c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(AT)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ The nation’s voyeuristic obsession with the mass suicide of Heaven’s Gate members is disgusting.

We have learned more than any sensible person needs to about the victims of Rancho Santa Fe. We know who they were, where they came from, and what their families think about their deaths. We know what they did with their time at cult headquarters. We have seen videotapes of their rooms, their dead bodies, their clothes, and their personal belongings.

The medical examiner released full autopsy reports. Details of their life and death overwhelm us. We even learned some had been castrated. Apparently, if you participate in mass suicide you lose your right to privacy.

The leader of the cult, Marshall Applewhite, seems to be a special target of media attention. Many blame him for all 39 deaths, and the dehumanization of the victims is complete. Rarely have I heard anyone express compassion for them. Apparently, it’s hard to show compassion to social freaks.

But were the members of Heaven’s Gate really that different from the rest of us? Their celibacy was not all that original: The Shakers, to say nothing of the monks of the desert, beat them to that long ago.

However, they did have a home page on the Internet and an obsession with computers and UFOs. But does that make them so different?

It seems to me these people found what they were looking for in faith and community, purpose and social support (and social control, too). But who is to say they were more unhappy than many of us? Most of us wander about the world, confused, baffled, and forlorn, all the while pretending we don’t need faith and community.

But they died together, for something they believed in. Perhaps many Heaven’s Gate members died a contented death, now free from life’s harsh realities. Other generations may have considered it a noble gesture to die with one’s friends for what one believes is a good cause.

Don’t get me wrong. These people were mistaken. They were woefully misguided. And all their intelligence and computer skills could not shield them from false prophecy. But I believe they were fully aware of what they were doing and, according to videotapes made just before their deaths, they seemed proud of their actions.

We should grieve for their wasted lives, however, and feel enormous compassion for the pain that drove them into a cult in the first place. But we should all be saying something like,”There but for the grace of God go I …” Now it’s time we left them alone to rest in peace, and perhaps begrudgingly admire their courage. Only those of us who have never felt isolated and troubled, misunderstood and rejected, should be feel free to cast the first stone against them. And only those of us who have never admired a charismatic figure, someone who seemed to have all the answers, should feel free to denounce the group.

Did the organized church _ supposed reservoirs of faith and community _ fail the members of Heaven’s Gate? Surely, it did. Might the church have saved some of them if it were not embroiled in internal conflicts? Perhaps.

But here are the larger questions: Did the members of Heaven’s Gate make it through the gate of heaven? Does God’s mercy and love find room for the misguided, the confused, and the lonely who thought it better to exit this world? Or will God cast the self-killers into eternal darkness?

I sure hope the members of Heaven’s Gate made it to heaven, as I must hope for every human that has ever live. And perhaps, unlike us, God does not count people who commit mass suicide as freaks or fanatics. Rather, God may see them as deeply troubled children whom he loves passionately, as he loves us all.

Any God who would not love such unfortunates is not God at all.

MJP END GREELEY