San Francisco Chronicle Monday, March 28, 1988

"Jonestown Resolution Ignites Debate"
 by Larry Liebert Chronicle Washington Bureau Chief

 Washington--Commemorating the madness of the mass suicides at 
Jonestown a decade ago would hardly seem controversial in a capital 
where resolutions are passed by the truckload.

 But the approaching 10th anniversary of the carnage that took the 
lives of 913 people, mostly from the Bay Area, has revived a bitter 
debate over the threat from cults and the threat to religious 
freedom posed by anticult crusaders.

 The seemingly innocuous resolution that has caused conflict in the 
halls of Congress would designate a "Cult Awareness Week" this 
November to mark the 10th anniversary of the murders and mass 
suicides at the Rev. Jim Jones' cult retreat in Guyana.

 The House resolution was introduced by Representative Tom Lantos, 
D-San Mateo. His predecessor from the Peninsula, Leo Ryan, was 
slain as he led a group to investigate Jones' Guyana retreat.

"We're approaching the 10th anniversary of one of the most ghoulish
 and nightmarish tragedies of recent years," said Lantos. "I think 
it would have been a dereliction of duty on my part not to remind 
the nation."

 But the fine print in Lantos' resolution has revived a debate 
about cults and religious freedom.

 The resolution asserts that there are more than 2,500 cults in the 
United States, with 1 million to 3 million members subjected to
"mind-control techniques" ranging from "isolation from friends and
 family" to "promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of 
leaving it."

 Such blanket assertions have angered a coalition of critics 
ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Zen master 
from Malibu who calls himself Rama.

 They charge that the resolution will encourage the coercive 
practices of "deprogrammers", who have been known to seize 
suspected cult members and pressure them into renouncing their 
beliefs. The critics trace the resolution to a group of anticult 
crusaders known as the Cult Awareness Network.

"For them to be asking the Congress to denounce 2,500 religious
 groups as cults and to make the kind of broad accusations that 
resolution makes is clearly an unconstitutional act," said Barry 
Lynn, legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Congress is not in the theology business."

 Representatives of the Cult Awareness Network did not return 
repeated phone calls. Lantos acknowledged that his staff had worked 
on the anti-cult resolution with Ryan's daughter, Patricia, who is 
associated with the group.

 Now that Lantos' resolution is attracting controversy, the 
congressman hinted that he may let it drop without even bringing it 
to a House vote. He argued that the resolution has "already 
achieved its purpose" by calling attention to the anniversary of 
the massacre.

 If so, it has also underlined the difficulty of judging when a 
religious leader becomes a charlatan and when religious followers 
surrender their individuality to a cult.

 The most outspoken foe of Lantos' resolution has been Frederick 
Lenz, a 38-year-old former English professor who lives in Malibu 
and calls himself Zen Master Rama.  The ordinarily reclusive 
religious leader has been here lobbying for the defeat of the 
resolution--and to defend himself against charges that he is just 
the sort of cult leader parents should warn their children about.

"Jim Jones was clearly a hustler, charlatan, and madman," said Lenz.
"But that's no excuse to push your own moral and political viewpoint
 to interfere with First Amendment rights and engage in illegal 
activities.

 To make his case, Lenz brought along Jennifer Jacobs, a follower 
who says she was kidnapped in an unsuccessful deprogramming attempt.

"They terrified my parents so much that they were willing to put down
$25,000 on the spot to have me kidnaped and psychologically abused,"
 said Jacobs. "I was held for 11 days in a seedy motel room in 
Seattle, completely against my will."

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