CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/5/2026
Patrick Ryan
"A Japanese high court on Wednesday upheld a dissolution order for the Unification Church in line with the central government's request, with liquidation procedures beginning immediately.
Presiding Judge Motoko Miki of the Tokyo High Court said the decision was made as it is possible that the organization is still engaging in unlawful solicitation of donations that financially ruin its members and others.
"One can hardly expect the church to voluntarily take measures to prevent its members from engaging in illicit activities," the judge said.
A former follower of the church from Kanagawa Prefecture welcomed the decision, saying, "The court responded to the suffering we voiced for so many years."
"I hope society will embrace people like myself who have abandoned their faith (in the church)," he said.
Although the group can still appeal to the Supreme Court, the high court's order took immediate effect. The controversial organization lost its status as a religious corporation and its associated tax advantages as the liquidation process began."
"A controversial religious group whose members live communally has faced allegations of child abuse and harsh corporal punishment for years. A new true crime documentary examines those claims.
The Twelve Tribes, a Christian fundamentalist movement, was founded in the 1970s by a man named Gene Spriggs. The still-active group has several communities around the world, despite Spriggs' death in 2021, according to its website.
But despite its growth over the years, the Twelve Tribes is known to its critics as a dangerous group and is the subject of People Magazine Investigates: The Secrets of the Twelve Tribes Cult, a special presentation set to air on Investigation Discovery (ID) on Monday, March 16 at 9 p.m. ET, and streaming on HBO Max."
"For years, Karolina Krzyzak had dreamed of moving to Bali like the digital nomads and life coaches and yogis she followed on Instagram, who had escaped the drudgery of the nine-to-five to find salvation on the island’s sparkling beaches and verdant jungles. She was particularly drawn to a group of raw-vegan influencers who call themselves fruitarians and eat only fruit.
Karolina was a firm believer in the power of clean eating: that the purity of what she put into her body translated into the purity of her mind and spirit. And as someone with a history of disordered eating and mental illness, Karolina was far more likely than most to take it to an extreme. She fashioned herself after the influencers she followed on social media, posting flawlessly composed images of cinnamon-dusted blueberries and dragonfruit bowls. As she wasted away, her loyal followers cheered her on. “Nice neck and collarbones,” a fan wrote on a photo she posted where her clavicle juts out of her skin. “It is so nice to see you so happy,” another posted on a video of an Instagram Live she did last September.
She would be dead less than three months later.
Fruitarianism is niche, but it is becoming increasingly visible thanks to the rise of wellness trends and growing distrust in the mainstream medical Establishment. The rise of raw veganism has been accompanied by the rise of a cottage industry of health coaches and self-styled experts purporting to help people recover from various illnesses using a raw-fruit-based diet. But fruitarianism can easily serve as a smokescreen for disordered eating under the guise of health and wellness."
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