Sometime in the Spring of 1985 a
former member of the Rajneesh called us and said there was child abuse and
neglect on an epic scale at the ranch.
Among the accusations were:
The children were shuffled off
to a building to languish with little care; with nothing to give them
stimulation or teachings.
The parents were working twelve
hour days and rarely saw their children.
The children were just in the
way of the Rajneesh and this accuser was concerned about their welfare.
The accuser had left the commune
over a year prior to the phone call. I
was told (can’t remember who) that it was not unusual for a former member of a
suppressive society such as the Rajneesh’s isolationism, to take a while to
overcome their apprehensions and to speak out.
Child abuse or neglect is a
serious accusation and one we took seriously.
We investigated those complaints, all of them.
One of our investigators and a
Children Services Department (CSD) investigator drove down to the ranch to
investigate the charges.
This would be the first time the
CSD investigator went to the ranch and she was apprehensive. As they were driving down the road into the
ranch she was voicing that apprehension and the deputy assured her she would be
fine and said, ‘just don’t drink the Kool aid.’
That comment was in reference to
the massive murder/suicide of the Jimmy Jones cult a few years earlier.
Within a day or two of the
initial investigation I received a letter from the Chief – the tone was how dare
we investigate anything on their ranch sense they had a peace department that
should have done it. They are a crime
free city, and no child neglect was going on.
AND she was upset by the reference to the Kool aide.
My response was: as Sheriff, I
or any of my deputies may investigate any alleged crime within the county
whether inside a city limits or not. I
didn’t mention, figure why add fuel to the fire, that since the State’s Attorney
General had advised the Police Academy not to accept Rajneesh’ ‘Peace Officers’
into the academy and to not certify them since this was a city being run by an
religion – that her ‘Peace Department’ had no credibility.
Then I asked who said anything
about hearing the deputy say anything about Kool aid and where did they hear
it?
There was no answer to the
question.
It was possible the deputy may
have said something at lunch in the restaurant – he couldn’t remember – but if
done it wasn’t where anyone could hear it.
We had long suspected that we
were being monitored by the Rajneesh. We
were careful about what we said around them.
It is doubtful they could have
heard anything while the deputy was in the car, (although the super microphones
being used by major networks that can pick up conversations from as far away as
500 feet may have been available) but, as we later learned, it was quite
possible the Rajneesh had bugged the area in which they had lunch.
Among the things we discovered
in our investigation later that year was that outsiders (particularly officials)
were always placed at certain tables in the restaurant. These tables were indeed bugged and
conversations recorded.
Within a few days of the
investigation I received a phone call from a man who purported to be an attorney
for the Rajneesh. He demanded copies of
the reports on the investigation.
One of the first things you
learn as a police officer is that no one gets reports about an on-going
investigation except those agencies – in this case it would be the District
Attorney and CSD – involved in the investigation.
I told him it was a case under
investigation and I would not give him a report. He ranted and raved and advised me that I had
‘better talk to your attorney’ about that and threatened a law suit. I said, you are free to talk to the DA about
the reports.
He slammed down the phone.
I did advise the DA that the
Rajneesh were trying to get copies of our reports on the investigation.
He laughed and said there was a
way to squelch this harassment and he went to the presiding judge – who ordered
a ‘gag order’ which prevented us from talking to anyone about the
investigation.
A few days later this same
‘attorney’ called back and asked if the reports were ready to be picked up.
I once again told him that it
was an ongoing investigation and we would not be releasing anything.
I listened to his ranting and
threats and then said that was fine, he could do what he wanted – and “Oh, by
the way,” the judge had a gag order on this and that it just added emphasis to
the fact he wasn’t going to get anything at this time.
He slammed down the phone and we
never again had a conversation.
The investigation didn’t come up
with any viable victims but we left the case open in case we got more proof of a
crime(s) later.
Frankly, I was enjoying my give
and take with the Rajneesh, thus far it had been our win on every situation.
1 King 18:17-18 And it came to pass,
when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth
Israel?
18 And he answered, I have
not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed
Baalim.
I like Elijah, I like his bold
approach.
Ahab had sinned; he had been
warned by Elijah that because he was sinning the whole country would be thrown
into a drought for three years.
When they meet again in three
years, Ahab accused Elijah of causing all their problems. Elijah doesn’t hesitate to lay the burden
strictly on Ahab’s shoulders where it belongs.
It is amazing how leaders of
nations think their anti-God decisions will not be held against them AND the
country they are leading.
Today, our government is not
much different from the government that had King Ahab leading it. They are setting up or encouraging the making
of ‘gods’ ours are politicians, movie and television stars, media stars all of
which promote sinful behavior and then cast the Christians as the demons
creating problems for our country.
They are quick to condemn those
that proclaim faith in God and try to live a life that pleases Him.
When things go wrong it is not
their fault, it is not the fault of the decisions they have made; it is more
increasingly the Christians’ fault because we don’t kowtow to the government or
the lies of the world.
How dare we defend God’s Word
against the actions of these people.
How dare we say we have a right
to our opinions – because their view of the world is the only one that counts
and we are being intolerant.
I don’t see many Christians
harassing and vandalizing the private property of those that are acting out
their sins and promoting sin as the new acceptable moral code.
But I see an increasing of the
criminal element being active against those that stand for God and His Word.
Yet, what can we expect from
those that dance to the tune of satan?
They have to attack, they have to threaten and commit crimes, they have
no self-center that will control their behavior.
They HAVE to quiet the voice of
God that is being proclaimed to the world, and more importantly is condemning
them within their heart, within their conscience. If they can destroy the ‘prophets’ they won’t
be convicted in their hearts any longer.
It doesn’t work that way, but they will do all they can to destroy God’s
people in trying to make it work.
AND the government and media are
condoning those actions. They are making
heroes of those that are rampaging over the laws while those that question both
the behavior and the tolerance of it are to blame for the damages.
When government makes sin a
legal right; then trying to convince those that want to commit those actions
that it is a sin falls on deaf ears.
There are many Christians that
are seeing and saying that America is going faster and faster, each day, down
the skids of decay. Only a miracle from
God can pull us out of the quagmire and cesspool of sins we find ourselves
in.
And many are saying America is
lost; satan has won over the country.
Still, yet and again, OUR
primary responsibility is to God and His Son.
We need to maintain that relationship at all costs, ALL costs. No matter what the world and our government
might do to us.
The world really hasn’t changed
much since the flood. We still have a
few people who believe in and worship our Lord and Savior; while the world tries
to destroy Him and us.
The problems we are seeing
today, worldwide and in America, in particular, are problems that have been
recorded throughout time.
Great nations have arisen, only
to be destroyed from within by the actions of the leaders and at the approval of
those being led.
Why we thought America would be
any different, I cannot now imagine. I
never thought we would be so far away from God so early in our history – in the
past few decades we have destroyed the foundation with which this country was
formed.
We have taken God out of the
formula and America is suffering as a result.
But every day we are alive is
one more day that God has given us to serve Him. There are needy people in the world, people
the Holy Spirit has been working with, getting them ready for a Christian who is
willing to testify to them of God’s love and Grace.
May we never let our guard down,
always prepared to go to war for God.
May we never let our standards down so they can be trampled upon by the
world.
May God use us for His
Glory.
Later, Art :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment