The People's Temple was a Christian doomsday cult founded and led by James Warren Jones (1931-1978). Jim Jones was not a fundamentalist pastor as many reports in the media and the anti-cult movement has claimed. He belonged to a mainline Christian denomination, having been ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ.
The Peoples Temple came about initially structured as an inter-racial mission for the sick, homeless and jobless. Jim Jones assembled a sizeable following of 900+ members in Indianapolis, IN during the 1950's. He preached a social gospel of human freedom, equality, and love...which required helping the least and the lowliest of society's members.
Later on, however, this gospel became explicitly socialistic, or communistic reflecting Jones' own view, and the hypocrisy of white Christianity was ridiculed while 'apostolic socialism' was preached. It was an interracial congregation -- *almost unheard of in Indiana at the time*. When a government investigation began to
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The anti-cult movement also cites mind-control techniques by Jim Jones and his officials as the cause of the disaster. It is often claimed that the Jonestown disaster was a mass suicide made possible through psychological manipulation of Jones' congregation. The many victims who were shot or forcibly injected with poison have mostly been ignored. Some surviving members actually claim that they were exposed to mind-control methods. However, others claim that the crowd-manipulation was the best experience of their life.
There are claims that Jonestown was a spectacularly successful grass-roots demonstration of what people could accomplish if they break free of capitalism and join in a common cause. They speculate that the U.S. government assassinated the people at Jonestown because they could not tolerate its
On July 25, 1946, two young black couples- Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were killed by a lynch mob at the Moore's Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four victims were tied up and shot hundreds of times in broad daylight by a mob of unmasked men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, pistols, and a machine gun. "Shooting a black person was like shooting a deer," George Dorsey's nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been over fifty years and this case is still unsolved by police investigators. It is known that there were atleast a dozen men involved in these killings. Included in the four that were known by name was Loy Harrison. Loy Harrison may not have been an obvious suspect to the investigators, but Harrison was the sole perpetrator in the unsolved Moore's Ford Lynching case. The motive appeared to be hatred and the crime hurt the image of the state leaving the town in an outrage due to the injustice that left the victims in unmarked graves (Jordon,31).
caused Union officials to call it an outright massacre. Was it a massacre or a result of
The Heaven’s Gate Cult was founded in the early 1970’s by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. Applewhite was recovering, under the care of his nurse Ms. Nettles, when he claimed to have has a near death experience. Applewhite claimed that he and Nettles were the two witnesses spoken of in the Book of Revelation. And they were to prepare the worlds inhabitants for recycling.
A cult society is an organization that basically disguises itself as a religion. In a cult, they normally perform rituals. There are usually many people in these societies. In Jim Jones’s cult, there were at least one thousand people in this community.
Christianity was amongst the slave community. Being that the vast majority of the slave community was born in America, converting slaves to Christianity was not a struggle. All slaves were not Christian, and slaves that had accepted Christianity were not official members of the church. Over time Slaves made Christianity their own. There would be occurrences where church gatherings would hold both white and black members. Slave religion was both institutional and non institutional. The slave gatherings would be both formally organized and spontaneously adapted. These gatherings would usually take place at night in the woods. Slaves enjoyed their own meetings better because they could sing and pray as they wanted. In some cases slave masters would not allow attendance of church gatherings and prayer meetings, some slaves would risk flogging to attend these meetings. Christianity was transformed into by the slave community to its own particular experience. Teachings by white masters were usually geared towards reminding slaves that on good behavior to their white masters, they would be accepted into heaven and even then , they would be limited to a lesser heaven than there owners. Jesus was not talked about, teachings consisted only of the laws to not lie or steal from their masters. Slaves would soon start to hold their own gatherings to just sing and pray a...
The True Temple of Solomon in Chicago, Illinois, was established in 1950 as seen on the Church’s website. Prophet Peter Banks, is the founder of this church. In the religion that he preaches he claims that he and his followers are a form of Christianity. After Prophet Peter passed away his grandson Prophet John, was left to take control of the Church and all other property that corresponded with the church. From 2000 until present day Prophet John has been growing as activist in the south-side neighborhoods surrounding his church. Many fundraisers and food drives have been held over the years to help the ...
Jim Jones was “a self-proclaimed messiah in a polyester suit, a man who played God from behind mysterious dark glasses that gave his followers the impression that he was omniscient”( Axthelm 54). Born in 1931 in Lynn, Indiana to James Thurmond and Lynetta Jones, he was looked upon by his parents as a gift from Saint Francis. Jim’s father was white and an active member of the Ku Klux Klan. His mother was part Cherokee which lead Jim in later years to refer to himself with pride as an “ All-American mongrel”
How could a single man lead nearly one thousand men, women, and children to participate in one of the largest mass murders in American history? Born in 1931 to veteran James Thurman Jones and his spirited wife, Lynetta, James Warren “Jim” Jones grew up in small-town Indiana. Ignored by his parents and desperately seeking attention, Jones became known as the terror of the town. He spent his abundant free time roaming the streets. Eventually, Jones found himself darkening the doors of religious institutions. He visited every church in the community, throwing himself into their rituals and becoming a dedicated member before moving on to the next (“Jonestown…” par 2-3). His group, the People’s Temple, focused on drawing people together, no
Jim Jones and his infamous cult entitled, “The People’s Temple,” holds an interesting value to social psychology. Jonestown is a topic that can relate back to many sociology terms and ideas. Jonestown can be related to social deviance, the effect of American culture on social groups, labelling theory, charismatic authority, and even shows how societal history often repeats itself. American society during the late 60’s-70’s is what led to the creation of Jonestown. Jonestowns downfall provided a lot of insight to the American public of how society needed to change, proving that the deaths of about 900 people weren’t for nothing.
Jim Jones began to get his career on the move, Jim and Marceline adopted many children but they did have one child of their own. Marceline and Jim had a really difficult marriage but stayed together as well as they could until the end. More and more Jim Jones wanted the world to be a better place so he tried out being a student pastor in a church that had already taken off, this didn’t work out because Jim didn’t believe in segregation and all of the others in the church did. Jim wanted most of his preaching to be to African Americans. To bring in new people Jim used “healing” rituals, he stood in front of them to preach about how he could heal them from eye problems all the way to heart disease.
Once the Peoples Temple had moved to Jonestown, there was little the members could do other than follow Jim Jones's dictates. They were comforted by an authority of absolute power. They were left with few options, being surrounded by armed guards and by the jungle, having given their passports and various documents and confessions to Jones, and believing that conditions in the outside world were even more threatening.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The cult had many beliefs that our human bodies were only vessels, occupied by members of the “Kingdom of Heaven.” They believed that Marshall Applewhite was a link between their cult and their god. It was said that god spoke to them through Applewhite. He was considered an equivalent to the Christian religions Jesus. And that people need to follow him as people had followed Jesus 2000 years ago. The cult believed that their time on earth was only a schooling to learn how to become a member of the kingdom of heaven. Do (Applewhite) taught them that in order to leave behind this world and move on to the next, people had to give up their family, sensuality, selfish desires, your human mind and your human body if necessary.
Yukio Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion, set in postwar Japan, gives way to a reflection of the postwar experience both the representation of military aggression and in use of symbolism of beauty, loss, and destruction. A story about Mizoguchi, a young, stuttering acolyte’s obsession with beauty lends itself to the conflagration of the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, based loosely on a true story about the Kinkaku-ji.
I decided to visit a Hindu temple because the Hindu religion was the religion that I knew the least about and was interested in. This assignment gave me an opportunity to learn more about this religion and what their worship services and rituals were like. The temple that I went to was called BAPS Shri Swaminaryan Mandir and it was located in Lilburn. As soon as I walked in, I was amazed by the beautiful architectural design of this Temple. It seemed like it took a lot of hard work and dedication to make the place what it is now. While I was at the temple, I watched the Hindus perform an ancient Vedic ritual called the Abhishek, a ritual bathing to honor the murti of their God.
The temple that I attend is Swaminarayan Temple. Also, Justin its located in Clifton, New Jersey around five minutes from my house.