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she asserts. These individuals challenge the status quo by their willingness to take action to
make the world a better place.
While some scholars have concentrated on individual deficits or vulnerabilities in trying to
explain cult affiliation (Bainbridge, 1999 Galanter, 1999 Goldman, 1999), others have
focused on the pernicious strategies employed by charismatic leaders to attract and retain
followers (Dawson, 1998 Singer, 1995 Siskind, 2001). Lalich goes farther by focusing on
the interactive aspects of the charismatic relationship. She contends that seekers are
attracted emotionally and intellectually to the group by a combination of factors that arise
from the leader and his or her ideas, goals, and promises. What sets Lalich‘s book apart
from other scholarly treatments of new religious movements is her understanding of the
complex interaction that begins with initial attraction and continues throughout affiliation.
One of the book‘s many strengths lies in Lalich‘s explanation of the transformative process
whereby a cult member becomes a true believer (or deployable agent) of the charismatic
leader. The interaction between the individual and the charismatic system is the key to
understanding bounded choice theory. The believer responds to the intellectual and
emotional pull of the group with commitment that is renewed through ongoing interaction,
and in the process develops a new self. The leader‘s vision of the path to salvation has
transformational power.
In the introduction, Lalich reviews high-profile cults that have attracted both popular
attention and scholarly study. Lalich points out that affiliation with a charismatic leader is
not as strange or pernicious as one might imagine from press reports about certain
notorious groups. An estimated two million Americans have joined cults in the past several
decades, and many of them are educated seekers striving to make the world a better place
and holding great hope for the future.
Part One of the book reviews the formative principles, sociocultural environment, and
spiritual influences of the Heaven‘s Gate cult. Lalich shows how Bonnie Nettles and Marshall
Applewhite formed a complementary partnership that shaped a transcendent vision of the
―Next Level‖ beyond this world. As Ti and Do, Nettles and Applewhite saw themselves as the
messengers of salvation and eternal life for their followers. The path to salvation led from
this planet to the stars. Committed members separated themselves from the world, cut ties
with family and friends, minimized their individualistic and human parts, and ultimately
ended their lives in collective suicide in Mach 1997. Lalich points out that the conformity to
group norms that so shocked outsiders when news of the Heaven‘s Gate suicides hit the
press is not so foreign, after all conformity to the pushes and pulls of one‘s immediate
society is, in fact, frighteningly normal (p. 89).
In Part Two, Lalich devotes four chapters to explicating the founding, growth, and demise of
the Democratic Workers Party, a Marxist-Leninist political cult under the leadership of
Marlene Dixon. From its radical feminist beginnings in 1974, the DWP evolved into a sealed,
tightly disciplined system created to bring about social justice for the American working
class. Predicting revolution, Dixon drove her followers to work urgently for socialist
principles as the means of salvation for the working class. The struggle to overthrow the
present capitalist system was the individual responsibility of DWP members who were
required to surrender their identities, possessions, ties, and any ambitions outside of those
instilled by Dixon. Descriptions of the atmosphere of criticism/self-criticism and the harsh
treatment meted out to ―erring‖ party members are particularly powerful. The final
confrontation between Dixon and representatives of her inner circle is chilling in its
intensity.
Lalich does an outstanding job analyzing the evolution of DWP and its final collapse under
Dixon‘s violent and capricious leadership. Once a trusted insider herself, Lalich provides a
tremendously informative description of the evolution and demise of a political cult. Not

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 41
surprisingly, the description of Heaven‘s Gate comes across as less powerful, yet Lalich‘s
perspective on this group goes well beyond the familiar facts. She offers an extensive
analysis of the cult‘s materials (including the farewell videotape) and interviews with former
members.
The theoretical material in Part Three of this book is extremely valuable for its clear, careful
linking of concepts. The root cause of cultic groups, Lalich claims, arises from the leaders'
charisma:
Without the leader, there would be no draw, no call, no promise of an ideal.
And without devotees responding to that call, there would be no group, no set
of coordinated activities, and no followers granting the leader the authority to
rule (p. 226).
Building on earlier primary work by Weber, Lofland, Stark, Kanter, Giddens, Simon, Zablocki
and Lifton, Lalich offers us another set of analytical tools for understanding cult
commitment. Her insights into the internal cognitive processes of the believers and the
dimensions of a self-sealing system go far beyond the usual catalog of the group‘s activities
or defensive explanations of religious freedom. Bounded Choice is compelling and
informative reading, highly recommended for scholars and interested readers of all kinds.
J. Anna Looney, Ph.D.
Dept. of Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
E-mail: looney@sociology.rutgers.edu
God’s Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon
and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who
Escaped
Andrea Moore-Emmett
San Francisco: Pince-Nez Press, 2004. ISBN 1930074131 (paperback), 234 pages,
$16.95
Enter the world of polygamy! The world of plural marriages, poverty, spousal rape,
childhood incest, and all forms of physical and emotional abuse! All are alive and well and
thriving in fundamentalist Mormon communities, and in a few fundamentalist Christian
groups, as well, according to Andrea Moore-Emmett. These current practitioners maintain
that polygamy was foretold by scripture and commanded by doctrine. According to the
author of God’s Brothel, the practice of polygamy still appears to be tolerated by
mainstream Mormonism and ignored by the U.S. government. Despite the fact that some of
their practices fly in the face of civil and human rights, these societies appear to have
protection under the First Amendment. God’s Brothel is a journey into the abyss where
perhaps thousands of women and children dwell, victims of a patriarchal system so
oppressive as to rival the abuses of the Taliban.
God’s Brothel is a peek into the lives of eighteen women who lived polygamy and left, often
at great peril to themselves. Of various ages and circumstances, the women have in
common the experience of being among the plural wives of the men of various
fundamentalist Mormon communities. These poignant stories speak of the unspeakable, of a
society in which primitive impulses, normally relegated to fantasy life, are allowed to run
rampant, unchecked by the taboos, laws, and morals of a civilized society.
Andrea Moore-Emmett begins her book with an introductory chapter on the background of
the fundamentalist Mormon sects, a ―complex and convoluted issue‖ that can be understood
only by shedding light on its historical roots. The practice of polygamy comes out of the
vision of Joseph Smith, founding prophet of the Mormon Church, who revealed that