Minister investigated for naked rituals with followers

[n2doc]

By Joe Mahr, Tribune reporter
September 28, 2011

In a small house overlooking a lake in Wauconda, a minister directed his female followers to go into a back room and take off their clothes.

In one-on-one sessions, he got naked, touched their bodies and told them to touch his.

He called them prayer sessions.

What allegedly happened in that room over a series of months would spur a criminal investigation in one county, spark civil litigation in two others and reopen the age-old debate on what's a cult.

more

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-naked-minister-20110928,0,670397.story

"Hey baby, whanna become a snake handler?"

[liberal N proud]

1. And people don't ask why?

It amazes me how easy some people are to manipulate, they were raised to OBEY and they will do what the minister says without question.

[Syrinx]

2. oh those stupid ignorant midwesterners!

Oh, I forgot. Those kind of posts are only okay when the dumbasses live in the south.

[Dogtown]

9. Not about you.

Maybe you should stay on topic; the described behavior is ugly, illegal and intolerable anywhere.

You are the 1st and only poster to try to change the subject from Christer-Gone-Wild to your hurt feelings over regional bias.

[Syrinx]

10. It's absolutely not about me, and I'm directly on topic

Nobody has hurt my feelings. And I didn't try to change the topic.

Have you ever heard of something called "threads?" Do you understand the concept?

Sometimes a post can evolve, or even devolve, into a series of sub-threads, where people discuss different issues raised by the original post. That's a basic principle of message boards, in general.

I agree that the described behavior is ugly, illegal, and intolerable anywhere.

But I've seen it a million times. When these kinds of things happen in Alabama or Tennessee or Mississippi or Georgia, people post things about those places. "Fuck The South."

But when it is in the midwest or California or anywhere else in the nation, it is treated as an one-off incident, and nobody ever says "fuck the midwest" or "fuck California," etc.

If you want to tell me what is "on-topic" enough for you, maybe you should apply for a moderator's license.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Christian Naturalism has a history in the US

I heard of such churches growing up and of course nudist colonies.



By the middle of the 19th century, Queen Victoria had come to power in the United Kingdom.<59> The queen's influence was legendary, even spreading to other areas of Europe and America, which were outside of the British Empire. (Her ancestors were mainly German.) Due to previous sexual and other scandals of her predecessors in the House of Hanover, Queen Victoria placed a strong emphasis on her idea of morality and family values. For the first time, burgeoning middle classes could begin to identify with the reigning king or queen. At this point, it became quite unacceptable to be seen nude in public for whatever reason. Missionaries even brought clothing to various indigenous peoples who lived nude in humid, tropical climates. After her death in 1901, naturism and nudism began to emerge in northern Germany, and gradually spread elsewhere.


In the United States, the Christian naturism movement (which was the first naturism movement of any sort in the U.S.) began in the late 1920s. This occurred at nearly the same time as the start of the Great Depression, under the leadership of New Jersey Dutch Reformed minister Ilsley Boone.<60> Initially, he was vice president of the American League for Physical Culture. By October 1931, Boone had taken over as president, and renamed the club as the "American Sunbathing Association" (ASA). Soon, naturism began expanding nationwide.


Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_naturism

[formercia]

4. A bunch of old Church Ladies

It's a visual I would rather forget.

[Ian David]

5. Good work if you can find it. n/t

[MerryBlooms]

6. Ick. n/t

[mod mom]

7. He's a crook besides a pervert:

he owed $60,000 in unpaid child support, $150,000 in back taxes and nearly $200,000 to other creditors

from the article.

[Ian David]

8. Sounds like he was definitely taking advantage...

Then Livingston increasingly went in alone with each participant. Both got naked. Livingston touched her private parts, even inserted his fingers into them. The women touched his penis while they prayed, according to testimony.

Livingston testified the therapy was separate from his church, used merely as a "spiritual guidance" to benefit some followers. He said light therapy had shown "miraculous" results, that he reduced anxiety in a victim of molestation and turned homosexuals and sexual addicts into "virtuous people." His wife not only was "healed" of spiritual and emotional issues, but rid herself of chronic yeast infections, he testified.

<snip>

Ericksen also disputed the ritual's healing power. She told the Tribune it was coupled with constant demands that she tell Livingston everything she was thinking. When she told Livingston she was uncomfortable with the ritual, he told her she was really feeling the sin in her needing to be expelled from her body by more intense therapy, she said.

<snip>

She also made a bombshell allegation in an affidavit filed in Kane County: As part of the ritual, Livingston had induced a follower's then 13- and 10-year-old daughters to stroll naked with him in his home, and about once a week he took the older girl into a room used for the ritual.

More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-naked-minister-20110928,0,670397.story