its fruits (do its members abide the spirit of the Old Testament admonition to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord"?) and by the limits to the power it entrusts to its leader. Human nature's potential for "distortion and misguided self-seeking" must be kept in mind when evaluating claims of personal spirituality made by a Jim Jones or any other reli- gious leader. "Idolizing human patterns," Bowden says, "is not only unwise, it is blasphemy."
"Freedom,...