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USA Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Former CEO of Christian nonprofit pleads guilty to possessing child pornography
The former CEO of My Faith Votes, a nonprofit that encourages "Christians in America to vote in every election," has pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual abuse images, months after his arrest. Jason Christopher Yates, 56, pleaded guilty to two of eight felony counts of possession of child pornography on Tuesday, July 22, in a district court in McLeod County, Minnesota, according to a plea petition obtained by USA TODAY. Yates was initially charged and arrested in October 2024, according to Minnesota state court records. My Faith Votes told Religion News Service that Yates served as its CEO until August 2024. 'In early August 2024, the My Faith Votes board of directors separated Jason Yates from My Faith Votes and board member Chris Sadler assumed the position of Acting CEO," the statement reads. "Over the last three months Chris has been working with the dedicated My Faith Votes team to encourage millions of Christians to vote, pray and think biblically about this election in America.' Yates became the CEO of My Faith Votes in 2015 during the nonprofit's inception, according to his Truth & Liberty Coalition bio. USA TODAY contacted My Faith Votes on Saturday, July 26, but has not received a response. The Tamburino Law Group, whose attorneys served as Yates' legal counsel in the case, told USA TODAY in an email, "We are not commenting on this matter." What did Jason Yates do? According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by USA TODAY, an individual gave the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension a hard drive that contained child sexual abuse images on July 31, 2024. The person told agents that they received the hard drive from a relative of Yates who "accidentally discovered it" inside a dresser in the former CEO's office in McLeod County, Minnesota, according to the affidavit. Yates' relative stumbled upon the child sex abuse images when they tried putting the hard drive in their computer for more storage, the affidavit reads. The hard drive contained more than 100 sexually explicit images of children, according to the document. When agents met with Yates on Sept. 13, 2024, he confirmed that the child sex abuse images on the hard drive did not belong to the relative who found them, the affidavit states. He also told the agents that he had a prior conviction for possessing child sex abuse images, but it had been expunged, the document continued. What is My Faith Votes? My Faith Votes describes itself as a "non-partisan movement" that motivates Christians in the U.S. to vote in elections, according to the Fort Worth, Texas-based nonprofit's website. "We desire to see an America where God is honored in the public square and biblical truth is advanced in our culture," My Faith Votes' website states. The nonprofit was founded in 2015 by Sealy Yates, an attorney who previously served on President Donald Trump's evangelical advisory board, according to Politico. He is also Jason Yates' uncle, according to Christian news site The Roys Report. Both are also literary agents representing Christian authors. While My Faith Votes claims to be "non-partisan," the nonprofit has backed several Republican officials and conservative views, including anti-abortion. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was My Faith Votes' honorary national chairman before becoming the U.S. Ambassador to Israel under Trump's administration, according to the nonprofit. Dr. Ben Carson was the founding honorary national chairman for the nonprofit before he became the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Trump's first presidency. Jason Yates is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29, according to Minnesota court records.
7 days ago
- Health
In temples and churches, sensory rooms remove barriers for neurodivergent worshipers
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (RNS) — From organ blasts and incense to forced hugs and hand shakes, for folks who struggle to process sensory input, houses of worship can quickly feel anything but holy. That was the case for Lark Losardo's son Percy, who in 2017 began attending Catholic Mass with his family at age 7. Percy, who is autistic, was often overwhelmed by the Brooklyn church's open space, noise and crowds. At first, when he needed to move around or stim (engage in repetitive actions to self-regulate), he'd leave the service with a parent. Eventually, in part because of the barriers to attending as a family, they stopped coming altogether. Then, in 2020, the Losardos moved to Maplewood, New Jersey. After watching online services at a nearby Catholic parish called St. Joseph's during the pandemic, Lark Losardo learned in 2024 that the parish was opening a sensory room equipped with regulation tools, including a weighted blanket, touch pillow, ear defenders and sound machine. Thanks to that room, today Percy is back in the pews, using the room to regroup whenever needed. "It speaks volumes,' Lark Losardo told Religion News Service. 'Not everyone needs this space, but just having it there sends a very clear message.' This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ Across the U.S., families like Percy's who once thought worship was off-limits are returning to faith communities thanks to a small but growing number of sensory rooms in religious settings. Located in underutilized classrooms, storage spaces and former nurseries, these rooms vary in size and appearance, but are all designed to offer a calm, predictable environment that can help with nervous system regulation. Disability advocates say the rooms signal that a community prioritizes the needs of neurodivergent and disabled members. At St. Joseph's, the Rev. Jim Worth said the new sensory room, which opened in December, isa natural extension of the parish's faith values. To him, the room is evidence that inclusion — a principle Worth linked to Catholic social teaching — isn't just given lip service. 'When you put intentionality behind something, it makes a world of difference,' said Worth. On a 60-degree day in late March, the church, located on a quiet residential street, had a front stoop featuring three signs: one quoting Martin Luther King Jr., another quoting Pope Francis, and a third welcoming anyone in the community to visit the Still Waters Sensory Room. Named after the biblical Psalm 23 passage — 'he leads me beside still waters' — the sensory room was converted from an unused confessional. It was designed by Together We Bloom, a Maplewood-based nonprofit that helps make events and spaces more accessible. The room's dark indigo walls match the comfortable chair glider and beanbag, each contributing to the soothing atmosphere. The total cost of the room was under $2,000 and was largely paid for by church funds, plus some donations. 'This sensory room has really changed everything for us,' said Pavitra Makam, a St. Joseph's parishioner and mother of two neurodivergent kids. 'Being able to worship together has been the biggest thing for our family.' Jay Perkins, who has been in the sensory room business since 2009, said it's often parents in need of a safe, supportive space for their kids who are spearheading the movement to build sensory rooms. When his daughter began exhibiting signs of aggression at age 4, places like libraries (too quiet), playgrounds (too loud) and trampoline parks (too crowded) were inaccessible. That applied to his Episcopal church, too. 'There are so few places where special-needs kids with sensory integration disorders can enjoy it,' said Perkins. The lack of accessible spaces for his family inspired Perkins to begin building the kinds of rooms his daughter would thrive in. In 2018 he officially launched his company, The Sensory Room, which builds high-end, durable sensory rooms from start to finish and trains people on how to use them. 'It's catching on,' said Perkins, whose company built roughly a dozen rooms in 2022 and 80 in 2023. Though The Sensory Room specializes in schools, Perkin's company has also built rooms for a Broadway theater and an airport, and three in evangelical churches. Most of his custom rooms, he told RNS, start in the $20,000 range. One of those projects was the $35,000 transformation of a storage room into a state-of-the-art sensory room at Encounter Church, an evangelical congregation about 30 minutes from Dallas. Completed in February 2024, the renovation included interactive tactile and texture panels, bubble tubes, mirrors, new carpet, paint and electrical work, and an LED-star ceiling complete with a digital shooting star. According to the Rev. Chris Binion, who co-founded the church with his wife, Tracy, the decision to create the room was prompted by the Holy Spirit. 'I was in a season of prayer and fasting, and I felt like the Lord asked me how to take care of his 'littles,'' Binion told RNS. He felt God was urging him to support kids with 'diverse needs,'including autism. 'We decided through the direction of the Holy Spirit to say yes, and move forward in this kingdom assignment." It's not just churches that are revamping spaces to focus on sensory integration. Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in Atlanta, has adapted two of its rooms to help folks process sensory input. A former cry room just off the main sanctuary was altered to become the Shalom Sanctuary, a small space with a large window facing the main worship space equipped with fidget toys, beanbags and headphones. The synagogue also received a $10,000 grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta to improve the accessibility of a classroom. That renovation is almost complete, and the room, which features a wall of sensory engagement toys, flexible furniture and alternative seating (think large rubber balls), will be especially helpful for children who need sensory breaks during religious classes or events such as the annual Purim carnival, according to Rabbi Rachael Klein Miller, associate rabbi at the synagogue. 'Something important in Judaism is the idea that we are all created 'b'tzelem Elohim,' in the image of God,' said Klein Miller. 'And much of that is connected to the golden rule of treating people the way we want to be treated and finding space for everybody in the community.' According to Rebecca Barlow, a regional disability specialist in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adding a sensory room to a house of worship doesn't automatically make it accessible to those with sensory needs. 'It's just one piece of a bigger machine that you're trying to build,' said Barlow, disability specialist for the Desert Ridge Stake in Mesa, Arizona. The first step to building that machine, Barlow said, is asking disabled individuals and their families what it would take to make church feasible for them. When she first became a disability specialist roughly five years ago, feedback was invaluable. 'The biggest thing was listening. The parents of these children know what they need,' said Barlow, who is the parent of a child with autism. Based on the families' input, she created a sensory room in her meeting house with new donated items. Knowing it would be used by kids who could become aggressive, she removed hard chairs and chalkboard lips that could pose safety risks. She also filled the room with the usual sensory items, added light-blocking curtains and included a night-light that projected a calming light pattern. Still, it took more than that to get families back in the door. "We, as parents of disabled children, often can become jaded, and we lack trust that our children are going to be cared for in a manner appropriate to how special they are,' said Barlow. To build trust with families, church leaders invited some members of the ward to serve as one-on-one aides for each child with a disability. The aides were trained in the homes of their assigned families and eventually accompanied the kids in the sensory room during church meetings. Barlow also introduced the kids to the sensory room ahead of time via pictures and tours, and ward members, too, received basic training on understanding disabilities and how to use the sensory room. In the few years since that sensory room opened, the model has gained traction. Barlow says the seven wards in her stake now each have their own disability specialists and sensory rooms, and she routinely takes calls from LDS church members across the country and the globe seeking to set up sensory rooms of their own. 'It feels like we're seeing a cultural shift toward understanding and accepting and integrating people with disabilities,' said Barlow. 'If we want to follow Christ, if we want to emulate him, if we want to be his disciples … they need to be foremost in our mind.'
Winnipeg Free Press
7 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
In temples and churches, sensory rooms remove barriers for neurodivergent worshipers
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (RNS) — From organ blasts and incense to forced hugs and hand shakes, for folks who struggle to process sensory input, houses of worship can quickly feel anything but holy. That was the case for Lark Losardo's son Percy, who in 2017 began attending Catholic Mass with his family at age 7. Percy, who is autistic, was often overwhelmed by the Brooklyn church's open space, noise and crowds. At first, when he needed to move around or stim (engage in repetitive actions to self-regulate), he'd leave the service with a parent. Eventually, in part because of the barriers to attending as a family, they stopped coming altogether. Then, in 2020, the Losardos moved to Maplewood, New Jersey. After watching online services at a nearby Catholic parish called St. Joseph's during the pandemic, Lark Losardo learned in 2024 that the parish was opening a sensory room equipped with regulation tools, including a weighted blanket, touch pillow, ear defenders and sound machine. Thanks to that room, today Percy is back in the pews, using the room to regroup whenever needed. 'It speaks volumes,' Lark Losardo told Religion News Service. 'Not everyone needs this space, but just having it there sends a very clear message.' ___ This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ Across the U.S., families like Percy's who once thought worship was off-limits are returning to faith communities thanks to a small but growing number of sensory rooms in religious settings. Located in underutilized classrooms, storage spaces and former nurseries, these rooms vary in size and appearance, but are all designed to offer a calm, predictable environment that can help with nervous system regulation. Disability advocates say the rooms signal that a community prioritizes the needs of neurodivergent and disabled members. At St. Joseph's, the Rev. Jim Worth said the new sensory room, which opened in December, isa natural extension of the parish's faith values. To him, the room is evidence that inclusion — a principle Worth linked to Catholic social teaching — isn't just given lip service. 'When you put intentionality behind something, it makes a world of difference,' said Worth. On a 60-degree day in late March, the church, located on a quiet residential street, had a front stoop featuring three signs: one quoting Martin Luther King Jr., another quoting Pope Francis, and a third welcoming anyone in the community to visit the Still Waters Sensory Room. Named after the biblical Psalm 23 passage — 'he leads me beside still waters' — the sensory room was converted from an unused confessional. It was designed by Together We Bloom, a Maplewood-based nonprofit that helps make events and spaces more accessible. The room's dark indigo walls match the comfortable chair glider and beanbag, each contributing to the soothing atmosphere. The total cost of the room was under $2,000 and was largely paid for by church funds, plus some donations. 'This sensory room has really changed everything for us,' said Pavitra Makam, a St. Joseph's parishioner and mother of two neurodivergent kids. 'Being able to worship together has been the biggest thing for our family.' Jay Perkins, who has been in the sensory room business since 2009, said it's often parents in need of a safe, supportive space for their kids who are spearheading the movement to build sensory rooms. When his daughter began exhibiting signs of aggression at age 4, places like libraries (too quiet), playgrounds (too loud) and trampoline parks (too crowded) were inaccessible. That applied to his Episcopal church, too. 'There are so few places where special-needs kids with sensory integration disorders can enjoy it,' said Perkins. The lack of accessible spaces for his family inspired Perkins to begin building the kinds of rooms his daughter would thrive in. In 2018 he officially launched his company, The Sensory Room, which builds high-end, durable sensory rooms from start to finish and trains people on how to use them. 'It's catching on,' said Perkins, whose company built roughly a dozen rooms in 2022 and 80 in 2023. Though The Sensory Room specializes in schools, Perkin's company has also built rooms for a Broadway theater and an airport, and three in evangelical churches. Most of his custom rooms, he told RNS, start in the $20,000 range. One of those projects was the $35,000 transformation of a storage room into a state-of-the-art sensory room at Encounter Church, an evangelical congregation about 30 minutes from Dallas. Completed in February 2024, the renovation included interactive tactile and texture panels, bubble tubes, mirrors, new carpet, paint and electrical work, and an LED-star ceiling complete with a digital shooting star. According to the Rev. Chris Binion, who co-founded the church with his wife, Tracy, the decision to create the room was prompted by the Holy Spirit. 'I was in a season of prayer and fasting, and I felt like the Lord asked me how to take care of his 'littles,'' Binion told RNS. He felt God was urging him to support kids with 'diverse needs,'including autism. 'We decided through the direction of the Holy Spirit to say yes, and move forward in this kingdom assignment.' It's not just churches that are revamping spaces to focus on sensory integration. Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in Atlanta, has adapted two of its rooms to help folks process sensory input. A former cry room just off the main sanctuary was altered to become the Shalom Sanctuary, a small space with a large window facing the main worship space equipped with fidget toys, beanbags and headphones. The synagogue also received a $10,000 grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta to improve the accessibility of a classroom. That renovation is almost complete, and the room, which features a wall of sensory engagement toys, flexible furniture and alternative seating (think large rubber balls), will be especially helpful for children who need sensory breaks during religious classes or events such as the annual Purim carnival, according to Rabbi Rachael Klein Miller, associate rabbi at the synagogue. 'Something important in Judaism is the idea that we are all created 'b'tzelem Elohim,' in the image of God,' said Klein Miller. 'And much of that is connected to the golden rule of treating people the way we want to be treated and finding space for everybody in the community.' According to Rebecca Barlow, a regional disability specialist in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adding a sensory room to a house of worship doesn't automatically make it accessible to those with sensory needs. 'It's just one piece of a bigger machine that you're trying to build,' said Barlow, disability specialist for the Desert Ridge Stake in Mesa, Arizona. The first step to building that machine, Barlow said, is asking disabled individuals and their families what it would take to make church feasible for them. When she first became a disability specialist roughly five years ago, feedback was invaluable. 'The biggest thing was listening. The parents of these children know what they need,' said Barlow, who is the parent of a child with autism. Based on the families' input, she created a sensory room in her meeting house with new donated items. Knowing it would be used by kids who could become aggressive, she removed hard chairs and chalkboard lips that could pose safety risks. She also filled the room with the usual sensory items, added light-blocking curtains and included a night-light that projected a calming light pattern. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Still, it took more than that to get families back in the door. 'We, as parents of disabled children, often can become jaded, and we lack trust that our children are going to be cared for in a manner appropriate to how special they are,' said Barlow. To build trust with families, church leaders invited some members of the ward to serve as one-on-one aides for each child with a disability. The aides were trained in the homes of their assigned families and eventually accompanied the kids in the sensory room during church meetings. Barlow also introduced the kids to the sensory room ahead of time via pictures and tours, and ward members, too, received basic training on understanding disabilities and how to use the sensory room. In the few years since that sensory room opened, the model has gained traction. Barlow says the seven wards in her stake now each have their own disability specialists and sensory rooms, and she routinely takes calls from LDS church members across the country and the globe seeking to set up sensory rooms of their own. 'It feels like we're seeing a cultural shift toward understanding and accepting and integrating people with disabilities,' said Barlow. 'If we want to follow Christ, if we want to emulate him, if we want to be his disciples … they need to be foremost in our mind.'
Hamilton Spectator
7 days ago
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
In temples and churches, sensory rooms remove barriers for neurodivergent worshipers
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (RNS) — From organ blasts and incense to forced hugs and hand shakes, for folks who struggle to process sensory input, houses of worship can quickly feel anything but holy. That was the case for Lark Losardo's son Percy, who in 2017 began attending Catholic Mass with his family at age 7. Percy, who is autistic, was often overwhelmed by the Brooklyn church's open space, noise and crowds. At first, when he needed to move around or stim (engage in repetitive actions to self-regulate), he'd leave the service with a parent. Eventually, in part because of the barriers to attending as a family, they stopped coming altogether. Then, in 2020, the Losardos moved to Maplewood, New Jersey. After watching online services at a nearby Catholic parish called St. Joseph's during the pandemic, Lark Losardo learned in 2024 that the parish was opening a sensory room equipped with regulation tools, including a weighted blanket, touch pillow, ear defenders and sound machine. Thanks to that room, today Percy is back in the pews, using the room to regroup whenever needed. 'It speaks volumes,' Lark Losardo told Religion News Service. 'Not everyone needs this space, but just having it there sends a very clear message.' ___ This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ Across the U.S., families like Percy's who once thought worship was off-limits are returning to faith communities thanks to a small but growing number of sensory rooms in religious settings. Located in underutilized classrooms, storage spaces and former nurseries, these rooms vary in size and appearance, but are all designed to offer a calm, predictable environment that can help with nervous system regulation. Disability advocates say the rooms signal that a community prioritizes the needs of neurodivergent and disabled members. At St. Joseph's, the Rev. Jim Worth said the new sensory room, which opened in December, isa natural extension of the parish's faith values. To him, the room is evidence that inclusion — a principle Worth linked to Catholic social teaching — isn't just given lip service. 'When you put intentionality behind something, it makes a world of difference,' said Worth. On a 60-degree day in late March, the church, located on a quiet residential street, had a front stoop featuring three signs: one quoting Martin Luther King Jr., another quoting Pope Francis, and a third welcoming anyone in the community to visit the Still Waters Sensory Room. Named after the biblical Psalm 23 passage — 'he leads me beside still waters' — the sensory room was converted from an unused confessional. It was designed by Together We Bloom, a Maplewood-based nonprofit that helps make events and spaces more accessible. The room's dark indigo walls match the comfortable chair glider and beanbag, each contributing to the soothing atmosphere. The total cost of the room was under $2,000 and was largely paid for by church funds, plus some donations. 'This sensory room has really changed everything for us,' said Pavitra Makam, a St. Joseph's parishioner and mother of two neurodivergent kids. 'Being able to worship together has been the biggest thing for our family.' Jay Perkins, who has been in the sensory room business since 2009, said it's often parents in need of a safe, supportive space for their kids who are spearheading the movement to build sensory rooms. When his daughter began exhibiting signs of aggression at age 4, places like libraries (too quiet), playgrounds (too loud) and trampoline parks (too crowded) were inaccessible. That applied to his Episcopal church, too. 'There are so few places where special-needs kids with sensory integration disorders can enjoy it,' said Perkins. The lack of accessible spaces for his family inspired Perkins to begin building the kinds of rooms his daughter would thrive in. In 2018 he officially launched his company, The Sensory Room, which builds high-end, durable sensory rooms from start to finish and trains people on how to use them. 'It's catching on,' said Perkins, whose company built roughly a dozen rooms in 2022 and 80 in 2023. Though The Sensory Room specializes in schools, Perkin's company has also built rooms for a Broadway theater and an airport, and three in evangelical churches. Most of his custom rooms, he told RNS, start in the $20,000 range. One of those projects was the $35,000 transformation of a storage room into a state-of-the-art sensory room at Encounter Church, an evangelical congregation about 30 minutes from Dallas. Completed in February 2024, the renovation included interactive tactile and texture panels, bubble tubes, mirrors, new carpet, paint and electrical work, and an LED-star ceiling complete with a digital shooting star. According to the Rev. Chris Binion, who co-founded the church with his wife, Tracy, the decision to create the room was prompted by the Holy Spirit. 'I was in a season of prayer and fasting, and I felt like the Lord asked me how to take care of his 'littles,'' Binion told RNS. He felt God was urging him to support kids with 'diverse needs,'including autism. 'We decided through the direction of the Holy Spirit to say yes, and move forward in this kingdom assignment.' It's not just churches that are revamping spaces to focus on sensory integration. Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in Atlanta, has adapted two of its rooms to help folks process sensory input. A former cry room just off the main sanctuary was altered to become the Shalom Sanctuary, a small space with a large window facing the main worship space equipped with fidget toys, beanbags and headphones. The synagogue also received a $10,000 grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta to improve the accessibility of a classroom. That renovation is almost complete, and the room, which features a wall of sensory engagement toys, flexible furniture and alternative seating (think large rubber balls), will be especially helpful for children who need sensory breaks during religious classes or events such as the annual Purim carnival, according to Rabbi Rachael Klein Miller, associate rabbi at the synagogue. 'Something important in Judaism is the idea that we are all created 'b'tzelem Elohim,' in the image of God,' said Klein Miller. 'And much of that is connected to the golden rule of treating people the way we want to be treated and finding space for everybody in the community.' According to Rebecca Barlow, a regional disability specialist in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adding a sensory room to a house of worship doesn't automatically make it accessible to those with sensory needs. 'It's just one piece of a bigger machine that you're trying to build,' said Barlow, disability specialist for the Desert Ridge Stake in Mesa, Arizona. The first step to building that machine, Barlow said, is asking disabled individuals and their families what it would take to make church feasible for them. When she first became a disability specialist roughly five years ago, feedback was invaluable. 'The biggest thing was listening. The parents of these children know what they need,' said Barlow, who is the parent of a child with autism. Based on the families' input, she created a sensory room in her meeting house with new donated items. Knowing it would be used by kids who could become aggressive, she removed hard chairs and chalkboard lips that could pose safety risks. She also filled the room with the usual sensory items, added light-blocking curtains and included a night-light that projected a calming light pattern. Still, it took more than that to get families back in the door. 'We, as parents of disabled children, often can become jaded, and we lack trust that our children are going to be cared for in a manner appropriate to how special they are,' said Barlow. To build trust with families, church leaders invited some members of the ward to serve as one-on-one aides for each child with a disability. The aides were trained in the homes of their assigned families and eventually accompanied the kids in the sensory room during church meetings. Barlow also introduced the kids to the sensory room ahead of time via pictures and tours, and ward members, too, received basic training on understanding disabilities and how to use the sensory room. In the few years since that sensory room opened, the model has gained traction. Barlow says the seven wards in her stake now each have their own disability specialists and sensory rooms, and she routinely takes calls from LDS church members across the country and the globe seeking to set up sensory rooms of their own. 'It feels like we're seeing a cultural shift toward understanding and accepting and integrating people with disabilities,' said Barlow. 'If we want to follow Christ, if we want to emulate him, if we want to be his disciples … they need to be foremost in our mind.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . 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Winnipeg Free Press
21-07-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
A fight to save a Hindu temple for the ‘unheard and unseen'
NEW YORK (RNS) — Illuminated by a skylight at the center of a small factory-turned-Hindu temple in Queens sits a murti of the Divine Mother — a 1-ton, 6-foot-tall icon of the South Indian village goddess Mariamman, an incarnation of Kali, the deity of time and death. Smoke from cigarettes and incense fills the room, and bottles of rum sit next to fruit at the altar. 'Our religion is very rural, very villagelike,' said Chandni Kalu, 31, a priestess at the Richmond Hill temple. 'It's very raw.' Even other Hindus might find Sunday worship services at the Shri Shakti Mariammaa temple unfamiliar. The mostly Indo-Caribbean congregants worship goddess Kali, who also represents transcendental knowledge that can manifest within, or spiritually possess, her followers. At a recent service, a young male pujari, or lay priest, shook and danced vigorously through the crowd, entranced with Shakti, the feminine energy that inhabits someone possessed by Kali. 'We are a healing temple,' said Sharda Ramsami, one of the original members of the temple when it was founded in 2008. 'Whether it's something physical or something spiritual, we arealways the last resort, and when people come here, they're desperate for help. I think that's what's most powerful: that desperation, and then here's the answer that no one else could provide for them. Mother knows.' ___ This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ But the temple is also known as one that is open to all. Its clergy have married same-sex couples after they were shunned or rejected from other Hindu temples in the area, and, uniquely, those clergy, the temple staff and congregants are mostly women. Women come to seek refuge at the temple, Ramsami explained, sometimes to escape dire situations. They have been quietly offered money from temple staff or even given the keys to the building to stay there. Other temples, Ramsami said, would throw women out for menstruating or not allow women to approach the altar. 'That's just not something we believe in,' she said. 'We worship a woman.' 'Even in mainstream Hinduism,' Kalu said, 'there's so much patriarchy. Women aren't really given roles, and whenever they are, it's just mediocre roles in the kitchen making prasadam (offerings). I was really given a platform here to become a priestess.' Now, the temple is in danger of closing. Without more than $150,000 in necessary upgrades to the space, the landlord and the city will move to push the temple out. 'I think Mother had a plan for us all to be here, because our lives changed so much and in so many ways,' said Hilda Thamen, Ramsami's aunt and another founder of the temple. 'She did so much for us. So now what's going on here is really sad. It's really hurting us.' Back in 2018, a noise complaint from a neighbor led to intervention from the city's Department of Buildings, resulting in a small fine. In 2024, after another noise complaint by the same neighbor, the city determined the temple needed to legally register as a community space. To do so, said Ramsami, the building needs several costly improvements to electricity, plumbing, fire safety and accessibility. But it is unclear whether these changes are viable in a building intended for manufacturing, not worship. Though renting another location for more money may eventually be possible, 'if we move somewhere further, we lose some of our congregants,' said Ramsami. 'A lot of older folks come here, and the bus stop is right down the block, so it's just easy for them to walk here.' The neighbor, who lives in a single-family home behind the temple, heard the loud bhajans, or devotional songs, and drums nine nights in a row during the holiday of Navratri, an homage to the goddess Durga. At the time, he told congregants he would 'rather there be a bar' than a temple so close to his windows. The neighbor has denied the temple's request to build an exit in the back, and has constructed a 12-foot fence in between them.' He came once and he saw our logo painted on the gate and he said, 'Oh, Diablo, Diablo meaning the devil,'' said Ramsami. 'So it definitely stems from fear. 'Most Kali temples in the area are tucked away in basements or backyards. 'If you look at the murti or an image of Ma Kali, she's so different from other mothers,' said Kalu. 'She's dark,she's disheveled, she's naked. She has blood dripping from her tongue. And I think all of that makes people uncomfortable. Blood is kind of deemed inauspicious, and I think from fear it became so taboo.' Even in Guyana, said Thamen, 'you were afraid to say you go to a Kali temple, because people look at you different.' In the 19th century, the British brought scores of indentured Indians to Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname in the Caribbean. Many came from southern India and brought their animistic and folk religions with them. Caribbean Shaktism was thus born, with rituals passed down in a 'broken' version of Tamil by word of mouth to the mostly English-speaking Indo-Caribbean population, with no Scriptures to consult and no book of mantras. Yet the tradition still thrives thanks to the Queens temple's founders, some of whose parents were priests in Shakti temples back in Guyana. A small group of second-generation New Yorkers gutted out the factory, built a kitchen and redid the roof, all while holding day jobs in commercial and residential cleaning, catering and nutrition school. The mission of Shri Shakti Mariammaa was clear, said Dave Kutaiyah, the temple's chairman.'This is not only a place for religion or a place where you come to pray on Sunday,' he said.'This is a place where you come and you see people who look like you, people who are familiar to you. 'That's one of the things we instill in our temple: Treat everyone the same, whether you work for city government and you're the right-hand person to the mayor, or you're working at Dunkin' Donuts on the 12 a.m. shift. People need to be loved and respected, and that's what we try to bring here.' The temple has survived through individual donations from families wanting a particular puja, or ritual, to be performed. But Kutaiyah and his team, even during the current financial struggle, have never asked for money from the congregation, or passed out a tithing plate. 'We believe worship should be free, health should be free, and we shouldn't gain financially from that,' said Ramsami. 'I think 90% of people who attend here will tell you they work in a department store, factory or at JFK (International Airport), so we don't have a lot of white-collar professionals that have a lot of disposable income to donate,' added Kutaiyah, who works in human resources. 'I always tell people, use your pension money to pay your bills first, and then think about God. God will not be upset with you if you can't give anything.' Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. A GoFundMe campaign, co-signed by a number of organizations that have used the temple's space for meetings, such as Jahajee: Indo-Caribbeans for Gender Justice and the Caribbean Equality Project, has been circulating since June. In November, at a court date to pay an outstanding fine, the temple will ask the city for an extension to figure out its next steps. Rohan Narine, NYC organizer with the national organization Hindus for Human Rights, one of the supporters of the GoFundMe campaign, has a personal stake in the temple's success. A Queens native, Narine has been hosting Om Night open mics at the temple for years. Narine considers himself an 'orthodox Hindu' and was surprised on his first visit to see worshippers throwing menthol cubes of fire into their mouths and dousing themselves in rosewater. But despite theological differences, 'I felt that beauty and that raw spiritual energy thatyou don't feel in other temples,' he said. 'It's not like sitting down at an ashram, offering prasad, do a little aarti (lamp ritual) and you eat and go home. Here, it's very involved. It's almost like being part of a live interactive performance.' In Indo-Caribbean spaces in Queens, according to Narine, the temple's style of worship is becoming more mainstream. More people are coming to the temple not just for curiosity's sake, but to worship alongside the Shakti community. 'I think the entire expanse of Hinduism should be represented,' said Narine. 'All of the Hindu pantheon should have the ability to practice their faith freely. We as Hindus, and especially Indo-Caribbean in America, are very comfortable with the more simplistic way of worship, and Shakti worship might be more complex. But we can't shy away from that. I think we should be more open to that.'
