Cults and the final countdown:
An inside story
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The following article appeared in the Vancouver Sun
on Saturday, June 24, 1995:
 ~Kazumasa Takahashi didn't have a chance. As deputy station manager on one of
Tokyo's subway lines, he knew his duty, and he did it. Overstaying his shift,
he helped another man clean up a package that was leaking a strange, pungent
liquid onto the platform.
Both men died within hours. Takahashi, a conscientious worker and family man,
was 50 years old.
Altogether, 12 people died and 5,500 were injured as a result of the horrific
sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway March 20, 1995. In the months following
the attack, police have discovered overwhelming evidence that a bizarre
neo-Buddhist cult, Aum Shinri Kyo, was responsible.
In a series of raids that held Japan spellbound, police have uncovered tonnes of
chemicals, including all the ingredients to make sarin, a sophisticated chemical
laboratory and a treasury filled with gold bars. In addition, several
high-ranking cult members who hold chemistry degrees have confessed that they
made the gas on the instructions of the cult leader, Shoko Asahara. Aum Shinri
Kyo is also suspected in several kidnapping incidents and in the shooting of
police agency director-general Takaji Kunimatsu. Evidence also suggests that
the cult was interested in germ warfare and was planning nothing less than the
overthrow of the government.
All this in orderly, conscientious Japan, a nation where the social contract is
taken seriously, and petty crime is rare. One might think that Aum Shinri Kyo
is a pure aberration - a scenario unlikely to be repeated. Conventional wisdom
holds that cults are more likely to flourish in places where there is less
regard for the social contract and more individualism, such as the U.S. Also,
many people believe that cults recruit needy, disturbed people who come from
disorderly backgrounds.
But exactly the opposite is true. It is in societies where respect for the
social order is greatest that the most wealthy, potent cults are formed; and it
is the individuals who are most conscientious, hard-working and idealistic who
end up becoming their most fanatical devotees.
Take my own life as an example. I joined the Moonies in 1976, and remained a
member for 10 years, until 1986. When I joined, I had just graduated from the
University of B.C. with a BA in English. I was very idealistic, and wanted to
reject consumerism and find a more environmentally sound way to live.
Although I was lonely and had trouble socializing, I suspect my idealism was an
equally important factor in keeping me tied to the group once I had been tricked
into joining. And make no mistake: I was tricked. I thought the group
consisted only of the "Creative Community Project" in San Francisco when I
initially agreed to join them. I had not yet been taught about Sun Myung Moon
or the Unification Church, and I was not told about these connections for a
month.
Soon after joining, I became convinced that the solution to all the world's
problems was only available by following Moon. During the time I was a Moonie,
I often worked with Japanese members of the Unification Church, who were
renowned for their dedication and self-sacrifice. In Los Angeles in 1977 I
worked with 10 young men and women who had recently arrived from Japan and were
always willing to do whatever was asked of them to the best of their abilities.
To this day, the Japanese Unification Church remains the most potent branch of
Moon's global operations, surpassing in wealth if not in numbers even the Korean
branch where the church began. Moon's fund-raising and business interests in
Japan provide the financial backing for the majority of his world-wide ventures,
including the Washington Times newspaper.
During my time with the Unification movement, I noticed one other nationality
that was relatively prominent: the Germans. Like the Japanese, they also come
from a country where social order is highly valued.
In such a society, cults can solidify their positions more rapidly. In Japan,
cults have become a force in national politics, and many politicians receive
financial and other assistance from them. Soka Gakkai, a powerful neo-Buddhist
sect, even runs its own political party, Komeito.
Moon's Unification Church, through its political front group, Shokyo Rengo,
often provides campaign workers who are willing to work long hours without pay
to support conservative candidates in the Japanese Diet. As a result, Shokyo
Rengo and Sun Myung Moon have gained considerable influence with some senior
Diet members.
It was my observation when I was with the Unification Church that people who
came from chaotic, unhappy backgrounds were actually less likely to stick with
the cult compared to those who came from more normal backgrounds.
The extreme pressures and sacrificial lifestyles were too much, for example, for
the urban poor to bear, whereas middle class people could call upon their
idealism in order to endure these difficulties. In the Moonies we were urged to
"witness to quality people" - church jargon for approaching only those who were
not down and out. The ironic result: it is often those who would otherwise be
the most law-abiding and productive members of society who end up committing the
most lawless actions once they are drawn into the cult.
The cult leader convinces the members that their loyalty to the laws of their
society must now be replaced by a higher loyalty to the leader himself. The
conscientious go along with this because their conscience now dictates that they
must serve the "higher" cause.
As a result, people with advanced degrees in engineering and chemistry were
willing to assist Shoko Asahara with his plans to stockpile weapons. One such
person, Fumihiro Joyu, a handsome former college debating champion, is now the
cult's chief spokesman on Japanese television - much to the delight of many
teenage girls, who, it was reported in The New York Times, have developed a
crush on him.
With the collapse of Communism, a new frontier for cultism has opened up in the
former Eastern bloc. In Russia, Shoko Asahara claims 30,000 followers compared
to only 10,000 in Japan. Hare Krishna and the Unification Church have both
gathered numerous disciples there. Other sects are not far behind.
On the surface, this would appear to confirm the conventional view that in times
of social disorder - such as today in Russia - people turn to cults to find
order in their lives.
However, the rise of cults in Russia is more a result of the former totalitarian
order than of the present social disorder.
Communism operated like a state cult. The people were enjoined to follow the
dogma of Marxism-Leninism; the top level of leaders could not be questioned, and
the deprivations of the Soviet system were all supposedly for the good of
mankind. Russians became accustomed to the blinkered mind-set of cultism, and
once they have been manipulated into joining a cult, they adjust to it more
readily.
Which is not to say that cults cannot prosper in cultures with a longer
democratic tradition, such as the U.S. But while American cults are more
diverse and numerous, they do not attain the political power and influence that
they have already achieved in countries like Japan and Russia.
It would appear that although a lower respect for the social contract and
greater individualism has unpleasant consequences, it has a few advantages as
well.
Gordon Neufeld: gordon_neufeld@hotmail.com
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