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"News Watch" (a column from the Christian Research Journal, Fall

1993, page 5) by Joe Maxwell.

The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is

Elliot Miller.

-------------

*Children of God Revamp Image, Face Renewed Opposition*

What are those allegedly sex-crazed, forsake-all Children of

God (COG) up to these days? Riding out the end times hidden in a

commune somewhere? Furiously catching the drippings of wisdom from

the once-prolific pen of their aging founder, "Moses David" Berg?

Try singing at the White House!

That's right. A group of perfectly dressed, white-teethed

Children of God, most appearing to be in their teens or early

twenties, opened the 1992 Christmas season at the White House with

a smiling, doting Barbara Bush at their side.

"The Family" (a name which the Children of God have used since

1978) was founded during the beginnings of the Jesus movement in

1968 by Berg and his family in Huntington Beach, California.

Government probes and bad publicity -- along with missionary zeal

-- have driven the sect from one country to another. But COG

members have recently been strategically returning to the United

States, which they say is now ripe for another harvest.

Family spokesman John Francis says that some 250 missionary

families (about 750 people, two-thirds children) are now returning

from foreign fields and settling largely in urban areas in the U.S.

and Canada, including Washington, D.C.; Houston; Dallas; New York;

Chicago; Detroit; Toronto; Los Angeles; and Boston. He claims that

the group is concentrating on reaching out to the frustrated and

outcast urban underclass.

Says Francis, "In the U.S.A., you have another generation of

teenagers and people who heard nothing about the former Children of

God or know nothing about the Jesus revolution, but you are finding

quite a desperation amongst the youth today who are quite

frustrated by all that they are faced with in their early years."

The Family is now much more press savvy and potentially

litigious than the group that left the states en masse during the

mid and late 1970s amid a storm of controversy. Their notoriety

stemmed partly from reports that group members shared sexual

partners among themselves and their proselytes (the latter practice

called "flirty fishing," or FFing). More than any other group, the

COG and its excesses gave rise to the secular anticult movement and

to the practice of "deprogramming" cult members out of their

beliefs.

Former member and Family researcher Ruth Gordon says, "Part of

their plan is to lay a fresh groundwork as if [past practices of

child sexual abuse and sexual deviancy] never occurred. It's no

different from a brand name company changing its label but not its

content."

group gain access to the president's home at Christmas time?

Hurricane Andrew seems to be to blame.

A polished P.R. video recently obtained from John Francis tells

the story. Just hours after the hurricane blasted through

Homestead, Florida, members of a local Family group were there to

give aid. A local police officer, Tony Aquino, told Family members,

"When disaster struck, you were there at the heart of the problem

literally moments after it occurred, and you did the best thing --

that is, help people."

A Family group also traveled to various relief sites and sang

for the victims. So when President George Bush arrived to visit

Homestead Middle School, the now-popular group sang for him. Upon

a later visit, a Family member gave Bush a Family video. The

president drove away smiling and displaying the video through his

car window.

"With their ministry of singing to others in need having borne

such wonderful fruit in the lives of so many," says the Family P.R.

video, "the Miami Family Teens were invited to open the 1992

Christmas season at the White House," which they did sporting

matching slacks, skirts, and Christmas sweaters.

*The Family's New Face.* Gordon says the White House scenario

illustrates the group's mastery at adapting to its environs and

fitting in, whether it be in the United States, Thailand, Brazil,

Russia, or any of the 60 or so countries where an estimated 25,000

full-time Family members are active.

Francis says they are now intentionally seeking to be

press-friendly and to advance their case in the media, although a

recent release said that "while some [recent stories] have been

generally fair-minded, and presented our beliefs and practices

relatively accurately, others have not."

The June 3, 1993 edition of the syndicated television news

program _Hard Copy_ featured a segment on The Family, which

cooperated with its production. And Francis says he was pleased

with a front-page story that appeared June 2 of this year in the

_Washington Post._ The writer, who visited the group's La Habra,

California commune, quoted critics and reported on portions of the

group's history. He also said the members were "polite" and admired

Billy Graham. "They're a clean-cut bunch, friendly and courteous,"

the writer said.

In fact, Francis invited this writer to visit the same commune

earlier this year, offering to pay for the plane fare from the

southeast United States to La Habra. And since initially contacting

the group late last year, this writer has received numerous

polished, professional press releases on Family activities

worldwide.

Eric Pement, cult researcher for _Cornerstone_ magazine, a

publication of the Jesus People U.S.A. in Chicago, says he recently

received information from the group after it learned of Cornerstone

Press's intentions to reissue the hard-hitting 1984 book, _The

Children of God: The Inside Story_ (Zondervan), by Deborah Davis,

a former COG leader and Berg's own daughter. Pement testifies to

the increase in professionalism within The Family. "The level of

apologetic which they were distributing...is far above anything

that Moses David Berg is capable of producing."

*The Family's New Fight.* Pement's exchange with The Family

demonstrates more than the fact that the group has organized a

well-oiled public relations machine, apparently based out of La

Habra. When The Family wrote Pement upon hearing of his plans to

republish Davis's book, they challenged Davis's credibility and

issued a warning to Pement about publishing the book.

"They're still trying to dissuade us," Pement said.

Moreover, the group has recently begun legally challenging its

more avid opponents. For instance, in recent months The Family has

pursued charges of theft and kidnapping against former members

Edward Priebe and Daniel Welsh, who infiltrated a Family commune in

Manila in 1992. The two reportedly carried away large quantities of

Family literature, audiocassettes, and videotapes (some of a

sexually explicit nature), which they initially planned to use to

expose the group.

"After [being robbed of] more than 3-million dollars' worth of

audio-visual materials from Family archives in the Philippines last

September," says one recent Family press release, "...The Family

has...filed official complaints and reports with the FBI, the

Immigration and Naturalization Service and the US Attorney's

[_sic_] Office of Los Angeles," while considering libel and slander

suits.

The release further states that "although in the past the

Family has not been known to take such legal action, due to the

growing climate of religious bigotry being fostered by such

individuals, the Family has begun to make more full use of the law

and exercise their legal rights as American citizens."

Still, The Family's many critics doubt that the sect would

actually take anyone to court, since it might open their own

organization up to scrutiny as well.

The Family has also seized on the Waco, Texas Branch Davidian

incident, seeking to make a case against Cult Awareness Network

(CAN). The Family claims that CAN has damaged its work through

unfair accusations.

A two-page letter sent out to several U.S. senators, whom

Francis would not name, asks: "Waco: Who's responsible? -- Cult

Awareness Network?" The letter says that "this organization of

so-called 'cult experts' injected prejudice, distrust, and fear

into what should have been an objective, unemotional investigation

of the Branch Davidians....We, the Family, have also been targets

of CAN's 'dirty tricks department' via media smear campaigns and

deprogramming attacks." The letter urges the senators to

investigate CAN and "its influence on decisions made in Waco," and

to launch a broad public educational campaign about "New Religious

Movements" (NRMs).

Francis says The Family is pleased with the response they

received from Washington, D.C., though he would not provide

details.

Priscilla Coates, former CAN president and current chair of

CAN's Los Angeles chapter, says that while she was not aware of The

Family's communications with members of Congress, she is not

surprised at the new tenor of the group's efforts, which she says

lack substance.

Says Coates, "They have joined forces...and formed a

corporation in Switzerland with Scientology, the Raelians, the

Occidental Wiccans," as well as the Jehovah's Witnesses, Moonies,

and Baha'is. The group is called the International Federation of

Religious and Philosophical Minorities (known by its French

acronym, FIREPHIM) and is devoted to defending the cause of NRMs.

Coates says that FIREPHIM's members apparently share

information concerning their detractors. In fact, in March 1993

Linda Simmons Hight, media coordinator for the Church of

Scientology, told Religious News Service that Scientology "informs

[The Family] of trends that are going on in religious freedom

issues."

*Troubles Abroad.* Such P.R. and information-sharing efforts

are likely, in part, an attempt to deflect rising incidents

worldwide by local, state, and municipal governments to investigate

and bring charges against local Family groups. In the past three

years, government agencies in Argentina; Melbourne and Sidney,

Australia; and Barcelona, Spain have taken children from the

groups' communes under suspicion of child abuse. Cases in

Argentina, Australia, and Spain have been settled, with The Family

claiming victory.

On June 9 nine children were taken from Family communes in Lyon

and Marseille, France, again under suspicion of child abuse and

child prostitution. Those cases were still unresolved at press

time.

In early September, authorities in Argentina and Paraguay

raided Family communal homes amid allegations of child sexual abuse

and a host of other offenses. An immediate, worldwide firestorm of

negative publicity followed, and Family members and spokesmen held

press conferences, vigils, and street demonstrations on several

continents in a desperate attempt to control the damage.

Whatever the outcome of the latest controversies, it is clear

that The Family of old has undergone some revisions. Berg is out of

sight. (Francis claims he remains secluded in order to devote more

time to prayer and thought, though on September 14 Argentine

officials asked Interpol to assist in his apprehension.) It is

reported that Berg's second wife, Maria, and her top lieutenants

are now largely in charge.

Despite its highly aberrant and unorthodox sexual practices,

The Family's latest successes in the United States demonstrate that

smiling, committed, and apparently caring young people can still

make an impact -- not only on denizens of the urban jungle, but

even on the White House.

-------------

*Baptist Battle over Freemasonry Erupts Anew*

For centuries, Christians convinced of the pagan and

universalist assertions of Freemasonry have sought to counter its

influence worldwide.

In the second half of the last century, Jonathan Blanchard,

first president of the evangelical Wheaton College and a former

Mason himself, debated Masonic thinkers. And as recently as 1985,

Christian Research Institute founder Walter Martin debated Bill

Mankin, a 32 degree Mason and professing Christian, extracting

seeming inconsistencies between Mankin's Christian and Masonic

beliefs.

Perhaps no debate over the matter has garnered such attention

nationwide, however, as the recent fire set under the Southern

Baptist Convention (SBC) by a medical doctor and layman from

Beaumont, Texas. Last year, James "Larry" Holly requested at the

Indianapolis SBC annual meeting that the convention conduct a

formal study of the compatibility -- or, as he asserted, the lack

thereof -- between Freemasonry and biblical Christianity.

The result was a whirlwind of controversy and media attention

which did not begin to abate until June of 1993, when the SBC met

for its annual convention in Houston, Texas. By an estimated 80

percent margin the denomination approved a study stating that

Freemasonry's ideals and activities are, in part, compatible and

elsewhere incompatible with Christianity.

The convention messengers went so far as to say, among other

things, that Freemasonry's use of solemn oaths; its recommendation

of "readings" of "undeniably pagan and/or occultic...writings"; its

implication "that salvation may be attained by one's good works";

and the permeation through Masonic writings of "the heresy of

universalism," are not compatible with Christianity or Southern

Baptist doctrine.

To the astonishment of many, however, the six-page statement

from the SBC Home Mission Board concludes by saying that

Freemasonry membership should be "a matter of personal conscience,"

"consistent with our denomination's deep convictions regarding the

priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church."

All in all, the SBC's action was very "naive," said Holly.

While affirming that he has been faithful to the Lord and will not

challenge the matter further, others have told him that they will.

"There is absolutely no question that what the convention did was

short of what they should have done and was, in fact, compromise.

The problem is the convention is always looking over their

shoulder."

Ironically, in one fell swoop, what started as a

well-intentioned attempt to weed out the effects of Freemasonry

within the denomination has seemingly resulted instead in a

strengthening of allegiance among American Masons. Indeed, Masons

have heralded the SBC statement as ultimately a "positive"

affirmation of their movement.

"The final report vindicates Freemasonry from the charge of

being a religion or of being anti-Christian," said Fred

Kleinknecht, Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction of

Freemasonry, in the June issue of the Masonic monthly _Scottish

Rite Journal._ "In fact, the report advocates Masonic membership by

Christians as an opportunity to witness in the Lodge for Christ by

their example of Christian living."

During the controversy, many closet Masons pulled out their

pins and proudly displayed them upon their lapels during services

in local Southern Baptist churches.

At Parkway Baptist Church in St. Louis, 12-year pastor Stoney

Shaw resigned and the church was thrown into turmoil after

conducting its own investigation of Masonry. Shaw became convicted

of Masonry's "cultic and anti-Christian" stance, but church members

who were Masons rose up and strongly opposed him.

Holly believes that even though Masons are claiming an

immediate boost from the SBC's outcome, it will not be sustained.

"That kind of emotional response will not sustain the Lodge for

long. Much of what they have published themselves has, in fact,

proved the reality and truth of what we have said."

*Masonry's Influence.* The truth is that Freemasonry's

membership -- estimated by Scottish Rite representatives at 2.5

million in the United States and six million worldwide -- has been

dropping by two to three percent annually in recent years. The

average age of a Mason is 63, according to the organization's own

estimates.

Still, Holly estimates there are between 500,000 and 1.3

million Southern Baptist Freemasons alone, with 14 percent of SBC

pastors and 18 percent of deacons being Masons. Masons have claimed

the allegiance of scores of well-known members, which the _Scottish

Rite Journal_ paraded through its pages in the issues preceding the

SBC vote.

One writer in the _Scottish Rite Journal_ said that calling

Masonry satanic is folly, asserting that "if Dr. James Holly of

Beaumont is right, George Washington, the father of our country,

was a devil worshiper." The writer goes on to mention the names of

13 U.S. presidents who were Masons, including Franklin D.

Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and most recently, Gerald Ford. He also

notes the Masonic membership of Irving Berlin and John Wayne.

Moreover, journal articles were written defending the "gentle

craft" by members Jesse Helms, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, and the

presidents of both Baylor and Furman universities. Every president

of the Southern Baptist-run Baylor since its founding has been a

Mason.

Abner McCall, president emeritus of Baylor, asserted in his

article that "membership and work in the Masonic Lodge and the

Baptist Church have supplemented and supported each other and in no

way supplanted nor subverted each other. They conflict only in the

mind of a person who subscribes to a perverted version of

Freemasonry, the church, or both."

But if McCall's assertion is true, he has just condemned a

great many of the denominations in the United States and Europe

with whom one might think he would share an affinity. For while the

Southern Baptists balked at taking a strong stand against Masonry,

a large number of other denominations have not hesitated to make

plain their opposition.

Based on information gathered by a Roman Catholic physician who

prefers to remain anonymous (and printed in a recent book by

Holly), the following denominations are publicly opposed to

Freemasonry: the Roman Catholic Church; the Methodist Church of

England; the Wesleyan Methodist Church; the Russian Orthodox

Church; the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod; the Wisconsin

Evangelical Lutheran Synod; the Synod Anglican Church of England;

the Assemblies of God; the Church of the Nazarene; the Orthodox

Presbyterian Church; the Reformed Presbyterian Church; the

Presbyterian Church in America; the Christian Reformed Church in

America; the Evangelical Mennonite Church; the Church of Scotland;

the Free Church of Scotland; and the Baptist Union of Scotland.

In statement after statement, the same concerns are listed by

denominations opposed to Freemasonry, virtually all of which are

also found in researchers John Weldon and John Ankerberg's book

_Bowing at Strange Altars: The Masonic Lodge and the Christian

Conscience:_

* Masons endorse taking secret and bloody oaths, one of which

says, "All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and

swear,...binding myself under no less penalty than that of having

my throat cut from ear to ear, my tongue torn out by its roots, and

buried in the sands of the sea, at low water mark, where the tide

ebbs and flows twice in twenty-five hours, should I, in the least,

knowingly or wittingly violate or transgress this my Entered

Apprentice obligation."

* Masons teach that heaven can be attained in unbiblical ways.

In official Masonic rituals, initiates are given a "white leather

Apron" symbolizing "that purity of life and conduct, which is

necessary to obtain admittance into the celestial Lodge above,

where the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides." Other

statements indicate salvation by works, critics assert.

* The Lodge teaches universalism. Perhaps nowhere is this more

clearly seen than in a series of articles written recently by

Masons in defense of Masonry. Furman University president John E.

Johns, in his article defending Masonry in the February 1993

_Scottish Rite Journal,_ says: "Masonry...causes one to think more

about what his religious beliefs really are and what he must do to

obtain salvation through his religion. For [Southern Baptists], it

is to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior."

Johns also states: "[Masonry] is a fraternity of men who, first

of all, must believe in one God. It is a religious organization in

that it encourages members to support each individual's faith

whether he is a Christian, Muslim, Hebrew, or other monotheistic

believer. Masonic teachings are based largely on Old and New

Testament principles, but also on other religious teachings -- all

honorable....Masonry teaches toleration of others' beliefs."

* The God of the Masonic Lodge is not the God of the Bible. A

common name Masons use in reference to the Deity is "Supreme

Architect of the Universe." Wrote popular Masonic author Joseph

Fort Newton: "For Masonry knows what so many forget, that religions

are many, but Religion is one...therefore, it [Masonry] invites to

its altar men of all faiths, knowing that, if they use different

names for the nameless one of a hundred names, they are yet praying

to the one God and Father of all."

According to Ankerberg and Weldon, Masons are also introduced

to such pagan and occultic deities as the Egyptian gods Osiris,

Isis, Horus, and Amun; the Scandinavian deities Odin, Frea, and

Thor; and to Hindu, Greek, and Persian deities, as well as Jewish

Kabbalism.

*The Bottom Line.* Since the writings of Freemasonry and its

rituals are difficult to defend as Christian, Masons in recent

months have mostly asserted that, on the contrary, Masonry is not

a religion at all.

The debate has, by the players' admissions, turned into a game

of semantics, with critics quoting the likes of highly touted Mason

writer Albert Pike in his definitive book, _Morals and Dogma,_

where he says, "Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion," and,

moreover, "Masonry...is the universal, eternal, immutable

religion."

Masons have protested that Pike -- who also said somewhere in

the same book, "Masonry is not a religion" -- has never been

considered the sole and definitive defender and creator of Masonic

teaching, nor has anyone else. Ankerberg and Weldon note, however,

that Grand Commander Fred Kleinknecht said himself in 1988 that

Pike's _Morals and Dogma_ is "the most complete exposition of

Scottish Rite philosophy," calling Pike "the master builder of the

Scottish Rite."

Whatever the case, the evidence presented by Masonry's critics

raises the question: How could a Bible-believing denomination such

as the Southern Baptist Convention confirm such findings in its own

6-page report and yet stop short of thoroughly dissociating itself

with such an organization? According to some critics, the answer

can be traced to the ongoing battle within the SBC between

absolutist inerrantists and more liberal moderates.

-------------

End of document, CRJ0162A.TXT (original CRI file name),

"News Watch"

release A, August 31, 1994

R. Poll, CRI

(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in

the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.)

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