Psychology of Religion Module

EXPLORATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGY:

David Koresh and the Branch Davidians

SOME CULT  LEADERS gain extraordinary power over their followers. One such recent cult leader was David Koresh, who led the members

of his Branch Davidian cult to violent deaths. Koresh, whose original name was Vernon Howell, was born in 1959 and attended school in Texas. He was reported to have memorized large portions of the Bible, although he had been indifferent to schoolwork. As a young man he

became attracted to the Branch Davidian offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist religion. He became its leader and gradually established himself as the absolute authority over all of its affairs and its members.

How do such leaders gain such complete control over their followers? In Koresh’s case, he defined himself as an equal to God, convincing his followers that he had divine insight. He taught an exclusive “us” versus “them” approach by saying that “we” (he and his followers) were God’s chosen people and “they” (everybody else) were controlled by Satan. Koresh convinced members to disconnect themselves from the evils of the outside world and established a group of “lieutenants” to enforce his dictates.

In addition to control tactics like Koresh’s, characteristics of followers also need to be taken into account to understand how cults come about. Koresh’s followers were religious seekers who followed him because they were dissatisfied with the ordinary religious options in their world. Step by step, as they developed the habit of going along with Koresh’s and the group’s expectations, their conformity to the cult became more established. Eventually, Koresh gained control of the entire group.

Two tragic events occurred to Koresh and his followers. On February 28, 1993, agents from the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms decided to invade the sect’s compound just outside of Waco, Texas, because they thought the group had illegal weapons. (In fact, it turned out that the sect had stored a large supply of weapons, some of which were illegal, and ammunition.) A gun battle ensued in which four federal agents were shot to death. A 51 day standoff followed. After weeks of discussion and failed negotiations, the federal officials decided to end the conflict by attacking the compound. As the military vehicles of the federal agents approached the compound, it and its people were swiftly engulfed in flames. The fires apparently were set by Koresh and/or his followers. There were few survivors.

Discussion: Religion, Spirituality, and Cults

EARLIER IN THE CHAPTER, we described the nature of spirituality and religion, and now we have discussed the nature of cults.

In our exploration of religion and spirituality, we indicated that some psychologists of religion believe that the terms spirituality and religion can be used interchangeably, whereas others think their meanings are different. We also learned that many social scientists differentiate between religion and cults but that some argue that cults are fringe, often new, religious movements. What do you think? Get together with several students and discuss similarities and differences among religion, spirituality, and cults.

Exploring your Spiritual Well-Being

The Spiritual Well-Being Scale*  was developed in order to measure how people percieved their sense of well-being as they defined it in either religious or existential terms (Paloutzian & Ellison, 1982).  Below are 10 of the 20 items from the scale, some slightly modified from the original.

In order to take the scale, the person first is given the following instructions:

For each of the following statements, assign a score from 1 to 6 according to how strongly you agree or disagree with it.

  1. I don’t know who I am, where I came from, or where I am going.

  2. My spiritual life makes me feel loved and connected.

  3. I feel disconnected from a spiritual force in my daily situations.

  4. I feel unsettled about my future.

  5. My spiritual life offers me personally meaningful relationships.

  6. I feel very fulfilled and satisfied with life.

  7. I don’t get much personal strength and support from my spiritual practices.

  8. I feel a sense of well-being about the direction my life is headed in.

  9. Life doesn’t have much meaning.

  10. My spiritual relationships contribute to my sense of well-being.

*Copyright Craig W. Ellison and Raymond F. Paloutzian.  Used and adapted by permission of the authors.  Not to be duplicated, copied, or transferred without expressed written permission of the authors.  See www.lifeadvance.com.

Scoring and Interpretation

The spiritual well-being scale measures two main areas: (1) religious well-being and (2) existential well-being. The religious scale refers to religion and one’s relationship to spirituality, the existential scale to meaning in life and questions about the nature of one’s existence. In the above list of statements, items 5, 9, and are summed; the scores for items, 3, 7, and 19 are reversed (that is, change the 1 to a 6, the 2 to a 5, the 3 to a 4, and so on). These two subtotals are  combined to get an overall religious well-being score. To obtain an existential well-being score, the responses to items 2, 6, and 18 are summed; the scores for items 8 and 10 are reversed and then summed. Combine these two subtotals to obtain the overall existential well-being score. One’s overall score on each of these two sub-scales can range from 10 to 60. On each of the sub-scales for the full test, a score of 40 or higher reflects well-being (religious or existential).