If ‘the End Is Near,’ So Is Violence : Solar Temple: There have always been apocalyptic groups; the challenge is how we deal with them to prevent tragedy.

Are tragic and grotesque happenings in religious sects becoming commonplace? When 53 Solar Temple members were found dead in Switzerland and Canada this month, everyone remembered the fires that consumed more than 80 people in Waco and the 913 suicides in Jonestown. In all three, the leaders died too, and the groups shared a dominant theological conviction: the world was collapsing to make way for a perfect new one.

The events stimulate many questions. Why does this belief lead some to stockpile arms and suicide? Were the climaxes inevitable? Do many share the conviction? Where does the belief come from?

When God is seen as all-powerful and wholly benevolent, some ask why the good suffer. A conventional response is that when each person dies, justice will be meted out in heaven and hell. An apocalyptic answer, derived too from the Bible and Koran, is that God has promised the end will be a collective one, an awful day of carnage and retribution here, and the signs are that the process is beginning soon.

The earliest apocalyptic groups, the Essenes and Zealots-Sicarri appear in the 1st Century AD and ever since, apocalyptic groups have multiplied. Usually leaders are believed to have divine powers because scripture promises that a messiah will appear, or Christ will return. Ambiguous and unchangeable sacred texts of established religions constantly stimulate new apocalyptic groups. There may be 30,000 groups in the world today, 800 in America.

The overwhelming majority are pacifist, seeking a sanctuary or base to separate themselves and prepare for the new world. Sometimes their behavior reflects the times; when society expects great tribulations, more people arm themselves.

The late medieval era was such a period, and so is ours, perpetually buffeted by new secular predictions of world collapse. Religious ages produce larger apocalyptic groups able to expand; our secular era stimulates tiny ones that may stockpile arms for defense, always knowing that their effort is inadequate.

Apocalyptic pacifists see all wars that states wage as serving evil interests, but violence to end the world is altogether different. Sacred texts teach that divine force is essential then, and the righteous may be called to participate. A group believing that the end is near and the day is knowable can be dangerous because so much anxiety is aroused about who will be saved and why. Violence is an option, but one rarely taken first.

The group aims to be saved and knows the righteous will be persecuted. When the apocalypse seems imminent, the group’s lifestyle, always organized to challenge existing social conventions, makes more demands. Sometimes the demands become provocative and bizarre, especially when sex, property and clothing are affected.

The Skoptsi, a 19th-Century Russian group of about 10,000, convinced that the new world would be sexless, demonstrated their faith by castrating all males and cutting off all female breasts. Canadian Dukhobors regularly burn their possessions and make long nudist marches. Public outrage in response makes believers feel that persecution is increasing, bringing the end and salvation nearer.

The ultimate form of persecution is martyrdom. In some theologies martyrdom creates a new life for the martyr and a new world for others. Jesus called his dying a baptism, and the Gospel according to John describes martyrdom as the seed that must die so that the wheat will grow--a theme found in Solar Temple documents.

Preaching used to be the road to martyrdom. A world that protects speech closes that path, which may help explain why the ancient Zealot-Sicarri practices of collective suicide appeal when all else fails. The aim is to blackmail God to fulfill his promise. The whole group must participate because that is the condition of the promise.

It is too easy to demonize apocalyptic groups. But only a small proportion becomes violent and many find scriptural reasons to turn back. The Quakers had violent origins and the peaceful, productive Pennsylvania Dutch were once Anabaptists, the most feared religious terror group of 16th-Century Europe.

Adequate policies recognize that apocalyptic doctrines always provide choices, and our inability to acknowledge that contributed to the Waco tragedy, or so a Texas jury and many academic authorities believe. Canadian officials fearful of another Waco tried to convict Solar Temple leaders on a variety of charges. Their evidence was not convincing. Did their efforts encourage the group perception that the end was near, as its documents suggest? There will be other confrontations; do we know enough to cope?