What kind of danger can charismatic leaders pose?
A. Charismatic leaders are a good thing, but the corruption is what makes it so dangerous. It’s not that people have set out to say, “I’m going to create an evil religion here and see how much damage I can do.” No, these tend to be people who sincerely believe they’re on the right track and then something goes wrong. So, when you see these signs, I argue, that doesn’t mean that something horrible is going to happen, but as a historian and student of world religion, we can document ways that several of these signs often converge and end up with Jim Jones at Jonestown or David Koresh at Waco or the hijackers on 9-11.
