Collective Martyrdom and Religious Suicide

Abstract

The Branch Davidians and Heaven’s Gate, two religious groups marked by apocalyptic worldviews, are compared to elucidate two types of trajectories of apocalyptic groups involved in violence. The Branch Davidians expected to be martyred based on David Koresh’s interpretations of the Bible’s prophecies about the events of the Last Days. Therefore, in 1993 they regarded assaults against their community by federal agents as verifying Koresh’s predictions. In 1997, the Heaven’s Gate “class” carried out what they regarded as an “exit” to The Level Above Human (TELAH) by implementing a collective religious suicide. In both cases, the interactions of outsiders with the group contributed to the resulting loss of life, although internal factors were more predominant in the case of Heaven’s Gate. The members of both groups lived and died in accordance with their respective worldviews and understandings of salvation.