Creepy cult guy paroled

George Feigley's words:

"I require total devotion to my desires. You may not have a will nor desire of your own which do not project my wishes. I expect this complete commitment from my wives, my concubines and my children ... Make yourselves my delight. If there is discord among you, I will have you whipped."

Feigley is the megalomaniacal "prophet" of a cult called the Neo-American Church and in 1975 was convicted of raping three girls. He was released from prison yesterday, to return to Harrisburg, Pa., where the crime occurred:

Feigley wielded fear like a conductor's baton. He forced the children to obey his commands for sex with him and other cult members, often with onlookers and to be photographed using sexual devices.

OK, Feigley is pure evil and his neighbors are up in arms about his release. My question: What's the deal with these cult people who get involved with this kind of loon? The all-powerful psycho-prophet who demands total obedience from his followers -- what's in it for the followers?

Sure, it was the '70s, and there were a lot of leftover hippie types still seeking "enlightenment" yadda yadda. But this kind of stuff keeps happening (Koresh, Heaven's Gate, FLDS, etc.), suggesting that there is some small percentage of people with a deep masochistic streak and the kind of profound gullibility that makes it possible for them to believe that divine wisdom can be found through complete obedience to a guy named "George Feigley."

Yes, Feigley apparently has devoted followers even now. That's the genuinely creepy part.