Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2005, Page 16
High-demand ideological groups offer various techniques designed to facilitate the merging
of members‘ personal identities into the collective form based upon leaders‘ charisma. These
self-deindividuating techniques undermine people‘s abilities to form independent moral and
ethical decisions. At the same time, these techniques offer replacement values that stress
the primacy of the groups themselves and the often-dysfunctional leaders who founded
them. Assimilating these techniques, however, takes long hours of study, experience, and
practice but once again, children often are neglected. Indeed, many adults also other-
deindividuate and lose the ability to empathize with children to such a degree that youth
come to represent hindrances, if not opponents, both to the adults‘ spiritual quests and to
the groups in which the adults are pursuing their dreams.
If the feeling of opposition toward children grows sufficiently strong, then adults, even
parents, will view the younger generation in dehumanizing ways. The youth become
burdens or loads that adults should dispense with in order to get on with their ―godly‖ work,
or adults label them as unspiritual failures who do not deserve adults‘ time, energy, or
resources. In extreme cases, adults demonize their children, as has happened in at least
one group in which former childhood victims, now adults, demand justice for the violations
that they suffered. Demonization of one‘s own sons and daughters appears as a desperate
measure, an attempt to prevent current members from listening to what former-members-
turned-critics have to say.
I have painted a bleak picture here about how the reeducation of adults who join groups
leads to educational environments for children that are based upon neglect. Surely I realize
that this picture is not likely to be universal for all groups, and that even families within the
same group likely will show differences in child-rearing practices. Some second-generation
members remain in many groups, and we all would benefit from learning about why some
remain while others leave. Other groups change their child-rearing practices over time, and
it would be important to know whether these groups also must make simultaneous
adjustments to the techniques it uses to reeducate and resocialize adults.
I in no way wish to undervalue these questions and qualifications. The fact remains,
however, that a growing body of evidence suggests that growing up in charismatically
driven, high-demand groups is exceedingly difficult on many children. Perhaps by learning
more about what these children went through we will be of greater assistance to them when
they come out and try to get on with their lives.
References
ABC News. 2003. ―The Children of Waco.‖ Turning Point (April 16).
Atack, Jon. 1990. A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed.
New York: Lyle Stuart.
Ayella, Marybeth F. 1998. Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press.
Balch, Robert W. and David Taylor. 2002. ―Making Sense of the Heaven‘s Gate Suicides.‖ in
Cults, Religion, and Violence. Edited by David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 209-228.
Berg, David. 1972. ―One Wife.‖ Mo Letter No. 249 (October 28) in Berg, David. The Basic
Mo Letters. Geneva: Children of God: 1367-1371.
______.1988. ―Our Teens—The Devil‘s Target!‖ DO 225. Daily Bread 10. Zurich: World
Services, 1992:17-24.
______.1992. ―Persecution &Backsliders!‖ Good News DO 2817. Zurich: Home Services
(November):16pp.
Bunting, Glenn F. and David Willman. 1995. ―Waco Hearings Open Girl Tells of Forced Sex.‖
Los Angeles Times (July 20). Retrieved May 8, 2005
(http://www.waco93.com/latimes7_20_95.htm):3pp.
High-demand ideological groups offer various techniques designed to facilitate the merging
of members‘ personal identities into the collective form based upon leaders‘ charisma. These
self-deindividuating techniques undermine people‘s abilities to form independent moral and
ethical decisions. At the same time, these techniques offer replacement values that stress
the primacy of the groups themselves and the often-dysfunctional leaders who founded
them. Assimilating these techniques, however, takes long hours of study, experience, and
practice but once again, children often are neglected. Indeed, many adults also other-
deindividuate and lose the ability to empathize with children to such a degree that youth
come to represent hindrances, if not opponents, both to the adults‘ spiritual quests and to
the groups in which the adults are pursuing their dreams.
If the feeling of opposition toward children grows sufficiently strong, then adults, even
parents, will view the younger generation in dehumanizing ways. The youth become
burdens or loads that adults should dispense with in order to get on with their ―godly‖ work,
or adults label them as unspiritual failures who do not deserve adults‘ time, energy, or
resources. In extreme cases, adults demonize their children, as has happened in at least
one group in which former childhood victims, now adults, demand justice for the violations
that they suffered. Demonization of one‘s own sons and daughters appears as a desperate
measure, an attempt to prevent current members from listening to what former-members-
turned-critics have to say.
I have painted a bleak picture here about how the reeducation of adults who join groups
leads to educational environments for children that are based upon neglect. Surely I realize
that this picture is not likely to be universal for all groups, and that even families within the
same group likely will show differences in child-rearing practices. Some second-generation
members remain in many groups, and we all would benefit from learning about why some
remain while others leave. Other groups change their child-rearing practices over time, and
it would be important to know whether these groups also must make simultaneous
adjustments to the techniques it uses to reeducate and resocialize adults.
I in no way wish to undervalue these questions and qualifications. The fact remains,
however, that a growing body of evidence suggests that growing up in charismatically
driven, high-demand groups is exceedingly difficult on many children. Perhaps by learning
more about what these children went through we will be of greater assistance to them when
they come out and try to get on with their lives.
References
ABC News. 2003. ―The Children of Waco.‖ Turning Point (April 16).
Atack, Jon. 1990. A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed.
New York: Lyle Stuart.
Ayella, Marybeth F. 1998. Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press.
Balch, Robert W. and David Taylor. 2002. ―Making Sense of the Heaven‘s Gate Suicides.‖ in
Cults, Religion, and Violence. Edited by David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 209-228.
Berg, David. 1972. ―One Wife.‖ Mo Letter No. 249 (October 28) in Berg, David. The Basic
Mo Letters. Geneva: Children of God: 1367-1371.
______.1988. ―Our Teens—The Devil‘s Target!‖ DO 225. Daily Bread 10. Zurich: World
Services, 1992:17-24.
______.1992. ―Persecution &Backsliders!‖ Good News DO 2817. Zurich: Home Services
(November):16pp.
Bunting, Glenn F. and David Willman. 1995. ―Waco Hearings Open Girl Tells of Forced Sex.‖
Los Angeles Times (July 20). Retrieved May 8, 2005
(http://www.waco93.com/latimes7_20_95.htm):3pp.
