Cult News

A mystery that still persists about the Oklahoma City bombing that claimed the lives of 168 people, is who cooperated with Timothy McVeigh to perpetrate or plan the mass murder?

FBI files now being discussed seem to indicate McVeigh may not have acted alone and perhaps conspired with members of a white supremacist group named “Elohim City” in Oklahoma, reports the Oakland Tribune.

Racist Robert Millar who died in 2001 led the group often called a “cult.”

McVeigh and Millar seemingly have taken secrets to their graves.

What is not secret is the milieu, which brought forth the mindset of the convicted murderer McVeigh.

He submerged himself within a subculture that included anti-government extremists and “militias” for some time before bombing the Murrah Building. His hatred was fed by conspiracy theories, most of all about the Waco Davidian standoff.

Millar like David Koresh maintained an isolated compound. Did he or some of his followers fear the FBI would scrutinize them next after the Waco cult leader’s rule ended in tragedy?

The murky paranoid subculture that transformed Timothy McVeigh from army veteran to mad bomber still exists within America.

It seems no court defeat can deter some Waco Branch-Davidians and/or surviving relatives from pursuing their cause and case against the government.

On Monday a lawyer representing the families of deceased Davidians argued that the dismissal of their civil suit in favor of the government was wrong, due to the trying judge’s supposed bias, reported Associated Press.

Again and again claims that the government was somehow responsible for the deaths of Davidians have been disproved. But this has not deterred determined conspiracy theorists that insist Vernon Howell, also known as “David Koresh,” was “persecuted” for his beliefs and that he and his followers were “murdered” by the government.

However, it has been proven that the cult leader ordered the fire that consumed his compound killing 80 men, women and children.

David Koresh’s mother was on hand at the court proceeding and admitted her son fathered 13 of the 14 children lost in that fire.

Koresh routinely exploited women in the group sexually, but insisted that others remain celibate. He also abused minor children.

After two congressional hearings, one independent investigation and a failed civil suit filed, some Davidians and surviving families remain unconvinced that Koresh was a madman and responsible for the deaths of their loved ones.

No doubt anti-government conspiracy theorists will continue to insist that the government was to blame, continuing to ignore the overwhelming physical evidence and eyewitness testimony.

A virtual cottage industry of anti-government videos, books, documentaries and lecturers sprung forth after the tragic end of the Waco Davidian standoff in 1993.

It appears that much like Koresh’s former followers, such conspiracy theory enthusiasts have largely dispensed with critical thinking and opted instead to embrace a fantasy about Waco, rather than face facts.

Perhaps this seeming subculture is now so deeply invested in its own fantastic version and/or vision of Waco, it cannot seriously consider anything else.

However, the vast majority of the public has come to conclude that David Koresh was a madman not unlike Jim Jones or Charles Manson and moved on.

Many news analysts have recently observed that North Korea is not so much a “Communist state” as it is a personality-driven “cult.”

A dictatorial dynasty rules the country, which was first established by the current leader’s father

Noted psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, once studied the methodology of “education” used by North Korea within prisoner of war camps in the fifties. His conclusions were published within his seminal book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.

What can easily be seen from Lifton’s writings is that North Korea has a long-standing and well-established expertise in what is commonly called “brainwashing.”

Its absolute authoritarian leader, Kim Jong Il, known now as “Great Leader,” controls all the media, military and environment. Lifton calls this “milieu control,” which is the foundation for a thought reform program.

Something called “Juche,” is the detailed dogma or ideology used to control the North Korean population, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

Lifton calls such an ideology the “Sacred Science” of Totalism.

Like many cult leaders Kim has exploited his followers, it is estimated that he holds $2 to $4 billion dollars in European banks. He also lives lavishly, while most of his people go hungry. During the 1990s mass starvation took the lives of 2 million in North Korea.

But North Koreans are still officially called “Kim Il Sung’s people.”

Sounds a bit like “Sci-fi cult” leader “Rael” calling his followers the “Raelians” or David Koresh and his “Davidians” doesn’t it?

This is what Lifton calls “Doctrine over Person.” That is, when the group uses its dogma to supercede and blur individual identity.

Kim’s regime is certainly a closed system not easily permeated by outside ideas; the country can be seen as little more than a giant cult compound.

One expert says that North Korea has “carefully constructed illusions.” And such cultic “illusions” often whither when subjected to an outside frame of reference and the free exchange of ideas.

According to recent reports there is now some critical “whispering” about the “Great Leader” within his nation compound. Perhaps “Kim Il Sung’s people” are beginning to consider the possibility of a future without a cult leader.

Lifton has written extensively about cults and “cult formation.” He lists three primary hallmarks that define a destructive cult.

1. A charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power;

2. a process I call coercive persuasion or thought reform;

3. economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.

Sounds just like North Korea.

Claude Vorilhon now known as “Rael” has finally fulfilled his childhood fantasies and became famous, or some might observe infamous.

But whatever anyone says the “clone cult” leader now has the attention he apparently always craved.

However, a biography based upon facts rather than self-promotion and science fiction is finally emerging about Vorilhon, reports the London Mail.

Vorilhon was apparently a failure before he became “Rael.” The would-be pop star, racecar driver and magazine publisher, had what appears to be a history of unfulfilled fantasies.

The self-proclaimed prophet who says he once visited another planet is a “monster,” according to his mother. Who says, “What he is doing now is vile. I have not seen him for ten years and I’ll be happy if I never see him again.”

And isn’t it your own family that knows you best?

The facts about the Raelian leader are quite different from the myth he has spun for his fawning followers and the media. Vorilhon failed abysmally as both a father and husband. His two children reportedly even want to change their names.

Like other cult leaders such as David Koresh, Charles Manson and Jim Jones, Vorilhon seems to be driven by his own needs, appetites and personal history.

According to the aunt who raised him Vorilhon was “rejected” by his mother. And like many cult leaders with a similarly troubled childhood little Claude grew up with a “self-belief bordering on arrogance,” she said.

Charles Manson never knew his father and his single mother often abandoned him. Jim Jones was estranged from his father who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, his parents divorced when he was 14. David Koresh was also the child of single mother who frequently left him to be raised largely by his grandparents.

Vorilhon insists his father is an alien being from outer space that artificially inseminated his mother.

Personal failures followed. Rael’s aunt says her nephew’s repeated efforts as an adult to become famous “fizzled out.”

Manson and Koresh both had histories of failure. Manson spent much of his life in reformatories as a juvenile and later served prison sentences. Koresh was a ninth grade drop out, who drifted in life and wanted to be a rock musician before joining the Branch Davidians and eventually seizing power in the group.

Vorilhon would fulfill his childhood fantasies by supposedly encountering space aliens in 1973. The aliens would tell him what he had always wanted to hear. That message would be essentially that he was special, chosen and above other men.

David Koresh received the revelation that he was “The Lamb” and saw himself as a messiah. Charles Manson and Jim Jones both believed they were chosen to play pivotal roles in history. And Koresh, Manson and Jones all used their unique position of power to exploit members sexually.

Vorilhon now has a “mission” and his belief system likewise fulfills his personal needs.

Rael’s former wife says he has “some sort of psychological grip” on people. She explains, “The whole Raelian movement was a trick to have more sex and to satisfy the enormous ego and need to be worshipped that he had always had.”

In the end it all sounds like the same old story reported so many times before. The history of the man, who would be “clone” king, is really rather typical when compared to known destructive cult leaders of the past.

Purported “cult” leader “Master Jong” tells his followers the way to dispense with original sin is to have sex with him, reports Japan Times.

Jong, once a member of Rev. Moon’s Unification Church decided to start his own religion. So he copied many of Moon’s “Divine Principles” and added his own article of faith. It seems enduring sexual harassment and exploitation is the path to salvation for his female followers.

Of course cult leaders that exploit their followers for sex is nothing new.

David Koresh required his Davidians to be celibate. That is, unless they were chosen to have sex with him in a joint effort to plant the “seed of David.” It is believed that most of the children who perished in the Davidian compound outside Waco were the offspring of such unions.

Interestingly, Rev. Moon was “unfaithful” and a boy was born as a result of an affair he had with a church member, according to the book “In the Shadow of the Moons” written by Nansook Hong. But Mrs. Moon said, “It was a ‘providential’ union, ordained by God.”

Sounds like Master Jong has copied more than religious principles from his former mentor.

An excellent editorial appeared in the Edmonton Journal written by Paula Simons regarding the background history of a Canadian “cult” child abuse case.

Lucille Poulin, the leader of the “Four Winds Commune” was convicted on five counts of assault for beating children within her group. Her defense was essentially that “God” told her to do it. However, the court found that invoking the name of God did not protect Poulin’s behavior.

Perhaps more disturbing than Poulin’s destructive delusions is how long it took authorities to take action.

According to records beginning in 1995 social workers knew what was going on—so why did it take so long to stop Poulin? Apparently they tried to protect the children seven years ago, but were frustrated by a judge who turned them away. Later one child died from medical neglect.

Reviewing the pattern of missed opportunities in the Poulin case is not unlike the sad histories of other “cults” that have abused children.

Groups that have been called “cults” such as the “Twelve Tribes,” “Children of God” and the so-called “Krishna Consciousness” movement have all at one time been the focus of child abuse allegations. Yet over and over again, such groups often escape law enforcement.

Child abuse was eventually proven to be rampant within the Waco Davidian sect, but Texas Child Protection workers once gave David Koresh a pass. Later, the testimony of one of Koresh’s young victims before Congress made it chillingly clear how wrong they were.

Krishna is now the defendant in a class action lawsuit filed by its former children who allege horrific acts of physical and sexual abuse.

The “Twelve Tribes,” just like the Poulin group was investigated for child abuse, but a judge also stopped that process and returned more than a hundred children to the group’s Vermont compound. Years later its children have recounted their experiences of abuse.

Former childhood members of the “Children of God” have discussion/support groups to help each other heal and recover from the abuse they experienced. The group’s founder David Berg has been exposed as a pedophile who engaged in incest and preached a doctrine of sexually stimulating children beginning at the age of four.

Another Canadian group “Church of God Restoration” was also recently found guilty concerning the abuse of its children through brutal beatings. But many within the Canadian press seemed to defend the parental prerogative of group members to inflict such punishment. In another case involving the same church in California a child also died due to medical neglect.

“Cult leader” Dwight York now faces more than 200 criminal counts for sexually abusing and exploiting minor children in his group called the “Nuwaubians.” According to the charges filed against him that abuse was apparently ongoing for years.

Arthur Allen Jr., the leader of the group known as the “House of Prayer” just began serving his jail sentence for a child cruelty conviction. Allen actually made such abuse a spectacle by brutally beating children publicly before his flock.

The story of Lucille Poulin is hardly unique. And the blunders made by authorities that allowed her to continue unchecked for so long are not uncommon either. Sadly, within the bureaucratic maze and legal due process of North America many children within “cults” are victimized.

Authorities seem to be reluctant in dealing with abuse within religious groups. Such groups almost always claim that any interference regarding their behavior is somehow “religious persecution.”

The lot of children born or brought into destructive cults like so much baggage is a scandal. Who will protect them? As Paula Simons laments in her editorial for the Edmonton Journal, “So much unnecessary suffering. So many unanswered questions.”

Perhaps the precedents recently set by court cases in both Canada and the United States will help. But it seems that so often, it is too little or too late.

Dwight “Malachi” York, the leader of a “cult” group called the Nuwaubians plead innocent concerning criminal sex charges in a Georgia courtroom last Friday, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Outside the courthouse a gathering of about 200 faithful Nuwaubians chanted “God will make a way” and “We love you.” Apparent proof that “brainwashing” can keep on working even when a cult leader is away. York has been in jail for months.

Interestingly, as the Nuwaubian leader’s following has dwindled the criminal counts within his indictment have increased. He plead to 208 related charges for molesting and sexually exploitating minor children. Possibly numbering more than the people that showed up to cheer him on.

It should come as no surprise that York’s remaining faithful remnant deny his guilt and that some even see his indictment as an “evil conspiracy” to topple their beloved leader.

Denial is often a way of life for people caught up in destructive cults. After all, there are still Davidians loyal to the memory of David Koresh living outside Waco.

Hopefully though, “God will make a way” to keep Mr. York locked up for the foreseeable future.

In Texas, the state that gave us David Koresh and the Waco Davidians, a new cult is “brewing” quite literally.

The St. Arnold Brewing Company of Houston, Texas has developed a cult following of deeply devoted beer drinkers. So devoted in fact, they actually paid for the privilege of being inscribed on the brewery’s new water tank, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Texans must take their beer seriously and in Houston for some this has taken on almost religious proportions.

Brock Wagner owner of the brewery “obviously has done something right,” according to one expert who commented to the Chronicle. The proof is he didn’t need to pay for new equipment, instead he simply called upon the faithful to “pony up.”

But unlike David Koresh, Wagner is just stacking cases of beer, not ammunition.

Perhaps fanatical partakers of the good brewery’s product might get in trouble if they drive while under its influence, but no one is likely to make a federal case out of it.

Three members of an extreme Buddhist group burned themselves to death in bathtubs of gasoline. They believed the ritual suicide would take them to heaven, reports Reuters.

The leader of the fringe Buddhist cult is now in Police custody.

The Buddhist religion, typically known for its peace and kindness, is no more immune to the cult phenomenon than Christianity, Islam or Judaism. Every religion seems to have its fringe groups, frequently dominated by charismatic leaders.

Apparently the Cambodian believers were not much different than other cult members of the past such as the members of the Solar Temple, Heaven’s Gate or Waco Davidians, who like them believed suicide was a route to another world.