Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry

Warren Jeffs once told his congregants:

The work of God is a benevolent dictatorship, it is not a democracy.

Jeffs is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamous denomination. He is currently running his church from behind bars after he was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault, for which he is serving a life sentence with an additional 20 years.

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – AUGUST 29: Followers of self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary react after their case related to fraud and money laundering was postponed after a brief appearance at the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday, 29 August 2019.This after the state asked for the postponement to allow Bushiri’s legal teaml to make representations to the National Prosecuting Authority. (Photo by Gallo Images / Phill Magakoe)

He was on the run for a year before the law caught up with him in Las Vegas.

Shepherd Bushiri, the founder of Enlightened Christian Gathering megachurch in South Africa, fled to his home country, Malawi, amid fraud and money-laundering charges, leaving the two nations to argue over his fate.

Last week, the Mail & Guardian exclusively sourced court records of the extradition request South Africa has sent to Malawi detailing crimes allegedly committed by Bushiri — leader of one of the most popular and richest churches on the continent — and his wife, Mary.

As reported by Golden Matonga, the eight counts of rape, dating back to 2016, have been added to charges of fraud, money-laundering, jumping bail and contravention of the foreign currency act that Bushiri was already facing before his escape in November last year.

Bushiri has rejected past allegations of rape, accusing Hawks officers of “intimidating women” to make the accusations. He also accuses the Hawks officers of extortion.

In his book Thought Reform and Psychology of Totalism (1961) Robert Jay Lifton explains in considerable detail the three primary characteristics that are the most common features of  destructive cults.

1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.
2. A process of indoctrination or re-education is used that can be seen as coercive persuasion, thought reform or, as it is commonly referred to — “brainwashing”. The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of the group and its leader. It can also be seen as an inability to think independently.
3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.

Lifton’s latest book Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry makes clear that the apocalyptic impulse — that of destroying the world to remake it in purified form — is not limited to religious groups, but is prominent in extremist political movements.

Some groups that were once seen as “cults” have historically evolved to become generally regarded as religions. Power devolved from a single leader to a broader church government and such groups ceased to be seen as simply personality-driven and defined by a single individual. For example the Seventh-day Adventists, once led by Ellen White, or the Mormon church founded by Joseph Smith (by the way, Jeffs’s FDLS is an offshoot of the latter).

Cult is a term that doesn’t refer to religion at all, but is applied to a social movement. But for South Africans, who once heard how the governing party would rule until Jesus returned, or watch the fantastic obfuscation of a certain opposition party and the zealotry of those who attack journalists, it may seem like one and the same thing. Strengthening our knowledge economy is the only way we can inoculate ourselves against manipulation.

By Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham