Jonestown
On November 18, 1978, "events in an isolated village in South America gave the world a sudden shock" (Galanter 119). On this date, 913 followers of Jim Jones and the Peoples' Temple committed a mass suicide in Northern Guyana, at a site called Jonestown. The casualties included almost the entire membership of the People's Temple. Based upon this, my opinion is that the People's Temple was full of problems from beginning to end. The chaos began with a man named Jim Jones, continued with the organization of People's Temple, and ended with the events on November 18, 1978.Born on May 13, 1931 near Lynn, Indianapolis, Jim Jones became known as one of the most destructive charismatic cult leaders of this century. Jones held bachelor degrees from Indiana University and Butler University and belonged to a mainline Christian denomination, ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. According to Professor J.M. Weightsman, author of Making Sense of the Jonestown Suicides, "He preached a 'social gospel' of human freedom, equality, and love, which required helping the least and the lowliest of society's members. Later on, however, this gospel became explicitly socialistic, or communistic in Jones' o
Jones, of course, accepted with no hesitance in order to stay out of trouble with the U. November 18, 1978On November 18, 1978 over 900 people took their lives while participating in Jones' mass suicide. But could it possibly be that 914 people were put under a spell to follow this man? If not, then they obviously went by freewill, and therefore Jones cannot assume all the blame. Soon this common drill would become a reality. In fact, "Three hundred forty of nearly one thousand residents were nineteen years of age or under; nearly one hundred fifty people were sixty-six years or older," (Maaga 9). Yet, despite this, both men and women still considered Jonestown a paradise. It will never be quite understood why over 900 people would take their lives for what one man believed in. Inside of Jonestown, the people were very diverse in age and race. According to Marc Galanter, Professor of Law and South Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, states that this is why Jones claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, as well as Ikhnaton, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine. that night a note was handed to Don Harris, the NBC correspondent, reading: "Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby.
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Acceptance Essays
