Acts of Intolerance

Because of the frequency and duration and escalation of these incidents, coupled with religious slurs being painted over sacred signs, property, and our roadway, it’s religious bigotry. —Peter Skelskey

A more ambigious picture of tolerance towards Eckankar becomes evident when speaking with ECKists. James was quick to acknowledge that he’s “had experiences where people don’t want to give me my religious freedom.” Between 1992 and 1993, shortly after the opening of the ECK Temple, a series of incidents of vandalism rocked the Eckankar community. Over the course of eighteen months, about a dozen episodes, ranging from the benign to the potentially lethal occurred. In April, paint was splattered on the Temple’s front gate. Later, beer bottles were littered around the campus and shattered on the driveway, prayer signs on the Contemplation Trails were knocked down, broken, and run over with snowmobiles. A tent on the property was destroyed, a bench on the Trails was scratched and another bench and a sign were thrown over an embankment. In July, two obscene phone calls were made to the Temple and in September, seven .22-calibur bullets were fired at the Temple. The damage from the gunfire was approximately $1,000, but, thankfully, no one was harmed during the incident. Later, on September 23rd of 1992 at 8:45 pm, a man called the Temple during a choir practice to say that he was going to blow up the building. The Temple was evacuated, but police found no evidence of explosives. Of the incidents, Eckankar Vice President, Todd Cramer said that they suggest the “scary possibility that someone doesn’t want the church there.”¹

It’s a shame that it happened…Those are the kind of things that shouldn’t transpire at all. It’s not hate, it’s just plain vandalism. —Chanhassen Mayor Don Chmiel

At the crux of the issue, however, is how the community, out of fear or disdain for new and unknown religious movements, chose to name these incidents. Skelskey said, “because of the frequency and duration and escalation of these incidents, coupled with religious slurs being painted over sacred signs, property, and our roadway, it’s religious bigotry.”²  Allegedly, the slurs included the painting of “Jesus Saves” on one of the signs. While Eckankar labeled the incidents hate crimes, Scott Harr, the Chanhassen Public Safety director at the time, was not so sure. “The consensus of responses I’ve heard is that people are very concerned and nobody thinks they deserve this. Nobody wants to think it’s a hate crime or religiously motivated.”³ Chanhassen Mayor Don Chmiel seconded the denial of the label of hate crimes. “It’s a shame that it happened…Those are the kind of things that shouldn’t transpire at all. It’s not hate, it’s just plain vandalism.”⁴  The argument must be made whether, if the same incidents occurred at the Catholic or Lutheran churches in Chanhassen, public officials would respond by labeling them as hate crimes. It seems plausible that these actions were motivated not by boredom or thrill-seeking, but by those with prejudice and hatred towards Eckankar, most likely out of fear and misunderstanding of its ways and beliefs. As a result of the problems that year, Eckankar hired a security service, and, still today, nearly a dozen security cameras survey the outside of the property, beginning at the front gate and extending over the exterior of the building.

Between September 1995 and May 1998, the State of Minnesota pursued charges against the person involved in one such incident of threatened violence against Eckankar. In 1995, Joseph N. Sykes, a former member of Eckankar, who had been involved with the tradition for thirteen years, was charged with six counts of “terroristic threats.” According to the records of the Carver County District Court, Sykes engaged in “threatening conduct” between January 1994 and September 1995. Sykes was arrested in California in 1995 and extradited to Minnesota where he stood trial. Sykes sent a letter to Eckankar’s Minneapolis office, which stated:

"The pressure I am under from the members of Eckankar you have sent against me is at a level where I am not responsible. If I flip, I will find you, and I will kill you, your wife, that is your second wife, and your pathetic dog. I would enjoy it. No one would defend you."⁵

And, in a phone message left on the ECK Temple’s answering machine and directed at Douglas Kunin, Eckankar’s church counsel, Sykes said:

"This is a message for Doug Kunin from Joe Sykes. As [Kunin] may remember, I was a member of Eckankar until one year ago. I left because I’d endured 9 months of the most severe [sic] black witchcraft. For one year, I continued to have black witchcraft from a devil who calls himself Peddar Zaskq. I intend to go to America within the next few weeks to murder as many ECKists as I can. And I am putting this on tape for police purposes. At the same time, the FBI and newspapers are going to have full information in detail about all the witchcraft methods used by members of Eckankar against me."⁶

Sykes pled guilty to the charges against him and returned to his native England.

While it is certainly a positive sign that the State recognized the violent threats Sykes made against Eckankar, in the court proceedings, Eckankar is referred to as a “cult-like religious organization” and later directly as a cult.⁷ This decision to label Eckankar as "cult-like" on the part of the District Court speaks to the ongoing tension between understanding New Religious Movements as genuine religious groups, or defining them as cults. Of course, this naming is particularly significant given the fact that, in our country, religious groups, individuals, and those entities defined as ‘religious,’ gain particular benefits, whether financial (in terms of securing nonprofit, 501c3 status), legal (with regard to rights of religious freedom), or symbolic  derived from the social capital that is afforded to groups that are recognized and perceived as respectable in the eyes of the public. Because of the general respect for and freedoms allotted to religious groups in the United States, for a group like Eckankar not to be regarded as a religion represents a significant setback.