The Lies Behind Bigotry

INTRODUCTION:

    The Secret Files of the Cult Awareness Network Go Public:

   That unseen evil forces - such as greed, prejudice, or revenge - are capable of shaping events, is nothing new.

Professor James R Lewis, noted author and director of the Association of World Academics for Religious Education

...empirical studies by mainstream social scientists have failed to discover a special form of social influence corresponding with 'cultic brainwashing', professional organizations including the APA and the ASA have rejected the notion from mainstream social science.

Anson Shupe, professor of sociology at Indiana-Purdue, author and noted expert specializing in the study of religious movements.

Research, not prejudice, indicates that most persons at Jonestown, Waco and those chalets in Switzerland died by foul play... We need to debunk the cult-suicide mythology, or else it will be open season on anyone who dares dream openly of a millenium.

   To some (us included) that a group could have publicly asserted its intention to help people and consequently receive tax exempt status for that purpose, ^{3a 3b 3c} could have had just such forces persuing their esoteric agendas, driving and directing those “helping” activities, seemed improbable --- and, if true, shocking.

    Yet religious scholars warned for years that the former Cult Awareness Network's message was actually one of hatred, fueled by lies; ^{4a 4b} they contended that the closed group of self-appointed “cult experts” ^{5a 5b} were really expert only at fomenting fear and denigrating people of goodwill ^{6a 6b} and yet, ironically, completely inept (often silent) when it came to genuinely dangerous and obviously criminal groups such as Aum Shin Rikyo and Heaven's Gate.

    The old CAN had been granted tax exemption in 1978 based on the avowed purpose “to educate the general public regarding religious rights, freedoms and responsibilities.” The word “cult” had not caught on with its derogatory meaning as yet (not without superlatives and adjectives) ---- in all senses it was used as a term to describe the specific practice of a religion (ie dogma or ritual) in general as opposed to say the philosophical or theoretical aspects of spirituallity. Therefore, the above statement of principle would have been taken at face value by the government agents, law enforcement, sociologists and other experts, and, most importantly, the general public.

"...your revised application for exemption contains disparaging statements about organizations which are not supported by facts. Your revised application indicates the reasons for our denial of your previous applications are still present" --- exerpt from the second attempt to gain tax-exempt status as a public benefit corporation - denied again.

   But from its 1970's endorsements of a violent criminal and drug abuser, ^{7a 7b} to the grisly 1992 case of its chief security "advisor" arrested by the FBI after kidnapping the "wrong" woman, ^{8a 8b 8c 8d} more and more evidence disputed CAN's denials of human rights violations; culminating in a 1995 decision where that same CAN was fined $1,875,000 ⁹ for participating in a crime described by an American jury as “beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civil community.” ¹⁰ A crime wherein a Pentecostal Christian man was kidnapped off his front porch, hands cuffed behind his back, mouth duck-taped, body thrown into the back of a van, driven to a remote location then held isolated for five days in an unsuccessful attempt to change his interpretation of the Bible. ^{11a 11b}

    CAN never got the point, never took responsibility for its actions, ¹² and never paid its victim a penny in recompense; declaring instead voluntary bankruptcy ¹³ then using up all its members' donations in attorney fees battling unsuccessfully all the way to the Supreme Court to overturn the judgment. ¹⁴

    Concurrently, on another front, losing a three-year court battle to keep the contents of its files a secret. ^{15a 15b 15c}

    Why did CAN waste all that effort and throw away hundreds of thousands of dollars on cases it could not win?

    To protect the individual identities of callers to CAN's hotline as it claimed? ¹⁶

   Unlikely.

   As a non-profit, public benefit corporation why would CAN have been keeping files on its callers and what would there be to protect?

    To prevent the Christian groups which CAN had labeled as "cults" from finding out what CAN was really up to? ¹⁷

   Possibly.

    That CAN kept files on many hundreds of Christian organizations would certainly be something it would want kept secret forever.

    To prevent lawsuits for intentional infliction of emotional distress, or even wrongful death? ¹⁸

    Maybe.

    And they may still have such lawsuits.

    However;

    Because in mid-May 1999, all of CAN's records - 389 banker boxes containing over 5,000 files and more than 450,000 pages of documents - were transported 2,500 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles into the possession of the Foundation for Religious Freedom. ¹⁹

   The Foundation has since opened the files to scholars, members of a diverse array of religious groups, law enforcement, attorneys and others.

    And hidden deep among CAN's own documents is the truth that will come out.

    For example, a secret strategic plan ²⁰ written in the fall of 1995, included amongst its many apparently innocuous words, a painfully discordant note:

   "Strategic Plan for Dealing with destructive Cults in North America"

   ...Section A: Research

    Develop an effective response to the "1st amendment" challenge to our position." ...(our italics)

    The First Amendment? "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." ²¹

    How could an organization which gained tax exemption by convincing the government it was formed to educate people about their religious rights see the First Amendment as a challenge? These two concepts should align, not conflict.

    And therein lies the rub.

Government prosecutors have jailed Cult Awareness Network co-founder Ted Patrick repeatedly on numerous charges, with three felony convictions

   For as you will read in the weeks to come CAN's own files undeniably prove its leaders knowingly cooperated with criminals - despite their repeated and vociferous denials. ²² You will learn about CAN's use of intelligence agents to infiltrate religious and non-profit organizations. ²³ You will read its manual of deprogramming - detailing how an undercover operative would drive a person from his chosen faith. ²⁴ You will find out about CAN's international efforts to destroy the still fragile religious freedom in Europe, so newly and hardly won with the lives of so many men of goodwill. ²⁵ You will see its plans to collaborate with mental health to obtain big money grants for research into labeling all spiritual belief a mental illness. ²⁶

    This and much more is what CAN's own files reveal.

    Thus as a service to all religions, the Foundation for Religious Freedom intends to see that these files are not merely made public, but put into historical perspective. We will be releasing not the tens of thousands of pages of purely negative information on hundreds of religious groups which CAN mailed out in response to inquiries, ²⁷ but the documents their leaders wanted no one ever to see; the secrets previously hidden in the files that will tell you not just "what," but who, how and more importantly - why.

    The story you are about to read is true. In the interest of openness and honesty, no names will be changed to protect those who perpetrated the lies and bigotry buried in the old CAN's archives.

 3a - Denial of CFF's tax exemption.
 3b - Document granting CFF's tax exemption.
 3c - Document that changed CFF's name to CAN.

 4a - Dr. Anson Shupe's critique of "Cults in our Midst"
 4b - Dr. John Saliba's critique of "Recovery from Cults".

 5a - Declaration of Joseph R. Wyatt.
 5b - Cynthia Kisser deposition. 

 6a - Cynthia Kisser "investigating Jesus Christ as a cult leader".
 6b - Margaret Singer qoute about the "horseback riding cult of Southern California".

 7a - Open letter to Ted Patrick.
 7b - Documents on Ted Patrick's arrests and convictions. 

 8a - Galen Kelly FBI arrest.
 8b - Galen Kelly statement.
 8c - Kelly guilty verdict.
 8d - Galen Kelly payments from CAN.

 9 - Million-dollar judgment.

 10 - Document of jury quote.

 11a - Jason Scott declaration.
 11b - Jason Scott's deposition and testimony.

 12 - Judge's denial of new trial in Scott case.

 13 - CAN's chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.

 14 - Ninth Circuit Decision.

 15a - Sale of the name CAN.
 15b - Denial of CAN's appeal of the sale.
 15c - Denial of CAN's objection to the sale.

 16 - Letters from CAN asserting confidentiality.

 17 - List of groups which CAN kept files on.

 18 - Houston Chronicle, April 9, 1993.

 19 - Photo.

 20 - CAN's 1995 strategic plan.

 21 - First Amendment.

 22 - Rick Ross documents.

 23 - Galen Kelly intelligence memo.

 24 - Deprogramming manual.

 25 - Barcelona conference.

 26 - Bardin letter to White House.

 27 - Patricia Ryan deposition.