As people became disenchanted with the faiths they were born into, they looked elsewhere. The Beatles basically marketed Hinduism to America making it seem hip and cool. Enough of Judeo/Christianity's sexual mores. People wanted free love, a high touch society. The problem is, that when people reject their native faith often what they adopt is much worse. And again, I said elsewher
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Anyone who wants to get in touch with me can through richardmgreen@yahoo.com I'm more than willing to share my perspective. You have to realize that Aish Hatorah's approach is really slick. It's a marketing blitz. I signed up for their "Ask the Rabbi" offering.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteOriginally posted by TomCat Interesting forum Indeed! I'm new to this forum so I'd like to take the time to say hello. This article appeared in the local paper this afternoon. Hard to understand how rational and intelligent people can fall for this stuff. Some of Rabbi Schneerson's followers(Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic movement) also expected him to be resurrec
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteOriginally posted by Eyes Open The people I've met have been bright, kind, and very welcoming. (They're experts at engaging people they see as viable returnees to Judaism. Only the best model orthodox Jews get to be kiruv workers ("kiruv rechokim" means bringing back those who have left the fold) Does the group have an unspoken agenda? (Yes. It's not jus
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I'm pretty prejudiced against orthodox Judaism. I'm not sure what major accomplishment(s) it's produced after Maimonides who lived about 1000 years ago. You must remember that most Jews opted out of orthodoxy for a wide variety of reasons. Most Jews don't want to live this way, can't live this way and would hurt themselves and their families if they got involved.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quoterrmoderator Obviously many people would disagree with this negative portrayal and analysis of AA. Others seem to feel the program has helped people. Unlike destructive groups called "cults" AA does not have an absolute leader and is in fact not rigidly organized around an established hierarchy that exploits its members. GROW (Growth to Maturity) is a mental health movement th
Forum: Clergy and Therapy Abuse

All of these outreach organizations have the agenda of bringing Jews back to the ancient ways. They also have the agenda of bringing the messiah, etc.. So what they want is political as well as spiritual. Both go hand in hand. So much for those late night ham sandwiches. I was at Aish for about 2 months in '95. I have about 25 years experience dealing with these "kiruv" ope
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

You know, when I take a look at this war-torn planet, with all its poverty, disease and strife, it really makes it very hard to love God. I think it's impossible to bribe God simply by saying you love him.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteOriginally posted by rrmoderator This was so funny I had to discuss it at CultNews.com See All of these quacks quote Kabbalah. At the Carlebach Shul the a"rosh yeshiva" Zvi Padeh, helped to translate certain portions of an ancient Kabbalistic book Etz Chaim, Tree of Life, by Rabbi Chaim Vital (the book is heavily quoted by Chabad's Tanya). I came in the shul an
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

So, in the mid 70's I got pumped up on Jewish music. And it wasn't just Shlomo Carlebach. I had a pretty good collection: Modzitz, Mordechai Ben David, Rabbis Sons, Negina Orchestra, Kransler, etc.. Endless songs of how great it is to be in Jerusalem , etc.. Then I went there. Just read the postings on this site about how "great" it really was. Bedbugs, skin sores, pove
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Originally posted by rrmoderator "It has been 'proven otherwise,' but I understand your reluctance to accept that." "Obviously, when Mormons disagree with what the church claims is somehow 'historical' they risk "excommunication," no matter how compelling the evidence is." Excommunication is a tool of every religious group that I know of.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteOriginally posted by lifeaftercult I agree with you, music did influence me a lot. You get a spiritual high and think you have found a true path and you are hooked into a cult. lifeaftercult Music influenced me a lot too. I was heavily influenced by the music of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. And one of his songs (On the "Live in Vienna" recording, is "Lord Get Me High"
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteOriginally posted by harveydodds The group I was in Eckankar rewrote the words to the public domain song Amazing Grace and called it Amazing Hu , after the mantra the group believes contacts god. Music deepens experiences and has been whored to everything from advertising cars to mystic experiences. Why should cults miss out on this? A lot of what goes on in the business world
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I feel I still have some unresolved issues when it comes to the cults I got involved with and then left. Personally, the first cult was a Christian church that fliipped out. It led to more trouble. I could also provide you with my views on why people get attracted to cults and the types of people cults target. richardmgreen@&#
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Personally, I believe in prophecy as I've experienced it personally and have been in touch with people who knew things about me that they couldn't have possibly known otherwise, like when my father called up and told me not to spoil his dog Princess (the posting is elsewhere). But the belief in being able to contact "entities" is sort of strange to me. Are these entitie
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Cults make extensive use of music and it forms a more than normal part of the worship service. When I first went to Hebrew school years ago, I went to an orthodox school in NY. The teacher said, "and if you think you're having fun singing these songs now, just wait until you're in heaven..." When they try to attract people who aren't orthodox into orthodoxy the music o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Uri Kaploun is a Lubavitcher who has been translating alot of Chabad material into English. I know him from my brief stay at Yeshiva D'var Yerushalayim. You can't really learn from books and you really can't learn what a person is truly like from reading something he writes. My experience with Kaploun and D'var in general were very negative. Suffice it to say that I w
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

People who become newly religious in any one of a vast number of movements can become impossible to be around. Personally, I, ex-wife and my ex-wife's sister almost drove our families crazy. The food at home wasn't "kosher enough", my ex-wife and her sister refused to eat on the plates in their parent's home. All of this made for strained relationships. Children
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The hatred between the Jews and Arabs has been heating up. Jews are banned from Moslem countries, the intafada has taken lives on both sides of the fence, but it always wasn't that way. About 1100 AD, Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon) lived and he was an influential rabbi and a court physician to the emperor Saladin. The Jews enjoyed much better times in Arab countries back then un
Forum: Terrorist and Extremist Groups

Rick Ross is unhappy with Chabad's inflexibility when it comes to land for peace with the Arabs. Th Chabad's late Rebbe, "reigning from Brooklyn" gave his epistle about not giving the Arabs any Jewish property. And the late Rabbi Meir Kahane said that "the presence of the Arabs in Israel is a pollution on the land." Now wait a minute. I'm Jewish and my peop
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I think it was Swami Prabhapuda (spelling?) who said, "the eggs have to aspire to omlettehood..."
Forum: Destructive Churches

I dont' believe in any of this stuff. When I was very young about 35 years ago, my father asked the Ouija board what my birthday present was going to be. It spelled out "Two spelling tests". Obviously this was my father's work along with his deranged sense of humor. Runs in the family by the way.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

So, as we all know now, Chabad has this Moshiach campaign. And they want to bring the Messiah, rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and start sacrificing animals again. How they'll get clearance for the building permit, I can't figure out and the Arabs would have to be convinced not to start WWIII over it. You know, they should be careful because they might get what they want. Isn&#
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Start Time: Fri Dec 06 07:59:39 PST 2002 End Time: Fri Dec 06 08:06:36 PST 2002 ______________________________________ Rabbi Gurkow: Welcome to the Rabbi's one on one chat room, how can I help you today? RabbiGreen: Topic is prophecy. On the online Hadar Hatorah site RabbiGreen: on the topic of "Who is Moshiach?" the speaker Rabbi Gurkow: I have never been o that site. Wha
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There's loads of info on Scientology on this message board and on Rick Ross's site at
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Also other sites you can find by typing in "Alpha Course" on search engines like MSN, Dogpile, etc..
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There was plenty of reaction from non-Jews when the Lubavitcher Rebbe started the Noahide campaign in '91. I'm sure what he did was very counter productive towards Jewish/non-Jewish relations. If the thinks that non-Jews are going to give up Xmas, then I've got some property near the Brooklyn Bridge I'll sell ya' dirt cheap.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The real question is, "just what do these outreach organiztions want?" The coming of the messiah, rebuilding of the temple, etc.. It's not just chicken soup on Shabbat and loads of Jewish songs to be sung. My take on it, is tha these people are the ultimate control freaks and they need to be neutralized. I think that Reform and Conservative Jews need to be alerted that they
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If you check out you'll see a Q&A forum. Look at the topic about the sacrificial system being reinstated when the temple is rebuilt. Chabad makes an issue of how Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were so enlightened and did animal sacrifices. If they ever existed at all, they were just primitives.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"