---- Second Part ------
BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Our hero, A. Dworkin ‘an expert in religions’ during his youth had such a ‘noble’ and ‘pure’ view of developmental processes that the time has now come to unmask it.
The ex-hippy, dissident and emigrant, is now a ‘professor’ of topics related to ‘sects’ and the leader of the ‘Russian anti sectarian association’. When he is asked about his American citizenship, he shows distress. He reports that he left Russia in the 70’s, but these years to the simple person to leave USSR abroad it was almost impossible and furthermore to leave the country for residing abroad. To do this could only those who was under protection of KGB. He doesn’t tell about his work in radio "Freedom" and "The voice of America", both financed by the CIA.
How is it possible for a man who pleads with words for the Orthodox Church to receive the support of it ideological opponents?
Since the end of the 80’s, A. Dworkin starts to actively promote the CAN (Cult Awareness Network). Established in 1974, s organization specialized in ‘deprogramming’ people (by request of relatives) who had been attracted by religious movements not so known to the mainstream.
On June the 20th, 1996 CAN was dissolved by decree of the Chicago Federal Court with the charge of bankruptcy, caused after those subject to his ‘deprogramming" sued CAN, requesting a large compensations for moral damages.
The details of the crimes committed by CAN continued to be investigated also in the years following this court case and, in 2000, for example, the American court declared CAN and some of its agents guilty of kidnapping and attacks described by the court as "so disgusting for their character and so disconcerting and outrageous, that they surpassed the limits of decency; Absolutely brutal and inacceptable in any civilized society".
The Christian Dzhejson Scott was one of their victims. CAN defined his small religious organization a ‘cult’ and decided to take care of Scott’s ‘salvation’, which began with a violent kidnapping. The agent in charge of this task was Rick Ross, whose criminal records included, amongst others, conviction for an important robbery of jewellery, calculated in 100.000$, from the shop Feniks, in the state of Arizona. After the kidnapping, Ross and his accomplices kept Scott locked up for 5 days, and during this time, in many different ways, they tried to force him to renounce to his ‘inadequate’ Christian religion.
The Seattle’s Court was so indignant with the violence displayed by CAN’s procedures that it imposed on Ross and the company a fine of nearly five million dollars.
Please see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1GPUTJUUZo&feature=related (for an example of kidnapping for religious reasons)
In 1991, when CAN’s activity seriously began to awaken the interest of the FBR (the old KGB), an International scandal began.
A.Dworkin immediately moved to Munich (Germany) and little later to Russia, where he began to activate the centre for the anti-cult movements. As the leader of the Irinej Lionsky Centre, Dworkin began an active battle against any other manifestation of religious life in Russia, other than the Russian Orthodox Church.
As the same time when the powerful anti-cult movement was being dismantled and destroyed in the USA by means of a series of legal procedures, in Russia from the year 2000, it began to grow in power at the hand of A. Dworkin and A. Kuraev. Dworkin started an active ‘crusade’ against any anti-orthodox currents, using on the public stereotypes well known to the CAN, like, for instance: ‘The enemy and the hostile’, ‘The Orthodox Christians and the Satanists’, ‘los Russians’» and the ‘alien sectarians’.
1999: ‘The news in Moscow’,
“Dworkin is telling lies. He informs, and disturbs society by talking about the 250.000 families that have been destroyed by sectarians. The attorney office of the Russian Federation District has reported that these statistics do not exist, and that Dworkin "’as made them up’. He lies accusing the Jehova’s Witnesses, the society for Krishna’s consciousness and other religious associations of committing crimes against people and public security. There are no facts, no evidence or criminal files, only miserable and evil lies. In his work there are some untidy, distorted ideas about which the author, as it seems, has no idea: a mountain of falsifications, slander, and an array of absolutely illogical and pseudo scientific arguments.
J. Isatov, chief editor of the ‘The Slavic House’ newspaper
“I am convinced that A.L. Dworkin is an American spy, he cannot violate in any way American laws, even being in Russia. A. Dworkin has been deciding for a long time on which side he should be: the side of USA’s daughter (the CIA) or the Russia’s Orthodox Church. His methods are always the same, he covers in darkness Russian history, because he is the son of the Russophobic organisation ‘Freedom.”
I.Kolchenko, ??-president of the World Russian cathedral
"As a teacher in the Russian Orthodox Church Institutions for education and as giving class to the future orthodox ministerss, theologician and scientifists, A. Dworkin with his activity undoubtedly harms the interests of the Church and the Orthodox people of Russia. He inspires students to be disrespectful and reject the methods of scientific work. He is preparing for the Church a bunch of vain and spoilt people, who not only will not know how to protect the church’s interest in front of modern civil society, but will also bring the Church’s science into disrepute in front of lay investigators.»
http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/print.php?act=rating&id=29THE ESSENCE OF THINGS
Really, how can people be so attached to the opinion of this little professor, who inculcates in the ignorant minds (on this subject) of the Russians such horrible lies about ‘totalitarian sects’? If we dig a little into history, only 2.000 years ago Christianity did not even exist. Then there were the Pharisee, who was the dominating elite in Jewish religion. As they were not at all happy about the existence of a Messiah who delivered a new faith, they simply crucified Him. Does this remind us of a similar situation in the 21st century?
In those times as in our days, and for over 2000 years (!!), the Christ, the most authentic sectarian, has been followed by millions of people from all over the World. This is the plain truth and the also the paradox: the whole Earth is sectarian. If we followed Dwarkin’s view, we should send all of us to the Calvary. Moreover, we cannot forget that even Dr. Dworkin is a sectarian: when will you be crucified, Mr. Professor?
Of course, whether we cannot say that anything bad is to be expected from any of these groups, the same cannot be said about political parties, rock bands, sports teams, the casino, psychiatry, etc. We cannot say either that the new religious movements are organizations of the mafia.
Criminal groups are formed with the chief intention of committing crimes. Obviously, this is not the prurpose of religious groups. A. Dworkin, the creator of the expression ‘totalitarian sect’ tries to convince us of a completely different situation.
When he came back to Russia from exile in the 90’s, although he still was an American citizen, he decided to save Russia from the worst of all sects: the so-called ‘totalitarian sects’. This expression was rapidly spread out by the Russian press. It seems, according to Dworkin, that the ‘totalitarian sects’ are organizations, whose leader and co-workers aim at getting money in all possible ways, even religious ways. Under this definition, we could rank any commercial company. Possibly, our ‘professor with no education’ may be does not know this.
As most people had never met with this before, the western term ‘destructive cult’ has proven quite effective in post soviet society. This is why, by recurring to psychiatric methods of indoctrination, A. Dworkin has created a new expression. Inspired by both political science and the ‘cold war’ propaganda, this expression immediately produces a link with absence of freedom, concentration camps, soldiers, barbed wires, forced work, little food, etc.
What is now left to be seen is how totalitarianism is manifesting in the new religious groups, so radically condemned by Dworkin? This is rather difficult to determine. Very frequently, the signs of totalitarianism are described as, ‘having a rigid authoritative structure and leader idolization. Yet, rigid structures do not only exist in so-called totalitarian associations, but also, for example, in the Catholic Church.
The Pope, the boss of the Catholic World, is worshiped as the general representation of Jesus Christ in the world. At the same time, in many of the so-called totalitarian spiritual/religious associations, there are no rigid structures. You may not agree with the doctrine of the Roerich family, but at the same time, in the associations created by their followers, not even by trying hard, would one be able to find hard authoritarian structures.
What would make it attractive for other religious associations, governmental organizations and other countries citizens to produce so much hate against the new religious organizations? Only one answer comes to mind: could it be respectable pay cheque in the pocket for the interest groups?
The uncertainty and abstractness of the characteristics ascribed to totalitarian religious associations makes room for a huge action. In this way, political opponents easily use the expression ‘totalitarian sect’ with the purpose to discredit representatives of the new power. In the absence of a good argument, in order to say something negative about another politician, the easiest way is that of calling him sectarian, and this because this is incomprehensible, difficult to check and, at the same time, i sounds terrible and very convincing.
Foreigners say that in the streets of Russia one cannot see people smiling. Do you think this is because of people’s attitude to life or because they have not receive their salary in time? No! It happens because everyone is afraid of being called a sectarian, and this is also why they all look at each other in the most ferocious way.
The renowned ‘professor of the sects’, Alexander Dworkin, whilst visiting the city of Yaroslavl had declared that it precisely a smiling face and a benevolent attitude that would clearly indicate that this person was a member of a ‘totalitarian sect’.
“All sectarians want to be healthy and rich and they pray to God for this reason!” said the terrifying voice of the lecturer who had come to Yaroslavl. “Does God give them this?” asked shyly an elder lady in the public. “Well, in a certain way yes” he hesitated “but this is not relevant; it is bad. So we will fight against them! Yaroslavl has turned into a training camp for the formulation of and the work with methodologies to be used in the fight against sects.”
Behalf of whose interests are these experiments undertaken? Is it for the Russians or for another interested structure?
An Orthodox newspaper ‘The Russian bulletin’ reported the following comment made by someone who attended one of Alexander Dworkin’s conferences:
“For the first time in my life I felt the essence of a sect. It seemed that all participants in the event were Orthodox, and yet, that was a sectarian meeting because, when people gather for religious purposes, but do not praise God or do not express love to others, this meeting cannot be called in any other way, but a sect. On the surface of things, they had all gathered to talk about God, but the angry faces of the attendees showed that they had not come together for God’s sake, but because of someone else’s theories and methods».
Another letter:
“For 9 years I have been in a School of K.Rudnev and am proud of it. They have taught me many things there: yoga, energetic techniques, meditation, love for people, and to set up a great businesses. I have even stopped smoking and drinking! I see with pain that my former friends who criticized me for not being like them, completely gave themselves up to hard drinking, and ended up with brothel families, hooligans and addicted children. About the concept of ‘sect’: a legal court case is now being set up against a newspaper for the use of the words ‘sect’ and ‘sectarian’ as well as for terms like ‘zombies’ or ‘heretic sect’ in the description of certain groups’ activity. In addition, a declaration of criminal responsibility has been wedged against the news paper’s editors for encouraging religious confrontation. ‘Professor’ Dworkin has helped substantially to create this.
In Ukrania there is an organization that operates in Dworkin’s name called ‘the committee for the defence of family and youth’. Under the pretext of helping parents, whose children have fallen in the hands of ‘terrible sects’, they spread horrible lies about religious organizations, frightening the parents and inciting them to religious extremism. (Doesn’t this ring a bell? Is this tone not similar to that used by the American organization ‘CAN’?) Parents, on the other hand, may not have even noticed their son/daughter attends a ‘terrible sect’, but simply think that they are feeling well, doing yoga, not using drugs, not committing crimes, smiling, being happy with their life and loving their parents. Yet, Dworkin has managed to convince them of the existence of ‘sects’. What he does is the kind of action that should be investigated and stopped! This, in facts, according to the Ukrainian Criminal Code is considered a crime.
A. Dworkin often visits Ukraine to hold his ‘seminars’, and the authorities report that during his visits the number of crimes committed for religious matters increases by 20-30%.
Dworkin and his followers proclaim that their aim is that of protecting the citizens’ mental health against the invasion of ‘totalitarian sects’. But what do they achieve, de facto? What all anti-sectarians manage produce with their religious intolerance is: broken windows, followers of new religious movements being assaulted, mosques and synagogues being burnt in Russia, ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Serbia, Falun Gong followers being mutilated and killed in China, anxiety, panic, the destruction of families, mental illness, and disrupted lives. Do we need all this? Is it not so that what we really need is to reconcile different religious organizations, and give the chance for each one of them to practise its faith?
In general, any religion – even the Orthodox religion - can be considered a sect. Sometimes they can be even worse than their new born concurrent. For some reason, Dworkin does not fight paedophilia, licentiousness and other ‘flowers’ that grow in the ‘orthodox garden’. Before looking for the cockroaches under other’s tables, try looking under your own, you may find something really interesting…
http://www.epochtimes.ru/content/view/4014/9/ FECRIS
http://www.fecris.org Proclaims that its aim is that of protecting families and individuals against the presumed violation of Rights by religious minorities. Yet, it has been proven that its real aim is that of spreading falseness and slander against religious minorities. These facts by themselves give rise to an environment of intolerance and hostility amongst the people of a society.
For instance, the French and Russian members of FECRIS are cooperating with the Chinese Government in order to assess religious minorities. This has caused to the well known ‘Falun Gong’ movement in China (a group who practise breathing exercises) to be the victims of repression, provocations, and genocide.
According to statistics, gathered by European of Human Rights supporters and presented to the European Council, in the past years, 1.170 Falun Gong members have been murdered, more than 100.000 have been sent illegally to concentration camps, where they were tortured and tormented, and more than 6.000 have been condemned to spend time in prison (up to 18 years).
Hundreds of thousands of members of religious movements have been illegally arrested, and put in jail because of their religious beliefs. ‘Terrorism’ is precisely this, the politics of Governments against religious organizations. Anti-cult organizations, in this case, are playing an instigative and provocative role, creating an atmosphere of hate against organizations (of any kind).
There is good evidence proving that A. Dworkin and other ‘anti-cultits' have close bonds with the Chinese leaders in the repression of the Falun Gong movement.
The following prove it beyond any doubt
Between the 23rd and the 25th of April, 2001, the international conference ‘Totalitarian Sects –menace of XXI century’ was held in Nizhny Novgorod. Dworkin was the organizer and host of the conference, attended by the most famous Russian and foreign anti-cult activists, amongst whom was also Baizhun Zhang, Doctor of Philosophy and Professor in Peking, invited by Dworkin. In his report ‘Sects and the State in modern China’, he tried to justify scientifically the Chinese government’s repression against the Falun Gong movement, proudly reporting to the public that the Chinese Government had managed to render outlaw the most important Chinese ‘sect’.
• Between the 8th and the 10th of October, 2002 was held in Vinnitsa (Ukraine) the International Conference ‘Totalitarian Sects – the menace for the Human Rights in Eastern Europe’. Here they declared Falun Gong as one of the modern destructive cults.
• Between the 9th and the 12th of December, 2002, was held in Yekaterinburg the conference ‘Totalitarian Sects – the menace of religious extremism’. The final document established the Falun Gong as the ‘most destructive and renowned totalitarian sect’.
• Between the 9th and the 11th of November, 2004 was held in Novosibirsk, the International Conference ‘Totalitarian Sects and the democratic state’. In the final document Falun Gong, amongst others, was classified as one of the most ‘destructive and renowned sects’.
Furthermore, in the 1st Edition of the magazine ‘Clairvoyance’ (2002), of which Dworkin is chief editor, was published an article called ‘The Chinese murderer-sect reaches Russia’. In this article he spreads lies about the organization Falun Gong and its presence in Russia.
At the moment, all the civilized countries are engaging in legal proceedings against high exponents of the Communist Party of the Republic of China (PRC) involved in the repression of Falun Gong followers:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/8/27/100167.html http://www.epochtimes.ru/content/view/30229/2/ http://www.youtube.com/user/FalunGongVideo#p/u/5/Ft2a_9miUV0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXKR4Yl-PQQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LPksYo2WUQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR-vhNf_FKE&NR=1 Perhaps, the only religious organization that Dworkin carefully avoids to talk about, while accusing others of blood crimes, is the Church of Jesus’ Saints of the Last days, known as Mormons.
We can only suppose that the Mormons are closely connected by common interests both with the Russian Department of Religious Science of the Public Administration, at the service of the president of the Russian Federation, and with representatives of the USA. Where their headquarters are (Salt Lake City) they exert a very powerful political influence. For Dworkin this is a clearly ‘no, no’ area: firstly, the Mormons finance official theology in Russia, turning into a profitable aim for the government and secondly, as Dworkin has recently come back from his second mother country on the ‘other side of the ocean’, it seems better for him to be in good relation with the influential North American believers.
light to your brains dear Forum readers!
Simon (its my real name)
