As our nation goes into a cult panic over the mass suicides in California, let’s remember a couple of things.

First, that this kind of mind control isn’t limited to tiny, marginalized groups. It can be found in the shadow of every religion and spiritual system in the world, including mainstream Christianity. Some of today’s biggest cult leaders are TV evangelists whose financial, political and “healing” practices are very questionable, proving that mind controllers don’t need the Internet to find people who want to be told what to think.

Second, the truth is that “cults” have always been a part of the American scene. Little groups of believers who emigrated here — Quakers, Jews, Congregationalists, Masons, Pilgrims — were persecuted in Europe as “scary cults.” That’s why they fled to America. Later came the Mormons, Mennonites, Christian Scientists, etc. — all considered very dangerous by the followers of the larger, more established, mainstream cults. When Catholics emigrated to America in the 1800’s, Protestants considered them dangerous and cultish.

Ironically, some of the right wing religious leaders who are today speaking out loudly against the evil of “cults” were themselves considered cultish “Jesus Freaks” in the 1970s. Their memory about cults is conveniently short.

Charles Godwin

Davenport