Armenian society is giving negative remarks about the recent news regarding American rich man John Huntsman founding a modern oncology center in Armenia. There was a lot of interest towards the benefactor and his religious organization.
John Huntsman began his charitable contributions for Armenia back in 1988. Based on press articles, after the earthquake of 1988, the Huntsman family has contributed 18 million dollars throughout the years. Nearly 2-3 years ago, Huntsman received the Mesrop Mashtots state award for his contributions and at the time, this caused a scandal. In fact, Huntsman is also an honorable citizen of Gyumri. During his visit to Armenia on August 23-24, 2006, Huntsman met with the President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. He offered to open a health care center in Armenia and got a positive response.
The “Huntsman Building Products” company has been around since 1990 and the company is involved in the production of tiles and rooftops. The company informed that it’s still not clear as to when Huntsman plans to found the health care center and where in Yerevan he foresees building it.
“We’re just planning out for now. We don’t know how the American doctors will work with their Armenian colleagues,” says one of the workers of the company.
According to Hranush Kharatyan, who is head of the Ethnic Minorities and Religious Issues department of the Armenian government administration, Armenians should consider Huntsman’s work as the foundation of a religious organization and the latter is a member of that organization. Huntsman’s faith is in the “Church of the Last Days of Jesus Christ” or simply the Mormon teachings. As for Mormons, H. Kharatyan says that this religious organization is very regulative, strong and constructive.
The Mormons registered in Armenia in 1992 as a religious organization, they have eight centers, of which five are in Yerevan. They publish the “Lihaona” magazine. Based on their information, they have nearly 2,000 members, but according to our sources, they are more in number. According to the same source, Mormons have started to get rather active recently, working in “missionary pairs” with the purpose of spreading the word on the streets.
Not too long ago, teens dressed in the same clothes barged in the “Saint Sarkis” church of the Ararat diocese during the holy mass and started spreading the word. They even persuaded believers to not light candles and passed out leaflets. It turns out that this is yet another way of showing how regulative they are. Obviously, the priests didn’t allow the Mormons to carry out their “mission” until the end and the police also took some action. The Mormon propagandists appealed to the Armenian government regarding this case. There hasn’t been any case and the government has warned the Mormons to be a little more careful. According to priest Shmavon Ghevondyan of the Saint Sarkis church in Argavand, the Mormon sect is the most disrespected in Armenia and there is a very small amount of propaganda and the purpose is “Americanization”. In fact, Mormons prohibit non-Mormons to enter their temples. There are 50 Mormon temples around the world. According to our source, the construction of another temple is almost done in Helsinki. Our source also said that one of the goals of the Mormons is to construct a temple in the region of Armenia.
The Mormon “church” is well-known across the globe and the active soul-hunting is what makes it progress. The spiritual center of the “Church of the Last Days of Jesus Christ” is based in the U.S.-Salt Lake City, Utah-where 75% of the population are Mormons. Currently, there are over 10 million Mormons around the world. According to our source, the Mormons came to Armenia after 1988 with the purpose of making charitable contributions and settled down, due to the fact that there were great conditions for soul-hunting and creating influence zones in Armenia after the earthquake.
The “Church of the Last Days of Jesus Christ” represents itself as a strong, financial empire-its capital exceeds 30 billion dollars and the main source of income is the membership fees. The Mormons also earn a lot from making profitable companies-the “Marriot” hotel chain, the “Beneficial Life” insurance company, etc. The Mormons also pay a lot of attention to mass media. They control some newspapers, especially the “Los Angeles Times”, eleven radio stations and two television networks. Based on research, along with the ideology, media business gives them a 300,000,000 dollar income. In contrast to Armenians, the “Church of the Last Days of Jesus Christ” is considered to be a totalitarian (destructive) sect in Russia (based on information from the informational center of the State Duma). Based on the documents regarding the sect presented to the council of religious organization cooperation attaché to the Russian president’s administration, in 1990, the Mormons gave 14,000,000 dollar humanitarian aid to Russia. Another interesting thing: some special Mormon groups even stick their noses into the national archive. In Armenia, the “Armenian Genetic Union” focuses on that. According to researchers, the Mormons have penetrated into the archives located in the Armenia Diaspora, as well as the death registrations of the Armenian Apostolic Church, they have made copies in microfilms of church, birth, marriage and death certificates, biographies, inscriptions on graves, information about immigration, newspapers and other documents belonging to the state. The copies of those documents are kept in the Genetic Union’s “Granite Hill” archives located in Salt Lake City. As for the foundation of an oncology center, according to some, that is necessary for people who suffer from cancer and are on the verge of dying. Most of them spend the last days of their life at home under the care of unprofessional doctors.