Providentia

Making a Prophet (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1

If the English government had hoped that imprisoning Richard Brothers in an asylum would end his millenarian movement, they were sadly mistaken.   Those followers who became disillusioned with Brothers and his prophecies quickly found a new prophet to take his place. 

Or rather, a prophetess.  

Born in Devonshire on April 4, 1750, Joanna Southcott was the fourth daughter of William and Hannah Southcott and showed no sign in her early childhood of her remarkable destiny.  Although her family had once been very prosperous, Joanna grew up on a small farm and with very little education.  She had little choice but to go into domestic service in the Devonshire area.  Her employers would later describe her as being honest but prone to episodes of "melancholy" (depression).   In her own writings, she would state that the "Spirit of Truth" first descended on her when she was eighteen but her mission in life didn't really begin until Joanna was forty-two.

There's no way to tell what her employers thought when Joanna announced to them that she was a "prophetess" and that the Lord had appeared to her to "warn her of what was coming upon the whole earth".  As far as she was concerned, "higher powers" were using her to spread their divine word and Joanna began writing an elaborate series of prophecies, usually centered around war and destruction.  Bundles of her prophecies were sent off to various clergymen and bishops who were urged to examine them.  While most of the clergy ignored Joanna and her warnings, she attracted the interest of one vicar, James Pomeroy. As a successful preacher in Cornwall, Pomeroy seemed to give Southcott the attention that she craved.  From 1796 to 1801, she besieged Pomeroy with her prophecies and demanded that he get her work examined by a clerical committee.  Eventually, Pomeroy broke off the association when he realized that his involvement with her was exposing him to ridicule. 

Since Pomeroy refused to deal with her any further and no other clerics had any interest in her prophecies, Joanna decided to publish her prophecies instead.  In February, 1801, the first installment of her book, The Strange Effects of Faith was published with five additional installments being added over the next year.  On the first page of the book, she issued the following challenge: "If any five ministers who are worthy and good men, will prove that these writings come from the Devil I will refrain from further printing. If they cannot I will go on."  Her followers would trumpet that same challenge long after her death.

Although the five ministers she asked for didn't come forward, Joanna Southcott certainly attracted a diverse group of followers.  After Richard Brothers was incarcerated, his disillusioned believers were quick to turn to this new religious leader.  Among them were included three ministers and other prosperous members of society.  After these followers took her existing prophecies with them to London, Joanna Southcott decided to safeguard her new prophecies in a way that added to her mystique.  She decided to "seal" her prophecies with a special seal (including the initials "I.C" with two stars) and place them in a special container that was kept in the care of one of her followers.  The legends surrounding the "Great Box" that contained her prophecies quickly took on a life of their own. 

Her prophecies had a surprisingly feminist tone for that era.  As a "daughter of Eve", she would challenge the Devil to mortal combat and "cast back upon him the guilt which women originally incurred by transmitting his temptation to man in Eden".   As the chosen instrument for destroying Satan, Joanna would be the "Bride of the Lamb" who would usher in a new kingdom on Earth.  By 1802, she began "sealing" her followers to be among the select few who would be saved.  When one of her wealthy followers, Elias Carpenter, brought her a ream of paper from his mill, Southcott cut it into squares and inscribed each piece with a circle.  Inside each circle, she wrote "The sealed of the Lord, the elect and precious, man's redemption to inherit the tree of life, to be made heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ."  By 1807, she had distributed 14,000 of these squares to be among the 144,000 to be saved according to the Book of Revelation.

Her crusade continued for the rest of her life with continued challenges to the Church of England to examine her prophecies in detail.  The sealing ensured that her followers stayed loyal to her despite other "prophets" launching similar crusades.  This loyalty was put to the test in 1814 when 65-year old Joanna Southcott announced that she was pregnant "by the power of the Most High".   According to one final vision, she had been chosen for a "virgin birth" and that her son would be "the Shiloh" who would redeem the world. 

Although newspapers quickly denounced her as a "deluded, elderly virgin", her followers enthusiastically waited for the miraculous birth.  They presented Joanna with an expensive crib made of satin wood and gold.  When a team of physicians confirmed her pregnancy, she married one of her followers to avoid the scandal of being an unwed mother (James Pomeroy declined the honour).  In December of that same year, Joanna reluctantly called her supporters to her bedside and confessed that "it all appears delusion".  Her followers were devastated and rumours began that her son had been "snatched up into Heaven" to escape the dragon of Revelation.  Joanna Southcott went into decline afterward and died on December 27.

Four days after Joanna Southcott's death, a team of physicians met for a post-mortem examination.  Aside from gallstones, they found no evidence of medical problems or other abnormalities.  In a signed statement, the doctors concluded that "We the undersigned, present at the dissection of Mrs. Joanna Southcott, do certify that no unnatural appearances were visible, and no part exhibited any appearance of disease sufficient to have occasioned her death, nor was there any appearance of her ever having been pregnant". 

Despite her death, Joanna Southcott's movement lingered on.  Although the number of her followers dwindled, legends of Joanna's "Great Box" and the hidden prophecies that she left behind were still common.  She left instructions that the Box should only be opened in times of "national crisis" with a full gathering of the Church of England's bishops in attendance.   After attempts by her followers to have the Church open the Box during the Crimean War and World War I, it was finally opened in 1927 (only one prelate agreed to attend).   The only contents of the Box were some "oddments and unimportant papers" including a lottery ticket.  That didn't deter some of the followers though (they insisted it was the wrong box). 

While rumours of the Great Box still crop up in the news from time to time, most of Joanna Southcott's prophecies are available online.  Among them is a memorable prediction that the world would end in 2004 (Sadly, she didn't see the 2012 movement coming.  If she had added another eight years to her prophecy, she might have earned herself a new generation of believers).   Her story continues to be a fascinating example of religious mania and the persistence of belief.

Her sad ending hardly deterred other would-be prophets however.  More on that next week.

Continue to Part 3.

131st Skeptics' Circle

Hear ye! Hear ye!  The 131st Skeptics' Circle is now in session.  The (well, semi-)honourable Providentia blog presiding for the first time.  Our court docket is indeed full as we bring you the best and boldest skeptical writings in the blogosphere of the past two weeks.  Let woo-meisters and pundits tremble!

First up to don the powdered wig is the delightful Skepvet who gives evidence in the case of the People vs Complementary Medicine proponents.  We hear about their annoying tendency towards special pleading to get around their utter lack of scientific support.  Then we have a little education in how CAM-meisters ignore some fairly basic rules for judging causality.  

Next up is the slightly disordered but personable Chaoskeptic exhorting us on the need to be knowledgeable and well-rounded in dealing with the credulous of all stripes.

For those loyal skeptics in the Midwest area, Action Skeptics tells us about the upcoming Skepchicamp on March 6 and the terrific lineup of presentations they have scheduled.  We also hear about the planning for Gen Con Symposium including the big fund-raiser for the Indiana Immunization Coalition.  Any potential volunteers should get all the details at the Gen Con Skeptics site.  

The irrepressible Skepbitch weighs in with two posts about her new gig as host of the Point of Inquiry podcast.  In these posts, she talks about her recent interview with Cold Reader Extraordinaire, Ian Rowland who fills us in on the Cold, Hard Facts of Cold Reading.  

Jumping to a distant land, we have Swedish skeptic Martin Rundkvist at Aardvarchaeology telling us about the outcome of a Swedish vaccination and autism case that actually came out right for a change.  Hurray for good sense! 

We then have the Evolving Mind regale us with three recent posts on human psychology and self-deception.  First up is his post on the problem of self-report in researching human sexuality (people aren't always honest about their sex lives - who knew?).  We then hear about the dangers of  "natural" herbal medicines which aren't nearly as healthy as the alt-medicine woo-pushers make them out to be.  Then we have his expose on acupuncture and its dependence on the placebo effect in relieving pain.  Sadly, even medical researchers who supposedly know better seem to be feeding into the woo on this one.

Just squeaking in under the wire, we have three last-minute submissions from Life, the Universe and One Brow.  In the first post, he tells us about the anti-vaccinationist leanings of Brent Spiner and whether Data would be taken in by such woo  (say it ain't so, Brent!).  We then have his comments on self-proclaimed logician, Martin Cochran, who seems too preoccupied with stone-throwing to note the glassiness of his own house.  The third post deals with the Illinois Family Institute and their odd diatribes on the "myth of overpopulation". 

Another last-minute contributor is the Skeptical Teacher providing us with two posts about the trials and tribulations of science teaching in an age of woo.  The first post deals with the incredible tale of bomb dowsing devices in Iraq which were actually bought with the tacit approval of the US and British military.  The second post deals with media scare-mongering that prompted a massive recall of Toyota vehicles despite only a tiny percentage of Toyota-related fatalities actually being linked to these defects. 

Finally, we have my own modest contribution with the beginning of a three-part series on famous (and not-so famous) prophets/faith healers and the rather thin line between religious ecstasy and insanity.

Court is now adjourned!  The next Skeptics' Circle will be hosted by the lovely and talented Michael Meaden at Ionian Enchantment on March 11, 2010.  Get your skeptical creative juices flowing and start writing. 

Controversial U.K. Forensic Program may be Terminated

A controversial pilot project running in the U.K. since 1999 to deal with dangerous offenders is facing possible termination due to limited evidence that the program has been successful.  The program was implemented following the 1996 killings of Dr. Lin Russell and her six-year old daughter.  The assailant, Michael Stone, had been previously diagnosed as a psychopath but could not be held under U.K. law since personality disorder was not considered to be a treatable psychiatric condition.  In 1999, after the launch of a controversial new forensic scheme, four new high-security units were established.  Two of these units were set up at Broadmoor and Rampton psychiatric hospitals and the other two were established at the Whitemoor and Frankland prisons.  The purpose of these new units were to provide inpatient treatment for offenders deemed to be suffering from "dangerous and severe personality disorder" (DSPD).  The DSPD diagnosis is controversial given that it is not a formally recognized psychiatric diagnosis but was essentially legislated into existence to provide a justification for indefinite detention of offenders formerly considered untreatable.  There are currently around 300 DSPD cases being held in secure units across the U.K and an estimated 200 million British pounds have been spent on the program to date.

Although some researchers have praised the program for improving treatment services for personality-disordered offenders, the actual benefit of the program in reducing violent behaviour appears limited.  Despite treatment programming including cognitive-behavioural therapy and anti-testosterone medication for sexual offenders, recent incidents have highlighted abuses at the DSPD units across the U.K.  A formal review of the program and whether it should be continued is underway.

For more information.

Making a Prophet (Part 1)

We may never know for sure what first inspired Richard Brothers to declare himself "Prince of the Hebrews" but his strange career as a prophet, and the followers who believed in him, make for quite a story.

He was born in Placentia, Newfoundland in 1757 (on Christmas Day of course) and his father, an English soldier stationed there during the Seven Years' War, arranged for his son to be educated in England.  After graduating from the naval school at Woolwich, Brothers embarked on a naval career and was promoted to Lieutenant before retiring in 1783.  Serving in the merchant marines, he traveled across Europe before settling down and marrying in 1786.  The marriage didn't last long and they quickly separated when he learned about his wife's infidelity.  Whether it was due to his marital breakdown or growing religious fervour, Richard Brothers began to question whether his oath of loyalty to the British government was consistent with his religious beliefs.  This refusal to swear the oath cost him his military pension.

During this same period, he began an intense reading of the Bible as well as various other religious works (including the mystical writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg).  Losing his pension meant that he had no money to pay his rent and he was forced into a workhouse to support himself (this was mandatory due to the UK's Poor Law system).  For whatever reason, Brothers began to experience religious visions during the six months he spent in the workhouse, most of them focusing on the role that the British people would play in the reclaiming of Palestine and his own unique role as a prophet.  In one of these visions, Brothers heard the voice of an angel proclaiming the fall of London (which the angel called Babylon the Great).  After Brothers pleaded with the angel for mercy towards the city, God reportedly agreed to spare London for a time.  Brothers also reported that a "heavenly lady" would eventually descend from Heaven to shower him with the love and happiness that his religious views convinced him he deserved.

By 1782, Richard Brothers had a new mission.  In addition to being a prophet of the Lord, he also had the gift of healing.  Although large crowds dutifully gathered, his spiritual gifts were never all that spectacular and his "miracles" tended not to impress too many skeptics. For that reason, the doubters were hardly convinced when Brothers announced that he had been chosen as an apostle of a new religion.  As the new Prince of the Hebrews, it was Brothers' responsibility to lead the Jews back to Palestine and reclaim God's kingdom.  As a descendant of the House of David and "Nephew of the Almighty",  it was Brothers who would identify the "hidden Jews" among the people of England ignorant of their true heritage.  Armed with a rod of rosewood that he had carved himself, the new Prince announced that he would use it to work miracles much as Moses had done before.

A pamphlet that Brothers published in 1794 was titled, A REVEALED KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROPHECIES AND TIMES, Book the First, wrote [sic] under the direction of the LORD GOD and published by His Sacred Command, it being the first sign of Warning for the benefit of All Nations; Containing with other great and remarkable things not revealed to any other Person on Earth, the Restoration of the Hebrews to Jerusalem by the year of 1798 under their revealed Prince and Prophet (i.e., Richard Brothers). In his work, Brothers declared that the people of Western Europe (and especially the British people) were the descendants of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel and that the "hidden Jews" of England would be part of the new Kingdom of God on Earth.  While he wasn't the only prophet preaching the notion of Anglo-Israelism, Brothers was definitely the most flamboyant.  He actually attracted a quite a following for a while, including  prominent clergymen, politicians, and writers. 

Richard Brothers' crusade was sabotaged by his own lack of good judgment.  Not only did he prophesy the death of King George III, he also denounced the war against France as "many men fighting against the Spirit of God".  After declaring that "God will break the Empire in pieces" due to British colonialism, Richard Brothers was charged with "fond and fantastical prophecies".  He was quickly declared to be criminally insane in 1795 but the intervention of one of his disciples (who also happened to be a member of Parliament) led to his being sent to a private asylum in Islington instead of Bedlam.  Brothers kept on writing pamphlets and made numerous predictions relating to world events.  He also spent the last thirty years of his life designing palaces, government buildings, and uniforms for the New Jerusalem that would arise after he was revealed as Prince of the Hebrews and Ruler of the World on November 19, 1795.  Suffice it to say, this particular prophecy didn't pan out. 

In writing about his imprisonment in the asylum, Brothers wrote, ""No man must be deemed insane who is inoffensive in his actions, and is civil in his actions, and is civil in his language, who is able to work at any kind of employment for a livelihood, to receive or give instructions, or to take proper care of himself. All men are not born with the same faculties for learning, teaching, inventing or executing; and wisely has God ordered it so, to make the diversity of properties in the mind appear, by the greater variety of ways and improvements for the general good of all."  The fact that he and his followers were considered to be lunatics weighed heavily on him but he never recanted his crusade.

Richard Brothers was finally released from the asylum in 1806 but his followers had largely abandoned him by then.  He died in the home of his last follower, John Finlayson in 1824.  Even after Brothers' death, Finlayson continued writing pamphlets and manifestos describing the new Christian kingdom and generally trying to keep Brothers' crusade going.  Despite Finlayson's efforts, Richard Brothers was quickly forgotten although other prophets with a similar message developed followings of their own. 

We'll turn to one of them in the next installment...

Continue to  Part 2.

Upcoming 131st Skeptic's Circle

Just to let you know that it will be my happy privilege to host the 131st Skeptic's Circle on February 25th.  The Skeptic's Circle is a biweekly carnival for bloggers who apply critical thought to questionable stories.  According to the Skeptic's Circle home site, the carnival was designed to "clear up things rendered unnecessarily mysterious and fight frauds (paranormal, urban legends, etc.), pseudoscience (creationism, perpetual motion machines, for example), quackery (homeopathy, for example), and pseudohistory (Holocaust denial, for example), not to push anyone’s political agenda".  Feel free to send your submissions to me before next Wednesday so I will have time to include your post.  Possible topics include: debunking urban legends, the paranormal, quackery, pseudoscience, historical revisionism, or just plain critical thinking.   Just send an email containing a URL of your post along with a brief description. 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

IQ and the Death Penalty

One of the longest-running death penalty cases in Florida's history may well hinge on whether or not the defendant can be considered mentally retarded.  Twenty-six year old D'Andre Bannister has spent the last seven years in prison awaiting trial for the 2002 beating death of his four-year old stepson, Tarquez Wilson.  Bannister was arrested and charged after the child died in a Riviera Beach hospital with multiple injuries to his head and internal organs. Bruises were also found all over his body. Prosecutors voted to pursue the death penalty based on the circumstances of the case.

Under Florida law, an IQ of less than 70 is required for a defendant to be considered mentally incapacitated.  During a Circuit Court hearing into the case, defense psychologist Harry Krop reported that Bannister obtained an IQ of 69 in a 2008 assessment.  In another assessment by a prosecution psychologist however, Bannister was found to have an IQ of 78.  Dr. Krop suggested that the discrepancy may be due to the longer time that Bannister spent in the structured environment that the prison offered.  The defendant has also been actively resisting being diagnosed as mentally challenged due to the stigma associated with the label.

The legal battle over the Bannister case stems from a 2002 Supreme Court decision ruling that execution of mentally retarded people represented "cruel and unusual punishment".  Bannister's trial, and the testimony of the three psychologists who have been asked to assess his intelligence, is still ongoing.

For more information

The Suicide Forest

It's been called "the perfect place to die".

The Aokigahara (also known as the "Sea of Trees") is a 35 kilometer² forest that lies at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji.  Given the volcanic rock that lines the forest's floor and the dense vegetation that prevents easy passage except through informal trails, its sinister reputation isn't hard to understand.  Since the 1950s, there have been an estimated 500 suicides in the forest making it the third-most popular suicide site in the world (San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is still the champion with Toronto's Bloor Street Viaduct being the second-most popular).  The suicides are so frequent in fact that, since 1970, volunteers have been taking part in a semi-annual "body hunt" to find corpses (despite rumours that some bodies have never been found in the thick forest).  The volunteers mark out their search area with plastic tape that is often left behind after the search is completed.  On average, there are approximately thirty suicides a year in Aokigahara although 2002 holds the record with seventy-eight suicides.

While Aokigahara'a sinister reputation dates back to medieval times (including legends of ghostly encounters with undiscovered suicides), the modern suicide epidemic began in the 1950s with the publication of a book by Japanese mystery author Seicho Matsumoto.  The novel, titled Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees) featuring the suicide of one of the novel's characters.  More recently, in 1993, a book titled Wataru Kanzen Jisatsu Manyuaru (the Complete Manual of the Suicide) recommended the forest as being an ideal spot for suicide.  Through newspaper stories, movies, and its place in popular culture, the Aokigahara death toll continues.

Visitors to the forest are quick to notice numerous signs posted for the benefit of potential suicides.  The signs feature slogans such as "A little while, please. The life is a precious gift that their parents gave him. It does not only keep his preoccupations for you, you look for attendance” and "Please consult the police before you decide to die!"   Despite the presence of the signs, local residents say that they can always tell who is visiting the forest for its natural beauty, who is there in search of a macabre experience, and who is never planning to emerge from the forest alive.  There is certainly enough to attract sightseers, especially its reputation as the most haunted site in Japan.  Spiritualists claim that centuries of suicides in the forest have filled the trees themselves with "malevolent energy".  Considering that compasses have a way of malfunctioning in the forest (due to the heavy iron deposits in the forest's floor), the ghostly legends seem oddly plausible.

Forestry workers at Aokigahara have a fixed routine for dealing with bodies (some in advanced states of decomposition or partially eaten by animals).  The bodies are brought down to the forest station and placed in a special room reserved for corpses.  The room has two beds: one for the corpse and one for a forestry worker to sleep in.  According to local tradition, suicides rise as yurei (unhappy ghosts) and bodies that are left alone will cause the yurei to scream and move the body to the regular sleeping quarters.  Not surprisingly, sleeping next to the corpse isn't a popular duty among the workers.  

Not only has the recent economic downturn in Japan ensured a steady stream of suicides in the forest (often by despondent businessmen) but a ghoulish industry as well.   While actual reports are scarce, there are lingering rumours that scavengers frequently enter the forest to steal wallets, money, and credit cards from corpses which they then sell on the black market.  Director Tomoyuki Takimoto once found a wallet containing 370,000 yen ($4,066.67 U.S.) in the forest while scouting for locations for his 2004 film, Ki No Umi (Sea of Trees).  

The local residents can hardly be blamed for resenting Aokigahara's sinister reputation and the tendency for suicides to spike whenever the forest is mentioned in the media.  As one local police officer stated, "We want people to forget Aokigahara for a little while.  Every time it’s mentioned, it starts off a chain reaction and we end up with more suicides."  Takatoshi Kobayashi, mayor of the nearby village of Narusawa states that the cost of finding and recovering the bodies comes out of the budgets of the three nearest villages.  "We have to pay for the bodies to be disposed.  Doing so keeps us away from the work we should be doing. Suicides ruin the area’s name. We’re all for an end to the searches.”   In the meantime, the local villages still pay for the interment of remains in special cemeteries reserved for Aokigahara suicides.

So what can be done to stop the rash of Aokigahara suicides?  Attempts at curbing suicides at well-known sites such as the Golden Gate bridge using special barriers have had little success to date.  There is no practical way to prevent people contemplating suicide from entering the forest and the warning signs seem to have no real effect either.   While patrols have been set up to identify and detain anyone with a "forlorn appearance", it's questionable whether suicides can be stopped completely.  The local residents seem to have little choice but to wait for the inevitable spike in suicides that occurs whenever their local forest is featured in another news story.

And the death toll continues.

Witness to Bullying

Research in the impact of bullying in schools has focused on the ones who are directly involved: the perpetrators and their victims.  But what about those schoolchildren who witness the bullying behaviour?  The December 2009 issue of School Psychology Quarterly presents a study exploring the impact of bullying on the mental health of students who witness it. A representative sample of 2,002 students aged 12 to 16 years attending 14 schools in the United Kingdom were surveyed using a questionnaire that included measures of bullying at school, substance abuse, and mental health risk. The results suggest that observing bullying at school predicted risks to mental health over and above that predicted for those students who were directly involved in bullying behavior as either a perpetrator or a victim. Observing others was also found to predict higher risk irrespective of whether students were or were not victims themselves. Considering the amount of variance that couldn't be accounted for by the regression models used, elevated mental health risk in schoolchildren involves a range of potential contributing factors of which bullying is only one part.  The study also focused on a nonclinical population while schoolchildren already suffering from emotional issues may be more vulnerable to bullying effects.  Longitudinal research into the impact of bullying on victims and bystanders alike may provide better answers into how to deal with this problem more effectively.

For more information.

Should Parents of Rapists Be Blamed for "Failures in Upbringing"?

In a landmark decision, an Italian judge has ruled that the parents of five teenage boys found guilty of repeatedly raping an adolescent girl must pay her 450,000 euros due to their failure to give their sons "an education in feelings and emotions".  Judge Bianca La Monica awarded the damages against all the boys' natural parents, including those who had separated from their partners and no longer had custody of their sons.  The victim, who cannot be named due to her minority status, was twelve years old when the five boys forced her to have sex with them on various occasions between 2001 and 2003.  After the rapes, she left school and has not returned.

In making her ruling, Judge La Monica concluded that the rapists, who also cannot be named due to their minority status, appeared to have no understanding of the gravity of their offenses.  Their testimony showed no evidence of significant empathy towards the victim and the impact that their actions had on her.  Only when pressed about the effect of their behaviour on the girl did they show "glimmers of awareness".  Judge La Monica argued that this lack of empathy showed that the offenders had not been brought up ""in a context of respect for the feelings, wishes and bodies of others".  While the parents of the offenders presented evidence that they were good parents, the lack of empathy shown in their children's behaviour was considered to be the crucial factor.  The decision was deemed to apply to non-custodial parents as well as custodial parents on the grounds that they had the right, as well as the duty, to monitor their children's upbringing.

The ruling is considered to establish an important precedent which may lead to heavy fines for all parents of children committing violent acts.

For more information

Infamous Crimes

It began in February 1778 when Ensign Anthony Maxwell faced a court-martial after being charged with "propogating a scandalous report prejudicial to the character"  of  Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin, an officer in General Washington's Continental Army.  According to Maxwell's report, Lieutenant Enslin had been found in bed with another soldier, John Monhort.  After carefully weighing the evidence, the court concluded that Maxwell was not guilty of the charge and had not acted "no further than the strict line of his duty".  Maxwell was acquitted and Frederick Enslin was then charged with Attempting to Commit Sodomy and committing Perjury in Swearing to False Accounts.   The court then ruled that Enslin was guilty of breaching the "5th. Article 18th. Section of the Articles of War and do sentence him to be dismiss'd the service with Infamy".  In reviewing the court's decision, General Washington wrote that he "approves the sentence and with Abhorrence and Detestation of such Infamous Crimes orders Lieutt. Enslin to be drummed out of Camp tomorrow morning by all the Drummers and Fifers in the Army never to return; The Drummers and Fifers to attend on the Grand Parade at Guard mounting for that Purpose."

While there is no other record relating to whether the sentence was carried out or what happened to him afterward, what isn't in dispute is that Frederick Gotthold Enslin has the unwelcome distinction of being the first American soldier to be dishonourably discharged for homosexual conduct.   Harsh penalties for "infamous crimes" such as sodomy were hardly limited to the American military however.  Especially considering that homosexuality and other "crimes against nature" were still punishable by death or long imprisonment in many European countries.  Well into the 20th century, the very suspicion of "sexual impropriety" was enough to destroy military reputations just about everywhere.

That was certainly the case for another prominent 18th century soldier...

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Friedrich Gerhard Augustin von Steuben was a Prussian soldier who served honorably in various German and Prussian campaigns until his career ended in scandal.  In 1776, he was accused of "improper sexual behaviour" with young boys and forced to seek employment elsewhere.  Based on a favourable meeting with the French Minister of War, he was referred to Benjamin Franklin and later, to George Washington.  As a professional Prussian officer, he seemed ideal for the largely untrained Continental Army.   After receiving funds to travel to Boston, von Steuben arrived with his military staff and his Italian greyhound.  He quickly set to work as Inspector General and Major General of the Continental Army.  His contributions to the fledgling American side in their fight with Britain were incalculable. 

Not only did Steuben write the Revolutionary War Drill Manual that became the standard drill manual for the United States Army for decades afterward, but he also served in various capacities including being George Washington's chief of staff in the last years of the war.  His accomplishments were all the more remarkable considering his limited English and his need to work through interpreters until his language skills improved.  Whatever rumours there were surrounding von Steuben's sexuality, they didn't seem to affect how he dealt with General Washington and his soldiers.

After the war ended, von Steuben retired from the military and eventually settled in Utica, New York (he had been made a citizen in 1784 by the Pennsylvania legislature).  Although he never married or had children, his later life seemed free of the earlier scandal that had plagued him in Europe.  He did have a very close relationship with several younger men who had served with him in the military but there was no real evidence that he was anything less than discreet.  He left his estate to General Benjamin Walker and Captain William North, two military men with whom he had a long relationship.  While the actual nature of that friendship is open to debate, one historian who examined their surviving correspondence has suggested that "ample evidence shows that the intimacy extended well beyond mere friendship". 

If von Steuben was homosexual, then it would have led to a strange irony concerning the punishment for poor Lieutenant Enslin.  Whether or not von Steuben actually presided over Enslin's expulsion or was simply present, having one accused homosexual being part of the public shaming of another certainly highlighted the very real dangers facing anyone with same-sex leanings in that era.  Those same repressive policies continued in most Western military services until well into the 20th century.   Although many Western countries have belatedly opened up military service to openly gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, the United States was one of the most notable exceptions up until very recently.  

Though the same Articles of War that convicted Lieutenant Enslin and others like him remained in force until 1942 when homosexuality was formally recognized as grounds for nonselection or dishonourable discharge from service.  Despite numerous cases of gay and lesbian soldiers serving honourably and a 1957 military report that concluded that there was "no sound basis for the belief that homosexuals posed a security risk",  known or suspected homosexuals were still forced to conceal their sexuality to avoid dishonourable discharge or harassment from fellow soldiers.  While the passage of the " Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) compromise policy in 1993 officially banned harassment of gay and lesbian soldiers, the erratic implementation of the policy and deeply entrenched attitudes towards homosexuals in the military did little to change matters.  Despite the passage of DADT, an estimated 13000 troops have been discharged under the policy since 1993 and cases of suspected homosexuals being killed by fellow soldiers have continued.

Will President Obama eventually repeal DADT and allow gay and lesbians soldiers to serve openly (in keeping with his own public promises on the matter)?  It would definitely help end the discrimination that doomed Lieutenant Enslin and the countless soldiers that came after him.  Although unofficial discrimination still persists even in countries where military service for gay and lesbian soldiers has been legalized, the old attitudes are slowly changing.  Whether or not simple justice will prevail remains to be seen.