10 Worst Religious Leaders in History

In 1955, this American minister founded the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. Regarded as a hate group, the organization, which is mostly made up of Phelp’s relatives, has been condemned by many other Christian churches. It rose to notoriety for protesting at funerals, particularly those of gay people and soldiers. Phelps believed that god hated homosexuals and was punishing the United States for tolerating their existence. The WBC drew considerable attention for carrying signs full of hateful rhetoric at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was tragically murdered in 1998. Phelps passed away in 2014; ironically, he may have helped the cause for gay rights, by being so awful that no one wanted to agree with him.

#9: Jeffrey Lundgren

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Dismissed from his position as a temple tour guide, Jeffrey Lundgren proclaimed himself a prophet and started his own sect of the Mormon Church. He convinced his supporters that the Second coming of Jesus was imminent and that they had to make a “blood sacrifice.” He had in mind his own followers Dennis and Cheryl Avery, who had declined to move in with him and kept a separate bank account. In April 1989, he invited them to his farmhouse with their three young daughters and killed them all. Paranoid, he eventually abandoned the cult and went on the run. His crime was revealed by a member who apparently didn’t object to murder, so much as Lundgren’s plan to marry his wife. Lundgren was put to death in 2006.

#8: David Koresh

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Born Vernon Howell, David Koresh wasn’t just a religious leader, he was the messiah - at least so he claimed. He and his followers lived in an isolated compound in Waco, Texas, where they stockpiled illegal weapons. When government agents came to investigate in February of 1993, there was a deadly shootout, leading to a siege of 51 days. It remains unclear who fired first. On April 19th, for reasons that are still debated, a fire broke out and consumed the building and nearly everyone inside. Koresh was shot and killed. In the aftermath, the FBI faced considerable criticism. But Koresh was not exonerated, either. Survivors said he abused his followers, including children; and some authorities believe he always intended for everyone to die.

Although the Catholic Church has faced widespread accusations of child abuse, Theodore McCarrick is the only cardinal in the United States to have been criminally charged. For decades, “Uncle Ted”, as he was creepily known, allegedly abused male seminarians and minors. Public accusations began to emerge in 2018. Ironically, in the 2000s McCarrick was a vocal proponent of the church’s “no tolerance” policy toward abuse. His misconduct was apparently something of an open secret, potentially implicating his superiors for their inaction. Now in his 90s, it’s unclear if he’ll be able to stand trial.

#6: Dov Lior

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In Israel, Orthodox rabbi Dov Lior is a powerful religious and political figure, part of a far-right, nationalist movement for an ethnic and religious state. Lior has gone farther than many, however, with his open support for the murder of civilians and ethnic cleansing. In 1994 for instance, he lavished praise on Israeli-American mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque. He also claimed the 2015 Islamic State attacks on Paris, which left 130 civilians dead, were deserved as payback for the Holocaust. Lior has translated his intolerant views into action, as well: when Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in 2014, he issued a religious ruling that encouraged soldiers to kill civilians and, if necessary, destroy Gaza entirely.

In March of 1995, terrorists released sarin gas inside the Tokyo subways, killing 13 people. Thousands more were injured; it was the worst attack on Japan since World War II. It had been masterminded by a man named Shoko Asahara through his cult, Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday spin-off of Buddhism - although its relationship to Buddhism is debated. He hoped to trigger a third world war and apocalypse, and to distract police from investigating the cult. Of course, it had the opposite effect. It turned out that Aum Shinrikyo had been experimenting with chemical and biological weapons for years, and were responsible for previous attacks. Asahara and his accomplices were put to death in 2018.

#4: Warren Jeffs

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Although the Mormon Church renounced polygamy over a century ago, fringe sects persist that insist the practice is holy - pretty convenient for the male leaders. Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is one of the most infamous. By the time he was arrested in 2006, Jeffs had assigned himself 78 wives - 24 of whom were under 17. He had also overseen numerous other marriages to underage girls. In 2011, Jeffs was convicted for sexual assault of minors and sentenced to life in prison. He remains president of the church and requires his supporters to pray frequently for his escape. Apparently, he blames his continued imprisonment on their lack of faith.

#3: Jim Jones

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On the outside, Jim Jones was a charismatic preacher, whose church, the Peoples Temple, promoted economic and racial equality. Behind the facade, he was a conman who staged fake ‘miracles’ and abused his followers. As word of his misconduct spread in the 1970s, he left California to found a commune in Jonestown, Guyana, South America. Reports of further abuse led California Congressman Leo Ryan to investigate personally in 1978; while in Guyana, he was shot and killed, and Jones ordered his followers to drink Flavor Aid laced with cyanide. 909 people died - many of them kids. This horrific tragedy is where we get the expression ‘Drinking the Kool-Aid’.

You may have first heard of this Ugandan militant from the Kony 2012 documentary video, which went viral. Founder of the Christian fundamentalist rebel group the ​​Lord's Resistance Army, Kony is responsible for horrible atrocities in Uganda, the Congo, and Sudan. Kony was a Catholic altar boy, and directs his soldiers to draw crosses on themselves and their guns with oil before battle; he also incorporates traditional African rituals into their routine. However, he’s known for his history of torturing civilians, attacking refugee camps, and forcing children to join his army. As of writing, he was in hiding, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Osama bin Laden is one of the most infamous terrorist masterminds in history. In his native Saudi Arabia, he was regarded as a war hero for his role fighting the Soviets in the Soviet–Afghan War. However, in 1988 he founded the Islamist terrorist group Al Qaeda. His larger goal was to establish a supra-national Islamic state. Denouncing American foreign policy and secularism, he declared a jihad against the United States, and was behind the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2001 September 11 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. Since Bin Laden’s death in 2011, other terrorist leaders, like the now deceased Abu Bakr al-Baghdādi of ISIS and Abubakar Shekau of Boko Haram, have continued his legacy of religious violence.