Ethical dilemmas vs cult coverage (media relations)
After creating the "Taiwan UFO cult suicide watch!" website on the Internet, we received this letter from some people who have been involved professionally in monitoring and commenting on cults and cult coverage in the media. I had asked them in an email if it was adding fuel to the fire to set up such a web site as this one, since some people have said that too much media coverage can set off a cult and make it do irrational and perhaps destructive things. In the case of the Chen Tao UFO cult in Garland, Texas, how should the media be reacting? Covering their every move? Igonoring the loonies? Is there a middle road to take. My friends on the Internet told me this, and if any reporters or editors are reading this, I think it is good advice. Read on:
"Thanks for the followups.
We would tend to think at this point that the media silence you've
been encountering may be, at least in part, from media people who don't want
to pour fuel on any snap-crackling cult fires. In our 'death spiral' model of
these cataclysms, the media often plays a pivotal role, altho apparently not
so much in last year's Heaven's Gate suicide as in Jonestown, Waco and others.
Other media folks just may be indifferent, in denial or just not wanting to
tangle with another 'loony' cult story.
We, too, see large ethical dilemmas in how best to cover brewing cult
conflict stories. We tend to side with your implication that it's
better to inform people, to try to prevent the blowup from happening and, at
least, to perhaps get some individuals free of the group before hell breaks
loose, if it does. We try always to walk the right line, seldom finding that
press blackouts do any good in the long run against a cult in the early stages
of a death spiral. One those dynamics kick in, the media is only one factor
among many that wiill influence the situation (concerned families, law
enforcement, et al.). And if everyone stays silent, the cult storm often
builds and spills out onto the wider society.
It seems to us you've been walking a very good line yourself in your
explicit statements to journalists interested in this story.
We'll keep pushing with our contacts here and keep you informed. You do
too." Interesting food for thought. Webposted January 13, 1998 by Terry Walker in Taiwan, host of this site. For contact info, emailto: apt_6f@hotmail.com
Web Crusader Creates Site to Monitor UFO Cult
"Terry Walker, Web Crusader, Trying to Prevent UFO Cult From Offing Itself," ran the headline above a story written by Walker himself to try to explain what he is doing and why. The article is unpublished and appears here only as background information for people interested in how Walker's web crusade got started.
Datelined Taipei, where Walker is living (apt_6f@hotmail.com), the story goes something like this: ____ The amazing thing about Web crusader Terry Walker is that he
is not even in the USA, even as he uses the Internet to stir up media
interest in an obscure UFO cult from Taiwan that has settled in Garland,
Texas to await the appearance of "God" on March 31. Walker, a
38-year-old American, who teaches English in Taiwan to earn his keep, as
many expats do, says he got involved in the Web crusading adventure
after reading a poorly thought-out editorial in the local China Post on
December 25. The newspaper basically said that the cult's prophecies and
predictions "might come true, it's too early to tell," says Walker,
adding that this lame response to a potentially dangerous cult got him
so angry that he decided to write a letter by email to the newspaper.
When it refused to publish his letter or even respond to his email, he
got even more mad, he says, and that's when the inspiration for his
"Taiwan UFO cult suicide watch!" homepage kicked in. "I said to
myself, 'If a major newspaper in Taiwan is putting out silliness and
stupidity in an editorial like that, and then not even responding to my
protests, then I will write a letter to the world!.'" Walker says from
his perch in an Internet cafe in Taipei where he does all his Net work.
"So I got a free homepage from an Internet page, got a free email
account with Hotmail (now owned by Microsoft) and began posting my
page." Walker began with updates of the Chen Tao cult's activities in
the USA, sent in to him by strangers who read his posts on various Net
bulletin boards. "I have people in Texas, Chicago, Los Angeles and New
York watching the newspapers there for me, and when they see an article
they email me with the online information and then I link up to that
site," he says. "People I have never met, people I don't even know; but
they also find this cult business very scary and dangerous and they've
become involved too." In addition, Walker also spends a lot of his time
sending email "alerts" to various newspapers and TV networks in the USA,
including the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, MSNBC and the Dallas
Morning News. Most of his emails never get replies, so he doesn't know
how effective his email campaign is, but he says he won't stop.
"Something must be getting through," he says. "Even if I don
t hear back from people, maybe they are using my website and the info I
am sending them for use in their newsrooms. I hope so." Since Walker
started his "information campaign" in late December, he has been
stepping up to a computer at various free computer "corners" in
department stores in Taipei, where he does his work. It costs him
nothing to use the computers since they are part of free promotions by
Internet providers and computer firms in Taiwan. So with free email,
free web pages and free computer use, Walker has not spent a dime (or a
Taiwan dollar) on his web crusade. He says he has no sponsor and is not
connected to any group or organization. "This is a totally private
venture, one man trying to send a message out to anyone who will listen,
anywhere in America or Taiwan, where the story is playing out," he says.
"I know very little about computers and don't even know how to program.
My homepage is is do-it-yourself follow-the-buttons free homepage; all I
have to do is type in the information. I never did anything like this
before. Why am I doing it? Because after I read that editorial in the
China Post, I realized that this story might disappear off the radar
screen if people didn't try to wake people up. Because I am in Taiwan,
the story resonates with me here at a certain level, and I felt that
maybe US editors and reporters were not taking this cult seriously, just
as they ignored Heaven's Gate until it was too late. I decided to use
the Internet as a tool to alert the media back in the States, to monitor
the situation with daily and weekly updates and gather as much
background information about the cult as I could. And it's working: I've
got 4 pages up now on the Web, with links to many other sites that are
also following the cult's journey across America, and I've gotten some
good responses from a few reporters and editors that have kept me going.
I'm not doing this money or for notoriety. I'm trying to keep a low
profile in all this. I just hope to serve as a useful resource as the
FBI and other government authorities in the USA and Taiwan go about
their investigative work. If some newspaper reporters and online
Internet journalists can use the info on my site, great! It's been a
very interesting experience; how one lone individual can use the
Internet across time and space to monitor a potential tragedy in the
making and help send media alerts to newspapers and magazines. Of
course, they don't need me; they have their own resources and reporters
and files. But if some of my emails and posts and web pages help bring
this cult to a halt, help stop them from committing suicide on March 31,
as some say they plan to do, then my time was and is well spent. I have
the time and the Internet gives me access to the world. It's quite an
amazing thing, how this little computer can interact proactively with
other people on the Net. Hopefully, this will all have a happy ending."
Walker, who works 7 days a week on his crusade, says he is available for
online interviews with media organizations who wish to report on his
activities and his reasons for maintaining such a site. He also
apologizes for the many typos and mis-spellings on his web pages. "I'm a
purely 'hunt and peck' kind of typist and I do everything standing up at
these free computer displays in department stores, so there's is no time
for fancy graphics and spell-checking," he says. "I'm just trying to save
lives." ____ no copyright; permission to use quotes granted: TW.
"Son of Heaven's Gate" (Netly News)
"Son of Heaven's Gate," runs the headline above an online story by Noah Robischon on the Netly News Network dated January 7, 1998. Here it is: ______
Ever since the Heaven's Gate
suicides, The Netly News has been
tracking all sorts of freakish cults, most
of which don't even have web sites, let
alone anything especially interesting to
say. Then along came Chen Tao, a
Taiwanese group in Garland, Texas.
Observers fear that members of the
Chen Tao ("True Way") will off
themselves on March 31 at 10 am.
That's when, the followers believe, God
will appear in the body of their leader, a
fortysomething sociology professor
named Hon-Ming Chen.
Terry Walker, an American living in
Taiwan, is using the Net to head off what
he fears will be another mass suicide.
The Net, says Walker in an e-mail, "can
be used to help prevent an accident
before it happens on March 31, rather
than wait and then gloat and laugh at it
all."
Although Walker's Taiwan UFO Cult
Suicide Watch! web site makes another
mass suicide seem like a foregone
conclusion, the group's commitment to
self-immolation remains unclear. While
very similar to the Heaven's Gate group
-- trading black Nikes for all-white
uniforms -- members of Chen Tao said
in a press conference that they had no
intention of pulling the plug. Chi-Chia
Chen, a spokesman for the Taipei
economic and cultural office in Houston
who visited the group last week, said he
didn't "see any sign that they intend to
committ mass suicide" and that "after
March 31 if they don't see a flying disc
appear they will just go back to Taiwan
and continue normal life."
Then again, Heaven's Gate members
showed few outward signs of their
intended departure, in part because they
didn't believe they were dying so much
as moving to a "level above human."
And despite the claims made by the
church's leader, Taiwanese officials
have been reporting that the 150-odd
members are being encouraged to kill
themselves in anticipation of a visit from
a flying saucer that will transport them to
the heavens.
Sounds a bit silly, but "don't be so fast
to just call these people stupid or weak
or kooks," says Steve Hassan, author of
"Combating Cult Mind Control." Anytime
a cult leader sets deadlines it's to be
taken very seriously: "Some very
powerful social psychological
mechanisms are being put to the fore
here."
A leading theory explaining the
magnetism of cults is known as
cognitive dissonance. Originally
developed by Leon Festinger in a
renowned study of the inner workings of
a 1950s UFO cult, the theory posits that
people naturally seek consistency within
their thoughts, feelings and actions.
When an inconsistency or dissonance
occurs, especially between thought and
action, the tendency is for people to
change their thoughts to accommodate
their new behavior.
In the case of Chen Tao, also known
as the God's Salvation Church, group
members traveled to Alaska, Colorado
and Las Vegas performing rituals meant
to "change the spiritual environment,"
according to Chi-Chia. Repeat rituals
enough and participants will begin to
believe they are working.
It certainly seems to be having that
effect on Chen's followers, who
apparently believe his claims that he
fathered Christ and that two of the 40
children in group are reincarnations of
the Buddha and Jesus. During the press
conference on December 23, Chen
attempted to prove his claims by
exhibiting photographs of airplane vapor
trails, one of which formed a cross and
another the numbers "007." Chen has
also told reporters that failing God's
arrival via flying saucer he will offer
himself up in penance and submit to
death by stoning or crucifixion.
Although Chen's claims seem batty,
he is not a tyrannical leader. Cult
members are apparently allowed to
come and go at will and are in
communication with their families.
Chen's teachings are a mix of
Buddhism, Christianity and
millennarianism, and include the
predictions that God will make a
televised appearance on channel 18 six
days prior to being incarnated and that
the world faces nuclear cataclysm in
1999.
Apocalyptic cultism "proliferates
around the millennium, and we've been
seeing this gravitational pull of the
millennial date since the end of the
'80s," notes Dr. Richard Landes of the
Center for Millennial studies. "The
millennial idea is that human beings are,
if not perfectable, capable of a whole lot
better than we are now doing. At some
point in the near future a radical change
of lifestyle is in the making."
For the 150 members of Chen Tao, a
radical lifestyle change has already
occurred. Most of the group is in the
U.S. with work-exempt visas and is
surviving on money left over from selling
their homes in Taiwan, says Chi-Chia.
But they're certainly not saving for the
trip back, and followers are are rumored
to have paid handsomely for their cult
memberships. Add to that the expenses
incurred in moving around the country --
after originally settling in San Dimas,
Calif., the group relocated to Garland,
Texas, because it sounded like "God
Land" to their leader. Rather than
establishing headquarters there, the
group has simply taken up residence in
21 homes in the same neighborhood.
Although Taiwanese and American
authorities are investigating Chen Tao,
so far there has been no proof that
members are being monetarily
defrauded by Chen, and thus no legal
basis for busting up the cult.
Los Angeles police did, however,
return a 16-year-old follower to her
mother last month shortly before the
move to Texas, but the girl was evidently
not coerced into joining the cult. This
incident more than anything else put
Chen Tao in the public spotlight, and
some speculate that increased media
pressure could spur the group to act
irrationally. Then again, only a few of the
group's members have any fluency in
English.
Perhaps they could take lessons from
38-year-old Walker, who is teaching
English in Taiwan. His Internet crusade
began after reading an editorial
ridiculing the cult in the China Post.
"Maybe it's a bit of the Drudge [Matt
,that is] in me," says Walker. "That
editorial pissed me off so much that I
decided to publicize the callousness of it
and then realized that maybe I could do
my little bit to help stave off a potential
tragedy. So far, Time and Newsweek
have not touched the story. Why? They
are yellow orientals, so who cares? I
hope not."
A Brief E-mail Message from Taiwan Govt Office (NYC)
As part of this website's outreach, we have been sending emails about the Chen Tao cult's activities and movements to the Taiwan Office of Trade in New York (Taiwan's de facto "embassy" in this Big China/Little China world we live in). One day in mid-January, we received this brief note from the New York office: "
"Thank you for writing with your information. We all hope that there will be
a "noneventful" ending to this phenomenon." The email came from "roctaiwan@taipei.org" and confirmed that our emails were getting tthrough. A few days earlier, Terry Walker had written: "
At 05:33 AM 1/8/98 PST, you wrote:
>Dear Sirs:
>Here is a copy of the Internet article that was published by TIME
>magazine today in New York. It is better to read the actual URL because
>it has many useful LINKS that I think will be helpful to you in your
>ongoing investigation. Good luck with all this. I hope it all ends
>peacefully. I think the writer did a very good job summarizing where
>things stand now. Of course, I realize you know much more than "we" do,
>and that's OK. Good luck in bringing this to a quiet and peaceful and
>happy ending. I am also hoping for a happy ending! (IF A HUMAN BEING IS
>READING THIS AND NOT JUST A COMPUTER, CAN YOU PLEASE RESPOND BY EMAIL
>AND LET ME KNOW YOU READ THIS? Thanks.)
>Sincerely,
>Terry Walker
>TAIPEI
Information Division
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York
roctaiwan@taipei.org
"Working the Internet" (random thoughts)
This website has been "working the Internet" since late December 1997, posting messages on bulletin boards, emailing background info to newspapers and magazines in the USA and Taiwan, storing published newspaper accounts of Chen Tao activities and movements, and generally NETworking from our base in Taipei with links in the USA that have also been monitoring the UFO cult. It's been interesting, to say the least -- the ability of this little Internet machine to reach out across space and time, responding to an emergency in a world culture's soul. Emailing back and forth across the Pacific, to site correspondents in Dallas, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and points in between, we have been "working the Net" as people in the older days might have "worked the phones." A new communication tool, a new vocabulary, new possibilities. And to think it all started for me when I read a very stupid editorial in a local newspaper about the cult and got mad! Just goes to show how anger can be transformed into something positive, pushing people to new insights and new frontiers. Don't get mad, get email!