Jim Jones Research Paper

We hail Jesus Christ as the messiah and savior, and we lump Jim Jones with the rest of the crazies. If you break everything down to the basics, Jesus and Jim Jones were the same person. They both managed to gain a large following, had people who feared them, and they both made the ultimate sacrifice. Somewhere along the lines something happened, a fork in the road that changed the results. Because if history had repeated itself, Jones too would be idolized and hailed as the savior of Jonestown. But instead history played out in a different way, while Jesus will be remembered for healing the sick and blessing the poor, Jim Jones will only be remembered for handing cups of cyanide-laced punch to his

The Jonestown Massacre was one of America’s greatest tragedies in history. Due to extreme Racism and persecution innocent people were driven to create a socialistic society only to realize there is no such thing. There are many causes and effects to the event of Jonestown massacre. Some examples of those causes and effects are the background, events, responses, and efforts. Jim Jones and the people of Peoples temple did not set out to be one of america's worst massacres, they just want equality and to escape racism in the U.S. when a leader with a lot of responsibility, lets the power go to his head and it resulted in failure.

Lastly, in the incident with Jonestown, showed the most extreme case of conformity and obedience. Jim Jones was a pastor at Peoples Temple, he was the leader of an interracial church. For its time, Jim Jones was pushing past race and ethnicity and introducing a new church that welcomed all people. Jones was the type of man that made people feel comfortable and at home; maybe that is why so many people followed him when he moved his temple across the county and then to Guyana. I think what made people interested in Jonestown was how the community seemed very close and simple, but who would have guessed that those 900 townspeople would all commit mass suicide just because one man said to. The question that remains is, why did so many people obey

While individual cultic groups may vary in discipline (political, religious, social/philosophical), they often operate with a similar premise: the world is bad, we are good, become a part of us (Salande & Perkins, 2011). Viewing the world in this way is not, in and of itself, destructive; and many mainstream religious and political movements embrace similar philosophies (2011). However, cult leaders often reinforce these ideas in frightening ways. By making their members use hallucinogens, sleep deprivation, group sex, strict prayer rituals, and deprogramming. Deprogrammers usually used “facts” about their religious group to shake up the person’s faith, this confrontation would often transpire in intense, emotionally charged situations (Donald & Robbins, 1982). The point of this was to rid the cult member of their ego, and past beliefs. The goal was for the member to have a blank slate, they could then me made to believe whatever the cult leader wanted them to.

A little more than 35 years ago, a man named Jim Jones shocked the world when he led almost 1,000 of his followers in an act of mass suicide; amongst those dead were more than 270 children1. On November 18, 1978, Jones and his followers drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide in what he had presented to them as a peaceful escape to injustices of this world. The Jonestown Massacre was an incredible tragedy that sent waves through the whole world. Though the event was tragic, scholars have used our knowledge of what happened in order to deepen our understanding of cults, religions, and how both can influence people’s decisions.

Throughout Jim Jones childhood and adulthood Jim Jones was a very religious person which changed his experience towards many things in his lifetime. Jim Jones was born on May 13, 1931 and throughout his childhood “he was a strong student, especially in public speaking, but he had few friends. His overpowering zest turned off some, and he, in turn, disliked many typical teenage boy activities such as sports, and objected what he believed to be sinful behavior, such as dancing and drinking” (Biography.com Editors). Ever since his childhood, his religious beliefs had taken over his body and viewed many things against him throughout his

His entire family was purchased by a New York Dutch couple that lived in rural New York. John Jea converted himself into Christianity when he was fifteen years old and after getting his freedom, he became a preacher and started to travel and preach religion among many other slaves and free blacks with his spontaneous literacy.

At days end on November 18, 1976, Jonestown was left lifeless. Jones watched as all of his followers (forced or under free will) drink the poisoned Kool-Aid as he commanded. Yet he did not receive the same way out, he was too cowardly and proud to take his own life, Jones was killed by one of his followers with a single gunshot to the back of the head (Jim Jones 2014). He died that day with his followers, with no punishment. The families of members of the cult will never have closure, no justice for those who had been killed.

People who joined the People’s Temple wanted a place where they felt like they belonged. Jim Jones recruited people who were vulnerable.

The mass suicides, that took place under the influence of Reverend Jim Jones, can be explained from a sociological perspective. By looking at how the group dynamics played into the outcome one gets a better idea of the whys? of the massacre. The sociological explanation is but one way to explain this horrific event. It is , however, the only one explored in this essay for reasons of concision.

By the time of the final ritual, opposition or escape had become almost impossible for most of the members. Yet even then, it is doubtful that many wanted to resist or leave. Most had come to believe in Jones -- one woman's body was found with a message scribbled on her arm during the final hours: "Jim Jones is the only one" (Cahill, 1979). They seemed to have accepted the necessity, and even the beauty, of dying -- just before the ritual began, a guard approached Charles Garry, one of the Temples hired attorneys, and exclaimed, "Its a great moment... we all die" (Lifton, 1979). A survivor of Jonestown, who happened to be away at the dentist, was interviewed a year following the deaths:

     For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.

One of Jones' long time followers Tim Stoen explained, "There wasn't anything magical about Jim's power. It was raw politics. He was able to deliver what politicians want, which is power. And how do you get power? By votes. And how do you get votes? With people. Jim Jones could produce 3,000 people at a political event.''

To be able to understand the thoughts behind James Jones leadership over his group of followers, you need to understand the story of Peoples Temple from the very beginning. The Peoples Temple was located in Indianapolis and were known as a social activist, they opened orphanages,

The people yielded to real or imagined social pressure. There were loyalty tests to prove their loyalty to Jim Jones. One of these tests was to do a practice suicide of drinking the Kool-Aid. They were told the drink was poisoned, but it really wasn't. The people thought it was though and drank it anyways.