Page 6 University Daily Kansan, March 23, 1982
Opposition to deprogramming bill grows
By COLLEEN CACY Staff Reporter
TOPEKA-A a bill legalizing the deprogramming of religious cult members, which easily passed the Kansas House of Representatives last month, is facing stronger opposition in the Senate Judiciary committee.
Highly emotional testimony, both for and against the bill, attracted standing-room-only crowds of 175 during two days of hearings last week.
The hearings raised questions about the constitutionality of the bill, which would grant temporary guardianships to parents of cult members, and would allow professional counselors to help with their deprogramming, a process of psychological recovery from "mind control."
BUT OPPONENTS of the bill say it violates constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion.
"Once you get into the religion area,
"you're walking on awfully thin ice."
State Sen. Elwaune Pomeroy, chairman
of the Republican National Committee
yesterday, "What is called a cult now—
in 20 years may be a recognized religion."
Pomeroy, R-Topeka, said that the committee had not yet taken action on the bill and that he had not discussed it fully with other committee members.
But he said it could have problems, because it was too vague and might not be needed.
Those testifying against the bill included members of so-called cuts, such as the Sun. Rev Myung Moon's official Church, religious scholars and lawyers.
"We do not need laws that put a certain group of religions into a religious leper colony," Tim Miller, a professor in religious studies, said at the hearing.
MILLER SAID passage of the bill would separate religions into two classes—older, established religions and newer, smaller ones, labeled cuts.
"It is fair or constitutionally permissible to single out new and smaller religions?" he asked. "They are for me to forgo" for their religious movements have always done.
"If not restricted to religious minorities, the bill has no limits at all."
The bill does not use the term "cult,"
but refers to any group that uses a system of coercive persuasion, fraud and deception, and causes a dramatic change in personality or lifestyle in a member.
But Miller said the methods used by cults, such as Moon's Unification Church, the Hare Krishnas and the Way Ministries, were not much different from those used by the Christian religions.
"Conversions under pressure and threat of burning in hell are as American as apple pie," he said.
ALLEN EASLEY, associate professor of law at Washburn University, told the committee the bill was too vague.
"How do you determine where there is 'mind control' and where there is a real religious conversion?" he asked. "This legislation presumes we can select those people. We can't accurately say this person has been brainwashed and this person has undergone a religious conversion."
But Frank Tillman, professor of engineering at Kansas State University and a parent who testified in favor of the bill, said he grouped "mind control."
The only groups that have to worry
Tillman, who had his daughter deprogrammed after she joined a church that did not restrict freedom of religion, but guaranteed "freedom of thought."
are those that practice mind control," he said.
"I think it's getting a fair hearing, and that's what we wanted," he said.
Some of the bill's opponents acknowledged that cults were a problem, but said the solution did not lie in the Legislature.
FRANK FLINN, graduate of Harvard Divinity School and religion writer and editor, said better communication between parents and children was
Flinn said parents who took their children from cults by force were guilty of "a criminal felony of the worst kind—kidnapping."
"This issue cannot be a problem for
"this or any other legislative body," he said. "This task belongs not to
the church, but to the churches
persevere."
"Are not these tricks (that parents use to get their children from cults) used in the new reception" that very parents occured the new religions of using?" Fllin said.
Chet Johnson, Merriam, whose son is a member of the Unification Church, said the bill would violate his son's freedom of religion.
"These people are of a legal martyry," he said. "They have a right to protest."
JOHNSON SAID that although he and his wife were not "Moonies," they did not object to their son's decision to join the church.
"The Mooneyes are dedicated to God and serving their fellow man," he said. "Most of these kids are dying to have a rapport with their parents. Usually it's the parents who refuse to take the initial step.
"The parents were probably the ones who needed the deprogramming."
Other opponents of the bill said it would not be effective in stopping the culs from practicing alleged fraud and misrepresentation.
Pomeroy agreed that this was an objection to the bill.
He said that, according to some testimony, a deprogrammer must convince a person that he has been successfully deprogramming him.
"This does raise some question as to the need for the bill," he said.
JON HARDESTY/Kansan Staff
Students design fuel-efficient plane
Curt Maris, Newton senior, applies the finishing touch to the model airplane de-
velopment of a space engineering students. The plane soon will be put
through wind tuned tests.
By DEBBIE DOUGLASS Staff Reporter
With the cost of air travel spiraling higher and higher, the need for a more economical, fuel-efficient plane is becoming apparent.
The KU advanced aerospace engineering design class, as a class project, has built a model of just such an airplane.
The model plane has a three-foot wing span and is 1/20 the size the actual plane would be.
"The design and building of the actual plane is brand-new technology." Barry Streeter, Topeka City College, designed the design class, said recently.
HESAID the plane's wings would be made from a new material called carbon-carbon composite, which is like reinforced plastic and is the same material used in some of the cities of the space shuttle Columbia.
Streeter said that in last semester's design class, students each designed their own airplane. Jan Roskam, professor of aerospace engineering and instructor of the class, chose what he thought was the best design for the class to build as a model this semester.
Russ Killingsworth, who graduated last semester and is now working for General Dynamics in Chicago, said the companies that were chosen, Streater said.
In order to build the model plane, he said, the class set itself up as a company.
He said he had the job of chief engineer and was in charge or
coordinating the model's construction and testing.
STREETER SAID the four subengineers were Mike Johnson, Lawrence senior, in charge of designing the model from the drawings; Scott Stevenson, Lawrence senior, in charge of construction materials and seeing that the plane's components were built on time; Dave Hughes, Ottawa University; and Mark Keary, the model plane in a wind tunnel and seeing that the testing schedule was kept; and Mark Keary, Hays senior, in charge of evaluating the test results and writing a report.
Streeter said he wrote a report predicting the plane's flight characteristics.
"Hopefully there will be a good correlation between my predictions and what the airplane actually does," he said.
The model project has been very complicated and time consuming, "but Prof. Roskam has given his points on along the way." Keary
"I never did so much work for a class in my whole life."
Streeter said the class would run tests on the model plane from March 22 until April 9.
They will take the plane apart, Streeter said, and will add each component to the body separately to help the plane affects the plane's performance.
HE SAID the model would be placed in a wind tunnel, which would use a huge fan to blow wind up to 226 mph.
He said the actual plane was designed to fly at six-tenths the speed of sound, but the model would
be tested at only one-tenth and three-tenths the speed of sound.
With the information they get, Streeter said, they can predict what the plane will do at actual speed.
During the testing, he said, different class members will operate the wind tunnel, and the computer and will keep track of the results.
Johnson said that next year the design class would be building a scaled-down version of the plane and his design design could be evaluated even further.
STREETER SAID that NASA, which is helping to sponsor the project, wanted the test results so it could be used as base for the unconventional airplane.
"I think economics are going to force this kind of plane into being," he said.
Keary said that he hoped the plane would have a low-drag level, making it more fuel efficient.
"It will be cheaper to fly in this airplane than in most jets," he said.
Streeter said the model plane's body was made out of solid mahogany and its wings out of wood, with a thick coating of strong glue.
He said the horizontal- and vertical-tail wings were made with a steel core and layered with body that was sanded down and shapped.
VAN KEARNS, Marion senior,
said that building the model plane
gave the class good experience in
organization.
"Everyone had to work together to get it to turn out the way it did," he said.
"We can be pretty pleased with how it turned out."
Lawrence police reported a rape and robbery at 8:15 p.m. Sunday at a residence in the 1400 block of Oakhill Drive.
On the record
Police said two male suspects forced their way into the residence after the husband answered the door. They allegedly hit the man on the head with a 46-cariber handgun and wounded four victims on the living room floor.
The suspects then forced the woman to crawl into the bedroom to get her purse, police said. One of the women was killed while she was in the bedroom.
The suspects cut the telephone wires before they left the residence. police said.
Police said the couple was also robbed of $1,023 in cash and two rings. The suspects allegedly took a wedding ring worth $500 and an engagement ring. No value was reported for the engagement ring.
The victims described the suspects as two males in their early 20s. Both men wore skims masks. One was about 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 5 pounds, and the other was about 5 feet 6 inches and weighed about 170 pounds, police said.
There have been no arrests.
BURGLARS STOLE a motorcycle worth $1,350 sometime between 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday from a garage at 1016 Sunrise Drive, Brooklyn, NY 11204. A 1981 Yamaha from the unlocked garage. There are no suspects.
BURGLARS ALSO stole more than $350 worth of stereo equipment sometime between Friday and Saturday at 1625 Edgebel Rd., police said.
Burglaries entered a room and took two stereo equalizers, one worth $270 and the other worth $100. There are no suspects, police said.
on campus
TODAY
THE NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENTS ORGANIZATION will sponsor a Dutch lunch for members at 11 n.m. in Cork II of the Kansas Union.
THE ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES CENTER will sponsor a biblical seminar on "Good Rules and Bad Results" at 4:30 m. at the Center.
THE CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST will meet at 7 p.m. in the Javahawk Room of the Union.
THE TAU SIGMA DANCE CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in 242 Robinson Center.
THE LINGUISTICS COLLOQUY will meet at 7 p.m. in 108 Blake Hall. Soni Manuel-Dupont will be the guest speaker.
TOMORROW
THE MARANATHA CAMPUS
THE MARANATHA CAMPUS, in the
Farters of the Pekkanburg Union.
THE DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Trail Room of the Union.
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