Jonestown Massacre Essay

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

At times there are people who will say their belief is one thing, when in reality it is another just to avoid conflict within a community. An example that portrayed this in the book also included the Cunningham’s. Walter Cunningham Sr., was known as a very hard worker. He would never receive something if he wasn’t sure he’d be able to pay it back, he’d pay whomever it was with whatever he had, which is why he and his family were respected. In chapter fifteen, there was a mob of people who were hanging

On November 18, 1978 one of the most tragic American massacres would occur in Guyana. This massacre took the lives of 914 Americans making it the largest loss of American lives in a non-natural disaster before 9/11. Surprisingly, this massacre was not an act of war, as many members were told to believe, but it was part of a religious organization under the leadership of paranoid Jim Jones. Jones created the movement to create the liberation of others through socialism, but many did not recognize

Rhetorical Analysis: Jim Jones “Death Tape” One of the most significant artifacts from The Peoples Temple is known as the “Death Tape” because it is the last audio recording of Jim Jones, which was recovered after the mass suicide of he and his followers. That day Jim Jones effectively persuaded more than 900 of his followers to commit mass suicide by reestablishing his strong credibility, using persuasive tactics of love and fear, and by convincing them that suicide is the rational way and the

On the early morning of Sunday, September 15th 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama four members of the KKK planted a minimum of 15 sticks of dynamite under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist church, close to the basement. At 10:22 a.m. the 16th Street Baptist Church received a phone call from an anonymous man who simply said “Three minutes,” before hanging up. Less than a minute of the call, the bombs exploded as there were five children present within the basement of the church. Out of the 5 children

person came about promoting that they had the ability to relieve these problems, one would think that any struggling person would desperately take the help despite any circumstances. Well this certain type of situation is vividly present in the film, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples’ Temple. This film gives us insight on how desperate people were for happiness that they decided to follow, obey and allow a single person to dictate and end their life. The 1970s could be described as an uproarious

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). Opinions vary as to why people are drawn to cults. “Martin Marty, professor of religious

Jonestown was a community built by Peoples Temple in Guyana that ended in tragedy with a death toll of 918 people. “Founded in 1956 by Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple accepted everyone into their church and focused on helping people in need. Jones originally established the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana, but then moved it to Redwood Valley, California in 1966. Jones had a vision of a communist community, one in which everyone lived together in harmony and worked for the common good.” (Rosenberg)

Cults Cults are often seen as an alternative religion. “A cult is defined as a religious or secular group that employs unethical and extreme measures of manipulation to recruit, control and retain its members” (Study Resources). Most cults are started because someone doesn’t like the way the world is and want to create what they feel the perfect world is. Then this person strives to make others believe as they do so they will join. There are somewhere around 3,000 to 5,000 of these cults throughout

“Don't drink the kool-aid” is a phrase that was coined after the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978. James (Jim) Jones was a religious leader of the People’s Temple cult and is responsible for more the deaths of 909 men, women, and children through a mass suicide using cyanide-laced grape punch. Aided by his high IQ and his manipulative ways, Jones was able to carry out his communist goals. Jones managed to wipe out 909 people overnight which lands him a well earned spot in history