CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/25/2024
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Patrick Ryan
Jul 25, 2024, 3:01:20 AM (2 days ago) Jul 25
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The Saints, Child Abuse, Legal, Australia, Spring Ridge Academy, Synanon, Troubled Teen Industry, Religious Freedom, Jehovah's Witnesses, Brazil
9 News: Murder accused 'cult' leader grills teen member's mum
"The leader of a church group described as a "cult" has questioned a witness at his murder trial over a confrontation they had over her teenage daughter's membership.
Eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs died at the family home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, on January 7, 2022, after her parents and 12 others allegedly withheld her diabetes insulin medication for six days.
Brendan Luke Stevens, the 62-year-old leader of the Christian group calling itself "The Saints", is on trial for murder along with the girl's father, Jason Richard Struhs, 52, in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
Elizabeth's mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, and the other 11 members of the congregation are charged with manslaughter.
All 14 defendants are self-represented and have refused to enter pleas with Stevens telling the court they had reasonable belief God would cure Elizabeth's type-1 diabetes."
"Outside the small town of Mayer, Arizona, 14-year-old Katie Farran and other teenage girls were engaging in a ritual they had done many times before.
At the Spring Ridge Academy, Farran and others gathered in a room for “Feedback Group,” a pseudo-group therapy that involves shouting grievances at other participants.
The teenage girls were encouraged to participate, told they needed to have things to say to their peers, who were there for reasons ranging from substance abuse, eating disorders or simply being victims of bad parenting.
This story deals with child abuse. If you or a loved one is experiencing abuse please call 1-888-SOS-CHILD
“It was something you had to do,” Farran, now 39, said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror. “It was really humiliating to be called out in front of everybody.”
This style of “therapy” was born in the late 1950s, connected to a group known to many as a cult and connected to a string of crimes including attempted murder.
Now Spring Ridge Academy is facing legal repercussions after a mother of one of those teenagers filed a federal lawsuit claiming fraud, among other things, and a jury awarded her $2.5 million. But for survivors of Spring Ridge Academy and similar facilities for so-called troubled teens, the victory is just one small step towards greater accountability.
But Spring Ridge Academy, which closed in 2023, is just one part of a larger ecosystem, one that continues to use outdated therapies and procedures born out of a cult from the 1950s. And it’s one that still has roots in Arizona."
" ... In 1958, Charles “Chuck” Dederich created Synanon, a drug rehabilitation program intended to combat the rising heroin addictions of the era.
By the late 1960s, the group was attracting media attention and building a fanbase in Hollywood, culminating in a feature film starring Chuck Connors and Edmond O’Brien, filmed at their actual headquarters in Santa Monica.
Synanon began making Dederich $10 million a year as its popularity grew. At the heart of the program was something called “The Game.”
The Game was presented as a therapeutic tool, a form of group therapy in which members humiliated each other and were encouraged to expose each other’s weaknesses and flaws.
The Game is a form of “attack therapy,” a treatment that studies have since found leads to lasting psychological damage. Its efficacy even in the short term is questionable, as other research concluded it even drove some alcoholics to drink more. As Synanon grew, so did the group’s control over those in its care.
By the 1970s, women in Synanon were required to shave their heads, married couples were forced to break up and find new partners, men were given forced vasectomies and some pregnant women were given abortions against their will.
As Synanon grew, so did its legal troubles. Dederich ordered two of his followers to assassinate a critic — the rattlesnake they planted in the man’s mailbox bit him, but he survived — and there were violent assaults against members and those who wanted to free loved ones from Synanon’s grasp. The final nail in the coffin for the organization came in the 1990s, when the Internal Revenue Service revoked its tax-exempt status, ordering the organization to pay $17 million in back taxes.
Dederich was no longer at the helm after the attempted murder, which landed him probation. Bankrupt and without a leader, Synanon dissolved in 1991.
But its legacy remained."
With the support of 19 state attorneys general, the Hunter plaintiffs are back in court to make their case against LGBTQ+ discrimination in religious higher education institutions.
"In late March of 2021, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project filed a class action lawsuit charging the U.S. Department of Education as complicit “in the abuses that thousands of LGBTQ+ students endured at taxpayer-funded religious colleges and universities.” The case, Elizabeth Hunter, et al v. The US Department of Education was thrown out by the Oregon federal district court.
Three years later, the Hunter plaintiffs are back in court to make their case. In August 2023, the Hunter plaintiffs appealed the decision, filing their opening brief before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Appealing the case are a mix of current students, recent alumni and recently expelled students. With the case now fully briefed, the legal team will appear before the Court of Appeals on July 16 at 9:50 a.m. (PST) for oral argument. The event will be streaming live.
At the center of the case is the issue of religious exemption from Title IX, an exemption the plaintiffs argued has allowed religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. Although the students bringing the case are connected to a number of religious institutions, including Brigham Young University (BYU), they coalesce around one point: that schools that violate LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections should lose access to federal education funds.``
Jehovah's Witnesses' Doctrine Manual Only Judges Pedophiles in the Church If the Victim Has at Least Two Witnesses
" ... The organization claims to abhor “child abuse” and considers it “a crime.”
However, publications support practices that make punishment more difficult. The magazine “The Watchtower – Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom,” for example, serves as a handbook for congregation elders. One version states that at least two witnesses are required for a legal hearing to begin within the church against someone accused of child sexual abuse."
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