An address given by Ramsey Clark at the Committee for Religious Liberty of the National Council of Churches in Washington D.C., June 10, 1994.

[The Committee for Religious Liberty is a body of First Amendment rights lawyers, representing diverse mainstream religions. Also represented are academics concerned about church/state relations and religious freedom issues. In their June 10th session, besides addressing the plight of "The Family", government involvement in the Waco tragedy was discussed, as well as religious discrimination in schools and the workplace.]

The matter of "The Family" is of critical importance, and is at the core of the hope for tolerance of religious freedom which has always been the central test for First Amendment standards of establishment of free exercise of religion.

I came to this matter in the way I usually come to matters-through a crisis. That has led me to also agree to represent the survivors of Mt. Carmel [the religious community of the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, where many members died as a result of a 51-day siege and subsequent fire on April 19, 1993.] I was out of the country when the BATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] engaged in it's incredible paramilitary action against a church on American soil in Waco. I was very puzzled about what was going on down there. The FBI had this place surrounded and they were blasting music in there and the sound of dying rabbits. What did they think they were doing blasting music and bright lights, forcing those inside to shield the windows and all?

You learn lessons from these things. And frankly, I'll never forgive myself for not getting immediately involved. What happened at Waco was the most painful thing I've ever seen. It was a church! It was a religious place! They talked a lot about the Bible and things like that in there, everyday. Off and on, all day, everyday. And now they're all dead! Twenty seven children and preteens [were among the 85] killed. I'll tell you, in my judgement, there is absolutely no conceivable law enforcement justification for going in there and doing what they did. If the police thought the Davidians were going to kill themselves, they know how to deal with situations like that.-And it's not by aggravation, it's not by threats, it's not by pushing tanks in.

We must remember the past. History shows us the struggle for freedom has always been between memory and forgetting, remembering the past, but working for the future. We permitted the demonization of the Branch Davidians. The reason people won't fund an independent investigative panel on Waco, is because this was a "cult"! People say "There was evil there, sin. A threat to our religion, a threat to our established institutions, to our government, to our way of life." Everything that I work in, in terms of fundamental human rights and freedoms and peace, is terribly infected by the capacity for demonization in modern society.

We speak constantly in terms of "cults," but once the word "cult" is pronounced, most people can't think beyond that; the religious group becomes something inherently evil. The well has been poisoned and you can't drink out of it. I'm not an expert on religion, but I have a very simple faith and I tried to work on it all my adult life, and part of it is, I don't want our government establishing or disestablishing the personal beliefs that people have chosen. Both are accomplished within the First Amendment, and it is beyond any capacity of organized government or organized society through government to interfere with it! Otherwise intolerance will be fortified by government, more so if it's coupled with religion.

As concerns The Family, it's absolutely appalling to observe what is happening to them around the world. It's clear beyond question that it involves inter-governmental coordination and communication, and the cooperation and participation of groups that call themselves "anti-cult" groups, who want to protect, as they see it, the population worldwide. Organizations like C.A.N., the Cult Awareness Network-which I've observed in several contexts now-have close relationships with law enforcement, whether it's the San Francisco Police Department, or the Loudon County Sheriff's Office [Virginia], or half a dozen others.  These organizations come out and create press scandals, so to speak, after having obtained confidential police information about people.

The Family is a very small, highly integrated group, numbering in a handful of thousands, spread all over the world. Since 1990, the attacks on them have been constant in Spain, Argentina, Australia, France and Peru, as well as investigations in Norway and Mexico.  In four of these countries, as in the Rodney King case, if somebody had been there with a video camera, they would have filmed people who looked just like ATF agents, with masks and guns, conducting raids on Family residences.

Argentina is perhaps the most flagrant case, with [over a] hundred children taken from their families, and scores of adults imprisoned. All of these cases have finally totally dissipated. There are some still in progress, but there is not a single case in which a single court or government agency has established a single incident of child abuse. All of these cases have ended--the ones that have ended--not only with a vindication of the church conduct, the parental conduct and the condition of the children, but with criticism or condemnation of government action, as being ideologically based rather than factually based, reflecting inadequacy in investigation.

The trauma...is something not talked about-the trauma on those children! Hundreds and hundreds of children all over the world were taken away from their parents. I think of those little kids in Waco, you know what the trauma on them was-they're dead! Suppose a little child had lived, might not that episode consciously and inescapably unconsciously have been a dominant factor for the remainder of his life, affecting his perception of society and his interrelationships?

The government of the United States, including the State Department, has shown awareness, international presence and supervision, regarding The Family. Interpol has involved itself with several Family members, in response to police input. The religious community must address this phenomena of the capacity of governments to brutalize small, unpopular religious groups who can be demonized when called "cults", and then action is taken against them without evidence. If a conventional crime is committed, it should be addressed, without calling a whole group a "cult" and condemning it and arresting all the adults, taking away all the children, keeping them in institutions, while they wonder where their mommies and daddies are.

In order to assure religious freedom, minority religions must be protected to maintain the vitality of the mainstream religions. The only way to keep any institution honest is by the constant challenge of ideas and faiths.

The Family is under constant attack, as are many other churches and religious groups. Even those that don't seem to segregate themselves so sharply from other churches are being harassed and persecuted by [government] action and by coordinated private/State action all over the world. There's a lot of religious scholarship involvement with this now, to help educate the government and the general public regarding religious movements, such as Phillip Arnold from Houston and James Tabor from North Carolina. There's a book "Up From the Ashes", containing essays from religious scholars all over the country, most of them university based, about the Waco tragedy. Amicus briefs and petitions by groups like this committee in support of minority groups that are being persecuted should be considered. Above all, openness and receptivity, to groups like The Family, and a genuine desire to understand their problems, is central to the question of religious freedom in our society, and in our world.

Despite the misery The Family underwent in Argentina, dating back to 1989, they have been successful with all their legal efforts. But the story ends with virtually all The Family deciding to leave the country because it's just not fair to their children to be continually abused by the authorities there. That's not a victory for religious freedom. So we hope very much we can establish continued communication, as we're concerned for all religions, not just The Family, for respect for their integrity, for judging them on facts, without ostracizing any. We hope this will be the beginning of an effort that will be helpful for religious freedom and tolerance in this country and worldwide.

Ramsey Clark

(Ramsey Clark served as the Assistant Attorney General from 1961-1964, Deputy Attorney General from 1965-1966 and Attorney General of the United States from 1967-1969.)