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(From Rick Ross's Website)
Law and order: Cult-busting bill gets ministerial approval
The Jerusalem Post/February 14, 2016
Legislation defining abusive cults and giving authorities the tools to fight them was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. MK Orly Levy-Abecassis (Yisrael Beytenu) called the bill, which she proposed, “the first step toward formulating an overarching policy and building a broad and effective system to fight abusive cults.”
If the bill becomes law, it will be the first time a cult is defined by law and differentiated from other, non-abusive religious groups.
The bill states that an abusive cult is “a group of people, incorporated or not, who unite around a person or idea in a way that takes advantage of a relationship of dependence or authority or of emotional distress of one or more members by using methods of control through thought processes and behavioral patterns and acts in an organized, systematic and sustained pattern while committing crimes according to Israeli law.”
Holding a leadership position in a cult would be considered a crime with a sentence of 10 years in prison.
In addition, the bill will create a system to allow confiscation of property obtained as a result of an abusive cult’s activities, which is similar to that in the Law to Fight Organized Crime.
The legislation also proposes that the Welfare Ministry create an online database of information about cults, their leaders, their activities and locations, as well as a department for helping victims of abusive cults.
Levy-Abecassis said that over the past two decades, two committees have recommended that the government do more on this matter, including passing laws, but that nothing had been done until now.
As much as I hope that a bill like this passes through U.S. legislation, I have a hard time envisioning how this can be proven objectively to a jury, and lead to coinvictions.
I do remember when the people article came out, there where many in the comment section, with no knowledge of cults, saying that they did not understand how it was diferent from mainstream religion.
we know because we have been there and experienced it in one form or another but I would really be curious to see how this would be prosecuted in the judicial system.
The Civil Rights movement and Equality for Pay, etc. for women took quite a while. But because of the people who fought for these things, there have been vast changes. These movements still have a long way to go, but it is so much better. The efforts of the people who worked for reform in these areas have not been in vain.
We may be on the ground floor of reform in the area of getting legislation passed to help people who are or have been victims of cults, but that is ok with me. This is out of hand in the U.S. In fact, we are a hotbed of cult growth due to the shield of religious freedom. While the U.S. is for religious freedom, they are not for religious fraud. The people of our country are not for the exploitation and damage that destructive cults inflict. Something will happen. It may take a while, but we can make this situation better.
This bill has pros and cons. For a snakey organization like WMS, they will just evolve, possibly change names etc, but light will be put on this cult.
Yes, Untouchable, this group is evolving as we speak. They are trying to stay ahead of their bad reputation. They have even changed the name of their "Bilble study" groups after being recognized on campuses. Let's shine the light on their efforts.
Bump
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