A4 - Wednesday, October 19, 1983 - North Shore News

SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS have sprung up
across the country dedicated to the task of helping
people who have been brainwashed by various

nefarious cults.

Some of these cults pass
themselves off as stop-
smoking groups. Then, once
they’ve got you in their clut-
ches, they work you over
psychologically until, sud-
denly, you are one of
‘‘them.’’ Everyone else is the
enemy.

I'm totally in favor of any
Organization committed to
deprogramming poor souls
who have been sucked in by
cults. Yes, sir. The problem
is, where do we start, folks? |
mean is there, for instance, a
single church anywhere that
isn’t basically a cult?

Chnisuanity, I’m sure any
objective person will agree,
started off as a cult centered
around a chap named J.
Christ who claimed to have a
rather famous father. A cou-
ple of millenia later, what has
changed?

Buddhism, which | find
admirable in so many ways,

is likewise a personality cult
al its heart, no matter how
many times the believer is
urged to forget the ‘‘self”’
and truck on into Nirvana or
wherever it is a Buddhist goes
once he’s broken through the
vicious cycle of birth and
death and rebirth.

Mohammedanism — well,
need I overstate the case?

I’m not knocking religion,
you understand. But the
awkward truth is that when
we use the word ‘‘cult’’ in a
derogatory way, we are im-
mediately in trouble.

I know a woman who took
up the study of a certain Rus-
Sian mystic, now dis-
incarnate. She got so swept
up in his visionary notions
that she left her husband and
moved into a communal
house with a gaggle of other
disciples.

This was no crazed teeny-
bopper. This was a for-

midable, mature, extremely
intelligent and well-educated
woman, fluent in a number
of languages. If 1 was to sug-
gest to her that she was a
member of a cult, she would
not only be royally insulted,
she’d eat my brain for break-
fast.

Yet she’s a member of a
cult whether she wants to ad-
mit it or not. And so, to vary-
ing degrees, is anybody who
““believes’” in a Trudeau or
Bennett or Reagan or That-
cher. Or any other teacher or
guru or leader.

Culusm doesn’t just apply
to the Hare Knshnas, whose
cult at least has the distinc-
non of going back thousands
of years. ht applies equally to

strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

Shriners, bridge players,
football fans, hockey nuts,
mountain climbers, hackers,
literary buffs, stamp collec-
tors, whale lovers, sci-fi ad-
dicts, chess wizards,
yachtsmen, compulsive
travellers, gamblers,
gourmets, Boy Scouts,
hunters, golfers, videogame
junkies, and, of course,
members of any and_ all
political parties.

Where there are followers,
believers, worshippers or
fans, there is a cult. Sorry,
that’s all there is to it.

Even newspapermen
belong to a cult. It’s called,
quaintly enough, the Fourth
Estate. While we don’t have
any secret handshakes, we do

Confusion over terms
blocks child care plan

By TERRY LAVENDER

IS A COMMERCIAL
babysitting service a
daycare centre?

That’s the question that
North Vancouver City coun.
cil as asking its solicitor after
a ‘‘drop-off childminding.
commercial babysitting ser
vice’’ was refused permission
to locate in a commercial
area of North Vancouver.

City staff consider the
operation a daycare group,
which ts not allowed in com
mercial areas of the City, but
the organizers of the new
business say that they are not
providing a daycare service
and that there is nothing tn
the City’s bylaws preventing
them from moving
COMMCE cial zone

The three would be bus
ymesswomen Julie
MacKay, Pam Welch, and
Beth Proctor appearcd
before council Monday ask
ing that council reject staff's
infterpretabon of them service
and allow them to locate at
844 West 15th Strect, which
Isin a comsnerctial zone

imto a

Prowtor said to was csasen
tial that they get a ruling car
ly. as the space they plan to
enter may be rented to so
meone cise if they don't move
insoeon Council voted to ask
the sohcstor for an opinion

That opinion could come by
the next council meeting.

Proctor said the new ser-
vice, to be called The North
Shore Children’s House Lid_,
is not daycare, because it 1s
designed as a drop-in service,
where parents would leave
their children for a maximum
of thre hours, whereas
daycare 1s more an all day
service. Daycare ts not allow
ed in commercial zones
because it needs outdoor
space.

Rather than aie daycare
operation, the new service
should be allowed in a com
mercial zone as a ‘‘retail ser
vce group,”” according to
Proctor, because ut “extends
serviees lo persons,”” onc of
the definitions of that
grouping

Counal members indicated
sympathy with Proctor and
her partners Ald Stclla Jo
Dean sand het interpretanon
of the vanous laws agreed
with the interpretnon = of
North Shore € hildrena’s
House Lid “T can read
E-nghsh."” Dean said

Proctor gave council
copies Of 173 letters of sup
port tor the acw service, and
sand several health and com
munity groups mn Nonh Van
couver approved of the idca

She said the service could
be used by peopic who want
someone to look after then
children while they go shopp
ing on for appauintments

Charges follow
N. Van stabbing

A 22 YEAR OLD North
Vancouver oan has been
charged with attempted
murder following a stabbing
incident outside oa domes
NA vecnmuec howse carly
Saturday

Anthony James Csucrrecro
220 was arrested by North
Vancouver KO MP at lO a m
Saturday sun thous afc

19 year old Marh Joscph
Peterson had becn admiticad
to hospital with stab wounds

According to pohcc, Pete
von was stabbed with a san
inch Buck kinfe during an
argument that crupted during
a large, nowy party at 620
Jones Avenue

Peterson 6 in stable cond
fhonin baons Csate Hospstal

have a rich repetoire of
mythologies, a standardized
belief system and some of us
(me, for instance) do have a
penchant for trenchcoats that
cannot be explained in purely
rational terms, although,
alas, the fedora seems to have
passed into history.

I suppose nationality itself

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Where do you draw the line with cults?

qualifies as a cult. Being a
Canadian certainly has all the
earmarks of cultism, com-
plete with a weird chant, call-
ed an anthem, which we can
all at least hum along with. A
peculiar characteristic of our
cult is its view of reality as be-
ing divided into areas of
federal and provincial
jurisdiction.

Ah well, on the bright side,
cults are the beginnings of
culture, aren’t they?

Don’t knock cults too
hard. The cult you knock
may not be all that different
from your own.

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