Latest news with #cult
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Death at the cross: Secret burials, ‘cult-like' practices at Kenyan church
Opapo, Kenya – Perched in the grass alongside the Rongo-Homa Bay Road in Kenya's Migori County, a rusted sign announces the Melkio St Joseph Missions of Messiah Church in Africa. Beyond it, a sandy path meets big blue and purple gates that barricade the now-deserted grounds from view. Just more than a month ago, the church in Opapo village was thrust into the spotlight when reports of secret burials and 'cult-like' practices emerged. On April 21, local police stormed the grounds and discovered two bodies buried within the fenced compound – including that of a police officer who was also a church member – as well as dozens of other worshippers who had been living there. During the raid, 57 people were rescued and taken into custody. In the weeks since, most have been released, but police have banned them from returning to the church and sealed off the compound. For Kenyans, the incident has unearthed the memory of other controversial churches steeped in allegations of abuse, like the 2023 case where more than 400 people linked to a church-cult starved to death in the Shakahola Forest. In Opapo village, residents are troubled by the deaths and the decades-long secrecy surrounding the church. Many want to see the permanent closure of the compound and the exhumation and return of the bodies buried there. Brian Juma, 27, has lived directly beside the church all his life. He told Al Jazeera locals believe it was started by a man who fashioned himself as a sort-of god figure, and who the followers of the church prayed to. Juma claims that when the church leader died 10 years ago, followers did not immediately bury him but prayed for three days in the hope that he would rise. Pauline Auma, a 53-year-old mother of six who also lives near the church, said the congregation was set up in their area in the early 1990s, although she could not recall the exact year. 'When it came, we thought it was a normal church like any other. I remember my sister even attended a service there, thinking it was like other churches, only to come and tell us things that were not normal were taking place. For example, she said the Father there claimed to be God himself,' Auma recounted. In the years that followed, the church recruited members from different locations across the country. Juma said congregants were not from around the area, spoke different languages, and never left the compound to go to their own homes. According to Caren Kiarie, a human rights activist from neighbouring Kisumu County, the church has several branches across the Kenyan Nyanza region, and sends members from one location to the other. Many people came to worship and live within the church full time, Opapo villagers remember. 'They were very friendly people who did business around the Opapo area and interacted well with the people here,' Juma said. 'But they would never live outside the church, as they all went back inside in the evening. Within the church compound, they had cattle, sheep, poultry and planted crops for their food.' Though the worshippers could interact with outsiders, locals say the children living there – some with their parents and others who neighbours said were taken in alone – never attended school, while members were barred from seeking medical care if they were sick. On the day of the police raid and rescue, many of the worshippers looked weak and ill, said Juma, who over the years befriended some young people whose parents belonged to the church. 'They were sickly, as they were never allowed to go to the hospital or even take pain medication,' he said, quoting what his neighbours had told him. Auma believes those who were rescued that day were the sickly ones, as the others had escaped. The 57 initially refused to leave the compound at all, insisting the church was their only 'home'. But police took them to the nearby Rongo Sub-county Hospital to be treated. They again refused medical care and instead began singing Christian praise songs in the Dholuo language. Auma said the songs were chants asking God to save them and take them home to heaven. Disturbed by the commotion, health workers recommended that they be moved from the hospital because they were making other patients uncomfortable. That's when they were taken into police custody. According to the assistant county commissioner, Josphat Kingoku, the worshippers were released from police custody two weeks ago, but he did not know their whereabouts. In Kwoyo in Homa Bay County, Linet Achieng worries about her 71-year-old mother, who left home to join the Migori church 11 years ago and never returned. Her mother was introduced to the church by a neighbour who was originally from Migori, Achieng said. 'Initially, she had gone to seek healing from a backache that had troubled her for years,' said the 43-year-old, explaining that the church offered promises of health. The family initially kept in touch with their mother, asking when she would come home after being healed. She kept making promises to return, but never did. Achieng tried to convince her mother to leave the place, she said, but her attempts were in vain. 'At some point, she stopped talking to us, and when my younger brother and I went to inquire how she was doing, we were sent away from the church and told that unless we were willing to join the church, we were not welcome in there,' she said. After the raid last month, Achieng learned her mother was among those rescued but says she does not want anything to do with her family. While many worshipers' families wait to hear about their relatives, one family knows for sure they will never see their loved one again. Dan Ayoo Obura – a police constable – was one of those who died at the church compound, reportedly on March 27, according to local media reports. He had been introduced to the church by his wife, who was a leader there, his relatives said. Obura had left his workplace at the General Service Unit police headquarters in Nairobi in February before travelling home to Kisumu County on sick leave, according to his uncle Dickson Otieno. He was taken to a hospital in the area, but after a week at the facility, 'he disappeared', Otieno told Al Jazeera. 'We reported to the police and started looking for him everywhere, panicked that we might never see him again. Later, we had information from some neighbours that he is in Migori at a church. That's when we went there to ask the church leaders where he was. They told us he was not at the church and had not seen him. 'About a month later, they called us to say that the person we were looking for had died the previous night and that they had buried him that day.' The family then informed the police and human rights activists like Kiarie, and travelled to Opapo to try and locate his body. Kiarie, who is a rights defender and paralegal at the Nyando Social Justice Centre, accompanied the family to Opapo in March. 'We've not been given the body,' she told Al Jazeera, explaining that she interviewed residents and church members while in Opapo and heard concerning reports about what was happening at the compound. No one was allowed to have an intimate relationship at the church, she said, while husbands and wives were required to separate after joining. These practices were echoed by the compound's neighbours in Migori. 'There are also serious claims of sexual violence at the church where the male leaders were having sex with the girls and women there,' Kiarie said. 'That was why they did not want any man inside to touch the women because they belonged to them,' she alleged. Kiarie said since the police raid, the compound's neighbours have also reported there may be more than just two bodies buried inside – which she said could be what is delaying Obura's exhumation. 'They're still waiting because they said the issue has been picked up by the national government, and they [the national authorities] want to exhume the other bodies [that may be there],' she said. Kiarie feels the Migori church may prove to be another case like the Shakahola cult 'massacre' if it is found that more people indeed died and were buried there without their families' knowledge. The events in Migori have opened wounds for many survivors and relatives of the 429 people who were starved to death in Kilifi County's Shakahola, in 2023. Led by Pastor Paul McKenzie, the congregants there also left their families and abandoned property, seeking to go to heaven and meet their messiah. But news reports said that at the church, they were radicalised and brainwashed, convinced that if they stopped eating they would die peacefully, go to heaven and meet their god. Both Grace Kazungu's parents and two of her siblings perished in the Shakhola church cult, says the 32-year-old mother of three from Kilifi. Whenever she and her brother tried to question the church's teachings, the others would not hear a word against it, she told Al Jazeera. 'They would argue that we were 'anti-Christ' and that their church was the only sacred and holy way to heaven,' she said. 'Months later, I heard from my brother that they had sold the family's property and were going to live inside the church after ditching earthly possessions. 'We tried to reach them but were blocked by their leader. My husband broke the news to me one morning after a year that they had been found inside the forest and they were dead and buried.' After their deaths, they were buried in mass graves within the Shakahola Forest where the church was located. Upon discovery, following a tip from the local media, the police launched an operation to cordon off the area so they could exhume the bodies, test for DNA, and return the deceased to their relatives for proper burial. They later arrested the church leader, McKenzie, and charged him with the murder of 191 people, child torture, and 'terrorism'. He and several other co-accused remain in police custody, pending sentencing. Unlike Shakahola, the Migori church allowed its followers to work, eat and run businesses in the nearby Opapo and Rongo towns. But like Shakahola, it also kept them living apart from the rest of society, barred them from accessing school, marriage and medical care, and severely punished supposed transgressions, according to locals who heard and witnessed violent beatings and fights inside the compound. In many societies, religious leaders are widely respected and trusted, and they often influence beliefs and actions in the private and public spheres, explained Fathima Azmiya Badurdee, a postdoctoral researcher in the faculty of Religion, Culture and Society at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. 'People are in search of 'hope' in the daily issues they confront. Religious leaders are pivotal in this role in providing hope to sustain their futures … or even in life after death,' she explained. Still, 'awareness among religious communities on opportunistic leadership and cult dynamics is needed,' she said, referring to the Opapo and Shakahola forest cases. 'Many people blindly trust religious leaders without questioning them. Words and opinions of religious leaders are taken as the gospel truth. The lack of questioning, critical thinking skills, or even the lack of religious literacy often influences individuals to believe in any extreme forms propagated by these leaders,' she added. Most of the 57 Migori worshippers are now back in society once more. However, police extended the detention of four key suspects while investigations and autopsies continued this month. Assistant county commissioner Kingoku declined to provide details to Al Jazeera about any charges against the worshippers, saying they did not appear in court. Meanwhile, the Kenya National Police Service spokesperson Michael Muchiri told Al Jazeera: 'All individuals found culpable will be taken through the prosecution process as guided by the law.' Investigations are ongoing into Obura's cause of death, verification of additional burials alleged by residents, and a probe into whether the church operated as an unregistered 'company' rather than a licensed religious organisation. According to the county commissioner, Mutua Kisilu, the church had been irregularly registered as a company. After the raid last month, Nyanza regional commissioner, Florence Mworoa, announced a region-wide crackdown on unregistered churches. Muchiri said the government regulates religious outfits in the country and will bring to book all those found to have broken the law. 'Any illegally operating organisation – the government has been clear about it – is quickly shut down. Prosecution, like in the Migori case, follows. Identification of such 'cult-like' illegal religious entities is through the local intelligence and security teams and information from the local people,' Muchiri said. In the meantime in Homa Bay, Achieng finally heard from her mother one last time after the worshippers were released from custody. She told her daughter that she had found a new home and that her family were 'worldly' people who she should never associate with again. 'I thought of going to get her from police custody and secure her release, but I [was] worried that she will not agree to go home with me,' Achieng told Al Jazeera. She believes her mother will never return home. 'I fear she might die [at the church].' Meanwhile in Kisumu, Obura's family continues to mourn him as they work with Kiarie's organisation and the police to try and secure a court order allowing them to exhume his remains. All they want, they say, is to transfer him from the church to his ancestral home to bury him according to Luo culture and traditions. 'We are not interested in a lot of things,' Otieno said. 'We just want the body of our son so we can bury him here at home. Just that.'
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Boss at bizarre start-up ordered two workers to have sex to relieve tension between them, court hears
Executives at an 'orgasmic meditation' start-up forced their staff to have sex with each other in an attempt to relieve the tension between them, a federal trial heard. OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone, 57, and former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz, 44, have each been charged with one count of forced labor conspiracy. Witnesses who took the stand at court in New York City this week have detailed their disturbing experiences working for the 'cult-like' San Francisco based company. One former worker, referred to only as 'Max' to protect their identity, told the court that Cherwitz sent two staff members off to have sex during a sales meeting, Courthouse News reports. Cherwitz attributed a profit dip at the firm's NYC branch to an alleged sexual tension between the two employees, Max testified. 'I felt so sick inside. I think that was the moment when I just woke up,' Max told the court, adding that the partner of one of the workers sent off for sex had a breakdown while she waited for the pair to return to the room. Daedone has also been accused of working with OneTaste's former chief technology officer Christopher Hubbard to 'seduce' an early investor, he told the court. The ex-CEO was also accused of encouraging a female employee to 'sexually service' her former boyfriend, the court heard. Both Daedone and Cherwitz face trial this week in New York, accused of a forced labor scheme that allegedly involved participants in OneTaste courses and employees between 2006 and 2018. The pair provided sexually focused wellness education and events that promoted 'orgasmic meditation' and 'slow sex' - advocating female empowerment through orgasm. But prosecutors claim they also exploited some people, by coercing them to work without pay and to perform sexual acts with OneTaste investors using cult-like tactics. Max told the court last week how Cherwitz allegedly ordered two employees to have sex because of their apparent 'tumescence'. 'I want you guys to go have sex right now,' she told the pair, Max testified. Their account echoed that of a woman referred to as 'Becky', who was one of the two employees allegedly sent out of the sales meeting to have sex. Becky told the court that she did not remember specifics about the encounter, but said it was 'awkward' because the man involved was in a relationship with her friend, who had also been present at the meeting. Max also testified that staff were required to be on call 24/7 and were expected to immediately respond to work text messages during their 'waking hours'. They alleged that taking sick or vacation days was prohibited. The witness said that employees in the NYC branch were responsible for cleaning up Daedone's hotel room before and after her stay. Max testified that this included the handling of used condoms in her hotel room. The witness also added that workers had to 'complain to higher-ups' in order to get paid or be put on the company payroll. Many employees lived together and shared beds, the court heard, and were allegedly expected to participate in daily morning 'orgasmic meditation circles'. The meditation activity was partnered and involved 'methodically stroking a woman's genitals for 15 minutes', testimony revealed. Dana, who took the stand on Tuesday, told the court that she was instructed to engage in BDSM activities with early OneTaste investor Reese Jones. The court heard how Dana would allegedly walk Jones around on a leash or whip him with cattails, Courthouse News reports. She also allegedly lived with Jones for roughly three months and would frequently have sex with him, which she claims to have understood as being 'part of the job'. Dana, during cross-examination, testified that she 'liked Jones as a person' but added: 'I wouldn't say I was attracted to him.' The witness added that she had been instructed by higher-ups, including Cherwitz, to engage in sexual acts with the firm's high-paying clients. Although Dana not officially on OneTaste's payroll, she directly worked for Daedone and other leaders, the court heard. She allegedly paid $30,000 for the group's courses, which she claims was funded partly from sex work that a fellow OneTaste community member helped her arrange. OneTaste was featured in the 2022 Netflix 'true crime ' documentary Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste, which featured former worker Ayries Blanck and her journals, which painted a dark picture of the workplace. Five months after it aired, Daedone and Cherwitz were indicted. Both deny the single count of forced labor conspiracy.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Boss of bizarre orgasm start-up ordered two workers to have sex to relieve tension between them, court hears
Executives at an 'orgasmic meditation' startup forced their staff to have sex with each other in an attempt to relieve the tension between them, a federal trial heard. OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone, 57, and former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz, 44, have each been charged with one count of forced labor conspiracy. Witnesses who took the stand at court in New York City this week have detailed their disturbing experiences working for the 'cult-like' San Francisco based company. One former worker, referred to only as 'Max' to protect their identity, told the court that Cherwitz sent two staff members off to have sex during a sales meeting, Courthouse News reports. Cherwitz attributed a profit dip at the firm's NYC branch to an alleged sexual tension between the two employees, Max testified. 'I felt so sick inside. I think that was the moment when I just woke up,' Max told the court, adding that the partner of one of the workers sent off for sex had a break down while she waited for the pair to return to the room. Daedone has also been accused of working with OneTaste's former chief technology officer Christopher Hubbard to 'seduce' an early investor, he told the court. The ex-CEO was also accused of encouraging a female employee to 'sexually service' her former boyfriend, the court heard. Former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz, 44, (pictured leaving Brooklyn Federal Court on May 6) allegedly sent two staff members off to have sex during a sales meeting in an effort to relieve the 'sexual tension' between them, the court heard Both Daedone and Cherwitz face trial this week in New York, accused of a forced labor scheme that allegedly involved participants in OneTaste courses and employees between 2006 and 2018. The pair provided sexually focused wellness education and events that promoted 'orgasmic meditation' and 'slow sex' – advocating female empowerment through orgasm. But prosecutors claim they also exploited some people, by coercing them to work without pay and to perform sexual acts with OneTaste investors using cult-like tactics. Max told the court last week how Cherwitz allegedly ordered two employees to have sex because of their apparent 'tumescence'. 'I want you guys to go have sex right now,' she told the pair, Max testified. Their account echoed that of a woman referred to as 'Becky', who was one of the two employees allegedly sent out of the sales meeting to have sex. Becky told the court that she did not remember specifics about the encounter, but said it was 'awkward' because the man involved was in a relationship with her friend, who had also been present at the meeting. Max also testified that staff were required to be on call 24/7 and were expected to immediately respond to work text messages during their 'waking hours'. They alleged that taking sick or vacation days was prohibited. The witness said that employees in the NYC branch were responsible for cleaning up Daedone's hotel room before and after her stay. Max testified that this including the handling of used condoms in her hotel room. The witness also added that workers had to 'complain to higher-ups' in order to get paid or be put on the company payroll. Many employees lived together and shared beds, the court heard, and were allegedly expected to participate in daily morning 'orgasmic meditation circles'. The meditation activity was partnered and involved 'methodically stroking a woman's genitals for 15 minutes', testimony revealed. Dana, who took the stand on Tuesday, told the court that she was instructed to engage in BDSM activities with early OneTaste investor Reese Jones. The court heard how Dana would allegedly walk Jones around on a leash or whip him with cattails, Courthouse News reports. She also allegedly lived with Jones for roughly three months and would frequently have sex with him, which she claims to have understood as being 'part of the job'. Dana, during cross-examination, testified that she 'liked Jones as a person' but added: 'I wouldn't say I was attracted to him.' The witness added that she had been instructed by higher-ups, including Cherwitz, to engage in sexual acts with the firm's high-paying clients. Although Dana not officially on Onetaste's payroll, she directly worked for Daedone and other leaders, the court heard. She allegedly paid $30,000 for the group's courses, which she claims was funded partly from sex work that a fellow OneTaste community member helped her arrange. OneTaste was featured in the 2022 Netflix 'true crime ' documentary Orgasm Inc: the Story of OneTaste, which featured former work Ayries Blanck and her journals, which painted a dark picture of the workplace. Five months after it aired, Daedone and Cherwitz were indicted. Both deny the single count of forced labor conspiracy. An FBI special agent leading the investigation into two former leaders was accused of fabricating evidence by a Member of Congress, exclusively revealed last week. The representative wrote to new FBI director Kash Patel, alleging the agent 'transformed the Netflix-created content into federal evidence' to go after Cherwitz and Daedone. The letter to FBI director Patel from a Member of Congress – who is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee – was 'seeking answers' about the special agent in the case. The representative, whose name is redacted, alleges a special agent of the New York City division has 'a long and extremely troubling list of alleged investigative abuses which demand accountability'. has decided not to name the agent in the letter, whose 'actions appear to represent a fundamental corruption of the investigative process and a failure of agent accountability,' writes the Congress member. The letter accuses the special agent of 'participating in Netflix productions while investigating targets' plus making up evidence 'through entertainment media', filing misleading affidavits, directing witnesses to destroy evidence, and using personal email to avoid official scrutiny. 'Most disturbing is the systematic effort to transform Netflix-created content into federal evidence,' they add. 'This isn't just overreach – it's deliberate fabrication of a criminal case through entertainment media.' The Congress member says they are committed to ending the 'weaponization' of the FBI to ensure Americans are not hit by 'improperly motivated or abusive law enforcement tactics'.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Justin Bieber's former friends think he's part of a cult
NEW YORK — Justin Bieber's former friends claim the pop star is in the clutches of a cult and that his Churchome pastor holds undue influence over the singer's life. Pastor Judah Smith meanwhile challenged the cult claim, quipping to TMZ's new 'What Happened to Justin Bieber?' documentary: 'What kind of a cult only meets once a month?' Insiders allege that the 'Love Yourself' crooner, 31, cut ties with best man and former collaborator Ryan Good after the latter left the Beverly Hills megachurch that he deemed a cult. Good was the creative director for Bieber's Drew House label — with which the pop star also severed ties last month. In April, TMZ referred to the 'culty' relationship between Bieber and Smith. According to the new documentary, the pair interrogated Good about his sex life and antagonized Bieber's former manager Scooter Braun about not believing in Jesus. Braun is Jewish. The Kardashians, Chris Pratt and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, as well as Ciara and Russell Wilson have also been linked to Churchome. Also reported in the documentary are claims that Bieber was on the brink of 'financial collapse' when he sold his music catalog a little over two years ago. Similar claims were made in a recent story published by The Hollywood Reporter. Bieber's camp denied the allegations.
Japan Times
18-05-2025
- Japan Times
1,400 photos donated to remember horrors of Aum Shinrikyo cult
A 97-year-old man from central Japan has donated about 1,400 photos taken during his years of confronting the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult. The former village of Kamikuishiki, currently the town of Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture, was once home to the largest Aum Shinrikyo base in Japan. Kamikuishiki resident Seiichi Takeuchi waged a battle against the group from the time the cult set up the base in the village's Fujigane district in 1989. At the base, the group put up many facilities, called "satyam," some of which were used to manufacture sarin nerve gas. Aum Shinrikyo used the nerve gas in an attack on Tokyo's subway system in 1995, which left 14 people dead and over 6,000 others injured. The cult finally left the village in 1996, after the arrest of its leader Chizuo Matsumoto, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara, in 1995. Matsumoto was executed in 2018. According to Takeuchi, one of the first things the cult did after moving into the village was to build a 3-meter-high wall around a plot of grassland and start constructing facilities within it. Takeuchi, who was a key member of a group of local residents, lodged protests each time there was an issue involving the cult. Every time, the cult asked for evidence, prompting Takeuchi to carry around a camera and snap photos. Takeuchi said that the infamous guru directly told him that he was fueling anti-Aum Shinrikyo sentiment among local residents. He also found that his phone had been bugged. Despite the frightening situation, Takeuchi continued to take pictures on his camera until the cult's Kamikuishiki facilities were demolished in 1998. Some 1,400 photos include ones capturing the strange-smelling white smoke escaping from a window of a facility used to manufacture sarin gas and of discolored plants near the cult's base. Seiichi Takeuchi, who has donated about 1,400 photos he took during his years of confronting the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, speaks in an interview last month. | Jiji After a request from police, Takeuchi provided a photo of a car crash that occurred at the village. A truck that was in the background of the photo was the same vehicle later used in a sarin gas attack in the city of Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture in 1994, which left eight people dead and over 140 others injured. Takeuchi has provided police and the Public Security Intelligence Agency with his photos over the years. Nearly 30 years after the cult left the village, Takeuchi donated his photos to the town of Fujikawaguchiko in March this year. "I hope people don't forget what happened," Takeuchi said, adding that he hopes many people will see his photos. The town government currently has about 130 photos, mainly those of the Aum Shinrikyo facilities, on display at a local educational center.
