national pride political ideology religious devotion even sports fanaticism and
celebrity idolatry in 21st century america the fine line drawn between popular culture
and secret deadly cult can occasionally be blurred
the u.s constitution and the bill of rights protects a citizen's freedoms of speech and
religion and the right to assemble as he or she chooses but what if the choices aren't mainstream
or the beliefs widely held
why do otherwise normal citizens find themselves drawn into secret and at times deadly
cults all of us go through times that are tough and when we're looking for relief from that
distress and answers to our problems we are more open and vulnerable to someone giving us all the
answers and that's the appeal of many destructive calls we had the 60s era where people were seeking
and exploring and trying new things and then that kind of led into what we call the new age movement
it's become part of our society at this point so that today we have people taking all kinds
of supplements and potions we have just about everybody doing yoga we have people meditating we
have people going to sweat lodges and glomming on to the native american traditions and
all of this is is seen as quite acceptable but perhaps one of the biggest secrets about cults
is that they have always existed as part of american culture even before the revolution
as the 19th century dawned the united states was undergoing a population explosion
waves of immigrants were arriving from europe many seeking economic opportunity and religious freedom
the united states has been from its very inception when europeans first arrived on
these shores they were arriving here because they wanted to have the freedom to exercise
their religious beliefs and what that has meant over our long history is that people have not
only had the freedom to practice religious beliefs but also to invent new religions
the story of america is the story of alternative religious movements
america has always been a kind of safe harbor one area that became a haven for numerous political
social and religious cults was located on the edge of what was once the american frontier
known as the burned over district the burned over district was a section of central new york state
that in the first decades of the 1800s was a scene of tremendous religious passion
and innovation in many respects it was the mount sinai of american mysticism
with the completion of the erie canal in 1825 the central region of new york state became a gateway
for those seeking political and social freedom and an exchange of what were then considered
radical ideas here the early women's rights movement and transcendentalism flourished
and it was also here that numerous religious groups like the quakers and the shakers first put
down roots in america but even during this era of religious and spiritual re-awakening some groups
like the mormons were considered too outrageous and cult-like to find mainstream acceptance
the mormons have been one of the most visible of the groups that have had those kinds of
practices that the rest of society found quite repugnant the notion of one man having multiple
wives was something that in the 19th century when mormons did practice this got them run out of town
but the mormons were by no means alone in their advocacy of multiple marriages
some of these so-called religions suggested free love and an even more communal approach to living
the oneida community was a communal experiment that grew up in the burned
over district starting around 1848 they existed for a little over 30 years and their aim was to
practice biblical communism to experiment with alternative family structures where children might
have been raised by the community rather than by what we would consider a nuclear household
new york's burned over district also spawned cults whose names are now long forgotten
the leader of the millerites predicted the world would end in 1844. and the rituals performed by
the so-called spiritualists were considered perverse blasphemous and downright bizarre
when people began to form sand circles and talk to the dead within the movement of spiritualism
that grew out of the burned over district these were supernatural
activities that cut very sharply against the standards of the day
but what was it about this particular region of upstate new york that made it such fertile
ground for religious cults could it be as some believe the strong influence of the region's
native american tribes who believed in the supernatural and practiced communal living
or was there another perhaps even more logical reason america is a country that was founded by
religious rebels and seekers and one of the things that goes along with that is susceptibility to
cults and powerful religious leaders if america has a big secret about cults it's that we provide
incredibly fertile ground for them is there something unique to the american experience
that gives rise to cults could it be the very freedoms americans hold dear and could a dangerous
mix of power profit and paranoia explain how a cult can go from being dangerous too deadly
over the past 30 years cults in america have grown at an alarming rate and fueling their growth
is money money that allows their leaders to buy property often with the intention
of isolating their group from society
if a group is living together on a piece of land which you know we tend to then call a compound
it's easier for the cult leader and his or her lieutenants to control everybody
1935 a stretch of open land in waco texas becomes home to a religious sect known as
the davidian seventh-day adventists within 20 years the group now known as the branch davidians
has built a sprawling compound on the site they named mount carmel to house its members the branch
davidians at waco were people who thought they had a new kind of revelation about how people
should live their lives and what the bible meant you might say it was a cult group but it was a
relatively benign cult that did no harm and they lived there for decades then came david korish
born in houston in 1959 david koresh
was a part-time musician who also claimed to be a prophet
he moved to waco in 1981 to join the branch davidians and by 1989 after a vicious power
struggle within the group ominously had declared himself to be the final prophet
one of the things that made david koresh such a powerful figure for the group was that he seemed
to be such an amazing commentator on the book of revelation his tongue is the pinnable so how's
god gonna talk to me in the latter days and who's gonna bring that book so there'll be no excuses
so what you had was a group of people in a bubble completely controlled by a psychopath
and they were led to believe some would say brainwashed to believe that he was the messiah
law enforcement largely ignored the reclusive group at mount carmel
until the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms became aware that the cult had been amassing
a large stockpile of military-style firearms the branch civilians were under surveillance for about
nine months it started with computer checks to see what gun parts they may have been ordering
the branch davidians unfortunately made themselves known to the federal government
because they were selling weapons at gun shows they weren't paying taxes on
you