What a black eye Kim Miller has given to the Body of Christ!!! The media somehow thinks he and his cult are Christian; however, they are neither concerned nor Christian. (S.S.)
Published in Washington, THE WASHINGTON TIMES JERUSALEM
D.C. 5am -- January 11, 1999
Jerusalem Ready to Deal with `Mania'
by Abraham RabinovichIsraeli officials fear the nearing millennium will bring many more threats to the nation's security from apocalyptic Christian sects such as the American group whose members were rounded up and deported last week. The threat is being taken so seriously that all of Israel's security and intelligence services -- including the Mossad, which normally deals with foreign espionage --have formed a joint task force to deal with the problem. With psychiatrists warning that as many as
40,000 visitors this year could require counseling for messianic mania, security chiefs are worried that suicides or other violent acts at holy sites in Jerusalem could spark a broad conflagration involving Muslims and Jews. Some extremist sects are believed to aspire to such a development in the expectation that an apocalypse would herald the second coming of Christ. Last week's arrest in a Jerusalem suburb of 14 members of the Denver-based Concerned Christians was the first coordinated operation by the special task force.Authorities had feared the group might attempt mass suicide or even a suicidal shootout with police on the Temple Mount. A senior police official said the seizure of the Americans was a showcase raid that authorities hope will deter other members of the sect from coming to Israel. The 14 were expelled from the country under a court order on Friday. Experts, however, doubt that religious ecstasies of fundamentalist Christian elements will be dampened by such arrests.
Dr. Yair Bar-El, chairman of the Israeli Psychiatric Society, predicted last week that some 40,000 of the 4 million tourists expected during the coming year will require psychiatric help as a result of messianic mania. Some 800, he said, will probably require at least temporary hospitalization. People with deep beliefs will be expecting to witness apocalyptic events that will change the face of humanity, he said. These events include the battle of Gog and Magog, the rising of the dead and the resurrection of Jesus.
Researchers at Boston University and Cornell have warned Israel to expect some pilgrims to try to catalyze the apocalypse by violent acts. Dr. Bar-El was the first to apply the name Jerusalem Syndrome to a phenomenon he identified between the years 1979 and 1993 when he was director of the Kfar Shaul Psychiatric Hospital in the city. Some 400 tourists were hospitalized there during this period after seizures of aberrant behavior. Most had previous psychiatric histories, but about 10 percent did not.
Many pilgrims gripped by religious intoxication don white garb and identify themselves with biblical figures. Some will shout or otherwise call attention to themselves. While such behavior may be nothing more than a nuisance or even a source of amusement, it sometimes takes a far more serious turn. In 1969, an Australian tourist, Dennis Rohan, gripped by religious ecstasy, set fire to the holiest Islamic shrine in the city, Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. His action touched off riots, not only in Israel but as far away as India, in which many people died.
Dr. Bar-El said that most of those without psychotic backgrounds who are hospitalized return to normal within five to seven days and are usually embarrassed at what they have done. They don't like to talk about the experience afterwards, he said. They simply don't understand what happened to them. Because of the millennial element, there is concern that the level of religious intoxication will be greatly heightened during the coming year. If people are expecting the apocalypse to occur and it doesn't happen, how will they react? Dr. Bar-El asked. Israeli authorities have been warned by American experts on fundamentalist Christian sects that disappointment over a failure to witness the apocalypse or Christ's second coming could lead to mass suicides in Jerusalem.
There are also reports that at least one Christian sect would like to destroy the Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount in order to see the ancient Jewish temple rebuilt and thus pave the way for Christ's second coming. Israeli police, concerned about Jewish as well as Christian fundamentalists, have in recent months installed sophisticated security devices on all the approaches to the Temple Mount and assigned a special force of 400 men to safeguard the holy site around the clock.
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