Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology

Last updated

The Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology, known also simply as SIST, is a secretive fundamentalist Christian-like group based in Shawano, Wisconsin. The group was founded by Rama Behera, a Hindu who converted to Christianity, who later changed his name to Dr. Rama Chandra Samanta Roy. The group has existed in Shawano since the 1970s and was once known as The Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. In a 2012 article for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report magazine, many former members spoke out against SIST for alleged abuses ranging from beatings, torture, starvation, child abuse, and neglect from their leader and their followers. [1]

The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled SIST as a "general" hate group for its Anti-Catholic beliefs. According to the SPLC, its "general hate" designation covers groups that "...espouse a variety of rather unique hateful doctrines and beliefs that are not easily categorized." [2]

History

The group was formed sometime in the 1970s by Rama Behera, now known as Avraham Cohen, a Hindu-born Christian from India. According to some sources, Cohen received a vision from "God" telling him to spread his word after his conversion to Christianity. He attended college in India and immigrated to the United States to study nuclear engineering at Columbia University in New York City. He moved to Wisconsin to evangelize in places like Green Bay, eventually settling down in the small city of Shawano where he purchased a piece of property that later formed the current compound located on Highway 47/55. He named his followers "The Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ". In the 1980s, the group's actions led to kidnappings in and around the Shawano area, perpetrated by "deprogrammers". [1] The group was the source of many lawsuits, spreading fear throughout the town. [3]

In 1978, shots were fired at Rama's former house and a pipe bomb exploded in a field near their compound. Nobody was injured, and nobody was charged. Behera's followers claimed it to be a "Vatican Conspiracy" and "White Supremacist attack" against their group. [1]

In 1990, Rama changed his name to Samanta Roy and renamed his group the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology, for he planned to build a college to spread his beliefs. Rama-turned-Roy eventually changed his name again, this time to Avraham Cohen, after "having drifted theologically toward Judaism", [1] and has allegedly never spoken to media since 1982. Cohen still lives in Shawano.

In the 2000s, the group purchased businesses all throughout the Shawano area including a gas station, a hotel, a motorsports complex, multiple restaurants and, a gift shop. Most of them have gone bankrupt and closed down. The group blamed its financial issues on the mayor and the officials of Shawano, referring to them as "Catholic beasts" and "Neo-Nazis", alleging that the mayor of Shawano was planning to destroy SIST. In 2009, the FBI found a hit list allegedly authored by members of the group, with 60 people listed, including the mayor herself. The FBI warned city officials about the list, which caused them to evacuate the town. [4]

SIST came to police attention again on June 9, 2010, following an assault in Pikesville, Maryland on a house owned by Avraham Cohen. SIST denies this had anything to do with the group and the case has since gone cold. [5]

In recent times, the group has been subject to controversy over this mismanagement of local businesses and unpaid taxes. The group's current executive director, Naomi Issacson, claims SIST "is not a religious organization" and has nothing to do with the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. SIST also claims that those who say that they are a religious hate group are just part of a "Vatican Conspiracy by [former Shawano] Mayor Lorna Marquardt and her followers". [6]

Many former members spoke out against the group and their alleged abuses, including beatings, tortures, forced labor, and various other incidents. A woman claimed that she was "zapped" by a cattle prod for disobeying Cohen. Cohen has been accused by former members of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and SIST of controlling his group through mental and physical abuse, from forcing children to cut grass with scissors to having their heads shaved for disobeying him, and suffering neglect and physical punishment. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Branch Davidians</span> Cult known for the Waco siege of 1993

The Branch Davidians are an apocalyptic cult founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden. They regard themselves as a continuation of the General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists, established by Victor Houteff in 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Resurrection of Jesus</span> Christian belief that God raised Jesus after his crucifixion

The resurrection of Jesus is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord. According to the New Testament writing, Jesus was firstborn from the dead, ushering in the Kingdom of God. He appeared to his disciples, calling the apostles to the Great Commission of forgiving sin and baptizing repenters, and ascended to Heaven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transubstantiation</span> Catholic sacramental doctrine

Transubstantiation is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ". This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit. However, "the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the 'eucharistic species', remain unaltered". In this teaching, the notions of "substance" and "transubstantiation" are not linked with any particular theory of metaphysics.

<i>Dominus Iesus</i> Catholic document

Dominus Iesus is a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved in a plenary meeting of the Congregation and signed by its then prefect, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, and its then-secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone. The declaration was approved by Pope John Paul II and was published on August 6, 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aryan Nations</span> White supremacist organization

Aryan Nations was a North American antisemitic, neo-Nazi and white supremacist hate group that was originally based in Kootenai County, Idaho, about 2+3⁄4 miles (4.4 km) north of the city of Hayden Lake. Richard Girnt Butler founded Aryan Nations in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Jones</span> American cult leader (1931–1978)

James Warren Jones, better known as Jim Jones, was an American preacher, political activist and mass murderer who led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", Jones and the members of his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder-suicide in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Jones and the events that occurred at Jonestown have had a defining influence on society's perception of cults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)</span> Latter Day Saint sect

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—usually distinguished with a parenthetical (Strangite)—is one of the several organizations that claim to be the legitimate continuation of the church founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. It is a separate organization from the considerably larger and better known Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Both churches claim to be the original organization established by Smith. The Strangite church is headquartered in Voree, Wisconsin, just outside Burlington, and accepts the claims of James Strang as successor to Smith. It had approximately 300 members in 1998. Currently, there are around 130 active members throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disciple (Christianity)</span> Dedicated follower of Jesus

In Christianity, disciple is a dedicated follower of Jesus. This term is found in the New Testament only in the Gospels and Acts. In the ancient world, a disciple is a follower or adherent of a teacher. Discipleship is not the same as being a student in the modern sense. A disciple in the ancient biblical world actively imitated both the life and teaching of the master. It was a deliberate apprenticeship which made the fully formed disciple a living copy of the master.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Berg</span> American leader of Children of God (1919–1994)

David Brandt Berg, also known as King David, Mo, Moses David, Father David, Dad, or Grandpa to followers, was the founder and leader of the cult most often known as the Children of God and more recently known as The Family International. Berg's group, founded in 1968 among the counterculture youth in Southern California, gained notoriety for incorporating sexuality into its spiritual message and recruitment methods. Berg and his organization have subsequently been accused of a broad range of sexual misconduct, including child sexual abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical background of the New Testament</span> Historical and cultural context of the canonical gospels and the life of Jesus

Most scholars who study the historical Jesus and early Christianity believe that the canonical gospels and the life of Jesus must be viewed within their historical and cultural context, rather than purely in terms of Christian orthodoxy. They look at Second Temple Judaism, the tensions, trends, and changes in the region under the influence of Hellenism and the Roman occupation, and the Jewish factions of the time, seeing Jesus as a Jew in this environment; and the written New Testament as arising from a period of oral gospel traditions after his death.

The means of grace in Christian theology are those things through which God gives grace. Just what this grace entails is interpreted in various ways: generally speaking, some see it as God blessing humankind so as to sustain and empower the Christian life; others see it as forgiveness, life, and salvation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuwaubian Nation</span> American new religious movement

The Nuwaubian Nation, Nuwaubian movement, or United Nuwaubian Nation is an American new religious movement founded and led by Dwight York, also known as Malachi Z. York. York began founding several black Muslim groups in New York in 1967. He changed his teachings and the names of his groups many times, incorporating concepts from Judaism, Christianity, UFO religions, New Age, and many esoteric beliefs.

On the issue of the sexuality of Jesus, the traditional understanding of Christian churches and theologians is that Jesus did not marry and remained celibate until his death. That has not prevented speculation about alternative and fringe theories of his sexuality. The Gospels and the New Testament reveal little on the subject.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farewell Discourse</span> Discourse of Jesus described in the Gospel of John

In the New Testament, chapters 14–17 of the Gospel of John are known as the Farewell Discourse given by Jesus to eleven of his disciples immediately after the conclusion of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, the night before his crucifixion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private revelation</span> Christian concept

In Christian theology, a private revelation is an instance of revelation, in a broader sense of the term, of divine reality to a person or persons. It contrasts with revelation intended for humanity at large, which is sometimes termed public revelation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot</span> Assassination plot in Portland, Oregon

In 1985, a group of high-ranking Rajneeshees, followers of the Indian mystic Shree Rajneesh, conspired to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Rajneesh's personal secretary and second-in-command, Ma Anand Sheela, assembled the group after Turner was appointed to investigate illegal activity at the followers' community, Rajneeshpuram. Turner investigated charges of immigration fraud and sham marriages, and later headed the federal prosecution of the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vatican conspiracy theories</span> Theories involving the Roman Catholic Church

Vatican conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories that concern the Pope or the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of the theories allege that the Church and its representatives are secretly controlling secular society with a Satanic agenda for global domination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heaven in Christianity</span> Heaven as understood by Christianity

In Christianity, heaven is traditionally the location of the throne of God and the angels of God, and in most forms of Christianity it is the abode of the righteous dead in the afterlife. In some Christian denominations it is understood as a temporary stage before the resurrection of the dead and the saints' return to the New Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apostles in the New Testament</span> Primary disciples of Jesus

In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles, were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and ministry of Jesus in the 1st century AD, the apostles were his closest followers and became the primary teachers of the gospel message of Jesus. There is also an Eastern Christian tradition derived from the Gospel of Luke of there having been as many as seventy apostles during the time of Jesus' ministry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Jesus Christ (church)</span>

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC), officially the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc., is a Philippine-based non-Trinitarian Restorationist-Protestant church. It was founded by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, whom KJC adherents believe to be the "Appointed Son of God".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wisconsin institute fears Vatican conspiracy". www.splcenter.org.
  2. ↑ "General Hate". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  3. ↑ "Followers put their faith in his hands". archive.jsonline.com.
  4. ↑ Lauber, Mikel (December 7, 2008). "FBI finds hit list on city officials". WSAW.
  5. ↑ "Alleged Murder for hire rattles small town". ABC news. June 9, 2010.
  6. ↑ Tim, Ryan (January 11, 2017). "SIST airs history of Discrimination". Shawano Leader. Archived from the original on January 11, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.