Religion and Cults: The People's Temple - Essay Example

Religion and cults: The People's Temple Part One: The People's Temple was a religious cult that was founded in Indiana and was started by its founding member Jim Jones in 1955. It started out as a simple church where members would go to worship and Jim Jones would be the presiding priest. During that time, America was a racist nation – racism was quite prevalent- and most of the states in the USA did not approve that African Americans also had the same equal rights as those of the Caucasian people (Whites). As a result, Jim Jones was one of the few Caucasian men who fought with all might so that African Americans could be appreciated and treated well by other majority ethnic groups. Due to this strategic move by Jim Jones, a lot of people became believers in his dream for America. In the 1970’s, the organisations grew from the state Indiana to a number of different regions in the USA such as California and San Francisco. The People's Temple had a number of beliefs. These included: Christian socialism where the members of the church were taught on a number of religious teachings that they ought to follow based on the Holy Bible and majorly the New Testament. Additionally, the members of the church were taught to believe that the lack of a proper Christian behaviour could lead to mortal sin (Hastings, Mason and Pyper 678). Another belief that was propagated by the People’s Temple was theosophy. This is a form of superior philosophy where the church members were taught on divine intervention and/ or divinity. Apparently, Jim Jones portrayed himself to his followers that he was their supreme leader. In the film “Jonestown the Life and Death of Peoples Temple”, at one point, he mentioned that he shall be what an individual perceives of him. That is, if a church member viewed him as a friend, then he would be their friend; if the church member viewed him as an enemy, then he would be their enemy; if the church member viewed him as a god, then he would be their god. Based on such comments, it is without doubt that Jim Jones has already utilized this philosophy concept to woo a number of individuals to believe that he was the wise one or the chosen one that could lead them to divinity. The third aspect that they believed in was higher thought. Higher thought can be referred to as the belief that somebody has higher intelligence and wisdom. Jim Jones was a man who believed that he was the only one who had higher intelligence and wisdom among his church congregation. He created the impression that he was the supreme human being and that everybody in his congregation ought to have followed what he mentioned – in one way or another, Jim Jones practiced compliance. From the film, “Jonestown the Life and Death of Peoples Temple”, a good example of this scenario was given by one of the members and survivors of the mass murder that was promoted by Jim Jones. The individual mentioned that Jim Jones used to tell his congregation only to speak to each other when they were allowed to. If they were not allowed to speak to each other, then nobody should have spoken to their neighbour while they were in church. As a result, people followed this protocol without even questioning its validity. Lastly, the members of the church believed in Christian communism. Christian communism can be termed as a form of communist ideologies which are based entirely of Christian teaching. Apparently, Christian communist ideologies teach Christians that they should support communism as the optimal social system. For example, Jim Jones told his church members that they should either sell their belongings or bring them to the church and from that, they could become residents at the church. Through that, he propagated for communism in the form of “Christianity”. Based on the stated ideologies (beliefs), there were a number of ways in which people got involved with the People’s Temple. Due to the fact that the mission and vision that was propagated by Jim Jones was equality for the African Americans, a majority of blacks felt as if somebody did actually understand their needs. As a result, a majority of African Americans joined the People’s Temple. In addition to that, Jim Jones spoke a lot about matters such as poverty and its eradication in the communities. At that time, a lot of African Americans were poor since the lacked decent jobs to support their living. As a result, his vision for America helped to promote the fact that all peoples are equal before the eyes of the Almighty. Due to these ideologies that he strongly put forward, majority of the people felt that Jim Jones understood them perfectly well. As a result, that saw a number of people get involved and even become members of the organisation. Due to these acts, the people believed that Jim Jones would lead them to a better path than the one that they were in at the moment. Part Two: In 1977, an inquiry was made so as to determine what exactly was taking place inside Jim Jones People's Temple. Despite all the “good” deeds that Jim Jones proved to be conducting at the People's Temple, there were a number of issues which were not quite compelling and they were hidden from the eye of the public. As a result, an inquiry was made so as to reveal all the acts that Jim Jones was hiding. A number of people had reported that they had undergone a number of mistreatments in the church at the hands of Jim Jones. Due to the fact that Jim Jones was a public figure who had the influence of “big” names in higher places in the government. These people did not feel safe to come out and expose what was really happening in the church. Only a few of them like Deanna and Elmer Mertle were brave enough to come out and speak outwardly about the injustices that were happening. According to these two individuals, the life that a majority of the members of People’s Temple were experiencing was full of “Spartan regimentation, fear and self-imposed humiliation” ("Inside Peoples Temple"). A good example of “Spartan regimentation” was seen in how church members were described for their church attending times. Apparently, Jim Jones required that his church members were to attend church at whatever time that pleased him. For example, if the church members were taught to attend church services up to 3 times a week, then that would be the case - They ought to have attended church services up to 3 times a week. If an individual would not conform to what he said, they would be condemned, humiliated and even punished. Punishments in the church were done through beatings. It was revealed that anybody who did not follow as they were told, they would be beaten using a wooden paddle. In addition to that, Jim Jones would also set up boxing matches in a bid to punish those individuals who disobeyed him. Jim Jones would not only punish people through beatings, but he would also mentally punish an individual by humiliating them in from of the whole congregation during a service. This form of abuse was witnessed by the two witnesses; that is, Deanna and Elmer Mertle. The two witnesses also added that, after the whole ordeal, Jim Jones would justify his acts by claiming that such acts were for the greater good of the individual. The witnesses also mentioned that they had undergone other types of abuse in the form of occasional spankings. They said that Jim Jones would spank an individual in public, thereby humiliating. Additionally, a belt would also be used to perform the public spanking. According to Elmer and Deanna Mertle, things turned out for the worst when Jim Jones actually punished their daughter for allegedly being a lesbian after she was seen pecking her long time friend. Their daughter was paraded in front of the congregation and was beaten up to 75 times. Linda their daughter testified that in fact she was severely beaten and could not even sit down for close to a week ("Inside Peoples Temple"). Another abuse that was reported was done by Birdie Marable of Ukiah. During that time, she sought the help of Jim Jones in a bid to help her husband who had liver issues. She believed that Jim Jones would truly “save” her husband. As a result, she had to attend a “vacation” which would help her get more insight into the work of Jim Jones. According to Birdie Marable, the trip was the worst that she had ever attended. People were crowded into the bus despite them paying a huge amount of $ 200 for the trip. In addition to that, once they arrived at the vacation spot, she witnessed an elder person being mistreated which was quite “weird” since Jim Jones would always advocate for care and love of the elder people. With those incidences, Birdie Marable mentioned that she left the church only to be told by Jim Jones that she was not supposed to reveal to anybody what happened. As a result, Jim Jones was seemingly threatening her by instilling fear into her life ("Inside Peoples Temple"). It was also noted that Jim Jones engaged in sexual activities while at the church. Apparently, if he felt threatened by any church member and humiliating them was not enough, then he would forcibly engage in sexual activities with the individual (“Sex in Peoples Temple”). Part Three: Life in and Life out of the People Temple is a scenario that very few people would like to remember. A good example of such an individual is Juanell "Nell" Smart. She was introduced to the church by her mother, Kay Nelson, back in the 1970’s while it was just starting out. According to her, she was intrigued by what was happening at the church. Majority of the people said that Jim Jones was in actual sense the “world’s greatest gift” (“My Life In - and After - Peoples Temple”). That was not the case for her since she did not live her life as she would want to live it. As a result, at the end of it all, she had to leave from the church; however, her mother kept insisting that she ought to return back to the church. There are a number of factors that played a huge role in the People’s church. First of all Jim Jones advocated for obedience. That is, everything that he said, he wanted it done according to his preferences. If an individual did not obey what he told them to, that would call for punishment or public humiliation. In addition to that, Jim Jones had portrayed the picture that he was the ultimate gift that the people were looking for. He gave back to the community in a bid to make the members realize that all that he cared about were the people and not him. Due to such public commitments, a lot of individuals found it suitable to just obey what they were told without even questioning the authentication of what he said. In the film, “Jonestown The Life and Death of Peoples Temple” when the people were told that they had to move to Guyana with immediate effect, majority of his church members could not even explain the reason as to why they were moving because they were moving without reason. As a result, majority of these people had shown higher scales of obedience to Jim Jones as compared to even their families. Based on that scenario, it can be concluded that Jim Jones had already cultivated channels in which people would obey his orders and respond to his ideologies without a second thought. On the other hand, conformity was another aspect that was also realized by the church members of the People’s Temple. Majority of the members were in agreement to each and every detail that Jim Jones propagated to them. In the film, “Jonestown the Life and Death of Peoples Temple” when the investigations were started, all of a sudden he told his church members that they were going to travel to Guyana overnight. And without any opposition, the members did actually travel overnight as they were told by Jim Jones. As a result, conformity did play a role in this instance since their attitudes, believes and thinking were largely influenced by Jim Jones. The members of the People’s Temples were way too deep into the religious cult to cut off their obedience and conformity links to Jim Jones. In fact as a form of communism, Jim Jones had requested a majority of the members of the church to sell their belonging and go to live a communist life in Guyana. Since conformity played a huge role, they did exactly that. When compared to the short story “The Lottery” that was written by Jackson, Shirley. In both cases conformity has played a huge role in the outcomes that were experienced. In “The Lottery” the public was made to believe that tradition was far much important that anything else. The villagers did not know much about the lottery as a result, they accepted the introduction of the lottery and its consequences. These decisions made in the process had a number of consequences such as the deaths of innocent people. In addition to that, the people felt that they were powerless to have their own thinking and make their own decisions since they had already been influenced into a certain manner of acting. A good example of a character in the story was Old Man Warner. He was accustomed and/ or conformed to tradition that change was something that was close to never happening. It can therefore be concluded that in both instances, obedience and conformity were key factors in the outcomes of the actions that were undertaken by the individuals in the picture. At the end of it all, both case scenarios project lack of humanity and respect for human life- due to deaths of innocent people - as well as lack or reason and weaknesses of the human mind to make solemn decisions independently. Works cited BelleZonder hetbeest. Jonestown The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. N.d. Web. Retrieved from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NQ5KBzD8w0 David Wise, Parker. “Sex in Peoples Temple”. 2012. Web. Retrieved from: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PersonalReflections/reflwise.htm Franklin, Ruth. The New Yorker: “The Lottery” Letters. 2013. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/06/the-lottery-letters.html Hastings, Adrian, Mason, Alistair, and Pyper, Hugh. The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. USA: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print Juanell, Smart. “My Life In - and After - Peoples Temple”. 2012. Web. Retrieved from: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PersonalReflections/reflsmart.htm Kilduff, Marshall, and Tracy, Phil. "Inside Peoples Temple". 2012. Web. Retrieved from: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/newWestart_text.htm Read More