3 posts tagged “religion”
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
13 May 2008
CLYDE, Texas (AP) -- Behind guarded, ornate gates at the end of a rural road, a self-proclaimed prophet warns his followers about the end of time and rails against a dangerous and unclean world outside their West Texas compound.
The women are covered in long skirts and long-sleeve shirts. Many of the children have different mothers and share the same father.
But this isn't the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch, which authorities raided last month in Eldorado after receiving reports that underage girls were being forced to marry much older men.
This is the House of Yahweh: a different, even darker sect that the state has been investigating for years. Authorities in February charged the group's 73-year-old leader with performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children - some as young as 11 - to work jobs at his 44-acre compound.
"If a bunch of adults want to get together and follow some con man and throw their lives away, that's their right in this country," said Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel. "But to me, when you do that to children and they don't have a chance, that's where the biggest concern is."
If convicted on the most serious charges, Yisrayl Hawkins faces up to 20 years in prison.
Another sect leader, Yedidiyah Hawkins, goes to court this summer on charges of sexually abusing a teenager, bigamy and welfare fraud.
Questions have also been raised about at least two deaths within the sect.
A 7-year-old died in 2003 after her mother and another member performed home surgery on her infected leg. Both women were convicted of injury to a child.
And in 2006, a woman bled to death after giving birth because she was prevented from going to the hospital, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by her husband.
Although members deny they practice polygamy, former members say Yisrayl Hawkins has at least two dozen wives - and state records show he fathered two babies last year with women ages 19 and 22. ...
Yisrayl Hawkins, who has pleaded not guilty in his criminal case, told The Associated Press that he and his church are misunderstood and persecuted because of their religious beliefs.
"We have nothing to hide," said the bearded, white-haired Hawkins, who declined to address specific allegations against him and his sect.
The House of Yahweh compound, about 120 miles northeast of the FLDS ranch, has wind generators, a cafeteria, a food-processing plant and dozens of tractor-trailer rigs holding canned goods. It also has a few stores carrying homemade toiletries and clothing.
Unlike the FLDS members who stay on the 1,700-acre ranch, most House of Yahweh followers members live in mobile homes surrounding the sect's compound, which is occupied only by a few caretakers. Other members own homes nearby or live in trailer parks owned by Hawkins in Abilene.
"Anyone can come here and can leave at any time," Hawkins said.
After the April 3 raid on the FLDS ranch, Child Protective Services took more than 460 children into custody.
Child-welfare officials said they cannot comment on possible investigations of House of Yahweh members unless youngsters have been removed. Only one such case has occurred: Four children living in Yedidiyah Hawkins' home are now in foster care.
Yisrayl Hawkins was born Buffalo Bill Hawkins but legally changed his name. He founded the House of Yahweh in 1980 - three years after the former Abilene police officer was fired for having beer in his patrol car. The group moved to rural Clyde several years later so they would have room to celebrate weeklong Old Testament feasts.
Hawkins began preaching polygamy in the early 1990s, saying women had to accept it or leave and forfeit heaven, several former members said.
"It's definitely a cult that follows mind-control techniques," said Miryam Martin, a House of Yahweh member from 1986 to 2000. "So many people's lives have been destroyed by what's been going on over there."
But Tanah Hawkins, a member for 20 years, said its Scripture-based beliefs offer something missing in mainstream churches. She blames disgruntled former members for the criminal investigations.
"When people leave the House of Yahweh, they go out and feed the rumors and add more lies," she said. "But I actually pray for them."
The sect claims to have hundreds of members scattered worldwide. One group in Kenya gained international attention in 2006 by building nuclear fallout shelters, believing Hawkins' apocalyptic prophecy.
Former members describe Hawkins as a zealot whose teachings are a blend of Old Testament directives on diet and cleanliness, New Testament beliefs in Jesus, and Hawkins' own prophecies rooted in the Book of Revelation.
Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins - including Yedidiyah and Tanah. Many have taken biblical first names that - like their leader's - include the letter "y."
Some former members also say Hawkins' followers tithe nearly a third of their incomes to the church. Many purchase the church's organically grown food, herbal drinks and dairy products, believing similar items available elsewhere are "unclean."
Public records show Yisrayl Hawkins owns at least $2.1 million in land, housing and mobile homes.
Nowhere is his influence more apparent than in the sect's 1,200-seat warehouse-like sanctuary, where a dozen poster-size pictures of Hawkins adorn the front wall.
Worshippers must first remove their shoes, and feet and hands are then sprayed with disinfectant before they come in. Men and women are seated on separate sides of an 8-foot wall dividing the sanctuary. Women wear long clothing and veils for modesty, and everyone wears gloves for cleanliness.
Some authorities fear Hawkins will lead his group to a tragic end like David Koresh, who the government said urged his Branch Davidian followers to set their compound on fire and kill themselves in 1993, when federal authorities tried to end a 51-day siege. Survivors blame the deaths on federal agents.
Concerned about a similar confrontation, police did not arrest Hawkins until nearly three months after obtaining the warrant - when they spotted him driving through town.
Bail was initially set at $10 million, partly because of a perceived threat in a sermon.
"I'm not asking much out of you - I'm just asking that you be willing to die rather than leave this house," Hawkins told his congregation in November.
A judge later relented, and Hawkins was released on $100,000 bond after testifying that his security guards are unarmed and suicide is counter to the church's teachings.
By NEELA BANERJEE
The New York Times
Published: March 10, 2008
Signaling a significant departure from the Southern Baptist Convention’s official stance on global warming, 44 Southern Baptist leaders have decided to back a declaration calling for more action on climate change, saying its previous position on the issue was “too timid.”
The largest denomination in the United States after the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, with more than 16 million members, is politically and theologically conservative.
Yet its current president, the Rev. Frank Page, signed the initiative, “A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change.” Two past presidents of the convention, the Rev. Jack Graham and the Rev. James Merritt, also signed.
“We believe our current denominational engagement with these issues has often been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice,” the church leaders wrote in their new declaration.
A 2007 resolution passed by the convention hewed to a more skeptical view of global warming.
In contrast, the new declaration, which will be released Monday, states, “Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed.”
The document also urges ministers to preach more about the environment and for all Baptists to keep an open mind about considering environmental policy.
Jonathan Merritt, the spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative and a seminarian at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., said the declaration was a call to Christians to return to a biblical mandate to guard the world God created.
The Southern Baptist signatories join a growing community of evangelicals pushing for more action among believers, industry and politicians. Experts on the Southern Baptist Convention noted the initiative marked the growing influence of younger leaders on the discussions in the Southern Baptist Convention.
While those younger Baptists remain committed to fight abortion, for instance, the environment is now a top priority, too.
“In no way do we intend to back away from sanctity of life,” said the Rev. Dr. Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.
Still, many powerful Southern Baptist leaders and agencies did not sign the declaration, including the convention’s influential political arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Dr. Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy at the commission, played down the differences between the declaration and the Southern Baptist Convention’s position.
The declaration says in fact that lack of scientific unanimity should not preclude “prudent action,” which includes changing individual habits and giving “serious consideration to responsible policies that effectively address” global warming.
The declaration is the outgrowth of soul-searching by Mr. Merritt, 25. The younger Mr. Merritt said that for years he had been “an enemy of the environment.” Then, he said, he had an epiphany.
“I learned that God reveals himself through Scripture and in general through his creation, and when we destroy God’s creation, it’s similar to ripping pages from the Bible,” Mr. Merritt said.
They're just afraid it's gonna get even hotter down there in the biblee-belt. Their Summers are already hotter than, well, you know what I mean.
Survey Of 35,000 Finds Religious Landscape Changing
February 25, 2008
The U.S. religious landscape is extremely fluid, with more people switching religious affiliation or breaking religious ties altogether, according to a new survey.
The survey released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is based on interviews with more than 35,000 American adults.
Much of the study confirms that mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing.
However, it also delves deeper into those trends.
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates that the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.
The survey found that about 44 percent of adults have either changed affiliation, moved from a nonaffiliation status to being affiliated with a particular faith, or cut all religious ties.
One in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution, the survey found.
Twelve percent of the overall population is unaffiliated, and atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population, the survey said.
Of the nearly one in three Americans raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today. That means about 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.
However, an influx of immigrant Catholics, mostly from Latin America, has kept the portion of the population that identifies as Catholic fairly stable in recent decades.
On the Protestant side, changes in affiliation are swelling the ranks of nondenominational churches, while Baptist and Methodist traditions are showing net losses.
Curious: no mention of neither the Church of Dagon nor the Church of Starry Wisdom.
