Thought for the Day, 18 November 2008

The Rt Rev. Tom Butler

Good morning. Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the mass suicide at Jonestown in Guyana. Over nine hundred members of a cult led by Jim Jones, followed their leader's instructions to take cyanide and give it to their children in what he called a revolutionary suicide. I don't suppose there could be a clearer illustration of the shadow side of religion - what can be the outcome when individuals give their lives into the hands of a charismatic religious leader who offers certainty and demands mindless obedience.

How is it that people can find themselves in such a situation? Well, if you pound people hard enough with certainty when they're feeling vulnerable under the pressures of life; if you offer them instant family when their lives are poor in friendship; if you offer them a message which makes meaning of life, when their lives are confused and problematical; if you offer them a special task - to spread the group's gospel when their work is dull or meaningless, or they can find no work to do; if you offer them clear leadership when they can find no-one to admire or believe in or follow in their world or church; if you offer all this, together with intoxicating, mind numbing worship - then you're offering a powerful package which many people will buy.

The psychological danger of doing so is obvious. It's a sad truth that mystical insight and mad illusion seem to lie close together in the human psyche. The great religions have always known this and so have their checks and balances through worship, prayer, and pastoral care so that people can get in touch with the reality of God without destroying themselves in the process. A religion can and should bring holiness and goodness to the lives of its followers, but the religious impulse when out of control can become a dangerous drug, and in the hands of an unscrupulous leader it can be a lethal menace. People caught up in such a pseudo-religious movement such as that which formed around Jim Jones are deeply suspicious of the world outside which they often believe to be in the grip of the devil. They're drawn into an ever deeper dependence upon the belief system of the sect. They're incapable of seeing reason; they're too busy seeing visions.

The psychological danger is obvious then, but there's an equally real theological danger. I believe that the lust for certainty is the original human sin. In the story in Genesis the forbidden fruit in the garden which archetypal humans were forbidden to eat was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eat it and you would be like gods. Eat it and you would have certainty - eat it and everything would become clear. A religious or political leader offering the fruit of certainty will always have followers, who sometimes will follow him or her to their deaths. I'm disturbed by those who have terrible doubts about religion but I'm even more disturbed by those who have terrible certainties.