I have always been fascinated by cults. One of the best comments in the documentary Jonestown: The Life And Death of Peoples Temple, is that nobody joins a group thinking it is a cult.
"Nobody joins a cult. Nobody joins something they think is going to hurt them. You join a religious organization, you join a political movement, and you join with people that you really like," said Deborah Layton, a Peoples Temple member who wrote a book about the experience.
People join groups because they think the cause is good and just or they want the camaraderie it provides. I recently wrote a piece about Civil War re-enactors and mentioned that I once asked a re-enactor whether he thought the camaraderie he gets with his re-enactor buddies is much different from the camaraderie gang members get.
The re-enactor did not like or understand my question so I changed the topic. But I maintain I was on to something: We all want to belong to something. There is nothing like the feeling of being accepted into something bigger than ourselves. For some of us, that bigger something is our family. But people with broken families will seek out other groups to belong to. I think a major reason why people join gangs is so they can have that feeling of being part of something. The gang also provides sort of a replacement family.
What does this have to do with cults? I see joining a cult as being similar to joining a gang. You join a group because it is doing something. You don’t think it will end, as People’s Temple did, with more than 900 members dead in a mass suicide in a compound in Guyana on November 17, 1978.
But with street gangs you can, hopefully, point out to gang members the physical and legal dangers they will face because of the connection between many gangs and crime and violence. In contrast, many cults are not breaking any laws (initially, though many seem to later on) and in fact often preach that they are working for justice.
This documentary focuses on the Peoples Temple, the cult run by Jim Jones, but it can teach lessons far beyond that one specific group. The movie is powerful, moving, engaging, disturbing, and educational, a real emotional roller coaster.
The directors treat the subject with empathy rather than sympathy. Instead of just making us pity those killed in, and the few who survived, the Jonestown massacre, it helps us understand – and better appreciate and learn from – what actually happened. The first step, of course, is understanding who exactly Jim Jones was. He had a frightening, disturbing upbringing, providing funerals for dead pets, for example. But the important thing I learned was that he was charismatic and very passionate on the subject of racial harmony.
Article comments
1 - Danny Haszard
I applaud your blog!
I was raised in the apocalyptic Jehovah's Witnesses.
When I exited the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1992 EVERY Jehovah's Witness around me,was convinced in their heart of hearts that they would NOT see 2007 in "this old system"
Many had NO retirement plans for old age.
The Watchtower cult lies and people die!
2 - Scott Butki
Thanks for the compliment.
I am glad you got out of there.
3 - Don Cameron
Although the concept that held 1,000 people captive to Jim Jones no longer exists, there is another concept that still holds millions of Jehovah's Witnesses just as captive without them realizing it...
"You'll never get sick. You will never grow old. And you will never die."
Although the above words come from the movie "Cocoon," they could have come from the Watchtower Society because this is the same thing they have been proclaiming for decades as part of "the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world that is about to replace the present wicked lawless system of things." This very appealing prospect attracts many people to begin to study the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses. It then sustains them as they eagerly wait for the fulfillment of this promise.
But during the course of their study they get drawn into an illusionary concept involving the Watchtower organization that gradually takes over their decision-making process and even their conscience without them realizing it. It happens because of a mistake that everyone makes before they decide to become a Jehovah's Witness.
"Captives of a Concept" identifies both the concept and the mistake that causes people to become captives of it. The book also offers suggestions that may help some Jehovah's Witnesses correct their mistake and teach themselves the truth about their religion.
4 - Randall Watters
Utopian cults always promise the sky and deliver the coffin. Don't follow the masses looking to escape yourself, come to BE yourself.
5 - Brenda Lee
One of the first things people say to me after reading my book, "Out of the Cocoon" is, "I guess I never thought of Jehovah's Witnesses as a cult." The second thing they say is, "But your book really opened my eyes!"
I believe that how you label something is far less important than how IT leaves its mark on the world. You can take a label off a can of beans and slap on a label for peaches and it’s still beans. Recognizing the dangerous contents is far more important than the label.
I remember hearing about Jonestown when I was 16 and immediately thinking, "OH MY GOD--if the Watchtower tells my family to commit suicide, they will do it in a heartbeat!" But one's family doesn't have to literally die to experience that loss.
Toxic organizations like the Watchtower are responsible for "family genocide." They shun (never speak to or acknowledge) family members who leave...for any reason. My family hasn't spoken to me in 25 years simply because I left. It's like they are, indeed, dead. Out there, but untouchable. In a cult, it's easy to get in but hard to get out.
My mother was uneducated; she didn't know what a cult looked like. That's why she opened the door when Jehovah's Witnesses came recruiting. That's why I teach free cult education in Denver.
I'm hoping my story will encourage people to learn about the devastation that the Watchtower cult levies on the lives of entire families. Ignorance when it comes to cults is not bliss!
Brenda Lee, author: "Out of the Cocoon: A Young Woman's Courageous Flight from the Grip of a Religious Cult" www.outofthecocoon.net
6 - Cee Cee
Thanks for your work on Jonestown. Like others I could not help but compare the experience of their members to those of my own family of Jehovah's Witnesses.
My grandparents became Jehovah's Witnesses at least decade before 1931 when the Watchtower decided to rename the 'Bible Students' and took on the title "Jehovah's Witnesses" from the 43rd Chapter of Isaiah (which from Verse 1 makes clear that those being called to be "witnesses" were the descendants of Jacob/Israel).
They sincerely believed every word in the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society's publication "Millions Now Living Will Never Die", by "Judge" Rutherford. That book--long out of print but with many original copies still available through used book sellers on the internet--makes (among other outrageous statements) these assertions:
(1) The generation of 1914 would not die before "The End" came. (NOTE: They were 24 and 27 in 1914--obviously "of that generation". Not only are they, their parents and siblings all gone from this earth, but every one of their children are deceased s well. Pardon me if I seem less than impressed with the Watchtower's claims of being "spirit led", the only "channel of communication" God uses to proclaim His truth.
(2) 1925 was pronounced to be the "Jubilee" year in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would be resurrected. The Watchtower publications had my grandparents so convinced of this that they joined with thousands of other faithful followers of the Watchtower--in the middle of the Great Depression--in paying for the building, furnishing and maintaining Beth Sarim. This Spanish-style mansion, specifically included "landscaping of palm and olive trees and a 16-cylinder Cadillac...was designed so these Middle Eastern Patriarch's would feel comfortable". The only actual resident of this "House of Princes" at 4440 Braeburn Road, Sand Diego, was the Watchtower's president, and his "companions", (none of which included his wife or son.) .
Although my 87 year-old mother is well aware of these and many other false prophecies coming from the WTB&TS, she remains staunchly loyal to the Society, accepting every failed prophecy and frequent change of doctrine put forth as "Jehovah's own word" because (as in the case of their prophesied "End" coming in 1975 "men make mistakes" and "the light grows brighter as the day comes". So convinced is she that the Watchtower has the "truth" she simply refuses to look at the evidence in front of her. (If what they said then was "truth" how can it wrong now?)
Do I think she'd drink Kool-Aide if told to by the Organization? Without a doubt.
7 - Scott Butki
You're quite welcome. Do we have this many blogcritics members who were J.W. or has this been linked to somewhere? Just curious.
8 - Scott Butki
I've set up a topic at Newsvine (where I also publish my material) to discuss the film and set up some questions to get conversation going. Come on over.
It is here.
9 - Jeff Brailey
Scott Butki has written an excellent review of Stanley Nelson's documentary, Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple. The film also has been nominated for an Academy Award. While there has been fairly consistent interest in the massacre that took place in Jonestown 29 years ago this November, as we approach the 30th anniversary of the horrific event, I think it is safe to say, curiousity in what happened at that jungle enclave before many of the people reading this posting was born, has never been higher.
My book, The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider Who Witnessed the Carnage at Jonestown, Guyana, originally published in 1998, is the only account written by a member of the task force sent to Guyana to recover the remains of the 914 Americans who perished there. I have meticulously revised it, included footnotes and an index and more than 20 photographs.
November 18, 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre, an appropriate time for my revision to be published. As of yet, I have been unable to find an agent or editor interested in doing that. I will self-publish it as I did the first edition, if I must. However, I would prefer the more traditional route to publication this time.
If you know an agent or publisher who may be interested in this project, please have him or her contact me.