) Science Show in March 1994: 'I don't think there would be anything like the number of murders committed for sex as there have been in religion.' A news item appearing at the same time reported: 'Gunmen, believed to be Islamic militants, shot and killed two priests and three other Christians outside a Coptic monastery in southern Egypt, security officials said on the weekend.' [New York Times, March 1994]  There is, of course, nothing unique about this latter news report!  It happens all the time.

MURRAY, Professor Margaret Alice. Born in 1863, Dr Murray was an anthropologist and archeologist who developed some controversial theories about the origins of witchcraft. Murray was an expert in Egyptology. In 1921 her book, The Witch-cult in Western Europe, was published and immediately created controversy.  The author maintained that witchcraft was not a phenomenon dreamed up by Christians in the Middle Ages but was in fact the surviving remnant of a fertility cult going back to ancient times. In this view Murray had the support of an important earlier writer, Sir James Frazer (The Golden Bough).
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Dr Murray connected the witch cult with the worship of Diana and believed there had always been covens consisting of 12 members plus a leader. This religion was, she claimed, organized and long-lasting. Murray is also said to have demonstrated that the Christian Devil is a variation upon a pagan fertility deity.

Two more books followed, The God of the Witches (1933) and The Divine King of England (1954), the latter being particularly controversial.  In it she claims that every king of England, from William the Conqueror to James 1st, was a secret witch! To this she added the further assertion that many of the country's prominent statesmen has been ritually sacrificed. Dr Murray died in 1963, just after her 100th birthday.   

MUSIC. In August 1976 it was reported that 75 young members of the Bethel Baptist Church in the USA had consigned their rock music records to a bonfire at the suggestion of a 35-year-old youth co-ordinator. 'If you're committed to rock and roll,' he said, 'you can't be committed to GOD.' This followed similar events, one at a Florida church, the pastor of which claimed he had data showing that of 1,000 teenage girls who became pregnant, 984 did so while listening to rock music! See also: DANCE, The.

MUSLIMS.  See under: ISLAM, ISLAMIC. 

MUSLIM SWIMMERS.  Late in 1991 the City of Brunswick, Victoria (Australia), closed its public swimming pool for one day a week to allow women only to swim there.  There are many Muslim women in the area, who are unable to swim publicly if men are present. In spite of protests from many angry residents the motion passed through council with only one dissenting vote. 

MYTH AND FAITH. In 1929 C. S. Lewis was converted to Christianity, a 'logical and intellectual decision' said Lewis later. According to his biographer A. N. Wilson, the conversion came about as a result of discussions with Hugo Dyson and J. R. R. Tolkien (who was said to have been inspired by Lewis to write his famous books). The three had endless philosophical discussions and on one particular night they walked together in the Oxford university cloisters until 4 am. Tolkien finally persuaded Lewis that human beings receive truth through the medium of myth.
 
Presumably such a noble concept was Tolkien's answer to doubts entertained by Lewis over the Christian Bible. If, then, the outlandish tales of the Bible, are to be treated as the acceptable myths of Christianity, and as such sources of truth, then why not find truth in the mythical tales of both Mr Lewis and Mr Tolkien? Perhaps we might well believe in Narnia as being a more desirable destination than Heaven!  

© Felicity Press, Gympie, Australia, 2008. All rights reserved. 

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