58 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 3, 2012
argued that Christians, “who were in an
advanced state of holiness” and who were acting
under his inspired leadership, had a spiritual
duty to enter into arrangements of free love
(Klaw, 1993, p. 57). By doing so, “he and his
followers would hasten the day of resurrection
and the establishment of God’s kingdom on
earth” (Klaw, 1993, p. 57 see p. 63). Noyes
called his doctrine of free love “complex
marriage” and one aspect of it was his self-
appointed right of what he called “first
husband,” which gave him a monopoly on the
practice of sexually initiating the young girls of
the commune. Moreover, he and the other men
attempted to withhold their semen, in a practice
they called coitis reservatus.
Contemporary scholarship places some of the
initiated girls as young as 12 and 13 years old,
and he continued the practice until he was well
into his sixties (Klaw, 1993, pp. 3, 237–238,
241–242). One account written around 1880,
however, from a woman who had left the Oneida
community, said that she knew “at least four
women ...who had sexual intercourse at ten
years of age, and one case at nine years of age”
(in Van De Warker, 1884, p. 789 see p. 793).
This informant, who provided her information to
a gynecologist who studied many of the
commune’s women in 1877, also commented on
Noyes’s motivation for his sexual practices. By
her account, his motivation for sexual
involvement with girls was not religious but
instead was the result of his peculiar notions of
female sexuality:
The Community, or Mr. Noyes, who
represented it, thought that girls usually
had, as they termed it, “amative
desires,” when quite young, and that
they would get bad habits unless these
feelings were satisfied in the way of
sexual intercourse, and so of course they
were looked after and introduced into
the social system certainly at the age of
puberty and in quite a number of
instances before. (Van De Warker,
1884, p. 789 [italics in original])
Boys, too, at 13 and 14 years of age, “‘were put
with old women who had passed the change of
life, and instructed all about such things before
they had begun to think of it at all’” (in Van De
Warker, 1884, p. 789). This arrangement for the
boys ostensibly was to teach them the practice of
“male continence” with women who were too
old to get pregnant.
About the group’s sexual system,
“[t]here was a great deal of complaint by
the women and girls ...of too frequent
demands upon them by the other sex....
I have known of girls no older than
sixteen or seventeen years of age being
called upon to have intercourse as often
as seven times in a week and oftener,
perhaps with a feeling or repugnance to
all of those whom she was with during
the time.” (in Van De Warker, 1884, p.
789)
Although the surrounding community knew the
basic practices involved with complex marriage,
Noyes and his followers kept his “right” of first
husband a secret from outsiders, fearing that he
would have been charged with some form of
sexual malfeasance (see Klaw, 1993, pp. 65–67,
242). When, in 1879, yet another campaign
began to have Noyes arrested for sexual
misconduct issues, he fled to Canada (Klaw,
1993, p. 245).
David Koresh and the Branch Davidians
The better known example of millenarian-
sanctified child sexual abuse involved the
activities of the late polygamist David
Koresh/Vernon Howell, who died (along with
nearly eighty followers) in the fiery end of the
Waco standoff on April 19, 1993. In 1985,
Koresh believed that he had received the Spirit
of Christ and had become “a specific messenger
who would appear in the last times and reveal all
the mysteries of God” (as, he interpreted, was
written in Rev. 10:7 [Tabor &Gallagher, 1995,
p. 62]). As he continued preaching about his
reputed role as God’s messenger at the end of
the world, his followers came to understand
themselves to be one family drawn from
all the nations of the world but united in
their opposition to modern Babylon,
which they identified as the dominant
political, social, and economic system of
the Western world, particularly as
argued that Christians, “who were in an
advanced state of holiness” and who were acting
under his inspired leadership, had a spiritual
duty to enter into arrangements of free love
(Klaw, 1993, p. 57). By doing so, “he and his
followers would hasten the day of resurrection
and the establishment of God’s kingdom on
earth” (Klaw, 1993, p. 57 see p. 63). Noyes
called his doctrine of free love “complex
marriage” and one aspect of it was his self-
appointed right of what he called “first
husband,” which gave him a monopoly on the
practice of sexually initiating the young girls of
the commune. Moreover, he and the other men
attempted to withhold their semen, in a practice
they called coitis reservatus.
Contemporary scholarship places some of the
initiated girls as young as 12 and 13 years old,
and he continued the practice until he was well
into his sixties (Klaw, 1993, pp. 3, 237–238,
241–242). One account written around 1880,
however, from a woman who had left the Oneida
community, said that she knew “at least four
women ...who had sexual intercourse at ten
years of age, and one case at nine years of age”
(in Van De Warker, 1884, p. 789 see p. 793).
This informant, who provided her information to
a gynecologist who studied many of the
commune’s women in 1877, also commented on
Noyes’s motivation for his sexual practices. By
her account, his motivation for sexual
involvement with girls was not religious but
instead was the result of his peculiar notions of
female sexuality:
The Community, or Mr. Noyes, who
represented it, thought that girls usually
had, as they termed it, “amative
desires,” when quite young, and that
they would get bad habits unless these
feelings were satisfied in the way of
sexual intercourse, and so of course they
were looked after and introduced into
the social system certainly at the age of
puberty and in quite a number of
instances before. (Van De Warker,
1884, p. 789 [italics in original])
Boys, too, at 13 and 14 years of age, “‘were put
with old women who had passed the change of
life, and instructed all about such things before
they had begun to think of it at all’” (in Van De
Warker, 1884, p. 789). This arrangement for the
boys ostensibly was to teach them the practice of
“male continence” with women who were too
old to get pregnant.
About the group’s sexual system,
“[t]here was a great deal of complaint by
the women and girls ...of too frequent
demands upon them by the other sex....
I have known of girls no older than
sixteen or seventeen years of age being
called upon to have intercourse as often
as seven times in a week and oftener,
perhaps with a feeling or repugnance to
all of those whom she was with during
the time.” (in Van De Warker, 1884, p.
789)
Although the surrounding community knew the
basic practices involved with complex marriage,
Noyes and his followers kept his “right” of first
husband a secret from outsiders, fearing that he
would have been charged with some form of
sexual malfeasance (see Klaw, 1993, pp. 65–67,
242). When, in 1879, yet another campaign
began to have Noyes arrested for sexual
misconduct issues, he fled to Canada (Klaw,
1993, p. 245).
David Koresh and the Branch Davidians
The better known example of millenarian-
sanctified child sexual abuse involved the
activities of the late polygamist David
Koresh/Vernon Howell, who died (along with
nearly eighty followers) in the fiery end of the
Waco standoff on April 19, 1993. In 1985,
Koresh believed that he had received the Spirit
of Christ and had become “a specific messenger
who would appear in the last times and reveal all
the mysteries of God” (as, he interpreted, was
written in Rev. 10:7 [Tabor &Gallagher, 1995,
p. 62]). As he continued preaching about his
reputed role as God’s messenger at the end of
the world, his followers came to understand
themselves to be one family drawn from
all the nations of the world but united in
their opposition to modern Babylon,
which they identified as the dominant
political, social, and economic system of
the Western world, particularly as
