Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 99
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Canvassing Right Upheld
The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled that the town of Blainville cannot use its canvassing
bylaw to regulate the door-to-door proselytizing of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The bylaw
barred such activity after 7:30 pm and on weekends and required a $100 permit to canvass
at other times. The Witnesses refused to buy a permit.
The decision held, however, that while the bylaw ―severely restricts‖ the Witnesses religious
freedom, Blainville might be able to show, as it had not yet done, that some restriction was
indeed consistent with democratic values. ―The measures enacted,‖ the decision continues,
―were negligently drafted and adopted in a hurry without prior consultation, and are
irrational and disproportionate in their effects.‖ (Harvey Shepherd, The Gazette, Internet,
8/28/03)
Agreement on Transfusions
Jehovah’s Witnesses Shawn and Alicia Castillo, of Waco, TX, have agreed with state Child
Protective Services to let the agency authorize blood transfusions for their seriously ill
three-week-old son in return for an agency agreement to let the couple transfer the child to
the care of physicians at a Fort Worth hospital trained in alternative treatments that might
reduce the need for transfusions, which are not permitted by the Witnesses‘ religious
beliefs. The state will act as the infant‘s custodian only when doctors feel a transfusion is
needed. (AP in Star Tribune, Internet, 12/5/03)
Jonestown/Peoples’ Temple
Murder, Suicide, and Surrender
Journalist Tim Reiterman, who accompanied Congressman Leo Ryan to Guyana, said on the
25th anniversary of the Jonestown disaster in November: ―I think most people cling to some
of the myths about Jonestown. One was that this was a mass suicide, when in fact it was as
much a mass murder because of the degree of control that [Jim] Jones exercised in a very
remote place, and because of the way he manipulated the events at the end he made it
seem as if there was no way out for anybody.‖
Reiterman, who wrote a 1982 book on Jim Jones and his congregation, says Jones drew to
himself mostly ―hard-working, religious, dedicated, idealistic people who wanted a better life
on earth as well as in the hereafter and valued interracial religious experience.‖ The remote
and isolated Guyana settlement, says Reiterman, was absolutely free of ―urban ill,‖ but
―tantamount to a prison for those who discovered they didn‘t want to be there.‖
The disaster, Reiterman concluded, ―shocked people into realizing just how terrible the
consequences can be of surrendering control of decisions in your life ...to someone else,
and it made people ...think: What is it that drives human beings? Why [do] they join?
Why [do] they follow? Why [do] they want to lead? [It made people think about] the
dangers of power in the hands of somebody who's deeply disturbed and also committed to
the philosophy that the ‗ends justify the means.‖ (Rachel E. Sheeley, Palladium-Item,
Internet, 11/16/03)
Conflict with Followers' Relatives Contributed to Disaster
University of California-Davis scholar John Hall, who studies religious violence, says that
although the dynamics of the relationship between Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
followers should not be discounted as causing the disaster, ―the murders and mass suicide
were the products of an ever-escalating struggle between the leadership of Peoples Temple
and their opponents, a group of concerned relatives.‖ Referring to contemporary conflicts
like the one between certain Muslim and Western groups, Hall says: ―It escalates — or
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Canvassing Right Upheld
The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled that the town of Blainville cannot use its canvassing
bylaw to regulate the door-to-door proselytizing of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The bylaw
barred such activity after 7:30 pm and on weekends and required a $100 permit to canvass
at other times. The Witnesses refused to buy a permit.
The decision held, however, that while the bylaw ―severely restricts‖ the Witnesses religious
freedom, Blainville might be able to show, as it had not yet done, that some restriction was
indeed consistent with democratic values. ―The measures enacted,‖ the decision continues,
―were negligently drafted and adopted in a hurry without prior consultation, and are
irrational and disproportionate in their effects.‖ (Harvey Shepherd, The Gazette, Internet,
8/28/03)
Agreement on Transfusions
Jehovah’s Witnesses Shawn and Alicia Castillo, of Waco, TX, have agreed with state Child
Protective Services to let the agency authorize blood transfusions for their seriously ill
three-week-old son in return for an agency agreement to let the couple transfer the child to
the care of physicians at a Fort Worth hospital trained in alternative treatments that might
reduce the need for transfusions, which are not permitted by the Witnesses‘ religious
beliefs. The state will act as the infant‘s custodian only when doctors feel a transfusion is
needed. (AP in Star Tribune, Internet, 12/5/03)
Jonestown/Peoples’ Temple
Murder, Suicide, and Surrender
Journalist Tim Reiterman, who accompanied Congressman Leo Ryan to Guyana, said on the
25th anniversary of the Jonestown disaster in November: ―I think most people cling to some
of the myths about Jonestown. One was that this was a mass suicide, when in fact it was as
much a mass murder because of the degree of control that [Jim] Jones exercised in a very
remote place, and because of the way he manipulated the events at the end he made it
seem as if there was no way out for anybody.‖
Reiterman, who wrote a 1982 book on Jim Jones and his congregation, says Jones drew to
himself mostly ―hard-working, religious, dedicated, idealistic people who wanted a better life
on earth as well as in the hereafter and valued interracial religious experience.‖ The remote
and isolated Guyana settlement, says Reiterman, was absolutely free of ―urban ill,‖ but
―tantamount to a prison for those who discovered they didn‘t want to be there.‖
The disaster, Reiterman concluded, ―shocked people into realizing just how terrible the
consequences can be of surrendering control of decisions in your life ...to someone else,
and it made people ...think: What is it that drives human beings? Why [do] they join?
Why [do] they follow? Why [do] they want to lead? [It made people think about] the
dangers of power in the hands of somebody who's deeply disturbed and also committed to
the philosophy that the ‗ends justify the means.‖ (Rachel E. Sheeley, Palladium-Item,
Internet, 11/16/03)
Conflict with Followers' Relatives Contributed to Disaster
University of California-Davis scholar John Hall, who studies religious violence, says that
although the dynamics of the relationship between Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
followers should not be discounted as causing the disaster, ―the murders and mass suicide
were the products of an ever-escalating struggle between the leadership of Peoples Temple
and their opponents, a group of concerned relatives.‖ Referring to contemporary conflicts
like the one between certain Muslim and Western groups, Hall says: ―It escalates — or
