Authorities also investigated the case of one young mother who endured labour for five days before it was eventually decided that she should be taken to hospital. By the time she reached the hospital, the baby had died inside her. No charges were pressed.
Serious childhood illnesses such as whooping cough and hepatitis have also gone undetected and therefore untreated, leading to death. One couple who did receive a prison term for causing the death of their son were Michael Ginhoux and Dagmar Zoller, whose 19-month-old son died of malnutrition and a curable heart disorder.
Zeb Wiseman, the son of Eddie Wiseman, eventually left the group and spoke out about
the death of his mother within the Twelve Tribes. She had been suffering from uterine cancer but was denied medical care, and had died a drawn-out and painful death. The young Zeb was beaten, locked up, and told that his mother had died because she was a sinner, and because she had once voiced her disapproval of the apostle Spriggs.
Also accused of practising child labour, Spriggs does confirm that children are asked to assist their parents in the factories and the farms from a young age, yet he claims that the group is not in violation of any child labour laws. The group formerly supplied furniture to Robert Redford’s Sundance mail order catalogue, but this range has since been cancelled. Estée Lauder also pulled a huge contract from them when they discovered that children were being used to help make their products.
No amount of negative media attention has yet brought down the Twelve Tribes or Eugene Elbert Spriggs, and the group continues to grow. There are currently more than 25 communities across the world, mainly in the US, but also in England, France, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and Canada. Across these nine countries there are an approximate 2,500 members – it is estimated that half of this number are children under 15 years old.
Falun Gong
The Practice of the Wheel of the Dharma
By the end of the 1990s, a decade which had witnessed the mass suicides of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and the attempt by the Aum Supreme Truth in Tokyo to kill thousands of commuters in a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, there was a climate of fear and suspicion surrounding spiritual or religious movements with large groups of followers. As a result of this paranoia, the government in China decided to launch a crackdown on various spiritual groups, and amongst those targeted was the Falun Gong. Meaning ‘The practice of the wheel of Dharma’, Falun Gong (originally named Falun Dafa but renamed after this practice), was reported by the Chinese government to have two million members. This figure was perhaps an attempt by the government to play down the actual membership, for the Falun Gong movement itself claimed to have over 100 million.
The Falun Gong’s response to this move by the Chinese government was to hold a silent and peaceful protest in front of the Communist Party headquarters in Beijing. Ten thousand of its members participated in this demonstration on April 25, 1999. Yet, instead of reassuring the Chinese authorities of the harmless intentions of the group, the silent protest threw the government into an even greater panic. Both the size of the assembled group, and the fact that they had been leaked no details of it by the Chinese intelligence services, terrified them. To them, it demonstrated a frightening level of secrecy and organization within the movement and so they concentrated their efforts against it with a renewed vigour.
OUTLAWED
The Falun Gong movement was outlawed in July 1999, and its members were discriminated against. Some members had their properties broken into by the police and their possessions taken, and others were denied the retirement pension to which they were entitled. Some were simply harassed on the street, or as they performed their group exercises in public. Falun Gong claims that some members simply disappeared and were never seen again, or were taken to prison and labour camps on fictitious charges and never released. Chinese lawyers were not allowed to defend the members of the Falun Gong unless agreed with the government, and no international legal representation was permitted. They were accused of fraud and deception and of posing a threat not only to the government but to the very foundation of Chinese society.
The Falun Gong was branded a ‘cult’ by the Chinese government, and even held responsible for the unsolved murders of many Chinese citizens. Consequently, an arrest warrant was issued for Li Hongzhi, the leader of this movement. The government accused him of carrying out these murders through his followers, by influencing them to commit the crimes. He was even accused of the deaths of 1,559 of the members themselves. Also wanted for the organization of ‘illegal’ demonstrations, Li Hongzhi fled to New York in 1996, and China has been pursuing America for his arrest and repatriation since.
INTERNATIONAL INVOLVEMENT
Not only has the US refused to deport Li Hongzhi, but they have condemned the Chinese government for its persecution of the Falun Gong and have passed resolutions which state that China should observe the UN Declaration of Human Rights and put a stop to the false imprisonment and abuse of the Falun Gong members. Yet the Chinese government maintains that the Falun Gong is a dangerous cult, and not the passive, inoffensive movement which America mistakenly perceives it to be. The government even claims that America’s pursuit of these resolutions is a direct attack on Chinese autonomy.
Recognizing their support in the US, 700 members of the Falun Gong went to the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in November 1999 to begin a worldwide drive for acceptance of their movement, and to encourage the Chinese government to enter into negotiations with them. Yet the government did not relent, and fought back with an even greater campaign of discrimination against them. The plight of the Falun Gong became internationally known, and the popularity of the group began increasing. They were seen as victims of China’s religious bigotry, and consequently global institutions began to cease trade links with China in support.
FOUNDATION OF THE FALUN GONG
The Falun Gong was founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992. Hongzhi claims to have been born on May 13, 1951 – the birthday of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama – but the government refutes this, declaring that their official records state that he was born on July 7, 1952. They maintain that he is falsifying his birthdate in order to claim some kind of link to the Buddha, a link which Hongzhi himself has never asserted. Whether this is true, or whether they are merely attempting to discredit him is unproven.
HONESTY, COMPASSION AND TOLERANCE
The basis of Falun Gong and Hongzhi’s teachings are the achievement of a higher level of spirituality and enlightenment. This is attained through a combination of exercise, to advance body and mind, and belief in a mixture of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist philosophies which promote honesty, compassion and tolerance. Followers must demonstrate these three virtues in every situation with which they are confronted. There are many levels of this enlightenment and it is an individual pursuit to achieve them. Falun Gong concentrates on the development of each human being as opposed to the advancement of the group.
According to Hongzhi the secrets of the Falun Gong were previously only disclosed by the master to an elite group of students. Such had been the tradition since ancient times in China as the teachings were very valuable and confidential. Li Hongzhi however, apparently on the directives of his own masters, made the teachings available to the public in 1992. As a result, the popularity of the movement grew.