Flag Abuse

According to the Cult Hotline & Clinic (www.cultclinic.org), an estimated 5 to 7 million Americans, at some point in their lives, have been involved in cults. Approximately 180,000 new members are recruited each year, and this is just in the U.S. The unbridled abuse, kept secret in part thanks to the guise of "religious freedom", is astounding.

Most people are aware of cult activity, getting their information from the headlines and news reports. We've heard the stories of Jonestown and seen the vivid images of all those bodies; Charles Manson and the young women who happily and gruesomely murdered for him; the Heaven's Gate cult led by Marshall Applewhite, whose followers committed mass suicide in order to reach an alien spacecraft. We sit back and wonder what kind of person would blindly follow another to his/her death. The news rarely tells us this. Most news, print and TV, is guilty of sensationalizing stories. We think we know the story but we've only scratched the surface.

If you think this could never happen to you or someone you love, you might be right. You might also be very wrong. I recently read two fascinating – and horrifying – nonfiction books that take readers into the heart of these cults. One of the things that struck me was the ordinariness of most of the members. Few, if any, set out to join a cult. They were searching for something and cult leaders are adept at filling those needs. The other things that struck me were the fear, isolation, desperation, and absolute lack of support and protection.

The two books I read were A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown and Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints.

A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown, the author, Julia Scheeres, sifted through 50,000 pages of recently released documents, as well as audio tapes recorded by Jim Jones and his members, so that we could better understand why nearly 1,000 people committed mass suicide by drinking poison. The way in which Jim Jones devolved from a man with good intentions to a paranoid, controlling, vicious murderer is fascinating – in a morbid sort of way. Some members willingly followed and supported his insanity. I found this incomprehensible. Others desperately wanted out but had no way to escape. This, for me, was the most heartbreaking part of the story. This is the part the news doesn't tell us. These people did not all willingly drink the 'Kool Aid'.

Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints takes on a recent story, one that is still simmering. The author, Sam Brower, is a private investigator who took on this case before the FBI did. His inside view is shocking. I admit to knowing little about this before reading the book. I'd heard about Warren Jeffs and his church, and, of course, I'd heard about child services removing hundreds of children from their "innocent" parents. After reading this book, I would never use the term innocent. Complicit is a more accurate term.

This cult has a different feel. Warren Jeffs is the prophet for the FDLS, an offshoot of the Mormon Church. (I want to emphasize that this "church" is not a part of or accepted by the mainstream Mormon religion.) This cult does not recruit and few "outsiders" are allowed to join. The FDLS members are born into their cult, which can be far worse than being recruited. These members know no other life, no other world.

This story truly horrified me. While most media spins this as a "polygamist religion", this cult is really about the abuse of children and women. Yes, the cult hides behind religious freedom and believes in polygamy. But that is an issue of convenience. What they aren't telling us is twelve-year-old girls are being married off to men in their thirties, forties, and fifties. These girls cannot refuse. Women are treated as baby factories and nothing more. They are assigned husbands and often taken away and assigned to new ones later on. Members are purposely deprived of education, isolated, and taught that the world outside of their protective walls is evil. And, as all this goes on, our government tiptoes around them because of "religious freedom". I was not aware that dressing something up as a religion gave a person the freedom to abuse at will.

While Warren Jeffs has been arrested, thanks in large part to the work of Sam Brower, this cult still thrives. The children, and the children's babies, were returned to their parents, returned to a life of abuse. This is a story everyone needs to read.

In my novel Beyond Salvation, I explore what happens when religion is twisted to meet the needs of a cult leader. Sara Rivers is a teenage runaway, part of a throwaway culture most of us are unaware of. People like her are perfect prey for cult leaders. Fortunately for Sara, she had Michael Sykora looking out for her. If only everyone did.