Theos-Talk Archives (April 1998 Message tt00139)

The media is creating its own news. They like to play the cult card and back it
up with manufactured evidence, because people readily read about and fear
"cults". They take small things and distort them and blow them out of proportion
to paint a picture which is very far removed from the real world.

Bjorn

Govert Schuller wrote:
>
> Bjorn wrote:
>
> >I have seen postings on this list basing the opinion of the Ballards and
> the
> >Prophets on what the press has provided about them. This approach is not
> likely
> >to even approach the "truth". It is like judging HPB from what the press
> had to
> >say about her in her own time!
>
> Very good point. To make it stick a little better I'd like to present the
> following from a flyer titled
>
> 'Challenging the Media Myth: The Facts about Elizabeth Clare Prophet'
>
> MYTH
>
> "The charismatic Guru Ma (Elizabeth Clare Prophet) drew thousands of
> believers to a Montana valley to prepare shelters for apocalyptic nuclear
> dangers, particularly on April 23. If you've read this far, she was wrong."
>
> Time, April 30, 1990
>
> FACT
>
> Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of church Universal and Triumphant, has
> never predicted nuclear war, much less the end of the world, for any date
> and certainly not for April 23, 1990. Furthermore, she never said that
> April 23 was any more dangerous than any other date.
>
> She has been promoting civil defense for nearly two decades. In May of
> 1989, staff at the Royal Teton Ranch, the 12,000 acre church headquarters in
> Montana, broke ground on a 13-acre fallout shelter project for the 756 men,
> women and children who a part of the church's staff. Other church
> members had already begun building shelters on their own private land in
> Montana or across the country.
>
> In 1989, she said that over the next twelve years there would be dangerous
> periods in which the potential of nuclear war would be greater than usual.
>
> In February 1990, Mrs. prophet told her members that March and April would
> be dangerous months during which the possibility for nuclear war was
> present. She asked them to be sure they had a fallout shelter in or near
> their home and to have a supply of food and water. some church members who
> already had shelters in Montana came to the area to join in a prayer vigil
> for world peace that was held during those two months.
>
> The end of the world "predictions" were the product of inaccurate and
> sensationalistic reporting. The University of Washington newspaper, The
> Daily, was on of the few papers to accurately report Mrs. Prophet's
> predictions.
>
> Its reporter observed, "The major factual error that ... most ... national
> publications ran is that the Church said the world was going to end on
> Monday, April 23. Church members never made this proclamation. (If anyone
> can find a statement from Church leaders or any documentation, other than
> the newspapers, proclaiming the "END OF THE WORLD" I would be very
> surprised.) This statement was originally printed in one publication and
> was repeated many times over."
>
> Govert
>
>

--
Bjorn

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