If Not For Whistleblowers     Date: 07-05-07 By: Exbaba Admin Barry Pittard's latest article If Not For Whistleblowers is at his blogsite: http://barrypittard.wordpress.com Page Url: http://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/if-not-for-whistleblowers/ Quotes: "It was too easy for some Western, Hindu and other Sai Baba devotees to allude to Brooke’s adoption of a born-again Christian faith, and to pass off his accounts of Sathya Sai Baba’s sexual escapades. But those with accounts of Sai Baba sexually abusing them come from many different backgrounds". "There is a severe and oft-repeated syndrome to be noted where supporters of a guru, with their whole belief structure at stake, immediately - and with utter emotional and intellectual dishonesty - attribute maleficence to those reporting abuse, who are assailed with the easiest slurs that come to hand. Brooke turned to evangelical Christianity - therefore, he must have a deplorable motive". "I still think Sai Baba is rare, if not unique in history - but now for reasons far from inspirational but which, rather, give great concern - not only to those who feel they have been catastrophically betrayed by him but to those individuals and institutions throughout the world whom his cult would seek to influence and transform". "What if cultic thinking is one of the great threats to a mature humanity? Is there no cultic thinking among terrorists? If there is, should it not be in our interests to understand it better? But, far more than that, what if some at least of its elements are present - all unquestioned - in our own belief systems, whatever they may be? What if the quest for charismatic leaders figures more widely than in those movements we so easily deem to be cultic?"