ABSTRACT
An assaulted millennial group is assaulted by persons in mainstream society, because the members’ religious views and actions are misunderstood, feared, and despised. The group is assaulted because it is viewed as being dangerous to society. The group’s members are not seen as practicing a valid religion worthy of respect. The group might be assaulted by law enforcement agents or civilians. Today, such a group is likely to be labeled with the pejorative term “cult.” While some assaulted groups bear part of the responsibility for the violence that engulfs them, the primary responsibility for the violence rests upon those in mainstream society who assault them. Mormons in nineteenth-century America, the Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee, the Israelites at Bulhoek, South Africa, and the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas, are examples of assaulted millennial groups and movements.
