The Shawshank Redemption And Exploring The Espoused Values Of The Religion Inside The Prison

The word “Cult” has not always had such a negative connotation attached to it. Many religions would’ve been considered cults when they first began. By the end of the 19th century many visionaries had revealed radically new religious systems, claiming immunity to the impurities of the old ones (Powers, 1997). These were no more than a group of people organizing themselves in worship and devotion for a person, object, or movement. They practiced rituals different to other “mainstream” religions, and were therefore considered cults.

The Shawshank Redemption movie is about a man named Andy Dufresne who was falsely accused of murder and was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover. Being in jail, Andy faced many problems of being abused, but he also gained a strong friendship with a man named Red. Many of the things that the prisoners had to face showed a sociological perspective on how life was in jail and how it affected the prisoners. In Shawshank prison, the functionalism theory, the conflict perspective, and the control theory shows the life and adjustments a prisoner has to make in order to survive going into a new world.

knowing that Andy is vulnerable, gets him on the tar duty and seems to take him

What role does religion play in the film? Describe the use of different religious symbols, elements or terms.

Peoples Temple, which is recognized as the deadliest cult in American history, was founded in the 1950s by a man named Jim Jones in Indiana. The religion, previously known as Wings of Deliverance, was built on the goal of creating a congregation society that would overcome injustices, such as racism and poverty. Wings of Deliverance was first founded after Jones and his wife left Methodism because of the religion’s racial views. Though Jones had no theological training, he was a very charismatic and persuasive speaker, which enticed many people to his cause. After creating a following in Indianapolis, Indiana, Jones moved his people to Ukiah, California in fear of nuclear war. After two years on the west coast, his congregation grew from only

This paper explores the lifestyle of the different groups of people that follow a religion or a cult and the similarities that exist between the latter two. Everywhere in the world, religion has a strong influence on people’s beliefs and leads them to perceive cult followers in a negative fashion. In particular, the word “cult” is often associated with evil; horrific rituals; and the opposition to religious beliefs. However, this is often not the case as cults in fact, tend to be not dangerous and even share customs with popular religions. Religious principles may directly be compared to those practiced by smaller cults today. That being said, this paper takes both religion and cult into consideration when examining religious practices; by

Cultic activity has taken place since the practice of religion was established thousands of years ago. Since then, literally thousands of denominations have been inoculated throughout the world, especially in the United States. A cult, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is a system of religious beliefs and rituals. By definition, this includes organizations such as Baptists, Catholics as well as Satanists and Witches. While this maybe true, cults have been popularly perceived as Separatists who are consumed by the belief of apocalyptic events, and the leader is someone who believes he or she is chosen by God or some other deity to lead those who are to follow him or her. One group that fits this description is the

This was a non- religious cult but had some beliefs within scientology and satanism. Charles Manson believed that there was to be a race war in America in the near future and that the African Americans would win, but then look to the Whites for guidance.This then lead Manson and his one hundred plus followers, mostly young women, to attempt to instigate this war so that they could be prepared and hide away until the African Americans won, and then the “family” would be the ones the African Americans would turn to for leadership (The 10 Most Famous Cults, 2017).

Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).

The religion movements were referred to as “cults”. Usually, those movements affect the people who are desperate in life and have no God, religion, and who are confused about their own identity. The leader that contributes to the lives of those people will let them feel that they are hooked to God by him and that everything he says is 100% true and that it is from God. By this, the people believe that he passes the messages of faith from God but instead, he’s passing his own religious ideas that may lead to wars, the killing of people, and vicious crimes. Jonestown Massacre is one of the worst examples in history for brainwashing for the religious conversions. People in Jonestown drank Kool-Aid and died, but they thought that they made whatever God wanted them to do even if it was a crime. But in reality, many people thought that the CIA was responsible for what happened that day. Moreover, the Soviet Union blamed the American CIA for what happened and they had documents and records that confirm their beliefs. And this was because of the idea of communism that increased among the American people. Considering that the communists were responsible for the brainwashing of the Americans to convert their own religion and become

Most historians use the more neutral term ‘new religious movement’ instead of the cult, because there is no one definition of cults, their number and membership cannot be accurately measured even today (Sarah Pike, 2016). New religious groups are regularly developed from another, more accepted religion. An example of this is Christianity, which first began as a cult extending from Judaism (Sarah Pike, 2016). While this was regularly the case, many cults did not begin as religious groups. A famous example of this is the movement called Synanon, which was originally organised to rehabilitate drug addicts, but then later changed into a commune and won legal recognition as a religion (Sarah Pike, 2016). A theory among UFO groups, there is a widespread belief that extraterrestrials have no vocal cords, an atrophied digestive system and no sexual organs (B.A. Robinson, 2009). This is symbolic of three common religious disciplines: silence, fasting and celibacy. These attitudes may have somewhat shaped what the UFO group Heaven’s Gate believed in.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents." Indeed, any religion involving unconditional worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be labeled as a cult (using the derogatory suggestion of the word), since such a religion would have that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. Many mainstream religions still require their members to believe in God unquestioningly, to have faith that he is good and that what he does is good, to consider one's own wants and needs as unimportant while accepting the will of God as paramount. All of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any dogmatic religion that requires strict compliance with God's word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word "cult" to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those who make this very claim: that those who worship God fit the classic depiction of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving

The second factor is the outcome. People in cults often come out of the group in a worse position than when they first joined the cult. They could be worse off financially, psychologically, or relationally to give a few examples. More times than not, people in groups that are not considered cults do not produce the effects listed above. Instead, members of these groups report that they improve as a person in some way (Salande, and Perkins 382, 383). Cults can be differentiated from other groups because of the methods that cults use, and the effect that cults can have on its members.

destructive cult is a rigidly structured absolutist group usually under an authoritarian, charismatic leader which isolates itself from established societal

Gloriavale have been located in the West Coast of New Zealand since the 1990s, since then in recent times it has been the cause of much speculation in the media for its “cult like” tendencies and questionable practices. However the leaders and members of this seemingly humble community deny these allegations. Gloriavale are “The Christian community” who believe “ the nature of mankind is not to do good, but to do evil.” and that when the time comes for “God to end the world in eternal fire every person who has ever been born will stand before God and be judged according to how they lived their life.” I chose Gloriavale because their set of beliefs and way of life is interesting and different from my own. I find it hard to understand why