Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 11
The leader of Australia‘s Great White Brotherhood, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, had a similar goal
of misattribution behind her ―religious ritual‖ of giving LSD to her teenaged followers. One
former member, who was a fourteen-year-old when the leader gave her LSD, subsequently
surmised that part of the reason that the leader subjected her young followers to these trips
was that
[i]t was also meant to make the spiritual bonding easier between the Master
and the disciple. You were supposed to recognize Anne as the ‗one true
Master,‘ Christ incarnate. She would come in to people when they were under
[the effects of LSD] and ask, ‗Do you know who I am?‘ The correct answer
was ‗The Lord Incarnate.‘ The incorrect answer meant you weren‘t working
hard enough (Hamilton-Byrne 1995:143).
These and other examples show how leaders‘ abuses of various drugs can have direct and
damaging consequences for members, especially when those leaders facilitate, and usually
direct, the experiences that the members have while on them.
C. Trusted, Fictive Families and Abuse
Related to the hierarchical, asymmetrical social structure is the frequent pattern of
alternative (and some traditional) religions to use familial terms to describe members and
their relationships. Called ‗fictive families,‘ groups often speak of leaders in parental terms
and followers as children (in relation to leaders) and siblings (in relation to one another).
Violence researchers realize, however, how dangerous family dynamics can be, so what
frequently occurs in religions whose members portray themselves as fictive families is that
these members engage in acts of intrapersonal exploitation and violence roughly analogous
to actions that occur in real family settings (Cartwright and Kent 1992).
Unfortunately, among the acts of interpersonal exploitation that sometimes occur in families
and hierarchical religions are various forms of child abuse. Innocent adults trust the fictively
parental members in the hierarchy (Shupe 1995:29), while a few of those trusted members
use their relatively unmonitored positions within the hierarchy to gain access to children and
youth. Religious scandals involving sexual assaults against children now plague numerous
religious communities, including Catholicism, the Hare Krishnas, and the ministries of some
Protestant preachers (such as the convicted pedophile Tony Leyva, who admitted to having
sexually abused as many as 100 teens but whose actual number many have been closer to
800). As one of Leyva‘s victims lamented, ―‗He was a preacher, and that means he was a
man of God, and the atmosphere felt true‘‖ (Smothers 1988:A2). In any social setting,
religious or otherwise, children are at unnecessary risk for suffering sexual abuse when left
alone with unmonitored adults, and pedophiles have used trusted religious hierarchies and
positions to gain access to victims.
D. Sexism, Patriarchalism, and Corporal Punishment
Sexism, which occurs in many (but by no means all) groups, facilitates sexual assaults
against women and contributes to the crushing poverty—an often-neglected form of
violence—in which some families live. Looking globally at the combination of sexism and
poverty, the abusive religious arrangement that epitomizes violence against poor women is
the devadasi, or temple prostitution system in India. Impoverished families sell their
daughters to temples that in turn hire them out to male clients in what may be the world‘s
largest child- and female-prostitution ring (Barry 1995:181-184).
An additional interpersonal facilitator of violence within some religions is the imposition of
corporal punishment at early ages. Fictive families, as well as families within mainstream
Western societies, often resort to ‗the rod‘ or the hand to discipline children. The long-term
consequences are enormous for the victims who are hit and the society in which they
mature. For the victims—the recipients of the punishment—―[r]esearch over the past 40
The leader of Australia‘s Great White Brotherhood, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, had a similar goal
of misattribution behind her ―religious ritual‖ of giving LSD to her teenaged followers. One
former member, who was a fourteen-year-old when the leader gave her LSD, subsequently
surmised that part of the reason that the leader subjected her young followers to these trips
was that
[i]t was also meant to make the spiritual bonding easier between the Master
and the disciple. You were supposed to recognize Anne as the ‗one true
Master,‘ Christ incarnate. She would come in to people when they were under
[the effects of LSD] and ask, ‗Do you know who I am?‘ The correct answer
was ‗The Lord Incarnate.‘ The incorrect answer meant you weren‘t working
hard enough (Hamilton-Byrne 1995:143).
These and other examples show how leaders‘ abuses of various drugs can have direct and
damaging consequences for members, especially when those leaders facilitate, and usually
direct, the experiences that the members have while on them.
C. Trusted, Fictive Families and Abuse
Related to the hierarchical, asymmetrical social structure is the frequent pattern of
alternative (and some traditional) religions to use familial terms to describe members and
their relationships. Called ‗fictive families,‘ groups often speak of leaders in parental terms
and followers as children (in relation to leaders) and siblings (in relation to one another).
Violence researchers realize, however, how dangerous family dynamics can be, so what
frequently occurs in religions whose members portray themselves as fictive families is that
these members engage in acts of intrapersonal exploitation and violence roughly analogous
to actions that occur in real family settings (Cartwright and Kent 1992).
Unfortunately, among the acts of interpersonal exploitation that sometimes occur in families
and hierarchical religions are various forms of child abuse. Innocent adults trust the fictively
parental members in the hierarchy (Shupe 1995:29), while a few of those trusted members
use their relatively unmonitored positions within the hierarchy to gain access to children and
youth. Religious scandals involving sexual assaults against children now plague numerous
religious communities, including Catholicism, the Hare Krishnas, and the ministries of some
Protestant preachers (such as the convicted pedophile Tony Leyva, who admitted to having
sexually abused as many as 100 teens but whose actual number many have been closer to
800). As one of Leyva‘s victims lamented, ―‗He was a preacher, and that means he was a
man of God, and the atmosphere felt true‘‖ (Smothers 1988:A2). In any social setting,
religious or otherwise, children are at unnecessary risk for suffering sexual abuse when left
alone with unmonitored adults, and pedophiles have used trusted religious hierarchies and
positions to gain access to victims.
D. Sexism, Patriarchalism, and Corporal Punishment
Sexism, which occurs in many (but by no means all) groups, facilitates sexual assaults
against women and contributes to the crushing poverty—an often-neglected form of
violence—in which some families live. Looking globally at the combination of sexism and
poverty, the abusive religious arrangement that epitomizes violence against poor women is
the devadasi, or temple prostitution system in India. Impoverished families sell their
daughters to temples that in turn hire them out to male clients in what may be the world‘s
largest child- and female-prostitution ring (Barry 1995:181-184).
An additional interpersonal facilitator of violence within some religions is the imposition of
corporal punishment at early ages. Fictive families, as well as families within mainstream
Western societies, often resort to ‗the rod‘ or the hand to discipline children. The long-term
consequences are enormous for the victims who are hit and the society in which they
mature. For the victims—the recipients of the punishment—―[r]esearch over the past 40
