The cable news channels have been running a series of specials on Jonestown. I was trying to figure out why the topic was so popular suddenly, when one of the specials mentioned that this was the 40th anniversary of the event. On November 18, 1978 US Congressman Dan Ryan was visiting Jonestown, a religious compound set up by Jim Jones in Guyana (Central America). Family members of people staying at the compound complained to Ryan that people were unable to leave the compound, children were being molested and members were being brainwashed by Jones. Ryan went there to investigate the claims and brought along a television crew to document the situation. As Ryan and his crew were leaving the compound, they were attacked by Jones security people and killed. Jones then convinced his followers to commit mass suicide by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid, as well as killing their children with injected poison. Some 900 people died that day.
I had recently moved to Saipan from Guam and was working as Deputy Director for the CNMI Criminal Justice Planning Agency when this happened. I was shocked by the magnitude of the death and how so many people could kill themselves for no good reason. Given my criminal justice background, I understood homicide in terms of its motivations: anger, jealousy, greed, passion and even obedience. The only thing that even remotely seemed to apply was obedience. Yet, even with this motivation, I couldn’t comprehend how so many people could submit to killing their children and themselves. It seemed insane to me.
The sad thing is that Jim Jones was not unique. He is only one of the bloodiest examples of an all too common character that has blighted human history.
Not long after Jonestown a young man named David Koresh lead a religious group called the Branch Davidians who had a compound in Waco, Texas. The Department of Justice suspected them of stockpiling illegal weapons and raided the compound in February 1993 to search for and confiscate illegal weapons. The Branch Davidians resisted the assault and for the next two months the Department of Justice laid siege to the compound. The siege ended on April 19, 1993 when the main buildings of the compound burnt to the ground. Some 76 people died as a result of the siege and the fire that destroyed the remaining buildings on the compound.
On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group known as Heaven’s Gate. They committed suicide. Their website explained their belief that they were to board a space craft that would transport them to heaven. In order to do this, they had to be in their astral bodies, which meant that they had to leave their material bodies behind. Mass suicide was the way to do this.
The examples described above represents some of the more notorious mass suicides. If we consider all the senseless violence against other people the list of victims over the same amount of time would be many thousands and the perpetrators of the violence in the hundreds, if not the thousands.
A common element in many of these deaths, especially the mass suicides, is some degree of religious fervor. Many of the mass killings appear to be examples of either very mentally ill individuals or persons inspired by some religious belief. Another common element in many of these suicide/homicide deaths is the influence of a demagogue.
Wikipedia describes a demagogue as a leader who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. The demagogue can profess almost anything and get people to accept it as true. He usually has an inflated view of himself as a type of savior. Demagogues are very common with groups that have a millennial view of history and expect the end of the world at any moment and the immediate coming of the Kingdom of God. The Jonestown group, the Branch Davidians and the Heaven’s Gate group were all millennial movements.
Psychologists refer to this type of religious belief as toxic faith. It is toxic because it places the believer in physical or psychological danger, as well as undermines a more balanced and healthy spirituality. An excellent book on the topic was written by Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton. Some of my discussion on the topic is borrowed from these authors.
Toxic faith places obedience to an authority figure above listening to a well-formed conscience. Toxic faith is a counterfeit spirituality in which some form of addiction replaces one’s relationship with God. The addiction can be to a religious practice, a religious leader or an interpretation of religious teaching. It is toxic because it creates an “us” versus “them” mentality that divides rather than unifies.
Toxic faith promises certitude, forgetting that the very idea of faith implies a trusting leap into the unknown. Such certitude is bought at the cost of submitting to a teaching or leader in blind obedience, even when the object of belief is in direct conflict with reason.
Toxic faith dumps responsibility for everything that happens on God. Rather than work to heal a marriage, they want God to fix it instantly. Prayer is important but, as Aquinas taught, grace builds upon nature. God can use our efforts to bring about a miracle, but we must do our part. In a sense, the person with a religious addiction doesn’t want to serve God but wants a servant God. In a sense, God is a drug that wipes out all consequences and quickly eases all hurts. It is a way to run away from the challenges of life and avoid all pain. Real faith gives us the strength and courage to face the challenges of life and grow from them.