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INBRIEF
RETURNOF
!~~
..
,INQUISITION
R
OBERT ÜGUIER
was seized,
bound and eventually led to
a small room. A band of
"professionals" carne into the
room. One of them tried to con-
vince him to change his religion.
Mark Levitt was seized, bound,
a hood put on his head and taken to
a small attic. He also was visited by
professionals who endeavored to
change his religious beliefs, basi–
cally by badgering and interrogat–
ing him in six-hour shifts.
Robert Oguier's story is found
in Foxe's
Book of Martyrs
and
describes events that happened in
France in 1556. (The "profes–
sionals" were religious inquisi–
tors. The small room was his jail
cell.) Mark Levitt's story was
carried by the Associated Press
and describes events that hap–
pened in the United States in
May, 1978. There are, of course,
sorne differences. Oguier was lat–
er burned at the stake-Mr.
Levitt eventually escaped.
Oguier was a victim of one of the
many inquisitions throughout Eu–
rope in the wake of the Reforma–
tion. These inquisitions have be–
come bywords for fiendish terror.
Mr. Levitt, on the other hand, was
kidnapped by "deprogrammers."
Deprogrammers are people,
usually bired by the parents of an
adult
child, who literally kidnap
their client's sons or daughters,
isolate them from their religious
group and attempt to persuade
them to give up theír religion. In
Mr. Levítt's case, hís captors tied
him up, blindfolded him, put him
in a car, put a blanket over him
and drove him to a house with a
room with no windows. His cap–
tors badgered him, interrogated
him, called him anti-Semitic and
Nazi . They rípped up copies of
tbe New Testament in front of
his face and threw the pieces at
him. They also stuffed pieces into
his ears and mouth.
Dean Kelley, president of the
National Council of Churches,
calls deprogramming "the most
serious violation of religious liber–
ty in the country in a generation."
Deprogramming is not, in one law
professor's unfortunate phrase, "a
forro of marathon encounter ther–
apy. " It is, really, no different
from a medieval inquisition: An
individual is forcibly imprisoned
and subjected to pressure by his
captor to give up his present
religious beliefs. True, after de–
programmers use violence and
coercion to isolate their "victim,"
they do not (reportedly) use
actual torture to force the captive
to change his beliefs, but in–
stances of violence are common.
Indeed, sorne deprogramming
accounts read like plots toa cheap
horror movié. Joanne Bradley, for
example, was kidnapped, locked
in a small bathroom, stripped of
her clothes and yelled at. Her
prayer books were taken away.
Her rosary beads were damaged .
She was a member of the Hare
Krisbnas-but such indignities
could bave been done to a Catho–
lic nun as well. Or consider this
account: Walter Robert Taylor
was kidnapped and taken to a
hotel room by deprogrammers
(be calls them "goons"). There
they "abused" him and kept him
without sufficient food or sleep.
At one point he was held down
bodily while the "goon squad"
ripped off his monastic clothes.
Who's Next?
Taylor was not a Moonie or a
Hare Krishna. He was a monk at
an Old Catholic monastery. (The
Old Catholic Church is an off–
shoot of the Roman Catholic
Church.)
Indeed, deprogramming hasn't
been confined to members of so–
called cults. Mr. Taylor, as was
just mentioned, belonged to the
Catholic church, albeit a part that
separated from Rome in the last
century. Mr. Levitt was a mem–
ber of J ews for Jesus, a part of
mainstream evangelical Protes–
tantism. In another case, a mem–
ber of an Episcopalian congrega–
tion
(in
good standing with the
national church) was subjected to
deprogramming. As the editor of
Eternity,
a mainstream evangeli–
cal magazine, has t emarked: "1
wonder who's next. Young Life?
Youth for Christ? r how about
your own church? "
Nor are the individuals who are
subject to deprogramming the
kind of people who cannot make
decisions for themselves. Sorne are
among the best educated people in
America. One victim was a weal–
thy psychologist. Another, a Jaw
student at Fordham University
who had been to Yale. Many vic–
tims are people who were bright
enough to be accepted at the most
academically stringent universities
in the nation.
Tbe usual argument in favor of
deprogramming is that "cults"
recruit by "brainwashing," and
individuals who join such reli–
gions do not really do so out of
free choice.
In the first place, deprogram–
ming has already been used
against people who joined church–
es whose recruitment practices
were thoroughly respectable (the
Catholic and Episcopalian , for
example). In the second place,
even those religions who have the
most debatable recruitment prac–
tices-the Moonies come to
mind-do not
force
people to
stay-they can always Jeave.
From what 1 understand, if you
attend a Moonie retreat or meet–
ing, intense psychological pres–
sure may be brought on you not
to leave, but no one will forcibly
keep you from leaving. Yet de-
The PLAIN TRUTH