ISKCON has a horrible history, that includes the gross abuse of children in its schools, murder and other crimes.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
The issue isn't "Krishna," but rather the bad behavior and poor judgment of ISKCON's leaders.
The organization sought bankruptcy protection rather than face the kids it hurt in court. But a federal judge eventually ordered ISKCON to pay its victims millions of dollars in damages.
This is not the behavior of a reputable organization.
ISKCON devotees will frequently claim that the organization has somehow changed from its bad old days of child abuse and crime.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
However, as the above linked article demonstrates, there is much that has not changed at ISKCON.
[b:14a76b4a39]Nori Muster writes:[/b:14a76b4a39]
Over the years ISKCON’s board of directors has made many enemies, especially among former members. For example, they excommunicated a vocal critic named Puranjana (Tim Lee), after he accused one of the gurus of taking LSD--speaking about this violated their rules. Pranjana has now it seems become a lifelong enemy of ISKCON.
Another vocal critic named Sulochan (Steve Bryant) was excommunicated after he accused one of the gurus of selling drugs and running a prostitution ring. Sulochan was then murdered by a Krishna hitman shortly after his excommunication.
Some of these former members have dedicated their lives to toppling the current ISKCON leadership through lawsuits or public opinion. ISKCON leaders keep them away by claiming that these onetime Krishna devotees have certain ideological differences that are dangerous. In reality, their differences are very minor, but these disagreements have resulted in beatings, death threats and even murder.
If things are to change for the better, ISKCON needs to acknowledge these former members and make peace with them. This would be an obvious sign that things have actually changed for the better
For a long time, ISKCON has had leaders who beat their wives and advocate wife-beating among the other married men. Also, ISKCON arranged marriages between minor-aged girls and often abusive men. The girls’ complaints were generally ignored.
In order for ISKCON to really change for the better, they must come out in the open about their spousal abuse problem, remove abusers from official positions, and compensate the victims.
Over the years, many innocent people were beaten or kicked out of temples because they sided with the wrong political interests. The temple leaders keep their enemies away by threatening them, but this creates a sick environment throughout the organization.
In order for ISKCON to really change all these attitudes must change and then it could really become a better organization.