Knowledge vs. Love
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series II Cycle B
In the beginning they seemed normal enough. They paid rent with cash, saying their house was used as a monastery for monks. The group was very polite to guests, and they practiced meticulous housekeeping, even asking those who entered to remove their shoes before entering the mansion. Not a biased group, there were male and female, rich and poor, black, Latino, and white. It was a tight-knit group, some having friendships of over twenty years.
The group had a fascination with Star Trek, The X-Files and the movie E.T. They seemed happy and peaceful, living a simple life. They were like a close family. They had in common a desire to live a peaceable life until they would die and rise to a higher level of existence. Death was not the enemy, but life itself. Death was the reward. They denounced sex, drugs, and alcohol, declaring that Jesus was their Captain. Several times they would listen to their landlord and tell him that God would work things out. They seemed quite normal.
But the group was not what it seemed. Their leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite, was intense, charming, and charismatic. At one time he had 1,000 followers. The son of a preacher, Applewhite had given up his own plans for seminary to pursue a career in music. He was consumed with cosmology, New Age, and power.
To maintain optimum control, Applewhite and his assistant experimented on the group with sleep patterns and they all consumed huge amounts of vitamins. Members had to undergo constant mental and physical drills to prepare them for "the next life," a life that would take them from this earth to outer space.
In the beginning, they seemed so normal. So tidy. So proper. But on March 22, 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide together. They wanted to leave their "containers" on earth for an alien vessel that would take them to their final destination: outer space. They left identification papers, wills, and an immaculate house. They followed Isaiah's words to the letter: "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live."
It was not until their deaths that the members of the Heaven's Gate cult were able to be scrutinized in depth. The group was androgynous, and their leader and five others were castrated long before their deaths. Members were to "overcome" their humanness, their sexuality. Applewhite, it was later learned, had a near-death experience that changed his life and in 1971 checked into a hospital to be cured of his homosexuality. He wanted sexless devotion and power. Power consumed him to commit murder -- 38 times.
* * *
Also on March 22, a small cottage in the French Canadian village of St. Casimir exploded, killing all five people inside. They were members of the Order of the Solar Temple. It was all carefully planned, with three tanks of propane hooked to an electric burner and a timing device. They swallowed sedatives and waited for their final destination: the star Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major.
It was Holy Week, in the twilight of the twentieth century; Hale-Bopp lit the sky and a partial eclipse was converging. It was the perfect week for an apocalypse. They all seemed so normal.
(The information in this piece was taken from numerous Time, CNN, and newspaper reports from across the nation.)
The group had a fascination with Star Trek, The X-Files and the movie E.T. They seemed happy and peaceful, living a simple life. They were like a close family. They had in common a desire to live a peaceable life until they would die and rise to a higher level of existence. Death was not the enemy, but life itself. Death was the reward. They denounced sex, drugs, and alcohol, declaring that Jesus was their Captain. Several times they would listen to their landlord and tell him that God would work things out. They seemed quite normal.
But the group was not what it seemed. Their leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite, was intense, charming, and charismatic. At one time he had 1,000 followers. The son of a preacher, Applewhite had given up his own plans for seminary to pursue a career in music. He was consumed with cosmology, New Age, and power.
To maintain optimum control, Applewhite and his assistant experimented on the group with sleep patterns and they all consumed huge amounts of vitamins. Members had to undergo constant mental and physical drills to prepare them for "the next life," a life that would take them from this earth to outer space.
In the beginning, they seemed so normal. So tidy. So proper. But on March 22, 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide together. They wanted to leave their "containers" on earth for an alien vessel that would take them to their final destination: outer space. They left identification papers, wills, and an immaculate house. They followed Isaiah's words to the letter: "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live."
It was not until their deaths that the members of the Heaven's Gate cult were able to be scrutinized in depth. The group was androgynous, and their leader and five others were castrated long before their deaths. Members were to "overcome" their humanness, their sexuality. Applewhite, it was later learned, had a near-death experience that changed his life and in 1971 checked into a hospital to be cured of his homosexuality. He wanted sexless devotion and power. Power consumed him to commit murder -- 38 times.
* * *
Also on March 22, a small cottage in the French Canadian village of St. Casimir exploded, killing all five people inside. They were members of the Order of the Solar Temple. It was all carefully planned, with three tanks of propane hooked to an electric burner and a timing device. They swallowed sedatives and waited for their final destination: the star Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major.
It was Holy Week, in the twilight of the twentieth century; Hale-Bopp lit the sky and a partial eclipse was converging. It was the perfect week for an apocalypse. They all seemed so normal.
(The information in this piece was taken from numerous Time, CNN, and newspaper reports from across the nation.)
