Hidden images and miracle soap.

One of the looniest web sites on the Right is World Net Daily. Some time ago they reported that all whites in South Africa were about to be slaughtered. It never happened. But their fevered imagination and tendency to fall for kook conspiracy theories is almost unlimited.

Now they are promoting a documentary that purports to prove that the Catholic Church has had problems with molesting priests due “embedded Satanic and occultic imagery in its artwork---some of it hundreds of years old”.

They report: “Experts are featured in the film to offer detailed accounts of the subconscious programming effects of the sex and occult images on the human brain and how it promotes sex, Satanism and the occult. Religious education materials, songbooks, children's story books, devotionals and the Sunday Missals all have been found to contain embedded imagery.”

At the bottom of their “news” story they promote a book they are hawking: “Is there a dark, worldwide Luciferian conspiracy to dominate the world? Find out in “Brotherhood of Darkness,” WND’s hottest selling book.”

The author is one of the “experts” used in the documentary. Stanley Monteith is the author and his book supposedly reveals the true story behind “secret societies, how they have directed the course of civilization, and how they influence our lives today.” He presents himself as an expert on “the causes of America’s spiritual and moral decline.” His actual area of expertise is that he was an orthopedic surgeon. But somehow once a “Dr.” is put before the name of a kook they become experts on subjects entirely outside their training.

Monteith has written a book a bit closer to his field but not quite in it either. He wrote a little book for a fundamentalist publishing house about AIDS. Of course orthopedic surgeons are not involved in the fields related to AIDS. But to the Right the fact that he’s a doctor qualifies him in all medical fields. It’s like having a car mechanic doing the electrical work on the theory that working on part of the car is like working on any part of the car. Monteith wanted mandatory central records kept on all people who are HIV positive, wants “mandatory premarital, prenatal and neonatal HIV testing” as some ways of dealing with the virus.

If you think this man is nuts follow the rest of the story. He also is featured in an interview with Clayton Tedeton. Who is Tedeton? Why he’s the inventor of Miracle II soap. And on his “testimonial page” for his miracle soap you find two interviews he does with Stanley Monteith. Tedeton says: “It was God who gave me the formula for the Amazing Miracle II Soap. I awoke one night in July, 1980, to see names of minerals all miraculously flashed on my bedroom wall, along with the formulas on how to mix them.” He also calls this “Annointed Miracle Soap”.

Tedeton says he heard a voice regularly speaking to him. And what are the miracles? Well apparently if you use his soap you get healed of all sorts of problems. “God started sending people to me, telling me of the healing merits of both the SOAP and the NEUTRALIZER. Skin cancers being healed were the first healings I heard about from my customers. Then, other healing reports began to come in; Psoriasis, warts, poison ivy, bedsores, athletes foot, and many other skin problems. In this way, little by little, the many products uses became known, many people were saying the SPIRIT of God told them to use the product in a certain way. Customers began to tell me how they used it to kill fire ants, roaches, spiders, fleas, ticks, and many other insects. God has revealed that this product, once it becomes known, will revolutionize CLEANING and will be the answer to HEALTH PROBLEMS, and it will also be a miracle in AGRICULTURE. It will also be the means of employment for people everywhere, thousands of people are selling Miracle II nationwide at this time and giving the glory to God.”

I have tried to listen to the interviews but can’t seem to access them. But I doubt that this nutcase would be peddling his miracle soap with these tapes if Dr. Monteith, the conspiracy/AIDS/hidden images expert were too hard on the man. HL Mencken said that if you find a man is crazy on one topic the chances are pretty good he’ll be crazy on lots of topics.

And when it comes to this “documentary” there are is a whole gaggle of nutcases involved. If I can find the time I’ll post material on a few of the others. Hidden images, secret conspiracies and miracle soap that heals cancer with a formula from God himself. The Right is getting nuttier and nuttier.