Page 1, Hearings into cults start

State committee looks for data to prevent a repeat of Waco

News Story by Kevin A. Schweitzer, 10/13/93

SPRINGFIELD--In the wake of Waco, an Illinois Senate committee began
examining cult activity at Illinois colleges and universities Tuesday.

"Every large campus now is viewed as a potentially good recruiting
ground," said Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Chicago-based Cult
Awareness Network.

So at the behest of the Senate, which is seeking to avoid a tragedy like
the inferno that killed 86 Branch Davidian cult members earlier this year
outside of Waco, Texas, the Education Committee is holding two hearings on
cults at Illinois campuses. The inquiry began Tuesday with a hearing that
included testimony from a former University student who says he was in a
cult here that formed a registered student organization to recruit new
members.

Kenneth Kunz, a student from 1987-1990, told committee members that as a
freshman he joined the Champaign-Urbana Church of Christ, an offshoot of
the national Boston Church of Christ, because he was looking for spiritual
guidance and because his brother was a member. But once involved, the
group began taking over his life, breaking off his relationships to
friends and family, sucking his wallet dry and driving his grades downward
until he was dropped from the College of Engineering.

"The most immediate effect that I recognized and I see in hindsight was an
alienation of the other friends I met who were not part of the group,"
Kunz said. "The one person I knew best outside of the group I was
specifically told not to associate with."

This type of behavior among members is part of the definition of cult that
the committee is using. Kunz's group also fit another part--using
deception and mind-control techniques to assimilate new members without
their consent or, sometimes, knowledge.

Kunz said members of his religious group formed a registered student
organization, CROSS--Christians Reaching Out Serving Students--to hold
what they called bible study meetings open to non-members. But those who
ran the meetings knew they were nothing more than recruiting sessions for
the C-U Church of Christ, he said.

And Kirk Hard, a University liaison on hand to offer information, told the
panel it can be tough to stop such a group seeking RSO status. Prospective
RSOs have to go through a stiff application process, which includes
garnering a constitution, officers and a faculty advisor, he said, but "if
an organization follows that process religiously, it's very tough to take
action against them."

Kunz claims that his group met no resistance from the University. "We had
no difficulty at all. There was no real inquiry into what we were doing,"
he said after the hearing.

Kunz also said that when his brother had left the group and tried, along
with his mother and another relative, to talk Kunz into leaving, the
discussion turned into "a very emotionally traumatic experience" because
the group had so much control over his mind.

"I was specifically warned within the group to avoid exit counselors. I
was indoctrinated within the group that these were evil people; they were
servants of Satan who would strip you of your beliefs," he said.

Kunz finally got out of the group and is now finishing his academic career
at the University's Chicago campus, where he has been approached by
religious groups but knows how to avoid those that seek too much control
over member's lives, whether in Chicago or Champaign.

"There are other very valid groups on campus," he said. "(But) if they're
not very open with you about what church they're part of ... there is a
fair chance it's part of the Boston Church of Christ or some other
(cultist) group."

Kisser of the Cult Awareness Network said such groups target college
students because they are independent for the first time, they have
relatively few responsibilities preventing a major lifestyle change and
their idealism endears