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NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, MASS SUICIDE, and PEOPLES TEMPLE Scholarly Perspectives on a Tragedy

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NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, MASS SUICIDE, and PEOPLES TEMPLE Scholarly Perspectives on a Tragedy NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, MASS SUICIDE, AND PEOPLES TEMPLE Scholarly Perspectives on a Tragedy Edited by Rebecca Moore & Fielding McGehee III Studies in American Religion Volume 37 The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston/Lampeter/Queenston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data New religious movements, mass suicide and Peoples Temple : scholarly perspectives on a tragedy / edited by Rebecca Moore and Fielding M. McGehee III. p. cm. — (Studies in American religion ; v. 37) ISBN 0-88946-680-7 1. Peoples Temple. 2. Jones, Jim, 1931-1978. 3. Mass suicides- -Guyana. 4. Freedom of religion—United States. I. Moore, Rebecca, 1951- . II. McGehee, Fielding M. III. Series. BP605.P46S36 1989 289.9-dcl9 88-34382 CIP This is volume 37 in the continuing series Studies in American Religion Volume 37 ISBN 0-88946-680-7 SAR Series ISBN 0-88946-992-X A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. © Copyright 1989 The Edwin Mellen Press. All Rights Reserved. For more information contact The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press Box 450 Box 67 Lewiston, NY Queenston, Ontario USA 14092 CANADA LOS 1L0 The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales, UNITED KINGDOM SA48 7DY Printed in the United States of America Table of Contents Introduction 1 by Rebecca Moore and Fielding M. McGehee III The Peoples Temple as a Continuation and an 5 Interruption of Religious Marginality in A m erica by Judith M. Weightman Jonestown and the Scientific Study of Religion 23 by Barbara J. W. Hargrove Jim Jones and Crisis Thought: A Critique of 41 Established Religion by Stephen C. Rose The Historical Antecedents of Jonestown: 51 The Sociology of Martyrdom by Thomas Robbins Jonestown and Bishop Hill: Continuities and 77 DisJunctures in Religious Conflict by John R. Hall From Zion to Jonestown and Beyond: 93 Enclaves of Difference by Robert S. Fogarty The Second Wave of Jonestown Literature: 113 A Review Essay by Thomas Robbins New Religious Movements, Mass Suicide and Peoples Temple The Effect of Jonestown on Suicide Perception 135 and Behavior by Steven Stack The Peoples Temple, the Apocalypse at Jonestown, 153 and the Anti-Cult Movement by Anson Shupe, David Bromley and Edward Breschel Cults, Society and Government 179 by Chris Hatcher Jim Jones’ Future in American Mythology 199 by Michael Phillips Exemplary Dualism and Authoritarianism at 209 Jonestown by Constance A. Jones Remembrance, Identification and Tragedy: 231 Jonestown, the Mirror by John V Moore The Contributors 243 Introduction Rebecca Moore Fielding M. McGehee III On November 18, 1978 over 900 Americans died in a Jungle settlement in Guyana, South America. Five were shot down as they attempted to leave an isolated airstrip. More than 200 children were murdered when their parents fed them poisoned fruit punch. An addi­ tional number of adults, perhaps fifty, perhaps one hundred, was coerced into taking a mixture of potassium cyanide and tranquilizers. The majority, however, willingly decided to take their lives rather than face the future. The people who chose to die belonged to a religious group called Peoples Temple, which had its origin in Indianapolis, Indiana under the leadership of a charismatic messiah, Jim Jones. They had migrated from Indiana to a small town in northern California in the mid-1960s, and established a larger church in San Francisco several years later. In the mid-1970s, a small group of settlers pioneered a community in the dense Jungles in the Northwest District of Guyana, a small English- speaking country in South America. The community was eventually called Jonestown. Since the cataclysmic events of 1978, over twenty books and dozens of articles have been written on the subject of Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Two mass market paperbacks came out a few weeks after the deaths. In the four years following, numerous commercial books were published, culminating in what many consider the definitive popular work on the subject, Raven. As several contributors to this book note, the initial framework for viewing the deaths was constructed by the anti-cult movement. Few scholars were prepared to offer instant analyses of what happened, and New Religious Movements, 2 Mass Suicide and Peoples Temple why. Thus, the news media found anti-cultists and pop psychologists ready, and eager, to explain what happened and to discuss the danger of cults. A few examples show how far we have progressed since Novem­ ber of1978. At that time, the leader of J ews for Jesus suggested that those claiming to be a minister must register with the federal government to establish appropriate credentials and qualifications. At hearings spon­ sored by Senator Robert Dole in February 1979, law professor Richard Delgado proposed legislation forcing proselytizers to always identify their organizations, and requiring court-ordered psychiatry for con­ verts. A writer for the Los Angeles Times advanced the idea of an “ethic of belief” with which all religions could be Judged. One component of this ethic would be the extent to which dissent was allowed by the organization. Cultists as well as cults were evaluated, and emerged from the analyses with serious psychological problems. “Many are tense, anx­ ious, alienated, disappointed in themselves or their parents, and des­ perately hungry and groping for love, approval and guidance,” said the past president for the American Psychoanalysts Association. Parade Magazine noted that cultists are “young, unhappy, unwanted, root­ less, unemployed people...particularly vulnerable—easy marks for even the most demented brainwasher.” And one imaginative reporter for the Washington Post wrote, “From a three-story gothic temple on San Francisco’s Geary Boulevard, exerting an almost mystical hold over an army of followers estimated in the thousands, the charismatic Rev. Jim Jones worked his political magic.” As several contributors note, our culture tried to distance itself from Jonestown and all that it implied. Whether it was to identify the community as socialism run amuck, as an anti-communist vision of communism, or as merely the manipulation of a madman, writers across the country and across the political spectrum took pains to point out that Jonestown had little in common with America or Americans. It took the academic community several years to digest what had happened. Tom Robbins notes in a review essay that despite hundreds of articles on cults and new religious movements, scholars had produced less than a handful of books about Jonestown by the mid-1980s. The situation has changed somewhat with the publication of several new works about Peoples Temple within the last year. We have always felt that there can never be too much written about this subJect. The suicides of so many people constitute an Introduction Rebecca Moore & Fielding M. McGehee in 3 enormous event, with religious, psychological, and historical implica­ tions. The confusing aftermath, the conflicting reports from committed members and disillusioned defectors, make up a Jumbled account of what happened. We don’t believe there is a single definitive work. Instead, there are a number of works that, put together, create the basis for understanding the reality of Peoples Temple and Jonestown. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jonestown, there­ fore, we brought together the nation’s leading Jonestown scholars to reconsider the profound issues and lingering legacy of the event. Three have written the most thoughtful books to come out: John Hall, Gone From the Promised Land; Steve Rose, Jesus and Jim Jones; and Judith Weightman, Making Sense of the Jonestown Suicides. The maJority of other contributors have previously published papers on the subJect. In a very real sense, this single volume reflects the diversity of what has been written about Peoples Temple. Tom Robbins, John Hall, and Robert Fogarty examine Peoples Temple’s historical antecedents. Judith Weightman, Barbara Hargrove, and Steve Rose place the organi­ zation within the context of religion and society. Steven Stack, Anson Shupe, David Bromley, Edward Breschel, Chris Hatcher and Michael Phillips relate Peoples Temple and Jonestown to specific cultural activi­ ties: suicide, the anti-cult movement, law and politics, and myth. Con­ stance Jones reflects on the dualism within Jim Jones and the Temple which led to the organization’s polarization and, eventually, to its death. Finally, John Moore discusses the importance of remembering in order to bring good out of “monstrous evil.” Rather than distancing ourselves from Jonestown, these writ­ ers attempt to find a place for it in the continuum of world history and the American experience. For example, Robbins and Hall examine other groups that experienced religious conflict, murder, and even mass suicide. In another dimension of comparison, Fogarty looks at Peoples Temple within the Utopian tradition. This diversity of thought and technique is a strength. Using similar references, several writers come to different conclusions. The term “cult,” for example, has been used to distance non-traditional religions with mainline groups. Yet even among the writers who dis­ cuss the term, there is little agreement as to what comprises a cult. The lessons of this lack of accord are obvious. If a group of scholars cannot agree on the truth of the matter, how much more unreliable must be other versions? New Religious Movements, 4 Mass Suicide and Peoples Temple History comes down to us as names and dates and places that seem fixed in time. Occasionally we find out that the real story may not be what we were taught. Most of the time, however, we live quite comfortably with a history that rarely appears to change. When we are living the history, as we must in the current age, the facts don’t fit neatly together into a coherent story. Thus, when we learn that hundreds of people committed collective suicide, we have a statement of fact, but not a history.
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