Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 166
Fossmo‘s late wife moved into a guest room in their home when Svensson, the nanny,
started sleeping with him in order to help him ―battle the devil,‖ whom the pastor said was
attacking his soul with a mysterious illness.
Svensson, who arrived in town in 1999, married soon thereafter, and then divorced in 2001,
testified: ―In the evenings I was with the minister in the bedroom where we had a sexual
relationship. Otherwise, my relationship with him was that I was a slave and he was my
master, I had no will of my own. During almost all of 2003, I was locked away because I
was so incorrigible. God had turned his back on me and I sought mercy.‖ (Irish Times,
Internet, 5/22/04)
Group Pressure/Abu Ghraib
“Atrocity-Producing Situations”
Renowned psychologist Robert J. Lifton, who has written psychological studies of
experiments by Nazi doctors and the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, says that what happened
in Iraq‘s Abu Ghraib prison shows, like the events in My Lai during the Vietnam War, that
―an average person would be capable of committing atrocities because he or she was
entering an atrocity-producing situation. From that standpoint, atrocities are not so much
an individual expression as a group expression. The environment, which creates enormous
pressure on the individual, creates the atrocity.‖
Atrocities happen in all wars, says Lifton, ―but it‘s in counterinsurgency wars, which take
place in alien territory with confusion about who‘s the enemy and with hostility from the
people, that you‘re most likely to get sustained atrocity-producing situations. We saw those
in Vietnam — and we‘re seeing them in Iraq.‖
Lifton believes that a sense of military honor prevents some people from going along with
the atrocity. (Thane Peterson, Business Week, 5/18/04)
Heartland Christian Academy
Judge Bars Raids
U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber, in St. Louis, has barred authorities who deal with
juveniles from again removing all students from Heartland Christian Academy, a
―discipline-minded‖ private reform school in a remote part of northeast Missouri accused of
systematic child abuse. No child should be taken from the school, the judge said, unless the
child ―is in immanent danger of suffering serious physical harm, threat to life from abuse or
neglect, or has been sexually abused‖ or immediately faces such abuse. The court
considered the possible harm to Heartland if it were unprotected from ―the trauma of
another mass roundup of children.‖ (Jim Suhr, AP, Internet, 5/13/03)
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Death from Transfusion Refusal Alleged
Jehovah’s Witnesses member Linda Grissom, of St. Louis, would have survived surgery
complications if she had not refused a blood transfusion, according to a hematologist
testifying at the trial of a case brought by Grissom‘s family. The Grissom‘s, whose religion
forbids blood transfusions, claim surgeon error, rather than failure to transfuse, caused
Linda‘s death. (William C. Lhotka, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/22/04)
Fossmo‘s late wife moved into a guest room in their home when Svensson, the nanny,
started sleeping with him in order to help him ―battle the devil,‖ whom the pastor said was
attacking his soul with a mysterious illness.
Svensson, who arrived in town in 1999, married soon thereafter, and then divorced in 2001,
testified: ―In the evenings I was with the minister in the bedroom where we had a sexual
relationship. Otherwise, my relationship with him was that I was a slave and he was my
master, I had no will of my own. During almost all of 2003, I was locked away because I
was so incorrigible. God had turned his back on me and I sought mercy.‖ (Irish Times,
Internet, 5/22/04)
Group Pressure/Abu Ghraib
“Atrocity-Producing Situations”
Renowned psychologist Robert J. Lifton, who has written psychological studies of
experiments by Nazi doctors and the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, says that what happened
in Iraq‘s Abu Ghraib prison shows, like the events in My Lai during the Vietnam War, that
―an average person would be capable of committing atrocities because he or she was
entering an atrocity-producing situation. From that standpoint, atrocities are not so much
an individual expression as a group expression. The environment, which creates enormous
pressure on the individual, creates the atrocity.‖
Atrocities happen in all wars, says Lifton, ―but it‘s in counterinsurgency wars, which take
place in alien territory with confusion about who‘s the enemy and with hostility from the
people, that you‘re most likely to get sustained atrocity-producing situations. We saw those
in Vietnam — and we‘re seeing them in Iraq.‖
Lifton believes that a sense of military honor prevents some people from going along with
the atrocity. (Thane Peterson, Business Week, 5/18/04)
Heartland Christian Academy
Judge Bars Raids
U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber, in St. Louis, has barred authorities who deal with
juveniles from again removing all students from Heartland Christian Academy, a
―discipline-minded‖ private reform school in a remote part of northeast Missouri accused of
systematic child abuse. No child should be taken from the school, the judge said, unless the
child ―is in immanent danger of suffering serious physical harm, threat to life from abuse or
neglect, or has been sexually abused‖ or immediately faces such abuse. The court
considered the possible harm to Heartland if it were unprotected from ―the trauma of
another mass roundup of children.‖ (Jim Suhr, AP, Internet, 5/13/03)
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Death from Transfusion Refusal Alleged
Jehovah’s Witnesses member Linda Grissom, of St. Louis, would have survived surgery
complications if she had not refused a blood transfusion, according to a hematologist
testifying at the trial of a case brought by Grissom‘s family. The Grissom‘s, whose religion
forbids blood transfusions, claim surgeon error, rather than failure to transfuse, caused
Linda‘s death. (William C. Lhotka, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/22/04)
