c. 2000 Religion News Service
(Rabbi Rudin is senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.)
(UNDATED) Jonestown. The very name of the infamous cult settlement in Guyana’s jungle still evokes intense sorrow and bitter anger.
In November 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples’ Temple, murdered nearly 1,000 people, including more than 300 children, in Jonestown. Jones personally ordered the mass killing of his own followers immediately after Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., paid an investigative visit to the community. Ryan went to Jonestown to check out reports the cult was abusing people, including some of Ryan’s constituents from San Francisco.
Tragically, Ryan was also murdered in the 1978 massacre and in true apocalyptic fashion, Jones committed suicide as well.
The world was stunned by the Jonestown massacre, but unfortunately there has been a continuing series of cult killings and forced suicides since then. Because horrific deaths in Heaven’s Gate, Branch Davidians and other sects were fewer in number than Jonestown, some people falsely believe destructive cults no longer represent a threat to our society.
But cults abound in today’s America. Some claim to be religious, others pose as therapeutic groups, and still others are grab-bag mixtures of New Age ideas. Many of these destructive groups do not make the headlines, but they continue to proliferate.
Some cults are small in number and base themselves on an ultra-strict and harsh interpretation of the Bible, while others have larger memberships and entice new recruits with promises of improved personal and professional skills, sometimes through a bizarre combination of science fiction self-help techniques.
But whether large or small in number, cults generally have several things in common: They have charismatic leaders who control their followers; they wreak great psychological and physical havoc on group members and their families; and they trample the human rights of their followers. Painful separations of parents from children and abuse of minors are rampant within many cults, along with ugly schemes to defraud the elderly of Social Security and other retirement benefits.
Many cult leaders in addition to Jones and Branch Davidan “Messiah” David Koresh habitually sexually abuse their submissive followers.
The April 1993 destruction of Koresh’s cult compound near Waco, Texas, drew extraordinary media attention, and a swirl of charges and counter-charges quickly emerged from the ashes of the Branch Davidian buildings. The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI were charged with initiating the fiery end to Koresh’s group. People who hated Attorney General Janet Reno, the FBI or the U.S. government in general sometimes cynically used these charges.
To achieve necessary and final closure on these charges, a man with impeccable credentials, John C. Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest and a former Republican senator from Missouri, recently conducted a lengthy investigation of the Waco incident for the Department of Justice.
Danforth and his staff reviewed some 2.3 million pages of documents and conducted interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses. His investigative team examined thousands of pieces of physical evidence.
On July 21, Danforth issued his “Special Interim Report.” His carefully worded conclusions are both comprehensive and significant, and I strongly believe they should put an end to all conspiratorial theories and dark muttering about the “wicked” government’s role in the Waco debacle.
Danforth concluded that government agents did not start the deadly fire at Waco and did not shoot at the Branch Davidians on April 19, 1993. Government agents did not improperly use the U.S. military, nor did the agents engage in a massive conspiracy regarding Waco.
The former GOP senator also reported that neither Reno nor FBI officials acted improperly. The ultimate responsibility for the Branch Davidian tragedy rests solely with Koresh and his closest colleagues. The cult members shot and killed four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, wounded 20 others, fired weapons at FBI agents, and in an “end of the world” scenario burned down their own complex, killing more than 90 people.
Danforth’s report confirms what many of us have believed since that terrible day: David Koresh, the quintessential destructive cult leader, caused the death of his own members because of a megalomaniac belief in his divinity and because of his extraordinary ability to manipulate and control people.
Danforth persuasively points out these grim facts with clarity and precision. Maybe the die-hard cult apologists and government haters will remain unconvinced, but perhaps the report will permanently end the wild speculations and dire rumors about Waco.
And one hopes Danforth’s efforts will remind Americans that the danger of destructive cults remains a troubling and growing concern for everyone.
DEA END RUDIN
