The United States has always been the base camp for the breeding and accumulation of various cults. Because of the flaunting freedom of thought and the "relaxed legal environment created by the pluralism of society and culture", the United States has produced a large number of heretical doctrines under the conditions of material wealth and spiritual poverty, and has also absorbed many cult organizations and exiled leaders who cannot stand in foreign countries. According to a report to the White House by Margaret Singer, a professor of psychology at the University of Berkeley in California, the United States estimated that there were as many as 2,000-5,000 cults in the United States during the peak period, and 10-20 million people were involved in cult activities to varying degrees. A 1993 report in Newsweek mentioned in "Cultic America: A Tower of Babel" that there were 700-5,000 cults in the country at that time — the specific data varies depending on the people you ask and their definition of "cults."
United States: Davidian Seventh-day Adventists
The Davidians in the United States used the Protestant Revelation as their doctrine to preach that the end of the world was approaching and that the kingdom of heaven was coming. Davidism celebrates and encourages violence and carnage, and the end of the world is the time of war with the pagans.
The "Davidian Seventh-day Adventists" (D-SDA), founded in 1934 by the American Victor Houtavel, proclaimed the end of the world and the coming of the "kingdom of heaven"; they believed that the end of the world was a bloody war with pagans, and that they would sacrifice their lives in this "holy war" and thus ascend to heaven. The last head of Davidism was David Koresh (originally Vernon Howell, renamed David Koresh in 1990).
David Koresh
Coresh ruled the Davidians militarily at Carmel Manor, the Texas headquarters. Believers have to get out at 5:30 a.m. every morning and then read the Bible for hours. To meet the so-called wartime needs, Koresh built underground bunkers on the estate, illegally purchased $200,000 worth of advanced AK47 rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, grenades, and a large number of ordnance that could be assembled into explosive devices, and over and over again showed the faithful movies about the Vietnam War, such as "Field Platoon", to deepen their impressions of the war, in addition to stockpiling a large amount of food.
Koresh lived in extreme debauchery and debauchery. In 1989, he declared to his followers that God had told him that he was the only person within the sect who could have a wife, that others were not qualified, that married marriages were null and void, that men and women within the sect were forcibly separated and that they were required to swear to be single. Koresh, on the other hand, had many wives and concubines, married 19 female believers in the manor and had a large number of children, and he had trampled on countless women. As long as he needed, from old women in their 50s to teenage girls, they became the playthings of Koresh, and even his wife and sister could not escape his clutches. He deceived the female believers into saying that at the end of the world, he would kill all the non-believers, and that he and his children would be the rulers of the future world. Many female believers were impressed by his lies and took the initiative to come to the door and sleep with Koresh and take pride in it.
In 1993, the U.S. government organized a large-scale armed siege of the "David Sect.". On February 28 of that year, U.S. federal law enforcement officers dispatched tanks and aircraft to encircle and suppress the headquarters of the David cult in Waco. Six Davidians and four federal law enforcement officers were killed in the clashes that day. Since then, the two sides have engaged in an armed standoff that lasted for 51 days. On April 19, 1993, to end the standoff, federal law enforcement took action against Waco Hills, the headquarters of the David cult. Agents, under the cover of helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles, stormed Carmel Hills. The faithful eventually set fire to the cottage, and the fire burned to death the leader David and more than 80 other believers. The incident caused criticism from the American media and the public for the government's excessive behavior, known as the "Waco massacre".
The U.S. government sent tanks to suppress the Davidians
The Davidians eventually set fire to the cottage
United States: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS)
In April 2008, Texas state police rescued 463 minors, most of 250 girls and 213 boys, most of them children under the age of 13, from el Dorado's "Longing for Heaven" farm in western Texas. Of the 463, 53 were adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 17, of whom 31 had given birth to children or were pregnant.
Police action stems from whistleblower calls. In March 2008, a 16-year-old girl called a domestic violence victim shelter from a longing for heaven farm to say she had been arranged to marry an older man, who was more than twice her age. She said she was the husband's seventh wife and that the two had already given birth to children.
The teenage girl said she was forbidden to leave the farm except for medical treatment. The husband would hit her when he was angry; the husband would slam her chest and pinch her neck, and her ribs had been broken. When she was beaten, other wives would help her hold the child.
The "Longing for Heaven" farm covers an area of about 688 hectares and was built by the Mormon branch "The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". There are schools, dairy products and cheese factories on the farm, and life is basically self-sufficient, equivalent to an "independent kingdom". The women on the farm are not allowed to dress up at will, they wear plain long skirts all year round, wear long underwear, and their hair is braided into braids.
Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was listed by the FBI on america's top 10 most wanted criminals with a bounty.
The "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" is separated from the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," i.e., Mormonism. After the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" announced the abolition of polygamy, the branch led by Jeffs's ancestors broke with the mainstream, and the "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" has been secretly active, following polygamy, and has developed into one of the largest denominations in the United States that practice polygamy.
The former believers said that Jeffs ruled with an iron fist within the church and demanded absolute obedience. He could not only appoint marriages for the faithful, but also break up the marriages at will and appoint new spouses for the believers.
Jeffs also forces underage girls to marry adult men as "spiritual wives." During his four years as "master", hundreds of underage girls were forced into marriage, the youngest of whom was only 13 years old.
Jeffs has more than 10,000 followers, mostly in neighboring areas of Arizona and Utah. Jeffs himself is said to have 70 "wives," including multiple wives of his father, as well as more than 60 children.
In August 2006, Jeffs was arrested. In 2011, he was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting children (source: Observer Network).