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This redirect is about the organization of Raëlians and its critics. For Raëlian activities, see Raëlian activities.
A gathering of Raëlians in South Korea
Part of a series of articles on the
Raëlian movement
Doctrines

In sociology, the Raëlian Church is an UFO religion advocating free love and progress toward nanotechnology and a technological singularity.[1][2] A former French automobile journalist[3] and recently retired racecar driver named Claude Vorhilon is the founder and current head of this movement.[4]

Susan J. Palmer, a sociologist from Canada, has studied the movement since 1987[5] and says the movement intentionally stirs a moderate level of controversy to maintain membership.[6] This view is shared by Mike Kropveld, the executive director of an anti-cult organization with the name Info-Cult, who says the controversy leads to criticism by both religious and non-religious fronts.[7] Nevertheless, the Raëlian Church expels some people, such as two former guides of the movement's Belgian chapter who were convicted of child molestation in 1995.[8] National authorities,[9] mainstream media,[10] and young adults[11] have increasingly investigated the church's activities as a result of the notorious human cloning claim by Raëlian Bishop Brigitte Boisselier that an American woman underwent a standard cloning procedure, which led to a new daughter named Eve.

Members of the Raëlian Church are people who have baptisms authored by Raëlian clergy in quarterly ceremonies, and among the converts are those in the clegry (e.g. Bishops, Priests, and Priest Assistants) as well as women's rights groups such as the Order of Angels and Raël's Girls. The organization may have as many as sixty-five thousand members,[12] including those who agree with the movement's physicalist explanation of the origin of life on Earth and other religions.[13]

Structure and membership

Organizational structure

See also: Raël, Glenn Carter, and Brigitte Boisselier
Level 6:
Guide of Guides
Planetary guide
Level 5:
Bishop 		Level 4:
Priests 		Level 3:
Assistant Priest
Continental head
National guide
Regional guide 		National guide
Regional guide 		Regional guide
Sources [14][15]
Level 2:
Organizers 		Level 1:
Assistant Organizers
Level 0:
Trainees

The structure of the Raëlian Church is hierarchal religious order with seven levels from six to zero.[16] The top four levels of the religious order consist of guides. The level six guide, known as the "Guide of Guides", has the final say on who becomes a level five "bishop" guide or a level four "priest" guide.[17] Bishops and priests promote lower-level members one level at a time during annual seminars. Each bishop or priest can propose a new guide as long as the candidate is from a level below his or her own. Guides can assist regional guides, level three and above,[14][15] in their assigning of non-guide members to levels three, two, and one which are assistant priests, organizers, and assistant organizers respectively.

Members of the Raëlian structure begin as level zero trainees during annual seminars. There are no verified counts of inner body membership by third parties, but figures by the movement itself suggest that the size of the structure is small in relation of the size of the whole church. Issue #331 of Raelian Contact Newsletter suggests that this structure has about twenty-three hundred members.[18] while the Raëlian Press Release Site says there are about one hundred seventy priests or bishops.[19] After completing three seven-year terms, Claude Vorhilon holds the highest position.[17]

Raëlian Women at the Seoul Korea Love Hug Festival

Role of women

Women are a minority in most chapters of the Raëlian Church, but it is claimed that the Mongolian chapter attracts a female majority.[20] Despite the overall difference between the number of females vs. males in the movement, women such as Brigitte Boisselier, the Chief Executive Officer of Clonaid, play a powerful role in the Raëlian Church. There are two major groups of women in the Raëlian Church.

The Order of Angels, founded in the 1990s consists of over a hundred Raëlian women who call for femininity and refinement for all of humanity.[21][22] The initiation rites include declaring an oath or making a contract in which one agrees to become defender of the Raëlian ideology and its founder Raël.[23][7] The Order of Angels has its own hierarchy of rose angels and white angels which, as of 2003, are six and one hundred sixty women, respectively.[24] After the Clonaid human cloning claim made the headlines, the Daily Telegraph wrote that members of the order not only provide sexual pleasure for Raël, but also help donate eggs for efforts towards human cloning.[25] A few days later, Time magazine wrote that French chemist Brigitte Boisselier is an Order of Angels member.[26] Around this time, cult specialist Mike Kropveld called the Order of Angels "one of the most transparent movements" he had ever witnessed, however, he was alarmed by the women's commitment to defend Raël's life with their own bodies.[7]

Raël has instructed some women members to play a pro-sex feminist role in the Raëlian Church. Rael's Girls is another group of women in the movement which are against the suppression of feminine acts of pleasure, including sexual intercourse with men or women. Rael's Girls, in contrast to the Order of Angels, solely consists of women who work in the sex industry. In contrast to the teachings of the world's major religions, the women of Rael's Girls say there is no reason to repent for performing striptease or being a prostitute.[27][28] This organisation was set up to counteract the influence of the JC's girls mission of the Christian ex-stripper Heather Veitch.[29]

Major activities

See also: Raëlian activities

Transmission of the Cellular Plan

See also: Raëlians and History of Raël
File:Raël giving a Transmission of the Cellular Plan.jpg
Raël giving a Transmission of the Cellular Plan

The transmission of the Cellular plan is a Raëlian practice beginning with Raël in 1976 and continuing till this day. This Raëlian form of baptism involves a guide member laying water onto the forehead of the new member.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). However instead of saving an ethereal soul, Raëlians believe a computer records the action. They believe the Elohim extraterrestrials judge them for participating in the baptism, which becomes a factor in the initiate's final hour of judgment.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Several people inside and outside the movement make comments about the practice. Glenn Carter, a level five member of the Raëlian structure in London says that it makes official, from the Raëlian Movement's point of view, that one has accepted to become a Raëlian.[16] Canadian sociologist Susan J. Palmer says that in 1979, Raël introduced the "Act of Apostasy" as an obligation for those preparing for their Raëlian baptism.[30] CTV Television Network states that apostasy from other religions is required for new Raëlian members.[31] Joining the Raëlian Church through transmission of the cellular plan happens only in certain days of the year. There are four such days, marking important anniversaries in the Raëlian calendar.[32]

The first ceremonial date is August 6, which marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.[33] This is not to be confused with a celebration of the bombing, Raëlians view events like Hiroshima as events common to socially primitive but intellectually developed societies in the universe. They believe societies that find enough energy to reproduce across star systems, will guarantee their own self-destruction if they become to violent - without ever being able to reach planets in other star systems. The second date is December 13, 1973, the day that Raël says he had his first personal encounter with one of the extraterrestrial Elohim.[34] The third is October 7, 1975, in which the Elohim, Raël says, took him up in a spacecraft and the following day had meals with the living body of Jesus Christ as well as that of Buddha and other past religious figures.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). The last anniversary that Palmer gives is the first Sunday in April, which Raëlians believe is the date when dark-skinned extraterrestrials created Adam and Eve.[32][35]

File:Meeting about Raëlism at Onyang High School, South Korea.jpg
Meeting about Raëlism at Onyang High School, South Korea

Meetings

See also: Sensual Meditation and Meditation

While there are smaller meetings of Raëlians and non-Raëlians, annual Raëlian seminars are typically larger.[36][37][38] Music is a feature of large gatherings, where at night, Raëlians have multiethnic cabaret performances.[39] Each seminar, which takes place over several days, has structure members organizing a group meditation exercise called Sensual Meditation.

James R. Lewis, an authority on fringe religious movements, speaks of Raëlians who practice Sensual Meditation discovering "playing fields" where "radical self-reconstruction," "new forms of authority," and "new modes of self-relating" are encouraged.[40] Such seminars have been reported to attract a diverse mix of sexually-adventurous people.[41]

Proliferating sexual expression is also encouraged in these seminars. A few weeks after the Clonaid claims of cloning a human being, the Washington Post stated that in Raëlian seminars, people use colored bracelets to indicate what kind of sexual partners, if any, they wish to have.[42] KNBC then called the annual Raëlian seminars "a cross between a nudist camp and new-age retreat."[12] Later, Agence France-Presse reports Raëlians crawling around in cross-dressing plays in which both sexes are participants.[23]

Beliefs

Main article: Raëlism

Raëlians emphasize secular and hedonistic ideas, rather than worshipping a supreme metaphysical deity.[43] The Raëlian Church members follow a UFO religion that favors a strong version of physicalism - the belief that everything consists only of physical properties.[13] Raëlians deny the existence of the ethereal soul and a supernatural god, and believe that the mind is a function of matter alone, a paradigm which William James of (1964) would call epiphenomenalist.[44] This ties into their belief that mind transfer is possible and that it will be possible to create an identical human clone in terms of mind and personality, as long as the clone and the original are not alive at the same time.[45] These beliefs play a part in Raël's purported project, Valiant Venture Ltd. which he says provides a service called Clonaid for homosexual and infertile couples who want a child cloned from a partner's DNA.[46] Raëlians believe that other religions throughout history, such as Buddhism, Islam, and Mormonism, have testaments to extraterrestrial creators.[47] The Raëlian book Let's Welcome our Fathers From Space says that new advanced extraterrestrial civilizations will ultimately practice a final religion or "religion of the infinite".Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Past development

The movement traces its beginnings to a conference in Paris, France of two thousand people in 1974.[48] From there, the MADECH organization was born.[48] The name MADECH is a double acronym in the French language. The first stands for "Movement for the welcoming of the Elohim, creators of humanity" (Mouvement pour l‘accueil des Elohim, créateurs de humanité) while the second stands for "Moses preceded Elijah and the Christ" (Moise a devancé Élie et le Christ).[49] A news agency said that by 1976, the International Raelian Movement became the replacement for MADECH as a result of Raël's influence.[24]

Various news media have given estimates of the movement's size, and the statistics agree with a long-term term trend of past growth. However, despite media efforts to provide accurate information, Raëlian Church membership estimates can vary even within a given year by tens of thousands.

Criticism and controversy

1990s

Lady on bed adorned with Raëlian symbol

Sexual intercourse

See also: Group sex, Condom, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Voyeur

Susan J. Palmer writes that in 1991, a French journalist went to a Raëlian Seminar and taped couples having sexual intercourse in tents. These tapes gained widespread negative publicity, with news stories describing these practices as perverted and a form of brainwashing.[50]

Palmer says since 1991, Raël's teachings on sexual intercourse have caused controversy among other religious groups. The next year, Catholic schools in Montreal, Canada objected to a proposed condom vending machine as contrary to their mission. In response, Raëlians guides gave the Catholic students ten thousand condoms. The Commissioner of Catholic schools for Montreal say they could do nothing to stop them. Around this time, Raëlians dub the event "Operation Condom".[51][50]

In Belgium, two guide members of the Raëlian Movement were convicted of having sexual intercourse with children on January 15, 1995 of that year, by the Court of First Instance in Brussels (Tribunal de première instance de Bruxelles). They were each given a prison sentence of five years. Subsequently, French psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall testified to a Belgian parliamentary board of inquiry that the Raëlian Movement posed a public danger, particularly to children. This claim was contested and the Raëlian Movement sued Abgrall for slander and libel, but lost the case.[8]

Sexual predators and guides who force missionary ideas against members are excommunicated by the Raëlian Church for a minimum of seven years, the amount of time Raëlians believe it takes for all of a person's biological cells to be regenerated.[52] Raëlians Issue #324 of Raëlian Contact shows a picture of Raëlians in Los Angeles, California expressing their condemnation of acts of pedophilia, particularly those associated with celibate Catholic priests. Their message is that minors and adults should not be mixed in the act of sex.[53] On the other hand, Raëlians claim children should have "complete sexual liberty".[54] Therefore, authorities in the Swiss canton Valais denied an application by Raël to live in their area.[54]

File:Symbols (Raëlism).png
Oldest Raëlian logo to newest

Allegations of fascism and racism

See also: Swastika, Geniocracy, Fascism, and Racism

In 1991, an anti-cult organization called Info-Cult of Montreal made statments against the Raëlian Church with an article on Le Devoir. Info-Cult branded the Raëlians as promoters of fascism and racism.[50] One reason given was that the church uses a swastika as part of their logo and the other is the Raëlian description of an extraterrestrial global government in which those less than ten percent above average intelligence are excluded from the electorate.[55] Outside Info-Cult's office, Raëlians spoke against the act of discriminating against a religious minority.[50]

In January 2, 1992, a dozen people protested against the use of the swastika in the Raëlian logo in Miami's Eden Roc Hotel. Claude Vorhilon appeared at the end of this one week seminar, at a conference with an attendance of two hundred and thirty people. The use of the swastika and other Raelian practices has led to criticism from the group Hineni of Florida, a Jewish anti-cult organization.[56]

2000s

Intentional stirring of the media by members

Raëlian organizers made deliberate attempts to shock, titillate, and capture the media's imagination.[57] The book Yes to Human Cloning (2001) attracted media attention after its release, including segments on 20/20 and 60 minutes.[58] Biophysicist Gregory Stock described the Raëlian Clonaid project as "sufficiently quirky to command instant media attention."[59] It has been estimated that the group received free publicity worth five hundred million US dollars as a result of the Clonaid claim.[60] Mark Hunt, a lawyer and politician who wished to clone his dead son with the help of the Clonaid services, was overwhelmed by the height of the media attention and in an interview said that Clonaid's Chief Executive Officer had become a "press hog".[61]

Stem cells and human cloning

See also: Stem Cells, Human Cloning, Stem cell controversy, and Inviolability

The Raëlian Church has close links with the controversial company Clonaid, which claimed in 2002 to have produced a cloned human being.[10] Around this time, Clonaid's subsidiary BioFusion Tech says that have in possession a cell fusion device with which they can create cloned human embryos.[62] The Vatican, however, says that experimenters expressed "brutal mentality" for attempting to clone human beings.[63] Former Pope John Paul II criticizes the experiment which he believes threatens the dignity of human life.[64] In response, the leader of the Raëlian Church dismissed the Pope's ethical concerns, calling them an "accumulation of religious prejudices."[63]

Raëlians asking to stop the prohibition of Raël's entry into Korea

Authorities deny entry of Raël and his wife into Korea

In 2003, South Korean immigration authorities denied Raël entry into their country, in response to his association with Clonaid.[65] This decision leads to the canceling of the planned seminar for seven hundred people. This led to South Korean Raëlians protesting near the center of Ministry of Health and Welfare, which made the decision to stop Raël from returning to the state.[65]

Officials detained Raël for nine hours at Incheon International Airport before he and his wife Sophie de Niverville left for Tokyo, on their way back to Canada.[9] Raël responded by saying that Korean officials treated him like a "North Korean" and that he would wait for an apology before coming back to Korea. Korean Raëlian and Clonaid associate Kwak Gi-hwa says Raël has instructed members to stage protests.[9]

Interplanetary embassy proposal in Lebanon

See also: Swastika and Star of David

In 2005, the Israeli Raëlian Guide Kobi Drori stated that the Lebanese government was discussing proposals by the Raëlian movement to build their "interplanetary embassy" in Lebanon. However, one condition was that the Raëlians did not display their logo on top of the building, because it mixes a swastika and a Star of David. According to Drori, the Raëlians involved declined this offer, as they wished to keep the symbol as is.[66]

Cult status

See also: Cult, Sect, and Religion

The government of France classifies the Raelian Movement as a secte (French word for cult). Journalists rarely question the Raëlian Movement's cult status. However, according to Glenn McGee, who is the associate director of the Center for Bioethics' at the University of Virginia, part of the sect is a cult while the other part is a commercial website that collects large sums of money from those interested in human cloning.[67]

In 2005, a Wired news report said that two young adults named Abdullah Hashem and Joseph McGowen were welcomed into a Raëlian seminar and had permission to videotape it. They believe the footage they took makes it clear that the Raelian Movement is a cult which should disband. However, Sage Ali, a Raëlian guide, said in a Wired interview that he is not ashamed of what is shown and that he has no concerns about this incident.[11][68]

Journalists also use the word sect as an alternative to the word cult to describe the movement. Journalists prefer this alternative over the word religion because it denotes the movement's lack of affiliation with any mainstream religion. However, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor[69] and sociologist Susan J. Palmer[70] have classified the International Raëlian Movement as a religion.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Rael: Yes to Human Cloning p. 69.
  2. ^ Rael: Yes to Human Cloning p. 110-112.
  3. ^ AutoPop, la revue des pilotes Raël : Messie ou Menteur ?. Retrieved 20 June 2007
  4. ^ Palmer, p. 41.
  5. ^ Review of Aliens Adored: Rael's UFO Religion by Publisher's Weekly, Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved 4 June 2007.
  6. ^ Palmer, p. 77.
  7. ^ a b c McCann, Brigitte, Raelian Nation angels poised to die for prophet, Calgary Sun. 7 October 2003. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
  8. ^ a b Procès Raël contre Jean-Marie Abgrall, Prevensectes Template:Fr icon
  9. ^ a b c Goodenough, Patrick, Cloning Cult Miffed About Treatment of Leader, Cybercast News Service. 6 August 2007. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  10. ^ a b THE CLONING DEBATE, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. 27 December 2002. Retrieved 10 February 2007.
  11. ^ a b Philipkoski, Kristen, Some Sex With Your Clone Perhaps?, Wired News. 31 August 2005. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  12. ^ a b 'Clone Baby' & Raelians, NBC 4 Los Angeles. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 12 March 2007.
  13. ^ a b Partridge, p. 21.
  14. ^ a b Wong, Jan, Clone artist, The Globe and Mail. 7 April 2001. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
  15. ^ a b [www.raelianews.org Raelianews: Downloads], Raelian Contact Newsletter. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
  16. ^ a b Welcome to the Raelian World, British Raelian Movement. 2006. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
  17. ^ a b Isaksson, Stefan, New Religious UFO Movements: Extraterrestrial Salvation in Contemporary America - AnthroBase, California State University, Fresno. Spring 2000. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  18. ^ For our pleasure..., Raelian Contact 331. 7 April 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2007
  19. ^ Raelian Press Site, The International Raëlian Movement. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  20. ^ Celebrating the First Sunday of April, Raelian Contact 322. 14 April 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2007.
  21. ^ Dellagloria, Rebecca, LINCOLN ROAD: Raelians swagger for femininity: Dressed down as far as they could muster without attracting authorities, a handful of women and men paraded in South Beach for the cause of femininity., The Miami Herald. 7 March 2005. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  22. ^ RaelRadio #7: Femininity Day, RaelRadio.net. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
  23. ^ a b “Sensual seminars” and flying saucers, Agence France-Presse. 22 September 2005. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  24. ^ a b Raelians and Cloning: Are They for Real?, Zenit News Agency. 16 January 2003. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
  25. ^ Broughton, Philip D. Promise of as much sex as you want and everlasting life, The Daily Telegraph. 31 December 2002. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  26. ^ Gibbs, Nancy, Abducting The Cloning Debate, Time Magazine in partnership with CNN. 5 January 2003. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
  27. ^ I-Team: Alien Nation, Raelians Moving Headquarters to Las Vegas, WorldNow and KLAS. 8 May 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2007.
  28. ^ Rael's Girls, 2006. Retrieved 1 June 2007.
  29. ^ RAEL's Girls in Support of Strippers, PR Newswire. 10 May 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
  30. ^ Palmer, p. 60.
  31. ^ Paredes, Noelle, The Raelians: Roots, beliefs and future plans, CTV Television Network. 27 December 2002. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
  32. ^ a b Palmer, p. 64.
  33. ^ Raël, p. 151.
  34. ^ Raël, p. 4, 121-2, 136, 143, 223.
  35. ^ RaelAfrica.org, RaelAfrica.org. Retrieved 9 August 2006.
  36. ^ Raëlian Seminars in the Americas, The International Raëlian Movement. Retrieved August 6 2006.
  37. ^ Raëlian Seminars in Asia, The International Raëlian Movement. Retrieved August 6 2006.
  38. ^ Raëlian Seminars in Europe, The International Raëlian Movement. Retrieved August 6 2006.
  39. ^ Palmer, p. 62.
  40. ^ Lewis, The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds, p. 133.
  41. ^ The Sexual Messiah, National Post. 7 August 1999. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  42. ^ Brown, DeNeen L., The Leader of UFO Land, Washington Post. 17 January 2003. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
  43. ^ Partridge, p. 47.
  44. ^ Palmer, p. 23.
  45. ^ Raël, p. 167.
  46. ^ Edwards, p. 470.
  47. ^ Raël, p. 89.
  48. ^ a b Rael: Messenger of the Elohim, The International Raelian Movement. Retrieved 1 December 2006.
  49. ^ Raël, p. 104.
  50. ^ a b c d Susan J. Palmer, The Rael Deal, Religion in the News, Summer 2001, Vol. 4, No. 2.
  51. ^ Religious Movements Homepage: Raelians (paragraph on Operation Condom), University of Virginia. Retrieved 4 March 2007.
  52. ^ Palmer, p. 63.
  53. ^ DIFFUSION IN THE WORLD: THE US TEAMS DENOUNCE CATHOLIC PRIESTS PEDOPHILIA, Raelian Contact 324. 11 December 2006. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  54. ^ a b Cult leader Rael denied residence in Switzerland, Agence France-Presse. 19 February 2005. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  55. ^ Rael, Geniocracy. The Raelian Foundation, 2004.
  56. ^ USE OF SWASTIKA LOGO PROMPTS BEACH PROTEST, The Miami Herald. 3 January 1992. Retrieved 8 June 2007. (highlight)
  57. ^ Lewis, Controversial New Religions, p. 371.
  58. ^ Tandy, p. 156.
  59. ^ Stock, p. 157.
  60. ^ Bates, p. 15.
  61. ^ United States Congress, p. 356.
  62. ^ Human cloning firm sets up affiliate in Korea, Korea Herald. 13 July 2002. Retrieved 19 July 2002.
  63. ^ a b Vatican slams 'brutal' clone claim, CNN. 28 December 2002. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
  64. ^ Religious Leaders Condemn Report of Cloned Baby, CNN. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
  65. ^ a b Ji-young, So, Raelian Cult Leader Threatens to Sue Korea Over Denied Entry, Korea Times. 3 August 2003. Retrieved 12 March 2007
  66. ^ Thomas, Amelia, Raelians want to establish ET embassy in Jerusalem, Middle East Times. 18 November 2005. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  67. ^ Thomasch, Paul, The sportswriter, the aliens, and a cult with 55,000 believers, The Guardian. 28 December 2002. Retrieved 24 May, 2007.
  68. ^ A VERY SPECIAL SEMINAR IN LAS VEGAS, Raelian Contact 273. May 26 2005. Retrieved 26 June 2007. (French, raelianews.org version)
  69. ^ International Religious Freedom Report 2003, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 18 December 2003. Retrieved 6 August 2006.
  70. ^ Palmer, p. 1-3.

References

Further reading

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