Letters: Apr. 28, 1997

INSIDE THE CULT OF HEAVEN'S GATE

It is obvious that the 38 members of Heaven's Gate who committed suicide were sure their leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite, was the real thing [NATION, April 7]. He sounded good, offering hope for the future and requiring morality and kindness toward others. That is what is frightening about counterfeits--they look and sound like the real thing. We should all question whether our religious leaders have done anything to justify their claim to authority. JEFFREY M. KEY Fullerton, California

If one man has the power to persuade 38 followers to abandon their lives and families and commit suicide in the hope of leaving the earth aboard a spaceship, then maybe it is time for all of us to find our own comet and get as far away from this planet as possible. ALEX HOEFINGER Amherst, Massachusetts

The earth is to be "recycled"? A UFO is hiding in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet? Human bodies are nothing but "containers"? In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare showed he understood this thinking: "But men may construe things, after their fashion, clean from the purpose of the things themselves." GARY GARSHFIELD Irvine, California

What happened in Rancho Santa Fe, California, was by no means a tragedy. Thirty-nine people did what they felt was necessary to achieve eternal happiness. They died of their own free will. Who are we to question their motives? We should not mourn their death. They fulfilled their purpose in life and died content. Who could ask for more? ALEX STEWART Summerville, South Carolina

Pollsters tell us that approximately 34% of Americans believe the Bible to be literally true, word for word. When you reflect that this belief includes walking on water, rising from the dead, angels, ghosts, demons, unclean spirits and a miraculous cure for blindness, it's clear that there is an enormous mass of ignorance here. Should we be truly surprised that the Heaven's Gate leaders hoodwinked their followers? The leap from biblical beliefs to the absurdities of this particular cult is a small one. ANNE NICOL GAYLOR, President Freedom From Religion Foundation Madison, Wisconsin

I logged on to the Heaven's Gate Website. There I discovered some of the most mind-numbing material I have ever read. It amounted to a 96-page suicide note. I don't believe the approach of the millennium is going to have a profound effect on the universe or the planet. But in that strange universe that is the human mind, different laws apply. Anything is possible. MATT BUTTS St. Louis Park, Minnesota

The good news? Cult leader Applewhite gets the recognition he craved by being on the cover of your magazine. The bad news? He doesn't know about it. Or does he...? M. ARNOLD GLUECK Newport Beach, California

To the next crew departing for the "Level Above Human," I suggest that before leaving their "containers" or bodies behind, they fill out some organ-donor cards. STEFAN VLADESCU New York City

If the cult members were right, they could be sailing away now on that UFO, admiring their shiny new containers, sampling new foods and trying to write a computer program that would let all of us back on Earth know that it worked. SUSAN SHAW Chambersburg, Pennsylvania