Local Church Discussions - View Single Post

06-21-2017, 03:04 AM

Why does everybody get distracted by the fact this guy happens to have an interest in vampires? It's like distracted by the shiny.

From here, http://home.snafu.de/tilman/faq-you/cult.apologists.txt

JGM on Jonestown:
-----------------

"The tragedy at Jonestown ... in spite of having little relationship to
nonconventional religions in general, was transformed by the anti-cult
movement and the media into the definitive cult horror story."
(Chicago Tribune, 25.11.1988)

"The People's Temple was a congregation in a Christian denomination
recognized by the National Council of Churches," he said. "This wasn't
a cult. This was a respectable, mainline Christian group."
(Milwaukee Journal, 3.12.1988)

"Jones became a cult leader and the Peoples Temple became a cult,
literally overnight. And what was forgotten was that this was actually a
church in a mainstream religion.... He was about as mainstream as you
could get." (The Sacramento Bee, 15.11.1998)

From wikipedia

In May 1995, in the early stages of investigations into the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Melton, fellow scholar James R. Lewis and religious freedom lawyer Barry Fisher flew to Japan to voice concern that police behaviour, including mass detentions without charge and the removal of practitioners' children from the group, might be infringing the civil rights of Aum Shinrikyo members.[21][22] They had travelled to Japan at the invitation and expense of Aum Shinrikyo after they had contacted the group to express concern over developments, and met with officials over a period of three days.[21] While not having been given access to the group's chemical laboratories, they held press conferences in Japan stating their belief, based on the documentation they had been given by the group,[23] that the group did not have the ability to produce sarin and was being scapegoated.[21][22] Melton revised his judgment shortly after, concluding that the group had in fact been responsible for the attack and other crimes.[22] Some felt that the scholars' defense of Aum Shinrikyo led to a crisis of confidence in religious scholarship when the group's culpability was proven.[22]

From

https://www.amazon.com/Slander-Salva.../dp/0963950126

He has written a book defending the Children of God/The Family. I.E. the guy is a cult apologist, who has been on the record defending actual cults. One would think this is more relevant than whether or not he likes to dress up as Dracula.

06-21-2017, 03:04 AM	#38
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	Re: J. Gordon Melton Why does everybody get distracted by the fact this guy happens to have an interest in vampires? It's like distracted by the shiny. From here, http://home.snafu.de/tilman/faq-you/cult.apologists.txt JGM on Jonestown: ----------------- "The tragedy at Jonestown ... in spite of having little relationship to nonconventional religions in general, was transformed by the anti-cult movement and the media into the definitive cult horror story." (Chicago Tribune, 25.11.1988) "The People's Temple was a congregation in a Christian denomination recognized by the National Council of Churches," he said. "This wasn't a cult. This was a respectable, mainline Christian group." (Milwaukee Journal, 3.12.1988) "Jones became a cult leader and the Peoples Temple became a cult, literally overnight. And what was forgotten was that this was actually a church in a mainstream religion.... He was about as mainstream as you could get." (The Sacramento Bee, 15.11.1998) From wikipedia In May 1995, in the early stages of investigations into the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Melton, fellow scholar James R. Lewis and religious freedom lawyer Barry Fisher flew to Japan to voice concern that police behaviour, including mass detentions without charge and the removal of practitioners' children from the group, might be infringing the civil rights of Aum Shinrikyo members.[21][22] They had travelled to Japan at the invitation and expense of Aum Shinrikyo after they had contacted the group to express concern over developments, and met with officials over a period of three days.[21] While not having been given access to the group's chemical laboratories, they held press conferences in Japan stating their belief, based on the documentation they had been given by the group,[23] that the group did not have the ability to produce sarin and was being scapegoated.[21][22] Melton revised his judgment shortly after, concluding that the group had in fact been responsible for the attack and other crimes.[22] Some felt that the scholars' defense of Aum Shinrikyo led to a crisis of confidence in religious scholarship when the group's culpability was proven.[22] From https://www.amazon.com/Slander-Salva.../dp/0963950126 He has written a book defending the Children of God/The Family. I.E. the guy is a cult apologist, who has been on the record defending actual cults. One would think this is more relevant than whether or not he likes to dress up as Dracula.