Saturday, August 14, 2004
Weird news!
Spiritual food starvation diet!
- A 49-year-old woman in Scotland passed away in 1999, only the third starvation death among the world's alleged 5,000 disciples of Australian Ellen Greve who follow a no-food, no-water, "breatharian" diet. Greve sells her philosophy ("liberation from the drudgery of food and drink") to Westerners in part as conferring a spiritual connection with third-world hunger. [Edmonton Journal-The Times (London), 9-26-99]
Mel on Mrs Gibson
- From an underreported profile of Mel Gibson in The New Yorker (Sept. 15, 2003), discussing his then-upcoming film, "The Passion of the Christ": "There is no salvation for those outside the Church. Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. (But) she's Episcopalian. (S)he believes in God, she knows Jesus. (A)nd it's just not fair if she doesn't make it (to heaven); she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair (that she will not be saved). I go with it." [The New Yorker, 9-15-03
And the psyche has it by a nose!
- Separation of Church and Clinic: At a November hearing on Thomas DeVol's business practices, Missouri's State Committee of Psychologists also heard evidence that the marriage counselor had described himself as a "Christian psychologist" who estimated that, during his 20-year practice, about 150 of his clients were possessed by demons and other "evil spirits." (The committee was still deliberating DeVol's fate at press time.) And in February in Genoa, Italy, Catholic Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone announced formation of a committee of three priests and three health professionals to decide, in possible cases of satanic possession, whether the parishioner should be referred to counseling or to an exorcist. [Columbia Tribune-AP, 11-24-03] [Reuters, 2-13-04]
