David Chidester's Salvation And Suicide

Curlin, F. A., Lawrence, R. E., Chin, M. H., & Lantos, J. D. (2007). Religion, Conscience, and

Throughout the story, we learn that Mrs. Jones is a very wise woman. For example, she confesses, “I were young once and I wanted things I could not get…” (174). By saying this, she is showing Roger that she relates, and although she may not have

This will be based on the chapter 4 Religion as "Truth-Claims", posted on Blackboard. First of all, Dianne L. Oliver makes a preface about her writings saying that religions claim to get the truth, and followers of diverse religions say that their truth is the only one true, and cannot be compare with any other. Also, she remarks that many of those religion followers use violence to uphold their own version of truth. Moreover, she let us know that she is going to consider the "True-Claims" of different religions, and show how those claims can influence the practices, behaviors, and ideas of religion followers. Next to the introduction, she considers that religion is very essential for understanding the fundamental questions in our daily lives.

-his name used to be john paul but he added jones in later life to hide from law enforcement after winning a duel.

It was after several moves starting in the Midwest and ending in the Westcoast that Jones decided that the Peoples Temple needed to emigrate from San Francisco to Guyana in order to escape what he believed to be creeping fascism in the United States. Jones was a Marxist after all so there was always that need to rebel against America and its capitalistic ideas (Russell 39). And the communist utopia that Jones and the Peoples Temple had created (Jonestown) began to flourish. It had seemed that the utopia Jones had always envisioned was now reality. The members of the Peoples Temple began to feel at home because it was a place where anyone no matter what race, gender, or even age could live in perfect harmony with one another. In fact during its first phase of existence it could actually be considered a proper socialist community from the point of view of a true political scientist (Latson). And it was not until the late 1970s that Jim Jones and Jonestown began to crumble which could only be explained by Jones’ unusual metamorphosis. Nobody really knows for sure what happened to him when he and the Peoples Temple had left the United States to build their community in Guyana, but it would be something that would end up destroying not only himself but everything he and the Peoples Temple had created.

By the late 1970’s Jones’ congregation peaked in numbers, so did the persona of Jim Jones. His image was that of a messiah, the personal object of the People’s Temple, “Father” to his devout followers (Osherow). Jones had their unwavering loyalty, unconditional love, their worldly possessions, and believers who were under his will. He had the components to begin building his paradise, his city, his infamous legacy, Jonestown.

As the betrayal began to increase, the more severe the punishments became. Jim Jones had very little tolerance for disrespect, disobedience, negativity, and secrets. He was determined to keep everyone under control. Once the cult was discovered at Jonestown, there was a tape that Jones recorded during the time the People’s Temple was going to commit suicide. “Jones himself can be heard for the majority of the 45-minute recording as he is attempting to persuade the members into committing suicide, and succeeding” (McCloy). This is a very disturbing tape where you can hear Jim Jones speaking to the members in a persuasive way. However, there are also some people on the tape who was against Jones for choosing their time of death. The majority

In the historical documentary of the film “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples’ temple”. It featured the footage of the group named peoples’ temple. They were lead by a preacher named Jim Jones. He led a group of 900 members and had a mass suicide of the peoples’ temple. When watching the film they will be interviews with former temple members . Being the Jonestown survivors and people who knew Jones. The preacher Jim Jones had a vision of changing their world. He would tell them about the promise land, and the members all of them wanted to go. For them they truly thought there was a potential, something big, powerful and great within what Jim Jones was preaching to the people.

Many followers of the Jonestown incident believe that this was an act of mass suicide rather than a premeditated murder. In this essay, both arguments will be analyzed and compared, lastly concluding why the massacre was a murder with the evidence of how Jim Jones’ plotted and received shipments of cyanide, supported by chilling testimonials of former People’s Temple survivors.

The ancient archetype of “The Holy Fool” has existed for centuries, depicting an individual who acts in impractical or foolish ways for the sake of religious devotion. Spanning literature from various religions over several centuries, this archetype has found an unusual home in the 1979 Western parody, The Frisco Kid. The protagonist Avram, a Polish rabbi tasked with leading a Jewish community over 6,000 miles away in San Francisco, plays the role of the “Holy Fool,” continually acting in a manner consistent with irrationality due to his lack of knowledge of American cultural norms. As he journeys across America from Philadelphia to San Francisco, he continually finds himself in trouble with thieves, the law, and Native Americans, yet

In the last several months of Peoples Temple before the massacre Congressmen Ryan, his aid, and a few others made a trip to Jonestown. Their first impression of the community was positive, until they received a couple notes saying, “help us get out of Jonestown”. At that time Jones’ paranoia increased, he believed that all of his followers we going to leave with the

The topic I chose for this research paper is “In what ways does the life of Christ, his death burial and resurrection for the sins of the world give justification to discriminate or practice prejudice? I plan to examine how the life of Christ his death and resurrection for the sins of the world gave people justification to discriminate and practice prejudice against one another. I will critique two sources that roughly address this question. Leo D. Lefebure, “Violence in the New Testament and the History of Interpretation” and “Christianity and Violence” written by Miroslav Volf are the two sources I will examine and using for my analytical research.

Matthew Distefano’s From the Blood of Abel is a provocative examination of the problem of human violence through the lenses of mimetic theory and Christian theology. Distefano marshals theology, sociology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy and history to lead readers through humanity’s horrifically violent past and present, and challenges us to look more closely at the ultimate hope Christianity can provide. Distilling insights from René Girard, Ernest Becker and Michael Hardin, Distefano offers a vibrant and astute assessment of humanity’s seemingly implacable violent tendencies and skillfully shows how the Bible effectively—and often surprisingly—addresses our most fundamental problem.

Intense and exciting fervor over religion was prevailing over in the western part of New York where I grew up. It was known as the “Burned Over District.”. Many ministers of different religions were venturing

In his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens dissects and criticizes the various claims of religions and the tragic events that have been caused by various religions. The title of the book sums up the arguments of Hitchens in this book in the fact that he makes many arguments of why “religion poisons everything.” The majority of the chapters in this book discuss why he believes religion to be a manmade notion that has led to more trouble than anything else in the world. Most of his focus is on the three Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism but he does fit in criticism of other religions as well. The topics he chooses to discuss range from the sketchy origins of Mormonism to the