Cults: People's Temple

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/

The website I found introduces the event caused by a cult in 1978. The cult, People’s Temple historically is said to have become the first cause that cults begin to be regarded as eccentric religions.

This cult was founded by Jim Jones in 1963. Originally, it was the group as a sect of Christianity in Indiana, but grew rapidly as an antisocial religious cult. Jones organized self-sufficient community in Jonestown of South America / Guyana, but, on November 18, 1978, 914 members including Jones committed mass suicide and more than 300 of those were murdered.

This insane mass suicide is often regarded as ‘excessive solidarity’ by the analysis of psychiatrist. There is the fact that some members refused the suicide, but most of them chose ‘death with Jones’. Even if he was mad obviously, the members could not find other choice him in real society except following. In other words, this suicide might happen by ‘death of individuality’ which is regarded as a postmodern social feature.

Then, the reason why so many people have been fascinated with Jim Jones is also important. People’s Temple was extremely affected by the era of civil rights movement. Jones advocated "desegregation,” had adopted a Korean and a black child, and supplied welfare service for the lower class people of the city, therefore he had authority more than a political force. In other words, he was the voice of wrath of then people who lived in suffering, therefore it means not that People’s Temple gathered members but that people required such the religion. Cults always reflect the needs of people of the time.