Hoping to make life so uncomfortable for the Davidians that they would have to leave the compound, the Hostage Rescue Team—against the wishes of negotiators—was allowed to begin engaging in psychological operations. Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, whom Koresh’s mother had asked to represent her son, was allowed past the perimeter and into Mount Carmel in hopes that he could broker a surrender plan. The decision—to allow a defense attorney into an unsecured crime scene where federal agents had been killed—was unprecedented. Inside the building, conditions were deteriorating.
Doyle Toward the end of March, they started trying to disrupt our sleep. They shone bright lights into the building all night long and blasted stuff over the loudspeakers: reveille, Tibetan monks chanting, Nancy Sinatra singing “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” even some Christmas carols. They slowed songs down and then sped them up so they sounded distorted. They played telephones ringing and babies crying and rabbits being slaughtered. Once, they made a recording of a helicopter that had been buzzing the building the day before. They played that over and over, and I kept instinctively flinching and ducking my head down, even though I knew the helicopter wasn’t actually there.
Ray There we were, out on that rolling prairie, surrounded by farms that had been handed down from generation to generation. There were cows and horses and swing sets in people’s backyards and little red wagons out on front porches. And then there were these gigantic spotlights and these speakers blaring and these armored personnel carriers barreling around this pastoral setting. I’ll tell you, it was completely surreal.
Noesner The Davidians believed in a confrontation between good and evil, and of course Koresh and his followers’ interpretation was that they represented the righteous and the good and that the authorities were agents of evil. They looked at themselves as martyrs.
Thibodeau Scripture talks about how, in the latter days, the Beast will war against the people of God and destroy them—or, basically, exactly what was happening to us. Everything that David had been teaching us was actually taking place. It did seem like prophecy was being fulfilled.
Doyle We had hardly any water for bathing, and we were all getting pretty rank. We had to use five-gallon buckets to dispose of our waste because we couldn’t go outside to our outhouses. I was getting one, maybe two hours of sleep a night.
Thibodeau If I had been on the outside while this was going on, I would have been the first person to say, “These people are nuts, man! What are they doing staying in there? It’s time to come on out.” But having been there, I can’t say that. I challenge any American family to think about what they would do if they were invaded by a hostile force. If tanks pulled up outside their house and there were armed men inside, would they send their kids out? A lot of Americans would fight that to the end.
Sage We pleaded with them every single day, for 51 days. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they had the option of coming out. And they never did
The leader of the Jonestown cult, the Rev. Jim Jones, preached racial equality and integration, and led programs to help drug addicts and the elderly after moving his People’s Temple Full Gospel Church from Indianapolis, Ind., to San Francisco, Calif., in 1970.
His work, and his commanding presence, drew followers, and some powerful political allies, but there were also whispers about abuse, threats and fraud at his temple. When a magazine published an expos� about the temple, Jones and his followers packed up in 1978 and moved to the jungles of Guyana in South America.
Grace Stoen, a former member of the People’s Temple, said she and others who had separated from the group tried to get involved in what they suspected was happening in Jonestown, Guyana.
“We were trying to let the government know that people were being held against their will,” Stoen said
One man who listened to Stoen’s warnings, California Congressman Leo Ryan, opened an inquiry into allegations of torture and sexual abuse within the People’s Temple.
In November of 1978, Ryan, concerned family members, a small team of reporters and congressional aide Jackie Speier headed to Jonestown.
Speier said she expected they would make some troubling discoveries, but she never expected they would be in immediate danger. “He [Ryan] knew that I had fears and concerns about the trip. I thought we were moving too quickly.”
Once at the camp, TV reporter Don Harris was handed desperate messages from Jones’ followers begging for help.
Jones told Harris that the messages meant nothing to him.
“People play games, friend. They lie. They lie. What can I do about lies? Will you people leave us? I just beg you please leave us,” Jones said to Harris.
Ryan’s group took rising tensions at Jonestown as an indication that they should head back to the United States while they could.
But the congressman’s group and some escaping cult members were ambushed by Jones’ gunmen at the airstrip they planned to depart from.
“They came among us and shot us at point blank range, and then they left,” Speier said. “You could see bodies kind of lying all over. And when no one’s moving, you know,” she said.
Five people, including Ryan,were killed in the ambush.
Shortly after the attack, Jones gathered everyone around a large vat filled with a grape-flavored drink and cyanide. Then he proceeded to film the largest mass suicide to be recorded in modern history.
Almost all of the members of the People’s Temple had been poisoned, nearly a third of them were children. Those who resisted were forced to take the poison by armed guards.
In the end, Stoen’s warnings and Ryan’s trip didn’t help most members of the People’s Temple. Stoen ended up losing her son, John, in the massacre and Jones taught the world a lesson about the power a single hypnotic leader can have over his people
Jones was found shot in the head with the bodies of his flock lying around him. It’s not clear who fired the shot that killed Jones.
Jonestown Memorial
Minister Jynona Norwood, who lost 27 relatives in the mass suicide, leads today’s ceremonies in Oakland.
Norwood is campaigning to build a wall commemorating the victims, saying it’s up to the living to speak for the dead.
The mass grave is now only marked by a modest headstone and Norwood says she believes a more substantive memorial should be placed at the burial site.
. Personality changes 2. Dramatic shifts of values or beliefs 3. Changes in diet or sleep patterns 4. Refusal to attend important family events 5. Inability to make decisions without consulting a cult leader or guru 6. Sudden use of a new ideology to explain everything 7. Black-and-white, simplistic reasoning 8. A new vocabulary 9. Insistence that you do what he or she is doing9One explanation of these symptoms is the development of a pseudo-identity, a new persona the individual adopts to fit into the cult environment.6To date, there have been many studies addressing the question of psychological harm caused by cult membership, but like any research into effects of trauma, ethics preclude much prospective study, which limits validity. In an extensive review of research, three researchers concluded that a substantial minority of ex-cult members have problems readjusting to life outside the cult.5Why some are harmed and others are not has yet to be pinned down. A Group Psychological Abuse Scale has been developed for measuring the degree to which influence exists in different groups. It’s hoped that this will help differentiate benign groups from coercive ones.10,11Psychological abuse is not the only form of abuse suffered. According to Martin, who also directs the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, Albany, OH, a residential treatment center for recovering cult victims, a third of post-cult counseling clients report physical or sexual abuse during cult involvement.11
Symptoms experienced by ex-cult members vary widely but include anxiety, depression, guilt, sleep disorders, loss of identity, trouble concentrating and handling emotions, trouble making decisions, floating (a dissociative return to the cult pseudo-identity), and psychosomatic problems.5The Faith Group That Refuses Standard Healthcare A school nurse at a metropolitan primary school is aghast and frustrated. She is confronted by a father who has refused to have his two children vaccinated. He belongs to a Christian-based group that believes in faith healing and does not allow immunization. Even without specific policy, cults can foster ill health through overwork, an uneducated approach to dietary restrictions, and neglect. Groups that have specific beliefs precluding healthcare may or may not meet criteria for a cult, but all need to be examined in a discussion of beliefs and health. Most religions or philosophies take an ethical stand on one or another medical procedure. Familiar to nurses are the position of the Roman Catholic Church on reproductive and end-of-life issues, refusal of blood products by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and refusal of medical care by Christian Scientists. Less well-known are some newer belief systems. Scientology, for example, is strongly opposed to psychiatry and all psychiatric medications and procedures.12Popular culture, New Age beliefs, television infomercials, and magazines contribute countless philosophies, products, and approaches to healthcare that, regardless of research, are largely accepted on faith by the public. Then there are the small, usually Christian, congregations that believe in faith healing and suffer deaths from what is called religion-motivated medical neglect. A 1998 study found that between 1975 and 1995, 172 child fatalities in the US were clearly linked to religion-based neglect. Investigation revealed 140 could probably have recovered if treated. Another 18 would have had a 50% chance of survival, and all but three of the remaining 14 would have benefited from someclinical help.13Eleven fatalities were preventable by vaccination.14Of the 59 prenatal and peri-natal deaths, all but one should have had a good outcome. No deliveries were attended by a licensed midwife, and six mothers died of obstetrical complications.13The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees American adults freedom to choose beliefs over medical care, even in the face of imminent death. When minor children are involved, however, state child-neglect laws come into play, and every state is different. Some states have “faith-healing” clauses that give criminal immunity, but in other venues, parents have been charged with child abuse, manslaughter, or homicide when their children died for lack of medical care.15In some states, courts can overrule parents only when a child’s life or long-term health is threatened and only if the ill child is discovered in time. Such laws don’t address the suffering and disability of those who survive.16As for refusing vaccination, most states exempt religious parents from prosecution under the child abuse and immunization laws, though a large percentage of unvaccinated individuals increases risk of the disease to the community at large.14Be sure you know the laws of your state and the policies of your institution, including the definition of “minor.” Remember, treating a child in a non-emergency situation without parental permission makes you and your organization liable to a suit. Document well, quoting when
possible. Describe mental status to ensure that the parent making the decision is mentally competent. If a physician is not present, try to detain the patient until the provider arrives.17Except for refusal of ambulance transportation,18the physician is ultimately responsible for providing the data for informed consent or refusal of care. However, you must speak up if you believe the patient doesn’t understand or is being coerced. Explore not only the risks of refusing medical care, but also the implications, from the patient’s viewpoint, of accepting it. Offer options as accurately as you can, but do not expect argument to triumph over matters of faith.17 Evaluate patient and family actions within the context of their religious community. Is pressure being applied by other members? If so, what are the consequences to the patient and family? The patient may or may not choose to share information with fellow church members, but staff must maintain strict confidentiality at all times.19Try to build trust, engage with the patient and community, rather than setting up an adversarial relationship. Keep lines of communication open, and avoid assumptions about any one person or faith. Doctrinal positions can change over time,20and people can, too. If the situation allows time, keep creatively searching for the middle ground. It may turn out that refusal of care varies with the circumstances. In one case, for example, the members of a religious group opposing vaccinations became willing to be immunized once they realized their refusal increased the risk to the community at large.14To deal with future problems, contingency planning can be helpful, especially when based on actual experience. Hypothetical situations that at first seem fairly straightforward become, in reality, complex dilemmas involving an ever-widening number of participants. In one instance, a teenager who refused a needed treatment out of loyalty to his religion also made it clear he didn’t want to die. Opinions polarized as staff tried to resolve the issues of professional responsibility, respect for religious belief, and age of consent. In retrospect, they realized they failed to anticipate their own role confusion, to consider the underlying social issues, and to communicate with patient and family. Ultimately, this situation was resolved by a persevering physician who couched the teen’s choices in such a way that he could be both religiously loyal and medically safe.21A Potentially Dangerous Group A nurse working at a rural regional health center is worried about a small group outside of town. They dress in long black robes, keep to themselves, and are rumored to be stockpiling weapons. When someone’s cat disappears, talk turns to satanic ritual abuse, and fear grips the town. Is this a dangerous cult, or is it an innocent group suffering from fear-induced prejudice?To identify potentially dangerous groups, the Ontario Center for Religious Tolerance suggests the following additions to the earlier list of cult characteristics: 1. The belief system is intensely focused on the impending end of the world and the group’s elite role in the event. 2. The leader dominates the members, closely controlling them physically, sexually, and emotionally.
3. Contact with nonbelievers is severely restricted. Members demonstrate extreme paranoia, believing they are closely monitored and in danger of persecution by the government or outsiders. 4. Members may violate serious laws and justify antisocial acts that further their cause (probably the most dangerous sign). 5. Group leaders stockpile firearms, poisons, or weapons of mass destruction.22Again, these criteria must be applied with caution. For example, apocalyptic theology is part of many mainstream religions; however, the congregations do not stockpile weapons to launch Armageddon. There is no question that, though rare, dangerous groups exist, both known and unknown. Many groups making headlines over the past three decades are still in existence. The UFO cult Heaven’s Gate and David Koresh’s Branch Davidians reportedly have a handful of remaining loyal members, despite the death of their peers. Aum Shinri Kyo (known for releasing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995) and the Solar Temple (murders and suicides in Europe and Canada, 1994, 1995, and 1997) may still have as many as 500 members each. Membership in potentially violent racist groups and militias probably exceeds 50,000.23Our concern lies in the extent to which human rights abuses can and do occur by and within these potentially dangerous groups. But a response based on rumor rather than fact can risk the same abuses it purports to eliminate. Violence is committed against people in cults as well as by them.24As professionals educated in human behavior, nurses have a responsibility to support rational decision-making and legal response in the face of rumor and panic. Though our vignette presents some troubling issues, it clearly does not offer any hard data to make a judgment. Take, for instance, the fear of satanism. Satanic cults do exist, but no claims of satanic ritual abuse have ever been proven despite intensive investigation by the FBI and other authorities.25Talk-show hosts over the past 20 years have done much to heighten American belief in satanic activity, most notably Geraldo Rivera, who publicly recanted and apologized for this in 1995.26 In addition to several excellent online sources of information, you can contact organizations that both track potentially dangerous groups and value religious and political tolerance. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL, is one. Websites noted in the online version of this article are others. Law enforcement authorities can investigate weapon offenses and reports of illegal activity. In the event of violence involving any group, we are ethically committed to provide care to all, regardless of their value system.27Helping the Cult Victim Concerned families and friends of current cult members should educate themselves about specific groups and cult involvement in general. They need to keep the lines of communication open with the member, treading lightly when discussing his or her group and creating a safe, nonjudgmental place he or she can go to when ready.28Nurses should similarly educate themselves and tread lightly. No one is likely to admit to belonging to a cult; however, the sameperson might confess to lifestyle habits that call for further questioning.
Social worker Livia Bardin in Coping With Cult Involvement lists concrete steps to evaluate the cult and its effect on the member as well, as resources to use in managing the situation.29The coercive “rescue” technique called deprogramming has been abandoned in favor of a less traumatic, voluntary educational approach called exit counseling. Steve Hassan, former cult member turned mental health counselor, describes his own non-coercive approach in his book, Releasing the Bonds.30No matter how people leave a cult, they will probably need assistance in dealing with feelings, future plans, and reentry to society. In addition to the psychological care of individual and group therapy, as well as exit counseling, they might require medical and dental care, nutrition and rest, education, job counseling, legal and financial aid, and spiritual help. They often need housing, material help with anything from new clothes to furniture, and a new social network. Service needs depend on when their lives were interrupted and what they did before joining.31People should choose a therapist familiar with cult experiences. Many therapists aren’t trained to recognize signs of post-cult trauma and may misinterpret certain behaviors. If the cult is religious, spiritual counseling is indicated. Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center is a residential rehabilitation center that focuses on cult recovery. Its staff offers spiritual counseling if the client requests it. Wellspring’s website provides information about spiritual and other cult-related concerns.32As with any abusive situation, victims need to be heard, not judged. Listen empathetically, and then try to connect them with professional helpers. Therapists at Wellspring stress the importance of a trusting and nonjudgmental relationship. Cultic involvement is intensely personal, and so is the therapy. Clients need to understand that the ideals that brought them into the group, like serving God or humanity, can be fulfilled in other contexts. They need to regain belief in self and see the world as meaningful and themselves as a positive part of the world.33 Respect for a patient’s beliefs can be controversial when a cult is involved.34When healthcare conflicts with beliefs, you may find yourself unable to reconcile the demands of the situation. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics27directs us to consider a person’s lifestyle, value system, and religious beliefs as we promote and restore health, prevent illness, alleviate suffering, and give supportive care to the dying. We support self-determination, and we also realize that sometimes public health needs may outweigh individual rights. As we resolve conflicting interests, we must try to ensure patient safety, guard the patients’ best interests, and preserve our professional integrity as nurses. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anne Tapper, RN, MA, MSN, is a therapist/case manager at the Opioid Treatment Program, Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References
1. Aranoff J, Lynn SJ, Malinoski P. Are cultic environments psychologically harmful? Clin Psychol Rev. 2000;20(1):91-111. 2. Langone M. Cults: Questions and answers. Available at: www.csj.org/studyindex/studycult/cultqa.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 3. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. The anti-cult movement (a.k.a. ACM). Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/acm.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 4. Singer MT, Temerlin MK, Langone MD. Psychotherapy cults. Cult Stud J. 1990;7:100-125. 5. Dickerson T. People’s Temple (Jonestown) Religious Movements Homepage. 1998. Available at: http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia. edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html. Accessed May 24, 2002. 6. Martin P. Toxic faith or thought reform, Part 1. Wall Street J. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org/html/journal/...er_1999_8-2.htm. Accessed May 12, 2002. 7. Mega LT, Mega JL, Mega BT, Harris BM. Brainwashing and battering fatigue. Psychological abuse in domestic violence. N C Med J. 2000;61(5):260-265. 8. Rhoads K. Working psychology: ethics of influence. Available at: www.workingpsychology.com/ethics2.html. Accessed May 24, 2002. 9. Sagarin B. Cult influence tactics. Working Psychology: Introduction to Influence. 1997. Available at: www.workingpsychology.com/cultdef.html. Accessed May 24, 2002. 10. Chambers WV, Langone MD, Malinoski P. The group psychological abuse scale. Presented to Division 36 of the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 12, 1996. Available at: www.csj.org/studyindex/studyresearch/study_gpa.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 11. Martin P. Director, Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center. Telephone communication June 1, 2001. 12. Why is Scientology opposed to psychiatric abuse? Available at: http://faq.scientology.org/page24.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 13. Asser SM, Swan R. Child fatalities from religion-motivated medical neglect. Pediatr. 1998;101:625-629. 14 Hinman AR. How should physicians and nurses deal with people who do not want immunizations? Can J Public Health. 2000;91(4):248-251. 15. Dickinson ML, Weinstein KR. Immunity from criminal prosecution for parents who withhold medically necessary treatment from children on religious grounds. Health Care Law Newsl. 1995;10(5):8-12. 16. Schneider CE. Justification by faith. Hastings Center Rep. 1999;29(1):24-25. 17 Shea MA. When a patient refuses treatment. RN. 1996;59(7):51-51,54.
18. Adams J. Respecting the right to be wrong. Acad Emerg Med. 1998;5:753-755. 19. Muramoto O. Bioethics of the refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses: part 3. A proposal for a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy. J Med Ethics. 1999;25:463-468. 20. Muramoto O. Bioethical aspects of the recent changes in the policy of refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses. BMJ. 2001;322:37-38. 21. Lawry K, Slomka J, Goldfarb J. What went wrong: multiple perspectives on an adolescent’s decision to refuse blood transfusions. Clin Pediatr(Phila). 1996;35:317-321. 22. Lewis JR. Safe sects: early warning signs of “bad religions.” Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/safe_sec.htm. Accessed May 31, 2002. 23. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Doomsday, destructive religious cults. Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/destruct.htm. Accessed May 31, 2002. 24. Institute for the Study of American Religion. The anti-cult movement. Available at: www.americanreligion.org/cultwtch/anticult.html. Accessed May 31, 2002. 25. Lanning KV. Investigator’s guide to allegations of ritual child abuse. Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/ra_rep03.htm#fbi. Accessed May 31, 2002. 26. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Geraldo Rivera’s influence on the satanic ritual abuse and recovered memory hoaxes. Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/geraldo.htm.Accessed May 31, 2002. 27. The Center for Ethics and Human Rights. Code of ethics for nurses, working draft #10A. Rev. March 2001. Available at: www.nursingworld.org/ethics/chcode10.htm. Accessed June 19, 2002. 28. Pile L. The next step. Available at: www.wellspringretreat.org. Accessed May 31, 2002. 29. Bardin L. Coping With Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families & Friends. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation; 2000. 30. Hassan S. Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. Danbury, CT: Aitan Publishing; 2000. 31. West LJ, Martin PR. Pseudo-identity and the treatment of personality change in victims of captivity and cults. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org/html/journal/...er_1997_7-3.htm. Accessed June 14, 2002. 32. Martin P. Dispelling the myths. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org. Accessed May 31, 2002. 33. Martin P. Toxic faith or thought reform, part 2. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org/html/journal/...er_2000_9-1.htm. Accessed May 12, 2002. 34. Post SG. Psychiatry and ethics: the problematics of respect for religious meanings. Cult Med Psychiatry. 1993;17:363-83.
Despite all the ill feelings about TWI and other ancillary topics echoed on the Net and the wishful thinking of some that this can happen at TWI, no incident nor personal experiences has vaguely approached the scenarios describe by the Heaven's Gate, Koresh, Jonestown or Tokyo subway incidents. Unless it was a suppressed memory session suggested under hypnosis by a quack therapist or drug induced flashbacks while listening to Revolution Number 9. Was your experience that bad to wish someone or yourself to 'go Rambo' or 'Jonestown' at HDQ or Gunnison? I guess it is a product of the Net, where one can construct the most far-fetched conspiracies and nefarious plots to boast their perceived sufferings or injustices. To answer your question. Not in any of our combined lifetimes.
just FYI..........The anti-cult movement (ACM) attempts to raise public consciousness of what they feel are the dangers of cult membership. They define a cult quite differently from the CCM. They view a cult as a religious or other group that uses deceptive recruitment techniques to lure new members into the organization, and then subjects them to sophisticated mind-control techniques to reduce their ability to think and act individually. This process is called brainwashing, which the ACM believes produces members who are almost in a trance or zombie state. They become incapable of leaving the organization. These beliefs are partly based on the move "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) and similar horror movies. The public, and the ACM, have uncritically accepted these works of horror fiction as representing reality. They have also absorbed misinformation about the efficiency of brainwashing techniques used by the communists during the Korean War, and by the CIA. The Way has been targeted as a mind-control cult by groups within the ACM. They have been criticized as being a destructive cult, equipping and training their membership in the "use of deadly weapons for possible future violent activity against the group's enemies" The rumor of TWI training in deadly weapons has been traced back to The Way College in Emporia, KS. They did not train their students in terrorist techniques. The college simply offered a state hunting safety course. Students had the opportunity to take the course if they wished.
Richard Abanes is the founder and director of the Religious Information Center, in southern California - an agency within the counter-cult movement. Circa 1983, he befriended members of The Way and reported:
"Randy and the other people I had met in The Way were wonderfully kind and extremely intelligent. they were not spaced-out weirdoes. All of them were good-natures, friendly, funny, and always available for counseling. they visited me when I was sick and prayed with me when I was troubled. They seemed so 'Christian.'" 4
He continued to describe the unorthodox beliefs of The Way when compared to traditional Evangelical Christianity. He apparently did not detect any trance or zombie state in its members.
There is a consensus among mental health professionals that this type of "Manchurian Candidate" programming is quite impossible to implement. They also agree that brainwashing techniques are ineffective.
Our assessment is that The Way is a high intensity Christian group, somewhat similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses in their requirement for close conformity to the organizations' beliefs. For example, one source states that president Martindale closely controls the lives of members of the leadership Corps. This is a group of Martindale's closest followers within The Way administration. He has allegedly issued rules restricting pregnancy, pets and mortgages by the Corps' families.
We feel that their followers enter the organization because they perceive it to offer positive value to their life. If and when it becomes negative, they drift away.
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.
The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men.
Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.
State troopers were holding an unknown number of men in the compound until investigators finished executing a house-to-house search of the 1,700-acre property, which includes a medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and an 80-foot white limestone temple that rises discordantly out of the brown scrub.
"In my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved in in the state of Texas," said Children's Protective Services spokesman Marleigh Meisner, who said she was also involved in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.
The members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spent their days raising numerous children, tilling small gardens and doing chores. But at least one former resident says life was not some idyllic replica of 19th-century life.
"Once you go into the compound, you don't ever leave it," said Carolyn Jessop, one of the wives of the alleged leader of the Eldorado complex. Jessop left with her eight children before the sect moved to Texas.
Jessop said the community emphasized self-sufficiency because they believed the apocalypse was near.
The women were not allowed to wear red - the color Jeffs said belonged to Jesus - and were not allowed to cut their hair. They were also kept isolated from the outside world.
They "were born into this," said Jessop, 40. "They have no concept of mainstream society, and their mothers were born into and have no concept of mainstream culture. Their grandmothers were born into it."
Meisner said each child will get an advocate and an attorney but predicted that if they end up permanently separated from their families, the sheltered children would have a tough acclimation to modern life.
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, said the criminal investigation was still under way, and that charges would be filed if investigators determined children were abused.
Still uncertain is the location of the girl whose call initiated the raid. She allegedly had a child at 15, and authorities were looking for documents, family photos or even a family Bible with lists of marriages and children to demonstrate the girl was married to Dale Barlow, 50.
Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.
The church members were being held at Fort Concho, a 150-year-old fort built to protect frontier settlements, to be interviewed about the 16-year-old girl and whether, in fact, the teenager was among them.
State investigators on Sunday got a second, wider search warrant for records related to the birth of any child to a mother aged 17 and under. The initial warrant was only for the records related to the girl who called to report abuse last week.
Attorneys for the church and church leaders filed motions asking a judge to quash the search on constitutional grounds, saying state authorities didn't have enough evidence to search the grounds and the warrants were too broad. A hearing on their motion is scheduled Wednesday in San Angelo.
FLDS attorneys Patrick Peranteau said Monday that "the chief concern for everyone at this point is the welfare of the women and children."
DPS troopers arrested one man on a charge of interfering with the duties of a public servant during the search warrant, but it was not Barlow, Mange said.
"For the most part, residents at the ranch have been cooperative. However, because of some of the diplomatic efforts in regards to the residents, the process of serving the search warrants is taking longer than usual," said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, who declined to elaborate. "The annex is extremely large and the temple is massive."
Attorneys for the church and church leaders said Barlow was in Colorado City, Ariz., and had had contact with law enforcement officials there. Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Colorado City authorities were not immediately returned Monday.
Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Jeffs after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
The group is concentrated along the Arizona-Utah line but several enclaves have been built elsewhere, including in Texas. Several years ago it paid $700,000 for the Eldorado property, a former exotic animal ranch, and began building the compound as authorities in Arizona and Utah began increasingly scrutinizing the group.
The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in Eldorado, a town of fewer than 2,000 surrounded by sheep ranches nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Only the 80-foot-high white temple can be seen on the horizon.
Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.
In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
The investigation prompted by the girl's call last week was the first in Texas involving the sect.
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.
The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men.
Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.
State troopers were holding an unknown number of men in the compound until investigators finished executing a house-to-house search of the 1,700-acre property, which includes a medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and an 80-foot white limestone temple that rises discordantly out of the brown scrub.
"In my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved in in the state of Texas," said Children's Protective Services spokesman Marleigh Meisner, who said she was also involved in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.
The members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spent their days raising numerous children, tilling small gardens and doing chores. But at least one former resident says life was not some idyllic replica of 19th-century life.
"Once you go into the compound, you don't ever leave it," said Carolyn Jessop, one of the wives of the alleged leader of the Eldorado complex. Jessop left with her eight children before the sect moved to Texas.
Jessop said the community emphasized self-sufficiency because they believed the apocalypse was near.
The women were not allowed to wear red - the color Jeffs said belonged to Jesus - and were not allowed to cut their hair. They were also kept isolated from the outside world.
They "were born into this," said Jessop, 40. "They have no concept of mainstream society, and their mothers were born into and have no concept of mainstream culture. Their grandmothers were born into it."
Meisner said each child will get an advocate and an attorney but predicted that if they end up permanently separated from their families, the sheltered children would have a tough acclimation to modern life.
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, said the criminal investigation was still under way, and that charges would be filed if investigators determined children were abused.
Still uncertain is the location of the girl whose call initiated the raid. She allegedly had a child at 15, and authorities were looking for documents, family photos or even a family Bible with lists of marriages and children to demonstrate the girl was married to Dale Barlow, 50.
Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.
The church members were being held at Fort Concho, a 150-year-old fort built to protect frontier settlements, to be interviewed about the 16-year-old girl and whether, in fact, the teenager was among them.
State investigators on Sunday got a second, wider search warrant for records related to the birth of any child to a mother aged 17 and under. The initial warrant was only for the records related to the girl who called to report abuse last week.
Attorneys for the church and church leaders filed motions asking a judge to quash the search on constitutional grounds, saying state authorities didn't have enough evidence to search the grounds and the warrants were too broad. A hearing on their motion is scheduled Wednesday in San Angelo.
FLDS attorneys Patrick Peranteau said Monday that "the chief concern for everyone at this point is the welfare of the women and children."
DPS troopers arrested one man on a charge of interfering with the duties of a public servant during the search warrant, but it was not Barlow, Mange said.
"For the most part, residents at the ranch have been cooperative. However, because of some of the diplomatic efforts in regards to the residents, the process of serving the search warrants is taking longer than usual," said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, who declined to elaborate. "The annex is extremely large and the temple is massive."
Attorneys for the church and church leaders said Barlow was in Colorado City, Ariz., and had had contact with law enforcement officials there. Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Colorado City authorities were not immediately returned Monday.
Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Jeffs after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
The group is concentrated along the Arizona-Utah line but several enclaves have been built elsewhere, including in Texas. Several years ago it paid $700,000 for the Eldorado property, a former exotic animal ranch, and began building the compound as authorities in Arizona and Utah began increasingly scrutinizing the group.
The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in Eldorado, a town of fewer than 2,000 surrounded by sheep ranches nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Only the 80-foot-high white temple can be seen on the horizon.
Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.
In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
The investigation prompted by the girl's call last week was the first in Texas involving the sect.
Recommended Posts
cheranne
from texasmonthlymagazine.com“‘FLAMES AWAIT.’”
Hoping to make life so uncomfortable for the Davidians that they would have to leave the compound, the Hostage Rescue Team—against the wishes of negotiators—was allowed to begin engaging in psychological operations. Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, whom Koresh’s mother had asked to represent her son, was allowed past the perimeter and into Mount Carmel in hopes that he could broker a surrender plan. The decision—to allow a defense attorney into an unsecured crime scene where federal agents had been killed—was unprecedented. Inside the building, conditions were deteriorating.
Doyle Toward the end of March, they started trying to disrupt our sleep. They shone bright lights into the building all night long and blasted stuff over the loudspeakers: reveille, Tibetan monks chanting, Nancy Sinatra singing “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” even some Christmas carols. They slowed songs down and then sped them up so they sounded distorted. They played telephones ringing and babies crying and rabbits being slaughtered. Once, they made a recording of a helicopter that had been buzzing the building the day before. They played that over and over, and I kept instinctively flinching and ducking my head down, even though I knew the helicopter wasn’t actually there.
Ray There we were, out on that rolling prairie, surrounded by farms that had been handed down from generation to generation. There were cows and horses and swing sets in people’s backyards and little red wagons out on front porches. And then there were these gigantic spotlights and these speakers blaring and these armored personnel carriers barreling around this pastoral setting. I’ll tell you, it was completely surreal.
Noesner The Davidians believed in a confrontation between good and evil, and of course Koresh and his followers’ interpretation was that they represented the righteous and the good and that the authorities were agents of evil. They looked at themselves as martyrs.
Thibodeau Scripture talks about how, in the latter days, the Beast will war against the people of God and destroy them—or, basically, exactly what was happening to us. Everything that David had been teaching us was actually taking place. It did seem like prophecy was being fulfilled.
Doyle We had hardly any water for bathing, and we were all getting pretty rank. We had to use five-gallon buckets to dispose of our waste because we couldn’t go outside to our outhouses. I was getting one, maybe two hours of sleep a night.
Thibodeau If I had been on the outside while this was going on, I would have been the first person to say, “These people are nuts, man! What are they doing staying in there? It’s time to come on out.” But having been there, I can’t say that. I challenge any American family to think about what they would do if they were invaded by a hostile force. If tanks pulled up outside their house and there were armed men inside, would they send their kids out? A lot of Americans would fight that to the end.
Sage We pleaded with them every single day, for 51 days. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they had the option of coming out. And they never did
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
The leader of the Jonestown cult, the Rev. Jim Jones, preached racial equality and integration, and led programs to help drug addicts and the elderly after moving his People’s Temple Full Gospel Church from Indianapolis, Ind., to San Francisco, Calif., in 1970.
His work, and his commanding presence, drew followers, and some powerful political allies, but there were also whispers about abuse, threats and fraud at his temple. When a magazine published an expos� about the temple, Jones and his followers packed up in 1978 and moved to the jungles of Guyana in South America.
Grace Stoen, a former member of the People’s Temple, said she and others who had separated from the group tried to get involved in what they suspected was happening in Jonestown, Guyana.
“We were trying to let the government know that people were being held against their will,” Stoen said
One man who listened to Stoen’s warnings, California Congressman Leo Ryan, opened an inquiry into allegations of torture and sexual abuse within the People’s Temple.
In November of 1978, Ryan, concerned family members, a small team of reporters and congressional aide Jackie Speier headed to Jonestown.
Speier said she expected they would make some troubling discoveries, but she never expected they would be in immediate danger. “He [Ryan] knew that I had fears and concerns about the trip. I thought we were moving too quickly.”
Once at the camp, TV reporter Don Harris was handed desperate messages from Jones’ followers begging for help.
Jones told Harris that the messages meant nothing to him.
“People play games, friend. They lie. They lie. What can I do about lies? Will you people leave us? I just beg you please leave us,” Jones said to Harris.
Ryan’s group took rising tensions at Jonestown as an indication that they should head back to the United States while they could.
But the congressman’s group and some escaping cult members were ambushed by Jones’ gunmen at the airstrip they planned to depart from.
“They came among us and shot us at point blank range, and then they left,” Speier said. “You could see bodies kind of lying all over. And when no one’s moving, you know,” she said.
Five people, including Ryan,were killed in the ambush.
Shortly after the attack, Jones gathered everyone around a large vat filled with a grape-flavored drink and cyanide. Then he proceeded to film the largest mass suicide to be recorded in modern history.
Almost all of the members of the People’s Temple had been poisoned, nearly a third of them were children. Those who resisted were forced to take the poison by armed guards.
In the end, Stoen’s warnings and Ryan’s trip didn’t help most members of the People’s Temple. Stoen ended up losing her son, John, in the massacre and Jones taught the world a lesson about the power a single hypnotic leader can have over his people
Jones was found shot in the head with the bodies of his flock lying around him. It’s not clear who fired the shot that killed Jones.
Jonestown Memorial
Minister Jynona Norwood, who lost 27 relatives in the mass suicide, leads today’s ceremonies in Oakland.
Norwood is campaigning to build a wall commemorating the victims, saying it’s up to the living to speak for the dead.
The mass grave is now only marked by a modest headstone and Norwood says she believes a more substantive memorial should be placed at the burial site.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
. Personality changes 2. Dramatic shifts of values or beliefs 3. Changes in diet or sleep patterns 4. Refusal to attend important family events 5. Inability to make decisions without consulting a cult leader or guru 6. Sudden use of a new ideology to explain everything 7. Black-and-white, simplistic reasoning 8. A new vocabulary 9. Insistence that you do what he or she is doing9One explanation of these symptoms is the development of a pseudo-identity, a new persona the individual adopts to fit into the cult environment.6To date, there have been many studies addressing the question of psychological harm caused by cult membership, but like any research into effects of trauma, ethics preclude much prospective study, which limits validity. In an extensive review of research, three researchers concluded that a substantial minority of ex-cult members have problems readjusting to life outside the cult.5Why some are harmed and others are not has yet to be pinned down. A Group Psychological Abuse Scale has been developed for measuring the degree to which influence exists in different groups. It’s hoped that this will help differentiate benign groups from coercive ones.10,11Psychological abuse is not the only form of abuse suffered. According to Martin, who also directs the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, Albany, OH, a residential treatment center for recovering cult victims, a third of post-cult counseling clients report physical or sexual abuse during cult involvement.11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 4
Symptoms experienced by ex-cult members vary widely but include anxiety, depression, guilt, sleep disorders, loss of identity, trouble concentrating and handling emotions, trouble making decisions, floating (a dissociative return to the cult pseudo-identity), and psychosomatic problems.5The Faith Group That Refuses Standard Healthcare A school nurse at a metropolitan primary school is aghast and frustrated. She is confronted by a father who has refused to have his two children vaccinated. He belongs to a Christian-based group that believes in faith healing and does not allow immunization. Even without specific policy, cults can foster ill health through overwork, an uneducated approach to dietary restrictions, and neglect. Groups that have specific beliefs precluding healthcare may or may not meet criteria for a cult, but all need to be examined in a discussion of beliefs and health. Most religions or philosophies take an ethical stand on one or another medical procedure. Familiar to nurses are the position of the Roman Catholic Church on reproductive and end-of-life issues, refusal of blood products by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and refusal of medical care by Christian Scientists. Less well-known are some newer belief systems. Scientology, for example, is strongly opposed to psychiatry and all psychiatric medications and procedures.12Popular culture, New Age beliefs, television infomercials, and magazines contribute countless philosophies, products, and approaches to healthcare that, regardless of research, are largely accepted on faith by the public. Then there are the small, usually Christian, congregations that believe in faith healing and suffer deaths from what is called religion-motivated medical neglect. A 1998 study found that between 1975 and 1995, 172 child fatalities in the US were clearly linked to religion-based neglect. Investigation revealed 140 could probably have recovered if treated. Another 18 would have had a 50% chance of survival, and all but three of the remaining 14 would have benefited from someclinical help.13Eleven fatalities were preventable by vaccination.14Of the 59 prenatal and peri-natal deaths, all but one should have had a good outcome. No deliveries were attended by a licensed midwife, and six mothers died of obstetrical complications.13The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees American adults freedom to choose beliefs over medical care, even in the face of imminent death. When minor children are involved, however, state child-neglect laws come into play, and every state is different. Some states have “faith-healing” clauses that give criminal immunity, but in other venues, parents have been charged with child abuse, manslaughter, or homicide when their children died for lack of medical care.15In some states, courts can overrule parents only when a child’s life or long-term health is threatened and only if the ill child is discovered in time. Such laws don’t address the suffering and disability of those who survive.16As for refusing vaccination, most states exempt religious parents from prosecution under the child abuse and immunization laws, though a large percentage of unvaccinated individuals increases risk of the disease to the community at large.14Be sure you know the laws of your state and the policies of your institution, including the definition of “minor.” Remember, treating a child in a non-emergency situation without parental permission makes you and your organization liable to a suit. Document well, quoting when
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 5
possible. Describe mental status to ensure that the parent making the decision is mentally competent. If a physician is not present, try to detain the patient until the provider arrives.17Except for refusal of ambulance transportation,18the physician is ultimately responsible for providing the data for informed consent or refusal of care. However, you must speak up if you believe the patient doesn’t understand or is being coerced. Explore not only the risks of refusing medical care, but also the implications, from the patient’s viewpoint, of accepting it. Offer options as accurately as you can, but do not expect argument to triumph over matters of faith.17 Evaluate patient and family actions within the context of their religious community. Is pressure being applied by other members? If so, what are the consequences to the patient and family? The patient may or may not choose to share information with fellow church members, but staff must maintain strict confidentiality at all times.19Try to build trust, engage with the patient and community, rather than setting up an adversarial relationship. Keep lines of communication open, and avoid assumptions about any one person or faith. Doctrinal positions can change over time,20and people can, too. If the situation allows time, keep creatively searching for the middle ground. It may turn out that refusal of care varies with the circumstances. In one case, for example, the members of a religious group opposing vaccinations became willing to be immunized once they realized their refusal increased the risk to the community at large.14To deal with future problems, contingency planning can be helpful, especially when based on actual experience. Hypothetical situations that at first seem fairly straightforward become, in reality, complex dilemmas involving an ever-widening number of participants. In one instance, a teenager who refused a needed treatment out of loyalty to his religion also made it clear he didn’t want to die. Opinions polarized as staff tried to resolve the issues of professional responsibility, respect for religious belief, and age of consent. In retrospect, they realized they failed to anticipate their own role confusion, to consider the underlying social issues, and to communicate with patient and family. Ultimately, this situation was resolved by a persevering physician who couched the teen’s choices in such a way that he could be both religiously loyal and medically safe.21A Potentially Dangerous Group A nurse working at a rural regional health center is worried about a small group outside of town. They dress in long black robes, keep to themselves, and are rumored to be stockpiling weapons. When someone’s cat disappears, talk turns to satanic ritual abuse, and fear grips the town. Is this a dangerous cult, or is it an innocent group suffering from fear-induced prejudice?To identify potentially dangerous groups, the Ontario Center for Religious Tolerance suggests the following additions to the earlier list of cult characteristics: 1. The belief system is intensely focused on the impending end of the world and the group’s elite role in the event. 2. The leader dominates the members, closely controlling them physically, sexually, and emotionally.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 6
3. Contact with nonbelievers is severely restricted. Members demonstrate extreme paranoia, believing they are closely monitored and in danger of persecution by the government or outsiders. 4. Members may violate serious laws and justify antisocial acts that further their cause (probably the most dangerous sign). 5. Group leaders stockpile firearms, poisons, or weapons of mass destruction.22Again, these criteria must be applied with caution. For example, apocalyptic theology is part of many mainstream religions; however, the congregations do not stockpile weapons to launch Armageddon. There is no question that, though rare, dangerous groups exist, both known and unknown. Many groups making headlines over the past three decades are still in existence. The UFO cult Heaven’s Gate and David Koresh’s Branch Davidians reportedly have a handful of remaining loyal members, despite the death of their peers. Aum Shinri Kyo (known for releasing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995) and the Solar Temple (murders and suicides in Europe and Canada, 1994, 1995, and 1997) may still have as many as 500 members each. Membership in potentially violent racist groups and militias probably exceeds 50,000.23Our concern lies in the extent to which human rights abuses can and do occur by and within these potentially dangerous groups. But a response based on rumor rather than fact can risk the same abuses it purports to eliminate. Violence is committed against people in cults as well as by them.24As professionals educated in human behavior, nurses have a responsibility to support rational decision-making and legal response in the face of rumor and panic. Though our vignette presents some troubling issues, it clearly does not offer any hard data to make a judgment. Take, for instance, the fear of satanism. Satanic cults do exist, but no claims of satanic ritual abuse have ever been proven despite intensive investigation by the FBI and other authorities.25Talk-show hosts over the past 20 years have done much to heighten American belief in satanic activity, most notably Geraldo Rivera, who publicly recanted and apologized for this in 1995.26 In addition to several excellent online sources of information, you can contact organizations that both track potentially dangerous groups and value religious and political tolerance. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL, is one. Websites noted in the online version of this article are others. Law enforcement authorities can investigate weapon offenses and reports of illegal activity. In the event of violence involving any group, we are ethically committed to provide care to all, regardless of their value system.27Helping the Cult Victim Concerned families and friends of current cult members should educate themselves about specific groups and cult involvement in general. They need to keep the lines of communication open with the member, treading lightly when discussing his or her group and creating a safe, nonjudgmental place he or she can go to when ready.28Nurses should similarly educate themselves and tread lightly. No one is likely to admit to belonging to a cult; however, the sameperson might confess to lifestyle habits that call for further questioning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 7
Social worker Livia Bardin in Coping With Cult Involvement lists concrete steps to evaluate the cult and its effect on the member as well, as resources to use in managing the situation.29The coercive “rescue” technique called deprogramming has been abandoned in favor of a less traumatic, voluntary educational approach called exit counseling. Steve Hassan, former cult member turned mental health counselor, describes his own non-coercive approach in his book, Releasing the Bonds.30No matter how people leave a cult, they will probably need assistance in dealing with feelings, future plans, and reentry to society. In addition to the psychological care of individual and group therapy, as well as exit counseling, they might require medical and dental care, nutrition and rest, education, job counseling, legal and financial aid, and spiritual help. They often need housing, material help with anything from new clothes to furniture, and a new social network. Service needs depend on when their lives were interrupted and what they did before joining.31People should choose a therapist familiar with cult experiences. Many therapists aren’t trained to recognize signs of post-cult trauma and may misinterpret certain behaviors. If the cult is religious, spiritual counseling is indicated. Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center is a residential rehabilitation center that focuses on cult recovery. Its staff offers spiritual counseling if the client requests it. Wellspring’s website provides information about spiritual and other cult-related concerns.32As with any abusive situation, victims need to be heard, not judged. Listen empathetically, and then try to connect them with professional helpers. Therapists at Wellspring stress the importance of a trusting and nonjudgmental relationship. Cultic involvement is intensely personal, and so is the therapy. Clients need to understand that the ideals that brought them into the group, like serving God or humanity, can be fulfilled in other contexts. They need to regain belief in self and see the world as meaningful and themselves as a positive part of the world.33 Respect for a patient’s beliefs can be controversial when a cult is involved.34When healthcare conflicts with beliefs, you may find yourself unable to reconcile the demands of the situation. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics27directs us to consider a person’s lifestyle, value system, and religious beliefs as we promote and restore health, prevent illness, alleviate suffering, and give supportive care to the dying. We support self-determination, and we also realize that sometimes public health needs may outweigh individual rights. As we resolve conflicting interests, we must try to ensure patient safety, guard the patients’ best interests, and preserve our professional integrity as nurses. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anne Tapper, RN, MA, MSN, is a therapist/case manager at the Opioid Treatment Program, Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 8
1. Aranoff J, Lynn SJ, Malinoski P. Are cultic environments psychologically harmful? Clin Psychol Rev. 2000;20(1):91-111. 2. Langone M. Cults: Questions and answers. Available at: www.csj.org/studyindex/studycult/cultqa.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 3. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. The anti-cult movement (a.k.a. ACM). Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/acm.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 4. Singer MT, Temerlin MK, Langone MD. Psychotherapy cults. Cult Stud J. 1990;7:100-125. 5. Dickerson T. People’s Temple (Jonestown) Religious Movements Homepage. 1998. Available at: http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia. edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html. Accessed May 24, 2002. 6. Martin P. Toxic faith or thought reform, Part 1. Wall Street J. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org/html/journal/...er_1999_8-2.htm. Accessed May 12, 2002. 7. Mega LT, Mega JL, Mega BT, Harris BM. Brainwashing and battering fatigue. Psychological abuse in domestic violence. N C Med J. 2000;61(5):260-265. 8. Rhoads K. Working psychology: ethics of influence. Available at: www.workingpsychology.com/ethics2.html. Accessed May 24, 2002. 9. Sagarin B. Cult influence tactics. Working Psychology: Introduction to Influence. 1997. Available at: www.workingpsychology.com/cultdef.html. Accessed May 24, 2002. 10. Chambers WV, Langone MD, Malinoski P. The group psychological abuse scale. Presented to Division 36 of the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 12, 1996. Available at: www.csj.org/studyindex/studyresearch/study_gpa.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 11. Martin P. Director, Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center. Telephone communication June 1, 2001. 12. Why is Scientology opposed to psychiatric abuse? Available at: http://faq.scientology.org/page24.htm. Accessed May 24, 2002. 13. Asser SM, Swan R. Child fatalities from religion-motivated medical neglect. Pediatr. 1998;101:625-629. 14 Hinman AR. How should physicians and nurses deal with people who do not want immunizations? Can J Public Health. 2000;91(4):248-251. 15. Dickinson ML, Weinstein KR. Immunity from criminal prosecution for parents who withhold medically necessary treatment from children on religious grounds. Health Care Law Newsl. 1995;10(5):8-12. 16. Schneider CE. Justification by faith. Hastings Center Rep. 1999;29(1):24-25. 17 Shea MA. When a patient refuses treatment. RN. 1996;59(7):51-51,54.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 9
18. Adams J. Respecting the right to be wrong. Acad Emerg Med. 1998;5:753-755. 19. Muramoto O. Bioethics of the refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses: part 3. A proposal for a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy. J Med Ethics. 1999;25:463-468. 20. Muramoto O. Bioethical aspects of the recent changes in the policy of refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses. BMJ. 2001;322:37-38. 21. Lawry K, Slomka J, Goldfarb J. What went wrong: multiple perspectives on an adolescent’s decision to refuse blood transfusions. Clin Pediatr(Phila). 1996;35:317-321. 22. Lewis JR. Safe sects: early warning signs of “bad religions.” Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/safe_sec.htm. Accessed May 31, 2002. 23. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Doomsday, destructive religious cults. Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/destruct.htm. Accessed May 31, 2002. 24. Institute for the Study of American Religion. The anti-cult movement. Available at: www.americanreligion.org/cultwtch/anticult.html. Accessed May 31, 2002. 25. Lanning KV. Investigator’s guide to allegations of ritual child abuse. Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/ra_rep03.htm#fbi. Accessed May 31, 2002. 26. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Geraldo Rivera’s influence on the satanic ritual abuse and recovered memory hoaxes. Available at: www.religioustolerance.org/geraldo.htm.Accessed May 31, 2002. 27. The Center for Ethics and Human Rights. Code of ethics for nurses, working draft #10A. Rev. March 2001. Available at: www.nursingworld.org/ethics/chcode10.htm. Accessed June 19, 2002. 28. Pile L. The next step. Available at: www.wellspringretreat.org. Accessed May 31, 2002. 29. Bardin L. Coping With Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families & Friends. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation; 2000. 30. Hassan S. Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. Danbury, CT: Aitan Publishing; 2000. 31. West LJ, Martin PR. Pseudo-identity and the treatment of personality change in victims of captivity and cults. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org/html/journal/...er_1997_7-3.htm. Accessed June 14, 2002. 32. Martin P. Dispelling the myths. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org. Accessed May 31, 2002. 33. Martin P. Toxic faith or thought reform, part 2. Available at: http://wellspringretreat.org/html/journal/...er_2000_9-1.htm. Accessed May 12, 2002. 34. Post SG. Psychiatry and ethics: the problematics of respect for religious meanings. Cult Med Psychiatry. 1993;17:363-83.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
waysider
There but for fortune may go you or I.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
All cults have the same mind set. How may people have dissociative dissorders and haven't been treated for it due to
The Way?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
jeast
The following reply is meant to help me understand and not meant to be contentious.
If I were the enemy of God what better way to divert, discourage, repulse people away from God.
People just become weary trying to sort it out and in order to protect themselves from being decieved
they just become imprisoned in a world of doubt.
People will not allow themselves to ever trust again.
How can you love if you don't trust.
How can you trust if you don't believe.
None of us are immune.
Thanks for the info it is very helpful.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
I remember after the Psychological Hoax at Emporia in 78,our twig and some other twigs were joking around how
we were going to drink some purple koolaid, blow up and die!
It wasn't funny then and it never was funny,it was like seeing the Katrina disaster and wondering why didn't they
get more help.
Maybe its just the nurse in me..but it seemed twi compassion level for those people had a callous to it,like they
just shook it off and all the while here we TWI were in the same dark spiritual titanic of a ship sinking deeper and deeper
only think differant was we were walking around selling the kool aid in a form of pfal for dr. evil!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
So_Cal1
Despite all the ill feelings about TWI and other ancillary topics echoed on the Net and the wishful thinking of some that this can happen at TWI, no incident nor personal experiences has vaguely approached the scenarios describe by the Heaven's Gate, Koresh, Jonestown or Tokyo subway incidents. Unless it was a suppressed memory session suggested under hypnosis by a quack therapist or drug induced flashbacks while listening to Revolution Number 9. Was your experience that bad to wish someone or yourself to 'go Rambo' or 'Jonestown' at HDQ or Gunnison? I guess it is a product of the Net, where one can construct the most far-fetched conspiracies and nefarious plots to boast their perceived sufferings or injustices. To answer your question. Not in any of our combined lifetimes.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
I bet they thought the same thing.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
So_Cal1
I'll see you that we do not know what they thought. Call it. Whoops..dead man's hand. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
just FYI..........The anti-cult movement (ACM) attempts to raise public consciousness of what they feel are the dangers of cult membership. They define a cult quite differently from the CCM. They view a cult as a religious or other group that uses deceptive recruitment techniques to lure new members into the organization, and then subjects them to sophisticated mind-control techniques to reduce their ability to think and act individually. This process is called brainwashing, which the ACM believes produces members who are almost in a trance or zombie state. They become incapable of leaving the organization. These beliefs are partly based on the move "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) and similar horror movies. The public, and the ACM, have uncritically accepted these works of horror fiction as representing reality. They have also absorbed misinformation about the efficiency of brainwashing techniques used by the communists during the Korean War, and by the CIA. The Way has been targeted as a mind-control cult by groups within the ACM. They have been criticized as being a destructive cult, equipping and training their membership in the "use of deadly weapons for possible future violent activity against the group's enemies" The rumor of TWI training in deadly weapons has been traced back to The Way College in Emporia, KS. They did not train their students in terrorist techniques. The college simply offered a state hunting safety course. Students had the opportunity to take the course if they wished.
Richard Abanes is the founder and director of the Religious Information Center, in southern California - an agency within the counter-cult movement. Circa 1983, he befriended members of The Way and reported:
"Randy and the other people I had met in The Way were wonderfully kind and extremely intelligent. they were not spaced-out weirdoes. All of them were good-natures, friendly, funny, and always available for counseling. they visited me when I was sick and prayed with me when I was troubled. They seemed so 'Christian.'" 4
He continued to describe the unorthodox beliefs of The Way when compared to traditional Evangelical Christianity. He apparently did not detect any trance or zombie state in its members.
There is a consensus among mental health professionals that this type of "Manchurian Candidate" programming is quite impossible to implement. They also agree that brainwashing techniques are ineffective.
Our assessment is that The Way is a high intensity Christian group, somewhat similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses in their requirement for close conformity to the organizations' beliefs. For example, one source states that president Martindale closely controls the lives of members of the leadership Corps. This is a group of Martindale's closest followers within The Way administration. He has allegedly issued rules restricting pregnancy, pets and mortgages by the Corps' families.
We feel that their followers enter the organization because they perceive it to offer positive value to their life. If and when it becomes negative, they drift away.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.
The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men.
Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.
State troopers were holding an unknown number of men in the compound until investigators finished executing a house-to-house search of the 1,700-acre property, which includes a medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and an 80-foot white limestone temple that rises discordantly out of the brown scrub.
"In my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved in in the state of Texas," said Children's Protective Services spokesman Marleigh Meisner, who said she was also involved in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.
The members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spent their days raising numerous children, tilling small gardens and doing chores. But at least one former resident says life was not some idyllic replica of 19th-century life.
"Once you go into the compound, you don't ever leave it," said Carolyn Jessop, one of the wives of the alleged leader of the Eldorado complex. Jessop left with her eight children before the sect moved to Texas.
Jessop said the community emphasized self-sufficiency because they believed the apocalypse was near.
The women were not allowed to wear red - the color Jeffs said belonged to Jesus - and were not allowed to cut their hair. They were also kept isolated from the outside world.
They "were born into this," said Jessop, 40. "They have no concept of mainstream society, and their mothers were born into and have no concept of mainstream culture. Their grandmothers were born into it."
Meisner said each child will get an advocate and an attorney but predicted that if they end up permanently separated from their families, the sheltered children would have a tough acclimation to modern life.
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, said the criminal investigation was still under way, and that charges would be filed if investigators determined children were abused.
Still uncertain is the location of the girl whose call initiated the raid. She allegedly had a child at 15, and authorities were looking for documents, family photos or even a family Bible with lists of marriages and children to demonstrate the girl was married to Dale Barlow, 50.
Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.
The church members were being held at Fort Concho, a 150-year-old fort built to protect frontier settlements, to be interviewed about the 16-year-old girl and whether, in fact, the teenager was among them.
State investigators on Sunday got a second, wider search warrant for records related to the birth of any child to a mother aged 17 and under. The initial warrant was only for the records related to the girl who called to report abuse last week.
Attorneys for the church and church leaders filed motions asking a judge to quash the search on constitutional grounds, saying state authorities didn't have enough evidence to search the grounds and the warrants were too broad. A hearing on their motion is scheduled Wednesday in San Angelo.
FLDS attorneys Patrick Peranteau said Monday that "the chief concern for everyone at this point is the welfare of the women and children."
DPS troopers arrested one man on a charge of interfering with the duties of a public servant during the search warrant, but it was not Barlow, Mange said.
"For the most part, residents at the ranch have been cooperative. However, because of some of the diplomatic efforts in regards to the residents, the process of serving the search warrants is taking longer than usual," said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, who declined to elaborate. "The annex is extremely large and the temple is massive."
Attorneys for the church and church leaders said Barlow was in Colorado City, Ariz., and had had contact with law enforcement officials there. Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Colorado City authorities were not immediately returned Monday.
Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Jeffs after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
The group is concentrated along the Arizona-Utah line but several enclaves have been built elsewhere, including in Texas. Several years ago it paid $700,000 for the Eldorado property, a former exotic animal ranch, and began building the compound as authorities in Arizona and Utah began increasingly scrutinizing the group.
The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in Eldorado, a town of fewer than 2,000 surrounded by sheep ranches nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Only the 80-foot-high white temple can be seen on the horizon.
Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.
In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
The investigation prompted by the girl's call last week was the first in Texas involving the sect.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheranne
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.
The dayslong raid on the sprawling compound built by now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sparked by a 16-year-old girl's call to authorities that she was being abused and that girls as young as 14 and 15 were being forced into marriages with much older men.
Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.
State troopers were holding an unknown number of men in the compound until investigators finished executing a house-to-house search of the 1,700-acre property, which includes a medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and an 80-foot white limestone temple that rises discordantly out of the brown scrub.
"In my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved in in the state of Texas," said Children's Protective Services spokesman Marleigh Meisner, who said she was also involved in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.
The members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spent their days raising numerous children, tilling small gardens and doing chores. But at least one former resident says life was not some idyllic replica of 19th-century life.
"Once you go into the compound, you don't ever leave it," said Carolyn Jessop, one of the wives of the alleged leader of the Eldorado complex. Jessop left with her eight children before the sect moved to Texas.
Jessop said the community emphasized self-sufficiency because they believed the apocalypse was near.
The women were not allowed to wear red - the color Jeffs said belonged to Jesus - and were not allowed to cut their hair. They were also kept isolated from the outside world.
They "were born into this," said Jessop, 40. "They have no concept of mainstream society, and their mothers were born into and have no concept of mainstream culture. Their grandmothers were born into it."
Meisner said each child will get an advocate and an attorney but predicted that if they end up permanently separated from their families, the sheltered children would have a tough acclimation to modern life.
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, said the criminal investigation was still under way, and that charges would be filed if investigators determined children were abused.
Still uncertain is the location of the girl whose call initiated the raid. She allegedly had a child at 15, and authorities were looking for documents, family photos or even a family Bible with lists of marriages and children to demonstrate the girl was married to Dale Barlow, 50.
Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.
The church members were being held at Fort Concho, a 150-year-old fort built to protect frontier settlements, to be interviewed about the 16-year-old girl and whether, in fact, the teenager was among them.
State investigators on Sunday got a second, wider search warrant for records related to the birth of any child to a mother aged 17 and under. The initial warrant was only for the records related to the girl who called to report abuse last week.
Attorneys for the church and church leaders filed motions asking a judge to quash the search on constitutional grounds, saying state authorities didn't have enough evidence to search the grounds and the warrants were too broad. A hearing on their motion is scheduled Wednesday in San Angelo.
FLDS attorneys Patrick Peranteau said Monday that "the chief concern for everyone at this point is the welfare of the women and children."
DPS troopers arrested one man on a charge of interfering with the duties of a public servant during the search warrant, but it was not Barlow, Mange said.
"For the most part, residents at the ranch have been cooperative. However, because of some of the diplomatic efforts in regards to the residents, the process of serving the search warrants is taking longer than usual," said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, who declined to elaborate. "The annex is extremely large and the temple is massive."
Attorneys for the church and church leaders said Barlow was in Colorado City, Ariz., and had had contact with law enforcement officials there. Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Colorado City authorities were not immediately returned Monday.
Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Jeffs after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
The group is concentrated along the Arizona-Utah line but several enclaves have been built elsewhere, including in Texas. Several years ago it paid $700,000 for the Eldorado property, a former exotic animal ranch, and began building the compound as authorities in Arizona and Utah began increasingly scrutinizing the group.
The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in Eldorado, a town of fewer than 2,000 surrounded by sheep ranches nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Only the 80-foot-high white temple can be seen on the horizon.
Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.
In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
The investigation prompted by the girl's call last week was the first in Texas involving the sect.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.