Brainwashed

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” [2.Timothy 1:7]

On February 4, 1974, 19-year-old Patricia Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley, California, apartment by a violent urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army, or the SLA. Efforts were made to swap Hearst for jailed SLA members, but when that failed, the SLA asked that Patricia’s family give $70 worth of food to every needy person in California. Patricia Hearst comes from a very wealthy family. She is the granddaughter of the publishing giant William Randolph Hearst and great-granddaughter of millionaire George Hearst.

After her father immediately gave $6 million worth of food to needy people in the Bay Area, the SLA still refused to release Patricia (since the food was supposedly of a poor quality). Then on April 3, 1974, Patricia Hearst announced on an audiotape that she had joined the SLA and took on the name “Tania.” Can you imagine her father’s shock and heartache when, after two months in captivity and giving out $6 million dollars, she decided to stay with her captors?

She later assisted the SLA in a bank robbery and was captured with other SLA members. During her trial she was interviewed by psychologists who believe she was brainwashed and exhibited classic symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome. Patricia was still found guilty and sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment. Her sentence was later commuted to seven years and later commuted again by President Jimmy Carter. On February 1, 1979, she was released and later given a full pardon by President Bill Clinton.

While being held, her kidnappers brainwashed her into thinking she was better off with them. Can you imagine how our heavenly Father must feel when we neglect to accept the freedom of eternal life and mansions He is offering us? Especially after sending his only son Jesus as the ransom to die for our sins?

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit?” (Hebrews 2:3,4).