The Jewish Press » » Raelian Statement Condemns Zionism, Says Raelians Are the True Jews

When I first began posting about the Raelians, they had offered to baptize the Pope.  Next, we have them wanting an embassy or "an extraterrestrial welcome center" in Canada.  Then the news of a "swastika rehabilitation week" rolled out; that didn't sit well with some groups.

Although I have issue with the more popular version of ancient aliens/astronauts due to its inherent racism - the achievements of non-white, Ancient Civilization X are so beguiling, from a western viewpoint, that the only reasonable explanation is that they were influenced by advanced (Nordic looking) aliens - my familiarity with the Raelians didn't fall into that category.  The first inkling came with the Swastika debacle,

"The swastika appears in ancient cultures all over the world," Kaenzig told The Huffington Post. "How can it be found everywhere despite these cultures having no contact with each other unless the Elohim were involved?"

This is the exact same mind-set of Giorgio and his band of merry men (ie think of the various pyramids world wide and their explanation of such, or the solstice alignment of structures such as Stonehenge).

As a bit of a side-bar, keep in mind that some within the popularized version of ancient aliens have also latched onto anti-Semitic ranting about the Rothschilds, the alien-Jewish world domination conspiracy with a little bit of Edward Snowden thrown in for support (David Icke and Jim Marrs building off Zecharia Sitchin as well as Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons).  For the sake of brevity -  911, the 2008 economic meltdown, aspartame, fluoride, Prince Philip of England, the Rothschild family, the Anunnaki, Nimrod, Orwell 1984 (supposedly the alien master plan) are ALL connected. 

I don't think the Raelians go quite that extreme as the racism is concerned, but their statement still is a cause for mild concern.  They seem to be railing against the Zionism (Christian Zionism) espoused by John Hagee:

Heeb Magazine disclosed a statement from the Raelians, that the Jews have been officially replaced and are ordered to leave the Holy Land. It says Raelians are the real Jews who will welcome their “Messiah” or extraterrestrial creators, but first need to build a temple that will serve as an intergalactic embassy. This sounds eerily similar to the concept of replacement theology that early Christians espoused as stating they had replaced the Jews as the chosen people. However, it is doubtful that the early Christian fathers believed, as the Raelians do, that humans were invented by a scientific team of extra terrestrials.

In 1973, Claude Vorihon, now known as Rael, received a message from an extra terrestrial who called himself, conveniently enough, Yahweh, telling him that angels and other divine beings were nothing more than other worldly scientists known as Elohim who have only to reveal themselves to usher in an age of global enlightenment. The Raelians are against war or military engagement in any form. Recently, they have declared their opposition to Zionism and released a statement purportedly from Yahweh, not to be confused with the god of the Jews. He says “the protection previously extended by Elohim to the Jewish people has ceased …. You have betrayed all the exemplary values of Judaism by stealing land and houses that don’t belong to you, and especially by not respecting my most important commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill.’ And you have accumulated nuclear weapons that could kill millions of people in one go and spark off a world war capable of destroying all creation … We ask all real Jews to leave the land of Palestine as quickly as possible.”

Not surprisingly, Raelians declare they are the real Jews (so for whom is the message intended?), and wanted their own piece of the Middle East for construction of their intergalactic embassy, but were turned down. One wonders how Israeli Raelian tour guide, Kobi Drori, is going to react to the command that all those considered Jews up until the statement should leave Israel. Drori, based in Tel Aviv, was interviewed a few years ago by the ReligionNews blog, and explained how Jews are considered special in Raelian theology. Jews contain part of the Elohim, or divine messengers, when everyone else was made in a lab. This is the reason the Raelians wanted to build their temple in Jerusalem, so the extra terrestrials can “be among their children, their sons.” The Raelian symbol of the swastika and Star of David entwined is meant to promote co-existence.

The Jewish Press » » Raelian Statement Condemns Zionism, Says Raelians Are the True Jews

Mark Your Calendars! It's Swastika Rehabilitation Week!

Although their intentions may be good and many see Raelians as a benign group, SPLC's "Hatewatch" offers a differing view on the group:

The Raelians’ attempts to “re-educate” Westerners about the swastika’s true meaning may be innocent, but its other rhetoric about religion – particularly Catholicism – is anything but. In 2002, while the group was based in Quebec, its members responded to sex scandals within the Church by encouraging Catholic high school students to renounce their faith and burn small wooden crosses in protest. The group also operates a website called NoPedo, which urges parents to “Protect your children from pedophilia: Stop sending them to catechism.”

The site also says that “Rael’s Girls” – described somewhat coyly as “women from the ‘Raelian Movement,’ who either work in the SEX Industry themselves or are Raelian Women who wish only to offer their support to the SEX Industry” – “are offering their experience in the sex industry to organize seminars for the Catholic Priests who want to rediscover a harmonious sexuality and to help cure thousands of them who are molesting or are about to molest young children.”

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,,,a UFO group called the Raelian International Movement is spending a whole week trying to rehabilitate the controversial image.

Swastika Rehabilitation Week officially began Saturday and runs through July 12.

The group claims it wants to change the image of the swastika from one representing genocide and racism to its ancient meaning of well-being and good luck.

Thomas Kaenzig, the head swastika rehabilitator, believes that the symbol was given to humans by the Elohim, a group of extraterrestrial scientists who created all of humankind.

"The swastika appears in ancient cultures all over the world," Kaenzig told The Huffington Post. "How can it be found everywhere despite these cultures having no contact with each other unless the Elohim were involved?"

He said it's the only way to show the Elohim that humans have evolved enough to accept them.

"Before they can come back, we need to make sure the symbol is rehabilitated," he said.

Mark Your Calendars! It's Swastika Rehabilitation Week!

Raelians Want An Embassy For Aliens In Canada

The Raelians are a bizarre group and not necessarily in a negative way, I just find the whole ancient astronaut ideology improbable.

What many don't realize is that Vorilhon's book "The Book Which Tells the Truth" (73) is part of a trilogy on the subject matter that appeared in the late 60s early 70s. "Chariots of the Gods" (69) by von Daniken being the first and Sitchin's "The Twelfth Planet " (76) being the last (of the modern originals). The contention of many who follow this mythos being, Sitchin's ideas along with those of Erich von Däniken may have influenced the beliefs of the religious sect of Raelism. Which as you can see by the dates of publication doesn't quite follow.

If you really want to make your head spin, the ancient astronaut/alien idea is not "new" and the modern idea can be traced to HP Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos. Lovecraft taking some inspiration from HG Wells. Lovecraft also dabbled a bit in the Nephilim mythos as well.

Pre-Lovecraft inspiration can then be assigned to Helena Blavatsky; her disciple W Scott-Elliot, who brought the Lemuria mythos into the mix with "Lost Lemuria" (1904), as well as Charles Fort with "Book of the Damned" (1919).

So in reality the Raelians are not the only ones to espouse this view. UFO/Alien based religions are not new.
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On Wedneday, The Raelians plan to hold a press conference at the Marriott Hotel in Ottawa to ask the Canadian government for a lot of four square kilometres on which to build the embassy. They don't care too much where, as long as it's not in the Arctic, a spokesperson told Postmedia. The Elohim, apparently, do not dig the cold.

The Raelians also want extraterritoriality for the embassy, which would presumably protect the group from pesky terrestrial taxes.

But the benefits for Canada could be significant, the group says.

"Canada will benefit from an economic impact of tens of billions of dollars in the long term," said spokesperson Daniel Turcotte in a press release. "In addition, the host country of this Embassy will improve and enjoy an immense prestige being the interplanetary hub. The residents of this country will be the first to benefit from the Elohim's very advanced technology in the fields, among others, of bio-robotics, nanotechnology, medicine, transport and communications, as well as an access to some sources of energy currently impossible to imagine by our scientists."

Raelians Want An Embassy For Aliens In Canada

Inside the world of the Raëlians - a cult that believes humans are descended from ALIENS | Mail Online

I was hoping for a bit more meat tot he article, but a good primer,,,

Angel ancestors, embassies for extraterrestrials and advanced supercomputers recording all human memory and DNA: Welcome to the often strange world of the Raëlians.

Now the sect, which was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, a French retired racing journalist, has thrown open its doors to the cameras for the first time, after presenter Darren McMullen travelled to Croatia to meet the Raëlians living there.

But, as Glenn Carter, the man responsible for the UK's Raëlian population reveals, there's more to Raëlian life than alien ancestors.

'Being Raëlian means that I believe in the fact that all life on earth was created by the Elohim; a society who came to earth 25,000 years ago specifically to create life,' explains Mr Carter of his beliefs.

'We also believe that Raël [Vorilhon's Raëlian name] is their messenger, here to tell the world of these facts and to open the people of the world’s minds to the idea that we are in fact an intentional scientific creation.

'The main goal of Raëlians at this stage is to create an embassy in order to facilitate and welcome the return of the Elohim to Earth.'

Like Scientology, Raëlianism is considered a 'UFO religion' with similar theories on intelligent design and extraterrestrial life as the American sect.

Unlike the Scientologists, however, Raëlians are famous for espousing sexual freedom and scientific development, and even claimed to have produced the world's first cloned human baby in 2002.

The cult hit the news again in 2012, when they staged a 'Go Topless' protest in Toronto in a bid to persuade city authorities to allow women to go braless in public.

Other controversies have included their use of the swastika as a symbol of peace which, until 1991 when it was replaced by another motif, meant that the Raëlians found themselves banned from opening 'extraterrestrial embassies' in Israel and Lebanon.

Inside the world of the Raëlians - a cult that believes humans are descended from ALIENS | Mail Online

Raëlian UFO cult responds to Pope Francis’s statement on alien baptisms | WORLD CULT WATCH

Just bizarre,,,

So we have Pope Francis who says he will baptize aliens. The “Who are we to close the doors to the Holy Spirit?" schtick. But the Raelians want to baptize the Pope instead:

Upon hearing that Pope Francis said he would welcome aliens at the Vatican and even baptize them, the spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement has issued a correction.

“There will be no need to baptize those he calls “aliens” when they decide to come back,” Rael said in a statement released today by the IRM. “They are the ones who created all religions on Earth, and they were mistakenly taken for gods. Instead of offering them baptism, the pope will have to acknowledge that they are the gods he has been praying to all along.”

IRM spokesperson Brigitte Boisselier, Ph.D, explained that according to Raelian philosophy, all forms of life on Earth were created by the Elohim, highly advanced human beings from another planet.

“They came from another planet and made us in their image,” she said. “The original, Hebrew Bible clearly states that ‘Elohim’ created life on Earth, but this word ‘Elohim’ is in the plural form, not the singular. It means ‘those who came from the sky.’ It was later mistranslated into the singular form, ‘god,’ which led to monotheist religions like Catholicism.” (Uhm no!! For a good take down of Elohim being plural give this a read.)

According to Vice, in a conversation with Ricky Roehr, the North American leader of the Raëlian Movement:

A few hours after we got off the phone, Roehr, with great urgency, called me back.

“I just want to make sure to add that when the extraterrestrials arrive, we, the Raëlian Movement, would be happy to baptize the Pope,” he said. “Because when the extraterrestrials come back, the Pope will then understand who the god of the Bible really was. Or is.”

Raëlian UFO cult responds to Pope Francis’s statement on alien baptisms | WORLD CULT WATCH