Iran's official news agency said today former US National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane and four other Americans were jailed in Tehran for five days recently after they arrived on a secret diplomatic mission. The report quoted the speaker of Iran's parliament as saying President Reagan sent the group to Tehran posing as aircraft crewmen. He said they carried with them a Bible signed by the President and a cake. He said the presents were designed to improve relations between the two countries. Neither the Reagan Administration nor McFarlane had any comment on the report.


There were published reports in the Middle East that hostage David Jacobsen was freed as a result of negotiations between the United States and Iran. Asked about that today, Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite said that he didn't want to comment on the political dynamics. But Waite said he may know within the next twenty-four hours from his contacts if he will be returning to Beirut to negotiate the release of more hostages.


Jacobsen was reunited with his family today, but again said his joy could not be complete until the other hostages are freed. He appeared on the hospital balcony with his family and talked with reporters. Hospital director Colonel Charles Moffitt says Jacobsen needs to communicate with people now. "He likes to talk, whether that be to a group of press or to individual physicians. Once you get him started on a subject, he wants to talk because he hasn't been able to do that." Moffitt says Jacobsen is in good health and will not need followup medical care.


A low to moderate turnout is reported across the nation so far on this election day. Voters are choosing members of the one hundredth Congress, thirty-four senators and all four hundred thirty-five members of the US House of Representatives. One of the big questions is which Party will control the Senate after today's voting.


President Reagan's former National Security Advisor, Robert McFarlane, and four other Americans may have visited Tehran recently on a secret diplomatic mission. Today, on the seventh anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran Speaker of the Parliament said the visiting Americans were held for five days before being expelled from the country. NPR was unable to reach Mr. McFarlane today for comment and the White House says that it can neither confirm nor deny the story. NPR's Elizabeth Colton reports.
Today in Tehran, Speaker of the Parliament, Hashami Rafsanjani took the occasion to tell a rally that President Reagan had recently sent personal envoys to Iran, calling for improvement of relations. In response to the American overtures, Rafsanjani announced that Iran will advise its friends in Lebanon, in other words the hostage takers, to free US and French hostages if Israel frees Lebanese prisoners, and if the American and French governments end their hostility to the revolutionary government of Iran. Rafsanjani then reportedly described for the tens of thousands outside his parliament, the visit of the five American emissaries. The Iranian said they flew in, posing as the flight crew of a plane bringing American military spare parts to Iran from Europe. The US envoys reportedly carried Irish passports, now said to be held by Iranian officials. And one of the men called himself McFarlane. And according to Rafsanjani, he looked exactly like President Reagan's former National Security Advisor. Rafsanjani claimed that Iranian security officials also have a tape of telephone conversations between the American President and his envoys, The Iranian cleric, Rafsanjani, said the five men were confined to a hotel for five days and later deported after Ayatollah Khomeini advised Iranian officials not to meet them or receive their message. Rafsanjani said the Americans had brought a Bible signed by President Reagan and a key-shaped cake which they said was the symbol of the hope of reopening US-Iran relations. In Tehran today, at the ceremony marking the anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy, Parliamentary Speaker Rafsanjani described the visit by the American emissaries as a sign of Washington's helplessness. The White House said it would neither confirm nor deny the reports, because according to the press office, there are certain matters pertaining to efforts to try to release the hostages, and comments might jeopardize them. Robert McFarlane, who was also a frequent political commentator for NPR's morning edition, has been unavailable for comment. I am Elizabeth Colton in Washington.


Over the last few years and around the country, the number of fundamentalist religious groups is said to be growing. Some are called "ultra-fundamentalist" groups. The estimates varied greatly. The number could be as high as two thousand. These organizations have different purposes and beliefs, but usually have one thing in common—strong leadership, quite often one person. Four years ago in October at a fundamentalist Christian commune in West Virginia, a young boy died after a paddling session that lasted for two hours. The child was spanked by his parents. He had hit another child and refused to say he was sorry. We reported the story of that paddling—the story of the Stonegate Community in November of 1982. Since that time, Stonegate leader has been tried and convicted, one of the first times a leader of a religious group has been held responsible for the actions of a member. Also in that time the parents of the child have served jail terms, and now they have agreed to tell their story.
The Stonegate Commune was near Charleston, West Virginia, in the northeast corner of the state. It's mostly farming country. The Stonegate members lived outside of town in an old white Victorian house, overlooking the Shenandoah River, eight young families living and working together. They did some farming, some construction work and for a time ran a restaurant in Charleston. It was their intention to become less of a commune and more of a community, with the families living in separate houses on the property. We went to Stonegate on a Sunday evening in November of 1982. We were reluctantly welcomed. Less than a month before, two Stonegate members had been indicted for involuntary manslaughter. They were the parents of Joseph Green, who was two years old when he died. On this night many of the Stonegate people were defensive, almost angry.
That was four years ago. The parents, Stewart and Leslie Green, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and both spent a year in jail. First Stewart, then Leslie. Then in a separate legal action, the leader of the Stonegate commune, Dorothy McLellan was also indicted. McLellan did not take part in the paddling but she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy in the death of Joey Green. Stewart Green, the father, testified against Dorothy McLellan. Green now believes that his son died because of McLellan's teachings and influence. He explained in court that the Stonegate members were taught that a paddling session should continue until the child apologizes. Green also testified that a four-hour spanking of Dorothy McLellan's grandson, Danny, had occurred two weeks before Joey Green's death. He also said the Stonegate members, when Joey died, joined in a pledge of secrecy: the circumstances would be covered up; the death would be called an accident. They were afraid all the Stonegate children would be taken away. Joey's parents at first agreed to this. It was later that they spoke out against what they called then a conspiracy of silence. Both Stewart and Leslie Green grew up and married within the Stonegate community. Leslie was only fifteen when she came to the Stonegate. They lived with several other teenagers in the home of Dorothy and John McLellan. The McLellans had been taking in young people who were having trouble, usually with drugs. They wanted to use their marriage as an example of Christian family life. John McLellan worked for an accounting firm, traveling during the week, Dot McLellan staying at home, taking care of more and more teenagers. The Greens are now living in their first real home together, an apartment in Baltimore. Stewart left the Stonegate, and Leslie joined him as soon as she got out of jail. The Greens have now agreed to talk about their lives at Stonegate and about the paddling of their son.