Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 8, 1993 TAG: 9303080105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JUDITH LYNN HOWARD KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Medium
CULTS OFTEN TURN FAITH INTO FOLLY
Many people may consider the Branch Davidians just another cult.But if alleged fanatics are so easy to pinpoint, how then does American society distinguish between religious extremism and acceptable religious practice? How does a society differentiate faith from folly?
The United States' rich religious heritage includes an array of beliefs. Some devout Catholics resolutely claim seeing a weeping Virgin Mary. A viewer in a Midwestern town cites being healed of cancer in his living room after watching a televangelist.
Richard Long, a Dallas psychologist, says society usually will tolerate various religious beliefs and practices based on whether they serve other people.
"They look for the standard of humanitarian intent," he said. "As long as it has a human-service intent, they are willing to tolerate a lot of deviance from their own religious practice."
But when faith is destructive, advocating such principles as killing people in the name of God, people view that faith as a belief gone awry, as a transition into the "realm of delusion," Long said.
It appears that the Branch Davidians are typical of cults in which egocentrism, childishness and the revering of an individual clouds the atmosphere, Long said.
Religious cults, always hovering on the fringe of more mainstream religious movements, draw emotionally needy people who are captivated by a leader who appears powerful, he said.
If a humanitarian facet is missing in a religious group, however, everyday folk are more likely to say there is nothing to justify the extremity of that form of faith, Long said.
Mainstream reaction to that faith might be that "they must be crazy," he said.
David Koresh, for example, allegedly had sex with girls and otherwise abused children. Koresh also, in the view of mainstream religious groups, quotes Scripture in illogical sequence.
Yvonne Haddad, a professor of history who teaches Islam at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, says she gauges religious extremes by the intensity of the belief. "I've got great respect for believers, but anybody who takes their faith to the exclusion or demonization of others, I begin to have questions," she said. "It moves from being faith to being extremism."
Ahmed El Ashmawy, a member of the Dallas Muslim Political Action Committee, says race and culture influence how people view religious beliefs and practice.
In the arrest of the person charged in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, the term "terrorist" is easily used in American society to describe religions that are not an offshoot of Christianity, he said.
Officials identify the suspect as a worshiper at a Jersey City, N.J., mosque that is the base of an Egyptian Islamic fundamentalist.
"Somebody who is not in his right mind, they are quick to label him a terrorist," El Ashmawy said. "However, down in Waco, all I hear is that they are a religious cult. We have yet to label them religious terrorists."
In Hinduism, believers are prohibited from criticizing other religions, says Rashmi Shah, trustee of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hindu Temple Society. "We believe that each human being is a god, so you treat him decently," he said.
But can anyone hear God?
Shah said that "only the saint can hear. But you have to sacrifice a lot for that."
In Judaism, direct revelations from God ended more than 2,000 years ago, says Rabbi Neil Gillman, chairman of the department of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. That was about the time the Jews were allowed by the Persian Empire to return to Judea.
"We don't believe that anybody has heard from God since then," said Gillman.
Some Roman Catholics report seeing weeping icons and the Virgin Mary. Are these signs that God is speaking?
The Catholic Church conducts extensive research in validating any miracle, said Patricia Martin, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas. The people and events surrounding the miracle are carefully investigated, she said.
Anytime there is a religious movement that is centered on an individual who claims a Messianic personage and assumes absolute authority over the group, warning bells should sound, said Reg Grant, associate professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Koresh, for instance, claims to be Christ or the "lamb."
But Grant said Christians know that "Christ is not coming back in the flesh until he comes to reclaim his church, and he certainly isn't going to come armed with assault rifles."