>>> Continued from previous message
Another bulwark against suicide was the church=92s strong streak of
nonviolence, which seemingly extends to all living things:
Believers have said they follow vegetarian diets, shrink away
from killing ants and even pray before cutting the grass.
Much had been made of the movement=92s flying-saucer aspect - and
the idea that some clouds are actually divine spacecraft - but
Kliever said "the whole language of flying saucers is really
tangential to the faith." Heaven=92s Gate and most UFO religious
groups are rooted in 19th-century spiritualism and Western
theosophy, while God=92s Salvation Church is a more exotic brew of
"pure-land Buddhism and millenarian Christianity that was carried
to the Orient by Protestant missionaries," the professor said.
"They have used the language of flying saucers because this
communicates more clearly to a modern society how spiritual
beings from a higher level of reality - a level they call the
fourth or fifth dimension - will intervene and rescue the
faithful from this three-dimensional reality in which most of us
are currently living," he said.
Kliever said he expected many of the Taiwanese church members to
remain in the United States because they believe North America is
a "paradise" that will be spared from future tribulations.
It=92s really not all that unusual for new religious groups to deal
with prophecies that fail, Kliever pointed out. "In fact,
virtually every belief at some time or another deals with failed
prophecy," he said.
MSNBC=92s Alan Boyle, Reuters and The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Copyright MSNBC
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 * SLMR 2.1a * "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto!"
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