The second annual
National Go Topless Protest Day will be held this Sunday, August 23, in various American cities. It happens to be run by
Raelians, members of
a UFO religion founded by Rael, a former French sports-car journalist and test driver born
Claude Vorilhon. (
Coverage of last year's protest in New York City, which is, as one might suspect, NSFW.) Though the current "Go Topless!" site talks more about women's rights than Raelism, in 2004, Raelian women were marching topless not for the legalization of bare breastedness, but
against "the repressive Myth of God." Don't remember the Raelians? This is just the most recent stunt by the publicity-hungry group that
capitalizes on media-friendly controversy: in 2002, during the slow news week between Christmas and New Year's Day,
they announced the creation of the first human clone, gaining what Rael estimated at over $500 million of free media coverage. In an interview, Rael
unabashedly discusses his passion for publicity.
[more inside]
posted by ocherdraco
on Aug 21, 2009 -
63 comments
The End of the World Cult is a 2007 documentary about the Lord Our Righteousness Church, aka the Strong City Cult, as they count down the days before the end of the world on October 31st 2007. The film features unusually good access and especially focuses on the creepy sexual relationship cult leader Wayne Bent has with his mostly female followers. If you watch the film and are hankering after justice, you'll be pleased to know that yesterday Bent was
sentenced to eighteen years prison for sexual relations with minors. Oh, he also has a
blog.
posted by dydecker
on Jan 1, 2009 -
38 comments
Adi Da (one of the most extreme of the 20th century God-men)
died on Thanksgiving. This may be a little late, and of little interest to most of you. (He had many names: Da Free John is probably the most recognizable to many of us.) He lived in luxury in Fiji, with many beautiful "consorts." There is a very extensive discussion about him and his work
here. Info about his "cult"
here.
posted by kozad
on Dec 29, 2008 -
45 comments
The town of Shawano, WI claims a
local group with a history of controversy called the
Samanta Roy Institute of Science & Technology (SIST) profiled in this WSAW TV investigative series (
part 1,
part 2,
part 3 &
part 4) is a
murderous cult that tried to hire a hitman to assassinate 60 prominent citizens including the mayor, city administrator, city treasurer, city attorney, police chief, judges, investigators & fire commissioners. SIST returns the favor & claims it's the mayor who's running a cult (
part 1,
part 2 &
more), calling her the Minister of Propaganda. As a CBS investigative team found out,
things are tense in this sleepy town. The FBI
says it's keeping an eye on the situation.
posted by scalefree
on Dec 18, 2008 -
28 comments
"The time is right, and the time is now! The Lord has spoken to you. He has commanded you to create the New Jerusalem, to prepare for His arrival, to gather the flock, bring together the faithful, spread the Word. Blinded like Paul on his way to Damascus, you are now set to follow His Way. But how do you start such an ambitious project?"
Dr. Emeril Lazarus has
all the answers.
posted by Kattullus
on Jun 16, 2007 -
16 comments
The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo in Peru may be the Western Hemisphere's oldest known
full-service solar observatory, showing evidence of early, sophisticated
Sun cults, according to
archaeoastronomy professor
Clive Ruggles. The 2,300-year-old complex featured 13 towers running north to south along a ridge and spread across 980 feet to form a toothed horizon that
spans the solar arc. Last year, another ancient observatory was discovered in Peru by
Robert Benfer.
The Temple of the Fox is 4,200 years old, making it
1,900 years older than the Chankillo site, but wasn't a complete calendar.
posted by homunculus
on Mar 3, 2007 -
8 comments
The Tax Man Cometh: "They believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that their citizen's understanding of the written law should, and in some Platonic sense does, trump the realities of dealing with the government. This makes them uniquely American rebels--more true, they maintain, to the nation's core values than those of us who follow the pragmatic advice . . . "You mess with that shit, you are going to jail."
Brian Doherty analyzes the tax resistance movement (from 2004). Meanwhile,
another ugly confrontation is brewing in New Hampshire, and
violence is in the air.
Mr. Brown, of course, has his views.
posted by fourcheesemac
on Jan 21, 2007 -
112 comments
Did Isaac Hayes really quit South Park?
Last night's show roasted Hayes for his irate
departure following the now-infamous Scientology episode (banned from the air in
Tom Cruise's litigious wake, full episode
here). In the latest episode, masters of subtlety Trey Parker and Matt Stone depict Chef as having fallen prey to an insidious cult, the "Super Adventure Club", subsequently killing him off in a manner that would make Kenny jealous. But today
FoxNews reports that Isaac Hayes has been in the hospital since Jan. 17th, following a stroke, and never issued a statement.
Apparently, the Scientology Center issued it "for" him. [
via] [previously discussed
here here and
here]
posted by mowglisambo
on Mar 23, 2006 -
81 comments
The Mercy Seat. Described in the book of Exodus, the throne of mercy has quite a variety of meanings. Some contemporary Christians are interested in "
reconstructing" an image based on Egyptian and Phoenician culture. In Judaism, the
kisei rachamim is part of the narrative of Yom Kippur, as God moves from the seat of justice to the seat of compassion. In medieval Europe, and especially in Germany, the
Gnadenstuhl was a perfect
representation of the trinity, combining the cruxification, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit (usually a bird), into one image of mournful compassion. Nick Cave used the idea of the mercy seat as the frame for
a song about murder, sin, capital punishment, and atonement/redemption, which was later covered by Johnny Cash (
mp3 clip). The chair of mercy is even visually alluded to Jodorowsky's
Montana Sacra, aka
Holy Mountain.
(Which have been inspired in part by the Ascended Masters of Mount Shasta, but that's technically another story - the bizarro California cultists story.)
posted by jann
on Mar 3, 2006 -
25 comments
Sinister cult hijacks Weblogs.com? While working on an application that finds patterns in the data supplied by Weblogs.com,
Mo Morgan found some disturbing patterns:
"[...] between midnight and five there had been over 60 pings to Weblogs.com from sites that contained the string "srichinmoy" in their URI."
At first it just looks like some idiot abusing the ping
system. Or could this be something altogether more sinister?
posted by dutchbint
on Aug 30, 2002 -
30 comments
Anthrax, its been done before. It just doesn't do the job: "the cult attempted to release anthrax spores from its mid-rise Tokyo office building laboratory. At that time, police and media reported foul smells, brown steam, some pet deaths, and stains on cars and sidewalks."
2,
3. "Many view the cult Aum Shinrikyo as a group seeking to bring on the end of the world." and "an estimated $1.5 billion in assets" (thats more than Usama). me=alarmist, today.
posted by tomplus2
on Oct 17, 2001 -
5 comments
Buddhism is a cult! ...says Representative Arlon Lindner, a member of the Minnesota Legislature. He's mad that the Dalai Lama is going to speak before that august body.
posted by norm
on May 1, 2001 -
50 comments
