UNITED STATES
Pocono Record
Editorial
September 19, 2012
Cults are nothing new. Religious or secular, their leaders seek power and often employ the same techniques: isolation flacked as exclusivity, fear — and sex.
Amish splinter group leader Samuel Mullet Sr., of eastern Ohio, appears to be no different. A jury is now deliberating whether Mullet and some of his fellow believers are guilty of hate crime charges involving the beard- and hair-cutting of other Amish they allegedly don’t consider worthy. But even before the trial, former members of the group told federal officials that Mullet had locked them into chicken coops for punishment and instructed adult members to correct each other with heavy wooden paddles. Mullet also held himself out as a couples counselor, preferring to work with women. Part of the counseling, The New York Times reported, involved having them live with him — and have sex with him.
That’s just Mullet. Remember Charles Manson? He attracted a following of addled women and men in the late 1960s who specialized in random murders, including the brutal killings of actress Sharon Tate and Folgers coffee heiress Abigail Folger. Manson believed in an approaching race war he called “Helter Skelter,” and directed the murders to hasten the battle. Sex played a big role in the sway Manson, who’s still in jail, held over his female followers.
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